The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 757: Twenty Years of Upheaval

"Your Majesty, you must not agree to Azhen's request. He is still young and knows nothing. He has only been married for a little over a year, and his child is less than six months old. How could he possibly abandon his inheritance, his wife, and his child to travel thousands of miles across the sea?"

In the Qianqing Palace of the Forbidden City in Shuntian Prefecture, Beijing, Mo Zibu had just finished a small court meeting when he was stopped by Concubine Ye De and Concubine Ye Xiaomei, who were crying like rain.

The fierce girl who could beat five little boys alone and strangle a 70-80 kg dog to incontinence is now 43 years old.

Although she still has her charm due to good maintenance, she is old enough to call herself an old woman after all, and the signs of aging inevitably appear on her face.

"Well, my cousin is here too." Mo Zibu also had a headache. He looked left and right and nodded, "Qian, are you joining in the fun too?"

Little cousin Concubine Chen looked at Mo Zibu with resentment. Of course she would come. The emperor had thrown her son, the Crown Prince Da Lao Sen, into the river.

She was so angry that she still hadn't recovered from her son's departure, so naturally she wanted to unite with her sisters to fight against the enemy.

Concubine Qian had only been in the palace for less than seven years. She was taken in by Mo Zibu in order to win over the gentry and wealthy merchants in the south of the Yangtze River. Her fifth-generation ancestor was the cousin of Xia Wanchun, the young hero most admired by Mo Zibu, and he also participated in the anti-Qing war.

As the descendant of a hero, Qian was also very beautiful, full of the gentleness and tenderness of a Jiangnan woman. She was extremely favored after entering the palace.

However, no matter how favored she was, she could not be compared with her little cousin, who accompanied the emperor in times of crisis, and Ye Xiaomei, who was the chief housekeeper when the emperor started his career and could almost be regarded as Yuan Cong's virtuous concubine.

Hearing the emperor's tone with a hint of blame, Qian's legs softened and she knelt lightly on the ground.

Mo Zibu glared at her with a bit of disappointment, and was about to ask Concubine Qian to stand up, but Ye Xiaomei picked up Qian.

"Sister, don't be afraid of him. Even the emperor has to be reasonable. It's not easy for him to send our son, who we carried for ten months, all over the world without a word."

It just so happened that today Mo Zibu's youngest brother, the seventh Mo Zijun, was following his elder brother to learn government affairs. When he heard the indignation of his sisters-in-law, the twelve-year-old Mo Zijun almost laughed out loud.

It's nothing to order a few nephews around the world. When my father Mo Tianci was still alive, he was sent to Japan to be the prime minister by his fifth brother at the age of eighty.

When the emperor was cruel, he didn't even let his own father go, so how could he let his son go?
Concubine Qian became a little nervous. When the emperor asked her why she came to join in the fun, the meaning was obvious, because her two sons, the tenth prince A'an and the twelfth prince A'feng, were already scheduled to go to the vassal state.

In particular, the tenth prince, Achusanne, had already agreed to marry the Holy Roman Empire and marry Maria Ludovica Lucia, the daughter of Francis II, who was Napoleon's second wife in history and the queen of the First French Empire.

The fiefdom has also been found, which is Ceylon Island in the Tianzhu Sea. As for Qian's other son, the twelfth prince Afeng, it is basically decided that he will be sent to Bukhara for fiefdom.

Moreover, Qian's family was enclosing land everywhere to build large farms and getting involved in many industries, but Mo Zibu turned a blind eye to it because he knew that the money earned by the Qian family would be used to support his two sons' overseas fiefdoms in the future.

So when Mo Zibu asked Qian why she came to join in the fun, he was just trying to scare Qian. With your family doing this, do you still want to keep your two sons in the country?

"Your Majesty, don't scare her. I was the one who told her that the Sixth Prince wanted to be enfeoffed in Bukhara." Ye Xiaomei decisively took the responsibility on herself. With her special identity, it was impossible for her to hide such a small matter.

Of course, Ye Xiaomei did not lie. It was indeed she who told Qian the news, which emboldened Qian. She hoped that through Ye Xiaomei's struggle, she could keep her son in the country and by her side.

The sixth one that Ye Xiaomei mentioned was the military supervisor of the last wave of Western Army - Dingxi Army, the Duke of Wu Mo Ziling.

