The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 706 Assassination is not a good idea
In Nanjing Yingtian Prefecture, the Lu Prince's Palace was built according to imperial decree.

Mo Zibu has always reserved a complete set of princely facilities for his third brother Mo Zirong's family in Dayu, including the two capitals of the north and south and the Chengtian Guangzhou Prefecture, where the Lu Palace was built by imperial decree.

At the same time, the official organization of the Prince of Lu's Palace was also well preserved.

The financial affairs of the Prince of Lu's Palace, such as tributes, revenues, and taxes, were managed by Mo Gongyan, a royal family member who was injured in the Sino-British Battle of Trincomalee, the son of Duke Cai Mo Zitang, the Earl of Pinghai, a lieutenant general of the navy, and the president of the Wusong Naval Academy.

It has left and right chief secretaries to manage daily affairs, as well as the exclusive right to 150,000 tons of maritime trade allocated to Mo Zirong by the court.

Another Pengzhou garrison, which managed the actual fiefdom of Lu Fan, was located in Pengzhou Prefecture on the Andai Peninsula.

But now Mo Zirong's sons have grown up and someone can be sent to manage it, so Mo Gongyan took the initiative to hand it all back to Mo Gongze.

In Prince Lu's mansion, Mo Gongze looked at his son in the wet nurse's arms and took him with trembling hands. This was his eldest son, and also the medium through which he would be closely connected with his father's country in the future.

After taking his son, Mo Gongze first looked at Hong who smiled at him lovingly, and nodded slightly.

The Hong family in Xiangshan County is a large family with quite a few members. In the early years, when the emperor was accumulating power in Southeast Asia and spent money to recruit people to go abroad to Southeast Asia, some people from the Hong family went there.

However, their later development was very ordinary. Because the Hong family was a big family in Hua County and lived a relatively good life, the most capable and strong men in the family did not go abroad, and only the leftovers were sent.

This resulted in this large family of Hakka origin from Jiaying Prefecture, with more than 200 members, having the highest title being only the lowest-level General Fengguo.

This General Fengguo was awarded to Hong Jingchen, the half-brother of the palace maid Hong Mo Gongze and the general of the Hubei Wuchang Town.

The Hong family now regrets so much that they have ended up like this as Hakkas.

Originally, many of the families that they looked down upon had a large number of members who climbed to high positions, but they were the only ones who were still struggling like a bunch of idiots.

Therefore, after Hong Shi was expected to become the Prince of Lu's consort, all the members of the Hong family flocked to her. They regarded Hong Shi's ascension to the throne as the second chance for the Hong family to change its fate.

This is actually the common mentality of most families in Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian after the rise of Mo Zibu.

Lingnan and Fujian at this time, or specifically Fujian and Guangdong before Mo Zibu restored the Han Dynasty, were not as prosperous as they were in later generations. They were almost in a cultural trough and had some inferiority complex in their hearts.

Therefore, Mo Zibu's surprise attack this time received strong support from all of Fujian and Guangdong, which made them always have a strong sense of responsibility towards the Dayu Dynasty, as if this court was the clan of their clan.

For the sake of the country's strength and the prosperity of their own families, they were very willing to go out to sea and make some sacrifices in response to the emperor's call.

"Your Highness, when Azi was born, I saw a red sun in the west, falling into the room, and then I heard Azi's crying."

Among the crowd of complimenting people, suddenly a little child of three or four years old spoke to Mo Gongze in a baby voice.

Mo Gongze was stunned for a moment, and then he thought that this was the old trick that there must be auspicious signs and phenomena when a king is born. What this kid said must have been taught by an adult.

But soon, Mo Gongze discovered that many people in the Hong family were as confused as he was.

Mrs. Hong was somewhat happy, but also somewhat helpless as she looked at the child who was speaking. "Ayang, why are you saying such things again? Can I, your sister, really give birth to a sun?"

The child who was speaking was called Hong Jingyang. He was chubby and very cute. He was the younger cousin of the Hong family within the fifth degree of mourning.

"Your Highness, I didn't teach you this. I was previously serving in Langshan Town. I was only recently transferred back to escort the coffin of the retired emperor. That's when I finally had time to go home on leave."

Hong Jingyang's father was also a junior military officer in the Langshan Town, which was located north of the Yangtze River. He was mainly responsible for the security of the Grand Canal and guarding Yangzhou.

Mo Gongze was still a little bit skeptical, but this was a good thing. His son was born with auspicious signs. If nothing else, it would sound good when told to others.

