Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 339 Far Eastern Influence
In December, spring in South America has just ended and the La Plata region has ushered in a cool summer.

Spring is the season when all things come back to life and animals reproduce. However, in the core area of ​​the La Plata region, the Pampas Plains, due to the migration of Chinese families, a large number of bison, wild horses, wild deer and other large wild animals were hunted and captured. The number of bison distributed throughout the prairie decreased by about one twentieth in just two or three months due to over-hunting.

The bison and wild horses in the Pampas were originally domesticated animals released by Spain hundreds of years ago. Compared with real wild animals, they are more easily captured by Chinese families. For this reason, when grassroots officials reported the reduction of large wild animals to Chang'an City step by step, the Ministry of Revenue and the Department of Land and Resources issued an administrative order, prohibiting illegal entry into the grasslands and forests to hunt wild animals during the three months of September, October and November each year, which is the spring in South America. At the same time, every three years, the Pampas grasslands and the original forests in northern Argentina will undergo a one-year closed rotation period. During the closure period, people in the surrounding areas of the grasslands and forests are not allowed to enter the forests at will to hunt wild animals or pick and cut rare plants.

South America is vast and sparsely populated. The local guinea pigs, Pampas deer, Huemul deer, anteaters, jaguars, and Andean cats are rare in number. When facing experienced Chinese hunters, their chances of escaping are low. Therefore, in order to avoid repeating the path of excessive reclamation of the Pampas by Argentines in later generations, which led to soil degradation and the extinction of some rare animal and plant resources, the Ministry of Revenue, according to Li Mingyuan's instructions, has done a good job in protecting local natural resources in advance and prohibiting excessive hunting of wild animals and plants. It is very necessary. …………

Looking at the overall situation and planning the national development strategy in advance, even if it seems to be an insignificant matter at the time, it may bring unexpected results more than ten years later.

The Han Kingdom's layout in the mainland began during the Rio Grande do Sul period. Ten years later, the bases of the Intelligence Department and the Taiping Society in the mainland have expanded from just one station in Shanghai to five stations in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tianjin, Yangcheng, and Chengdu.

Most of these stations were set up in the British and French concessions. They used the names of foreign companies or overseas Chinese businessmen as cover and engaged in activities such as commodity trading, smuggling, immigrant transportation, and arms smuggling.

Customs in the mainland were under foreign supervision, the Qing court had weak naval power, and the Beiyang Fleet, which was once famous, was in the period of purchasing ships and forming a fleet, and it was still three to five years away from being officially formed. Maritime smuggling was profitable, and company stations set up in coastal areas of the mainland made their main profits from the smuggling of arms and industrial products. Batches of obsolete local muskets were disguised as German firearms by hiring ships from European countries such as Germany and France, and then sold to local officials in the south who were promoting Westernization at a price 20% lower than that of Western countries. Locally produced trendy goods such as bicycles, cameras, rubber cloth shoes, etc. were sold to southern gentry officials at high prices. On the one hand, they tried to win their favor and open up sales channels in the mainland for smuggled Han goods, and on the other hand, they made considerable economic profits, maintained the daily expenses of the stations themselves, and earned some foreign exchange funds for local industrial development.

The impact of the victory in the Argentine War had already reached the ears of the Qing government through diplomats stationed in the mainland by Britain, France and Germany. The rise of a Chinese empire overseas had obviously shocked the Qing court. The spies sent by the Qing court were rushing to the southern port cities where the immigrant population was concentrated, preparing to investigate the true situation of Chinese immigrants and obstruct the Han country's immigration transportation plan.

"News came from the three stations of Chengdu, Shanghai, and Tianjin. We found Qing Dynasty spies in the immigration reception points we set up there. They mixed in with the ordinary people, disguised as northern refugees, and wanted to take the opportunity to enter the mainland to spy on intelligence."

Inside the Chang'an Imperial Palace which was under expansion, Minister of State Security Shen Fushan conveyed intelligence from the mainland to Li Mingyuan.

