In the early summer of the seventh year of Chongzhen, it was a difficult time for the Later Lê Dynasty in Vietnam. Zheng Jie, the king of the Qing capital, who failed to conquer Guangnan again a year, suddenly found that a large number of bandits suddenly appeared on the northern border and the seaside, and these bandits went around plundering the population and destroying the villages, and were rapidly destroying the foundation of the Later Li Dynasty.

For attacks from the sea, the Later Li Dynasty can also set up beacon towers along the coast to give alarms, so as to point out the direction of the pirate attack to the garrison, so as to greatly reduce the loss of being attacked by pirates. But with Vietnam's long coastline, the loss of control over the sea meant that the army was exhausted.

Those pirates who were obviously dressed up as the Quang Nam army could easily move tens or even hundreds of miles away from the boat, but the Houli army on the shore was about to run endlessly. Before the two sides engaged, the Lebanese army had already lost half of it. To make matters worse, as a coastal country, the fishing industry of the Later Loei Dynasty was no less important than agriculture. The shameless act of the Quang Nam army in capturing fishermen who went out to sea brought the fishing industry of the Later Lê Dynasty into a state of collapse.

The bandits on the northern border are not only coastal bandits, but they are no less harmful. The bandits on the northern border were apparently in collusion with some anti-Zheng forces in the country, so they were able to move freely around the northern border with a large number of people. The villages in the north that were loyal to the Zheng clan were not bloodied by these bandits one by one, but had to flee to the area of Thang Long Mansion, which greatly affected the stability of the northern part of Houli.

However, Zheng Jie also smelled a hint of ominous smell from behind these attack intelligence. That was if it weren't for the support of the Ming Kingdom, whether it was the Mo clan in the north or Guangnan in the south, it would be impossible for such a force to launch an attack of this scale.

Although Guangnan in the south has an advantage in the sea, it does not have the ability to block the entire coastline of the Later Li Dynasty, which must be the work of those pirates who were recruited by the Ming State. The Gaoping area occupied by Mohs is mostly mountainous, and only a part of the land is habitable. Because of its inconvenient transportation and no development potential, the Zheng family was left to Mo's to survive. However, Gaoping was adjacent to Guangxi, and only with the support of the Ming Dynasty did the Mo family have the spare strength to run down the mountain and plunder the villages of Houli.

Therefore, there are only two ways in front of Zheng Jie, one is to send people to the north, give in to the Ming Dynasty, and ask the Ming Dynasty to uphold justice for himself; The second was to send troops to attack the weaker Mo, and take the opportunity to invade Guangxi, forcing the Ming to give up support for Moshi and Guangnan.

Zheng Jie finally chose to force peace by war, and as a Hou Li Quanchen who regained the position of the head of the Zheng family by force, he always believed more in the force of the hand than in the benevolence of the Ming Emperor.

In early June, Xiong Can, the governor of Liangguang, received a letter of help from Mo Jingkuan, the ruler of Annam. While Xiong Can was still discussing with his subordinates how to deal with Mo Jingkuan's request for help, the 20,000-strong army sent by Zheng Jie had already broken through Gaoping, and then followed Mo Jingkuan into Guangxi.

Zheng Jie also sent an envoy to Guangzhou to declare to Xiong Can that he had joined Guangxi this time to capture Mo Jingkuan's father and son, and as long as the Ming Dynasty handed over Mo Jingkuan's father and son to him, then he would order the army to collect troops.

Xiong Can once again convened his subordinate officials to discuss Zheng Jie's request, and Zheng Maohua, the governor of Guangxi, couldn't wait to persuade Xiong Can: "The Mo clan in Annan has already declared himself a vassal to Hou Li, and the Zheng clan's crusade against the Mo clan this time is also for a reason. Why should we meddle in it and provoke Hou Li's resentment. The lower officials thought that as long as the Zheng family promised not to harm Mo Jingkuan's father and son, then simply hand them over to the Zheng family and let them retreat quickly, so as not to harm the people of Guangxi..."

