Chapter 733: The Great Ming World Empire!

Ayutthaya, the Unconquerable City.

Within the royal palace, King Prasat Thong saw for the first time in his own great hall a group of men wearing clothes! There were four Ming officials, one Ming commoner, and one Western devil with a very sour expression — apparently some sort of ambassador from the country of Holland, probably displeased because no glittering golden gift had been prepared for him?

Just as he was wondering whether he ought to make up a gift for the Dutchman, the naked prince Naret, prostrated on the floor, raised up the translated "Suzerain-Vassal Treaty" with both hands.

"This is..." King Prasat Thong took the treaty and began reading it carefully.

After a few glances, an angry look had already appeared on his face — this placed Siam in a subordinate position to the Great Ming!

Ah, no, wait — the Kingdom of Siam had always been a vassal of the Great Ming!

Had the Celestial Court actually gotten serious now?

"The Celestial Court may be strong, but it is too far from Siam!" King Prasat Thong said.

Translators from both the Ming and Siamese sides were present, and could promptly render King Prasat Thong's words into Chinese.

"Far?" Ji Kun said with a smile. "From the Golden Apex to here is no more than 1,700 li. With a fair wind, one can set out at dawn and arrive by dusk! Now the Celestial Court has stationed twenty thousand troops at the Golden Apex and Jinghai, and can also levy twenty thousand elite Annamese troops, who can arrive in force by sea within half a month. So with the Celestial Court's protection, Your Majesty need not fear being bullied by other nations.

Even Toungoo can no longer threaten the city of Ayutthaya!"

Ji Kun's words were quite grating to the ear!

Forty thousand Ming-Annamese allied troops could reach Ayutthaya within half a month!

In that amount of time, the Ayutthaya dynasty would not even manage to mobilize its peasant militia. If the Ayutthaya dynasty did not wish to perish, then it had better obediently sign the treaty!

Once the treaty was signed, with the Great Ming's protection from then on, the Ayutthaya dynasty would be absolutely secure.

King Prasat Thong was not quite convinced: "Transporting forty thousand troops requires many ships. Does your Great Ming have them?"

"Ships we certainly have, but they cannot be concentrated all at once," Ji Kun said with a smile. "That is why we wish to station one thousand men on Din Daeng Island. That way, if Ayutthaya is ever in urgent danger, they can reinforce it in time. With one thousand Celestial soldiers to help, the city of Ayutthaya will not fall."

"What use could a mere one thousand men be?" King Prasat Thong asked.

Ji Kun smiled: "Would Your Majesty care to test them?"

Test them? King Prasat Thong was quite displeased and was about to flare up, when the Dutchman Van Diemen, who had come with Ji Kun, suddenly spoke up: "Your Majesty, as far as the East India Company is aware, the Ming troops stationed on Din Daeng Island are extremely strong. Though they number only one thousand, they are equipped with fine matchlock muskets, plate-and-splint armor, and four 3-pounder bronze cannon. In addition, there are two gunboats that have entered the Chao Phraya River and can provide them with fire support. These gunboats combine some of the merits of Chinese and Western ship designs, and each can mount twenty-four 6-pounder cannon! With their support, even tens of thousands of troops from the Burmese Kingdom of Toungoo could not seize Din Daeng Island!"

King Prasat Thong of course knew who Van Diemen was!

Before becoming ambassador to the Great Ming, he had been Governor-General of the East India Company's Batavia — the king of the Southeast Asian seas!

The East India Company had signed a trade treaty with Siam and had even opened a trading house in Ayutthaya.

So King Prasat Thong had to give the matter serious thought — if his men got their teeth beaten all over the ground by the Ming troops on Din Daeng Island, then the "Suzerain-Vassal Treaty" would have to have several more extremely harsh clauses added to it!

And Van Diemen knew just how ruthless the Great Ming now was, which was why he was warning King Prasat Thong not to be foolish. If Naresuan were still alive, that would be one thing. But with Prasat Thong and his crowd of fat, naked ministers, they certainly could not defeat those one thousand Ming troops.

Since they could not win, they had better obediently sign the treaty!

After signing the treaty, they could buy more arms from the East India Company, properly arm themselves, and have the nobles and ministers hurry up and start exercising — as things stood now, they could not even fit into armor.

Of course, Zhang Yong's one thousand men alone could not take Ayutthaya either. Although Ayutthaya lay on a plain, it was protected by the Chao Phraya's river channels and a broad moat, making it easy to defend and hard to attack. The title "Unconquerable City" was not entirely empty boasting!

