The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 177 A country “short of women”

If we say that among the many overseas governor-general territories of Qi, which one occupies the largest area, it is the Governor-General of Qianzhou. Its territory includes the vast South Africa, the former Portuguese Mozambique, the former Portuguese Angola, and Hailing Island (today's Madagascar). Sri Lanka), covering an area of ​​more than two million square kilometers, spans two oceans, and its strategic position is also extremely critical.

But to say which governor-general has the largest population, it must be the Annan Governor-General.

As the closest governor-general to the mainland, it can very conveniently receive a large number of Qin immigrants, and has a natural advantage compared to other areas in Qi.

As of the 1720th year of Taiping (), regional census statistics showed that the entire Annan Governorate had a population of million. If we add the hundreds of thousands of Annamites, Khmers, Gia Lai and Champas in the territory, the number exceeds two million.

In order to prevent overseas governor-general territories from becoming larger and out of control of the central government, the Qi cabinet government split the Annan governor-general into two parts in the 1725rd year of Taiping (1705). area), the northern region of the Nam Bo Kingdom (the area around Mae Thuot and Kon Tum in present-day Vietnam, divided between the Champa Kingdom and Qi in ), Lin'an (today's Vung Tau City in Vietnam), Shunde (today's Ba Ria City in Vietnam) , Nanping (now Cam Ranh City, Vietnam), Hung Yen (now Nha Trang City, Vietnam), Yongping (now Sui Hoa City, Vietnam), Xinsheng Island (now Phu Quoc Island) and other coastal areas are still the Annan Governorate.

Hung Chau (today's Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai Province, Binh Duong Province, Long An Province, Tien Giang Province, etc. in Vietnam) and Ca Mau Peninsula (today's Mekong Delta) were merged into the Yen Chau Governor-General.

It can be seen that the Annan Governor-General includes all strategic locations and important ports in the region, while Runzhou includes most of the densely populated areas and grain-producing areas under its jurisdiction, making the two not subordinate to each other. , but a pattern that controls each other.

In fact, as early as seventy or eighty years ago, Qi had no intention of seeking territory in the Annan region and establishing overseas colonies.

Because this place has been passed down for thousands of years. Although it was not eventually included in the territory of the Central Plains Dynasty, it was deeply influenced by Chinese culture, promoted Confucianism, and spread Han customs. The records are all written in Chinese, and the upper-class ruling class also regards speaking Chinese as a symbol of noble status, and they call themselves the Little China of the South.

Furthermore, Annan's hot and humid environment, which has always been a "smoky place", and the fierce folk customs that were not amenable to "kingdom" all forced the Central Plains dynasty to withdraw after a short time after invading Annan. The region was left to separatist rule. When Hanzhou was first established, it was not strong yet, so it naturally did not dare to touch the land.

At the beginning, Qi State only occupied Xinsheng Island, a small island in the southwest, as a transit point for immigrants from the mainland to the mainland of Hanzhou. Facing the Zheng family and Ruan family in Annan who were still fighting life and death in the area, Qi State, limited by its own weakness, always maintained due respect and did not get involved in the civil war between them.

However, during the First Sino-Dutch War in 1639, the arrogant King Nguyen Phuc Lan of Guangnan was bewitched by the Dutch East India Company and sent more than troops to brazenly attack Xinsheng Island.

As a result, they were defeated in a battle by a strong defensive force composed of armed rural soldiers and immigrants on the island, killing and wounding more than 1,400 prisoners. Even the coach Nguyen Thao Long was captured alive, which caused great disgrace to Quang Nam Kingdom.

Later, the angry Guangnan Kingdom dispatched more than 4,000 elites from the north to attack Xinsheng Island.

However, the well-prepared Xinsheng Island gathered more than a thousand musketeers. Under the cover of dozens of artillery pieces, it was no surprise that they severely damaged the invading enemy forces. The commander of the Quang Nam Army, Ruan Ngoc Thanh, and more than a dozen generals and two thousand Three hundred soldiers were captured, more than 1,400 were killed and injured, and the entire army was almost wiped out.

The people of Qi who were sent away were a little annoyed. Are you finished with Guangnan? With this free time, why don't you go all the way to the north to destroy the Zheng family and unify Annan? Instead, you provoke us again and again!

They really think that Hanzhou is easy to bully!

After the war with the Dutch East India Company ended, the Qi State mobilized a large number of ships and began to retaliate against the Guangnan Kingdom, raiding its coastal areas, breaking up their towns and villages, looting property and women, and plunging the entire Guangnan Kingdom into endless panic. middle.

