The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Li Chengliang mentioned Jiaozhi at this time, in fact, he was reminding Wei Guangde not to make the same mistake as in the Yongle Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty conquered Annan and established Jiaozhi Chengxuan Zhengshisi, not because Emperor Yongle intended to occupy this place, but purely for the authority of the Celestial Empire.

The first release of this book provides you with a reading experience without wrong chapters and out-of-order chapters.

In 1400 AD, the second year of Jianwen, the Chen Dynasty in Annan declined, and the powerful minister Hu Jima usurped the throne and established the Hu Dynasty. Because he was extremely afraid of the possible intervention of the Ming Dynasty, Hu concealed this matter from the Ming Dynasty for a long time.

In 1403, after Zhu Di seized the throne, the Hu family seemed to smell an opportunity. Hu Jima's son Hu Hancang presented a petition to Zhu Di, who had just succeeded to the throne, with the title of power to manage Annan affairs, falsely claiming that the descendants of the Chen Dynasty were extinct, and that he was the nephew of the emperor of the Chen Dynasty and was supported, and requested the Ming Dynasty to confer him the title of King of Annan.

Zhu Di, who was suspicious of this matter, sent people to Annan to investigate, but Hu had already grasped the overall situation, so it was impossible for the Ming envoy to find anything. Zhu Di, who could not find any evidence, made Hu Hancang the king.

After that, the Ming Dynasty began to find that things were getting more and more wrong. First, there were constant Chen survivors going to China to accuse Hu of tyranny. Secondly, Annan frequently harassed the Sino-Vietnamese border and neighboring Champa, making the border turbulent.

In the fourth year of Yongle, the royal family of the Chen Dynasty came to China to accuse Hu of all kinds of evil deeds to the court. Zhu Di sent troops to escort them back to Vietnam, but they were ambushed by Hu's army on the way. The royal family of Chen was executed by slow slicing, which finally angered Zhu Di completely.

East Asia is centered on the "Hua Yi concept" and the "Zongfan system". The vassal states need to pay tribute to China to show their obedience.

But the position of the boss cannot be in vain. As the "suzerain state", it is China's obligation to ensure the safety of the "subject" regime, and it is also related to the majesty of the "Heavenly Kingdom".

For the Ming Dynasty, which overthrew the rule of foreign races, maintaining the "suzerainty system" could mark itself as the orthodox Chinese dynasty, especially the sensitive Zhu Di.

The Hu Dynasty seemed to look down on the Ming Dynasty. On the one hand, they threatened the security of southern Xinjiang, invaded Champa, and hindered the Ming Dynasty from exercising its suzerainty. On the other hand, they ambushed the Ming army and tortured the former royal family, triggering Zhu Di's sensitive nerves and offending the majesty of the "suzerain state".

If he did not take action again, he would not be able to be the boss, so the southern expedition was imperative.

After that, it was simple. The Ming army attacked Annan from two directions, and soon captured the Hu father and son, destroying the Hu Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty originally hoped to find a suitable candidate to be the king in Annan, to find a ruler who could be accepted by all classes of Annan and in line with the interests of the Ming Dynasty. The most ideal candidate was naturally the descendant of the former king Chen.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty also made such attempts, but these efforts did not succeed.

Finally, the Ming Dynasty decided to take the stage in person and prepare to rule directly.

After that, the Jiaozhi region continued to rebel. Although the unrest was completely quelled under the powerful Ming army, the Ming Dynasty was increasingly unable to cope with the situation in Annan, and the situation became increasingly turbulent.

In the first year of Xuande, Le Loi defeated Wang Tong, the general of the Ming Dynasty, in the Battle of Longdong. The following year, he defeated the Ming Dynasty reinforcements in the Battle of Zhiling and killed General Liu Sheng.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty's rule in Annan had collapsed, and Annan became a bottomless pit that wasted the finances. Wang Tong saw that the situation was over, so he reported to the court while negotiating peace with Le Loi.

Finally, Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty decided to withdraw his troops, and Le Loi issued the "Great Edict to Suppress Wu", officially proclaimed himself emperor, and established the Later Le Dynasty.

In the fourth year of Yongle, hundreds of thousands of Ming troops marched south, swept across southern Xinjiang in just one year, and restored the homeland of the Han and Tang Dynasties. It can be said that it was not powerful.

In the second year of Xuande, after a series of casualties, the Ming Dynasty was forced to withdraw its troops from the small country in southern Xinjiang, and 20 years of operation were destroyed, which was not embarrassing.

At this time, Li Chengliang mentioned Jiaozhi, which was actually to remind Wei Guangde whether his calculations could work and not to repeat the same mistakes.

Understanding Li Chengliang's reminder, Wei Guangde's face was uncertain.

Indeed, Wei Guangde missed the possible consequences of the Ming Dynasty's direct rule over Myanmar. If the local people were also unyielding like Annan, who knew how many years the Ming Dynasty could survive?

"Do you have any way to stabilize Myanmar?"

