When Meng Wei said that Kunming Heiyi was able to make up six or seven hundred service elephants, and the total number of service elephants in Baiyi was more than 1,500, Li Su's first reaction was quite shocked.

Are elephants so worthless? When the development of the plough and the elephant mill was developed, there was no detailed investigation of this information.

If there were so many elephants, Meng Wei Meng Xin should not surrender so easily, and now after strengthening his strength, it seems that his loyalty is worth being wary again.

For this reason, Li Su quietly knocked on the side and asked Meng Xin a few words before he understood the situation.

It turns out that there is still a big difference between "service elephants" and "war elephants". War elephants must be adult male elephants weighing at least 15,000 Han catties, and they also need to undergo special anti-fright training, so as not to run frantically because of arrows and stabbing wounds.

And the "service elephant" is as long as it can be ridden by people and willing to help humans carry goods. Therefore, among the six or seven hundred war elephants in Kunming Heiyi, there are only one hundred and fifty war elephants that can really fight, which accounts for a quarter.

This data is still relatively reliable. It is equivalent to the fact that in addition to the core nest of Mengwei in Jidong County, it has to bear several times the burden of raising elephants. Other counties such as Qinzang, Lianran, Frogflies, and Yunnan also raise dozens of elephants in each county, and there are only ten elephants in each township and one or two in each village.

In the tropical rainforest climate, one or two elephants in each village do not have to bother to prepare food for the elephants, and they can cut down some bushes, especially banana trees and palm trees, and eat the stems and leaves. Any more is not cost-effective, after all, elephants have too much appetite, and it is too much of a loss to grow food specifically for elephants.

Li Su's later generations also read the data of war history and knew that as late as the 1940s, there were still war elephants in Yunnan. At that time, in order to defend the Yunnan-Burma Highway and fight against the Japanese army, some local Tusi dispatched war elephants in the Nujiang Campaign, and the Tusi of one county could kill dozens of war elephants, and some people adapted and modified them and wrote them into Chinese textbooks. It can be seen that the scale of elephant breeding in Yunnan has been maintained at a good scale level.

It's a pity that things like war elephants are too difficult to transport, and the narrow terrain can't fight. And when you go to the north, you have to prepare food for elephants, so it is better to breed at no cost in the tropical rainforest, so it should not be able to be used for war.

Elephants are easily afraid of fire and loud noises, and even if the northern warlords don't know it now, they will learn to fight at most one or two battles in the future, which is a one-shot deal.

……

After thoroughly figuring out the combat effectiveness of the elephant soldiers of Kunming Heiyi and Ailao Baiyi, Li Su became more and more skeptical about whether he could use his interests to persuade the barbarian chieftains of Ailao Baiyi to surrender directly.

Because he also knew that after Gao Yi, the barbarian king of Yuewang, sent people to help the thief, Li Su did not send troops to destroy Gao Yi, and he would definitely leave a seed at both ends of the head and rat in the hearts of other distant barbarians. If you don't knock it, there must still be people who are not convinced-

Maybe they will think that "the reason why Meng Wei Meng Xin was cowardly was because their brothers' base was too close to the Dianchi granary, so they were afraid of the Han army's armed attack." Other tribes don't have this problem, so there's no need to be too afraid of the Han army.

In any case, the newly established www.xbqg5200.xyz grain transportation road from Kunming County to Jiedong County and even Yunnan County has been completely leveled by the elephant construction team. The cumulative distance of 900 miles from Kunming to Buwei, the first 400 miles can be transported by oxen and horse-drawn carts.

After leaving the leveling dirt road area, turn northwest and walk another 200 miles of potholes and bumpy hilly roads that can not be opened to traffic, you can go to the old nest of Ailao Baiyi (Dali), and then turn southwest and walk 300 miles from Ouyu to reach Yongchang County through Bonan.

If Li Su wants to build a road further, he must surrender and negotiate with the chieftain of Ailaoyi, otherwise he will cross the border to build a road and build out of Meng Wei's sphere of influence.

On the twentieth day of the first lunar month, Li Su sent a fast horse envoy to Qiyu County to negotiate terms of surrender, promising trade benefits and helping them to transfer technology such as terraces and elephant ploughs in exchange for the barbarians to annex.

