The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 279 Borneo, Tiandihui, Sanxingtang

Pontianak, western Borneo.

The moon was dozing in the dark clouds, and the earth was in darkness. Several people in black took advantage of the night and sneaked into the inn controlled by Lanhe Company.

Western Borneo is rich in resources, not only producing enough food to feed the population, but also producing cash crops such as sugarcane and coconuts.

Before the Malay Peninsula became the main destination for Chinese, Borneo was the most important destination for Chinese going to Southeast Asia after Siam and Batavia, and its popularity was even higher than southern Annam, headed by Jiading.

Especially seventy years ago, around 1700, after the Chinese successfully tried to grow important spice crops such as pepper in Borneo, Borneo became more prosperous.

Then, with the large-scale arrival of Chinese people, even more crazy things were discovered, namely gold and diamonds.

This thing is more likely to make you rich overnight than simply farming.

The local Dayak Sultan also realized this and continued to invite Chinese to open gold mines, diamond mines, etc. on his territory to make profits together.

It was late at night, and Luo Fangbai, who was not tall but very sturdy, had not yet gone to bed. Instead, he kept writing and drawing on a map under the light of a bean-sized oil lamp.

"Master, you have to be careful. Uncle Liu has issued a secret order to never let go of anyone who has any connection with Kunlun Mountain. It would rather kill the wrong person than let him go!
Sanfa Sultan also received bribes from Liu Sanbo and decided to support his actions. He has already arrested many of our people.

Upon hearing this, Luo Fangbai stopped writing and remained silent for a while.

“People die for money, birds die for food. Uncle Liu thought I was trying to harm him, but he didn’t know I was trying to save him.

It is not easy for Sanxingtang to have such a great power now. It is the result of five generations of Liu family's ancestors going through wind and rain to build such a foundation.

Kunlun Mountain Hall and Sanxing Hall are both branches of the Tiandihui. Behind Kunlun Mountain Hall is the Mingxiang people's King Ren De Xing Tang, and Liu Sanbo's family is also a remnant of the Ming Dynasty.

If he could put aside his prejudice and join the army, he would become a prince with a vast territory like Wu Rang of Songcheng or Ye Fengchang of Jida, and his future would be much more glorious than his current one."

The Sanxing Hall of the Tiandihui mentioned by Luo Fangbai is now the largest Chinese force in Borneo. The ancestor of the Liu family who founded the Sanxing Hall is said to be a subordinate of the Zheng family of Dongning.

They arrived in Borneo about a hundred years ago and initially grew rice and sugarcane. Later they engaged in the spice trade, and pepper was the product of their experimental cultivation in Borneo.

At this time, about 60% of the rice and more than 80% of the sugarcane in western Borneo were monopolized by the Samsung Company founded by Samsung Hall. It was said that there were 5,000 brothers and their influence was very huge.

Before the rise of Mozibu, Sanxingtang was actually hostile to local indigenous people such as the Sanfa Sultan.

These sultans introduced the later Chinese to work in the mines and also gave them considerable preferential treatment in order to allow the new Chinese to compete and restrain each other with the old Sanxingtang Chinese, thus achieving a balance of mutual restriction.

However, the emergence of Mo Zibu immediately alerted Chinese companies like Sanxingtang, which relied on controlling land and actually engaged in manor serfdom, as well as the land owners Sanfa and Dayak Sultans.

Because West Borneo is across the sea from Jiading, you can reach Borneo in two or three days by sailing south from Jiading with a favorable wind.

With such fat meat right at his fingertips, and King Mo's navy almost as powerful as the Dutch, it would be unreasonable not to take a bite.

"Fangbai, you are too kind." Wu Yuansheng had long felt that Luo Fangbai was too cautious in doing things. Taking this opportunity, he began to express his views loudly.

"It took the Liu family five generations to build up such a large family business. Although five thousand brothers is an exaggeration, three thousand men can still pull it together.

Compared with them, the foundation that Wu Rang and Ye Fengchang had at that time was nothing.

If I were Liu Qianxiang, I would also be reluctant to give away such a large family inheritance to others."

Luo Fangbai sighed. He had been hanging out with King Mo for too long and had been influenced by Mo Zibu.

He felt that every Han Chinese in Southeast Asia was precious, and wanted to do his best to unite every Han Chinese fellow countryman around him.

But the reality is that many vested interests are unlikely to be willing to bow down and act in a lowly manner.

"Today, there are more than 10,000 Chinese miners in Pontianak alone. If we include Sanfat, Singkawang and other places, there are at least 80,000 men in the whole of West Borneo, and more than 40 gold mines and diamond companies of various types.

Samsung controls nearly 30% of this. If they collude with the natives and prevent us from uniting with others, war will inevitably ensue, and the people who die will be the Chinese."

