The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 81 Civilized Robbery

The southernmost tip of the Indian subcontinent, the city of Tranquility.

For the first time, Mo Zibu witnessed what it was like when European colonists robbed each other.

To be honest, it's quite civilized.

Perhaps to a large extent, it was because the strength gap between the Danes and the combined forces of France and Mozibu was too great, so they offered almost no resistance.

The only battle took place outside the city of Tranqueba, where more than one hundred colonial guards from the Danish East India Company lined up to block the attack.

Mo Zibu pulled down four eight-pound field guns that he had looted from the White Elephant King's warehouse, and then asked Captain Jacques, who had just sworn allegiance to him, to lead the gunners to show their skills.

Mozibu was very satisfied with the result, so the Danish guards deployed and moved forward twenty or thirty meters under the coordination of the drum band. Before either side entered the effective range of the muskets, the artillery commanded by Captain Jacques blasted them to pieces.

Mo Zibu admired this style of attaching bayonets to cannons and immediately announced that all gunners would receive an extra month's salary.

Then everything became harmonious. Mo Zibu took away all the tools and technicians from this not-so-big arsenal.

A bearded German man also took out a confirmation form and asked Mo Zibu to sign it so that he could prove to the company after returning to Denmark that the arsenal was indeed robbed by Mo Zibu.

Mo Zibu then signed with a smile.

What remained was the negotiations between the Danes and the French. Count Tolandal, who had just been released, did not make things difficult for the Danes, and they could not take over the Danish India, which had six or seven hundred Danes and one or two hundred German mercenaries.

Therefore, after extorting tens of thousands of livres, almost six or seven thousand taels of silver, they let the Danes go.

After a while, several Qiliantang soldiers discovered dozens of white women hiding in the house and immediately wanted to go up and connect with them, but they were stopped by the Danes.

The Danes claim that these women are actually doing some of the work of prostitutes, and if they want to connect, they'd better pay.

Oh my god, a kid from the Wei family went up and hit the Danish white guy with a few big punches, making him cry loudly.

Are you kidding me? I'm holding a knife, and I have to pay for having sex with a few bitches?
Then this Danish white guy actually ran to Mo Zibu to complain, and made Mo Zibu completely helpless.

He found Lieutenant Colonel Bruno and asked, "Are you Europeans always so civilized when you fight outside?"

Mo Zibu really didn't want to use the word "civilized", but the facts did seem very civilized.

Lieutenant Colonel Bruno shook his head, "The Danish-Norwegian United Kingdom and the Germanic countries don't have many overseas colonies or navies, so there's no need to deal a devastating blow.

If this happened between Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain, etc., they would still have to be completely destroyed."

Mo Zibu understood that these Eastern European and Nordic countries did not have strong navies, and their armies were not very strong, even Prussia was the same.

So when they went out to develop colonies, they were like children walking on the road holding gold ingots.

These small overseas colonies can not only become "hostages" for Britain and France to control them, but also allow them to develop more and reap the benefits when they are almost developed. Anyway, they do not have a strong navy to guarantee their own interests.

Moreover, developing colonies requires a lot of money and energy. For Britain and France, it is better to develop them by themselves than to grab ready-made ones.

Throughout history, my country has done many such immoral things. They always wait for others to develop their colonies, and then use their navy to directly seize them.

But Mo Zibu is not European, Denmark is a million miles away from him, and he has no room to maneuver.

So he kicked the Danish white man who came to complain to him and knocked him to the ground.

But Mo Zibu immediately remembered, damn, it seems that he didn’t say that military discipline did not need to be observed in this operation.

These guys are breaking military law!

So, Mo Zibu immediately called the chief military judge Wu Shixiu over. After a while, he asked the military judge with a red cloth tied on his right arm to pull out these seven or eight disheveled guys. He beat them with fifteen sticks each, making them scream in pain.

Then Mo Zibu thought again, it seems that syphilis has begun to spread in Europe. Could these white bitches be sick?

He pointed at the guys being beaten with sticks and said to Wu Shixiu, "Give them a boat. They can only return to the team if they don't show any symptoms of syphilis within three months."

Mo Zibu couldn't remember what the initial symptoms of syphilis were, nor did he know how long the incubation period was, so he simply prescribed a three-month quarantine period.

Lieutenant Colonel Bruno had completely surrendered to Mo Zibu by this point. He pointed at the more than one hundred Prussian mercenaries squatting outside the city of Tranquil, their faces covered in dust, and said:

"Sir, you can actually take these Prussians with you. They are very cheap, much cheaper than the French and British soldiers."

