The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 662: To Rule a Great Country, Eight Pairs of Eyes Are Not Enough

(To avoid trouble, I changed Burmese to Pyu, please be advised)

Can Meng Yun bear it?
He is really patient, not only in this time and space, but also in history, he is extremely patient.

Historically, although Myanmar withstood the Qing Dynasty's attack, the country was also devastated.

The Qing Dynasty then blocked the border and banned trade. Not a piece of cloth or a pound of iron was allowed to enter Myanmar, nor were Myanmar products allowed to be sold back to the country through Yunnan. This led to the decline of people's livelihood in Myanmar and great hardship.

As luck would have it, the Burmese army, on the surface, at least in domestic propaganda, portrayed themselves as the victors. Meng Yun's brother, King Baixiang, praised them highly and conferred titles on a number of people as great contributors to the anti-Qing war.

This meant that Myanmar was unable to use a lower-level attitude to plead with the Qing Dynasty to open its borders. After all, it was unreasonable to be servile after winning the war.

All this has led to internal wounds that have been unable to heal and the country is on the verge of collapse.

Under such circumstances, after Meng Yun succeeded his brother, King Baixiang, he immediately began to slap himself in the face. After lowering the domestic psychological expectations and when the time was ripe, he immediately asked for peace with the Qing Dynasty.

At that time, the Konbaung Dynasty was even more humble than the chieftains on the Yunnan border. When paying tribute, it took the initiative to line up behind these chieftains.

Although he clearly believed in Theravada Buddhism, he still cried and begged the Qing Dynasty for Buddhist scriptures, calling Qianlong the Buddha. When he received several annotated scriptures, he acted as if he had obtained some true scriptures.

Moreover, when the two sides sent envoys to each other, the Burmese envoys would shave their heads and dress like Qing officials when they arrived in the Qing Dynasty.

When the Qing envoys arrived in Myanmar, Meng Yun would personally go out of the city to greet them and give them plenty of face.

With his humble attitude and unremitting flattery, Qianlong happily relaxed border controls, sent people to enthrone Meng Yun, and rewarded him with a large amount of wealth.

After obtaining forgiveness from the Qing Dynasty and importing a considerable amount of supplies to stabilize the situation, Meng Yun began to gradually clean up the mess in the country.

In just five years, the Konbaung Dynasty, which had been devastated by war and plagued by rebellion, was revived and even had the ability to send a large army to attack Siam again.

Rama I, who had just usurped the throne, was beaten to a pulp.

This person is Emperor Zhongzong Xuan Liu Bingyi of the Konbaung Dynasty. He is listed among the five wisest rulers in Burmese history and he is definitely capable.

However, the Konbaung Dynasty in this time and space was small and weak, and had basically lost its autonomy, which was completely different from the historical situation.

No matter how capable Meng Yun is, a good cook cannot cook without rice.

. . . .

The city of Ava, which later became Mandalay in Myanmar, is less than 300 kilometers away from Ruili.

Moreover, sixty kilometers north of Ava is the territory of Shangchuan Province. Mo Gongbai, the governor of Nanzhong who manages Yunnan, Guizhou and Shangchuan provinces, has 30,000 garrison troops under his command. As long as the emperor gives the order, they can immediately go downstream.

To the east are the chieftains of the Shan Plateau, which are under the administration of Yunnan Province.

To the south, Hanchuan Governor Chen Qiuze was ready to kill Meng Yun at any time.

It can be said that the Burmese King Meng Yun was squeezed by the forces of the Dayu Dynasty between Shangchuan Province with Jinshachuan (Myitkyina) as its provincial capital and Hanchuan Province with Daguang as its provincial capital, and was unable to move.

However, what is a bit strange is that under this circumstance, the population managed by Meng Yun has not decreased, but increased, and now it has reached more than 800,000.

This means that Meng Yun's power did not decline with the large-scale arrival of the Han people, but instead grew year by year, but not as fast as the Han people.

In the Amarapura Palace in Ava City, the atmosphere was very tense.

Meng Yun sat on the throne with some sadness. He stroked the large green agate gem inlaid on the throne, his heart in turmoil.

