In late spring, intoxicating the south of the Yangtze River, the gentle breeze warms people's hearts, and the drizzle ripples.

Flowers are blooming, green shade is like the sea.

The rainy season is also so enthusiastic and full of life.

This is April in the south of the Yangtze River, the climate is pleasant, the green branches stretch, the colorful butterflies dance, it is the most refreshing and beautiful season of the year.

The evening breeze blows gently through Huangpu, gentle as water. In the dimly lit room, inside the British Consulate in Shanghai, the lights were flickering.

It was already the wee hours of the night. But the banquet in the consulate was still full of singing and laughter, and a team of patrol officers walking outside the consulate gate could faintly hear the laughter inside.

Trees, flowers, buildings, and high walls could not stop the joy of the Britons inside.

It was a banquet that was limited to the British in China, or more precisely, to the Britons who were active in the Jiangnan area.

Robert, who has been promoted to the post of British ambassador to China, was present at the dinner.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let us raise our glasses to His Excellency Thongluang, the great Prince of Siam. He did what one European power after another longed for but failed to do – he created a big problem for the proud Chinese, and the rich Siamese was rapidly transforming from the great granary of the Chinese to the great quagmire.

What a wonderful thing that is. So much so that I couldn't suppress the excitement and excitement in my heart.

I sincerely hope that this big quagmire can become a big swamp, and even if it cannot annihilate the Chinese, it will trap their thighs, devour their vast amounts of gold and silver, and let China's tight finances continue to strain forever.

Come, let us raise our glasses to show our respect for His Excellency Thongluang, Prince of Siam.

He is the best friend of the Kingdom of Great Britain, and he is the best friend of Western civilization. I wish him to always be active in Siam, never to die, always healthy, and always have a strong appeal and influence, inspiring the brave Siamese people to resist China's brutal rule more fiercely and frequently. ”

"It would be better to stir up the whole Indochina Peninsula and the whole of the South Seas ......to revolt against China," interjected Alges Charlotte, the senior commercial representative of the British East India Company.

This seems to be an act of impoliteness, but Robert is not at all upset, but has a smile on his face, because he and Charlotte are very good friends; More because what Charlotte said was exactly what Robert wanted to say.

Siam's strategic location makes it possible for Thong Luang to upset the situation in the entire South Seas.

This is a man with great influence and strength in Siam, and he is even more decisive, when the situation in the battle of Thonburi is not good, he decisively executed Zheng Xin, using an ancient method that has been passed down in Siamese culture - sending someone to put Zheng Xin in a sack, and then hit the top with a sandalwood stick and die. It's a remarkable feat. This move cut off the back path of many rebels at once, so that they had to follow Tongluan and stand on the opposite side of the Thonburi Dynasty, because the successor of Siam Zheng II was the grandson of Tongluan who studied in Nanjing, Gelong Kun Lapu, and now the twelve-year-old Han name is Zheng Zhao.

Tongluan executed not only Zheng Xin, but also his sons, daughters and a large number of other people, including Zheng Zhao's father Zhaoshui.

This drove Emperor Chen of Nanjing mad and laid a serious hidden danger for the recovery of the situation in Siam.

Although the army of Chen Han who entered the territory of Siam went crazy to encircle and suppress Tongluan, there are a large number of rainforests in Siam, and Tongluan has deep-rooted connections and forces in Siam, and it is really difficult to exterminate them for a while.

In the future, science and technology are so developed, there are still so many rebels and private armed forces at the junction of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, and there are big drug lords surviving, let alone this time.

In a short period of time, Chen Han's army could completely defeat Tongluan on the frontal battlefield, but when Tongluan led the remnants of the defeated army to flee into the rainforest, it was not clear at all in a short time.

And if Thongluang does not die, the situation in Siam will not be stable for a day. What's more, after Zheng Zhao inherited the throne, the power of the Thonburi Dynasty was completely in the hands of Chen Han, and Zheng Zhao's image was a puppet, how could such a royal power make Siam, a country that has existed for thousands of years, identify?

There was also the purge of Buddhist forces in Siam, which was almost foreseeable and would provoke great discontent among the Siamese people.

