The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 817 Rejoicing at the Sound of War and Joining Forces to Head West
Anxi Envoy's Office, Hezhong Province, with its capital in Xi'an.

Xi'an was originally Bukhara, because during the Tang Dynasty it was the territory of the Anguo Kingdom of the Nine Sogdian Clans, so it was originally called Anguo City.

But over time, Anguo City never sounded good, and it easily reminded people of the territory of the Nine Sogdian Clans, a foreign land.

Just then, Xi'an was upgraded to the Western Capital, and the name Chang'an was added to it. So Mo Zisheng, who was stationed in Anguo City as the Duke of Wu, submitted a memorial to change the name of Anguo City to Xi'an.

Moreover, even the fertile river valley from Kangju (Samarkand) to Xi'an (Bukhara) was renamed Xiguan region, meaning the Guanzhong region in the west.

Southwest of Xi'an (Bukhara) stands a magnificent temple called the Four-Pagoda Lotus Temple.

This was originally the famous Tianfang Temple and Sita Temple in the city. After the Great Yu took control of the area, it was naturally converted into a temple of the White Lotus Sect.

Mo Zisheng stood at the main gate of the Four Pagodas Lotus Temple, waiting for the precious scholar and master (Panchen Lama) who came from Yili.

At this time in Dayu, the Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism, also known as the White Sect, took the wrong side during the turmoil in Qiangtang, becoming an accomplice to the Gurkhas' invasion of Qiangtang, and was therefore severely punished by the Dayu court.

Among them, Shabama, the revered Buddha of the Kagyu school who committed suicide out of fear of punishment, was forbidden from reincarnation, thus interrupting the highest lineage of the Kagyu school.

Subsequently, Mozibu personally issued an edict ordering the Kagyu followers in Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, and Ladakh to convert to the Gelug school.

Therefore, by this time, the Kagyu school of Esoteric Buddhism had basically disappeared from Dayu, or rather, from this world.

Subsequently, the teachings of Zheng Xin, the "Father-in-law of the Emperor" and the "Buddha of Universal Salvation," were reformed on the plateau, and Esoteric Buddhism began to highly integrate with the White Lotus School.

By this year, the 26th year of Guangzhong (1801), the integration of Esoteric Buddhism and White Lotus Buddhism had basically stabilized.

The White Lotus School absorbed some of the ideas of Esoteric Buddhism, while Esoteric Buddhism incorporated a large amount of the mixed ideas of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism from China.

The biggest difference between the two is that Tantric Buddhism is more religious, while White Lotus Buddhism is more secular. Tantric Buddhism is still mostly spread among the Qiangtang people, while the White Lotus Buddhism has been adopted by most Mongolians, and even some Qiangtang people, in addition to Han Chinese.

The distinction between religious and secular matters is specifically reflected in the fact that, although the five most revered Buddhas were all reincarnations of spirit pearls and their successors were chosen with the emperor's consent.

However, in terms of minor deities in various regions, Esoteric Buddhism still relies on the reincarnation of the spirit pearl and the selection of successors by the imperial court, while the abbots and temple keepers of the White Lotus Sect's temples or religious organizations adopt a bloodline succession system.

In other words, within the White Lotus Sect, you can only become a temple master if your father is the abbot or temple keeper. If you don't have a good father, you have to recruit people to build temples yourself and then gain the emperor's approval.

It might seem a bit abstract, but in reality, you can think of him as a powerful clan leader who received a title from the imperial court and controlled religious authority, or an even more powerful local strongman than those in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

A mournful horn sounded, and hundreds of monks, wearing yellow sharu hats shaped like lotus flowers, marched in, carrying more than a dozen large white banners with gold trim and black characters, each bearing the following in turn:

'Imperial Conferment of the Title of Great Scholar and Master of the Holy Teachings'

The inscription reads: "By imperial decree, the four provinces of Anxi are in charge of all matters concerning the religions of both Han and non-Han peoples, which are reported to the Emperor and the Buddha."

This highlights the prestige of the Buddhist leader who managed religion in the four provinces of Anxi, but it also weakens the divinity to some extent and emphasizes the imperial control over religion.