Of course Mo Zibu wanted Mo Ziling to settle down in the river, because he had good abilities and could stabilize the area if he went there now, whereas his twelfth son, Afeng, was only five years old this year and it would take more than ten years for him to be useful.

"Don't think too much. Even if Afeng doesn't go to Bukhara, he will go to the Tocharian Basin in the future." Mo Zibu immediately and ruthlessly dispelled Qian's fantasy.

The Anxi Dushisi of the Great Yu Dynasty had four golden treasures:

The Ili Basin, the northernmost area of the Seven Rivers, is rich in resources.

In the middle is the Dayuan Basin, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack. It has a certain industrial foundation, and agriculture also has great development prospects due to the complete water conservancy facilities.

To the south is the most fertile Jinsha River Valley (from Samarkand to Bukhara). Mozibu plans to grow cash crops here on a large scale to raise the living standards of the four Anxi provinces to a higher level.

The last one is naturally the Tocharian Basin, which has not been acquired yet and does not have outstanding advantages in all aspects, but has good geographical location, products and climate, and very comprehensive conditions.

Now the Ili Basin is directly under the jurisdiction of the imperial court, the Dayuan Basin has been given to Li Xianwen's Xia clan, and Mo Ziling is willing to stabilize the Jinsha River Valley first. The only thing left is the Tocharian Basin, which has not yet been fully taken over.

The light in Qian's eyes dimmed, but soon she aimed at a certain part of the emperor. She was only 26 years old this year, which was considered young among the emperor's harem, and the emperor liked her very much.

Since both of her sons were sent to serve as fiefs in other places, she might as well have another one. The emperor must keep one by her side.

"Although Azhen was young, he was known for his intelligence. During his time governing Fusang, he was respected by everyone, and the ministers sent by the court all praised his ability.

I trust his judgment and understand his ambitions, so whether to go or not is up to him. Don't try to force him to change his mind by crying and whining!"

Mo Zibu's words were so harsh that they brought tears to Ye Xiaomei's eyes. She looked at him aggrievedly, "Other people have several sons, but I only have this one!"

It was quite tragic. Ye Xiaomei gave birth to three daughters in succession. She was 26 years old, which meant she had been married to Mo Zibu for almost ten years when she gave birth to a son. Naturally, she was reluctant to let him go.

Mo Zibu could understand her, but he could only harden his heart and say to Ye Xiaomei, "This is the mission of being born into an imperial family. They have been living in luxury since childhood, enjoying wealth and a respected status that others cannot even dream of. Naturally, there are some prices to pay.

If they are not willing to pay this little price, how can they have the right to enjoy the people's money!
If I am reluctant to send my own son away, who among my subjects in the world would be willing to send their children away to colonize the country?

Is it true that my son is a son, but their sons are not sons?"

Ye Xiaomei knew that it was irreversible, so she could only leave the Qianqing Palace crying with the support of her cousin Chen and Qian.

Mo Zibu also sat on a long recliner, thinking a lot. It was not that he didn't feel sorry for Mo Zhouzhen, but there was really no other way.

After being emperor for twenty-two years, he finally understood why the Chinese could never catch up with the Europeans in terms of colonization speed, even though he had created such good conditions in this era.

One of the biggest reasons is that after thousands of years of development, the moral standards in China still seem to be too high.

Why were the English, French and Prussians willing to go out to sea to colonize? It was because if they didn't go out, they would really have no choice but to wait for death in their hometown.

Even going through hardships to reach North America was better than being thrown into the meat grinder of an English factory, where the average survival time did not exceed eight years.

In China, as all aspects began to develop rapidly, as long as you were willing to work hard, you would always have a chance to survive and would not starve to death. Even if you put aside the idea of having a wife, children and a warm bed, you could still live a very carefree life.

At the same time, at the government level, no matter how hypocritical Confucianism is, or how high-sounding the officials of the imperial examinations appear to be, loyal to the emperor and protecting the people, they are all cruel and ruthless behind the scenes, and corrupt and unjust.

But at least this kind of work can still be done on the surface, and it is already far superior to the European nobles and officials of the same period.

Moreover, although Confucian moral standards cannot completely transform a person, as long as a scholar has studied Confucian classics diligently, except for a few extremely insane people, most people, no matter how shameless they are, still have a little bottom line in their hearts.