If the situation deteriorates further, Siam may really evolve into a big quagmire, and as for whether he can continue to spread his 'influence' to the entire South Seas, although Robert agrees with Charlotte's words so much, he feels unreliable in his heart.

It's too unlikely.

Very little.

Siam's victory was based on the 'wavering' of royal power and the 'wavering' of faith, and it is still possible in Burma, where the royal power in Annam, Phnom Penh, Vientiane, Malay, and Sumatra has either been lost long ago or is still relatively stable; As for faith, discerning people know that the Chinese are de-orienting, but the Chinese are quite gentle in this kind of de-celestialization in the local area.

Although the local Tianfang Sect Ah Hum was not satisfied, it was by no means comparable to the dissatisfaction of the monks in Siam with Zheng Xin. You must know that there are many schools of Tianzhu Buddhism, and the Buddhism that spread in Burma, Siam, Phnom Penh, Vientiane, and Nanyang in the past is Theravada Buddhism [which can be roughly understood as Theravada Buddhism].

In the whole of Southeast Asia, only Annam is deeply impressed by China and is Mahayana Buddhism, and the rest of the countries are Theravada Buddhism is the mainstream.

Although Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism both claim to be authentic Buddhism, both regard Shakyamuni as the Buddha, and both shave their hair and so on, their intentions are very different.

Theravada Buddhism is monotheistic, (similar to monotheism and Celestialism) with Shakyamuni as the only god [Buddha]; Mahayana Buddhism is polytheistic, and in addition to worshipping Shakyamuni, they also worship many Buddhas and Manjushri, Guanyin Bodhisattva, Fugen Bodhisattva, Jizo King Bodhisattva, etc.

Previously, Zheng Xin demanded that Theravada Buddhists, who occupy an absolute dominant position in Siamese society, recognize him as a Buddha, which made the monks uncomfortable more than feeding them.

Siam under the 'rule' of Chen Han certainly did not require more than ninety percent of Siamese people to believe in Mahayana Buddhism, and the sect administration fully recognized the status and significance of Theravada Buddhism, but the latter had to pay the price for Zheng Xin's death and burial.

Such a measure would undoubtedly ease tensions between Chan Han and Theravada Buddhism to some extent, but it is certain that it will cause a stir among the Siamese people.

All this is just as Robert thinks, Siam is turning from a granary to a quagmire, but the situation has not deteriorated to the point where the quagmire has become a swamp. But the increasingly difficult situation of Tongluan will not be restrained, and many of the great monks in Buddhist temples may not be willing to sit down.

Anyone can predict what Siam will look like in the future.

If Chen Han could not 'hold on', Siam would have turned from a quagmire into a swamp; otherwise, Chen Han would have been greatly strengthened.

"China's fiscal pressure is enormous. The war in North America is over, and the Spaniards have accepted the blackmail of the Chinese, and it must be admitted that China has given us great help in this regard. ”

"But China's appetite is too big."

"Not only are they going to put down roots in North America, they're setting their sights on Ceylon."

"The Dutch won't be able to support it for long. Ceylon will not be long before it becomes a colony of the Chinese. Our interests in India are under great threat to them. ”

Britain had been building up power in North America for a long time last year, but after the defeat of Spain, it exploded completely. Unfortunately, the climate of the Continental Army has been established, and although the British counterattack has made some achievements, the close cooperation between the Continental Army and the French Army still makes the British Army lose the possibility of turning the tables. The war in North America was fought in May 1784 [Western calendar], and the horn of the end was sounded.

In order to curb the development of Chinese power, after it has become an established fact that the Chinese's tentacles want to probe into India, the most urgent thing for Britain is that someone needs to make a move to pull the Chinese's hind legs.

The appearance of Tongluan was like God's protection, which simply made a group of Britons led by Robert very happy.

If Siam is in chaos, if Myanmar can follow suit, plus Annam, Malay, and even Sumatra across the Strait of Malacca are also in chaos, and the whole of Nanyang is inspired by the Siamese, then the Chinese's 'development journey' to India will come to an end." They can only stop on the southern shore of the Pauk Strait, a strait between Tamil Nadu in the southern corner of India and the main island of Sri Lanka. At its narrowest point, it is less than 70 km!