A few years later, in view of the continuous military pressure exerted by the Zheng clan in the north on the Guangnan Kingdom, in order to avoid being trapped in a two-front war for a long time, the Guangnan Kingdom had to give in and negotiate peace with the then Hanzhou.

After the Qi State was established and officially established as a country, as its strength continued to grow, it began to actively intervene in the situation in the Annan region on the basis of consolidating and strengthening the two immigration transit and supply points of Xinsheng Island and Nanping.

If the north is strong, they will unite with Guangnan to control the Zheng family. If the south gains power, they will jointly occupy the city to attack the Ruan family. This will make it impossible for Annan and South to achieve unification and maintain the existing balance of power.

In order to further weaken the strength of the Zheng family and the Nguyen family in Annan, Qi State not only supported and armed the Champa Kingdom, but also personally went into battle to carry out military attacks on it. It successively defeated the Guangnan capital Fuchun (now Hue, Vietnam) and Annan. The capital of Thang Long (now Hanoi) not only forced the two families to cede land and pay compensation, but also promised to open the domestic market.

Now, decades have passed. Qi has become more and more powerful in the Annan region and has become the dominant player in the region. However, the Ruan and Zheng families have become increasingly weak. They have not only become vassals of Qi politically, but also become vassals of Qi politically. Economically, it was controlled by Qi's commercial capital and became a dumping market for Qi's goods.

Nanping, as the government seat of the Annan Governor-General and the headquarters of the Annan Fleet of the Navy, gathered a large number of colonial officials and naval officers and soldiers, coupled with countless businessmen traveling from south to north, making the city appear extremely prosperous and noisy.

Fan Agui and other people had dinner, and it was already the time when the lanterns were first lit. Street lamps were lit up on several wide streets one after another, and the colorful flags on both sides of the road made the whole city extraordinarily bright and colorful.

In his cognitive world, the urban layout of Da Qin should generally include government offices, street shops, noisy markets, as well as military camps and city walls. The piles may be a little messy and dirty, but they are lively enough. At night, everything is dark and there are few pedestrians.

But what kind of city is Nanping City in front of us?

There are high-rise buildings one after another, and there are many shops on both sides of the noisy streets, and the shops are filled with a dazzling variety of products. Street after street, house after house, are neatly planned. The city is very clean. There is not even a trace of the stench of horse manure and human urine on the streets.

It's really strange. Don't the horses pulling the carts excrete feces?

When I left the restaurant, I wanted to find a quiet place to urinate, but under the illumination of the street lights, there was nowhere to hide.

Moreover, it's already dark, so why are there so many people wandering around on the streets, so they're not afraid of being picked up by the patrolmen for reprimanding and questioning?

Hey, what is that woman in fancy clothes doing?

Why are you smiling at me?

"Agui, what are you doing?" Fan Xingbao reached out and slapped Fan Agui, and asked angrily: "What, you want to have fun in a brothel?"

"Ah?" Fan Agui was shocked, then his face turned red, and he muttered: "How could I have such thoughts? I just..., I just... glanced at her. ...I didn't have that intention! "

"Hehehehe..." Fan Xingbao laughed, "You'd better not have that thought. These women, looking at their appearance, are probably from Annan, and have been coaxed into doing this skin and flesh trade. At the end of the day, I don't know. How many people will we receive, and if we are not careful, we will get sick and we won’t even have time to cry!”

"Fourth brother, I... don't have that intention." Fan Agui became a little anxious when he saw several brothers looking at him with disdain, "When we came, my father and mother also told me not to cause any trouble along the way. . When we arrived in Qi State, we had to obey Third Uncle’s instructions for everything. I really just took a look at it, I really didn’t have that intention!”

"Okay, okay, I know you are honest and honest, and don't have any fuss!" Fan Xingbao shook his head and said, and then walked towards the dock with a few brothers of the same race. They stopped and made noise on the street, which attracted the attention of the patrol police. Two thin policemen took out their batons from their waists and looked sideways.

Under the illumination of the street lights, after discovering several men with Han Chinese faces, he hesitated for a moment, then stopped and watched their figures leave.

"In the future, when you get to Qi State and work hard for a few years, you will be able to save a hundred dollars. If you want to marry a wife, you can sell a beautiful Japanese or Korean woman. Of course, if you want to save money, you can also You can get a native woman and it’s okay to have children, but if you want her to be a husband and raise children, it’s probably not going to work.”

"Why can't you marry a Han woman?"

