The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 702 You Want to Enter the Castle
The vast East China Sea has thousands of miles of waves, but Mo Gongze can't see it.

At this time, the way from Shenzhou to Dongyang was generally to cross from Ningbo Port or Hangzhou Port.

There were also large steam ships that departed from Jiading County, Songjiang Prefecture, and arrived at Jeju Island for rest and then headed east to Nagasaki Port on Penglai Island (Kyushu Island).

The former follows the standards of the Age of Sail and relies on monsoons for navigation, but has a large carrying capacity and is economical, and is generally used in the trading of bulk commodities.

The latter is fast and convenient, but the price is relatively much higher, so it is generally used to transport scarce goods and personnel exchanges.

Mo Gongze and his group belonged to the third type. Although they also took a steam ship, their route was different. They started from Tianjin and sailed around the Bohai Sea.

Take Tianjin Wei - Jinzhou Wei (near Dalian) - Lelangnanpu Port (near Pyongyang, at the mouth of the Taedong River) - Silla Hancheng Port, and then cross the Tsushima Strait to reach Penglai Island
Taking such a long detour is entirely out of safety considerations. For someone like Mo Gongze, who is the most important Chinese figure in Europe, all risks should be avoided.

Mo Zibu even arranged Mo Gongze's journey back home.

The sea voyage was a short journey. When they arrived in Ottoman-controlled Iraq, they would go ashore and travel by land to visit the Ottoman Caliph on behalf of the Mohammedan royal family, and then return directly to Europe.

This sailing route is also in line with Mo Gongze's wishes. He has always wanted to measure the strength of his fatherland more accurately so that he can evaluate his decision after returning to Europe.

At Nampo Port, Mo Gongze received a high-level reception from three officials: the Governor of Lelang, the Prefect of Pyongyang, and the Magistrate of Nampo.

This province, which is not large and not very rich, left a deep impression on him, because here, Mo Gongze found many high-quality soldiers that made him drool.

The fifth prince of the emperor, Prince Edo Mo Zhouzhen, who went to Osaka, Japan with Mo Gongze, looked at Mo Gongze's expression and chuckled.

“If Second Brother hadn’t changed his title, he could still support Big Brother in recruiting two or three hundred people here, but now it’s impossible.

Because those fierce men are the backbone of Lelang Province. Each of them owns at least two to three thousand acres of land and dozens or even hundreds of farmhands. They built their manors on this land to control the local area. The land tax is 15% of the tax rate, and there are no other unnecessary miscellaneous taxes.

Those who can come to Lelang to become manor owners are basically the sons of meritorious officials who made great contributions when their father was regaining the country.

The only requirement for the children they raised after they were enfeoffed was to practice killing skills, so naturally they all became elite soldiers.

Furthermore, the Emperor has set strict limits on the number of people who can become manor owners in Lelang. Those who can come are all hand-picked by the Emperor himself. Therefore, every son of a meritorious official is deeply grateful to the Emperor and fights very bravely.

Mo Gongze finally understood why the emperor's second son, Mo Zhouxu, was changed from the Prince of Lelang to the Prince of Hanchuan.

The people in Lelang Province are not manor owners. They are a combination of the Yulin Lang and the Fubing during the Han and Tang Dynasties. They are the reserve force and the supply base of the imperial guards in the northeast.

When this place completely belongs to China and no one causes trouble, it will naturally be impossible to place a prince here to rule. It is inevitable that the country will be taken back and the emperor will send his confidants to serve as temporary officials.

"I'm just jealous. Not to mention that we can't recruit soldiers here, even if we can, I can't afford them!" Mo Gongze said with a smile.

However, Mo Zhouzhen shook his head and said, "It's still affordable, because all the manors in Lelang are not allowed to be divided, and can only be inherited by the eldest son.

Therefore, those who are not the eldest sons have no choice but to spend more than ten years of hard study and practice to go out and try their luck while their fathers are still alive and can provide them with some help.

Mo Gongze was a little tempted. If he could get some of these high-quality soldiers to Europe and give them a little training, they would be able to control at least a company of cannon fodder line infantry.

"Then do you have a solution?" Mo Gongze asked, because the mother of the fifth prince Mo Zhouzhen was Concubine De Ye Yizhen, who was the confidant of the emperor's uncle, the symbol of the Hakka family in the court, and the godmother of the crown prince.

