The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 873 This is a script from the late Ming Dynasty!

Historically, the most direct cause of the independence of European colonies has invariably been the rapid decline of their mother countries.

In order to protect its own interests, a rapidly declining mother country had to exploit its colonies relentlessly, ultimately leading to a major rebellion and independence of the colonies.

For European countries that are not very large, this is an almost unsolvable problem, because they have no experience in dealing with this kind of issue.

But China has experienced this, because China has also seen situations where excessive exploitation has led to widespread resentment.

The most typical example is the Li Tang dynasty's policy of enriching Guanzhong while weakening the rest of the country, taking all the good things to Guanzhong and leaving the rest of the land as nothing more than blood bags.

In particular, the Sichuan and Hebei regions at that time were essentially colonies of Guanzhong.

Of course, the final result was that the drums of war in Yuyang shook the earth and buried half of the Tang Dynasty.

Since then, Chinese society has begun to reflect on this, and then experienced the upheaval of the Northern Song Dynasty where the entire country was exhausted to support Bianjing (Kaifeng). They realized that simply focusing on the capital was not enough, and various explorations and attempts began on a large scale.

This is the advantage of having a long history and a penchant for meticulously recording everything; you can always find comparisons in history, with the advantages and disadvantages clearly laid out before you.

Besides this most direct reason, there was also a hidden reason that led to the alienation of the colonies.

That was the mother country of Europe, which was too small compared to the colonies, with insufficient population and cultural heritage, and could not hold the colonies in place.

For example, in Spain's colonies, New Spain had a population of six or seven million, while the mother country only had five or six million. This meant that the proportion of true Spaniards in New Spain was not high.

New Spain, excluding Texas, has a population of six or seven million and a land area of ​​over two million square kilometers. Yet, only ten or twenty thousand people from the mother country settle here each year, which is far from enough to inject culture into New Spain, naturally leading to strong centrifugal forces.

At the same time, European countries have a poor historical foundation. They have not experienced the era of "Are kings and nobles born with special privileges?" or "Huang Chao trampled the bones of officials on the streets." Their cultural heritage is still based on the aristocratic model and has little to do with the lowest level of people.

This leads to a situation where, once the lowest-class people leave their homeland and a new aristocratic or capitalist rule is established in the colony, they immediately develop a sense of belonging to the colony and quickly forget or even resent their mother country.

In contrast, China was different. More than a thousand years ago, it shattered the aristocratic model, and its culture was deeply rooted in the clan and local communities supported by Confucianism.

This means that even after Chinese people went to colonies, they still couldn't forget their hometowns and were very attached to them. Even after two or three generations, they still had a sense of attachment to their hometowns.

How powerful was this force? Well, to put it another way, later generations believed that the clan power in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian was extremely strong, with a very high degree of cohesion.

In reality, the clan power of Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian in later generations was the result of repeated suppression. Their organizational level was even lower than that of the northern clans in the mid-to-late Qing Dynasty, let alone compared with the southern clans at that time.

At the same time, China can rely on its large domestic population base to transfer at least one million people to its colonies every year.

This not only strengthened the connection between the colony and the mainland, but also allowed the local culture to continuously influence the next generation in the colony.

Meanwhile, the strong sense of belonging to one's roots and the belief that a fox should return to its den after death continuously reinforced the sense of identity among the people in the colonized areas.

Even in later generations, the phrase "You think you can disown your ancestors just because you've made a few stinking bucks" still has a lot of destructive power; at this time, it would be a fatal blow.

Anyone who is labeled as having forgotten their ancestors will find it impossible to survive in the Chinese community.

These two powerful attributes enabled Dayu to quickly assimilate its colonies, such as Southeast Asia, which, after only thirty years of cultivation, were already almost indistinguishable from the mainland.

However, in New Spain, where the Spanish have ruled for two or three hundred years, the greatest common denominator is still the king and God.

The deep-seated contradictions within the colonies had reached a breaking point, even giving rise to a caste system, similar to the social structure of India under British rule.

Historically, they wouldn't have been able to maintain their position even without the instigation of the Great Yu, let alone now that the Great Yu is also plotting something malicious.