Wei Guangde asked pretending to be calm.

"I only know how to fight, not how to govern the place."

Li Chengliang lowered his head and answered.

"The Mu family has been in Yunnan for generations."

Seeing this, Wei Guangde said something without a beginning or an end.

However, after Li Chengliang heard Wei Guangde's words, he suddenly raised his head and looked at him.

Wei Guangde's eyes met his without hesitation. Although Li Chengliang was considered a fierce general of the Ming Dynasty and had killed countless people, Wei Guangde was also a person who had been on the battlefield after all, and he was not afraid at all.

After the two looked at each other for a while, Li Chengliang was the first to give up. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, he chose to bow his head in front of Wei Guangde.

"I only know how to kill people."

"Huh"

Wei Guangde heaved a sigh of relief when he heard Li Chengliang's words. His answer made Wei Guangde dissatisfied.

"Since the country was established there at the beginning of the country, and there are a large number of thousand households and guard commanders, I think there are many tribes. Just refer to the various tribes of the Liaodong Jurchens and divide and rule them."

However, Li Chengliang's next words gave Wei Guangde a hint of thought.

It seems that Myanmar is also a tribe-based settlement, and the ethnic groups are very complex. Even in the future, there is no peace there.

"You go back first."

Wei Guangde did not express his opinion, but still said: "Prepare the troops first. As for what happens later, if you have any ideas, you can write a charter and hand it in."

At first, Wei Guangde only thought of using Li Chengliang to push back the Toungoo dynasty, thinking that putting him under guard in Myanmar would stabilize the situation there. However, he ignored that if the rule was improper, there might be another decades of turmoil.

The current national strength is not as good as that of the early Ming Dynasty, and it may not last long.

Thinking of this, even though I knew that I had simplified the problem at the beginning, I was already ready to shoot.

After watching Li Chengliang leave, Wei Guangde sat there quietly for a while.

"When a car reaches the mountain, there must be a road, and when a boat reaches the bridge, it will naturally go straight. There is always a way."

Wei Guangde encouraged himself in his heart, got up and returned to the desk.

Looking at the piles of memorials on the desk, Wei Guangde had no intention of reading the memorials at the moment, so he simply stopped reading.

Anyway, the important memorials are placed at the top, and the unimportant ones are placed at the bottom. It doesn't matter if you delay reading them for a day or two.

Taking out a piece of rice paper and spreading it out, Wei Guangde picked up his pen and began to think silently about how to deal with Myanmar.

This time, the focus is on Myanmar, which is to find a way to achieve long-term peace and stability.

The pen has been in my hand for a long time, but it has not landed on the rice paper.

If resistance is encountered, suppression is necessary. It is impossible for the Ming army generals not to understand this.

What Wei Guangde needs to think about is how to fundamentally eliminate the will of ordinary people to resist.

Once, Wei Guangde believed from the situation at the inland garrison that the Ming army's combat effectiveness was very weak.

But in fact, after years of observation, especially through exchanges with Ma Fang, Yu Dayou, Qi Jiguang and others, Wei Guangde has realized that in East Asia, there is no army that seems to have overall strength that exceeds the Ming army.

If the barbarians coming from Europe encountered each other at sea, and both sides were equally powerful, the Ming navy would have a high probability of defeat and almost no chance of winning.

But if you are on land, it seems that Europeans are like that.

Because there are so few people they can come over.

According to the information collected by Yu Dayou, a barbarian team of three to four hundred people is already a large-scale army.

With such a small number of troops, it would be as easy to defeat an ordinary Qianhusuo, but it would be hard to say if they faced a trained one.

Not to mention that the basic combat units of the Ming Dynasty were actually Qianhusuo and Wei.

The navy still needs to develop before it can go to the open sea.

But on land, Ming Dynasty borders Myanmar. He also knows that Myanmar seems to be connected with the Yi people, but so what?

Could the Burmese recruit three hundred or four hundred Europeans to help them fight the war?

Yes, Jinyiwei's intelligence has already mentioned that Mang Yinglong actually has an unknown number of barbarian mercenaries, who use current European firearms to help the Toungoo Dynasty fight.

A few hundred people may be able to dominate in Europe, but in Asia, they have no chance at all.

Even for the Japanese country, according to Jinyiwei's intelligence, the scale of village wars was thousands of people, and the Japanese country was also equipped with a large number of iron cannons.

The large number here does not mean how many people in the Japanese country use them, but refers to almost all the daimyo, or in Wei Guangde's view, the village chiefs, who have people under them who use this type of firearms.

The iron cannon shocked Wei Guangde at first.

However, after knowing that the Japanese iron cannons were actually blunderbuss in the hands of the Ming army, I felt relieved.

The Ming army is now equipped with a large number of artillery. If the Japanese country also has such equipment, it will be difficult to fight in the future.

For a long time in the future, artillery will be the god of war, unless the air force appears, because they can transport explosives further away, drop them from the sky, and replace part or so of the cannon.

