The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 695 The People Are Blessed
August 1792, 8. This was the 31th day of the seventh lunar month in the th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty, the th year of Emperor Guangzhong's reign in the Great Yu Dynasty of China.

The Battle of Jintang City, which was very painful for both China and Ross, ended.

Of the 2,000 elite Russian Moscow Regiment brought from the Danube by Russian General Count Gudovich, 70% were killed in the battle, and only more than 500 people successfully evacuated.

A reinforced regiment of 2,000 people from the 15th Russian Division brought from Yekaterinburg was almost wiped out, with only a hundred or so people escaping. In addition, 2,000 Cossack cavalry from the Tyumen and Omsk areas were also lost.

Of the 7,000 infantry and cavalry in the army, more than 5,000 were lost, which can be said to be the complete annihilation.

The only ones who successfully evacuated were the 14,000 Russian militiamen in Western Siberia, which barely kept the flame of war alive.

If these people were really gone, the nomadic tribes and natives of Western Siberia would be uncontrollable.

On the Dayu side, about 500 people were killed in the battle, and an estimated 1,000 people died from the wounded. After the Russian army took the lead in occupying the advantageous terrain, the casualty ratio between the two sides was about 1 to 3.

On September 9, after the Russians evacuated Petropavlovka by boat on the Irtysh River, the Dayu army immediately entered the city. After emptying the city of food and supplies, Chen Guangyao ordered the entire city to be burned down.

On September 9, the army returned south to the outskirts of Jintang City. Chen Guangyao transferred all the wounded to Jintang City. More than a thousand Russian wounded were abandoned directly on the hill where the two sides had fought a bloody battle.

kill?

Chen Guangyao would not kill them. For these Russian soldiers whose wounds were festering from lead bullets, letting them live would be the greatest pain.

The triple attack of hunger, cold and high fever, and the fact that you won't die in a short time, is so painful that even the ghost catcher from hell would feel a chill down his spine.

After this battle, the Russians would not think about retaking Jintang City (Semipalatinsk Fortress) from the Western Xianbei Ice Plain for at least five years.

To be on the safe side, Chen Guangyao also relocated all the Kazakhs and other indigenous tribes that he could control between Jintang City and Omsk, so that they would not become laborers and supply packages for the Russians.

On September 9, before the arrival of the snowstorm in the north, Chen Guangyao still left Yao Zhifu to lead a thousand soldiers of the Western Expedition Army, control a Kazakh right wing Wanhu to stay in Jintang City and take care of the wounded, and the remaining 15 troops began to set off south.

It was forty days later when the news reached Nanjing Yingtian Prefecture. This was the current limit of the speed of transmitting urgent reports from Dayu.

The straight-line distance between Jintang City and Nanjing Yingtian Prefecture is 3,700 kilometers, but the actual distance may be around 6,500 kilometers.

It took forty days to complete the run, with at least 160 kilometers to be run every day. This was achieved entirely by running without stopping, without regard for the labor cost.

"Telegram, train!" Mo Zibu muttered softly while holding the memorial that seemed to still smell of blood. Then, after reading the contents carefully, he took the memorial and ordered someone to summon the inner court attendants and outer court ministers to discuss the matter.

“Have Chen Guangyao start building Ili City immediately, and have all the Kazakh right and left tribal leaders with more than a thousand households send a son to Ili City.

Those with more than 5,000 households must immediately send their eldest sons to the capital to pay homage. If any family does not come, I will not grant them a title."

Although it was called a discussion, in reality it was still Mo Zibu's one-man show. Only when he really had not considered everything carefully would the ministers of the inner and outer courts make suggestions.

"No, if anyone refuses to deliver, Fu Kangan will lead the troops to arrest and punish them!"

Mo Zibu waved his hand. If anyone dared not to come to the court under such circumstances, he would not be an ordinary chieftain and would have to be dealt with severely.

"Your Majesty, should the war between the Bukhara and Khiva Khanates be temporarily suspended? The Northwest Envoy Office has submitted several petitions stating that the people of Hexi and Longyou are truly overwhelmed.

This year, more than 700,000 people were mobilized just to transport grain and supplies, with over 2 million trips back and forth, and more than 2,000 people died of exhaustion or disease.

All the military stations and villagers' cooperatives along the way were basically emptied out, and in many places women were even doing the heavy physical work.

