In Ava City, Myanmar's left-behind Prime Minister Min Aung Chong was having a secret meeting with several close officials in his mansion.
After Gaara moved to Dhaka, a caretaker government was formed by the Prime Minister Min Aung Chong. Such small gatherings are not uncommon in the Prime Minister's Office.
"Minister of State, Your Majesty has now moved Myanmar's population and materials to East Bengal. Will Myanmar still be Myanmar in the future?" said a Myanmar noble official.
"Yes, now the British warships are raging everywhere in Lower Burma, and the king doesn't care, but runs the city of Dhaka. Isn't this putting the cart before the horse? Isn't it possible that for the sake of a newly occupied land, I have given up the ancestral foundation of the Burmese dynasty?
Prime Minister, you have to persuade the king to return to the court as soon as possible." Another official said.
"Prime Minister, after all, the king is young and is easily deceived by villains. You have to correct the king."
"The king is a promising leader and the king of Myanmar's renaissance. You can't comment on it casually." Min Aung Chong glared at these confidants. What they said was a bit too much.
Although Min Aung Chong has some objections to the current decree of Galoa, he still supports this king. It is rare for Myanmar to establish a more high-profile king in these years.
As a veteran of three dynasties in Myanmar, Min Aung Chong was able to do this so steadily not only because of his family's influence in the Konbaung Dynasty.
It is also because of his excellent governance skills.
After Galloya came to power, not only did he not touch Min Angcong's position, but he also trusted him more.
Of course, Gaara's rise to power was also supported by Min Aung Chong.
Min Angcong did not disappoint Galloya. He quickly stabilized the political situation after Galloya usurped the throne.
During the time when Garoya went on the expedition, Min Aung Chong allocated manpower and materials for him without any delay.
Min Aung Chong also supported the Garoya invasion of Bengal.
But now there is one thing that makes Min Aungcong a little unhappy.
That is why Garoya secretly handed over the Dana region to the Renaissance Army.
Isn't this an act of naked betrayal?
Min Aung Chong did not publicize this matter.
Because Galloya just asked the local generals to do this in secret.
The Baath Army also did not openly take over the Tanah area.
Min Aung Chong only found out about this through his own private channels.
After all, he was a patriarch of Myanmar for three dynasties, and his disciples and former officials were spread throughout Myanmar.
Galloya didn't even tell him about such a big matter.
The old Prime Minister was quite unhappy. This was because he did not regard him as one of his own.
What the young king did this time was too much of his own way.
Besides, what's the difference between Galloya's behavior and picking up watermelons or losing corns?
After gaining East Bengal in the west, do we have to give up the Danna in the east?
Many elderly people in Myanmar do not have that kind of awe for the Celestial Empire.
During the Qianlong period, the Gongbang Dynasty had several confrontations with the Celestial Dynasty, and the Burmese royal army had mixed successes and losses.
Although the Kingdom of Burma failed in the end, in their hearts, the Celestial Empire was nothing more than this. Of course, this refers to the Qing army at that time.
They are just relying on their large number of people to bully Myanmar's small number of people.
Therefore, the older generation of Burmese nobles do not have that kind of awe for the Celestial Empire.
Galloya obeyed the advice of the Celestial Empire because he had been to the Celestial Empire and seen their powerful army with his own eyes.
And he also knew the record of this new court.
But old people like Min Aung Chong felt that the new imperial court might not be as powerful as the legend said.
They felt that the Chinese people were the best at bragging. If they were really so powerful, why didn't they just go to war with the British?
"What has the special envoy from China been doing recently?" Min Angcong trimmed his beard and took a sip of tea.
What is brewed in the tea cup is the best Biluochun passed down from China. Only the nobles of Myanmar can enjoy this kind of tea.
He interrupted the complaints of these close officials. He called these people here to do a business, not to listen to their grievances.
"Returning to the Prime Minister, this Mr. Li from the Celestial Dynasty is relatively close to some young officials in Ava City, and they often gather together. It is said that these young officials call this Mr. Li a great scholar from the Celestial Dynasty. During the gathering, this Mr. Li
The adults will also hold sutra feasts to give lectures to these young people. They treat each other as teachers and students." The person who stood up to speak was an official responsible for managing public security in Ava City.
"Humph, what use are the benevolence, wisdom, etiquette, justice and trustworthiness of the Celestial Empire to our Kingdom of Burma? He wants Myanmar to be an obedient minister of the Celestial Empire from generation to generation."
Min Aung Chong is a learned Burmese. He has a certain understanding of the culture of the Chinese dynasty.
The Confucianism of the Manchu Qing Dynasty can be said to be the extreme version of the castrated version of Confucianism.
But this version of Confucianism was extremely friendly to rulers.
Now a group of scholars under Dong Shuheng are engaged in a movement to restore Confucianism.
