Bringing the Railway to Daming

Inside the main study of a small, fortified manor owned by the Li family.

Li Ping frowned, his face showing a conflicted expression, as if he were making a difficult decision.

A boy of about sixteen or seventeen years old said urgently, "Father, we can't hesitate any longer. Given our family's situation, the only way to survive is to raise an army against the Ming!"

This boy was Li Ping's eldest son, Li Li. He was actually not yet fifteen years old, but he had been well-fed since childhood and loved martial arts, so he was tall and strong and looked about the same age as a sixteen or seventeen-year-old man.

Li Ping was only in his thirties, not even forty yet. Upon hearing this, he sighed and said, "How could I not know? Judging from the news coming from the north, if my Li family does nothing, we can only wait to die."

"But you saw how strong the Ming army is last year. Even if we raise an army, how can we defeat them? I'm afraid we'll end up being killed and our families wiped out."

Li Li, with his neck stiff, said, "Father, I would rather die fighting the Ming army than sit and wait to die! Besides, even if we raise an army against the Ming, we may not actually defeat the Ming army."

"We can plunder the area before the Ming army arrives, and then take some people with us into the deep mountains and forests to the west."

“In that old forest, even if the Ming army had powerful firearms, they would have difficulty using them. Even if my family was not good enough, we could still be mountain bandits.”

After a slight hesitation, Li Ping gritted his teeth and said, "Alright, I will listen to you. I will go and contact other powerful families in Qinghua to try to make the anti-Ming movement bigger."

"In this way, even if we can't defeat the Ming army in a few battles, we can at least have those people help distract the Ming army."

Li Lixi said, "That's exactly right!"

After discussing and agreeing on the plan, the father and son began preparations in earnest.

Li Ping was responsible for contacting other powerful clans in Thanh Hoa and persuading them to raise an army against the Ming Dynasty; while the young Li Li trained a private army in Lam Son and prepared weapons such as armor.

What the father and son didn't know was that the Lanshan Li clan had long been under the surveillance of the Bright Guard, who had been watching their every move and reporting it to the authorities.

Strangely, after learning the news, the Ming officials and garrison commanders of Qinghua Prefecture did not immediately send troops to arrest Li Ping, Li Li, and others, but patiently waited for something.

More than half a month passed in the blink of an eye. Li Ping had connected with almost 70-80% of the powerful families in Qinghua Prefecture. It wasn't that Li Ping was particularly eloquent or had the abilities of Su Qin or Zhang Yi, but rather that these powerful families were not clean and felt they couldn't pass the "investigation team's" test, so they had similar thoughts to Li Ping.

On this day, more than a dozen heads of powerful clans in Qinghua secretly came to an ordinary manor outside Qinghua City to discuss the important matter of raising an army to rebel against the Ming Dynasty.

After the meeting, Li Ping, as the initiator, took the initiative and said to the heads of the powerful clans: "Since we are going to raise an army to rebel against the Ming, we must fight our first battle well to build up our momentum. In this way, other powerful clans will hear the news and join us in our cause, thus sharing the burden with us."

Upon hearing this, the head of the Li family of Qinghua said, "Brother Li, do you perhaps have some ideas? Why don't you just say so?"

“Then I’ll be frank. This idea was actually conceived by my son, Li Li,” Li Ping said with a smile. “Isn’t the investigation team coming to Thanh Hoa? Then let’s take advantage of the opportunity when the officials in the prefecture are welcoming the investigation team, launch a surprise attack, and kill the main officials of Thanh Hoa and the officials of the investigation team in one fell swoop.”

"Nowadays, all the powerful clans in various places are extremely resentful of the investigation team. If we can accomplish this, our influence will surely soar!"

"Dealing with the main Ming officials in Thanh Hoa Prefecture will also help us raise an army against the Ming—at least we can take Thanh Hoa City first."

Upon hearing this, the crowd immediately began to whisper among themselves.

Soon, the head of the Chen family of Qinghua said, "The investigation team should be accompanied by troops, right? When the prefect welcomes the investigation team, he will most likely bring some troops with him."

"Although we have quite a few private soldiers, can we really defeat those well-equipped and fierce Ming troops?"

Li Ping laughed and said, "The Ming army has set up its military formation in an open area outside the city. Our private troops are no match for them."

"But if we launch a surprise attack from the crowd when they enter the city and walk on the streets, how can the Ming army withstand it?"

The eyes of all the family heads lit up upon hearing this.

"This plan is brilliant. Brother Li's son is only a teenager, isn't he? To come up with such a plan is truly remarkable."

"I have long heard that the young master of the Li family of Lanshan is brave and intelligent, and he truly lives up to his reputation."

"Brother Li has a worthy successor..."

Immediately, all the heads of the families praised the plan and commended Li Ping's son.

Li Ping listened with a smile on his face—he also felt that his son was extraordinary, and this uprising against the Ming Dynasty might just be the beginning of a complete change in the fate of the Li family of Lanshan.

