The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 443: Ashes to Ashes

October 1779, 10. The third year of the Guangzhong reign of the Great Yu Dynasty, the forty-fourth year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty, and the twentieth day of the ninth lunar month.

The eight-month civil war in Siam finally came to an end.

The rebellion, which seemed to be so powerful, ended in a strange way when the army came to suppress the rebellion, especially after the rebels learned that the army only took four months to wipe out the Dutch East India Company. They had no desire to resist at all.

The reason is that Siam is too deeply involved with China.

Thais and Chinese have been intermarried for more than four hundred years. Not to mention now, even after China experienced a century of suffering, at least 70% of the people in Bangkok still have Chinese ancestry.

What's more, the Thai people themselves are Chinese immigrants who moved south from Yunnan, with the Dai people as the main group.

To this day, the Thai Nguyen people in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand still retain a large number of Dai customs and are an ethnic group between the Dai and Thai people.

It can be said that the country of Siam, in terms of bloodline and culture, is actually a country composed of Dai people who migrated to Southeast Asia and Han people who migrated to Southeast Asia.

This made Siam more receptive to Chinese rule than the Burmese, Mon, Khmers, etc.

At the same time, although Taksin made the government a mess, he was still good to the people.

A large number of Siamese people, whether Thai, Chinese or Najin, benefited from the policy of light taxation, rest for the people and organizing manpower to develop the swamps at the mouth of the Chao Phraya River implemented after Taksin drove out the Burmese.

A large number of Chaoshan people moved south and brought advanced agricultural technology from the Han area, which led to a rapid increase in grain production in Siam and improved the living standards of the lower classes compared to the Ayutthaya period.

Therefore, to put it bluntly, this turmoil was caused by the Chaoshan nobles and wealthy merchants around Taksin who held him hostage, while the old and young people of the Ayutthaya Dynasty, the marginalized Thais and other ethnic nobles were dissatisfied with the loss of power and instigated a rebellion.

Apart from those who initially worked as treasure diggers in Ayutthaya, the impact on other lower-class people was not significant.

This cannot even be said to be a riot by Thais against Chinese, but rather a real conflict of interest groups.

Because even the rebels are actually third-generation Chinese.

His maternal grandfather was the president of the Quanzhou Association in Ayutthaya, and his sister married a member of the Chen family, a prominent Quanzhou family in Siam. Following him were also a large number of Nazhens whose fathers could be considered Chinese.

Even in history it was the same, except that from the Tang Dynasty’s reign over Thailand during the reign of Taksin, the Chinese chose to return to Siam and become completely localized.

Therefore, this kind of rebellion without a deep mass base is destined to be a farce.

At the north gate of Thonburi, where thick smoke was still rising, Taksin was evacuated from the city under the protection of Phraya Chanthaburi and more than a thousand soldiers.

As for the rebels in the city, they had already started civil strife before the imperial army began to attack.

By the time the imperial army built a pontoon bridge through the city and across the canal, the people in the city and the rebels who wanted to survive had already opened the city gates and knelt to welcome the royal army.

Therefore, there was no real fighting and the rebel suppression army entered the city quite easily.

There are now fires and smoke everywhere in the city, and corpses can be seen everywhere on the ground, most of which are the result of the rebels killing each other.

The largest battle in the entire rebellion took place in Minburi, 20 kilometers northeast of Thonburi. More than 6,000 Phraya Korat rebels who broke out of the city were caught up here.

Tong's nephew Phraya Korat was killed in battle. More than 700 of the 6,000 rebels were killed, more than 3,000 were captured, and more than 2,000 escaped and were being pursued.

"Brother, Xin, I really have no face to see you and the elders of Jiangdong!" Zheng Xin collapsed when he saw Mo Tianci.

Mo Tianci took his hand and patted his shoulder, "I'm glad you're okay. Zibu is doing great things now. All of Nanyang, the whole world, will be ours. As elders, seeing our children and grandchildren have such great potential, we should let go of everything."

