Zangba Khan Karma Dan Wangpo was firmly bound with cowhide rope all over his body, and even his mouth was gagged with a cotton cloth. Lying on the ground, he could only twist his body constantly, trying to touch the young man standing in front of him with his head, in order to gain the mercy of the other party.

Arslan looked at the Karma Dan Wangpo who was struggling desperately on the ground, and his heart was a little hairy. He was not afraid to kill the enemy on the battlefield, nor was he afraid to slaughter the enemy who surrendered, but he could not bear to wrap people in cowhides and throw them down the river like this.

"If we really want to throw him down the river, won't we scare him? If Your Majesty knew that we had killed him without permission, would it have done us anything? Arslan couldn't help but whisper to Gushi Khan beside him.

Gushi Khan Tulubaihu glanced up at the young Arslan before replying, "Karma Dan Wangpo has deep roots in Later Tibet, and the Kagyu Karma sect that supports him is still the largest sect in Tibet. Now that we have released him, it is hard to guarantee that we will not raise tigers.

What's more, the lamas of the Yellow Sect hoped to save his life, and they never wanted to reconcile with him in the future. And whether we are Mongolians or Han Chinese, we are all outsiders here. Without the support of local forces, Tibet will never be stable.

If he does not disappear, the forces in Tibet will not really submit to us, and the Ming Dynasty will not be able to effectively control Tibet. Your Majesty has always been wise, and he will not fail to understand the painstaking work we have taken to do so. ”

Arslan was silent for a long time before he sighed and said, "Although Karma Dan Wangpo is our enemy, I can't bear to see him suffer this punishment, so I will leave the rest to Gushi Khan." I'll go back to Sangzhuzi Castle first, and then it's time to invite Master * to Beijing. ”

Seeing Arslan turn around and leave, Gu Shihan could only reluctantly take over the rest of the work. After seeing that several Mongolian warriors had completely sewn the Karma Dang Wangpo into the cowhide, he made a gesture to the warriors, and the two strong warriors lifted the Karma Dang Wangpo to the cliff dozens of meters away.

The two warriors stopped at the edge of the cliff, then exchanged glances with each other, and tacitly shook the Karma Dan Wangpo in their hands from side to side, and after several back and forth, they let go of their hands at the same time, and the Karma Dan Wangpo wrapped in cowhide was immediately thrown off the cliff, and then fell straight into the Brahmaputra River flowing below.

The two warriors squatted down and leaned out of the cliff to observe for a long time before they came back and reported to Gushi Khan: "Huigushi Khan has sunk to the bottom of the river and disappeared. ”

Tulubaihu nodded at the two of them with a calm face and said, "Okay, then let's go back too." While his men were tidying up their mounts, Tulubaihu looked worriedly at his hometown in the northeast, it had been almost two years since he came out, and he was really worried about what had become of his tribe now, and what the ambitious Batur Huntaiji would do with his nephew.

Just when Arslan, Gushi Khan and others eliminated the Zangba Khan regime, a major war also broke out in Guangxi. Under the leadership of Guangxi Tusi, Liu Xingzuo led the troops of a field division to quickly move south along the Youjiang River and raided the main force of the Houli invasion that was besieging Nanning Province.

With nearly 8,000 field troops, Liu Xingzuo united with less than 2,000 wolf soldiers, and took advantage of the opportunity of the 15,000 men and horses of the Houli Army being divided into two parts of the left and right rivers, and first sent troops to drive boats to break the pontoon bridge and cut off the connection between the east and west of the Houli Army. Then, taking advantage of the confusion of the Li army, in one fell swoop, they surrounded and annihilated the 8,000 troops stationed in Hedong.

Seeing this, the Houli army stationed in Hexi immediately turned around and fled along the Zuojiang River in the direction of Annam. However, after the news of the defeat of the Houli army spread, the Tusi who had surrendered along the way rose up to attack the Ming Dynasty anyway, and the attacks of the Tusi in these places destroyed the opportunity for the Houli army to reorganize the army, so that the Houli army finally lost its organization and formation, and turned into a big rout.

The misfortune is that when the Houli army fled to the Chongshan area, it was recovered by more than 2,000 wolf soldiers sent by Liu Xingzuo. It was less than 200 miles away from Nanguan, the gateway town of Guangxi, but this distance became a moat.

Relying on the terrain to block the more than 2,000 wolf soldiers, the Houli army fought all day and failed to advance 10 miles. At this time, behind them, Liu Xingzuo chased after them with more than 6,000 people. After resisting for half a day, the remnants of the Houli army finally surrendered to Liu Xingzuo and gave up resistance.

On November 12, Liu Xingzuo arrived at Zhennan Pass, and the Houli Southern Route Army, which was attacking Qinzhou, finally received the news and withdrew its troops and retreated to Annam. At this point, all the Houli invaders have been expelled from the Ming border. Of the 32,000 troops that Houli invaded Guangxi this time, less than 15,000 were able to retreat in their entirety, and the Houli North Route Army was almost completely annihilated.

When the news of this failure spread to Huilong Mansion, the whole Houli Dynasty was shocked and inexplicable, and even Zheng Jie regretted it at this time. Although at this time, the Later Li Dynasty had gradually formed the political pattern of Emperor Zheng of Li, but the Zheng family did not fully control all the military and political power in the country, and there were still some semi-independent small military towns.

