prosperous age

"Second brother, why are you back?

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

In Toungoo City, Li Rusong frowned as he looked at his brother who rushed into the house in a hurry, and asked.

"Brother, the gold mine has been taken without any effort."

Li Rubai said happily, looking at Li Rusong with an expression as if he was going to praise me.

"If we take over the gold mine, we should quickly capture people from the surrounding area to start mining. Why did you return to Toungoo City?"

Hearing this, Li Rusong was even more surprised.

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

It is believed that the gold mine robbed this time is larger than the last one.

Given my brother's personality, how could he come back without making any arrangements? This is very strange.

How is this possible without losing a single soldier?

Many of Myanmar's mineral deposits are in the hands of local tribes, and it is not easy to snatch them from them.

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

They only realized this after they settled down.

It is no wonder that the Burmese king and those major tribal leaders surrendered, but the Ming army continued to expand in other directions and still faced numerous obstacles.

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

They were unwilling to submit even superficially.

They only accepted a small amount of tribute every year as during the Burmese king's time, and they were not allowed to interfere with anything else.

The Burmese king's rule over them was also extremely lenient, and he would only collect a small amount of the tribal output each year, just as a token of his appreciation.

"Brother, the gold mine in Donglin Town is located at the border between the Dongshan and Guixi tribes. It was previously controlled by the Guixi tribe. Because the Guixi tribe has a good relationship with the Burmese king, the Burmese king is more partial to them.

The people who helped us seize the gold mine in Gaolin Town this time were the Eastern Shan people. They were willing to help me open the mine, but they only asked us to send troops to wipe out the Guixi people. "

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

"Wait, you said that they 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 about the situation in Myanmar that they had learned about.

Of course, this intelligence is still being updated and improved. After all, the longer we occupy Myanmar, the more information we will have.

The dynasties of Myanmar, whether the previous Konbaung Dynasty or the later Toungoo Dynasty, seem to be different from the situation in China. They are more similar to the Xuanweisi structure. The Myanmar 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 he also cleverly uses the conflicts between neighboring tribes to control them.

In the Ming Dynasty, the emperor controlled the personnel and financial power in most prefectures and counties in the country, and only in the corners did these chieftains have space to survive. This was completely different.

If it were not for the purpose of continuing the territory of the previous dynasty, the Ming Dynasty might not have been willing to invest too many resources in the southwest areas where there were many chieftains.

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang was a relatively conservative person and did not have much pioneering and enterprising spirit. This could be seen from the fact that they stopped expanding outward after restoring the territory of the previous dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude towards the surrounding areas was basically to operate in accordance with the Yuan system.

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

Even if we have to seize the mines, we should let the surrounding tribes do the work. If there are really no mines, we can send the surrendered Burmese troops 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 brothers with a serious expression and asked them what to do.

"Brother, why is this?

I also want to ask you for some troops to wipe out the Guixi tribe directly. They have occupied the gold mine in Gaolin Town for a long time, so they should have a lot of good stuff."

Li Rubai said hurriedly.

Obviously, he intended to mobilize the Ming army to attack the Guixi people, but was limited by the limited troops he had.

The Guixi tribe is not a small tribe, with a population of tens of thousands. With the few soldiers he has, it is no problem to seize a city or a town, but it would be difficult to destroy an entire tribe.

When the time comes to exterminate the clan, such a small tribe can mobilize at least 10,000 or 20,000 men to fight if all the people are soldiers.

Moreover, the terrain there is hilly, not a plain. For the Ming army that is unfamiliar with the terrain, Li Rubai would feel a little uneasy if he did not have superior forces.

Although the Ming army had already shown a trend towards firearms, the firearms of that era are still difficult to describe.

If the two armies engage in head-on combat, the Ming army's advantage in firearms can be effectively utilized.

However, if the enemy does not engage in head-on combat, but instead uses the terrain advantage to engage in guerrilla warfare against you, then the advantages of firearms will be greatly restricted and will not be able to exert effective combat power at all.

After all, the firearms of that time were not the machine guns and cannons of later generations, and their lethality was not as great as imagined.

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

"Rubai, there are some things you don't know yet, maybe you know a little, or you can guess a little, so I will explain it to you today."

Li Rusong looked at his brother and began to give a detailed introduction to the court's arrangements for Myanmar.

At the beginning, these things were basically discussed by Wei Guangde and Li Chengliang, but Wei Guangde only provided the general direction, and the details had to be handled by Li Chengliang.

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

“You now know that there are numerous tribes in Myanmar. The imperial court wants to rule Myanmar for a long time, and it will not withdraw just because we are defeated.

Otherwise, you and I should be drinking and celebrating in Kunming City right now, waiting for rewards from the court.

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

It’s not that people cannot be killed, but they must be those who oppose the Ming Dynasty.

As for those local tribes, they would mostly use the grudges between tribes to make them kill each other.

This will not only weaken their strength, but also deepen their hatred for each other to a level that cannot be resolved.

However, our Ming Dynasty was high above us, mediating the situation so that they would suffer heavy losses while failing to eradicate the problem completely.