Mo Zibu was a little hesitant, because he now realized that the European troops in the East were only second- and third-rate in their own countries, and the real elite were all in their homeland and North America.

These second- and third-rate trash soldiers are still somewhat cost-effective in terms of artillery, because there are not many regular gunners in the Eastern countries except in the Qing army.

Even for the Qing Dynasty's artillery, regularity was relative.

Therefore, these second- and third-rate European artillerymen have common combat experience and skills, making them very good special forces in Southeast Asia.

Compared to them, the European Musketeers were a little bit lacking.

At this time in Southeast Asia, the soldiers of the three major countries of Burma, Siam and Annan could all compete with these third-rate infantry. Although there was a high probability that they could not beat them, they were not too far behind.

As for the Qing Dynasty, they also used the cannons to fire and then the infantry shot, and then the infantry shot and then the cavalry harvested, this was a repetitive nine-to-ten chain tactic.

There was no obvious generation gap between the Qing army's tactics and the European linear tactics or oblique tactics that were mainly based on line infantry and coordinated operations between infantry, cavalry and artillery.

The gap actually lies in mobilization capabilities and industrial capabilities mainly based on gunpowder, lead bullets and firearms.

Therefore, after understanding these things, Mo Zibu no longer looked down on the European white infantry in the entire East, including India.

Especially the Portuguese mercenaries who were working as mercenaries in the Far East to make a small fortune. These dog baskets brought a large number of black slave soldiers with them, and some even carried outdated matchlock guns. They were simply trying to cheat military pay.

There was also no professional ethics, because if both sides had Portuguese employees, they would refuse to fight each other.

Mo Zibu even suspected that if these Portuguese soldiers appeared in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, they might not be able to defeat the Wei Bo soldiers who had a large number of elite archers.

However, Lieutenant Colonel Bruno disagreed. After all, he had worked as a military advisor in the East for over a decade. He said to Mo Zibu:
“If Your Majesty simply wants to be like other kings in Central and Southern China, then he can choose not to hire European infantry.

But if you still want to build a European-style army, you can hire some Prussian soldiers.

They are very hardworking and cheap, and they fight very hard. King Frederick II's military reforms also made the Prussians far superior to other European countries' infantry in terms of military discipline and execution.

The best way for the Lord to build his own European-style infantry is to incorporate the obedient Prussians into his own army."

Mo Zibu began to understand. What Lieutenant Colonel Bruno meant was that he could incorporate the Prussians into his own army as a model, so that other soldiers of Kunlun Mountain Hall could see with their own eyes what European infantry looked like, making it easier for them to learn from them.

After all, he is not the Qing Dynasty. The soldiers of Kunlun Mountain Hall can only be said to have improved military discipline and morale, but strictly speaking, they cannot be called an army. At least the Qing Dynasty's nine-in-ten chain tactics are beyond the reach of Kunlun Mountain Hall.

So this suggestion is actually very correct.

Mo Zibu seems to know a lot about Europe, but he only knows it from later games and science videos, as well as online conversations with netizens.

He knew the general direction, but he didn't know that in today's Europe, before Russian soldiers were dubbed gray cattle, the poor Prussian soldiers were the gray cattle of Europe.

They are cheap, hardworking, work hard and complain little, and are taught to be disciplined and obey orders by successive Prussian kings who wanted to unify Germany.

Although their fighting skills were still crude, they were able to fight hard and could be considered a first-line army in Europe.

Most importantly, the Prussians were poor and had almost no navy, even worse than Denmark.

Therefore, not many of them can make a living at sea, and they have not developed the temperament of veterans like the Portuguese.

Therefore, among the mercenaries in the East, the others were second or third rate, while the Prussians were almost first rate.

Mo Zibu didn't know all this, but one of his good points was that he was willing to listen to opinions.

He did not ignore Lieutenant Colonel Bruno's advice because of his character flaws and mediocre command ability.

Instead, after listening carefully and considering it seriously, he agreed to hire 127 Prussian mercenaries led by Captain Frederick.

They were handed over to the command of Lieutenant Colonel Bruno, and were prepared to be turned into a European-style army template for Mo Zibu's side.

Lieutenant Colonel Bruno was overjoyed. He said so much just to gain the management rights of an army, because among the French prisoners rescued by Mozibu, only a dozen were willing to follow him.

This made Lieutenant Colonel Bruno feel a great crisis. In this cruel era, a worthless person would soon live a life worse than that of livestock.