If there is anyone who can enjoy a special status and treatment in the Dayu Dynasty, it must be Concubine Ye De.

"No, this is something the imperial court wants to use in the northwest." Mo Zhouzhen shook his head. "However, there are also many sons of small vassal states in Silla and the four provinces of the old Japanese Empire who are looking for a way out. I can think of a way for you."

"Thank you very much, brother!" Mo Gongze showed a happy smile on his face.

The vassal states of Silla and the four provinces of Japan certainly could not have the elite troops of Lelang, but they were still quite good. Taking one or two thousand of them to Europe would also be a force that could not be ignored.

Afterwards, the fleet continued south and arrived at the Han River estuary, which belongs to Seoul Port in Seoul Prefecture.

The situation here is completely different from that in Lelang in the north.

In the north, Lelang used the children of meritorious officials to be moved there to become manor owners, so a large number of Lelang locals were retained and used as long-term workers to farm the land for the manor owners.

However, in the south, except for a few areas such as Seoul, Gunsan, and Jeolla, which were ruled by court officials, the rest were ruled by a large number of local vassal states.

The composition of these vassal states is complex.

There were Han Chinese meritorious officials like Hu Quan, the King of Shunzhi in Guangzhou, who were sent to become vassals and control key locations.

There were illegitimate sons like Hong Wanda who followed the court to pacify Silla and served as vassal states.

There were also old nobles of the former Joseon Dynasty who successfully gained the emperor's trust and served as vassal lords.

These three types of vassal states did not have such strong attributes of a royal guard, so while they suppressed the local areas, they also sold the people under their rule to various places to reclaim wasteland in exchange for enough money.

Moreover, Mo Gongze saw in Seoul Port that the people who were sold were actually quite happy, because as long as they did not die on the way, then their life would be better after they arrived at the destination than in their hometown.

In their hometown, they couldn't even afford to eat wild vegetable and grain rice with kimchi, but when they arrived at the place where they had been exiled, they had two meals of white rice a day, plenty of fish and shrimp, and plenty of fruits to eat at will. For these truly lower-class Silla people, this was heaven.

In addition to a large number of court officials, there were also many meritorious officials who came to welcome Mo Zhouzhen and Mo Gongze this time. Among them was Hu Quanhuan, the King of Shunzhi of Guangzhou.

General Hu is under a lot of pressure now, even though he is a vassal who owns a county and a half and governs more than 100,000 people.

But unfortunately, although Silla was good in every way, it did not have much to exchange for money, and could only accumulate a little money every year by selling food and population.

Originally, they could still make ends meet, but some time ago, a group of Silla vassal officials could not sit still, and first recruited 3,000 musketeers to follow the Western Expedition Army to fight against the Russians.

As it turned out, the place was so bitter and cold that nothing was retrieved except a few people, some furs, and a small amount of gold and silver.

After returning and doing the math, Hu Quan found that he had made a profit of more than 600 silver dollars by becoming the lord of a vassal state with more than 100,000 people. However, if the interest on the military expenses was included, he was actually losing money.

After that, they participated in the crowdfunding of his former comrade-in-arms, Huang Asheng, who now works in the North American Division of Fuxing Company, to expand into America. They invested more than 10,000 taels of silver and more than 200 people, but until now, there has been no result.

I don’t know whether Huang Asheng actually went to North America. If he did, would he end up like Mao Xiangsheng who went to Zhanzhou (Australia)? Although he established several strongholds, he was besieged by local natives and almost died there.

After two consecutive expansion failures, Hu Quanhuan's life became difficult.

He also has six sons, and except for the eldest son, the others cannot inherit the family business. He must find a way out for these sons.

"Mr. Hu, although Europe is not a wild place like the Xianbei Ice Field, eastern North America, or Zhanzhou, the European powers are not easy to deal with.

I, a young prince, don’t even know if I can accomplish anything, so I can’t guarantee it for you.”

Mo Gongze himself was surprised by the enthusiasm of Silla vassal statesmen such as Hu Quanhuan and Hong Wanda.

Although he knew that it was very popular in Dayu to go out to sea and adventure to become a noble, those were all places that were completely controlled by Dayu.

It seems that going to Europe to follow Mo Gongze is not a very good choice, right?
Although Mo Gongze believed that he could accomplish something great, it still felt a little unreal that these people were so excited to bet on him.

"Sir, Hu naturally knows that no one can guarantee such a thing.

