The only thing I'm afraid of in the world is seriousness!
Ji Kun, who was the number one cruel official in the Ming Dynasty, was a serious person. Although he was very reluctant to be a cruel official, he would still search homes seriously, more seriously than all the northern censors, so he got a discipline. The nickname of King of Hell became one of the three officials with the worst official reputation in the Ming Dynasty - the other two were Grand Duke Luo Papiluo and Huang Huhuang Zongxi!
Grand Duke Luo was scraping land in Songjiang Prefecture, and he made Songjiang Prefecture the most tax-paying prefecture in the Ming Dynasty, surpassing Suzhou Prefecture, which had been the top tax-paying prefecture for more than 200 years!
Huang Zongxi was in charge of merit examinations in the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and was responsible for tormenting the county magistrates of Jiangnan Province. Every year, more than a dozen county magistrates were deprived of their official positions by him, and this guy was so incompetent that it was useless no matter who interceded or gave gifts. ...
Although Ji Kun went abroad, his character of "seriously doing evil" could not be changed. When he stayed in Jinghai City, he heard the news of the King of Rinan Zhu Cizhao talking about Siam's expulsion of China. At that time, he pointed out that King Basatong was in the legal system mistakes made on.
Legally speaking, the Kingdom of Siam is a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty!
The Ming Dynasty was the suzerain, and Siam was the vassal. A vassal country unreasonably expels the citizens of the suzerain country. This is going on the road of rebellion!
As the most ruthless official in the Ming Dynasty, how could Ji Kun just watch and ignore the signs of rebellion?
So he immediately issued an order in the name of "Imperial Envoy Plenipotentiary" to Zheng Hongkui (formerly known as Zheng Zhibiao, Zheng Zhilong's fourth brother), the deputy commander-in-chief of the Dongning Navy who was escorting the mission to Europe, to change course and go to Siam to ask for help. statement.
Zhu Cizhao happened to be a little tired of Zhang Yong, the deputy envoy of Jinghai Province who had a good relationship with Qiu Mengmei, so he simply asked him to take 1,000 Shaanxi soldiers who were doing nothing in Jinghai and always causing trouble to go to Siam to look for trouble. ...
Now Zhang Yong and 1,000 elite soldiers of the Jinghai Navy have accompanied the two envoys Ji Kun and Li Shaoyou, as well as the Dutch Ambassador Van Diemen, ashore, and have also occupied a large island called Dinei Island - no The island is a small plain on the east side of the Chao Phraya River. Because a tributary of the Chao Phraya River flows through the east side of this island, it forms a terrain surrounded by water.
This local island is located in Haikou. There are many overseas Chinese living on the island. Most of the residents can speak a little Chinese and are not very resistant to the Chinese army coming from the sea.
So Ji Kun left Zhang Yong to lead 500 Jinghai soldiers to guard the inner island. He and Li Shaoyou took the remaining 500 people, hired 20 wooden boats, and headed for Ayutthaya City along the Chao Phraya River.
"Are you from Ming Dynasty?" Ji Kun, who was sitting on a big boat, saw Ye Jiaxin wearing Han clothes while rowing, so he asked.
Ye Jiaxin said: "The younger one is from Ming Dynasty, from Hubei."
"Hubei?" Ji Kun was stunned, "That far away?"
There are many Cantonese and Hu Jian people here in Nanyang, but not many people from Hubei!
Ji Kun asked again: "Why did you come to Siam?"
Ye Jiaxin sighed: "Isn't it because of the feudal debt?"
"The feudal debt..." Ji Kun sighed with a wry smile.
This feudal debt has harmed a large number of rich peasants in Hubei - the rich peasants themselves will not copy and sell feudal debts, but many big businessmen who do business with them have lost money in the feudal debt trading, so the debt crisis has been postponed. , and by the way, a group of rich peasants in Hubei were cheated.
Wuhan is now the Xijing of the Ming Dynasty, and is certainly one of the most powerful areas for implementing various policies. Therefore, many rich peasants in Hubei were lured to go to sea.
Ji Kun sighed, "How long have you been in Siam?"
"Almost a year." Ye Jiaxin replied.
"So do you think Siam is good?"
"Okay, of course..." Ye Jiaxin said in his heart: It's better than Ming Dynasty! The land is flat, the climate is humid, and there is a woman who is willing to marry him despite being lonely from afar, and there are no deceptive vassal debts! Is there a better place in the world?
Ji Kun looked at Ye Jiaxin's expression thoughtfully, and after a while he asked again: "Can you speak Siamese?"
"Yes."
Ye Jiaxin is not stupid and has some talent for learning languages. Under the guidance of his wife, he can speak Siamese in just over half a year.
