The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Second brother, why are you back?

Didn't you write a letter a few days ago saying that you found a big treasury? If you don't go to rob the gold mine, what are you doing back?"

In Toungoo City, Li Rusong frowned at his brother who rushed into the house and asked.

"Brother, the gold mine has been taken without spending a single soldier."

Li Rubai said happily, looking at Li Rusong with an expression that seemed to praise me.

"If you take down the gold mine, then quickly capture people from the surrounding area to start the mine. Why are you back to Toungoo City?"

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Hearing this, Li Rusong was even more surprised.

Before, when the second brother went out, he took down a gold mine in a place called Kundong in the north of Toungoo City, and captured all the Burmese people within dozens of miles to mine the mine. He worked for half a month before stopping.

The gold mine robbed this time was said to be larger than the last one.

With the temperament of my brothers, how could they come back without making arrangements? This is strange.

How could it be possible without a single soldier?

Many of the mineral deposits in Myanmar are in the hands of local tribes. It is not easy to snatch them from them.

Although they captured many Burmese tribal leaders when they pursued the Burmese king, there are too many Burmese tribes, almost the same as in the southwest. There is a tribe on a big mountain. Many small tribes are not qualified to show their faces in front of the Burmese king, so there are still many fish that slip through the net.

This was only known after they settled down.

No wonder the Burmese king and those big tribal leaders surrendered, but the Ming army continued to expand in other directions and still faced many obstacles.

Those tribal leaders, at least at this stage, have no intention of submitting to the Ming Dynasty.

Even if it is just a superficial submission, they are unwilling.

They only accept a small amount of tribute every year as in the Burmese king period, and they are not allowed to interfere in other matters.

The Burmese king also ruled them very leniently, and only collected a small amount of tribal output each year, just for the sake of meaning.

"Brother, the gold mine in Donglin Town is at the junction of the East Shan and Guixi people. It was previously controlled by the Guixi people. Because the Guixi people have a good relationship with the Burmese king, the Burmese king is more partial to them.

The East Shan people helped us to seize the gold mine in Gaolin Town this time. They are also willing to help me open the mine, but they just ask us to send troops to wipe out the Guixi people."

Li Rubai hurriedly explained, and told the general process of how he seized a gold mine without bloodshed.

"Wait, you said that you took advantage of the discord between the local tribes in Myanmar to easily seize the gold mine?"

Li Rusong frowned when he heard this. He had discussed with his father for a long time before going south, mainly based on the situation in Myanmar they learned about.

Of course, these intelligences are still being updated and improved. After all, the longer the occupation of Myanmar, the more information you have.

The dynasties of Myanmar, whether the previous Konbaung Dynasty or the later Toungoo Dynasty, seem to be different from the domestic situation. They are more similar to the Xuanweisi structure. The Burmese royal family does not actually control much territory, and most of the territory is actually in the hands of local tribes.

The Burmese king is not only the most powerful among them, but the key is that they also cleverly use the conflicts between neighboring tribes to control them.

In the Ming Dynasty, the emperor controls the personnel and financial power of most prefectures and counties in the country, and only the corners have the survival space for these chieftains, which is completely different.

If it were not for the continuation of the previous dynasty, perhaps the Ming Dynasty would not be willing to invest too many resources in the southwest where there are many chieftains.

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang is still relatively conservative and does not have much pioneering and enterprising spirit. This can be seen from the fact that they no longer expand outward after restoring the territory of the previous dynasty.

For the surrounding areas, Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude is basically to operate according to the Yuan system.

"Listen, the Ming army must not participate in the war against the local tribes of Myanmar, as long as they express their willingness to surrender.

Even if they have to rob the mines, let the surrounding tribes work hard. If there are really no mines, send the surrendered Burmese army to do it. The Ming army soldiers must not participate. This involves the court's long-term stability strategy for Myanmar."

At this time, Li Rusong looked at his brother with a serious face and ordered.

"Brother, why is this?

I also want to ask you for some troops and horses to directly destroy the Guixi tribe. They have occupied the gold mine in Gaolin Town for a long time, and there should be a lot of good things."

Li Rubai said hurriedly.

Obviously, he wanted to mobilize the Ming army to attack the Guixi tribe, but he was limited by the limited troops.

The Guixi tribe is not a small tribe, with a population of tens of thousands. With the few troops he has, it is no problem to rob a city or a town, but it is a bit difficult to destroy a tribe.

When it comes to annihilation, such a small tribe will be a soldier, and at least 10,000 or 20,000 men can be pulled out to fight.

