The women around Tang Tong also became capable individuals. Chen Yuxian, Liu, Dayu'er, Hai Lanzhu. Even the Han Chinese maids and servants in the Tang family were all busy with their various duties. Apart from Er, Li Xiangjun, Dong Xiaowan, Kou Yimen, and a few other little girls, the only ones who could stay with Tang Tong were the foreign women who served him. Tang Tong himself, on the other hand, didn't have much control. The only thing he held tightly was military power. When he wasn't fighting, he had plenty of control. He didn't interfere much in the affairs of Li Yan, Hong Niangzi, Chen Zilong, and others.
Tang Tong currently lived in Daming City. While it wasn't a luxurious house, it was a villa with a unique idyllic countryside view. It was a manor-style villa covering over a thousand acres. This was also the advantage of having a small population. Because the population was so small, in places like Australia, there were many manors covering over a thousand acres. Even the soldiers who joined the Japanese army had a base of fifty acres as welfare. Immigrants had a base of one thousand acres. Regular soldiers had a base of two thousand acres. Some families had a base of two thousand acres. This was definitely a small lord in Daming, and those who had made great contributions could receive land worth tens or even thousands of acres. People like Zhao Yapeng and Pi all had several hectares of land under their control.
Tang Tong wasn't worried about a lack of land. He had already occupied Southeast Asia and Australia, as well as the Americas and Africa. He wasn't worried about a shortage of land; he was worried about a lack of people. The abundance of land was also a factor in attracting immigrants. As for the labor shortage, Tang Tong and his team had established concessions in India. The large number of Indian laborers shipped to Southeast Asia and Australia alleviated the labor shortage to a certain extent. Furthermore, with Zheng He's Hezhou Concession serving as a transit point, the trafficking of blacks to Africa was also much more convenient.
Black slaves were everyone's favorite. They were cheap and relatively obedient. If you were willing to pay a little more, you could even get a princess or prince from a certain tribe as a slave. While they weren't particularly useful, they were a source of pride. This trend of showing off drove up the price of slaves from noble families, such as princesses and princes. This spread from black people to other races. For example, Gao Fu, the diplomat, arrived in Europe with a caravan and was starving. He kidnapped a dozen European noble ladies and used them as gifts. His lawlessness reached its peak.
Unwilling to be outdone, Hei Pi, like his other subordinates, went to the Ryukyu Kingdom and forced them to surrender a princess. Poor Ryukyu, a small nation, could not withstand such a tirade. They wanted to complain to their suzerain, the Ming Dynasty, but were unable to reach the sea. They could only obediently offer their princess. After receiving the princess, Hei Pi, rather than enjoying her himself, simply gave her to Tang Tong. This made Zhao Yapeng and his men realize their mistake. They hurriedly led their troops to destroy the Ayutthaya Dynasty (Thailand) and the Dai Viet Dynasty (Vietnam). At this time, the two dynasties were the Northern and Southern Dynasties, nominally still the Later Le Dynasty, and were now under French rule.
The unfortunate French were happily pursuing their colonial dream. But because of a single idea from Zhao Yapeng and his men, a thousand French soldiers were wiped out, without even a single person to report the situation. However, Zhao Yapeng and his men were extremely apprehensive. Even Zhao Yapeng himself wouldn't even consider the princesses of those Southeast Asian countries, let alone give them to Tang Tong.
Because of this incident, Tang Tong felt that they were too reckless. He ruthlessly abolished the power of the people to transfer troops. It officially became the General Staff. Without the permission of the General Staff, no army with more than 1,000 people could be transferred. At the same time, in order to commend these people's contributions, the occupied areas were taken away.
A few pieces. Zhao Yapeng and the others were appointed as colonial governors there. Although this meant they had no military power, their executive power was very great.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Tang Tong restructured the army, establishing a modern military hierarchy. Military districts were formed based on regiments, each under the management of the General Staff. Each regular army regiment was accompanied by three auxiliary army regiments, for a total of thirty-four military districts. During each major battle, different regiments would be deployed. This prevented the possibility of one individual wielding excessive military power. At this point, even the most careless Tang Tong had to be cautious. Not everyone was loyal to the end. If greed grew excessive, someone might rebel.
The remaining troops under Li Yan and Hong Niangzi remained unreformed. Because they were causing unrest within the Ming Dynasty, it was difficult for Tang Tong to reform them at this time. However, Tang Tong wasn't too worried. Li Yan's officers were primarily graduates of the Tang family school. Even if some were bribed by Li Yan, the majority were loyal to Tang Tong. Hong Niangzi was Tang Tong's woman. Zilong didn't have much military power to seize, and the possibility of him rebelling against Tang Tong was not high. Furthermore, to train the troops, Li Yan and Hong Niangzi's officers were rotated, with one-third of the officers replaced every six months.