Yi people

Li Chengliang's words suddenly appeared in Wei Guangde's mind.

Myanmar seems to have been colonized by the British, as did neighboring India. It seems that only the surrounding Vietnam is French territory, which was taken from the Manchus.

Wei Guangde lacked historical knowledge, but he also knew what the Black Flag Army was. He had participated in the Vietnam-France War. Anyway, it probably meant that the Qing Dynasty defeated the French, but in the end they lost their territory.

At the same time, the Battle of Mawei seemed to have broken out in Fujian. Although the Manchus and Qing Dynasties suffered heavy losses, they still ostensibly won the war and repelled the French attack. However, the efforts of the soldiers seemed to have been lost in diplomacy.

The British could colonize South Asia for a long time, so why couldn’t the Ming Dynasty stand?

Liaodong Jurchen tribe

At this moment, Li Chengliang's words echoed in his mind, and he seemed to have said the key to the problem.

Despite the fact that the Toungoo Dynasty had invaded and occupied countless neighboring countries and tribes, all the hidden dangers were hidden under the strong momentum of the country.

But once it fails, even if it's just a big defeat, these hidden dangers may explode, triggering a chain reaction.

Aren't the forces that the Toungoo Dynasty annexed just Jurchen tribes?

How can such a gathering of forces be united? All they need to do is differentiate themselves and then manage each other by race, attracting conflicts into races.

The more Wei Guangde thought about it, the more excited he became. It seemed that he had opened the key to overseas colonization.

If we follow the thinking mode of the literati and Confucian scholars at this time in the Ming Dynasty, they would definitely choose to implement Confucian ideas of benevolence, justice, etiquette, wisdom, trust, etc. in these places, hoping to influence foreigners and get them to accept Confucianism, which would make it easier to rule.

Then, force will be taken against those stubborn people. After all, they are officials of the Ming Dynasty and they also have to serve the interests of the Ming Dynasty.

However, Wei Guangde seemed to have thought of a better way.

That is to make full use of the characteristics of the local ethnic groups, recruit officials and mercenaries from each group, and exchange them to the territories of other tribes to manage them.

At that time, their will to resist may not be directed at the Ming Dynasty, but at those other ethnic groups who oppress and manage them.

Let the ethnic groups in Myanmar take advantage of each other and exploit each other, and the Ming Dynasty will enjoy the surplus behind the scenes.

In addition, according to the customs of the Ming Dynasty, certain privileges are also given to the chieftains of various ethnic groups in the local area. As long as the leaders are won over, the people below should not rebel and make trouble even if they are reluctant.

After all, how can great things be accomplished without a leader?

Perhaps some people think that the people's rebellion can overthrow a dynasty, but history has proved that it is unreliable.

The people's rebellion can shake the foundation of an empire, but it is difficult to overthrow them, and they will eventually be suppressed.

Most of those who really succeeded in the rebellion are people within the ruling class.

The Sui Dynasty was in chaos, and the Guanlong nobles benefited. The Song Dynasty was directly led by generals who rebelled. The Ming Dynasty was a little special. Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was born as a cowherd, and he really conquered the world from a commoner, and he succeeded.

Therefore, when Wei Guangde was thinking, he paid more attention to the local chieftains. He must win them over and make them follow the Ming Dynasty wholeheartedly, so that the foundation of rule can be solid.

Except for key positions, try to use as few Han officials as possible, and only station Ming troops in important cities, and let mercenaries of various ethnic groups do the rest.

Wei Guangde kept thinking in his mind, and his hand did not stop writing at all. The important information was written on the paper between the strokes of the pen.

After making a record, Wei Guangde took a sip of tea happily, and found that the tea was a little cold.

But it didn't matter, he was in a good mood, and he was too lazy to ask Lu Bu to come in to change the tea.

Then, Wei Guangde looked at the record on the desk, read it again from beginning to end, polished some details, and then read it again.

After repeating this several times, Wei Guangde suddenly became enlightened.

He thought about the future, when countless colonial countries gained independence and established their own countries through their own efforts, why many countries that had suffered from colonization together later turned against each other.

Especially in South Asia, the war has basically never stopped.

Even in Myanmar, there are complicated factional struggles in the country, and each force has its own armed forces. The Myanmar government has only achieved superficial unity.

At the beginning, I was still a little confused, and I only knew that it was because of the mess left by the British colonists. Now I think about it carefully, maybe the root cause is here.

The British probably controlled these ethnically complex areas by racial division. The ethnic conflicts accumulated over the years. With the intervention of external forces, they can unite to resist the suzerain country.

Once they succeed, the external force disappears, and they will return to the original state.

Ethnic conflicts cannot be easily reconciled. After all, there are blood and tears in them, and a contract cannot solve any problems at all.

As for the external forces that independence relies on, they are naturally the two leading sheep of the Eastern and Western camps. They cannot let Britain recover through colonies and have the opportunity to grow up again and compete with them for the position of boss.

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