The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 383: The Viscount of Penang and the Baron of Kecheng

"Bang!" Amidst the gathering clouds, a flash of orange-red fire appeared, and a Jambi native wrapped in animal skins and with bird feathers stuck in his hair fell to the ground.

He did not die immediately, but continued to shout and yell, as if to encourage his companions hiding in the jungle to come out and fight.

Inspired by him, war cries broke out in the jungle, and at least dozens of people rushed out together. They were also wrapped in animal skins, with strange patterns painted on their faces, and looked very scary.

But the Penang envoy, Lin Tonghuo, calmly stretched out three fingers. The adjutant beside him was also used to cooperating and immediately gave the order.

Afterwards, three dozen soldiers walked out from the neatly lined infantry formation. They opened fire one after another and instantly knocked down five or six of the hundreds of natives who rushed out.

The natives were frightened and retreated shouting in panic, retreating into a small jungle.

The indigenous leader who was hit first and roared at them to come out and kill was now pale and dying. The blood flowing from his body was winding on the ground like a small snake.

"Master, do you want to continue the attack?" The adjutant spoke, still speaking Mandarin with a strange accent. He had a small braid on his head, a hard bow on his back, and a green ring on his left hand with a strong Barhu style.

"No, E Qing, you don't need to call me Master here, just call me Sir!"

Lin Tonghuo waved his hand. This Barhu man named E Qing was captured after the Battle of Beihe. After a simple transformation, he was sent to Southeast Asia.

Originally they were sent to mine, but Lin Tonghuo was attracted by the bravery of these Barhu people.

After a brief contact, Lin Tonghuo discovered that these residents of the old forests of Northeast China, whether they were called Solon people or Barhu people, were not very satisfied with the Qing court, and some even hated it to the core.

For example, E Qing, although he was a member of the Zhengbai Banner, he did not receive the treatment of a bannerman.

At the same time, in order to maintain their ferocious fishing and hunting customs, the Qing government did not allow the Barhu people to farm, and even did not allow them to enjoy the fine rice and high-quality white cloth from the Han area. They were forced to wear animal skins and eat wild animal meat.

Anyone found breaking the rules would be severely punished, and with the large-scale military deployments during the Qianlong period, the Barhu people had been conscripted to the point of exhaustion.

Zalan in Eqing was equivalent to a large cooperative of the Xingtang Army, and originally had 80 able-bodied men.

But by the time E Qing was conscripted, there were less than ten of them left, and most of them died inside the Great Wall due to combat injuries and climate discomfort.

This included E Qing's grandfather, father, an uncle, three uncles, and six cousins, whose bodies could not even be transported back to their hometown.

This horrific and deadly policy frightened Lin Tonghuo.

He then came up with the idea of writing a letter to the emperor, requesting that these Eight Banners outside the Great Wall, collectively called "Fish-skin Tartars" by the Chinese, be treated differently from the real bannermen.

Because they, like the Han people, are victims of the genocidal policies of Nurhaci and his descendants.

Just at this time, Ye Mingyue, the son of Ye Xiancai, who had killed nine natives alone, fought to the death even with his intestines flowing out of his body and one leg completely broken, and protected dozens of women and children, and was specially praised by the emperor and awarded the title of Baron, returned from studying in Europe.

Ye Mingyue was one of the first students from Dayu to study abroad in France. She was only eight years old when she went to Paris and stayed in Europe for nine years before returning.

He completed his studies at the University of Paris and traveled to St. Petersburg, so he had a deep understanding of Europe's strengths and weaknesses. Since Ye Xiancai's barony was not far from Lintong Port, the two families had extremely close exchanges.

After Ye Mingyue learned about E Qing's deeds, he pulled his father, Baron Ye Xiancai of Kecheng, and his uncle, Viscount Lin Tonghuo of Bingang, to write a letter together, urging that the captured Daur and Barhu people must be treated well.

