The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 440: How can one know what a superior country is?
Mo Tianci is quite capable. Historically, he has not been very successful, and his fatal weakness is actually that he is not good at organizing his army.

Since ancient times, military capabilities have been divided into two types. One is the ability of a general to kill the enemy on horseback, to make plans when dismounted, and to win the hearts of the soldiers in between.

The other is the power of a king who can establish a military system, recruit and train soldiers, identify talents with wisdom and promote them to serve you.

For the ruler of a country.

If one only had the first ability, the upper limit might be to become a separatist ruler like Emperor Zhaolie. Even if he encountered demons and monsters throughout his life, he could still build a foundation with a humble background.

If one only has the latter ability, and does not need to conquer the world immediately, he can at least carry forward the foundation. A typical example is me, Qianlong.

If you have both, then you are Li Erfeng and Zhu Baba, there are only a few emperors like you in thousands of years.

Mo Tianci's misery lies in the fact that not only is he not involved in any of these things, he also has absolutely no military ability at all.

So in history, he ruled Hexian, his country was rich and his people were prosperous, and he had countless guns and cannons, but when it came to war, he was left with only disgrace.

Zheng Xin was the opposite of him. He was able to command troops, win the hearts of soldiers, and promote military talents, but his ability in domestic affairs was simply disastrous.

Historically, if Zheng Xin could live another ten years, his ability to handle internal affairs would surely have impressed Emperor Jiaqing.

However, this time and space is better. Mo Zibu knew that his father's military ability was poor, so he specially assigned him two generals and two powerful generals.

Lieutenant General Souffran and Chen Lian are of the same level. The former is a brave naval commander praised by Napoleon, and the latter is the famous Phraya Broken Sword in Siamese history, with extraordinary abilities.

Among the remaining two people, Chen Chengji is calm and cautious. He cannot fight a battle like the one Li Su fought at Caizhou on a snowy night, but he is good at building a strong camp and fighting a static battle like Zeng the Barber, and his ability to advance step by step is quite good.

Jiang Wusheng was the second general manager of the Lan Fang Company after Luo Fangbai in history. At that time, as long as he was in Borneo, Lan Fang could attack Brunei in the north and the Netherlands in the south. As soon as he returned to the mainland, Lan Fang would cause internal strife without anyone to fight against it. His ability is evident.

With such a luxurious configuration, coupled with top logistics talent Luo Fangbai and local leaders like Phraya Chanthaburi who can lead troops, Mo Tianci's shortcomings in the military were quickly made up.

He didn't have to do anything, just call a military meeting and let his subordinates discuss it.

Chen Lian was the most active. After all, Zheng Xin was once his good brother. Although Zheng Xin distanced himself from Chen Lian due to the slander of Tong and others, they still had some friendship.

Now that Mo Zibu also hopes to rescue Zheng Xin, he has no reason not to try every possible means to do so.

"Tong is a very smart person and is very good at judging the situation." Chen Lian said, feeling a little bitter and a little relieved. He was squeezed away from Zheng Xin by Tong in the beginning, but he did not expect to usher in new development.

"People like this often lack the determination and brute force to fight to the death. The situation in Lower Burma is still very bad for us, and the situation in Northern Thailand is equally confusing. Tong actually still has a place to go, so we can scare him."

But when Chen Lian said this, he looked at Mo Tianci and said, "Grand Emperor, Tong's family members are all in the city, and they definitely cannot evacuate with him.

If Your Majesty can pardon the sins of his wife and children, Tong will definitely be willing to release King Zheng for the safety of his wife and children, even if he can escape."

As he spoke, Chen Lian made a downward chopping motion. "Among the Northern River Guards that Chen Titai brought with him are four hundred cavalrymen. We can send them around to the north of Thonburi and ambush them. Once Tong releases King Taksin, we can capture him outside the city."

Mo Tianci nodded and immediately made a decision, "When I set out, the emperor issued an edict that China is a country of etiquette and rituals, and the Thais have been our vassal states for hundreds of years, so we should follow the same laws as the mainland.

