Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 446: Destroy the country and change its master
"Go faster!"

"General, can you relieve yourself? I want to go to the toilet..."

"Damn, lazy cows and lazy horses pee a lot, you go with him!"

Although it was the coldest month of winter in the twelfth lunar month, there was still a scene unfolding on the land of Jiangxi where more than a hundred officers and soldiers were escorting more than a thousand people wearing coarse linen clothes and their hands tied with ropes to walk north.

Ten people were tied up with a single rope. Anyone who wanted to go to the toilet had to report and the soldiers could untie the rope before going to the roadside.

If this person runs away, the other nine people will be convicted and exiled to a malaria-infested overseas country.

After solving their own problems, these people were tied up with ropes and continued to be led north.

They will travel to both sides of the Yangtze River and take boats upstream.

This is the fastest migration method with the lowest mortality rate, but even so, these refugees still need to walk hundreds of miles to reach the place where they are exiled.

For officials, they knew that this day would come sooner or later.

Due to time constraints and Zheng He sending someone to let Chen Xuan take the first step, Chen Xuan did not stay too long.

"Sichuan and Guangxi are relatively stable, but Guizhou, Yunnan, and Jiaozhi need special attention."

"There are three million Han people in Sichuan and 1.3 million native people."

"Guizhou now has a population of 240,000 in Hankou and 2.16 million local residents."

Zhu Gaoxu stood up, walked to the window sill, looked at the heavy snow, turned his back to Guo Zi, and asked.

"In Yunnan, there are about 800,000 people in Hankou and 400,000 native people."

The state banquet was scheduled for the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, but before that, Chen Xuan had already counted all the gold and silver goods obtained from this trade.

Chen Xuan and the others had arrived in Songjiang Prefecture the day before yesterday, but due to several months of wandering at sea, many sergeants in the fleet fell ill.

As for Yunnan, although there are only about 1.2 million people on paper, if the big and small chieftains of Yunnan are returned to the native land, the population of Yunnan is estimated to be no less than 4 million, of which about 3 million are local ethnic minorities.

After reporting everything, Guo Zi quietly waited for Zhu Gaoxu to speak.

"It will take at least a year to move like this. If hundreds of thousands are moved, it will probably cost a lot..."

"There are about 680,000 people living in Hankou, Cochin, and more than 1.9 million native people."

Zhu Gaoxu turned his back to Guo Zi and talked about his thoughts, and this attention was nothing more than population migration.

Zhu Gaoxu asked about the state banquet, which was naturally prepared for Chen Xuan and the others.

"The native people in Yunnan will not be less than three million. If you include the three declarations and ten consolations, I am afraid it will not be less than seven million."

"Moving 500,000 people, moving 2 million shi of land to stabilize the warehouse."

However, judging from the content of Chen Xuan's memorial, it seems that the leader of the Southern Kingdom did not want to use so much gold to trade with Zheng He, so he launched an attack on Zheng He and Wang Ren.

What Zhu Gaoxu is playing now is just what is left of Lao Zhu's play, and Guo Zi naturally knows it.

Chen Xuan and the others took the North Equatorial Warm Current, but due to the failure to control the direction midway, they were delayed until now and spent an extra month returning to Daming.

"This..." Hearing that Zhu Gaoxu was planning to move so far, Guo Zi hesitated and said:

The journey of three to four thousand miles would take eleven or twelve months no matter how you calculated it. Even if the migrating natives only drank white porridge every day, they would probably have to spend three stones of food.

"Together with the other four places, in the southwest, we have less than 7 million Han people, while there are more than 13 million native people..."

It's a pity that there is no regret medicine in the world, everything they did has become a foregone conclusion.

He turned around, walked back to the chair, sat down, leaned against the chair and said calmly:
"The native people who returned to Guangxi after the land reform this time moved to Northern Zhili, Shandong, and Henan according to their guilt."

Guo Zi paused, and then added: "Currently, the agrarian return movement is still going on. There are about two million people in Hankou, and the native people are no less than three million..."

"How much was the total gain from this voyage to the East and West?"

"More than 190,000 of them moved to Yunnan, and the rest moved to Shunqing, Tongchuan, Jiading, Luzhou, Meizhou and other places in Sichuan."

"As for Guangxi..."

Regarding this situation, Zhu Gaoxu didn't bother to say anything except lamenting that "I don't know how to be a king."

