The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 538: Xining City Falls, Visitors from Ryukyu

Hehuang Valley, Xining Prefecture.

This is one of the earliest civilized regions on the Chinese mainland. It is also an important grain production base in the northwest and the most core area in the entire Qinghai.

If we go back eight or nine hundred years, or even more than a thousand years, this place was not only extremely rich, but also a battleground for military strategists.

Han people and Qiang people, Tang people and Tubo people.

These three ancestral origins can be traced back to the major Chinese clans in this area, where they have been loving and fighting each other for thousands of years. There have been both heroic deeds and bloody disputes.

However, as the Han people continued to open up more fertile lands to the south and the climate changed dramatically, the Hehuang Valley gradually changed from a place that the Han people had to fight for to a scrap of the Han people.

This was also an important reason why the Han people lost the northwest.

With better places to go, the number of Han people willing to stay in the Northwest, where conditions are much worse, gradually decreased. At least the main force of the Han people no longer existed in this land.

Therefore, the problem of rapid greening of this area cannot be solved by relying solely on spontaneous initiatives by the people. It requires strong promotion from the king and the court.

The army had been besieging Xining City for three months. After the emperor issued an order to annihilate the rebel army, Li Xianwen immediately took action.

Even though supplies were extremely tight and mobilization was extremely difficult, the Xia Guogong government still completed all the logistical preparations required for the army on time.

Wang Wubing personally went to the front line. It was easy to capture Hezhou (Linxia) and Bayanrongge Hall (Xunhua) along the way, but when he arrived at Xining Prefecture, the difficulty suddenly increased.

The rebels are not pushovers either. Xining City is managed very tightly. After all, it is a rebel lair that can be compared with Jinjibao in Ningxia Prefecture.

The place where the rebel army resisted most fiercely was the northwest corner of Xining City.

There is a grand and solemn Muslim temple here, where is buried Mahatum Khoja, who claimed to be the 30th-generation grandson of Mahmud, but was actually a Central Asian Uzbek and the cousin of the rebellious elder and younger Khojas.

This person fled here to seek refuge when the Dzungars still controlled the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains. He eventually died here, and his grave was regarded as a holy tomb by some radical rebel troops.

Boom!Boom!
The sound of a vibrating bowstring was heard, and a Qinghai Eleuth Mongolian archer who had just emerged from the trench fell backwards.

The arrow was shot very accurately and went straight into the archer's right eye. It penetrated very deep into the flesh and might even have pierced into the brain.

Sure enough, after struggling on the ground like an earthworm for a few times, the archer soon fell into a coma due to the severe pain. Only his lips were still trembling slightly. It seemed that he was not going to survive.

And there was another loud laugh from the city wall. This sharpshooter in the rebel army was very powerful and had already shot and killed more than fifteen people here, including many masters who came to challenge him.

For example, this Eleuth Mongol who just stopped breathing.

"Where's Captain Mao? Let Captain Mao come!"

I don't know who started shouting angrily, and soon the shouting spread throughout the battlefield, and the shouts of "Where is Captain Mao, where is Captain Mao" were heard everywhere.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the tall and thin Mao Xiangxin was surrounded and came to the trench where the Mongolian archers had just been defeated and sacrificed.

As a typical talented sharpshooter, although Mao Xiangxin was born in the town army and was originally just a farmer in the countryside, he quickly made a name for himself.

Some things in this world, especially those involving talent, are often so weird.

Others spent ten or twenty taels of silver on lead bullets and gunpowder, and their shooting skills were just good enough to be selected into the elite archery army.

Mao Xiangxin, however, was too stingy to spend money on buying extra lead bullets and gunpowder for himself, but he made rapid progress and soon became one of the few sharpshooters in the entire army.

"Lao Xin, can you do it?" Mao Xiangxin's immediate superior, a guerrilla general named Wang, looked at him with some concern.

If Mao Xiangxin was shot to death, it would be a huge blow to the entire army.

Mao Xiangxin certainly knew this, but he was very confident. He just felt that the other side could not beat him. "Don't worry, the person who can kill me, Mao Xiangxin, has not been born yet."

After saying that, Mao Xiangxin picked up his old rifle, crouched down and continued to run forward from the trench.

Along the way, he deliberately made noises to let the other side know he was coming.

On the city wall, an old man with a small white hat and a face full of wrinkles was glancing down through a tiny gap with his peripheral vision.

Hearing the noise, he took off his little white hat and handed it to the young man closest to him.

Beads of sweat immediately broke out on the young man's forehead, but he didn't dare to refuse. After the old man waved his hand suddenly, he suddenly appeared on the top of the city wall with a bow in his hand.

"Bang!" Before the young man could draw his bow, gunshots rang out from the opposite side.

The old man showed a ferocious smile on his face, and then he suddenly pushed the young man away and aimed at the direction he had noticed a long time ago.

Since you have already opened fire, I'm sorry, you are dead!
but.

The old man, who still had a grim smile on his face, suddenly realized something was wrong.

Because the young man he had just knocked away was not a limp corpse, but a young body that was obviously unharmed.

Could it be that the person coming over here is a chick?
However, just as this thought arose in the old man's mind, he saw a face with a half-smile under the city wall, and a long-barreled musket in the hand of the body with this face.

The two sides were more than two hundred meters apart. Normally, it was impossible for the old man to see the other person's face clearly, but at this moment, the old man felt as if he could see it.

Mao Xiangxin smiled foolishly, and at his feet was a pistol that had just been fired, still emitting a faint blue smoke.

It seemed like a long time, but in fact it was just a moment, even less than a second. Mao Xiangxin didn't even need to aim, he just raised his hand and fired.