The reason why the Zheng clan was able to monopolize the government was that in addition to coercing the Son of Heaven to order the princes, the most important thing was that the Zheng clan had the most powerful force in Houli. The population of Houli is only about four or five million excluding the Quang Nam area, which is less than the population of North Korea, but it is far richer than North Korea.

For example, the annual commercial tax of North Korea is equivalent to about 500,000 or 600,000 taels of silver, but the commercial tax of the Later Li Dynasty exceeded 3 million taels, which is almost comparable to the salt tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty in the past year. As for the annual tax and grain levied, the Later Li Dynasty also exceeded the income of Joseon by as much as five or six times.

It was with these rich incomes that the Zheng were able to build a standing army of 100,000 men and equip them with arquebuses in large numbers. It was on this basis that the Trần clan suppressed the anti-Zheng forces in the country, and launched several wars to conquer the south, hoping to eliminate the Nguyen lords who openly opposed them in Quang Nam, so as to unify the whole of Vietnam.

But now that there is only one battle with the border army of the Ming Dynasty, the Zheng clan has lost one-tenth of its troops, and the Lord of Quang Nam Ruan has joined forces with the sailors of the Ming Dynasty to counterattack, and it has become a situation of attacking Thang Long Mansion from the north and south, which makes Zheng Jie smell the danger of extinction.

Zheng Jie immediately realized that if he didn't give in to Daming as soon as possible, he would get Daming's forgiveness. When the Li clan in the palace is also ready to move, it is still clear whether the Hou Li Dynasty will perish, but the extinction of the Zheng clan is inevitable.

Zheng Jie ordered the Houli army in the north to withdraw from Gaoping and confront the Ming army on the border of the mountains to increase the logistical pressure on the Ming army; On the one hand, several envoys were sent to the Ming army and Guangzhou to apologize and surrender; On the other side, they gathered a large army at Thang Long Province, let the Nguyen army go north, lured it deeper, and prepared to inflict heavy damage on his army near Thang Long, so as to change the plight of the enemy on both sides.

Just when Zheng Jie tried to fight to the death, a caravan of more than 100 people had just crossed the Jiayu Pass, and after entering the pass, many people were lying on the ground and screaming excitedly, even Li Zicheng, who had always been steady, couldn't help but kneel on the ground and kiss the sand on the ground.

The officers and soldiers guarding Jiayuguan were not surprised by their behavior, but only ordered these merchants and miscellaneous servants not to block the avenue. Ever since the opening of foreign trade, all caravanserai returning from abroad have always gone crazy here.

Although there are many mountain bandits and road bandits in the Ming Dynasty, compared with the tribal melee on the grassland, the Ming Dynasty is still a place with a basic social order. Merchants who go abroad to do business have always carried their hearts along the way, and only when they set foot on the domestic land again will they really relax and know that they are basically safe.

For example, Li Zicheng's caravan was supposed to return last year. Their journey to Moscow went smoothly and they were received and rewarded by the Tsar and the Patriarch. The Tsar also gave the Ming Emperor five pairs of graceful Persian horses in return as a gift.

However, when they passed through Kazan last year, they heard the news of the death of the Patriarch. While the Russians were mourning the death of the Patriarch, the leader of the caravan decided to divide the procession into two groups, the one with the goods returning along the same route, and the smaller group returning south across the steppes.

At first, Li Zicheng didn't understand what the leader of the team, who was like a soldier and a more redundant businessman, wanted to do, but as the leader continued to record the rivers, roads, and the people and leaders of the tribes he passed, he understood a little.

Li Zicheng actually didn't think that what this leader of the team who inquired about the terrain and tribal intelligence did was meaningful, after all, Daming and this grassland were still separated by the entire Western Regions. Da Ming wants to plot here, do you want to fly over?

What's more, Li Zicheng and others still have a good impression of the Kazakhs here, they are hospitable and good at singing and dancing. It wasn't until a certain Kazakh nobleman took a fancy to the two Persian horses in his ranks, and after asking them for nothing in vain, he mobilized nearby tribes to attack them.

Even if Li Zicheng and the others were carrying ordnance, in the face of the Kazakh cavalry, which was several times more numerous, they could only abandon their goods and flee. The leader who led them died in the melee, and the team of more than 200 people also lost nearly a hundred.

Enraged, Li Zicheng began to attack the surrounding Kazakh tribes incessantly, destroying five or six tribes before the nearby Kazakh tribes could send troops.

On the way back, Li Zicheng kept attacking the Kazakh tribes, collecting the Mongols who were captured by the Kazakh tribes, and once grew the team to more than 300 horsemen, crisscrossing most of the Kazakh steppe, and being pursued by thousands of Kazakh cavalry. It was not until they encountered the Dzungar tribes who were attacking the Kazakhs westward along the Ili River that they were able to get rid of the threat of being pursued by the Kazakhs.

Li Zicheng refused the invitation of the Dzungars and allowed the Mongols in the group to return to their tribes, which allowed the Dzungars to let them go and exchange a batch of leather for hundreds of good horses they had stolen from the Kazakhs.

After a short rest in Suzhou, Li Zicheng and others continued to embark on the return journey back to Shaanxi. Although their team was robbed of the Tsar's gift, Li Zicheng touched the notebook hidden on his chest and handed over to him before the team leader died, and felt that this book should be more important than the Tsar's gift.