Because of the sudden passion, six or seven members of the family were exiled, and they wanted to bury their heads in their arms.

"More than 467,000 people..."

Zheng He knew that the return would be slow, so the trade goods were basically handed over to the Eastern Fleet to bring back. As for Zheng He, a conflict broke out when trading with the Southern Kingdom. When Chen Xuan and others returned, the two sides were negotiating to resolve it.

Zhu Yuanzhang relied on this hand to allow the Ming army to gain a firm foothold in Yunnan and Guangxi.

There is no doubt about Zhu Gaoxu's words, and Guo Zi bowed quickly after hearing the words.

From 1.5 million in the 26th year of Hongwu to more than 4.3 million today, Zhu Gaoxu's migration and population census in Sichuan can be said to be unsuccessful.

"What is the ratio of Han to minority in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Guangxi and Jiaozhi?"

But for the instigated mob, the only word left in their minds now is regret.

"After this migration, the number of people in Sichuan will probably reach more than 4.3 million, and in Yunnan there will be about 1.2 million..."

Standing in the Chunhe Hall, Guo Zi, the Minister of Household Affairs, respectfully reported the situation after the migration. The former was the population of all Sichuan except the Daxue Mountains, and the latter was the population of Yunnan that could be controlled by the imperial court.

In the Chunhe Hall of Nanjing, nearly a thousand miles away from the Jiangxi escort team, Zhu Gaoxu took the statistics of the memorial and threw it on the table after taking a rough look. It seemed that in his eyes, it was just a series of cold numbers.

Moving the minority people to the interior and the Han people to the borders is the best way to effectively control the local area and assimilate the minority people.

If the southwest had not yet been digested, and the Daming Ocean Channel was not yet mature, Zhu Gaoxu would definitely send troops to conquer Nanguo's behavior.

Of course, compared to the Southern Kingdom, the Northern Kingdom and the Eastern Kingdom are much more honest in the trade process.

"The cost of this trade was about 760,000 taels, and the proceeds were more than 136,000 taels of gold, more than 1,753,000 taels of silver, more than 53,000 copper ingots, and twenty ships of cinchona. Bark, tree seeds and other goods.”

Guo Zi's eyes flashed with excitement when he reported. He did not expect that the three countries of Dongzhou were so wealthy, and the trade this time was mainly between the North and East countries. The South country failed to trade because of the attack on Zheng He's team.

According to what His Highness said, the Southern Kingdom should be the richest among the three Eastern Kingdoms.

"The discount obtained from this trade is about 4 million guan. After excluding the cost, the net profit is more than 3.24 million guan!"

Guo Zi made a summary of the trade situation this time, but this made Zhu Gaoxu even more depressed.

He naturally knows that the Three Kingdoms of Dongzhou are not good things. If nothing else, take the Dongguo that performed best in this trade with the Ming Dynasty. As a remnant of the Mayan Empire, they like to kill living people for sacrifice. The capital of the country was captured ten years ago because he was too cruel to the city-states under his command.

The reason why the Eastern Kingdom was so friendly to the Ming army was mainly because it wanted to seek help from the Ming army, and secondly, it saw the combat effectiveness of the Ming army led by Wang Ren.

As for the Northern Kingdom, there were only a few thousand soldiers, so when they saw Wang Ren leading the army to defeat their forward, they immediately chose to surrender.

Compared with these two countries, the Southern Country in the south, that is, the Inca Empire, seems unworthy.

In order to build closer relations with them, Wang Ren even helped them defeat several rebellious city-states. The relationship had already been built closer, but he never expected that after seeing the amount of goods Zheng He brought, these guys would choose to directly attack Zheng He's army.

Zhu Gaoxu couldn't figure it out now. How could the southern leader choose to trouble Zheng He when he saw how powerful Wang Ren was.

"This profit is much lower than I expected... Forget it, let's prepare for the state banquet!"

Zhu Gaoxu shook his head. He originally thought that he could wipe out the three countries of Dongzhou at once, but he didn't want to be destroyed by the greed of the Incas.

Thinking of this, he dismissed Guo Zi and calmed down to deal with the memorials on the table.

It's just that he no longer thinks about things in the South, but some people need to face these guys who broke the trade rules.

"Fixed shot reloading, direction: three quarters and five minutes, prepare... release!"

"Boom boom boom——"

Almost at the same time that Zhu Gaoxu dismissed Guo Zi, fierce and dull gunfire came from the mountains in the northwestern part of Dongzhou on the other side of the ocean, and what they aimed at was a stone city built in a valley.

