The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 269: A Thousand-mile Dam Destroyed by an Ant Hole
Gao Jin's surname is not Gao, because he is not a Han Chinese, but a member of the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner. His original surname was Gaojia. After entering the Pass, for convenience, they used the Han surname Gao as their surname for generations.

Yu Minzhong's guess was correct. Gao Jin deliberately wrote the letter at this time, and someone instructed him how to speak and when to speak.

The person who gave the advice was none other than Fu Kang'an's mother, Yehenara, the wife of the late Grand Secretary Fuheng.

With someone so familiar with Qianlong giving advice, Gao Jin was of course willing to help.

This Manchu nobleman from the upper three banners gently turned the top-quality jade ring on his hand. For doing a small favor, a ring and a top-quality jade Buddha were delivered to his home. He also gained favor from the Fucha family. Why not do it?

Yu Minzhong keenly noticed the jade ring on Gao Jin's hand and nodded in sudden realization. It turned out that it was the Fucha family who was behind this.

Speaking of which, over the years, the jade business that General Mo Da has been cooperating with the Fucha family has been getting better and better.

The Fucha family was responsible for finding skilled craftsmen in Beijing and Tianjin for processing, while Mo Zibu was responsible for producing high-quality jadeite and jade.

He also sent people to assist the Fucha family in its operations, and forcibly divided this thing into many corresponding levels.

How to identify each grade, how to set the price, etc. are all very systematic, so insiders can know the price at a glance, which is very suitable for showing off and collecting.

In addition, Mo Zibu also suggested that the Fucha family hire a group of literati to write poems and songs to promote the products, which would add another layer of halo to the jadeite and jade stones that already have strong cultural attributes.

After three years of promotion and brand building, the two companies worked together and successfully pushed this already booming industry to a new peak.

As the saying goes, gold comes in troubled times and jewelry comes in prosperous times. This was still a prosperous time, and there was no shortage of wealthy people in Beijing, so Burmese jade quickly became extremely popular.

All of this not only made Mo Zibu leave an impression in the hearts of many bannermen, but also a good impression.

Because the status of the Fucha family at this time was very delicate.

Originally, they were the undisputed first noble family of Manchuria, but with the deaths of the two pillars of the family, Fuheng and Mingliang, as well as Fuling'an and others in battle or due to illness.

The current pillar of the Fucha family is actually the teenage Fu Kang'an.

At this time, Fukang'an had not yet begun to shine. Obviously, he was too young to support such a large family.

Although Qianlong did have the emperor's favor, this favor had to be placed somewhere!
Just like relatives and friends who used to have a very good relationship, if you don’t keep in touch for decades, the feelings will inevitably fade, and this is even more so in front of the emperor.

There are so many people who try to please the emperor every day. If the Fucha family doesn't produce someone who can truly get along with the emperor, it will only take a few years for it to decline.

Therefore, after the jadeite and jade industry developed, countless Manchu noble families and even princes contacted Mo Zibu.

They hope that Mo Zibu can replace his partners with them, and they don't hesitate to resort to overt and covert threats for this purpose.

But Mo Zibu remained unmoved. Even though Hexian suffered some losses in tin mining and smuggling in Guangzhou, he still insisted on cooperating with the Fucha family.

What a joke! Fukang'an is about to rise, and in a few years I will gradually fall out with the Qing Dynasty. Who would come to make trouble at this time?

Although some people were dissatisfied with Mo Zibu's persistence, the vast majority of the bannermen still felt that although Hexian Mo Wu was from Mingxiang, he was a reliable person and a "friend" worth making.

. . . .

Yehenara is forty-nine years old this year, but if you just sit there and look at her back, she looks like a girl in her teens or twenties.

Even judging by her appearance, Yehenara, who was already considered an old woman at that time, could still be described as a middle-aged woman with charm.

She has a long, oval face, bright and lively eyes, extremely fair skin, and always smells fragrant.

It is definitely rare to have a beauty of this level in the Manchu upper class with a population of over 100,000.

A few footsteps were heard, and Yehenara knew who it was without even looking. The person making the thudding sound of footsteps in the backyard of the Fucha family was only her second son, the husband Fulongan.

