Episode 116 Siam Coup

The next day, June 19, Zhu Yourong held a small imperial cabinet meeting, presided over by Shen Rongxuan, although it was a cabinet meeting, but Xiang Xiaoqiang also attended.

After the discussion of these highest-level figures in the Ming Empire, it was decided to support, or ask Bhumibol? Prince Adulyadej staged a coup d'état and succeeded to the throne as the new king as soon as possible, becoming Rama VIII.

Originally, for Prince Bhumibol, he didn't need to be in such a hurry. Anyway, his half-brother Prince Ananta is finished, and the prince will naturally be postponed to himself. He just had to wait for his father to die and then succeed to the throne. However, at this imperial meeting of the Ming Dynasty, the cabinet ministers were divided into two factions and made a lot of noise on this issue. Although it was a pre-imperial meeting, the ministers were not enough to throw cups, but it was not much worse.

The three most heavyweight people at the meeting: Zhu Yourong, Shen Rongxuan, and Xiang Xiaoqiang did not express their opinions prematurely, but sat there and listened to the ministers arguing.

The ministers advocated that the Ming should not interfere and not support Prince Bhumibol so loudly, because he had two younger brothers behind him. Daming should wait and see what happens, don't support anyone too early, and should wait for the price to sell. In this way, the three princes have the possibility of inheriting the throne, and it depends on who can get the favor of the Ming Dynasty. They will compete to curry favor with Da Ming and make a wish to Da Ming...... In this way, whoever succeeds to the throne in the future will be the closest one.

The other faction of ministers advocated that Prince Bhumibol should succeed to the throne as soon as possible. Because one of the most important reasons: the old king of Siam is still alive. Despite his illness and the fact that his days were numbered, he was now the king of Siam and had strong control over domestic affairs. A few years ago, he was not in good health, so he gave a lot of power to Prince Ananta to the crown prince and handed it over to him to deal with. But now that Prince Ananta has an accident, the old king will definitely regain power and control Siam himself.

And the old king is different from Prince Ananta, Prince Ananta is a pro-Ming faction, and he wants Siam and Daming to get as close as possible. During the reign of the old king, he has been working hard to maintain Siam's autonomy and try to get Siam rid of the influence of the Ming Dynasty. The strong pro-Ming tendencies shown by the eldest son, Ananta, in recent years, must have made the old king regret it. Now that there is another opportunity, won't the old king choose a crown prince who is in line with his political views and dares to gradually distance himself from the Ming Dynasty, or even call for it?

Besides, there is still a very urgent problem to be faced: to dispose of Prince Ananta.

Prince Ananta is a heinous crime, and after the value is drained, he will definitely not be able to keep it. Such a kill will definitely stimulate the old king of Siam, and he will be even more resentful of Da Ming, and he will definitely choose the most "clear" one from the three sons, and then make him the prince, or simply pass the throne to him immediately, to prevent Da Ming from doing anything on the issue of the prince after his death. Even if Prince Ananta were to be handed over to Siam according to one of the original plans, it would only be after Prince Bhumibol took power.

But then again, this time the Ming set up a scam to squeeze out a lot of Siamese secrets, and with this matter at the bottom, Prince Ananta can't hand it over to Siam. It will definitely be executed in Daming.

Therefore, it is still necessary to cut through the mess quickly, and take advantage of the fact that Prince Ananta has just happened a few days ago, and the old king of Siam has not had time to return to power and set up a new prince, let Prince Bhumibol carry out a coup d'état, force the old king to abdicate, and become a new king supported by the Ming Dynasty. This will ensure that the new king is friendly and obedient as much as possible. Taking a step back, if the new king is not so affectionate and obedient in the future, then he still has two younger brothers, right?

After nearly a day of discussion, most people agreed that Da Ming could not take this risk, and could not rely on luck and hope that everything in Siam would happen in the direction he wanted. It is still necessary to take the safest way: immediately "manually" change the king of Siam and support Prince Bhumibol to succeed to the throne in a coup d'état.