His father, Yongjiya, established a glorious dynasty on this throne.

His elder brother, King Mengbo of the White Elephant, issued orders from here to destroy Siam and defeat the invading Qing Dynasty.

Of course, his other brother, King Sintamin, who was personally supported by the emperor, was stabbed to death with a spear on this throne.

And now, Meng Yun sat on the throne, feeling as if he was already dead. He had no way out.

"When Chen Qiuze insults me, I will act like a vicious dog barking wildly. No matter how he tries, I will remain unmoved." Looking at the several trusted civil and military officials around him, Meng Yun sighed and said:

"But now, the memorials we sent to the capital and the messengers we sent have all disappeared without a trace. This is the Great Emperor, and he wants to kill me!"

"Your Majesty, don't believe those rumors. Even if the Miao Xiang people's imperial flag appeared, it could be a coincidence.

The tricks played by Hanchuan Governor Chen Qiuze, the so-called Luosha Kingdom defeated Miao Xiang, etc., are all lies.

Although I do not know how big a country Rakshasa is, there is one thing I know.

That is, Miao Xiang is a great country. Even if we lose ten battles, let alone one, we will never reach the point where we must first stabilize the country before we can resist foreign aggression and deal with the urgent need for us to deal with the hundreds of thousands of people.

The person who spoke was Meng Yun's main adviser, the court minister Duan Tingdewen.

It’s true, he is really talented, worthy of being the designer of the Konbaung Dynasty system in history. After going to study at the Nanzhong Imperial College in Kunming, his level became even higher.

"What's the point of saying this? The emperor of Nanjing is the Miaoxiang people, not ours.

The Miaoxiang court and the Hanchuan governor are just the same, except that one wants to kill us now, while the other wants to swallow us up slowly.

We are all going to die anyway, so why not fight to the death while we still have troops!
Even if we don't win, we can still escort the king to Arakan, and then to India to seek refuge with the Western Barbarians. This is better than being eaten by the Miaoxiang people!"

However, although Meng Bo's cousin, the royal family member Mao Wen, spoke loudly, no one around him agreed with him.

Only Duan Tingdewen said something when he saw that the atmosphere was really awkward.

"Compared to the Miaoxiang people, the Western Barbarians are even worse people. Last time, they almost couldn't hold Fort William. If it happens again, they should leave the East. We must not rely on them."

Well, neither left nor right works, I am really in a dead end.

In silence, all the ministers turned their eyes to Meng Yun on the throne.

Meng Yun's original idea was very simple, which was to take advantage of the time window when the emperor was too busy to deal with him and see if there were any other options.

If not, then at least maintain relative independence, even if it means giving up most of the territory and becoming a chieftain like Shan State.

But he underestimated one thing, that was the speed of Tang people's immigration.

This rapid immigration greatly intensified the conflicts between different races, and the Tang people, backed by the government and clans, completely suppressed the Pyu people.

The Piao people had no choice but to place all their hopes on their former lover Wang Mengyun.

This is equivalent to pushing Meng Yun, who wanted to hide, to the forefront. In recent years, a large number of Pyu people began to gather around Ava, which brought a certain increase in strength, but also made Meng Yun a white dog among a group of black dogs, extremely conspicuous.

Hiding one's strength and biding one's time? What a joke! Meng Yun laughed bitterly. He wanted to bide his time and wait until the Chinese Empire ran into problems, but the current situation did not give him this opportunity.

From this point of view, Chen Qiuze's judgment is actually correct. The frog in the boiling water of the Dayu court may not be able to continue.

Because after being oppressed, the Pyu people are gathering in the area controlled by Meng Yun at a rate of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands every year, which will soon exceed the carrying capacity of Myanmar centered on Ava.

It is estimated that when the number of Pyu people here exceeds one million, the hardship of life coupled with the continuous advance of the Han people will make it very likely that they will explode.

Things in the world, especially national affairs, are like this, changing rapidly, and conditions and situations are changing at any time.

