The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 506 That opponent is worth fighting

Mao Xiangsheng was holding an eight-sided Han sword and cursing. The soldiers who heard him cursed and quickened their pace and ran forward.

Two years ago, Mao Xiangsheng left his home in Gutang Village and followed the son-in-law of the emperor, Li Xianwen, the Duke of Shuofang, to Sichuan.

The process was very smooth. Not only did Hailancha, the Qing Dynasty's Sichuan Governor and Chengdu General, choose to surrender, but there was basically no fighting along the way.

From Wushan County, the easternmost city of Kuizhou Prefecture, to Chengdu, the provincial capital, it can be considered a journey to find relatives.

Because there were not many local people in Sichuan at that time, more than 80% of them were immigrants who moved there from Huguang and the areas close to Huguang, such as northern Guangdong, northern Guangxi, and western Jiangxi.

Many of these immigrants’ fathers and even themselves were the first group of immigrants to Sichuan.

Therefore, they were very friendly to Commander Li Xianwen, whose army was mainly led by Hu Guangren. Many of the soldiers' fellow townsmen and relatives were on both sides of the marching route.

This made the army's advance extremely convenient, and every place was just like being at home. With the help of such a strong mass base, the cleanup of the bully landlords in Sichuan and the equal distribution of land also went very smoothly.

Watching his soldiers speed up their advance, Mao Xiangsheng looked back at the city of Xi'an, whose walls were engulfed in smoke.

A month ago, the rebellious Christian army captured Huazhou, Huayin, Tongzhou and other counties, and then broke through Weinan, an important town east of Xi'an. Tens of thousands of people in Weinan were killed, and then the Christian army arrived at the city of Xi'an.

Fortunately, this time and space is different from history. When the turmoil occurred in history, not only was the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom still there, but even Tianjing did not fall.

The Western Nian Army also fought from Guanzhong to northern Shaanxi, killing people from north to south throughout Shaanxi, resulting in there being not many troops in Guanzhong to suppress the religious riots.

But at this time and space, not only were Shaanxi and Gansu the only areas left in the country that had not been recovered, but Yongxuan, Wang Jie and others also organized some militia training in Shanxi.

Therefore, unlike the thrilling Battle of Xi'an in history, Xi'an was safe at this time, but the rebels were in big trouble.

In the west, Li Xianwen led 10,000 troops from Huguang, 8,000 troops from Sichuan, 6,000 surrendered Eight Banners soldiers from Chengdu, and 10,000 soldiers from the Beijing camp, a total of 34,000 people, who went through Hanzhong and entered Guanzhong.

In the east, Wang Wubing led 3,000 Henan garrison troops, 3,000 brave Beijing troops, and civilian laborers, totaling 13,000 people, through Tongguan and into Guanzhong.

Now attacked from both sides, the more than 300,000 rebellious Christians in Guanzhong could no longer withstand the attack.

As soon as Li Xianwen's army arrived in Xi'an, they hurriedly withdrew the siege of Xi'an. As a result, as soon as they returned to Weinan, Wang Wubing had already captured Huazhou, the Christians' base camp, and blocked the more than 300,000 people near Weinan City.

Mao Xiangsheng is now the captain of the Hunan Zhenjun Army. He originally had the opportunity to retire on the spot and become a yamen runner in Baoning Prefecture (Langzhong) in Sichuan, but he finally refused.

Now that he was holding the commander-in-chief's sword, which symbolized the management of three hundred people, he felt that his refusal to be a yamen runner might be because his heart had not yet cooled down and he always wanted to see the outside world.

Xi'an is only 70 kilometers away from Weinan, and the army arrived there in two days. Mao Xiangsheng was ordered to rush to Guandao Town, north of Weinan, and station there north of the Wei River to prevent the believers in Weinan from breaking through and heading to northern Shaanxi.

There has been a lot of rain in Guanzhong recently, and Mao Xiangsheng was covered in mud. However, he was an officer and had an officers' lounge to go to, which was a good opportunity to wash the mud off his pants and shoes.