In late September 1808, thanks to Da Yu's tireless efforts, the contradictions in New Spain finally erupted.

First, the Maya of Yucatan launched their second uprising, luring the Spanish deep into the jungle to ambush them and achieving some success.

With the flintlock muskets of Dayu, the Maya's fighting power increased significantly, and they killed more than 400 Spanish colonial soldiers in less than a month.

Inspired by the Maya of Yucatan, the Maya people in the Lake Atitlán basin of Guatemala and the Scopan Valley of Honduras also rose up in response.

Other Native Americans, such as the Zapotec, also joined in, and it quickly evolved into a major Native American uprising against the Spanish colonists.

In November, the Indian uprising grew increasingly intense, with the Maya of Yucatan advancing from north to south, while the Maya of Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize pushed northward, with tens of thousands of warriors attempting to unite in one place.

This greatly worried the Spanish colonists. If the Maya people of Yucatan, Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize were to unite, the entire southern part of New Spain would be doomed.

It could even trigger a chain reaction among the indigenous people of the Viceroyalty of New Granada (Colombia, Venezuela) and the Viceroyalty of Peru further south.

Therefore, the governor of New Spain, José, hastily ordered the troops that were monitoring and suppressing native-born and mixed-race white people to be transferred south to suppress the great Mayan uprising.

But with these troops gone, the pressure on the native white rebels led by Miguel Costilla was greatly reduced, and they immediately began preparing for a larger-scale uprising. The only thing they lacked was weapons.

. . . .

Yan Fan, Yuyang City (Los Angeles).

Prince Yan, Mo Zhouzhen, received a request from Miguel Costilla, who needed five thousand flintlock muskets and corresponding Minié bullets, twenty thousand bombs, and ten tons of gunpowder.

"Tell General Costilla that I will deliver the arms to him now, but due to the damaged roads, it may be 15 to 20 days later than originally planned."

Marquis Lafayette raised an eyebrow, because he knew very well that the passage from Yuyang City to the Gulf of Mexico, explored with the lives of hundreds of Yan vassals, had not only not been destroyed, but was even more complete than when it was spontaneously built by Spanish missionaries.

"The Maya had a strong mobilization capacity; they had 20,000 to 30,000 people in such a short time. It seems that this is why the Spanish were never able to wipe them out completely."

Hearing the Marquis of Lafayette speak so cryptically, Mo Zhouzhen laughed heartily.

"My lord, I don't care about reputation. I only hope that in my lifetime, Beihezhou will belong to those who truly know how to govern and develop it."

There were too many Mayans, or rather, too many Mayan men, and they will inevitably clash with us again in the future.

"Then let the Spaniards be the butchers now, so we don't have to get involved ourselves later."

Seeing that Prince Yan, Mo Zhouzhen, was so straightforward, Marquis Lafayette also stopped hiding his true intentions.

"More than twenty years ago, His Majesty the Great Emperor named all the Native Americans the Jurchens of the Northern Hezhou."

I think this was because His Majesty was unfamiliar with the situation in Northern Hezhou at the time, and there was also an element of wanting to assimilate the Native Americans by using their Eastern identity.”

Having settled in China for over ten years, the Marquis of Lafayette's thinking has begun to be imbued with Eastern influences.

"But now, our Eastern Empire no longer needs these people, so uniformly assigning them the identity label of Jurchens has become a completely useless and harmful policy."

"So the Marquis thinks we should stop calling them Jurchens?"

Mo Zhouzhen really hadn't thought of this, because he didn't even consider these Hezhou Jurchens to be worthy of his attention.

"Yes, we should not continue to reinforce their identity, but rather refer to them by their own names, dividing them into as few distinct groups as possible."

The Marquis of Lafayette replied, “Europeans also made this mistake, but they were prepared to use the sword to deal with the Indians, so it didn’t matter whether they made a mistake or not.”

The Seres Empire doesn't seem prepared to resolve the issue with bloodshed, at least not by exterminating the remaining several hundred to ten million Native Americans. Therefore, they shouldn't be encouraged to strengthen their mutual identity.

“This suggestion is excellent; I will immediately submit it to the Emperor,” Mo Zhouzhen said, then looked at Marquis Lafayette with a half-smile. “Marquis, I think you should have brought another piece of good news as well?”

