The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 870 Napoleon and Li Zicheng

Lee Sung-pyo walked at the front of the line, covered in sweat, while his third brother walked at the back, and in the middle were five unfortunate laborers who had been selected to perform corvée labor.

That's right, Lee Sung-pyo wasn't foolish enough to escort six or seven hundred people on his own. Instead, he tricked his third brother, Lee Sung-gil, and two nephews into coming.

When Li Chengji and his two nephews heard that Li Chengshao would become the county magistrate's assistant when he returned, which would be considered the fifth most important position in Huai'an County, they gritted their teeth and decided to become brothers who fought tigers together.

And so, the four members of the Li family, along with five unlucky laborers, escorted 637 people and began their journey westward on foot.

There were also mules pulling large carts, but they were carrying all sorts of supplies, so apart from seven or eight-year-old children, no one else could ride them.

Moreover, ordinary mules and horses do not have the same endurance and adaptability as humans, and can migrate non-stop for more than half a year.

Therefore, they must be carefully cared for. After walking around for several months, we should sell the worn-out ones and then use the extra money to buy new ones, otherwise we will suffer greatly.

"Brother Zhang, Brother Wang, thank you all so much. Otherwise, how could we, with our few worthless lives, have sent so many people to Liaodong, thousands of miles away?"

As they approached the post station in Yanggao County, Datong Prefecture, Li Chengshao first had the group stop to rest, and then offered the water and rice wine from the jug to his friends, including Brother Zhang and Brother Wang.

These people were not commoners who needed to be escorted to Anxi; rather, they were travelers who voluntarily went out to explore and cultivate the land.

Eighty acres of land is indeed very attractive, but there are plenty of people in this world who don't take it seriously.

They viewed working the land their whole lives as the most painful and worthless thing, and were willing to take up arms and venture out into the world whenever they had the chance.

Therefore, among the more than four million people in Xuanhua Prefecture alone, over a thousand actively went to various places to settle and expand their communities each year.

Moreover, they were not going to settle and farm, but to fight and kill, gambling their lives and futures with weapons.

Brother Zhang was wearing a belt with a revolver hanging on each side, and a large white hat with a red brim and red tassels, imitating the style of a Fanyang hat.

He carried a thick-backed broadsword with a slightly wide blade on his back, and a long dagger was tucked into his waistband.

On either side of the warhorse behind him was a somewhat old Flying General Model 1787 smoothbore musket and a short-barreled Tai Sui Model 1799 cavalry musket (carbine).

His equipment was quite complete, but apart from that, Brother Zhang was only wearing a coarse cloth outfit that imitated military uniforms and had many patches on it.

Judging from appearances, his family wasn't well-off. He might have given up his rightful land to acquire this equipment.

"Brother Li, don't worry. Since we've set off together, we're on the same side. I'll definitely protect you safely to Liaodong." Brother Zhang took the rice wine, took a nice sip, and reassured Li Chengshao.

With over six hundred people, if anything went wrong, Li Chengbiao and his few men would definitely be unable to manage it. But with the help of these dozen or so traveling soldiers armed with guns and knives, it's much easier to manage.

After resting for a while, the group arrived at the post station in Julebao, Yanggao County. The situation was much better than Li Chengshao had expected. The post station was indeed busy, but there were not so many people that it was out of control.

They eventually received hot meals; Li Chengbiao and the other nine escorts, along with a dozen or so travelers, each received a meal.

The relocated people also received a bowl of hot soup, and then they used the stoves of these people to stir-fry the various cornbread and flatbreads they had brought with them, making them easier to eat.

However, the place where they received these meals was not a post station, but a charity event organized by the Datong branch of Fuxing Coal Industry Company for the families of mine employees.

Mo Zibu has been in power for nearly forty years, and with the influence of what he has heard and seen through various channels in later generations, how could he not know the character of the officials below him?

The most difficult situation is the current situation in Dayu. It wants to accomplish great things, but its financial situation is not very good. Various localities have begun to intercept special funds and divert them to other uses.

