The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 797 Asking about your achievements in Zhanzhou and Hezhou
On Mount Kinta, the Maori had nowhere to escape. Thousands of able-bodied men were trapped in a mountain hollow. They stood on the hillside, layer upon layer, with their backs against a small hill, singing their tribal songs in despair.

Before them lay a crystal-clear stream, barely enough to serve as a barrier against the Zhanzhou Protectorate's troops.

The reason they couldn't escape was that the Zhanzhou Protectorate of Dayu had captured more than 20,000 women and children who were hiding in the mountains.

This desolate island is unlike the Central Plains. The indigenous people are too few in number and their regenerative capacity is particularly fragile. If they lose women and children, especially women of childbearing age, the entire tribe will lose its future. Therefore, they must choose to fight a decisive battle.

Zhanzhou Grand Protector Mao Xiangsheng gave a cold laugh. He had three hundred white dogs that he brought from his hometown of Xiangxi. Well, they were actually Xia Si dogs.

Although the Xiasi dog is a famous breed in eastern Guizhou, there are actually quite a few in western Hunan as well.

This is because the various Miao people in eastern Guizhou and western Hunan have very close ties. If we were to divide them by their lifestyle, eastern Guizhou, western Hunan, and southeastern Chongqing should be considered as one province.

The Xiasi dog has a distinctive white coat, excellent stamina, strong explosive power, and a keen sense of smell. It is adapted to mountainous environments and is very good at tracking prey, making it a great hunting partner for hunters of the Miao and Tujia ethnic groups.

Moreover, this type of dog is extremely persistent. Once it has tracked down its prey, it will never give up unless its owner tells it to stop, even if it runs itself to death.

With three hundred Xia Si dogs, these Maori people had nowhere to hide. Even though the Jinghe Battalion seemed to have found the Maori people's excrement thanks to Lieutenant Yan, the fact that they were able to keep going in the right direction was actually thanks to the Xia Si dogs.

At the same time, Mao Xiangsheng also had 600 Yunnan horses brought from Yunnan and Guizhou. These horses are not very powerful and do not run very fast, but they have excellent endurance and can cross mountains and valleys as if walking on flat ground.

Six hundred Yunnan horses helped the army transport supplies. No matter how strong the Maori people were, they could not outrun the Zhanzhou soldiers, who were carrying a large number of women, children and their belongings.

This is the power of comprehensive national strength. Even in the mountains that the natives are more familiar with, the Protectorate of Dayu Zhanzhou still has overwhelming strength in every aspect.

"Short hair, tattooed face, skilled in boating, agile as a monkey in the mountains and forests, hahahaha!" Mao Xiangsheng laughed loudly and said to the officers around him, "Aren't these the ancient Yue people? We've finally caught them this time."

Upon hearing what Mao, the Grand Protector, said, Chen Shaozhang, from Anping Prefecture (Tainan), felt that these guys were more like the Ami people from the high mountains of Taiwan.

"Since King Wu of Zhou overthrew King Zhou of Shang and established the Great Zhou Dynasty, three thousand years have passed, and the Yue people have been fighting against our ancestors."

Our ancestors drove them from Jiangsu and Zhejiang to Fujian, and then from Fujian to Guangdong and Guangxi. I thought these Yue people had all been assimilated, but it turns out they fled to this remote region tens of thousands of miles away.

Of course, the Maori people are not actually Yue people, and may actually be closely related to the Amis people.

But Mao Xiangsheng insisted on saying it that way to reinforce the righteousness of his actions, as if it were a manhunt that had spanned thousands of years.

"Clang!" Mao Xiangsheng drew his long sword. "This is an old adversary of us Han people. In fact, it can be said that many of our ancestors had Yue blood. It's not surprising that the barbarians entered China and became part of China."

But these people are unwilling to follow in the footsteps of China, so much so that three thousand years later they are still living like animals. This is their choice, a choice that leads to hell, so let's respect them.

The unfinished work of our ancestors is now our turn to complete. Let us end this, for it is our glory!

"Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!" More than a thousand Protector-General's soldiers and more than two thousand Han Chinese followers from Zhanzhou responded to Protector-General Mao Xiangsheng with the three shouts of "Tiger!" from Qi Jiguang's army in the face of the enemy, and their fighting spirit soared rapidly.

"Kill!" Mao Xiangsheng roared, pointing his octagonal sword—a symbol of his command—forward.

The thirteen cannons immediately opened fire, light infantrymen carrying rifles crossed the river to snipe accurately, and armored melee soldiers with large shields provided cover for the Qi Wuyi cannons to fire upwards.

The Maori only had spears made of whale bone or hardwood, a few javelins, and stones. The disparity between the two sides was too great, and there was no chance of a fight.

Stones rained down from the mountain into the stream, clanging as they hit the helmets and shields. A few unlucky ones were hit and bled from their heads, but none of them were seriously injured.

Shells and bullets rained down on the mountain, which the natives could not defend against. Each explosion took away a large number of people.

The battle lasted only half an hour before the six or seven thousand strong Maori men on the hillside could no longer hold out. Even the tribal alliance chief, wielding a jade hammer, could not stop the crowd from running around.

Many Maori people rushed down the mountain amidst cries, hoping to break through the barriers and continue their escape, but they were either mercilessly killed by gunfire or captured by Han Chinese militia.

Some chose to climb higher, but dressed only in linen robes, they would freeze to death in just one night at an altitude of three or four thousand meters.

People were running everywhere, and the Great Chief, in despair, sang a dirge for the deceased as he walked toward his grandmother.

The Maori people are still in the late matriarchal clan stage, and the matriarch of the tribe has great prestige, so she is not with ordinary women and children.

“The spirits are calling us, my child. Let us go together to see the spirits of the mountains and rivers.” With that, the old woman picked up a whalebone dagger and slit her own throat.

Chen Shaozhang had already led his elite melee troops to this place, and dozens of soldiers witnessed everything.

Whoosh!

Chen Shaozhang brandished a Tai'aha spear, which he had taken from the corpse of the twelve or thirteen-year-old native warrior.

After brandishing his spear twice, Chen Shaozhang planted it in the ground in front of him and had two soldiers remove his cloth-covered iron armor.

The chief understood the outsider's meaning. He also planted his spear in the ground in front of him, then stared wide-eyed, stuck out his tongue, stomped his feet, and rhythmically patted his body while shouting loudly. This was the most famous war song of the Maori people.

Thrust, pick, smash, sweep.

Chen Shaozhang was more skilled. The Chen family of Shabei in Nanhai County was originally a family that valued poetry and propriety, but after Chen Zizhuang's failure to resist the Qing Dynasty and the heavy losses suffered by the clan, many people in the clan felt that force was the key to a chaotic world, so they abandoned literature and turned to martial arts.

When they arrived in Dayu, the Chen family of Shabei had even more martial arts practitioners. Coupled with the strong martial spirit of Guangdong and Guangxi, they were the most powerful families among the noble families from Fujian and Guangdong.

Chen Shaozhang is one of the top experts cultivated by this family.

Although the Maori chieftain was brave, his fighting skills could not compare with the accumulated experience of China over thousands of years. After only four or five rounds, Chen Shaozhang seized the opportunity and pierced his heart with a spear, ending the battle.

Chen Shaozhang felt no joy. Watching the enemy struggle and convulse in front of him, he was filled with emotion. He beckoned to Lieutenant Yan to come to his side.

"He's yours now!" Chen Shaozhang said calmly. With this great achievement, Lieutenant Yan might not just be a garrison commander anymore; he could probably get close to becoming a baron of the Chinese princely family.

Lieutenant Yan was overjoyed. He rushed over like a vicious dog pouncing on its prey, chopped off the chieftain's head with an axe, threaded it with a rope he had prepared, and was about to carry it to the nearby stream to clean it up.

The other soldiers looked at the head, which was still dripping blood, with envy so intense it made their eyes red.

Many people looked at Battalion Deputy Chen Shaozhang with admiration. He was indeed a descendant of a great hero, born into a noble and wealthy family. How generous he was! He could give up such a great contribution so easily.

