The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Father, father."

Li Rusong shouted and rushed into the yard. Li Chengliang came out with a frown and yelled at him: "What are you doing with your rough hair? Did you get chased by a dog?"

"Hey, if it's a dog, I'll just hit it with my knife. I really can't run away."

Li Rusong rushed to Li Chengliang with a playful smile, and immediately thought of the reason for coming, and couldn't help but said anxiously: "Dad, the news I just received, Meng Yang broke."

"What?"

Li Chengliang was shocked at first, and then calmed down immediately.

Meng Yang was able to persist in not falling for two months, which was actually beyond his expectation.

Faced with the overwhelming Burmese army's offensive, it was very rare for Si Ge to hold on to a few mountain passes with only a few men and horses and resist for such a long time.

"When did it happen?"

Li Chengliang asked calmly.

"Three days ago."

Li Rusong hurriedly replied: "It is said that Hanqian, the chieftain of Gengma, hooked up with a leader named Huo Ba under Siji and let the Burmese army invade Mengyang.

Thinking of being unprepared and suffering heavy losses, Meng Yang could no longer bear it. "

"Do you have any news?"

Li Chengliang is more concerned about these chieftains in the southwest. As long as these chieftains are not killed, they will inevitably resurrect.

In fact, even if they themselves are killed, as long as there are still descendants alive, they can run back to the Ming Dynasty.

After the situation in the Southwest calms down, relying on the edicts, seals, talismans and crowns that were rewarded back then to prove one's identity, one might be able to get the lost things back from the imperial court.

Of course, these are not what Li Chengliang wants to give.

To put it mildly, it would leave consequences.

Therefore, in Li Chengliang's opinion, it would be best if all his heirs were killed.

As for the collateral lines, there are many, and the court will definitely not recognize them.

"This is not clear. The news only said that Si Ge was defeated and the Burmese army was chasing him."

Li Rusong smiled.

He is the eldest among the brothers, so he is usually the most respected by Li Chengliang. He has participated in many military aircraft, so he naturally knows what his father is thinking.

This was true in Liaodong and also in the southwest. Li Chengliang completely regarded him as his successor and trained him, and even spent a lot of money to invite famous teachers and scholars from the pass to teach him.

This famous teacher and Confucian is actually the famous Xu Wei and Xu Wenchang in history.

Xu Wei failed in the imperial examination in his early years, when Japanese pirates were rampant in the south of the Yangtze River, so Xu Wei worked as an aide under Hu Zongxian, the governor of the south of the Yangtze River to suppress Japanese invaders, and made plans for him.

Therefore, Xu Wei not only has good knowledge, but also has outstanding military capabilities.

After the fall of Hu Zongxian, Xu Wei was imprisoned as an accomplice and tortured. Although he was released later, he was impoverished.

When he was in poverty, he received invitations from Qi Jiguang and Li Chengliang from Liaodong who were still in Jizhen.

But in the end, Xu Wei did not choose the more familiar Qi Jiguang, but went to Liaodong alone to become the teacher of Li Chengliang's son Li Rusong.

It was not Wei Guangde who proposed the elimination of the chieftains in the southwest, but the result he wanted was to eliminate the chieftains first before he could have a chance of long-term peace and stability in the southwest.

As long as there is a chieftain in the local area, the people there will only listen to the chieftain's words and will not choose to obey the orders of the court.

Li Chengliang saw through this, so he adopted this strategy against the chieftains in the southwest.

"Are you just chasing?"

Li Chengliang's eyes flashed, and he immediately said to his son: "You pick some skilled people to come over, and you will never let them come over alive."

Li Rusong understood what his father meant. Even if Si Ge escaped the pursuit of the Burmese army, he would not be allowed to escape to the Ming Dynasty alive.

Looking around, I could think of a direction to run in, and the only one I could think of was Ming Dynasty.

The surrounding area has been occupied by the Burmese army, and he has no other place to go.

Si Ge, in order to express his loyalty to Mu Changzuo, Luo Rufang and others, killed the men sent by Mang Yinglong to Meng Yang to persuade him to surrender. This was regarded as a deadly feud with Mang Yinglong and he would never accept surrender.

It's just that I didn't think that Daming had other thoughts. He was unmoved by everything he did and still had no intention of sending troops.

Even if such a person saves Daming, he is afraid that the seeds of hatred towards Daming have already grown in his heart and cannot be resolved at all.

After all, almost everything the family had worked so hard to build was destroyed in his hands.

This kind of deep hatred will never be eliminated even after several generations.

Li Chengliang is actually a ruthless person. Of course he knows how to eradicate the weeds, otherwise he would not have been able to stand firm in Liaodong for decades and build up the strength of the Liaodong clan.

