Sunken Fish - Chapter 40
While Lin Zexu was destroying opium at Humen in Guangdong, a British fleet was preparing to sail to the distant East. Two years later, the Celestial Empire signed a humiliating treaty outside Nanjing, revealing its weakness to the Western barbarians for the first time. On its return journey, the British fleet attacked the coastal areas of the Lanna Kingdom, citing the Lanna army's occupation of several princely states in British India. The Lanna people put up an unusually fierce resistance, greatly surprising the British army, which had just easily won victories in China—in comparison, the Qing army seemed like a rabble. The British then transferred a large number of troops from India, launching an attack on the Lanna Kingdom from both land and sea. The Lanna warriors, armed with 18th-century smoothbore muskets, along with armored cavalry and war elephants, charged fearlessly against the British guns and cannons, just like their martial ancestors a thousand years ago.
The war's outcome was naturally tragic. After several bloody massacres, the British penetrated deep into the heart of the Lanna Kingdom, captured the capital Mandala, and exiled the king to Australia. This unfortunate king died years later among a group of kangaroos.
From then on, Lanna became a British colony, and the British governor was stationed in the largest port city on the coast: Piedmont—a beautiful name first coined by the overseas Chinese. The British painstakingly managed Lanna for a century, and British Lanna became Asia's most important exporter of rice and timber. Even the remote southern tribes had to submit to the British governor's tyranny.
A Brief History of the Kingdom of Lana (2)
By the mid-20th century, colonies were no longer a paradise for Westerners. World War II severely damaged the authority of the British Empire, and the Lanna people launched a fierce war of independence. Ultimately, the British chose a dignified way to withdraw. They found a descendant of the Lanna royal family, an ascetic hermit living in seclusion on Mount Mandala, and proposed that he inherit the Lanna kingdom, which had been extinct for a century. After some political intrigues that remain secret to this day, this nobleman finally became the 86th King of Lanna.
The Kingdom of Lanna gained independence in 1950. The king, still sporting the shaved head of a monk, ascended the throne passed down from his ancestors within the ancient Mandala Palace. He then moved to the coastal city of Pipa, home to modern industry and commerce and a base of British rule for many years. This king promulgated Lanna's first constitution, defining the rights of ethnic minorities such as the southern barbarians and allowing the development of private capital, including that of the Chinese. For approximately ten years, the Kingdom of Lanna prospered and flourished, and Pipa was even dubbed "Little Paris."
However, the king, a monk by birth, could not escape his fate—the military leadership dispatched assassins who killed him in front of the palace hall. The assassins were immediately shot dead by the guards. Amidst the nation's grief, the new king, still nursing in his wet nurse's arms, ascended the throne, with the Chief of Staff standing majestically behind him, like the king's godfather.
Thus, the entire nation was plunged into a tragic fate. It took our king approximately twenty years to grow from an infant into a young man. During this time, the true king was the Chief of the General Staff, whose residence became the de facto parliament, prime minister's office, supreme court, prosecutor's office, and defense ministry.
This vast, dark period lasted until the mid-1980s, when an oppressed southern barbarian assassinated the Chief of the General Staff during a military parade. The 25-year-old king then rightfully seized power, becoming the de facto ruler of this ancient kingdom once again.
King Lanna is now in his prime, residing in his palace in the city of Bibo, ruling the kingdom inherited from his ancestors and his ten million subjects. Although the nation's per capita GDP still hovers around five hundred US dollars, the people seem perpetually content with the status quo, satisfied as long as the king provides them with peace and the absence of armies fighting amongst themselves. Only the southern tribes deep in the mountains occasionally cause trouble for the kingdom, requiring the dispatch of regular troops to eliminate these guerrillas. Of course, according to His Majesty the King, these are merely temporary disturbances.
Ah, this is the history of the Kingdom of Lanna, as ancient and serene as this land, now all the turmoil has subsided into the night. I pray silently for my friends on their rooftops.
Saving a drowning fish (1)
December 23rd.
My friends' first morning in the Kingdom of Lanna.
Benny woke up feeling much better; he hadn't slept this well in a long time. He went out of his room and found Walter already waiting for him. They woke the others, had breakfast at the hotel, and then boarded the bus and set off.
The journey ahead will be quite arduous, as the road conditions are poor and the terrain along the way is extremely treacherous. It will take the bus eight to ten hours to reach Mandala City in the central part of the Kingdom of Lanna.
"Why fly to this remote northern airport? Wouldn't it be better to fly directly to Mandala City?" asked Berli, puzzled.
Walter replied with a serious expression, "I'm sorry, the only way to get from Lijiang to the Kingdom of Lanna is through the Northern Airport."
My friends were speechless and sat obediently on the bus, letting Walter and Mr. Joe, the driver, take them toward an unpredictable future.
At eight o'clock in the morning, the bus entered a small town. They then realized that the Kingdom of Lanna was not a sparsely populated, barren land. A large crowd had gathered before them, suggesting it was an important market.
Many Lanna women were walking around under the car. They wore brightly colored skirts, wrapped their heads with cloth, carried baskets on their heads, and smeared their faces with paste made from tree bark.
When I first saw their faces, I assumed that, like in my hometown of Shanghai, the Lanna people preferred fair skin, and the product they were applying was probably for sun protection. But after trying it, I discovered that it only dried out my skin. While it covered my skin, it also baked it until it cracked like a clay brick. I can't say it was good for my skin; I looked like a dried-out clown.
Walter raised everyone's hands and said, "Alright, now we'll stop the car. You have an hour to explore freely. There's a lively market here, with many shopkeepers selling textiles and—"
"Can we get off the bus?"
Wendy couldn't wait any longer.