The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 272: Daming Martyrs' Shrine (Two in One)

Ha Tien, Vu Dinh City, and the Palace of the Republican Parliament.

Even though he had been supported by the common people of Guangnan three times, Mo Zibu's coronation ceremony had still not started.

Because if he wants to do something, he has to do it in the most formal way.

In order to attract talents, they had previously held a makeshift imperial examination, which was crude enough. Therefore, the coronation ceremony could not be sloppy.

Only a grand ceremony can give people a sense of majesty and importance.

Moreover, there is the issue of unifying the people's hearts and minds internally.

In the parliament palace, after the eight elders and seventy-seven parliamentarians were seated, the long-awaited Mo Zibu finally appeared.

As soon as he entered the venue, everyone in the Palace of the Republic stood up and gave thunderous applause.

Because this time, Mo Zibu was not wearing the usual clothes of a prince, but the crown clothes of a Ming Dynasty prince.

According to the Ming Dynasty law, the prince's crown has nine tassels, the black robe has five emblems, and the purple skirt has four emblems. The shape is only slightly less than the emperor's crown in terms of the tassels and clothing patterns.

If you are not an expert, it will look exactly like the crown of the Ming Dynasty emperor.

Amidst the explosive applause, Ou Tianci and Chen Dasheng came forward to greet them.

What Ou Tianci was holding in his hand was a green robe.

What Chen Dasheng was holding in his hand was a sandalwood box, and no one knew what was inside.

When Ou Tianci walked up to Mo Zibu, he showed the carefully preserved but somewhat worn and faded robe to everyone in front of all the elders and council members.

It turned out to be a set of official uniform for an eighth-rank civil servant, with a green robe embroidered with orioles.

Ou Tianci, who always considered himself a strong man and never revealed his expression easily, was now in tears.

"My son." Ou Tianci looked at Mo Zibu and said solemnly, "This set of uniforms is the uniform of your great-grandfather, Mo Shiping, the magistrate of Xuwen County, Leizhou Prefecture, Ming Dynasty.

Duke Shi Ping was loyal to the king, providing military supplies, food, fodder, and laborers to Koxinga's army, assisting the government troops in combat and making countless contributions.

I only regret that before I could accomplish my great cause, I was discovered by the Eastern Tartars. Duke Shiping fought hard but could not escape. All the men of the Mo family were killed or wounded, and Duke Shiping's robes were stained with blood. After returning home for a few days, he left with hatred in his heart.

As he spoke, Ou Tianci pointed to a dark spot on the left side of the official uniform that looked like blood and said, "This is the blood of our loyal ancestors!"

The ancestors of the Hexian Mo family were a prominent family on the Leizhou Peninsula. Although his great-grandfather Mo Shiping had the title of a student, they were actually a coastal family that was both businessmen and pirates.

Mo Zibu only knew that his great-grandfather died in battle around 1660 AD, the th year of the Yongli reign, which was the th year of the Shunzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty.

At that time, Guo Xingcheng was leading his army to the north to besiege Nanjing, while on the coast of Guangdong, the wealthy families and pirates in western Guangdong who were under the command of Zheng Chenggong also raised an army of more than 10,000 to attack the Qing army on the coast of Guangdong to support Zheng Chenggong.

As a result, when they started the rebellion, they received news that Koxinga was about to capture Nanjing, but who would have thought that Zheng's army would be defeated soon, and those who supported Guangdong naturally did not end up well.

Mo Shiping should have died in battle at that time, but when he died, Mo Zibu's grandfather Mo Jiu was only five years old, so the details of his death are not very clear.

But regardless of success or failure, those who insisted on fighting a bloody battle with the Eastern Tartars in the 13th year of Shunzhi were definitely heroes.

Mo Zibu took the eighth-rank county magistrate's uniform with trembling hands, knowing very well that this would be one of the greatest legal sources for him to recover the Central Plains and expel the Tartars in the future.

Our ancestors were unyielding heroes, and our descendants should also be unwavering heroes.

"Dang!" All the elders and council members rang their bronze tripods to express their admiration.

Mo Zibu quickly handed the official uniform to the guard behind him and said to Ou Tianci, "I will keep this robe in the family temple to remind me every day to remember the blood feud of my ancestors."

In this Republican Parliament Palace where most of the people are his own people, Mo Zibu can finally speak a few true words. This is also the most important reason why he has always refused to accept the Qing Dynasty's enthronement.

As long as a person still has a little conscience, he will never be able to get over that hurdle in his heart.

Unless Qianlong now declares the unity of Manchus and Han people, abandons the rat tail and Manchu clothing, and truly becomes a Han emperor.