At least he has studied for so many years and knows what is right and wrong. Even if he does something bad, he often feels uneasy inside and dares not and is embarrassed to do it too extreme.

The nobles and officials of Europe, on the other hand, had no such constraints at all. They openly treated the common people as if they were pigs, dogs, cattle, and sheep, and they had no psychological burden at all. This is also the reason why the Chinese people, from the emperor to the common people, all sympathized with the French Revolution. The people of Europe were really suffering too much.

But suffering has its advantages, that is, it can drive people away, which is not the case with Dayu. Nanyang is better now, it is well developed, and there is no need to worry too much when going to Nanyang.

But the four provinces of Anxi and Beihezhou (North America) were not a good idea. Although they were given land and wives, who would be willing to go to those places? Mo Zibu gave them a lot of benefits, but still no one was willing to go there.

Therefore, in order to enrich the four provinces of Anxi, Mo Zibu had no choice but to let his vassals go home and fool them. In addition, he forced the court to assign additional tasks to each local official and forced them to immigrate.

"Seventh Brother, have you heard about the recent chaos caused by immigration to the border? What do you think about this?"

Mo Zibu pondered for a while and looked at his younger brother Mo Zijun, who was a dozen years younger than his eldest son and pretending to study hard in the corner.

It did cause a lot of trouble, such as local rich families encroaching on the land of poor families, leaving the entire family without a livelihood and forcing them to sign up to go out and colonize.

In order to complete their tasks, local officials sent people to conduct sting operations and then threw them out to colonize in the name of criminals.

What's worse, some people just use their imagination to magnify some small financial disputes or incidents of minor injuries caused by assault, and turn them all into serious crimes punishable by exile and report them to the Ministry of Justice.

The Ministry of Justice naturally knew the emperor's thoughts and handled special cases with special arrangements. It is said that a man from Yangzhou was sentenced to exile in Beiting simply because he beat his neighbor and knocked out one of his teeth. The process was completed within ten days from the time the county magistrate reported to the Ministry of Justice.

As a result, the other party was dissatisfied and his family ran to Nanjing to complain.

When Mo Zijun heard the emperor's brother's question, he bowed and saluted, then dropped his book and walked over, answering without thinking:
"Special matters require special treatment. Since my Royal Brother requires the prefects and county magistrates to cooperate with the imperial court's policies and has also issued strict enforcement orders, then turning a blind eye is only natural.

Otherwise, if the decree is so strict and the matter is so difficult to handle, and yet the hands of the officials below are still tied, it will greatly undermine the officials' enthusiasm and also damage the emperor's majesty."

It seems that this thought has been in Mo Zijun's mind for a long time, so he immediately expressed it clearly.

Mo Zibu remained expressionless after hearing this, and asked Mo Zijun in a tone that was neither sad nor happy, "You only talked about how difficult it is for officials, but you didn't consider the people at all!"

"Your Majesty, this is not the time to consider the people. The four Anxi provinces are now empty. The most urgent task is to quickly settle the border and control the local area. This is the most urgent matter for the court.

At the same time, the arrival of a large number of immigrants can also make the soldiers who have been granted fiefs feel that Anxi has great potential and that it is worthwhile to exchange military merit for fiefdoms. Then, the next time the emperor wants to recruit soldiers on a large scale for an expedition, they will respond enthusiastically. "

I have to say that Mo Zijun's words were a bit cruel, but from the broader perspective of governing the country, they were correct.

When the country and the court need it, when history reaches this point, some policies that harm the people and benefit future generations must be implemented.

Mo Zibu actually thought the same, but he was not as calm as Mo Zijun, who had no psychological burden.

From the perspective of the common people, many of those who died on the road or died of acclimatization were their loved ones and friends. They did not have to die, but they all died in a foreign land at the emperor's casual order.

"You're right, Old Seven. Each generation has its own destiny. For the sake of future generations, we can only work hard or even sacrifice them." Mo Zibu said with a sigh.

Mo Zijun disagreed. He smiled and said to Mo Zibu, "It can't be considered a sacrifice. Without Your Majesty's restoration of the country, they would still be struggling to survive under the oppression of the Qing Dynasty.

Their generation might just barely survive, but their descendants will surely suffer a miserable end due to the catastrophe brought about by the population explosion."

