The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 73 The Benefits of a Profound Historical Background

The Rakhine Mountains are a northwest-southeast mountain range that separates the Rakhine region on the southwest coast of Myanmar from the Irrawaddy Plain in the main part of Myanmar.

Anguan, located in the middle of the mountain range, is the most important pass in the Rakhine Mountains, without a doubt.

Historically, this was almost the only land route from the Irrawaddy River plain to the Rakhine coast, so it became the focus of defense for the Arakanese.

Even after King Dalye expressed his submission to King Baixiang, Anguan was still closely guarded.

The second prince who guards Anguan is 27 years old this year and is in the prime of his life. Although he only arrived at Anguan last year, he has already received the support of all the soldiers guarding the pass.

However, for such an important place, Mo Zibu must go there in person.

The Arakanese did not have the courage to cross the Angkor Pass to attack the Konbaung Dynasty, but it was no problem to let them lead the way.

Otherwise, Mo Zibu would not know how to get to the city of Pyin Uyen where the French prisoners were held.

So the second prince met with tragedy. Mo Zibu randomly selected two small cases from ancient Chinese history and eliminated this obstacle.

Mozibu first had someone falsely claim that King Dalye was in poor health and summoned the second prince back to the capital, Myowu.

When the second prince saw that the visitors were all acquaintances in the palace, he immediately did not doubt them, packed up and set off quickly.

After walking only a dozen miles, the messenger took out another order, claiming that the second prince had colluded with the Burmese and ordered him to commit suicide.

The second prince was not Fusu, so of course he would not do it. So, with the sound of a cannon, a group of people suddenly rushed out from the mountains on both sides.

After they wiped out the Second Prince's personal guards, they pinned him down and chopped off his head.

At the same time, Mo Zibu personally summoned the commander of Anguan to the Anguan Office and told him that he had been transferred back to the royal capital, Miaowu, and asked him to hand over his military power.

The defending general naturally disagreed, but unfortunately he had not read the Records of the Grand Historian - Biographies of the Princes of Wei.

Just as he was questioning Mo Zibu's identity, Liang Wenying, who was thin and beautiful, suddenly jumped up, took out an iron hammer from the sleeves of his wide robe, and smashed the guard's head with one blow.

Well, when Liang Wenying came in, he was standing in the corner disguised as a maid, so the guard didn't notice him at all.

After killing the defending general, Mo Zibu immediately sent a signal to let hundreds of elite soldiers from Kunlun Mountain Hall hidden outside the pass enter the pass, and then he took out the money and property from inside the pass to reward the three armies, basically stabilizing the situation.

He then offered a large reward to recruit thirty soldiers who were familiar with the road and ordered them to go to Pyin Oo with the army.

After completing these, An Guan was abandoned by Mo Zibu.

Because he had no intention of gaining a foothold in the Arakan Kingdom, Mozibu's plan now was to go directly down the Irrawaddy River after rescuing the captured French artillerymen in Pyin Uyeon.

Before he took action, Li Xianwen had already set off for the fleet stationed in Sittwe.

Fifteen days later, he would lead his fleet to the eastern mouth of the Irrawaddy River, Tharyan, the city where the French were captured seven years ago.

. . . .

Promy, this city is also famous in Myanmar's history.

Historically, in 1542, the founder of the Toungoo Dynasty, Mang Shwe Ti, defeated the Ava Dynasty army from the north in the Battle of Promyeon, thus establishing the Toungoo Dynasty's position in Myanmar.

When brothers Chen Xu and Chen Nan brought Lin Tong to the outskirts of Pyin Uyen City, the conscription order of White Elephant King Meng Bo had actually been issued to the village where the French prisoners were located.

Lieutenant Colonel Bruno looked at the children running around outside the yard and sighed deeply.

They were indeed captives of the White Elephant King, but these captives were not quite the same as those imagined.

Although Myanmar had entered the feudal era at this time, many traces of slave society still remained.

In addition to free people, there are also many serfs who farm for princes and ministers. As for captives like Lieutenant Colonel Bruno, they are naturally slaves.

But this does not mean that their lives are difficult. On the contrary, the White Elephant King is quite nice to these French people.

He set aside two prosperous villages on the king's estate to accommodate them.

This village is close to the city of Pyin Uyen, with complete irrigation facilities, fertile land and abundant products. If it were in France, Lieutenant Colonel Bruno would still be satisfied, because the output here is almost equivalent to that of a baron.

In addition, the White Elephant King also provided each French prisoner with a wife.

These wives look no different from Europeans, or rather, they are Europeans.

These Europeans were descendants of officers and soldiers under the Portuguese adventurer Philippe de Brito, who had been defeated by the Burmese around 1613, and some were Europeans who had been captured intermittently over the years.

They were all settled by the Burmese in the suburbs of several cities such as Pyin U Mwin. The Burmese strictly restricted their freedom of movement. They were generally not allowed to leave the village, nor were they allowed to interbreed with the Burmese. They were raised as slaves in peacetime and drafted as slave soldiers in wartime.

Therefore, even after hundreds of years, the captured Portuguese people still basically retained the appearance of their ancestors, and they even still spoke Portuguese with a strange accent.

This is also in line with the military system of the Konbaung Dynasty. In the Konbaung Dynasty, the auxiliary troops, which are analogous to the Green Camp, are composed of the private soldiers of each vassal and a certain number of recruited soldiers.

The imperial guards, which were similar to the Eight Banners Army, were composed of slave soldiers from the land directly owned by the king and several large cities such as the capital Ava.