In the center of the procession sat the Seventh Great Master of Precious Jewels on a royal palanquin carried by eighteen men. He wore a plain white five-sided white lotus crown with gold trim, a large hat used exclusively by the White Lotus Sect's revered Buddha, which evolved from the Five Buddha Crown of Buddhism.

The Buddhas who reach the level of Great Perfection Wisdom Guru (Dalai), Precious Great Scholar Guru (Panchen), Holy Venerable (Jeb Tsundamba), Sacred Guru (Changkya Hutuktu), and Compassionate Buddha are those who have transcended the categories of Tantric Buddhism and White Lotus Buddhism.

According to the law, with the consent of the imperial court, they could combine and handle the affairs of the Esoteric Buddhism and the White Lotus Buddhism, and serve as the revered Buddhas of the Esoteric Buddhism and the White Lotus Buddhism.

For example, the Seventh Great Master of Precious Jewels has come for the upcoming war with the Tsarist Russian Empire. Since the Transoxiana province is mostly inhabited by followers of the White Lotus School, he wears the Five Directions White Lotus Incarnation Crown of the White Lotus School, rather than the Tantric Buddhist Peshaw.

Amidst the religious sounds of ox horns and the chanting of monks, large numbers of people held incense and prayed devoutly. Some elderly people took out large steamed white buns and pastries from their homes and offered them to the monks at the back of the procession.

According to the rules of the White Lotus School, when the Buddha travels, he cannot accept banquets from local nobles, officials, or local lords.

Even according to the rules of the White Lotus Sect, monks can eat meat that is not considered pure, and there are not many strict rules and regulations, but they still cannot accept banquets.

From the Buddha statue down to the wandering monks, all food must be donated by local believers or the general public.

"Venerable Buddha, we've been waiting for you! The warriors are all waiting for you to preside over the Dharma assembly." Mo Zisheng took the initiative to greet the Seventh Incarnation Treasure Great Scholar Master.

"Lord Lao is here to greet us at the gate, I'm so sorry!" The Master of Treasures made a mudra with his left hand while saying words of thanks. Compared to when he was in Qiangtang, he had less of aloof divinity and more of a worldly air.

However, the Venerable Master Zhenbao was quite satisfied with this worldly feeling. When he was in Qiangtang, the title of Venerable Buddha sounded prestigious, but in reality, he was controlled by a group of monks and officials below him, and he could not do many things on his own.

After all, in the Qiangtang region, the government offices that honor Buddhas are subject to change, while the monk officials are the permanent officials.

However, after the educational reforms, all monks and officials had to pass the imperial examinations first.

Yes, it was the imperial examination. Monastic officials were also selected through the imperial examination, but the main subjects tested were the situation in Anxi and beyond, as well as the religious doctrines of Catholicism, Islam, and Bon. The traditional Four Books and Five Classics did not account for a large proportion and were not difficult.

More importantly, after the warm period of the early and middle Tang Dynasty, life on the Qiangtang Plateau was truly unbearable, far worse than in the four provinces of Anxi.

In particular, the Xiguan Valley from Xi'an (Bukhara) to Kangju (Samarkand) in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, the Dayuan Basin (Fergana Basin) in the upper reaches of the Syr Darya River, and the Ili River Valley.

These three places are all excellent locations in China; what can compare to Qiangtang?

The Venerable Master Zhenbao has been stationed here for ten years. He not only has power, but also enjoys a level of wealth and luxury that he could never have experienced in Qiangtang and Shigatse.

With the arrival of the Venerable Master Zhenbao, the great bell in the Four Pagodas White Lotus Temple began to ring, and the beacon fire on the temple roof was lit, with black smoke billowing over the city walls of Xi'an.

Actually, there is still some difference between temple and shrine at this time.

The word "temple" was taken from the terminology of government offices, such as Dali Temple and Honglu Temple, which naturally carries the connotation of officialdom and authority.

Therefore, temples named after a certain entity are not only large in scale, but also generally enshrine specific bodhisattvas, such as Guanyin Temple and Puxian Temple.