For the sake of the nation, Mo Zibu might be willing to reconcile with him, otherwise it would be impossible.

"Zi Bu, the imperial edict and golden seal here were given to your grandfather by the Prince of Ningjing, the regent.

This is the most precious thing in his life. Your fourth uncle was the one he doted on the most, and no one dared to touch it.

When Lord Zhongzheng passed away, he wanted to take it with him to his grave, but he ultimately couldn't bear to do so. He simply said he would leave it for his descendants to remember him by. But I know he still couldn't forget his hometown."

It turned out that what was contained inside was the imperial decree and the golden seal of the general from Zhu Shugui, the Ningjing King of Dongning, to Chen Shangchuan, Gao Leilian, the general of the three towns.

"Today, on behalf of the Chen family, my seventh uncle has handed over the book and the golden seal to you. I hope you..." Chen Dasheng suddenly stopped talking.

"Don't forget the wishes of our ancestors." Mo Zibu immediately added this sentence.

Chen Dasheng laughed heartily and handed the sandalwood box to Mo Zibu. The Mingxiang council members and guards in the room cheered in unison.

"Restore the Tang Dynasty and succeed the Han Dynasty, never forget our ancestors!"

"The great general should revive the Ming Dynasty in the south of the sky!"

The other elders and council members who still had braids on their heads were a little embarrassed, but no one wanted to back down.

Because they are all deeply bound to Mo Zibu, and they all firmly believe that Mo Zibu will accomplish great things.

The biggest source of their confidence is the fleet anchored outside Hexian Port.

These people have traveled thousands of miles across the waves, so they naturally know what the large sea ships headed by the Jingning represent.

This means that even if the Qing Dynasty’s Guangdong and Fujian navies were deployed in full force, they would not be able to gain any advantage.

And could they still go to sea? Everyone who had seen the officers and soldiers of the Qing navy would shake their heads.

Even everyone along the coast of Fujian and Guangdong knew that once you went out to sea for a hundred miles, it was no longer under the jurisdiction of the Qing Dynasty. Since the founding of the country, except for the forced landing of the Zheng family in Dongning, the Qing navy had no record of long-distance voyages.

The distance from Penghu to Taiwan is less than one-tenth of the distance from Dongning to Nanyang.

Mo Zibu was also observing the expressions of everyone in the venue. When he saw that no one looked embarrassed or afraid, he felt relieved.

This is basically consistent with his judgment after talking to everyone in the past few days.

The people under him have gone from simply treating Mo Zibu as a powerful figure to thinking that he would accept the Qing Dynasty's enthronement as a king overseas and that they would follow him.

Now they have finally progressed to the point where they believe that even if Mo Zibu raises the flag and causes trouble in Southeast Asia, the Qing Dynasty will be unable to do anything to them.

This is called the usefulness of human hearts.

"General, we are ashamed of your trust and have not been able to bring the descendants of His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin's third son. They have changed their surname to Duan and refuse to mention the past. They only asked me to bring this sword."

"This is the Imperial Sword bestowed upon Prince Jin by Emperor Yongli. The Duan family says they are no longer worthy of keeping it, so we would like to give it to a hero!"

Those who knelt before Mo Zibu and presented their swords were the Gui family members whom he had recruited in Ava City.

Wu Yanle, the remaining leader of the Gui family, said that Li Sixing, the third son of King Li Jin, stayed in southern Yunnan and was willing to help Mo Zibu find his descendants.

As a result, he was gone for more than two years, and Han Aidong only recently returned from Laos. The original hundred people were reduced to more than thirty, like beggars.

They said that their search for the descendants of King Li Jin in southern Yunnan was discovered by the Qing court. In addition, the Qing-Myanmar War had just ended and the inspections in southern Yunnan were very strict, so the search was extremely difficult.

When they were finally found, they had already changed their surname to Duan and had lived in the local area for hundreds of years.

The only few elders in the tribe who knew their identities did not want to cause any more trouble, so they sent them away.

On the way back, Wu Yanle and others felt that they had failed to accomplish their task and were too ashamed to see Mo Zibu. They were angry and ashamed, and coupled with the fatigue from the journey, they eventually fell ill and died.

To be honest, Mo Zibu has begun to doubt their authenticity. He even suspects that Zhu Hongzhen and Li Sixing are characters made up by these people.

Maybe they have been lying all along, maybe their ancestors were members of the Dashi Army, but they were not big figures, but the history was so long ago that even they themselves could not figure it out clearly.

But another voice told Mo Zibu that judging from the behavior of these people, it didn't seem like they were completely deceiving each other.

