The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 659: Sun and Moon Flags on the Mermaid Port

There was a small mistake in Mo Tianci's intelligence. Mo Zirong's son, his good grandson, had not arrived in Xingang (Singapore), but was still in Hanchuan Province (Lower Burma).

After all, as a prince who was born and raised in Europe and whose only bloodline is Chinese, it is impossible for Mo Gongze not to be interested in the current situation of Britain and France's overseas colonies.

So after arriving in Ceylon, this guy did not choose to enter the South Seas directly from the Strait of Malacca, but went to Trincomalee, the Dutch colony on Ceylon and the French local administration in India.

Of course, the most important was British India, all of which he had sent people to visit, and he even wanted to visit Portuguese Goa.

However, because time was really tight and his father Mo Zirong had brought disaster to the Portuguese Princess Mariana Victoria, which caused the Portuguese to dislike them both, he gave up.

Wherever Mo Gongze went along the way, he received an extremely warm welcome. The Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, the Governor-General of French India, and the Governor-General of British India all came to receive him in person.

The European ladies and girls in these three places were almost crazy, and admirers waited outside the hotel where he was staying all night.

At that time in Europe, nobles were like gods, and the common people had to look up to them. Even in later generations, many Europeans still regarded nobles as noble people favored by God.

Therefore, someone like Mo Gongze, who carries the blood of two great empires and inherits ancient blood, is definitely an extremely noble figure in the eyes of ordinary Europeans.

In terms of personal qualities, in addition to Mo Gongze's shrewd mind and demeanor, his appearance is also impeccable.

Because his father, Mo Zirong, is considered to be elegant and handsome among tens of millions of Chinese people.

Otherwise, he might have turned into a humanoid self-propelled artillery in Europe. Emperor Mo Zibu only looked at his appearance and decided to throw him into the European bed to open up new territories, and he was sure that he could succeed.

Mo Gongze's mother, Archduchess Maria Elizabeth, was the most beautiful of all Queen Theresa's daughters and the jewel of the Habsburg family. She was far more beautiful than Queen Antoinette of France, who fascinated Mozart.

Although she was disfigured to a certain extent by the attack of smallpox virus, only beauty can be inherited, and smallpox is not hereditary.

Especially since Mo Gongze is a mixed-race child of Eastern and Western descent. Children like this either have the weaknesses of both races, or they have the advantages of both, resulting in a super handsome guy.

Mo Gongze is the latter. He combines the advantages of both sides. When he was a few years old, he was a famous golden boy in the European royal family. Now that he has come to the territory of these European leftovers, it would be strange if he did not cause a sensation among the whole city.

After spending five wonderful days in Fort William, Mo Gongze started his journey to his homeland.

And once again he did not choose to go through the Strait of Malacca, but instead followed the coast and boarded a small steam freighter of the British East India Company to the Kingdom of Arakan and Hanchuan Province (Lower Burma).

In the Kingdom of Arakan, Mo Gongze saw a small country that had become a playground for big countries.

Here, native Arakanese people have no status at all, and even their king has little status.

At the top were the Celestial Empire people from China, who monopolized most of the fertile land and ports of the Arakan Kingdom.

The second class was the British who came from India.

The third class is the Chinese vassal states. The three thousand Burmese troops placed here by the Burmese King Meng Yun, and at the bottom are the Arakan natives.

The Arakanese people were already in great hardship carrying these three huge mountains, and hundreds of thousands of them were struggling on the brink of starvation.

At Jiaoren Port (Kyaukpyu Port), warships of the South China Fleet's South China Sea Squadron shuttled across the sea like flying birds. The navy's blue flag with a golden sun and moon was everywhere, not only on the warships, but also on the forts and houses in the port.

The whistling sea breeze made the flags fly high, demonstrating the unshakable authority of the Chinese Empire here.

The one who came to greet Mo Gongze and his half-brother Karl Albrecht was the commander of the Outer South China Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral, General Dinghai Chen Tianbao.

At that time, Chen Tianbao, together with Mo Guanfu, Liang Wengeng, Fan Wencai and others, drove the third-class battleship Friendship and participated in the American War of Independence as an ally of France.

The Friendship performed well in the naval battle in which France attempted to launch a surprise attack on England, the Battle of Savannah in North America, the Battle of Chesapeake Bay, and the final decisive Battle of Yorktown.

