The next day, June 19, Zhu Yourong held a small imperial cabinet meeting, chaired by Shen Rongxuan, and the discussion began to deal with the Siam issue. Although it was a cabinet meeting, Xiang Xiaoqiang was also present.
After discussions among the most senior figures in the Ming Empire, they decided to support, or rather request, Prince Bhumibol Adulyadej to launch a coup and succeed the new king as soon as possible, becoming Rama VIII.
Originally, Prince Bhumibol did not need to be in such a hurry. Anyway, his half-brother Prince Ananta was dead, so the crown prince naturally passed on to him. He only had to wait for his father's death, and then Succession to the throne is enough. But in the imperial meeting of the Ming Dynasty, the cabinet ministers were divided into two groups and the issue was very heated. Although it was an imperial meeting, the ministers would not throw glasses, but it was not much different.
The three most important people at the meeting: Zhu Yourong, Shen Rongxuan, and Xiang Xiaoqiang did not express their opinions prematurely, but sat there and listened to the quarrels of the ministers.
One group of ministers advocated that Ming Dynasty should not intervene and not support Prince Bhumibol so clearly, because he has two younger brothers behind him. Ming Dynasty should wait and see what happens, not support anyone prematurely, and should wait for the price. In this way All three princes have the possibility of inheriting the throne, and it depends on who can win the favor of Ming Dynasty. They will compete to please Ming Dynasty and make wishes to Ming Dynasty... In this way, whoever succeeds to the throne in the future will be the one closest to Ming Dynasty.
The other group of ministers advocated that Prince Bhumibol should succeed to the throne as soon as possible. Because one of the most important reasons is: the old king of Siam is still alive. Although he is ill and seems to have little time left, he is still the king of Siam. , has strong control over domestic affairs. In the past few years, when he was in poor health, he delegated a lot of power to the Crown Prince, Prince Ananta, and left it to him to handle. But now that something happened to Prince Ananta, the old king will definitely do it again Take back power and control Siam yourself.
And the old king is different from Prince Ananta. Prince Ananta is pro-Ming and wants to bring Siam and Ming as close as possible. However, during his reign, the old king has been working hard to maintain Siam's independence and make Siam Get rid of the influence of the Ming Dynasty. The strong pro-Ming tendency shown by the eldest son Ananta in recent years will definitely make the old king regret it. Now that there is another opportunity, wouldn’t the old king choose someone who conforms to his own political views and dare to gradually alienate the Ming Dynasty? , or even challenge the crown prince?
Besides, we still face a very urgent problem: how to deal with Prince Ananta.
Prince Ananta has committed a heinous crime, and after squeezing out all his value, he will definitely not be able to keep him. Such a killing will definitely stimulate the old king of Siam and make him resent the Ming Dynasty even more. He will definitely choose the most "explicit" among his three sons. , and then make him the crown prince, or simply pass the throne to him immediately to prevent the Ming Dynasty from taking any action on the crown prince issue after his death. Even if one of the original plans is to hand over Prince Ananta to Siam, That prerequisite must be after Prince Bhumibol takes power.
But having said that, this time the Ming Dynasty set up a scam to extract a lot of Siamese secrets. With this matter at the bottom, Prince Ananta cannot be handed over to Siam. He will definitely be executed in the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, we still need to cut the knot quickly. Just a few days after the Prince Ananta incident happened, and the old King of Siam had not yet had time to regain power and establish a new crown prince, he asked Prince Bhumibol to stage a coup and bring the old king to power. The king was forced to abdicate and become a new king who was supported by Ming Dynasty. This can ensure that the new king is loyal and obedient to the greatest extent. Taking a step back, if the new king is not so familiar and obedient in the future, then he still has two younger brothers. no?
After nearly a day of discussion, most people agreed that Ming Dynasty cannot take this risk, cannot rely on luck, and hope that everything in Siam will happen in the direction it wants. It is still necessary to take the safest method: to "manually" give Siam money immediately Luo changed the king and supported Prince Bhumibol's coup to take the throne.
The two people who spoke with the most weight: Shen Rongxuan, a hawk, and Xiang Xiaoqiang, a hawk, both stood in the same opinion: immediately support the Siamese coup.
