I

The first good news Zhao Han received was not from Northeast China, but from Taiwan.

The Dutch in the city of Geranje were besieged for ten months. After finally eating all the food, he cried out and begged to surrender. He was asked to kill or behead him as he pleased. Just give him a mouthful of food before he died.

The Dutch East India Company ignored this and acted as if nothing had happened.

Governor Vanderlin of Batavia and Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Vanderland, these two men surnamed Van, are busy making money. They stepped up their exploitation of the Javanese natives and smuggled goods to the Spaniards in the southern Philippines Islands. They made a lot of money in their pockets and waited for the Dutch headquarters to punish them.

At the same time, the situation in the Arabian Peninsula has become extremely tense. The local forces, the Ottomans, Persia, the Netherlands, Britain, and Portugal were all involved, and even the Mughals were affected. Countless warships were piled in the Western Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf.

None of these countries really want to go to war, but they are afraid that the enemy will send troops.

Even the Dutch warships in Ceylon have been transferred to the Arabian Peninsula to prepare for war. How can they care about continuing the war with China?

Tensions in the Arabian Peninsula stem from the rise of the Ariba dynasty (Oman).

Just last year, the founding Sultan of Oman, Sultan Yariba, suddenly fell seriously ill and died suddenly, attracting numerous external forces ready to take action. After the game between all parties, Ariba's nephew successfully succeeded to the throne. The new Sultan was actually not a soft persimmon. After taking the throne, he immediately launched a general attack on Portugal.

Not a single Portuguese colonial castle remained in Oman, and all were captured by the new Sultan.

The Netherlands, Britain, Persia, and the Ottomans all wanted to get involved there and take over Portugal's colonies. But the new sultan of Oman was too fierce. Taking advantage of the mutual fear of several major forces, he not only regained all the land, but also supported his own merchants and united with Arab merchants in surrounding areas to start doing business through sea trade.

At the same time, the new Sultan of Oman also vigorously developed its navy and actively enhanced its maritime power (a few decades later, in just two generations, the Omani navy became the overlord of the Indian Ocean).

In addition, the Sultan of Oman successfully expelled Portugal, which greatly inspired the East African Christians. Leaders from various places asked for assistance, and the Sultan of Oman generously sent troops to attack Portuguese castles along the East African coast. Later, it even reached Mombasa (Kenya), Zanzibar (Tanzania) and Madagascar, becoming the absolute hegemon in East Africa.

Many small and inconspicuous countries had their ancestors once wealthy.

Portugal, on the other hand, was completely in a state of despair and was beaten to the ground by the Sultan of Oman.

In addition to the situation in East Africa, the bigger problem facing the Netherlands is that local autonomy factions have begun to take power.

Just this year, William II, the Dutch consul, died of smallpox. His only son, William III, was born eight days after his death, and the Dutch local autonomy faction took the opportunity to seize power.

The local autonomy faction held a parliament and announced that the Netherlands would no longer have a unified army, and each province would be responsible for its own defense. Five of the seven provinces have announced that they will abolish the position of "governing" in the future, and the Netherlands will enter the "first period without governing."

The ruler of the Netherlands is the king of the Netherlands in disguise, and is held by the Prince of Orange family. This thing can be succeeded by the father after the death of the son.

Historically, the Anglo-Dutch War lasted for more than 20 years. Britain was unable to achieve a decisive victory in the naval battle, so it deceived France into attacking the Netherlands by land. The Netherlands was completely defeated by France. Only then did the local autonomy factions remember the Orange family and invited William III to command the army.

After repelling the French army, William III actually went to marry the British, and thus became the British king and concurrently served as the ruler of the Netherlands.

Britain and the Netherlands, which had been fighting each other for decades, were now ruled by the same king.

This saucy operation made the French king dumbfounded: Why should I cooperate with the British in the war?

This year, William II, the ruler of the Netherlands, died, and William III was still a baby. The Dutch local autonomy faction divided the country into pieces, and this led to the operation of selling warships to Britain. Similarly, the Dutch East India Company was also affected. Its internal affairs were in a mess and it was unable to spare any effort to compete with China.

…

Nanjing.

A group of red-haired and green-eyed prisoners of war were escorted ashore, attracting passers-by to watch.

Foreign devils are becoming more and more common, but it still feels strange to see so many at one time.

The former Governor of Taiwan, Feuerberg, was now tied with anklets, his hands and neck were also shackled, and he was looking at everything on the dock with his hair disheveled.

What a prosperous inland port and what a majestic and solid city wall.

At this moment, Felberg felt like a joke. He actually thought he could easily defeat the Chinese army.

The Spaniards also had this bizarre idea. Decades ago, during the Wanli period, Spain planned to send troops from the Philippines and send two thousand elites to completely occupy the entire Ming Dynasty... and then was severely troubled by the Han uprising in Luzon.

Nan Huairen, who had been traveling in China for several years, finally returned to Nanjing. Looking at these Dutch prisoners, he couldn't help but ask the escort: "Excuse me, may I ask where these prisoners were taken from?"

"Taiwan!"

Nan Huairen had heard of Taiwan, which was an island in China that was once occupied by the Dutch. It seemed that they were defeated by China.

