national surname chiming

Chapter 499 Re-appointment of the King of Myanmar
With great difficulty, Gu Yanwu forcibly endured the pain and bitterness of the Cantonese "anti-heat" artifact, and he took a long breath before regaining his mind.

He did not forget that the purpose of coming here today was to report to the emperor Li Dingguo's letter of surrender from the Burmese, and to discuss the policy of dealing with Burma.So after he regained his breath, he didn't delay, and directly brought up the topic.

Gu Yanwu has been Zhu Shuren's confidant for many years, so he doesn't need to be too formal in private. He first explained the situation sincerely and concisely:
"Your Majesty, Li Dingguo reported that on the ninth day of last month, during the siege of Bagu, Mangbai died in battle. A few days later, the city of Bagu was destroyed. Afterwards, Mangbai's sons occupied the city and asked to surrender in order to cede land for peace. Please Your Majesty Holy Judgment. I don’t know if we should immediately call the officials from the Ministry of Rites and Ministry of War for a meeting?”

While speaking, Gu Yanwu handed over Li Dingguo's memorial and the Burmese's surrender form.

His so-called "immediately summon all the ministers accompanying him for a meeting" is nothing more than a beautiful sentence.In fact, of course he knew that the emperor would not call everyone to discuss it immediately, so what effect would it have if you said something to me?
We must first find the most trusted confidant cabinet ministers in private, first set a tone, and after we have a framework, we will see if everyone has any objections. If not, we can gradually improve the details of the conditions.

When Zhu Ciyu heard the good news suddenly, even though he was mentally prepared, he was still shocked.

He had thought that Ming's army could win, but he didn't expect that the victory would be so thorough, that he directly captured Burma's capital Pegu, and even killed Burmese King Mangbai.

Before the tour from Nanjing, his father Zhu Shuren taught him earnestly, telling him to accept it as soon as it was good, but now that he heard such a major victory, he couldn't help but feel a little elated, and felt that Daming seemed to be able to ask for more.

Zhu Ciyu geared up and paced back and forth for a long time, before saying to Gu Yanwu in a deliberative tone: "Gu Ge thought that he could take advantage of the victory to pursue him and take advantage of his illness to kill him? This is breaking through the Burmese capital and killing the Burmese king! The rest of the battle is ruined." Soldiers, not to be feared, right?"

After hearing this, Gu Yanwu couldn't help but feel a headache. Fortunately, Zhu Shuren repeatedly warned and instructed him before he drove out of Beijing, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and forcefully advise:

"Your Majesty, don't be overjoyed! Although the Burmese capital was destroyed and the Burmese army was wiped out, Li Dingguo only fought three battles in Lashio, Awa, and Bagu. At most, he crossed the border between Lashio and Awa. There were also some field battles in Jiaoshan.

My Ming army mainly relied on decisive battles in plains, valleys, and fertile lands to form a system and annihilate the Burmese army.Now the easy-to-gnaw meat is almost finished, and Zheng Chenggong's sea route was used to attack and supply ships with supply capacity, and he gnawed it by surprise.

In the follow-up, I have exhausted all my tricks. The news that my army has disinfectant water, panacea, and other anti-tropical plague medicines is no longer confidential. The Burmese people are mentally prepared, knowing themselves and the enemy, so naturally they will not fight for their lives like they did at the beginning. , Trying to drag and trap our army, now they know that dragging is useless.

Thirdly, Li Dingguo was able to severely injure the main force of Mangbai during the Battle of Jiaoshan, because the Burmese did not know that our latest smokeless gunpowder rifle in Ming Dynasty could be used in the rain and wet environment, so that the main force of the Burmese army dared to fight.Now all these unexpected factors have been exhausted! "

Gu Yanwu's words have two core meanings: the previous victory was partly due to hard power, and partly due to deception and sneak attack by information asymmetry.

Now those information asymmetry factors have been wiped out, and all those who can deceive and sneak attack have been stolen.

Secondly, if the fighting continues, there is actually not much fertile land left. What is the competition with the barbarians in the high mountains and dense forests of the Burmese?

What Ming wants at most is some fertile river valley plains, which can ensure the food supply for the local rule in the future.Then it is to ensure a waterway for the Yunnan-Guizhou region to go to sea in the future.If these two points can be obtained, there is really no need to kill people for the remaining [-] mountains.

As he said that, it seemed that to prove his point of view, Gu Yanwu was still prepared and took out a few western oil paintings prepared in advance for the emperor to watch.

It is said to be Western oil painting, but in fact it is also a painter trained by the Daming Academy of Sciences, using Western perspective techniques to draw realistic landscape paintings.The main thing is the scenery of the Shiwanda Mountains on the border between Yunnan and Myanmar.The purpose is to let the emperor have an intuitive feeling of how terrifying the alpine tropical rainforests in those places are.

After receiving the visual shock, Zhu Ciyu recalled the past few days in Guangzhou, visited the surrounding areas, and saw the ruggedness of the Wuling Mountains around Shaoguan, and finally decided not to be reckless.