Many families had a good harvest of grain this year, but they didn't even eat a few bites themselves and shipped all the grain to the Western Regions.

The granary is clearly overflowing with grain, yet I still have to eat porridge and cornmeal bread mixed with wild vegetables. It's impossible not to feel resentful. If I continue to transport grain like this next year, I'm afraid it will undermine Your Majesty's benevolence!"

Hearing what Liu Yong, the deputy minister, said, Mo Zibu gave a bitter smile, "Benevolence, in the eyes of the people of the northwest, how can I be benevolent? It's good enough that they didn't scold me to death.

Then let's suspend the war against Bukhara and Khiva, let Chen Guangyao take control of the left and right wings of Kazakhstan as soon as possible, and then fight and practice at the same time, the target is the small Juz in the west wing that has been controlled by the Russian Empire.

The court's next task is to fully support the Ningxia Prince's development of the Dayuan Basin while carrying out immigration.

Only if the Dayuan Basin, the area south of the Yellow River, can play a role in changing the shortcoming of the Western Regions having enough soldiers but insufficient food.

In addition, the outer court should calculate whether it can allocate some money to support the construction of the railway in the Hexi Corridor.

If there are any difficulties, we can discuss with the Imperial Court's Coal and Iron Transportation Department and issue national bonds to wealthy merchants nationwide, following the European model."

Prime Minister Luo Fangbai nodded and said, "After I went down, I immediately began to make arrangements. The Central Plains has abundant supplies, but they cannot be transported to the Western Regions. This is all because there is no steam train connection.

As long as this problem is resolved, our Han Dynasty will never lose this piece of Han and Tang Dynasty land."

Although the court officials did not like Mo Zibu's strategy in Central Asia, they were still very supportive of building a railway in the Hexi Corridor.

"As for Jintang City," Mo Zibu pondered for a moment, then looked at the Imperial Household Department's Chief Secretary and Nanjing Imperial City Envoy and said:
"Send someone to ask Yao Zhifu. If he's willing to settle down in Jintang City, I'll grant him the title of General Fengguo, allow him to preach to the Kazakh tribes surrounding Jintang City, and allocate funds from the Ministry of Rites to build a White Lotus Sect temple for him."

For a long time in the future, Jintang City will be the northwest border of the Dayu Empire, because Dayu’s current capabilities are simply unable to radiate west of Jintang City.

Even if there were railways, radiation would not be possible because it would be impossible to transport supplies to such a distant place when resources for train construction were so scarce.

If you really have so much money, you would quickly build a train from Lanzhou to Yili and Shule (Kashgar). Moreover, building a railway on the grassland is technically difficult and the maintenance cost is sky-high.

The places west of Jintang City are only Omsk and Tyumen, which are more valuable, and this value is relative to later generations.

Places like Tyumen in later generations were undoubtedly the locations of Russia's large oil and gas fields, and were extremely rich in resources.

But currently, the value is quite limited.

Moreover, Tyumen is only 600 kilometers away from the Ural Mountains, and Omsk is just over 1,000 kilometers away.

But Omsk is about 5,000 kilometers away from Lanzhou, and Tyumen is 5,600 kilometers away from Lanzhou, which is almost ten times the distance difference. No matter how strong Dayu is, it is impossible to compete with Russia in these two places.

It would be great if we could win consecutive victories in Jintang City, stand firm on this key fortress on the banks of the Irtysh River, and control the Kazakh steppe and Western Siberia.

Therefore, the main battlefield where Mozibu really wanted to fight against the Russians was actually in the Caspian Sea area.

Once Dayu has taken over Hezhong, has enough soldiers and food, and the train can reach Dihua, it can threaten Orenburg north of the Caspian Sea and Astrakhan on the west bank.

Especially in Astrakhan, part of the Torghut tribe who did not have time to return to the east are still here, who are the Kalmyks in later generations.

Fighting the Rus in the Caspian Sea is far better than going to the cold Western Siberia.

Therefore, Mo Zibu specifically instructed the eunuch in charge of the seal, "Jintang City is related to the safety of the northwest, and it must be guarded wholeheartedly by capable people.

You must warn the people you send: if Yao Zhifu is unwilling, do not force him. I can choose someone else to go."

"Your Majesty, the railway from Lanzhou to Shazhou is in urgent need of manpower, but the people in the northwest are already unable to continue due to the transportation of grain and fodder.

