The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 349: No Regrets in This Life for Killing Captives

Guangzhou, Shabei Village, Chen Dafu Ancestral Hall.

The Chen family of Shabei is a prominent family in Lingnan. The family settled in Lingnan since the Southern Song Dynasty. For hundreds of years, they have been the most famous cultural and noble family in the area, with the reputation of having seven Jinshi (imperial scholar) in one family and five local celebrities in four generations.

The most famous and resolute figure in this family is Chen Zizhuang, one of the Three Loyalists of Lingnan.

Chen Zizhuang was born in the 1596th year of the Wanli reign, AD. He was a child prodigy. He passed the examination for scholar at the age of , the examination for juren at the age of , and the examination for jinshi at the age of , and he ranked third in the imperial examination.

After winning the third place in the imperial examination, Chen Zizhuang was selected into the Hanlin Academy. At that time, Wei Zhongxian was in power and various places were vying to build ancestral temples. In order to curry favor, Wei Zhongxian's followers asked the third place winner to write the word "hero" for Wei Zhongxian's ancestral temple. Chen Zizhuang refused on the spot and was subsequently attacked by Wei's party. He was dismissed from office along with his father, Chen Xichang, the Imperial Censor of the Ministry of Personnel.

After several ups and downs, when the Qing army broke through Nanjing, Chen Zizhuang and his brother Chen Zisheng and others destroyed their homes in their hometown of Baiyun, Guangzhou to help the people, raised a big flag, and called on their fellow villagers to defend the country.

However, the Qing army was too powerful and they were unable to turn the tide. A few years later, Chen Zizhuang's eldest son Chen Shangyong died in battle, his third son Chen Shangtu was captured, and his mother committed suicide. The descendants of the Shabei Chen family followed Chen Zizhuang to fight against the Qing army, and more than 300 of them died in Gaoming City.

After being captured by the Qing Dynasty, Chen Zizhuang would rather die than surrender. However, he was sentenced to the human sawing punishment by Tong Yangjia, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. This punishment involves fixing the person to a wooden board and sawing him in half from the beginning.

Chen Zizhuang, who was tortured, never begged for mercy and kept cursing until his death.

. . . .

"The Minister of War, Marquis of Yinchuan, and his Royal Highness the Duke of Li Xianwen has arrived!"

In the ancestral hall of the Shabei Chen family, more than 20 core descendants of the Chen family were preparing the incense table when a notification was heard from outside.

After a while, a man wearing a red robe and a black hat, looking like a high-ranking official of the Ming Dynasty, walked in.

This person is none other than my King Mo’s sworn brother and brother-in-law, Li Xianwen.

Li Xianwen's trip to Guangzhou this time was specifically requested by Mo Zibu, mainly because the situation in Guangzhou was changing too quickly.

To be honest, King Mo was a little worried about the Qing Dynasty's conscription of the Zhuang and Miao local soldiers from Guangxi, after all, the Guangxi wolf soldiers had a bad reputation.

Therefore, Huang Zhongtong has received an order that he will go to Guangxi in person and visit the local chieftains one by one according to the list given by Li Shiyao, asking them to give up joining the Qing army.

If they didn't know what was going on, Huang Zhongtong would recruit Hakka miners to cause trouble locally and tie down the power of these chieftains in Guangxi.

Well, now in Pingle and Xunzhou prefectures in Guangxi, which is where the Taiping Rebellion broke out in history, there are already a large number of charcoal burners and coal miners.

After Huang Zhongtong left, the Kunlun Mountain Hall in Guangzhou needed someone with status and position to take charge, someone who Huang Zhongtong would be willing to kneel down and call "boss" when he saw him.

No one else could be qualified for this position except Li Xianwen, because Huang Zhongtong was originally his trusted general.

Li Xianwen is capable enough to do the job, and he is also willing to make a name for himself.

As the top military hero of the Xingtang Kingdom and a major shareholder with thousands of investors, Li Xianwen has not interfered in military affairs in recent years in order to avoid the formation of another faction within Xingtang.

From his initial stationing in Tanah Lom, to his station in Lower Burma, and then to his station in Pattani, he finally stayed in Qui Nhon for four years.

By now, Mo Zibu had fulfilled his destiny and had concentrated all power in his hands. Even if Li Xianwen came out, it would not cause division. Only then did Mo Zibu let him out to do things.

There is another reason, that is, Xing Tang gradually stepped onto the stage of wrestling with the Qing Dynasty. Under this circumstance, Kunlun Mountain in Guangzhou became more and more important.

