Chapter 688: A Giant Dragon Is Awakening

In the last month of the first year of the Great Ming's Hongxing era, in the Kingdom of Annam, at the city of Sheng Long.

The foremost city of the Kingdom of Annam had taken on an air of prosperity and stability unseen for over a hundred years, since the decline of the Later Lê dynasty. The streets of Sheng Long bustled with Annamese commoners in turbans and bamboo hats, wearing long robes, jostling shoulder to shoulder as they surged through the streets. Many of the women among them were petite and alluring, swaying gracefully as they walked—a bright and pleasing sight in their own right.

Cavalry squadrons frequently passed through the streets. Astride short, stocky Hequ horses sat tall, strong, fair-skinned young men of Shaanxi, clad in splint iron armor forged in Foshan, Guangdong—majestic and imposing, they drew no small measure of admiring glances from the young women of Annam.

These were the brave warriors of the Great Ming Celestial Dynasty, and it was precisely their arrival that had brought an end to more than a hundred years of chaos in Annam.

From King Lê Duy Kỳ of Annam at the top down to the common farmers and woodcutters, there was not one who did not feel gratitude toward this disciplined and strictly ordered royal army of the suzerain state.

Even the Nguyễn lord, the Bảo lord, and the Mạc lord—three of the four lords of Annam—now felt heartfelt gratitude toward the Hongxing Son of Heaven of the Great Ming Celestial Dynasty and toward His Highness the Prince of Rinan.

Because this time, the Great Ming royal army that arrived truly was not a conqueror! They were merely passing through, and along the way they happened to do a good deed: they ended the endless chaos and fairly apportioned the land of Annam among one king and four lords.

And after doing this good deed, the army of the Ming Prince of Rinan did not linger in Sheng Long and refuse to leave. Now, apart from two thousand cavalry who remained in Sheng Long at the invitation of King Lê Duy Kỳ of Annam, the rest of the Ming army had marched off to garrison Xinan Prefecture.

Of course, the Great Ming dynasty would not annex Xinan Prefecture either. Xinan Prefecture had already been allotted to the House of the Marquis of Guangnan, becoming an exclave of the Marquis of Guangnan in the north of Annam.

With this land, the Nguyễn lord could join the Trịnh lord, the Mạc lord, and the Bảo lord in protecting the Lê king of Annam, and become a great loyal subject of the Kingdom of Annam!

Now Annam had become a loyal tributary of the Great Ming, while the four lords—Trịnh, Nguyễn, Mạc, and Vũ—had become doubly loyal subjects of both the Great Ming and the Lê king of Annam.

Every one of them was utterly loyal and righteous!

If the ones governing the Great Ming dynasty right now were the Hongwu Emperor, the Yongle Emperor, or the Jiajing Emperor, then doing good deeds to this extent would have been about enough. To go any further would be to ruin it—the Prince of Rinan, Zhu Cizhao, did not actually have the strength to "conquer Annam." He had simply seized an opportunity, and luck accounted for eighty or ninety percent of it.

And the subsequent handling of the matter by him and the Great Ming court also went along with the prevailing trend among the people of Annam, high and low, who longed for stability.

Annam's chaos had already lasted over a hundred years, and the broad division between the southern Nguyễn and the northern Trịnh was already set. In the original course of history, the southern Nguyễn and northern Trịnh were also about to run out of steam; in the generation of Trịnh Tạc, the precious son of Trịnh Tráng, and Nguyễn Phúc Tần, a lasting peace could have been achieved under Qing mediation—until the southern Nguyễn and northern Trịnh, corrupted by a hundred years of peace, were thrashed by the Tây Sơn peasant uprising...

Now the Great Ming had merely mediated the Trịnh–Nguyễn conflict twenty years early, and along the way had also given a boost to the Mạc lord, the Bảo lord, and the Lê king—and this matter, by a happy accident, also went along with the wishes of the people of northern Annam.

Annam's population was larger in the north and smaller in the south, but its military strength was weaker in the north and stronger in the south—the south had many ports and much contact with the Dutch and the Portuguese, along with a great abundance of foreign muskets, foreign cannon, and foreign officers, so for a period the main thread of Annam's domestic political struggles had been the south subduing the north.

The Trịnh and Nguyễn lords were in fact both southerners of Annam, belonging to the southern dynasty in the earlier Northern and Southern Dynasties struggle. So these two "lords" both employed southerners of Annam and pushed aside northerners of Annam.

The Mạc and Vũ lords, on the other hand, were both northerners of Annam. Though their strength was small, with the support of the northerners they could still stand against the powerful Trịnh lord.

And Zhu Cizhao's support of the Mạc and Vũ lords and of the Lê king had, by another happy accident, followed the wishes of the northerners of Annam.

So now was the time for the Great Ming's external forces to gradually withdraw from Annam—perhaps two or three thousand men could be left in Sheng Long to protect the Lê king, but the main army had to pull out.

If it did not pull out now, that would be conquering Annam...

