readx(); Lin Yaokun still followed Zhao Xuan through the streets and alleys as a last resort, and contacted some local Chinese in Bangkok and Thonburi. Many people have the same psychology as Lin Yaokun, they are more afraid of things and don't want to get ahead, but there are also some people who are more courageous and eager to try, hoping to earn a background and settle down in Siam or even the Tang Dynasty.

Cheng Jiaqiang is a Siamese Chinese who has such an idea, he and Zheng Xin are fellow villagers, Shantou Chenghai people, after Zheng Xin became the king of Siam, many fellow villagers came to Siam, hoping to make some small fortune by virtue of the convenience of the Siamese king's fellow villagers. Cheng Jiaqiang has been in Siam for five years, from a hairy boy to a young man who has taken two Siamese daughters-in-law and gave birth to three children. Although Cheng Jiaqiang's life in Siam is definitely quite good, with enough land and less taxes than the locals, he has some small businesses that are enough to support his family. But slowly, his livelihood became more and more difficult. Especially after the birth of the third child, the family has more and more mouths to eat, and it is obviously very difficult for him to make money alone.

After Zheng Xin was killed and fell, Cheng Jiaqiang was also a little panicked, but Chao Phraya Chokri also had some Chinese ancestry, and the specific environment of Siam was to welcome Chinese immigrants. Because Siam is vast and sparsely populated, the Chinese are still a population with relatively advanced labor skills, so the successive Siamese kings have taken a lot of care for the Chinese. This continued until the twentieth century, when the Chinese controlled a considerable part of the Thai economy, especially commerce, and monopolized more than half of the financial sector.

Cheng Jiaqiang was worried that in the future, the family's economic situation would be even worse, and when he heard the local Chinese elder Lin Yaokun say that the Tang people recruited Siamese overseas Chinese for his use, he moved his mind. Although Cheng Jiaqiang is a Tian Shelang, he also has some knowledge. In these years, I have never heard of where the Tang people have suffered, and even the powerful Qing Kingdom has been defeated by them, straddled on them, and arbitrarily obtained benefits from there. Moreover, the Tang people are very trustworthy, even if Siam is not in their eyes in the future, at least the people who help them will always take it away. The Tang people are prosperous and wealthy, which is almost the fixed position in the hearts of many Chinese. Everyone is rumored that the local gold of Datang is full of flowers, although the rumors cannot be believed, but there is always some truth.

So, Cheng Jiaqiang decided to devote himself to the Tang Army and be the interpreter of the Tang Army. When he came to the office set up by the Tang people in Bangkok, Cheng Jiaqiang arched his hand and said to the guards at the door: "This military master, the villain heard that the Tang Heavenly Army recruited interpreters who understand Siamese. ”

The guard saluted and said, "Please enter." ”

Then there was a young Tang official wearing a short-sleeved white shirt and khaki half-pants, who received Cheng Jiaqiang, and the white shirt asked: "This gentleman, please report your name, age and place of origin." ”

Cheng Jiaqiang hurriedly waved his hand and said: "The villain doesn't dare to call him Mr., the villain's name is Cheng Jiaqiang, twenty-seven this year, and he is from Chenghai, Guangdong." ”

The white shirt said: "We Tang people are not called villains, Mr. Cheng does you know what I do in the Tang Dynasty recruitment?" ”

"Say it's a translation?"

The white shirt nodded and said: "That's right, our Tang Army is about to recover the Siamese Prefecture one by one, but our officers and soldiers don't understand the local language, and there will always be a lot of trouble, so we still need the help of compatriots who know Siamese dialect." ”

Cheng Jiaqiang hesitated: "Is this going to another house?" ”

The white shirt said: "I'm afraid it's like this, it's more tiring, but the treatment is still okay, including food and accommodation, a salary of 25 Tang Yuan per month, and some allowances and rewards, if you need it, you can also send it to your home, if there is any situation with your relatives in Bangkok, our Datang government will also help solve it, so you don't have to worry about it." Join us, the Provisional Military Administration will allocate at least 20 acres of land to you, and if your family's field is uncultivated after you leave, we will coordinate people to come and help you cultivate your family's field, and you only need to pay the corresponding salary. ”

Cheng Jiaqiang has long heard that this will be 25 yuan a month, Siam produces rice, the people are more solid, but the money is not very rich, these 25 Tang Yuan is already a very considerable income in Siam, and there are quite a lot of things that can be done. In addition, the Tang people also patted his chest on him, gave him the fields for nothing, and found someone to farm for him, so he had no worries, and eating and drinking at home was no problem.

It was at this step that he went directly from an ordinary foreign immigrant to a local nobleman.