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

Several horses rushed out of the city, and one of them took out a court document: "Your Majesty has ordered that the Dutch prisoners of war from Taiwan will be beheaded directly without trial. Their heads will be prepared, and envoys will be sent from Honglu Temple to take these prisoners of war with them. Head to Batavia!"

The two sides quickly completed the handover, and the prisoners of war were taken away by a group of officials and dragged to the execution ground today.

Nan Huairen sighed secretly. According to the administrative divisions of later generations, he belonged to Belgium. But in this era, Belgium was part of the Dutch Republic, and Nan Huairen was a serious Dutchman.

Nan Huairen went directly to Ai Julius's residence. He had already worshiped Ai Julius as his disciple a few years ago.

Arriving at Ai Julius's house, Nan Huairen found that many people had gathered here, but it was this great scholar from the West who was seriously ill.

"My manuscript is in the drawer in the study room." Ajulius pointed to the next door.

A large number of manuscripts were quickly moved, and Aiulius said weakly: "China's customs and culture are very strong, and it is difficult to preach without changing the doctrine. The "Nestorian New Testament" was written last year, but there are too many differences within the church. Today, the Society of Jesus only has about twenty people left in China. If it does not reform its teachings, it will disband itself sooner or later. You...just figure it out."

The missionaries were silent, not knowing what to say.

Aijulius meant to change Christianity to Nestorianism. The Nestorian New Testament combines Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and Datong thought to radically reinterpret the Bible. Moreover, after the reform, the Jesuits completely separated from the Holy See and were managed by the Religious Secretary of the Datong Court.

This series of assumptions was too big a step, and there was a huge quarrel within the Chinese Jesuits.

Two days later, Ai Julius died, and the "Nestorian New Testament" was also sent to Zhao Han.

After a rough reading, Emperor Zhao was very satisfied with this and immediately ordered: "Although Ai Julius is a Westerner, he is also a master of Confucianism. He also compiled a new calendar and wrote a book introducing Europe. He is posthumously awarded to Doctor Guanglu and issued an order. The Ministry of Rites determined his posthumous title."

Doctor Guanglu, from the first rank, is also considered to have a good appearance after death.

The Ministry of Rites struggled for several days and finally gave Aiululu a posthumous title: Wenduan.

The posthumous title "Wenduan" is generally given to great Confucians, especially those who wrote books and established theories.

Zhao Han only asked the Ministry of Rites to decide the posthumous title and did not give any secret opinions. The fact that the officials of the Ministry of Rites can give "Wen Duan" shows that Ai Julius's knowledge (Confucianism) is unanimously recognized by the officials of the Ministry of Rites.

The first European with a posthumous title was born.

As for the Nestorian New Testament, there was still quarrel among the Jesuits. Zhao Han is not in a hurry, just let them quarrel, and when these guys are all dead, it would be better to just leave the missionaries alone.

"Your Majesty, Guangnan Military Report."

Four military reports on the front line or newly occupied areas now need to be written. One copy was sent to the emperor for inspection, one to the cabinet, one to the Ministry of War, and one to the governor's office.

Zhao Han opened it and saw that it was more than two months ago.

Officials in Guangnan Province began allocating land to acres this year, but did not directly allocate land to farmers. Even so, the gentry in Guangnan complained and colluded with local officials to pass taxes on to farmers.

Han officials focused on investigating the gentry of Thanh Hoa and Nghe An, punished several wealthy families one after another, confiscated their land and distributed it to the peasants.

As a result, the gentry in the two places began to cause trouble.

They colluded with local officials and stepped up their exploitation of farmers. He also told the peasants that these were exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes that the Datong court wanted to collect.

Just this autumn, more than 20,000 Guangnan peasants rebelled, and the gentry was behind them all instigating and funding the rebellion.

The Datong army stationed in Thanh Hoa was dispatched, killing more than 3,000 people and taking nearly 10,000 prisoners.

Zhao Han had a headache after reading the report, mainly because he couldn't understand the language. The imperial court could send officials to govern Vietnam, but the grassroots officials must be local people. Many of these grassroots officials came from the gentry class. Together with the landlords, they deceived the superiors and deceived the subordinates, making it difficult for the court to rule effectively.

The peasants were deceived by the landlords and officials, and they also hated the imperial court.

In Vietnam, which was conquered last year, more than 20,000 people rebelled this year. I don’t know how many more years this situation will continue.

However, Vietnam will never give up.

Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, only the Song Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty had not ruled Vietnam, and even the Yuan Dynasty had briefly ruled Vietnam. Most of the time, Vietnam belongs to China, and the time to become independent is even shorter.

Recovering Vietnam is the responsibility of the unified central dynasty.

Zhao Han ordered: "Half of the land vacated by the suppression of the Guangnan rebellion will be distributed to immigrants. A group of immigrants will come from Yunnan, Guangxi, and Guangdong. It doesn't matter which ethnic group they are, as long as they can speak Chinese."

The situation in Guangnan must be improved slowly, which may take decades or hundreds of years.

As for the Northeast War, although there has been no good news at this time, Zhao Han is not worried at all. The situation has long been settled.

(At the end of the chapter, there is a map of the territory actually controlled by the Datong court...it seems to be under review.)