The MixC is located on the left bank of the Mekong River, the largest plain in Laos.

The water of the Mekong River is turbid and the color of coffee and milk in the vicinity of Vientiane.

There are many sandalwood trees growing in the mountains around the city, which is the origin of the name of Vientiane, the city of sandalwood.

Surrounded by farmland and villages, several rivers meander down the hills to the north of the city and across the plains, irrigating and nourishing the core of the Lao nation.

Rice paddies are lined with square, neat and vibrant, like patterns drawn by math teachers.

On the vast fertile field, the villages are dotted with gray dots, and it is the harvest season, and the outside of the village is covered with a layer of golden yellow.

The innermost layer of golden yellow is the MixC.

Like other Thai and Burmese cities, Vientiane was built following careful planning.

The Royal Palace is located in the center of the square castle, which covers an area of about 0.3 square kilometers, is about 600 meters long from east to west, and about 500 meters wide from north to south.

There is a moat outside the castle, and the river flows into the Mekong River after a circle around the city.

Siamese crocodiles, clad in olive-green leather armor, float on the surface of the water, opening their jaws for the birds to clean the carrion between their teeth.

Burma and the Thai kingdom had a habit of keeping crocodiles in the capital's moats as animal guards and as torture to intimidate the rebels.

The castle was inhabited by the Lao king Suryawangsa and his nobles and officials, and the streets were crisscrossed and neatly organized.

The Temple of the Emerald Buddha is a representative building in the city, which enshrines the Emerald Buddha brought back by King Setathira of Laos when he conquered Chiang Mai, the founder of the Thai Kingdom.

Most of the settlements are located outside the city, rectangular along the banks of the Mekong River, with an area of about 3 square kilometers, ten times the fortified area of the citadel.

The city's architecture is heavily influenced by Ayutthaya, the cultural center of the Thai ethnic group, and is generally composed of wooden houses on stilts, walls woven with bamboo and straw mats, bamboo floors, thatched and palm leaf roofs.

In Southeast Asia, almost every man is a carpenter, and friends and relatives build houses together, and they can quickly build a house.

Due to the monsoon rains, the roof had to be built very steeply, and the supporting wooden pillars had to be strong and sturdy to ensure that they would not be washed away by heavy rains.

These houses are airy, inexpensive and easy to build.

Most of the dwellings in the federation are also such houses, and in one of the building tests, the materials were so supplied that 50 workers were able to build a standardized wooden house with four rooms in four hours, and this kind of construction workers are everywhere in Southeast Asia.

It is precisely because of the mild climate and the fast-growing trees, palms, and bamboo leaves that the Confederation spent very little time and resources on building homes when accepting immigrants, and quickly built millions of homes in a decade.

There is no uniform standard for the support height of the stilt wooden house from the ground in Laos, the common one is between 1 meter and 3 meters, and generally speaking, the higher the support wood, the higher the social status of the owner.

In Southeast Asia, only palaces, Buddhist buildings and tombs are built of masonry and stone, and Thaluang, north of Vientiane, is a magnificent stone building.

Kings and nobles loved the comfort and coolness of wooden buildings during their lifetimes, and after their deaths they pursued the exile of stone monuments.

Compared to Ayutthaya, which is cramped on the islands of the Chao Phraya River due to national defense needs, the building density in Vientiane is not so high.

Cats can travel from one end of the city to the other without landing on the rooftops of Ayutthaya, and Vientiane is a sparsely built garden city, which in part mitigates the danger of fire.

Vientiane has a population of more than 50,000 and the country's population is about 1.2 million.

Cai Yuanding was on a boat on the Mekong River, and he had already turned all the materials through.

The population of Laos is estimated, and in fact Prince Phu of Suria Wangsa and the southern part of the country cannot figure out how many ethnic groups there are in the mountains of Laos.

There are 2 gold mines in Laos, one in the south of Vientiane and one in Luang Prabang.

Laos and Shan State were once the main suppliers of gold to Myanmar and Siam, and with the arrival of large quantities of Australian gold in Southeast Asia, the Federation became the main gold exporter to the whole of Asia.

After the Federation obtained Australian gold, it hired sailors, carpenters and other workers from various countries to purchase gold from various countries through the purchase of gold from various countries, and bought countless slaves and slave girls, putting the country on the road of rapid development.

Slaves and rice are the largest commodities in Southeast Asia. Before the spread of the Celestial Religion, all countries were great slave traders.

Java was once the largest slave exporter.

After the Celestial Sect took root in the South Seas, due to doctrinal restrictions, Java gradually stopped exporting slaves from the local population that had been Celestially indoctrinated.

There are no restrictions on the slave trade in Buddhist countries, and there are no such restrictions on non-green peoples in Celestial countries.

Immediately after the emergence of the Federation with gold resources, it became the largest purchaser of slaves in the market.

Some small countries simply survived on the slave trade, such as Sulu, Buton, and Tidore, and went around captive slaves and sold them to the Federation.

The wealthy classes in the river valleys and cities absorbed slaves from the hill peoples who had not yet formed states, and the hill peoples also betrayed the prisoners of war they had plundered in war, and more often than not, they themselves were invaded by slave hunters.

Due to the high proportion of males among the rapid influx of Chinese immigrants, female slaves were the most popular, and most of the male slaves were sold to the growing plantations and mines of pepper, rubber and rice in the country, Houjiang, and Kuching.

The thirst for manpower for plantation owners and mine owners was almost limitless, and slaves were almost swept away as soon as they were put on the market, and in many cases, they would also organize mercenaries to hunt slaves in the mountains.

