I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 859: Those who invade the Ming territory will be beheaded here!

In the first month of the sixth year of the Wanli reign, the sun rose from the east, passed over Gaoligong Mountain and Lujiang River, and shone on the south gate of Longchuan Tusi City.

On the dirt road in front of the South Gate, Ming army soldiers, bathed in the morning glow and holding muskets with bayonets, were supervising more than two dozen captured defenders who were working hard to carry corpses.

The dirt road and the surrounding area were littered with corpses, about three or four hundred in number, all Burmese soldiers.

They knew that the Ming army would not let them go, so they only wanted to escape southward, back to Toungoo. However, they were blocked at the south gate by a hail of bullets, and their blood turned the stone-slabbed dirt road black.

This road became their road to hell.

The area in front of the South Gate, in the doorway and inside was also filled with corpses, totaling two to three hundred people, mostly Burmese soldiers.

Another group of captured garrison soldiers were transported under the supervision of the Ming army.

The body was lifted onto a wheelbarrow and pushed into a deep pit more than 500 meters away.

The pit is ten meters deep and more than three hundred meters in circumference. It was dug by hundreds of prisoners.

The bodies were dumped in it, mixed with lime, and buried together.

After more than an hour of work, most of the bodies in front of and behind the South Gate were moved away, clearing a path. Thousands of local captives were escorted by the Ming army, walking out dejectedly to the elephant shed, where they were temporarily detained in a shed.

They are all locals, and except for some die-hard elements, the rest are fence-sitters.

As soon as the city was broken and the guns were fired, they surrendered immediately.

Gao Guochun, Li Hualong and several staff officers walked slowly towards the south gate along the dirt road.

When I arrived at the city gate, I looked up and saw four Ming army soldiers holding muskets in the halo of the rising sun. They were dressed in gold and stood on the city wall, looking around vigilantly.

The bayonet gleamed golden in the sun.

As we walked along, the strong smell of blood came with the wind.

As we walked into the doorway, the smell of blood became more obvious, as well as the pungent smell of gunpowder, mixed together, as if it was about to ferment in the next moment.

Walking into the city from the south gate, onto the stone road, the bodies on the road were being cleared away, and the bloodstains on the stone slabs had turned black, as if someone had splashed black paint on them.

The streets were very quiet, and the doors and windows of the shops and houses on both sides were tightly closed. The residents were frightened by the fierce fighting last night and hid in their homes and dared not come out.

"If you turn your back on the Ming and join the barbarians, you will only end up dead!"

"The traitorous Yue family father and son are guilty of heinous crimes and deserve to be put to death!"

Gao Guochun turned and smiled at Li Hualong.

When we walked into the Tusi Mansion, we saw people moving things inside. Large amounts of grain, homespun cloth, gold, silver and treasures were being moved out in boxes, baskets and bags and piled up on the open space in front of the Mansion.

There were also two wooden boxes that were carefully moved aside.

"what is this?"

“Captain Gao, this is the debt from Longchuan Tusi.

The people living nearby borrowed money from them at high interest rates, and they paid out nine out of ten, and returned the money. Interest was compounded, and five taels of silver had to be repaid twenty taels after one year, and one hundred taels after five years.

"There's no law in this world! Put it here first."

"Yes."

Gao Guochun turned to Li Hualong and said, "Director Li, you must mobilize the masses as soon as possible and gather them here. I will assign the reconnaissance squad, the blasting squad, and two squads from the second and third platoons to you."

Li Hualong replied: "Okay, I'll do it right away."

"Director Li, no matter what, we can only stay for one night. We must evacuate Longchuan City before dark tomorrow. I cannot leave 200 commandos in this dangerous place."

"understand!"

Li Hualong turned and left. Gao Guochun stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the quaint Tusi Mansion. Traces of smoke and explosions could be seen everywhere, as well as bullet holes.

Black bloodstains could be seen everywhere on the ground, and the chieftain's mansion, which looked like a landlord's compound, was filled with smoke and the smell of blood.

About two hours later, a sound suddenly came from a distance.

"report!"

Gao Guochun turned around when he heard the voice and saw his adjutant running towards him in a hurry.

"what's up?"

"Were the Yue father and son caught?"

"Caught?"

"Yes. Yue Feng and his son Yue Nanwu hid in a manure pit."

"In the cesspool?"

"Yes. The person was pulled out. This strange father and son took two unbroken bamboo tubes and sneaked into the pit, leaving the bamboo tubes out for ventilation.

No wonder we couldn’t find it no matter how hard we searched.”

Gao Guochun was greatly shocked. "What a talented father and son! Let's go and take a look."

We walked to a well and saw two or three hundred people surrounding it.