For example, misappropriating poverty alleviation funds to improve the office hardware of government offices, and withholding special funds to make up for the bonuses and reimbursements owed to officials.

This thing benefits the entire bureaucratic system and is bound to get the support of the vast majority of officials. Even if it's done, you can't hold them accountable. You can only wait for the leaders to commit crimes in other areas and then find an excuse to crack down on them.

Of course, most importantly, the Great Yu Dynasty simply did not have the funds to support such a large-scale migration.

For example, taking Huai'an County as an example, if the government were to bear the entire cost of sending a able-bodied man to the Liaodong region, it would require at least forty silver dollars.

Based on a budget of forty silver dollars, Huai'an County will have to spend forty thousand silver dollars this year. If we include the expenses of the escorting officials, we will have to add another one or two thousand silver dollars.

However, Huai'an County's total fiscal revenue last year was just over 100,000, and even if all of it were used here, the shortfall would still be as much as 300,000 silver dollars.

Next year, at least several thousand more people will need to be relocated, creating a shortfall of around 200,000, which is simply unaffordable.

Moreover, the full financial burden has another drawback: it leads to enormous waste. Who would care if people were living off public funds?

There is only one final solution: the cost of relocation will be borne mostly by the people.

They would save every penny of their own money and supplies; a migration that would normally cost forty silver dollars could be accomplished for at least ten.

But this matter cannot be stated openly, otherwise the people's trust in the imperial court will collapse.

Therefore, Mo Zibu made a big show of approving the first batch of fund allocations in the treasury, and then ignored the fact that Liu Tai'er, the second assistant minister in charge of the relocation plan for the northern provinces, intercepted this part of the funds.

The Ministry of Works received four million taels of silver because the Yellow River problem was becoming increasingly serious, with signs of breaching the dikes and changing its course.

The Ministry of Education allocated 5.5 million yuan to establish imperial academies, higher schools, and primary schools, especially in Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, and Gansu, to complete the transformation from old to new schools.

The Colonial Department took three million dollars to build more ships to send people to North America and to make major improvements to the road conditions on the west coast of North America.

The Ministry of Railways took nine million to upgrade the railway construction from China to the Caspian Sea coast.

The Privy Council and the Ministry of War also took more than seven million from it, which was used to transport troops to Anxi and stockpile supplies, because completely defeating the Tsarist Rus' Empire and capturing Moscow was becoming an increasingly necessary option.

Other miscellaneous expenses also took a portion of this money, so before it even left the central departments, more than 40% of the funds were gone.

Do you think there's a problem with Liu Tai's second attempt this time?

Yes. Or maybe not.

The central government departments seem to be doing well, and as long as it's not just the head official of each prefecture or county who is corrupt, it's hard to say how serious their crimes are.

That's politics. Its black, white, and gray areas are often hard to define, but it's definitely dirty.

Do the common people have a problem?
Definitely not. They've already suffered enough. Not only were they kicked out of their hometown, but they also had to pay out of their own pockets to go thousands of miles away.

The only thing to blame is the state of the world. Everyone and everything in it requires them to risk their lives and suffer injustice, so they have no choice but to endure it.

Fortunately, Emperor Mozibumo's heart hadn't completely turned black; he patched it up through the Fuxing Company.

He also held a grand banquet in the capital, bestowing honorary titles and civil official positions without pensions, increasing the number of members of the Republican Parliament, and raising millions of silver dollars from it.

Mo Zibu used the money to buy a large amount of grain, which basically provided some subsidies to the places the immigrants passed through, ensuring they had a place to eat hot soup and prevent grain prices from skyrocketing, and making life a little better for the immigrants.

But that's all; some hardships are unavoidable.

Of course, people need to learn to make comparisons. If these people knew what the Portuguese and Spanish had gone through on the Iberian Peninsula, they would feel that they are very fortunate now.

Napoleon's continental system was actually a system with many loopholes and was very difficult to control. He had too many countries to control, and the benefits of violating the ban on trade with England were too great.

