The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 355: Fight with Strength to Remain True to Your Ancestor's Character
Fukang'an fell ill and was seriously ill.

Because in less than five months, Emperor Qianlong ordered him to run from Beijing to Qiqihar, and then from Qiqihar to Guangzhou.

The time spent on the road alone was as long as three and a half months. Because the situation in Guangdong was tense, Qianlong sent Fu Yu, a member of the Bordered Red Banner, to replace Fu Kang'an almost immediately after he arrived in Qiqihar to take office as the General of Heilongjiang, and asked Fu Kang'an to rush to Guangzhou.

Mo Zibu sometimes thinks that Qianlong might also be a Paradox player who traveled through time, otherwise there is no reason for him to be treated as an NPC and used to death just because he is useful.

It took five months to travel from Beijing to Qiqihar, and then from Qiqihar to Guangzhou. Without considering whether it was due to acclimatization, with the current transportation, the rush would still be enough to kill people.

It was a miracle that Fukang'an managed to hold on until his condition was basically stabilized before falling ill.

When he fell ill, Agui was still in the capital training the Solon and Barhu people who had just been driven out.

Hailancha had just led two thousand Xibai musketeers and Ili cavalry from the Western Regions to southern Hunan to adapt to the southern climate, and the pace of the war slowed down again.

However, as he slowed down, Nguyen Van Hue felt under tremendous pressure. He sent envoys one after another, requesting to visit Fu Kang'an in Guangzhou.

Because Nguyen Van Hue discovered that Fu Kang'an and the Qing Dynasty had completely misjudged Mo Zibu's strength.

Fu Kang'an was ill and had no mood to meet Nguyen Van Hue, whom he considered a barbarian.

Although Fukang'an was indeed capable, his shortcomings were also very obvious. He was arrogant, overbearing, and extravagant. He always had the arrogance of a Manchu monarch. He looked down on everyone except some senior Manchu military generals and some Han ministers.

Therefore, at this time, Fu Kang'an was holding the visiting card and the letter of assessment of Xing Tang's military strength sent by Nguyen Van Hue. He smiled contemptuously and said to the senior Manchu generals around him:

"These brats have seen so many great events, yet they only command a few soldiers and yet they judge the people of the world, acting as if they are the only one sober while everyone else is drunk.

I have observed that Namo Wu always takes advantage of every opportunity in every battle. This was the case when he assisted Taksin in reclaiming Siam, when he defeated the White Elephant King, and when he entered Hue during a chaotic battle.

After entering the Bac Ha, they have been dragging their feet and still haven't been able to take Lang Son. With such a low level of combat power, they still claim to have elite soldiers and powerful generals who can sweep across southern China. This is truly laughable."

Fu Kangan's cousin Kuilin also laughed and said, "I think Nguyen Van Hue has no good intentions. He is not really surrendering to the Qing Dynasty. He just wants to use the Qing army to fight Mo Wu.

Since he has been defending Lang Son for over a year without any problems, it shouldn’t be difficult for him to defend it for a few more months.”

Zhu Shedou, the deputy general of the Guizhou Green Camp Pingyuan Association under Fu Kang'an, felt that Mo Zibu's response was a bit strange, but he did not expect that Mo Zibu would actually fight a big battle with the Qing Dynasty on the Red River Plain.

Because in Zhu Shedou's view, Mo Zibu had few cavalry and the southerners were weak in combat, so they should defend themselves in dangerous places and try their best to avoid fighting with the Qing Dynasty on the plains.

"Master Fu, in my opinion, Mo Zhao considers himself a Ming remnant. It is said that he is still making bold statements in Annan, saying that he wants the Annan Yue people to return to Han.

This time, his troops entered the Bac Ha, but they were unable to capture the key city of Lang Son for more than a year. There was only one possibility, that is, there was a problem within his organization.

I think there was a big problem with Mo Zhao's plan to convert Yue into Han, so he couldn't spare enough strength to attack Lang Son."

At this moment, Zhu Gui, the newly appointed Guangdong Governor who had been informed long ago, walked in. Upon hearing Zhu Shedou's words, he praised him, "The old general is indeed a pillar of the court. The information he received is exactly the same as what I received."

Zhu Gui handed Fu Kang'an several papers filled with information, "Master Fu, Mr. Cai, the general merchant of the Thirteen Hongs, sent me information. He has a merchant under him named Jiang Liuxing, who has been doing business in Annan for many years.

He received news that Mo Wu had instigated the Han-Vietnamese conflict last year, killing dozens of learned scholars including the great Annan scholar Li Guidun, and then implicated and executed thousands of people.

At that time, Le Viet Tho, who still occupied Cao Bang and Xuan Quang, ordered his minister Dinh Si Rang to counterattack, but was defeated and even lost Xuan Quang.

Afterwards, Mo Wu became even more unscrupulous and persecuted the Vietnamese who refused to assimilate, causing 300,000 to 400,000 people to flee to Lang Son and submit to Nguyen Van Hue.

The sick Fukang'an coughed several times continuously, and only after he stopped coughing did a smile appear on his face.