Mo Zibu and Prime Minister Luo Fangbai were thousands of miles away, and even the Imperial Guards' spies wouldn't necessarily be able to detect such a change. "Can you fight?" Meng Yun's cold, gloomy voice rang out from the throne, but he didn't move at all.

The court minister Duan Tingdewen immediately understood that Meng Yun did not want to fight at all, because he asked whether he could fight, not whether he had a chance of winning.

If you really want to fight, you must ask about victory or defeat.

"The people at the bottom can fight, but the vassals certainly can't." Duan Tingdewen said immediately after realizing what was in Meng Yun's mind.

The Konbaung Dynasty actually still practiced slavery. As the king, Meng Yun was not actually a Chinese-style monarch, but the largest slave owner among them.

He has strong control over his subordinates, but it is far from the level of the emperors of the Central Plains.

Moreover, in recent years, the number of Pyu nobles under him has actually been constantly leaving, because as soon as Meng Yun showed any intention of strengthening his control over them, they would collude with the Han people as their backers.

In recent years, the population increase is actually mainly due to the poorest Pyu people at the bottom of the society. They have no hope and no protectors, so they have to move towards the area controlled by Meng Yun.

"I have the support of millions of people, but I can't win?" Meng Yun asked again without giving up.

"I really can't fight." Duan Tingdewen gritted his teeth and still gave Meng Yun a very firm answer.

"Your Majesty, after the Miao Xiang people came, our lives have actually become better. Many people not only have enough food to eat, but their wealth has also increased. So they are definitely unwilling to fight.

Those who are willing to fight are basically a mob and are completely incapable of forming a fighting force!"

Duan Tingdewen’s words are a little difficult to understand, so they must be interpreted in the context of the current situation.

That is, the large-scale influx of Han people into Lower Burma did indeed bring a huge impact to the Pyu people, but on the other hand, it also brought considerable benefits.

The most direct one is the advancement of agricultural technology.

Don’t think that farming is simple. In the era without chemical fertilizers, it required very high technical skills to grow the land well.

Before the Han people came, the planting technology of the Pyu people was only about the level of the middle and late Western Han Dynasty in the Central Plains, but now, it has rapidly approached the normal level at that time.

The reason for such rapid progress was that many highly skilled farmers, who were originally scarce technical talents in the Han area, came to Southeast Asia.

These people are extremely valuable in their original hometowns. Even if they become tenants, they still need to be coaxed by their masters, and they need to be comforted and rewarded at all times to prevent them from being poached by others.

After the Great Yu Dynasty pushed forward the expansion of Southeast Asia, many farmers who were good at farming left their hometowns.

After all, all the good land in their hometown had been cultivated by the masters, so they could only be tenants or at most middle peasants.

But if you go to Southeast Asia, you can develop everywhere. If you work hard for three to five years, you can become a landlord with hundreds or thousands of acres of land.

At the same time, because the Dayu court vigorously promoted population expansion, it actually freed a large number of civilians from their life constraints and allowed many of them to gain freedom.

These people are not born murderous colonizers, but very good assimilationists.

Among the Pyus, as long as they were willing to approach them and could be educated, they basically benefited. This is what Duan Tingdewen meant by "having a better life than those people."

They were originally the basic vassal officials of the Konbaung Dynasty. After reaping the benefits of increased productivity, they became second-class citizens.

But on the one hand, there is an upward channel - if you can pass the exam, you can become a Han Chinese; on the other hand, your wealth has actually increased, so they are unwilling to start a war.

These people were once the main force of the Burmese army, and most of the military achievements of the Konbaung Dynasty came from this class.

Those who are willing to fight are those who refuse to listen and have little value to be assimilated. Most of them can only become prey in the eyes of the murderous colonists among the Tang people.

Therefore, in today's Lower Burma, the interests of the top nobles have suffered great losses, the common people below are in dire straits, but the hundreds of thousands of people in the middle have benefited.

Because the Konbaung Dynasty practiced slavery, these lowest classes, who were similar to the "prey" in the early Spring and Autumn Period, had never borne the responsibility of war for generations.

