The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 719 Castes in the Dayuan Basin

"Hey yo, hey yo, hey yo!" The sound of the horn echoed in the countryside of Changshunbao, Zhongshan County, Zhenxiguan Prefecture.

With the sound of the horn, a huge stone slab was placed next to the designated canal, and the entire canal was finally completely closed.

Leng Tianlu wiped the sweat from his head and jumped into the canal with a splash, the bottom of which was paved with stone slabs.

He waved his hand and shouted to a man beside the canal who was obviously a Hui Muslim, "Dazhong, give the signal and have the people above divert the water down!"

"Okay, sir, I'll go right away!" Mamtim Changzhong answered loudly in Chinese with an eastern Sichuan accent, and then went to a distance to send a signal, which was to light a larger rocket.

As the crackling sound was heard, bursts of shouts came from the mountain, followed by the sound of flowing water. After a while, the cold river water appeared in the canal where Leng Tianlu was standing.

"Hahahaha!" Leng Tianlu laughed out loud. Although the river water in early spring was extremely cold, his heart and his whole body were warm.

"Fourth Dad, this is great! We have so much water before the hot weather even arrives. We won't have to worry about water shortages when we farm this year. We can even grow some rice. I want to eat white rice!"

The guy who called Leng Tianlu "Fourth Dad", or "Fourth Uncle", was a sturdy, white, and chubby kid. He looked at the rushing water in the canal and his eyes narrowed with laughter.

"Hahaha, you idiot, why plant rice? Plant cotton! Plant cotton for me! Didn't you see that the king paid a huge price to buy cotton in order to collect 30,000 sets of foam nail armor for the army?

Let me tell you, cotton will be the best-selling commodity for at least the next ten years, and there will be no worries about sales.

Our Leng family owns 30,000 mu of land in Changshunbao. If we take 30% of it, or 9,000 mu, to grow cotton, we'll make a fortune!"

"Yes, yes, we need to grow cotton. I know where to find some knowledgeable people. We can also process the cotton a little bit. We don't need to sell it directly, which is not worth much. I think it's okay."

As soon as the fat white boy talked about farming and making money, he immediately became talkative, but Leng Tianlu interrupted him.

After coming out of the canal, the famous White Lotus Sect master, the warrior who had made great contributions in conquering Jintang City, sighed, then pulled the fat white man aside and said in a low voice:
"Erwa, the king is recruiting soldiers. Come with me and go to the battlefield. In Dayuan, no matter how good you are, you can't be as good as someone who can chop people with a knife.

You are a tall and strong man, but without any military achievements, you will be bullied and looked down upon!"

Yes, this Zhenxiguanfu Zhongshan County Changshun Fort is not in the Chixian County of Shenzhou, nor in the Nanyang, but in the Dayuan Basin (Fergana Basin) in the extreme west.
Zhenxiguan Prefecture was named after Zhenxiguan, which was the Khujand at the mouth of the Fergana Basin in later generations.

It faces the direction of Samarkand and is located at the mouth of the basin. It is composed of Zhenxi Pass and six small passes around it, forming the key fortress group of the basin.

Li Xianwen also got the country's name - Xia at the end of last year.

Mo Zibu named the country Xia, which has three meanings. First, Li Xianwen was originally the Prince of Ningxia, and later he was promoted to King of Xia, so he can be said to be a continuation of the same lineage.

Secondly, Li Xianwen was from northern Shaanxi. Starting from Dingnan Army, the country’s name was Xia, and Li Xianwen was the King of Xia, which is in line with the Chinese naming convention.

The third and most important one is Li Xianwen’s Xia vassal state, which was the first real Xia state.

Unless the country established in Europe by Mo Zirong and his son Mo Gongze uses the name Lu in the future, this honor will belong to Li Xianwen.

After all, the State of Lu, located in the Andai Province of Nanyang, was not ruled by Mo Zirong and his son in the future. Moreover, when the country was founded, the Chinese were already the largest ethnic group in the Lu vassal state.

Moreover, Mo Zirong is the Prince of Lu, not the King of Lu. There is a big difference here.

Therefore, Li Xianwen's Xia Kingdom is the first Xia Kingdom in China. Mo Zibu hopes to start with him and establish a number of Xia Kingdoms of Xia Jun Yi people in areas that the empire cannot fully control to protect the empire.