"Of course. That requires you to save more money. Without a gift of one or two hundred yuan, who would easily marry his daughter to you? There is nothing you can do about it. Qi is a country of immigrants. After so many years, Come here, there have always been more men and fewer women. If there are fewer women, wouldn’t it seem to be particularly valuable? So, in our country of Qi, whenever you marry a daughter-in-law, you have to give a large amount of gift money to the husband and mother-in-law, and the amount is , but there are many more than those in Qin State!"

"Huh?... My dear, how much does it cost to marry a daughter-in-law in Qi State? In our Jiangjiagou, you can get a wife with just a few bags of white flour, a few pieces of cane sugar, and a few pairs of simple jewelry. A beautiful daughter-in-law!”

"Hahaha... don't think about it, how many people are there in your Qin country, and how many people are there in our Qi country, and during the immigration process for so many years, the gap between the proportion of men and women has always been very large, but it has made it more difficult for people to find wives! So! Ah, before I bring you to Qi State, I have reminded you that it is best to ask a daughter-in-law to come with you. After arriving in Qi State, you can also save a lot of gift money, right?"

"Isn't it just because we are poor that we can't be called wives? Look, when I make money in Qi, I will definitely return to Qin in glory and marry our most beautiful aunt in Jiangjiagou. "

"Well, that's a good idea. But have you ever considered how much it would cost to return to Qin from Qi, marry a daughter-in-law, and bring her back to Qi again? Haha, with this effort, It is better to spend a high price and marry a local wife in Qi."

"...Well, it seems so. You said, your country is short of women, why didn't you get more from outside when you immigrated? As a result, it is now difficult to find a wife!"

"Scoff! Do you think our Qi country has never thought of a way to do this? You will know when you arrive in our Qi country. In addition to our Han women, there are many native women, Indian women, Persian women, and even women from There are all kinds of Western women in Europe. You can marry any of them and take them home if you want!"

"Ah?...What do those Yi women look like?"

"Blonde hair, blue eyes, a high nose and deep eyes, um, and fair skin. She is completely different from us Han women."

"Fourth brother, are you talking like a monster?"

"Hahaha... How come it looks like a monster? What should I say? It's a bit weird, but it looks a bit exotic."

After more than ninety years of development, the population of Qi State has reached nearly 30 million (excluding local indigenous people). Apart from Qin, it is definitely one of the most populous countries in the world.

Moreover, as a country of immigrants, the population structure is extremely young, with an average age of only 27.5 years old, the labor force is relatively abundant, and with the improvement of material living standards, the fertility rate has also remained at a high level.

However, there is a very embarrassing problem in the internal structure of Qi's population, that is, the imbalance between men and women.

Gein, during the decades of immigration process, the proportion of male immigrants has been too high, leaving the domestic male-to-female ratio in an imbalance.

Census data from the 112th year of Taiping show that the male-to-female ratio in Qi State remains at about 100:. You should know that there is almost no phenomenon of drowning or discarding female infants in Qi State. Moreover, some overseas trading companies are still conducting a certain scale of buying and selling female slaves, and then reselling them to the large number of domestic men who are in need of "daughter-in-law".

There is no way, there is too much debt from history, we have to put it aside. Fifty or sixty years ago, the imbalance of the ratio of men to women was even more exaggerated. There was a data of 135:100. Those newly arrived immigrants who want to marry a daughter-in-law often have to wait for up to seven or eight years. Moreover, the more remote the area, the more imbalanced the ratio of men to women.

After decades of hard work, the Qi government bought a large number of young women from Japan, Korea, Annan, Siam, Myanmar, India, Persia, and Europe through various channels to marry many bachelors in the country. The data on the ratio of men to women has shrunk significantly.

In fact, with the dominance of Qi in the Nanyang region and the strength of the Han people, it is not difficult for a bachelor to marry a native woman.

But which man with a little money in his pocket doesn't want to find a "serious" woman as his wife?

The native is stupid and stupid. Not only is his skin dark, but he is also thin and small, just like a female monkey.

When you're horny and thirsty, a few teases won't hurt. But if you want to marry someone back home, you will be laughed at.

That's right, as Qi's national power grows day by day, even ordinary people think a little too highly of themselves. The Central Plains dynasty, which used to be the kingdom of heaven, has gradually been ignored. How can the wild monkeys on Nanyang Island be worthy of our status as citizens of a great country!

Isn’t that just a group of talking “tools”?

In Qi State, in order to solve the problem of the large number of bachelors having difficulty finding wives, some "careful people" specially introduced a large number of young women from traditional Eastern civilization circles such as Qin State, Japan, Korea, and Annan, married them to domestic men, and then charged them A hefty “introduction fee”.

It is reported that this kind of activity has become a special and hugely profitable industry.

(End of this chapter)