The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 935 The Crown Prince's Ten-Year Agreement
Gansu Province, Yinchuan Prefecture.

For the past thirty years, since the great turmoil in the Northwest, Yinchuan has never been as bustling as it is now.

The traces of the Tianfang religion, which once permeated this city and even the entire Northwest, have been almost completely erased.

If we exclude the abrupt hills inside and outside Yinchuan city, as well as some small place names such as mass graves and "Human Pool," it is difficult to find any trace of the Tianfang Sect here.

Of course, not none of them remained.

Wan Wu, along with his brothers Jiang Daqi and He Zaili, were visiting a huge mountain tomb outside Yinchuan Railway Station with the Liao Prince's Palace Military Advisor.

The basic system of Dayu was inherited from that of the Ming Dynasty, but there were significant differences in new aspects such as colonization, industry and commerce, and education.

One of the biggest differences in terms of colonization is that the official positions of the Prince's Mansion in Dayu were not inherited from the Ming Dynasty, but were basically continued from the Tang Dynasty.

Because the princes of the Ming Dynasty were severely beaten by Zhu Yuanzhang and his descendants, and were completely turned into fat pigs being raised in captivity, the system of the Ming Dynasty princely residences was also changed accordingly.

It no longer resembled a vassal state's governing office, but rather a zoo management agency.

The vassal states of Dayu were meant to serve as border defense barriers and cultural export beacons, so they naturally couldn't simply copy the Ming Dynasty's model.

On the contrary, the princely mansions of the Tang Dynasty, which retained the characteristics of classical militarism, are more adaptable to the needs of the present.

After several changes, the governing structure of the vassal state of Prince Dayu was finally established.

The princes of the vassal states had three directly subordinate agencies: the Imperial Guard, the Imperial Household Department, and the State Affairs Department.

The Imperial Guard was in charge of the army, which consisted of the Imperial Guard and the three close guards: the left, the center, and the right. Each guard had a standard strength of 3,000 men. Although it was called a guard, it was actually a division. These 12,000 men were the standing army of the vassal state.

Of course, considering that each domain had additional tasks outside, 12,000 men were far from enough in the age of firearms.

Therefore, veterans in the Royal Guard and the Three Guards could be used as junior officers in critical moments, which could expand a guard to a size of six to nine thousand men.

The inner court of Mozibu was responsible for the king's secretaries, guards, the king's private property, and the management of the kingdom's harem. It was headed by the scholars of the vassal state.

The State Affairs Office assisted the King in administration, headed by the Chief Secretary of the State, and subordinate to the Chief Military Advisor, the Chief of the Imperial Secretariat, the Military Commissioner, and the Eight Military Advisors.

Among them, the Sima and Dianjun were responsible for the militia of the vassal states, which meant that in extreme cases, the vassal states could also recruit a large number of militia to expand their army.

The military advisor who led Wan Wu and his group on their tour was someone specially assigned by King Mo Zhou of Liao to Yinchuan to recruit talent for the Liao vassal state.

“In the past, the Northwest was in great chaos. The religious bandits were extremely arrogant, saying that they would rather have one fen than ten Han. Wherever they went, they burned, killed, and looted, causing great suffering to the people.”

My parents, brothers, wife, sons and daughters have all been slaughtered. There is a possibility that my Han people will be completely eradicated in the Northwest.

Therefore, even though His Majesty had not yet defeated the Manchus, he immediately drew 50,000 troops from the already short-staffed army.

The army was entrusted to the Grand General, the Imperial Son-in-Law, and the old Prince Xia to lead the troops to the Northwest to relieve the suffering of the people and punish the guilty.

The old prince devoted himself wholeheartedly to the task, spending ten years to achieve his goal. However, after the suppression of the rebels, a headcount revealed that only a few million people remained in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces—seven or eight out of ten had perished.

"The mountains and rivers were stained red, and the ravines were filled with corpses. It was tragic, truly tragic!"

Thirty years have passed since the Great Uprising in Northwest China, but the wounds left in the hearts of the Chinese people have not yet been healed.

Of course, people from Shanxi and Hebei are better off. Although there are also believers in these places, they are not as extreme as those in the Northwest.

