The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 595: Twelve Years of Earth-shaking Change

Quang Nam Province, Quang Ninh Prefecture, Ha Long District.

The eldest prince's carriage had not arrived yet, but civil and military officials headed by Guangnan Governor Chen Shaochang and Guangnan Admiral Deng Tingjia had already arrived early to wait.

As a province that was pulled back to Middle-earth by the emperor for only more than ten years, Guangnan is no different from Middle-earth.

The Han-Nom characters that were once seen everywhere have completely disappeared, and even the accents are changing rapidly.

This was not only because Emperor Mo Zibu moved hundreds of thousands of his fellow countrymen from western Guangdong to Guangnan, but also because the Guangnan dialect was really too unpleasant to hear.

This kind of accent, which sounds like someone holding a pebble in their mouth and makes them squeak and whine, makes people know at once that you are not Chinese.

Therefore, the generation of people who grew up in the Dayu Dynasty in Guangnan Province are very reluctant to speak the Guangnan dialect. Their accent is rapidly approaching the Minnan dialect of the Leiqiong area in western Guangdong.

So now Guangnan is very funny in terms of culture and accent. The two million Beijing-Han people are led by the 400,000 people from western Guangdong.

Asen was traveling from Guangzhou to Guangning by horse carriage. At that time, sea vessels were still somewhat unsafe, and the officials in Guangdong would never dare to let Asen take the ship, so he had to travel by land.

So Asen also took the time to return to his hometown, Haikang County. Oh, it has now been renamed Xingtang Shenglong Prefecture.

But Asen was not very happy, because Thang Long Mansion was very, uh, not to say dilapidated, but it had a desolate feeling and was not very popular.

The reason was that his father, Emperor Mo, moved all his fellow villagers from western Guangdong to the Beihe Plain (Honghe Plain) in Guangnan to enjoy a better life.

The original plan was that the folks from western Guangdong would go to the Beihe Plain to enjoy their lives, and then move to other places, especially from Fujian, the ancestral home of many people from western Guangdong.

As a result, few people are interested in the poor mountains and bad waters of western Guangdong. Many people would rather go to Southeast Asia or Taiwan than go to the mountainous areas of western Guangdong.

There were only 800,000 to 900,000 people in western Guangdong. After almost half of them moved away, the rest basically came down from the mountains.

This resulted in a large number of previously cultivated fields on the slopes quickly becoming barren, to the point that many towns that originally had a population of one or two thousand were abandoned.

This is why Arsen feels desolate and lacks a bit of humanity.

But after the carriage arrived in Guangnan, Asen became happy again, because everywhere he looked, there were vast tracts of fertile fields.

Even if you pass by a small village, there will be a large number of people who can speak the Leiqiong dialect of Minnan dialect coming out to worship on the roadside.

"This is all thanks to Your Majesty. Guangnan has not been part of the country for over three hundred years since it was abandoned during the reign of Emperor Xuande. Now, in just over ten years, it has achieved the same level as Guangdong and Guangxi. It's simply a miracle."

Wang Zhenyi looked at the beautiful scenery outside and the people of Guangnan who were exactly the same as the people of Guangdong and Guangxi, and couldn't help but sigh.

Mo Zibu didn't think much of taking back Annan, and neither did the people who followed him back from Southeast Asia. But to the people in mainland China, who were originally ruled by the Qing Dynasty, this was truly shocking.

What's more, the recovery was so smooth and basically no problems occurred. It was completely different from the constant security battles after the recovery of Annan during the reign of Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty.

Asen looked around and saw that not many people were paying attention. He then leaned over to Wang Zhenyi's ear and said, "Sister Wang, do you know who, besides my father, has the greatest contribution to Guangnan's stability?"

Wang Zhenyi shook her head. "I really don't know. Hehe, it can't be you, Your Highness."

Asen lowered his voice, looked into the distance, and imitating his father Mo Zibu, he said in a low voice: "It is Deng Chenchang's credit that Guangnan can be what it is now!"

So, Asen roughly recounted what Deng Chenchang had done during his eight years as the Governor of Guangnan and the Governor-General of Liangnan.

Wang Zhenyi was so frightened that her eyes opened wide and her face turned pale. It took her a long time to come back to her senses.

"So that's how it is, so that's how it is. There are over a hundred thousand people here, at least fifty to sixty thousand of whom belong to local powerful families that have a long tradition of poetry and etiquette. They are really capable of such a move.

No wonder Your Majesty spared the life of Deng Zhitai, even though he embezzled millions of silver dollars and killed dozens of people. This is how he earned the title of Guangnan Lai Junchen.

Seeing that Wang Zhenyi was a little scared, Asen stopped talking. You have to know that what Deng Chenchang did in Guangnan was more than what he said.