After Mo Zibu picked up more than a hundred Prussian mercenaries, he immediately took Count Tolandal and continued south.

Because in India, or more precisely in southern India, there is a group of people that Mozibu finds very annoying. They are the Dutch.

Although the Dutch colonies in India were almost completely lost due to their humiliating defeat by the Indian princely state of Travancore in the Battle of Krasher in 1741.

But the Dutch still owned most of Ceylon, including Colombo, which is now Sri Lanka.

At present, Sri Lanka is the lifeline of the Dutch in the Indian Ocean and must not be lost.

But at the same time, their strength was not that strong. They didn't even have regular warships. They only had six or seven armed merchant ships and more than 600 soldiers. Their strength was only 40% of Batavia's, making them a very good target to be manipulated.

Mo Zibu was not going to seize Sri Lanka, as he did not have the strength to do so yet, but he could use it to threaten the Dutch.

. . . .

June 1766, the st year of Emperor Qianlong's reign.

Mo Zibu led nine warships, six large merchant ships, 1,300 Chinese soldiers, 550 sailors of various ethnic groups, 170 European mercenaries, and pulled more than a dozen field guns.

With the cooperation of 350 newly released French troops, they landed in Jaffna, the northernmost town of Ceylon, flying the white sun flag with a red border and a blue background.

Without firing a single shot, the local Dutch garrison was frightened into raising the white flag and surrendering.

At this time, the Dutch had only a few hundred troops on the island of Ceylon, apart from a group of Dutch-Ceylonian mixed-race people called Bergers.

The main task of these people was to besiege the Kingdom of Kandy in Ceylon, which was still holding on in the heart of Ceylon Island at that time. They were completely unable to fight against Mozibu and the French army.

Four days later, the Dutch Governor of Ceylon sent a political officer to inquire about the situation.

When the civil servants saw the more than 2,000 troops, warships and artillery, they did not dare to enter Jaffna City and fled.

Mo Zibu didn't expect that the Dutch on Ceylon Island were so cowardly, so he could only order Lieutenant Colonel Bruno to take Lin Tong to report.

The reason was that the sails were damaged and the supplies were running low, so they needed to stay in Jaffna for some time to repair. There was no intention to occupy Dutch Ceylon.

The Dutch were relieved, and the Governor of Dutch Ceylon even invited Mozibu to Colombo.

Of course Mozibu would not go, and finally, with the guarantee of Count Tolandar, the Governor of Dutch Ceylon came to Jaffna.

Mozibu warmly entertained the Governor of Dutch Ceylon in Jaffna. There was no tension at all between the two sides as there had been recently when they clashed with each other. The atmosphere was relaxed, as if they were having a party.

But both sides knew what was going on.

What can we say about the Netherlands at this time? It is shrinking globally and its national strength is rapidly declining.

However, they still have some strength at present. They will not completely withdraw from the ranks of the great powers until they suffer a disastrous defeat in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War in 1780.

Therefore, in Southeast Asia at present, the Dutch are still very powerful, and they are implementing the British strategy in Europe in Southeast Asia.

That is, he constantly instigated the various ethnic groups in Southeast Asia to fight each other, and would attack whoever tried to dominate the world.

So Mo Zibu simply took the initiative to attack, because after he returned, with the current naval strength, he would definitely be regarded as a key target of defense by the Dutch.

Not only because Mo Zibu's naval strength had greatly increased, but also because the Hongxi Massacre had only happened twenty-six years ago, and the Chinese leaders and their descendants who had prepared to revolt in Batavia were still active in Southeast Asia.

In addition, there are at least 60,000 to 70,000 Chinese living around Batavia today, most of whom are in extreme poverty.

Nominally they were plantation workers, but they were basically serfs of the Dutch East India Company and were thus exploited.

Therefore, the Dutch were very afraid that a Chinese leader would emerge and used this as an excuse to declare war on Batavia.

With the other side in such an extremely nervous state of mind, Mo Zibu was also afraid that the Dutch, feeling threatened, would launch a preemptive strike against him on his way back to Southeast Asia or after the arsenal was built.

For Mo Zibu, the two accounts that must be settled are the Hongxi Massacre and the Dutch exploitation of the Chinese.

But not now. After all, Mozibu is still unable to fight against the Dutch, especially in the navy.

So Mozibu specially pulled Count Tolandal and Peter over to help, and in front of the Governor-General of Dutch Ceylon, he talked about his upcoming treaty with the French and his plan to send envoys to visit Louis XV next year.