Therefore, I ask Your Majesty to allow a group of people from the nine provinces of Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Sichuan, and Shaanxi to be selected to work in the northwest to build the railway. They will be registered and rated according to their labor, and those with the highest scores will be given priority in allocating land."

Mo Zibu finally realized that few people who could reach the position of prime minister were easy to deal with. What Luo Fangbai had just suggested was to take advantage of the people's power for free.

The current population of Dayu has swelled to approximately 580 million, nearly doubling in the past 15 years. While this is certainly due to the discovery of many hidden households and the inclusion of Siamese, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Koreans in the statistics, the growth itself is also terrifying.

At the same time, due to Dayu's policy of limiting the amount of land that a single person can own and not restricting land transactions, the number of people who go bankrupt is also increasing rapidly.

With the two combined, the second wave of outward colonization and immigration began.

The only difference from the past is that fifteen or even twenty years ago, it was the government that begged the people to cross the border, not only exempting them from travel tolls but even providing subsidies.

However, now that the construction in Southeast Asia, Northeast China and other places has become increasingly complete, it is not so easy to go abroad to divide the land, unless you are willing to go to a place where the natives are relatively strong.

For example, the very poor areas of Koh Samui (Sumatra), the eastern and northern parts of Kalimantan Island, or Suveras Island and Shangchuan (northern central Myanmar).

And this is where Prime Minister Luo Fangbai thought he could get the common people’s labor for free, “I suggest that the period be two years, and those who reach the end of the period will be assigned according to their scores.

Those with high status will go to Jiading, Taiping, Nanji, Hanchuan and other provinces, while those with average status will go to Andai, Jiaxi and other provinces.

They can also be given oxen for farming and the right to join a cooperative."

Well, it’s not completely free. As long as you are willing to work hard, you will get benefits. Besides, there is still a shortage of manpower for the construction of railways in the northwest, so Mo Zibu nodded in agreement.

Then, Mo Zibu thought of something and said to Luo Fangbai, "Duke Dingguo said that his Ili lacks a suitable talent for farming. I think Chen Qiuze is suitable. He has done a good job in Hanchuan. Let him go to Ili to help out."

The cover-up incident that year ended with the retirement of Lin Tong, the top civil official inside and outside the country and a servant of the Mo family. Chen Qiuze was even rewarded on the surface.

However, the impact of this incident was not small. After Lin Tong took responsibility and stepped down, Chen Qiuze lost his umbrella of protection and was kept in Hanchuan Province. He was also deprived of his command as the governor's model soldier.

And now, he was going to be exiled to Yili again.

Of course Luo Fangbai would agree. He had long been annoyed with Chen Qiuze who liked to go it alone.

But it was different for Mo Zibu. Although Chen Qiuze was extremely bold, he was the one who promoted and educated him. He was also a hero who restored the country and a descendant of a loyal hero. There was no need to kill him with one blow.

If Chen Qiuze can still make use of his expertise and do a good job during this trip to Yili, and can recognize his mistakes and reform himself, he may not be excluded from important positions in the future.

. . . .

Lanzhou, the General Office of the Northwest Mission.

The 20-year-old Crown Prince Mo Zhousen was so busy that even when his younger brother, Mo Zhouxu, the Prince of Hanchuan, came, he just gave him a smile, waved his hand to motion him to sit down first, and then immediately started to handle official business.

At this time, the city of Lanzhou had expanded more than three times compared to its historical size, and was almost the same size as the Lanzhou city of later generations.

The whole city does not look like an inland city in the northwest at all, and it actually has some of the atmosphere of Guangzhou.

This is because, historically, Lanzhou's status among the important cities in the country has been declining because the entire Northwest, including the Western Regions and Hezhong, has fallen into poverty as a whole, and sea power has almost completely replaced land power.

This is the poverty of the entire northwest and the center of the Asian continent, not just the poverty of Lanzhou, or it can be said that Lanzhou is being dragged down by those incompetent countries in Central Asia.

But it was different at this time. On the basis of restoring the Han and Tang dynasties, Dayu's territory continued to expand westward, bringing about the demand for materials.

It also benefited from the emperor's determination to eradicate the influence of the mysterious Muslim sect and destroy the three khanates.

Lanzhou, the closest major city to the Western Regions and Hezhong, immediately became the logistics support center for the entire Northwest.