The officers' lounge was built in the original county magistrate's office in Guandao Town. At this time, after Dayu basically unified the country, it still did a lot of practical work.

For example, the monopoly of the top nobles such as the Qing Dynasty on commercial activities was eliminated, the various messy commercial taxes set up at various levels of local checkpoints were reduced, and special government offices were established in major cities and important roads to prevent local shops and restaurants from defrauding legitimate merchants, etc.

It was also announced that the exchange rate between the officially issued Guangzhong Tongbao copper coins and silver dollars would be fixedly reduced from around 1,300 to 1 to 1,000 to 1.

Of course, to use Guangzhong Tongbao, it is also necessary to submit the copper coins of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong dynasties issued by the Qing Dynasty to the central banks established in various places by the Internal Court Transportation Bureau, the Ministry of Revenue and the Fuxing Company for exchange.

But if you insist on using the copper coins from the Qing Dynasty and suffer the consequences, that’s fine.

After the implementation of these policies, the circulation of private commodities increased, production rose, and commercial activities flourished a lot.

After the prosperity of private commerce, the original model of three to five officials and twenty to thirty clerks and yamen runners in a county gradually failed to meet the needs. Therefore, officials such as county magistrates began to be stationed in important transportation routes such as Guandao Town.

"Look carefully, this tadpole-like foreign language is the scripture believed by the cultists.

Once they came across one, the books and newspapers were brought in and destroyed in a centralized manner. The inscriptions on wooden plaques were chipped off with knives and axes, and those on stone tablets were smashed with hammers.

Any clothing that covers a woman's head and body with a black scarf, leaving only her eyes exposed, violates Your Majesty's decree strictly prohibiting foot binding to restrict women's travel or comparing women to livestock or goods.

Once discovered, they will be burned immediately. Any business, tailor shop, or folk weaver who dares to privately make such clothes will be exiled, regardless of whether they sell them or not!
Everyone had to keep their eyes open, and every prefecture, county, and village had to be inspected. Spies had to be left in every village and fort to keep abreast of the situation at all times.

If you find someone guilty, you will be rewarded; if you miss someone guilty, you will be punished; if you harbor someone guilty, you will be exiled to Southeast Asia."

Hearing the military judges of the Five Military Commandery and the pacification officers of the Northern Pacification Division of the Embroidered Uniform Guard taking turns preaching inside the room, Mao Xiangsheng stopped outside the door and listened with his mouth wide open in amazement.

After a while, his immediate superior, Lieutenant General Zuo of Changde Town, came over and pulled Mao Xiangsheng, who was listening intently at the door, to another room.

"You don't need to listen. The people in this room are officers from the Shaanxi-Gansu Garrison. What they do is different from what we do."

"Guards?" Mao Xiangsheng was even more puzzled. "Sir, isn't it said that the 18 inland provinces will not have guards but will be replaced by garrisons, and that guards will only be established in Southeast Asia and the areas outside the Great Wall?"

The lieutenant general looked mysterious. "Shaanxi and Gansu are different now. I heard that Shaanxi only has a few places focusing on setting up garrison troops, but Gansu should have garrison troops throughout the province. Moreover, these people are not good families like us, but are members of the White Lotus Sect. Many of them are capable believers from all over the country, specially brought here to search the mountains and seas."

"Ah?" Mao Xiang was shocked. "Those who believe in the Motherless Mother are not good people. Why would the court use them to search the mountains and seas?"

In the eyes of Mao Xiangsheng, who started looking for work and making a living at the age of twelve or thirteen, these people in the White Lotus Sect must be the most useless and shameless people who only knew how to tell lies and cheat people of their money.

He was very curious about what kind of rebels he was going to fight, and why the court still needed to use these trash to search the mountains and seas.

Then, Mao Xiangsheng saw it immediately.

In Weinan City, amid the rumbling of artillery and bursts of gunfire, the rebel army launched more than ten charges.

But under the powerful firepower output of the Xing Tang Army, even a collective charge of five or six thousand people was beaten back.

