Usurpation of Mongolia: My father-in-law is Genghis Khan

Chapter 310 The Enfeoffment of His Sons, Zhao Shuo's Golden Family!

Of course, there weren't enough people in China willing to immigrate, so Zhao Shuo had other options besides sending Zhao Yun to explore the Americas.

After Zhao Yun took his leave, Zhao Shuo issued an order: "Someone, summon Jin'er to me."

"Yes."

An eunuch immediately responded and went to convey the imperial decree to Zhao Jin.

Zhao Jin was the ninth son of Zhao Shuo. He was originally named Zhao Yun, the same name as Emperor Zhao Yun of the Song Dynasty. After Zhao Shuo realized this, he changed his name to Zhao Jin.

During this campaign in Annam, Zhao Shuo's sons behaved differently.

Zhao Shuo was most satisfied with the performance of the seventh son, Zhao Ye, and kept him in Annam to oversee the military and political affairs of the Annam province.

Zhao Yi, the eighth son, also performed well. Zhao Shuo planned to send him to Fusang in a few days to take charge of Fusang's military and political affairs.

This was certainly not a grant of fiefdoms, but rather an opportunity for them to accumulate experience in governing the country and to cultivate their own team.

Only then, when the actual enfeoffment takes place, will they have sufficient capacity to expand their territory and govern their vassal states effectively.

Zhao Shuo decided to keep his thirteenth son, Zhao Zhuo, by his side for a few years to train him before making any decisions.

Zhao Mu, the sixth son, was destined to inherit Georgia. However, Zhao Shuo was always uneasy about Georgia not having any Chinese immigrants mixed in. He planned to incorporate the Daterek Valley into Georgia, where there were Mongolians who had migrated there from Zhao Shuo's own region, which would also be considered adding some Chinese immigrants to Georgia.

Zhao Jin, the ninth son, performed only moderately well, neither making any significant contributions nor committing any major mistakes. His performance was merely above average, and Zhao Shuo arranged a career path for him.

"Your subject pays respects to Your Majesty!" Zhao Jin bowed deeply to Zhao Shuo.

"No courtesy, please sit down."

"Yes."

After Zhao Jin was seated, Zhao Shuo said, "Jin'er, this time you went to Annam with the brothers. I have to say, you didn't perform as well as the other brothers."

Zhao Jin quickly replied, "Your subject has failed your father's expectations and is truly ashamed."

There's no need to feel ashamed.

Zhao Shuo waved his hand and said, "People are wise or foolish, and while their environment plays a role, their innate factors should not be underestimated. When you were studying, you were more diligent than your brothers. When you were learning martial arts, you were also very hardworking. When you were training in the Eight Banners Army, you showed no arrogance whatsoever. With your abilities, it is already commendable that you have achieved what you have today, and I am very pleased."

Zhao Jin is an honest boy with average abilities, but he is quite self-aware and knows that even a slow bird has to start early, which Zhao Shuo has always noticed.

Asking him to expand territory is indeed asking too much of him.

However, he is still capable of maintaining the status quo.

Zhao Jin said, "With Father's words, all the hardships I went through before were worth it."

Zhao Shuo said, "How about it? Are you interested in becoming our family's first prince? Establishing a vassal state?"

Zhao Jin said, "If I could establish a vassal state and share my father's burdens, I would be more than happy to do so. My only fear is that I might not do it well and disappoint my father's expectations."

"I believe you can do it."

As he spoke, Zhao Shuo stood up, pointed to the map, and said, "This is the place where I plan to let you establish your vassal state. It has a circumference of 2,700 li, fertile land, and abundant mineral resources, enough to make you rich and worry-free."

The place Zhao Shuo was referring to was actually half of what is now New South Wales, Australia.

New South Wales is located in southeastern Australia, bordering the Pacific Ocean to the east, Queensland to the north, and Victoria to the south. It was the earliest English colony in Australia. In modern times, it is Australia's most populous state and has the highest level of industrialization and urbanization.

New South Wales has a perimeter of 4,000 kilometers and an area of ​​over 800,000 square kilometers.

Even though Zhao Jin was granted only half of the territory, it still covered more than 400,000 square kilometers.

What does this mean? It's equivalent to four Zhejiang provinces in later times!

There's no way around it; Australia's total area is nearly eight million square kilometers, it's just too big.

Zhao Shuo decided to place one-tenth of the land under the direct jurisdiction of the empire. Another two-tenths would be granted to his son, whose abilities were average but still above average. The remaining seven-tenths would be distributed among the empire's meritorious officials.