He knew he would hit it.

On the city wall, the old man knew he was dead before he even let go of the bowstring.

Sure enough, the sound of a gunshot came first, and almost at the same time, a lead bullet flew over rapidly and hit the old man's forehead heavily.

The old man's neck was shaken by the huge impact, his hand lost its accuracy, and the arrow was shot somewhere unknown.

Several soldiers who were also wearing hats came over and shouted in fear to catch the old man who fell on his back.

But they were dismayed to find that the old man was only twitching stiffly like an epileptic, with blood all over his face, and it looked like he was not going to survive.

"Well done, haha, it's you, the sharpshooter Captain Mao, who took action. I don't even want to let you go back to Liang's army!" Guerrilla Wang was overjoyed. While excited, he did not forget to deploy troops.

"Pull that 24-pounder over here and pile up the dirt to create an elevation angle. We're out of marksmen now, so fire hard!"

Well, among the fifteen people killed by the old guy on the city wall, six were gunners. Now that the old guy is finally killed, we can naturally start bombarding.

"Hahahaha, he's indeed a master. The emperor is willing to send even such a figure to the west. It seems he really wants to give those Uzbeks a good beating."

Ma Zongshan from the Weibei Ma family laughed out loud. He just wanted Mao Xiangxin to marry his daughter and niece, a total of three people, and he was also willing to follow Mao Xiangxin's surname Mao.

"From now on, everyone will have the surname Mao and go west!" Ma Zongshan said happily.

As for going west to deal with his former brothers in the sect, Ma Zongshan didn't feel awkward or wrong at all.

After all, the environment in which Muslims originated was a region where fighting and robbery were very frequent, and robbery was not considered to be immoral.

As one of their famous poems says, 'We plunder by trade, plunder our enemies and our neighbors. If there is no one to plunder, we plunder our brothers.'

When Xining Prefecture was about to be captured and the chaos in the northwest was about to end completely, the Lin family in Houguan County, Fuzhou Prefecture, was holding a grand banquet.

The current Houguan Lin family is very powerful, even more prosperous than the Lin Zexu Lin Wen Zhonggong in history.

After all, although Lin Wen Zhong Gong was a national hero, had a very successful official career, and was a big shot among the literati, his contribution to the entire Houguan Lin family was not very great.

But this time and space are different. The third-ranked cabinet minister, the Grand Secretary of Jianji Palace, Houguan Bolin Qiaoyin was the first hero who followed the emperor. He was highly regarded by the emperor and had great affection for his hometown.

In addition, under the influence of Lin Qiaoyin, many people from the Houguan Lin family went to join the emperor when he was still in Southeast Asia, and a large number of them were granted titles and became military generals.

The most representative of them is Wanlong Junberin Tonghuo, who was promoted to earl two years ago.

This was a powerful vassal who controlled thirteen indigenous tribes on Nanji Island, a city of 30,000 people, and had more than 20,000 Chinese people under his command.

The reason why it is so lively today is that the banquet being held is for the eldest daughter of Wanlong Junbo Lin Tonghuo, who has been raised by the eldest branch of the Houguan Lin family.

Lin Tonghuo's son-in-law is Ye Mingyue, the eldest son of Ye Xiancai, the cousin of Concubine Ye De, who holds two viscountships.

And even Ye Mingyue is not simple. He is one of the first batch of students to study in Dayu Rufa. After returning, he went to various places for internship and his abilities are outstanding.

Today, Ye Mingyue controls fifteen gunboats and is also the first-level agent of Ningbo Port of Fuxing Company. It is said that the gunboats in his hands were specially approved by the emperor and used for the eastern expedition to Japan.

Such a strong alliance's return banquet naturally attracted many guests and was a grand scene.

However, Ye Mingyue, one of the protagonists, did not entertain the guests outside, but was talking in the inner room with a man who had a very stiff accent and obvious Japanese characteristics.

"The Wu family is so bold! Do they really think that the great China can't even deal with the Satsuma clan and the Shimazu clan?

Or do they think that it is impossible for His Majesty to drive out the Tartars and restore the country?"

Ye Mingyue's voice was somewhat sinister, he was indeed very angry.

The Wu family he mentioned is the famous Wu family, one of the 36 surnames of the Fujian people in Ryukyu.

The Wu family is doing very well in Ryukyu and is already a branch of the Ryukyu royal family. Strictly speaking, their surname is now Xiang.

Ye Mingyue's original idea was to rely on the Wu family to find a breakthrough, because they had a great influence in Ryukyu and had a close relationship with the Satsuma domain, so they could lure (cheat) the Satsuma navy out.

Ye Mingyue's plan was to destroy or capture the main force of the Saman Navy, force the Satsuma Domain to surrender, and eventually use the Satsuma Domain to pry open the Japanese Kingdom.

As a result, the Wu family turned around and sold Ye Mingyue, causing him to fail to capture the Satsuma navy in his two voyages. Instead, the Satsuma clan strengthened its defense in Ryukyu.

Well, this is Ye Mingyue's first big setback, as he is considered to be very capable and has had a smooth career since his debut. How could he not be angry?

The people from Ryukyu who had been able to hold on and talk to Ye Mingyue, suddenly became boneless and slid down from their chairs when they heard Ye Mingyue accusing them of genocide.

"Gentleman, please give us another chance. We, the thirty-six surnames, are willing to clean up our mess."

"Give you another chance, another chance to betray Lin Bai?" A vassal viscount from Quanzhou who had also invested a large sum of money started cursing angrily.

"It's too late. Someone must pay the price this time!"

(End of this chapter)