The reason for the decline of Srivijaya was that besides being beaten by the Chola Dynasty and moving its capital, another factor was the outflow of copper coins from the Song Dynasty.
The Southeast Asian countries tried every possible means to bypass Srivijaya and trade directly with Chinese maritime merchants. A large number of Song Dynasty copper coins were held in the hands of various countries. As they accumulated monetary capital over time, they gradually gained the strength to break away from Srivijaya.
After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, more Chinese copper coins poured into Southeast Asia.
Six second-generation officials landed at the outer port of Jambi and followed the Jambi River (Badanghari River) to Jambi City.
They were extremely surprised to find that most of the citizens here used Chinese copper coins for their daily transactions!
Only slightly expensive products will be paid in Srivijaya gold and silver coins.
For bulk trade, Ming treasure banknotes were even used.
"It's so rich here!" Fan Chengda exclaimed.
All the way from the outer port to the city, the two sides of the river for more than a hundred miles are full of fertile rice fields that are in the process of heading.
Yang Yao said: "There are two crops a year here, and there is too much food to eat. If there is a disaster, you can replant rice at any time, and there is no need to choose a month. Under normal circumstances, the first season of rice is planted in February and March, and rice is planted in July and August.
Plant the second crop of rice in the next month.”
Chinese history books speak highly of the farmland here: one year of planting grain, three years of gold production!
The rice fields are so fertile that they can grow gold.
Lu You admired him: "Admiral Yang is not only brave in battle, but he is also so proficient in foreign farming."
Yang Yao chuckled: "I have been eyeing this place for a long time, so naturally I want to find out everything. There are two places with the largest population and the most developed agriculture in Srivijaya. One is here, the new capital of Srivijaya.
.One is Bahrain (Palembang), the old capital of Srivijaya. This time the usurper’s fiefdom is in Bahrain, and I plan to occupy that place next.”
"Does Admiral Yang have enough soldiers?" Bai Shihou asked.
Yang Yao shook his head: "It's far from enough. So we have to ask the court to transfer two thousand soldiers from Fujian and Guangdong, and more than 20,000 immigrants. The old and new capitals of Srivijaya are all fertile farmland along the river, which can be allocated to
Soldiers and immigrants, let them spread their wings here."
Li Zuqia asked: "What should we do with the original owners of the farmland? Kill them all?"
Yang Yao said: "Throw it away to Malacca. Part of it will be used for land reclamation, and part of it will be used to dig tin mines in Malacca."
"It might spark a rebellion." Lu You warned.
Yang Yao said: "Kill anyone who rebels! The army of Srivijaya is very weak. They don't even have a few iron armors. They are mainly equipped with leather armors. All the Han people who migrated here must be organized into Baojia as militia to guard against those who fled into the mountains and forests.
Aboriginal."
The six second-generation officials were silent when they heard this.
So brutal and bloody!
But it's hard for them to say anything. After all, they are opening up territory for the Ming Dynasty.
Many of the Srivijaya warships that surrendered during the naval pursuit were from Jambi nobles. Yang Yao was able to take Jambi without any bloodshed, but he certainly couldn't have done so with more than a thousand sailors. Thanks to the Jambi nobles who led the way.
Those nobles have gone home. It doesn't matter who rules Jambi, as long as they can keep their property.
How did the nobles know? Not only did Yang Yao want to occupy the city, he also set his sights on their land!
Once the Ming Dynasty transferred troops and immigrants from Fujian and Guangdong, Yang Yao would attack the Jambi nobles. And the battle plan was very despicable. He would first lure the nobles to the city, and then kill them all by surprise.
In history, Yang Yao not only defeated the officers and soldiers of the Southern Song Dynasty many times, but even Yue Fei suffered losses more than once.
Yang Yao's living conditions at that time were extremely poor, and he personally led his soldiers to touch river clams to survive the famine. While resisting the officers and soldiers with difficulty, he also carried out a series of political reforms, and still had time to build schools to teach children to read.
This man is not just a warrior, he is also very good at managing territory!
Returning to the palace, Yang Yao began to write a letter to Zhu Song.