Before Zheng Xin could say anything else, he heard the guards come to report that Tong had been arrested in Nonthaburi.

Before long, dust billowed in the north, and Zhu Wenjie rode back excitedly. On the carriage behind him, a pale-faced man was tied up. Who else could it be but Tong?

"Your Majesty, the leader of the rebels, Chao Phraya Chakrithorn, has been captured by this general. Your Majesty, please decide how to deal with him."

Mo Tianci was overjoyed. This was the only way for the Siamese rebel group to unite all the restless elements. In fact, he was a patchwork freak just like our Emperor Mo.

Tong is a maternal descendant of Najin, which naturally attracts Najin to him. His family is a branch of the Ayutthaya royal family and has considerable reputation among Thais. His grandfather and brother-in-law are from Quanzhou, which can attract Chinese who are not from Chaoshan.

His wife is of Mon descent, and is attractive to people of other ethnic groups besides Thais. His brother-in-law, Bunna's family is of Persian descent, and is also attractive to several Arab and Persian families that have settled in Siam.

It can be said that there is no such person in the whole of Siam. There are people who can sew things up like this. Those who don’t have Tong’s knowledge and ability, and those who are more capable than Tong, cannot sew things up like this.

Without communication, even if some people are still dissatisfied with the Chinese localization, they don’t have the ability to gather so many people to cause trouble.

Therefore, Mo Tianci only thought about it for a few seconds and then waved his hand.

"Kill him immediately and eliminate the trouble forever!"

Zheng Xin opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but he didn't say it.

Tong was dragged down from the carriage where he was tied up by the soldiers. A thick stick suddenly swept across him, breaking his knee directly.

Tong, sweating profusely from the pain, sank to his knees by the Chao Phraya River with a thud. He gritted his teeth and remained silent. Knowing that this was likely his last moment, Tong desperately turned his head to the left, just in time to meet Zheng Xin's eyes.

At that moment, countless scenes of their childhood playing together, learning literature and martial arts, along with the black smoke of Thonburi City, came into their minds.

"Xin, for Qi's sake, you must let Qin grow up. Even if I suffer in the underworld, I will chant sutras and pray for you!"

Zheng Xin's tears came down. He didn't answer, turned around and started walking east.

The executioner, however, was getting impatient. Seeing Tong was about to speak, he kicked him in the mouth. "Fuck you! You're talking so much even though you're about to die!"

As he spoke, the executioner raised his sword and cut off Tong's neck with one stroke. His big head flew into the air, leaving only the headless corpse twitching twice on the ground.

After Zheng Xin walked away, Mo Tianci looked at the Thonburi City in the distance, and a cruel look appeared on his slightly old face.

"Organize volunteers to conduct a large-scale search within a 50-mile radius of Thonburi, and kill all Thais involved in the rebellion.

According to the prior assignments, all the generals led their subordinates to various places to eliminate all the Persian, Indian and Mon families equivalent to the Wenna family!
Na Zhen was arrested and interrogated one by one. Those who participated in the whole process were sent to Guangzhou for trial. Those who joined in halfway or were kidnapped were publicly tried in Thonburi. Those who deserved to be killed would be killed, and those who deserved to be exiled would be exiled.

The Chaozhou leaders, including Zheng Congli, Huang Gu, Chen Sen, and Lin Wu, were all taken back to Guangzhou for trial. They were more trouble than good, and were incapable of helping King Zheng govern Siam, yet they insisted on controlling the government.

It was another precise order. The people in Siam and Java were different. We certainly couldn't treat them the same way we treated the native Javanese, but a rebellion couldn't happen without killing a group of people.

Therefore, they treated people differently. Pure Thais and settlers from West Asia were definitely killed. Chinese people, even if they were Najin, had to be dealt with according to the law and punished according to the rules.

Moreover, Siam was a highly developed slave society with a large number of slaves.