Spain and Portugal were the most rampant among them. Spain, taking advantage of being an ally of France, reaped huge profits from smuggling in places like Cádiz.

Portugal went so far as to directly reject Napoleon's demand to blockade England and openly sell large quantities of British goods throughout Europe.

Therefore, after conquering Russia, Prussia, and Austria, Napoleon immediately set out to conquer Spain and Portugal.

At this time, Napoleon had won a series of victories on the European continent, and his confidence had become extremely inflated. He regarded Spain, which was willing to be his subordinate, as a coward, and Portugal, which had a tougher attitude, as ignorant country bumpkins.

As a result, after entering the Iberian Peninsula, the French army's discipline and attitude towards the locals were a hundred times worse than in Russia, Prussia, and Austria.

After entering Lisbon, the French army went on a rampage, looting Portuguese property and even fantasizing about imposing a huge fine on the Portuguese government of 100 million francs, equivalent to four million pounds sterling or about 14 million silver dollars, which was completely out of their reach.

Since the Portuguese couldn't produce that much money from their coffers, they added the fine to their taxes and began to collect it from ordinary Lisbon citizens.

This aroused strong dissatisfaction among the Portuguese, but Marshal Junot, the French commander, was not going to tolerate them and immediately began a massacre.

In just over ten days, the French army massacred at least 20,000 people in Lisbon. Rape and other crimes were not considered serious offenses. It is said that most of the girls in Lisbon did not escape the clutches of the French army.

Subsequently, due to the French's excessive taxation and the large amount of grain taken away by the Portuguese royal family and nobles when they fled, a large-scale famine began to break out around Lisbon.

At the same time, for some unknown reason, Napoleon developed a strong interest in the Bourbon family's model of ruling both France and Spain.

In Napoleon's eyes, the Kingdom of Spain and the Spanish Bourbon family were so weak that they would surely be subdued by a mere proclamation.

As emperor, if he had such an attitude, one can imagine what his soldiers and officers would do. When the French army entered Spain, they looted everything in their path, from grain and livestock to Spanish girls.

The French army was so brutal that the most direct manifestation of this was that, under the influence of this fear, the rumor of the French army's arrival in Madrid successfully triggered a panic among the citizens of Madrid.

1808 October.

The Aranjuez riots broke out first in Spain, and pro-French Prime Minister Manuel Godoy became the target of the people's attacks.

Subsequently, the French army arrived in Madrid, and Napoleon, using the Spanish people's anti-French sentiments as an excuse, forced the then-puppet King Carlos IV of Spain to abdicate and pass the throne to his son Ferdinand VII.

Then, Napoleon used the pretext of going to France to discuss important matters between the two countries to coerce Charles IV and Ferdinand VII to go to France.

When the royal family left Madrid, it caused panic among the citizens of Madrid, who spontaneously organized to try to keep the king and drive out the French.

That's why people say Ashchan Murat is world-class from the neck down; his brain is just plain crazy.

Originally, the uprising only involved a small number of citizens and did not have a wide impact; at least the Spanish soldiers did not show any intention of rising up in opposition.

However, Ashang Murat directly dispatched cavalry to suppress the rebellion, delivering a powerful blow right from the start.

Okay, it's a bit cruel, but it's not a big deal. Maybe it can serve as a warning to others.

But for some reason, this guy sent out cavalry to suppress the Madrid citizens' uprising. The cavalrymen were Mamluk cavalrymen recruited from Egypt by the French army.

These cavalrymen, who fought against the citizens of Madrid at Puerta del Sol, wore turbans, carried scimitars, and shouted "Alahu Akbar".

This immediately alarmed all the citizens of Madrid, who knew that the legitimacy of the Kingdom of Spain came from the Islamic states that had expelled, conquered, and oppressed them.

You're letting Mamluk cavalrymen chanting religious slogans hunt down Madrid citizens all over the city. Any Spaniard would find it impossible to stand up to that.