Zhang Jingxin, the governor of Guangdong, immediately took the case, angrily interrupted Zheng Maohua's words and said: "The Hou Li Zheng clan is holding the monarch hostage in the country and acting recklessly, and now he still intends to use swords and soldiers to coerce the Ming Dynasty, is this what a courtier should do?" If the local Tusi also learned from the Zheng clan to raise troops to coerce the imperial court, would Lord Zheng also follow their wishes and let them behave in the local area? If this continues, what prestige does the imperial court have to speak of? ”

Hearing Zhang Jingxin's accusation, Zheng Maohua was also ashamed and angry, and he retorted retortingly: "This Mo captives are slaves, do we also have to protect him?" And he didn't stop robbing the population in Houli, the Mo subordinates repeatedly violated our Guangxi border in the past two years, we can't raise tigers for trouble, right? What's more, the officers and soldiers of Guangxi are negligent in training, and several generals are also dying, so it is okay to let them guard the city, and if they want to fight with the soldiers and horses of Houli, wouldn't that be sending sheep into the mouth of the tiger? ”

Zhang Jingxin said disapprerovingly: "The officers and soldiers of Guangxi are not good, the wolf soldiers who call the left and right rivers, I can also send men and horses to help in the war, Houli is just a small place after all, and it is impossible to have an army of 100,000 with the strength of the country." But the surrounding provinces of Guangxi alone can gather 100,000 troops in a short period of time, how can they not expel the Houli army?

As the saying goes: one punch opens, lest a hundred punches come. Only if the Houli Zheng clan is beaten, Liangguang will not have to worry about Houli invading again in the future. What's more, now the Yunnan Mineral Mineral Provincial Passage is leading to the sea with the help of Guangxi. Why didn't the governor repair a letter to Kunming, ordering Yunnan to send troops to Houli, cutting off the back road to enter Guangxi, then the Houli army would inevitably be disheartened and retreat. ”

Zheng Maohua retorted with a sneer: "Hou Li entered Guangxi in the name of pursuing Mo Jingkuan's father and son, and did not raise the banner of openly attacking my Ming Dynasty, how do you think that Yunnan will send troops to assist, instead of sitting on the sidelines?" What's more, it is easy to mobilize 100,000 troops, where will the money and food come from? How did my Guangxi Domain support this war? I wonder how much military spending Lord Zhang is willing to support? ”

Zhang Jingxin was speechless for a while, and when Xiong Can, who was sitting at the head of the lobby, was about to mediate, Yan Yuzhen, the director of Guangdong Customs, who was sitting in Zhang Jingxin's hand, suddenly said loudly: "If it is just a matter of military spending, the customs is willing to advance 300,000 yuan first, and then raise 300,000 yuan from various chambers of commerce in Guangzhou." He believed that His Majesty would not tolerate Hou Li Zheng's invasion and provocation of our country, and that Governor Hong and General Liu would not ignore this incident. ”

Xiong Can suddenly stopped his movements and entered deep thought. Indeed, as the well-born customs commissioner said, Chongzhen has never retreated without a fight since he ascended the throne against foreign invasions. He bowed his head to the Houli Zheng clan, saying that he just didn't want to provoke the border, but in the eyes of the emperor, it might not be a sign of cowardice and incompetence, after all, the Houli people were envoys sent by Guangxi first.

Although Xiong Canxin is biased towards Zheng Maohua's statement, it is best to calm the dispute with Houli without using soldiers. But he said this: "The war between Hou Li and the Mo clan, we will naturally not participate. But Hou Li's invasion of my Ming border is intolerable, I don't think it's as good as this, Lord Zheng went to negotiate with the Hou Li envoy, let him immediately reply to the Zheng family, and immediately stop the people who invaded my Guangxi, as for whether Mo Jingkuan's father and son want to return it to them, this official will report to the imperial court to decide.

Master Zhang and General Yan first reorganized the men and horses of the two Guangzhous and allocated military funds in preparation for entering Guangxi to resist the continued eastward advance of the Houli army. This official will personally write to the Governor of Yunnan and Guizhou asking him to send troops to help defend Guangxi, and as for whether to start a war with Houli, it is still up to the court and His Majesty to decide..."

After the meeting, Yan Yuzhen immediately returned to the customs, using carrier pigeons to report to the capital, and on the other hand, he used a fast ship to send detailed information to the capital. The pigeon letter was transmitted from Guangzhou to Beijing through several pigeon stations, and the news arrived in Beijing on the sixth day. It took 20 days for the clipper to arrive at Qingdao Port, and then it took 27 days to pass from Qingdao to Beijing. As for Xiong Can's recital, the detailed information of the customs was a week late.

When the pigeon letter from customs arrived in Beijing, Chongzhen was already enraged by Hou Li Zheng's actions. However, the areas bordering Guangxi and Yunnan and Annam are all surrounded by mountains, and it is obviously extremely difficult to attack by army, and it is also twice the result with half the effort. Therefore, after consulting with the army and navy staffs, Chongzhen decided to adopt the policy of defending the sea by land.