However, I, Old Hu, believe that the Crown Prince is capable of accomplishing things, and I also believe that the imperial court will definitely leave a banner in Europe, so I volunteered to contribute money and effort to follow the Crown Prince to gain experience."

As he spoke, Hu Quanhuan called over a tall, dark-skinned man. "This is a debt of love from my past. Fortunately, the boy is a good man, both civil and military. I am willing to send sixty warriors to lead him to follow the prince westward."

It was indeed a romantic debt. This was the seed left by Hu Quanhuan after he slept with a native woman in Nanji. He himself had forgotten about it until the child grew up and came to him.

Mo Zhouzhen said from the side, "Mr. Hu has a very good eye. We Hakkas have always been engaged in farming and fighting. As long as we have a good lord, we will follow him wholeheartedly."

Mo Zhouzhen's mother, Consort Ye Defei, was a Hakka, and Hu Quanhuan was also a Hakka. He had introduced Hu Quanhuan to Mo Gongze, acting as a matchmaker and the reason he claimed he could secure a group of elite soldiers for Mo Gongze. Mo Gongze, on his part, briefly considered the soldiers and found them to be quite capable, whether it was flintlock rifles or swords and spears, so he immediately accepted them.

In fact, even if it was just a little short of it, Mo Gongze would have accepted it.

Because this kind of investment, which is similar to buying shares, is very Eastern, even though there are only sixty people, all the expenses of these sixty people are borne by Hu Quanhuan.

This means that Mo Gongze does not need to pay anything except future rewards based on his merits.

As for arranging places, there are plenty of them. There are plenty of places in Romania, Croatia, Serbia and even Greece.

When other vassal states saw that Hu Quan had successfully changed his allegiance, they all came over and started to buy shares in a similar way as if they were trying to grab a piece of cake.

A person's reputation is like the shadow of a tree. Prince Mo Zirong of Lu was considered a wise king in Dayu. After his son came back, the emperor repeatedly said that this son had a promising future. This would of course arouse great interest among these venture capitalists.

After staying for only a few days, Mo Gongze had 600 more men under his command. Except for the lack of cannons, Mo Gongze was pleasantly surprised to find that the quality of these people was top-notch in Europe.

This gave Mo Gongze more confidence in facing the chaos after returning to Europe.

A few days later, the fleet set off for the former Wakoku region in the East. They first rested in Nagasaki for a few days, then entered the Seto Inland Sea and headed towards Osaka.

At this time, the political and economic center of Japan was Osaka, because the Prime Minister of Dongyang, the retired emperor Mo Tianci, was in Osaka. The original Kyoto was renamed Dongluo after most of the presumptuous royal buildings were demolished, and it became an ordinary city.

If I were to say which place Mo Gongze likes most along the way, it would be Japan.

Quiet, peaceful, and leisurely, a bit gloomy, but also mixed with some vitality.

This is because Japan at that time had basically no heavy industry, and most of the shipbuilding and smelting had been moved away.

One of the main industries in Japan is mounting materials, which is a complete set of tools for mounting calligraphy and paintings.

These Japanese are careful and cautious in their work, and have a narrow-minded and ruthless nature, so they are particularly suitable for this kind of work. At present, the manufacture of framed goods in Dayu is basically monopolized by them.

The second is aquatic products. Nowadays, Japanese dried abalone, dried scallops, dried squid and other products have almost become the most commonly eaten light luxury food for ordinary families in China.

The third is agricultural products. Japan is rich in fruits, and its preserved fruits are very famous. Canned fruits are currently under development and will soon be available, and will soon become the main industry in Japan.

Finally, there are the Japanese women. The culture of Japan makes Japanese women gentle and docile, but also particularly open-minded, so they are very popular. People from Shenzhou often cross the sea to enjoy them for a few days.

There are even many technicians who don't have high salaries, but they eat and drink less to save some money and go to Japan to enjoy the gentle life.

Who wouldn’t like such a place with meticulous cultivation, abundant output, tenderness and femininity?

. . . .

In Osaka Castle, after nearly a month's sailing, Mo Gongze finally met his legendary grandfather, the 93-year-old Prime Minister of the East, Emperor Mo Tianci.

Mo Tianci looks very old. He used to have a head full of black hair when he was over 80 years old, but now he is finally starting to have a lot of white hair.

His back is a little hunched. It's okay when he sits, but when he stands up and walks, people can see that the emperor is indeed too old, and even feels that he doesn't have much time left.

