The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 637: Happy to Hear About War
Nanjing Yingtian Prefecture, Houhu Lake, which later became Xuanwu Lake.

In the north of Houhu Lake, the streets and alleys near the future Nanjing Station were gradually called Dongren Lane, and connected to it was also a Tatar Lane.

The reason for this name is that every year the emperor would recruit a large number of people from the Dongyang vassal states and the Mongolian vassal states on the grasslands to serve as guards.

Therefore, many lords of vassal states would purchase residences in the northern and southern capitals to facilitate their guard duty and visits to the emperor. They would not only use them themselves but also give them to their subordinates.

Gradually, as people's interactions became closer and closer, more and more people from various towns and fiefdoms, even including some businessmen and traveling scholars, began to gather together. When traveling away from home, people from your hometown are always more trustworthy.

In this way, small-scale settlements gradually formed, a unique style of small gatherings of people from all over the world surrounding the imperial city.

As for Dongren Lane, most of the people living there are naturally from the five provinces of Japan: Penglai, Yingzhou, Asahi, Fuso and Silla.

Among them, the vassal states of Silla province had a clear sense of distance and alienation from the other four provinces.

As the name suggests, Tatar Lane is mainly inhabited by Mongolian vassal states in the south, north, west and Junggar deserts.

At this time, the word "Tartar" did not have an insulting meaning. Not to mention ordinary Mongolians, even Mongolians who joined the Eight Banners had names like Erdazi, Sandazi and even Saodazi.

To insult someone, one must add "Lu" after the word "Tartar". In other words, in the two words "Tartar and Lu", the word "Lu" is the specific insulting word.

In Dongren Lane, bursts of cheers erupted from the houses that seemed a bit low, unlike those in Tangshan.

Accompanied by cheers, countless people came out of the low rooms in this alley which could be called a town, and the great emperor's shouts were heard one after another.

"Father, war is about to begin, war is about to begin!" In the Xinyuan Marquis Mansion, a sturdy young man ran and shouted with infinite joy.

Lord Niihara was the original Satsuma clan. In order to reward them for their contribution in leading the way to China, Mo Zifu gave them special rewards after the war and promoted the Satsuma clan from a vassal clan to a vassal clan related to the Chinese. It was the only vassal clan in the original Japanese country except for the Edo Grand Duchy of the Tokugawa family.

Moreover, the Edo Principality of the (Tokugawa) Xu family cannot be inherited by the descendants of (Tokugawa) Xu Jiaji in the future.

Instead, the throne was to be given to the nominal grandson of (Tokugawa) Xu Jiazhi, that is, the prince born after (Tokugawa) Xu Jiazhi's adopted daughter Shigehime entered the palace to serve the emperor.

Therefore, the Satsuma clan's newly-formed Lord Niihara could be said to be the only relative clan of the Wajin clan, and his status was quite high.

However, although he was a relative of the feudal lords, Lord Niihara's residence was still built together with the residences of a large number of Japanese vassal lords.

Among the feudal residences, the one who manages the feudal residences of the two capitals in Tangshan this year is Shinhara Zuoshiba Yamamoto Gorozaemon.

In recent years, the warriors who agreed to be guides for Dayu have all become successful. According to the previous stone salary, many of them have a salary of more than 3,000 stones.

This Shi Gao might not have had a good life in his original Japan.

But now, without some deliberate poverty alleviation policies such as the Canqin Jiaotai, maritime trade is booming, local specialties can be sold at a higher price, and Dayu's rich variety of goods are also flooding in, with good quality and low prices.

In this case, after the five public officials and five civilians, the annual output is equivalent to nearly 200 tons of rice, which is a considerable fortune.

At least a warrior who knows how to do this will definitely be able to give his family a rich and prosperous life.

So the older generation like Yamamoto Gorozaemon is still a little short, but his son, the extremely excited Yamamoto Morihiko in front of us, is quite tall and strong, a full five feet tall, which is a little over 1.66 meters.

"You kid, don't you know that war is dangerous? How can fighting be such a joyful thing?"

Yamamoto Gorozaemon looked at his son lovingly. If good days had not come so soon, his son, who was so tall, could be trained to become an imperial tiger or something.

It’s a pity that in recent years, at least in the families of high-ranking warriors of the Chinese ethnic group, the height of the next generation has jumped to almost five feet.

"Of course it's worth being happy!" Yamamoto Shengxian said loudly, but his expression was a little lonely and a little unwilling.