He no longer questioned it, laughed happily a few times, and rewarded the talking little Hong Jingyang with a small gold ingot.

Although the Dayu Dynasty only allowed state-minted gold and silver coins to circulate as currency at this time, beautifully minted gold ingots and gold bars were still of great collection value.

When the Hong family saw that Mo Gongze was happy and Hong Jingyang had received a reward, they immediately changed their words and said that they had seen it too.

For a time, the story that when the eldest son of Prince Lu was born, a red sun fell into the house and the whole room was filled with red light spread.

At night, Mo Gongze watched Hong, who was still in confinement after giving birth, walking around busy packing his things, and smelled the milky fragrance in the house. His nerves, which had been tense for a long time, finally relaxed.

Having been in the motherland for more than three years, Mo Gongze was always worried about his father Mo Zirong's situation in Europe, fearing that before he returned, his father would squander the little fortune their family had accumulated over the years with great effort.

Even if Mo Gongze could attract more investment from the East, it would be difficult for him to make a comeback if he lost his foothold and capital in Europe.

At the same time, he was still somewhat uncertain whether he could accomplish the great cause entrusted to him by his uncle, the Emperor, or even whether he could cope with the complex situation on the European continent.

"Prince, please give the child a big name. He is your first child." Hong came over and pinched Mo Gongze's shoulders twice, then said softly.

"Ayang said that this child was born in response to the red sun in the west, and our next generation should use the radical representing fire, so why not name it Yao.

Although it's a bit cliché, the meaning is good. I'm going back to Europe this time to spread the light of China to the West."

Mrs. Hong nodded and stopped massaging his shoulders. She moved a stool and sat down next to Mo Gongze, resting her head lightly on his right arm.

Mo Gongze sighed. He liked this Hong very much. She was not only beautiful, but also well-educated and polite. Her words always touched Mo Gongze's heart.

Compared to those European noble ladies who seem to be well-behaved but actually reveal a hint of barbaric nature everywhere, Hong, who received a good education since childhood, is much better.

"You know, my marriage is not decided by me, not even by my father and mother. The only one who can decide is His Majesty the Emperor."

Mrs. Hong tried her best to hide her inner disappointment. There was only a slight change on her face and she sighed softly.

"I am not someone who doesn't know what's good for him. The Crown Prince carries the high expectations of His Majesty, and his responsibilities are heavier than Mount Tai. Everything must be done for the sake of the country. How could I covet an empty position and ruin the Crown Prince's plans?"

The more Hong said this, the more uncomfortable Mo Gongze felt, because he knew that this was not just a vacant position.

In Europe, Hong can only be regarded as a royal lover, and A Yao can only be an illegitimate child with no inheritance rights. It is completely different from China.

"I will be leaving next month. You will stay in Yingtian Prefecture to take care of Prince Lu's Mansion. When Ayao turns five, I will send him to the palace to be cared for by the Empress herself. Then you can come to Taixi to find me, and we can be reunited as husband and wife."

Hong's tears finally flowed down. Others saw that she was so lucky that she was given the title of Prince of Lu and gave birth to a eldest son. It was possible that she could even become the Princess of Lu in the future.

But only the Hong family knows the price behind this glory and wealth.

She had to go on a long journey right after giving birth to her husband, and she would never come back. If she went to find her husband, she would have to abandon her young child.

Even if she was willing to give up her child, it would mean a five-year separation from her husband, and anything could happen in these five years.

Mo Gongze also knew that this was too cruel for the Hong family, but he had no choice but to think of some way to compensate them.

"When I return, I will tell my father to hand over some of Lu Fan's assets in Pengzhou to A Yao. If A Yao is willing to stay in the motherland in the future, he can at least live a life of wealth and luxury."

What could Mrs. Hong say? She could only nod and wipe the tears from her face.

. . . .

In the Imperial City of Nanjing, the plan on how to assist Lu Fan has reached the final stage of discussion.

The key ministers of the inner and outer courts, the Crown Prince Mori, the Privy Councilor Wu Wenyong of the Five Military Commandery, and Reinstein who had just returned from Japan were all here.

The meeting set the main tone for aid, which is that Dayu’s navy and army cannot be used directly to provide aid for the time being.

Because the plan to influence the West has just begun, if a large number of Dayu's naval and land forces arrive in Europe at this time, it will definitely cause resistance and even panic among European countries.

Especially if the English react, it would be very bad.

"Your Majesty, in recent years our navy and army, especially the navy, have been implementing a policy of keeping a low profile.

If we provide too much support, it may reveal that our navy's surface strength has caught up with or even surpassed England, which will be very disadvantageous to the upcoming war."

