The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 392: The Han Spring Breeze Blows into Guangnan

"Jiang Gongfu was furious and said: 'The Rongdi are frivolous and untrustworthy, greedy and without relatives, and difficult to pacify with kindness. How can Your Majesty rely on them?

"This sincere loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, everyone around him sighed when they heard it. But His Majesty Dezong was deceived by this villain..."

In Liren County, Shannan Prefecture, Guangnan Province, a teacher at the county school was giving a lecture in a rhythmic manner, and the students below were listening with great interest.

Chen Huilin, the Guangnan Supervisor of Education who was on inspection here, nodded with satisfaction. In the county school, the teachers spoke in Sino-Vietnamese, which is Jiaozhi Chinese, and the students below could basically understand it.

After two years of classifying people, distributing land and correcting pronunciation, the Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation has barely begun to revive. At least now in Annan, 80% of the people can recite ten or eight sentences of the Three Hundred Thousand.

Many farmers are illiterate and don't understand the meaning of something, but once you start, they will shake their heads and read along with you, making it almost like singing.

As for the children who have been selected by various villages to be sent to the county school in recent years, they can basically communicate in Chinese and Vietnamese. Most of the children know two or three hundred characters, which is more than enough for daily use.

The sinicization of Annan was actually very rapid.

Because throughout Chinese history, Vietnam is far more like China than North Korea and Japan, with closer blood ties and the language being an isolating language.

This makes it very convenient to find the basis for Sinicization from Annan, such as Jiang Gongfu mentioned by the county school teacher.

He lived during the reign of Emperor Dezong of Tang. He was a native of Aizhou (Qinghua) in Jiuzhen, and his ancestral home was Ji County (Gangu County) in Tianshui. He was a Jinshi (Jinshi) and had made great contributions in protecting the emperor during the Jingyuan Rebellion. He was promoted to the positions of Jianyi Dafu and Tongpingzhangshi, and was therefore also called Jiang Xiangye by the people of Annan.

He was not only famous in Annan at that time, but also very famous in Vietnam in later generations. The Zhuangyuan Temple and the Jiang Xiang Temple were built in his hometown. Some descendants of the Vietnamese Jiang family even went to Jiuri Mountain in Nan'an, Quanzhou, where his tomb is located, to pay homage to him.

After Mozibu unified Annan, he continued to find these representative Annan people, compiled stories into them, and used them as supplementary materials in the county school.

At the same time, it is easier for Annamites to learn Chinese than Koreans and Japanese because Annamites dialect, like Chinese, is an isolating language.

To put it very superficially and crudely, an isolating language is a language in which one word corresponds to one word, and there is no need to transform the word or add any tense to express other languages with similar meanings.

Korean is an inflectional language, which means that the original characters are bent into various forms to express the meaning.

Japanese is an agglutinative language, which requires different word endings to be glued together at the front, middle and back of the word to realize grammatical functions and express complete meaning.

This means that the Vietnamese can learn Chinese much faster than the Koreans and Japanese. Later generations can also see that many Vietnamese people do not have much knowledge, but as long as they study hard, their Chinese level can often improve rapidly.

Many international students from Japan and South Korea have been studying here for several years, but they still cannot pass the language test.

What’s even more interesting is that Vietnam had not yet been colonized by France at that time, the alphabetic language tailored for them by French missionaries had not been promoted, and Vietnamese had not yet absorbed a large number of Western words.

Even the Han-Nom script had not yet gained an overwhelming advantage, and the high-ranking families of the Han language in Vietnam had not yet been eliminated or driven back to China in the successive turmoils.

All this led to the fact that when there was a strong government to push forward, the entire Annan returned very quickly.

Of course, the most important thing is Mo Zibu’s identity.

Although he was from Minh Huong and Ha Tien was once a vassal of the Nguyen family of Quang Nam, many Annamites still regarded Mo Zi Bu as one of their own, believing that he was the most successful person to have emerged from the noble families of Jinghan.

"Master, Lord Fang from Quanzhou has sent his nephew to deliver an invitation, inviting you to a banquet at Dingtai Tower in the east of the city." After inspecting the county schools in various places, the servant brought an invitation.

Chen Huilin threw it aside without even looking at it, "Just tell him directly, I know his difficulties, but Guangnan's population is not sufficient either.

His Majesty has demanded that the supply of food be prioritized. This is an iron rule that cannot be violated. I can only give him thirty men to work in the coal mines, but he will have to figure out the rest himself."

Guangnan Province covers the entire Red River Plain, but after experiencing war, its population is not large, with only more than three million people.

Although more than 300,000 people have been transferred from western Guangdong in the past two years, there is still a significant labor gap.

The emperor also wanted to establish a large coal and iron base in Anguang Prefecture, Guangnan Province, which led to further labor shortages.

Fearing that diverting too much labor to coal and iron factories would affect grain production, Mo Zibu personally ordered Guangnan Governor Deng Chenchang to ensure that the cultivated area and population must be guaranteed.

So now in Guangnan, anyone with even a little bit of connections is trying to get more workers.