"It's true that if you haven't been to Tangshan, you won't know how big the world is!
Our family is already a hatamoto samurai with a 3,000-koku salary, yet we are still worse off than a landlord with 500 acres of land in Tangshan."

Yamamoto Gorozaemon laughed heartily, "Silly boy, this is Wu, the richest region in the world, and it's also a first-class place in Tangshan. How can our Penglai Island (Kyushu Island) dare to be compared with Wu?

Let alone Penglai Island, even other places in Tangshan can only be compared with Wu. If China could be compared to Wu in every aspect, we would have unified the world long ago."

"Since this is the case, we should be even more loyal to His Majesty, build this land, strengthen our nation, expand our territory, and make China surpass the south of the Yangtze River in every way."

Time flies. It has been six years since China conquered Japan. The nine-year-old boy Yamamoto Moriken no longer has much impression of Japan.

Because his father, Yamamoto Gorozaemon, was a poor samurai with only 36 stones of wealth, and he had to go to the village to collect them himself, but in fact he could only get less than 15 stones.

It is easy to imagine what life was like for a family with such little knowledge. Before he was nine years old, Yamamoto Shengxian had never had a full meal and spent every day in a semi-hungry state.

After submitting to China, life immediately became better.

What Yamamoto Shengxian remembers most vividly is that his father sold twelve men and women in the village in exchange for eighteen silver dollars, and then immediately prepared a large table of delicious sushi.

There were all kinds of flavors, and along with the sweetness of the rice, the young Yamamoto Shengxian almost ate to death on the tatami, and he and his mother cried tears of happiness while eating.

It is precisely because the first nine years of his life were too painful that Yamamoto Shigenori's brain, out of a self-protection mechanism, has almost blocked out his life before the age of nine.

To the extent that now, Yamamoto Shengxian has a very vague impression of the time before the age of nine, and only vaguely feels that he did not have a good life in the past.

But I also felt that those nine years seemed to have passed in a flash, and I came directly to the paradise days after the age of nine when I was well fed, warmly clothed, and studied hard.

This situation occurred in large numbers among children from low-level samurai families in China after China conquered Japan.

The main manifestation is that the painful days in the first few years of life are vague or deliberately blocked.

So compared to their fathers, these children grew up to be more fanatical, and were even willing to fight at the risk of their lives under the simple slogan of loyalty to His Majesty.

Because their subconscious mind kept reminding them that if they did not obey the Great Emperor's teachings and did not offer all their loyalty to the Great Emperor, they would return to the days before, which, although vague in their memories, were definitely like hell.

When Yamamoto Gorozaemon heard his son Yamamoto Morihiro say this, he also stood up and sighed.

He is actually only 34 years old this year, but it seems that he has already entered the twilight of his life. It is really inappropriate for him to follow the routine without any ambition.

"You're right, Taro. I should learn from you."

"Sima Zuo, the court has reported that a great victory was won in Xinwan Town, Lingbei!" There was a cheer outside, and the reason why Yamamoto Shengxian ran back and shouted that a war was about to begin was here.

It turned out that the news of the great victory in Xinwan Town was disclosed. Yamamoto Gorozaemon immediately took the official report handed over by the samurai and read it carefully.

"The Matsumae clan prospered this time. One hundred and eighty men were killed or wounded, but this resulted in a great victory at Shinwan Town, where almost all of Russia's six thousand soldiers were annihilated. This was truly a considerable achievement.

Your Majesty has issued a special decree, rewarding Songqian Zhongshun Hou with 3,000 silver dollars and appointing his second son as a Thousand Households of the Embroidered Guards. Hiss!"

As Yamamoto Gorozaemon read, he couldn't help but gasp. "His Majesty has renamed Ezo Island the Hokkien Island, promoted the vassal Matsumae Tadatsune, the Marquis of Kainishi, to the rank of Marquis of Kainishi, and ordered the Marquis of Kainishi's youngest daughter to enter the palace as his study companion!"

Hearing what Yamamoto Gorozaemon said, the samurai who brought in the imperial bulletin couldn't help but pull a corner of it and read it carefully.

"Your Majesty has already incorporated Beihai Island into Jilin Province, and the Matsumae Domain is located on Beihai Island. It no longer belongs to the Toyo Mission, but to the Tohoku Mission.

According to the tradition of not establishing a vassal state in the three northeastern provinces, the Matsumae clan would have been either relocated or promoted to a vassal state. The Matsumae clan seized this opportunity, which was like a return to life, truly enviable."