This is what Privy Councilor Lord of the Admiralty Marble (Manuel Bonn) meant, and it also reflects Dayu's current strategy. It aims to convince England that China's center of gravity is land-based, that its navy generally extends no further than Jiaoren Port (Kyaukpyu, Myanmar), and that its strength is still inferior to England's 200-year-old navy.

The purpose of doing this deliberately is naturally to make Yingzi tougher. Little Yingzi, we have come out of swords and guns, so don't lose face!

In order to achieve this strategic deception, Dayu stationed its main fleet in the Fuso Sea (Sea of Japan) for a long time, and conducted several rounds of exercises from Sendai to North America, but rarely went to the South China Sea, let alone crossed the Strait of Malacca into the Indian Ocean.

After listening to this, Mo Zibu nodded in agreement. It was indeed not appropriate to expose China's strength now. At least we had to wait until the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

"Then it seems that the fleet can only be selected from the North American Exploration Fleet. Ma Bo, Zhou Yuanquan, Mo Gongyan, how many warships should you allocate?"

In the navy, besides the Admiralty of the Privy Council:
Beiyang (responsible for the area north of Fujian to Alaska).

Toyo (responsible for the five Oriental provinces, Ryukyu and Hawaii).

Nanyang (responsible for Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and half of Nanyang).

South and (responsible for Java Island and the areas east and south, including Australia).

Outer South China Sea (Indian Ocean Fleet).

In addition to these five fleets and the small naval fleets guarding the coastal and inland rivers of each province, there is also a North American development fleet affiliated with the Fuxing Company, which is personally controlled by Mo Zibu and commanded by Ye Mingyue, the son of the vassal of Kecheng Earl.

This fleet is not very powerful, but it has two third-level, four fourth-level, eleven fifth-level steam-sailed fast frigates, and more than seventy large and small armed merchant ships, which are enough to support Europe.

Moreover, in recent years, there were not many places where the pioneering fleet could be used. Unlike what people in later generations thought, that America was the chosen land, North America at that time, especially the central and southeastern parts, was really not a good place.

There is a large plain between two mountains running from north to south. What a fucking place!

The cold wave from Canada in winter can penetrate the entire tribe and if a tribe is not careful, they can be frozen to death.

The tropical hurricanes coming from the Gulf of Mexico in the summer are once again hitting the target. The violent hurricanes can not only kill people, but also destroy all your crops.

So in the farming era, this place was basically a bad land. If it was really a chosen place by God, the Indians would have developed a powerful civilization long ago.

If North America wants to become a good place, it needs to develop its industry and have more ways to resist cold waves and hurricanes.

In addition, at that time, Europe was in chaos and brains were flying everywhere, while North America was not threatened by any powerful enemies. It was as safe as a mountain top in the stormy waves, so it was called the chosen land.

This situation led to Dayu's layout in North America for more than ten years, and it only established colonies in places such as Portland, Seattle in the northwestern United States and Vancouver, Canada.

This place has a good harbor, high mountains to shelter from cold waves, and the Alaska warm current passes through. It is a good place with about 70,000 to 80,000 immigrants.

In recent years, Spain has completely weakened and is no longer able to drive out potential enemies to the north, just like it expelled the Russians. Moreover, the strength of Dayu is simply not something Spain can match.

The current situation is that China occupies the northwest, Spain mainly focuses on Greater Mexico, and although Americans are now constantly moving westward, it is still very early. Even Chicago next to Lake Michigan has only a few thousand people.

Therefore, the vast plains in the middle were nominally in the hands of Spain, but Louisiana, which was mainly populated by French immigrants, was very desolate and had only tens of thousands of people.

It would be difficult for Americans to migrate to Louisiana in central Taiwan on a large scale within the next ten years, and it would be difficult for Dayu to send the tens of thousands of people hiding in the northwest across the Rocky Mountains to the central Great Plains to face hurricanes and cold waves.

At least we have to wait until Princess Charlotte arrives in the East, and use this as a basis to contact a group of French elites, and then use this to let the French people in Louisiana come to support us.

Only then can we be sure of entering the Great Central Plains, blocking key river hubs, and preventing Americans from continuing to advance westward.

This set of operations will take at least ten years.

Therefore, the pioneering fleet carefully prepared by the Dayu Dynasty had no place to play a role, at least not now. Mo Zibu then thought of using the pioneering fleet to support his third brother Mo Zirong and his family.

"Your Majesty, I think the navy is not important, because with the English, our few ships won't make much difference, and our few ships won't make much difference either.