Moreover, there are hilly terrains there, not plains anyway. For the Ming army, which is not familiar with the terrain, if there is no superior force, Li Rubai still feels a little uneasy.

Although the Ming army has a tendency to use firearms, it is still difficult to describe the firearms of this era.

If the two armies fight head-on, the firearms advantage in the hands of the Ming army can be effectively exerted.

But if the opponent does not fight head-on, but uses the terrain advantage to fight guerrilla warfare with you, then the advantage of firearms will be greatly limited, and it will not be able to exert effective combat power at all.

After all, the firearms of this era are not the machine guns and cannons of later generations, and the lethality is not as great as imagined.

Li Rusong glanced at his brother, hesitated for a moment, and finally decided to tell his second brother some information, lest he make a fool of himself and get involved in the internal fighting among the Burmese tribes.

"Rubai, there are some situations that you don't know yet. Maybe you know some of them or you can guess some of them. My brother will explain them to you today."

Li Rusong looked at his brothers and began to introduce in detail the court's arrangements for Myanmar.

At the beginning, these matters were basically discussed between Wei Guangde and Li Chengliang, but Wei Guangde only provided the general direction, and Li Chengliang had to handle the details.

Some of the situations that Li Chengliang determined were based on the general direction provided by Wei Guangde and the plans he had discussed with his eldest son, so Li Rusong knew it very well.

"You now know that there are so many tribes in Myanmar. The imperial court wants to rule Myanmar for a long time, not to withdraw after conquering them.

Otherwise, you and I should be drinking and celebrating in Kunming City at this time, waiting for the imperial court's reward.

If the imperial court wants to achieve long-term peace and stability, it cannot allow local tribes to harbor resentment towards the Ming Dynasty.

It's not that people can't be killed, but only those who oppose Ming Dynasty can be killed.

For those local tribes, it is more about using the grievances between tribes to make them kill each other.

In this way, it will not only weaken their power, but also make their mutual hatred deeper, so deep that it cannot be resolved.

But I, the Ming Dynasty, stand aloof and mediate from above, so that they can not only hurt their muscles and bones, but also be unable to eradicate the roots.

In this way, the weak side needs to rely on us to survive, and although the strong side may be dissatisfied with us, that's it, because they have to beware of others' retaliation at all times.

Only under such a complicated relationship can all parties be willing to accept our rule.

As for us, we just want to show our attitude, not only to protect the weak tribes from being exterminated, but also to appropriately weaken the powerful tribes and provoke them to war against other surrounding tribes.

Not only did they consume their strength, but they also placed many enemies around them.

When the time comes, let these people unite with others to fight against them.

At that time, in the land of Myanmar, both the strong and the weak will have to listen to us.

Even if they discover my plan, they will think that the grievances between them are irresolvable and have to rely on me, Ming Dynasty. "

Li Rusong made his words very clear, and Li Rubai kept nodding while listening.

“Even if it comes time for us to take action, we cannot dispatch the Ming army, but mobilize the Burmese troops and let them kill people.

At that time, those tribes that were attacked will only bear their hatred on the Burmese people.

Even in order to survive, they have to please me, Daming, even more, otherwise they will really have no life.

This is why my father kept asking us to collect the defeated Burmese troops and reorganize them.

In the future, Myanmar will still need their efforts to maintain the rule of the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, for the sake of safety, the imperial court will not withdraw troops from Myanmar in the short term, and will still station enough troops here to maintain the deterrence of the Ming Dynasty. "

After saying these words, Li Rusong took a long breath and said seriously to his brother: "The general direction of this idea was decided by the cabinet minister Wei Ge, and the details were agreed upon by my father and I.

You have to be careful when you lead troops outside, and don't let a small thing lead to a big loss.

Now many of those small tribes have surrendered to us, so we have to protect them, because some stronger tribes want to take advantage of the chaos to annex them and further expand their strength.

Previously, they were suppressed by the Burmese king.

From now on, they will be suppressed by my Ming Dynasty.

We cannot allow super powerful tribes to exist. The Burmese tribal leaders captured by the army and their tribes must be dismembered.

Except for those tribes, we can no longer touch other tribes.

As for the Dongshan and Guixi you mentioned, the Guixi tribe is average in strength, but the Dongshan seems to be stronger. The reason why they lost the Gaolin Town gold mine is related to the fact that the Burmese king also implemented a similar strategy.

Therefore, we must first ensure that the Dongshan people control the gold mine in Gaolin Town, and then find out the strength of the Dongshan people. If they are strong, we must find a way to dismember them and split them into several small tribes to control them.