After returning to their country, this new generation basically became the backbone of the Imperial Navy.

"Welcome, His Royal Highness the Prince of Lu!" Chen Tianbao was neither enthusiastic nor cold.

"Jiaoren Port is the Empire's most important military base in Southeast Asia. I am bound by military duties and cannot accompany you at all times. Therefore, your itinerary in Kyaukpyu Port will be managed by Lieutenant Colonel Zhao."

After a brief greeting, Chen Tianbao only took Mo Gongze for a tour of the military port. He also rejected Mo Gongze's request to board the squadron's main battleship - the Daming-class second-class steam sailing battleship Lu Xiangsheng, and immediately threw Mo Gongze to the accompanying lieutenant colonel officer and left.

Chen Tianbao didn't care about a mere prince. If Prince Lu Mo Zirong was here, he would probably welcome him with the highest etiquette. After all, His Royal Highness Prince Lu was a meritorious minister of the empire.

As for this prince, in such a tense war preparation, it is good enough that he sent a lieutenant colonel to be in charge of the reception.

He also wanted to go and take a look at the latest Lu Xiangsheng. What a joke! The Imperial Navy is funded directly by the royal family. It's just missing the word "royal" in its title. Except for His Majesty and the Crown Prince, no one else is qualified to let Chen Tianbao accompany him to inspect the warship.

Mo Gongze instantly fell from the euphoria of being admired by thousands of people and charming everyone in the past few days.

He scratched his chin somewhat unconsciously. This was a small action that Mo Gongze, who always paid great attention to his image, would make when he encountered extremely embarrassing situations.

Fortunately, the attendant, Lieutenant Colonel Zhao, was very enthusiastic, introduced everything along the way, and his words and deeds were also very humorous, which slightly alleviated Mo Gongze's slight dissatisfaction and embarrassment.

On the other hand, his half-brother Karl Albrecht, who was only twenty days younger than him, was very calm.

The little guy doesn't even have the qualifications to add M after Karl Albrecht, let alone Mo Gong X.

He was eagerly waiting to arrive in the capital, so that the emperor's fifth uncle could include him in the genealogy of the Dayu royal family, so that he could use this as a basis to fight for a good background in Europe.

As for an illegitimate child, he could naturally let it go. He even felt that being received by a lieutenant colonel of the Imperial Navy was a high standard.

“Your Highness, the construction of Jiaoren Port began eight years ago. The imperial court conscripted over 60,000 Arakanese and 30,000 Burmese, spending millions of silver dollars to build it into the empire’s most important stronghold in Southeast Asia.

Mr. Cai Defu, the director and CEO of Hanchuan Feiyang Company, who will be hosting the prince's banquet, is the largest contractor for the construction of Jiaoren Port.

With the attentive reception of Lieutenant Colonel Zhao and the comfort of his half-brother, Mo Gongze quickly got rid of the embarrassment and restored his previous composure.

As soon as he heard it, he knew that President Cai Defu not only had a strong background, but was also very capable, because ordinary people could not contract such a large project, nor could they arrange the work of nearly 100,000 people properly.

Especially the latter. There are many people in this world who are rich and have connections, but there are very few people who have money and connections and can get things done well.

Sure enough, when we arrived at the residence of Chief Executive Cai Defu in Jiaoren Port, we found that this guy had established a relationship with Mo Gongze.

"Back in Hoi An, we Mingxiang people fought tooth and nail to support Your Majesty. The King of Guangnan sent troops to threaten us several times, but we drove them out every time at the insistence of Grandpa Luo.

At that time, Lord Chen, the Duke of Jiading, hid in a cellar with me to avoid inspection by the Guangnan soldiers. Every time Lord Chen ate, I, a young child, would sneak in through a small hole in the back kitchen and bring it to him.

It turns out that Cai Defu was not only from Mingxiang, Hoi An, but his father was also the gatekeeper of Hoi An's North Gate. He was the old Cai whose ancestral home was Sanshui, but who could hardly speak Cantonese.

Back then, Old Cai discovered the emperor who had killed a traitor and fled to Hoi An outside the north gate, and he immediately covered up for the emperor, barely saving the emperor's life. Therefore, after Dayu was established, it immediately rose to prominence.

