The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 325: Northern River Han Wangsun

Deng Chenchang still met Mo Zibu because the Spring Festival was approaching.

For the Han people, there is naturally no more important festival than this. Even when they are on the march, they will give out rewards and hold banquets on this day.

At this time, the two things you fear most are: one is that the enemy will launch a surprise attack while you are having a banquet.

And Nguyen Van Hue quite liked to do this. In history, when Sun Shiyi marched into Annan, he celebrated the Spring Festival and held a party in Hanoi, Tokyo, but was suddenly attacked and defeated by Nguyen Van Hue.

The second point is whether the banquet can be well organized. Not to mention at this time, even in the later era when material resources are extremely developed, a good banquet with good wine and meat in the company can greatly boost the morale of employees.

It is even more important at this time. If you, a king, cannot get good wine and meat for your brothers during the Spring Festival, some people will definitely think that something big has happened in the army.

Although Mo Zibu has now occupied the city of Chengrong in Nghe An, his supply line has also been stretched and has to pass through the entire hostile Nghe An town. Sporadic attacks have already occurred, so it is also very important to ensure the logistics line.

So Mo Zibu went to the prisoner-of-war camp in person. Most of the captured people there were local people from Nghe An.

Mo Zibu wanted to see if he could open a gap here, get some local people to form an intelligence network, weaken the resistance of the Nghe An people, and make a basic early warning.

Deng Chenchang, who had been awakened from his sweet dream of the white-robed Ao Wanghou, quickly seized the opportunity and was quickly brought to Mo Zibu.

After all, in this era, there are still very few people who are educated and eloquent, so it is easy to stand out.

Mo Zibu looked at the dwarf in front of him with a somewhat wretched appearance, but he did not look down on him at all. People are not afraid of being ugly, but they are afraid of being ugly without characteristics. Sometimes ugliness that is extremely abstract can also be a kind of beauty.

For example, Deng Chenchang, who has a short stature, a round head and a round brain, looks similar to Du Xudong who played Pang Tong in the New Three Kingdoms. Although he is ugly, it is obvious that he does not look like an ordinary person.

I, King Mo, have been baptized by countless wise kings and enlightened rulers in movies and TV shows. Even if I have only watched the TV series about the Three Kingdoms, I know that people like Pang Tong and Zhang Song cannot be judged simply by their appearance.

"Sir, you said you would help me take Beihe easily, but what if I don't want to take it easily?"

Of course, we still have to test this person's ability. Mo Zibu smiled faintly and interrupted Deng Chenchang directly.

Deng Chenchang glanced at Mo Zibu, and an expression of "I'm smarter than you" appeared on his face.

Although it was only a moment, Mo Zibu still caught it. Even with his self-control, he almost stood up and walked away.

No wonder, since ancient times, some people have great abilities, but their endings are not very good. This gentleman is still a prisoner, and some weaknesses in his character cannot be concealed.

But Mo Zibu only thought so in his heart, and did not show it on his face. He still said to Deng Chenchang with a smile: "Sir, if you think there is anything wrong with me, please speak frankly."

Deng Chenchang raised his hand and said, "Then I have spoken so boldly. I beg Your Majesty to dismiss my attendants."

"That's all right." Mo Zibu waved his hand. "My left and right arms are both humeri. There's nothing I can't tell anyone."

Deng Chenchang nodded, with an expression of "If you are willing to die, I am willing to be buried" on his face. He was wearing a linen green robe, but he stroked the goatee on his chin with his hand and put on the appearance of a master.

"The king controls half of the southern kingdom, and the tigers and wolves under his command have long possessed the power to destroy nations. Even the White Elephant King Meng Bo, who roamed the Southeast Sea, could not escape the hands of the then-rookie king. This shows the king's wisdom and the might of the Xing Tang army."

Deng Chenchang chuckled as he spoke. "Although Beihe is the essence of southern China and cannot be compared to Burma or Siam, for the past two hundred years, its rulers have been corrupt, its ministers have been greedy, and its superiors have been mean and its people have been despicable. In terms of potential, it's not inferior to the Cantonese in the north, but the Zheng family can only utilize one or two out of ten of its people."

Therefore, in my humble opinion, Your Majesty has had the ability to seize Beihe at least since Shunzhou's surprise attack on King Jingdu two years ago."