However, once they reached the foot of the mountain, Mao Xiangsheng noticed the unhappiness of this trusted and capable general.

"Once this matter is settled, I will write a report for you and send you to the Imperial Guard. They don't fight this kind of battle much."

Chen Shaozhang nodded slowly and went to rest.

As soon as he left, Mao Xiangsheng's face immediately lit up with a look of unbridled joy. In fact, he was no different from a killing talent like Lieutenant Yan, and this matter was of no psychological burden to him at all.

Unlike Chen Shaozhang, who grew up hearing about the heroic deeds of his ancestors and read so many books that he couldn't let go of his sense of morality.

"What are you pretending for, damn it!" Mao Xiangsheng's adjutant cursed angrily.

He was Mao Xiangsheng's confidant. He was there when Mao Xiangsheng was slashed and almost died at the hands of these locals. So, not only did he feel sorry for Mao, he even felt that he hadn't done enough.

"If everyone were like him, how could our Great Yu Dynasty dominate the world, and how could we leave a vast empire for our descendants? His Majesty doesn't care about his own reputation, yet these pedantic scholars seem to be benevolent and righteous gentlemen."

Mao Xiangsheng laughed heartily, “His Majesty said that our Great Yu must allow all kinds of people to exist. It wouldn’t be good if the whole country were full of killers like us.”

After saying this, Mao Xiangsheng threw his eight-sided Han-style sword and command knife to his adjutant.

“Go up there yourself and execute all the unruly ones. I only want the most docile ones to be serfs!”

. . . .

Just as the final pursuit in Zhanzhou was about to end, the first group of French people in China arrived in San Francisco, Beihezhou.

The Marquis of Lafayette never imagined that he would set foot on North American soil again at this time and in this way.

More than a decade ago, when he was only in his early twenties, he heard that the people of New England in North America were fighting for independence and freedom. He was deeply inspired and felt that the progressive spirit of enlightenment he had learned in elementary school could finally be put to good use.

The Marquis of Lafayette fought for New England purely out of passion. This war profoundly changed the Marquis of Lafayette's thinking and caused France to inflict a major setback on England for almost the first time.

That was the Marquis of Lafayette's most glorious moment. The newly formed United States of America called him a hero of the new world and a warrior for the Statue of Liberty.

France also believed that it was his persistence that taught the English a lesson, and regarded him as a hero.

But afterwards, the Marquis of Lafayette's fate took a sharp turn for the worse.

As a nobleman, he sympathized with and supported the legitimate demands of the third class, and was therefore regarded as a traitor to the nobility.

Among the third class, people always expressed doubts about the Marquis of Lafayette's position and were unhappy that he was unwilling to completely break with the aristocratic class.

This suspicion intensified, especially after he staunchly defended King Louis XVI and Queen Antoinette, even at the cost of the Place de la Victory massacre. Rumors even circulated that he was the Queen's lover, which was why he was so devoted to her.

At the height of the revolution, after the execution of the king and queen, the Marquis of Lafayette collapsed and began to doubt everything he had done.

Meanwhile, the exiled nobles believed that Lafayette's compromise had led to this situation and wished they could kill him.

The French revolutionary government also regarded the Marquis of Lafayette as a noble opportunist like Louis the Equal and wanted to try him as a criminal.

Under the double blow, the Marquis of Lafayette in history eventually went to America, but in this timeline, he was rescued from a Viennese prison by Mo Zirong and followed Princess Charlotte to the East.

"Your Highness, we have brought a total of six fast escort ships, four hundred sailors, one thousand one hundred line infantry, two hundred light infantry, two hundred cavalry, and sixty artillerymen."

In San Francisco, the fifth prince, Edo-gun-duke Moshu Zhen, has already led two raids against the surrounding Hezhou Jurchen (Indian) tribes, achieving considerable success.

Upon hearing Marquis Lafayette's words, his eyes lit up immediately. "It seems my sister-in-law, the princess, has really gone all out."

Throughout the entire Da Yu region, there were approximately 30,000 exiled French people recruited by Princess Charlotte.

Excluding scholars, craftsmen, and certain professionals, and further subtracting some old men, useless nobles, and women and children, there were only about six or seven thousand people who could actually fight.

