Recently, Narexuan was a little troubled.
It wasn't that he was troubled. After all, the source of the trouble had been solved. However, there were still many small troubles. In addition to some internal problems in the country and the reconstruction of Pengshiluo's mansion, Narexuan's biggest worry was the fact that his Han officials, soldiers, and people kept leaving him.
The reason was the establishment of Burma Town and the establishment of Xiao Ruxun's absolute control over Burma Town. After that, Xiao Ruxun announced to the Han immigrants in various small countries throughout Southeast Asia, hoping that they could return to the embrace of Huaxia and join the impoverished Burma Town, which had nothing but land. He would give them land according to the population and the number of registered permanent residents, which was several times more than the land in the Central Plains, in exchange for their return.
Since the Southern Song Dynasty was destroyed by the Mongols and Yuan Dynasties, there were some people who were unwilling to be citizens of a destroyed country under the iron hooves of foreign tribes and went to Southeast Asia to seek survival. Throughout the Mongols and Yuan Dynasties, there were many such cases. During the early Ming Dynasty, such cases almost disappeared. With the intense annexation of land and the prosperity of commercial activities in the late Ming Dynasty, a large number of merchants who were originally farmers began to settle in Southeast Asia. Most of these people were from the coastal provinces.
It should be said that if it wasn't for the fact that they had lost their land, they wouldn't be willing to leave their hometown and go to a foreign country thousands of miles away. However, they had no choice but to go to a foreign country to make a living. Some people were lucky and made a fortune in a foreign country, but most of them were still working in sweatshops with a meager salary. Their lives were quite poor. These people made up the majority of the overseas Chinese. Perhaps what they looked forward to was still farming in their hometown, working at sunrise and resting at sunset.
However, their hometown no longer had their land. Without land, they couldn't survive. This was the tragic fate of China's farmers. In order to survive, they could only engage in commerce and handicrafts. The probability of making a fortune overseas was more than the probability of making a fortune in China.
However, this was not their wish. In the current situation where they had a strong sense of nostalgia, being able to return to China and live a comfortable and prosperous life in the past was what they looked forward to.
And Xiao Ruxun's announcement brought them hope.
While sending people to welcome the refugees, Xiao Ruxun also sent ships to various small countries in Southeast Asia where the Chinese lived to issue Daming Summons, calling on the Chinese to settle down in Myanmar Town. He announced that Myanmar had already belonged to Shenzhou, belonged to Huaxia, and needed to be developed and built. As long as everyone went there, they would be able to get the land.
This was a very attractive condition, even more so for most of the Chinese who were working hard overseas.
Although the small countries were dissatisfied … Nonsense, of course they were dissatisfied. Although the number of Chinese was not high, they were considered strong labor force. They lacked population and needed these Chinese to work for them. Not to mention, there were also some rich Chinese merchants who could provide them with more tax revenue and more advanced production. Now that they were all called away by an imperial edict, what should they do?
However, Xiao Ruxun did not care about this. At the moment when Myanmar had just been conquered and occupied, no one dared to bare their teeth at the Daming Summons, who was in the limelight. Although they were dissatisfied, they could only swallow their anger and watch the Chinese leave with the Daming Soldiers with a smile.
Naturally, not everyone left. Some people did not believe it. The Ming Army did not explain and took away those who believed it. Those who did not believe it stayed and continued to work hard.
Compared to these laborers, the rich Chinese merchants had their own conditions and channels to understand the actual situation in the real Myanmar Town. Although Xiao Ruxun also welcomed them to settle down in the territory of Huaxia, they undoubtedly had more thinking and practical problems.
This problem was even more obvious in Siam, which became the source of Narexun's worry.
Narexun was the king of Southeast Asia who employed the most Chinese people. From officials to generals to ordinary people, there were basically Han people. Han officials were even an indispensable part of his civil servant system.
They helped Narexun build the administrative foundation of Siam, so Narexun needed them very much. However, Narexun was not a Han king, but a barbarian king. The Chinese who had left their homes were willing to follow him for survival, but more importantly, they were still willing to follow Daming's people.
After the establishment of the Myanmar Town and Xiao Ruxun's rule in Myanmar, Xiao Ruxun's announcement also reached Siam. Because the distance was very close, the Chinese in Siam did not suspect anything. Therefore, the ferocious wave of immigration began.