Everything went smoothly. Tang Tong had only one concern, the issue of children. Tang Tong had built such a large family business. Having children was a big hidden danger. For some reason, Yuxian had not given birth to a child for Tang Tong for so many years. Tang Tong did not want Dayuer and Hailanzhu to give birth to a firstborn son. The Chinese people valued the eldest son's inheritance rights. As for Liu Rushi, she was too young. Tang Tong did not want her to have a child too early and hurt her body. Hongniang had not been with Tang Tong for a long time. She had been with him before but failed to conceive.
Under these circumstances, Tang Tong's subordinates naturally urged him to take more concubines. It was for this reason that they continually sent women to him. However, these women were mostly beauties from various countries. While they were beautiful, Tang Tong clearly wouldn't allow them to bear his firstborn son. Furthermore, Tang Tong was more self-disciplined than others of his time, and he didn't indulge in casual intimacy with these women. Tang Tong's subordinates privately discussed this, believing it was perhaps because the women they sent were of too low status, which was why Tang Tong was unwilling to accept them as concubines.
Later, news of the kidnapping of noblewomen in Europe spread. Hei Pi and his men traveled around the world seeking princesses. Finally, to everyone's relief, Tang Tong finally took Bilian, a woman from Ryukyu, as his concubine.
Bilian could actually be considered a princess. Her status was merely that of a princess. Her name was Princess Zeshan, her given name was Manabe Tsurugi, and her nickname was Bilian. She was the fifth daughter of the current Ryukyu King, Shangfeng. The Ryukyu Kingdom had previously fallen into the hands of the Satsuma clan of Japan, becoming a dynasty in name only. However, after Tang Tong became the overlord of the sea, the Satsuma clan's power was severely weakened by Tang Tong, allowing the Ryukyu Kingdom to regain control.
The Ryukyu were a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. Their surname was bestowed by the Ming Emperor. Therefore, they were Ming people. Therefore, Tang Tong did not reject the Ryukyu people. He allowed them to maintain the rule of the Shang Dynasty. After the fifteen-year-old Bilian was forcibly abducted by Hei Pi, he certainly did not give her away out of kindness. Instead, he took her as his concubine, giving face to the young king Shang Feng.
Bilian was small, with a beautiful baby face. She looked very cute. Because she was close in age to the children, Tang Tong took her as a concubine. However, he did not touch her for a while. He usually treated her like a maid.
It's true. Nanyang is a perfect place for farming. Although Tang Tong's large estate didn't grow cash crops, the flowers and plants here would be worth a fortune in later generations. But in this era, planting cash crops like grain on land was a luxury. At least for the people of the Ming Dynasty, a thousand acres of land could only support a small number of people. Only in places like Nanyang could people afford to indulge in the luxury of land.
Besides the guards, Tang Tong's estate also employed over thirty gardening slaves, tending the vast gardens. Due to the climate, the gardens remained evergreen year-round. Nestled within the vast estate, a small three-story building stood unobtrusively, surrounded by lush greenery. The environment was elegant, like a fairyland.
After arriving here, Bi soon fell in love with this place. Although she had fallen from being a princess to becoming someone else's concubine, Bi did not feel wronged because she knew that although Lord Tang no longer held any official position, his power far exceeded that of a king. The territory he occupied could be considered a large country, at least several times larger than her father's Ryukyu. This was told to her by Er. Although Er was treated like a princess by everyone here, she was not arrogant at all and was easy to get along with. After Bilian came here, she soon became close to Er. Er would often talk to Bilian about Tang Tong and even showed her a picture of the world drawn by Tang Tong, telling her how many territories her Uncle Tang and his men had occupied. These territories were more than several times larger than Bilian's Ryukyu.
Therefore, in Bilian's eyes, Tang Tong was a king without a royal title. It was no big deal for her, a mere princess from a lower family, to be his concubine. Born into a royal family, she even sometimes wondered how to gain Tang Tong's favor. This was crucial, given her background. She understood this much better than Liu Rushi, Chen Yuxian, and the others.
Therefore, every time Tang Tong came home, Bilian would serve him wholeheartedly, hoping to gain Tang Tong's favor as soon as possible when Chen Yu, Liu Rushi, Dayu'er, and Hai Lanzhu were too busy outside to come home.
Every time Tang Tong returned home, he'd see Bilian waiting for him on the green road. Her homely demeanor sometimes gave Tang Tong the illusion that when he got home from work, his wife would be waiting for him there. This made Tang Tong feel like he had a home.
Tang Tong discovered that he hadn't changed in all these years. He was still an ordinary person at heart.
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