At the end of the meeting, Chief Minister Shen Rongxuan led all the ministers to stand up, faced Zhu Yourong, and asked His Majesty to approve this plan.
If in the last cabinet last year, after this kind of imperial meeting, the chief minister would lead the ministers to give such an invitation, but it was just a formality to perform a ceremony. As the emperor, Zhu Yourong could only give an accurate report, but generally he could not Say "no". But this year is different. Zhu Yourong has Xiang Xiaoqiang, the People's Guard, the New Year's coup, and the Shen Rongxuan cabinet. Now this petition is not just a formality. Zhu Yourong can completely rely on it Your own opinion, whether it is allowed to be played or not.
But today she also fully listened to the opinions of both parties, especially Mr. Shen Ge and her most trusted Xiang Xiaoqiang, who both agreed, so Zhu Yourong was happy to play it.
…
The next day, on the morning of June 20, the ceremony for Zheng Gongyin's succession to the throne as King Yanping was held in Nanjing. This ceremony was highly anticipated, with Chinese and foreign reporters gathering.
Zheng Gongyin's motorcade first drove out of the Changping Marquis Mansion and went to the Forbidden City to meet the emperor. Then Zhu Yourong presided over the canonization at the Fengtian Hall in the Forbidden City, canonizing Zheng Gongyin as Prince Yanping and Zheng Yutang as the Crown Prince of Yanping, inheriting the title of "Marquis of Changping". Zheng Yucong was canonized as "Prince of Yanping". "Princess Leping", several of Zheng Yucong's sisters were also canonized as different princesses.
Then, Zheng Gongyin's motorcade slowly left the Forbidden City and drove to the Yanping Palace, where the succession ceremony was held.
Just when the attention of all East Asia was attracted to Nanjing, on the same morning, the Ming Dynasty quietly sent more troops to Siam. First, 5,000 Ming troops stationed in Pachia (Sumatra) in Nanyang boarded a troop transport and set sail for Siam. Their destination is the two military bases in Songkhla and Laem Chabang. These 5,000 people and the original strength of the two military bases combined can reach 12,000 people, enough for a division. And the entire Kingdom of Siam The army of the Ming Dynasty only has 60,000 people, and its equipment quality and combat capability are one-nth of the Ming Dynasty army. Once necessary, the 10,000 Ming Dynasty troops in Siam can play a decisive role.
At the same time, the Ming Dynasty Army Aviation Parachute Commandos dispatched a battalion, and the People's Guard Security Force dispatched a special agent team, flying to Siam on 12 Junkers-52s and 5 DC-3 transport aircraft newly purchased from the United States. Laem Chabang Military Base. The South China Sea Fleet also dispatched a company of marines to fly to Laem Chabang base on a transport plane.
The Ming Dynasty had two bases in Siam: Laem Chabang and Songkhla. Songkhla is on the Malay Peninsula, stretching far into the Southeast Asia, that is, it is close to Pakia and far from Bangkok, about five or six hundred kilometers away. Laem Chabang is located southeast of Bangkok, only a hundred kilometers away. The 5,000 army troops are stationed in two bases, mainly for deterrence, and the possibility of actual use is very small. Because the Ming Dynasty went to Siam Thousands of troops were added to the base at once, and the generals of the Siamese army understood what was going on. When Prince Bhumibol staged a coup, they would have the good sense to remain neutral.
A battalion of parachute commandos and a company of Marine Corps are all stationed at Laem Chabang Base, a short distance from Bangkok. They are more likely to use them. There are about 500 people in total, all at the special forces level.
Yes, it can be used as a quick reaction force. Although most of the Siamese army dare not take action, it cannot be ruled out that there is a small group of people who are loyal to Prince Ananta or the old king. Small-scale battles are still very likely to occur.
. Once the situation becomes out of control, Prince Bhumibol's guards cannot hold on, and the coup may fail, then Ming Dynasty's quick reaction force will enter Bangkok.
