RPAGF Chapter 56 Your ancestors didn't have braids!
Chapter 56 Your ancestors didn't have braids!
Chapter 56 Your ancestors didn't have braids!
In the last two years, mainly after the Han Chinese directly conquered Luzon and executed all the Spaniards in Manila, the status of Chinese in Southeast Asia has risen sharply.
Anyone who knew this news, whether indigenous or European, became much more polite to the Chinese.
Just like Qin Wenyuan and a few other businessmen, they were arrogant after arriving in Singapore, and the British officers did not dare to do anything to them. On the contrary, they believed that their safety should indeed be protected.
When the Han Dynasty announced its intention to take over Borneo, the Dutch on the island did not hesitate at all and immediately organized a fleet to evacuate to Batavia, leaving almost no trace of regret.
The Dutch have retreated, and the Han army has not yet arrived. Now, all the Chinese forces are completely free.
Many overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia felt that this was the best situation, with the government maintaining a detached stance, providing them with a great deterrent effect, but without directly governing them.
Now that things have come to this point, the dispute has finally been resolved, and we know exactly what the person who convened this discussion wanted to discuss.
Some people wanted to be a frontier chieftain, or even just a mountain bandit king. As long as they could be the leader, they were unwilling to be ordinary people or even minor officials.
This is also a typical difference between the Chinese people with some knowledge and the European people.
However, many clear-headed people felt that this was simply wishful thinking, and that it was useless to rebel at any time.
When a new dynasty achieves a decisive victory over the old dynasty, especially when the new dynasty is "invincible," the remaining forces can be subdued with a simple proclamation.
After Xie Mingquan and Gu Liu had their conversation, the others around them started discussing it noisily.
Most people think that Hsieh Ming-chuan's idea is indeed good, but there is really no other choice now.
No one believed that their limited strength was enough to contend with the unified Han Dynasty.
The crowd was grumbling and complaining noisily, as if they were about to resign themselves to their fate.
But at this moment, a rather sharp voice raised a somewhat sensitive question: "How should we account for what happened to the Heaven and Earth Society sixty years ago?"
"Among the meritorious officials of the current New Han Dynasty, there should be a number of former members of the Heaven and Earth Society, right?"
"In the south, they responded to the White Lotus Rebellion and the New Han Dynasty's anti-Qing movement, and many of them later surrendered to the Great Han or were granted amnesty."
Sixty years ago, the newly formed Lanfang Company cooperated with Heshun Company, united more than a dozen similar Chinese organizations in Borneo, and concentrated their efforts to defeat and dismantle the Tiandihui, the largest Chinese force in Borneo at the time.
If Lanfang is truly considered a country, then that battle could even be considered Lanfang's "founding war."
After Lanfang dismantled the Heaven and Earth Society in Borneo, he, as the leader of the organization, obtained a large amount of resources, and his power expanded rapidly as a result. Two years later, he officially began to use the "Lanfang" era name.
It was only after dismantling the Heaven and Earth Society in Borneo that Lanfang went to the Qianlong Emperor to pay tribute and request official recognition.
The war to establish the nation was fought against the Heaven and Earth Society, which was advocating the restoration of the Ming Dynasty and overthrowing the Qing Dynasty. Then, they went to the Qing emperor to request official recognition. If you put these things together, it sounds very unpleasant.
If members of the Heaven and Earth Society who remained in the local area were able to rise to high positions after joining the Han Dynasty, they might actually become hostile to Lanfang and his group if they knew about these things.
Once this situation was made clear, the chaotic scene quickly quieted down.
Those who knew these things looked rather grim, while those who didn't sought answers from their companions.
When Liu Tai'er heard the words "Heaven and Earth Society" from sixty years ago, he remembered what he knew.
Liu Taier sighed inwardly and looked toward the person who had spoken.
They discovered that the man was an old brother whom his companions called Ye Laosan, and that he must have had an uncle who had served as a military officer in the Green Standard Army during the Qing Dynasty.
Perhaps he misses the glory of his ancestors, which is why he hasn't cut off his queue yet.
Liu Tai'er frowned slightly and muttered, "Although the Heaven and Earth Society in various places has the same name, they actually operate independently."
"The Heaven and Earth Society in Guangdong may not know who the Heaven and Earth Society members in Borneo are."
"And this all happened more than 60 years ago, and the people from that time are no longer here."
"Not many people here know the details, and how many people on the mainland might know about it?"
Ye Laosan immediately changed his perspective and reminded him: "The Heaven and Earth Society in Borneo is in ruins, but it has not disappeared. Other Heaven and Earth Societies in Southeast Asia are still around."
"When the Han Dynasty officially went to Southeast Asia, most of these people would submit to it immediately."
"Are we going to gamble without more people knowing?"
"Nobody cares about these things. Won't I get retaliated against later?"
Gu Liu looked at Ye Laosan's braided hair and felt that it looked a bit strange. He stared at him with a stern face and said, "If you're willing to die for the Qing Dynasty, don't drag all your brothers down with you."
"If we fight against the imperial army, we will surely die. The only way for everyone to survive is to surrender to the Han Dynasty."
"Even if someone knows about what happened 60 years ago, it was a war fought over the mines."
"Aren't there enough cases of people fighting over land and water in our hometown?"
"Does the Heaven and Earth Society really think they can persuade the emperor to execute us all because of something like this?"
"If the Heaven and Earth Society had such great power, this imperial court wouldn't be called the Great Han anymore."
"At worst, we'll just get a hard time."
Most people were just scared by Ye Laosan, but after Gu Liu's explanation, they came to their senses.