Mo Gongze stood at Cai Defu's residence and looked down the mountain. The busy Mermaid Port was in full view, with the sea sparkling and warships everywhere.

The Chinese sun and moon flag was flying high above the mansion. It was outrageous that a businessman had more than two hundred servants serving him.

Looking back at the banquet, except for Cai Defu, who has a decent background, the rest of the people here are at the bottom of society in their hometown.

For example, Zhang Yaqiang, the Republican councilor from Hanchuan Province who controlled the rickshaw drivers at the docks, looked like a charitable and charitable person. But in fact, his nickname in Zengcheng was Dakouqiang, and when he was there, he couldn't even find a job as a sedan chair bearer.

But when they arrived at Jiaoren Port, they immediately saw the Chinese people from the Celestial Empire. Relying on the four brothers from the same clan, armed with hand guns and steel knives that only Chinese people have, they defeated a tribe near Kyaukpyu Port.

The four brothers killed the original leader of these natives and became the chieftain themselves. They used the natives under their command to cheat and rob hundreds of young and strong men in the vicinity as coolies, and almost monopolized the rickshaw business in the port.

"Your Highness, Brother Zhang Yaqiang is a pioneer in colonization, praised by His Majesty. If he hadn't been reluctant to give up the business of Jiaoren Port, he would have found a piece of land and become a vassal."

Cai Defu pulled Zhang Yaqiang to toast Mo Gongze and praised him a few words. Zhang Yaqiang just waved his hand.

"This little bit of inheritance is nothing. I, Dakouqiang, am not one to covet wealth. I simply am not ready yet and dare not act rashly, fearing that I will tarnish the reputation of my seventh-generation ancestor, Lord Zhang Wenlie."

"So he's the descendant of a loyal hero. Lord Zhang Wenlie was a loyal minister to us Cantonese people!"

When it comes to the name Zhang Jiayu, even though Mo Gongze grew up in Europe, he has to show respect.

Of course, in addition to the fact that Zhang Jiayu is indeed loyal and righteous, there is also the reason that Emperor Mo Zibu highly respects Zhang Jiayu.

In recent years, Zhang Jiayu has begun to be given the title of a deity, and there are temples everywhere commemorating him. In a few years, he will probably be promoted to a terrestrial immortal.

Moreover, many descendants of Zhang Jiayu emerged in the areas of Zengcheng and Daojiao in Dongguan today. However, it is impossible to verify whether Zhang Jiayu had any descendants left.

Perhaps his father raised his orphan, or perhaps his father later married and had children to continue the family line.

However, in today's Dayu, Mo Zibu's approach is to acknowledge everything.

As long as they could produce some evidence, Mo Zibu would admit it and distribute the treatment that should have been given to Zhang Jiayu to these so-called descendants.

Because Mo Zibu believed that in China, where blood and culture are both inherited, these descendants who have a certain blood relationship with Zhang Jiayu, no matter whether they are related or not, as long as he, the emperor, recognizes it, then Zhang Jiayu has offspring, and this will allow the hero to enjoy the incense and blood of his descendants.

After introducing Zhang Yaqiang, Cai Defu introduced another skinny old man, He Aji.

This one was even more outrageous. He was a tenant farmer in his hometown of Luofu Mountain in Huizhou. He and a dozen of his fellow villagers were deceived and taken to Southeast Asia.

Of course, the ones who cheated them were also their fellow villagers, who sold them out for an introduction fee of 15 copper yuan per person.

Therefore, others went to good places like Taiping (Siam) to open up land, and went to places like Kasai (West Borneo) where gold mines were everywhere to pan for gold.

They were directly assigned to Hanchuan Province, which was the most difficult province at that time, and that was Lower Burma.

However, these people were very tough. They resisted the rebellion of Phraya Chakri in Siam, as well as the rebellions of the Karen and Mon peoples, and finally succeeded in gaining a foothold outside this mermaid port.

Today, their agricultural cooperative company owns 30,000 acres of fertile land, more than a dozen rubber plantations, banana groves and sugarcane plantations, and is the largest agricultural product supply company in Jiaoren Port.

Mo Gongze drank a glass of wine with this man sincerely. What is this? This is a top colonial master. Every emperor hopes to have a large number of such talents under him!