"That's not all," Yamamoto Gorozaemon said enviously. "When the Matsumae domain acquired the land, it was only worth 10,000 koku. So, of the several hundred samurai in Xinwan Town, at least half were hired ronin. With such a size, even if they were promoted to a vassal state, they would only be given a baronship or at most a viscount. Now that they've been given an earldom, the significance is completely different."

Furthermore, His Majesty has allowed the daughter of Marquis Chujun (Matsumae) Michihiro to enter the palace as a study companion. This is likely an attempt to confer a certain prince on the North Sea Island, and this woman is intended to be his princess consort."

"That's great!" The samurai who delivered the imperial newspaper had red eyes due to envy.

"I've been given the title of Fangbo, and I've also taken over Xinwan Town. From now on, I can monopolize the trade within the 300-li zone north and south of the Greater Khingan Range for at least five years. My daughter can even become a princess."

Yamamoto Morihisa's breathing quickened. He also took the imperial report and looked at it from left to right. With a somewhat excited look on his face, he said to his father, Yamamoto Gorozaemon, "This is the reward from His Majesty to the loyal and brave. We, the Yamamoto family, should follow suit.

And being Chinese, but not having a Chinese surname is a shame!"

At this time, if the Japanese wanted to give themselves a Chinese surname, there were generally three ways.

The lowest level is naturally like Yamataro Maoshan, who became a member of the Chinese ethnic group and then took someone else's surname.

The second type is that the samurai automatically becomes a Chinese, and then they can choose a Chinese surname for themselves.

The highest level, of course, were the feudal lords of each domain and extremely prestigious scholar-samurai, such as Hayashi Yoshisai and Nii Seisai, scholars of the Imperial and Anti-foreign factions and the Yangming school. They could obtain surnames granted by the emperor based on the clan names of the Japanese tribe.

For example, the Shimazu clan restored their ancestral surname Qin, the Arima clan of the Kurume domain was given the surname Ma, the Matsumae clan of the Matsumae domain was given the surname Qian, and so on.

However, in actual practice, a large number of these hatamoto samurai in the middle position did not change their surnames.

They did not change their surnames not because they wanted to go against the imperial court's policies, but because these people were entangled.

They certainly disdained the idea of taking Chinese surnames, but they could not get a surname from the emperor. At the same time, they felt that it was a bit embarrassing to just pick a Chinese surname for themselves.

So these people were holding a grudge, and a custom was formed in Japan of being rewarded for meritorious service and having surnames bestowed by the emperor. If they did not receive a Chinese surname bestowed by the emperor, they would rather not have a Chinese surname at all.

As a result, among the warriors with a salary of 500 koku or more, only less than 5% of them randomly chose a Chinese surname.

Only low-ranking warriors like (Yoshi) Tian Dongguang, who participated in the Aceh genocide, were eager to change themselves to Chinese surnames to consolidate their status. High-ranking warriors disdained to do so.

Just at this moment, an official from the Ministry of Clan Affairs arrived. Yamamoto Gorozaemon was overjoyed and his eyebrows were twitching.

"Hahaha, a war is about to break out! His Majesty is going to recruit us Japanese warriors!"

Yamamoto Gorozaemon said this because at that time in Dayu, the Clan Court was a very large government office.

In order to make the inner and outer vassal states feel closer, Mo Zibu abolished the Lifanyuan, which had a strong sense of superiority during the Qing Dynasty, and merged its functions into the Zongrenfu, which was previously in charge of royal affairs.

Of course, the deeper reason was to use the Zongrenfu, a government office that was difficult for the outer court to interfere with, to seize the power to control the vassal officials.

So, when he heard that someone was coming from the Ministry of Clan Affairs, Yamamoto Gorozaemon immediately knew that the emperor was going to mobilize these Japanese samurai.

Sure enough, the messenger from the Ministry of Clan Affairs conveyed the emperor's oral order. At the beginning of the Si hour tomorrow, that is, at nine o'clock in the morning, the emperor will summon the 200 vassal states from the five provinces of East Asia who are in Beijing to attend a meeting in the Wuying Hall of the Imperial City to discuss the matter of recruiting samurai from each vassal state.

As soon as the news arrived, the entire Dongren Lane was filled with thunderous cheers, and a large number of Japanese warriors were making a fuss everywhere, and the joy was comparable to New Year's Day.

Because for them, the only way for samurai to get large rewards, realize their life value, or even be promoted to vassal, is through military merit.