Perhaps they are more afraid of not being recognized than I am.

never mind!

Thinking of this, Mo Zibu stepped forward and picked up the sword, "The King of Jin is a hero of our Han family. I will definitely build a temple to commemorate him."

After saying this, Mo Zibu raised his sword high and cheers arose again.

In fact, three years ago, Mo Zibu might have needed the Dashi Army to legitimize his activities, but now he doesn't need it so much.

Because Mo Zibu's strength grew faster than he thought, and the Qing Dynasty was not as powerful as Mo Zibu imagined.

More importantly, the legal principles of Mo Zibu's lineage did not strictly speaking come from the Yongli regime and the Dashi Army that supported Yongli.

The legal basis of his line actually came from Zhu Shugui, the last regent of Dongning, Prince Ningjing. The official positions of his great-grandfather Mo Shiping and his grandfather Chen Shangchuan were all conferred after Zhu Jin reported them to Zhu Shugui.

After accepting the protection of the Koxinga token, the small coastal merchant families represented by Mo Shiping and Chen Shangchuan should actually be regarded as the periphery of the Ming Zheng regime.

. . . .

That day, after being welcomed at the Republican Parliament Palace, Mo Zibu once again led everyone to the top of Pingshan Mountain in the north of Wuding City.

Here, a temple that is not grand but very important has been completed. This is the Ming Martyrs' Shrine that Mo Zibu has been preparing to build.

In the center of the main hall of the Martyrs' Shrine stood a tall statue with a crown of twelve tassels. Beside it stood a smaller statue with a crown of nine tassels. Needless to say, these two figures were the Yongli Emperor Zhu Youlang and the last regent, Prince Ningjing Zhu Shugui.

Originally, this was a Martyrs' Shrine, so it certainly could not enshrine an emperor like the Yongli Emperor. However, in order to unify the people's hearts, Mo Zibu enshrined both the Yongli Emperor and the Regent Ningjing Prince Zhu Shugui here.

The left side hall of the Martyrs' Shrine is called the Hall of Loyalty and Military Merit, which enshrines military generals who died after the Jiashen Incident.

At the top of the left side of the left side hall, there is a statue of a military general, who is the loyal and martial king of Yanping named Chenggong.

Below Koxinga, there are rows of smaller statues, all of which are Ming Zheng generals who survived the battle with the Qing Dynasty, including Koxinga's son Zhu Jin, and generals Gan Hui and Wan Li.

Below Zhu Jin, Gan Hui and Wan Li, the fourth statue is colorful and has vivid expressions. It is obvious that it has a great background. It is Mo Zibu's grandfather Chen Shangchuan.

In fact, Chen Shangchuan was just a peripheral member of Ming Zheng, and his status was lower than many Ming Zheng generals, but after all, he was the grandfather of my King Mo.

On the right is Prince of Jin Li Dingguo, as well as generals of the Dashi Army and the Dashun Army. Below Li Dingguo are Li Guo and his son Li Laiheng, and others include Jin Tongwu, Hao Yaoqi and others.

Mo Zibu changed into the prince's nine-stitched leather court robe and led everyone to burn incense and pay tribute to these loyal and righteous men.

When Li Xianwen, Yuan Kaidao and others saw the statues of the generals of the Dashun Army, they could no longer hold back their tears. They knelt in front of the statues and cried inconsolably. Their voices were so sad that everyone could not help but shed tears.

Li Xianwen, who had started to gain weight, paid his respects to his ancestors and then bowed deeply to Mo Zibu.

"General, I can rest in peace in this small place, even if I die immediately."

Mo Zibu quickly pulled Li Xianwen and others up. He had no doubt that these people would support him. General Mo was most concerned about the thoughts of other people.

These people were the Minnan people headed by Wu Rang, the lord of Song City, Zhuang Chunde, the lord of Gaozhou City, Ye Fengchang, the lord of Jeddah City, and Chen Jiansheng, the Earl of Tongzhou in Lower Burma.

At this time, the Minnan people had a very special feeling about the success of the national surname, which was much stronger than in later generations.

It can be said that at present, apart from Mazu, the three words "Koxinga" are the most effective in uniting the people of southern Fujian.

"Koxinga was such a hero, if he saw us, his descendants, I wonder what he would think.

Zheng Huitang really insulted his bloodline. He even dared to posthumously confer the title of king with only "Chao". It was simply child's play. Since ancient times, there has never been a king with the title of "Chao".

Today, I wish to posthumously confer the title of King of Fujian on Guoxingye. What do you think?