Moreover, these believers were surrounded by Han Chinese. When the Northwest was in turmoil and the court swiftly suppressed them, some of them fled their homes and went elsewhere to conceal their past as believers, and became Han Chinese again.

Some openly stated that their beliefs differed from those of the Northwest. After thirty years of supervision, the second and third generations, having grown into proud citizens of Dayu, gradually ceased to believe in religion.

Therefore, the chaos in the Northwest did not spread to the Central Plains, and the people of the Central Plains only knew about this tragedy through hearsay.

But Wan Wu and the others were furious, their eyes blazing with anger and their teeth grinding together.

Because they are from Shaanxi, some of them already had memories of what happened back then, while those who were not yet born had fathers and grandfathers who were also witnesses to that great chaos.

Many of them had numerous relatives who had been killed, and the words of the military advisor aroused boundless anger and hatred in their hearts.

"This mountain cemetery contains the remains of more than 64,300 victims of the fall of Yinchuan, ranging from eighty-year-old men to newborn babies."

After the war, the old prince, by order of His Majesty, built a mountain tomb here according to the standards of emperors and generals, firstly to bury them and to pray for their souls, and secondly to serve as a warning to future generations.

At this point, the military advisor suddenly paused, creating suspense, "Do you know what His Majesty wanted to warn future generations about?"

Upon hearing this, everyone chimed in with their own opinions, but the central idea remained the same.

That must be a warning to us, the descendants, to be loyal to the emperor and love our country, and to be devoted to His Majesty. That way, even if we are in trouble, His Majesty will send troops to rescue us.

"Yes, but not quite. Loyalty to the emperor and love for one's country are certain, but that's not what His Majesty is trying to warn us, his descendants."

"What Your Majesty wants to remind us is that we must never forget the glory of being a member of the Han family, never forget the magnificence of the Han and Tang dynasties, and never forget that our culture is the best and the oldest in the world."

"Forgetting these things is forgetting the fundamentals, and it will lead to another major upheaval in the Northwest!"

The military advisor spoke with great passion, his forehead veins bulging. At this time, the Han people generally believed that the greening of the northwest was a result of the Han dynasty losing its glory.

When Han people no longer consider their Han identity to be the most precious thing, they may come to believe in barbarian cults, leading to fratricide.

Of course, this idea is mostly held by people from the Northwest. Firstly, they suffered the most damage, and secondly, the Northwest of the Great Yu Dynasty was the stronghold of the Han imperialists. It would be strange if they didn't think this way, given their extreme nationalism.

"My lord..." Jiang Daqi knew he had addressed her incorrectly as soon as he opened his mouth, so he immediately corrected himself.

"What the official said is correct. My father died in this great chaos. When the rebels in Fengxiang Prefecture rose up, my father refused to surrender and was eventually killed on the banks of the Xiegu River."

Jiang Daqi clenched his fists so tightly they cracked, his eyeballs seemed to bulge out of their sockets, and large tears streamed down from the corners of his eyes.

His father was a well-known child prodigy in Taibai County, Fengxiang Prefecture. He passed the imperial examination at the age of sixteen. After the Great Yu restored the country, his father worked day and night in Fengxiang Prefecture to prepare to welcome the royal army.

Before that day even arrived, the cult rebels suddenly rose up, and most of the family members died in the chaos.

Whenever Jiang Daqi was sweating profusely on Zhongnan Mountain, this hatred would grow even stronger.

If it weren't for the cultists causing trouble, his father would definitely have been given an official position based on his merit in welcoming the royal army.

Then Jiang Daqi wouldn't have become an orphan, growing up without parents to care for him, and still being a bachelor doing manual labor for over thirty years of his life.

Such a genuine outpouring of emotion immediately led the Liao Prince's Palace Military Advisor to select him, along with Wan Wu and others who were equally trembling with anger.

Preparations are underway to relocate the Liang vassal state to Gaoliang Prefecture (Caucasus), and the Liao vassal state, which currently rules this area, will also have to move away.

Although Liao King Mozhou is currently in charge of Greater Romania, which includes Moldavia, Wallachia, Bessarabia, and parts of Bulgaria.