Temples are not necessarily smaller than monasteries, but the objects they enshrine are much more complex, including bodhisattvas, various local mountain gods, and even ancestral deities.

More importantly, the word "temple" was borrowed from ancestral temples and family temples, so it usually represents the people of this region or the family that built the temple, and is more local in meaning.

In other words, the Four Pagodas White Lotus Temple in Xi'an (Bukhara) is actually the ancestral temple of all Han people in Xi'an and the surrounding area.

Apart from the Buddha of the Incarnation, which symbolizes the emperor, the main deities enshrined in this temple are mostly the ancestors of the Han people who migrated from all over the country.

Many Han Chinese even brought some of their ancestors' shrines and portraits from their ancestral halls in their hometowns to Xi'an, where they were then enshrined in the White Lotus Temple at the Four Pagodas.

Therefore, even the temple keeper of the Four Pagodas White Lotus Temple was a sixth-rank official, under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Clan Court.

So when the other temples in the city saw that the ancestral temple of the Four Pagodas White Lotus Temple had rung its bell and lit its beacon fire, they immediately ran their own bells and lit their own beacon fires as well.

Meanwhile, in Xi'an, the able-bodied men, drawn from various neighborhoods to maintain order and security, struck the gongs at the entrances of streets and alleys, led by their respective neighborhood heads.

"War is breaking out! War is about to break out! War is finally about to break out!"

"I knew it! The Master's arrival will surely bring His Majesty and His Highness the Crown Prince's decrees—war is imminent!"

From teenagers to men in their twenties and thirties, their cheers were deafening, and countless people shouted joyfully to each other.

He then returned inside and placed the incense he had been holding into the incense burner of the ancestral tablets. After kneeling and paying homage to his ancestors, he began to take out his weapon.

Xiang Tai, from Daning County, Kuizhou Prefecture, Sichuan Province, put on his lightweight brass armor with the help of his wife.

His thirteen-year-old second son was disassembling the flintlock musket, wiping it with precious tung oil, and then reassembling it. His ten-year-old daughter hurriedly took out a leather bag containing lead bullets and gunpowder from a large box for her father.

The eight-year-old son was the most excited. He took his father's waist knife and bayonet, held the scabbard, stood on tiptoe, and hung the waist knife on his father's belt.

Xiang Tai smiled and rubbed his youngest son's head. After getting dressed, he went outside and saw that his sixteen-year-old eldest son, Xiang Zheng, was already wearing a very nice brown woolen overcoat military uniform, with a bulletproof iron flying saucer helmet on his head and a flintlock pistol with a bayonet attached in his hand.

"Father, I'm sixteen now. I can go to the battlefield and fight alongside you!"

As he spoke, the eldest son waved a small notebook in his hand. This was his graduation certificate after completing three hundred hours of military training and achieving a Class A to Class B level of firearms proficiency.

In the four provinces of Anxi, a man could only be considered a real man, and only after obtaining this small book made of vulcanized rubber could he be allowed to marry, have children, receive land, buy white slaves, and legally possess firearms, etc.

“My son, this time we’re going to fight the Rakshasa. They’re not cowards like the Sogdians or the Persians. We might not necessarily win a great victory,” Xiang Tai said, looking at his eldest son, whose lips had turned blue and who was now an adult.

Unexpectedly, the eldest son became even more excited upon hearing this. He patted the flintlock pistol in his hand and said, "It's because we're fighting the Russians that I'm thinking of joining the war. Russian women are the most hardworking and beautiful. I'll capture two of them. One will warm your bed, Father, and the other will be my second son's wife."

"Eldest brother, how dare you!" The second son rushed out of the house before he finished speaking, glaring angrily at his elder brother.

"Aunt Mei likes me. She said that you will only marry a white slave girl when I grow up!"

"Brother, I promise I won't steal your knife or bully your little black dog at home. Please don't bring back a white slave girl to be my wife."

Hearing his two older brothers talking, the younger son came over with great concern and immediately tried to please his eldest brother.

"Don't worry, Rong, as long as you behave, I definitely won't bring one back for you, hahaha!"

