The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 375: Emperor Guangzhong
July 1777, 7. June 21, the nd year of the Qianlong Emperor's reign in the Qing Dynasty. Lunar calendar year of Dingyou, month of Dingwei, day of Xinhai.

At the end of the hour of Mao, Mo Zibu set out from the Guangdong-Guangxi Governor's Office in front of the inner city of Guangzhou, wearing a robe with twelve emblems and a crown with twelve tassels, and led hundreds of civil and military officials to the northern foot of Xianggang Mountain in the north of the city.

Before Mo Zibu arrived, the northern foot of Xianggang Mountain had already been guarded by officers and soldiers of the Yuan Dynasty's Guards. As soon as Mo Zibu arrived, the officers and soldiers dug up a large number of corpses from the northern foot of the mountain.

Mo Kuan, a patriarch of the Mo family, was shaking a large soul-calling pole vigorously, shouting, "Soul, come back! Soul, come back!"

As the shouts came, a large amount of paper money fell down.

"Your Majesty, a total of 28 skeletons have been unearthed, but it is impossible to tell who is who." Chen Renmao, the former governor of Jiaying Prefecture in the Qing Dynasty who had just been appointed as the Minister of Rites by Mo Zibu, came forward to report.

The 28 skeletons that Chen Renmao mentioned were those of the third emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty, the brother of Emperor Longwu Zhu Youjian, Emperor Shaowu Zhu Youlang and others.

Zhu Youlang was not a hero. Like the Grand Secretary Su Guansheng who supported him, he was a fool.

But his integrity is worthy of praise.

After being captured, Zhu Youlang refused to drink a sip of water from Li Chengdong and hanged himself.

Grand Secretary Su Guansheng was an honest official who refused to accept bribes. Even when he became a Tongzhi, his poor old mother had to rely on relatives for support. After he personally led the army to fight against Li Chengdong and failed, he wrote "The loyalty of the Ming Dynasty monarch and his ministers is such that they should die" and then committed suicide for his country.

This kind of fool with integrity can't help but remind people of the representative of this group of people, Shi Kefa, the governor. It is really hard to love him, but it is also hard to hate him.

"Then there's no need to separate them. Shaowu and his ministers deserve to die for the Ming Dynasty. Let them stay together forever."

Mo Zibu said this somewhat desolately, and then he rushed to the mass grave himself and packed up the excavated bones one by one.

What can I say about Emperor Shaowu and Su Guansheng? They may not be worth mentioning elsewhere, but they still have some weight in the hearts of Guangdong people.

Emperor Shaowu was the first emperor of a legitimate dynasty to be crowned emperor in Guangzhou. Although he had a makeshift team and only lasted for more than a month, at least he did not abandon Guangdong and flee like Yongli did. His integrity is still commendable.
Su Guansheng makes Guangdong people feel even closer because he is from Dongguan.

Seeing that Mo Zibu had taken action himself, the surrounding civil and military officials and some representatives of Guangdong gentry all took action together and soon picked up all the corpses.

Afterwards, the emperor and his ministers moved the remains to the shore of Nanxiu Lake in Yuexiu Mountain, which is also the final burial site of Zhu Youlang and his ministers in history.

Before this, Mo Zibu had already transported the remains of the victims of the Gengyin Disaster here. This time he simply buried them together. The emperor and his ministers of Shaowu were buried in Nanxiu and Hubei, while the victims were buried in the south.

Mo Zibu personally wrote the tombstone, with "The joint tomb of Shaowu monarch and his ministers" written in the middle, and "Erected by Ming loyalist Mo Zhaojing" and "Dingyou year, Dingwei month, Xinhai day" written on the left and right sides respectively.

After writing this, Mo Zibu symbolically scattered a handful of dirt and turned to the thousands of civil officials and generals and said:
"I, Mo Zhao, was born and raised in Hexian, Nanyang. I had no intention of going north to fight the Qing Dynasty.