"Thank you, Governor Zhu. This makes sense now. Mo Wu caused such a big disturbance in Beihe that he was unable to attack Lang Son.

Nguyen Van Hue has gained hundreds of thousands of people to join him. Firstly, his food supply is insufficient, but secondly, his strength has been greatly enhanced. He is now eager for us to immediately defeat and kill Mo Wu so that he can return and replace the Le family as king."

Finally, Fu Kang'an concluded, "Neither of these two people is a good person!

One is a Ming Dynasty remnant with ulterior motives, and the other is an insatiable Annan macaque. Both are waiting to take advantage of the Qing Dynasty.

The Manchu Kuilin on the side couldn't agree more, "Then let them fight each other for a while, and when they are crying for their parents, we will enter Beihe from Zhennan Pass.

Just like when Prince Rui led our Eight Banner warriors at Yipanshi in the past, we defeated Li Zicheng, the leader of Mo Wu, and then drove Wu Sangui, the leader of Ruan Wenhui, further south. As for Beihe, hahahahaha."

Kuilin laughed loudly, "Mo Wu has already trained it for us, we can just take it back.

In this way, Your Majesty will be the first wise ruler in hundreds of years to recapture Annan and keep the country intact, and we can also go down in history."

These words made everyone in the room look happy, because this was what Qianlong asked for. Once they completed it, it would bring great honor to Qianlong. The huge wealth would be enough to support at least three generations.

Zhu Gui laughed for a while, then said to Fu Kang'an: "So the core of this battle is to prevent Mo Wu from capturing Lang Son.

If Li Zicheng had captured Shanhaiguan and defeated Wu Sangui before the Qing Dynasty, and then closed the gate, it would not have been so easy for the Qing Dynasty to rule the Central Plains.

It is the same now. Without Lang Son, the army will have to fight with Mo Wu in the jungle of Beihe. It will be very difficult to capture Lang Son City alone.

Therefore, I suggest that we first send a batch of food to Nguyen Van Hue through Guangxi, and then send an experienced general to accompany him to closely monitor the situation in Lang Son. If there is any problem, we can immediately provide support.

Zhu Shedou looked at Zhu Gui who was looking at him, and immediately understood who the experienced veteran he was talking about was. He immediately bowed and took the initiative to ask for orders from Fu Kang'an.

"General, General Zhu Shedou is willing to lead 600 of our troops to Lang Son to stop Mo Wu and buy time for our Eight Banners troops to rest and recuperate."

Fu Kang'an nodded. The Eight Banners troops were exhausted, having just finished the battles at Jinchuan and Jinchuan, and only had six months to rest and recuperate before they were ready to march out again. Their morale was low. They had to wait a few more months, until they were fattened up in Guangzhou and their fighting spirit was restored, before they could march into Beihe.

"Thank you for your hard work, old general. As long as Mo Wu can't take Lang Son, once my Eight Banners warriors have finished their rest, we will defeat this bandit in a single battle on the plains of Beihe!"

Well, both sides really thought of the same thing. Mo Zibu felt that he had a complete set of infantry, cavalry, artillery, as well as grenadiers and chasseurs. He would have a great advantage if he could line up a large infantry formation on the plains.

The Manchus felt that their Eight Banners soldiers were powerful and had a large number of cavalry, and as long as they fought on the plains, they would be able to crush Mo Zibu.

So even though the situation was so tense that a gunshot was about to happen, the two sides never broke out into the final battle.

The only one who was depressed was Nguyen Van Hue, because he noticed the "tacit understanding" between Mo Zi Bu and Fu Kang An. Nguyen Van Hue felt that no matter who won, his ending would not be very good.

On the second day of February, the Xing Tang army captured Pahang. Mo Zi Bu personally went to Pattani and accepted the ceasefire request from the Sultan of Johor, Muhammad III.

Sultan Muhammad III agreed to cede the Sultanate of Pahang to Hin Tong and completely open the Sultanate of Johor to the Chinese, promising that they would be treated the same as local residents.

Lauriston, the local governing governor of French India, came from India specifically to witness the battle with his own eyes. After seeing that the 4,000-man Xing Tang army defeated the 13,000-man Johor army almost like a crushing defeat, he immediately returned to India.

The Governor-General then reported to Europe that Mo Zirong's title of Grand Duke of Pahang was well-deserved, and at the same time believed that the Xing Tang Army was already capable of competing with the British in India, and urged the mainland to increase its aid.

In March, Huang Gongzhi's son Huang Gongzan came to Tokyo City. Mo Zibu asked him to change his surname back to Mo, changed his name to Mo Houzan, and granted him the title of Duke of Gaoping County, and kept him by his side as an iconic figure of the Beihe Mo family.

Afterwards, Mo Zibu ordered Wu Wenchu to lead Huang Gongzun's former generals Deng Tingjia, Ruan Tuoqiu and others to defeat a large number of ethnic minority chieftains and chiefs in the northwest who ostensibly supported Li Weitiao.

They also built forts in the Gantang County area to prevent the Qing army from moving south along the river from Yunnan.