"Bang! Bang! Bang..."

Dozens of iron cannonballs hit the weak city wall hard, and the city wall was destroyed in an instant. Hiding behind the city wall were a group of shirtless people holding wooden clubs, stone axes, javelins, spears, and bows and arrows. and primitive man with a slingshot.

"Mother, destroy the city for me!"

Standing in front of the team, Wang Ren was so angry that he cursed. He has been discussed by the generals in the army since they were attacked by tens of thousands of people led by Sunupa, the leader of the Southern Kingdom, on a rainy night in the south a few months ago.

Everyone said that he should not have helped Sunupa suppress the rebellious city-states in the south in the first place. Not only did he not get back Sunupa's gratitude, but he also let him know the shortcomings of the Ming army's artillery.

Faced with these words, Wang Ren really wanted to find a hole in the ground and crawl into it.

He originally thought that by helping Sunupa suppress the southern rebellion, he would gain the other party's friendship, but now it seems that he was completely deceived by Sunupa.

Sunupa attacked them with the spears and iron knives they had traded with them. This made Wang Ren extremely angry. He volunteered to ask Zheng He to become a front-line soldier of the army, attacking cities from the north all the way to the south to wash away the shame of being deceived. .

He is not a murderous person, but since he was deceived by Sunupa, he simply cannot dare to trust these guys who are good at deception.

From being attacked in the south to now, he has conquered thirty-two city-states along the way, and this will be the last city-state he conquers, because this is Cusco, the capital of the Southern Kingdom where Sunupa lives.

Cusco is located in a fertile valley in the Southern Mountains (Andes Mountains). It has a pleasant climate, high mountains and lush forests surrounding the city. It was called the center of the world by the Incas.

The last time Wang Ren came here, everyone welcomed him warmly, which made him think that people in the South were warm and generous.

Now it seems that he was completely deceived from beginning to end!

"fire!"

"Boom boom boom——"

Amid Wang Ren's roar, five hundred artillerymen operating thirty field guns continuously knocked down Cusco's low city wall.

Since the Incas built the city more than three hundred years ago, the city has never suffered such a violent attack.

Tens of thousands of Incas faced artillery and could not muster the strength to resist.

To them, the sound of cannons is thunder, and the cannonballs are punishment from the gods.

From the time tens of thousands of them besieged Zheng and thousands of others were repelled, they should have been prepared for this day.

"I said at the time that we should not be enemies with them. They can use hundreds of people to defeat thousands of people, and they can use thousands of people to defeat tens of thousands of us!"

In the temple, many nobles wearing gold and silver accused Sunupa. Sunupa looked fat and honest, but he was very cruel, so he caused a rebellion in the southern city-state.

Many times, in order to satisfy his selfish desires, many city-states would be plundered by his armies.

Wang Ren was deceived mainly because of the language barrier and Sunupa's simple and honest appearance.

Sunupa's forehead was now covered with sweat. He listened to the constant sound of cannons, and the fat all over his body was trembling.

"The wall has been breached!"

Suddenly, several shirtless Incas with Ming army sabers hanging from their waists ran into the temple and said something that made everyone pale.

"Quick, let's escape from the south!"

Sunupa was very decisive in escaping, but when he ran out of the temple with the nobles, he saw a bright presence in the distance.

Thousands of Ming troops launched an attack from the collapsed mound. Tens of thousands of Incas armed with wooden spears and bows and arrows attacked them, but they were overwhelmed in an instant.

The Ming army was armed with short soldiers and overwhelmed them without even using firearms.

On horseback, Wang Ren led more than fifty cavalrymen and jumped into the city, holding spears and rushing into the tens of thousands of Incas.

They did not know how to form a formation, and the Ming army's cavalry wore vests in front of their horses, so stone and bronze spears could not cause harm to the horses.

Wang Ren might still be wary of them if they formed a formation to protect themselves, but he had already known the strength of the Inca army. Calling them bandits was a compliment. Facing the cavalry, they could only run away.

"Sunupa, your mother's maid! I am going to cut off your mother's head!"

Thinking of the generals' complaints and ridicules towards him, and of the scene where he foolishly sold weapons to Sunupa, and Sunupa promised that both parties would be friends forever, Wang Ren felt that the anger in his chest was about to burst out.

