The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 298: Unexpected Big Fish (Two in One)

For Mo Zibu, the Jinghan Gaomen in Hue is a pot of delicious boiled fish.

Although there are bones in fish meat, ginger assassins can occasionally deceive you, and if you accidentally eat a bite of peppercorns, your mouth will become numb.

But after removing these minor flaws, it is still a rare delicacy, and even these flaws do not hinder its value.

So when Chen Taili was forced to go back to clean up the mess, not only did he send the troops from the Hue Left Guard and the Central Guard, but Mo Zibu also asked the Ministry of War, which was responsible for managing the troops, to send the Right Assistant Minister Wu Changzhu to supervise the army.

They were afraid that the officers and soldiers of the Left Guard and the Center Guard would go too far and escalate conflicts that should not be expanded.

At this time in the Xing Tang Kingdom, military power was divided into three parts, and the Wei Suo Army, which was similar to a reserve force, was managed by the Ministry of War.

The country's pillar armed forces, such as Jiading Town and Tangshan Town, are basically managed by the Five Military Governor's Office.

The absolutely elite troops with the title of Guards are dispatched by the Internal Affairs Bureau's Staff Officers Department.

It seems that there are too many orders, which may easily lead to poor coordination and even hostility between the armies, but in fact all these powers are in Mo Zibu's own hands.

The settlement soldiers under the Ministry of War were personally settled by Mo Zibu. Many of them were retired meritorious officials. Most of their land and houses were handed over in the name of rewards from the king.

Therefore, these people worship Mo Zibu with all their might. With them around, if someone rebelled in the local area, or even said something bad about Mo Zibu, they would rush up and slap that person twice.

Not to mention the Five Military Commandery, it is a dignified Five Military Commandery, but it does not even have a commander-in-chief. The highest official position is a few assistants, and they are independently responsible to Mo Zibu. So this is just a grand commandery, and King Mo is the grand commander-in-chief.

As for the General Staff of the Internal Affairs Bureau, it was basically equivalent to a weakened version of the Privy Council, and was directly commanded by Mo Zibu. The two regiments and two battalions of the Guards, from military pay to rewards, were all paid for by Mo Zibu himself. This was his private armed force.

The reason why it is so complicated is that, in addition to the fact that Mo Zibu has a large number of people under his command and their composition is complex, and they need to be dispersed for easier control, the main reason is the issue of income.

The financial revenue of the Xingtang Kingdom was too little, and Mo Zibu could not directly confiscate his own property, so he could only convert the most elite troops into private soldiers and use the royal property to support the most elite troops.

Speaking of money, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, Bian Hebo Wu Changzhu shook his head as he looked at the high-ranking officials of Hue and Han dynasties who had their homes ransacked and were locked up and taken out while men, women, and children were crying.

Why bother doing this? You are so short-sighted. You treat a ruthless person like Emperor Hongwu as a good person and bully a good person like Emperor Xiaozong Hongzhi. If you don't die, who will?

"Uncle, this is totally insufficient. You've only handed over two thousand kilograms of copper and five thousand kilograms of brass. If this is the case, I, your nephew, will not be able to help you exonerate yourself from the king."

When the head of the Li family of Ganlu Society, who was captured in front of Wu Changzhu, heard what Wu Changzhu said, he immediately roared in anger.

"One guan of ordinary coins weighs only seven or eight jin, and even if all two thousand jin of copper were used to mint coins, it would still weigh nearly three hundred guan.

What's more, this is red copper. At most two or three taels can be added to one string of coins to adjust the color. Two thousand kilograms of red copper can be used to cast tens of thousands of strings of coins.

My Ganlu Li family is a descendant of Emperor Taizong of the Li Dynasty. It took our family hundreds of years to accumulate this little wealth. You took it all and are still not satisfied. I think you are deliberately trying to kill our Li family!"

Wu Changzun sneered speechlessly, "Brother Shi, you've learned arithmetic quite well, and you can even talk about the secrets of coinage effortlessly. But you've used your intelligence in the wrong place. If you could study the great principles of saints more and learn to be loyal to the emperor and love your country, you wouldn't be where you are today!"