However, at present, Li Xianwen has only obtained the name of the Xia Kingdom, and his title is still Prince of Ningxia instead of King of Xia.

Because in Dayu, titles must be obtained through military merit and major contributions, which is written into the clan law of the clan office.

Internal titles of nobility shall not be granted without military merit and major contributions to science and technology, titles of nobility shall not be granted to Chinese vassals without territorial expansion and colonization, and titles of nobility shall not be granted to foreign ministers without special permission from the emperor and bloodline inheritance.

Of course, promotion of titles is not subject to this restriction. For example, a vassal state is promoted to a relative vassal, a relative vassal gives up a prosperous fiefdom and dedicates himself to the country in order to gain internal merit, etc. These are not subject to this restriction.

Therefore, if Li Xianwen wanted to become the King of Xia, he had to cooperate with the regular army of Dayu to take over the entire Hezhong area, so that he could be named the King of Xia for his merits.

When the fat and chubby Erwa heard his fourth uncle Leng Tianlu point out his biggest weakness, a look of discomfort appeared on his face.

In the present Xia vassal state, there are only 80,000 Han people, 270,000 Mamtim who migrated from the Hui people, and 510,000 natives who originally belonged to the Kokand Kingdom.

Of course, among the 80,000 Han people, there were less than 4,000 women and children, and among the 510,000 people in Kokand, there were no more than 40,000 adult males, and marriage was strictly restricted. The purpose was to allow these 80,000 Han people to colonize the country and directly change the human race.

Therefore, in such places, the life productivity of Han men is ranked second or even third, and military force ranks first.

Whether one can join the army, wield a sword and fire a gun to kill people, and go out into the countryside to search the mountains and seas to suppress disobedience, has become the biggest and highest criterion for judging a Han man. Those who cannot meet this standard will indeed be looked down upon.

"Fourth Dad, I... I can't do it." The fat and white Erwa was about to cry. It's not that he was timid, but...

"Fourth Dad, I really can't do it. I get dizzy and can't walk when I see blood. I can't even watch pigs and sheep being slaughtered."

There's nothing we can do about this. He's born with a serious blood phobia, to the point of losing consciousness. He really can't go to the battlefield.

"Leng Jun, there's no need to force him. He can't stand the sight of blood. If he gets hurt on the battlefield, it would be a waste of his talent.

Jiro is good at farming, so he's not necessarily useless. I think we'll still have to rely on him to make ends meet after we retire."

The person who called Leng Tianlu Lengjun was a short but very strong He people. However, nowadays, except for some idioms, the He people are not much different from the Han people.
This Japanese man was named Ping Wu, whose original name was Ping Xiaowulang. He was a comrade of Leng Tianlu when they fought in Jintang City. The two of them rolled out of a pile of dead bodies.

After the war, both of them chose to establish their fiefdoms in the Dayuan Basin and became neighbors. Taira Kogoro was also given a surname because of his military achievements and changed his surname to Taira and his name to Take.

The Xia vassal state had no townships or towns in the Dayuan Basin. Instead, there were forts under the counties. Each fort had a lord who controlled approximately 3,000 to 50,000 acres of land, making it convenient to directly suppress the local areas.

The entire Xia vassalage had a total of 1,147 forts, known as two thousand, so it was also called the Xia vassalage with two thousand (hundred) households, and controlled approximately 13 million acres of land.

Among them, every five castle lords formed a mutual assistance cooperative, and on weekdays they worked together to defend against unruly people, arrest the unruly remnants of Kokand, etc.

At the same time, about one-third of these castle lords were direct subordinates of the future King Xia Li Xianwen.

One third of them were managed by large vassal states. For example, there were 127 fort lords under the Marquis of An (Ji) Yan, who was reserved for Li Xianwen's grandson, Mo Guangchen, the second son born to the crown prince by Li Xianwen's concubine Fu Ning.

The last third are meritorious officials who were conferred titles by the emperor.

There are also big differences between these three types of castle lords. For example, in terms of how they deal with crimes, the first type has the power of life and death under the control of Li Xianwen.