That is to say, under the current Siamese Sakdina system, of the 4.2 million people in Siam, there should be less than 800,000 who are free citizens or above.

The remaining three million or so were all slaves of various kinds, including serfs who farmed the land, skilled craftsmen, fishermen, hunters, and other slaves in various industries.

In this case, no matter how much you implicate them, you cannot implicate them. Even if they have followed you and picked up wooden spears and short knives, there is no need to kill them, because they obey their master and do not have any subjective consciousness.

From the 20th to the 23rd of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, Mo Tianci personally presided over the execution in Thonburi of 37 families of old Ayutthaya Thai nobles headed by Luang Sola and Nai U, totaling more than 1,600 people.

There were three families of Mon rebels, totaling 453 people.

There are nine West Asian families headed by Wen Na and others, with a total of 2,100 people. Many of these guys from West Asia have converted to Theravada Buddhism on the surface, but their culture and family still follow the model of Muslimism, so the family has a particularly large population.

After killing this group of people, the situation in the entire Siam was basically stabilized. Mo Tianci personally stayed in Thonburi and began to write letters to Mo Zibu.

Because what happens next is no longer up to him.

Which areas of Siam were directly under its jurisdiction and which areas were divided into fiefdoms? Even if Taksin was no longer in power, whether Siam had to leave some fiefdoms for his sons was something that only Mo Zi Bu could decide.

Southern Capital, Chengtian Guangzhou Prefecture.

Mo Zibu was ready to return north with the court. He had been in Guangzhou for ten months and had almost finished dealing with all the things that needed to be dealt with.

The temperature dropped rapidly this year. Mo Zibu was afraid that heavy snow would separate him from Lingnan, so he prepared to return north early.

Moreover, this time when he returned, he did not plan to take a ship step by step, but instead planned to go directly north through Jiangxi and visit the Jiujiang front to encourage the troops.

Didn't the Qing Dynasty appoint Chen Huizu as the Governor-General of Huguang? However, Chen Huizu stayed in his hometown of Hunan as a local emperor. He was so happy that he refused to move to Hubei.

He only let his younger brother Chen Yanzu lead a few hundred Hunan militiamen as his personal soldiers. After arriving in Wuchang Prefecture, he copied the previous one and started militia training in Hubei.

However, Chen Huizu could never have imagined that his younger brother was even greedier than him. As soon as Chen Yanzu arrived in Hubei, he received an order from the Qing Dynasty to raise some food and fodder, and to recruit civilians to help the Eight Banners stationed in Jingzhou retreat north to Henan.

If a normal person heard such an order, he would be shocked, because it was obvious that the Qing Dynasty was going to run away and abandon them in Hubei.

But Chen Yanzu didn't expect that, instead he was extremely happy, because the Eight Banners stationed in Jingzhou also enclosed land, more than two million acres of land in Hubei, and all of them were excellent paddy fields. Once they left, it would be like a windfall!

So, Chen Yanzu was busy taking over the land left by the Jingzhou bannermen while forcibly collecting money, grain and laborers in Hubei, causing public outrage.

Even Wuchang County, the gateway to the east of Wuchang Prefecture, which later became Ezhou City, was handed over to his generals to guard.

The generals under him were all militia leaders pulled from Hunan. They were unfamiliar with the place and could barely speak the language. They were even more greedy than Chen Yanzu. As a result, Wuchang County was not well prepared for defense, and the whole area was in chaos.

After the flag bearer of the Jinyiwei Northern Pacification Division discovered this situation, he immediately reported it.

At the same time, Li Xianwen was responsible for the construction of the 12th and 5th armies of the Beijing Camp formed in Yingtian Prefecture, which was basically complete, and the garrison troops in the three provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui and Jiangxi were also basically restored.

The time is basically ripe to go upstream and attack Wuchang first, then take over Hubei and then make Hunan into dumplings.

This is called the advantage of size. After almost a year of recovery, Dayu was able to support a war with British India in Southeast Asia while launching military operations against the Qing Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)