Yehenara originally had four sons. The eldest son, Fuling'an, died of illness in Yunnan during the war against Burma.

In addition to Fu Longan, the third son Fu Kangan is on the front lines of Jinchuan and Xiaojinchuan, and the youngest son Fu Changan is only thirteen years old this year and cannot take such heavy steps.

Sure enough, after a while, Fulongan came over to pay his respects to Yehenara.

"Mother, the third child is with the scholar and is very safe.

And there is no need to take responsibility for the defeat at Muguomu. Liu Tongxun, Yu Minzhong, and the others have already taken the blame, and Your Majesty has already taken the blame on himself."

Yehenara smiled slightly. She was not worried about Fukang'an's safety because there were people who were more anxious than her.

If you want to ask whether Fukangan is that person's offspring, Yehenara can only say yes.

Because she herself doesn't know who planted this seed.

However, some people are more certain about this, considering that Fu Kang'an was already the deputy commander of the Bordered Yellow Banner and the minister of the Ministry of Revenue at the age of 18.

"Has Scholar Gao submitted the memorial?" So this was the question Yehenara asked.

"It was handed over, very properly." Fu Longan nodded, "The Emperor immediately became impatient.

He also cursed the Zheng and Nguyen clans of Annan as tyrants and traitors, saying they didn't know what was good for them. He planned to have Li Shiyao send people to Ha Tien to investigate, and Zhong Yin to send people to Bac Ha to investigate.

A smile finally appeared on Yehenara's face. "It seems that the emperor has finally given up the suspicion that Li Shiyao has been bribed by Hexian."

Smiling, Yehenara was a little confused. Why did Qianlong, who was so arrogant, always seem to be a little wary of Hexian Mo?

Although the Mo family is from Mingxiang, they have already fled to the malaria-infested area in Tiannan.

Even if they were better at fighting and brought more people from the mainland, their basic situation was just relying on the Han people who earned tens of thousands of yuan to suppress hundreds of thousands of natives.

Compared with the Qing Dynasty, this little bit of power is nothing!
Fu Longan also considered this issue, and he said hesitantly: "I think Mo Wu's letter to us made it very clear that he just wants to be the King of Guangnan and lay a foundation for his descendants.

But, could it be that the inheritance that Mo Wu is talking about is not just Guangnan, but that he wants to be the King of Annan? " "That's possible." Yehenara showed a thoughtful look, "It seems that His Majesty really has a longer-term vision than the rest of us.

Mo Wu's letter starts with the purchase of 20,000 tons of saltpeter. He's stockpiling it for military use, and he must be thinking of becoming the King of Annan."

Fulongan also became nervous, "Annan is a foreign vassal state, and its national strength is even greater than that of Siam.

Why is Mo Wu so greedy? He wants to be the King of Guangnan, and we can help him, but not the King of Annan. It would be bad for us, so we can't give him Sichuan saltpeter."

At that time, there was no shortage of sulfur in Southeast Asia, and Terengganu had a lot of it. Later, Malaysia relied on the sulfur from Terengganu to gain a place in the world sulfur market.

In addition to Terengganu, there are also rich sulfur mines in Borneo and some Indonesian islands.

But saltpeter is not a good option. Although there are saltpeter mines in Southeast Asia, they are still difficult to develop at that time. Many places are still dense tropical jungles, and even if there is saltpeter mine, it cannot be transported out.

At the same time, Indian saltpeter, a major supplier to the East in history, had not yet been mined by the British East India Company.

Therefore, like Korea and Japan, the Southeast Asian countries are very dependent on the supply of saltpeter from mainland China.

My General Mo Da is really good at asking for a lot of money. He wrote a letter asking for 20,000 stones, which is 1,200 tons. His own saltpeter mining team could not dig out this amount even in ten years.

Yehenara smiled faintly, "It's human nature to want more after getting something. Being the King of Guangnan means he owns half of Annan's territory, so how could he not want to have it all?

This person was kind to us in the past two years. The Fucha family's annual income of more than 200,000 taels now comes from him.

