Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The "peaceful" resolution of the Gao family's internal strife seemed to bring stability to Dali.

But is it possible?

Because Zhu Kang sent troops to defeat Chenla, killed a large number of Chenla soldiers, and sacked Chenla's second largest city, it caused a chain reaction in Southeast Asia.

Tribes such as Yuya, Jinzhan, Guci, and Parsi living on the northern border of Chenla broke away from Chenla's control and joined the rapidly rising Golden Tooth Kingdom.

The Golden Tooth Kingdom's strength greatly increased and there was no threat from the south. Taking advantage of the Gao family's civil strife, they attacked Mengli (Xishuangbanna).

When Gao Zhenshou seized the position of Prime Minister, Xishuangbanna was also captured by the Golden Tooth Kingdom.

Moreover, King Ba Zhen, the golden-toothed king, directly moved his capital to Xishuangbanna. It was obvious that he would develop to the north next, and even expressed his ambition to destroy the Dali Kingdom.

Where did the Golden Teeth Kingdom come from?

This is a complex tribal federation of ethnic groups, and they are also collectively known as the "gold-toothed barbarians".

The golden-toothed barbarians gradually merged, and many of their descendants became the Dai or Tai people (some also became the Bai people).

The Golden Tooth Kingdom can also be regarded as a country dominated by the Dai people. Especially when they captured Xishuangbanna, they greatly accelerated the speed of their ethnic integration.

For hundreds of years, these tribes have lived in the cracks between Nanzhao (Dali), Annan, Chenla, Bagan and other countries. It also established political power twice, but was defeated by the big powers and surrendered. The tribes were forced to form alliances, and the scale of this alliance became larger and larger.

They fought with all the surrounding countries, tempered and strengthened in war after war, and formed an extremely fierce and warlike folk custom.

Tribal men are only responsible for hunting, fighting, and iron smelting.

Other tasks, including farming, were done by women with slaves.

Gao Zhenshou, who had just become the prime minister, went south non-stop to conquer the golden-toothed barbarians, because the golden-toothed army had already reached Pu'er!

The two sides fought fiercely from winter to spring, with each other winning or losing.

Dali State retained Pu'er, but was unable to recapture Xishuangbanna.

"Father, we can't fight anymore," Gao Shouchang said. "The generals didn't dare to speak out in front of my father, but they came to the boy one after another to complain. They first fought against the Thirty-seven Barbarians, and then traveled over the mountains and ridges to get here, fighting before and after. For more than half a year. And... this is a high-quality jurisdiction, so there is no need to work hard for him. "

Gao Zhenshou said angrily: "What a fart, how can this be Gao Liangcheng's territory? Bu'er (Pu'er) was originally under the jurisdiction of Yinsheng Jiedushi, but it was temporarily assigned to Weichu Mansion for custody. Naturally, I will take it when I am the Prime Minister. Come back!"

Xishuangbanna and Pu'er had already produced tea in the Tang Dynasty. The tea trade here was extremely prosperous and could continuously provide wealth.

Gao Zhenshou was reluctant to pay taxes here!

Gao Shouchang said: "The soldiers are resentful. It's almost summer, and many soldiers are looking forward to going home to farm. The Golden-Toothed Barbarians moved their capital to Menglu (Xishuangbanna). They will not stop fighting unless they destroy the country. But we are on an expedition, and we cannot decide the winner for a long time, so we cannot let the army continue to be exhausted. "

If you want to wear a crown, you must bear its weight.

Gao Zhenshou, who had just become the Prime Minister, finally realized the difficulties of Gao Liangcheng.

Those gold-toothed barbarians were really not caused by him. This trouble must be solved now.

As mentioned earlier, the men of the Golden Tooth Kingdom were only responsible for hunting, fighting, iron smelting, etc. Even farming was done by women with slaves. They can always confront each other on the front line, but the Dali army cannot do this.

The longer it takes, the more detrimental it will be to Dali's army.

Gao Zhenshou was persuaded by his son and began to summon the generals one after another. Through small talk, he found that most of the generals were unwilling to fight against the golden-toothed man here.

Some people even suggested abandoning Pu'er and relying on mountains and rivers to stop the Golden-toothed Barbarians from moving north in the future.

To put it bluntly, no matter how much business and taxes are collected here, what nonsense will it do to the nobles whose fiefdoms are in the north?

After much thought, Gao Zhenshou sent an envoy.

When the envoy saw Ba Zhen, the leader of the Golden-Toothed Kingdom, he said in an arrogant tone: "The Golden-Toothed Barbarians were originally a vassal of the Dali vassal. You have now stolen the kingdom. Our Majesty is generous and plans to make you the king..."

Ba Zhen interrupted directly: "Would I care about the canonization of Dali? I have been canonized by Emperor Ming a long time ago. Emperor Zhu was so lenient that he did not allow me to attack Mengjiao (Jiaozhi), and he was abolished because of this incident I still want to take back the golden seal of the king given to me. I am not afraid of the Ming Kingdom, but will I be afraid of your Dali Kingdom?"