Huang Zhongtong was just a close general of Li Xianwen. He was not ranked high within Xing Tang and his relationship with Mo Zibu was not particularly close.

Therefore, it is inappropriate to continue to use Huang Zhongtong. This kind of organization will inevitably evolve into a spy organization in the future, and it needs someone like Li Xianwen to take charge.

As for Huang Zhongtong, after the Guangxi incident is over, he will enter the military and will soon be granted a title after making contributions, which can be regarded as compensation for him.

In the crowd, someone suddenly burst into tears when he saw Li Xianwen's scarlet robe and black gauze hat.

This person was not a descendant of the Shabei Chen family, but he also had the surname Chen. He was the great-grandson of Chen Bangyan, the leader of the Three Loyalists of Lingnan. His grandfather, Chen Gongyin, was Chen Bangyan's eldest son.

After Chen Bangyan died for his country, Chen Gongyin went into hiding and never served the Qing Dynasty for the rest of his life. He was known as one of the Three Sons of Lingnan along with Qu Dajun and Liang Peilan, and he was considered to have left a bloodline for Chen Bangyan.

After Li Xianwen arrived inside the ancestral hall, he took off his black gauze hat, revealing his very standard hair bun. Then he looked at the portrait of Chen Zizhuang in the center of the ancestral hall and kowtowed solemnly.

The Chen family members in the ancestral hall burst into tears. This family is very resilient.

Historically, after Chen Zizhuang's death, the descendants of the Shabei Chen family vowed never to serve the Qing Dynasty, and they did what they said.

In the ancestral hall of the Chen family in Shabei Village, Baiyun District, Guangzhou in later generations, the portraits of ancestors and famous officials of all generations ended with Chen Zizhuang. All of them were in Han Dynasty red robes and black hats, and there was not a single portrait of them wearing Manchu official uniforms.

For a family with generations of nobility, it is really not easy to give up the future of their descendants for more than two hundred years.

"May I ask, sir, this is how the Tang Dynasty was established. Have we restored our Han clothing?" After Li Xianwen finished bowing to Chen Zizhuang, Chen Bangyan's great-grandson Chen Songfeng stepped forward and asked.

Li Xianwen slowly shook his head. "Nanyang is not originally Chinese territory. It is a temporary place where our ancestors who refused to submit to the Qing Dynasty stayed. The local population is tens of millions, while the Chinese population is only tens of thousands. It is not easy to restore the customs and etiquette."

Seeing the gloomy expressions on the faces of those around him, Li Xianwen raised his left hand in front of his head and saluted, "Fortunately, King Ren De has arrived in response to Heaven's will. For ten years, he has overcome all difficulties, slept in the open air, and braved swords and spears, disregarding life and death. He founded the Tiannan Kingdom, known as the "Resurgence of Tang and Succession of Han." Only then can we preserve some of our dignity." The Chen family members prostrated themselves on the ground, and Chen Songfeng was even more excited. "The King is indeed the overseas emperor who was destined to rule. I can't wait to follow the King to drive out the Tartars and avenge our ancestors!"

Li Xianwen personally pulled Chen Songfeng up and said, "Although we, the remnants of the Chinese people, have rebuilt a small country, our ancestors fled to Southeast Asia in a hurry. Although we are determined to fight the Tartars to the end, we are like rootless duckweed when we leave our homeland. If we wait a few more years, we can hardly be called Chinese.

Therefore, the king is not afraid of the might of the Qing Dynasty, and leads his bloodthirsty army to reverse the fate of the Han people. However, the revival of our Chinese culture and culture still depends on you, my king. "

Chen Songfeng prostrated himself on the ground again, "I am willing to serve you as a humble servant, so that the day will come when the Chinese people will return to Guangzhou. That way, our ancestors, and the relatives and friends of our Chen family who died in battle, can finally rest in peace!"

"We, the Shabei Chen clan, are also willing to follow the king and avenge our ancestors!"

Li Xianwen looked at Chen Zizhuang's portrait and felt deeply moved.

In Southeast Asia, this feeling of being deeply oppressed and risking one's life to avenge the blood feud of ancestors is not very strong.

Because in Southeast Asia, especially after Li Xianwen met Mo Zibu, he had not suffered much grievances from the natives. Instead, it was they who had been bullying people. The Han people were the superior people in the local area and did not feel aggrieved at all.

But after returning to Guangzhou, Li Xianwen saw that although everyone was still able to make ends meet, the feeling of being oppressed and as if a huge stone was pressing on his chest was always with him.

