The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 380 Qianlong's Defense is Broken

Why did Mo Zibu insist on holding on to Macau but not taking it back, and instead wanted the Portuguese in Macau to be loyal to him?
That's because, in the short term, he wanted to use the Portuguese in Macau. If they gathered together, they could still gather seven or eight hundred musketeers and a dozen armed merchant ships.

The key is the sailors who can operate the soft sailboats. Mo Zibu needs them very much at the moment. When fighting in the south of the Yangtze River, they will be a good aid in transporting troops.

In the long run, he wanted to control the Kingdom of Portugal because the Kingdom of Portugal had a property that even Mo Zibu would drool over: Brazil.

So, when Governor Menezes was allowed to go to Guangzhou to meet Emperor Mo Da, his attitude towards Menezes was very friendly, so friendly that the governor suddenly thought that the Emperor Seres who had been making things difficult for him in the past few months did not exist.

"João, look at yourself, why didn't you come to Guangzhou to see me earlier?" Mo Zibu called Governor Menezes' name with a smile.

"If you had come to see me earlier, everything would have been clear, and Macau wouldn't have been blocked for three months. I thought you were ready to sacrifice yourself for the reformer José."

Governor Menezes really wanted to point at Mo Zibu's nose and call him hypocritical, but he didn't dare. Instead, he could only look at Mo Zibu pleadingly.

"Your Majesty, I simply cannot agree to your terms. I am a subject of King Joseph I and cannot serve another king."

"Well, this is indeed difficult, but Joao, you have to know that it is also difficult for me to accept the existence of lords loyal to other kings in my territory." Mo Zibu shook his head firmly.

"In that case, Your Majesty, I hope you will be merciful and let us leave." Governor Menezes pleaded again.

Leave, haha!
Mo Zibu sneered in his heart. Although the Kingdom of Portugal had declined, they still had some legacy from the colonial era. Britain and France looked down on it, but Mo Zibu did, so Mo Zibu would not let the Portuguese in Macau leave.

Governor Menezes was just bluffing, and Mo Zibu knew it very well. He didn't dare to leave at all.

Macau is very important to the Kingdom of Portugal because it can bring hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in income to the Kingdom of Portugal every year.

That's great.

As long as Macau exists, it is equivalent to the Kingdom of Portugal taking the initiative to hand over its "eggs" to Mo Zibu. If Mo Zibu wants to use them, he can just hold Macau tightly.

Then the Kingdom of Portugal would come to Mo Zibu to beg for mercy, pale with pain and covered in cold sweat. At the same time, they would not be able to make up their minds to give up the egg, otherwise Emperor Mo would be able to control them forever.

Therefore, Mo Zibu would not only not let the Portuguese in Macau leave, but would also continue to give them benefits, increase their trade volume, and make them more and more dependent on Macau.

"No, João, you are lying, you will not leave." Mozibu stretched out his right index finger and shook it in front of Governor Menezes.

“I’m sure that if you choose to evacuate Macau, there are two ways you will die.

First, they were beaten to death in the streets by your compatriots who had lived in Macau for hundreds of years, because they were wealthy businessmen who controlled the trade in Macau, but if they lost Macau, they would be stray dogs, which they absolutely could not accept.

As for the second option, even if they don't kill you, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom, the Marquis of Pombal, will definitely hang you in the Plaza Mayor in Lisbon, and then send your family to Luanda to see chimpanzees."

Luanda was a colony established by the Portuguese in southwestern Africa, which later developed into Angola.

Perhaps feeling that this was not shocking enough, Mo Zibu took a stack of court documents and showed them to Governor Menezes.

"João, this is the latest list of countries I plan to grant special permission to trade with Seris. Do you know how many ports I plan to open?"

Mo Zibu held up five fingers. "Five: Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Ningbo, Songjiang, and Macau. Furthermore, merchants from the concessionaire countries will be allowed to move freely in these five cities, no longer subject to the constraints of the Thirteen Hongs of the Qing Dynasty."

When Governor Menezes heard the word Macau, he couldn't help but tremble all over, and when he saw the list of franchised trading countries, he knelt down immediately.

Because these lists clearly include France, the Habsburg Monarchy, Spain and the Kingdom of Portugal.

"But you're not loyal to me, so I'm going to cross out Portugal and Macau. What do you think Lisbon will do to you if it finds out?"

"Your Majesty, your merciful Majesty, you can't do this, you can't do this!" Menezes was so frightened that he kowtowed to Mo Zibu frantically, his forehead covered in blood.

If this news really spread to Lisbon, there would be no need to go to Luanda. His whole family would be stoned to death by the angry Portuguese citizens in Lisbon.

Seeing that the pressure was almost enough, Mo Zibu deliberately sighed and helped Menezes up. "It seems that you have indeed encountered a problem."

"How about this, João? I'm going to send another delegation to Europe. I'll have them go to Lisbon to discuss things with King José I and the Marquis of Pombal.

Perhaps we can arrange it this way: when the Portuguese are in Macau, they need to pledge allegiance to me, and when you leave Macau, you will automatically become subjects of Joseph I."

Governor Menezes was completely controlled. He looked at Mozibu in ecstasy, "Your Majesty, you are simply my God!"

"Well, João, this is blasphemy.

Then you can inform Lisbon and take this as your achievement. Then I think it is appropriate to allocate Macao a trade quota of 4 million taels of silver per year, right?"

At this point, Mo Zibu was ready to give Portugal a sweet treat after beating them, using huge benefits to tie them down.

At the same time, the Menezes family had a certain status in Portugal's colonial activities. The family had produced many colonial governors and was also worth winning over.

"Suitable, very suitable for my Majesty." Governor Menezes replied happily.

