The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 547: Ahom Kingdom, captured!

December 1782, 12. This was the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month in the seventh year of the Guangzhong reign of the Great Yu Emperor of China.

On the lawn in front of the Governor-General's Palace, New Fort William, Bengal.

Chen Lian, dressed in a bright red dragon robe that extended over his shoulders, was leading a large group of Chinese military attachés in various military uniforms to hold a banquet with British officers from New William Fort who were dressed in European-style uniforms.

Chen Lian, the Right General of the Dayu Army, also known as Chen Youjun, even grilled a large steak himself, which won warm applause from the audience.

The day before the banquet, the peace signing ceremony had just ended, and the two sides exchanged each other's prisoners, mainly the more than 600 English soldiers who surrendered in the Siege of Madras and Fort William.

At the same time, Chen Lian sent military officers to supervise the William Fort Provincial Government to strictly follow Zhonghua's requirements and burn about 17 million acres of opium fields.

What is the Poison King? This is the Poison King!

You should know that the arable land area in Williamburg Province at that time was estimated to be around 100 million mu, which means that almost 20% of the land was used to grow opium.

These opium and its extracts were intended to be sold to China in order to make up for England's long-standing huge trade deficit with China.

Chen Lian looked at Mo Gongyan, who was wearing a shoulder-length four-clawed python robe and had nearly had his skull ripped off during the naval battle, and said:
"Now I understand why Your Majesty went to such great lengths to fight this war in India. It wasn't for territory, nor for friendship with France, but to preserve trade."

Mo Gongyan was the third son of Emperor Mo Zibu's second brother, Duke of Cai Mo Zitong. The emperor was very happy after learning about his heroic deeds.

Therefore, Mo Gongyan has been granted the title of Marquis and was also given a four-clawed over-the-shoulder dragon robe. The robe was of the same rank as Chen Lian's and was one of the only two over-the-shoulder dragon robes in the army.

Hearing Chen Lian say this, Mo Gongyan nodded in agreement, "Just look at the amount of opium fields, and you will know how big these guys' hearts are and how anxious they are, but..."

Mo Gongyan touched his chin and lowered his voice, saying, "Master, we don't have enough manpower to supervise the burning of all the opium fields. I guess these Englishmen must not have burned half of them."

"No, no!" Chen Lian waved his hand, "I guess it's less than one-third, so when we go back, we have to tie the fence tightly.

We must not allow the opium and its products grown by the English in India to be sold back home, otherwise all the money we earn from our hard work growing tea and raising silkworms will be taken away by them."

At this time, humans had not yet realized how much harm opium and its ever-increasing derivative extracts would cause to humans.

Even someone like Chen Lian only regarded this thing as a special commodity that would cause the outflow of silver, so after a pause, he said with some regret:
“In fact, the easiest way to deal with the English is for us to plant one too.

There are plenty of mountainous areas suitable for opium production in the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi, the territories of Mubang and Mengyang, as well as the Principality of Lang and the Grand Duchy of Vientiane. We can easily grow this stuff all over.

The English can only grow it on the fertile land of the Gangetic Plain in Bengal. Let's see who has the greater price advantage!"

"Yes!" Mo Gongyan nodded. "Once the Indians get used to eating the longevity paste, we can sell it directly to India through Ahom Country. It will be another export-oriented industry."

Mo Zibu said remotely that this boy is not worthy of being consulted. In this era, only a very small number of people realize the harm of this thing. Most people just regard opium as the same level as cigarettes and betel nuts in later generations.

Therefore, Chen Lian revealed a look of great regret, "It's a pity that His Majesty did not agree at all. He even sent doctors from the Imperial Hospital to conduct experiments and investigate the addictive properties."

However, although he felt regretful, Chen Lian always obeyed the instructions of Emperor Mo Zibu unconditionally.

"Don't think about it, just follow the instructions. Since His Majesty has made such an arrangement, there must be a reason for it."

Just at this moment, Lieutenant General Su Fulang, the future Grand Admiral of the Navy of the Five Armies Commandery of Dayu, came over.

He saw the regret on Chen Lian's face and didn't hear what they were talking about, so he naturally thought that Chen Lian was regretting not being able to capture Fort New William.

Lieutenant General Su Fulang consoled them, saying, "The timing is still too immature. If the Chinese Empire develops for another fifteen to twenty years, it will be just the right time to attack India. We can completely conquer the entire country.

Now, it is still very difficult for us to build a bastion like New Fort William. Our goal has been achieved as long as we cooperate with France.