Deng Chenchang waved his hand and said, "But the king did not do so. I, a commoner in Beihe, feel deeply sorry for the king.

It has also been speculated that the king's vision may have been limited by the two hundred years of conflict between the Zheng Dynasty in the north and the Nguyen Dynasty in the south, and he only wanted to replace the Nguyen family and had no intention of going north.

It was only recently, when I read the King's edict to the gentry, soldiers and civilians of Beihe, and obtained two of His Majesty's new masterpieces, that I suddenly understood.

It's not that Your Majesty doesn't want to enter Beihe, but rather that he doesn't want the people of Beihe. Or to put it more bluntly, Your Majesty's ambition is not to conquer Beihe and unify the Southern Kingdom, but to become the Hongwu Emperor, expel the Tartars, and rebuild the country, is that right?"

Mo Zibu looked at this guy with a smile. It seemed that he really knew something about him. The middle and high-level people in Xingtang had some understanding of Mo Zibu's thoughts, but the Annan people far away in Beihe were not so clear about it.

However, if Deng Chenchang only had this much vision, then the attitude he just displayed was too high, and his current words and actions were not worthy of that level of prestige.

Therefore, in order to get this guy to say everything, Mo Zibu nodded without changing his expression and admitted it generously.

"Sir, your guess is correct. My ancestors were loyal ministers of the Ming Dynasty. I am a Han noble, so naturally I must restore the Han territory!"

"What courage!" Deng Chenchang clapped his hands and laughed. He didn't expect Mo Zibu to admit it so directly. "He is indeed an extraordinary master. Only a master with such courage can accomplish great things!"

“If my guess is correct, Your Majesty must feel that the biggest difference between you and Hongwu Taizu is that you are in Southeast Asia.

Looking back to the past, when Emperor Hongwu led an army to rebel against the Yuan Dynasty, he was in the center of China and relied on his fellow countrymen in Huaixi, who were all Han people.

On the other hand, the king has only more than 100,000 trusted Ming and Xiang people, and the Hakka, Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, and Cantonese people who have gone to Southeast Asia are no more than 200,000 to 300,000. The rest are not Han people.

Even if these 300,000 or 400,000 people could not all join the army, most of them would be concentrated in the south. If they entered Beihe, they would probably be surrounded by the Jing people in Beihe in an instant.

The king was not afraid that he could not subdue these people from Beijing. After all, they were no different from the Han people and they considered themselves to be Han people.

For example, the Shannan Deng family, who came from humble origins, were a family of Chinese people from Beijing. Their ancestral home was Nanyang County, and their ancestor was the cousin of Deng Yuanhou, the leader of the twenty-eight generals of Yuntai.

During the Jianguang period of Emperor An of the Later Han Dynasty, Empress Dowager Deng died of illness, and the emperor liquidated his relatives by marriage. The Deng family scattered. My ancestors fled south from the Central Plains to Jiaozhi to escape disaster, and their descendants have multiplied to this day and have always been Han people.

But in the king's opinion, it was different.

You yourself were born in the wilderness, and the Mo family has been away from their homeland for more than a hundred years. Your great-grandmother's family, the Peis, are not authentic Han Chinese, but a family of Chinese from Beijing.

It is actually difficult to say that the Mo family in Hexian are Han Chinese. To be more precise, they are almost like the Deng family in Shannan, and have become Chinese citizens from Beijing.

Therefore, if they marched into the north the next day under the banner of expelling the Tartars, but were followed by a large number of Yue and Xifan people, and their origins were relatively southern, they would easily be regarded as foreigners.

Even in the eyes of many people, it will become almost the same as the Qing Dynasty, the only difference is that the Qing Dynasty entered the country through Shanhaiguan, while the king entered the country through Zhennanguan."

"That's right!" Mo Zibu stopped pretending. He stood up with a serious look on his face. This was what Mo Zibu was most worried about.

He was not worried about not being able to defeat the Qing Dynasty, but was worried about being regarded as the second Qing Dynasty, which was something he could never accept.

"So, Your Majesty does not want to take Beihe lightly, but wants to slaughter Beihe!" Deng Chenchang suddenly said loudly:

"Killing a million people would, firstly, suppress all disobedience, and secondly, free up a large area of land for settling the king's fellow countrymen in western Guangdong.