Another piece of good news from Mo Zhouzhen was a deal he made with his elder brother, the Crown Prince, Boss Sen.

Da Laosen helped him obtain the official position of Grand Protector of the Northern Hezhou Protectorate. In return, he helped Da Laosen's son, the future King of Zhongshan, Mo Guangzhi, to conquer a wealthy Mexico and eliminate all the troublemakers for Mo Guangzhi.

At this time, the local administrative institutions of Dayu consisted of both provincial-level envoys and protectorates.

The envoy's office was basically a developed area, while the protectorate was considered a wild and undeveloped place by the standards of Anxi and Nanyang.

Therefore, the Great Yu Dynasty had only two protectorates: the Beihezhou Protectorate on the west coast of North America and the Zhanzhou Protectorate in Oceania.

Because the Protectorate General was relatively independent, the Protector-General, who served a five-year term and could serve a maximum of two terms, wielded considerable power. Although he was a visiting official, his authority was almost equivalent to that of the military governors of the late Tang and Five Dynasties period.

Even the Grand Protector of the Protectorate had the function of supervising the princes within the Protectorate's jurisdiction.

The emperor could directly report any misconduct by the vassal kings within his jurisdiction, and with an imperial edict, he could even lead troops to punish or arrest them.

It can be said that if Mo Zhouzhen wants to make great strides in Beihezhou, he must obtain the position of Grand Protector of the Beihezhou Protectorate; otherwise, he will face obstacles at every turn.

He had not previously sought the position of Grand Protector of Beihe Prefecture because the previous Grand Protector was Wu Wenchun, the father of his second wife and his father-in-law.

However, Wu Wenchun will be transferred back to his homeland at the end of this year. If Mo Zhouzhen does not take this position, it will be troublesome if the person sent by the court does not get along with him.

"Congratulations, Your Highness Prince Yan. His Highness the Crown Prince has granted your request and obtained His Majesty's consent."

"After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month next year, you will be the Grand Protector of the Northern Hezhou Protectorate." Marquis Lafayette congratulated Mo Zhouzhen with a beaming smile.

He knew the weight of this Prince Yan; among all the princes, only this one had the power to make deals with the Crown Prince, since the Prince Yan was His Majesty's favorite son.

Mo Zhouzhen let out a long sigh of relief. The Beihezhou Protectorate directly controlled Suiyuan Province, which consisted of three particularly wealthy counties: Wenshui Port (Vancouver), Jiaoyang Fort (Seattle), and Jingning City (Portland).

These three counties were the earliest settlements established by Dayu on the west coast of Beihezhou, and now have a population of over 3.15 million Chinese.

His Yan fiefdom's San Francisco County and Yuyang County (Los Angeles) together had a population of just over 600,000.

In addition, Suiyuan Province has two medium-sized steel plants, three medium-sized cement plants, and other supporting industrial facilities.

It can produce not only rifles and bullets, explosives, but also three- to six-pound field guns, as well as high-strength cement for the rapid construction of fortifications.

Without Suiyuan Province, relying solely on the Yan vassal state and the still unresolved Chen and Zhongshan vassal states, it would have been impossible to conquer New Spain, or even if they had, it would have been difficult to subdue it.

Now that Mo Zhouzhen has become the Grand Protector of the Northern Hezhou Protectorate, he can mobilize the forces of Suiyuan Province, making it much easier to take over New Spain.

Early June, 1808.

Because of Mozhouzhen's leniency, the New Spanish colonial army was able to suppress the Mayan uprising without pressure.

In this battle, the Spanish demonstrated the strength befitting an old colonial empire.

Led by José Azanza, they used a small force to draw the attention of the Yucatan Maya, while the main force marched south overnight to launch a surprise attack on the Maya in Guatemala.

The Maya of Guatemala did not receive funding from the Great Yu, and their weapons were mainly spears and poisoned crossbows. They were powerless to resist the Spanish attack, especially since it was a surprise attack.

By the time the Maya of Yucatan realized they had been tricked, the Spanish had completely defeated the Maya from Guatemala and had circled around to their rear via the Belize coast.
In this battle, the Maya suffered heavy losses, with at least five thousand soldiers killed and hundreds of Mayan villages destroyed.