He will not show mercy to any family he regards as a target, and will directly exterminate them.

Such behavior is a strong deterrent both internally and externally.

As for the fact that he let Nurhachi go in history, perhaps it was not only because he accidentally killed his family, but also because he wanted to show it to other Jurchens.

After all, making the Jurchens surrender requires more than just beating and killing.

Only by dividing and dismantling the Jurchen forces and allowing them to fight against each other can Ming rule over Liaodong be realized.

It's just that he made a mistake and actually left behind a natural talent, and allowed him to develop in the poor white mountains and black waters, and became the talisman of the Ming Dynasty.

"Dad, I understand."

Li Rusong replied, turned around and walked out.

He wanted to select people from his personal guards to go to the border. First, he wanted to find out information about Meng Yang's direction. The most important thing was to intercept and kill Si Ge and his family so that they could not escape into the Ming Dynasty alive.

But as soon as he reached the gate of the courtyard, he saw the inspector Luo Rufang rushing in.

Seeing his hurried appearance, it was obvious that he had also received the news from Meng Yang and ran here to ask Li Chengliang for advice.

"Lord Luo."

Li Rusong pushed him aside and saluted Luo Rufang.

"Rusong, is your father in there?"

Just after Li Rusong went out, Li Chengliang had returned to the house, so although Luo Rufang was at the gate of the courtyard, he did not see Li Chengliang.

"In the house."

Li Rusong looked back at the courtyard and answered hurriedly.

"Then I'll go in and find him."

Luo Rufang didn't bother to talk to Li Rusong, and he lifted the hem of his official robe and hurriedly ran into the courtyard.

Seeing Luo Rufang like this, Li Rusong pouted and continued to walk out.

But he was still very strange in his heart. According to the theory, the person who got the latest news and ran to find his father should be Mu Changzuo, the Duke of Qian?

The Li family was a newcomer in Yunnan and had no foundation, so it was normal for the news to be delayed.

Now even Luo Rufang knew the news. He was a temporary official. Although he had only been here a few years earlier, the Duke of Qian, as a local snake, should not have been unaware of the news.

At this time, Mu Changzuo, the Duke of Qian, who was calculating in Li Rusong's mind, was also walking back and forth in his room, obviously in a very irritable mood.

He knew the news earlier than the Li family, but although he was anxious, he never left the yard.

Yes, his channels of information were much wider than those of the newly-established wealthy families like the Li family.

Although Li Chengliang was very secretive about their trip to the southwest, his usual words and deeds still revealed a hint of it.

Luo Rufang did not notice it, but Mu Changzuo, who grew up in the Duke of Qian for a long time, noticed it.

You have to know what the situation was like in the mansion of the Duke of Qian before Mu Changzuo inherited the title. People who are not familiar with that period of history would never think that it was really a mess.

Therefore, Mu Changzuo is actually very sensitive to people and things.

Moreover, neither Wei Guangde nor Li Chengliang would have thought that the Mu family, which is located in a remote place, has actually been hiding its own intelligence network in the capital.

And the root of this intelligence network is not in the market and officialdom, but in the Jinyiwei.

Which government office in the capital of the Ming Dynasty is most familiar with news from all sides and understands information from all over the country? The first choice is the Jinyiwei.

The people of the Jinyiwei are not only rooted in the streets, but also have spies lurking in various places to collect information. Even in the mansions of many dignitaries, there are also spies from the Jinyiwei lurking.

However, the palace has no intention of moving them, so naturally, even if some people are notorious for crimes, the Jinyiwei will not care.

They are just the butcher knife in the hands of the emperor, and they will only chop it down under the emperor's will.

Although the power of the Jinyiwei was surpassed by the Dongchang for a period of time, the Dongchang still relied on the Jinyiwei for law enforcement.

The Mu family left the capital, but they did not dare to leave completely, so the third-generation Mu family head Mu Sheng had already begun to cultivate an intelligence collection network in the capital.

In order not to attract attention, they all started to cultivate people from the bottom and slowly helped them climb up.

After generations of development, the people of the Mu family had already taken root in the Jinyiwei.

However, most of the people cultivated by the Mu family did not go to the hundreds and thousands of households, but developed to the Experience Department, which was in charge of various documents and books in the Jinyiwei.

In other words, their people did not go to military posts but to civil posts.

And this choice has never been noticed, allowing them to hide well.

The civil service department in the Jinyiwei is naturally the Experience Department, which is a civil service department of the Jinyiwei, responsible for the receipt and delivery of official documents of the organization.

And these official documents often hide a lot of information.

Just the several meetings between Wei Guangde and Li Chengliang in the cabinet were recorded and placed in the Jinyiwei archives.

