Relative to China, there are small countries around East Asia, such as Japan. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

But Japan's population has reached 30 million since the Edo period, and this number has been maintained for a long time, and when it reaches a saturated state, the Tokugawa shogunate even encouraged Japanese to drown babies in order not to collapse the population.

Not only are the people desperately drowning babies, but even the middle and lower level samurai can't afford to raise too many children, and they often drown their younger sons and daughters, and the famous Japanese general Akiyama Mayuki was almost drowned by his middle-level samurai father when he was a child.

Throughout human history, for six or seven hundred years, Japan has enjoyed the status of the world's top three most populous countries, often second only to China and India.

Moreover, Chinese have always despised Japan's history, and always feel that Japan is a country without history, and Western countries also recognize Japan as an ancient civilization.

A country with a large population and an ancient civilization like Japan is a small country and a barbarian image in the impression of Chinese, and by this standard, Southeast Asia is indeed not a big country.

But the size is often relative, in the French census in 1921, the total population of the whole Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos (Laos) is only 12 million, of which more than 2 million from Cambodia, Laos is only 700,000 people, for China, Siam and Vietnam are naturally small countries that can not be smaller.

But for Cambodia, Siam, with a population of more than 5 million, is a big country, and Vietnam, with a population of more than 9 million, is simply a superpower.

In Cambodia's history, after leaving aside the glorious Angkor Dynasty, it has fallen into the dilemma of surviving between Siam and Vietnam.

In the 19th century, the Khmer nation, which was once prominent and could build such a superstructure as Angkor Wat, had a population hovering at one or two million for a long time, the land area was greatly reduced, and the political, economic, and cultural aspects were almost completely regressed.

After gaining a foothold in Nam Ki, Vietnam, in 1863, France forced King Norodom of Cambodia to sign the Franco-Cambodian Treaty, turning Cambodia into its own protectorate, and then sent an envoy similar to that sent to Vietnam to become the emperor in Cambodia, and even had the power to depose the king of Cambodia.

As for whether French rule in Cambodia is good or bad, it is really difficult to judge whether the French rule really brought civilization to Cambodia during the period of French rule. First of all, during the French rule of Cambodia, they adopted a policy of neglecting education and valuing the economy. During the French rule, education in Cambodia did not improve much, but it began to cultivate a rice export industry. At the same time, during the French rule, Cambodia was at peace for a long time, and was never again involved in the whirlpool of the war for hegemony in Siam.

Due to the relatively stable period of French rule, the French believe that this proves that French rule in Cambodia is very popular. And their rule in Laos, after the independence of Laos, they were more hostile to Thailand, which has a similar ethnic origin, and a certain favorability towards France seems to indicate that French rule does not make these countries and nations very hateful.

But French rule is not bad, it has never gotten better, and in fact, even if there is a change of ruler, whether it is Siamese or Vietnamese, the Cambodian nation that believes in Buddhism, I am afraid that there is not much strong resistance to it. The greatest benefit that France has brought to them is probably really peace.

The common people need peace and enjoy peace, but for the high-level, they may not be willing to accept it, at least King Norodom, who was forced to sign a protection treaty, will not be satisfied, there is always a French emperor on his head, and any emperor will not be satisfied, so he is more willing to use the power of Siam to restore his power. At least under Siam or Vietnam, he would have to submit to the tribute in name, and not lose real power, as is the case now.

But the power they use is really disappointing.

Siam's 30,000 well-equipped army entered Cambodia with great momentum, but was defeated by a ragtag colonial army composed of 2,000 French troops and 3,000 puppet troops, and was directly driven back to Siam.

In fact, Siam's army was very formal, and his father, Rama IV, was very enlightened long before the reforms of Rama V.

Before his accession to the throne, Rama IV became a monk and practiced in monasteries, and he was a monk for 27 years until the death of his father, King Rama III.

During his ordination and monastic practice, he traveled the country and came into contact with a wide variety of people, including foreign missionaries.

I don't know what kind of mentality, or it was natural curiosity, or it was a desire to know oneself and one's enemy, he learned Western knowledge from missionaries and sailors from all over the world, and learned Latin, English, the history, thought, and science of Western countries. He collected Western items such as globes, charts for calculating solar eclipses, world maps, and he also worked to understand the Western world by reading various history books and newspapers that were regularly sent from Singapore.

Through the study of Western geography, astronomy, and mathematics, Rama IV acquired the skills of astronomical surveying, especially calculating terrestrial coordinates and planetary motion. He once wrote to an American friend about his measurements of the hydrology of the Siam Sea. He later died on such astronomical measurements, and died in the wild while inviting ministers from Western countries to measure solar eclipses.