The brutal war left behind a large number of women in the four provinces of Anxi. In addition, the four provinces of Anxi continued to launch wars against Persia and Afghanistan, which also resulted in the abduction of a large number of women.

Although at least 20% of those who learned Mandarin were sold as Hu women or even as Bodhisattvas to the Chinese mainland, the majority were still absorbed locally.

The consequence was a large number of mixed-race individuals in the four provinces of Anxi, making Han women extremely rare among the vast number of non-Han women. In particular, many meritorious mixed-race individuals or Hui warriors hoped to marry Han women to improve their bloodline, further increasing the scarcity of Han women.

Mei Gu's surname is Zhou. She is a young woman from Hua County, Henan Province. She is not pretty, is big and rough, can't cook well, and doesn't know many words. Her only advantages are that she is hardworking and has a gentle personality, but unsurprisingly, she became a hot commodity.

For the Han people of Anxi, Hu women and Bodhisattva women were highly sought-after items in China, but locally they were worthless and readily available, so they were not rare at all.

For them, the important thing was to marry a genuine, gentle Han woman and have several pleasing heirs.

As for wanting beautiful Hu women and Bodhisattva women, just take in a few more wives or buy a few from the market.

Xiang Tai smiled, ignoring the minor squabble between his sons. The second son was still young, while Mei Gu was already seventeen. If she didn't get married next year, her father would be publicly shamed. They couldn't wait any longer. The eldest son, on the other hand, could try to gauge the Zhou family's reaction.

He looked at his second son seriously, pointed to the three male white slaves and the smaller half-grown white slaves huddled in the corner of the courtyard, and said, "Your eldest brother and I are going to fight on the front lines. From now on, you will be the pillar of this family."

The farms outside the city, the shops in Yimao Lane, and the daily patrol duties at the county government office—all these require your attention. Take your gun, protect your mother and sisters, and be a true man!

It wasn't actually that dangerous, because after the expedition, the white slaves would work in the fields under the supervision of the government. However, Xiang Tai said this on purpose so that his second son would have a greater sense of responsibility.

Sure enough, upon hearing this, the second son immediately forgot about arguing with his elder brother. He picked up his waist knife with a serious and responsible expression, and looked at Bai Nu with a particularly wary gaze, as if he had suddenly grown into a man.

“Dad, I’m here. I’m going this time too. I’m worried about Chunzhen staying at home alone, so I’ll let her go back to her parents’ home.” As he was speaking, Xiang Tai’s son-in-law walked in from outside, followed by his married daughter and three-year-old grandson.

When Xiang Tai saw his grandson, his face lit up with a smile, and he quickly asked his wife to take him and play with him.

"Is my brother going to war this time too? Well done! Our Xiang family ancestors have all been heroes who have risked their lives. This time he has broadened his horizons. Who knows, he might be noticed by some important person and join the Beijing Garrison or the Imperial Guard."

The son-in-law patted his brother-in-law on the shoulder with delight, fumbled around in his belt for a moment, and pulled out a high-end revolver that was quite valuable in Anxi.

"Take this, and you can kill even a god within ten steps. It can save your life in dangerous situations!"

"Xiang Tai, Xiang Tai, has your family finished gathering? The ancestral worship ceremony at the Four Pagodas White Lotus Temple is about to begin."

The neighborhood head called from outside, and Xiang Tai, as the head of the family, quickly agreed. He then led his son-in-law and eldest son, dressed in military uniform, and hurried after them.

In the Four Pagodas White Lotus Temple, the Seventh Great Master of the Precious Treasures stood on the earthen plaza, holding up a memorial text and reading it aloud.

"Edict of the Great Emperor of Yu: The Rakshasa Kingdom was originally a subject of the Golden Horde, but it rose to power by chance and has since become a scourge to all sides."

With ancestral spirits above and all the gods and Buddhas of heaven as witnesses, I command all brave warriors of China to obey my decree and raise an army to punish the traitors and uphold justice.
We must fight bravely to defeat the enemy, to comfort the spirits of our ancestors in heaven, and to prevent future troubles for our descendants!