He suggested that Zhu Song ask the court to move the Governor's Palace to Jambi. From now on, Jambi will be the center of governance, with Balimbang (Palembang) and Malacca as its wings. Sitting on two cities, three ports and one fort, through continuous immigration,
to expand actual control territory and develop agricultural production while controlling maritime trade routes.
There are people, land, food, soldiers, cities, and ships... Yang Yao can make this place as solid as an iron barrel.
…
The second generation of officials focused on local customs and traditions.
The six people walked around the city with their entourage and found that the houses in Jambi City obviously had overall planning.
The streets are straight or arc-shaped, gradually converging from the outside to the inside, gradually forming a square in the center of the city. The royal city and the royal palace are in the central square, and there are many shops around the square. Residential areas and different types of commercial areas are also divided into the city.
.
Most of the houses are made of masonry, with a small amount of wood also used.
The overall architectural style is heavily influenced by India, but it also incorporates local Nanyang characteristics and even borrows some Fujian and Cantonese elements.
In terms of clothing, it also has some South Indian characteristics.
Wang Lianqing said: "It is really a foreign land. The houses and clothes are very different from China. There are many temples and pagodas inside and outside the city. It seems that this country advocates Buddhism."
Of course he didn't know that there were two types of temple towers here.
Seventy percent are Buddhist temples and the other 30% are Brahmin temples.
A group of Chinese people wandered the streets, and the residents in the city were not surprised and even sold goods to them. Not to mention the Chinese, the residents even often interacted with Arabs, and there was even an Islamic community in Jambi City.
Lu You also invited a native to be an interpreter to communicate with all walks of life in Jambi City.
That night, Lu You returned to the palace with a serious expression and said to Yang Yao: "Admiral Yang, I asked the locals and found out that Srivijaya is exempted from all taxes except commercial tax. Before the reinforcements of the Ming Dynasty arrived, no tax increase was allowed.
, otherwise the nobles and people who have surrendered will inevitably rebel."
Yang Yao smiled and said: "Not only will I not raise taxes, I also promise to reduce commercial taxes for one year. Now there are only a thousand Ming sailors in Jambi City, so it is certainly impossible to fall out with the locals. I will comfort and coax first, and then I will thunder when the troops are sufficient."
hit!"
"Admiral Yang is confident that he will serve Meng Lang." Lu You was sincerely convinced.
Srivijaya's political system is very peculiar. It is heavily influenced by Brahmins, and most of the fertile land is occupied by nobles. Therefore, the king does not collect agricultural taxes in exchange for political and military support from the nobles. The nobles must support the king and be ready to accept conscription at any time, bringing private soldiers and
The militiamen went to fight.
Six second-generation officials stayed in Jambi for a month, but nothing happened.
With the power of victory in the naval battle, Yang Yao also promised to reduce business taxes for one year, and the local nobles in Jambi were happy to accept it.
As for the local nobles outside of Jambi, they were busy tearing up the country to build a country and fighting for power. Instead of gathering troops to recapture the capital, they rushed to request the Ming Dynasty to grant them the title.
After celebrating the New Year in Jambi, Lu You and others took the boat and continued westward.
At this time, the Ming Dynasty's telegraph antenna had been set up in Hangzhou. Zhu Song and Yang Yao's urgent memorial was telegraphed directly from Hangzhou to Luoyang, and was quickly approved by Emperor Zhu.
As a result, the Sichuan model was implemented in Fujian and Guangdong provinces.
The local civil and military officials used the excuse of training militiamen to recruit young men from families with spare children. They didn't even bother to conduct militia training. After being issued weapons and leather armor, they went directly to Jambi by boat with the soldiers.
The rice fields in Jambi are in harvest season.
After the arrival of two thousand Fujian and Guangdong reinforcements, Yang Yao immediately called a meeting of nobles inside and outside the city. This guy lied that the Ming Emperor wanted to levy agricultural taxes, and he had to break his promise to reduce or reduce taxes. The specific amount needed to be discussed with the local nobles.
When the Jambi nobles heard that they wanted to discuss tax issues, they all came to see Yang Yao impatiently.