Anyone from the Chakri and Boonar families who participated in the rebellion will be executed without mercy, but family members who did not participate will be tried according to the law, and the most they will receive is exile to Jiaqing Island (Borneo).”

The handling of Tong's family was indeed discussed by Mo Tianci and Mo Zibu, father and son, before leaving.

Thais must be assimilated. Assimilating them is much better than assimilating Indonesians.

At the same time, for a country like China with a long history and a sense of dignity, even if it wants to commit genocide, it cannot use such brutal means as the Europeans.

It's too embarrassing, too unskillful, and can easily leave room for suspicion and future trouble.

So even on the island of Java, the indigenous people around Batavia were cleared out, but the excuse was that the indigenous people participated in the Red River Massacre. This is not called genocide, it is called revenge.

As for the rest, from the legal point of view, as long as they do not rebel, they are all innocent. So Mo Zibu can only go to Guangxi to learn about the ghost fire boy.

These ferocious Guangxi people were forced to migrate to Java Island, and the imperial court provided them with weapons, guaranteed medical care and food, and even sent personnel to help them manage the land.

They don't have to worry about their own economic situation and all they need to do every day is to constantly provoke conflicts with the Javanese natives.

Kill five people today, kill ten people tomorrow, and take away their women who live on their land, but the authorities will never issue an order that gives others a handle like charging five dollars for a scalp.

Once the population of Javanese natives decreases to a certain level, we can directly educate them and there shouldn't be any major problems.

Of course, the biggest reason why Mo Zibu didn't have to deal with the Indians like the Americans did was that Java Island was not very large, about the same size as Anhui, and was surrounded by the sea, so he couldn't escape even if he wanted to.

If they are scared by being killed and their population is small, it will take at most fifty years for them to be assimilated and they won’t even recognize their ancestors.

Since they had treated the Javanese natives like this, the Thais would naturally not carry out indiscriminate massacres. Killing without teaching is not in line with the moral ethics of the Chinese.

Then according to the rules of China since ancient times, even if the crime of rebellion is punished to the maximum extent, the only punishment is the extermination of three generations of the clan.

As for the Yi tribes, women were often sold or exiled, while men under twelve were generally spared, at most castrated. Tong's sons were all under twelve. However, Chen Lian felt that exile alone might not be enough to deceive and tempt Tong. "This might not be enough to persuade Tong to release the King of Zheng. Can the Emperor be imprisoned instead?"

Mo Tianci thought about it and realized that in the future, Lao Wu would become an emperor who would drive out the Tartars, recover the country, and expand the territory to the South China Sea. To do this, he had to consider moral perfection to make it even greater.

The Chinese have always attached great importance to loyalty, filial piety, brotherhood and modesty. Don’t you see how wise and powerful Emperor Taizong of Tang was? However, he is still criticized thousands of years later because of the stain of killing his brothers and forcing his father to death at Xuanwu Gate.

Therefore, we must never let the fifth brother be labeled as having plotted to kill his father-in-law in order to seize Siam.

"There's no need to confine him. Chen Lian, you should personally send someone to Thonburi to tell Tong that although he is dead, all the adult males of the Chakri family are also dead.

But as long as he can guarantee the life of King Zheng, then his wife, sons and daughters will only be demoted to commoners and can all survive."

This is the greatest benefit of Mo Tianci coming in person. If someone else came, no one would dare to make such a decision. By the time they go to Guangzhou for instructions, it will be too late by the time they get back and forth.

"The Emperor is wise!" Luo Fangbai flattered him with a smile, "We can also spread the word about this condition.

Firstly, it will let everyone in the world know that Your Majesty, out of kinship and filial piety, can pardon even the family of such a traitor. In this way, no matter what the outcome, it will not only not damage Your Majesty's reputation, but will even enhance it.

Secondly, it can undermine the fighting spirit within the Chakri family in the city and provoke them to fight with other families."