The second type of vassal state, if it wanted to punish a castle lord, would report the crime to Li Xianwen for a decision.

The last type requires complete evidence, and Li Xianwen will report it to the imperial clan court for a decision. He only has leadership power but not the final power of punishment.

Pingwu and Leng Tianlu were the third type of castle owners, also known as imperial family members. This term, introduced from the East, was quite accurate in these places. Hearing Pingwu's words, Leng Tianlu sighed. He had only married and had children after arriving in the Dayuan Basin. His eldest son was less than two years old, so he had chosen three nephews from his family to come with him.

Among them, the eldest and the third are simple-minded fools who only know how to wield swords and guns and play with women. They are pure, with trembling limbs and simple minds. They can't live a good life if they leave the army.

Only the second child has a clear mind, is quite knowledgeable, and knows how to prepare for a rainy day. Unfortunately, he cannot bear the blood and cannot go to the battlefield.

This is nothing in other places, but in Xia Fan, when it is about to go out to attack Bukhara and Khiva Khanate, it is a huge disadvantage.

But Erwa is afraid of blood, so what can you do?

Leng Tianlu sighed again and made a gesture to the housekeeper Dazhong. Not long after, Dazhong came over gracefully with five young ladies who were about sixteen or seventeen years old.

Among these five young ladies, one of them wore brightly colored clothes and was very bold. She even flirted with Leng Tianlu and Ping Wu in front of them.

Those who have such courage are basically from the Hui tribe. Only they dare to think of themselves as half masters.

The other few could be considered above average in appearance, but their temperament was much worse. They wore coarse cloth clothes, and when they saw castle lords like Pingwu and Leng Tianlu, they were so scared that they knelt on the ground, dared not move, and even trembled.

Needless to say, these are the original Kokand people.

Leng Tianlu looked at the five women with satisfaction, but then felt that something was missing, so he said to Dazhong, "How old is the eldest daughter of the Yusup family? She seems to be a widow with a child, right?"

"Yes, Amina's husband died a year ago, and now she is a widow with a three-year-old boy. She is a bit old, she is already twenty-six this year." Butler Dazhong immediately listed all her details.

"Big, not big, just right, let's add her in. Women who have had children have experience, let her teach Erlang. Men always need to know how to handle women."

After a while, Amina from Yusup's family was brought over, and even Yusup came over.

Leng Tianlu's 30,000 acres of land are cultivated by 190 households, including 9 Han households, 51 Hui households, and the remaining 130 households are all Kokand people.

Therefore, in order to suppress the people below, although the Mamtim people were forcibly brought from the Hui people to the Dayuan Basin, their status was still much higher than that of the Kokand people.

They even served as small leaders, helping the Han people manage the farmers in Kokand. Some of the ambitious ones learned Chinese and read the Four Books and Five Classics, and even became Han fortress lords.

Yusup was in charge of eighteen households of Kokand farmers for Leng Tianlu. As soon as he saw Leng Tianlu, he shouted "Greetings, Master" in broken Chinese and kowtowed to him.

Then he kowtowed to Pingwu and saluted Baipang Erwa before standing up.

Leng Tianlu looked at Amina behind Yusup and found that she was very beautiful. Not only was she pretty, but she also had a curvy figure. It seemed that the skirt could not cover her at all, and her beauty was so amazing that it seemed as if it was about to tear the cloth apart.

Especially when she bowed, her dress was stretched tight, revealing her slender waist and two round buttocks that were extremely majestic. The visual impact was extremely strong. What a mature and beautiful woman!
The fat and white Erwa was stunned. He was only seventeen years old and had never seen such a scene. When these five girls came over just now, his heart was pounding.

Now facing such a beauty, Erwa subconsciously clamped his legs together and began to hunch over. He was afraid of making a fool of himself on the spot.

"Amina, I leave my nephew to you. He is still a tiger without independence. Teach him more tonight and let him know what the most beautiful thing in the world is like between a man and a woman."

Coming from a usually serious man like Leng Tianlu, such words were extremely funny, but Amina didn't dare. She suppressed her smile, with a hint of shyness on her face, and quickly knelt down to agree.

Leng Tianlu turned back and looked at his second nephew viciously, "If one of these six women isn't pregnant when I come back, I'll break your legs!"