This is why you have been attracting Hakkas, Zhangzhous, and Quanzhous for so many years, but have not touched your own people from western Guangdong. You hope to settle them in Beihe, let them live there for a few years, and turn Beihe from a southern country into an inland one.

When you leave Zhennan Pass again in the future, Your Majesty will lead a hundred thousand men from western Guangdong, Hakka, Zhangzhou, and Quanzhou to fight back, and then no one will mistake you for the Qing Dynasty."

"Since you know this, sir, why did you say that you would easily take Beihe for me?" After so much foreplay, it was finally time to talk about the conclusion. King Mo was very patient and waited until this moment before asking.

"Your Majesty!" Deng Chenchang suddenly straightened his clothes and then bowed deeply to Mo Zibu.

Although Beihe is a southern kingdom, its people are no different from those in the north. The laws, ethics, and morals are the same. The only difference is that the local slang that emerged at the end of the Chen Kingdom replaced the Han-Vietnamese dialect.

Therefore, in order to take over Beihe, it does not matter how many noble families are willing to maintain their independence, nor does it matter how many people want to be Yue people instead of Han people.

The world is bustling with people all for profit. As long as there are benefits, no one will not follow. Your Majesty now owns the South Seas and has expanded the land for thousands of miles, but there are few people settling there. In the future, you will also recover the Central Plains in the north. How much benefit will this bring!

The nobles of Beijing and Han and the local people in Beihe are not fools. Following the king has such great benefits, why would they oppose it?

If the king despises them for being Yue people, then order the re-registration of all the people in Beihe. Those who can speak Chinese and Yue dialects will be given fields, and those who cannot will have their entire families exiled!"

Mo Zibu touched his chin and thought, it's not impossible. The difference between Vietnamese and Chinese at that time was not as big as it would be in later generations.

It can even be said that the North Vietnamese at that time were the people in the world who were closest to the Chinese, especially the Han Chinese, in terms of culture and blood. They were more similar to the Koreans, who were also known as Little China, and even more like the Han Chinese than most of the southwestern ethnic minorities in the country.

If they could change from speaking their native dialect to speaking Sino-Vietnamese, they would be no different from the Han people.

"Han Yue language has been out of use for hundreds of years. Can it still be used?" Mo Zibu asked hesitantly.

"Yes!" Deng Chenchang said firmly: "Although I come from a great family like the Deng family in Shannan, my family has long been in decline. However, I can still speak Chinese and Vietnamese because I have been taught by others.

The noble families of Beihe have been passed down for hundreds of years, but there is no guarantee that every descendant will have a life of prosperity.

Therefore, over the past few hundred years, there have been many people like us who have learned Chinese and Vietnamese pronunciations, read the Four Books and Five Classics, but in the end can only struggle to survive in the countryside. They just don’t use Chinese and Vietnamese pronunciations in their daily conversations, but they definitely don’t know how to use them.

"So, what's your suggestion?" Mo Zibu gestured to continue.

Deng Chenchang showed a sinister smile on his face, "When I was heading south, I heard that King Jingdu Zheng Sen asked all the gentry in Beihe to submit letters of allegiance refuting the king's edict.

This is simply handing a knife to the king, so I suggest that the king can quickly advance to Beihe without having to distinguish who wants to be a Yue person and who wants to be a Han person.

We can use these letters of allegiance as leverage to select a group of people to make an example of, and for the rest, give them two options to choose from.

Those who are loyal and dedicated can enjoy some benefits and hand over the people under their control. They can then be given more official positions, just like what the king did with the noble families in Jinghan, Hue.

He was half-hearted and simply separated the core of the clan and sent them to Qui Nhon, Gia Ting, Gia Tse and An Dai, asking them to help the king deal with the local indigenous people and develop the land.

What the king can really use are the poor students like me who came from high-class families. They can speak Chinese and Vietnamese and are eager to become real Han people.

As long as the king is willing to grant them land, appoint them as village chiefs and elders, and use the people's ability to speak Chinese and Vietnamese as an assessment, there will be a change in three years and great achievements in five years.