"Liu Chenshi, I'm sorry to bother you. The country is just established and we need money everywhere."

The man called Liu Chenshi by Wu Changzan grinned, but this smile was uglier than crying, and it was creepy no matter how you looked at it.

"Don't worry, my lord. When we arrived, the Censor Liang instructed us, the clerks of the Criminal Investigation Department, to use all our means and ensure that there is nothing we cannot pry open."

The head of the Li family shuddered and looked at Chen Taixing, the eldest son of Chen Taili, who was beside Wu Changzhu in despair.

In the officialdom of the Xing Tang Dynasty, everyone knew the origins of Li Xianwen, the son-in-law of the emperor and Marquis of Yinchuan. It was said that his family possessed an ancestral clamp passed down from Li Zicheng, a gift from a demon messenger from Hell. A single clamp on the hand could cause the pain to rip a person's soul from their body.

The current Chief Justice of Gui (Ren) and Shun (Hua) is Li Xianwen's brother-in-law Liang Wenying. Like Li Xianwen, his ancestors were all feared thieves.

"Brother Ren!" Thinking of this, the head of the Li family roared in pain at Chen Taixing, looking at him with great expectations.

Chen Taixing's face turned pale. The Li family and their Chen family have been relatives for several generations!

However, they were so bold that they dared to organize a caravan to bypass the Lingxi Wall to contact the people of Beihe Yi'an. It was said that there was also evidence of transporting weapons to the north. Their entire family would definitely be killed.

"Brother Li, the laws of our country are strict. Whoever violates the laws will be severely punished." Chen Taixing tried to keep a straight face and said slowly and bitterly:

"It's the same with our Chen family. Brother, please tell us as soon as possible. I will do my best to plead with the king to leave a descendant for the Li family."

"Chen Taixing, you bastard, you betrayed us, your Chen family betrayed us. Remember, if our Li family is gone, the Chen family will not be in a good situation either. That bastard Mo Wu will not let you go."

Chen Taixing was originally fine, but when he heard the word "betrayal", a strange expression appeared on his face, but it quickly disappeared.

"Fuck your mother!" When several soldiers heard the head of the Li family scolding Mo Zibu, they picked up a short stick wrapped in iron and beat him hard on the mouth, making his mouth full of blood and his teeth flying out. His wife, sons and daughters burst into tears of fear.

Chen Taixing couldn't bear to watch any longer. Just as he was about to turn around, he saw Bian Hebo Wu Changzhu and his son-in-law Li Zhuo, the captain of the Hue Central Guard, looking at him with a smile.

Chen Taixing took a deep breath and stopped turning around, watching the head of the Li family, whose legs had been broken, being dragged away by two soldiers.

"Brother, there's no need to pity such a fool. He's read the books of sages for decades, but he doesn't have the slightest concern for his country and the world. He can't see the situation clearly. How can he be called a noble family?"

After all, Wu Changzhu was still a member of the Jinghan noble family. Seeing Chen Taixing like this, he was afraid that he also didn't understand the situation, so he whispered to persuade him.

"My uncle is right, my dear father-in-law. The king is wise and powerful, and he is the true Lord of destiny. In the future, he will unify the north and the south. All of us will rise to heaven with him.

Now that we have eliminated idiots like the Li family, we can properly assist the king in achieving his great cause."

Chen Taixing was extremely uncomfortable when he heard Li Zhuo calling him father-in-law.

His second daughter was proficient in music, chess, calligraphy and painting, and was also virtuous. She had wanted to marry into a wealthy family, but she didn't expect that she would marry a short and strong pirate who came ashore. What a shame.

"Of course I don't need to. The Chen family also knows about family, country and the world." Although he felt uncomfortable, Chen Taixing knew that what the son-in-law who was forced upon him said made sense.

Because he knew very well that King Mo had no intention of killing them all.

However, the days when a family of hundreds or even thousands of people lived together, with fields connected to each other, and controlled thousands or tens of thousands of tenant farmers, making the countryside only know about the rich families but not the kings, are no longer possible.

The entire Jinghan noble families in Hue cover a very wide range, including the Li family who are so bold and reckless as to not care about their own lives, and there are definitely some who made a wrong move but turned around very quickly.

