The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 214 The lower limit is seriously underestimated

Chen Dali is a tragic character, but he is not incompetent.

At a time when the Jiading Chen family was in such a difficult situation and his uncle Chen Dasheng had been ill for many years, he resolutely took on the burden of the family and at least he was doing a decent job for now.

But Chen Dali's ability was not that strong. He was not a man who could maintain peace in troubled times, and he couldn't even be a paperhanger who could barely keep the country going.

With his hard work, the Chen family's foundation had actually come to an end by this time.

From Chen Dali's heart, he likes reading and is proficient in the Spring and Autumn Annals. He has close friends with Wu Changzun, a famous hermit in Jiading, and often participates in the classics and poetry meetings organized by him.

Due to his family background and the need to protect a huge family business, Chen Dali was well-versed in military books. He was an academician of classical military science and had a reputation for being knowledgeable about military affairs.

But he was not fond of military affairs, so it was very painful for him to read.

Rather than reading Ji Xiao's new book and becoming a general, he wanted to be a well-fed and well-clothed scholar, so he regarded Wu Shizun as his idol.

Around this time in history, because the Hexian Ou family was in a stage of being strong but not very strong, the Jiading Chen family was under even greater pressure.

Because Hexian became powerful, there was a possibility of the unification of Lu and Chen. The Guangnan people in Jiading began to intensify their exclusion of the Mingxiang people and the Chen family in order to achieve the goal of weakening the Chen family before the unification of Lu and Chen.

At the same time, Hexian is not as powerful as it seems. Not to mention providing protection, it doesn't even have the strength to absorb the tens of thousands of people from the Chen family.

So under this extreme oppression, the apparent helmsman Chen Dasheng died of illness due to worry.

As the only surviving descendant of Chen Shangchuan, Chen Dasheng has great symbolic significance. His death dealt a heavy blow to Chen Dali.

In the same year, most of the paddy fields of the Jiading Chen family on the banks of the Mekong River were destroyed by floods, causing heavy losses. Chen Dali, who was desperate, chose to take his subordinates to Ha Tien to seek refuge with his uncle, Ou Tianci.

When the people of Mingxiang from the five towns of Jiading, Fan'an, Bianhe, Dingxiang, and Yongqing heard that the Chen family was leaving, they dragged their families with them, their children crying and their wives weeping, taking their meager possessions and following them, saying to each other, "Now we're leaving our hometown again. We'll have no place to bury our bodies after we die!"

Indeed a prophecy.

This time, Chen Dali took away about 10,000 core subordinates of the Chen family. In addition, more than 30,000 Mingxiang people from the Mekong River followed him, for a total of nearly 50,000 people.

At that time, Ou Tianci was fighting with Zheng Xin. He heard that Chen Dali was leading his troops to come, and also heard that his wife's nephew was known for his military knowledge.

So they selected more than 10,000 strong men from the Mingxiang people in Jiading, 10,000 soldiers from the Hexian people in western Guangdong, and conscripted 20,000 Khmers, making up an army of 50,000, and gave 100 warships to Chen Dali.

Ngo Tien-chi hoped that his nephew, who was knowledgeable in military affairs, could capture Chanthaburi and use the strategy of besieging Wei to save Zhao to force Taksin to withdraw his troops from Cambodia.

Poor Chen Dali, although he came from a famous family and his grandfather Chen Shangchuan was a fierce water general, he was not even good at talking about military strategy on paper, so how could he have the ability?

After the army arrived in Chanthaburi, they were unable to capture the city after a long siege and an epidemic broke out. Including himself, only two to three thousand of the 50,000 people escaped. The rest either died of the disease or were killed by Taksin's Siamese.

Ha Tien was subsequently captured.

At this point, only the tens of thousands of Mingxiang people who did not follow Chen Dali were left, and the country began to decline.

By the time of the famous Minh Xiang minister, Pan Qingjian, who was known as the Li Hongzhang of Vietnam, the Minh Xiang people had completely become like the Kinh people, with only the symbol of Minh Xiang Society remaining.

"Ayao, you're back. I heard you and Xiaowu have made a great career out there!"

So, when Chen Dali saw Chen Guangyao, he was really surprised from the bottom of his heart.

The Xiaowu he mentioned was Mo Zibu.

Although the two are cousins, Chen Dali is actually nearly thirty years older than Mo Zibu, and only less than ten years younger than Mo Zibu's mother, Chen.

Therefore, in the heart of Chen Dali, who rarely leaves Jiading, Mo Zibu is still that little, baby-like cousin who is a few years younger than his son.

"The harvest this year is not very good. I just saw it..." Chen Guangyao asked somewhat uncomfortably. When he was young, the Jiading Chen family did not leave him a very good impression.