Just a dozen people can recruit local natives and turn the tropical rainforest into fertile farmland in ten years. This is the greatest ability of mankind.

"We Chinese have so many talented people. Grandpa, let me offer you a toast!" Mo Gongze said sincerely.

In the Cantonese context, "Agong" means grandfather, and is considered a very respectful name for the elderly.

He Aji was very touched. His real name was not Aji, but Aji.

Because he was thin and had a long face like a chick, his family did not give him a full name. They just called him "Aji Aji". It was not until he arrived at Jiaoren Port that they changed "Ji" to "Ji" which means auspicious.

"My Lord, I am grateful that you, a descendant of the royal family, have esteemed me, He Laoji. If you need me in the future, please let me know."

Mo Gongze laughed and agreed readily. You know what, if we really unify the Netherlands and colonize abroad in the future, we will really need people like He Aji.

However, when he saw Cai Defu leading the third guy who was nodding and bowing all the way and had a very strange accent, Mo Gongze felt something was wrong.

Even if he had never lived in the East, he knew that this was a Japanese person, and in the Chinese system of the Celestial Empire, he was naturally inferior to others.

Therefore, they particularly like to take advantage of the reputation of Chinese people in Shenzhou. Some shameless ones will even take advantage of people's surnames and ancestors.

Damn it, you are using me to gain reputation!
Mo Gongze looked at Cai Defu somewhat displeasedly and said, "Damn it, if you don't give me an explanation, I'm going to get mad even though we are all descendants of Mingxiang."

"We have money, we have money, we have money!" Cai Defu hurried over and whispered, "My Lord, let's burn an incense stick together. Please bear with me for a while. Afterwards, I will give you three thousand silver dollars."

What the hell!

Mo Gongze was stunned. That was three thousand silver dollars, almost one thousand pounds.

Although Mo Zirong's family has many titles in Europe, they really don't have much money.

When Transylvania became popular in Europe in later generations, it was still a poor place. Parma was better, but its foundation was unstable and it had little tax revenue.

The Lu Kingdom in Pahang was much better than the fiefdom of King Lu of Dayu in Nanyang, but most of its income was used to maintain its pomp.

This was also one of the reasons why Mo Zirong gave up Hungary and ran to the Lower Netherlands. It was for the annual tax revenue of 250,000 pounds in the Lower Netherlands. After paying all expenses, it could provide Mo Zirong and his wife with an annual income of at least 30,000 pounds.

But now, we have just taken over the Netherlands, and we have to keep investing money. It will take at least five years to recover the cost.

Therefore, one thousand pounds is really a lot, at least it can make Mo Gongze's trip to visit relatives in the East more generous.

Returning home in glory also requires pomp and ceremony. Without pomp and ceremony, wouldn't it be like returning to your hometown to beg for food? Although this is actually the case, how can you let everyone know?

So, when he heard that he had received three thousand silver dollars, Mo Gongze's face changed. He became quite amiable and put on a very formal smile.

However, this man gave Mo Gongze a big surprise. This guy was born a pirate, with hundreds of sailors and three large ships under his command. He often went to the coast of India and Bengal, and even the Middle East and East Africa to do no-cost business all year round.

Talent!
Being able to walk on the gray area between the British East India Company and the laws of Dayu is not something that ordinary people can do. They are the best mercenaries.

That night, Mo Gongze was drunk.

Although he did not receive the same kind of reception here as he did in the British, French and Dutch colonies by General Dinghai Chen Tianbao, fortunately, the environment here made him feel very safe.

Because those people from Britain, France and the Netherlands obviously did not treat him as one of their own, but everyone here treated him as one of their own, making Mo Gongze feel like he was home.

"Karl, if Mermaid Harbor is so prosperous, wouldn't Daguang be even more prosperous? It seems that China has done a great job in colonizing Southeast Asia. We must take a good look when we get to Daguang."

Mo Gongze said drunkenly that this kid still regarded Hanchuan Province as a colony like the Kingdom of Arakan.

Little did he know that as the only province in the Indian Ocean, he would soon see why Hanchuan Province was considered the empire's homeland.

　I drank too much again yesterday, so this is to make up for yesterday's drink, and there will be more in the evening.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)