At the same time, they were also required to honor the newly crowned Yongchang Taishou Li Ji (Li Hao's son and Li Hui's father) and accept his jurisdiction over the arbitration of disputes between the ministries, but the affairs of the tribes could still be autonomous.

The envoy arrived in Qiyu County on the 22nd, and was brought to meet by the patriarch of the Zhurong clan, the first largest part of the Ailaoyi clan (Note: During Zhuge Nan's expedition in the romance, Meng Shu's brother-in-law and Mrs. Zhurong's younger brother were brought to the cave master. But because the "cave master" is just a position like a chief/toast, not a name, so Zhu Rong's father and grandfather also brought the cave master. At present, this brings the cave master to count as the first, and when Zhuge went south, it may be the second or third)

After the envoy conveyed the request, the cave master did not dare to directly kill the envoy and refuse, but just euphemistically said, "The imperial court appointed Li Ji as the Taishou, that is the matter of the imperial court, and the mourning departments will not object", as for whether he will really listen to Li Ji to arbitrate inter-tribal disputes in the future, it is obvious that he wants to play Tai Chi to delay, and he will talk about it when there is really a dispute.

As for the question of asking them to cooperate with Liu Bei, the general of Zhengxi, the answer of the Zhurong clan was "The world is not peaceful, the Son of Heaven is displaced, people from afar are confused, and they don't know Zhengshuo", that is to say, the emperor has been robbed and robbed, and I don't know who the emperor means, so we have to listen to ourselves and take care of ourselves.

This belongs to Ming who didn't tear his face, but in fact, he was already very arrogant.

When they came, they also found an excuse, saying that "the road is impassable", hoping that Li Su would kill Meng Wei and Gao Yi first, and open up the most convenient transportation artery to the northwest of Yongchang County, so that they could surrender.

However, it was precisely because the envoy who brought the cave master did not dare to kill Li Su that the envoy was able to continue to go to Bisu, Wangtang, Bonan, Buwei and other counties to pass orders and settle the payment. It's a pity that the Ailao Yiman chieftain Mulu and the king of Wugo in Bisu and Wangtang counties are also in the same posture as the Zhurong clan and do not return to the king. And the motivation is really because they see that "even Gao Yi is still alive and well, what are we afraid of, it is better to be the emperor of the soil and no one cares".

Only when he arrived in Bonan County did he finally meet the first mourning Baiyi patriarch with more than 30,000 households and a population of more than 100,000, King Duosi, who was willing to submit to Liu Bei's newly sealed Taishou.

(In the same way, King Mulu, King Duosi and King Ugo here are all counted as the first, and Zhuge Nanzheng met the second and third)

As for the arrival in Buwei County, everything went very smoothly, because Li Su's envoy met Li Hao's family. Li Hao is already in his seventies, retired for many years, heard that General Zhengxi brought the imperial court seal to canonize his son Li Ji to take over as Yongchang Taishou, Li Hao was grateful, and took all his children and grandchildren to bow down and thank him and receive the reward.

And Li Ji also immediately expressed his position, saying that he heard that Li Su had invited the surrendered King of Kunming to send his son to Jiangzhou to study with the disciples of the great Confucian Cai Yong, so he also asked Li Sunian to take his eldest son Li Hui, who was not yet crowned, for the sake of everyone's surname Li, to receive a high-quality education.

Of course, Li Ji's statement was not entirely to hand over the hostages to reassure Li Su, after all, the Li family was originally a rogue official sent by the imperial court, and they were Han scholars, and they really cherished high-quality educational resources. If you can worship Cai Yong as a disciple in Jiangzhou, you can't get it for a lot of "school district housing".

Fortunately, Li Su's envoy had been instructed by Li Su before he came, and he knew that he could agree to these things, so he kindly allowed all the young people under the age of twenty in the Li family to go to Jiangzhou and study with Gu Yong.

After all this was done, when Li Su's envoy returned to Yunnan County, which was controlled by Meng Wei, it was already the beginning of February, and he immediately reported to Li Su about the situation of the envoys and the Li Hao clan.