Ever since his mother lost her virginity to a fraud and he was called a Vietnamese bastard, Chen Guangyao's childhood was accompanied by ridicule, mockery and even bullying, as well as his mother's tears and his grandfather's (maternal grandfather's) scolding.

But when he came back as an adult, the Chen family members in the ancestral hall all looked at him with admiration and hope. The eldest young master of the family, whom he originally thought was high and mighty, was actually very kind, even a little mediocre.

It seemed that that sad time was like a wisp of smoke, blown away to the distance by the wind of time.

"Yes, there were two big floods in August, and a lot of our rice fields were washed away. But fortunately, we still have some savings, so we won't starve to death." Chen Dali said, turning around and groping for something on his body.

Chen Guangyao looked around. There were quite a few people in the ancestral hall, and some of them were unfamiliar to him, but they seemed to be elders from various branches of the Chen family.

He couldn't help but feel speechless. He had already asked someone to notify Chen Dali, but he still brought so many people here. It would be troublesome if the news leaked out.

"Ayao, this is for you." After groping for a long time, Chen Dali held up a box with both hands and handed it solemnly to Chen Guangyao.

Chen Guangyao didn't even need to look at it to know what it was. "Lord Zhongzheng's military token, big brother, you should keep it for now and give it to the king when he arrives."

Chen Dali was stunned for a moment. Could the word "king" refer to Xiaowu?

"Without the military token, how can you mobilize the Longmen soldiers?"

The military force of the Jiading Chen family is actually divided into two parts.

One of them is Chen Shangchuan's Chen family red coat and silver sword soldiers, but their number has never been large, and at most there are only six or seven hundred people. The other part is the Longmen soldiers, also called the Longmen Guards.

The Longmen soldiers were not originally Chen Shangchuan's military force, but the subordinates of Yang Yandi, one of the two saints of Mingxiang people in Jiading. Their combat effectiveness was even higher than that of Chen Shangchuan's subordinates.

This is because when Chen Shangchuan went south, he was first defeated by the Qing Dynasty in the Battle of Qinzhou Bay, and then he gathered his troops and retreated with his family and relatives.

When he retreated south, although he had three or four thousand men, he had no more than two hundred soldiers left.

Yang Yandi was actually a member of the Zheng maritime merchant (pirate) group. He went south to Jiading not because he saw that there was no hope of reviving the Ming Dynasty.

Instead, he was commissioned by the Zheng family, or more precisely, by Zheng Keshuang, to go to Jiading, which was then part of Cambodia, to find a way out for the Ming Zheng Group.

As a result, Yang Yandi's family members have been kept in Dongning as hostages.

Historically, after Liu Guoxuan's defeat on Penghu Island, Zheng Keshuang intended to flee south to Cambodia, but was ultimately dissuaded. Instead, he surrendered to the Qing and headed for Beijing. In other words, Yang Yandi was actually a regular Ming Zheng soldier. Even though he suffered heavy losses in a storm when he arrived in Jiading, he still had sixty warships, over two thousand soldiers, and over a thousand family members, known as the Longmen Army.

This army successively defeated the attacks of Siam and Cambodia and gained a firm foothold in the Jiading area.

When the Ming Zheng Dynasty was destroyed, internal strife broke out in the Longmen Army. General Huang Jin killed Yang Yandi and became arrogant, which caused attacks from all sides.

Under the pressure of Nguyen Lord Nguyen Phuc Chin, Chen Shangchuan had to join the Nguyen army in suppressing Huang Jin.

After Huang Jin's death, Lord Nguyen found that he could not control the remaining Longmen troops, so he handed them over to Chen Shangchuan.

Chen Dali valued the military token that could command the Longmen Army at this time because in his heart, the Chen family's own red-coat and silver-sword soldiers were just local militia and family servants, and the Longmen Army with inheritance was the regular army.

Chen Guangyao smiled faintly, did not take Chen Dali's military seal, but looked around the ancestral hall.

"My dear clan members, the people of Guangnan have oppressed and humiliated us for decades. You all know the suffering we have endured.

Duke Ren De was not only the legitimate grandson of Lord Ha Tien, but also the grandson-in-law of Duke Zhong Zhen. He was known for his great ambitions, bravery, and benevolence.

Today, I am willing to raise a large army to avenge my grandparents and take back what belongs to us Mingxiang people. This is the Chen family's last chance. Even if we don't have the military seal, we should support it."

After saying that, Chen Guangyao waved his hand and said, "Adong, have your people seal off the entire ancestral hall. From now on, no one is allowed to enter or leave.

No one, including your men, is allowed to leave. Count the number of people every quarter of an hour."

Chen Guangdong looked at Chen Dali and saw that he was still shocked. After hesitating for a moment, he cupped his hands.