This is the case with the Pengshan Tao family. Although the head of the family, Tao Weide, was being escorted by soldiers and his wife, sons and daughters were locked up in the manor, ready to be imprisoned like the Li family, he did not panic.

"Wu's son, you from the Southern Eighth Battalion are lucky. You have the merit of following the dragon and can even keep your food and land."

Tao Weide was tall and thin, wearing a long hemp robe. He was covered in dust, had prominent cheekbones, and his hair was just tied up in a mess. He looked more like an old farmer than the head of a noble family in Beijing or Han Dynasty.

He was pushed a few steps towards this side by the soldiers and saw Chen Taixing with an uncomfortable look on his face. Tao Weide sighed.

"Your father had it tough. Zhang Fuluan harmed a lot of our generation. The capable ones all died, leaving only a few who were outstanding. He had to keep going even at his age of nearly 70."

"When I saw you, sir, I knew you still had the spirit of a loyal and righteous man. But why are you so blinded by one thing?"

The Li family's patriarch, Wu Changzun, could humiliate them at will, because the Li family's high status was obtained only through bloodline and cunning robbery.

The Tao family is different. Their ancestor Tao Weici was the founding strategist of the Southern Nguyen Dynasty. Born into a family of entertainers, he relied on his talent to become the Nguyen family's first strategist.

In government, he enriched the country and strengthened the people, defeating powerful enemies. In opposition, he was a famous poet and dramatist. He was good at writing poetry and songs, and was good at writing military strategies. His reputation resounded throughout Annan, and he was known as the Zhuge Liang of Annan.

The Pengshan Tao family he passed down maintained its noble status through merit and learning, and had some reputation in both the north and south of Annan.

Therefore, Wu Changzhu did not give the Li family any face, but he still had to be respectful to Tao Weide.

Hearing Wu Changzhu's question, Tao Weide dusted off his worn hemp clothes and smiled bitterly.

"My children and grandchildren are incompetent. They can't do anything except study. There are hundreds or even thousands of people in the family, and the expenses are very high. We need money to support them everywhere.

We have been minting private money for decades, and who could have predicted the unpredictable changes of the Thunder?"

Wu Changzhu nodded to show his understanding. The Tao family lacked members who were active in the upper echelons, which led to their inability to see the top policies clearly and falling into the trap.

"Since Mr. Tao asked me, I, a junior, will speak frankly. The Tao family has hundreds of people living together for generations. Among them, there are countless children who are knowledgeable in books and military affairs. If they advance, they can control the government. If they retreat, they will become a tiger occupying a small area. This is not good for the country or the Tao family.

Let's split up the family and go to West Borneo to settle there. The eldest branch of Wenhua will stay in Hue to serve the court, while the branch of the concubine's family will go to West Borneo to take root and sprout.

"Hand over most of Hue's land in exchange for a portion of cultivated land and large tracts of virgin land in West Borneo. If Lord Tao is willing, I will go and ask the king to make proper arrangements for the Tao family."

Tao Weide's face turned pale, and he couldn't help but sigh, "Is there no other way?"

Wu Changzhu shook his head firmly, "That's the way. Lord Tao also has to make a pledge of allegiance, otherwise the younger generation won't dare to go to the king to plead for mercy.

Mr. Tao, don't hesitate. Although life in West Borneo is a bit hard and some casualties are inevitable, as long as you persevere, you can become a hereditary county magistrate or even a prefect in the future.

As for those who remain in Hue, as long as they are willing to come out of retirement, the King will still use them."

Chen Taixing glanced at Tao Weide and suddenly lowered his voice and said to him, "Your Majesty has been talking to my father-in-law recently about the affairs of the Mo Dynasty and the royal aura and feng shui.

Said:
During the Restoration, power was controlled by the lower classes, and the royal family was like a petted pig. Zhuangzong's origins were unknown, and his life story was full of twists and turns. How could he be called the Restoration by Heaven's Mandate?

The Later Le Dynasty founded by Le Loi was actually directly interrupted by Mac Dang Dung, and in fact the country was destroyed.