Hearing Luo Fangbai still say this, Wu Yuansheng frowned, but he didn't wait for him to get angry.

But Luo Fangbo suddenly stood up, and his whole temperament changed.

"But now, I have given Uncle Liu San a full nine months and even considered going to his house to persuade him, simply because I don't want to see rivers of bloodshed between the Chinese.

But today he dared to collude with the Dutch and the natives to plot against his fellow countrymen, so don't blame us for being rude."

"Brother Wu, I want to immediately convene a meeting of the forty Datang companies in West Borneo to collectively request troops from Kunlun Mountain!"

. . . .

"Snap!" In Dongwanlu, outside the Samsung Company plantation, seven or eight farmers were tied to coconut trees. Several foremen waved long whips and hit them on the heads.

The whip is made of palm bark, which has been rubbed hundreds or thousands of times, making it tough and rough on the surface.

When this whip hits a person, it not only immediately leaves a long whip mark, but the rough surface can also severely scratch the skin that comes into contact with it, causing the wound to erode and the pain to double.

The screams were heard one after another, and the farmers had no way to escape, not even to curl up in a ball.

Some people had three or four red and purple scars on their bodies, and they opened their mouths and cried loudly to relieve the pain.

There are also people who are incontinent and suffering from severe pain. They open their terrified eyes in despair, begging for mercy and desperately waiting for the end of the world.

The farmers who were watching were extremely frightened when they saw their companions being beaten. There was no indignation, only fear, as if the fear was engraved in their bones.

"Okay, A Guang, don't beat him to death. He's all labor."

Seeing that the farmers tied to the coconut trees had been beaten to the point of losing their will to resist, a strong man in the crowd, dressed in satin clothes and with braids, stopped the thugs from beating them.

Then he turned around and looked at the farmers who were watching like quails not far away, and grinned with his big mouth full of yellow teeth.

"Fellow villagers, don't be fooled by the news outside. King Mo of Kunlun Mountain is a demon who kills without blinking an eye.

Benevolence? Hehe! If he really had benevolence, how could he have built such a huge family business so quickly?

Think about it carefully. Whether in Tangshan or in Borneo, which master’s family business was built on benevolence?
"Except for Uncle Liu Sanbo of Sanxing Hall, who provides you with food and clothing, there is no other kind person in the world who can be found like him. All of you, open your eyes, calm down, and work hard for five years. I guarantee that you will all have money to return home."

At this point, the steward's face changed, and a fierce look appeared on his face. "If anyone dares to run again, or dares to tip off the people in Kunlun Mountain, then you will not only be whipped, but I will invite you to go to Shankouyang to dry the bacon."

The so-called drying of bacon means hanging the meat on the mast to dry it in the sun. After hearing this, the already frightened farmer dared not say anything.

On the high building of the manor, Uncle Liu San, Liu Qianxiang, looked at the scene outside the manor, his mood fluctuating, and a hint of confusion in his eyes.

There are more than 200,000 Han Chinese in West Borneo, including 80,000 miners, over 50,000 plantation farmers, and the remaining nearly 100,000 are Mingxiang people like those in Gia Dinh and Ha Tien.

Although the village heads and thugs below had started to wear braids, Liu Qianxiang and others still tied their hair up and wore it on the right side.

His ancestors arrived in Borneo earlier than Chen Shangchuan and Mo Jiu. After Guoxing successfully led the Northern Expedition but was defeated in Nanjing, Liu Qianxiang's ancestors felt hopeless and led their troops to retreat to West Borneo, where they have lived and multiplied for more than a hundred years.

At first, Liu Qianxiang was somewhat close to the Hexian Mo family.

But when Mo Zibu's Kunlun Mountain continued to grow and began to threaten his family business, Liu Qianxiang's attitude changed 180 degrees.

With more than thirty manors and sixty to seventy thousand people, and only two to three thousand servants to be organized, how could we hand it over to others?
"Father, General William Otton of Batavia has arrived in Singkawang. He came with full sincerity this time."

Liu Qianxiang's mood was still fluctuating, but his third son Liu Yaozong came up to report with some excitement.

"The red-haired devils are going to put my Liu family on the fire!" Upon hearing that external help had arrived, Liu Qianxiang was not excited at all. Instead, his expression became a little distressed.

Because before this, the force projected by the Dutch in West Borneo never exceeded two hundred people, and the officers were at most majors or even captains.

And now that Brigadier General William Otton from Batavia has arrived, what good can come of it?

If it weren't for the purpose of fighting against Kunlun Mountain and the Xingtang Shogunate behind them, they would never have made such a big fuss. This is to push the remnants of the Ming Dynasty in Borneo to the forefront to fight against the Mingxiang people of the Mo family!

"Father, since you know the red-haired ghosts have bad intentions, then don't meet them."