"Fortunately, he's not a red-haired ghost." The first words Mo Tianci said when he saw Mo Gongze were actually a little relieved.

This made Mo Gongze feel somewhat fortunate, because apart from his nose bridge and lighter skin color, his appearance had basically no European features.

"My dear grandson, you have traveled far and wide, come and look at Grandfather's world map. Is there anything missing?"

When his grandson came, he didn't show affection or give him rewards, but asked him to look at the map. Mo Tianci was quite capable.

Mo Gongze followed his grandfather and walked over to take a look. Wow, this map was really big, as big as six screens, and it was very detailed. The mountains and rivers were all drawn very realistically.

"Grandfather's map is truly a priceless treasure. Even South America and Africa are marked very accurately." Mo Gongze exclaimed sincerely.

"That's good!" Mo Tianci nodded in a dragging voice, and then he muttered again.

"The map is great, but it's a pity my time is running out. I really wish I could be young again!"

Human beings are never satisfied with their lifespan. Mo Tianci lived for ninety-three years and enjoyed ninety-three years, but he was even more unwilling to die.

Mo Gongze didn't know how to persuade his grandfather Mo Tianci, so he could only fall into silence with Edo County Prince Mo Zhouzhen.
"How did you prepare for your marriage?" Mo Tianci asked after a moment's silence.

The retired emperor did not choose a concubine while in Japan because his health did not allow it.

It's shocking that he has a son at the age of 80, and it would be even more terrifying if he still has offspring at the age of 90.
There is no need to pursue the desire for food because people can't eat much when they are old.

Out of boredom, Mo Tianci became more interested in Europe and could be considered an expert on Europe.

His question proves this point, because in Europe, at least at this stage, marriage is very important, even the most important means.

Seeing that his grandfather was very knowledgeable, Mo Gongze chuckled and said, "My grandson plans to seduce Princess Louise of Orange when he returns. I heard that she has been married for a long time but has no children, and her life is not happy."

Princess Louise of Orange is the eldest daughter of William V, the permanent ruler of the Netherlands, and the niece of Frederick William II, King of Prussia. She is 23 years old this year and has been married for three years. Her husband is the Crown Prince of Brunswick.

This was not just unhappy, it was like hell, because the Duke of Brunswick's son, Karl the Younger, was blind and mentally ill.

After Princess Louise married to secure her father's position, she became nothing more than her husband's caretaker. She never had children with her husband throughout her life and lived a hellish life.

"Hahahahaha!" Mo Tianci laughed loudly, "You really are a bad seed, with the style of your fifth uncle."

This was the only time Mo Tianci laughed out loud in the past few months.

"Princess Louise is the glue between the Prince of Orange and the Duke of Brunswick. Without her, the United Provinces Republic will collapse even with the pressure of Prussia.

Or, you could successfully make Princess Louise pregnant, and then have your son inherit the title of Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. I think the Dutch and Prussians would be horrified."

The analysis was good, but Mo Gongze didn't dare to respond. What did it mean to be a bad seed like the emperor's fifth uncle? To other people, this was a heinous rebellion.

"But I know you did it on purpose, my dear grandson. What do you want to do in the end?" Mo Tianci asked.

"I want to sell Belgium to William V for a huge sum of money in exchange for a large amount of supplies and their support for my journey to Hungary."

Mo Gongze replied in a deep voice: "Belgium has no future. Neither England, France, nor even Prussia want a stable country to emerge here.

But Hungary has made great achievements. How can the Holy Roman Empire be without Constantinople?

I think that if I have the ability to recover large tracts of Roman Empire territory occupied by the Ottomans from Hungary to the south, the Holy Roman Empire will be able to accommodate a Caesar and an Augustus. "

Mo Tianci's eyes began to sparkle when he heard this, "What about the Russians?"

"Let Dayu scare him, and then let them continue westward to annex Poland and erode Prussia."

"Do you think you can succeed?" Mo Tianci continued to ask.

"Everything depends on human efforts. I will try my best. Whether I can succeed or not will of course depend on how the situation changes." Mo Gongze said this, but his chest was puffed out.

"This is also Uncle Five's opinion. With the Chinese Empire behind me, constantly teaching the Russians and the Ottomans a lesson, maybe one day in the future I can really take over Constantinople.

In this way, the beacon of civilization of both the East and the West will be in our hands."

(End of this chapter)