Under his leadership, more than fifty cavalrymen fought hard from left to right, cutting tens of thousands of Incas in half, and then rushed straight towards the temple, unstoppable.

The thick armor became an invulnerable weapon. Wang Ren saw the group of southern nobles wearing gold and silver from a distance. He clamped his legs and rushed towards the group of guys.

"Stop him!"

Sunupa saw Wang Ren rushing towards him. Although there were thousands of guards around him, he was still so scared that his fat body trembled.

Several soldiers came to block the attack with spears, but Wang Ren shot them away with his guns, and then drew his sword to cut off these simple spears.

In just an instant, the escort of more than a thousand people was pierced by more than fifty cavalry, and Wang Ren even saw where Sunupa was.

He galloped over and grabbed the heavy gold chain around Supanu's neck with one hand.

"Um..."

Sunupa was choked and unable to speak, but Wang Ren dragged him out of the encirclement, dismounted, and dragged him up to the high platform of the temple.

"This is what you get for lying to me!"

Wang Ren dragged him to the temple and suddenly let go.

Before Sunupa could surrender, Wang Ren chopped off his head with a sword.

Blood was scattered on the ground in front of the temple, and the head rolled down the steps like a ball, scaring the group of nobles to sit on the ground.

"Surrender without killing!"

Wang Ren shouted in the southern language he knew little about. This scene shocked many Incas who were still trying to resist.

Facing the two thousand Ming troops wearing heavy armor, shirtless and holding spears and clubs in their hands, they were like poultry waiting to be slaughtered, without any resistance.

Soon, Cusco was controlled by Wang Ren, and tens of thousands of people in the city became his prisoners. Sunupa's descendants and the nobles of the Inca Empire were even imprisoned by him.

Three days later, when Zheng He led 3,000 soldiers and horses to Cusco, Sunupa's body was hung in the city square, and his head was inserted into a spear by Wang Ren and stood in the square.

"The last general is king, fortunately he has lived up to his command!"

In the square, Wang Ren knelt down and bowed. Zheng He was surprised that Wang Ren could capture Cusco so quickly and even killed Sunupa: "You are braver than I thought. The merits and demerits of this incident are equal to each other. Do you have any opinions? "

Zheng He turned around and asked several Qianhu officials accompanying the army, and they all shook their heads.

Obviously, they did not expect that young Wang Ren would be so brave and good at fighting. Upon seeing this, Wang Ren also presented a booklet with both hands:
"This is the gold and silver document captured in Cusco. Please take a look at it!"

Zheng He took it and took a deep breath as soon as he scanned it.

"With me, your merits and demerits are equal to each other, but if His Highness wants to promote you, that is His Highness's business."

Zheng He's words made everyone curious about Wang Ren's capture. Zheng He also continued:

"You didn't kill Sunupa's heirs, did you?"

"The envoys are all imprisoned in the temple." Wang Ren responded neither humble nor overbearing, which made Zheng He nod:
"Okay, take me to see them in a moment."

"The Southern Kingdom is too big, we don't understand the language, and we don't have many soldiers and horses. It's difficult to control it."

"What the imperial court needs is local gold and silver. Without their help, even if we capture the entire Southern Kingdom, it will not be of much help to the imperial court."

Zheng He went all the way south and had already seen the situation in the southern country.

Their agricultural and economic conditions are not as good as those of Champa, Siam and other countries south of the Ming Dynasty.

If you want to develop this place, you must spend a lot of effort to relocate craftsmen.

The shipping lanes of the Daming Ocean were not yet mature, and the southwest also needed immigrants, so the imperial court was simply unable to control it.

Besides, if you have the energy to develop this place, you might as well manage Sanxuan Shiwei well. After all, Sanxuan Shiwei also has a lot of mineral deposits.

"Send people to search to the west to see if there is a suitable port on the seaside. Otherwise, it will take a lot of effort to move these things away with just our few people."

Zheng He spoke to the two Qianhu officers beside him. The two Qianhu officers also bowed after hearing this, and then sent their own cavalry to explore to the west.

As for Wang Ren, Zheng He ordered him to send people to control the city-states south of Cusco one by one. He should at least explain the situation to them, change the tyranny of Sunupa in the past, and let the city-states know the majesty of the Celestial Empire.

After Wang Ren agreed, Zheng He began to send accompanying craftsmen to explore the gold and silver mines in the Nanguo Mountains...

(End of this chapter)