Half a month later, the secret agreement between Lin Yueshan and the Zheng clan of North Vietnam was sent to Kunming by messenger and placed in front of Hong Chengchou, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou.

After several years of in-depth cultivation in Yunnan, Hong Chengchou, who is proficient in power arts, has completely mastered the military and political power in Yunnan, even those local Tusi who have been loyal to the Qianguo Mansion for generations are obedient in front of him, and he does not dare to pretend to be stupid.

Lijiang Tusi Mansion, which was still in a semi-independent state, has no intention of disobeying Kunming's directives at present. On the one hand, this is because the Tusimu family has a deep degree of sinicization; On the other hand, the Ming Dynasty has taken an offensive posture on the Burmese side in recent years, not only recovering many border villages, but also pushing the actual control area from near Dali to near the Nu River, and re-protecting the flank of the Lijiang area.

In this way, Lijiang Tusifu, which was originally threatened by Tibetans in the north and Burmese in the west and south, went to the stomach and back, and naturally became close to Kunming. In addition, in order to exploit copper ore and other resources, mainland merchants wantonly built roads from Kunming to various parts of Yunnan, making the transportation between Kunming and other parts of Yunnan more convenient, and Kunming's orders were conveyed more diligently, and the local toasts naturally had many excuses to delay time.

As an enterprising elite bureaucrat, he is not Xiong Wencan, the governor of Liangguang, who does not like to make trouble, and has a great interest in Burma, Laos, and Vietnam, which border Yunnan.

It just so happened that the current emperor Chongzhen was also restless, and he attached great importance to the southern border affairs, and never stopped investigating the situation of the three surrounding countries of Yunnan during his tenure as governor of Yunnan and Guizhou. In the correspondence with the emperor, the monarch and the minister reached a consensus, that is, to win over Laos and suppress Vietnam and Burma.

The Lancang Kingdom of Laos, also known as the Nanzhang Kingdom, was founded in the thirteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty, before the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, but after the decline of the country, it was once occupied by Vietnam, and then took advantage of the decline of the Later Li Dynasty to restore the country. The current king of the Nanzhang Kingdom is Solin Nawangsa, who ascended the throne in 1637.

The Nanzhang Kingdom was not a centralized kingdom, but a feudal lord-republican state similar to the Ayutthaya Dynasty, with great power among the nobility in the country. In the past 200 years, except for the Ming Dynasty and Cambodia, other neighboring countries have invaded Nanzhang, which makes the Nanzhang Kingdom welcome the restoration of the Ming Dynasty's strength in the south.

Almost when Hong Chengchou arrived in Yunnan and began to fight back against the Vietnamese and Burmese forces, the Nanzhang Kingdom sent an envoy to Kunming, hoping to re-establish the suzerain-vassal relationship between the two countries, and later when the Ming Dynasty investigated the geographical situation around Yunnan, the Nanzhang Kingdom also provided a lot of help. Therefore, at this time, the relationship between Kunming and the Nanzhang Kingdom became extremely close, so Hong Chengchou also gave a batch of arms and weapons to Nanzhang to help it establish a new army to cooperate with the Ming offensive against Burma and Vietnam.

It should be said that Kunming, which occupied Cao Bang and won the allegiance of Tuyen Quang Vu clan after the signing of the Yongxian Treaty in Vietnam, has turned its main attention to the Burmese region. Yunnan, which had been granted the right to navigate the Red River after Vietnam surrendered, had no idea about Vietnam for the time being.

On the other hand, on the side bordering Burma, the opening of the passage from Yunnan to the Indian Ocean and the control of the ancient tea horse road to India have become the affairs that merchants and officials in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan are most concerned about. The Yunnan-Guichuan area became depressed for a time due to the Lu'an Tusi Rebellion, and most of the trade routes in the three places were naturally cut off.

The reason why the Southwest Tusi was extremely tame to the Ming Dynasty was not only because of the fear of the Ming Dynasty's force, but more importantly, because of the various daily necessities from the mainland. In the southwestern frontier region, where productivity is backward, even many villages are still in a very primitive state of slash-and-burn cultivation, and there are no daily necessities such as iron, cloth, and salt imported from the interior, and the natives in this area are in a state of extreme scarcity of materials.

Once supplies are scarce, the local Tusi tribe will find it difficult to settle down, and will look for opportunities to attack neighboring tribes, or even directly attack the villages of the past merchants and Han Chinese. As soon as the law and order here is bad, the caravans from other places will not dare to come, and this is like a vicious circle.

For merchants in Sichuan and Huguang, once the trade routes are cut off, it is almost impossible for them to repair these trade routes by their own strength, which will make a large amount of tea, salt, cloth and other daily necessities backlogged, disrupting the rhythm of local material production.

Therefore, after quelling the rebellion of Hao'an, Zhu Youzhen has always given priority to restoring the trade routes in Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Tibet, and has continuously transferred Baijiao soldiers to the Kang-Tibet region, and even transferred Hong Chengchou to the post of governor of Yunnan and Guizhou. With the relocation of a large number of military and civilians from Shaanxi to Sichuan and Guizhou, economic production and road safety in Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Tibet have been restored.

But at this time, the transportation volume of the old tea horse road began to be difficult to meet again, and the output of various workshops of preliminary industrial production began. The search for a new trade route to the Indian continent was urgently placed in front of Hong Chengchou. This was not only a request from the merchants, but also from the gentry and bureaucrats in the three provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan, and even in the Huguang region.