But later, Nguyen Gan, the ancestor of the Southern Nguyen Dynasty, and his successor son-in-law, Zheng Jian, the first leader of the Northern Zheng Dynasty, overthrew the Mac Dynasty of Mac Dang Dung in the name of restoring the Later Le Dynasty and regained the throne.

At that time, King Le Ninh of the Le Dynasty, who was supported by Nguyen Gan and Zheng Jian, became the ruler of the revival of the Le Dynasty. In order to distinguish it from the previous one, the Later Le Dynasty was called the Restoration Dynasty after Le Ninh.

In other words, since the revival of the Le Dynasty, the king had no power at all and was a complete puppet.

There is also a major flaw in the story of Zhuangzong Li Ning, the revived emperor. According to Vietnamese records, Zhuangzong Li Ning's father, Zhaozong Li Yi, was only nine years older than him. Taking into account the ten-month pregnancy, if this is true, Li Yi would have been fertile at the age of eight, which is obviously impossible.

Therefore, the people of Annan have always believed that the revival of the Zhuangzong Li Ning was impersonated by Nguyen Gan through his son, and the royal family of the Later Li Dynasty had long been extinct.

After hearing this, Tao Weide showed an expression of extreme shock.

Because Mo Zibu's statement means that after the King Xing Tang enters Tokyo in the future, he will not continue to play the shogunate's tyranny like the Zheng and Ruan families.

Instead, he wanted to start his own dynasty, so he had to make plans in advance and shake the legal basis of the Zhongxing Dynasty culturally.

"Brother, why didn't you tell me earlier!" After being shocked, Tao Weide gritted his teeth, because to do such a thing, only people from high-ranking families like them could do it.

If I had known that King Mo had such ambitions and desires, and that they were needed in such an important place, who the hell would still be minting private money like a rat in the countryside!
This is a great achievement in laying the legal foundation for the new dynasty, which is enough for future generations to live off the credit for the rest of their lives.

After hearing Tao Weide's questioning, Chen Taixing smiled with a mixture of excitement and pain, "King Taizu built this foundation by expelling the Ming garrison.

To overturn the legal rights of his descendants, an ordinary mediocre master would not be able to do this. Our Chen family has only recently been preparing to take action."

At this time in Annan, Le Loi's uprising to overthrow the direct rule of the Ming Dynasty was the highest level of political correctness.

This was also the main reason why Mo Dengyong found it more difficult to maintain his rule after he made Annan a vassal state in order to stabilize his territory.

Therefore, it is a very risky and challenging task to challenge the legal system of the Li Zhongxing Dynasty.

It is naturally impossible to do it voluntarily just because of some benefits from above. You also have to see whether the person who wants to cause trouble has the ability to do so before deciding whether to bet on him.

"Grandpa is so scheming!" Tao Weide was silent for a while, and a chill rushed from the bottom of his heart to the top of his head.

No wonder after Chen Taili became the assistant minister, he did not do anything to suppress or regulate the noble families in Hue. It turned out that he was waiting here.

The noble families in Hue, which directly control hundreds of thousands of people and indirectly influence millions of people, have been entrenched here for more than a hundred years. Even Zhang Fuluan actually belongs to this circle.

Lord Ruan has always been able to coax them. Unless he is a truly powerful and ruthless person, he does not have the ruthlessness or the ability to sweep the house and rule over them.

Chen Taili allowed the nobles in Beijing and Han to commit suicide, just to see whether Mo Zibu dared to deal with these people. If Mo Zibu couldn't even deal with the nobles in Hue, then there was no need to think about overthrowing the legal system of the Le Dynasty.

Only if Mo Zibu shows the ability of a true hero, will Chen Taili risk the lives of 1,300 members of the Xiangcha Chen family to do this for King Mo.

Now that the result has been tested, the Chen family immediately decided to start placing their bets. Cooperating with Mo Zibu to take down the high-ranking clans in Jinghan was their token of allegiance.

Not to mention the high-ranking families in the Southern Camp, headed by the Wu family. They had already submitted their pledge of allegiance when the Hue court was still in existence.

"The Xiangyun Ruan family is planning a rebellion. They've already contacted more than a dozen families and gathered thousands of tenant farmers. They have hundreds of muskets, more than ten old cannons, and a group of upper-class barbarians, estimated to be three to four thousand people.