After Li Chengliang arrived in the southwest, the Mu family sent news to the capital, and the clues were discovered by the Mu family.

Although the information is not comprehensive, after all, Wei Guangde and Li Chengliang met not only in the cabinet, but also in the mansion and other places, but Mu Changzuo has some guesses based on the information he collected.

Based on these analyses, Mu Changzuo has given up the idea of ​​rescuing Si Ge, and even sent death squads to the border to kill him before Li Chengliang made a decision.

There are many chieftains in the southwest, and the relationships are actually quite complicated, and many of them are not even known to outsiders.

When the prestige of the Ming Dynasty was very high, the chieftains in the southwest had committed many illegal acts.

For example, during the Chenghua period, Jiangxi merchant Zhou Binwu persuaded Meng Mihanong to bribe Wan'an, the chief minister and university scholar who was known for his greed, to protect him in the court and speak for him in the court.

As a local snake, the Qianguo Mansion was naturally the main source of information for the court to inquire about. Even the news that the Mu family passed to the capital could influence the final decision of the court.

It can be said that the Qianguo Mansion is to blame for the current situation in Myanmar and other places.

The three Xuans and six Weis competed to send money and goods to the Qianguo Mansion and even the capital to ask him to help speak and act as a protective umbrella.

It is not surprising that the court officials took the lead in accepting bribes, protecting bad people, and triggering conflicts between chieftains. The Southwest Yi people resented the court from then on.

The Ming court used people improperly and lost its prestige. This is the root cause of the chaos in Myanmar.

Of course, the chaos is also related to the decline in the ability of the previous generations of Qianguogong. After all, it was too much.

These all happened under the table. After the cabinet changed people, naturally no one would notice them.

Mu Changzuo is now worried that Li Chengliang will find out about this and report it to the court.

After all, it is impossible that there are no clues left after doing so many things.

However, suspicion is suspicion, as long as there is no solid evidence, it will not affect the overall situation.

But if Si Ge came and resented him for not taking action, and talked nonsense to Li Chengliang, the situation would be very different.

And Mu Changzuo was not familiar with Li Chengliang, and did not know how cruel he was, otherwise he would not have to worry about anything and sent people to kill Si Ge.

In fact, what Mu Changzuo was considering at this time was that even if the chieftains in the southwest were captured by the court, they must not be left alive, and they must not be allowed to bite the Duke of Qian's Mansion, or use this as a threat to ask for help to get rid of the crime.

Anyway, two of the three main people in charge of Yongchang Prefecture in the Ming Dynasty have issued a killing order against Si Ge, and only Luo Rufang, the inspector who is least valued by Si Ge, really wants to save him. It can't help but say that this is a great irony.

"Hurry up, cross the mountain in front and you will reach Nan Ya Pass.

As long as we enter Nan Ya Pass, we will be safe."

In the mountains east of Mengyang, a group of nearly 100 people are struggling to move forward, and the leader is Si Ge, the envoy of Mengyang.

After being betrayed by his subordinates, Si Ge knew that he was unable to continue to persist, so he abandoned his soldiers and horses, let them continue to resist, and took his personal guards to pick up his family and fled to the Ming Dynasty.

At this time, Si Ge no longer dared to trust his generals, because he didn't know whether others had betrayed him.

Giving up the main road, Si Ge led his men to take a difficult journey on the dangerous mountain roads that were not suitable for large armies, and finally approached the border of the Ming Dynasty.

Although his choice was extremely slow, he did avoid the danger of being hunted down along the way.

So far, they have not been chased by the Burmese army, which is a clear proof.

However, the road is difficult, and he can persist because of his desire to survive, but some of his men can't accept it.

The most important thing is that his men have abandoned their families to escape with Si Ge and protect his family.

And what will happen next?

The uncertain future is the root cause of the instability of these guards.

What Si Ge didn't know was that several captains of the guards had negotiated privately several times, considering whether to tie up Si Ge and send him to the Burmese king in exchange for wealth and glory.

Yes, Mang Yinglong is still very popular in Myanmar now, because rewards and punishments are clear, and the chieftains and soldiers who follow him will receive rich rewards every time they win a war.

Although wars are frequent, everything seems to be insignificant in front of the money that is readily available.

And because the Burmese army has been prosperous all the way, no one now doubts Mang Yinglong's command ability and the combat effectiveness of the Burmese army.

This is also the reason why many militaristic countries can cover up all domestic contradictions with military victories.

It is not only a spiritual victory, but also a material gain.

"We can't wait any longer. We have to do it tonight and tie them up while they are asleep."

"Where are those people?"

"We have tied them up. Those who are willing will be released, and those who are unwilling will be killed."

After a moment of silence, several team leaders nodded quietly.