On the contrary, the army, the three guards of the King of Lu were not fully staffed to begin with, with only 5,000 to 6,000 men at most, and they really couldn’t withstand the attrition.”

Prime Minister Luo Fangbai was knowledgeable about military affairs. He knew at a glance that it didn't matter whether the navy was sent or not. The war would mainly be fought on land to deal with the spillover of the impending French Revolution.

We must not allow the Chinese bridgehead in Europe, Prince Lu Mo Zirong and his family, to be destroyed, not even severely damaged.

Mo Zibu thought about it. China and Europe were too far apart. It was difficult for others, except for himself as a time traveler, to understand how violent the energy of the French Revolution would be.

It is also hard to believe that in the future there will be a Napoleon who will sweep across Europe and almost become the Qin Shi Huang of Europe.

But since it was difficult for the people below to understand, Mo Zibu decided to clarify his words, "As I said before, the French Revolution, on the whole, was progressive and just.

This progressive and just political event will definitely cleanse the European landscape and change the political thinking of Europeans. We must be prepared for the sudden emergence of a person capable of leading the great powers in the West."

Although what he said was still very conservative, the ministers below still didn't quite believe it, even Reinstein.

However, seeing that the emperor was indeed going to spend a large sum of money to aid Prince Lu, the ministers did not particularly object.

Because the court's budget was already there, the reserved funds were about 7 million silver dollars, and the rest needed to be added, so the emperor would either have to pay from the treasury or issue bonds in the financial market.

Mo Zibu certainly knew this situation. Now that Napoleon had not appeared, the people below would definitely not support large-scale aid.

"Then let's proceed according to the budget. The navy will send some fifth-class steam sailing frigates. The army will recruit musketeers from Silla, Penglai, Asahi, and Fuso, and cavalry from the south of the desert. As for the elite soldiers from the Han area, let Mo Gongze recruit them himself."

The meeting ended quickly, and Mozibu chatted with Reinstein for a while, confirming that he, General Yuan Cong, was not crazy, but was just getting older and more anxious about restoring Rome, which triggered the final frenzy.

Mo Zibu was relieved. As long as Reinstein was not crazy and could exert his strength, and with Wang Wubing as the mainstay, the third brother's family should not be in any big trouble.

At night, the palace was brightly lit because today was the birthday of Chen Guangyao's mother, Mo Zibu's aunt within the fifth degree of mourning, Princess Gushi.

Mo Zibu went there specifically to have a drink of wine, and then came back. He sat quietly in the study, and finally rejected an idea that had been buried for a long time.

That is to send someone to kill Napoleon directly in order to eliminate the impending turmoil that may lead to France unifying Europe.

But now, Mo Zibu gave up.

In the early days, it was because Dayu did not have such capabilities in France and could not find reliable people to carry out the execution.

This kind of work must be done privately by Jinyiwei agents, which requires absolute confidentiality.

Otherwise, a great emperor from the East would be so neurotic as to spend a lot of manpower and resources to assassinate a teenager.

If this gets out, it will probably be the biggest political scandal of this century. The Eastern Emperor Mo Zibu and the Chinese Empire will be in disgrace.

Now, he has the ability to do it and the death squad to keep it completely secret, but Mo Zibu doesn't want to do that anymore.

Because the greatest advantage of Emperor Mo Da is his foresight. To put it bluntly, he relies on the vision of a time traveler to always choose the right track and prescribe the right medicine, thus being successful in everything he does.

Mo Zibu knows exactly what Napoleon will do after his rise to power. Although the details may be different, the general outline will not change much.

But if it’s someone else, the variables will be too great. What if someone even more ruthless turns out?
In other words, killing Napoleon was equivalent to, to a large extent, taking away his own ability to see through things.

Moreover, Mo Zibu reviewed the situation in Europe today and found that Napoleon was a bit like an enhanced version of Xiang Yu.

His military ability is absolutely impeccable and can be compared with that of the King of Chu. However, he is slightly stronger than Xiang Yu in terms of politics and strategy.

But he was just a little stronger, far from Liu Bang's level, and might even be worse than Zhao Kuangyin.

In history, Napoleon's shortcomings in this regard were not exposed too much because many of his omissions were covered up by his military strengths.

But in this time and space, with a nurse like Dayu supporting him from behind, Napoleon's weakness will surely be exposed more thoroughly as time goes on. Mo Zibu feels that he can seize this weakness and control the situation.

But in this case, benefits must be given to Britain and Russia so that they can feel at ease to work with Napoleon.

(End of this chapter)