And there are no bastions like this, let alone in the East. I just received news that the siege of the Gibraltar fortress by the Kingdom of France and the Kingdom of Spain ended in failure.

Their army of 100,000 surrounded the Gibraltar fortress, which had only 6,000 defenders, but they still couldn't take it."

Lieutenant General Suffren has now become very skilled at identifying himself as a Chinese, because the emperor has given him so much that he has even decided not to return to France and wants to move his entire family here.

"Yes, you are right, Lieutenant General. Let's gather our strength and wait for the next time. Next time, Tianzhu will be ours.

Therefore, I still suggest that the Lieutenant General bring his family over from France. If he cannot adapt to the Chinese environment in the future, he can become a vassal in Bengal."

Hearing Chen Lian's words, Lieutenant General Su Fulang nodded. He knew that Chen Lian meant well.

This victory was so brilliant that a fledgling navy defeated the arrogant English navy. The results achieved were greater than if France and Spain had mobilized all their large ships to cross the English Channel for a surprise attack.

However, Lieutenant General Suffren's title, official position, and even military rank were not confirmed because his family was still in France.

Although Vice Admiral Suffren was a rare naval talent, the kind that was rare in the Kingdom of France, and was later called a French hero, France's nuclear submarine was the Suffren class.

His arrival will definitely help China truly join the ranks of maritime powers.

However, the titles of Grand Admiral of the Navy, Earl, and Admiral of the Five Military Commanderies of China are not worthless things, but rather have extremely high status.

If we don't count Jin Midi and Qibi Heli as outsiders, this is probably one of the highest official positions that foreigners have ever held in China since ancient times, so it is a very normal request for families to move to China.

"Gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today to welcome General Chen Lian, Duke of Yue State of the Chinese Empire and Admiral of the Imperial Navy and Army.

His Excellency the Admiral is an outstanding soldier and nobleman. His tolerance and kindness fully demonstrate the noble character of the Chinese Seres people and have brought peace to this land.

Now, please let us welcome His Excellency the Admiral to speak."

A British clerk who was fluent in vernacular served as the master of ceremonies for the banquet. During his somewhat corny speech, thunderous applause broke out, especially from the British women in New William Fort, whose hands were clapping until they were red.

Of course they had to thank Chen Lian. If Chen Lian had not agreed to sign the peace treaty, once Fort New William was breached, they would have suffered the same fate as the women of St. George's Bastion in Madras.

I heard that each of them was tortured to death by hundreds of Indians until they were no longer recognizable as human beings!

Amidst the applause, Chen Lian slowly walked to the center of the crowd. He looked around and saw that in addition to the English, there were also a large number of Indian princes and zamindars applauding.

Even more Indians are not qualified to applaud at all, they can only appear in this place as servants.

This is the treatment of slaves of a conquered nation. If China were to be conquered, we would surely suffer the same fate as the Indians.

Chen Lian sighed inwardly, but this was General Chen's mistake. There was no possibility of the subjugation of India, as it was just a geographical concept. At the same time, Chen Lian did not think about how terrifying his actions in India were.

This is especially true for the Zamindars who control the province of Fort William, mainly in the lower reaches of the Ganges.

They really came to applaud with a sense of relief that they had survived the disaster and finally lived from the hands of the big devil.

These Seris were so terrifying that in order to destroy the foundation of the William Fort provincial government, they took up their butcher knives and killed people all the way from the mouth of the Ganges to the upper reaches, killing at least more than 300 Zamindars.

If the peace treaty had not been signed, God knows how many of these poor locals would have been killed.

How could they not be happy?

"I thank Governor Warren Hastings for his hospitality. I would like to say that this is the beginning of the friendship between the Kingdom of England and the Chinese Empire, between His Majesty King George III and His Majesty the Emperor Guangzhong of China.

If both of us can abide by our agreement, peace between the Kingdom of England and the Chinese Empire will be preserved forever."

Hearing what Chen Lian said, thunderous applause rang out again. Only the French and Dutch serving in the Indian Expeditionary Force Combined Fleet curled their lips in unison.

Permanent peace?

Humph, you’d be lucky if you could last fifteen years!
Not far away, Major General Peter Melville, a Dutchman who had decided to become a Chinese citizen and was awarded the title of Baron of China for his meritorious service in commanding artillery battles on the Zhang Huangyan, was telling jokes about the British to Cai Qian, who had already achieved the rank of colonel.

"See? The Indians here are all fair-skinned, high-caste people. They leave New William Castle and become masters in various villages."