Steel mills sprang up one after another, arsenals blossomed everywhere, and the supporting steam engine factories, coal mines, iron mines, hardware manufacturing, smelting and other related industries were also developing rapidly.

The Eastern Palace system of Crown Prince Asen has basically been transformed into the Zongli Yamen of the Northwest Mission, and his left minister Dong Jiaozeng has also served as the governor of Gansu.

It can be said that Mo Zibu was very confident in handing over the entire Northwest to Asen for governance.

"Why, you can't stay in the capital anymore, you want to do something. Mother wrote to say you were coming, I thought it would take ten days or half a month, how come you're here now?"

After another busy day, Asen finally finished reviewing the documents and looked up at his younger brother, the second prince Axu.

The mother Asen mentioned was not his biological mother, Concubine Chen, but Queen Zheng Shishi.

This was a rule that Mo Zibu had set as a joke back then. Since the queen was infertile, all the princes and princesses followed the large family model and called Zheng Shishi their mother. As for their biological mother, you could call her whatever you wanted.

Of course, this is not a mandatory rule, but the princes and princesses basically complied with it.

"My father insisted that I be the Supervisor of the Hexi Railway and the Northwest Vice President of the Fuxing Company. He also said that if I didn't do my job well, I would be beaten with a stick when I got home. I was so scared that I couldn't sleep. I ran all the way here."

Ah Xu said with a bitter face that he knew his abilities. Although his father arranged for him to serve as the county magistrate of Meng County, Huaiqing Prefecture, Henan Province for two years, he was still not good at government affairs.

You have to know that he is the second son of the emperor. The common people below may not know this, but the officials know it. This advantage of holding the imperial sword is something that many people who want to do things cannot even dream of.

As a result, during his two years as the magistrate of Meng County, Ah Xu could only be said to have done an okay job, but it was definitely not outstanding.

Asen immediately understood why. His younger brother was the son of a concubine, commonly known as a maid, and his biological mother was a Thai. Therefore, he had been very inferior since childhood and did things without seeking to achieve anything but to avoid making mistakes.

With such a character, it's okay for him to be a vassal king like the Ming Dynasty who was treated like a pig, but it's not so good to be a vassal king of an important place like Hanchuan Province.

Fortunately, Ah Xu is just a little too soft in character, not stupid, so he can still be saved.

"Being a railway supervisor is not a good position. It pays a lot, has a lot of work, and involves a lot of people. Without a big heart and patience, you can't do it.

No wonder Mother asked you to come to me. It turns out that this test question was given to us two brothers by Father."

Asen sighed, but was eager to try. He had been in the northwest for more than a year and seemed very busy, but many things were not subject to his uncle's rules. He just had to follow the established guidelines of his uncle Li Xianwen.

Only the railway, although the Lanzhou to Liangzhou section has been completed and more than 20 kilometers have been laid from Suzhou (Jiuquan) to Ganzhou (Zhangye), the real test has just begun.

Faced with the influx of a large number of workers and the first long-distance application of new technologies, this pioneering work will greatly test his abilities.

No, it is not only a test of his management ability, but also a test of Asen's ability to lead and manage his younger brother by his father throwing his younger brother Axu over to him.

The first step is to build a Hexi Railway Institute to train a large number of workers who can build railways and have professional skills.

Then, all the people who were researching steam engines and railways in the Imperial Academies in Jiangnan and Lingnan were summoned to solve the problem step by step on the ground.

Finally, he helped his younger brother A Xu to establish a railway corps office to implement militarized management of the laborers.

This will not only strengthen management, but also make it easier for these people to deal with problems from the natives or other parties when they leave the Railway Corps Office and live in foreign areas.

Well, after so many years of steam locomotives, someone finally thought of setting up a railway academy and a railway corps office. It all depends on the brain of big boss Sen.

And the Prince of Hanchuan, Mo Zhouxu, was looking at his brother who was speaking so boldly in shock. He was setting up an academy, a government office, and a military corps. Why did it sound like he was planning a rebellion?
Arsen took a quick glance and knew what his cautious and somewhat timid brother was thinking.

He grabbed Ah Xu's shoulders and said in a very silent way, "If you really have the guts to rebel, I think your father will laugh so hard that he will cry.

Don't worry, when you come to Lanzhou, you can work hard with your brother."

(End of this chapter)