Anti-Qing: Starting from the Jintian Uprising

Chapter 323 France: Vietnam, I believe you again!
Hu Longshan was asked to leave the Tang Dynasty's Diplomatic Department.

His deputy Ruan Wen was already waiting outside the government office. When he saw Hu Longshan coming out, he hurried forward to greet him.

"Master Hu, you finally came out!"

"What is the matter that Tang Ren summoned you for this time?"

The two walked a few steps away, and after they were out of the sight of the guards outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nguyen Van began to ask.

Hu Longshan looked back at the office of the Tang Dynasty Diplomatic Department, chuckled, and then said.

"What else could it be? It's because of my Great Vietnam's ban on grain exports."

"The Tang people want to put pressure on us to force Dai Viet to reopen grain exports to the Tang."

Although Vietnam is inconspicuous in front of China, it is not weak in Southeast Asia.

The King of Vietnam even called himself the emperor in the country, and his people also called themselves the Southern Country and regarded China as the Northern Country.

Therefore, it is normal to call oneself Dayue when speaking to one's own people.

Upon hearing this, Ruan Wen asked curiously.

"What does Lord Hu think about this matter? Will Da Yue agree to Tang's request?"

Upon hearing this, Hu Longshan immediately shook his head and said.

"No, the emperor has banned the export of grain to the Tang Kingdom. That is something he has carefully considered."

"How could you change your mind just because of the pressure from the Tang Kingdom?"

Ruan Wen touched his chin, thoughtfully.

"If the Tang Kingdom really sends troops to invade, how should Dai Viet deal with it?"

Although Vietnam is so arrogant that it calls itself the Country of the South and China the Country of the North, it has a hidden desire to compete with China.

But they are also afraid of China.

I know in my heart how big the gap in strength between the two sides is.

Throughout history, the Central Plains dynasties have destroyed Vietnam more than once.

During the reign of Qin Shihuang, the Qin army conquered the Baiyue and established Xiang County in northern Vietnam.

(PS: Baiyue does not refer to the ancestors of Vietnam, but a collective name for ethnic minorities in southeastern China. At that time, northern Vietnam was under the control of Baiyue.)
Later, there was chaos in the Central Plains, with the Chu-Han contention. The Qin general Zhao Tuo seized control of the three counties of Nanhai, Guilin and Xiangjun and established his own kingdom, which was called Nanyue. It was later destroyed by Emperor Wu of Han.

Subsequently, from the Han Dynasty to the Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty, the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Vietnam was controlled by the Central Plains dynasties.

The local forces in Vietnam rebelled and established their own country several times, but were destroyed several times, and ultimately failed to make any big splash.

It was not until the Northern Song Dynasty, when Dinh Bu Linh established the Dinh Dynasty, that Vietnam became truly independent and established its own regime.

But even so, during the Song and Yuan dynasties, wars broke out one after another between the Central Plains dynasty and Vietnam, and most of the time, Vietnam was suppressed.

Even though the Song Dynasty was weak, Vietnam was forced to accept the Song Dynasty's enthronement and nominally became a vassal state of the Song Dynasty.

Later in the Ming Dynasty, Vietnam's native dynasty was destroyed by Emperor Yongle. The Ming Dynasty established government offices such as the Military Commandery, the Provincial Administration Commissioner's Office, and the Criminal Supervision Commissioner's Office in Vietnam, changed the place name to "Jiaozhi", and completed actual control.

It was not until the reign of Emperor Xuanzong that the Ming army abandoned its territory and retreated northward.

In other words, for most of Vietnam's history, it was either being beaten by China or being ruled by China...

After so many years of lessons, how could Vietnam not be afraid of China?
Of course, it was precisely because of fear that Vietnam chose to ban grain trade with the Tang Dynasty at this time.

Want to prevent the Central Plains dynasty from reviving again!
Upon hearing this, Hu Longshan glanced at Ruan Wen and then said confidently.

"Heh, isn't it just the Northern Dynasty? What's so scary about that?"

"It's not like Dai Viet has never fought with the Northern Dynasties in history."

"Hmph, if the Northern Dynasty dares to invade, the warriors of Da Yue will make sure they have nothing to lose."

Ruan Wen: “…”

Nguyen Van was speechless. "Please don't mention it anymore. In history, our Dai Viet was destroyed by the Northern Dynasties more than once or twice."

What you said is really unlucky!

Hu Longshan saw that Ruan Wen didn't look very good, so he added.

"Don't worry. As far as I know, our ban on trade with Tang is not a rash move."

"England, France, and even the Netherlands, Spain and other countries are all on our side."

"Those Westerners said that as long as Dai Viet is willing to be an enemy of the Tang Dynasty, they will be willing to provide Dai Viet with foreign guns and cannons and build a new army..."

Although hostile to the Tang Dynasty, it had no practical benefits for Britain at that time.

But does Britain need a reason to be a troublemaker?

In order to maintain its hegemony, it is almost instinctive for Britain to suppress regional powers in advance.

Although Britain’s delivery capabilities to the Far East are limited now, this does not prevent Britain from laying siege around the Tang Dynasty in advance.

The reason why France, the Netherlands and Spain got involved was for tangible benefits.

France wanted to colonize Vietnam.

In the early days of the Nguyen Dynasty in Vietnam, France provided a lot of support. The Frenchman Peter even contributed money and manpower to organize mercenaries to help the Nguyen Dynasty fight.

