Chapter 326 Shannan Kingdom
Chapter 326 Shannan Kingdom
On June 17, the eighth year of the Tongzhi reign, the rebel "Grand Marshal of the Army" Du Wenxiu was conferred the title of "King of Shannan" and accepted Shao Quanzhong's offer of amnesty.
The Qing government established the Shannan Kingdom, divided 90,000 square kilometers of land and granted it to Du Wenxiu, ordering Du Wenxiu to take office immediately and serve as a buffer for the country.
There is a Shannan County in the snowy area, but it has nothing to do with the newly established Shannan Kingdom. The "mountain" in Shannan Kingdom refers to the Himalayas.
The southern foothills of the Himalayas is the northernmost tip of the Indian Ocean tropical marine climate zone. It is rich in water resources and fertile land, and is known as the Jiangnan of the snowy region.
In later generations, more than 700,000 Indian immigrants came here. After years of reproduction, the population reached 1.4 million, with an average of only 16 people per square kilometer.
Shao Quanzhong's move was even bigger than that of the Indians. He immigrated one million people there at one time to guard this land that was difficult to control due to the obstruction of plateaus and mountains.
Shao Quanzhong, sitting on the kang across the stove and with the title of imperial envoy, interfered in the affairs of the Governor-General of Yunnan and Guizhou because he was impressed by the level of organization of Du Wenxiu's gang.
Du Wenxiu appointed officials in the occupied area and implemented the rule for fourteen years. The government orders were smooth, just like a small government. Then, if they moved there as a whole, they would be able to hold on to the land firmly.
The Dali bandit government was indeed very efficient. At Du Wenxiu's command, the troops, officials, and Ahhuns from all over the country were mobilized, immediately organizing all the rebels under their command, bringing their belongings, and began another large-scale population migration organized by Shao Quanzhong.
Two hundred thousand bandits brought their families with them, and the total number of rioters reached one million. They pushed carts and took their belongings and immediately began an immigration operation that was even larger in scale than Ma Zhan'ao's expedition to the Holy Land.
The migration of one million people did not happen in one wave. Those near Dali were notified first and set off in the first batch. The immigrants set out in succession according to their distance, and the team stretched for hundreds of miles.
The Qing court issued a special amnesty order for the young emperor, pardoning all the other people who followed the bandits in the rebellion and allowing them to stay in the local area and continue to be obedient citizens, including the local Han, Bai, Yi, Naxi, Dai, Lisu, and Jingpo people.
After this migration was completed, there were basically no more rioters in Yunnan and Guizhou, just like in Shaanxi and Gansu. This was a strategy for long-term stability.
As for their migration destination, that was East India. The beliefs there were basically the same as theirs, so the neighbors could be more harmonious, right?
Looking at the map, Dali and the newly formed Shannan Kingdom are very close in a straight line, but you can't walk there. It is impossible for one million immigrants to cross the Hengduan Mountains.
The hundreds of miles long immigrant team made a big circle and headed east to Guangxi, entered the Pearl River system near Baise, took a boat to Guangzhou, and moved into the immigration camp prepared for them at the mouth of the Pearl River.
Then, escorted by the Nanyang Navy, it boarded a transport ship and bypassed the Strait of Malacca, passing through the Indian Ocean to reach Chittagong.
The distance is 14,000 miles, which is about the same distance that Ma Zhan'ao traveled to the holy land.
However, their journey was much easier. They did not have to cross the Gobi Desert in the severe winter, nor did they have to extort food along the way. The government provided them with food and transport ships along the way, and most of the journey was at sea.
Did the government suffer a loss by providing food and drink? If they had not been recruited, it would have taken another four years of war to be wiped out. The consumption of hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides for four years and the destruction of the territory would have been enough to cover the travel and food expenses.
Not to mention how much it would cost to restore the devastated post-war economy, Shao Quanzhong's wild idea definitely achieved a win-win result for all parties.
The Qing-British Hailing Agreement signed by Shao Quanzhong and Robert Hart required a railway line in East India. Who would guard it? Who would build the railway? All of these required money from the imperial court.
If we send ordinary immigrants and troops, the immigration costs alone will be enormous, and we will also have to bear the costs of maintaining permanent garrison.
These rebellious criminals don’t have to pay immigration fees, they just have to pay for transportation and food on the way.
