The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 368: Thirteen Hongs have a lot of money

Mo Zibu stood on the top of Tokyo City, looking to the north, waiting for the arrival of the big ship carrying his father Mo Tianci and uncle Chen Dasheng.

The officers and soldiers were basically mobilized. Due to insufficient manpower, Mo Zibu also specially mobilized the young men from the three guards of Hue and the An Dai Cooperative.

The effect is good, especially for the young and strong people in Andai area. After knowing that they can return home in glory, they are scrambling to get a place.

As a result, Mo Zibu quickly received another reinforcement of about 7,000 people.

These days, I, King Mo, have been feeling a little unwell.

Because he actually didn't want to be a lonely emperor, but in the end he found that emperors must be lonely.

Most people cannot be so humble as to compromise like Emperor Guangwu of Han.

Mo Zibu rejected Yin Chengfang's carefully prepared plan, but still appointed him as the ambassador of pacification in southern Jiangxi and northern Fujian, rewarded him with many things, and encouraged him to cause trouble for the Qing Dynasty in the Wuyi Mountain area.

Through this incident, Mo Zibu had a rough idea of the current situation of Confucian scholars.

After more than a hundred years of suppression and enslavement by the Qing Dynasty, even scholars with a little bit of rebellious thinking and national consciousness could no longer keep up with the times.

Their thinking and vision are still stuck in the old routine of a wise ruler serving as a famous minister behind closed doors, and most people have no idea what the outside world is like.

People like Yin Chengfang certainly have compassion for the world, know that people's lives are difficult, and are willing to be good officials, but they are indeed behind the times.

Most of the Europeans under Mo Zibu, mainly from France, were actually mercenaries.

They would not consider Mo Zibu, and even when the interests of Xing Tang conflicted with the interests of France, they would consider the interests of France more.

This was true of Admiral Count Olivier and Major-General Fragoset.

As for Reinstein, who actually considered him, he was too immature politically and a little, well, childish.

Look, after Mo Zibu said a few words to him, this guy actually wrote a letter of request for leave to Mo Zibu, saying that he would arrange a ship to send the ashes and relics of his good friend Louis Cullen back to Europe.

Then, without waiting for Mo Zibu's consent, he quit his job and went to Hexian for vacation.

If this happened to Emperor Qianlong, Rui Jinmao's head would probably have moved away.

But Mo Zibu didn't. Considering that Louis Cullen's death in battle was indeed a big blow to him, Mo Zibu simply gave Reinstein a month's leave to relax.

As for the Mo and Chen clansmen who followed Mo Zibu, there were Chen Guangyao, Mo Gong, Chen Guangzu, Mo Zhengcun and others who followed him and sacrificed their lives.

But more of them were just as Reinstein said, most of them were waiting for Mo Zibu to fight back to the mainland so that they could become the head merchants of the Thirteen Hongs, and there were even quite a few brainless guys who wanted to be bannermen.

This made Mo Zibu feel really lonely, but fortunately he adjusted himself quickly.

Thoughts like his actually come from later generations and are the result of seeing too many things.

We should make use of our clansmen, for fear that they will become like the Sima family of the Western Jin Dynasty.

He should make use of Confucian scholars, for fear that they would imprison his descendants like the emperors of the Ming Dynasty.

They want to promote businessmen, but are afraid of forming a terrifying monopoly political and business group like the one you see in A-mei.

Damn, everything stems from thinking too much. Nothing is perfect in history. If you are afraid of this and that, you will never accomplish anything.

So, Mo Zibu simply stopped thinking about anything for now and would just solve specific problems when they arose.

While Mo Zibu was waiting for Mo Tianci and Chen Dasheng to go north, Li Xianwen began to take action in Guangzhou.

How many troops does the Qing Dynasty have in Guangdong now? Well, there are about 13,000 people in total. Most of them followed Fu Kangan back from Beihe and are still in shock.

Therefore, Fu Kang'an deliberately opened several openings in the Manchu city in the west of Guangzhou to facilitate escape at any time. The Manchu women and children in the city evacuated in batches a few months ago without waiting for Qianlong's edict.