Of course, I don’t know Siamese characters, and I can’t master complex vocabulary, but I can talk about it.
"Oh." Ji Kun said, "Then just follow me as a general officer. When the negotiations are over, I will report the merits to you."
General? Still want to report the merit? Do you want to be an official? No, just be an official!
This is really pie in the sky! Could it be that my family is about to turn around?
After a burst of ecstasy in Ye Jiaxin's heart, he suddenly became a little worried and asked in a low voice: "Ambassador, do you think you can negotiate?"
"Hmph!" Ji Kun stroked his beard, "Why not? Our Ming Dynasty is the suzerain of Siam, and we have soldiers stationed in Ca Mau and Jinghai, and there are naval forces at the mouth of the Chao Phraya River. The Dutch also support the Ming Dynasty!"
As he spoke, he glanced at Van Diemen, who was sitting on the same boat with him and was wiping sweat from the heat. "Ambassador Diemen, does the Netherlands support the Ming Dynasty?"
Van Diemen has been in China for several years and can already speak Chinese. Now when he heard Ji Kun's question, he felt annoyed - he has always been the only one to stir up trouble and stir up conflicts. How can you, a Chinese bureaucrat, be used as a foreign gun now? Already?
"Of course we support Ming Dynasty's legitimate rights and interests in Siam, but the rights and interests of the Kingdom of Siam should also be fully protected!"
Ji Kun smiled: "That's natural. I, Ming Dynasty, am the suzerain of Siam, so of course I have the responsibility to protect my kingdom!"
Van Diemen got a headache as soon as he heard about the clan master and vassal.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, there was a vassal and tributary system in Southeast Asia with the Ming Dynasty as the supreme dynasty and Southeast Asian countries as vassals.
And there is a huge conflict between this system and the Western colonial system!
If we look at it according to Western legal principles, a country like Siam is the protectorate of the Ming Dynasty, and can even be regarded as a part of the Ming Empire!
Their sovereignty is incomplete, so it is easy for them to slip into the Ming colonial position.
As long as the Ming Dynasty regains its strong navigation capabilities, those countries in the East that have traditionally relied on China and are incapable of establishing strong maritime power will naturally recognize the suzerainty of the Celestial Kingdom...
The Ming Dynasty, which has consolidated suzerainty, will further seek ways to convert suzerainty into benefits - the previous Ming emperors may not have done that, but the current Ming emperor will definitely maximize the benefits of suzerainty.
In other words, the Ming Dynasty would seek to colonize vassal states in Southeast Asia!
...
At this moment, in the so-called invincible city of Ayutthaya.
King Basatong, who had never fought in a war, believed in Buddhism and loved poetry, was sitting on a throne wrapped in gold, looking at the two rows of helpless naked men in the hall, frowning and saying nothing.
These naked men are all his ministers!
The courtiers of the Kingdom of Siam do not wear official uniforms. They go to court bare-chested and naked, so looking down from the throne, you can tell at a glance who has a good figure and who needs to work hard to lose weight... ...Oh, they all seem a little fat!
King Basatong vaguely remembered what he saw in the court hall of his grandfather King Egathasara when he was a boy. They were all muscular men!
Those tough men were all professional killers left by Emperor Naresuan, the great uncle of King Pasathon. The emperor was extremely cruel. He fought wars and conquests every year. With the power of Siam, he single-handedly defeated the two big countries of Burma and Chenla. First, He rebelled against Burma and restored the country, then defeated Burma three times, and finally conquered Chenla, and forcibly created a great Siamese Empire!
However, more than 40 years of continuous wars (counting from the time when Mang Yinglong conquered Siam) also left Siam in ruins and suffered serious population losses, especially the death of a large number of young men. Ayutthaya's national power was exhausted and it was really powerless. Maintain a huge empire.
Therefore, the three generations of Siamese kings after Emperor Naresuan the Great avoided war as much as possible, allowing the people to recuperate and develop agricultural production, and at the same time vigorously recruited foreign immigrants (mainly Chinese) in order to restore national strength as soon as possible.
However, more than forty years of civil rule have made the nobles of the Kingdom of Siam forget how to fight. At this moment, the Ming Dynasty, which was living in a daze, suddenly showed its power, first subduing the chaotic Annan, and then In one fell swoop, the surviving Champa city was destroyed, and then it gradually encroached on the territory in the eastern part of Chenla.
In this case, King Basatong, who felt in danger, felt that the Ming Dynasty immigrants in the country were a threat, and it was necessary to control them and prevent the Ming Dynasty immigrants near Ayutthaya City from leaving.
But who knew that not long after his decree was issued, not many Ming Dynasty immigrants were driven away, and the Ming Dynasty's naval fleet came to question...