I don’t believe that their tribe is a monolith, there must still be groups. "

"Brother, I know what to do."

When Li Rubai heard this, he didn't know what he should do next, so he said immediately.

The eldest brother told him all the strategies for dealing with the Eastern Shan people in the future. He just needed to get familiar with the people there first, and then secretly provoke them.

"By the way, brother, when will my father send troops to Bagan City?"

During this period, Toungoo City and Ava City were very closely connected, and Li Rusong and Li Chengliang continued to communicate with each other.

It is planned to advance troops from two groups at the same time and eliminate the remaining Burmese army in Bagan city in one fell swoop.

As far as we know now, the Burmese army loyal to the King of Burma is gathering there, and the city is also very turbulent because of the struggle for power, with big fish eating small fish constantly happening.

But even so, the Tatmadaw is still gathering.

After all, it is better to get together than to defeat them one by one. For most Burmese generals, they have no ambition to take power. That is a game that only a few remaining nobles are qualified to play.

Myanmar today is actually like the Three Kingdoms.

The Ming Dynasty and its subordinate forces account for one, the remnants of the Toungoo Dynasty in Myanmar account for another, and the remaining local tribes account for another.

The Ming Dynasty will continue to use troops, mainly to eliminate the remnants of the Toungoo Dynasty and make the local tribes surrender.

It's just that the Ming Dynasty has always been in a wait-and-see attitude. These small local tribes are still waiting and watching. They are not sure whether the Ming army will occupy Myanmar for a long time, so they will not rush to express their opinions.

Don't wait until the end when the Ming Dynasty withdraws its troops again, then their days will be difficult.

The situation in Myanmar did not become clear because of the entry of the Ming army, but became more complicated.

In the capital of the Ming Dynasty, the situation did not calm down because of the clear attitude expressed by the palace.

Just when most officials thought that Wu Zhongxing, Zhao Yongxian and others would be honest after being beaten in the court, Zou Yuanbiao, an unknown new scholar, jumped out again.

Perhaps his memorials were drowned in the vast sea of ​​memorials before, and no one paid attention to it.

But now no one continues to report Zhang Juzheng's "seizure of love", and Zou Yuanbiao continues to report regardless, which is a bit of a slap in the face of the court and the cabinet.

When the news reached Wei Guangde's ears, he was also shocked.

"Where is the memorial? Has it been sent to the palace?"

Wei Guangde directly asked Lu Bu, "Check it immediately. If it is in the Tongzhengshisi, ask them to suppress it first."

Wei Guangde told Lu Bu what to do next, and immediately took out another note, quickly wrote a note and handed it to Lu Bu, saying: "Send this note to the Ministry of Justice and give it to Wei Shiliang immediately, and ask him to ask Zou Yuanbiao to go to the Tongzhengshisi to take back the memorial, and pretend that nothing happened.

Tell him the dangers. If you report it now, it will be a slap in the face of His Majesty. He will definitely not let him off easily, and I can't save him."

"Yes, sir."

Lu Bu knew that the matter was urgent, so he took the note and ran out.

Now the key is to keep the memorial in the Tongzhengshisi. As long as it is not submitted to the palace, there is still room for maneuver.

Before, Wei Guangde just smiled when he heard that Zou Yuanbiao had submitted a memorial.

After all, many people were submitting memorials at that time, and no one paid attention to him as a newly-appointed Jinshi.

But it is different now. No one continues to pursue this matter. If someone still joins in, it is to seek death.

Wei Guangde could not have thought that he would have such a fellow villager.

Even if you want to pursue fame and fortune, don't do it at this time, stupid.

Zou Yuanbiao's name is Erzhan, and his alias is Nanjiao. He is a member of the Zou family of Xiaodongmen in Jishui County. He is one of the leaders of the Donglin Party in the Ming Dynasty. He is one of the "Three Lords of the Donglin Party" with Gu Xiancheng and Zhao Nanxing.

However, Wei Guangde did not know that this person was actually one of the early leaders of the famous Donglin Party. Moreover, because he submitted too many memorials and made too many remonstrations, he could only lecture in the countryside for 30 years.

Of course, if it weren't for this experience, they wouldn't have gotten involved with Gu Xiancheng, lectured at Donglin Academy, and become a part of Donglin.

To put it bluntly, the early Donglin Party was actually a group of frustrated people in the court who gathered together to satirize the government in the name of lectures. Therefore, their mockery of current politics was very sharp and extremely ugly.

Because it was a group of frustrated people, there were also mixed people inside, good and bad. (End of this chapter)