To relocate 300,000 to 400,000 people from western Guangdong to the most fertile land in the Beihe Plain and to restore their accent within ten years is not something that can be accomplished simply by killing people.

Moreover, if Beihe really had tens of thousands of such tough guys, how could the emperor's tens of thousands of soldiers at that time have easily entered Beihe.

In fact, in the later period of Deng Chenchang in Beihe, he deliberately forced the Guangnan clans who did not rely on him to go to a desperate situation and cause trouble.

Then they used this as an excuse to eliminate them by killing or exiling them, and then distributed their good land to the emperor's fellow countrymen from western Guangdong.

Moreover, after the last king of the Later Le Dynasty, Le Vie Tho, and others who defected to the Qing Dynasty were captured in Youjiang, Guangxi, it was Deng Chenchang who led people to secretly execute them in Gaoping.

All these combined are the fundamental reasons why Deng, Chen and Chang will not fall.

If the emperor doesn't protect such a person, how could anyone dare to work wholeheartedly for him?

Thirteen-year-old Asen understood this principle, as did Chen Shaochang, the forty-one-year-old Guangnan governor and Deng Chenchang's brother-in-law.

This man, who was born in the Haiyang Chen family, was a descendant of the former Annan Chen Dynasty and the Xingdao King Chen Guojun who defeated the Mongols.

After the emperor allowed him to take office as the governor of Guangnan with the additional title of Minister of Personnel, Chen Shaochang changed his ancestral home to Zhangzhou, Fujian.

Because it is said that the ancestor of the Haiyang Chen family fled from Zhangzhou, Fujian to Annan.

During his four years in Guangnan, although he did not carry out fishing enforcement like Deng, Chen and Chang, or even outright frame people, he continued and even strengthened other policies.

So in Guangnan today, if you can't speak Mandarin, or at least can't speak the Hokkien dialect and Cantonese vernacular of the Leiqiong area, you can't go to the government office to file a complaint.

Because no one in the yamen could speak Guangnan dialect, or at least they pretended not to speak Guangnan dialect.

Then they won't understand what you are saying, and naturally they won't stand up for you or solve your problem.

"Your Highness, Guangnan has sufficient manpower. This year's coal production has almost tripled compared to last year. Everyone, from top to bottom, has made a fortune thanks to the coal and iron industry, and life is very easy."

After the imperial carriage arrived, Guangnan Governor Chen Shaochang hurried over to report the good news and commend his achievements. This was the most important reason why he did not allow people in the yamen to speak Guangnan dialect.

Coal and iron require a large amount of labor, but the emperor's fellow villagers in western Guangdong who live on the Beihe Plain and the high-ranking families in Beijing and Han who are deeply bound to the emperor will naturally not become this labor force.

So where do so many people come from who would do coal mining work where there is at least seven chances of life and three chances of death, and the average life expectancy does not exceed 40 years?
Naturally, it was the Guangnan natives who made up the largest number of people. Now, many of the coal mine owners in Guangnan basically organized their own small armed groups to capture people, and once they were caught, they were shackled and thrown into the coal mines.

The government offices were basically closed to those who could not speak Mandarin, the Leiqiong dialect of Minnan, or Cantonese, thus preventing them from filing complaints.

I didn't see anyone persecuting you, so you must not have been persecuted.

Asen smiled and nodded, pretending to praise him a few times. He also had some idea of where those who were going to rebel had gone when Guangnan was forced to change its culture and language.

It is said that when the Ming Dynasty ruled Annan, if there were today's large coal mines as human extraction machines, the Annan people would probably have stopped resisting long ago, because their blood and flesh would have been squeezed dry by the coal mines.

"Your Highness, the Hoang En Steelworks is the largest steelworks in Halong Port. It has 137 craftsmen and over 3,000 workers, producing 35,000 tons of wrought iron and refined steel annually."

Liu Zhisan, CEO of Fuxing Company, explained to Asen in detail that in Dayu at that time, the status of craftsmen and workers was completely different. The former was roughly equivalent to engineers and had technical skills, while the latter was simply a manual laborer who did hard labor.

When Asen heard that the Royal Steel Plant alone could produce 35,000 tons a year, he raised his head in shock.

This number is very terrifying.

Historically, the entire Qing Dynasty's steel production at this time was estimated to be around 170,000 tons, Britain's was about 350,000 tons, and France's was 200,000 tons.

In other words, the Royal Steel Works alone accounted for one-tenth of the output of a world-class power like Britain, while the output of China Dayu was about 250,000 tons, accounting for about 15%.

"Steel is indeed as valuable as gold and silver!" Asen sighed.

