When the Spaniards arrived in Manila, they found that the jungle-covered island was home to a large amount of gold and copper.

Although they have been developing the island for decades, there are still large gold mines that they have not discovered.

With the memories of his previous life and the most experienced prospectors transferred from Liaodong, Li Xianzhong finally discovered a large gold mine 38 miles northeast of Manila.

When the news of the abundance of gold near Manila reached China, the whole country was boiling.

The merchants who did not catch the first wave of investment immediately arrived in Manila with their silver, and soon set off a "Manila Gold Rush".

Their arrival also accelerated the prosperity of Manila City.

Truckloads of cement continue to arrive in Manila from China.

Manila's port was unable to accommodate the need for ships, so a new pier was built near the old port and a new port was planned.

Another consequence is that there are not enough indigenous people on Luzon.

So a new profession appeared on the island, the bounty hunter.

These people were hired by the investors to go deep into the jungles of Luzon and other islands to capture natives as miners.

Of course, the indigenous technology is not good, and can only be engaged in simple ore mining and transportation work, so a large number of miners from China also came to Manila.

In particular, those North Korean miners whose monthly wages are relatively cheap have become fragrant and sweet.

According to Chinese law, the ownership of mines belongs to the imperial court, and the mine owner only has the right to use the mine, and the tax rate is often as high as 30%.

Large-scale mines must be government-run, and medium-sized mines must also be public-private partnerships, and the official shareholding must not be less than 50%; Only a few small mines were allowed to be completely private, but the imperial court would also send mine supervisors to constantly monitor the size of the mines, their output, and the treatment of miners.

In Manila, in order to encourage private capital investment, large mines allow private capital to hold 3% of the shares, and medium-sized mines can even hold 6% of the shares.

If it is a new mine discovered by a private miner, it can enjoy a reduction of 3% of the metallage tax for the first 3 years.

Coupled with the low cost of labor, Manila attracts a large number of businessmen.

The investment of the imperial court did not need to be allocated by the household department, and after the discovery of new mines, the Liaodong Bank would lend money for the imperial court.

After all, with the mine as collateral, Liaodong Bank is not afraid that the silver released will not be recovered.

Private capital investment, Manila also borrowed a large amount from the Bank of Liaodong.

One result is that in order to win more deposits, Liaodong Bank raised the annual interest rate on deposits for the first time.

The annual interest rate on deposits has been increased to 6% for one-year tenors, 7% for three-year tenors, 8% for five-year tenors and 10% for ten-year tenors.

The seizure of the property of the Spaniards alone has repaid the loan of 2 million taels for the expedition to Manila, and the Manila Governor's Palace has obtained a large amount of silver for the development of Manila through the sale and lease of real estate around Manila.

According to Zheng Zhilong's estimates, Manila's annual mining tax and commercial tax are likely to exceed 5 million taels.

This is not counting the gold that the imperial court received according to its share in the mines.

Zheng Zhilong believes that Huaxia only needs half a year to invest far more than the Spanish in the Philippines for decades.

Soon after, Zheng Zhilong sent people to occupy the Spanish island of Guam and completely expelled them from the Far East.

After a few months, the main force of the 20,000 forbidden troops who followed Li Xianzhong's southern expedition has also fully adapted to this tropical rainforest life.

After all, compared with six or seven years ago, Huaxia's use of Artemisia annua is more mature.

Originally, Li Xianzhong was going to send people to South America, but he didn't expect that the Spaniards had transplanted cinchona trees from South America to Manila.

They easily got the cinchona, so they had double insurance.

A very small number of malaria that cannot be cured by Artemisia annua can be treated with cinchona cream.

After all this was ready, Li Xianzhong naturally had to make the next move.

Although Manila has gold, Manila alone is not worth it for him to lead the main force of 20,000 forbidden troops south.

Li Xianzhong's next target is Annan.

After Qin Shi Huang unified the six countries, he sent troops all the way south, successively controlled Guangxi and Guangdong, and incorporated them into the territory of the Central Plains.

After pacifying the great cause of Lingnan, the entire Lingnan was included in the territory of the Qin Dynasty, of which Lingnan included the western part of Liangguang and the central and northern parts of Annam.

