Nanyang Storm 1864

After a hearty meal, Mo Xingli felt a little tipsy at the end. He waved his hand to dismiss his sons and went to take a bath with the help of his wives and concubines.

At the banquet

With Mo Xingli pressuring them, Mo Shisi and the others did not dare to drink too much. They drank only about 50% to 60%, which was a bit unsatisfying.

"Brothers, come over to my place and have a few more drinks. If you want to drink, then drink to your heart's content. Let my wife grill some meat and prepare a couple of side dishes. How about we drink and talk all night long?"

"That's great, but I also feel like it's not satisfying enough!"

"Sixteen, why don't you say something? It won't be lively without you."

"I'm looking at Third Brother. Didn't Dad say... he has something to do tomorrow?"

"Third brother, let's go!"

As they were talking, they walked out of the mansion and came to the door to make an appointment for the next meal. Mo Shisi had already asked his wife to go back and prepare it.

Mo Yuanshan stopped and said to the brothers who were pulling him to drink;
"I won't go. It's okay for you guys to continue drinking, but remember not to drink too much."

"Third brother, you've spoiled our fun. We're all busy with our own things, and it's rare for us to get together for a drink. We're brothers, so don't act like the deputy mayor." Mo Shisi said somewhat unhappily.

Having just been scolded, he couldn't help but feel a little resentful, which came out in his words.

Mo Yuanshan waved his hand nonchalantly and said, "Everyone has their own aspirations. You can't force them. Let it be." Then he left.

Mo Shiliu hesitated for a moment and said to everyone, "Brothers, I can't handle the alcohol either. I'll go back and rest first."

Without waiting for their answer, he hurriedly chased after Mo Yuanshan. Their two houses were in the same direction, so they were going the same way back.

Mo Shisi was unhappy and waved his hand, saying, "It doesn't matter if they don't go. We can drink our own wine. The scholars from the big house can't get along with us."

In any large family, there is a distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children, and the Mo family is no exception.

The five fingers are not evenly spaced. It is impossible for Mo Xingli's more than 40 sons to be treated equally. The eldest son and the legitimate son are obviously valued and have a higher status and treatment.

These illegitimate children of the Mo family will inevitably have some ideas.

"Third brother, wait for me."

"Sixteenth brother, why... didn't you go have a drink with them?"

"I'll listen to Third Brother. Besides, Dad doesn't allow me to drink too much. Drinking too much will delay things. I still have a lot of things to do tomorrow."

"It's good to know this. Old Fourteen's gang just likes to mess around, drink, gamble, and be aggressive. What kind of future can they have in this life? Don't learn from them."

"I know, third brother."

Mo Shiliu caught up with Mo Yuanshan. The two brothers talked as they walked, and their figures soon disappeared into the night.

The Mo family rancher has 16 wives and concubines and more than children. It is impossible for them to be close to each other, so they have formed small circles in private.

almost without exception
They are mainly composed of six brothers from the eldest house. None of the illegitimate Mo family members who form their own small circles can be successful and be valued by the rancher Mo Xingli.

In this small piece of land, the rancher Mo Xingli is the boss.

Development to date
The Mo's Ranch covers an area of ​​hundreds of square kilometers and is located in a valley and hilly area that is about twelve or thirteen kilometers wide and more than thirty kilometers long. It has mountains, rivers, lakes, vast grasslands and livestock pens, forming a world of its own.

Mo Yuanshan was a college student who had gone to the mainland of the Great Chu Empire for further studies. He had witnessed the prosperous metropolises of the empire, the industrial cities with chimneys, as well as incredible new gadgets such as trams, movies, record players, river tunnels, and elevated bridges. He was a man who had seen the world.

Obeying his father's orders and returning to the Mo Ranch means inheriting this huge family business in the future.

He was confident that under his management, he would be able to sell the ranch's products to Europe, expand the business, and create new glory for the Mo family.

The only ones who can compete with Mo Yuanshan for the position of clan leader are the other five brothers from the eldest branch of the family. Those little yellow-haired guys don't stand a chance at all.

The so-called "little yellow-haired people" is the general term for mixed-race children among the people of the Great Chu Empire.

Among the more than seventy children of the patriarch Mo Xingli, the "little yellow-haired ones" accounted for the majority. This was because among his wives and concubines, there were four Arab women, three Armenian women and one Tunisian woman, which almost accounted for the majority.

Except for an Armenian woman who died of childbirth, the others had at least six or seven children, and the most had ten. These mixed-race Chinese were collectively called "little yellow-haired children."

Most mixed-race children have black hair, but many have blond hair, and some even have red hair.

This was common both in the Chu Empire and in its overseas colonies, and was a distinctive feature of ethnic integration.

Fortunately, these mixed-race children all speak fluent Chinese and have received orthodox Chinese education since childhood, emphasizing loyalty, filial piety, chastity and righteousness, just like other Chinese children.

In terms of self-awareness, they are all subjects of the Great Chu Empire.

In the Congo River Governorate
It is very rare to see black people nowadays. After the outbreak of the South African War, almost all of the children of the black servant army were packed up and sent to South Africa.

Their number is more than 100,000.

These second-generation black people were mainly used in South Africa to serve the logistics of the British Expeditionary Force, to fill the extreme shortage of labor in diamond and gold mines, and to restore agricultural and animal husbandry production in some areas.

This was also a secret agreement between Britain and Chu. The British no longer trusted the Boers and were also troubled by the powerful Zulu tribe in South Africa, which was very short of labor. Importing these second-generation blacks from the Congo River Governorate would allow them to use them with confidence.