Because according to the data from the Huang'en Steel Plant, more than 3,000 people produce 35,000 tons of steel a year, which means that each person's hard work in a year only produces about 10 tons of steel, and less than one ton of steel is produced each month.

And this only counts the steel mill workers, not the coal miners and the manpower spent on transporting coal and iron ore to the steel mill.

It is also the most efficient steel plant in Halong Iron and Steel Plant, close to 70% of Zhang Zhidong's Hanyeping in later generations.

Arsen suddenly became more excited about the side-blown converter steelmaking method, because at this production efficiency, let alone his father's wish to build a railway to the Western Regions, it was still unknown whether he could even see it in his lifetime.

In the distance, the rumbling sound of production could be heard continuously. The black smoke from the steel plant was mercilessly emitted into the sky. The falling black coal dust made the entire Huang'en Factory look like a large coal mine, dirty everywhere.

At the factory gate, many people were like ants, pulling the iron ore from the port purely by manpower.

Compared with the coal and iron base in Liaodong, Guangnan has a huge disadvantage, which is that its livestock transportation capacity is very insufficient.

Not only because there are not many horses raised in Lingnan, but also because the weather is hot, the livestock's tolerance and average working hours are much shorter than those in the Northeast.

Don’t mention that there are also hardworking Yunnan horses in the south. Although the main production areas of Yunnan horses, Yunnan and Guizhou, are also in the south, and there are tropical areas like Xishuangbanna, in fact, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau is not very hot, and is completely different from the Beihe Plain in Guangnan.

Therefore, at this time in Halong Port, most of the iron ore transportation from the port to the factory relies on manpower.

"Chen Tianguan, Guangnan's manpower isn't really enough, right?"

Asen looked at all this and with just a quick calculation, he knew that with Guangnan's population base, it was impossible for Halong Port to have such a large output while also having sufficient human resources.

Chen Shaochang was slightly stunned. He did not expect the eldest prince to react so quickly and see through the subtleties. So he smiled bitterly and said:

"If production increases further, there will indeed be insufficient manpower, and it will be difficult to supplement it from other places."

He added meaningfully, "Now that Guangnan's culture and education are gradually flourishing, there are fewer people willing to do the hard labor."

Well, the natives of Guangnan are not fools. If they can't speak Mandarin, Leiqiong Hokkien, Cantonese, etc., they will be captured by you, Lord Chen, and forced to work as cattle and horses. So why don't they learn it quickly?

When they learned Chinese, they proved that they were Han Chinese and could file complaints everywhere, treating Han Chinese as cattle, horses and slaves. However, this was a serious crime and even the government could not handle it.

“Your Highness, there are only three ways to solve this problem.

One is to improve steelmaking methods and increase efficiency.

The second is the further development of steam engines. Steam engines are needed whether it is to drain water from coal mines and iron mines or to transport ore to factories.

For example, if the steam engine had enough horsepower, it would be possible to build a dedicated railway from the port to the factory, or even install the steam engine on a ship to improve the efficiency of transporting iron ore from Qiong Island to Halong Port.

Finally, there is the improvement of gunpowder. If there is more powerful and stable gunpowder, the difficulty and manpower of mining will be further reduced.

The manpower saved in these three areas can be released back into the production process of the steel plant, which will not only significantly increase output but also greatly reduce costs."

These three points are Wang Zhenyi's strengths, and these researchers at the Imperial Academy do just that.

Her words aroused warm applause.

Many coal and iron factory owners who followed them cast enthusiastic glances at Wang Zhenyi and the Imperial College graduate students around her, wishing that they could figure out all of this immediately.

"Yes, that's right!" Asen nodded repeatedly. "Wu Wenyao and Qian Duo should also come here. It's very unreasonable for them to study the application of steam engines far away from where they are most needed."

Arsen, who was quite smart, immediately realized the important reason why the research on Dayu steam engine had been progressing slowly.

Research and needs are not well aligned. Researchers are imaginative and unrealistic, completely for the sake of titles and glory, rather than for practical considerations. How can this work?

"Chen Tianguan, President Liu, I will write a memorial to the Emperor explaining all of this. I hope you two can provide more detailed data."

Chen Shaochang and Liu Zhisan quickly nodded in agreement.

Then Asen looked at Deng Tingjia, who had just returned from Japan after making merit and was immediately promoted to the governor of Guangnan.

"General Deng, I heard that there has been a famine in the Principality of Lang, the Grand Duchy of Vientiane, and the Principality of Sai recently. I think some of the manpower can be used to solve the problem from these three vassal states."

Well, there are quite a few people from the Three Kingdoms in Vientiane, about 800,000 to 900,000, and most of them don’t speak Chinese, so they can be captured as substitutes.

As expected of the future emperor, at only thirteen years old, Arsen's heart is very typical of an emperor.

(End of this chapter)