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Also in the winter of this year, two skinny old men were brought to live in Nanjing.

They come from the Nanpan Kingdom, also called the Gia Lai Kingdom.

But there is no king, only two great wizards: the King of Water and the King of Fire.

The King of Water lives to the east of Bonan Mountain, and the King of Fire lives to the west of Bonan Mountain. According to legend, if the king does not see the king, a great disaster will occur when the two kings meet.

Not only do the tribes of the Nanpan Kingdom believe in them, but even when floods and droughts occur in Laos and Cambodia, they will ask two magicians to ride elephants to pray for blessings.

Now that the Nguyen family has been destroyed, the Nam Phan Kingdom has also surrendered to the imperial court and was established as the Nam Phan Military and Civilian Mansion under Quang Nam Province. The chiefs of each tribe were appointed as town mayors on the spot, and each town sent a Han teacher to build a straw shed as a school to teach knowledge.

These Han teachers are all businessmen's sons who have been doing business with the Ruan family for a long time. If a literate member of each family goes to Nanpan Mansion to work as a village teacher, they can be exempted from their past crimes.

There is no need to teach any high-end knowledge. The indigenous people there still tie knots to remember events. Just teach the children to speak Chinese and write Chinese characters. These children who can speak Chinese can be appointed as town mayors when they grow up - the local chiefs are elected by election and have not yet developed to the level of hereditary.

Even the Water King and the Fire King are not hereditary. They were not allowed to pass the throne to their sons, and could only select and train successors from their grandchildren and nephews.

The two kings of water and fire, who had never met each other, not only met each other now, but also became friends along the way and exchanged spells with each other.

One is Ruo Lanhei, who is over sixty years old; the other is Ruo Poli, who is over fifty years old.

"Ruo" is not a surname, but an honorific.

They also lived in Zhongshan Temple with their entourage. Compared with envoys from other countries, their clothes were extremely shabby.

However, the envoys from various countries did not despise them, and were also very interested because they heard that they knew magic. Envoys came to visit one after another, wanting to know their customs and their ability to control wind and rain.

Finally, the day before entering the palace to meet the Holy Spirit, the two kings sat together to discuss the future.

Ruo Lanhei said: "I have been communicating with Chinese officials for two months and learned many things about them. China is very powerful. If China is like a mountain, we are like the rocks under the mountain. The power of the Chinese court will be in our land If it is revealed, our descendants will also become Chinese."

"That's right, you're right," Ruo Poli took out his pipe, lit the pipe and said, "So we must follow China's example and tell the people when we go back that the most powerful god is Heaven, and the emperor is the son of Heaven. Come into the world. The one who calls the wind and rain is the Dragon King. When we pray for rain and water to recede, we are communicating with the Dragon King."

Ruolanhei said: "We should also identify other gods. It is best to enshrine the water kings and fire kings of the past dynasties."

The god system of Nanpan Kingdom is very vague. Their main belief is ghosts, and the so-called magic is also primitive witchcraft.

But they were open to new things, like tobacco.

Tobacco was introduced to Nanpan Kingdom less than a hundred years ago, but the pipe has become the magical weapon of the two kings of water and fire, and it is the most important magical weapon. Before each practice, you have to light up a cigarette and take a few puffs, which is said to be able to communicate with ghosts and gods.

Historically, Vietnam completely annexed the Nanbang Kingdom and spread enlightenment like China did. The two kings of water and fire did not resist, and decisively adjusted their beliefs, and dragon gods and the like also appeared.

Ruo Poli said: "We have made an agreement here. After we return home, we will let our followers spread the news. Let's say that we met the son of God in Nanjing and that the Chinese emperor is the real king of gods. The ghosts and gods we establish must also be the same. From now on, we will meet at Bonan Mountain every five years."

"The Water King and the Fire King cannot meet, how should we explain to the clan members?" Ruo Lanhei asked.

Ruo Poli said: "We couldn't meet each other before because we each believed in different ghosts and gods. Now that we have met the Emperor, we will all believe in him from now on, and the ghosts and gods have become the same, so we can meet."

"That's right." Ruolanhei nodded.

Ruo Poli added: "I think the Han people are very good at farming. They have iron hoes and plows, and they also dug ditches to divert water from the fields. We can also learn from this and stop burning mountains for farming."

"But who should we learn from? We don't understand these." Ruo Lanhei said.

Ruo Poli said: "We have donated treasures this time. I heard from the general officer that the emperor will also give gifts in return. We don't want other gifts, but hoes, iron plows and seeds. Please ask the emperor to send someone to teach our people." Farm the land and teach us how to dig ditches that can divert water.”

Ruo Lanhei said excitedly: "In that case, we can grow more food, and the people of the tribe will no longer be hungry."

There are not many special products in Nanpan country, including yellow wax, deer antlers, ivory and so on. They would use these things to exchange iron pots, hoes, salt and other items with the Ruan family, but the prices were always lowered by Yue merchants, making iron pots and iron hoes considered luxury goods.

Belonging to China now will definitely benefit you.

There are a large number of giant trees in the mountains there, especially century-old teak, which is an excellent material for making warships, and its strength is far stronger than that of oak warships.

Although the Nanpan Kingdom is extremely poor, those century-old teak trees alone are worthy of China’s occupation and rule!

The next day, the two kings of water and fire met.

When they met the emperor, they were both careful and followed the etiquette trained by Honglu Temple.