"I had expected that proclaiming the emperor and establishing a system would irritate the Qing government, but I didn't expect them to react so quickly."

Li Mingyuan stood up and stared at the Far East corner on the huge map. He said firmly, "Han and bandits cannot coexist. Hundreds of thousands of Taiping brothers and sisters died tragically at the hands of the Qing Tartars. My father and uncle both died because of the Qing. The Three Arrows Oath is still fresh in my ears. However, we cannot recognize the legitimacy of the Qing and yield to the Tartars just because our immigration action is temporarily blocked!"

"Your Highness is wise. It is the righteous cause to proclaim yourself emperor and establish a system to maintain the orthodoxy of the Han Dynasty. If you compromise and give in because the Qing government threatens the influx of immigrants to the mainland, I am afraid that those evil gentry and traitors will succeed and become arrogant." Shen Fushan echoed.

"It is absolutely impossible to compromise with the Qing Dynasty!"

Li Mingyuan reiterated his position and said solemnly, "Jiangnan is an important financial center for the Qing government. The Eight Banners nobles still have a certain deterrent power over the governors in the south. If the Qing government strictly orders the southern government to prohibit the people from going out to sea to make a living, I am afraid that many of the officials who received our money will turn around and sell our people for credit."

Considering the worst-case scenario in the mainland, Li Mingyuan took out a pre-planned response plan and ordered, "Order the head of the Military Intelligence Department, Liang Xing, to evacuate the exposed intelligence personnel and temporarily suspend immigration activities in the mainland. Also, send someone to contact Yang Fuqing and order his people to cooperate with us and stay on standby for a period of time. They are not allowed to act without permission and disrupt the overall deployment of the mainland in the mainland!"

"Your Highness, because he was worried that the station in the mainland would be exposed, Minister Liang forwarded the information back to the mainland and has already left for Hong Kong from Southeast Asia. He should have just arrived in Hong Kong now."

Officials stationed abroad have the power to make decisions on the spot. After Shen Fushan reported Liang Xing's whereabouts to Li Mingyuan, he explained, "General Yang, using the title of Taiping Army's assistant king, has weapons and funds supported by the Military Intelligence Department. His armed personnel have recently exceeded 2,000 people. I heard that there was a great victory in South America. General Yang wants to take advantage of your highness's momentum to take the opportunity to rebel against the Qing Dynasty on the mainland. Minister Liang took the risk to come to the mainland this time. In addition to responding to the threat of the Qing government, he also wanted to visit General Yang in person, hoping to persuade him to give up the idea of ​​starting an uprising on the mainland."

"Humph, stubborn!"

Li Mingyuan was furious. "For the sake of his friendship with my father and uncle, he has been giving me people and guns in recent years. The Heavenly Kingdom has been destroyed for fifteen or sixteen years, but he still acts like a prince of the Heavenly Kingdom. He really doesn't know how to appreciate it!
Add another order, allowing Liang Xing to use our armed forces hidden in the mainland. If Yang Fuqing takes advantage of his seniority and insists on launching an armed uprising, immediately unite the people around him to keep Yang Fuqing under strict control, and let Liang Xing temporarily take over the armed forces under his command. "

"Yes, Your Highness"......

The support given by the Han State to Yang Fuqing and some other anti-Qing armed forces from the mainland was not unconditional. While providing them with batches of obsolete muskets and ammunition, the instructors and lurking intelligence personnel sent by the Han State, openly or secretly, were also slowly infiltrating among them, gradually winning over the grassroots armed personnel to serve the Han State, in a short period of one or two years, or as long as three to five years. Although the leaders of the anti-Qing armed forces from the mainland who accepted the assistance of the Han State increased the strength of their armed forces, in reality, the armed elements who had originally obeyed their dispatches gradually became a force secretly controlled by the Military Intelligence Department. When the time came for the real need to launch an armed action, those armed leaders would probably discover that they had lost command of their armed forces.

(End of this chapter)