Well, it’s really of high standard. My hard work in training has not been wasted.

Mo Zibu thought about it and decided not to talk about the first and second crows, but just talk about the White Lotus Rebellion in Sichuan and Hubei and the Taiping Rebellion that had already happened in history.

The former reduced the population from 390 million to 270 million. Of course, the death toll was not that high, only around 20 million at most, but a large number of people fled, and many became landlords, tenants, or even serfs without household registration, and met a tragic end.

The latter affected most of China, and was the richest region. If the Tongzhi Hui Rebellion is included, at least 60 to 70 million people died.

Thinking of this, Mo Zibu finally felt much better. We have caused you so much trouble now, and maybe 20,000 to 30,000 people will die on the way to immigration, but it is much better than dying tragically in various ways during the turmoil.

"Seventh Brother, go tell Zheng Jinshui to not go too far. Just exile him, don't make him bear such a heavy crime."

Zheng Jinshui, Mo Zibu's first personal secretary and the half-son he raised, is currently one of the five ministers and is in charge of the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple.

Mo Zijun accepted the order and went there happily. Zheng Jinshui, who received the emperor's will, immediately used his intelligence and came up with a brilliant idea.

That is to add a new crime which is not called exile, but is actually similar to exile, called "prisoner".
After committing a crime, they would be sent directly to designated colonies as prisoners. Once there, their criminal status would be lifted, and they would be allowed to apply to return home after serving for a few years, and their records would not be kept.

Well, the Dayu Dynasty should be careful in the future. If you beat others at will or steal a certain amount of money, you may be sentenced to be exiled to colonize land.

Wait until you stay there for a few years, the government will divide the land for you, build a house for you, give you one or two wives from various barbaric countries, and then have children.

Well, even if you have a wife, children and a warm bed, I guess most people would find it difficult to have the courage to give up everything and return to their hometown where they have no land after a few years.

Mo Zhouzhen, who had returned from Beihezhou, also witnessed this situation with his own eyes. He had traveled north along the Grand Canal from Nanjing, but halfway there he received an order from Mo Zibu, asking him to go to Henan and Hebei to see the local situation.

Only then did Mo Zhouzhen realize that the situation in the rural areas of Henan and Hebei had undergone tremendous changes in recent years.

Thanks to the rapid development of the steel industry, people's agricultural tools are more than ten times better than those in the Qing Dynasty. In many places, even hoes are made of pig iron, which greatly improves production efficiency.

Oxen are very common in rural Henan, and almost every household has two or three oxen.

In some rural areas near big cities, steam pumps are already used for irrigation, and specialized agricultural companies are beginning to provide services for breeding and fertilizer accumulation.

Of course, the most important thing is that land in Henan and Hebei began to be concentrated on a large scale. Mo Zhouzhen saw near Hua County that all farmers who lived relatively well were basically large households with three or four hundred acres of land.

Even if a family has only three or four strong laborers, with the help of sophisticated tools, sufficient oxen, and correct guidance from the government, it is not very hard for one person to cultivate nearly 100 acres of land.

There are even signs of intensive planting. Many large farmers have negotiated with each other. For example, this year you plant all wheat, I plant all corn, and he plants all soybeans. When it comes to harvest, we help each other, save energy, and facilitate planning.

Correspondingly, a large number of ordinary farmers who cannot adapt to this new form are being rapidly squeezed out of their hometowns where their ancestors have lived for dozens or even hundreds of years.

They either went into the city to become workers and laborers, or, or most of them, were semi-forcibly recruited by the government and went to the four provinces of Anxi, the four provinces of Northeast China, and even to colonize the land of Beihezhou that Mo Zhouzhen wanted to take over.

The Henan Provincial Governor Zuo Fu who hosted him told Mo Zhouzhen that Henan originally had a population of 30 million, but the population has been declining over the years. Even though the fertility rate is very high, it is now only a little over 20 million.

And it is still decreasing. Because too many people are leaving the province, the Central Plains Mandarin with a Henan accent has become one of the main dialects in northwestern provinces such as Gansu and Yiwu Province, one of the newly established four Anxi provinces.

Mo Zhouzhen secretly thought that this new change should be exactly what his father wanted to see. The Dayu Dynasty was undergoing tremendous changes.

(End of this chapter)