But this is not a long-term solution. Most of these territories belong to the Xia vassal state and are a reward for the Xia king and his son's forty years of service in Europe. The future of the Liao vassal state still lies in destroying the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

Destroying such an empire is not something that can be done overnight; it will inevitably involve a long period of protracted conflict. The intensity of this protracted war will not be very high, but it will be exceptionally cruel.

The Liao vassal state only wanted land, not the Turks.

Because the Liao dynasty had Greeks, Bulgarians, Georgians, and Armenians as second-class citizens, it did not need to leave a large number of Muslim believers in the country to create future problems for itself.

The clerk looked at Wan Wu and the others, feeling very satisfied.

These people are not young, and they certainly cannot keep up with the new youths who have been learning various skills, including colonization, in military academies since childhood.

Even going to the battlefield is not as good as those peers who went to the west long ago and were trained in the wars against Russia and France.

However, they were poor and hardworking, had little experience and were easy to brainwash. In addition, they had a grudge against the Islamic religion. If placed on the front line against the Ottoman Empire, they would definitely be the best soldiers.

This will only fuel their hatred and strengthen it. Once they reach the west, they'll slaughter the Turks, leaving corpses strewn across the land, and commit genocide... cough cough, they won't hesitate to do so.

The Liao Kingdom needs talents like this!

After paying tribute to the victims of the Yinchuan Rebellion, Wan Wu and his companions immediately arranged the mutton feast they had been looking forward to.

Roasted whole lamb, stewed lamb, unlimited lamb offal soup, and white flour steamed buns and flatbreads.

After two or three days of rest and adjustment, each immigrant ate to their heart's content.

The men drank with great gusto, the children gnawed away with grease dripping from their mouths, and the women laughed and played around with each other.

Food is always the best way to boost morale. No matter when, a meal of eight hot, hearty dishes will bring you immense happiness.

Wanwu carried a huge roasted lamb leg, taking a bite of meat and a sip of wine, while also using his greasy hands to break up flatbread for his youngest son and throw it into the lamb offal soup with vermicelli.

Watching his eldest daughter and son eat like little animals, and seeing his introverted wife holding a wine bowl, he let out a hearty laugh that was never heard before.

Wanwu's eyes stung, and tears welled up.

His wife had been with him for over ten years, and their eldest daughter was already eleven years old, yet he, as her husband and father, had never allowed them to have a meal like this.

"Big sister, will we be able to eat this kind of food every Mid-Autumn Festival from now on?" After the eldest daughter devoured the food and was quite full, she finally regained some of her girlish introversion and shyness.

What she cared about most was whether she would have such a delicious meal again in the future.

"Yes!" Wan Wu answered decisively. "The officials said that His Highness the Prince of Liao is in dire need of Han Chinese men like us."

Once we get there, we'll have everything we need. We can afford to eat there every month, let alone every Mid-Autumn Festival.

Officials from the Liaodong region had already introduced Wan Wu and others to the knowledge of the west, and only then did they realize that the imperial court had conquered a larger and richer territory to the west of Anxi.

Wan Wu then understood why Chang'an City was decorated with lanterns and colorful streamers, and why those students, dressed in military uniforms, carrying rifles, and chanting slogans, had paraded through the streets earlier this year and last year.

Wanwu was initially quite resistant to going west, as it was too far from home and he had heard that there weren't many Han Chinese there.

But now he's figured it out: rather than staying at home and dying poor, why not give it a shot?

"Opening up new territories is good! Only when we poor people open up new territories will we have a way to survive." Wan Wu smacked his lips and drank another large bowl of wine.

While these disaster victims were feasting and drinking, a tremendous change was taking place in Yinchuan.

The entire city is rapidly constructing temporary housing for disaster victims, as well as establishing policies and mechanisms to train and provide short-term employment opportunities for them.

For Mo Zibu, this massive locust plague across four provinces is actually a very good opportunity.

Without the stimulus of a major disaster, you're dreaming if you expect tens of millions of people to migrate westward.

These willing refugees were the best supplement for the Anxi Envoy and the Three Western Feudatories. With them, the Great Yu was able to quickly gain a foothold in Europe and completely bind the East and the West together.

Moreover, this opportunity exists not only in Dayu, but also in Europe.

Because of the back-and-forth battles during the Napoleonic Wars and the earlier Russo-Turkish Wars, Romania, which once had a population of 20 million, now has only a population of over 600,000.