Well, although the French couldn't defeat the British, they could still easily control the Dutch.

Because the Netherlands borders France, even if the navy is not good enough, at least the army can be dispatched to defeat the Netherlands.

The Governor of Dutch Ceylon put on a smiling face and feigned flattery with Mozibu, but at the same time, alarm bells were ringing in his heart, and he was ready to convey this fatal news to Batavia and the Netherlands as soon as he left.

The fleet stayed in Revna for more than ten days. Mozibu once again announced to the officers, especially the military judges, that they would not pay much attention to military discipline and would give the soldiers rotation holidays to enjoy themselves in Revna and several nearby towns.

So in just a dozen days, the unrestrained soldiers ran wild in the port towns throughout northern Ceylon, causing trouble everywhere.

There were hundreds of reports of beatings, forced purchases, and even robberies of local Dutch and Dutch-Thai people.

Except for the fact that there was no large-scale group rape, almost all military disciplines were violated.

Even the French soldiers who had just been released from the British prison began to run wild, and they even did more excessive things than the soldiers of Kunlun Mountain Hall.

The scum continued to act so recklessly that Mozibu felt that if military discipline was not enforced, looting and killing might occur. Only then did the Governor of Dutch Ceylon hurriedly send people over.

They presented Mo Zibu with various gifts worth more than two thousand taels of silver, which was basically the profit earned by the Dutch after Mo Zibu's purchases.

Only then did Mo Zibu decide to set sail and return.

In fact, Mo Zibu didn't like to indulge the soldiers like this, but on the one hand, the soldiers had been fighting in a tense manner for eight or nine months and needed to relax.

Secondly, he wanted to use this unscrupulous method to give the Dutch a warning.

Tell them that from now on, they will be France's ally in the Far East and ask them to be sensible.

. . . .

In mid-August of 1766, the st year of Emperor Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty, after nearly two months of sea voyage, the Kunlun Mountain Hall fleet successfully returned to Southeast Asia from Sri Lanka.

This time, Mo Zibu did not let most of the soldiers land at Port Glass like last time, but instead the entire army went directly across the Strait of Malacca.

The Dutch armed merchant ship in Batavia sailed far away near Johor for a while, as if to measure the Kunlunshan Hall fleet's ability to operate sailing warships.

Mo Zibu didn't mind letting them see it. After all, Manuel Bonn and others were considered normal European sailors.

After observing and following for dozens of nautical miles, the Dutch sent several small boats to approach and deliver fresh fruits and meat to the Kunlun Mountain Hall fleet.

This was a way of expressing friendship, and Mozibu ordered the Treasure to give the Dutch some wine purchased from Calcutta in return.

It looks very harmonious, but in the hearts of both sides, I'm afraid that from today on, they will have to raise their guard against each other to a higher level.

On August 21, the fleet returned to Nakhon Si Thammarat Port, and the merchant ships belonging to Ha Tien also left the fleet and returned to Ha Tien.

Mo Zibu ordered Li Xianwen to lead the Treasure soft-sail armed merchant ship and the Red No. 3 Cantonese red single ship to escort the merchant ship back, and asked Li Xianwen to go to Ha Tien to explain to Ou Tianci the reason why he would not return to Ha Tien for the time being.

. . . .

Looking at Wang Runzhi who came to greet him with a nervous look on his face, Mo Zibu also sighed.

Although he made a lot of money on this trip to the Indian Ocean, the eight large merchant ships in Ha Tien that were loaded with porcelain, tea, silk, rhubarb, pig bristles and other popular items were all sold out in India.

On the return journey, the cargo was also filled with European wine, rum, olive oil, whale oil, clocks and watches, as well as a small number of muskets, swords and other goods that were in great demand in Southeast Asia.

All in all, he would make at least 50,000 taels of silver.

He himself plundered two royal capitals and a major Burmese city, and gained more than 100,000 taels of silver.

They also acquired two arsenals with a combined annual production capacity of 3,500 flintlock rifles and a large number of skilled workers.

But up to now, Mo Zibu still has no territory, so the arsenal cannot be established.

And you can't blame Wang Runzhi for being nervous. You came back with such a powerful military force, and won Luo Kun's heart before leaving, but you are unwilling to marry his sister.

This makes him confused about what you are doing and whether you are trying to take over his position. How can he not be nervous?

I have to find a place for myself quickly, Mo Zibu nodded secretly.

(End of this chapter)