The Han officials and soldiers were taken care of by Narexun. About 60% of them were unwilling to leave because of his kindness. However, the ordinary Han farmers and craftsmen basically all chose to leave. In a short period of time, out of the tens of thousands of Chinese in Siam, only slightly more than 1,000 people were still with Narexun.
Most of them went directly to Myanmar. Their thoughts were very simple. If Myanmar Town was really like what Xiao Ruxun said, with farmland and a good life, then they would stay. It could be considered as returning to their ancestral home. If it was not good, then they could just escape back.
However, when they arrived at Burma Town and were given land that was several times larger than that of Huaxia's territory according to their household registration and population, and received the title deed to the land, no one mentioned going back to Burma anymore.
In the hearts of the Chinese in this era, land was always the most important foundation, even more important than money.
After the first batch of people in Siam was satisfied, the news spread quickly. Not only Siam, but the Han people in other small countries also began to move. They began to drag their families to Myanmar Town. Somehow, the news even spread to the border provinces such as Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangdong, and Guangxi. Some people in these places, who suffered from taxes and oppression from the rich families, secretly dragged their families to Myanmar Town.
Of course, Xiao Ruxun's plan to recall immigrants was not smooth sailing. In Luzon, which was the Philippines, it encountered obstacles from the Spanish colonial authorities. When several of Daming's ships arrived at Luzon Island and began to spread the news to the local Chinese, the Spanish forcefully intervened. They thought that Daming had entered their territory without permission and had violated their territorial rights. They demanded that Daming's soldiers and ships leave immediately.
Of course, the officers of the Ming Army would not admit defeat. They ignored them and continued to read the edict. When the Philippine Governor's Office in Spain learned about Daming's strong fighting power, they were afraid of Daming. Seeing the Ming Army reading the edict unscrupulously as if there was no one else around, they only dared to stand aside and watch. They did not dare to move or stop them.
Xiao Ruxun's call received great support and support from the local Chinese miners and laborers. Under the oppression of the Spanish, thousands of Chinese who worked as laborers responded to the call and were willing to follow Daming's ships to Luzon. According to Xiao Ruxun's request, the first to take away the single men, followed by the young men with families. After more than a thousand people were stuffed into the three ships, they could not fit anymore. They had to wait for the next batch.
After going back and forth three times, the Philippine Governor's Office could not sit still.
The Spanish were different from other small countries in Southeast Asia. They did not have a vassal relationship with Daming. They did not even have trade contacts. Instead, they were wary of each other and hostile to each other. There were tens of thousands of Chinese immigrants in Luzon. The number was very large. For the Spanish, they were a very important labor resource. These Chinese were very hardworking and many of them were good at doing business. Every year, they brought a lot of taxes to the Spanish authorities. They welcomed the Chinese to settle down.
At that time, the Spanish included a chapter on conquering China in their conquest plan. They believed that China was the only civilized country besides them. They would become high-quality subjects of the Empire. Therefore, they should be treated differently. They could not treat the Chinese like they treated the other indigenous people.
However, the so-called differential treatment was just a little better. There was no essential difference. The real differential treatment was for the rich and the big businessmen. Ordinary people could not be treated differently.
Therefore, the rich and the rich held a wait-and-see attitude towards Xiao Ruxun's declaration. They were not like the ordinary people who worked hard.
They also cooperated with the Spanish colonial authorities to move some Chinese immigrants to other islands so that the Ming Army could not find them. If the Ming Army could not find them, there was nothing they could do. The Spanish did not dare to use force against the Ming Army, but they would still do it to the Tibetans. The Ming Army's ships could not find the Han people. Although they knew that the Spanish were playing tricks, Xiao Ruxun also warned them that it was not the time to have a showdown with the Spanish. They should not excessively provoke them. Therefore, the Ming Army's ships could only turn to other places.
In fact, it did not matter. Xiao Ruxun did not care whether these big businessmen came or not. What he cared about were these hardworking ordinary people.
Xiao Ruxun actually felt a little more relaxed when the imperial court recalled the troops from the other regions. This way, he could eliminate the interference of the local system on his future army and start from scratch. He could recruit and train a powerful army that completely belonged to him, one that was deeply engraved with his imprint.