The two most powerful speakers, the hawkish Shen Rongxuan and the hawkish Xiang Xiaoqiang, also stood on the same page: immediately support the Siam coup.

At the end of the meeting, Shen Rongxuan, the first auxiliary minister, led all the ministers to get up, faced Zhu Yourong, and asked His Majesty to approve this plan.

If in the last cabinet last year, after the end of this kind of imperial meeting, the first assistant minister would also lead the ministers to such a recital, but that is to perform the ceremony and go through the motions, Zhu Yourong, as the son of heaven, can only be allowed to play, and generally cannot say "no". But this year is different. Zhu Yourong has Xiang Xiaoqiang, has the People's Guard, carried out a New Year's coup, and has also been replaced by Shen Rongxuan's cabinet, and now this invitation is not a formality. Zhu Yourong can play or not according to his own opinions.

But today, she also fully listened to the opinions of both sides, especially Shen Gelao and her most trusted Xiang Xiaoqiang, both agreed, so Zhu Yourong was also happy to play.

……

The next day, on the morning of June 20, Zheng Gongyin's succession ceremony to the throne of Yanping was held in Nanjing. The ceremony was highly anticipated, with a large number of Chinese and foreign journalists.

Zheng Gongyin's motorcade first drove out of the Marquis of Changping Mansion and went to the Forbidden City to meet the Son of Heaven, and then Zhu Yourong presided over the canonization on the Fengtian Palace in the Forbidden City, canonizing Zheng Gongyin as the king of Yanping, canonizing Zheng Yujiao as the prince of Yanping and inheriting the title of "Marquis of Changping". Zheng Yuxuan was canonized as the "Leping County Lord", and several of Zheng Yuxuan's younger sisters were also canonized as different county lords.

Zheng Gongyin's motorcade then slowly left the Forbidden City and headed for the Yanping Palace, where the succession ceremony was held.

Just when the attention of the whole of East Asia was attracted to Nanjing, and on the morning of the same day, the Ming Dynasty quietly increased its troops to Siam. First, 5,000 men of the Ming garrison in Pachia (Sumatra) in the South Seas boarded a troop carrier and set sail for Siam. Their destinations were two military bases in Songkhla and Laem Chabang. These 5,000 people and the original strength of the two military bases can reach 12,000 people, which is enough for the strength of one division. The army of the Kingdom of Siam is only 60,000 people, and the quality of equipment and combat capability are even more than one-half of the Ming army. If the need arises, the more than 10,000 Ming troops in Siam can play a decisive role.

At the same time, the Daming Army Parachute Commando sent a battalion and the People's Guard Security Corps sent a special team to fly to the Chaban military base in Siam on board 12 Junkers-52s and five DC-3 transport planes newly purchased from the United States. The South China Sea Fleet also sent a company of marines on transport planes to the Laem Chabang base.

The Ming had two bases in Siam: Laem Chabang and Songkhla. Among them, Songkhla is on the Malay Peninsula, stretching far into the South Seas, that is, it is close to Pachia and far away from Bangkok, five or six hundred kilometers. Laem Chabang is just southeast of Bangkok, only a hundred kilometers away. The 5,000 troops are stationed at two bases, mainly for deterrence, and the possibility of real use is very small. Because the Ming Dynasty increased its base in Siam by several thousand at once, the generals of the Siamese army understood what was going on. When Prince Bhumibol coup d'état, they would all be very acquainted and neutral.

A parachute battalion and a company of marines are all based at the Laem Chabang base, which is close to Bangkok. They are more likely to use it. There are about 500 of them in total, all of them are special forces and can be used as rapid reaction forces. Although the majority of the Siamese army did not dare to move, it is not excluded that there are a small number of people who are loyal to Prince Ananta or the old king, and it is still likely that there will be skirmishes. Once the situation is uncontrollable, Prince Bhumibol's guards cannot hold out, and the coup is likely to fail, then this rapid reaction force of the Ming Dynasty will enter Bangkok.