It's not that he doesn't know how to avenge his ancestors, but he thinks that in today's society, the people can still have food to eat. If a war breaks out, who knows how many people will lose their families.

But I came to Guangzhou again today because I found that whether you resist or not, the Tartars never treat us Han people as human beings.

If people today linger on, future generations will also suffer, just like those who died more than a hundred years ago.

Since this is the case, why not take advantage of today's strong army and make a desperate fight?

If we win, we will recover China, regain our lost territory, and make it remembered by future generations.

Even if we lose, we will be worthy of our ancestors' bloodline and their elegant and refined attire.

Therefore, I, Mo, swear before these hundreds of thousands of victims that, having entered this city, I will remain in it, and even if it falls, I will die, and I will never again be a slave to the Eastern Tartars!

"Yes, we all follow the king and will never be slaves again!"

"Today we will fight to the death, and we will not let our descendants have this pig's tail!"

Civil officials and military officers roared in anger, and suddenly, no one knew who took the lead, but everyone knelt by the Nanxiu Lake.

"Since this is the case, please, Your Majesty, obey the will of Heaven, ascend the throne, drive out the Tartars, and protect the people of China!"

At this point, Mo Zibu no longer refused. Three eunuchs brought three bowls of wine, and Mo Zibu picked up the first bowl.

"I pay my respects to the Heavens and Earth, and announce to all the gods in the eight directions, that I, Mo Zhao, am willing to take on the responsibility of expelling the Tartars, restoring China, and bringing peace to all the people of the world."

"Next, I would like to inform the successive emperors of the Ming Dynasty that since the Jiashen era, there have been Hongguang, Longwu, Shaowu, Yongli, and Lu Jianguo who have refused to yield to the Tartars. Although each had his shortcomings, they all maintained their integrity.

Zhao now inherits the great Chinese throne and is willing to avenge the grievances of the former emperors and restore the Han people's land."

The second bowl of wine was considered a good word. At least it was difficult to say that Hongguang Zhu Yousong was a man of integrity.

"This is the third bowl of wine." Mo Zibu picked up the bowl and then poured it on the ground.

"I hope you will all join me, united as one, to avenge our ancestors' blood feud and save the people of the world!"

Upon hearing this, the civil and military ministers, the gentry, and the nobles all prostrated themselves on the ground again, shouting in unison, "Avenge the blood feud, save the people, and restore China." My King Mo is unique in history. He is probably the only one who swore an oath before burying the emperor of the previous Han dynasty before being willing to ascend the throne.

The subsequent ceremony was much simpler. Mo Zibu followed traditional procedures and went to the newly built altar and ancestral temple in the southern suburbs of Guangzhou to offer sacrifices to the heavens, the earth and his ancestors, and ascended the throne as emperor.

As for the name of the country, Mo Zibu did not have much choice.

According to common sense, he should have chosen Xu, because his ancestor Mo Shiping was the magistrate of Xuwen, and the Mo family also lived in Xuwen County, Leizhou for a long time.

But Xu is too small a name for a country, even Han, which is rarely used, is far inferior.

Secondly, Lei of Leizhou Prefecture was even worse. He couldn't even get a small country when the Zhou Emperor was enfeoffing the world.

At the same time, Mo Zibu also thought that it was almost the 19th century, and the feudal dynasty's family rule was destined not to last long, so it would be better to just call it Huaxia or Zhonghua.

But this idea was opposed by everyone, even his father Mo Tianci was very dissatisfied.

He thought that naming the country Huaxia was unnecessary, because even if you didn't name yourself Huaxia, people would know you were Huaxia, so why add something unnecessary?
So there is only one choice left, and that is Yu.

This originated from Yu Mu, one of the ancestors of the Mo surname. He was the great-grandson of Huangdi, the son of Zhuanxu, and the fifth-generation ancestor of Shun.

