Kunming.

The newly promoted Xiping Marquis Mu Sheng greeted Xu Huizu outside the city in military uniform, who arrived nearly three months later than the holy decree of the Emperor, and Xu Huizu also came with more than 20,000 mountain camps selected by Xu Huizu from the three southwestern provinces.

In order to prepare for the construction of mountain camps, Guangxi, Sichuan, and Guizhou will climb the trees of the athletes, and even so, there are still more than 6,000 vacancies, Xu Huizu had to recruit from the people, and the annual salary was opened to 20 taels of silver, and a one-time settlement fee of 10 taels was given on the day of the recruitment.

The change of Luchuan, Mu Chun's martyrdom, the Xiping Marquis Mansion has been like the end of the world in the past few months, although Mu Sheng has taken the title, but the seat of Xiping Marquis is not so easy to sit on.

Father and brother Mu Ying and Mu Chun are framed with countless military exploits on this plaque of the Hou Mansion, it can be said that countless pairs of eyes in the whole Yunnan are staring at Mu Sheng, to see how much ability the latter has his father and brother.

You must know that after the defeat of Luchuan last year, Mu Sheng withdrew from Luchuan with the remnants of the army almost all the way in a panic, and repelled the pursuers of Dao Ganmeng in the Lancang River, so that he was able to repair in Dali, and then returned to Kunming to mourn.

If one day, the soldiers of Daogan Meng and Annan will fight in Kunming, Mu Sheng will not need Nanjing to surrender, and he will have to wipe his neck to thank the world.

I was looking forward to the reinforcements from the imperial court, but I found that there were only 20,000 people, and Mu Sheng's heart suddenly became cold.

Emperor Laozi, is this giving up the southwest?

20,000 people sprinkled into the top of the Luchuan River.

"The last general, Mu Sheng, has seen Wei Guogong."

Although his heart was cold, when Xu Huizu approached, Mu Sheng still bowed down and saluted.

Xu Huizu turned over and dismounted, and helped Mu Sheng up, "With Laoxi Pinghou to greet you, you and my uncle and nephew don't have to be too polite." ”

Mu Ying is Taizu's righteous son, and Xu Da, the king of Zhongshan, is Taizu's sworn brother.

Mu Sheng led Xu Hui and Zhang Zhenzu to the Yunnan officials who greeted him, "Yunnan Zuobu political envoy Zhang Zhenzhang Lord." ”

Zhang Zhen is in his sixties, fortunately, the mountains and rivers in Yunnan are beautiful, and he is still a supporter, and his emaciated face is also full of red, but his white hair looks a little abrupt.

"Xia Guan has seen Wei Guogong."

Zhang Zhen gave a salute, Xu Huizu hurriedly held on, his attitude was more polite than seeing Mu Sheng just now, Zhang Zhen was also a Beijing official before, and when he was forty years old, he received the political envoy of Yunnan Zuobu as the leader of the General Administration Department, and he was a veritable feudal official, who unified the world in those years, in order to stabilize the southwest, Taizu took Mu Ying as the main military, and handed over the civil and political aspects to Zhang Zhen, which shows the weight of the latter in Taizu's heart.

After Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne, Zhang Zhen was originally going to take over the Ministry of Shangshu, once the son of heaven and a courtier, the list of Enfeng's promotions was handed to the Great Interior, but everyone didn't expect that the new emperor had no idea of a big blood change in the court at all, and the officials of the six departments almost didn't move, so Zhang Zhen stayed in Yunnan.

In the battle of Muchun Pingluchuan, Zhang Zhen sat in the rear to prepare for the logistics baggage, and supported the war with the strength of Yunnan Province, which shows the governance ability of the past.

The group greeted outside the city for a while, and then entered Kunming City under the guidance of Zhang Zhen.

"Kunming is prosperous, not inferior to Jiangnan."

After the survey of Yunnan, most of the landless people in the interior moved into Yunnan, so the number of Han people in Yunnan increased sharply, but most of them were still concentrated in Yunnan Prefecture, that is, around Kunming, from Kunming to the southwest, or local indigenous peoples lived.

Xu Huizu looked at it and admired it sincerely, "Lord Zhang has made great achievements in governing the government. ”

Zhang Zhen laughed at himself, "The Duke of the Kingdom has a good reputation, if the lower officials are really talented, there will be no rebellion in Luchuan, and it also led to the martyrdom of the Duke of Dian State, the loss of land and people, the old man will die, and after this time Luchuan is pacified, the old man should apologize for his crimes." ”

Xu Huizu glanced at Mu Sheng beside him, and said with relief, "The barbarian people of Luchuan are not satisfied with Wang Hua, how can they blame Master Zhang for this trouble." Don't blame yourself too much. ”

Seeing Xu Huizu speak for Zhang Zhen, Mu Sheng had no choice but to postulate, "My brother's misfortune is a traitor and cunning, and the soldiers are fierce and wary, and death and injury are inevitable, which is not Lord Zhang's responsibility." ”

In fact, it is really necessary to trace back to the source, Mu Chun's death responsibility should be on Taizu, when Dao Ganmeng was defeated and begged to surrender, Mu Chun already had the heart to collect the army, and played Nanjing, it was Taizu who "rebelled repeatedly, unforgivable, and the people who were in chaos should be eliminated." For the reason of refusal, Mu Chun led his troops to pursue, resulting in a great defeat and death.