As the superintendent of education, Chen Huilin had a large number of young people who failed the county school examination and had to return to their hometowns after learning basic Chinese-Vietnamese pronunciation.

The Sino-Vietnamese accents these people speak are enough to barely communicate with Cantonese people, so they are considered high-tech talents and are very popular.

At this time, the rich variety of goods from Guangdong and Guangxi in Guangnan Province raised the lives of Guangnan people to more than one level.

They finally achieved the goal of having a kitchen knife in every household, and almost every household had an iron pot. The clothes they wore were no longer the extremely crude local clothes, but a lot of homespun cloth imported from Guangdong.

But these things are just much cheaper than before, only about 50 to 60 percent higher than in Guangdong, not free.

This caused Guangnan and Rinan provinces, which originally did not use silver and money for transactions and whose ruler Zheng was so stingy that he could not afford to give much money to the army, to start to suffer from an extreme cash shortage.

The rice that was grown with great effort became less valuable, and copper coins, silver, and even low-quality copper coins began to become more precious.

"Your Majesty, this is the joint report sent back by Guangnan Governor Deng Chenchang, Guangnan Admiral Wu Wenyong, Rinan Governor Huang Zhongxin, and Rinan Admiral Liang Wenying." Prime Minister Pei Jiannan handed over the joint memorial and continued:

"Currently, among the five southern provinces, only Xingtang is in a relatively good situation. The other four provinces, Guangnan, Rinan, Andai, and Jiaqing, all face varying degrees of labor shortages and financial crises, with Guangnan and Rinan, the closest provinces, being the most severely affected."

Mo Zibu took it and looked at it carefully, then asked, "Did the cabinet come to any conclusions?"

Pei Jiannan nodded and said, "The cabinet has always believed that not only the four provinces of Nanyang and Guangnan are in this crisis, but Guangdong and Fujian are also very serious.

The reason was that after Dayu took over Guangdong, the Qing government cut off our ties with other provinces. As our territory became larger, there were not enough people.

Moreover, most of the silver earned from trade in the past was taken away by the Qing government. Now that trade volume has dropped sharply in a short period of time, the silver and money on the market cannot be replenished for a while."

In the current Dayu, among the five newly added provinces, Guangnan is directly counted as Lingnan, while provinces such as Rinan are called the Four Nanyang Provinces.

"Just tell me straight, does the cabinet mean to start a war as well?" Seeing Pei Jiannan's hesitation, Mo Zibu waved his hand and asked the question directly to the point.

"Yes, that is indeed the cabinet's opinion. Only by occupying Huguang and Jiangnan and pushing the front line to the Yangtze River will we have sufficient manpower and material resources."

"That's fine!" Mo Zibu nodded. "Resolve the problems of money, food, and supplies as soon as possible and get the court moving."

Pei Jiannan hesitated to speak, but nodded and went down. However, Mo Zibu knew that this cousin Pei could not hold on for much longer. It was not only a problem of ability, but also a problem of mentality.

At present, Mo Zibu does not need a strong prime minister. He only needs a prime minister who can assist him, just like Yu Minzhong to Qianlong.

The emperor was solely responsible for fighting the war, while the prime minister, who was responsible for the overall coordination of the court, was responsible for all logistics. In contrast to the cabinet's cautious approach, Mo Zibu had long understood that the war must begin.

After the opening up of foreign trade, although trade with Europe suffered a severe blow, the trade volume with Southeast Asia increased. In addition, he was also working on making firearms cheaper, which required more manpower and material resources.

Therefore, the most fundamental problem now is that although Dayu has such a large territory, its population is less than 30 million. If the manpower is spread out in different places, there will soon be insufficient manpower.

Moreover, the currency at that time was still far from the stage of paper money.

Today's currencies are all issued based on the value of metals such as gold and silver. Anyone who dares to issue paper money will definitely not be recognized by other countries.

If Mo Zibu wants to reform the current situation where silver and copper coins are extremely chaotic and various privately minted low-quality coins coexist with silver, he must also take over Huguang and Jiangnan so that he can have a sufficient economic foundation and a large amount of silver to issue coins.

Mo Zibu was calculating in his mind when suddenly the eunuch came to report that his sister, Princess Danyang Mo Hui, suddenly asked to see him.

Seeing Mo Hui coming in, Mo Zibu couldn't help but chuckle. It turned out that Mo Hui's belly was slightly bulging again, and it looked like she was pregnant again.

The couple is really in love. They have given birth to four children in ten years and are now pregnant with their fifth.

Mo Hui was about to pretend to bow, but Mo Zibu rolled his eyes and waved his hand, "Alright, alright. Didn't you beat me enough when you were a kid? Why are you pretending to do this?"

Mo Hui wanted to roll her eyes at this, but Mo Zibu brought a chair over and asked his sister to sit down. Then he said, "What on earth could have caused you, the eldest princess, to come forward?"

Mo Hui slowly sat down. "Your Majesty, you're asking this knowingly. I'm not someone like Liu Piao, who hasn't bothered to come to you to beg for mercy for eight or ten years. If it weren't for your brother-in-law constantly whispering this and that in my ear, I wouldn't have come."