If you can't go to the battlefield, then go to bed. You have to do the same thing.

The fat and white second nephew, who had been hunching over, shuddered with fear. Something in his originally angry heart seemed to have foreseen the hard work that was to come, and it suddenly wilted.

Nephew Leng Er was so scared because he knew Leng Tianlu was not joking.

Nowadays, in order to quickly expand the number of Han people, in addition to constantly asking for people from the Central Plains, increasing the number through the bellies of women of other races is also a very important means, and both the upper and lower levels attach great importance to it.

The Prince of Ningxia imposed a rule that after five years, any fortress owner who had fewer than five wives and concubines, or fewer than five children, would be punished. All Han men in the fortress who were over fifteen and unmarried would be punished to serve as slaves for one year.

"Yusup, take your weapon and come with me!" After yelling at his nephew, Leng Tianlu looked at Yusup and said.

Yusup was not afraid. Instead, his eyes lit up and an expression of ecstasy appeared on his face. "Master, are we going to fight?"

Leng Tianlu nodded. "The king has issued a conscription order. This year, we will go out to fight the Bukhara people. Our fort will send five Han soldiers, five Hui soldiers, and fifteen servants."

"That's great! We should have dealt with those Bukhara barbarians long ago!" Yusup jumped three feet high with joy.

"Our fortress is short of men, and a lot of land is barren. This time, when we follow the master on his expedition, we must capture a few Bukharans and bring them back. Then we'll have someone to do the dirty work."

Seeing that Leng Tianlu had arranged things in his own fort, Pingwu also went back to his fort to make arrangements. Before leaving, he looked at Leng Tianlu and said, "Let Xiangzi stay in my house for another year, and then betroth her to your nephew."

Leng Tianlu looked at Pingwu in some surprise. Xiangzi was Pingwu's sister, fourteen years old this year. In the Xia vassal state where Han women were very rare, such young ladies were very precious and could often marry into higher-level Han families.

"The King's teachings say that this is to complete His Majesty's mission of destroying the Three Khanates and completely eradicating the mystical cancer of the Muslim sect. I don't think the war will end anytime soon.

But our children are still young. If anything happens to us, these two castles will depend on your nephew. He can speak, write, and do math, and he can manage your family business well. "

Leng Tianlu understood that Pingwu was doing this to provide a safety net.

What do castle lords like them fear the most? Of course, they fear that they will die in battle, but their sons are still young and cannot manage the hard-earned foundation. In the end, they are forced to sell their titles for a penny and return to Shenzhou.

In this case, if there is someone like Leng Tianlu's second nephew who is good at business and helps them run the business, and then pass it on to their son when he grows up, that would be the best choice.

As for whether Leng's second nephew would take over the property, that was really overthinking, because the castle lords of Xia Fan were all on guard against this. Their property must be passed on to their own sons, this was an iron rule.

If anyone wanted to seize the property, for example, if Leng's second nephew tried to use shady tactics, he would probably be arrested and imprisoned by people sent from the palace before he could finish his trick, or be killed by other castle lords with knives.

In matters like this, we are all in the same boat, and that means protecting everyone's interests. The castle lords are very clear about this.

Of course, Leng's second nephew is not at a disadvantage either. Although Leng Tianlu and Pingwu's castles cannot be divided, there are more than a thousand castle lords in the entire Xia vassal state, but not even half of them have actual power. After all, one has to have military merits to become a noble.

Moreover, compared with the Dayuan Basin, the territories occupied by Bukhara and Khiva are much larger, so there is no need to worry about finding a place to be a castle lord.

As long as he managed the family property for his uncle and elder brother-in-law, according to the clan law, he could be given a piece of land and registered in the names of Ping and Leng as compensation.

"Okay, tomorrow we'll go find General Liang, the county magistrate, and have him testify and finalize this matter." Leng Tianlu naturally wanted this kind of good thing, and he further suggested:

"When my son grows up, he will marry your daughter. When your daughter grows up, she will marry your son. We Han people are of the same blood and will pass on our wealth and honor together."

Pingwu was also very happy. After so many years of hard work, he finally evolved from a lowly Japanese to a Han Chinese.

(End of this chapter)