The most sufficient reason is that without these people from outside the Great Wall, when Dayu fought a decisive battle with the Qing Dynasty inside the Great Wall, the Cossacks and refugees loyal to the Tsar would probably completely occupy the Outer Khingan Mountains.

Therefore, we must rely on these people to go back and hold off the Russians until Dayu can free up his hands.

Mo Zibu then realized that he had made a mistake, and commended Ye Xiancai and Lin Tonghuo, and specially appointed Ye Mingyue as the second lieutenant of Fengguo.

The so-called Fengguo Second Lieutenant was one of the reforms carried out by Mo Zibu after the Battle of Beihe.

The reason was that the system of civilian nobility that he had originally established to reward foreign colonization and restore the Han Dynasty was not suitable for the local conditions.

Because the Chinese have not used this kind of civil nobility for a long time, they neither understand the name "Shao Shangzao" nor find it impressive.

So Mo Zibu changed the titles of the royal family of the Ming Dynasty and began to bestow them on the people.

From the time when there were only generals and lieutenants in Zhenguo, Fuguo and Fengguo respectively, the generals remained unchanged, but the lieutenants were changed to senior, middle and junior lieutenants, which were used to grant to the people.

This is both majestic and simple and clear. Also, because it was a title for the royal family during the Ming Dynasty, it could make the people who were granted the title feel like they were given a surname and became a member of the royal family, and thus feel closer to the royal family.

Second Lieutenant Ye Mingyue of Fengguo was here. When he heard E Qing's question, he shook his head quickly.

"The only valuable thing about these natives is their people. It would be a shame to attack and kill them now. Let's continue the siege. Starve them out, and they will naturally come out."

You may think that you can learn something good in a colonial center like old Paris, but don't think that the seventeen-year-old Ye Mingyue is a clear-headed and simple college student. On the contrary, he is a new generation of young colonizer who knows very well how to play the game of colonization with a thick face and a black heart.

He even wanted to bring the black slaves commonly used by Europeans to Southeast Asia for mining and planting, but was rejected by the somewhat disgusted Emperor Mo Da.

Then, this guy set his sights on the abundant population of British India, but the emperor was still unwilling to make this concession, which made Ye Mingyue think of other ways.

Outside the woods, after hearing that there was no need to attack, the infantrymen lined up in lines immediately dispersed. E Qing brought more than 20 Barhu people who had adapted to the climate and soil of Southeast Asia, and armed with longbows, they deployed defenses on the outskirts of the jungle to prevent these natives from rushing out.

A dozen or so samurai from Penang and Kecheng began patrolling everywhere with more than thirty Teochew five-red vicious dogs.

These large brown-red dogs have an extremely sensitive sense of smell, are loyal, fierce, and smart. With them around, the natives have no chance of getting out.

Ye Mingyue took this opportunity to write and draw on the book. Judging from his expression, he was not holding back anything good.

Lin Tonghuo walked over with a smile. He was a Chinese vassal who had come here from another generation. He could still keep up with the younger generation in terms of military strength, but his brain could no longer keep up with the younger generation. He could not even argue with his eleven-year-old son. Therefore, Lin Tonghuo was very willing to listen to the opinions of Ye Mingyue, a shrewd younger generation.

Seeing Lin Tonghuo coming over, Ye Mingyue hurriedly showed Lin Tonghuo what he had written. It was his habit to write down everything he thought of in a notebook so as not to forget it later.

"Uncle, the Chinese samurai are still too expensive, and they don't seem to be content with being samurai." Ye Mingyue said quietly, pointing to the Chinese samurai who were leading five red dogs, wearing swords on their waists, and carrying muskets.

"That's for sure!" Lin Tonghuo nodded, "We are all Han nobles, Chinese men. Nanyang is such a vast world, there is only opportunity, who would be willing to be someone's subject for life.

Lan He, whom your family recruited from Ji'an Prefecture, is probably planning to buy out his service term, as over a hundred people from the Lan clan have recently come down, reportedly aiming to establish a presence in Jianan Prefecture."