Considering that Xiong Can, the governor of Liangguang, had no achievements in military affairs, Chongzhen ordered Hong Chengchou, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, to lead the command of the former enemy, temporarily command the military affairs of Yunnan and Guizhou, encircle and suppress the invading men and horses of Houli, and attack Houli itself according to the situation. Xiong Can, the governor of Liangguang, was his deputy and did a good job of logistics for Hong Chengchou.

In addition, the first part of the Bohai Fleet, the Jeju Lu Xiangsheng Division, the Taiwan Wang Jiayin Division, the Taiwan Strait Inspection Division, and the Saigon Liu Xiang Division were transferred to form a conquest fleet and attack the Hou Li Dynasty with Quang Nam as the base. Before Xiong Can's twist and turn arrived, the Bohai Fleet had already taken Lu Xiangsheng's division south to Taiwan from Jeju Island.

However, before the order of Chongzhen and the General Staff Department was issued, Hong Chengchou and Liu Xingzuo, who were far away in Kunming, Yunnan, had already prepared for a counterattack. After more than 200 years of hard work and development in Yunnan, Daming has actually developed most of the mountain basins in Yunnan. In particular, the prosperity of the Yunnan region is similar to that of the inland.

Further development of Yunnan's minerals and the construction of Yunnan's roads to the interior require a lot of manpower. In Yunnan, a complex landform with high mountains and deep valleys, ravines and rivers, high in the north and low in the south, there is almost no difference between building roads and paving the ground with human lives. As for the excavation of the mine, it is even more dangerous.

This is also why, Chongzhen began to open up mining in Yunnan in the early years, but the development progress of the mine has not made much progress. One is because there is no one to mine; Second, most of the mines are located in remote areas, which are difficult to transport out of the mountains.

However, with the establishment of the Yunnan Mining Bureau and Hong Chengchou's appointment as the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, with the support of the government and the lure of businessmen, Tusi in Yunnan began to cooperate with the government and businessmen to jointly develop mines. While sending the slaves of the tribe to open mines, they also hunted hostile tribes and foreign tribes to serve as new slaves.

Among these toasts, the most outstanding ones are the Cheli Xuanwei Division and the Mengmao Pacification Envoy Division on the border with Myanmar and Laos, and the Wanglong Tusi and Amiszhou Tusi on the border with Annam. Sha Dingzhou, the son of Sha Yuan, and Tang Guest, the magistrate of Ami Prefecture, colluded with the Mo clan in Annan, and under the guidance of the Mo clan, they were able to get hundreds of thousands of strong laborers from the Houli Dynasty almost every month.

Whether these strong laborers are sold to the government or to the merchants who open mines, they will not be less than 45 Da Ming Yuan. These toasts and Mo's guides can take at least 25 yuan from each person, and the remaining 20 yuan will go to the slave catchers. But for these slave catchers, they may not be able to earn 20 yuan for a year of hard work in the fields in the past, but now they can earn a year's income by catching a person, which suddenly made the Tusi tribe on the border of the Ming Dynasty crazy.

For the Governor's Mansion of Yunnan and Guizhou, these young slaves do not need any scruples to use, even if they die, they can only be buried on the ground, and they do not have to worry about their families finding trouble to make trouble, and it is much more cost-effective to hire local natives.

Even though it costs 45 yuan per slave child, it costs 60 yuan to sell these slave catchers an old-style arquebus, and 12-13 shots per catty* but also 1 yuan. Even, Hong Chengchou also developed a slave capture license, and only Tusi who obtained a slave capture license could trade slave babies in Kunming.

As for the slaves who were sold to the mines, under the cruel exploitation of the mine merchants, there was almost no chance of getting out of the mine alive, and the companions who built the roads were even more miserable. It was the bones of these slaves that made Yunnan's economy, which was originally a pool of backwater, develop rapidly. The roads in Yunnan are constantly extending, and the mining areas are also prospering, and even the Yunnan Tusi, who were originally scattered, are now more and more united around the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou.

And all this is built on, with a common interest in the slave capture economy. The invasion of Guangxi by the Later Li Dynasty was undoubtedly a good opportunity for the Tusi of Yunnan to invade Houli on a large scale and capture slaves. Therefore, Hong Chengchou mobilized a little, and the Tusi of Yunnan came to Kunming with people to report.

At the end of July, Sha Dingzhou crossed the Annam border with 800 Tusi soldiers and entered the Gaoping area. In early August, Hong Chengchou received orders from the General Staff and the Emperor, and he immediately mobilized Liu Xingzuo's troops and the Tusi men in the Youjiang area of Guangxi to move south, preparing to cut off the Houli army that was attacking Nanning.

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