"Father, no matter where we are conquered this time, please let me be on the front lines, because our Yamamoto family can no longer continue to live like this without a Chinese surname and without any achievements.

I want to achieve merit and have His Majesty personally grant our Yamamoto family a Chinese surname!"

. . . .

In the Nanjing Imperial City, Mo Zibu was already in the Wuying Palace, but he was not handling government affairs. Instead, he looked helplessly at the Virtuous Concubine Ye Yizhen, who was holding a chubby one-year-old baby with a doting face.

"Why don't I give Atan a piece of land in exchange? How about the eastern part of Sumatra Island? I will directly give Atan the Palembang Prefecture."

Ye Xiaomei didn't say anything, just smiled and shook her head, then started teasing her son again.

After giving birth to three daughters in a row, Ye Xiaomei finally had a son, whom she treasured like a treasure and never left her eyes for a moment.

Now that the country is gradually getting back on track, Mo Zibu's descendants are beginning to increase.

Now, he had fourteen concubines of high rank in his harem. These fourteen concubines gave birth to eight daughters and ten sons.

Moreover, Mo Zibu was planning to have more children because he had large tracts of land to be divided up, such as Zhanzhou (Australia).

If he didn't have more sons and let them marry three or four daughters of local tycoons as princesses, how would he get the money to quickly expand the territory? It would be beyond his ability as the emperor and the Fuxing Company to do it alone.

Seeing that Ye Xiaomei was indifferent, Mo Zibu gritted his teeth and increased the offer, "If you still don't like Palembang Prefecture, then go to Perak State. I will give him the entire Perak State."

At that time, Perak covered a large area, and Kuala Lumpur, which was still a small trading station, was located in this Perak state.

Ye Xiaomei teased her son a few more times, then looked at Mo Zibu with great satisfaction and said, "I know Your Majesty is worried about me, but I have made up my mind. So, I will grant Beihai Island to A Tan."

"How about having A Tan marry the daughter of the Qian family in Jiading as his queen in the future? Let his future father-in-law give him a large dowry and help him acquire a large piece of land in Zhanzhou."

Mo Zibu was still a little unwilling to give up, and Ye Xiaomei rolled her eyes at him, then said with a giggle, "If Your Majesty wants A Tan to develop Zhanzhou, it's not impossible.

Unless you can come to me and work harder, and if you can also give me a son, I will agree.

Otherwise, let Ah Tan be confined to Beihai Island. There are fewer people and less things to do, and he can often be in front of me to show his filial piety in the future."

Ye Xiaomei is quite smart. If Atan went to Zhanzhou, they would be 20,000 miles apart and they would probably only see each other a few times in their lifetime.

But if I were to be confined to Beihai Island, where there would be fewer people and less things to do, I would have an excuse to stay in the capital for a long time.

The crown prince or the future emperor would not mind. Other vassal states are large and might cause trouble, but the Beihai Island has a total of tens of thousands, at most one hundred thousand people, and there is definitely no way they can cause trouble.

Moreover, the North Sea Island is vast. If there are 100,000 people, and you make these people your king, they can live a comfortable life.

"You little fox!" Seeing that Ye Xiaomei was not fooled, Mo Zibu could only point at her, and secretly touched his waist which was inexplicably sore, feeling a little powerless.

But now it seems that if we want to use the power of Hakka heroes to colonize Australia, we really have to let Ye Xiaomei give birth to a boy.

Alternatively, we could select two Hakka people with good family backgrounds and mobilize the human and material resources of these Hakka landlords and wealthy people to go to Australia to open up new land.

The next day, Mo Zibu convened a meeting of 200 Eastern feudal lords in Wuying Hall. At the meeting, Mo Zibu announced that he would draw 20,000 samurai troops from the five Eastern provinces to go to Outer Manchuria.

They planned to use three years to capture all the strongholds of the Russian Empire in Outer Northeast.

Once the warrior corps in Outer Manchuria is able to threaten Irkutsk west of Lake Baikal, the Mongols in the north and south of the desert can be mobilized on a large scale.

The Chinese army will sweep directly from east to west, defeat the Russians, and then force the three Kazakh Yuz to surrender.

Finally, they made a detour and attacked from both the east and the west, blocking the three Central Asian khanates in the former territory of the Nine Zhaowu Clans and ravaging them severely, to see if they would dare to continue spreading their crazy ideas to the Western Regions and the Northwest.

(End of this chapter)