…
Throughout the day on the 20th, under the guidance of security agents, Prince Bhumibol and Princess Kunstada began secretly making final preparations for the coup. Prince Bhumibol’s personal guard only had a few hundred people, which was only equivalent to a battalion. But in addition,
Among the Bangkok garrison, there are still some generals who assessed the situation and chose to support Prince Bhumibol. Their troops and the prince's guard combined totaled several thousand. These few thousand troops are enough to control important places in Bangkok. The security team's special agent team also started from
Nanjing airlifted 150 Thompson submachine guns and 10 Woodpecker machine guns and sent them to Prince Bhumibol's guards. In this way, Bhumibol's guards became the most sophisticated troops in the Siamese army.
On the afternoon of June 20, a company of marines from the South China Sea Fleet flew to Laem Chabang Airport. At dusk, a battalion of parachute commandos taking off from Nanjing also landed at Laem Chabang Airport. Because the Laem Chabang base is very
It was large, and the airport was inside the base, and there were only a dozen transport planes landing, so the king didn't notice anything.
But at noon the next day, the troop transport fleet departing from Pakia entered the Gulf of Siam. The troops were divided into two groups. They entered the port at the two bases of Songkhla and Laem Chabang at the same time, and then 5,000 soldiers carried them on their backs.
Carrying luggage and carrying weapons, they disembarked batches from the ship. The cranes at the pier were also running, transporting the light and heavy artillery, ammunition, etc. carried on the ship to the pier. At this time, the people in Laem Chabang and Songkhla were watching.
The local Siamese officials and the officers of the Siamese army also saw it.
But after several hours, almost at night, the news was slowly reported back to Bangkok layer by layer, and reported to the palace. Only then did the sick King of Siam know the news. At this time, he had not thought about it.
Daming was supporting the coup. He thought that Daming was going to use the incident of Prince Ananta as an excuse to annex Siam by force. At this time, people around him suddenly came over and asked him to listen to the radio, the Nanjing Jinling Broadcasting Company channel.
The old king quickly turned on the radio, tuned to that channel, and gradually became stunned as he listened to the Chinese, English, and Siamese words coming out.
At this moment, in Nanjing, the royal family of the Ming Dynasty, the bombing investigation team, and the People's Guard were jointly holding a press conference to officially announce to the outside world that Prince Ananta of Siam had planted a bomb, killing King Xian Yanping and two guards.
, a driver, and the fact that he killed two Ming fishermen in Taihu Lake during his escape were also announced at the same time. At the press conference, the People’s Guard also announced that Sawang Susi sent
Kunjideepan’s nephew and niece also came out and broke down in tears at the press conference, crying out the situation at that time.
Then, the Ming Dynasty royal family announced that Prince Ananta had been captured and was currently being held somewhere for trial. Immediately afterwards, the spokesperson of the Ming Dynasty royal family said the most crucial words:
"Prince Ananta Mahidol committed an unforgivable crime. His actions not only seriously harmed the people of Ming Dynasty, but also seriously harmed the people of Siam. It is obvious that Prince Ananta has no possibility of succeeding to the throne of Siam. In view of this
Therefore, Ming Dynasty decided to support Prince Bhumibol Adulyadej to succeed the king of the Kingdom of Siam. It is hoped that he can resume the burden of maintaining the friendship between the two countries at this time when the relationship between the two countries is the most fragile and vulnerable... The Queen
His Majesty has high hopes for him. The government of Ming Dynasty has high hopes for him. And we believe that the people of Ming Dynasty and Siam will also have good hopes for him..."
At this time, the Ming Dynasty officially expressed its support to the world and Siam that it supported Prince Bhumibol's succession to the throne.
At the Royal Palace in Bangkok, the old king was so angry that he thought you would treat me as transparent. I am not dead yet, and you have started to choose the crown prince for me... No, you are not choosing the crown prince, you are directly choosing the king...
He immediately announced the order from his sick bed, imposing martial law throughout Bangkok, a state of emergency across Siam, and the mobilization of the entire army.
…
At the same time, hundreds of Prince Bhumibol's guards had rushed onto the streets of Bangkok, armed with submachine guns and Woodpecker machine guns, and began to take over various key departments in Bangkok City.