Chapter 630: A Gathering of All Power Bases

In the end, Lord Sheng Nan still used every rhetorical trick — "earnest persuasion," "clarifying the stakes" — to forcibly preserve the heads of the Ruan clan from the victors' hands.

Afterward, following over ten days of pacification and reorganization, the chaotic city of Shunhua had largely returned to its former rhythm. Humans are forgetful; the negative effects of war were rapidly fading from this major town.

Time: The tenth day after the opening of Shunhua's gates.

Place: The main hall of the Shunhua Royal Palace.

Today, the royal palace was still filled with the civil and military elite of the new dynasty. But unlike the previous noisy market atmosphere, since a large number of low-ranking officials had been dispatched to local posts and routine affairs had been sorted out, the palace had finally recovered its proper solemn dignity.

With dignity restored, it was time to discuss some major matters.

For example, the formation of the Allied Forces.

Needless to ask, the party pushing this agenda was certainly the outside Ming force — the Ming military representative team led by Sheng Nan.

The Sheng Nan of today was no longer the bare-bones Observation Group Leader from before the city fell.

Just three days ago, the Mixed Fleet dispatched from the Ming nation sailed into Shunhua Port. The Special Mixed Fleet consisted of five combat vessels and a large number of transport ships. Among them, the flagship "Kaiyuan," was a new-model large iron-ribbed, wood-hulled steam-sail warship on its maiden long-distance voyage.

The Kaiyuan, built specifically for pioneering South Asia, was a symbol of the Great Yan's national power, the highest crystallization of years of persistently pursuing an industrialization path.

The Kaiyuan's displacement reached 3,000 tons, with a full-load displacement of 3,500 tons. Although still a little brother compared to the hundred-thousand-ton oil tankers that would roam the world in later generations, in this era, the Kaiyuan was the undisputed number one in total tonnage globally.

Designed specifically for sailing the South Seas, the Kaiyuan was built with a shallow-draft hull form, taking into account the port infrastructure conditions of this era.

At the same time, during its initial design, the Kaiyuan also focused on enhancing its carrying capacity and endurance, resulting in a very high effective payload value. Of course, this meant the onboard armament had to be reduced. The final product, such a large warship, had only seven cannons installed in total.

From this perspective, the Kaiyuan was actually more like a steam transport ship than a warship.

Although its armament was simplified, if any blind fool dared to come and touch the tiger's backside, they would certainly die an ugly death. Not to mention the cruisers and escort ships always accompanying it, even in the worst-case scenario where the Kaiyuan was besieged, it still had a great killer in hand — on the foredeck, there was an Italian Cannon.

An Italian Cannon in the literal sense.

With the expansion of the Great Yan's territory under actual control and the massive improvement of its army and navy strength, the Italian Cannon originally installed on the enclosing wall of the Dayuan Trading Post had long lost its military significance.

This time, considering that the South Seas Fleet would be isolated far from home and needed to handle various complex situations, the Military installed that Italian Cannon on the deck of the Kaiyuan, to be used as a treasure to suppress the fortune of the South Seas.

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With the arrival of such an important flagship as the Kaiyuan in Shunhua, naturally, important figures and important matters came along as well.

This time, the Mixed Fleet not only unloaded a large batch of supplies and provisions but also "unloaded" a full 3,000 Pioneer Army combat personnel.

Arriving in Shunhua along with the supplies and personnel were Pioneer Army Commander Wang Bo, Fleet Commander Sha Zhengming, and the de facto number one figure of the South Asia Pioneer Team, Shao Qiang.

Besides these figures with real power, there were also a few Transmigrators accompanying them on a temporary business trip to the South Seas.

The arrival of these important figures and the combat troops signaled that the South Seas pioneering plan had entered a substantive phase; a certain power base was about to roll up its sleeves and get to work itself this time.

Of course, the first step is always to straighten out internal relations.

On the very day the fleet arrived, after Sheng Nan boarded the Kaiyuan, inside the captain's cabin, Shao Qiang, in the presence of the Transmigrators present, unsealed and read aloud several Cabinet documents.

The first document: The Cabinet decided that, effective immediately, the South Seas Governor's Mansion would be established, appointing Shao Qiang as the first Governor-General. The jurisdiction of the South Seas Governor's Mansion was currently provisionally set as all areas south of the 15th parallel south latitude.

The second document: Effective immediately, the South Seas Fleet would be formed, with Sha Zhengming as its Commander. The South Seas Fleet would be under the dual leadership of the Navy and the South Seas Governor-General.

The third document: Effective immediately, the South Seas Pioneer Team would be formed, with Wang Bo as its Commander. The South Seas Pioneer Team would be under the dual leadership of the Army and the South Seas Governor-General.

After reading out these important documents, everyone hastily drank a cup to congratulate the newly appointed Shao Governor-General with a few words.

As for Sheng Nan, his mission of leading students and handling diplomacy this time could be considered a complete success; he had passed the Organization's test. Once matters here were settled, Lord Sheng would return home to take up another high position, so he would not hold a concurrent post in the newly established South Seas Governor's Mansion.

After the Transmigrators established their organizational relationships internally, they quickly held a short meeting on the ship. Next came settling the troops and the fleet. Two more days passed, and Sheng Nan formally notified the Vietnam Court, in his capacity as the Ming Side's plenipotentiary representative: three days hence, all faction representatives would be convened at the royal palace to discuss the matter of sending troops against Siam.

The Vietnamese, nominally still "intimate comrades" at the moment, were naturally unable to block the fleet's entry into the port.