In an instant, anger and fear ignited among all Spaniards, from city dwellers to rural farmers, from local militias to regular troops, who collectively launched a national self-rescue movement. Unable to defeat the French, they resorted to guerrilla warfare.

When the Spanish resistance reached Portugal, large-scale uprisings broke out throughout the country.

What troubled the French even more was that among the French troops entering Portugal were a large number of Spanish auxiliary troops who directly joined the Portuguese resistance and stabbed the French in the back.

However, both countries were too weak, and there was a group of liberals in France who were influenced by Enlightenment ideas, so the situation had not completely deteriorated.

But soon, Napoleon proved his 'strength' once again with another brainless act.

On May 6, 1808, Napoleon forced Ferdinand VII, the Spanish king who was under house arrest in France, to abdicate and installed his brother Joseph Bonaparte as king of Spain.

This caused all the negative impact that Napoleon had previously eliminated as emperor—the killing of King Louis XVI by the French—to resurface, making Prussia, Austria, and Great Britain even more hateful and fearful of France and Napoleon.

Even Tsar Alexander I, who had signed the Treaty of Tilsit and gained certain benefits, was extremely dissatisfied.

At the end of June, the news quickly reached Dayu. Jiang Wusheng, the Privy Councilor and the second General Manager of Lanfang Company in history, came to pay homage and brought another piece of news.

"The English Lieutenant General, Your Majesty, Arthur Wellesley, whom you admire, requests your permission to deploy 3,000 men of the Upper River Garrison at Cape Town to participate in his military operation to land in the Kingdom of Portugal."

After his triumphant run in India, Arthur Wellesley, the savior of the English army, is finally about to take center stage in Europe.

This man was so famous that even Emperor Mozibu had heard of him.

Therefore, when Arthur Wellesley was in India, he even went to Nanjing as a representative of the British Indian government to be received by Mo Zibu.

Meanwhile, the garrison troops in Upper Myanmar (upper Burma + northeastern India) have been cooperating with the British Indian Army in recent years.

The cause was that Mozibu had sent the British Indian Army north to Nepal to help Dayu defeat the Gurkhas.

After that, the garrison troops of Shangchuan Province, under the leadership of Qin Dingyang (Qin San), who had served two terms as deputy commander of Resa, were frequently ordered to cooperate with the English in small-scale operations.

The purpose was to reassure the English and to maintain Dayu's position on the East-West trade route.

For example, eight months ago, Qin Dingyang led 3,000 troops from Shangchuan Town to the Cape Town colony in South Africa to attack the Dutch there together with the English army, becoming an important force in the British Cape Town colony.

"Napoleon was truly insane. How could he do such a thing? Not only did he weaken his own strength, but he also caused the French army to lose the aura of being a revolutionary army, which was the most important spiritual asset of the French army!"

Before Mo Zibu traveled through time, he actually admired Napoleon a lot, but after living in the same era as him, he couldn't understand him anymore.

He did one thing right, then immediately did two things wrong. Apart from martial arts skills, he achieved almost nothing. He even violated his own civil code, which is something that could make him go down in history!

"Your Majesty overestimates Napoleon. I think he is not as good as Huang Chao. At least Huang Chao had the merit of changing the old world. If Huang Chao were placed in present-day France, he would be more revolutionary than Napoleon."

This person is simply an enhanced version of Li Chuang, better at fighting and slightly more knowledgeable.

"Hiss, what you're saying actually makes sense." Mo Zibu had to admit that he hadn't studied the historical Napoleon in detail, but the Napoleon in this timeline was indeed an enhanced version of Li Zicheng.

"Letting the troops of Shangchuan Province land in Portugal means that we have officially joined the anti-French alliance. This is probably something that everyone in England wants to see, and it is also the source of their confidence to persevere."

Mo Zibu thought for a moment, "Let's convene the cabinet and the prime ministers of the outer court to discuss it. If there are no problems, let's officially send troops."

(End of this chapter)