The Dali envoy was immediately speechless.

How could the remote barbarians know how powerful the Ming Dynasty was?

Historically, Ba Zhen first went to the Southern Song Dynasty to ask for a title. Later, in order to avoid a four-front war, he was forced to agree to Dali's canonization and called himself the "Supreme Buddha Lord of Jinglong Jindian Kingdom".

Now, the Annan Kingdom has just been renamed as Jiaozhi Province, and it is too busy cleaning up the interior to take care of the Golden Tooth Kingdom. Zhenla was defeated by Zhu Kang again. Rebellions broke out in the country, and the Golden Teeth Kingdom was not taken care of. Dali himself is a piece of shit, and he also doesn’t want to start a war with the Golden Tooth Country.

In such a situation, how could Ba Zhen accept the canonization of Dali?

He even wanted to take advantage of the situation and destroy the Dali Kingdom!

Ba Zhen grinned with a gold tooth, and angrily scolded the envoy with his halberd finger: "Also, you are not allowed to call the Golden Tooth Kingdom anymore, this is the Jinglong Golden Palace Kingdom!"

"In the Tang Dynasty, you were called the Jin Teeth... Department." The Dali envoy omitted the word "barbarian" in order to frighten his power.

Ba Zhen said: "That is a contemptuous name for us!"

Gold teeth are really gold teeth, made of gold pieces into braces, which are only removed when eating.

They also have brother tribes, the Silver-toothed Man and the Black-toothed Man, who also use silver pieces to make braces or directly dye their teeth black.

This is the privilege of aristocratic men, not commoners or women.

The Dali envoy gradually became more arrogant from the initial bossy attitude, but still could not convince Ba Zhen to accept the canonization.

He could only return to the city to report the news and come back a few days later.

This time, an agreement was reached. Both sides stopped their troops. Dali recognized the Golden Tooth's possession of Xishuangbanna, but the Golden Tooth Kingdom was not allowed to attack the Pu'er area again.

Gao Zhenshou and Ba Zhen, each with a small number of troops, met outside Pu'er City to swear an oath, and also invited the Bodhisattva Buddha to be a witness.

In early summer, both sides withdrew from Pu'er.

Gao Zhenshou led the army back over the mountains and ridges. Before he reached Dali City, a horse came to report: "Bu'er (Pu'er) is gone!"

"Why not?" Gao Zhenshou was shocked.

The messenger said: "The gold-toothed man entered the city disguised as a tea seller and lurked in the city. Then the gold-toothed army rushed to kill him. The gold-toothed man set fire to the city at night, and the defenders fled in panic."

Gao Zhenshou was furious: "Ba Zhen, the barbarian, claimed to be the Supreme Buddha Lord, but he dared to break the oath he made in front of the Bodhisattva Buddha! Isn't he afraid of losing his majesty?"

It's useless to say more.

Pu'er was lost, and because of the mountains and rivers blocking it, Dali was better able to defend the south.

But the premise is that all the territory in the south is abandoned.

In another time and space, the Golden Tooth Kingdom continued to encroach on the territory of Dali, and finally even actually controlled Lincang, Dehong and other places.

Pu'er fell, and Gao Zhenshou's prestige plummeted.

He urgently returned to Dali City to control the king, and used a lot of wealth to bribe the Gao princes, and promoted the titles of nobles of various surnames.

The political situation was finally stabilized.

Ba Zhen, who captured Pu'er, changed his past enterprising spirit and began to build large-scale construction projects in Xishuangbanna.

Countless captured civilians and soldiers worked there day and night, and many corpses were dragged away and burned every day. Tired to death.

Not only did they build a new capital, they also overhauled Buddhist temples and even invited eminent monks from Chenla to be abbots.

He is not only a king, but also a religious leader - the Supreme Buddha.

Then it imitated neighboring countries and established a three-level administrative system of "mang-qian-state". Similar to provincial capitals and counties, but at the "state" level, they are more like larger rural tribes. (In later Yunnan and Southeast Asia, many place names contain the word "Bang", which is most likely related to the Golden Tooth Kingdom.)

…

After reading the telegram in Luoyang, Ju Ming couldn't help but sigh: "It's such a mess. People have taken over Pu'er, and the monarchs and ministers of Dali pretended that nothing happened."

Zhang Bor thought to himself: If the King of Yu had not defeated Zhenla and Annan had become Jiaozhi Province, how could the Golden Tooth Kingdom dare to march north with all its strength?

Naturally, these words could not be said. Zhang Bor's speech was: "Dali has lost cities and territory one after another. The soldiers have no fighting spirit and will have no fighting spirit. We can send troops."

Li Hanzhang said: "I think we can postpone it for two years. The attack on Dali requires countless money and food to immigrate. In the past two years, the expedition to Xiliao and the immigration to the Anxi Protectorate have almost emptied the treasury. Fortunately, the weather has been good and there is some surplus. "

"This opportunity cannot be missed," Li Bao said.