The main reason why Fu Kang'an persisted until now was that the several million taels of silver held by the supervisor of the Guangdong Customs had not been transported away, and the tens of millions of taels of cash in the hands of the twenty-three general merchants of the Thirteen Hongs had not yet been received.

Humph, Fukangan really has a nice dream. The general merchants of the Thirteen Hongs will definitely not hand over all this money.

Because this is not profit, but the sum of all their liquid funds. If they have to pay it, they will all go bankrupt.

Fukang'an had no idea where they stored the silver, and he didn't dare to push them too far, so the two sides were still in a stalemate.

Ten days ago, the twenty-three general merchants were forced into a corner. Each of them paid 100,000 taels. After handing over about 2.3 million taels to Fukang'an, they refused to pay any more even if they were beaten to death.

Northeast of Guangzhou, Zengcheng.

The magistrate of Zengcheng had already been tied up in the county government office, and all the yamen runners were members of the Tiandihui.

The leading historian was named Zhan, a descendant of the local prominent Zhan family. He had entered Kunlun Mountain two years ago.

The reason for being so radical was that Zhan Cui of the Zengcheng Zhan family was a close friend of Chen Bangyan, one of the Three Loyalists of Lingnan.

Decades ago, Chen Bangyan's only surviving son, Chen Gongyin, was able to survive thanks to Zhan Cui's protection. Zhan Cui also married his daughter to Chen Gongyin, and the relationship between the two families was very close.

Even decades ago, a county magistrate of Zengcheng wanted to capture Chen Gongyin to seek credit from the Qing court. As a result, the Zhan family mobilized thousands of young men to surround the county government office and make a commotion, forcing the county magistrate not to do anything to Chen Gongyin.

Therefore, from then on, Chen Bangyan's descendants relied on the protection of the Zhan family for survival.

Well, now it’s time for the Zhan family to become prosperous.

I, King Mo, a remnant of the Ming Dynasty, am going to fight back. He highly respects the Three Loyalists of Lingnan. The Zhan family has protected the descendants of Chen Bangyan for hundreds of years, so naturally they should be treated preferentially.

"Your Majesty, we have found out that the three million taels of silver belonging to the Supervisor of the Guangdong Customs were hidden by Fukang'an in the English Pavilion of the Thirteen Foreigners' Hall." Jiang Liuxing, an old acquaintance of my King Mo and the white glove of the Cai family of the Thirteen Hongs, ran to Li Xianwen and couldn't wait to show off his achievements.

“In addition, the 2.3 million taels of silver that the 23 general merchants of the Thirteen Hongs collected for Fu Kang’an were originally hidden in the Cai family mansion in Xiguan.

However, it was shipped to Macau five days ago and will be shipped to Songjiang Prefecture the day after tomorrow using a large ship owned by the Portuguese in Macau."

In contrast to the Thirteen Hongs, there were also the Thirteen Foreign Halls that Europeans were allowed to establish in Guangzhou.

Among them, the English House and the Cambridge House are the trading houses of the British East India Company in Guangzhou.

"Great! Now that we have found out everything, things will be easier." Li Xianwen was delighted. "Brothers from the Xijiang, Lianjiang, and Shunyi halls will act together with Master Zhou Liu.

Following the map, we will kidnap the families of the twenty-five merchants tonight and make them hand over all the silver they were going to give to the Qing Dynasty."

"Brother Jiang, please take the trouble to take Master Mo Xiang of the Jade Buddha Hall to Master Cai's house and invite their entire family to Zengcheng. Damn it, he's trying to play both sides. I'll make him cut off all ties!"

Li Xianwen made arrangements quickly, and the surrounding Kunlun Mountain party members also began to prepare for action.

"Give the name of the Portuguese merchant ship that Brother Jiang got to Dad, and have him send the navy directly to Macau Harbor to block the ship. These Portuguese are so bold that they dare to go against us."

"Sir, what about the silver in the English Pavilion?" a member of the Palace Security Department said reluctantly, "Over three million taels!"

"Don't worry about it!" Li Xianwen waved his hand. "The king will naturally handle it. Three million taels is not a small amount. They can't move it away in a short time."

. . . .

In Xiguan, at the Cai family mansion, owner Cai was quite uneasy. His intuition told him that the Qing Dynasty was going to be finished this time.