The Spanish once again demonstrated the speed of their colonization; including the time spent fighting, in less than a month, they slaughtered more than 20,000 Mayan men and abducted more than 60,000 women and children as spoils of war.

However, the battles that followed did not go so smoothly.

Spanish colonial forces advanced into the heart of the Maya territory on the Yucatan Peninsula, where resistance was fierce and prominent Maya leaders were active in the area.

In addition, the Da Yu provided two thousand flintlock muskets and a large number of bombs, and the Spanish colonial army suffered heavy losses as soon as they entered.

The Maya broke into smaller groups of three to five hundred men and attacked the Spanish with unpredictable movements. In Tulum alone, the Spanish colonial army lost two battalions, totaling more than five hundred men, in one fell swoop.

If the Spanish colonial army hadn't been so heavily involved in embezzlement and was rarely at full strength, the losses would have been even greater.

Of course, given enough time, the Spanish colonial army could have gradually reduced the Maya's living space by massacring and burning villages, and eventually seized the opportunity to take the Maya away in one fell swoop.

Historically, this is how the Spanish won the Yucatan Caste Wars, but the conditions were no longer available.

Seeing the Spanish slaughtering the Maya, leaving corpses strewn across the land, and with only slightly over 100,000 men out of the original 600,000 Yucatan Maya population wiped out by 30,000 to 40,000, the Great Yu intervened.
With the support of Da Yu, the previously dormant uprising of local white and mixed-race white people broke out, with more than 400,000 people participating.

They raised their flags in the Kingdom of Nuevo León, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Chihuahua, and other places.

As soon as the flames of war broke out, many white plantations from mainland Europe were attacked, families were killed, and property was looted.

Faced with the prospect of losing their homes and families, the white Europeans were so terrified that they no longer cared about the Yucatan region or the Maya.

Under their relentless pressure, the governor of New Spain was forced to abandon the suppression of the Maya and recall the troops.

This back-and-forth not only resolved the Mayan crisis, but also exhausted the army.

Furthermore, the main force of these armies consisted of native whites and mixed-race whites, with fewer than five thousand coming purely from mainland Spain.

They sympathized with the uprising but were also full of resentment, so they were unwilling to fight hard, and many of them even tipped off the rebels.

The result was that if the army hadn't been called back to suppress the uprising, the rebellion wouldn't have escalated so much; but once the army was brought back, the situation actually worsened.

Governor José Iturrigara had no choice but to launch a fundraising campaign among the highest-ranking members of parliament, large landowners, and high-ranking clergy in New Spain, hoping to obtain enough money to stabilize the army.

As a result, these guys were unwilling to hand over the money even when they were about to die. In the most critical month for the army, Governor José Iturigare only managed to raise 65,000 silver pesos.

How much is this amount of money? Well, it's about four thousand one or two hundred pounds, less than fifteen thousand silver dollars.

Damn it, are you trying to fob me off like this?!

The enraged governor erupted, declaring that if he could not raise more than 500,000 silver pesos (approximately 30,000 pounds sterling or 110,000 silver dollars) for military expenses within the next two weeks, he would not only be unable to suppress the rebellion, but also unable to defend Mexico City.

Under this immense pressure, it wasn't until mid-January 1809 that the funds were finally raised, and the provisions and weapons were in place.

However, the morale of the army completely collapsed. Most of the native-born white and mixed-race white people saw through the true nature of the white people from Europe. Many people continued to loaf around and refused to work even after receiving their reward money, while some even went directly to join the rebel army.

It seemed as if the rule of the New Spain Viceroyalty over this land was about to end amidst this turbulent situation.

In late February 1809, the rebel army began to advance on Mexico City.

The city's bigwigs started making trouble again, arguing that since they had contributed 500,000 silver pesos for military expenses, the army should take action.

Under their pressure, Governor José Iturigare had no choice but to order his troops to launch an offensive, at least to clear out the enemy forces around Mexico City.

Meanwhile, the insurgents, led by General José María Morales, prepared for a decisive battle with the government forces at the Cuehuanaca corridor, a key exit from Mexico City in the northwest.

(End of this chapter)