After hearing what Mo Zibu said, these Minnan people looked at each other cautiously, and then turned their eyes to Wu Rang.

Among these tycoons in southern Fujian, Wu Rang has the largest territory, and because of the benefits of bird's nests and tin mines, he is also the richest. In terms of ability, Wu Rang is the strongest.

Wu Rang felt his scalp tingling, and he knew that this was a bargain that was not so easy to make.

His business in Songcheng had been going smoothly in recent years. In five years, he had only paid a tribute of 50,000 taels of silver to King Mo Zibu, while his annual profit was more than 80,000 taels.

Now Wu Rang has brought almost all of his clan members to Songcheng. Songcheng has also developed rapidly in recent years. There are already 70,000 to 80,000 Chinese and 150,000 to 160,000 indigenous people.

Although he is in charge of some of these people on a temporary basis, their influence is already quite huge no matter what.

This kind of treatment as a feudal lord can be passed on to descendants. I wouldn’t trade it even for a prefectural position when I return to the mainland!
At the same time, he also understood what Mo Zibu meant by changing the title of Chao Wang that Zheng Keshuang posthumously bestowed on Koxinga to Min.

This kind of thing can only be done by people who are willing to inherit Zheng's mantle, and who, not to mention being anti-Qing, at least are not subservient to the Manchu Qing.

Now that Mo Zibu wants to do this, it not only means that Mo Zibu is ready to take over the unfinished business of Ming Zheng, but also puts his status at least at the same level as Zheng Keshuang.

In an instant, Wu Rang thought a lot, but in the end he found that the cost of betraying Mo Zibu was so high that he dared not think about it, and he had no choice at all.

Moreover, Wu Rang watched how Mo Zibu built something from nothing. He felt that although Mo Zibu might not be able to counterattack the mainland, he could still preserve his foundation in Nanyang.

This great general is so young, only twenty-five years old now. Even if he dies young at the age of thirty-nine like Koxinga, he still has fourteen years to live.

It's done!

Wu Rang immediately knelt on one knee in the temple, while Mo Zibu cleverly moved and stood in front of the statue of Koxinga.

"Your Majesty, I, Wu Rang, was nurtured by you, and I know the difference between Chinese and barbarians.

The Manchus have occupied my hometown. Although I cannot fight the Eastern Tartars to the death on the battlefield like my ancestors did, I still have the courage to follow the general.

The people behind looked at each other, and although they were still a little nervous, they still knelt down. Then the other twenty or so Republican members of the Minnan branch also came over.

These Minnan people swore publicly in front of the statue of Koxinga that they would follow Mo Zibu and never betray him.

After solving the problem of these Minnan people, Mo Zibu breathed a sigh of relief. Now, the people under his command who were powerful but not completely under his control were the Minnan people.

But Mo Zibu still needed them to serve in Jeddah, Songcheng, Dancheng and then in Lower Burma. Now that he saw that they generally agreed, there was finally no trouble that would hurt their feelings.

Afterwards, everyone came to the right side hall. Unlike the left hall, which had great autonomy and actually had its own military merits, the right hall enshrined civil officials who were loyal to the country.

At the top right is Shi Kefa, the chief civil official of the Jiangnan faction. Below Shi Kefa is Zhang Huangyan, followed by Zhang Mingzhen, and then Xia Yunyi, Xia Wanchun and his son, as well as Chen Zilong and others.

On the left are the loyal ministers of the Fujian and Guangdong factions, headed by Chen Bangyan, one of the Three Loyalists of Lingnan, followed by Zhang Jiayu, Chen Zizhuang, and Guo Zhiqi, a loyal minister of the Chaozhou faction.

Of course, among all the loyal ministers in scarlet robes, there was a minor official in green robes who was extremely conspicuous. I, King Mo, naturally wanted to put my great-grandfather among these great heroes.

The atmosphere in the Quanjie Civil Officials Hall is much better than that in the Jinzhong Wuxun Hall.

Not to mention the Cantonese people who spoke Cantonese like Mo Zibu, many of them started crying as soon as they entered the temple.

At that time, Guangdong was the place in China where resistance to the Qing Dynasty was the most intense. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong, the Tiandihui launched more than 20 uprisings in Guangdong province alone.

More than twenty years later, in 1802, the Tiandihui uprising in Boluo even reached a scale of tens of thousands of rebels.

At this time, the Three Loyal Men of Lingnan were extremely famous in Guangdong, and people would secretly worship and offer sacrifices to them during all seasons and festivals.

The reason for this situation is not only that the Cantonese people have a spirit of not admitting defeat, but also because the Qing army could not kill all the people in Guangdong.