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For a whole day on the 20th, under the guidance of the security team agents, Prince Bhumibol and Princess Quinshida began to secretly carry out the final preparations for the coup d'état. Prince Bhumibol's personal guard consisted of only a few hundred men, amounting to only one battalion. But in addition, there are some generals in the Bangkok garrison who have judged the situation and chosen to support Prince Bhumibol. Their strength and the prince's guard combined are also in the thousands. These few thousand troops are enough to control important places in Bangkok. The security team also airlifted 150 Thomson submachine guns and 10 woodpecker machine guns from Nanjing and issued them to Prince Bhumibol's guards. In this way, Bhumibol's guards became the best of the Siamese army.

On the afternoon of 20 June, a company of marines from the South China Sea Fleet flew to Laem Chabang airfield. At dusk, a parachute assault detachment of a battalion that had taken off from Nanjing also landed at Laem Chabang airport. Because the Laem Chabang base was large, and the airfield was inside the base, plus it was only a dozen transport planes landing, the king did not perceive anything.

But at noon the next day, the troop convoy from Pachia sailed into the Gulf of Siam, and the troops entered the port at two bases in Songkhla and Laem Chabang at the same time, and then 5,000 soldiers disembarked in batches with bags and weapons. Cranes at the wharf are also running, transporting light and heavy artillery and ammunition from the ship to the wharf. At this time, the people of Laem Chabang and Songkhla can see it. Local Siamese officials and officers of the Siamese army also saw it.

But it was several hours later, and it was almost evening, that the news was slowly reported back to Bangkok, layer by layer, and reported to the royal palace, and the sick King of Siam learned of the news. At this time, he didn't think that Da Ming was supporting the coup d'état, and he thought that Da Ming was going to use Prince Ananta as an excuse to annex Siam by force. At this time, the people around him suddenly came and asked him to listen to the radio, Nanjing Jinling Broadcasting Company channel.

The old king hurriedly turned on the radio, tuned to the channel, listened to the Chinese, English, and Siamese languages coming out of it, and gradually froze.

At this time, in Nanjing, the Ming royal family, the bombing investigation team, and the People's Guard were jointly holding a press conference to officially announce to the outside world the fact that the Siam Ananta prince An bombed and killed King Xianyanping, two guards, and a driver, and that he killed two Daming fishermen in Taihu Lake in the process of escaping. At the press conference, the People's Guard also announced the fact that Sawan Susi sent people to kill the Kunji Dipan family and attempted to kidnap his girlfriend in order to kill him. Kunji Dipan's little nephew and little niece also came out, and at the press conference, she burst into tears and cried about the situation at that time.

Then, the Ming royal family announced that Prince Ananta had been arrested and is currently being held somewhere for trial. Immediately afterwards, the spokesman of the Ming royal family said the most critical paragraph:

"Prince Ananta Mahidol has committed an unforgivable crime, and what he has done has seriously hurt not only the people of Daming, but also the people of Siam, and it is clear that Prince Ananta has no possibility of succeeding to the throne of Siam. In view of this, the Ming decided to support Prince Bhumibol Adulyadej as the successor to the king of the Kingdom of Siam. It is hoped that at a time when the relations between the two countries are the most fragile and vulnerable, he will once again shoulder the heavy burden of maintaining the friendship between the two countries...... Her Majesty the Empress has high hopes for him. The Ming government had high hopes for him. Moreover, we believe that the people of both Daming and Siam will also have good expectations for him......"

At this time, the Ming Dynasty officially expressed its support for Prince Bhumibol to succeed to the throne to the throne to the whole world and to Siam.

In the royal palace in Bangkok, the old king was so angry that he thought that you were transparent to me, and I was not dead yet, so you began to choose the crown prince for me...... No, it's not about choosing the crown prince, it's about choosing the king directly......

He immediately sent a decree from his sickbed, martial law was imposed on the whole city of Bangkok, a state of emergency was entered in Siam, and the general mobilization of the whole army began.

……

At the same time, hundreds of Prince Bhumibol's guards had rushed into the streets of Bangkok, armed with submachine guns and carrying woodpecker machine guns, and began to take over the key departments of the city.