In the Zhu Emperor's plan, Annam was a tributary kingdom, not a military governorship, and it would not become a province.

But he would not simply toss the Kingdom of Annam aside and let them amuse themselves, either. Annam still had great uses.

Situated in Southeast Asia, the Kingdom of Annam could become an important—even indispensable—subcontractor in the Great Ming's business of aggression and expansion!

Sheng Long Prefecture, the Lê royal palace.

This palace had been left by Lê Lợi, the founding ruler of the Lê dynasty. It covered a considerable area, but the buildings were generally low and small, so it lacked much of the imposing grandeur of a royal palace. Moreover, because the Lê kings had been out of power for over a hundred years and lacked the means to repair the palace, by now it was naturally dilapidated and shabby.

But now that the four lords of Annam had sincerely repented and all become loyal subjects, this shabby, humble palace had once again become the center of power of the Kingdom of Annam.

Within the palace's main hall, the Hall of Diligent Governance, King Lê Duy Kỳ of Annam sat high upon his throne, while six armchairs were arranged on either side below. The four great loyal subjects—Trịnh Tráng, Vũ Công Đức, Mạc Kính Vũ, and Nguyễn Phúc Tần—each had an armchair. The Great Ming's Commandery Prince of Rinan, Zhu Cizhao, and the imperial envoy Chen Zizhuang, who had come on behalf of the Great Ming court to confer titles upon one king and four marquises, each had an armchair as well.

In addition, Shi Daxuan, the Great Ming's Deputy Commissioner of Land Reclamation for Jin'ou, was also in the hall. He had no chair, only a stool, and he sat upon it with great self-assurance, with a wooden basin placed beside him—the basin had nothing to do with him; it was there to catch rainwater, for it was raining outside, and inside King Lê's Hall of Diligent Governance a light rain was falling as well... Truly poor!

But the Annamese people's chance to make money had already arrived!

"The Son of Heaven's sacred edict—the Great King and the four lords have all read it. This Kingdom of Champa is unfaithful and unfilial, and must be chastised..." The one speaking was Chen Zizhuang, one of the Three Loyalists of Lingnan in history, a great loyal subject!

When Beijing fell, he had been at his ancestral home in Guangdong, out of office, and only after Zhu Cilang escorted the Chongzhen Emperor to Nanjing did he travel north to report for duty—a month before Beijing fell, the Chongzhen Emperor had given him the post of Assistant Administrator of the Household of the Heir Apparent, but before he could take up the post, Beijing had fallen to Li Zicheng.

And after he arrived in Nanjing, the Household of the Heir Apparent had already been merged into the Grand Marshal's Office of the Army-Pacifying Command, so he never became Assistant Administrator; instead, Zhu Cilang sent him back to Guangzhou to serve as Prefect.

He did a decent job as Prefect. Although he did not collect much in customs duties or commercial taxes, he did mobilize quite a few Foshan blacksmiths to go north and start businesses.

After Zhu Cilang ascended the throne, he made him Provincial Administration Commissioner of Guangdong. When Zhu Cizhao entered Annam, Chen Zizhuang happened to be in Nanjing reporting on his duties.

So the Zhu Emperor sent him to make a trip to Annam on the way, to deliver the imperial edict to the one king and four marquises of Annam.

As for Shi Daxuan, after completing his mission of occupying Saigon, he had returned to Nanjing to report on his duties, and then traveled south together with Chen Zizhuang, likewise bearing the royal command—there were some things Chen Zizhuang was not in a position to say, so they were said by him, a plain-spoken man who was half merchant and half pirate.

"The imperial edict of His Majesty already says it all," Shi Daxuan said with a grin. "The Prince of Rinan wants only the land of Champa. The population and the wealth—all of it goes to the four marquises of Annam... to be distributed according to how many troops each of the four contributes and their relative strength! Marquis of Guangnan, isn't your place short on people? Send more troops this time, and you'll get a bigger share of Champa's population.

And this business has only just opened for trade; there will be plenty more chances to get rich in the future! To the west, aren't there Lan Xang and Water Chenla? To the east, across the sea, there are the islands of Luzon, and Borneo... Instead of fighting among yourselves, why not go get rich together with the Great Ming Celestial Dynasty! Am I right?"

Listening to Shi Daxuan's words, Chen Zizhuang could not help but furrow his brow.

Champa, Water Chenla, Luzon, Borneo—these... weren't they all countries that were not to be attacked? Did the Hongxing Emperor not know? How had they all been lined up and numbered for conquest one after another?

And they even wanted to drag the Kingdom of Annam into it... and get rich together! Had the Hongxing Emperor really said this? Chen Zizhuang glanced at Shi Daxuan, that pirate, and thought to himself: You wouldn't be forging an imperial edict, would you?

"Well said! The Great Emperor means to lift up us Annamese!" Lê Duy Kỳ nodded vigorously. He had to cling tightly to this powerful patron now!

"My four lords, why don't you together send out twenty thousand troops, go before the king as his vanguard, and destroy the Kingdom of Champa!"