Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 209 Hongmen
ps: I will be on hiatus for another two months, sorry!
After Hong Chunkui agreed to join the National Defense Force, Li Mingyuan summoned Liu Pu, Chen Guozhu, Zhao Yan and others to the National Defense Force headquarters to seek their opinions on Hong Chunkui's job arrangements.

"Master Hong is a veteran general of the Heavenly Kingdom. His ability to lead troops in battle and train soldiers is unquestionable. However, the position of Director of the Military Affairs Department is of great importance. Master Hong has just arrived and is inevitably unfamiliar with the situation of the Military Affairs Department. If he rashly takes over the work of the Military Affairs Department, it will inevitably have an adverse impact on the training of the troops. Therefore, I suggest that Master Hong can first serve in the Quartermaster Department to assist the Quartermaster Director in handling logistics matters."

"I agree with Commander Li's suggestion. Lord Hong has not done anything yet, so it is not appropriate to assign him an important position right from the start."

As soon as the discussion began, Li Sandou and Zhang Ansong clearly opposed Hong Chunkui's appointment to the Military Affairs Department.

The General Staff Headquarters has four major departments: the Operations Department, the Intelligence Department, the Military Affairs Department, and the Quartermaster Department. The Military Affairs Department is responsible for managing the National Defense Forces' exercises, training, troop rotations and other matters, and is as important as the Operations Department and the Intelligence Department in terms of military functions.

Li Mingyuan arranged the two Hong Chunkui in the Military Affairs Department, away from the front-line combat troops. In Li Mingyuan's view, it was just a transitional arrangement. However, Li Sandou, Zhang Ansong and other old Taiping soldiers who followed the King Li Shixian did not think so.

What they were thinking in their minds was that Hong Chunkui was crowned king by virtue of his status as a relative of Hong Xiuquan, and during the Heavenly Kingdom period he had been superior to generals such as Li Shixian. Now that the Heavenly Kingdom has been destroyed by Hong Xiuquan, and Li Mingyuan has led everyone to finally seize a place to settle in South America, why should the Hong clan be allowed to reap the fruits of their labor?

As Li Sandou and Zhang Ansong took the lead in opposing Hong Chunkui's appointment, more and more voices of opposition appeared in the conference room. Finally, even Liu Pu raised his objection, "Your Highness, some old brothers in Heavenly Kingdom may have some misunderstandings about Lord Hong. Forcing the appointment may aggravate everyone's dissatisfaction with Lord Hong. I hope Your Highness will consider the opinions of the brothers more."

"It seems that the brothers are still a little bothered by the past."

Li Mingyuan gave a bitter smile and looked at the officers below whose faces showed obvious dissatisfaction. He didn't know whether to be happy or distressed.

The propaganda about Hong Xiuquan's arbitrary appointment of relatives now seems to be very successful, but the reaction of the officers below was a bit extreme.

During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period, Hong Xiuquan appointed Hong Renfa as King of Xin and Hong Renda as King of Yong, who had no military achievements at all, and used them to control the government. He also lavishly appointed Hong's nephews and relatives as kings. Their status was even higher than that of generals such as Li Shixian and Chen Yucheng.

However, among these people, in addition to those who are trying to curry favor with the rich and powerful, there are also people like Hong Chunkui who have real abilities.

One thing should be viewed from two aspects. If Li Mingyuan wants to accomplish great things, he cannot be like other generals who cannot tolerate useful talents. So in the face of the dissatisfaction of the people below, Li Mingyuan smiled and comforted them, "Brother Hong is different from Hong Renfa and Hong Renda. In the war to establish the Heavenly Kingdom, Brother Hong also made great contributions. You can't blame Brother Hong Chunkui for the responsibility of Hong Renfa and Hong Renda for disrupting the Heavenly Kingdom's government...."

After Li Mingyuan's explanation, he finally calmed everyone down and approved the appointment of Hong Chunkui.

In the evening, when the moon was high in the sky, Li Mingyuan invited Hong Chunkui to have dinner in the palace.

"Brother Chunkui, I hope you don't mind what happened during the day. They are all soldiers who have fought in the war and are used to speaking directly. In fact, they have no ill will towards you."

Li Mingyuan picked up the wine glass, took a sip and said.

"The Heavenly King made the mistake of employing members of the Hong clan as officials in the past, which led to the collapse of the Heavenly Kingdom's government. It is understandable that the generals are dissatisfied."

Hong Chunkui agreed cautiously.

"The past is the past. It is futile to dwell on the past. It is more practical to look forward to the future." "Your Highness is right."

"Brother Chunkui, you don't have to be so reserved." Li Mingyuan smiled and poured a glass of wine for Hong Chunkui, then said, "I heard that Brother Chunkui has stayed in Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, the United States and other countries for a period of time. Has Brother Chunkui ever had any contact with the local Hongmen organization?"

