There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 410 Envoys
Nie Yu was very lucky. Zuo Zongtang, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang... these pillars of the late Qing Dynasty were almost all from the south, and the first two were even from Hunan.

Nowadays, even the renowned Lin Zexu is preparing to take the imperial examination for the new Han Dynasty.

People only know about Lin Zexu's burning of opium at Humen, but they are completely unaware that Lin Zexu actually did many other things.

Speaking of which, there is a long-standing "rumor" that even has historical evidence: that Lin Zexu supported the cultivation of piracy.

In reality, however, both the true timeline of the historical sources and the original text and historical context of the materials are malicious misinterpretations of Lin Zexu's original intentions.

The historical material used to spread the rumor is indeed genuine, but this particular document is a letter Lin Zexu wrote to his student, Wen Hai, the prefect of Fuzhou in Jiangxi, seven years after he was dismissed from office and exiled following the destruction of opium at Humen. Lin Zexu was later reinstated by the Qing court and appointed governor of Shaanxi.

It had absolutely nothing to do with the burning of opium at Humen, and the First Opium War had ended many years ago.

In the letter, it was not Lin Zexu who supported the cultivation of silver, but rather his student Wen Hai who first talked about the outflow of silver from China, and then hypothesized whether the problem could be solved if China also cultivated and promoted silver.

Indeed, it was Lin Zexu's student who first proposed the hypothesis, and Lin Zexu explicitly followed the "workaround" suggested by the student. After a reasonable analysis of the silver outflow problem, he concluded that while planting arsenic and tobacco might seem to alleviate the silver outflow problem, it would actually only exacerbate it.

Even when making hypothetical assumptions, Lin Zexu foresaw the immense harm caused by **planting**. He believed that even if China itself started planting it, it would bring nothing but harm. At the end of his letter, he expressed his disappointment, thinking that his students had also fallen into depravity.

It's impossible if you think about it even a little bit.

He was able to strongly advise Emperor Daoguang to ban opium, and in order to help the people quit smoking, he even specially sought out a pretext to develop several smoking cessation drugs. At the same time, he advocated severe punishments, with the death penalty for both opium use and opium trafficking.

How could Lin Zexu, who did not ban opium for his own selfish interests, possibly go back to support the cultivation of opium?

It's worth noting that even the Daoguang Emperor of the puppet Qing dynasty was ruthless enough to insist on banning opium and dismissed Xu Naiji, a minister who supported the promotion of opium cultivation.

Furthermore, after the burning of opium at Humen, the First Opium War broke out quickly. Some bizarre claims in later generations suggest that the war was caused by Lin Zexu's burning of opium.

In reality, not burning opium would have been far more harmful to China, even triggering the worst famine in Chinese history – the Dingwu Famine.

The recorded death toll during the Dingwu famine reached over 1000 million, and later archaeological estimates suggest the actual number may have been closer to 3000 million.

Shanxi was the hardest hit because Shanxi people loved to grow pi (a type of wild animal). Zhang Zhidong wrote in his "Prohibition of Pi" that "the people of Shanxi love to grow pi, and almost every county has it, causing wasteland and harming farmers... The great famine of Dingwu was caused by this."

This was the result of Lin Zexu's destruction of opium at Humen; if opium hadn't been destroyed at all, the consequences would have been almost unimaginable.

Moreover, even after the burning of opium at Humen, Lin Zexu was not unprepared. He specially trained and recruited local militia along the coast of Guangdong and organized several civilian militias to deal with any possible desperate measures by the British.

As it turned out, Lin Zexu's preparations were correct; the British were indeed anxious and couldn't wait to launch a war.

Unfortunately, no matter how well Lin Zexu prepared, he couldn't prevent the Qing Dynasty from surrendering too quickly.

After the opium was destroyed, Lin Zexu, the "culprit" behind the destruction of opium, was exiled to Xinjiang.

It was during this exile that Lin Zexu introduced the karez irrigation system to Xinjiang, helping the region obtain a stable water source.

This finally allowed Xinjiang, which the Qing dynasty had always regarded as a barren land, to be truly developed.

It was no longer a desolate desert with impoverished people, a place that didn't resemble a homeland at all.

Speaking of Xinjiang, we must mention Zuo Zongtang. His insistence on recovering Xinjiang may have been influenced by a meeting and conversation he had with Lin Zexu when he was young.

Lin Zexu was already old at the time and was preparing to resign and retire. When he passed through Hunan, the young Zuo Zongtang heard of his great reputation and went to visit him. The two quickly became close friends despite their age difference because of their shared ideals.

Lin Zexu imparted a great deal of experience and insights into frontier management to Zuo Zongtang, and also passed on the idea of ​​"opening one's eyes to the world" to Zuo Zongtang. In Zuo Zongtang's later words, "I will carry on your aspirations."

Of course, the truly rare talents that Nie Yu could remember and name were either unborn or infants still nursing.

Lin Zexu was different; he had grown up and had even passed the imperial examinations under the puppet Qing regime, so he had a good impression of the new Han dynasty.

……

Nanjing.

Nie Yu is currently receiving a delegation of envoys from various vassal states.

Although they are called vassal states, they can only be considered as four countries: Britain (East India Company), Portugal (Macau), Lanfang, and Daiyan.

Because of his deep impression of Lanfang from his previous life, Nie Yu still gave priority to meeting the envoys from Lanfang and Daiyan.