Lanfang Company was essentially a hometown association. Although the Heaven and Earth Society mostly used the banner of overthrowing the Qing and restoring the Ming, by the mid-Qing Dynasty, most of them had become grassroots mutual aid organizations.
The war between Lanfang Company and the Borneo Heaven and Earth Society was, to exaggerate a bit, a "war to establish a nation."
In layman's terms, the actual form was similar to the Hakka-Tumen fighting, but the scale was far smaller.
At that time, Lanfang Company had only been established for a short time and had not yet reached its current scale of tens of thousands of employees.
Even if the imperial court were to intervene in such matters, it would most likely not escalate the situation significantly.
"What Uncle Gu Liu said is true. In the end, it's just a fight between armed men. The Han Dynasty is not the Hongmen."
"Ye Laosan, you go cut off your braid first, otherwise, whether the big man kills me or not is another matter, but he will definitely kill you first."
Many people figured these things out and then noticed the braid on Ye Laosan's head.
Many people immediately realized that this thing was now a menace and had to be dealt with before the Han arrived.
Gu Liu called to his brothers, who quickly stepped forward and restrained Ye Laosan: "Go get the scissors! Cut off his braid!"
Ye Laosan was startled: "What are you going to do! You can't touch my braid!"
Liu Tai'er sighed and gestured to his fellow villagers to fetch scissors, which he then gave to Xie Mingquan.
Ye Laosan tried to struggle, but Gu Liu and his men held him firmly.
Xie Mingquan leaned closer and grabbed Ye Laosan's braid: "Ye Laosan, we're doing this for your own good, we're doing this to save your life!"
With a serious expression, Xie Mingquan cut off Ye Laosan's shiny braid.
When Gu Liu and the others saw that the braid had been cut off, they released Ye Laosan.
With tears in his eyes, Ye Laosan grabbed his severed braid and wailed in a sob, "This was left to me by our ancestors! I'm an unfilial descendant!"
Liu Tai'er, who was sitting on top, finally couldn't hold back anymore: "Your ancestors didn't have braids!"
Gu Liu chimed in, "Did your ancestors leave this behind? Were your ancestors from the Eight Banners? Or the Aisin Gioro clan?"
Of course, there were still remnants of the old regime in Southeast Asia at this time, not only those who fled when the Han Dynasty was founded, but also those who were originally in Southeast Asia.
However, there aren't many of them; most of them now are clown-like characters.
Most of the Chinese in Southeast Asia had already cut off their queues and put on the new Hanfu that Liu Desheng promoted in mainland China.
Because Chinese people had to dress the same as the natives of the Celestial Empire in order to leverage the prestige of the Celestial Empire to intimidate the natives of Southeast Asia and foreigners from abroad. If they dressed differently, the effect would be greatly reduced.
Therefore, during the Qianlong era, the people of Lanfang all wore Qing Dynasty clothes, and even specially made Qing Dynasty military uniforms for the able-bodied men who took turns patrolling.
Not long after the Han Dynasty unified the country, they also changed into the new Hanfu.
Most of the hometown associations and various grassroots mutual aid organizations in Borneo made decisions very similar to those of Lanfang Company after receiving the notification sent by the Han Dynasty.
First, in accordance with the court's requirements, we cleaned up the garbage within ourselves, and as soon as possible cut off the braids of the very few companions who still had braids. Then we prepared to wait for the court to take over.
Even the organizations established by the remnants of the Han dynasty who fled to Southeast Asia during the Han conquest of the world, most of them cut off their ancestors' queues with tears in their eyes.
Only a very small number of die-hards are prepared to resist, or are hoping to take a break.
However, these people may become the "credit" of others.
In particular, Lanfang, whose leaders were a little guilty, cut off the queues of the old guard and, on Gu Liu's advice, launched a "war" at the end of October before the arrival of the Han army.
They organized most of the able-bodied men to attack a small gang mainly composed of old men, capturing more than thirty of them who still wore queues and sending them to the port of Pontianak to be imprisoned, awaiting the arrival of the Han fleet.
On the fifth day of the eleventh month of the first year of the Han Chang era, a transport fleet under the South China Sea Fleet, carrying a regiment of the main force and five thousand militia households, arrived at the sea off Pontianak, the westernmost point of Borneo.
Although Pontianak is very close to the river estuary, it is mainly used as an inland river port.
Navigation conditions near the estuary of the river where Pontianak is located are extremely poor. Amidst vast stretches of saline mudflats and swamps, there is only a narrow channel, two to three meters deep, connecting to the open sea.
The large ships of the Han Dynasty navy could anchor overseas, while smaller ships could slowly transport people to Pontianak.
Liu Tai'er, the general manager of Lanfang Company, along with Gu Liu and Xie Mingquan, escorted a group of old men with queues (traditional Manchu hairstyles) to kneel solemnly at the Pontianak dock to welcome the "heavenly soldiers".
The main force commander and militia commander in charge of taking over West Borneo were very satisfied to find that everyone in Lanfang was so cooperative and had even taken the initiative to arrest a group of old-timers.
After all the main forces landed, the regimental commander announced the military order of the Governor's Office to Liu Tai'er and others, incorporating all the Chinese currently under the jurisdiction of the Lanfang Company into the newly established "Lanfang Guard".
The military officer dispatched by the imperial court will serve as the militia commander of Lanfang Guard, Liu Tai'er, the original chief of Lanfang Company, will serve as the deputy commander, and two important leaders, Gu Liu and Xie Mingquan, will serve as the deputy commanders.
After the Lanfang Militia Commander took over the Lanfang Company, he mixed 5,000 immigrant households organized from various parts of Guangdong with the original Lanfang personnel and continued to expand and build on the basis of the original Lanfang controlled area.