"Give me a seat." Zhao Han smiled.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." The two old men bent down and smiled.

Zhao Han chatted with them for a while and actually called the Hawaiians over: "These are your distant relatives. You can try to communicate."

When four native Hawaiians came to Nanjing, there were scholars from the Hanlin Academy and Honglu Temple who wanted to learn to speak the Hawaiian dialect. The two kings of water and fire in the Nanpan Kingdom also have scholars to understand their language.

Then I discovered that the languages ​​​​of the two places that could not be touched by eight poles actually have a lot of similarities.

Especially in daily expressions, such as "hello" and "goodbye", the pronunciation is very similar.

Two Vietnamese Gia Lai people and two Hawaiian people just communicated in front of Zhao Han. They didn't say a few words, and they were all happy, but as they talked, they couldn't communicate anymore.

The more primitive words are more similar, the more refined words are more different.

Zhao Han smiled and said: "Whether you are from Jia Lai or Tanzhou, you are all descendants of Chinese Miao people and have the same ancestors as the Han people. The Han people are like elder brothers, and you are younger brothers. Now we are all a family again. Although the two of you are different I am older, but from an ethnic perspective, I am the elder brother and you are the younger brothers."

The two old men were very smart and quickly bowed: "Your Majesty, Brother Emperor!"

"Very good," Zhao Han urged, "after you return to Nanpan, you must also tell the other Jia Lai people and make this truth clear. From now on, the Han people are the elder brothers and the Jia Lai people are the younger brothers. The younger brothers should respect their elder brothers, and the elder brothers should respect their elder brothers. You should protect your younger brother. If there are Han people who bully you, go to the magistrate of Nan Pan and complain, and the magistrate will make the decision for you. If the magistrate of Nan Pan doesn't care, go to Quang Nam Province and complain."

"Thank you, Brother Emperor, for making the decision!" The two old men became even more happy.

Zhao Han asked someone to bring two pairs of special pipes, which were made of gold and sandalwood: "These are your royal gifts from now on. You can use them when praying for rain and blessings."

The two old men thanked each other again and couldn't put down their love for the imperial gift pipe.

The reason why Zhao Han attaches so much importance to them and is willing to meet them in person is because they are the leaders of witchcraft in Southeast Asia. Although Buddhism is prevalent in Cambodia and Laos, everyone also believes in witchcraft. These two old men surrendered to China, which means that China can have some say through them.

From now on, the Water King and the Fire King must also be canonized by the court, otherwise they will all be fake kings.

Ruo Poli knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, Brother Emperor, I heard that you are going to give us wealth. We don't want any gold or silver. Please give us hoes, oxen, iron plows and seeds, and then send someone to teach us how to farm like the Han people." .”

This request surprised Zhao Han, and then he felt happy: "Very good, you are all people who care about the people. I will give each of you three thousand iron hoes, two hundred plowing oxen, and two hundred pairs of plows. The agricultural officials will teach you how to farm!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty, the Emperor!" The two old men were sincerely convinced and kowtowed to the Emperor sincerely.

Both sides get what they need, Zhao Han wants to develop Nanpan Mansion as soon as possible, and the old men also get what they expect. If they go back with hoes, oxen and iron plows, they can distribute them to various tribes according to their wishes, and the chiefs and tribesmen of each tribe will be more convinced of them.

The two old men left happily, and they were still laughing after leaving the palace gate.

Sitting in the carriage, Ruo Lanhei took out his Yuci pipe and found a bag of top-quality tobacco and a pair of fire knives.

Back at Zhongshan Temple, they couldn't wait to light a fire, fill it with tobacco and start puffing away.

Ruo Lanhei said intoxicatedly: "The tobacco given by the emperor's brother is very comfortable to smoke, and the method will definitely be more effective in the future."

Ruopoli said: "I should have asked for more tobacco just now, but I won't be able to get it when I get home."

"The general officer said that the Han government needs teak wood," Ruolanhei said. "In the future, cut down more trees and sell them to the Han government in exchange for this kind of tobacco."

Ruo Poli said: "This is a good idea!"

These two old smokers sold all the century-old teak in the territory in order to get the best cut tobacco.

They have enmity with the Yue people and have been oppressed for a long time. As for the Han people, I don’t have much impression because I haven’t had much contact with them. This time I met the Han emperor and was treated politely along the way, so he felt very good about the Han people and was willing to have friendly exchanges with the Han people in the future.

Zhao Han met with the two mages. It was getting late, so he returned to the harem to rest.

"Your Majesty is here!" Li Xiangjun greeted him with a smile on his face.

Zhao Han quickly supported him: "Be careful not to inflate the fetus."

When Li Xiangjun was thirty years old, she was also appointed as a concubine. At the same time, she gave up her position as a female official and is now pregnant with Liujia.

No one said anything about it, but the ministers were very worried.

If there are many such examples, it is very likely that the harem will interfere with politics. But they did not dare to oppose the emperor, so they buried their worries in their hearts and waited until the new emperor ascended the throne, then encouraged the new emperor to gradually restore the eunuch system.

In the past, civil servants hated eunuchs, but now they are eager for their return. Eunuchs doing politics are at least more reliable than those in the harem!

It's like a husband who thinks his first wife is disgusting. After divorcing and remarrying, he thinks of the benefits of his first wife and wants to remarry.