After the eulogy was read aloud, the ancestral statues and memorial tablets of each family in Xi'an were taken out from the White Lotus Temple of the Four Pagodas.

People carried their own ancestors, singing war songs with Shaanxi and Gansu accents, and paraded through the city starting from the White Lotus Temple at the Four Pagodas.

The culture of Anxi is a hodgepodge.

This custom of parading ancestors or local deities through the streets was brought by the Han Chinese from the Minnan region who settled here.

The singing style accompanying the street parade was mainly based on the mournful tone of Longdong, Gansu, highlighting a sense of sorrow and desolation. This style was brought by the Han people who survived the chaos in Shaanxi and Gansu.

However, in everyday speech, they no longer speak with the Longdong accent, but rather with the Central Plains Mandarin, which is mainly based on the Guanzhong accent.

The food is even more outrageous, mostly Henan style, because the majority of people in the four provinces of Anxi are immigrants from Henan.

"That was my Xiang family's ancestor, our Xiang family's ancestor. Our Xiang family's ancestor was a great general of the Thirteen Families of Kuidong, a hero who refused to submit to the Tartars!"

Xiang Zheng was not qualified to carry his own ancestors' statues; he could only watch from the side of the street. When he saw the statues of his ancestors being carried out, the Xiang clan members around him immediately started wailing and howling.

Amidst the roars, they began to run wildly along the street following the ancestral statue, chanting rhythmically, while a large white banner with the character "向" (Xiang) in black characters fluttered loudly as they waved it.

This branch of the Xiang family, numbering over 300 people, originated from Daning County, Kuizhou Prefecture, Sichuan Province, which later became Wuxi County, Chongqing. This area was indeed the territory of the Thirteen Families of Kuizhou in those days.

However, it is impossible to verify whether the ancestors of the Xiang family were generals of the Thirteen Families of Kuidong, because the only thing they know is three generations back. Although they were rich peasants rather than hired laborers, they do not know anything beyond that.

But now, if you tell the Xiang family that their ancestors weren't heroic generals who fought to the death against the Tartars among the Thirteen Families of Kuidong, they'll definitely try to reason with you using muskets and steel knives.

This situation is particularly evident in the four provinces of Anxi. When you're out and about, you give yourself your identity. It's like how you can grab anyone in Fujian and Guangdong and ask them anything, and they can tell you a story about their ancestors' heroic deeds of resisting the Tartars.

This is also a microcosm of the continuous reconstruction of the clan culture of the four provinces of Anxi, or rather all the Han Chinese families and clans that participated in the colonization, after being shattered by the Manchu Qing dynasty.

Mo Zisheng, the Duke of Wu, who served as the Assistant Minister of the Anxi Envoy, Governor-General of the Hezhong Military Affairs, and Governor of Hezhong, personally carried the statue of the Buddha of the World-Descending King at the forefront. He looked around and saw that the streets were lined with fully armed Han soldiers.

They were either dressed in imitation military uniforms and carrying flintlock pistols, or wearing studded armor or even cotton armor and carrying long knives and revolvers, shouting wildly on the street like madmen.

The number of people increased, and although the entire city of Xi’an (Bukhara) had only 110,000 people, at least 40,000 of them were capable of fighting with knives and guns.

The number of people who have completed 300 hours of military training and obtained a Level A or Level B shooting certificate will not be less than 25,000.

These people are the foundation upon which the four provinces of Anxi have been able to consolidate their power. There are so many in Xi'an alone, and there must be many in other places as well.

In recent years, with only a little over a million people, they have made the Persians and Afghans cry out in despair when they went south, or they have been invincible when they crossed the sea to fight in the Caucasus region.

Persia has almost become a supply package for the men of the four provinces of Anxi. Every year, three to five thousand men would go to fight the Persians, plunder a large number of white slaves and gold and silver. The male white slaves would be captured to farm, and the female white slaves would be trained and sold to the Chinese mainland to supplement their family income.

. . . .

Dayuan Basin, Xia Dynasty, Zhenxi Prefecture (Kuzhan) Changshun Fort.