Just then, a cry of surprise suddenly came from outside the manor.

"It's the Ming army!"

"The Ming army is here!" Then came gunfire and screams.

The heads of the powerful families of Qinghua gathered in the room panicked.

"How could Ming troops be here?"

"Has our plan to raise an army been leaked?"

"How could such a secret be easily leaked? Unless someone has defected to the Ming. Who is it? Who is it?!"

Li Ping was also starting to panic, his eyes bloodshot as he scanned the heads of the various families in the room. But all the family heads looked flustered, and none of them seemed to have defected to the Ming army.

Immediately, one of the house owners, disregarding everything else, rushed out of the house to see if there was any chance to escape.

The same applies to Liping.

He drew the short knife he carried with him and, along with several servants guarding outside, ran towards the western wall of the manor, intending to escape over it.

As a result, the servant who was scouting ahead was shot down by an arrow as soon as he climbed over the wall.

Upon seeing this, Li Ping knew that there must be Ming troops lying in wait outside the western wall, so he ran north... After fleeing around the garden, Li Ping finally discovered in despair that the entire manor had been surrounded by Ming troops.

Unwilling to be captured, he tried to break out while the Ming army rushed in to arrest people, but was killed by Ming musketeers.

Most of the other heads of powerful families in Thanh Hoa who came to the gathering were captured and handed over to the Embroidered Uniform Guard for interrogation. In the end, the major case of dozens of powerful families in Thanh Hoa, including the Li, Li, and Chen families, plotting to rebel was thoroughly investigated.

Almost on the same day, the well-prepared Ming army mobilized in all directions to arrest the main Thanh Hoa clan members, including the Lê family, who were plotting a rebellion.

Seeing the situation was dire, Lê Lợi, the young master of the Lê clan of Lam Son, tried to lead several hundred soldiers to escape into the old forest, but they were intercepted halfway by the Ming army, who were prepared, and were easily defeated. Lê Lợi was also captured.

In the following days, with the assistance of the Guangming Guard and the Jinyiwei, the Ming army swept through the powerful families in Qinghua who were preparing to rebel, almost like an autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.

These powerful clansmen were either killed on the spot for resisting or captured and left to be interrogated and dealt with by the authorities.

When the investigation team arrived in Thanh Hoa, they were not as busy as they had been in other provinces to the north, such as Thang Long. This was because seven or eight tenths of the powerful clans in Thanh Hoa had been purged by the Ming army in advance for their involvement in a treason case.

After news spread that the powerful Li family and other clans in Qinghua Prefecture had failed in their rebellion and were almost all confiscated and exiled, some powerful clans further south, who had been plotting rebellion, immediately backed down.

However, it's impossible to let these powerful families just wait to die.

The powerful clans began to disperse their members and assets, hoping to preserve as much of their strength as possible when the investigation team found their homes.

However, when these powerful clans were preparing to leave Jiaozhou Province by sea or land, they found that the Ming army had already blocked the border, and the main roads were difficult to pass through.

As a result, some powerful families had no choice but to sneak back to Jiaozhou, hide incognito, and hope to escape the calamity.

However, some powerful families, carrying their wealth, risked venturing along border routes that were difficult for the Ming army to patrol, fleeing to Lan Xang, Champa, and Siam.

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The capital of the Ming Dynasty.

Inside the Fengxian Hall in the Imperial City.

Zhu Biao and Zhu Xiong Ying were processing memorials and "discussing" matters at the same time. Sometimes, Zhu Biao would test and instruct Zhu Xiong Ying on a certain national matter; but sometimes, Zhu Biao would genuinely want to hear Zhu Xiong Ying's opinion.

After all, Zhu Xiong Ying was mentored by Liu Kuan and was greatly influenced by Liu Kuan in his thinking, giving him unique insights into many things.

"The number of powerful clans that need to be exiled in Jiaozhou this time is probably in the tens of thousands, or even more than one hundred thousand. Xiong Ying, where do you think would be the best place to exile these people?"

Zhu Xiong Ying said, "The powerful families of Jiaozhou are adapted to the tropical climate. Logically speaking, it would be better to exile them to Luzon, Hailong, or Hainan (later Sumatra).

“But doing so would be too lenient on these powerful families of Jiaozhou, and would greatly weaken the punishment. Therefore, I think it would be better to exile them to the four provinces of Luohuang, Beiting, Jilin and Ridao.”

Zhu Biao asked curiously, "I can understand exiling them to remote and desolate commanderies like Luohuang and Beiting, but why include the four provinces of the Japanese islands?"

Zhu Xiong Ying smiled and said, "Father, the immigration to Japan has been going on all along, hasn't it? But although we can use various means to forcibly relocate the He people, we haven't been very effective in relocating Han people to Japan."

"Since the purpose of migrating Han Chinese was to replace the main ethnic group on the Japanese islands, it's acceptable to exile some powerful families from Jiaozhou there as well." (End of Chapter)