On lands directly owned by the king, the functions of each village were strictly controlled.

The cavalry village is mainly responsible for providing cavalry services for the White Elephant King. In addition, elephant soldiers, sword and shield soldiers, archers, etc. all have their own villages.

The French prisoners were classified as artillerymen, so the village where they lived was called the Artillery Village.

The Portuguese captives were musketeers, so they lived in a musketeer village. But this was what made Lieutenant Colonel Bruno uncomfortable, even though they had received rich land and did not have to pay much tax except for fighting for the White Elephant King.

But the Burmese not only strictly restricted their freedom, they even stipulated how many sons each Frenchman had to raise, because the great White Elephant King did not want his artillery corps to be without an heir.

In recent years, there have even been cases where some French captive children did not meet the required number, and were captured by the White Elephant King's ministers who were in charge of them, taken to Pyin Oo Lwin, tied up in the city center, and whipped.

This kind of life where one has no worries about food and clothing, but is strictly controlled in every aspect, easily reminds people of a circus beast imprisoned in an iron cage.

Some people could adapt to this status, so later there were French prisoners who became generals of the Konbaung Dynasty's royal guards, but most people could not accept this personal restriction comparable to that of slavery.

Lieutenant Colonel Bruno was very uncomfortable with this kind of life. It reminded him of the black slaves who were shackled and taken to the North American continent, although his life was much better than that of the black slaves.

Moreover, the staple food in Myanmar is rice. Lieutenant Colonel Bruno has been here for six or seven years and still cannot adapt to it.

But he looked outside the door again, where his son and two daughters were running and laughing.

This was his only spiritual comfort during his slave-like time. He could not lose them and was afraid that something might happen to the children during his escape.

Lin Tong is a true scholar. It is not wrong to say that he is weak, but he is a rare talent in Ha Tien who possesses strong diplomatic skills.

Historically, he traveled back and forth between Ha Tien and the Qing Dynasty several times, and met many Qing officials and two governors-general of Guangdong and Guangxi.

Later, after the collapse of Ha Tien, he took the initiative to go to Siam and gained the forgiveness of Taksin, which made Taksin accept the desperate Ngo Tien Ci.

The reason why he was sent with the Chen Xu brothers this time was not only because of Lin Tong's adaptability and insight into people's hearts, but also because Lin Tong could speak relatively fluent French.

At this time, French, specifically standard French, was the language passport for the entire European upper class.

Even middle and senior officers of the British Army or missionaries could speak French. Therefore, in Ha Tien, a country based on trade, there were many people who were proficient in French.

Seeing Lieutenant Colonel Bruno constantly looking out the door, Lin Tong immediately understood his worries. After pondering for a while, Lin Tong said to Lieutenant Colonel Bruno very straightforwardly:

"In our Chinese history, there was such a thing: a country was destroyed and the monarch was taken prisoner, but he relied on flattery and ingratiating himself with the invaders to obtain immunity or even asylum, and spent the rest of his life in comfort and comfort.

But his son did not want this to happen. After remembering the bravery and achievements of his ancestors, he drew his sword and committed suicide, ending his short but heroic life.

Lieutenant Colonel, whose choice do you think we should agree with more: to live like a slave, or to become a human being who can be distinguished from pigs, horses, cattle and sheep?"

Lieutenant Colonel Bruno looked at Lin Tong with a complicated expression. After a while, he slowly replied:

“People always admire heroes, but it takes a lot of courage to be a hero and not live like a slave.”

"Right!" Lin Tong immediately chimed in, "It's hard to be a hero, but it's not hard to choose not to be a servile slave!"

"Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, do you think that letting your children grow up in this kind of environment is good for them?

No, I can even see a tragic future for these lovely children!
From the time the boy reaches the age of fifteen, he will become the White Elephant King's killing machine.

If you are lucky, you can keep your life, or return home with a mutilated body.

If you are unlucky, you will become a skeleton on the roadside within a few years.

As for girls, they are destined from birth to become reproductive machines controlled by the White Elephant King, just like your wife.

I'm sorry to be so blunt, but that's the truth.

If they are lucky, they will have a disabled husband to spend their old age with them, but if they are unlucky, they will end up alone.

Moreover, Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, do you really think that when you lose your value, the White Elephant King will still treat you as well as he does now?

Please remember that you are not citizens of this country, but slaves!"

After this conversation, Lieutenant Colonel Bruno was speechless. A look of struggle appeared on his face, and he finally nodded after a while.

"Mr. Lin, what you said makes sense. I also see the bearing of a civilized gentleman in you, which is indeed different from the barbaric Burmese.

I imagine your master, Lord Hexian, must also be a very civilized king."

If Mo Zibu were here, he would definitely scoff at what Lieutenant Colonel Bruno said.

What the French did in India and Burma could not be called civilized, and of course what Mozibu did was almost the same.

But Lin Tong enjoyed it very much, and he nodded with a bit of arrogance.

“The Lord has reached a cooperation agreement with Archbishop Peter. From now on, you French people will have a stable and open port city in the East.

If all goes well, the merits gained in Ha Tien could even be converted into merits for the Kingdom of France."

This is not nonsense. It is the most important part after Mo Zibu and Peter discussed it, which is just a matter of how much discount to give.

"Okay." Lieutenant Colonel Bruno nodded, "But we have two requests.

The first thing is that women and children must be brought along.

Secondly, we must first deal with the White Elephant King's army in Pyin Uyen City, otherwise we may not be able to escape. After all, not everyone will be willing to go with us."

(End of this chapter)