Is 400,000 square kilometers a lot? It's only about one-twentieth the size of Australia!

Of course, on the other hand, this place is one of the few truly prosperous areas in Australia.

This region later developed agriculture and animal husbandry to an extremely high level, with wheat accounting for half of Australia's total production and sheep accounting for 30% of Australia's total sheep population.

Even if Zhao Jin only gets half, it will still be an extraordinary fortune.

"So big?"

Zhao Jin certainly understood how vast the four Zhejiang provinces were.

He hesitated and said, "Your subject is foolish and I am afraid that I do not have the ability to manage such a large territory."

"Don't be afraid, I will definitely support you."

Zhao Shuo said, “I will transfer three Eight Banner commanders as your personal guards. There are still seventy to eighty thousand natives in your fiefdom. In addition, I will migrate ten thousand Han people to your fiefdom every year for five years, which will bring the total to fifty thousand. After ten years, when you are fully powerful, your personal guard will be reduced to one Eight Banner commander. With your abilities, controlling such a fiefdom should not be a problem.”

"In addition, food, medicine, military pay, and various supplies will be allocated by my private treasury for the next five years, and you will not need to bear any of the costs. I will also give you two million taels of silver for the founding of the nation, which you can use as you see fit."

"Of course, you also have obligations to the country. In addition to the imperial court sending supervisory officials to oversee the country, one-tenth of the agricultural, pastoral, industrial, and commercial taxes must be turned over to the national treasury. Furthermore, half of your mining revenue must also be turned over to the national treasury. Do you understand?"

This tax rate was consistent for Zhao Shuo's fiefdoms of Zhao Jin and other princes after him, and even for Zhao Yun's fiefdom.

Is it too much for him to ask for half of Zhao Jin's mining revenue?

Not much indeed!

Because the newly designated state of New South Wales is a well-known gold-producing region in Australia.

This gold-producing region was so amazing that it directly sparked the Australian gold rush in later generations.

The first place to discover it was Bathurst, which mainly contained placer gold and was very easy to mine.

Subsequently, the Victoria region of the area quickly became one of the world's richest gold mining areas.

Ballarat in Victoria was originally known for its shallow placer gold, attracting countless individual prospectors.

Bendigo in Victoria is Australia's most productive gold mining area in history, containing not only placer gold but also abundant underground quartz veins, resulting in enormous production and a vast quantity of gold nuggets. This massive amount of gold directly triggered a population explosion in Australia, nearly tripling its population in just a few years.

Immigrants from all over the world poured in, especially Chinese, who were known as "Guangdong miners," forming the earliest Chinese community in Australia. In 1851, Victoria's population was less than 80,000, but by 1854, just three years later, it had surged to over 200,000.

The sheer scale of this gold rush is evident, as is the enormous amount of gold reserves that can be mined.

Zhao Shuo chose to enfeoff Zhao Jin first in New South Wales, Australia, because he was interested in the gold mines there.

Is life in China so good that people don't want to emigrate?
They can practically pick up gold in Australia, why wouldn't they want to go?

Where there are people mining gold, there are people selling shovels and providing various necessities. Over time, they discover that life in Australia is far better than back home; how could they not be happy to settle there?
In fact, it's not just Australia.
And Luzon Island too!
It was also one of the famous gold-producing areas in ancient times. Zhao Yun did not go to Luzon, so Zhao Shuo planned to appoint one of his sons as king there.

Even with the gold rush, there were still countless immigrants!
Oh, and Africa too.

Zhao He had long known that Mali in Africa was known as the "Land of Gold," but he thought that those places were just places with a lot of gold, and the land was barren, so he was too lazy to conquer them.

However, Zhao Shuo came from the future and knew that the gold there was not just "more," but a dazzling amount of gold wealth.

To put it simply, by the fourteenth century, the vast majority of the gold circulating in Europe and the Arab world came from the regions controlled by the Mali Empire.

This golden land is not just a beautiful name, but truly deserves it.

If history had unfolded normally, in 1324, when Mansa Musa, the emperor of the Mali Empire, went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, he was accompanied by as many as 60,000 followers, of whom 12,000 were slaves dressed in expensive Persian silk.

They carried a total of one hundred camels, each fully loaded with gold, which was merely "pocket change" for the Mara emperor to spend along the way.

During his stay in Cairo, he generously donated countless amounts of gold to officials, the public, and charities, causing the price of gold in Cairo to plummet and remain depressed for more than a decade.

This is just the cost of the Malian emperor's travels.

How much gold does his national treasury hold? What are the actual gold reserves in Mali?
Even a fool would know that it's a dizzying number.