Three counties were set up in this place: Nanhai County, Guilin County and Xiang County.

But since the death of Qin Dynasty II, Zhao Tuo, who was in Nanhai County at the time, saw that the Central Plains began to be in turmoil, so he took the opportunity to raise troops to isolate the road from Wuling to the Central Plains.

He also captured Xiang County and Guilin County, proclaimed himself King Wu of Nanyue, implemented the county system, and established the Nanyue Kingdom there.

However, although Annam established South Vietnam at this time, it was still a vassal state of South Vietnam.

By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Nanyue Kingdom was destroyed, and Annam was once again included in the rule of the Han Dynasty.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty set up the old land of Nanyue as Jiaozhou, and set up a system of nine counties for unified management, and until the Sui and Tang dynasties, Nanyue was under Chinese rule.

It was not until the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms that the Central Plains began to be turbulent, and they took the opportunity to seek independence and secession.

The "Battle of the Baiteng River" broke out between the Southern Han and Jiaozhi, and the Southern Han was defeated in this battle.

After Wu Quan defeated the Southern Han Dynasty, in 939 AD, he took advantage of the chaos of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms to break away from the jurisdiction of the Central Plains Dynasty and establish himself as king.

In 968 AD, the top leader of the warlords of Jiaozhi eliminated the king of Nanyue and proclaimed himself emperor, known as the Ding Dynasty.

Whether it is counted from the Nanyue Kingdom or from the establishment of Jiaozhou by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Annam has been the territory of the Central Plains for more than a thousand years.

Objectively speaking, it is true that Annan did not become independent in the hands of the Northern Song Dynasty.

However, after the Northern Song Dynasty eliminated the Southern Han Dynasty in 971 AD, it did not take advantage of the situation to recover Jiaozhi.

It was the culprit that led to Annan's eventual independence.

At that time, the "Ding Dynasty" had only been established for a few years, and the people in the country were unstable.

Moreover, Jiaozhi was independent for a short time at that time, and did not form a strong sense of national consciousness at all, and it was easy for the Northern Song Dynasty, as the Central Plains Dynasty, to recover there.

However, the Northern Song Dynasty did not take advantage of the situation to recover Jiaozhi, but acquiesced in its independence.

Although the Southern Han Dynasty, as a local government, was directly responsible for the independence of Jiaozhi at that time, the acquiescence of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Central Plains Dynasty, was the fundamental reason.

What's even more infuriating is that in the 8th year of Xining in the Northern Song Dynasty (1075), Jiaozhi actually attacked Guangxi with 80,000 troops, and even captured Nanning for a time, massacring nearly 200,000 soldiers and civilians in Guangxi.

My Great Song Dynasty can't beat Da Liao, and I can't help Western Xia, and in the face of the invasion of Xiao Jiaozhi, I am actually powerless to punish. After attacking Cochin, he was unable to break through, and was defeated in the Second Battle of the Baiteng River, and finally had to make a hasty peace.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Annan began to make small moves on the border again.

Yongle Emperor Zhu Di naturally will no longer get used to the little Annan.

Taking advantage of the opportunity when Annan had just usurped the throne, he forcibly escorted the Chen family of the previous dynasty back to China to succeed to the throne.

The Li clan sent troops to raid the Ming army escorting the Chen family back to China, and Ling Chen Ling.

Zhu Di was furious and sent Zhu Neng, the chief military officer, to seal the "General Zhengyi" with a sealed letter.

Later, he died of illness on the march, and was replaced by the deputy general Zhang Fu, the left deputy general Mu Sheng, the left staff general Li Bin, and the right staff general Chen Xu led the troops, with a number of 800,000, but the actual number was less than 300,000.

The Ming army was like a bamboo, annihilating more than 100,000 enemy troops and conquering Annam in just five months.

Originally, the Ming army occupied Annam under the banner of helping the Chen family restore the country, but because they could not find the descendants of the Chen family, the Ming Dynasty ruled directly.