But no one dares to blame the emperor, so who will carry this black cauldron? There are only two people, one is that Mu Chun himself is incompetent, he was ambushed, and he was involved in the three armies.

The second is that Zhang Zhen, the political envoy of Yunnan, and the Luchuan rebellion were all caused by uneven government decrees and heavy Han and light on Yi.

Since he is going to launch a backstabber, Zhang Zhen has calculated left and right in his heart, yes, there is no more suitable person than himself, Mu Chun is the godson of Taizu, and he said that Mu Chun has no military talent, so it is not to open his eyes and say nonsense, but also offend the Wuxun Group, so it is most appropriate to take responsibility himself.

Zhang Zhen was ready to take his own head to atone for the crime, but he didn't expect that the holy decree issued by Nanjing did not mention the defeat of the war, Mu Chun also posthumously crowned the Duke of Guo, and the first thing Xu Huizu, the head of the martial arts, did to exonerate himself. Zhang Zhen was immediately moved.

When the group arrived at the official office, they had already arranged a banquet, invited Xu Huizu to take a seat, Mu Sheng and Zhang Zhen were seated separately, and the matter of accountability and accountability was revealed, and the rain was clear.

"Your Majesty has always been concerned about the war in Yunnan, and he has ordered his father to come, and he has also given instructions."

Xu Hui's ancestor opened his mouth and moved the oracle out, and no one in the hall dared to move the chopsticks, and they all sat down solemnly.

"The defeat of Luchuan, not the crime of war, is actually because of the cunning of the sword, coupled with the geographical advantage, repeatedly attacked the logistics of our army, so that the morale was low, and the baggage was insufficient, so that there was this defeat, this time the prince selected 20,000 mountain athletes from the three southwestern provinces, that is, in the holy decree of His Majesty, decided to form a mountain army, supplemented by short-bladed fine armor, gunpowder handguns, in Luchuan, and the enemy to fight a pursuit battle."

Xu Huizu looked at Mu Sheng, "Xiping Hou, Your Majesty has an order, since the date of my father's arrival in Yunnan, I will be the main one for my Ming Dynasty, and your deputy will cooperate with the four provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guizhou to pacify Luchuan and Annan as soon as possible. ”

Xu Huizu opened his mouth to set the tone, and no one dared to put forward an opinion, Mu Sheng arched his hand and led the order to introduce, "At this moment, since the fall of Luchuan Xuanwei Division, Mengding and Yongchang have also been lost, last year, the end will block Dao Ganmeng in the Lancang River, behead 13,000 levels, the enemy retreats, and the last general will lead the army back to Dali for repair, at this moment there are still more than 50,000 soldiers in Yunnan who can fight, all of them are left in Dali and Heqing, and the 100,000 troops of Dao Ganmeng are confronted. ”

Zhang Zhen added on the side, "In fact, it doesn't hurt that Mengding and Yongchang have fallen, there are no people of our Ming Dynasty in these two places, and the thief chief Gan Meng has already been frightened after being defeated by the Duke of Dian last year, and he does not dare to confront our army head-on, once my army crosses the river, the rebels will retreat all the way into the depths of Luchuan, and even withdraw to the border of Annam, when the imperial army retreats, they will come back, so the real difficulty is how to exterminate the rebels of Dao Ganmeng." ”

Xu Huizu nodded, "On the Annan side, how many troops does Hu Jili have?" ”

Mu Sheng pondered for a moment, "In the sneak attack last year, Hu Jili brought about 100,000 people, and the soldiers of Annan were about 300,000 to 400,000. However, the moisture is larger, and most of them are old and weak. ”

Xu Huizu frowned suddenly, so calculated, the total strength of Dao Ganmeng plus Annan was nearly 500,000, and Zhu Yunwen gave him 20,000 people, won this battle?

Although the Ming side can also take out a small 200,000 troops to mobilize the guards of the four southwestern provinces, the battle is not a simple calculation, and the Ming Dynasty really wants to send 200,000 people to fight this battle, which is the real defeat and no victory.

"The war is tense, and those who are ministers should think about relieving their worries for the king, so they don't drink alcohol today, and early tomorrow morning, the Marquis of Xiping and his duke will camp and go to the front line of Dali."

Xu Huizu looked at Zhang Zhen, "This duke went to Sichuan and Guizhou to mobilize military rations before, and the two provincial government grain storage associations have been sent to Yunnan since April 1, and now there are more than 20 days before April 1, during this time, Lord Lao Zhang is raising a batch of military rations for our army. ”

Zhang Zhen and Mu Sheng got up together, "Obey the orders of the Guogong." ”