At the end of March, Chen Guangyao personally led 4,000 people to attack Cao Bang, and beat Li Weiyou so badly that he could only flee to Longzhou, Guangxi through Longjiang under the protection of ministers such as Nguyen Huy Quynh.

Later, the Xing Tang army did not occupy Gaoping, but withdrew south, giving Fu Kang'an and others the illusion that they were short of troops, internally unstable, and unable to occupy Gaoping.

In mid-April, Agui arrived in Guangzhou and immediately wrote a letter to Mo Zibu in the name of the imperial envoy of the Celestial Empire.

They claimed that the Later Le Dynasty was the ruler of Annan recognized by the Qing Dynasty, and the king of Annan could only be Le Vieuw. They hoped that Mo Zi Bu would withdraw from the Bac Ha, and the Qing Dynasty might let bygones be bygones and allow Mo Zi Bu to continue to guard Hue, replacing the original role of the Nguyen family of Quang Nam.

Mo Zibu wrote back to Agui, which only had a few words, but it made Agui and Fukang'an so angry that they almost mobilized the soldiers to attack Mo Zibu on the spot.

"You are originally descendants of the Xi and Mo people from the bitter cold land. Why do you have to imitate the Eastern barbarians, like a monkey in human clothing, and imitate the etiquette and morality of the Chinese people, and talk about the etiquette and morality of the Chinese people? Why not mobilize the army and fight us with force? This will not lose your true nature as an Eastern barbarian."

Well, there's nothing to talk about now.

In June, Emperor Qianlong officially issued an edict to escort Li back to the country and to fight against Mo Zibu.

The Qing Dynasty mobilized 5,000 infantry and cavalry from the Jianrui Battalion, the Internal and External Firearms Battalion, the Vanguard Battalion, and the Xiaoqi Battalion stationed in Beijing.

There are 1,500 Eight Banners stationed outside the Great Wall, and 2,000 soldiers from Solon, Barhu and other families.

The Western Bai people of Yili had two thousand musketeers and two thousand cavalry.

There were 6,000 Eight Banner soldiers stationed in Jingzhou, Guangzhou, and Fuzhou, totaling 18,500.

In addition, more than 37,000 Green Camp soldiers were transferred from the five provinces of Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Yunnan, and more than 170 naval warships and more than 17,000 soldiers and generals were transferred from the two provinces of Guangdong and Fujian.

At this point, the Qing Dynasty had mobilized a total of 72,500 Manchu and Han soldiers and generals, and it was estimated that more than 300,000 civilian laborers would be mobilized.

It was planned that the Governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, Tu Side, would lead a detachment of 10,000 troops, passing through Malipozhai and Hekou, and head straight to Xuanhua, northwest of Tokyo.

The main force consisted of nearly 55,000 people. They went through Pingxiang and out of Zhennan Pass. After joining forces with Nguyen Van Hue's 15,000 troops, the 70,000-strong army headed straight for Tokyo City.

The naval forces of Fujian and Guangdong gathered at the mouth of the Bach Teng River from the sea, went upstream to control the prefectures and counties south of Tokyo, and protected the main force in crossing the natural barrier of the Fuliang River.

Also in June, reinforcements finally arrived from Europe, led by Louis Guillouet d'Olivier, Count of Olivier.

There were a total of three level five sailing cruisers, and a large number of craftsmen and blueprints were carried with them, preparing to build the remaining three in Qui Nhon Port.

The army's 800 Hungarian cavalry were led by a bearded colonel named Rakoczi Gezo.

Well, as soon as you hear the name, you know that this guy is a relative of the Transylvanian Grand Duke Franz Rakoczi who was fighting for independence.

Because Hungary is the same as China, the surname comes first and the given name comes second, so this person with the surname Rákócz instead of Gezo is a member of the Rákócz family.

However, after a year-long sea voyage, not only were these cavalrymen in poor condition, but the war horses that boarded the ships in Iraq, the Ottoman territory, were also in poor condition. The long sea voyage had taken a heavy toll on both humans and animals.

Moreover, these cavalrymen have not yet established sufficient trust and understanding with their war horses, so they cannot go to the battlefield for the time being.

But Mo Zibu was still very happy, because this time along with the fleet came 300,000 kilograms of saltpeter purchased by Mo Zirong in Europe, and another 300,000 kilograms would arrive in half a year.

This meant that Mo Zibu's gunpowder reserves were enough to at least fight a battle with more than 100,000 people.

In July, Mo Zibu issued a national mobilization order, gathering 5,500 guards, 22,000 garrison troops, 8,000 navy troops, 30,000 garrison troops, Huiliang people, and volunteers, for a total force of 66,500.

Grain from Siam and Giading was shipped to Beihe in batches.

Even the miners of Jiaxi Road were recruited as 4,000 people. Except for Luo Fangbai who did not come, the core officials of Jiaxi Road who came from the underworld such as Wu Yuansheng, Jiang Wusheng, and Li Cunyi were all recruited. It could indeed be called a life-and-death battle.

(End of this chapter)