"I fled overseas and did not dare to reveal my true identity. I did not have any contact with the leaders of the various Hongmen branches. However, when I was in Malaya, I did meet many of the various branches of the Hongmen."

"How strong is the Nanyang Hongmen organization?"

Li Mingyuan asked.

"Your Highness, you should have heard that many members of the Hongmen Tiandihui joined the Heavenly Kingdom during the uprising. Luo Dagang, Su Sanniang and other heroes of the Heavenly Kingdom were all from the Tiandihui. Later, the Heavenly Kingdom declined, and many Tiandihui members in Central Plains and other places withdrew from the Heavenly Kingdom organization and hid among the people again to accumulate strength to prepare for the anti-Qing uprising. The Tiandihui organizations in Nanyang and other places were different. The Nanyang Tiandihui organization used the identity of the Hongmen to make a living by engaging in human trafficking and transporting Chinese workers. The goal of each branch was mainly to make money and make a living. As for the anti-Qing proposition of the Tiandihui, it was rarely mentioned."

"Nanyang is different from the mainland. The Hongmen organization gave up its anti-Qing stance and turned to pursue economic interests. In the short term, it can avoid conflicts with foreigners. However, by doing so, they also missed the political proposition of uniting the Chinese from all parts of Nanyang. Just for the sake of making money, the previously strict political organization will quickly degenerate into an economic interest combination like the Lan Fang Company, losing the combativeness and unity of the political group, and will eventually be eliminated one by one by the foreigners."

Li Mingyuan commented from the perspective of later generations.

"Although all the various clans in Nanyang were named Hongmen, they had never been unified. In the small city of Singapore, clans such as Yixing, Fuxing, and Lianyi often fought each other for territory. In places such as Kuala Lumpur on the Malay Peninsula, clans that controlled tin and iron mines could even gather nearly 10,000 Chinese for armed fights.

During the one year I spent in the Malay Peninsula, I personally witnessed no less than twenty armed conflicts of varying sizes. In the entire Nanyang region, the number of internal conflicts and armed conflicts among the various Hongmen sects was probably more than a hundred per year.

"The Nanyang Hongmen faction is complex and intricate, with hundreds of Chinese factions of varying sizes, and no single faction is ambitious enough to unify the Nanyang Hongmen faction. Internal strife and fighting are inevitable over the years."

Li Mingyuan nodded, not optimistic about the situation in Nanyang.

Before sending Sun Bin to Southeast Asia, the plan for the Chinese forces in Southeast Asia was to win over the upper-class figures of various Chinese forces and integrate the independent Chinese forces in Southeast Asia under the unified command of the National Defense Force. However, from Sun Bin's report, Li Mingyuan learned that the action to win over the upper-class Chinese was not successful.

Sun Bin first sent more than 40 people to contact Chinese forces in various parts of the Malay Peninsula. The result was that more than 30 of them directly rejected the recruitment of the National Defense Army. Three or five gangs said that the two sides could cooperate and there was no need to discuss their surrender to Sun Bin. The two gangs with the worst attitudes not only did not agree to the National Defense Army's request, but also publicly killed the two Chinese sent by Sun Bin, directly provoking Sun Bin's troops.

Li Mingyuan understood Sun Bin's character. He would not be careless in recruiting Chinese forces in Southeast Asia and would not send ignorant people to carry out liaison tasks.

Therefore, the two gangs dared to provoke Sun Bin's troops, either because they believed that Sun Bin was in the northern part of Annan and could not retaliate on their territory, or because they were confident that they had the support of foreigners and did not take Sun Bin's troops seriously.

As a mercenary who had been to the Nanyang region in his previous life, Li Mingyuan tended to believe the second possibility: that the two gangs that provoked Sun Bin's troops had foreign support behind them.

There are millions of Chinese in Nanyang, a large part of whom are young laborers with labor force. Li Mingyuan will not give up this largest source of overseas immigrants, so those who obstruct the immigration plan of the National Defense Force, no matter what force they are, cannot be tolerated to continue to exist. Li Mingyuan has issued an order to Sun Bin that any acts of provoking the National Defense Force will never be tolerated, and the actions to develop the National Defense Force's power in various parts of Nanyang cannot be stopped. Li Mingyuan allowed Sun Bin to directly send soldiers of the National Defense Force's Nanyang troops to disguise themselves as ordinary Chinese and infiltrate the Malay Peninsula, the East Indies and other places, use their own people to establish the National Defense Force's bases in various parts of Nanyang, annex or replace the old local Chinese forces, and complete the layout of the National Defense Force in the Nanyang region as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)