"Liang San's matter is actually not a big deal. Isn't it just setting up a checkpoint on the West River to block people and prevent others from going to Wuzhou to recruit people?" Mo Zibu said as he sat back in his seat.

Mo Yu's eyes lit up, "Does the emperor agree to release him?

Although Liang San was guilty, he was a loyal protector of your brother-in-law when he went to Guangxi to swear an oath of blood with the chieftains of the Zhuang, Miao and Yao ethnic groups.

In order to drive out the Guangxi Green Camp, even two of my brothers died in battle. I have made great contributions and have worked hard. I beg the Emperor to show me a lenient sentence."

Mo Zibu could only smile bitterly. He finally understood Zhu Yuanzhang's helplessness when facing his old brothers in the Red Turban Army.

These people have little education and limited vision. They have been aggressive and aggressive at the grassroots level for many years, which has made them particularly good at taking advantage of loopholes and bullying others.

Liang San, relying on the advantage of Xijiangtang in rafting on the Xijiang River in the early years, regarded the Xijiang River as his own industry and constantly excluded others.

Yicheng Company, which was preparing for a big fight with Qiangsheng Company the day before yesterday, is also Liang San's industry. The leader, Fatty Liang, is Liang San's nephew. His father died in Guangxi and is also considered a martyr.

If you punish such people too severely, the world has not been conquered yet, and it will hurt the feelings of the heroes. If you don't punish them, they will dare to cut the sausage step by step to test your bottom line.

"Keep him locked up for a while longer. Tell my brother-in-law that I won't do anything to Liang San, but he must suffer a little."

"That's as it should be!" Ou Yu nodded in agreement, then continued, "Awen also wanted me to ask for your opinion. He said that the current Palace Security Department can no longer meet the needs of obtaining external intelligence.

In addition, after the civil and military ministers have made meritorious contributions, there is no place for the Yinguan officials to be placed. Let's see if we can restore the Jinyiwei."

Mo Zibu's eyes lit up, and he suddenly thought of someone to replace his cousin Pei Jiannan.

Li Xianwen could have come to him himself to petition for the restoration of the Jinyiwei, but he was afraid that if he made the petition publicly, he would have to owe too many favors.

So he simply let Mo Hui make the suggestion privately, so that others would not know that it was he who suggested the restoration of the Jinyiwei.

“Yes, it is true that the safe haven is no longer practical now.

My brother-in-law is still so cautious. I heard that Ah Yang will graduate from elementary school soon. Well, let's start with him as the first Jinyiwei official, and give him a thousand households."

Upon hearing this, Mo Hui looked at Mo Zibu with extreme vigilance, "Your Majesty, what do you want to do now?"

"Hahaha, sister really understands me!" Mo Zibu laughed a few times.

"My cousin isn't in good health, and he can't let go of some things. I'm afraid he won't be able to handle the many things going on at court, so I intend to let my brother-in-law take over as Prime Minister."

Mo Hui looked at Mo Zibu helplessly. She really didn't want Li Xianwen to be the Prime Minister, not only because it was a job of covering up one's own shortcomings.

Also, Li Xianwen did not need to make any progress at all. He was the biggest venture capitalist during Mo Zibu's early days. You should know that Mo Zibu had a total of 4,000 subordinates at that time, and Li Xianwen had more than 2,000 subordinates.

In addition, Mo Hui and Mo Zibu have had a very good relationship since childhood. Just by relying on his identity as the son-in-law of Princess Danyang, he can do very well.

But Mo Hui couldn't bring herself to say no, as she knew her brother's personality. He seemed very generous and friendly to everyone, but once he made up his mind, he would not tolerate any opposition.

"Awen is already the eldest princess's consort. He has commanded the navy and served as the chief of Kunlun Mountain. He has all his former subordinates, titles, and the rank of major general.

The emperor still wants him to be the chief minister, isn't he worried at all?" Mo Hui had no choice but to look at it from this perspective.

"I understand my brother-in-law's character. Others may like to seize power, but he definitely won't." Mo Zibu said with certainty.

Mo Hui had no choice but to nod, "Okay then, I'll tell Awen when I get back and tell him to be prepared."

After sending his sister Mo Hui away, Mo Zibu called Reinstein over.

This guy was angry with Mo Zibu for a while, but now he has thought it through and returned to Guangzhou.

However, Mo Zibu did not immediately assign him a military position because the military's organization was currently undergoing reform.

"Ryan, here's a great opportunity for you to try it out.

There is a labor shortage in Guangdong and Guangnan provinces, factories and enterprises are engaged in vicious competition, and many illegal activities have occurred.

At the same time, there are also cases of infringement of workers' interests. I hope you can come forward to organize a trade union, just like in Jiaxi Prefecture."

Since this guy always talks about human rights and liberation, Mo Zibu might as well let him try.

Reinstein was indeed very interested. He let go of the slight sense of alienation caused by his willfulness and went down happily.

　Thanks to the book friend who is so handsome that he has no scarf for the reward again. Thank you very much! I will definitely add more chapters to this May Day.

　　Also, today is May Day, and my son is going on a spring outing, so I really can't help but accompany him. I'll catch up on the missing 3,000 words in the next few days.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)