This time, two thousand people came directly, and they were the two thousand most combat-ready among them. They really went all out.

"Before I turned thirty, I thought freedom and fraternity were the whole of life, but those so-called revolutionaries who seemed worthy of sympathy gave me a heavy blow."

They showed me that whether it's the high-ranking nobles or the oppressed commoners, they're all the same. Once they have power, they immediately use it to bring suffering to everyone.

Yo ho!

Upon hearing this, Mo Zhouzhen realized that this person must have read a lot of Xunzi's books after arriving in the East, as he even discussed the inherent evil of human nature.

It seems the French Revolution truly hurt him deeply.

"But after arriving in the East, I discovered a new model of more reasonable limitation of power. Scholars used morality to strongly limit the unlimited power of the monarch and the power of the nobility attached to the monarch."

At the same time, the power held by scholars could not be passed down through bloodlines but had to be acquired through learning. Although it was still imperfect, the imperial examination system was much more advanced and civilized than the chaos in Europe.

"As expected of Seris, truly a nation atop human civilization!"

Mo Zhouzhen was not very sensitive to these things, so he ignored the Marquis of Lafayette's painful reflections and grasped the most important information.

That's the Frenchman who's 42 years old this year, and can be called an old man in this era, who's preparing to make the Seres Empire his home.

"Welcome, Marquis!" Mo Zhouzhen immediately changed his manner of greeting, saying "Welcome" to show that he was willing to consider Marquis Lafayette as one of his own.

"I hope that one day, the title of Marquis will not be Marquis Lafayette, but Marquis of our Seris Empire."

Marquis Lafayette nodded. “Your Highness, this is exactly what I hope for and am striving for, so I have brought a plan for the Seres Empire to take over western North Hezhou and New Spain.”

Marquis Lafayette walked to the map in the room and circled the two large areas of Louisiana and Texas with his hand.

"The most urgent task now is not to march south and attack New Spain (Mexico), but to establish the Empire's presence in Louisiana and Texas."

Because there are many heroes in the United States of America who also covet the lands to the west, if we allow Louisiana to remain unclaimed, they will move westward and seize this advantage.

I am concerned that the Kingdom of Spain may, under pressure, reach some deal with the United States of America.

As for Texas, the Spanish Kingdom has less control over it than Louisiana. I'm willing to take the opportunity, on my way to New Orleans, Louisiana, to recruit tens of thousands of European immigrants there and bring them under the rule of the Empire.

Once we've secured sovereignty over these two territories, we'll then attack the Jurchens of Hezhou on those lands. Simultaneously, we'll continuously incite the native-born and mixed-race whites of New Spain to rebel, first throwing New Spain into chaos, and then gradually consuming it!

Mo Zhouzhen looked at it carefully, then thought about it again and found that it was indeed the right thing to do. They should first establish the sovereignty of the territory and block the westward advance of the people from the United States of America.

Because if they dared to advance westward, it would be a challenge to the Great Yu.

I doubt they would dare to do that. Even if they did, they wouldn't fight you on land; instead, they would send their fleets to the thirteen states and reason with you.

"A brilliant plan. Now that the United States has offended both France and England, if they dare to offend us again, we'll seek cooperation with either France or England."

I believe the former would very much like to get the loan back, while the latter would prefer to restore the thirteen colonies.

Mo Zhouzhen exclaimed in admiration, looking at Marquis Lafayette. "The Marquis comes from the Central Plains of China; surely this plan has already received His Majesty the Emperor's approval?"

“Yes.” Marquis Lafayette nodded. “At the same time, this plan was originally proposed by His Highness the Crown Prince, and I refined it.”

Mo Zhouzhen was even more satisfied. This Marquis Lafayette did not use his father and the Crown Prince to intimidate him from the start, but instead chose to introduce him first, proving that this man still knew what was good for him.

"That would be wonderful. Let the Marquis's French Volunteer Army train with our army for two months."

We first dealt a heavy blow to the surrounding Hezhou Jurchens, then sent our army to escort the Marquis to Texas and Louisiana.

(End of this chapter)