The battle lasted from early morning to afternoon. The water of the Wei River was dyed red, and a large number of corpses floated on the water, sinking and floating like pieces of wood.

Li Xianwen personally arrived at the front line, and there was cheering throughout the army. The rebellious army had been completely suppressed.

"God is merciful, and I, the governor, do not wish to cause any more casualties. Let the old monks of Huayin go and persuade them to lay down their weapons if they are willing."

But before Li Xianwen could finish his words, bursts of foreign chanting came through the fireworks on the battlefield.

He looked through the telescope and saw a large number of people wearing black and white robes and black and white hats, densely packed in the distance rising and falling, as if they were worshiping something.

Mao Xiangsheng, who was not far away from Li Xianwen, felt that his brain was not enough. This was on the battlefield, under the muzzles of guns.

"What are they doing? Are they begging for mercy?" Mao Xiangsheng cried out in surprise.

"They are not begging for mercy, they are praying." Hearing Mao Xiangsheng's scream, the lieutenant colonel of military law stationed in their assistance from the Fifth Army Headquarters said lightly.

"Worship?" Mao Xiangsheng felt a little unfamiliar with the word. Then he realized that the people across from him were believers. "Sir, are they worshipping?"

"Yes." The staff lieutenant colonel nodded, then shook his head. "No. These people believe in Mahmud and believe that Mahmud is the only true God."

In fact, the lieutenant colonel didn't understand it either, because Mahmoud was the only prophet and messenger of the true God, not the true God.

"The only true God?" Mao Xiangsheng curled his lips. "Then what are Tathagata Buddha and the Jade Emperor? With so many gods and Buddhas in the sky, how could there be only one true God?"

The staff lieutenant colonel chuckled, "In their eyes, Tathagata Buddha and the Jade Emperor are of course evil gods. They don't exist. They're just figments of your imagination."

Mao Xiangsheng felt a little uncomfortable, but that was it. Anyway, he usually dealt with these two people by mentioning them twice when there was something to say and completely forgetting about it when there was nothing to say.

But at this moment, the crowd on the opposite side began to worship, and the sound of chanting scriptures was quite rhythmic, solemn and dignified, coming in waves.

After all, they are professionals in religion, and they are indeed more professional than the Chinese. The scene of hundreds of thousands of people praying one after another with the same rhyme and rhythm is quite shocking.

The lieutenant colonel of staff closed his mouth and stared at the opposite side, and Mao Xiangsheng's expression also became serious.

Because they all felt a kind of power, a power that was incompatible with them, but had considerable vitality.

"Sir, they worship gods so devoutly, but what about their ancestors?" Mao Xiangsheng asked suddenly, because this scene reminded him of his hometown, Gutang Village, Xiangyin.

Although their family was poor at that time, they were also part of the Gutang Mao family. Every year when they offered sacrifices to their ancestors, in addition to being given a little meat for the sacrifices, the solemn and dignified scene was what impressed Mao Xiangsheng the most.

He seemed to be able to witness the difficulties his ancestors faced in overcoming difficulties during the ceremony presided over by Mr. Mao San.

Countless times, amid the smoke of incense, he made up his mind to make a name for himself, return home to worship his ancestors in glory, and make his ancestors proud of him.

"Ancestors, humph!" The staff lieutenant colonel snorted coldly, "Once you join this cult, you can no longer worship your ancestors. Worshiping your ancestors is disrespectful to the true God."

"What?" Mao Xinsheng roared, pointing his finger across the river, "They are all Han people. How can Han people not worship their ancestors?

No matter who you believe in, even if you believe in the Silent Mother, you still have to worship your ancestors. Without ancestors, where did you come from?

After thinking for a moment, Mao Xiangsheng yelled out a phrase he often heard from important people, "Unfilial! This is extremely unfilial. Extremely unfilial!"

Li Xianwen was also shocked by the scene. He began to understand why the emperor insisted on letting him, the prime minister and brother-in-law, come to the northwest.

"Attack! This is an opponent worthy of my serious consideration as the Grand Secretary."

"For a truly powerful opponent, giving it your all is the best respect!"

(End of this chapter)