I don't know the exact time, but I do know that many of them have already infiltrated Hue, waiting for the soldiers of the Left, Center, and Right Guards to go out and quell the rebellion. Once Hue's troops are depleted, they will immediately rise up and seize the arsenal, calling on all the nobles to rise up and kill the northerners together!"

At this time, the Han Gaomen in Anjing had not completely lost its educational function among the Xia monarchs and the Yi people, unlike the Manchu Confucian scholars in the north.

Most of these Annan noble families have their own armed forces, and the family leaders know something about military affairs. The young men in their direct line learn martial arts as well as literature, so they still have some combat effectiveness.

Wu Changzhu was overjoyed. He knew that someone was plotting in Xiangyun Society west of Hue, but he didn't know what the plot was or who was the leader. Now that he had Tao Weide's information, he was about to achieve a great success.

He snorted coldly, "They are like ants trying to shake a tree, they don't know how to live or die. Let alone other things, they can't even defeat the three guards of Hue."

"They can do it!" Tao Weide shook his head and said, "The Three Guards have only about 2,000 men around Hue, and even if only half of the high gates are mobilized, there are still hundreds of thousands of people.

These days, the Ruan family has been spreading rumors that the officers and soldiers of the Three Guards are outsiders and are here to grab land. There are indeed cases of officers and soldiers in the Three Guards showing off their power and even bullying men and women.

As long as the momentum is built up and the anger is aroused, three thousand people will not be able to stop hundreds of thousands of farmers who think they are protecting their property and wives and daughters.

Your Majesty is still a Mingxiang person, a northerner, and has not yet completely become a southerner."

“No, I don’t think they expected to accomplish anything at all, all they wanted was to kill the three guards and burn down Hue.

In the eyes of these people, the King is not to be feared. The only ones to be feared are us, the Three Guards, because we are the only ones who are truly digging into their foundations. Without the Three Guards, the King's power will never reach the very bottom."

Li Zhuo, the captain of Zhongwei, had flames of anger in his eyes. Just by listening to Tao Weide's analysis, he keenly guessed the thoughts of these high-ranking officials.

Wu Changzhu also reacted at this time, "I see, Xing Tang is a vast territory, and the king is short of men. The three thousand officers and soldiers of the Three Guards of Hue were already drawn out by selling everything they had. Without these three thousand, we can't control the area around Hue.

Even if a large army comes to massacre them, they can still retreat to the Shangren’s territory or even to the Bac Ha. The more bloodshed they carry out, the deeper the hatred will be. We still cannot truly control them unless the King is willing to kill all the millions of people in Hue.”

This is the reality. In the eyes of a noble family like the Xiangyun Nguyen family, if Mo Zibu kills everyone, Hue will be worthless.

If they don't want to end up empty-handed, they will most likely choose to compromise with them after it becomes impossible to control Hue in a short period of time.

"They must still be connected to Beihe, otherwise they wouldn't be so radical. Brother Tao, there's no need to hide it. Is there anyone else in the royal family?"

Wu Changzhu and Li Zhuo didn’t know these people very well, but Chen Taixing knew them very well, after all, the Chen family was one of them.

"It was Zongshi Sheng. He didn't die but was taken to Beihe by Huang Tingbao." Tao Weide hesitated for a moment, but still told the truth, because he knew that this was his Tao family's token of allegiance.

After submitting this token of allegiance, he could then join forces with the Chen and Wu families to provoke the Li Zhongxing Dynasty to overthrow Tianming.

"Such a big thing, and you actually hid it from our Chen family!" Chen Taixing growled angrily.

The clan member Thang is called Nguyen Phuc Thang. He is the eighteenth son of Nguyen Phuc Kho, the previous Nguyen Lord Vu King, and the younger brother of Nguyen Phuc Thuan, the previous Nguyen Lord. He is twelve years old this year.

"King Ren Duc visited your home before he entered Hue, so they naturally wanted to hide it from you." Tao Weide replied with a wry smile.

It seems that no one is a good person. The Chen family uses other wealthy families as a touchstone, while other wealthy families are hiding their plans from the Chen family.

