In March 1797, the empire canonized a third prince-level vassal state, Xu Shisong, the king of Chu.

The territory demarcated by the cabinet for the king of Chu was the area around the South Seas, all the islands south of Malacca, and he was left to conquer - in fact, mainly Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java, Sulawesi, and other small islands.

At present, the most powerful power in this region is a Tianzhu sect known as Majapahit, a country with a population of hundreds of thousands and a large army of 50,000, and has now fallen to the most powerful Buddha state of the previous generation, Sri Buddha (Old Srivijaya), whose territory includes all of Java, the coastal area of Kalimantan, most of Sulawesi, as well as the southern part of Sumatra and thousands of other islands.

The southernmost kingdom of Malacca on the southernmost part of the Southeast Peninsula has also become a vassal to Majapahit, making its sphere of influence on the mainland.

At present, Majapahit's army is attacking the new Srivijaya regime in northern Sumatra, a new kingdom founded by the more than 1,000 Chinese living in the South Seas after the death of Sri Buddha and Liang Daoming, a native of the South China Sea in Guangdong Province.

This is also the reason why the Cabinet agreed to destroy Majapahit and establish a state here.

In fact, after the establishment of China, the Majapahit once came to pay tribute, and when the Great Zhou was still there, the Majapahit also paid tribute several times intermittently, if according to traditional thinking, the Central Plains Dynasty should not specifically deal with this fairly obedient country.

But who made the empire not a traditional Central Plains dynasty, and the Majapahit was attacking the new Srivijaya established by overseas Chinese.

This reason was enough for China, where nationalism and the desire for expansion were becoming stronger, to give a death sentence to Majapahit.

Situated in the South Seas, the land is divided by countless islands, and the Majapahit is a very weak country for the Chinese, and their army is very poorly equipped - far worse than the Cochin thieves, and to the Chinese people is a bit like a band of savage pirates paddling sampans.

But after all, the road is far away and there are thousands of miles of whale waves separated from the mainland, so it still takes some thought to conquer across the sea.

What's more, the king of Chu, who was in charge of the conquest of Nanyang, said that he was an internal vassal country, but in fact he was just a clan that had always been outside the core of the empire's power, and in the eyes of the empire, Xu Shisong could not be compared with Xu Shiliu, the king of Jin, let alone the prince Xu Daixuan.

All the state-owned banks were suspicious of the Chu king's expansionary moves, which led to their reluctance to lend to the Chu king, and even if some banks were willing to lend, the loan amount and interest would not meet the needs of the expansion.

Xu Shisong does not have the support of the whole empire like Xu Daixuan, nor does he have his own basic plate like Xu Shiliu, and without money, he can't even build the basic armed forces needed for expansion.

Therefore, after getting the approval of the former Empress Dowager of Zhou and the little emperor, His Excellency the King of Chu of the empire had to look for people everywhere to attract investment.

Xu Shisong's first thought was of course the widows and young of the previous week, the first of which was Wen Zhongwen Xiaoxianggong.

Wen Zhong, who had been idle at home since the fall of the previous week, naturally agreed to come forward immediately - he was waiting for this day when he surrendered.

The Wen family has a lot of influence in the empire, after all, there is a crown princess, there are also high-ranking officials in the empire like Wen Ji, and Yu Meng, the old minister of Wen.

Wen Zhong can't get a credit loan by himself, but he can mortgage one-third of the Wen family's property (the Wen family is separated, and Wen Yue is a share) and part of the loan.

Wen Ji and Wen Yue felt sorry for their eldest brother, and gave Wen Zhong some support in their own names, and at the same time mortgaged the remaining property of the Wen family to the bank and Wen Zhong together.

This is a lot of money, but Xu Shisong went to find other elders, but he kept closing the door.

When the Great Zhou was still there, they shouted every day to live and die with the imperial court, and to be loyal ministers of the Great Zhou, at this time, they were afraid to avoid the Zhao clan one by one!

Except for Bao Zheng, who has always been honest, who gave some money, the others not only refused to go to Nanyang to continue to support the little emperor (Bao Zheng wanted to go, but the cabinet refused to release him, he had to go to the Criminal Department as a consultant), refused to fund the establishment of the Chu State, and even did not even want to see Xu Shisong.

This really broke his heart, a Great Zhou Dynasty famous for its preferential treatment of the gentry, after a few years of its demise, it was completely abandoned by the gentry.

At the critical moment, it was the imperial clan that gave more support to the King of Chu.

First of all, the emperor personally stepped forward as a guarantee and provided Xu Shisong with a loan of 30 million new taels from the Inner Bank.

After that, Xu Shisong's father, Xu Mujiang, who had resigned from his job, and his brother Xu Shibai, who served as a political envoy in the local government, also came forward to stand for Xu Shisong.

Xu Shiyang also gave support, announcing that Malacca was an important shipping lane, and the navy would directly occupy Malacca and establish the headquarters of the navy's South Ocean Fleet in Singapore.

This means that the expansion of the Chu State will be directly escorted by the Imperial Navy!

The attitude of the clan has been very clear, and with the participation of the imperial military, there is no doubt about victory.

If you win, you will have the spoils of war - land, slaves, and if you have the spoils of war, you will have the ability to repay, and the customers who can repay are high-quality customer resources for the bank.

Why don't high-quality customer resources issue loans? At most, the interest to the king of Chu should be set to the highest grade allowed by the "Dahua Law".

As a result, Xu Shisong, who was originally disappointed, suddenly felt that his eyes suddenly opened up, and his future was bright!

With basic military spending, conscription is not a problem.

There is never a shortage of adventurers who are willing to go overseas to open up and make a fortune, especially in Fujian Province, which has seven mountains, two rivers and one field, and has always had a tendency to colonize overseas.

Xu Shisong successfully recruited 5,000 Han soldiers with guns as the core of the Chu army—if it weren't for the fact that the empire had too many territories to explore, he could have recruited more men.

Later, in order to continue to show support for the development of the king of Chu, the cabinet transferred 5,000 "labor activists" who worked honestly and worked hard in the past to open up the wasteland and repair water conservancy from the slaves of all ethnic groups who opened up the great wilderness in northeast Liao, promoted them from slaves to commoners, and allowed them to carry cold weapons and arms, and follow the king of Chu to Nanyang to explore.

This was great news for the slaves, and although the hard-earned land in Liaodong had to be handed over to the government, becoming commoners meant having basic personal rights, and then going to Nanyang, the newly opened land would become private property—and they finally had a bright future as yeoman farmers.

Moreover, they can also count on catching a Nanyang woman as a wife and continuing their bloodline.

And the cooked land that these slaves had reclaimed would naturally be handed over to the Han immigrants for cultivation, which was also a good thing for the empire - the foreign population in the inland provinces was smaller, and the unstable factors were also reduced, and the immigrants from the south of the Yangtze River could get the cultivated land to settle down at the beginning, without having to work hard to open up the wasteland.

Even those slaves who were not chosen, after learning the news, would work harder to get a place in the future to open up overseas and redeem themselves.