There were twenty or thirty Ming army soldiers with guns maintaining order, and the rest were local people watching the fun.

The four soldiers took turns fetching water to wash the Yue father and son.

They sat on the ground listlessly, their bodies wet and dripping with water. There was a pool of unknown object on the ground, and everyone around them stayed away from them.

The Yue father and son looked ugly and pale, as if they had eaten too much.

Li Hualong stood aside, looking at them with a sneer.

Gao Guochun walked over and wanted to kick the father and son, but suddenly remembered that they were dug out from the pit, so he immediately retracted his foot.

Li Hualong turned to Gao Guochun and said, "The Yue family father and son knew that they would be infamous for eternity, so they took a dip in the manure pit first to get used to it."

Gao Guochun shook his head. The educated people could curse viciously without using any swear words.

"Director Li, can the mass education meeting tomorrow afternoon be held on time?"

"Yes! Captain Gao, I suggest that Yue Nanwu, the notorious Yue family steward Yue Tong, and a dozen other lackeys who have committed many evil deeds and have caused great public outrage should be shot in public."

Gao Guochun replied: "Director Li, I don't care. I'm just responsible for cooperation." He was very clear.

Li Hualong is the official of Lord Ling, the Governor of Yunnan and Guizhou. He is on the front line to gild his reputation, so he must listen to other people's suggestions.

Moreover, they captured Yue Feng and Mang Yinglong's uncle Mengbie alive, as well as the heads of Yue Nanwu, Mang Yinglong's son Awa and others. As the captain of the commando team, he had enough to report back.

"Okay, I will quickly conduct the interrogation and select ten of the most heinous lackeys. At the same time, I will expand the scope of the missionary work and try to get more people to receive education."

The next day, at about one o'clock in the afternoon, Li Hualong began to hold a missionary meeting.

What they didn't expect was that there would be four to five thousand local people who rushed to the scene after hearing the news. They brought their old and young, and the whole family went out to travel through mountains and rivers. The farthest one set out last night and came from sixty or seventy miles away.

Li Hualong made a temporary decision to move the meeting venue to the more open area outside the South Gate, and the nearly 100-meter-long blasting gap outside the South Gate was also a living example.

The power of the Ming army can stop nothing!
The Ming army's missionary work was very mature.

Li Hualong presided over the meeting and asked Guide Li, who knew the local dialect, to be the translator. He announced that he was sent by the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty to rescue the good people who were oppressed by the evil chieftains.
Then we invited five local elders who were good at their jobs to tearfully recount the various evil deeds of the Yue father and son, as well as the former chieftain of Longchuan.

The voice was full of emotion and tears.

Most of the people gathered around had suffered at the hands of previous chieftains and were deeply touched. For a moment, the whole venue was filled with tears.

Then several local Yunnan soldiers in the commando team had already changed out of their military uniforms and put on tattered local clothes, blending into the crowd and waiting until the crowd became angry.
"We want to return to the Ming Dynasty!"

After shouting a few slogans and raising the emotions of the masses to a high level, Li Hualong announced that according to the temporary decree issued by the Governor-General of Yunnan and Guizhou, all property of the Longchuan chieftain who oppressed the people and committed evil would be confiscated.

At the same time, it was announced that the father and son of the Yue family, who betrayed the Ming Dynasty, plotted treason, and pretended to be chieftains, were taken back to Kunming for trial according to the law. His son Yue Nanwu, the chief steward Yue Tong, and eleven lackeys were tried by a temporary military court formed under the authorization of the Governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, and sentenced to death and executed immediately.

As soon as the announcement was made, Ma Lin and his men dragged out Yue Nanwu, Yue Tong and the other eleven people. They were tied up tightly and their bodies had turned limp into a puddle of mud.

Each man was accompanied by four soldiers, who took them to the center of the venue, lined them up in a row, and forced them all to kneel on the ground.

Two soldiers twisted the arms of the trembling Yue Nanwu and others, and one soldier grabbed their hair and pulled it forward, exposing the back of their necks.

Another soldier raised a freshly sharpened machete.

"cut!"

The atmosphere group mixed in the crowd immediately shouted: "Kill! Kill these bastards!"

Most of the people who were still in a daze just now suddenly woke up, remembered the new and old hatreds, and shouted together: "Kill! Kill them! Kill these bastards!"

The machete chopped down fiercely, thirteen heads rolled to the ground, and blood flowed all over the ground.

The head was covered with lime and buried together with the body in the burial pit.

Li Hualong went on to the next item. He pointed at the two boxes and said loudly: "These are the evidence of the successive chieftains of Longchuan and the Yue family extorting the people. These are usury, debts from the king of hell, and ropes that are tied to the poor people.