However, the accumulated prestige over hundreds of years made Cai Dongzhu not believe that the "orthodox court" like the Qing Dynasty would fall so quickly.

Therefore, he bet on the Qing Dynasty even though many people did not dare to intervene.

"Master, why don't we not take the risk? If Lord Fu really can't defend Guangzhou, we will suffer." Mrs. Cai looked at Master Cai who couldn't sleep all night and came over to persuade him.

Cai Dongzhu was already feeling annoyed, and after hearing this he felt even more uncomfortable, so he waved his hand.

"What do you know, a woman? The greater the danger, the greater the reward. What if Lord Fu holds Guangzhou? We will soon become the number one in the Thirteen Hongs."

However, despite saying this, Cai Dongzhu was still somewhat unconcerned, so he continued:

"If you're afraid, take Huazai and the others to the countryside to live for a while tomorrow, and come back when things have settled down."

Mrs. Cai was about to reply when she suddenly heard a low scream from outside, as if there was also the sound of weapons clashing. The man and woman's faces changed, and they saw a large number of men in black appear outside the hall.

Cai Dongzhu felt a chill all over his body and turned around and ran to the bedroom. There was a tunnel under the bed that led to the outside.

But at this moment, a familiar voice sounded, "Brothers, go to the west bedroom first. There seems to be a tunnel there."

Upon hearing this, Cai Dongzhu was stunned, and then he saw the figure of Jiang Liuxing, one of his most trusted subordinates.

"Hahaha, Boss, I haven't seen you for a while. Are you feeling well?"

"Jiang Liuxing, you beast, I treat you well!" Cai Dongzhu roared loudly.

Jiang Liuxing rolled his eyes and said, "Boss, you're talking as if you're the only one paying me and I haven't done any work for you. Who helps you earn those hundreds of thousands of taels of silver every year in Annan?"

"Speaking of beasts, who could be more ruthless than you, Master Cai, who surrendered to the Tartars and accepted the enemy as his father?"

Another familiar voice sounded, but Cai Dongzhu couldn't remember it, so the person smiled and began to introduce himself.

"Master Cai, you are so forgetful. I am Li Guangcai. I accepted five hundred taels of silver from you and messed up the job. Then you had my three brothers killed and forced me to flee all over Southeast Asia. How powerful!
But you didn’t expect that I, Li Guangcai, would be back again! "

Cai Dongzhu screamed in pain. He was finished. With Jiang Liuxing and Li Guangcai around, he couldn't escape.

Li Guangcai let out a strange cry, and with a laugh, he and a pirate lifted up Cai Dongzhu and put a ghost-headed sword on his neck.

"Master Cai, there are twenty-one people in your family, and each of you needs three hundred thousand taels. If you are one penny short, I will let you know what it means to live a life worse than death!"

. . . .

In the early morning, the whole Guangzhou was in chaos. Almost all of the 23 general merchants of the Thirteen Hongs were kidnapped. Some people even saw that it was the yamen runners of Panyu County who led people to kidnap them.

As soon as Fukang'an heard the news, he immediately ordered people to gather.

Gosha next to him thought that he was going to arrest someone, but after a brief meeting, Fukangan took everyone and ran away, as if the Black and White Impermanence were chasing him.

Almost at the same time, in the early morning, the Xingtang Fleet, which had destroyed the Humen Shajiao Fort once, came again.

Various sun and moon flags that were common during the Ming Dynasty were flying all over the Huangpu waterway.

Across the ocean from Shajiao Fort, the chief gunner of Dajiao Fort stared at the dozen or so warships before him in amazement, muttering:
"Damn it, there really is an overseas emperor. The Ming Dynasty can actually come back."

A silly artilleryman in a dirty uniform pointed at the ships and said, "Captain, shall we attack?"

"Beat your mother, beat her!" The captain cursed, "People like us are penniless and only eat a few mouthfuls of imperial rations. If the Tartars want to fight, they can do it themselves. I won't fight them."

After cursing, the captain took out the white cloth that he had prepared long ago, hung it on a long bamboo pole and held it high up. Then he led more than 60 officers and soldiers from the fort, knelt outside the fort and asked for surrender.

(End of this chapter)