Because of their love of Western technology, many people compare Rama IV to the Kangxi Emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and Chinese who support the Manchu Qing may feel that Kangxi's talent is roughly incomparable to that of the kings of such small countries, but if the two are placed at the same latitude and put aside the political arena of different sizes in which they live, Rama IV is far superior to Kangxi in many places.

Kangxi was just interested in Western science and mathematics, and he pulled it after learning, at most he hoped to understand the threat of the West through these things. And Rama IV not only learned it himself, but also popularized it.

Mart IV promoted European-style education at court, taught modern geography and astronomy by missionaries, sent princes to study abroad, and hired Anna Leovense, an Englishman, as an English teacher for the young children who remained in the country. Just from the introduction of Western science, Rama IV and Kangxi are not in the same dimension.

In addition to introducing Western education, King Rama IV had already initiated the Siamese reforms, and he ordered the nobles to change their attire and wear Western dresses. European advisers were hired for government ministries, the first diplomatic missions were sent to Europe, and the political and military system was emulated by Europe, reorganizing the army and improving military equipment.

It can be said that it was precisely because of the foundation laid by Rama IV that he left his son a whole group of elites who understood the West and a Westernized army, that after his son came to power, he was able to begin to carry out drastic and comprehensive reforms.

There are two generations of emperors who have continued to reform, and Siam's army has long introduced Western-style weapons and equipment and training systems, but just like some nations, they seem to be good at fighting wars by nature, such as Russia, with the most backward system and even weapons and equipment in the West, it can sweep through Western Europe; And some national talents do not have military talents, such as Italy, with mechanized weapons and equipment, and can be defeated by the black uncle with a big sword and spear.

The Siamese people do not seem to have much military talent, and their new army has not shown the combat effectiveness it should have, let alone this era, even in the 21st century, the Thai army, which is equipped with the world's most advanced weapons, will not be able to benefit in front of the Cambodian army with semi-automatic rifles.

If Siam is a Buddhist country, then the Burmese also believe in Buddhism, but the Burmese army performed quite well, and the British suffered greater losses in the process of destroying Burma than the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

The Burmese government is not unaware of the capabilities of its own army, otherwise they would not have ceded land in exchange for the abolition of extraterritoriality by Britain and France, but relied on hard power to abolish it, as Japan did.

I know that I can't fight, but I still have to fight France, because if I don't fight, it's too late.

Before the Ming Dynasty lobbied Siam many times to form an alliance with the Ming Dynasty to fight against France, but Siam never dared to participate in the war, and now seeing that the new French government came to power and there were signs of withdrawing from Cochinchina, they decided to intervene in the war so as to have a seat at the negotiating table.

Although Siam did not agree to the Ming to join the war, he allowed the Ming fleet to dock in Bangkok, and the Ming promised to maintain Siam's power in Cambodia. Because the opening of Bangkok to Daming has already offended France, so I don't care about offending one more time. That's why I couldn't wait to join the war when I saw that the war was coming to an end.

Although the first battle was lost, and it was defeated by the Siamese standing army, the French did not have the spare forces to attack and did not intend to attack, so the two sides immediately confronted each other in the border area.

France still had the 5,000 men, while Siam mobilized 100,000 men.

Because war was declared on France, he had reason to negotiate with France.

After British mediation, France agreed to negotiate peace with the Ming and Vietnam in Singapore to discuss the withdrawal from Vietnam, and Siam also joined the peace talks with the help of the British.

We have already talked about it once last time, and this is the second time that the parties have held peace talks.

As a result of the start of peace talks, the Ming navy was withdrawn from the Congo River and withdrawn to Madagascar on the east coast of Africa.

However, the troops besieging Da Nang have not withdrawn, and the blockade has not even been lifted, and not only has the material supply situation of the French army not improved, but even because of the peace talks, there is no chance to break through the encirclement, because they dare not risk the cost of sabotaging the peace talks and start a war again.

There have already been cases of French soldiers flying white flags one after another out of Da Nang and surrendering to the Ming army, and if the negotiations drag on for a few months, the French army in Da Nang will basically be finished.

As for the area around Saigon, because Zhu Jinglun intended to keep France, he did not launch an offensive, and always confronted the French army, and the French army was also very cooperative, and they did not carry out military operations.

Because of the situation on the front line, the French did not want to delay for a moment, but they still had to fight for the benefits they should have, but Zhu Jinglun was worried in vain whether the French would change their policy 180 degrees and give up their colonial policy from now on.