In Asia, however, slaves were the property of their masters, but they were more like dependents, and without official consent, the masters generally could not execute slaves, which was slightly better than the Tatar and Turkish slaves.

A considerable number of soldiers of the expeditionary force that followed Cai Yuanding to Laos were members of this slave hunting team, and Laos was a country they frequented and was quite familiar with the weather and geography of the upper Mekong River.

In this war against the Kingdom of Chiang Mai, the Houjiang government did not pay much military expenses, and the price was to make promises to the soldiers, and the booty was not taken by the government except for grain, and slaves and gold and silver goods were all owned by the army.

Suryawangsa held a grand welcoming ceremony, and it seemed that the whole city was pouring into the port by the Mekong River.

Well, the outstanding feature is the lack of clothes, both men and women.

Unlike the coastal areas of the South Seas, which are heavily influenced by Europe, China, and Tianfang religion, Laos retains the most ethnic costume features.

Siamese chanla women's sarongs have begun to extend to their ankles, and they wear a shawl on their upper body, loosely draped over their chests and tied at the ends of their shoulders.

The Nanzhang woman was wrapped in a circle of cloth from the waist, only one circle, her breasts were exposed, and the hem reached the base of her thighs.

Cai Yuanding could clearly feel the gradually rising temperature in the fleet behind him, and the heavy wheezing sound of the soldiers seemed to echo in his ears.

Cai Yuanding sighed, it's over, these conscripts and mercenaries may be able to have a good degree of organization on the battlefield, but there is no need to count on military discipline in some aspects.

Women in the Nanyang region were much more active than the Chinese in proposing marriage and courtship, and after months of arduous trekking through the Mekong, there was no guessing what these soldiers were thinking now.

Four royal yachts inlaid with gold leaf lead the fleet to the shore.

Flowers paved the way, King Suryawangza held a parasol on his head, a band played along, and the guards and nobles hugged each other.

Vientiane turned the welcoming ceremony into a celebration, and the pomp and circumstance were very glorious.

30 elephants lavishly decorated with silk, ivory inlaid with silver, and rhinoceros among the tamers, made Cai Yuanding amazed.

The performances are varied, with women led by gongs and drum beaters, followed by javelinmen and sword and shield men, in a performance of wars in Laos' history, and even mock attacks and capture of fortresses.

A float laden with flowers pulls a wooden giant, presumably some king, to bring the ceremony to a climax.

Cai Yuanding had to say something, and the soldiers released a wonderful fireworks display, because there were no girls in the army, so they selected 60 steep male soldiers to present gifts to the noblewomen, most of them were daggers and other weapons, which caused a lot of laughter.

Suryawangsa prepared 300 female slave service soldiers, so that Cai Yuanding let go of his hanging heart, at least these soldiers will not provoke the local people anymore, which may ruin the diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The Chinese love for slave girls is very famous in the Nanyang region, and this black pot has nothing to do with the Federation, it has been since ancient times. Therefore, Burma, Quang Nam, and Siam all officially kept an entertainment organization composed of female slaves, mainly for Chinese and Europeans.

Cai Yuanding sent doctors to inspect the entertainment venues first to reduce the probability of suffering from diseases.

The Federal Trade Representative to Vientiane, Song Cho Tai, was also in the welcoming procession, his expression stiffer, far less enthusiastic than that of the Laotians.

Cai Yuanding smiled, he roughly knew where the problem was.

At the end of the celebration, Cai Yuanding and Song Zutai came to the representative office.

"Representative Song."

"Mr. Minister."

Cai Yuanding took out a short sword, "The cascading short sword produced in Madano Lake in Makasid, a little gift, not a tribute." ”

Song Zutai pulled out the short sword, and the steel sword forged in layers had a snowflake-like exquisite pattern, and the reflected sunlight was like flowing water, which was wonderful and abnormal.

Need.

The Lake Madano mine in Sulawesi contains more than 50% iron, nickel and titanium, and is one of the best swords in the world.

"Mr. Minister, this ......"

Cai Yuanding didn't have time to go around in circles with his own people, so he got straight to the point: "Representative Song, the task of my trip is mainly military, and the task of attacking Chiang Mai You know, after the war is over, I will be stationed in Chiang Rai, Vientiane and the trade route are still yours." ”

Song Zutai was in good spirits, he was the leader of the party who played an important role in the attack on Phnom Penh, and as a reward, he has been the Federal Trade Representative in Laos for more than ten years, and most of the Laos trade cake is his industry.

"Is this true?"

"Of course. After conquering the Kingdom of Chiang Mai, at least tens of thousands of slaves will flow into the market, so don't Song representatives want to share a little? ”

"I don't dare to ask for it."

"Nanfu is a nail in the coffin of Laos in Chiang Mai, and it can't be moved. I talked to Siamese and Laotians about how about you handle the slaves in Phayao and Phra Province? ”

Just like a soldier seeing a woman without covering her body, Song Zutai saw business, and his breathing instantly became heavy.

"What does Your Excellency need me to do?"

"This Chiang Rai strategy is related to the victory of the country. I need your full strength, I repeat, to cooperate with my movements, to mobilize manpower, rice, cloth, medicine, and all the things that the army needs. I guarantee that the money you put in now will get 10 times the return. ”

"Yes, Your Excellency Minister, I take the liberty of asking, as far as I know, the Kingdom of Chiang Mai can't stop our three-nation alliance, so do you really want to make such a big move?"

"Chiang Mai is just our middle target."

Song Zutai's heart was awe-inspiring.