Now, on behalf of the Yunnan-Guizhou Governor's Office, I declare these things illegal! Now I want to burn them!"

Burn them?!
After hearing what Guide Li and other translators said, the people became very excited and rushed forward. The soldiers who were maintaining order quickly stopped them.

Seeing that the local people were getting excited again, Li Hualong gave the order without further ado: "Burn!"

Two soldiers took two cans of kerosene and poured them on the two boxes and on the piles of documents and contracts, then lit them on fire with matches.

Looking at the two blazing fires, many people burst into tears. Some sat on the ground, slapping their hands and beating their chests. They had been badly cheated by these loan sharks over the years.

The family is broken up, and the wife and children are separated!
Li Hualong continued, "The chieftain of Longchuan is illegal, so the land under his name is illegally owned. The Ming Dynasty does not recognize it. The land you are cultivating now will belong to you from now on!"

The people were shocked and couldn't believe it. Guide Li and other translators repeated it more than ten times before the people believed it and their eyes were filled with tears again!
Li Hualong continued to destroy their hearts.

"These grains, cotton cloth, and salt," Li Hualong said, "are all the blood and sweat of the people that Longchuan Tusi has exploited from you! Now I, in compliance with the imperial decree of the Ming Emperor, will return them to you!"

Hearing this great news and looking at the mountains of food and cotton cloth, thousands of people were stunned again.

The atmosphere group seized the opportunity and shouted loudly: "Long live the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty! Long live the Ming Dynasty!"

The local people were in a frenzy, with hot tears streaming down their dark faces. They raised their hands high, ecstatic, and shouted these two heartfelt shouts in stiff Mandarin.

"Long live the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty!"

"Long live the Ming Dynasty!"

In the afternoon, most of the captives at the elephant farm were taken back by their relatives. After being educated, they took back their weapons and armors and transformed themselves into a guard team to protect the fruits of victory for the local people.

Before the main force of the Ming army fought back, they protected their hometown and maintained local order.

The rest were revealed to be diehards or lackeys whose hands were stained with the blood of the people, about a hundred people, and they were executed together with the Burmese soldiers.

The Burmese soldiers were the main force of the defenders, and they were the only ones guarding the South Gate.

As the main target of the attack, 1,200 Burmese soldiers were killed in the battle. Of the remaining 700 to 800 soldiers, 200 to 300 were injured and could not recover and could only wait to die.

Some people suggested releasing the remaining four or five hundred Burmese soldiers, but Li Hualong firmly opposed it.

The Kingdom of Toungoo is thousands of miles away from Longchuan. How can these four or five hundred Burmese soldiers get back?

It is impossible to fly back, they need food and water, and they need to find a place to shelter from the rain.

Do you think they'll beg all the way back?
Impossible! They would just burn, kill and rob their way back.

Rather than letting them cause harm to the people along the way, it is better to eradicate them completely.

The fact that Mang Yinglong was able to send them out to accompany his brother and son to support Yue father and son shows that they must be his direct descendants and die-hard supporters. It would be better to just kill them and be done with it!
After listening to Li Hualong's reasons, everyone agreed to behead the four or five hundred Burmese soldiers, along with their wounded.

Together with the two thousand heads of those who died in the battle, they were piled up on the main road to form a mausoleum. On the top was the flattened head of Awa, the son of Mang Yinglong.

There is also a stone tablet next to the Jingguan with a line of words engraved on it.

"Those who violate the Ming territory will be beheaded here!"

At around 5pm, the backpacks of each member of the commando team were bulging with gold, silver and valuables from the Tusi Mansion. They escorted the two main criminals, Yue Feng and Meng Bie, and, with the villagers bidding them farewell with tears, they set out on their way back north in the setting sun.

Three days later, they crossed the Lu River and returned to Baoshan County, Yongchang County, which was controlled by the Yunnan Regional Military Commission.

After receiving the urgent report, Ling Yunyi and Liu Xian ordered two infantry regiments to cross the Lujiang River and one infantry regiment to enter Longchuan City to control Huju Pass and Tiebi Pass.

An infantry regiment went south along the Lu River, stationed in Mengmao City, the former capital of the Luchuan Xuanwei Office, and controlled Hanlong Pass.

Twenty days later, Yue Feng and Mengbie, who were escorted to Kunming, were ordered to be beheaded by Ling Yunyi. The heads were sent to the chieftains in various border areas. Finally, the heads of Yue father and son were hung on a wooden pole next to Jingguan on the main road in Longchuan. Next to them stood a stone tablet with a line of words engraved on it.

"Here are the heads of those who betray the Ming Dynasty and abandon their ancestors!"

(End of this chapter)