Then, seeing 3,000 "elite soldiers" armed with firearms disembark from the ships, they knew the Ming people's spines were stiff this time, so the new masters of Shunhua agreed to Sheng Nan's request without a single hitch.

Three days later, all concerned parties gathered in the royal hall.

The so-called "parties" here actually numbered quite a few. Although Vietnam appeared unified on the surface, under the deliberate manipulation of a certain power base, separate factions had still been preserved.

First, since today's meeting primarily involved diplomacy, the Puppet Ruler had to be brought out to maintain appearances.

The young Puppet Ruler of the Later Le Dynasty, Li Weiqi, seated high on the throne in the hall, represented the remnant forces of the soon-to-be-bankrupt Later Le Dynasty, equivalent to Emperor Xian of Han.

Perhaps having learned some news through secret channels, Li Weiqi, long accustomed to being a clay statue, sat on the platform today with a rare glint of spirit in his eyes, occasionally stealing a glance in the direction of the Transmigrator team below.

Below the ruler, on the left-hand side, sat the solitary Prince Zheng Zhuang, along with the many civil and military officials under him. These people were the backbone of the new dynasty, without a doubt the seventeenth-century Vietnam version of Cao Mengde's faction.

Further back, on the right-hand side, sat the Transmigrator team.

The team was led by their ostensible representative, Sheng Nan.

The previously smiling, ever-accommodating Lord Sheng had vanished. Today's Sheng Nan, with troops now in hand, had a correspondingly hardened aura, and his attitude had turned cold; he was no longer the man who spoke in roundabout ways just days before.

Besides these familiar faces, seated right next to the Transmigrator team was an older man in plain, light-colored robes — Ruan Fuyuan.

This man's current situation was very much like that of Liu Bei, Liu Huangshu, living under another's roof. Except that Zheng Zhuang, the Zheng Chancellor, now wanted nothing more than to kill him and would not be sharing wine to discuss heroes with him.

The previous scene of the two heroes of Vietnam contending for supremacy was the situation least aligned with the Transmigrators' interests. Because all resources were mobilized for mutual slaughter. And since both sides were roughly equal in strength, neither would yield to the other, making it impossible for outsiders to control the situation and reap the benefits.

Now, with Ruan Fuyuan sitting here as one faction, this was the ideal scenario in the eyes of the Great Yan's rulers — the strong and weak were already divided; whether victor or loser, both sides had to provide resources to the boss, or else face the fate of their internal enemy being propped up by the boss to overthrow them.

This routine is common in later generations' news. A big bully always keeps a bunch of governments-in-exile under its wing, ready to unleash them at any time to tear at the current regime and replace it — here referring to America.

Besides these factions, there was also a newly arrived force in the hall: the Champa envoys.

The Champa envoys, dressed in red monastic robes, had only rushed to Shunhua the day before, which was why the meeting had been delayed until today.

Champa was the place later generations would know for producing Champa rice, located at the southernmost tip of the Vietnam map.

The Champa Kingdom, whose entire nation believed in Brahmanism, had actually established its independence as early as the 8th century AD, when it was called the Champa Kingdom. However, over the centuries, most of Champa had been annexed and occupied by Vietnam. The remaining Champa had now become a loose-rein prefecture of Vietnam — listening to orders but not summons.

This force, constantly thinking of restoring their nation, was of course also exploitable.

The above were the various power bases present in the royal hall today. Among them, the Transmigrators had implicitly formed an alliance with the three weaker parties.

Additionally, there was one important native power base that had not arrived today: the remnants of the Mo Dynasty.

History has the Former Han and Later Han. Coincidentally, since the current court in Vietnam was called the Later Le Dynasty, there naturally had to be a Former Le Dynasty.

History seems to be a mirror. In the middle period of the Le Dynasty, just like the Han Dynasty, a subversive regime appeared: the Mo Dynasty.

The Mo Dynasty's existence was very short. Its first ruler, Mo Dengyong, like Wang Mang, came to power through usurpation. Due to insufficient legitimacy, the Mo Dynasty was soon driven from power by the loyal subjects of the Later Le Dynasty.

Yet to this day, this remnant force of the Mo Dynasty still securely occupied the area around Cao Bang, on the border between Vietnam and the Great Ming.

Why? Because they latched onto the Ming Dynasty's thigh.

During the Jiajing era, the newly usurped Mo Dynasty Emperor Mo Dengyong, in order to consolidate his power, personally went with his ministers to Zhennan Pass in Guangxi to surrender to the Ming Dynasty and request enfeoffment.

He presented a memorial requesting enfeoffment at Zhennan Pass, his attitude extremely humble.

One must know that, by this point, Annam had not sent envoys to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty for over zero years.

Seeing the Mo Dynasty's deference, the delighted Ming Dynasty promptly issued an edict, appointing Mo Dengyong as Annam Military Commissioner, of the upper second rank, hereditary, with a silver seal. This appointment theoretically made Annam a special zone under Ming jurisdiction.

The Mo Dynasty, like a "puppet emperor," though receiving strong Ming support, was soon driven from power by the enraged subjects of Annam.

For the same reason, the defeated Mo Dynasty also received the full protection of the Great Ming. The newly established Later Le Dynasty had always wanted to exterminate them root and branch, but the entire Ming court, disregarding the Five Basic Principles entirely, was willing to make military threats just to preserve this remnant faction of the Mo Dynasty.

And so the matter dragged on, all the way into the Chongzhen reign. The Later Le Dynasty was on the verge of collapse, yet the Mo Dynasty's government-in-exile was still safe and sound in Cao Bang, eating rice.

With the introductions of the various factions laid out here, the Great Yan's "Basic Arrangement for a Comprehensive Subversion of Viet" also surfaces.