"Are everyone here?" Yang Yao glanced at them.
The son of the former prime minister of Srivijaya replied: "Everyone is here. Even the brothers or sons of the nobles who died in the naval battle are here."
Yang Yao raised the wine cup and said with a smile: "Very good."
"Crack!"
The wine cup was thrown to the ground, and a group of soldiers suddenly rushed out and surrounded and killed the nobles.
The hall where King Srivijaya used to hold meetings was soon filled with corpses, and even the screams did not last long.
Yang Yao had already found out the houses and shops of the nobles in the city, and immediately sent out a thousand soldiers to ransack the houses. All the men in the noble families were killed, and the women and children were imprisoned together.
The remaining soldiers took a boat out of the city and went straight to the nobles' manor outside the city.
Five hundred soldiers and more than 10,000 immigrants with armor were left at the outer port of Jambi. They went north along the river from the port and, led by their guides, plundered the noble estates.
Although those immigrants were deceived, they were all blind at this moment.
They come from the mountainous areas of Fujian and Guangdong provinces, with more people and less land, and the land is barren. The fertile rice fields in Jambi are in the harvest season, and they look like a golden expanse. As long as the local nobles are killed, these fields can be distributed to them!
The immigrants from Fujian and Guangdong, who had no time for militia training, rushed to kill them excitedly wearing leather armor and holding weapons.
Some people even shouted while running: "Don't trample the rice, it's ready to be harvested!"
"Kill!"
"I can be divided into fifty acres of land, all of which are high-quality paddy fields that can be harvested twice a year. I'm going to get rich!"
"..."
The local farmers fled home one after another and quietly watched the Ming army and civilians attack the noble manor.
There are two types of land property rights here.
One is the private land of the nobles, and the other is the public land of the king.
There is no need to explain anything about private land, but public land is very interesting.
The property rights of public fields belong to the king, the right to use them belongs to the villagers' collective, and the management rights belong to the rent-collecting officials. That is, with the village community as the unit, farmers collectively cultivate the public fields and pay the land rent to the tax collector, who in turn pays the land rent to the tax collector.
king.
Ordinary farmers are not qualified to own land!
Since the land was not their own, the farmers in Jambi were naturally too lazy to resist when faced with a group of vicious Han people. They waited for the nobles to be killed and then continued to farm the land for the Chinese. They just changed their landowners.
From soldiers to immigrants, everyone has made money.
With the newly opened overseas territories and the wanton confiscation of homes and extermination of clans, there are too many places where they can reach out. Even if the censor is sent to inspect in the future, this collective corruption will not be pursued.
Yang Yao himself doesn't want a house, he only wants gold and silver.
The naval officers under his command, as well as the Fujian and Guangdong officers and soldiers who came as reinforcements, all had trophies to take from top to bottom.
Generals who are willing to stay or stay permanently can give priority to the nobles' mansions, women and land. Next, middle and lower-level officers and lower-level soldiers will be selected, and finally it is the turn of the more than 10,000 immigrants.
There are also countless goods and grains, some of which are confiscated, and the rest are distributed.
Even the soldiers and officials who stayed in Malacca, Yang Yao gave them a share.
Of course, the most precious treasure in the palace must be sent to Luoyang to present to the emperor.
This is a one-shot deal and can only be done in the early stages of development. Even if the court finds out, it will turn a blind eye. When the overseas territories get on the right track in the future, Yang Yao and his soldiers will have to abide by the rules.
The whole process is quite confusing.
In particular, the army in the city was so greedy that they rushed into Buddhist temples and Brahmin temples. Under the guise of shutting down unnecessary temples, they rushed in and looted, and even robbed the only Islamic temple in the city.
Yang Yao called his military Chinese secretary: "After the land is distributed, let the immigrants write letters home to encourage the recruitment of more compatriots. As long as the Chinese immigrate here, each male will have fifty acres of land, and each female will have thirty acres of land."
, all of them are high-quality paddy fields that grow twice a year. The more immigrants the better, and when the fields in Jambi are finished, I will take them to Balimbang (Palembang) to grab them!"