The imperial court did not give him money? It didn't matter. Xiao Ruxun had long made preparations. Her father had accumulated a large amount of wealth in the capital for several years, and she herself had accumulated a large amount of wealth in the capital for several months. All of this wealth had been exchanged for banknotes, antiques, paintings, jades, jewelry, land, and houses before Xiao Wenkui retired and returned to his hometown. All of this had been exchanged for banknotes, antiques, paintings, jades, jewelry, land, and houses.
Then, after Xiao Ruxun obtained the qualification to guard Myanmar, under the arrangement of Yang Zhao, Yang Caiyun, and Xiao Ruzhi, and under the protection of Ye Mengxiong, Xiao Ruxun sent his personal guards to secretly sneak back to the local area. With his personal general Wang Hui as the commander-in-chief, he divided the huge amount of bank notes into several batches and exchanged them for a large amount of silver in the banks in Zhejiang, Southern Zhili, Fujian, and other places. Then, they were transported back to Myanmar through ships along with the purchased food, seeds, and necessary equipment.
Xiao Ruxun had already started the comprehensive development plan of Myanmar. At the same time, he also felt a little sad. The money that a military general had obtained through corruption and gifts was actually worth millions of taels of silver. Antiques, jades, calligraphy, and paintings were all valuable. The annual revenue of the imperial court was only three or four million taels of silver, which was actually equal to the family property of a corrupt official. Daming, where did all the money go?
It was right here.
The reason why he sent Wang Hui back to the mainland was not only to get silver, but also to get tea leaves and recruit tea farmers, silkworm farmers, and other craftsmen. Xiao Ruxun planned to introduce tea in Myanmar. Tea leaves, silk, and porcelain were the three best-selling products of ancient China that the West could not understand. With these three products, China completed a comprehensive trade suppression with the West in the hundreds of years before the Opium War. It was not until the Industrial Revolution that China's handicraft industry was defeated by the West's machinery.
But at this moment, these things were still unsolvable. If Xiao Ruxun could complete the replication of tea leaves, silk, and porcelain in Myanmar, then he could naturally build Myanmar into a real trade center between the East and the West. He could attract a large number of Western merchants to Myanmar to spend, and if they came, they could also bring Western products. Xiao Ruxun could attract merchants from Southeast Asian countries, and even wealthy merchants from Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi, and Guangdong to do business in Myanmar.
If he built up a few port cities in Myanmar, he could collect business taxes. Daming the mainland's business taxes, Xiao Ruxun could completely control Myanmar, and no one could interfere with his business taxes. The officials in the capital thought that Myanmar was a mess and there was no profit to be made, so they threw the power to make the rules to Xiao Ruxun. But when they realized the value of Myanmar, it had already been managed by Xiao Ruxun like an iron bucket, and no needle could be inserted or water could be splashed.
Xiao Ruxun knew that the Shan State in the north of Myanmar was suitable for growing tea, so he hoped to recruit tea farmers in the mainland to introduce tea trees to this area. In addition, he also wanted to recruit people who could raise silkworms and introduce mulberry trees. The natural conditions in Myanmar were very good, suitable for the cultivation of mulberry trees and silkworms. If he could recruit a group of people who could raise silkworms and grow mulberry trees in Fujian, silk could also be developed in a few years, and Xiao Ruxun could produce silk independently.
Silk and tea leaves were easy to get. With the cooperation of Ye Mengxiong, it was not difficult to get them, but porcelain was a bit troublesome. The quality of porcelain from the folk kiln could not be compared with that from the official kiln. Most of the official kiln's porcelain was supplied to the royal family, and a small part was exported abroad to earn foreign exchange. It was still very difficult for Xiao Ruxun to get involved.
Of course, if some civil porcelain was produced, it was not difficult, and there was a market. However, if he wanted to engage in the production of high-end artistic porcelain, he had to hire old technicians from the official kiln, which could be regarded as poaching the royal family. After thinking about it, Xiao Ruxun decided not to do it, so as not to irritate those old masters, so he would only do civil porcelain, and not art.
At the same time, Xiao Ruxun secretly played talent immigration in Zhejiang, Fujian, and other places. With high income and high treatment, he attracted those folk craftsmen to settle in Myanmar. Whether they were carpenters, blacksmiths, cooks, winemakers, or even people who could boil salt, as long as they had a skill, Xiao Ruxun would send people to contact them and attract them to Myanmar.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