The sky was just beginning to lighten when the sound of horses' hooves began to rang out rapidly.

Upon hearing this noise, the bonfire at the highest point of Changshun Fort suddenly lit up, and then the sound of gongs began to ring out.

Fu Yueming sprang out of bed with a somersault, reached out and grabbed the flintlock pistol from the wall.

Although his wife was also dazed, she immediately woke up when she heard the gong again.

This fierce woman from Dongxiang County, Sichuan, wrapped a piece of coarse cloth around her body to cover her private parts, then grabbed a revolver and ran quickly to the east wing. She herded the bewildered children into a secluded room and bolted the door shut.

When Fu Yueming finished arming himself and took the clothes out, his younger brother Fu Yuechen was also dressed, with a steel knife in his left hand and a revolver in his right.

When the two brothers arrived at the outer courtyard, there were already more than a dozen boys who had hurriedly gathered there.

When they saw the Fu brothers come out, they all called out "Father!"

By the moonlight, one could see that these fifteen- or sixteen-year-old boys who called the twenty-six- or twenty-seven-year-old Fu brothers "father" looked all sorts of different people, but it was clear that none of them were Han Chinese.

Of course, there are no Han Chinese among them. These boys were all bought by the Fu brothers from the human market over the past ten years or so. They come from all over the world.

There are Kazakhs on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, Rus' or Cossacks from the Ural River, Afghans from the plateau, and Caucasians.

Aside from cowards like the Persians, you can find people from all over the world.

These boys weren't fifteen or sixteen when they came, because they wouldn't be tamed. They were basically bought when they were five or six years old or even younger.

The source was naturally plunder; those taller than a wheel were killed, while those shorter than a wheel were spared.

In recent years, the people of Anxi have become very professional in this line of work. Five- or six-year-old boys are captured, gathered together, and then deliberately starved, whipped, and abused for two or three months before being sold.

Once they reach the buyer, they take the buyer's surname and call the buyer "Daddy." The buyer feeds and clothes them, teaches them to read and write, and often after three to five years, these children, out of extreme gratitude and longing for this sense of security of having a home, will truly regard the buyer as their father.

Once they are completely tamed and consider themselves half Han Chinese, the buyer will teach them how to operate the weapons.

Moreover, these purchased teenagers don't farm much land. Their main uses are twofold: first, to help the buyers keep watch over the white slaves in their homes, and second, to serve as auxiliary soldiers when they go to the battlefield.

They were of higher status than the white slaves, and their interests were closely tied to their adoptive fathers.

"Kids, grab your weapons and assemble at the fortress gate. Let's see who dares to cause trouble for our Changshun Fortress!" With a roar, the Fu brothers mounted their warhorses, followed by a dozen or so adopted sons of various kinds, armed with guns and swords, shouting and yelling.

However, when the dozens of Han Chinese lords of Changshun Fort arrived at the fort gate, they saw the fort lord, Leng Tianlu, the son of Changshun Jun, talking to several people dressed in brocade.

"Lord Leng is indeed a skilled instructor. The warriors in the fortress were all present in fifteen minutes. This is the fastest reaction we've seen all along the way." The man in brocade robes said, handing a scroll of silk to Leng Tianlu.

"Lord Leng Tianlu of the Prince of Changshun, by order of His Majesty and His Highness the Crown Prince, the King commands you to send three hundred soldiers to meet in the capital, Dingxia City, within ten days!"

"Great, the opportunity has arrived!"

Before Leng Tianlu could say anything, the people behind him shouted excitedly.

With the rise of maritime trade, Central Asia, being an inland region, was still too poor. All the good things had to come from China, and the only things they could exchange for money were white slaves and plundered gold and silver.

Moreover, for the people of Anxi, the reason they traveled thousands of miles to settle down was to acquire fertile fields, large houses, and a large number of servants, all of which they had to obtain from the imperial court through military achievements.

Leng Tianlu was also very excited. After destroying the three Khanates of Central Asia, he went from being a small lord in charge of more than twenty households to becoming a baron. He was also looking forward to the next great war.

(End of this chapter)