The Cantonese control the sea. If they cannot win the battle, they can run away and even go to Southeast Asia to recuperate, and then pass on the hatred from generation to generation.

This is very important. Just like in the vast north and Bashu, those who dared to resist were killed by the Qing court. There was no one to pass on the hatred and inspire the next generation, so naturally no one resisted.

So when Mo Zibu saw their performance, he knew it was a sure thing.

The Cantonese-speaking Guangdong compatriots would definitely support him, not to mention the Hakka people. They were so poor, how much goodwill could they have towards the Qing Dynasty? Moreover, everything they have now was given by Mo Zibu, so they would definitely follow him.

As for Chaozhou people, there are not many of them here with Mo Zibu, but the Chaozhou people who still follow him are basically die-hard fans, such as Chen Lian and Huang Zhen.

After Mo Zibu led them in the worship, he immediately said to everyone, "Since Jiashen, countless loyal officials and righteous men have shed blood to defend the country, but a hundred years later, no one has even commented on their lives.

This is a dereliction of duty on the part of us descendants, and we cannot let them down like this. Therefore, as we gather here today, let us first confer posthumous titles on these martyrs."

Those who understood the situation in the crowd were all shocked. Conferring a posthumous title was not something that ordinary people could do. It had to be done by the emperor, and it also carried a sense of inheritance.

But Mo Zibu didn't care about that. He had wanted to do this for a long time.

From a public point of view, it was very unfair to Chen Bangyan, the leader of the Three Loyalists of Lingnan, because he had held an official position in the Shaowu court, but he did not receive a posthumous title from the Yongli Dynasty.

There were even more officials who died for their country in Guangdong and other places but did not receive posthumous titles, such as Guo Zhiqi and others. Their posthumous titles were given by Emperor Qianlong, which is simply a joke.

On a personal level, Mo Zibu's maternal grandfather Chen Shangchuan, great-grandfather Mo Shiping and other close relatives did not receive posthumous titles, so it was a good opportunity to do so together.

When Mo Zibut mentioned this, the Mo family's fellow villagers in western Guangdong and the Mingxiang people from the Chen family immediately cheered.

The Hakka people throughout the Andai region and Guangnan also immediately agreed. Ye Xianyang said to Mo Zibu:
"Without the king, we are nothing but rabbits and rats in the mountains, shrimps and crabs in the river. How could we have the wealth and status we have today? Therefore, no matter what the king chooses, we will follow him."

Mo Zibu was also deeply moved. These Hakka people who had finally come to him for refuge have now become the ethnic group that Mo Zibu can rely on the most.

Seeing that almost everyone supported him, Mo Zibu immediately decided to reduce the intensity of their attacks.

Because up to now, these people all thought that he was going to turn against the Qing Dynasty, but in fact it would not happen immediately.

"My fellow countrymen, my fellow countrymen, now in this southern part of the world, we have finally established a small foundation.

I know what you are thinking. If there is peace, no one wants to go to war.

However, although the Bannermen have been in the Central Plains for 150 years and have a solid foundation, and are beyond our ability to defeat them, we cannot let them underestimate us and cannot let them steal our food from us again.

I, Mo Zibu, have decided to go to Beihe because there are millions of acres of fertile land there that can feed our relatives.

Only by owning the vast land of Beihe can we move forward and backward freely and truly rebuild a homeland for us Han people.

Therefore, we must take over Beihe and establish the Ming Dynasty in the south of the sky.

If the Qing Dynasty wants to stop us, we will fight them until they dare not interfere!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the Minnan people who had been extremely nervous and some civil servants and military officers who were afraid of the Qing Dynasty immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

In their view, I, King Mo, know my limits and will not take the initiative to fight the Qing Dynasty. As long as the Qing Dynasty does not take the initiative to provoke trouble, it will be fine.

However, I, King Mo, smiled contemptuously. How could the Qing Dynasty not come to cause trouble? As long as he took over Beihe, the Qing Dynasty would definitely come to fight.

Because there was an orthodox Han dynasty right next to Guangdong, and they even built temples to commemorate Emperor Yongli, Guoxing Chenggong, and Li Jinwang. It would be a problem if they didn't come to fight.

And what Mo Zibu said now was equivalent to setting the tone.

If the Qing Dynasty attacks in the future, it will arouse the anger of his subordinates, and then they will be forced into a corner, and everyone will resist together.

Only in this way can Mo Zibu have hope of winning the battle.

Because the battle with the Qing Dynasty cannot be ended in one or two wars. It will be a long and arduous battle that requires everyone to be united!
(End of this chapter)