"Wai Lao Yi is so shameless? The governor has promised so many benefits, and they still refuse to cooperate? When they heard the return, it was still Meng Wei and Meng Xin's brothers who felt incredible.

After all, they saw with their own eyes Li Su's miracles such as "coming from thousands of miles to ward off poison and wading through the water", "building elephants and plowing terraces", and they felt that it was too cost-effective to surrender Li Su, and Li Su did not interfere in the jurisdiction of their clan's internal affairs from beginning to end, as long as they listened to Liu Bei's dispatch to the outside world, what was wrong with this?

Li Su was not surprised, and sneered when he heard this: "Sure enough, our prestige and good name are spreading too slowly, and we can't let those distant people be in awe to the bones, okay, since they are not convinced, we will fulfill them." ”

When Meng Wei heard this, his heart jumped in shock, and he hurriedly said: "The governor wants to crusade against Zhu Rong and the others by force?" We, Meng Shi are willing to ...... 5,000 soldiers - please forgive us for our suffering, last year we were bewitched by Jing Yi, even the loss belt was absorbed, we have lost 5,000 men and horses, and this winter is busy with labor and repair, and has not rested with the people, and now it is spring ploughing, so we really can't send more troops. ”

The total number of black people in Kunming is only four or five hundred thousand, and there are only more than 100,000 male strong men, and 20,000 or 30,000 can be drawn out of one of the five dings. But last year, we lost 5,000, and if we draw one more by 5 ding, there will only be 20,000 left.

And the active offensive is not as good as the interior defensive operation, only a small half of the troops can be dispatched to attack, and the remaining reserves have to defend their own lair, plus spring ploughing and then half of the levy, can only send 5,000 troops.

In the same way, Li Su, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei's troops were not idle this winter, some were training, some were fighting against thieves on a small scale, and some were also involved in labor and construction. To defend the battery basin, a place of ointment, as well as transportation arteries such as Wei County, it is also necessary to leave a total of more than 5,000 troops.

In this way, if you really want to crusade against Ailaoyi, the combat troops used for the offensive will also be dispatched 10,000 points.

In contrast, Ailaoyi has a population of more than 700,000 people, and even if there are about 200,000 people from several small tribes such as King Duosi who do not follow the same heart as the Lord of the Cave and the King of Mulu, then there are still more than 500,000 people who prefer to stand on their own. It would be very easy for them to draw at least 30,000 combat troops if they also drew a dozen interior defensive battles.

What's more, if it comes to the safety of the tribe, the mobilization can be increased, and if the barbarian chieftain is at risk of being destroyed, it is also possible that temporary measures for four or even three strong men to pull one to become a soldier may appear.

Li Su only waved his hand lightly at the Meng brothers' statement: "When you go out to Qiyu, it is enough for you to send 5,000 troops, but I still have one condition, if Ailaoyi comes to attack you first, you have to make some efforts in the defensive war." This will not delay spring ploughing, right? ”

The defensive war is fought at home, and the delay time for mobilization is much shorter, and after the battle, you can go back to farming.

Meng Wei saw that Li Su compromised and recognized the scale of his troops, and hurriedly said: "That's natural, if we are mourning, we are defending our homeland, how dare we not fight to the death." ”

Li Su: "That's okay - don't worry, I'm not a belligerent person, I won't go directly to attack Ailaoyi, I will let the soldiers continue to build roads along Yunnan County to Qiyu County." If you build a few dozen miles of flat land with elephants, they will not be able to sit still. ”

Until this moment, Li Su didn't want to leave the reputation of "others just because they didn't listen to me, I just killed him", he hoped to play an exemplary role, so that other small tribes of Ailaoyi who were still waiting to form an understanding: the Han people are here to ensure the business environment and build roads, and the Han people only want local stability, so they must hold the "inter-tribal dispute arbitration right" in their hands.

If it was the Han people who built a road through the boundary of Yuyu County, causing the Ailao tribe of Qiyu County to attack the Han army, it was the Ailao people who were looking for death by themselves, and all the diplomatic mistakes were made by the Ailao people. Moreover, it is much easier to use the enemy's light enemy to fight a defensive counterattack and consume the enemy first than to kill the enemy directly.

Sure enough, a few days after Li Su arranged it like this, the mourning man took the bait.