"Let's act. Everyone, please remember: the emperor's reputation comes first, saving King Taksin's life comes second, arresting Tong comes third, and capturing Thonburi City comes fourth."

Mo Tianci ordered loudly.

At this time, the attack on Samutprakarn Province was almost over. Samutprakarn Province was only a dozen kilometers away from Thonburi. If the cavalry attacked now, they should be able to ambush north of Thonburi.

. . . .

In fact, there was nothing wrong with Tong's arrangement. He had 40,000 people, 15,000 of whom were arranged in Samutprakarn Province and 25,000 in Thonburi.

He himself stayed in Thonburi and controlled Taksin. His nephew, no, it should be his nephew, Anutravi, was the son of his elder sister.

My nephew is stationed in Samutprakarn Province, and the two places are only thirteen kilometers apart. If something happens, the entire army can go downstream to provide support, and it will only take one day or even half a day including the assembly time.

As for Samutprakarn, Tong believes that it will be no problem for the province to survive for five days, let alone ten days or half a month.

But he never expected that the Chinese Empire's navy and army carried more than 500 cannons, although most of them were naval guns.

Such powerful firepower was beyond his imagination, because the total number of artillery pieces in Siam, including various types of artillery from a hundred years ago, was less than 200.

Therefore, when Samutprakarn fell under the fierce bombardment of hundreds of cannons in just one morning, and the fleet went up the wind and current to the river outside Thonburi, Tong did not even receive the news from Samutprakarn.

After nearly ten years of painstaking construction by Taksin, Thonburi City had become very strong. The East City was located on the Chao Phraya River, and more than ten eighteen-pound cannons were installed on the city walls.

But compared with the more than 20 warships of various types of the Imperial Navy, it is far from enough.

Tong, Wenna, Naiwu, Phrayasan and others were frightened out of their wits when they saw dozens of warships with bulging sails in the river from the top of the city wall.

Under Nai U's howl, the artillery on the top of Thonburi city wall opened fire first. More than a dozen cannons bombarded together, which looked very spectacular.

With a "bang", an 18-pound coastal defense cannon suddenly hit the Mu Tianbo third-class battleship in the river.

The 1,040-ton battleship shook violently, and a huge hole was made on the left side of the ship. An eight-pound howitzer on the deck was hit by the flying shell and started spinning like a top.

The sailors were frightened and screamed, but fortunately everyone hid quickly, and although there was a mess on the deck, no casualties were caused.

Naiwu, Wenna and others on the city wall cheered loudly, but the next second, their cheers stopped abruptly.

In their shallow understanding, no matter what kind of ship it is, if it is hit by such a cannon, it will not only not sink on the spot, but at least be penetrated and completely lose its combat effectiveness.

As a result, the Mu Tianbo just shook violently, and then nothing happened.

"Fire!" shouted Brigadier General Melville, the Dutch general who had recently defected to China. "For His Majesty, destroy the rebel cannons!"

As soon as he finished speaking, at least twenty-five guns on one side of the Mu Tianbo opened fire one after another. The huge shells were wrapped in green smoke and fell like meteors from the sky.

All the Siamese rebels on the city wall screamed and retreated quickly. With a loud bang, the 18-pound cannon was hit in the second round of salvo.

The cannons weighing over a thousand pounds and the bricks and stones of the fort were knocked down from the bottom of the city wall, and the screams of the dying gunners could be heard in the air.

It was so fast that all the rebels were scared. Twenty-two warships, with a total of 348 guns, were bombarding in circles, which was worthy of the description of "rain of shells".

In just fifteen minutes, the East City of Thonburi near the Chao Phraya River was smashed to pieces and collapsed everywhere. Then the fleet lowered its small boats and landed, quickly occupying the East City.

The rebels did not dare to attack at all. They retreated to the inner city in a hurry and burned three pontoon bridges between the inner city and the east city, trying to use the canal that passed through the city to delay the imperial army's suppression of the rebellion.

(End of this chapter)