It was hard for him to imagine how tormented these people must be, having lived under oppression for so many years.

"Not only do we want to bring Chinese culture back to Guangzhou, we also want to drive out the Tartars and regain our lost territory!" Li Xianwen clenched his fists.

"When the time comes, not only will we be able to comfort our ancestors and the Han sages of thousands of years ago, but we will also be able to have our images hung in the Lingyan Pavilion, and be revered by generations to come!"

It is obvious that Mo Zibu was right to choose Li Xianwen to replace Huang Zhongtong.

Because Huang Zhongtong could only unite the lower classes and become a gangster, because he was such a person before he met Li Xianwen.

But Li Xianwen was different. Although he was born a pirate, he was able to read and study, was proficient in Cantonese, Hokkien, etc., and was able to unite Han intellectuals.

"My Lord, I'm ready. Please shave my hair!" In the excited atmosphere, a short and strong man from the Chen family came over. He was the hero chosen this time.

Debao was a provincial governor after all. It was impossible to kill him without causing any harm like the magistrate of Nanhai was killed. Only by risking one's life and disregarding life and death could one succeed.

Li Xianwen nodded and said, "Excuse me, brother, but you are the descendant of Chen Wenzhong."

The man shook his head and said, "I am Chen Shaocheng, the great-grandson of Wen Zhonggong's third brother, Chen Gong Shangzi Xiasheng."

"He's also a descendant of a hero." Li Xianwen nodded, "Let the two brothers from the Ye family come in as well."

After a while, two members of the Ye family wearing short coats also came in.

Among the Three Loyalists of Lingnan, Chen Zizhuang and Chen Bangyan both had descendants who survived by chance, but Zhang Jiayu's entire family, including his mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, brothers-in-law, uncles, and cousins, all died in the battle against the Qing Dynasty and left no descendants.

At that time, apart from his fellow Zhang family members, Zhang Jiayu relied on the Ye family in Daojiao.

The Ye family was large and powerful in Dongguan back then, with connections in both the black and white worlds. There were tens of thousands of members of the family, and there were several thousand strong men in the Daojiao Ye family alone.

After Zhang Jiayu was defeated, the Ye family of Daojiao suffered heavy losses, with two to three thousand people killed. A large tomb in Daojiao still remains today.

But thanks to its large population, the Ye family managed to survive and is now the largest family in Dongguan.

They also did not forget the blood feud of their ancestors. In the sixth year of Jiaqing (1801), Ye Jinguang of the Daojiao Ye family passed the imperial examination and became the first juren in Daojiao's history. The first thing he did after passing the examination was not to accept the offer of his clansmen to become a master, but to call on all Daojiao people to build a large Daojiao tomb for the clansmen who died in the battle that year, and to commemorate them with great fanfare.

"We are Ye Tingbao and Ye Tingtai, and we would like to pay our respects to the Prince Consort Li!" After the two members of the Ye family came in and called out their names, they bowed to Li Xianwen.

Li Xianwen quickly supported them, then clapped his hands. Several attendants brought in a long table, followed by various delicacies, roast goose from Shenjing, squab from Jiangmen, beef offal from Huazhou, fried water snake slices from Shunde, etc., all filling the table.

Li Xianwen personally served the three people food and poured wine, just like a younger generation serving an elder.

The three of them ate for more than half an hour and finished all the delicious food. Ye Tingtai laughed heartily.

"Having the Prince Consort serve us food and wine is worth it. I will definitely blow that idiot Debao to pieces the next day."

Li Xianwen led the others behind him to express his gratitude to the three men, saying, "Debao has madly killed our Han heroes. His ancestor is the general Tong Yangjia who broke into Guangzhou City.

The reason we kill him now is to shock the world and tell the Manchus that we, the Han people, are going to reclaim our homeland, so that heroes in the world who are unwilling to be enslaved by the Tartars will rise up in resistance.

Personally, we must avenge our ancestors and let the people of other provinces see the bloodiness of the Cantonese people."

Chen Shaocheng, a member of the Chen family, had been studying for a few days and was a little drunk when he asked, "May I ask, Prince Consort, what will our reputation be like after our death?"

Li Xianwen bowed and replied, "When the king arrives in Guangzhou, he will build a Lingnan Three Loyal Temple for Duke Chen Zhonglie, Duke Zhang Wenlie, and Duke Chen Wenzhong. The three will be enshrined in a side hall, and their descendants will be granted barons and live with the country."

Chen Shaocheng laughed: "If so, I have no regrets in this life!"

(End of this chapter)