"Then, if I need to, I can mobilize the Portuguese in Macau to serve me, and I only need to pay them according to the standard salary of the imperial soldiers. Is that appropriate?"

Although the Portuguese at that time were accustomed to being mercenaries in the East, it was not cheap if you hired them at the mercenary price.

Therefore, Mo Zibu only planned to pay salaries according to the standards of the Xingtang Army Zhenjun, paying when needed and not paying when not needed. Governor Menezes hesitated for a moment, but nodded quickly, "It's appropriate, this is also appropriate."

"Well, since you are my subjects, the blockade of Macau will be lifted from now on. Joao, you must arrange for the shipment of the three million taels of silver as soon as possible and send him to Guangzhou.

Of course, you understand that until this silver arrives in Guangzhou, the blockade on the sea will continue."

Menezes's head flushed red as he nodded repeatedly. "I understand, Your Majesty. I will return to Macau to make arrangements now."

. . . .

In Zhili, Emperor Qianlong was also busy.

The Qing emperor, who was still dreaming of completing the Ten Military Achievements the year before, now became extremely haggard.

When he was about to enjoy his old age, the "glorious and prosperous" country he built was facing the danger of collapse, which was something no old man could bear.

Fortunately, Qianlong was still a capable king. If it were someone else, he would probably collapse immediately.

After the carriage passed Bazhou, Emperor Qianlong could no longer bear his fatigue and leaned back in the carriage, squinting his eyes and taking a rest.

It’s not easy for me, Qianlong!
These days, he has been busy in Zhili trying to win over the members of the former Han Army Banner who were expelled from the banner by him in the past forty years. Along the way, he has been gossiped about and even cursed at by others.

This is certain. During these forty years, countless Han army bannermen who were expelled from the banner cried out, "Master, please don't abandon us," but were ruthlessly abandoned by Emperor Qianlong.

Oh, now your Eight Banners were wiped out in the battle of Guangnan, and you remembered our kindness. Now you are short of cannon fodder, so you come back to us, right?

Of course, this was just a few curses behind their backs. After Qianlong began to give them benefits, these Han Eight Banners people who had been expelled from the banner cheered happily and once again became the Eight Banners Taijun.

What made Qianlong overjoyed was that during these forty years, the more than 300,000 Han army bannermen who had been expelled from the banner had continued to reproduce and the number had reached more than 1.3 million, with the number of male adults exceeding 300,000.

Although allowing these people in would greatly increase financial pressure and weaken the status of the Manchus in the banner, who cares about these things at this point.

Besides, most of these people will soon die in the battle with the Mo bandits, so it doesn't matter.

Thinking of this, Qianlong finally showed a relieved expression.

At this moment, Liang Guoyi, the Minister of Revenue who served in the Grand Council, rushed to the side of the imperial carriage with the "On Righteousness, Loyalty and Treachery" published by Mo Zibu.

When Qianlong heard that it was the thief Mo, he immediately perked up and took it to read.

But the more he read, the more Qianlong's head felt like it was about to explode. He forced himself to finish reading it, but he couldn't bear it anymore and threw the theory of righteousness, loyalty and treachery everywhere.

"I will damn his eight generations of ancestors!" This made Qianlong so angry that he started cursing.

"This evil creature, this beast, not only does he not want to argue about Chinese and barbarians, he doesn't even want his own kingdom!"

"This beast, is he here to rebel or to overturn the table?"

Qianlong's defense was exactly the same as that of King Le Viet of the Later Le Dynasty, who was extremely disgusted and confused by Mo Zi Bu's behavior of overturning the table.

Huhu! After cursing, Qianlong was so angry that his eyes went dark and his head seemed to have grown bigger. The eunuchs and Liang Guoyi in the carriage were frightened and panicked.

After Qianlong recovered a little, he pushed away the eunuch's outstretched hand, took a breath, and continued to curse: "That beast Mo Wu came here to disrupt the world and harm others without benefiting himself.

Liang Guoyi, you said, was it the Banner people who asked for shaving their heads and changing their clothes? It was clearly you Han people who asked for it. It was Sun Zhixie who wrote to the emperor repeatedly.

Now that the Manchus and the Han people are united and the country is peaceful and prosperous, what's wrong with that? This beast insisted on rebelling. Not only did he rebel, he also wanted to undermine the foundation of this country.

There is no two suns in the sky, and no two masters in a country. If everyone wants to be the master of the country, wouldn’t the world be in chaos?

Go back first and inform all the Manchu and Han ministers in Beijing that I will join them in refuting this insane article of Mo Ze!"

After hearing this, Liang Guoyi felt a bitter taste in his mouth and his head suddenly became bigger. He wanted everyone to criticize him? He couldn't do that!

Mo thief, no, Mo Guangzhong said that we should develop a theory of national heroes and traitors, but he did not say that we should kill all traitors and forbid traitors to make meritorious service while serving their sentences.

Moreover, the world belongs to all people in the world, which easily reminds people of the majesty of the Han civil servants in the Ming Dynasty.

That was an era when even officials of the seventh rank dared to go against the emperor, and when gentry in opposition could incite the people to beat and kill the emperor's trusted eunuchs without being punished.

Among the Han Chinese civil servants today, who wouldn’t envy this kind of glory?

Do you really want to be treated like a dog by the Han ministers in the world?

However, Liang Guoyi thought about it and did not try to persuade them. What was there to persuade them? This country belongs to your Aisin Gioro family. You can do whatever you want with it.

It can be maintained now because you can still mobilize tens of thousands of troops. After Mo Guangzhong is defeated in the next war, the world will change hands. Even if both sides suffer losses, Mo Guangzhong can at least create a situation of the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

My hometown is Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and my family is all in the south, so there is no need to offend Mo Guangzhong.

(End of this chapter)