China's current 'stall' is very large, south to Nanmingzhou, north to the Outer Northeast, west to Kazakhstan, east to North America, whether it is immigration or colonization, such a big stall is very expensive financial, material and manpower.

Even though China is now recognized by the West as the world's most powerful country, it still has nearly a third of the world's population and a staggering fiscal revenue – which was around £50 million last year when converted into pounds, compared to the fifteen million pounds of the British treasury, the most powerful country in the Western world. The gap is enormous.

Moreover, China has collected several more taxes this year, and these taxes are not simple, and according to Robert's own estimates, China's fiscal and tax revenues will usher in a period of substantial growth in the next few years. It may only take three to five years for China's fiscal and tax revenues to roughly double.

It's not like Robert himself is alarmist and scaring himself. Rather, it is a statement based on the amount of property, inheritance, and personal income tax, as well as the secret information he has obtained from certain people.

Imagine how high the total amount might be, it's really scary.

……

In the history of the original space-time plane, the British opened the bug mode during the Napoleonic Wars, and Pitt Jr. levied taxes such as personal income tax and property tax for the first time, which gave the British Empire's fiscal revenue an incredible expansion journey.

The Kingdom of Great Britain's revenues amounted to £30 million in 1801 from £12.5 million in 1780. In 1815, when the Napoleonic Wars came to an end, the British Empire's treasury revenue reached a peak of £77.9 million.

What is this concept?

In the middle and early 19th century, one pound was equal to three taels of silver, and 77.9 million pounds was 233.7 million silver, while the annual revenue of the Manchu Dynasty at that time was only more than 40 million taels, a five-fold difference.

That's the power of personal income tax, inheritance tax, wealth tax, and so on. It's chilling!

There is already a voice in Britain now calling for learning from China's tax model and civil service system.

The high debt pressure of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the rotten bureaucratic system in the country made it unbearable for them themselves. Learning from China's methods, London's debt pressure will inevitably be greatly reduced, and even after ten or twenty years, London's officials and gentlemen will still be able to experience what it means to be 'debt-free and light', and taste what it is like to be 'debt-free and light'.

China's strict official qualification examinations and examinations of political performance and governance behavior will certainly greatly alleviate the problem of official corruption in Britain.

This is something that anyone with a brain can see.

However, this is easier said than done.

Under the rotten officialdom of Britain, a solid vested interest has been established, and they are leeches lying on the back of John Bull and sucking blood, and like chains made of refined steel, they have tightly wrapped John Bull.

The British are now trying to get out of it all, and it's easier said than done.

Although Robert didn't know what London was like now, he could just think about how lively the parliament would be.

Scratching beards, pulling hair, smashing chairs, throwing shoes......

Fights and brawls were often staged in the Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament), a concentration camp for the English gentlemen.

The chairs of the British Parliament were divided into two groups, the ruling party and the opposition party, and the distance between the two sets of tables was the sum of the lengths of the two swords in the Middle Ages - the early medieval parliamentarians were aristocrats with swords, so that the two swords did not intersect. This also shows how fierce the fight between John Bull's parliamentarians was back then.

It's just that the British Parliament, known as the mother of the world's parliaments, has been fighting for hundreds of years, has played some rules, and in the new century, it looks very civilized and lofty. Just like those characters in Dream of Red Mansions are not 'fighting', but not 'martial arts', they are literary fights, and they are very skillful in fighting, and they have already been beaten to death and alive in the middle of the poems.

However, some banana people regard this as a 'gentleman's demeanor' and are regarded as a model of 'meritocracy', while many Asian countries and regions are on the contrary, often fighting in parliament, causing people to laugh, and the disadvantage lies in "grassroots governance". It's really a banana bara.

Robert is very happy now, he sees hope!

China has just emerged from the war, and it is about to fall into a quagmire again, and those fiscal revenues that have been skyrocketing continue to flow into military spending.