Ling Guxu retorted: "The Prime Minister of Dali is unpopular, and his political affairs will only become more and more chaotic. If you miss the opportunity at hand, you will have more opportunities to send troops in the future."

Zhang Guangdao said: "Sichuan, Guangxi, and Hunan provinces have already stocked up on grain and grass more than a year in advance. Military rations have actually been enough for a long time. All the court needs to allocate are various materials for subsequent immigration."

Wei Liangchen asked: "This time we send troops, we will also immigrate to Guizhou. How much should the number of immigrants be? In addition to Sichuan, which province should provide immigrants? More and more people are going to sea in Fujian and Guangdong provinces. I'm afraid it won't be easy to force them. We are recruiting immigrants, and it is best not to move in Guangxi, Hunan, and Hubei.”

The ministers argued for a while, and Ju Ming began to speak.

"In this expedition to Dali, we don't need to send too many troops. The total strength of the field army and regular army is 40,000. Then we select retired soldiers and trained militiamen, a total of 50,000 as auxiliary troops. These auxiliary troops try to persuade them to stay Yunnan."

"The first batch of immigrants totaling 150,000 people was conscripted from Sichuan, Huainan, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang. They served as food transporters with the army and stayed in Yunnan and Guizhou after the war. Three years later, another 100,000 immigrants were conscripted. All Wear them as Baojia, practice them in your spare time, and be able to farm and fight."

"The Ministry of Household Affairs, the Ministry of War, and the Supervisory Office all sent people to accompany the army to restrain the civil and military officials and prevent a large number of immigrants from dying! The Imperial Hospital summoned the best doctors in the country and collected medicinal materials from all over the country to properly prevent and treat the diseases of the soldiers and immigrants. Miasma plague!"

Pan Lianggui, the Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, said: "Your Majesty, there are too many immigrants. There must be enough money, but not enough food. If local governments suddenly purchase food on a large scale, local food prices will definitely skyrocket. Otherwise, wait for the Anxi Governor to The government is self-sufficient and no longer needs to transport food supplies from the customs. Will we go to conquer Dali then? "

Ju Ming said: "It is not a big deal if the price of food rises a little, as long as it is controlled within ten cents per catty. The weather has been good in the past two years, and both the government and the private sector have saved food. In addition, you can also go to Cochin Province to buy food."

Under normal circumstances, the price of food is generally around four or five cents.

Grain dealers go to the countryside to buy grain during the harvest season, and even lower the price to two or three cents per catty, making it difficult for farmers to sell it even if they don't sell it.

If there is a bumper harvest, in order to avoid low prices and harming farmers, local governments will deliberately raise the price to buy the grains at a relatively low price and store them in Changping warehouses.

For two consecutive years, the weather has been smooth in Ming Dynasty, and there are a lot of stocks in Changpingcang across the country.

Although the Anxi Protectorate spent a lot of money and kept asking for additional immigrants, it only used changpingcang in the northern provinces.

Sichuan often sends troops to conquer barbarians, so there is not much grain stored there.

Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Fujian suffered a super flood a few years ago, and there have been many small floods afterwards. Various constructive restorations require money and grain. There is not much grain stored.

As for Guangdong and Guangxi, it is good enough not to go to other provinces to buy grain.

That only leaves Hunan, Hubei, and Huainan.

As water conservancy projects become more and more complete, the population is gradually increasing, and the grain production in the two lakes area has caught up.

And Huainan has always been a big granary.

40,000 regular soldiers, 50,000 auxiliary soldiers, and 150,000 civilians and immigrants. In addition to the transfer of materials from various provinces, it also requires the transport of grain troops and a large number of civilians, as well as the subsequent resettlement of 200,000 soldiers and civilians. The whole set of grain consumption is indeed huge.

It is so large that without affecting the transport of grain, the Changping warehouses in Hunan, Hubei, and Huainan can be used up.

The reason for this is that Emperor Zhu gave a death order that the survival rate of those immigrants must be guaranteed.

An immigrant needs to consume food from the time of conscription, to reporting to the county, prefecture, and province, and then all the way to Guizhou and Yunnan. Not to mention the officials and troops responsible for conscription and escorting them.

And the mountainous roads in Yunnan and Guizhou are too difficult to travel.

It is estimated that most of the food transported there will be consumed on the rugged roads.

The logistical consumption of the expedition to Dali is no less than that of the expedition to the Western Regions!

Zhu Ming said: "The Supervisory Office will send more imperial censors to inspect the local areas, and any problems with the Changping warehouse will be immediately investigated. If there is a fire in the Changping warehouse, everyone from the warehouse keeper to the petty official will be beheaded. The local chief and deputy officials, as well as the officials in charge, will all be dismissed and not used, and if they are involved in the case, they will be prosecuted."

The ministers held their breath, thinking that another batch of heads were going to be chopped off.

"Bai Qi, Duke of Shu, will serve as the commander-in-chief of the southern expedition. Lin Chong, the general of Sichuan, and Yang Zaixing, the general of Guangxi, will serve as deputy commanders."