In this way, the weaker party needs to rely on us to survive, and although the stronger party may be dissatisfied with us, that's all, because they still have to guard against revenge from others at all times.

Only under such a complex relationship will all parties be willing to accept our rule.

As for us, we just want to make a statement. We must protect the weak tribes from being exterminated, and we must appropriately weaken the powerful tribes and provoke them to fight against other surrounding tribes.

Not only will it consume their strength, but it will also place many enemies around them. When the time is right, let these people unite with others to fight against them.

By then, everyone in Myanmar, whether strong or weak, will have to listen to us.

Even if they discover my plan, they will think that the grudges between us are irreconcilable and will have no choice but to rely on the Ming Dynasty."

Li Rusong had made his point very clearly, and Li Rubai kept nodding as he listened.

“Even if the time really comes when we have to take action, we cannot send out the Ming army, but instead mobilize the Burmese troops and let them kill people.

At that time, the attacked tribes will only blame the Burmese.

In order to survive, they even have to please the Ming Dynasty even more, otherwise they will really have no hope of survival.

This is also the reason why my father kept asking us to gather the defeated Burmese soldiers and reorganize them.

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

Of course, to be on the safe side, 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 let out a long breath and said to his brother seriously: "The general direction of this idea was decided by the cabinet minister Wei, and the details were discussed by my father and me.

When you lead the troops outside, you must be careful and don't lose the big picture for the small.

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

Before, they were suppressed by the Burmese king.

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

We cannot allow the existence of extremely powerful tribes. The tribes of the Burmese tribal leaders captured by the army must be dismembered.

Apart from those tribes, we can't touch other tribes.

As for the Dong Shan and Guixi you mentioned, the Guixi people are of average strength, while the Dong Shan seem to be stronger. I think the reason why they lost the gold mine in Gaolin Town is related to the fact that the Burmese king also implemented a similar strategy.

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

I don't believe that their tribe is a monolithic entity, there must be some groups within it."

"Brother, I know what to do."

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

The eldest brother told him the strategy for dealing with the Eastern Shan people in the future. He should first get familiar with the people there and then instigate them secretly.

"By the way, big brother, when will father send troops to attack Pagan City?"

During this period, the communication between Toungoo City and Ava City was very close, and Li Rusong and Li Chengliang constantly communicated with each other.

The plan was to advance on two fronts at the same time and wipe out the remaining Burmese troops in Pagan in one fell swoop.

According to the current information, the Burmese army loyal to the Burmese king is gathering there, and the city is also in chaos due to the struggle for power, with the big fish eating the small fish.

But even so, the Myanmar army is still gathering.

After all, it is better to gather together than to defeat them one by one. For most Burmese generals, they had no ambition to be in power. That was a game that only a few remaining nobles were qualified to play.

Myanmar today is actually like the Three Kingdoms.

The Ming Dynasty and its affiliated forces account for one side, the remnants of the Toungoo Dynasty of Myanmar account for one side, and the remaining local tribes account for one side.

The Ming Dynasty had to continue to use military force, mainly to eliminate the remnants of the Toungoo Dynasty and make the local tribes surrender.

However, the Ming Dynasty has always followed its style. These small tribes in the localities are still waiting and watching. They are not sure whether the Ming army will occupy Myanmar for a long time, so they will naturally not rush to express their opinions.

Don’t let the Ming Dynasty withdraw its troops in the end, otherwise their lives will be difficult.

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

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

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

Perhaps his memorials were previously drowned in the vast sea of ​​memorials and no one paid attention to them.

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

When Wei Guangde heard the news, he was also shocked.

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

Wei Guangde directly asked Lu Bu, "Check it out immediately. If it is in the Ministry of Public Administration, ask them to suppress it first."

Wei Guangde told Lu Bu what to do next, and then he took out another piece of paper, 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 Ministry of Public Administration to retrieve the memorial, and pretend that nothing happened.

Tell him the dangers, and report it now. This is 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 the matter was urgent, so he took the note and ran out.

The key now is to keep the memorial in the Ministry of Public Security. As long as it is not submitted to the palace, there is still room for maneuver.

Before, when Wei Guangde heard Zou Yuanbiao’s memorial, he just smiled.

After all, many people were submitting memorials at that time, and no one paid attention to him as a newly-minted scholar just joining in the fun.

But it’s different now. No one is pursuing the matter anymore. If anyone still wants to get involved, they’re courting death.

Wei Guangde could never have imagined that he would meet such a fellow villager.

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

Zou Yuanbiao, whose courtesy name was Erzhan and alias Nangao, was a member of the Zou family of Xiaodongmen in Jishui County. He was one of the leaders of the Donglin Party in the Ming Dynasty, and together with Gu Xiancheng and Zhao Nanxing, they were known as the "Three Lords of the Donglin Party".

However, Wei Guangde had no idea 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 suggestions, he was forced to lecture in the countryside for thirty years.

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

To put it bluntly, the early Donglin Party was actually an alliance of frustrated people in the court. They gathered together in the name of lectures and satirized the government. Therefore, their mockery of current affairs was very harsh and extremely vilified.

Because it is an alliance of losers, there are good and bad people in it. (End of this chapter)