If we conquer the Mali Empire, with its vast gold mines, why would we worry about not having immigrants coming to pan for gold?

Oh, and the Americas too.

The amount of gold and silver in the Americas is still dizzying!

For a long period of history, the Americas’ greatest products were gold and silver.

Once Zhao Yun establishes a foothold in the Americas, Zhao Shuo can then send some of his sons there. Mexico, which once accounted for two-thirds of the world's silver production, certainly can't all go to Zhao Yun.

Therefore, Zhao Shuo's thinking is now very clear.

The more capable sons continued to hone their skills and grow, so they could expand the empire's territory and establish vassal states. Those less capable, but still above average, were enfeoffed near rich gold and silver mines. The gold rush attracted Chinese immigrants, quickly establishing the framework of vassal states.

In the future, when people mention Zhao Shuo's many sons, they will probably associate them with "gold".

And so another golden family was born.

Of course, Zhao Jin was unaware of Zhao Shuo's overall plan, but he felt that Zhao Shuo had already given him three Han army commanders, promised to provide 50,000 Han immigrants within five years, and provided various material and financial support, which was enough.

He bowed deeply once more and said, "Your subject obeys the decree!"

"Go! Prepare well, and you will travel to your fiefdom in three months."

"Yes."

Zhao Jin bowed again and left the Fish and Algae Hall.

Then, Zhao Shuo continued to look at the huge map.

"Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia. Australia is vast, so we can only divide it up slowly. There's no need to rush."

“Africa could be a starting point, with gold as a breakthrough point. We could occupy a portion of it first. For example, Nubia, south of Egypt, is a gold-producing region. However, Egypt is currently building the Huqin Canal, and there isn't enough food or manpower. Should we send two Semu commanders and one Han commander to attack Nubia first? Thirty thousand men should be logistically supported, right?”

"The Mali Empire is a landlocked country in Africa, which makes things really difficult. We can only consider it after we conquer Nubia."

"In Asia, only the countries of the Indochina Peninsula and India remain. The countries of the Indochina Peninsula are mountainous and densely forested, making them difficult to attack. Although the number of troops deployed in this attack on Annam was not large, the loss of warhorses was too great, so we need to slow down. As for India, it is impossible to attack without deploying an army of more than 100,000, and we cannot afford to deal with it at the moment."

"Europe only occupies a small part of it. This place is too far from Zhongdu, and the transmission of information is inconvenient. I don't know how the battle is going for Guyuk. Over the years, my Western Ross region and Georgia region have given him a lot of support."

"Actually, we could try attacking the Principality of Bulgaria to relieve some of the pressure on Guyuk and create an opportunity for him to win. Besides, Bulgaria is also an important gold-producing region in Europe."

"So, where should we begin?"

Zhao Shuo pondered it carefully.

After much deliberation, he decided to take action against Nubia.

The logic is quite simple: during this era, there were two kingdoms in Nubia. One was the Maculia Kingdom, which was the most powerful Roman Catholic kingdom in Africa. Its territory roughly stretched from the First Cataract in what would later become southern Egypt to the vicinity of the Fifth Cataract on the Nile.

Another country was the Kingdom of Alodia, located south of the Kingdom of Maculia. It was also a Roman Catholic kingdom, relatively small and isolated, extending southward from near the Sixth Cataract of the Nile.

When Guyuk attacked Europe, these two countries did not send troops, but out of friendship with their fellow Christians, they still contributed a large amount of military funds to support the European countries.

On the other hand, due to the military might of Zhao Shuo Khanate, they also offered a certain amount of tribute.

Zhao Shuo detested these two treacherous individuals the most. Destroying these two countries would also be considered a form of support for Guyuk.

Furthermore, the Maculia Kingdom and the Alodia Kingdom were underdeveloped in terms of productivity, and even combined, they were not as powerful as the Principality of Bulgaria.

Of course, you should choose the softest persimmons to squeeze.

Another crucial reason is that most of the Byzantine and Romanian provinces east of Bulgaria surrendered without a fight, indicating a lack of Han Chinese immigrants. In contrast, Egypt had a much larger Han Chinese population, making its rear more secure than that of the Byzantine provinces. Even if the war went poorly, they could retreat to Egypt to regroup.

Of course, Zhao Shuo was not prepared to stop directly supporting Guyuk.

"Yang Weizhong!"

"exist!"

"Issue my decree: order the navy to carry one hundred cannons and five thousand bronze muskets to Europe to sell to Guyuk. The Mongol army has been gathered in Poland for over a year; with so many more firearms, it's time to make a breakthrough."

(End of this chapter)