They dug up all the Confucian thoughts of the past dynasties before the Ming and Qing dynasties and made vertical comparisons to discover the evolution of Confucianism.
To this end, they also specially founded a magazine to study Confucianism.
Now they have launched a lot of research results, causing quite a stir in the academic community.
But in terms of external cultural export, Dong Shuheng felt that the castrated version of Confucianism in the Ming and Qing Dynasties was very good.
Especially the positioning of the relationship between the suzerain state and the vassal state.
Li Shaoquan was a Jinshi with a serious academic background. He was able to defeat thousands of troops in the imperial examination, so he was certainly good at the classics and meanings.
There is no problem in making a guest appearance as a great scholar in a barbaric place like the Kingdom of Burma.
In addition, he is tall, handsome in face, elegant in behavior, and looks good.
This won him a group of fans in Ava.
Naturally, some of them just wanted to curry favor with him.
Businessmen who want to do business in China can find the way through him.
Nobles who wanted to send their children to study in China had to go through Li Shaoquan.
In addition, Li Shaoquan is naturally sociable and a well-rounded person. Therefore, he is very popular.
This also provides convenience for him to carry out work in Myanmar.
Under Li Shaoquan's win over, the Kingdom of Myanmar has formed a circle around him.
If we talk about the power struggle, these ministers of the Burmese Kingdom are more than a match for the officials of the Celestial Dynasty.
"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, His Majesty the King's continuous use of foreign troops is all instigated by that man named Li. They just want to sell weapons to us in Myanmar and empty the money bags of our kingdom." A Burmese official with a noble background was indignant.
Said unfairly.
The military expenditures spent since the beginning of Galloya's Western Expedition are astronomical figures for Myanmar.
Hundreds of thousands of muskets and hundreds of giant coastal defense artillery pieces are a huge expense.
Where does this money come from?
Part of it is the accumulation of the Burmese Kingdom over the years, and part of it is the result of the suppression of some nobles and officials after Galloya came to power, and the proceeds from confiscation of their homes.
Of course more funds are raised from domestic taxes.
Many of these taxes have to be paid by the nobles.
The management of the Kingdom of Myanmar is relatively rough. Local nobles are in charge of the management.
Taxes are also contracted to those people. Normally, the nobles advance the taxes first. As for how those nobles exploit the people under their command, it is not the kingdom's business.
This means that the nobles of the Kingdom of Myanmar have to transfer more rights and interests to the king.
Some of them rallied around Galoa and supported Galoa's anti-British expansion strategy.
They also shared their interests in East Bengal.
These people's hearts are naturally filled with joy.
There were also some people who were not optimistic about Galoa's ability to defeat the British from the beginning.
They adopted a negative attitude towards Galloya. Of course, Galloya would not allocate any benefits to them in the end.
These people are becoming more and more dissatisfied. They hope that the war will not continue.
Let Garaya give up the East Bengal region.
Because they discovered that Garaya seemed to be constantly drawing blood from within Myanmar to replenish it in East Bengal.
And they have no interests in East Bengal. Why should they provide money and people to build other people's territories?
If these people want to achieve their goals, they must find a spokesperson in the government.
At this time, the relatively conservative Prime Minister Min Aung Chong came into their sight.
They first won over some of Min Aung Chong's close officials in the court.
Then use these officials to influence Min Aung Chong.
The effect seems to be pretty good. Min Aung Chong is very dissatisfied with the current relationship between the Kingdom of Myanmar and the suzerain country.
These people grasped two points. First, Myanmar transferred so much wealth to the sovereign country every year in exchange for a large number of weapons.
But these weapons were immediately consumed on the battlefield with the British.
The war between Burma and the British actually benefited the suzerain country a lot.
In fact, anyone with a discerning eye can see that there is no confrontation between the Renaissance Army and the Great Empire.
Otherwise, why would the Baath Army send so many weapons to the Holy Army and Myanmar?
But the war is fought by the Burmese people, and the money is provided by the Burmese people.
The suzerain country will get all the benefits.
Why?
These Burmese nobles expressed dissatisfaction.
Only the generals in East Bengal and the nobles who followed Galoa could feel the power of the Renaissance Army.
They seemed not to participate in the battle against the British, but in fact they were influencing the development of the war at all times.
Not to mention the weapons that are comparable to those of the British and the officer corps they sent to the Burmese army.
It is the Holy Army in the north. In name, it is a rebel army that escaped from the Chinese Empire. In fact, it is not at the command of the Renaissance Army.
Without the Celestial Empire, it would have been impossible for Garaya to conquer East Bengal or recover the lost land along the southern coast.
Only those nobles who have been hiding in their territories would think that the Burmese army had become a powerful force because of the sudden shaking of Garaya's tiger body.
It was impossible for Garoya to retreat from Dhaka, not only because he had almost emptied his capital in Burma just to get here, but also because the Celestial Empire needed him to attract the attention of the British master here.