Upon entering the palace, the messengers of Lanfang and Daiyan bowed deeply.

"Jiang Wubo, envoy of Lanfang (Wu Dayou, envoy of Daiyan), pays respects to His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Han!"

"No need for formalities, please take a seat!" Looking at these two "foreign envoys" with dark skin, pure Chinese faces, and fluent Mandarin, the Hongsi official in charge of recording Nie Yu felt a strange sense of incongruity.

Nie Yu didn't react that strongly. He had seen the name Lanfangguo too many times in his previous life; it was almost a typical example of overseas Chinese establishing a nation.

Jiang Wubo and Wu Dayou had already sat down and were staring at each other.

Although both countries are Chinese-majority countries in Borneo, in terms of national relations, Dai Yan Kingdom should be considered a vassal state of Lan Fang Kingdom.

For example, it's like the difference between Denmark and Greenland.

Moreover, Daiyan Kingdom was a feudal state, while Lanfang Kingdom was a large-scale republic.

Ignoring the relationship between the two countries, Nie Yu began by asking, "Approximately how many Chinese people are there in Lanfang and Daiyan countries combined?"

Jiang Wubo and Wu Dayou were both stunned for a moment.

After a moment, Jiang Chengbo replied: "Your Majesty, Lanfang has only been established for twenty years. Although the Chinese people in the country have united and worked together to defeat many enemies in Borneo, the total number of Chinese people in Lanfang and Daiyan is still not very large, only about 400,000."

"Four hundred thousand people, that's already quite good," Nie Yu said with a smile.

It's really quite good, much more than he expected.

It's unbelievable that such a small country as Lanfang could have so many overseas Chinese. No wonder they yearn to establish a nation, and why the old dog Qianlong was so wary of Lanfang, forbidding it from becoming a vassal state of China.

Nie Yu then asked, "Lanfang and Daiyan, what is the current status of Borneo? Does it have any powerful enemy or neighboring countries?"

Nie Yu's question was actually aimed at asking the extent to which the Dutch had penetrated Borneo.

Because Nie Yu remembered that the Lanfang Kingdom in history was colonized and destroyed by the Dutch.

Jiang Wubo said, “The area east of Borneo is still the territory of the indigenous people. Our Lanfang Kingdom is located west of Borneo, but West Borneo is not entirely Lanfang’s land. There is also a piece of land here that belongs to the Heshun General Hall, which is an alliance of fourteen other Chinese companies in West Borneo.”

"However, the He Shun General Administration and my Lan Fang Kingdom are currently in a state of hostility due to ideological differences. Also hostile are the foreign devils who have attempted to invade Borneo over the past few decades. These foreign devils are particularly greedy. They not only want the entire Borneo and its gold mines, but also want to enslave all the native aborigines and Chinese of Borneo."

Nie Yu was completely bewildered after hearing this. What was this Heshun General Hall? He had never heard of it before.
Of course I've never heard of it, because historically, the Heshun General Hall was simply incorporated into the territory of Lanfang by the Dutch for convenience.

Since they were all Chinese and opposed the Dutch colonization of Borneo, they were all enemies of the Chinese.

Nie Yu didn't ask in detail what the Heshun General Hall was or where it was located. Instead, he inquired about the internal affairs system of Lanfang Kingdom: "What kind of system does Lanfang Kingdom have now? I mean, how is your country governed? Is there a king or some other position internally? And what about the judiciary, education, and economy? How do you manage these?"

Jiang Wubo was already somewhat puzzled when he heard this.

This young emperor of the Han Dynasty seems quite different from that old Manchu emperor!

Jiang Wubo considered his words briefly before continuing, "The political system of my Lanfang Kingdom can be mainly divided into five parts:
Firstly, an armory was established to manufacture weapons, while simultaneously organizing young and middle-aged men in the country to train and practice martial arts and the use of firearms.

Secondly, tax inspectors were appointed, and a tax system was established. For example, merchants were required to pay taxes, miners were required to pay mining taxes, and farmers were required to pay land taxes.

Thirdly, establish Chinese language schools and hire Confucian scholars to teach, so that the Han people of Lanfang will not forget their national language and ancestral home.

Fourth, retain the company and use it to develop the Borneo mines.

Fifth, enforce the law strictly and govern the country by law.

Jiang Wubo was afraid that Emperor Nie Yu would not accept the fourth and fifth points, so he spoke very briefly, almost glossing over them.

Article 4 is alright, it just involves establishing a company. But Article 5, which is about ruling the country by law, is based on the Tiandihui's rebellious program. Every word of it is blatantly treasonous.

Jiang Wubo deliberately didn't elaborate, and Nie Yu wasn't oblivious to it, but even just the first three rules were already quite astonishing.

The establishment of arsenals and the training of all able-bodied men was very close to the reserve military service system of later generations. The appointment of tax inspectors to clarify the tax system was also not a problem. The establishment of Chinese language schools was an effective way to cultivate talent.

Within Lanfang, there must be capable people who know what the powerful overseas Chinese community needs most.

Nie Yu then asked, "What is the purpose of the tribute mission from Lanfang and Daiyan?"

Jiang Wubo and Wu Dayou exchanged a glance, and Jiang Wubo spoke first: "Reporting to His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Han Dynasty, the Kingdoms of Lanfang and Daiyan have come to pay tribute to the Celestial Han Dynasty, wishing to offer up their entire nation's territory and submit to the Celestial Han Dynasty!"

……

(End of this chapter)