However, he was still a bit unwilling, so he followed Gu Yanwu's explanation, pointed to the map and asked, "But even the fertile river valleys and plains along the route between Bagu and Awa are not completely occupied by our Ming army now, right?
On the west bank of the Indra River, isn’t there still some land in the hands of the Prince of Myanmar named Mangluo?Let Li Dingguo continue to work hard to completely occupy these good lands, or force them to surrender, show sincerity, and give all these good lands to Daming, can't it? "

Gu Yanwu couldn't help but smiled bitterly, and pointed to the map to explain: "Your Majesty, since ancient times, the border between the two countries must have a clear geographical dividing line. This is one of them. The Indra River is the largest river in Myanmar. It is bounded by the river. If the river valleys and plains on the banks are owned by Daming, and the west bank is still owned by Myanmar, the loss of the border defense will be much smaller in the future.

If it is necessary to get all the plains on the west bank of the river, then Simeon must be completely wiped out. Otherwise, the Burmese will be forced into the Rakhine Mountains and harassed from time to time, and the cost of our Ming rule will only rise in a straight line.

Moreover, if people are really forced into the mountains, Mangluo will inevitably collapse. At that time, we will face a large number of chieftain tribes fighting independently in the Rakai Mountains. They do not belong to each other, and no one can take responsibility for what they do. , will eventually fall into an endless quagmire.

In contrast, if they were given a fertile foothold on the edge of the plain, then they would not dare to offend me, Daming, if they wanted to keep this foothold.The chieftains of other tribes provoked Da Ming in private, and they also had to help Da Ming suppress it, so as not to be retaliated by Da Ming.

And if they can't manage the tribal chieftains below, Daming can directly pick the weak persimmons and directly attack their fertile territories located in the valley plains, which are easy to attack and difficult to defend, as a beating, forcing them to contribute to Daming. "

Every time Gu Yanwu said a word, Zhu Ciyu's expression suddenly became brighter, and finally he had to admit that Gu Ge's statement was the old-fashioned opinion with the lowest ruling cost.

"I understand! Leave them some fertile plains in Hexi, and that will be Mang Luo's life gate in the future! As long as he is disobedient, or his subordinates are disobedient, I, Daming, will stare at this life gate and slam it!

If they are forced to lose all their lives, and only the hard bones in the [-] mountains are left, then it will be inconvenient to blackmail the Burmese! "

……

After the emperor finally understood the good intentions of his father and Mr. Gu Ge, the follow-up discussion among the officials of the Ministry of Rites was much easier. Anyway, the tone of the negotiation had been set, and the rest was just specific bargaining.

Based on the battle report sent back by Li Dingguo and the description of the actual occupied area in real time, everyone roughly surveyed and combined it on the map. Finally, it took a few days to draw up the specific conditions for the cession of land and the transfer of custody:
First, the Burmese side must spit out all the land that had been invaded since the Jiajing period and was originally a vassal of the Ming Dynasty, and dissolve the vassal relationship with those tribal chieftains, allowing these tribal chieftains to return to Ming Dynasty, and Let Daming gradually change the country and return to the country at his own pace.

Maybe the officials of later generations have no concept of this map, so equivalently converted to the map of later generations, it is equivalent to the entire territory of Kachin State in northern Myanmar, including the part of the territory that was once disputed in history, plus the entire Mu State, and Shan The northern half of the state is included in the scope of this return.

Secondly, in addition to the above-mentioned three declarations and six comforts, the Burmese side must also ensure that all the land along the Nujiang River, all the way to Lashio and Jiaoshan, is handed over to Daming.

Thirdly, the Burmese side had to ensure that they crossed Mount Kyauka from Lashio to the territory of Awa, and ceded all of it to Daming.

In the end, from Ava down the Irrawaddy River to the mouth of Bagu, the entire east bank of the Irrawaddy River was ceded to Daming.

The waterway of the Ivalody River will be shared by Ming and Myanmar as the boundary river in the future, but the Myanmar side must not prevent Ming from dredging the river, constructing water conservancy projects and rectifying shipping.The Burmese side must not unilaterally silt up the waterway. If the Burmese side does not do enough dredging, then the Ming side must be allowed to fully dredge.

As for compensation, Myanmar is so poor that it does not exist.At most, it was just used as a scary element during the negotiation, and in the end, since so many lands were cut, there was no need to pay for it.

After the conditions were drawn up, a courier would naturally be sent from Guangzhou to Yunnan, and then handed over to the Myanmar side by Li Dingguo's army.The condition this time was only to use the seals of the Ministry of Rites and the Supervisor of Rituals, not the emperor's jade seal, because the emperor's will can only be used when the final decision is made.

So this condition is to show Mang Luo and Mang Li.

When the Burmese side saw the conditions for cutting land, their first reaction was naturally to be shocked, because too much land was cut.

But on the other hand, these lands did not exceed the area occupied by Li Dingguo and Zheng Chenggong's actual military offensive.In other words, it was Ming who first obtained it militarily, which led to the occupation, and then talked about it.And what will be taken away in the end is slightly less than what Da Ming has already occupied by military.