If he can't defend East Bengal at this level, then what's the value of Tagalaya!
Moreover, adhering to the westward strategy has always been Galloya's idea.
After the Tanah area was handed over to the Baath Army, the development space to the east of the Kingdom of Myanmar has been completely blocked.
There is vast space in the Indian region to the west.
Galloya had basically determined the development direction of both parties in his previous meeting with Shi Dakai.
The Holy Army will develop westward with neighboring countries to the north and south of the Kingdom of Burma.
Now that Garaya has only occupied half of East Bengal, it has already reached a point that is difficult to digest.
Half of East Bengal is still in the hands of the British, and further west there is the more prosperous West Bengal.
The Indian region is large enough that even the ambitious Garaya found it difficult to start.
Min Angcong's nerves were constantly stimulated by his subordinates.
Yes, why should all Myanmar's resources be used to help China fight the war?
As a veteran minister, Min Aung Chong's heart is towards the kingdom. He does not allow anyone to harm the interests of the kingdom of Myanmar.
The Celestial Empire first invaded and occupied various chieftains in the north, and then wanted to take away the Danna area. How could this be unreasonable?
The most urgent thing now is to drive away the envoy of the Celestial Empire. He cannot be allowed to continue causing trouble in the city of Ava.
This person will only bring bad hearts to the people of the kingdom.
But how to drive this person away?
This is a special envoy sent by the Celestial Empire, with a very high status. You must not do it openly. You must not use too drastic measures secretly. Otherwise, you will definitely incur revenge from the Celestial Empire.
King Galloya couldn't explain it either.
"Prime Minister, isn't Mr. Li in charge of our customs?" an official reminded.
"Let's let him not receive the tariffs and wait until the end of the year to hand over the taxes and see what he says."
As one of the conditions for the loan from the Renaissance Army, the customs duties of the Kingdom of Myanmar were now handed over to Li Shaoquan.
On the one hand, in order to regulate Myanmar's customs, on the other hand, Myanmar's customs are used as collateral for loans to the Ba'ath Army, so they must naturally be under the supervision of the Ba'ath Army.
In addition to being a plenipotentiary envoy sent by the Celestial Empire, Li Shaoquan also served as the General Taxation Department of Myanmar Customs.
Naturally, he does not need to personally manage customs matters.
In fact, Li Shaoquan was only in name, and the specific work was handled by customs officials sent from China.
In addition, in order to facilitate the work, a group of Burmese were hired in the customs. The General Taxation Department even had its own armed force.
Although this armed force of thousands of men is not large, it has excellent weapons.
They are called tax police, and their main job is to catch smuggling.
Of course, this armed force is in the hands of Li Shaoquan, and the main officers and even soldiers are veterans of the Renaissance Army.
Min Aung Chong agreed to the suggestions of these people. With local snakes like them in Myanmar, it should not be difficult to avoid the customs.
On the other side, in the residence of Li Shaoquan's special envoy.
Li Shaoquan is sitting in his imperial chair reading.
He is now living a very natural life in the Kingdom of Burma. Whether people from Burma want to go to China or people from China want to come to Burma, they all ask to come to his house.
He became the link between the two parties. The General Taxation Department, which he was in charge of, was also a well-oiled yamen.
Myanmar's main export commodities are teak, gems and rice.
The main export target is China.
Every year many businessmen come from Yunnan, and the first thing they do is to come to Li Shaoquan to pay homage to the wharf.
Li Shaoquan's life is so comfortable now, of course it is not just relying on his salary.
However, Li Shaoquan did not have any extravagant habits. He mainly used the filial piety from outsiders to hold banquets and win over the powerful people in Myanmar.
It can be said that in the current Ava City, Min Aungcong ranks first in power, and the second-ranked person is Li Shaoquan.
Li Shaoquan has a general feeling for money, but after tasting the sweetness of power, he became more and more obsessed with power.
In the Kingdom of Burma, he could only seize power in Burma.
"Special Envoy Li, Min Angcong and others are preparing to deal with you." A dark figure flashed into Li Shaoquan's study.
"Oh, have they finally had the courage to make up their minds?" Li Shaoquan rubbed an empty teacup with his fingers.
"Are you planning to start with the customs?" Li Shaoquan asked rhetorically.
This young envoy always likes to package himself as enigmatic.
However, he is indeed very cunning. He can always do things very carefully and be able to deduce his opponent's next move.
"Yes, sir, these people are local gangsters. It will be very troublesome if they attack the customs." Shadow said.
"It doesn't matter, the soldiers will come to cover up the water and the earth. We are not afraid of their actions, but we are afraid that they will continue to tolerate it. The war in the west has little to do with the Burmese army. It is just a good time to find something for Galoa to do." Li Shaoquan said with a smile.
Li Shaoquan looked extremely relaxed, as if Min Aung Cong and others were just clowns.
ps: I am still updating silently during the New Year, please vote!