Ye Mingyue nodded. The so-called service period is the service contract signed between the samurai and the vassal. There are two types of service periods: fixed term and living term.

The term of death means serving as a vassal for the rest of one's life. This is a very solemn form of contract, or even not a contract, but a form of recruiting troops in accordance with the form before the Sui and Tang dynasties. The vassal and the vassal must swear an oath of loyalty and swear an oath of blood to form an alliance.

From then on, the vassal and the samurai became one family. The samurai called the vassal the head of the family, the vassal called the samurai "brother so-and-so", and the vassal's son had to call the samurai "uncle".

Vassals would grant their lands to samurai, who would then consider themselves subordinates. Their descendants could not sever ties unless the vassal agreed, and the agreement was reviewed by the Republican Assembly and reported to the emperor for approval. Therefore, this sworn loyalty oath to heaven was a highly binding bond, and few samurai were willing to do so.

Few vassals would be willing to do so unless both parties had reached a very high level of dependence in terms of emotions and interests.

Therefore, even a great vassal like Wu Rang, the Marquis of Songcheng, had only eighty households under his command.

Therefore, the largest number of people were samurai who had a service period, usually signed for five years. During this period, the vassal provided the samurai with various forms of equipment and salary, and the samurai were loyal to the vassal.

If a samurai wanted to end his service early, he had to submit a request to his vassal in advance and pay double the termination fee, and then the official sent by the imperial court would agree before he could be released.

Similarly, if a vassal is dissatisfied with his samurai, he must also deal with it in the same way. This is a bit like the mercenary contract in later generations.

Ye Mingyue nodded. In fact, Lan He had already mentioned it to him once, so Ye Mingyue was a little anxious.

His father was injured and had one leg lame in his early years, and his hometown Jiaying Prefecture basically had everything it could get to Southeast Asia.

Lan He will have to leave by the end of this year at the latest. By then, there will only be two feudal lords in their Barony of Kecheng. What can they do? They will not even be able to suppress the natives.

As for the laborers who farmed their territories, their personal relationships were also free, and they were residents under the jurisdiction of the court. In Nanyang, the people were not slaves.

As for those who still farm honestly in Southeast Asia, you can basically not expect them to pick up a knife and kill people. At most, they can help you in times of crisis.

“So, my nephew discovered that it’s not cost-effective for us to directly hire Han Chinese samurai. They can fight, but they are too mobile and expensive.

The same goes for the Han Chinese samurai from Annan who were driven out of Guangnan and Rinan. Although they were cheaper, they were still a bit arrogant.

Lin Tonghuo looked at Ye Mingyue and chuckled, "Straight to the point, what we need now is a samurai who can be content to be a dog, just like those five-red dogs, cheap, easy to use, and they recognize their master."

"Right!" Ye Mingyue slapped her thigh and whispered in Lin Tonghuo's ear, "Where can we find such samurai? I think there are quite a few in the territories of Joseon and Japan.

Especially in Japan, they were so poor that the samurai could not even afford two meals a day, and they also attached great importance to loyalty.

I have been in contact with the Wei family in Hoi An. They have long intended to go to Japan to recruit a group of warriors to come to Southeast Asia to serve as dogs, no, as feudal lords.

As for the people of the Joseon Dynasty, some of them were good at fighting. They had a tradition of using muskets, and the Ming Dynasty often recruited Korean musketeers in the past.

Moreover, the Korean people are similar to the Han Chinese, except that they are a little uglier. Even if they can't fight, bringing them to Southeast Asia to farm is much better than training the natives from scratch."

Speaking of this, Ye Mingyue gritted his teeth. Damn, those natives are so fucking stupid!

Although they also farmed, their harvest was only 60% of that of the Han people, and they also liked to be lazy.

The Han people always hope to store more food at home, but as long as the natives can barely eat, they are unwilling to work. When they run out of food, they come to the vassal states with a clear conscience to borrow money, which often makes people very angry.