The word "莫" is a simplified version of "幕" without the lower half, and it later developed into a separate meaning.

However, Yu Mu is only one of the ancestors of the Mo surname. It is indeed a bit far-fetched to look for the origin of the family through Yu Mu. The Mo family belongs to the side branch, and surnames like Chen and Hu are the direct descendants.

But that doesn't exist. King Mo, oh no, Emperor Mo's maternal grandfather's surname is Chen, so it makes sense anyway.

After the country's name was decided, Mo Zibu posthumously honored three generations of his ancestors, but their posthumous titles already existed before, so he just used them again.

After the sacrifice, Mo Zibu officially issued an edict to succeed the throne. The country was called Dayu internally and the Chinese Empire to all countries except Korea, mainly Europe.

The reign title is Guang Zhong, which means to restore China. In history, Nguyen Hue was called Guang Zhong. Combined with his actions, it is hard not to think of his true purpose.

He honored his father Mo Tianci as the Supreme Emperor, his mother Chen as the Empress Dowager Cisi, made Zheng Shishi the Empress, his younger cousin Chen Yijin as the Imperial Concubine, and Ye Yizhen, who had never been able to give birth to a son, as the Defei.

The three elder brothers were all granted the title of prince, the two elder sisters were all granted the title of princess, and the children were still young, so they were not given titles for the time being.

At the same time, in the name of rewarding the loyalty of his ancestors, Mo Zibu conferred the title of Earl of Longshan on Chen Songfeng, the fourth-generation grandson of Chen Bangyan, the title of Earl of Nanhai on Chen Shaowen, the fourth-generation grandson of Chen Zizhuang, and the title of Earl of Zengcheng on Zhang Jiayu's fifth-generation grandson.

He gave Qu Dajun the posthumous title of Wenzhen and posthumously conferred him the title of Marquis of Panyu.

The rest of the civil and military officials who originally belonged to Xing Tang were all rewarded, but the titles of the army and navy remained unchanged, and they were still called the Xing Tang Army.

In terms of administrative units, the original Daoze was immediately abolished and replaced by the Ming system's four levels of province, prefecture, and county. The Daoze was used in military preparations, salt and iron, commerce, taxation, and other aspects.

The country is divided into six provinces, and the original Guangdong Province remains unchanged.

The northern part of Annan, which is mainly composed of the Bac Ha River, is Quang Nam Province.

Except for Gia Dinh and Ha Tien, the former Guangnan Kingdom, including Hue and Qui Nhon, was the Rinan Province.

Gia Dinh, Ha Tien and Cambodia are Hung Tang Province.

The Andai region is Andai Province.

The entire Borneo was designated as Jiaqing Province by Mo Zi, directly blocking the path for the future Emperor Jiaqing.

However, Mozibu currently only has West Borneo, so he only set up one Jiaxi Prefecture, but his ambition is already obvious.

At the same time, Mo Zi Bu abolished the name of Hanoi, Dongjing, and changed it to Thang Long.

Guangzhou was renamed Chengtian Prefecture, commonly known as Chengtian Guangzhou Prefecture, and was designated as the temporary capital.

Hexian was renamed Shenjing Hexianfu as the nominal capital.

The rest of the central and local official positions were set up in full accordance with the Ming system. Mo Zibu didn't even come up with a set of rules based on the theory of the Five Elements, such as what virtues to follow and what colors to value. He just accepted them all in a way that saved time and effort.

This highlights that although the Mo Dynasty was a new dynasty, it was a continuation of the previous Ming Dynasty, and its main mission was not to change the dynasty but to expel the Tartars.

Naturally, everyone knew that once Mo Zibu's Dayu Dynasty was established, it would only be a matter of time before a full-scale war with the Qing Dynasty broke out.

Even after the three extremely hot months of July, August and September have passed, the Dayu Dynasty will immediately begin to expand, at least to take over most of Guangxi and Fujian.

(End of this chapter)