The Ming Dynasty re-established administrative divisions in Annam, with fifteen prefectures, thirty-six prefectures, and one hundred and eighty-one counties; Taiyuan, Xuanhua, Jiaxing, Guihua, Guangwei five prefectures, directly under the political department, under the jurisdiction of 29 counties; He also set up eleven guards, three institutes, and one city in important places, and renamed Jiling Pass as Zhenyi Pass, "generally still maintaining the old organization with only a slight profit or loss."

In this way, the Ming Dynasty incorporated Annam into its territory and became a county area under the direct rule of the Ming Dynasty. At the same time, the Ming Dynasty incorporated Annam into the post station system of the Ming Dynasty, "opening the Yong'an and Wanning waterways, and setting up delivery water stations until Qinzhou." and set up a horse post until Hengzhou".

But after all, Annam has been independent for more than 400 years and has formed a Juche ethnic group (Jing).

The more than 100,000 garrisons of the Ming Dynasty consumed more than 3 million taels of silver every year, and the highest income was only 70,000 taels.

It can be said that even the bottoms have been lost.

After finally occupying Annam for twenty years, it had to be abandoned.

The biggest difficulty in conquering Annam before the Ming Dynasty was the military, and both the Northern Song Dynasty and Kublai Khan's military offensive against Annam failed.

The failure of the Ming Dynasty told Li Xianzhong that the fundamental reason was the economy, and the Ming Dynasty could not afford to lose.

Today's Annam is nominally a unified dynasty, but in reality it is in a period of division between the north and the south.

In the twentieth year of Wanli (1592), the Later Lê Dynasty destroyed the Mo Dynasty and nominally unified the country, but Vietnam continued to be divided.

The northern part was controlled by the Truong family, while the southern part was controlled by the Nguyen family, and the two families were constantly at war, known as the "Trần Nguyen Dispute" in history.

The titular co-master, the Emperor of the Later Li Dynasty, was a complete puppet and was under the control of the Zheng clan.

This provided convenient conditions for Li Xianzhong to send troops.

A few years ago, the Intelligence Department had already been deployed in Annam, and the puppet emperor Li Weiqi was unwilling to be controlled by the Zheng family all the time, and the only thing he could rely on was the Central Plains Dynasty.

At this time in history, Da Ming had already taken care of himself, so he naturally would not ignore Li Weiqi's request.

At this time, Li Guo of the new Chinese dynasty made Li Weiqi see hope again.

First, the merchant Liang San sold bird guns to the Zheng clan, who controlled the northern part of Annam.

Vietnam still mainly used bows and crossbows, and after getting the bird guns, the Trung clan felt that their army had greatly increased their combat strength, and they were bent on destroying the Nguyen clan in the south.

At this time, the Nguyen clan also received the bird gun sold by the East Ryukyu Company.

After spending a lot of money to buy these weapons, they naturally wanted to unify Annan.

In fact, there have been many major battles between the two sides before, but neither of them can help the other.

On 20 March of the first year of Qianxi, a major battle broke out between the two sides in Quang Binh Province in central Vietnam.

Due to the use of a large number of bird guns on both sides, the casualties increased dramatically, and the battle was fought for three months without a victory.

In order to completely defeat the Nguyen army on the opposite side, Zheng Jie, the ruler of Zheng, hurriedly mobilized a large number of men and horses from the north to move south, resulting in the emptiness of the troops in the northern part of Annam.

Sun Chuanting saw the opportunity to lead 20,000 Huaxia troops to attack Annam.

The Huaxia Army waved the banner of "supporting the Li clan", and the Annan Army along the way almost surrendered to the wind.

Soon they conquered Lang Son, an important town in the northern part of Annam.

Lang Son is not only a transportation hub in northern Vietnam, but also a barrier gateway to the capital Long Sheng province.

Lang Son is surrounded by mountains such as Kuma Mountain, Bawai Mountain and a series of highlands, and the terrain is very steep.

If you want to use troops in northern Vietnam, Lang Son is the place where the key is locked.

Hold it, and the enemy can be blocked in the mountains of northern Vietnam; Take it, and then go straight to Longsheng Mansion.

Since ancient times, the Central Plains Dynasty took Jiaozhi in the south, and this is the place where it must pass, and then it can be passed down.