For example, Li Dingguo has now captured part of the fertile plains on the west bank of the Irrawaddy River, but judging from the surrender conditions, Daming does not want the land on the west bank in the future.As long as the Burmese agreed and signed a promise, Li Dingguo would withdraw his troops from the West Bank.

The capitals of Burma, Bago, Pego, and the former capital of Awa, were all to be occupied by the Ming Dynasty, but the third largest city, Pyinmana, was located on the west bank of the Ayeyarwady River, so it could be left to Mangluo as the future new capital of Burma.

From this point of view, since Myanmar has no strength, it seems that it can only agree.After all, in the Indochina Peninsula, until the 18th century, the law of the jungle was still the law of the jungle.

In history, Burma once destroyed the Ayutthaya Dynasty of Siam, and was later pushed back by the Thonburi Dynasty of Siam Zheng Xinfu, and even seized the Chiang Mai area in northern Thailand with interest.This kind of law of the jungle, which randomly grabs land according to the strength of force, did not begin to talk about international law until around the 19th century, when the British and French colonists entered.
Therefore, it is only the second half of the night in the 17th century, and Daming’s fists are even harder. In addition, Myanmar was indeed caught by Daming before, and it is normal to cut so much land after beating down.

The only thing the Burmese people find unacceptable is to follow the land cession plan drawn up by Daming now, because Daming wants the mouth of the Ayeyarwady River and Bago, which means splitting the land of Myanmar into two halves.

After all, the Irrawaddy River is the mother river of Myanmar, which runs through the entire country. If Ming Dynasty wants to take the middle reaches of the Nujiang River, the Jiaoshan Valley Road where the Nujiang River connects to the Irrawaddy River, and the Irrawaddy River from Awa to Bagu, wouldn’t it be hard to control Myanmar? split?

However, Daming has now gradually shifted to the sea power thinking. The grain-producing valleys in Myanmar are not the most important thing for Ming. What Ming wants is the seaport in southwest Yunnan and Guizhou, so this contradiction can no longer be reconciled.

Mang Luo really didn't want to betray his country.But at this time, Li Dingguo deployed another trick according to the personal secret letter that took care of Yanwu, that is, after Mang Bai was killed, Mang Luo and Mang Liti brothers competed for the throne, indicating who would accept Daming's conditions first. Just admit who is the king of Burma.If the two brothers do not accept it, then he can also support Mangbai's other sons, who will be recognized by Daming as the new king of Myanmar.

This move was really vicious, and in the end both sides were scrambling to admit it, but Li Dingguo wanted to see it again, and came up with Gu Yanwu's supplementary plan:
Considering that the territory of Myanmar was split in the middle, and there was a piece in the east and west, then Ming could admit that Mangluo inherited the power of the main densely populated area on the west bank of the Ayeyarwady River, and that he was the largest successor of Myanmar, which was later called West Myanmar. , the capital is in Pingmana.

And Manglit inherited the separated Eastern Burma, with its capital at Mawlamyine at the mouth of the Nujiang River. Its ruling area included the Shiwanda Mountain in the southern part of the Shan State Plateau, as well as the Chiang Mai area of ​​later Thailand, and a part of northern Laos later. .

(Note: This is the part that protrudes from the north of the map of Thailand in later generations. The Chiang Mai area still belonged to Myanmar at that time, or Myanmar had defeated the Siamese Ayutthaya Dynasty earlier and got it. It will take another 100 years in history Around the 1760s, Myanmar destroyed the Ayutthaya Dynasty of Siam, and was pushed back by the Thonburi Dynasty of Siam, and Chiang Mai was returned to Thailand.

The northern part of Laos also belonged to Myanmar in the 17th century. Laos has only one Lancang country, which is nominally a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. In fact, it was beaten by Myanmar to the surrounding areas of the Vientiane Basin.Other places are some Xuanwei toast.Daming once set up the "Laos Military and Civilian Consolation Commissioner", but in the 40th year of Wanli, because Myanmar attacked the northern part of Laos and cut off the land passage between Lancang Kingdom and Daming, it survived in name only)
There was nothing the Burmese could do. After all, their main force had already been annihilated one after another by 30 to [-]. Li Dingguo also agreed to withdraw from the land on the West Bank after signing a contract.

Negotiation conditions were pulled back and forth twice, and the journey from Myanmar to Yunnan and then to Guangzhou lasted from March to the end of May.

In the end, after the Ming side confirmed that Burma was willing to accept the edict, Emperor Zhu Ciyu officially issued the edict on May [-] and distributed it to Pyinmana and Mawlamyine, conferring Mang Luo as King of Simeon and Mang Liti as King of East Burma.As for other treaty provisions, of course, they are all reflected in the finalized edict and will not reflect the previous negotiation process.

The Ming Dynasty still wanted to save face. When dealing with small countries in Southeast Asia, the final expression of etiquette could not be a "treaty", but an imperial edict issued by the emperor, and then the enemy country "accepted the canonization". The moment the edict was accepted, it was equivalent to accepting the previous conditions.

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PS: I will attach a map later.Ceded land is not easy to express in words.

(End of this chapter)