Bulgaria, with a population of over six million, has only 370,000 people.

Moldova, with a population of 2.5 million, has only around 100,000 people.

Furthermore, the number of men in these three countries decreased significantly, with adult men accounting for less than 10% of the total population.

According to statistics just sent back from the Liaodong Peninsula, the Principality of Moldova has only 7,500 men aged 16 to 36.

What a great opportunity! At a time when nationalism was beginning to rise across Europe, a nation of two or three million people was already difficult to swallow up.

However, these three countries combined only have a little over one million people, and the proportion of males is small. If they were to be annexed separately, the Great Yu could simply use its population to wipe them all out, and the major European powers such as Britain, France, Prussia, and Russia would not be able to object.

If we don't quickly build up our population now, it will be extremely difficult for them to annex us after they have recovered their population in ten years or so.

Therefore, Mozibu formulated a strict immigration plan, aiming to use the best and safest methods to send the first batches of immigrants there, and to attract subsequent immigrants by maximizing the survival rate.

Specifically, the plan was to first gather immigrants in Yinchuan and Lanzhou by train, rather than immediately transporting them all to the Black Sea region, allowing them to adapt step by step.

Especially for the three countries on the western coast of the Black Sea, the main concern is the impact of temperature and environment on agriculture. We will teach them in advance so that the immigrants can become familiar with farming conditions on the western coast of the Black Sea and start production immediately upon arrival.

. . . .

Anxi Envoy, Transoxiana Province, on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, Siqi Port (Turkmenbashi).

This is a key port for those traveling from the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea to the Gaoliang region on the western shore.

After twenty years of accumulation in the Caspian Sea, Dayu finally had enough merchant ships. With the help of steam engines, they could sail at all times except when there were strong winds and waves.

The Yuezhi Sea (lagoon) where the harbor is located is the most important coarse salt production area in the entire Anxi Four Provinces.

Although the Caspian black salt produced here has a slightly bitter taste and is only consumed by humans in small quantities, the large production volume makes it very useful for making cured meat, cheese, salt bricks for cattle and sheep, silage preservation, and other applications.

As for the Aral Sea, although it is called the Aral Sea, the actual salinity of its nearshore waters is not high at this time, so the salt production is very small.

Boss Sen, accompanied by a group of officials and guards, is on-site at the port to learn about the development progress. This port will definitely play a huge role in immigration in the future.

After listening to the detailed report, the group found a place to eat at random.

Logically speaking, the war was over by now, and Boss Sen should have returned long ago. Mo Zibu had sent people to urge him several times, but Boss Sen was reluctant to leave.

Now, Anxi and the three western vassal states are in a good time to rebuild and develop vigorously, and it is also the place where he devoted his life to achieving success.

Now that we've reached the most crucial moment, and things are almost perfect, Boss Sen is truly reluctant to leave.

This reluctance even surpassed his desire for the throne, as Da Laosen once said to Lin Zexu with a smile.

"To become an emperor and leave a mark on history, there have been hundreds of emperors throughout the dynasties, and even among the wise and virtuous rulers, there have been dozens."

But as a crown prince who expanded the country's territory and left such a vast legacy for future generations, few in the past five thousand years have achieved such a prominent place in history.

"Even if I were to die of illness in Anxi after accomplishing all of this, I'm afraid future generations would rate me higher than if I had actually ascended the throne as emperor."

Lin Zexu had to admire the Mo family's ingenuity. How did they come up with this idea?
However, upon reflection, he realized that this was indeed the case. If a crown prince like that were to die from exhaustion in Anxi, it would surely spark countless speculations!

I'm afraid that no matter what problems arise in the Great Yu Dynasty, the first regret that future generations will remember is that such an excellent crown prince failed to ascend the throne and govern the country, which has led to the current problems.

At that time, he will no longer be a crown prince, but a saint or immortal in the hearts of hundreds of millions of people, even greater than the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.

“Yuanfu, after I leave, the Anxi Envoy Office will be handed over to you. I need you to serve here for at least ten years.”

It will take ten years to maintain all the karez wells in the provinces, prefectures and counties of Anxi, so that Anxi can support a population of ten million.

With ten million people, we have nothing to fear. Even if we were to fight against the entire European continent with only the Anxi Envoy and the Three Western Feudatories, we would have the strength to manage it.”