Upon hearing what Liu Qianxiang said, his eldest son Liu Yaoliang immediately came over to persuade him.

"Father, I've been to Hexian and Jiading, and I've seen firsthand how powerful Xingtang Prefecture is. We're all from Mingxiang, and if we work together, we both benefit. If we fight, my family will surely lose.

In the past, Koxinga was able to command great power throughout the world by driving out the red-haired demons. Liu's ancestors were generals under Koxinga, so how could they join forces with them to fight against their compatriots?

Furthermore, the red-haired devils harbor evil intentions. Using them to fight against the Xing Tang Mansion is simply inviting a wolf into the house, which is absolutely unacceptable!"

"What Guoxingye, what Mingxiang people!" Liu Yaozong narrowed his eyes and glanced at his half-brother viciously.

"What era is this? The Qing Dynasty has been established for 150 years. The Holy Lord is in power, and all the Western countries are afraid of the Qing Dynasty's strength and bow down to it.

As long as the Qing Dynasty exists, even if the red-haired devils have ten times the courage, they won't dare to do anything to us. At most, we can give them some of the profits, but the Mo family will swallow us up."

As he spoke, Liu Yaozong loudly advised his father, Liu Qianxiang, "Father, if our Liu family wants to keep our inheritance in West Borneo, we should stop mentioning the Ming people and instead ask the Qing for a title.

As long as you have the imperial decree, why should you be afraid of the red-haired devils?

Moreover, the Hexian Mo family has been rebellious recently and they will sooner or later attract the imperial army's expedition.

"Brother, are you asking us to get close to them now? Do you want us, Sanxingtang, to become traitors to be punished by the imperial court?"

As soon as Liu Yaozong said this, a large group of Mingxiang people around him who were still trying to keep their hair tied up actually nodded repeatedly.

"Yes! Forget the blood our ancestors shed. It's been over a hundred years now, and it's time to let go of any grudges. The right thing to do is to get the imperial title as soon as possible and stabilize the territory."

"That's right. Let's ask the court for a reward. If Uncle San establishes himself as the master, we can live in harmony with the country for generations, just like the Huang family of Brunei."

Compared with the Mo family of Ha Tien and the Chen family of Gia Dinh, the remnants of the Ming Dynasty in West Borneo cannot even be called Ming people.

Although the Mo family and the Chen family are also families that make money through illegal means along the coast, Mo Jiu's father Mo Shiping and Chen Shangchuan are both scholars with official titles, and they still have some sense of family and country.

However, the ancestors of the Ming survivors in West Borneo were just pirates who were successfully recruited by the national surname. When they saw that the situation was not right, they became disheartened and fled south.

Although this cannot be considered wrong and is much better than those traitors who defected to the Qing Dynasty, it is very bad for the education and inheritance of future generations.

So much so that the Samsung Company headed by the Liu family, bearing the title of Samsung Hall of the Tiandihui, actually longed to be canonized by the Qing Dynasty.

They hope that they can continue their family in West Borneo like Huang Senping, the Vice King of Brunei hundreds of years ago. Whether they are Chinese or foreigners is not important.

Hearing that everyone supported his third brother Liu Yaozong, Liu Yaoliang, who was not very capable and not good at speaking, became even more anxious.

But he couldn't argue with so many people, and he was so anxious and angry that his eyes turned red and he looked like he was about to cry.

Alas! Liu Qianxiang sighed in his heart and became even more displeased with his eldest son.

Liu Qian waved his hand at him, signaling him to leave. "It wasn't easy for our ancestors to build this foundation. I can't say I'll carry it forward, but I can't just give it away to outsiders."

Liu Qianxiang then said to his third son, Liu Yaozong, "You go to Sankouyang in person and invite General William to Dongwanlu."

Upon hearing this, Liu Yaozong narrowed his eyes complacently and gave a provocative look to his biggest competitor, his brother Liu Yaoliang.

Liu Yaoliang was so anxious that he almost lost his mind. He knew that Xingtang was powerful, and if the Liu family was tied to the Dutch, their future would be ruined.

Then, he pointed at the uncles and aunts around him and roared, "You black-hearted people, you have no conscience in opening a gold mine. You are afraid that the army of King Ren De will come to punish you, so you want to drag everyone to death with you.

It's a pity that tens of thousands of my fellow countrymen in Sanxingtang are about to be killed by you. We didn't die at the hands of the Tartars, but at the hands of our own people in the Ming Dynasty. How can you face your ancestors after you die?

Liu Qianxiang was furious, and those around him who were caught in Liu Yaoliang's words immediately glared at him.

"You beast, take this beast away and lock him up in the ancestral hall. No one is allowed to let him out without my order!"

　I'm sorry, I'm guilty! I had guests over yesterday and couldn't resist having a few drinks at the table, and then...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)