Not to mention that they cannot be armed, even if they are armed, they are just a mob and cannot withstand a single blow.

After thinking this through, Meng Yun actually already had the answer in his mind. If he was given five years, and if he was not prohibited from obtaining weapons from the Miao Xiang people, this war could be fought.

But now, just as Duan Tingdewen said, there is no way to fight at all.

However, Meng Yun did not completely trust Duan Tingdewen, because the Duan Tingdewen family was the biggest beneficiary of the Han people's migration to the south.

People like them who are good at writing are most likely to have a common language, otherwise how could Duan Tingdewen be recommended to study at Kunming Imperial College.

In silence, Meng Yun's cousin Maowen became angry. As a member of the royal family of the Konbaung Dynasty, he naturally did not get any benefits. Instead, his family's territory was forcibly occupied by the Tang people.

"We still have hundreds of thousands of people supporting us. If we don't dare to fight like this, then I'm afraid we will have to hand over our wives and daughters to the Tang people for their sexual pleasure in order to survive.

I, Mao Wen, would rather die than live in such a miserable state. I will gather an army and fight the Miao Xiang people!"

After saying that, Mao Wen, who held a considerable amount of military power, left angrily.

Meng Yun opened his mouth, but ultimately did not call out to Mao Wen, because among all the Pyu people, he was the one who suffered the most. Perhaps, the Miao Xiang people were not as powerful as imagined, so it might not be a bad idea to let Mao Wen give it a try.

"Bodaopaye!" Duan Tingdewen was shocked and shouted Meng Yun's king title, but then he saw the changeable expression on Meng Yun's face and immediately stopped talking.

Soon, the bell of Amarapura Palace rang to summon the warriors, and the remaining Pyu warriors who were still loyal to the king began to rush to assemble.

. . . .

In the fifth month of the lunar calendar, Myanmar's rainy season is about to arrive, so Chen Qiuze led an army of 17,000 combat soldiers and more than 20,000 civilians, a total of 40,000 people, claiming to be a 100,000-strong army. Flying the white flag of the emperor with a red sun and moon, they began to move quickly northward from the White Temple (Pyin U Mwin).

The whole procession was like an armed parade. When they saw the imperial army heading north, a large number of Han people who had settled on both sides of the Yiluo River took the initiative to join in, and even many Pyu people joined in.

Afterwards, cities of all sizes, such as Mawei, Yenangyaung, and Bagan, all surrendered at the sight of the enemy. No, it was not surrendered at the sight of the enemy, but they all came to help.

When the army reached the Mukokju fortress west of Ava, they found that this strategic location was deserted.

It turned out that twenty years ago, Emperor Mo Zibu defeated the last army of the White Elephant King here.

Maung Win also led his troops here. Some people said that this was not auspicious and it would be better to retreat to the outside of Ava City, wait for the enemy to tire themselves out and then defeat it in one fell swoop.

Although Mao Wen was a military general, he actually had no talent at all. He actually thought this statement made sense, so he strangely gave up the natural fortress and retreated to the vicinity of Ava City with the 80,000 to 90,000 recruits.

But after arriving in Ava, Maung Win's not-so-harsh laws and punishments could no longer control the army.

After all, their home was in the city, so a large number of conscripted soldiers quietly ran back home, and some even never returned.

Mao Wen was in a state of panic. Before he could be brought to justice, the army of the Dayu Dynasty arrived again.

As soon as the army of the Dayu Dynasty arrived, Mao Wen knew that something bad was going to happen, because Chen Qiuze had more than a dozen steam gunboats.

As soon as these gunboats arrived, they blew up the two pontoon bridges leading from the military camp to the city of Ava, instantly causing the morale of the Pyu soldiers to falter. They had little combat experience and discipline to begin with, and now they could no longer hold back.

Immediately, Chen Guangtai, the Marquis of Zhuma who took over the command of the army, immediately dispatched troops to approach, and ordered the Xiongnu cavalry of Mo Gongze, the prince of Lu, to cut off the Burmese army's retreat.

Since you are such weaklings, don't blame me for swallowing you in one gulp.

(End of this chapter)