Lin Zexu smiled bitterly. He initially stayed by the side of Prince Mo Zhou of Liao because he was young and needed to gain experience in difficult places. Of course, he also liked the feeling of expanding territory and creating on a blank canvas.

But he is already thirty years old this year. He has served as an official in Anxi for almost ten years. He has seen everything and is qualified to return to the central government to serve as an official in the true core area of ​​Dayu and accumulate experience.

But a sense of responsibility also drove Lin Zexu. He knew he was the best candidate to succeed the Crown Prince in controlling Anxi, and no one else could do a better job than him, who had been in Anxi for so long.

After a brief hesitation, Lin Zexu cupped his hands to the elder statesman Sen, saying, "Your Highness, I will certainly live up to your expectations and build Anxi according to His Highness's design, following the established practices, and develop this vast Xinjiang region well!"

The elder brother nodded in satisfaction. "Ten years from now, I will be fifty-five years old and you will be forty-two. That will be the time when my energy declines and I need a capable minister to assist me the most."

You, on the other hand, are in your prime, experienced, energetic, and adept at governance.

"When that time comes, it will be the time for us, ruler and subject, to live in harmony and be remembered in history."

"Your Highness is planning to stay in Anxi for another two years?" Lin Zexu did a quick calculation and realized that the timing was wrong, because if ten years were counted from now, the Crown Prince would be fifty-three years old and he would be forty.

Therefore, the only possibility is that the Crown Prince plans to stay in Anxi for another two years.

Boss Sen nodded. "To be precise, it's been a little over a year, since Mid-Autumn Festival has already passed."

As he spoke, Boss Sen handed a stack of documents sent back from Gansu to Lin Zexu.

"In just four months, more than 600,000 disaster victims have gathered in Yinchuan and Lanzhou. At this rate, at least 1.5 million refugees will head west every year."

Boss Sen stroked his chin thoughtfully and said, "This speed is much faster than the Hongwu Emperor's great migration and the filling of Sichuan with people from Hubei and Hunan. It's almost like doing ten years' worth of work in one year."

The fact that the railway was completed before was likely a major reason for the speed of progress.

But this clearly exceeded the Anxi Envoy's capacity to accept passengers, and with the railways already used for transporting people, what about the goods traveling from Central China to Anxi?

The elder brother Sen then pulled out a plan and handed it to Lin Zexu, saying, "These are some plans I've come up with. Yuanfu, please take a look and give me some pointers."

Lin Zexu quickly took it and examined it carefully for more than fifteen minutes. He bowed respectfully to the high-ranking official, saying, "Your Highness loves the people like your own children and has a far-sighted vision. I admire you wholeheartedly!"

"Yinchuan is known as the Jiangnan region north of the Great Wall, and Lanzhou is the most prosperous area in the upper reaches of the Yellow River. There is absolutely no problem for this place to accommodate several million immigrants in a short period of time."

If the government manages the situation properly, these tens of millions of intermittent immigrants will not only not be a burden on the imperial court, but will instead become a good opportunity for the court to solve the problems in Gansu.

Big Boss Sen's solution was simple: instead of rushing to move all the immigrants thousands of miles away, he let them adapt as they went.

For example, in Yinchuan, immigrants can help build cities, construct railways, and even assist local people with farming and animal husbandry.

Gansu is also short of people. These immigrants can earn enough to support themselves through their labor and adapt step by step.

Afterwards, they worked short-term jobs along the way, making full use of the train's capacity to gradually reach the river. Finally, after a final acclimatization in the river, they traveled in batches to the western shore of the Black Sea.

"This is a good idea, but it is difficult to implement. For example, what if the disaster victims don't want to leave after arriving in Gansu? What if the local government in Gansu detains people and prevents them from leaving?"
When will the trains transport goods and civilians? What if locals deceive disaster victims, lowering or even withholding wages? What if disaster victims commit crimes and then flee?

The elder statesman, Sen, posed six or seven questions in one breath, then smiled and looked at Lin Zexu, saying, "This requires a highly capable minister of the state to do this well."

Lin Zexu understood, "Your subject is willing to go to Gansu to take charge of the westward migration of disaster victims."

(End of this chapter)