Back then, Tabinshwehti, the father of Bayinnaung, had led over a hundred thousand troops to besiege Ayutthaya and assault it fiercely, yet still failed to win, and in the end had to withdraw in regret. Later, Bayinnaung likewise did not storm Ayutthaya, but captured it by surprise attack.

So Van Diemen estimated that if negotiations broke down, the Ming troops might use their naval superiority and the terrain of Din Daeng Island to blockade the Chao Phraya River for a long period, in order to force Siam to yield.

Siam, for its part, could be self-sufficient for a very long time even with foreign trade cut off, so once a war at the mouth of the Chao Phraya began, it might well drag on for years.

That would do the East India Company no good at all!

Ji Kun also did not want to blow things up — this "imperially commissioned plenipotentiary ambassador" of his was merely a diplomatic official subordinate to the Ministry of Rites. So he went along with Van Diemen's words and continued: "Din Daeng Island is already under the control of the Celestial Court's troops, so Your Majesty need not worry about enemies entering through the mouth of the Chao Phraya. Ayutthaya is a strong city, and presumably no one would attack it.

But what of Nakhon Si Thammarat, Pattani, Tenasserim, and Mergui? Once the mouth of the Chao Phraya is sealed and the sea routes become difficult, will these places be seized by others? Will they become a second Malacca Sultanate? The Malacca Sultanate was also a vassal of the Great Ming, yet it was always unwilling to let the Celestial Court station troops there. Only when Malacca was besieged did it appeal to the Celestial Court for help — but the Celestial Court is ten thousand li from Malacca; in such an emergency, how could it possibly send aid?

Your Majesty, this humble official is in fact an envoy sent by imperial order to Europe, and has come to Siam only in passing. If Siam signs the 'Suzerain-Vassal Treaty,' then it will naturally be an outer vassal of the Great Ming, equivalent to Annam. This humble official can then negotiate with the Europeans and do his utmost to safeguard Siamese territory.

Otherwise, if the Europeans ask about Siamese affairs, how is this humble official to answer?"

King Prasat Thong sank completely into deep thought.

The Malacca Sultanate that Ji Kun had mentioned had originally also been a vassal of the Great Ming, and like Siam, its vassalage had been more nominal than real — it had always known only how to take advantage of the tribute trade and never how to uphold the interests of its suzerain. In the end, the moment the Portuguese arrived, it was dumbfounded: the Celestial Court did not save it, and Malacca itself could not defeat the Portuguese, so after struggling for a while, it was destroyed.

"Your Majesty," Ji Kun continued his persuasion, "the Europeans have what they call world empires, which are much like our suzerain-vassal tribute system. But theirs is not merely nominal — it has real substance. Sovereign and subject, superior and inferior, are clearly defined, and so-called rights and obligations are all stipulated by treaty. Thus suzerain and vassal share the same interests and can face the outside world together, which is what has formed their world empires.

If our Great Ming's sovereign, subjects, suzerain, and vassals are to unite and strengthen themselves, we too must learn from the Europeans, build a world empire, and use the 'Suzerain-Vassal Treaty' and garrisoned troops to strengthen the bonds between superior and inferior, leaving outsiders no opening to exploit.

If Your Majesty signs the treaty, then should anything happen in the future, not only will the Great Ming send troops, but Annam will as well. With the combined aid of the Great Ming and Annam, what has Siam left to worry about?"

The so-called Great Ming World Empire was also a concept that Zhu Cilang was vigorously promoting — he wanted to transform the Great Ming's suzerain-vassal system into a colonial-empire system, turning Siam, Annam, Chenla, Lan Xang, and other countries into colonies or semi-colonies of the Great Ming.

Swallowing them whole and annihilating them looks immensely satisfying, but actually carrying it out is extremely difficult — these countries are all very "fragmented," with a host of feudal lords beneath the king, so defeating their central government is only the beginning of a long war. To annihilate them completely would require fighting a prolonged, protracted war.

The cost is too high, and the risk too great — once the cost of colonization spirals out of control, failure is only a matter of time!

Moreover, the Great Ming needed to import grain and timber from Siam and Annam, and also needed Siamese land to absorb the surplus population at home, while Siam likewise had a need to absorb Chinese population. If the Great Ming could maintain substantive suzerain status in Siam, establish a Governor-General's office on Din Daeng Island (Din Daeng Island is the later Bangkok) and a trading port, and through the Governor-General's office, the trading port, and Confucian academies protect Ming expatriates and prevent them from being brainwashed by Theravada Buddhism, then gradual annexation was entirely feasible.

(End of Chapter)