After all, the most profitable cash crops in the southwest were mulberry and tea trees, and the gentry and landlords in this region had to start with raw silk and tea if they wanted to make a fortune. And these two goods are the most important high-priced and light goods on the Ancient Tea Horse Road, as long as they can open the trade route, they will naturally not worry about not being able to sell.

As a result, Myanmar, which straddles the Ming Dynasty and the Indian Ocean and the Brahmaputra River valley at the eastern tip of the Indian continent, has become a nuisance of obstacles. In the past, people had no incentive to go to the jungles of Myanmar to fight a group of natives, so they could tolerate the Burmese whale swallowing and encroaching on the land of Sanxuan and Six Comforts.

But after opening the door of the country, these southwestern gentry and bureaucrats discovered that there was such a rich Indian continent behind Burma, and as long as they passed through Burma, they could find a rich plain paved with silver, which naturally made them immediately remember the hatred of Burma for occupying and annexing the land of Sanxuan and Liufu Tusi.

Although Hong Chengchou had already taken advantage of the opportunity of the Arakan Kingdom and the Ayutthaya Dynasty to declare war on the Burmese in one fell swoop, it was still far from enough for the merchants and gentry in the southwest, and only by completely defeating Burma and connecting Kunming with the Indian Ocean and the eastern tip of the Indian continent by road could they meet their needs.

Thus, for the past two years, Hong has been in contact with the Arakanese, Europeans, and Mon nobles in Lower Burma, preparing for a rebellion against the Tarong king, who had migrated to Ava. Even if this rebellion could not wipe out the Taungoo Dynasty, Hong Chengchou planned to bring under his rule the Myitkyina region to the north of the Mengmao Pacification Division and the Lashio region to the south.

After taking control of Myitkyina, at least the access to the Brahmaputra valley was in his hands, and his goal was half accomplished. After completely occupying the Lashio region, it also opened the northern gateway to Ava, laying the foundation for the next step of the complete submission of the Taungoo Dynasty.

It's just that he is still waiting for the rainy season in Myanmar to pass, and there is still more than half a month before the Mon rebellion. Therefore, he still attaches great importance to the stability of the situation in Vietnam behind him.

After only taking a cursory look at the secret agreement sent by Lin Yueshan, Hong Chengchou called Sha Dinghai and instructed him: "Dinghai, I'm afraid I will trouble you to go to Gaoping and Xuanguang this time." ”

Sha Dinghai swept the contents of the letter handed to him by Hong Chengchou at a glance, and immediately replied with a clear understanding: "Do you want me to persuade the Gao Ping Mo clan and the Xuanguang Wu clan to join forces with the Zheng clan to attack the Ruan brothers in Shanxi?" ”

Hong Chengchou nodded and said: "The Burmese side is about to launch, and the Vietnamese side is naturally pacified as soon as possible, not to mention that since the Zheng family is willing to give up so many rights and interests, it is enough for me to digest it for a long time, and there is no need to force the Zheng family again."

However, the Xuanguang Wu clan and the Gaoping Mo clan have to beat one or two here to let them know who is their master. If they dare to stretch out their claws without their master's permission, they will really have to cut off a few claws.

I will give you an order to transfer the security corps stationed in Gao Binh. You should be rigid and soft first, and you can't give the Mo clan and the Wu clan a fluke, understand? ”

Sha Dinghai immediately clenched his fists and replied: "I must follow the teachings of the adults and complete these two errands..."

After being bewitched by the messenger sent by the Ming Dynasty for 17 days, as the messenger who returned to deliver the letter was gone, the leader of the rebel army of Nguyen Phu Binh finally understood that he had fallen for the other party's delay, and it was obvious that the Ming people did not sincerely persuade the Zheng clan to voluntarily withdraw from Thang Long Mansion.

Most of the leaders of the rebel army, who had been persuaded by the representatives of the Ming people and the representatives sent by the Li clan of the Da Yue king, really believed that in order to reduce the damage to the Thang Long Mansion and the casualties of the people, the Ming ambassadors and the Li clan would do their best to persuade the Zheng clan to abdicate and give up the Thang Long Mansion and other arguments, most of them were angered by the treachery of the Ming people.

The leaders of these rebels proposed to Nguyen Phu Binh that they simply slaughter the representative sacrifice flag of the Lê clan, and then send troops to attack Thang Long Province directly. The consequence of the great victory in Shanxi was that the rebels from all over the country led troops one after another, although the power of the Ruan brothers was strengthened, but it also made the command of the rebels a little too big to fall.

The joint proposal of these rebel leaders made Ruan Phu Ping dare not veto it directly, and the arrival of the rebel army from all over the country made it impossible to leave much grain in Shanxi, so Ruan Phu Ping could only agree to go south to attack Thang Long Mansion, but he still saved the life of the envoy on behalf of the king of Da Viet and did not allow these rebel leaders to kill without authorization.

These days of recuperation really gave Thang Long Mansion time, but it also caused the number of rebels under the name of the Nguyen brothers to triple to almost 70,000. Ruan Phu Binh selected 50,000 horses to go on the expedition, and left 20,000 old and weak to guard Shanxi.

When Nguyen Phu Binh headed south, the first batch of 3,000 Trần troops returning north had already entered Thang Long Province. As soon as this army entered the city, the Zheng family ordered to punish the most powerful cronies of the king of Yue before, and sent people to put the king of Yue under house arrest in the palace, thus sweeping away the undercurrent of opposition to him in the city in one fell swoop, so that he could concentrate on dealing with the upcoming army of the Ruan brothers.

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