French mercenaries made a significant contribution to the Nguyen Dynasty's conquest of the Tây Sơn Kingdom.

It can be said that from this time on, France had already been planning to colonize Vietnam.

It's a pity that Nguyen Phuc Anh is a shameless person, just like Zhang Zuolin. When accepting benefits from France (Japan), he said that everyone is a good brother, my home is your home, you can take whatever you want.

But when the price really comes, they start to lose face...

Therefore, in recent years, the relationship between Vietnam and France has taken a sharp turn for the worse, and France even plans to send troops to Vietnam.

But after all, it was just a plan and there was no time to implement it.

Therefore, the French, who had been cheated of their money and sex by this scumbag from Vietnam, chose to trust him again and prepared to further exert influence on Vietnam and even colonize Vietnam by supporting Vietnam in its fight against the Tang Dynasty.

Well, war serves politics. If France could complete colonization through political means, it would not want to send troops to East Asia to start a war with Vietnam.

The goals of the Netherlands and Spain are simpler.

Their colonies of Manila and Batavia were both occupied by the Tang Dynasty.

The Tang Dynasty's coveting of Manila and Batavia is almost not shown.

In this situation, in order to ensure the safety of Manila and Batavia, the best way for them is to support an enemy for the Tang Dynasty to ensure that the Tang Dynasty is unable to continue to extend its influence to Manila and Batavia.

And Vietnam was the target they chose.

After hearing this, Ruan Wen said nothing more.

……

The third year of the Tang Dynasty’s Zhaowu reign, the twelfth month.

As the year draws to a close, another snowstorm arrives.

The sky and the earth were once again covered with white snow.

Song Kangnian got off work, picked up the New Year gifts from the court, put on a thick cotton coat, a dog-skin hat, and wrapped himself in a scarf, and walked towards his shack in the wind and snow.

The cotton shoes made a squeaking sound as they stepped on the snow.

The cold wind blowing in his face made his face red.

With a creak, Song Kangnian pushed open the door of his shack and walked in.

As the door closed, a warm feeling came over me.

Inside the room, the charcoal fire in the stove was burning brightly.

There was a pot of hot water boiling on the stove, bubbling with steam.

Seeing her uncle coming back, Song Kangnian's niece stood up from the stove and came forward to greet him.

He said as he took the things from Song Kangnian.

"Uncle is back."

"You haven't eaten yet? I have some steamed buns at home. I'll heat them up for you..."

The thing in Song Kangnian's hand was taken over by his niece. His hands were empty. He took off the dog-skin hat on his head, waved his hand and said.

"Don't bother, uncle, I've already eaten at the government office."

"The government office has been very busy lately, and we officials have to work overtime. The government office provides meals."

Ever since he was noticed by Zhao He in the refugee camp in Qufu and was promoted to assist him in managing the refugees, Song Kangnian has entered the official career.

After the Kong family was ransacked, the official team in Qufu was also purged.

With his experience in assisting in the management of the refugee camp, Song Kangnian was quickly promoted to deputy director of the Finance Bureau of Qufu County, in charge of the household registration management of Qufu.

Things have been pretty busy lately!
Upon hearing this, Song Shi asked curiously.

"What has your uncle been busy with lately? It seems like he has been working overtime for many days in a row?"

Upon hearing this, Song Kangnian did not hide his niece's intention and spoke directly.

"The imperial court wanted to relocate some disaster victims from Shandong to outside the Great Wall, and each county was assigned a quota."

"Look, the government office has been busy with this matter recently, and the county is in a turmoil because of this matter..."

Chinese people have had a strong sense of homesickness since ancient times.

Unless absolutely necessary, no one is willing to leave their hometown.

Not to mention, the place where the immigrants are going this time is a remote place outside the Great Wall.

No one was happy about it, but the government office had been assigned targets that had to be completed, so naturally there was a lot of trouble.

This means that this time, priority will be given to the landless and propertyless disaster victims. Otherwise, if local people with land and property are to be immigrated, the resistance will be even greater.

Well, take the land issue as an example.

After the immigrants leave, who will the land belong to?
If it belongs to the government, then on what basis does your government seize the people's land?

If they really do this, the officials will definitely force the people to rebel.

But what if it belongs to an individual?

However, now that people have migrated away, how can we take care of the land so far away from home?

If no one takes care of the land, won’t it become barren?

If it is about selling land, with so many people selling land at once, to what extent will the price of land be pushed down?
What if someone takes advantage of the immigration opportunity to purchase or annex land at a low price, or even forcibly sends people to immigrate just to annex land at a low price?
If these problems are not solved, there will be chaos.

Song Shi asked in surprise when he heard this.

"Uncle, isn't the area outside the Great Wall still controlled by the Tartars?"

"Why would the imperial court allow disaster victims to migrate outside the Great Wall?"

Although Song Shi is not very old, she is literate thanks to her wealthy family background.

During this period of time, Song Shi would read the newspapers that Song Kang brought back from the government office in his spare time to pass the time.

So, I have some understanding of the current situation.

Song Kangnian shrugged and said.

"I don't know about that. Maybe the imperial court is preparing to march outside the Great Wall..."

……

PS: Let me talk about the issue of owing chapters. I took a day off yesterday and I owe two chapters. I owe one chapter last month (although I remember I paid it back). A total of three chapters are owed. I will start paying it back from tomorrow.

Also, well, it’s the beginning of the month, so I’d like to ask for a monthly ticket!
(End of this chapter)