Sichuan Nitrate must be given to us. If we don’t, our family will be in the wrong.”

But she gritted her teeth and said, "But I can't give him 20,000 stones. It seems that these saltpeter are prepared for taking over all of Annan. If I give it to Mo Wu, it will really cause trouble.

Let's just give him 2,000 shi, which won't hurt the relationship too much, nor will it make Mo Wu too powerful all of a sudden."

"Long'er, send someone to Sichuan and tell Kang'er to bring 2,000 shi of Sichuan saltpeter to Guangzhou. Then take the official ship of the Guangdong Customs and deliver it to Mo Wu at sea.

Write another letter and choose someone who is eloquent to tell the Hexian officials in Guangzhou that it was Hue. We can still cover it up for him, but if you think too much, I'm afraid it will attract thunder from the nine heavens!"

Yehenara looked smart, but in fact she had the same shortcoming as Qianlong, which was that she had never really experienced the lowest level or the front line.

She was already trying her best to imagine Mo Zibu's situation and felt that if she was only given 10%, Mo Zibu would definitely not be able to accomplish anything great.

But in fact, Mo Zibu's psychological bottom line is one thousand stones, and he can even accept eight hundred stones.

Although two thousand shi of saltpeter may sound small, it is still 240,000 jin.

If there is no shortage of sulfur, even taking into account issues such as transportation loss, purity and waste, more than 200,000 kilograms of gunpowder can be produced.

This was enough for Mo Zibu to fight a decisive battle with tens of thousands of people and still have some left over, and Bei Zheng had actually been defeated and did not need so much gunpowder at all.

These are for future Qing troops to use when they march south.

. . . .

In Guangzhou, the imperial edict arrived very quickly. Seeing that Qianlong asked him to investigate Hexian, Li Shiyao also breathed a sigh of relief.

Over the years, he didn't dare to say a good word about Hexian, for fear that Qianlong would misunderstand him.

Now that the emperor has asked him to send people to investigate Hexian, we know that he has basically been cleared of suspicion.

However, due to their close proximity, Li Shiyao still had a more thorough understanding of Mo Zibu and was sufficiently vigilant, so he called Mo Zibu's old acquaintance Li Yulong over.

"Go tell Mo Wu directly that if you still want to make money and be a king in peace and stability, then don't set your sights on Annanbei River.

Don't even think about it. He's a Mingxiang native, and it's lucky that the imperial court didn't attack him. Don't be ungrateful."

Li Yulong nodded excitedly. He felt that this task was not difficult.

Seeing the servant so excited, Li Shiyao also had a headache. This old dog had made a lot of money following Mo Zibu. Not only did he get money, but he also had military merits.

So much so that Li Yulong was already taking steps to raise his status. As long as he succeeded, he would be immediately sent out to become a fourth-rank official.

"Master is serious, don't mess things up carelessly."

But after all, he grew up with him and has served him for more than 30 years, so Li Shiyao didn't want to say anything harsh.

Li Yulong saw Li Shiyao's attitude and immediately put on a serious face. "Don't worry, Master. When I see Mo Wu, I will make him swear in front of me that he will not enter Beihe."

Fuzhou, Fujian, the residence of the Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang.

Zhong Yin looked at Qianlong's edict and waved his hand nonchalantly.

Send people to Beihe to investigate, huh, what is there to investigate!

Do you want to find out how he has been interacting with Hexian Mo Wu over the years?

In recent years, Qianlong has been obsessed with finding out the whereabouts of Hexian, but Zhongyin has been unable to provide any information.

Finally, with the help of Cai Xin's son and Lin Qiaoyin, Zhong Yin and Mo Zibu reached an agreement.

He Xian would send a report on the movements and situations every once in a while. Zhong Yin would simply copy them selectively and then send them to Qianlong for report.

Otherwise, what else can be done?
Moreover, Zhong Yin didn't think this was a big deal. It was just a small foreigner, far away in Southeast Asia, what kind of waves could it cause? She didn't know why the emperor took it so seriously?
The Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang thought about it and decided to send someone to Hexian first, and then let Hexian prepare a report on the situation in Beihe and send it back.

(End of this chapter)