Chapter 1191: When a Profiteer Meets Bandits (Happy New Year)

Burma, Syriam Port.

Drums and horns sounded without cease, and wind and rain followed close behind. Amid the clamor of drums, horns, wind, and rain, the Shun government troops in blue cloth robes were boarding the Arakanese oar-sail ships in good order. These oar-sail ships were all of small tonnage, with a carrying capacity of around a hundred tons or so, twin-masted, low freeboard, able to use both oars and sails, or to be driven by oars alone or sails alone. They were extremely nimble when sailing in coastal waters or along coastal rivers, but their firepower was very weak, usually just a few Folangji cannon usable only at close range. But for the Shun dynasty, which had no navy and where no one from top to bottom understood seafaring, the three hundred-odd Arakanese oar-sail ships now crowding the surface of the Rangoon River, queuing to come alongside the docks, were absolutely three hundred-odd great treasures!

On the dock, in a thatched pavilion sheltered from the wind and rain, wine and small dishes had been laid out. Li Jicheng and Bruys van Diemen sat facing each other, drinking and chatting merrily as they watched the Shun government troops board the gangplanks in neat ranks and step onto the decks of the Arakanese ships.

Most of these government troops were so-called "Long March government troops," that is, government troops who served long-term and drew military pay, all of them sturdy young men around twenty years of age, most of them second-generation government troops, basically all "non-eldest sons"—meaning they had no family property to inherit and no duty to support their parents, so they could go out and make their way in the world for long periods.

In Li Jicheng's view, these "second-generation government troops" with no family property and few attachments were the real makings of good soldiers; they could be penned up in military camps and put through rigorous training.

So before coming to Burma, he had memorialized Li Guo for approval and used land certificates and Gongzhi Tongbao coins to recruit fifteen thousand "second-generation government troops" to accompany the campaign.

By the way, the land certificates issued by the Shun had not turned into waste paper, because over the past several years the Shun court had been working hard to honor the land certificates issued to government troops who had rendered meritorious service in battle—even if it meant using the "Equal Fields Law" to equalize the fields of poor peasants, they had to satisfy these government troop masters' demands for land!

Moreover, unless they obtained the consent of the government troops themselves, the Shun court did not dare fob off the government troop masters with land in Burma.

After nearly twenty years of development, the Shun government troops had become a powerful interest group, and even the Emperor Li Guo did not dare offend them on the land question!

Of course, this did not mean that no government troops were willing to settle in Burma. Thanks to the efforts of the Shun court (such as granting relocation subsidies and doubled land allotments), quite a few government troops had been coaxed into settling in Ava Prefecture and Syriam Prefecture over the years.

And the Gongzhi Tongbao coins were standard cash coins minted by the Shun dynasty, the only legal copper coinage circulating within Shun territory, full-weight and of high value.

The "second-generation government troops" now boarding the ships had not only trained hard in martial arts since childhood, but had also sworn to "raise up the Shun and strike down the House of Zhu," and were further spurred on by the land certificates and Gongzhi Tongbao coins, so every one of them stood with chest out and belly thrust forward, their morale extremely high.

Apart from morale, their equipment and training also greatly satisfied Bruys. The Long March government troops garrisoned at Syriam had all been drilled by new methods, adopting tactics similar to the Maurice square, though the proportion of musketeers was higher, reaching about three-quarters, with only about a quarter of the soldiers using pikes.

The firearms they used were mainly matchlocks, but there were also some flintlocks, accounting for about twenty-five percent of the firearms issued.

Whether flintlock or matchlock, the quality was fairly reliable. The flintlocks were all imported, some Western goods, some Ming goods—the Ming dynasty's arms export management had always been at this level: once sold, no further concern.

The matchlocks used by the Long March government troops in Burma, however, were produced by the Shun themselves, and every matchlock was engraved with the craftsman's name. When a government troop musketeer received his gun, it was strictly inspected, and if a quality defect was found, the craftsman would get a beating!

Besides the good quality of the firearms, the 3-catty bronze cannon issued to these Long March government troops were also very finely cast (at least they looked good), and they were equipped with quite serviceable gun carriages and limbers, clearly copied from captured Ming army artillery.