At this time, the Zheng army who stayed behind used his killer weapon, the war elephant army.

In the era of cold weapons, war elephants are indeed very deterrent.

But now that we have entered the age of firearms, war elephants are very chicken.

After a burst of artillery fire, Annan's war elephants were frightened and ran wildly, but they trampled to death many Annan soldiers.

The Huaxia army took advantage of the situation and defeated the main force of the Zheng clan in one fell swoop.

After this battle, the Trung clan almost lost all the men and horses left in northern Vietnam.

Sun Chuanting took advantage of the situation to attack the capital of Annan, Longsheng Mansion.

Zheng Jie, who was on the front line, was shocked when he heard that the Huaxia army had occupied Long Sheng Mansion, and hurriedly sued for peace with the Nguyen clan, promising to cede all Quang Binh Province to the Nguyen clan.

The Eastern Ryukyu Company had already informed the head of the Nguyen family of the news that the Huaxia Army had invaded northern Annam.

Lord Ruan pretended to agree to Zheng Jie's peace negotiation, and took advantage of the situation to launch an attack after Zheng's army retreated.

The Zheng army was defeated, and even Zheng Jie himself died in the chaos.

Just when Ruan was full of anger and was about to lead the army north to take Longsheng Mansion in one fell swoop, he learned that his hometown Jiading Mansion had been taken over by the Huaxia Army.

Li Xianzhong personally led 20,000 forbidden troops to land at Cam Ranh Bay and captured Jiading Mansion.

Later, the Huaxia army used its powerful firepower to defeat the main Nguyen force moving south in one fell swoop.

By July 2, the entire territory of Annam was under the control of the Huaxia Army.

Emperor Li Weiqi of Annam never expected that the Chinese emperor Li Xianzhong would personally conquer Annam.

At this time, even if he is stupid, he knows the truth that "it is easy to please God, but it is difficult to send God".

Li Weiqi asked to remove the title of emperor and proclaimed himself the king of Annam.

and bowed to Li Xianzhong in Longsheng Mansion.

Li Xianzhong also understood that this puppet king was still useful at this time.

He officially issued an edict to canonize King Le Wei Qi Annam.

However, he shook his hand and handed Li Weiqi a bunch of bills.

It records all the expenses of the Huaxia Army to help him reset this time.

It was as high as 5 million taels of silver.

Annan does not have as many gold mines as the Philippines, and if it is 500,000 taels, it may be able to make up for it.

Five million taels is probably not enough to repay the interest in one year's income.

It doesn't matter if you don't pay the money, then you can take Annan's taxes and the port as collateral.

Soon Lai Weiqi signed a whole bunch of unequal treaties.

Huaxia not only obtained the right to garrison Annam, but also controlled a large number of rights such as customs and taxation in Annam.

It also temporarily took over a large area of land north of the Red River.

And it wasn't long before there were a large number of immigrants from China in these areas.

Just three months later, 500,000 people from Fujian, Liangguang and other places settled in these places.

According to the treaty, as long as Annam did not pay off the arrears owed by the Chinese, the Chinese residents had the right of permanent residence in these areas.

Moreover, these areas are extraterritorial, and even if the Chinese residents kill the Annan, Annan has no right to interrogate these Chinese, and can only be handed over to the Chinese for trial.

Usually it's a fine of a little silver.

As a result, the whole of Annam was quite dissatisfied with the Li Dynasty.

Large-scale peasant uprisings broke out in various places to demand the overthrow of the Lê dynasty.

However, the army of the Li Dynasty, with the help of the Huaxia Army, quickly suppressed the uprisings throughout Annam.

However, the population of Annam was extremely declining, with nearly 7 million people in Annam at the beginning of the first year of the Qianxi Dynasty, and only more than 4 million left by the end of the year.

With the help of the puppet army of the Li Dynasty, Annan only needs to garrison 30,000, even if he loses some silver, it will not be too much.

Li Xianzhong believed that after two more years, Annan would basically lose the ability to resist Chinese rule.

At that time, it was the moment when Annam, the former "thousand-year-old province", really returned to China!

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(End of chapter)