Cai Qian's mouth dropped open. "Isn't this outrageous? Why would the British use gentry as handymen in this kind of situation?"

Major General Peter Melville chuckled, "This is the current situation in India. They adhere to strict caste rules.

According to the rules of India, in such occasions where all the people are of high caste, even the servants can only be of bankrupt high caste, and the lowest Vaishya cannot be used.

The English did not know this at the time. They thought low caste meant servants, so they used a large number of Vaishyas when holding banquets.

This immediately angered all the Indian princes who came to the banquet, as they thought the British were humiliating them.

Even though the English later gave a special explanation for this, the princes of these princely states still refused to forgive because they felt that these British people had been contaminated by the lower castes and were no longer clean.

As a result, the Fort William Provincial Government and the British East India Company were forced to replace a group of grassroots employees from the mainland, and the Indian princes finally stopped making trouble.

"Damn it!" Cai Qian was stunned. After a long while, he said, "Although I think this system is definitely backward, if you let me be a high-caste master here, I think I would be willing."

. . . .

The officers held a banquet in Fort William, and the soldiers below were also saying goodbye to many lower-class Indian people.

To be honest, although the military discipline of the Indian Expedition Army is okay, they haven't been home for more than four years. No matter how good the military discipline is, it is only relative, and their temper will not be very good either.

But even such an army still won the favor and even respect of a large number of Indian people.

Although these dark-skinned Indians have been domesticated by the Indian religion and turned into real slaves, they also know what is good and what is bad.

Although the military discipline of the Indian Expedition Army is average, the object of comparison is so abstract, even personified.

Qin San left the village where he had taken two vacations. Two Indian men took turns pushing the wheelbarrow promoted by the Indian Expedition Army for him. The wheelbarrow was filled with Qin San's harvest.

It is a rather large statue, a little heavy, and although it appears to be gilded, it is still very valuable, for it is made of copper plated with gold.

Although Dayu implemented the new silver dollar policy at this time, it had not yet started the reform of copper coins. Therefore, the copper in the private sector could still be directly valued as money.

The rest were some valuable cloths and miscellaneous gold and silver items, all of which were searched out from the home of Chai Mingdar, who was stabbed to death by Qin San himself.

In India, even a high-caste Zamindar in a village may be a family that has been passed down for hundreds of years and has quite a bit of savings.

"Master, please take Abani away. He will never have a future in Bengal. Let him follow you, even if it means being a slave."

The woman whom Qin San loved the most cried and sent her younger brother Abani to Qin San again.

This little Indian boy named Abani is seventeen years old. He is not as dark as his sister, so although he can be seen as an Indian, he is not that conspicuous.

Qin San took several deep breaths. He really wanted to refuse, but this woman was exactly what he wanted. She served him so well that he was completely ecstatic.

And Qin San was still a Guangxi monkey a few years ago. Not to mention being served by such a black beauty, he couldn't even lick an ordinary young black widow.

Therefore, he had not yet developed the shamelessness to pull up his pants and ignore people, and he really could not bear to refuse.

Just when Qin San was struggling, the former team leader Huang Renyong and his comrade Hu Quan happened to pass by. They also got a few wheelbarrows full of valuables.

"How about this, you take this woman with you, and then apply to go to Ahom." Huang Renyong gave Qin San an idea.

The Ahom Kingdom is located in the northeast of India, close to the Mengyang Xuanweishi. Going there does not count as entering the country.

"What are we going to Ahom for?" Qin San didn't quite understand. He was just a captain and didn't have access to certain information.

"In this peace treaty, the British acknowledged that the entire northeastern part of India was ours. In this part of northeastern India, the Ahom Kingdom was founded by the chieftains of Yunnan.

His Majesty has already ordered the Ahom King, Sushifa, to come to Yingtian Prefecture for an audience, and has therefore also ordered our expeditionary force to send two companies as celestial soldiers to station in Sibu Sagar, the Ahom capital."

Hu Quan saw that Qin San was a little hesitant and said to him, "Ahongmu was originally founded by the son of the Tusi King of Luchuan. It is a Dai country and can be considered one of ours.

The climate in Ahom is quite cool, you should be able to adapt to it when you go there.

The main thing is that for those who choose to go this time, their merit will be double the usual amount. They won’t have to fight, just being stationed there will earn them merit.”

"Okay, I'll sign up to go to Ahom." After hearing what Hu Quan said, Qin San immediately nodded in agreement.

Because he knew that with Hu Quan's knowledge, if he said there was a way, then there must be a way.

(End of this chapter)