In addition, the Long March government troops were all equipped with armor. Although the patterns were not uniform (they were self-supplied)—some had cloth-faced armor, some had breastplates, and some had half-plate armor—the quality was also very reliable.

Clearly, this army was far stronger than the allied forces of the Muslim sultanates that Bruys van Diemen had seen on the Malacca Peninsula.

Although those allied forces had all been trained and equipped with the help of the Dutch East India Company, the Dutch were not at ease with the Muslim sultans on this side of the Strait of Malacca either! How could they possibly hand over their real skills and real treasures?

Moreover, the Muslim sultans here at the Strait of Malacca were all poor fighters. Their origins were no more than Arab and Persian merchants who had built their own city-states by preaching and buying ghulam guards. How could their fighting strength compare with the Muslim empires that had developed from Turkic tribes and tribal confederations?

They were simply not in the same class at all!

So no matter how much they were taught, they stayed as they were, utterly unable to defeat the Ming army. So the Shun still had to send troops!

Bruys and Li Jicheng drank and chatted as they went along, very pleasantly, and time flew by; in the blink of an eye it was dusk. Bruys had drunk a bit too much and was light-headed and unsteady, his speech slurred. Just as he was griping that the Muslim allied forces on the Malacca Peninsula were all bean curd dregs, in a daze he saw Li Jicheng's military advisor Song Yaowen, with several armored soldiers, escorting a man who looked like the Arakanese navy commander into the pavilion!

Half-drunk, Bruys pointed at the man, bound hand and foot, and shouted: "This man, this man is the Arakanese navy commander, called, called Ming, Ming something—"

"Called Ming Moluopo!" Li Jicheng prompted.

"Right, right, right, Ming Moluopo!" Bruys asked, "Why have you arrested him?"

Li Jicheng smiled and asked Song Yaowen: "Military Advisor, why have you arrested him?"

Song Yaowen said: "Grandson Heir, this Ming Moluopo does not know what is good for him and refuses to submit to the great Shun Celestial Dynasty!"

"What? Submit?" Bruys broke out in a cold sweat, half sobered up. "Why do you want him to submit?"

Li Jicheng smiled: "We just want to ask him to lead the way, to lead us in a surprise attack on Mrauk-U!"

"A surprise attack on Mrauk-U!?" Bruys van Diemen was completely dumbfounded.

What was going on here! Weren't they going to Malacca to fight the Ming? How had it suddenly turned into a surprise attack on Mrauk-U?

Li Jicheng smiled and said to Bruys: "Mister Van, we really have no interest in that Malacca Strait of yours, or that Penang Island of yours. We think the territory of the Arakanese kingdom is more solid! Vast stretches of paddy fields, all already cleared and cultivated, good for feeding people!"

"You, you—" Bruys van Diemen was trembling with agitation at these words. "Grandson Heir, how can you seize the land of the Arakanese kingdom? You just formed an alliance with the king of Arakan!"

"That's right!" Li Jicheng chuckled. "That's exactly why we can launch a surprise attack! Otherwise we'd have to cross the Arakan Mountains, and the mountain roads are very hard going! How can that compare with the comfort of traveling by ship?"

"You—this is bandit behavior!" Bruys roared.

Li Jicheng did not get angry, and even nodded: "You're right! This is exactly what bandits do. My great-grandfather was a bandit! My grandfather was a bandit! My father is a bandit too! I am a filial son and worthy grandson, so of course I must be a bandit as well!"

"You, you, how did you people become bandits?" The moment the words left Bruys van Diemen's mouth, he remembered—these Shun people were bandits! The Ming called them roving bandits.

This time he had truly miscalculated! Bruys van Diemen knew the East India Company was going to be badly screwed over by these Shun bandits!

It was also the fault of the East India Company's senior executives for being too presumptuous, assuming that all Chinese rulers were as trustworthy as Zhu Cilang—although Zhu Cilang was cunning, his credit was still very good; after so many years of dealings with the East India Company, he had never once gone back on an agreement!

Li Jicheng stepped forward and patted the dumbstruck Bruys van Diemen on the shoulder, smiling: "Mister Van, don't be afraid. We will not harm you. Our Shun still wants to be friends with you Dutch. Come, come with us to fight Arakan!"

2020 has arrived. Wishing all readers a Happy New Year, may everything go as you wish, and may 2020 take you even higher!

(End of Chapter)