Lin Tonghuo was very tempted, but he was even more ruthless. He gritted his teeth and whispered to Ye Mingyue, "In fact, it would be better to go to Shandong and Zhili to recruit people. Once they get on board, we can trick them into signing a long-term contract. It would be more effective than using Korea and Japan."

Fog! Ye Mingyue touched the beads of sweat that suddenly appeared on his head.

Although Shandong and Zhili were still under the rule of the Qing Dynasty at that time, they were their Han compatriots.

It is an iron rule in Southeast Asia that men should not be slaves. Even if a long-term contract is signed, I really don’t know whether there will be any problems.

"You have a sharp mind. Study the current laws and see if the court has prohibited it.

If there is no ban, we can pool some money, get a few gunboats, head north, and defeat the Qing navy. Before the law is perfected, we can sign a series of fifteen-year contracts.

By then, both Penang Island and Kecheng Island will be filled with our two families’ estates, and in the future, we can at least become an earl.”

Ye Mingyue's heart was beating so fast that it seemed like it was about to jump out. He knew what his uncle Lin Tonghuo meant.

Now in Southeast Asia, Han Chinese samurai and farmers are very valuable. According to current laws, they can sign up to three short contracts at a time, which is a total of fifteen years of long contracts.

The amount of money for breach of contract for fifteen years was thirty taels of silver for samurai and fifteen taels of silver for farmers.

But if the samurai and the farmers could serve for fifteen years, the former's contract would be worth at least one hundred taels of silver, and the latter's would be worth fifty taels.

Although the imperial court stipulated that Han people should not be enslaved, it did not say that the contract could not be terminated.

Then they brought the samurai and farmers from Shandong and Zhili to Southeast Asia, immediately terminated the long-term contract, and then asked them to sign another long-term contract with a found buyer.

So a samurai would get 70 taels for each transaction, and a farmer would get 35 taels. If you could attract tens of millions of people to go to Southeast Asia every year, you would be rich!
Even if you are not used to the local climate, Hexianshisan, allicin and quinine water are not expensive now, especially the first two which are basically dirt cheap, and the mortality rate is not high.

Moreover, if they are not used to the local climate, it won't be a big problem as long as you don't let them work for three months. In Nanyang, the most they need is food, and it doesn't cost much to raise them for three months.

Excluding the cost of recruiting people, it is absolutely guaranteed that 10,000 people can earn 400,000 taels of silver.

"It's a bit risky!" Ye Mingyue's voice trembled. At this moment, those native mining slaves in the woods who were worth five taels each didn't seem to be attractive at all.

"Boom!" There was a loud noise, but it wasn't from a musket or a cannon, it was from the sound of heavy rain.

The natives trapped in the woods cheered, thinking that the Han people's muskets could not fire and that their chance had come.

But they thought too much. Ye Mingyue rushed forward habitually with a sword in one hand and a rattan shield in the other. He used the shield to block the wooden spear from the opposite side, and then stabbed the native to the ground with a sword.

"Don't use knives, sticks, traps, or nets. They're only five taels of silver each. If you get hurt, they're worthless!"

Having suffered so much that he had no place to bury his parents after their death, Lin Tonghuo, who knew what hell on earth was like, had a heart far darker than Ye Mingyue's.

Not only was he not affected by the conversation between the two, he even felt bad about the money in the heavy rain.

Ye Mingyue suddenly felt too lazy to fight and kill those natives, so he quickly sat on the ground and started to think.

The fiefdoms of their two families were located between the later islands of Kalimantan and Sumatra, and later belonged to the Bangka Belitung Province of Indonesia.

The fief of Viscount Penang is Bangka Island, and the fief of Baron Kecheng is Belitung Island.

The place is not big, the population is not large, and the land is far less fertile than Java Island. If you want to live a good life, raising your title may be the only way.

Ye Mingyue gritted her teeth and slowly began to strengthen her determination.

(End of this chapter)