. . . .

In Hoi An, Mo Zibu was shocked when he received the news that Wu Changzhu had come to report in person.

He wanted to fish, but he didn't want to catch a crocodile!

Wu Changzhu saw Mo Zibu thinking, and he thought Mo Zibu was worried about whether the news would leak out, so he quickly whispered:
"Your Majesty, rest assured. I have already had my cousin pretend to be in Hue. He has told everyone that he has caught a cold and needs to rest for a day or two. I myself have escaped by hiding in a coal truck. No one will know."

As he spoke, Wu Changzhu deliberately stretched out his hand so that Mo Zibu could see the charcoal black powder on his hands, sleeves and even his entire green robe.

"Shi Heng is incredibly meticulous and has accomplished another great feat. However, to be on the safe side, you must hurry back to Hue and pretend nothing happened."

Mo Zibu was very appreciative. Regardless of whether what Wu Changzhu did was useful or not, the fact that he could do it proved that he was vigilant.

"When you return, immediately and loudly imprison Tao Weide, and then raid his home.

Also, you must act like a high-ranking official from the Southern Eighth Battalion, a lowly person who has achieved success. Let people think that it is your narrow-mindedness that has led to Tao Weide's misfortune. Don't alert those people."

Serving King Mo is so hard. Wu Changzhu had just arrived in Hoi An and he was about to go back.

It was not enough for Tao Weid to just pledge his allegiance; he also had to resort to a self-torture tactic.

After Wu Changzhu left, Mo Zibu began to think quickly.

Originally, he did not intend to punish the high-ranking families in Hue too harshly. After all, the impact was too wide. He planned to eliminate them slowly in several steps.

But now that the enemy has jumped out on his own initiative and has reached such a height, there is no need to tolerate it.

Moreover, Mo Zibu thought of one more thing, which was that he had been planning for eight months, and asked Lin Tong to take the lead, and the Internal Security Department of the Jinyiwei went to investigate.

As a result, they did find out most of the information about the minting of illegal coins, but they did not get any information about the Xiangyun Ruan family's intention to cause trouble.

This is enough to prove that his current power is indeed unable to reach the grassroots level.

The fact that the issue of smuggling coins was able to be clarified is probably because these guys really felt that smuggling coins was not a big sin because they had been doing it for decades.

But Mo Zibu's "unreasonable" behavior this time inadvertently achieved the effect of catching rabbits while robbing grass.

Because many of the guys who conspired with the Xiangyun Ruan family were also minting private money. If they didn't take action now, someone might be caught for minting private money, and they would be unable to hold back and would reveal the truth. So they couldn't hold it back any longer and decided to do something in advance.

Thinking of this, Mo Zibu called over his attendant counselor Zheng Jinshui and said, "Go to Shunzhou City right now and go directly to the Shunzhou garrison commander, Chen Guangyao. Have him lead his troops to Hue and arrest everyone on the list. Don't let anyone go."

"What about those who minted illegal coins? Will they still be arrested as planned?" Zheng Jinshui knew that the matter was serious, because as angels, it was usually Pei Changwu and others who went to mobilize generals like Chen Guangyao.

Now letting a young boy like Zheng Jinshui go is obviously to conceal the truth and prevent the enemy from getting suspicious.

"Catch him, but not now, and don't punish him severely." Mo Zibu sighed. The main opponent had changed again. Compared with rebellion, minting private money was nothing.

As long as those who minted private coins did not participate in the conspiracy of the Xiangyun Ruan family, they should be let off the hook, otherwise the scope of the crackdown would be too wide.

There is one thing that the high-ranking officials in Hue were right about. Mo Zibu has few people now and wants to enter Bac Ha. He does not have the capital to turn Hue into a wasteland.

More importantly, Nguyen Phuc Thang was taken to Bac Ha by Huang Dinh Bao and Nguyen Van Hue.

So it is conceivable that the next time the war breaks out, the Zheng Lords of Bac Ha will put on the banner of the political correctness of the Le Dynasty and, under the pretext of escorting Nguyen Phuc Thang back to succeed the throne, incite people to start a war.

Therefore, we must cut the Gordian knot now.

(End of this chapter)