The imperial court did not even issue weapons to these railway guards, so they used the outdated matchlock rifles, swords, spears, and bows and arrows that they had when they rebelled.
They were not going to fight the British Army. They only needed to deal with local thieves in East India who wanted to steal the rails.
Anyway, Shao Quanzhong had no intention of conflicting with Britain in East India. It was too early to just build the railway and wait for the collapse of the British Empire.
Du Wenxiu, the vassal king, was obliged to do labor to build the Meng Railway, send troops to protect the Meng Railway, and station elite troops in Chittagong to guard the Indian Ocean outlet of the snowy region, without spending a penny. This is the meaning of your vassal state. Am I making you a king for nothing? Using Shannan State to support Meng Railway is the reason for establishing the vassal state this time.
When building a railway, the imperial court had to send people to survey, design, and transport the rails, but by reducing the labor cost, more than half of the money could be saved.
Including the railway from Longjuzhai through Xi'an, Lanzhou, Ili Province, Kokand Province all the way to the four vassal states in the Western Regions, the rioters made an indelible contribution to China's railway industry.
Of course, labor is not slavery, and the efficiency of Mengtie's construction will be greatly reduced. However, there is no rush, so we can build it slowly.
Railways inside the snowy areas are more difficult and take longer to build. I am afraid that they will have to go through the same setbacks as the English Channel Tunnel, and it may take 70 to 80 years to build.
As for their rebellion and separation from China? Shao Quanzhong was an ally of the British, and he sent troops from Chittagong to deal with them as if it were a joke.
Besides, can you become independent by rebelling? The world's number one superpower, the British, is next to you. You don't have the support of China, and you still want to be independent? The British can destroy you with a wave of their hands. If Du Wenxiu is not a fool, he would not do this.
As for the railway connecting with the mainland in a few decades, there will be no problem at all.
…………
On June 25, the eighth year of the Tongzhi reign, Shao Quanzhong arrived in Guangzhou. He stopped at Sanmen Island on the way and inspected the Sanmen Island military base under construction.
While he was at sea and had not yet reached Guangzhou, he stretched out his arms and, as the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, helped the Governor-General of Yunnan and Guizhou resolve the rebellion that occupied half of Yunnan's territory, thus eliminating the last major threat to the imperial court.
The court said that Shao Quanzhong was really troublesome.
If Shao Quanzhong had not cooperated with the British and sent immigrants from Chittagong, it would have been extremely difficult and basically impossible for the imperial court to send one million immigrants across the plateau and the Himalayas to actually control the Shannan region.
Although the land is good, it cannot be developed.
How many years has it been empty? Most people don't know that China has this precious land. It's just a matter of order to establish a vassal state. It's a model of doing great things without spending money.
Shao Quanzhong has not rebelled until now. He helped the court get rid of the last major traitor and has been expanding the territory for the Qing Dynasty.
Even Wenxiang had to admit that although Shao Quanzhong was a powerful official, he was extremely loyal to the Qing Dynasty.
It is said that when Wenxiang was the governor of Yunnan, the court sent him to the west for the first time to fight Du Wenxiu, but he was defeated and returned with great losses of troops and generals, and the country wasted its children.
Shao Quanzhong sent a lobbyist, and Du Wenxiu obediently led all the rioters to move away. They had no choice but to obey.
The Guangdong-Guangxi Governor's Office was located in Zhaoqing for more than a hundred years, and has now moved to Guangzhou Prefecture, at No. 116 Yuehua Road, Yuexiu District.
Three battalions of the Imperial Guards were stationed around the Governor's Mansion, waiting for a long time. They had separated from Shao Quanzhong in Hamburg and followed Deng Shichang's temporary escort fleet to escort Pu's aid back to the country.
With the arrival of Shao Quanzhong, the four battalions gathered together and Shao Quanzhong's guards force returned to the size of a brigade.
The new chief secretary Isabel and Nanny Wang were busy directing the soldiers of the guard platoon to clean and decorate the rooms and contact the telegraph room. The first step was to decorate the study.
Shao Quanzhong had just sat down on the armchair behind the desk and picked up the brewed black tea when Isabel came to report, "Liu Yongfu wants to see you and has been waiting for you in Guangzhou for more than ten days."
(End of this chapter)