In fact, this is also a trick played by the Tang people, not only to divide the land to the local Chinese, but also to some Siamese people who surrendered to Chengcheng, and also obtained the land. Siam's food and field system was originally a feudal with the characteristics of a slave society, and although it was impossible for the Tang Dynasty to promote Siam to a modern society in one go, it could at least improve the production relations. In order to win the support of the local poor and lower-class people, the provisional military government of Tang Siam has abolished the serfdom system, and all peasants will become agricultural employees of landowners as free people, which is actually the tenant system.

However, Datang also stipulated that the personal freedom of Siamese peasants and workers could not be violated, and established a standardized employment contract. Although this system is not comparable with the socialist system of production relations in the Tang Dynasty, and the degree of emancipation of the productive forces is not thorough enough, the Tang people do not intend to complete all the steps at once. The vast majority of Siamese serfs were already very satisfied with their freedom from slavery, and although they did not own the means of production, they at least did not bear the same heavy conscription and military service as before, and it was difficult to support themselves.

The Tang Dynasty defeated the Siamese army, and controlled a large area of land on both sides of the Chao Phraya River, and controlled a certain population. After the emancipation of the serfs, the Tang people naturally had the right to assign them directly. After Cheng Jiaqiang returned home, the next day Bai Yi led three long-term workers over, all of whom were former serfs and dragged their families with them.

"Meet the master." After the Siamese Changgong folded very respectfully, he knelt on the ground, which made Cheng Jiaqiang and his Siamese wife a little confused, but at the same time they felt very face-saving.

The white shirt confessed: "In the future, these long-term workers will be employed by you, and you will have to sign a legal labor employment contract, that is, half of the annual harvest." As a landowner, you need to pay 10% of the harvest as a tax every year, and you will share the rest with your long-term workers. ”

Although under such conditions, it is obviously impossible to compare with the income of landowners under the previous serf system, but Cheng Jiaqiang got a new piece of land for nothing, and became a landlord in one step. When he was a child, he also planted land for the landlord and herded cattle, always thinking that he would become a landlord one day. I didn't expect that I had been in Siam for a long time, and I was really surprised and delighted to have fulfilled this wish.

He now has the salary of a translator from the Tang people, and he is a government civil servant in terms of identity, and he still has his own land, and he has a long-term worker to farm for his family, so he is not too happy in this life.

Cheng Jiaqiang has already begun to feel excited about his choice, and many Chinese do not have the courage to serve the Tang people. But Cheng Jiaqiang only went around in the yamen of the Tang Dynasty for a day, and he got the land, and he was very majestic. Obviously, this will stimulate some people, so that they will also throw themselves into the arms of the Tang people and be used by the Tang people. This was also the established policy of Chang Bin and Bai Nan, and only by luring them to profit some Siamese and local overseas Chinese could they support the Tang people. There are interests that need to be protected, so they are willing to settle down under the rule of the Tang people.

As far as the new route opened by the Tang people in Siam is concerned, what they won was the poor and serfs who had an absolute advantage in the population of Siam. The serfs were emancipated and gained a certain degree of economic autonomy, and at the same time, due to the problems of the Tang system, conscription and military service were completely abolished. The Tang regime had strong executive ability and financial resources, and it did not need to let the peasants bring their own dry food to work, and it was completely possible to spend money to hire people to do the project, which was a matter of course for the Tang people, and for the Siamese people, it really greatly reduced their burden. As for military service, the Tang Dynasty has never carried out compulsory military service, and it is the same in Siam. They do not need to be forcibly conscripted to fight, and such troops have little combat effectiveness to speak of. It is advisable to recruit Siamese people who are aspiring to the army, train them professionally, and form a combatable army.

Of course, for a while, Datang did not have a specific plan to form a local subordinate army. All kinds of military operations were still carried out by the Tang Army and the Yamato Corps, but when the time came, local people would still be recruited into the army.

Naturally, the old Siamese aristocratic system was hit hard, and those who worked against the Tang people naturally couldn't eat good fruits. Although the nobles of the Tang Dynasty had to emancipate their serfs and vassals. However, for these nobles, they were also relieved of their obligations to the king, and some of them were local officials if they served the Tang people, and they still had power, but they did not have to fight with the army or do anything else. Of course, the gains of the nobles must be reduced, and it is useless to be unwilling, because trying to resist the Tang people is bound to fail.

The original land of Siam was all owned by the king, so it became effectively private and allowed to be bought and sold. However, the distribution power was in the hands of the Tang Provisional Military Government. The Tang people used the land, which attracted a considerable number of people, and the land transaction will also bring a lot of money to the Tang people in the future. In an agrarian country like Siam, to control the land is to control everything.