The British were also afraid that if they introduced too many Chinese workers, they would become the masters of South Africa. This situation had already become rampant in Australia and New Zealand, so wouldn't their efforts be in vain?

At all times, the British were on guard against the State of Chu.

The Chu State was also happy to clean up these second-generation blacks, and the two sides hit it off. So whether these second-generation blacks were willing or not, they had to be sent to South Africa.

In the area under the jurisdiction of the Congo River Governorate of the Great Chu Empire, more than ten million people are of Chinese descent, including these second-generation mixed-race people, and the ethnic issue has been completely resolved.

Sometimes, there are also some black refugees pouring into the surrounding African regions.

But after being caught, they were basically quickly sent to the mines, where they could spend the rest of their lives in peace.

The face of the black indigenous tribe made it impossible for them to take a single step within the entire Congo River Governor's Office.

Over time

Even the black indigenous tribes in the surrounding areas knew that they could not enter the territory of the Orientals, otherwise they would be captured and enslaved, and it would be difficult for them to even want to die.

Part of the southern border of the Congo River Governorate borders Rhodesia, a British South African colony. It is mainly located in the central region, with several trunk roads leading to Salisbury and Johannesburg.

Today, a large amount of supplies are transported to Johannesburg, where the British army is stationed, via inland roads.

There are about three to four hundred freight trucks in the area, running on this transport line day and night to deliver logistical supplies to the British Expeditionary Force.

This kind of logistical supply delivered nearby greatly promoted the colonial development of the inland hinterland. Thousands of Chinese ranches and farms were established and developed rapidly.

Today, there are regular shipping lines every week between Kinshasa, an emerging city under the jurisdiction of the Congo River Governor's Office, and Port Elizabeth and Cape Town in South Africa. Many Chinese businessmen go to South Africa to seek development opportunities.

This was reported by European news media, mainly in Germany, as clear evidence that the State of Chu was "aiding and abetting Zhou's evil."

The Chu State had been engaged in a war of words with the Germans and the Dutch, and its diplomatic relations were quite bad, but its economic and trade relations had always been very hot, presenting a strange scene.

Most of the natural rubber, oil, copper, aluminum, bristles, cowhide, etc. that Germany imported to develop its industry came from the Chu State, and there was no substitute from other regions.

British and French overseas colonies can also produce some natural rubber, such as Malaya and Indochina, but the overall quantity is small, only enough for each country's own use.

As the only industrialized country in the south, Chu had very strong agricultural production capacity and exported a large amount of agricultural products including grain every year.

In the international market
The State of Chu occupied 83.2% of the natural rubber export market, 67.9% of the sugar export market, 58.1% of the copper export market, and occupied an important position in many tropical product export markets.

Tropical agricultural products such as sugar, coffee, cocoa, palm oil, spices, wool, tobacco, fruits and canned meat all play an important role.

In terms of both quantity and quality, the tropical bulk agricultural products produced by the Chu State are the best.

In addition to the existence of the Red Sea natural fortress and the huge size of the Great Chu Empire, the world's powers were unwilling to offend Chu even if they did not want to be friendly with it.

In terms of rich resources and vast territory, even the great powers such as France and Germany are envious.

Unlike the freezing Siberia of Tsarist Russia, the Chu State occupied the resource-rich southern region, which was very suitable for population settlement and social development, and had a much greater population carrying capacity.

Experts have calculated
Today, the vast territory of Chu State is enough to accommodate a population of more than one billion and can cope with it easily.

There is enough land on Shangri-La Island alone to cultivate hundreds of millions of acres of fertile land.

The key point is that this place is located in the tropics, the grain crops have a short maturity period and high yield, and three crops can be harvested a year. Isn’t that infuriating?
Other islands with excellent farming conditions include Kalimantan, Sumatra, the Viceroyalty of Patagonia and the Viceroyalty of the Congo River.

Just one of them is enough to support hundreds of millions of people.

compare with

Although Fuso, a country with scarce resources and a weak foundation, had just been promoted to a second-rate power in the world (note: it defeated the Qing Dynasty and colonized the Korean Peninsula), the only product it could offer was raw silk.

Ito Hirobumi, a veteran of the Meiji Restoration in Fuso, lamented in a letter to Yamagata Aritomo:

"For decades, I and my colleagues in the Meiji Restoration have been striving for innovation and working diligently for our country, but our achievements are still not even a fraction of what the Emperor of Chu achieved. What can we do?"

Ito Hirobumi's lament stems from the strategic dilemma faced by Japan.

Look at the opponents chosen by the State of Chu: Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, and even the native Hawaiians and Ecuador, Costa Rica, these small characters that are not worth mentioning. Their strength is weaker than the other.

The places they occupy are more abundant in resources than the other, making people drool.

Fuso will be in a much harder situation if it expands strategically northwards.
It was necessary to break through the pincer attack of Russia and the Qing Dynasty. The Korean Peninsula, which was finally occupied, was a remote and poor area. The three northeastern provinces had just been occupied through unequal treaties, but under the interference of foreign powers, the humiliating scene of "Three Kingdoms Returning Liao" was performed.

For the ambitious Fuso Kingdom, losing what it had gained was truly a heart-wrenching pain.

If you go south
Moreover, they had to face the joint attack of the three world-class powers: Britain, France and Chu, and their chances of winning were slim.

Seeing the Great Chu Empire conquering cities and territories as easily as eating and drinking water, how could one not be envious and jealous?
It is difficult to understand the pain of Fusang's strategic dilemma of foreign colonization unless you have experienced it yourself. It is harder than climbing to the sky. (End of this chapter)