Within ten years, the Han-Yue dialect will be similar to Cantonese and the Fujian dialect of Zhangzhou and Quanzhou."

"It's interesting, but what are the benefits?" Mo Zibu smiled slightly, but it was not enough to impress him.

Deng Chenchang held up three fingers after hearing this and said, "First, Your Majesty, you can quickly take Beihe. You don't have to completely destroy this land of fish and rice, and don't give Zheng Zhu and Huang Tingbao and others the opportunity to struggle and destroy it.

Secondly, this is the best opportunity to register all the people and drive out the most corrupt upper-class nobles of Beihe, and use the lower-class poor people who can speak Chinese and Vietnamese to govern various places. Once it is done, the king can control at least three million of the five million people in Beihe.

With these three million people, the king can easily maintain a troop of 30,000 to 50,000 soldiers. Adding to the 20,000 to 30,000 elite soldiers he already has, that's nearly 100,000 people.

With such an army of 100,000, the Qing Dynasty, as a small tribe facing a big country, has a mobilization capacity not as good as that of the king, and lacks the orthodoxy and legal principles of the king. They will be helpless against the king.

Then it was only a matter of time before he swallowed up Guangdong and Guangxi and even launched the Northern Expedition.

Third, the king's hometown, the three prefectures of Gao, Lei and Lian in western Guangdong, has never had a large population. The current total number is only around one million. Even if the king wants to attract them to Beihe, even if the Qing government does not interfere, the maximum number of people who can come is 100,000.

But these 100,000 people are still not enough to change the embarrassing problem of the king's origin.

Therefore, it would be better to directly promote the Han-Vietnamese dialect in Beihe, cut off the roots of the Yue people, and then recruit 50,000 fellow villagers from western Guangdong, using them as banners and as the top leaders of the Han people in Beihe.

In this way, the hierarchy is determined, and everyone speaks Chinese, but with different accents.

The folks from western Guangdong who came to Beihe also gained a lot, so they naturally wanted to go back and spread the word to the king. That way, when they go to war with the Qing again, they won't have to worry about being treated as outsiders."

"That makes sense!" Mo Zibu stood up and took two steps back and forth. "This way, at least I can save two or three years. I don't have to wastefully kill the high-ranking clansmen in Beihe. Letting them settle in Jiaxi and Andai is a good idea."

"But..." Mo Zibu turned and looked at Deng Chenchang. "To do something like this, it's not just a matter of issuing an order. It requires someone to hold the power of life and death and push it forward. Can you, Deng Chenchang, do that?"

Mo Zibu meant what he said. Deng Chenchang's strategy sounded simple, but it was not easy to sort out the many high-ranking families in Beihe, distribute their property to the poor families who spoke Han Yue dialect, and stabilize the common people and make them equal citizens.

"Your Majesty!" Deng Chenchang finally stopped acting like the arrogant prince in white clothes. He fell to his knees with a thud.

"I have studied diligently for thirty years and have been considered a child prodigy since childhood. My knowledge far exceeds that of ordinary people. If I were not of humble origin and ugly appearance, I could have governed the Northern Rivers and even presided over the imperial court.

I have already written ten articles on governing Beihe, and would like Your Majesty to review them. In addition, I have also formed a group of dozens of humble and ambitious people in Beihe, all of whom are well-educated in both civil and military affairs, and they are also willing to be loyal to a wise ruler like Your Majesty.

As long as the king is willing to trust me, I will definitely help the king deal with this Beihe issue!"

This tone is really not humble at all, Mo Zibu sighed in his heart.

But King Mo didn't know that this person in history was even more arrogant. He even wrote "Han Wangsun Fu" to compare himself to Han Xin.

"Show it up." Mo Zibu was ready to give it a try. It would be best if this person could be used and get the job done.

If he can't do this, then we can do it the old way.

"I'd like to read your ten articles on governing the Beihe River and have a chat with you tonight!"

　There are two versions of Deng Chenchang's age: 1750 and 1759. This book adopts the year 1750 as the birth year.

　　Also, thank you all for your concern. Lao Hu is not in the countryside, but in the street health center. He has now been transferred to the county hospital. After examination, there is no major problem. There are no lung nodules, just a little inflammation. A large dose of anti-inflammatory medicine will be enough. He is much better now.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)