"Order!"

"Dayan, select twenty trusted relatives and immediately notify the village heads to gather with the men who are brave enough to fight in Ben Tre before dawn tomorrow."

Seeing Chen Guangyao issuing orders at a rapid speed, Chen Dali did not feel the slightest bit of disgust even though he knew that his power had been taken away.

On the contrary, the feeling that someone else made the decisions and he didn't have to worry about everything actually made him feel a lot more relaxed.

Chen Guangyao also understood that even the Longmen soldiers of the Chen family could not fight a tough battle, and they might not even be able to fight a favorable battle.

So what he has to do now is to block the news and gather the young men.

After the Guangnan soldiers leave the city and head for Hexian, we will organize personnel to lead the regular army, transport ammunition and supplies, and assist in maintaining public order.

. . . .

On Kunlun Island, the reconnaissance team that explored the hydrology of the offshore area and the Saigon River estuary has returned, and the army's preparations are now fully in place.

However, the soldiers of the Jiading Five Battalions in Guangnan were still hiding around Jiading and had not moved out, as if nothing had happened to Hexian.

This... was beyond the ability of Mo Zibu, who had not experienced how bad the army was at the end of the dynasty.

He thought that since such a big thing happened in Hexian, Jiading would have to gather troops within ten days after receiving the news and be ready to send troops within twenty days.

Then wait for the news to be confirmed and send troops to quell the rebellion within ten days.

This is the normal operation!
But it’s been almost a month now, and the army hasn’t even been assembled. What’s going on?
Mo Zibu couldn't understand this behavior, so he convened another military meeting and asked, "If we choose to attack Jiading by force, can we achieve quick success?"

Hearing Mo Zibu's question, all the generals nodded, except Chen Chengshan, who looked embarrassed.

"Your Majesty, there are thousands of Mingxiang people and thousands of Tang people in Jiading City, most of whom are doing small business or studying, and the majority are women and children.

If we send out a large force, and if we can't win quickly, they'll be surrounded in the city. Be careful of the Guangnan people, as they might become desperate and resort to extreme tactics!"

This is the difficulty for Mo Zibu. What he wants is not only the territory of Jiading, but also the population resources in the city, especially the scholars among the Mingxiang people around Jiading.

At this time, the literary style in Jiading was far more prosperous than that in Hexian. There was a provincial school, a Confucian temple, and more than 20 private schools of various sizes in the city, and private schools were everywhere in the countryside.

The reason why Mingxiang people are so enthusiastic about learning is that the best way to pass on culture and preserve their dignity is to read.

If they don't read, they will be no different from the Yue people in thirty or fifty years.

The three Gia Dinh men who later played an important role in the history of Vietnamese literature, namely the famous Minh Huong humanists Wu Renjing, Zheng Huaide, Li Guangding, and Wu Congzhou, all lived in this area.

These intellectuals, who come from the same background as Mozibu, are well-read and have close ties with the Annan literary world, are the basic foundation of the civil servants of Mozibu's future regime. They cannot be attacked indiscriminately and allowed to die in the war.

Even in the Qing Dynasty in the north, scholars were considered quite precious, not to mention in Southeast Asia.

What's more, these people are his tentacles to control the Hanized Jing people and the Jing-ized Han people, the Vietnamese family of poetry and etiquette. How can he cut them off by himself?

His reputation as a loyal and righteous son-in-law was mostly inflated by these people. Without the support of these people who control public opinion, it would be impossible to bring Vietnam back.

However, continuing to wait is not the end of the matter. How about sending out 500 elite soldiers to launch a decapitation operation?

At this time, Wu Yuansheng, who had been following Mo Zibu, spoke.

The other people around Mo Zibu knew little about the dynasty's corrupt army and politics, but Wu Yuansheng knew too much about it. He had seen too many rubbish Green Camp soldiers and rubbish officials.

"Your Majesty, I see that the clan member Yan is keeping his troops inactive. Is he trying to keep the peace?

People like him are willing to cover up anything as long as it doesn't become a big deal. This is the case with the officials of all ranks in our hometown of Guangdong Province.

Moreover, once the army is mobilized, they need food for the men and horses, silver for the march, money for salt and vegetables, and rewards for going into battle. None of these can be shortchanged, and money is spent like water. If they can avoid fighting, it would be the best for them.

Grass!
Mo Zibu couldn't help but curse out loud, as if it were really like that. He paced back and forth a few times and suddenly clapped his hands.

“Yuan Sheng, take two hundred Hakka soldiers to find General Chen and have him cause trouble in Ben Tre.

I just don't believe it. Zongshi Yan didn't have the guts to fight Hexian. He didn't even dare to quell the Chen family's riots! "

(End of this chapter)