Armed Preaching

Schönbrunn Palace, children's room.

"Mother, I am already five years old. I can sleep by myself now," Franz said, looking at Sophie with a hint of helplessness.

"No, I feel you need me. Besides, you cannot refuse a mother fulfilling her duty," Sophie insisted.

"And so, as the snow fell heavily that day, Captain Lin had walked less than half a mile before he saw a dilapidated church..." Franz sighed, lamenting how women of every era loved to binge-watch dramas.

Phnom Penh, Chenla Royal Palace.

At this moment, King Ang Chan was long gone, but his four daughters remained within the palace walls.

They were the princesses of Chenla, and the palace was their home, yet they were now confined to the cold palace.

This was because the other halls had been occupied by the Vietnamese general Zhang Mingjiang, who, as the overseer of Vietnam's interests in Chenla, wielded absolute power.

The first thing Zhang Mingjiang did upon taking over the Phnom Penh palace was to seize King Ang Chan's concubines, then increase taxes in the king's name while conscripting young, beautiful women into the palace.

The Kuan Kim family did not escape unscathed; over a dozen of their women were summoned to the palace, and many, unable to bear the humiliation, were forced to take their own lives, leaving Kuan Kim-pan with a bone-deep hatred for Zhang Mingjiang.

As for the four princesses of Chenla, Zhang Mingjiang dared not act recklessly, though not out of fear for the Chenla people.

He feared the military supervisor sent by Emperor Minh Mang, a eunuch surnamed Li.

This eunuch Li was nominally there to oversee military affairs, but in reality, he was there to limit Zhang Mingjiang's power and prevent him from making contact with Ang Chan's descendants, lest he try to emulate Cao Mengde and hold the emperor hostage to command the vassals.

Han learning and Confucian thought held an unshakable status in Southeast Asian nations. It was no surprise that Emperor Minh Mang knew this historical allusion.

However, Emperor Minh Mang's approach provided Kuan Kim-pan with room to maneuver.

Eunuchs, as a group that had lost the power to be normal men, were either greedy, wicked, or possessed peculiar obsessions.

This eunuch Li loved writing poetry, so Kuan Kim-pan naturally catered to his tastes, frequently bringing renowned figures from the Chenla literary scene into the palace to compose verses with him.

One could not recite poetry without wine, so Kuan Kim-pan sent men to scour the land for fine spirits to offer to the eunuch.

Through these exchanges, Kuan Kim-pan became a "soulmate" in the eyes of the eunuch.

On this day, Kuan Kim-pan brought a rare edition of a Tang dynasty book and an exquisite jade goblet to seek out the eunuch.

The eunuch was delighted, yet he remained composed as he spoke.

"Brother Kuan Kim, you have brought such a heavy gift to this humble servant; if you have something to say, just speak plainly."

"Brother Li, the princesses have reached the age for schooling, and I wish to hire tutors for them."

The eunuch let out a long breath of relief; he had expected some grave matter, but it was only about hiring tutors.

The eunuch replied, "That is naturally permissible, but I do not know which master is capable of teaching the princesses. Could you let this humble servant see them?"

Kuan Kim-pan naturally understood that it was impossible to keep the eunuch from seeing them, and besides, the eunuch would find out sooner or later; it could not be hidden forever.

"Master An, Master Pacini, come and let Brother Li see you."

An and Pacini were common surnames in Chenla, so the eunuch had not paid much attention at first.

But when he saw Ambrosius and Pacini, he was truly startled.

"Yellow-haired devils!?"

Kuan Kim-pan spoke up, "They are Western barbarians."

"Oh, right, barbarians. But do they possess any real talent?" The eunuch, self-conceited about his own vast learning, intended to test the two Western masters.

Kuan Kim-pan naturally would not let the eunuch and Ambrosius improvise, so he simply stated, "A woman's lack of talent is a virtue; these two Westerners are primarily teaching dance and music."

These words instantly caused the eunuch to lose interest.

"I knew it; barbarians do not understand literature and only know song and dance." He then said to the young eunuch beside him, "Issue them a waist tag and lead them away."

The young eunuch bowed his head in agreement, but just as he turned to leave, the eunuch called him back.

"Wait!"

This shout from the eunuch immediately made the atmosphere tense; Ambrosius had already reached for the pistol at his waist.

"They stink! Have them bathe and change their clothes; don't bring that stench into the palace."

Ambrosius and Kuan Kim-pan both let out long sighs of relief.

"Yes."

Ambrosius finally saw the "Princesses" he had been dreaming of, but these princesses were completely different from what he had imagined.

They were dressed very shabbily, with fabric no better than that of the palace maids.

Especially their ages—they looked to be only in their early teens, with the youngest being only seven or eight.

Ambrosius complained endlessly in his heart, I shouldn't have listened to that brat.

Just as Ambrosius was looking the princesses up and down, the little girls were also curiously observing him.

After all, the princesses had lived in the palace since birth and had never seen a man, let alone a Westerner.

Both sides just stood there, awkwardly staring at each other.

In the end, it was Father Pacini who broke the tension; after all, as a professional missionary trained by the Church, his communication skills were undoubtedly excellent.

The princesses had a very good first impression of Ambrosius. After all, Ambrosius was vastly different from the eunuchs they usually encountered, and with Grand Duke Ambrosius being quite handsome, it was natural for people to feel drawn to him.

Chenla, Kompong Som Bay.

The establishment of the port proceeded very smoothly. The people here were surprisingly numb and showed no intention of resisting these uninvited guests, and the officials became very cooperative after accepting bribes.

The Catholic priests also began their campaign. These men first infiltrated the nearby villages, providing medical care and distributing rice; such conventional tactics only served to draw the attention of the locals.

To proselytize in a colony, they required special methods.

A village was frequently harassed by bandits, so the combat priests split into two teams: one team armed with muskets lay in ambush along the bandits' inevitable path, while the other went into the village to help the villagers defend it, simultaneously preventing any bandit informants from sending word.

And when the bandits were repelled by the combat priests guarding the village, the other team, having long been lying in wait, rushed out to round up the bandits in one fell swoop.

The priests tied the bandits up in the village square and had the people recount the crimes of these bandits.

At this moment, the villagers naturally settled their grudges and took their revenge. Just as the bandits were beaten to the brink of death by the villagers, the priests put a stop to the villagers' violence.

The priests demanded that the bandits repent for their sins; this scene was all too familiar to the Buddhists of Southeast Asia.

Eighty percent chance they're going to let these damned bandits go, the villagers thought to themselves.

The bandits thought the same, believing they would escape this disaster and that sooner or later they would slaughter all these damned peasants, as these foreign monks could not guard the villagers forever.

However, what neither the villagers nor the bandits expected was that after the bandits repented, the priests hoisted them onto crosses and had them receive baptism in the raging flames.

"May the Lord forgive your sins, Amen!"

Having witnessed the combat prowess and methods of the priests, the villagers converted to the faith one after another.

Watching the increasingly devout villagers, the priests praised internally, "Archbishop Rauscher's methods are truly effective."

What they did not know was that these missionary strategies had all come from the hand of a child.