On May 27, the fourth year of Yongle, Guo Yingxue, Marquis of Wuding, died at home at the age of 68.

Because Guo Ying did have great military achievements, and he had the identity of the prince's grandfather, he was still given the title of Ying Guogong after his death, nicknamed "Weixiang".

Guo Ying's death seems to announce the end of a generation.

For his departure, Zhu Gaoxu was only a little embarrassed, but Guo Yan couldn't cry silently, so Zhu Gaoxu asked her to take Zhu Zhanyu to the Hou Mansion to keep a vigil for three days, and he himself took the time to go to the Wuding Hou Mansion.

In mid-June, Guo Ying was buried in Guojiaqi in the north of Juye City, and the Marquis of Wuding was inherited by his second son Guo Ming.

For individuals, Guo Ying's departure is unacceptable, but for a country, Guo Ying's death is not a sensational thing.

After cleaning up his mood a little, Zhu Gaoxu began to continue to devote himself to the government.

Time flies, Yang Zhan and Zheng He of the South Seas hunted and encircled the remnants of Chen Zuyi, Chen Zuyi fled to Majapahit, but was finally captured by the king of Majapahit, Vikalamawahana, and gave it to Zheng He as a meeting gift.

Majapahit's idea was very simple, from the beginning of Zheng He's extermination of Chen Zuyi, they knew that the Ming Dynasty was not something they could afford to provoke, so it was better to take advantage of Chen Zuyi's heavy damage and send Chen Zuyi's prisoner to Zheng He, so as to ensure that the Ming would not act against the land of Majapahit in the southern part of Sumatra.

Facts have proved that they chose the right one, and the Ming Dynasty can't eat the entire island of Sumatra at all, so after Zheng He took Chen Zuyi's territory, he asked Majapahit to allow the Malays in his country to freely travel to and from the old port of Xuanwei, and as for the southern territory, it was temporarily handed over to the management of Majapahit, but Majapahit was not allowed to abuse the local people.

Such a condition was originally unacceptable to Majapahit, but when Zheng He led the fleet to Majapahit to receive Chen Zuyi and other pirates, Majapahit agreed to it.

At this point, the matter in the south of the South China Sea came to an end for the time being, and Zheng He would also go north to Boni, Sulu and other countries, and after arriving on the main island of Luzon, he would appease the local overseas Chinese, and set up the Luzon Propaganda Department and the Nanhai Wei and Luzon Wei in the local area.

After these things were over, Zheng He could send out a fleet to meet the envoys and kings of various countries, and return to Nanjing with them, bringing them to an end to his first voyage to the West.

Calculating the time, he should arrive in Nanjing in March of the fifth year of Yongle, after all, the construction of the Luzon Propaganda Division will waste a lot of time.

Compared with going to the West, it is naturally the edict of the Ming Dynasty to enter the West.

On the first day of the seventh month, Liu Zhao, Li Ying, and Mu Tubing divided into three routes, and entered the Xifan region under the leadership of the envoy Hou Xian, and ordered the local Tusi to send people, and the imperial court to produce grain, and jointly build three post roads into Qinghai-Tibet.

In the face of thousands of well-armored Ming troops, the armies of the two roads in the north did not encounter any obstacles, and only Mutu in the south clashed with the local people when they were appeased in Xiangcheng, Batang, Litang and other places.

After the incident broke out, Liu Zhao, who was closest to Mutu, led troops to support the rebellion, and the rebellious Western Fan thieves were suppressed and beheaded more than 2,000 ranks.

This greatly shocked the Tusi in the Duogan region, and even the Tusi in the Wusi-Tibetan region learned the news, and each faction sent its own monks to confirm the intention of the official army to enter Xifan.

They were indeed very happy when they learned that the imperial court was going to build a post road in Xifan and expand the tea and horse trade, but when they learned that the Ming army was going to build guards along the post road and garrison troops in Lhasa, they were a little reluctant.

Time into August, Qamdo Xifan nobles attacked the Ming army camp, the Ming army took the opportunity to shell Qamdo City, the whole battle down, the Xifan rebels were killed more than 3,000 people, Qamdo City was not even a day to hold on was taken.

Upon hearing of this, Pamdrukpa Dishi (the title of the head of the Pazhu regime) Drakpa Gyaltsen sent the monk Harima to Chamdo to speak with Hou Xian, who was also a native of the Western region.

"Sigh the law ......"

When the sound of the horses sounded, a young monk of 20 years old, wearing a monk's robe of Pamu Drukpa, came to Chang Bu far away.

He was inspected by the Ming cavalry and led the way to the city of Qamdo.

Although Qamdo City is said to be a city, it is actually a stone village built of stone.

Walking into it, young Harima immediately saw the slaves who had their shackles broken.

They were dressed in tatters, and even though it was a little cold in August, their clothes were very thin.

They saluted respectfully, but their eyes showed fear.

The road, which is less than a foot wide, is very congested, and many of the houses on both sides are small and dim.

However, as we gradually entered the inner city, many of the courtyards of the Tusi and the Chiefs began to appear, and their courtyards were always so clean and tidy, too far from where the commoners and slaves lived.

Of course, the bigger difference with the residence of the head is the palace-like temple in Chamdo Castle.

From afar, Harima could see that there were no monks in this temple, so he naturally thought that Hou Xian lived in the temple and entered the temple.

Just before his idea landed, he saw the soldiers of the Ming army leading him into the courtyard of a leader.

In that courtyard he was taken into the reception room.

Inside, he saw Hou Xian sitting on a valuable chair.

Hou Xian is a typical Taozhou Fanren appearance, with deep facial features, and much fairer skin than the local Western Fan.

To his left and right sat three men dressed as Han Chinese, one of whom looked like a fanren, and the remaining two did not look like them.

"The monk of the Rough Temple, Harima, has seen angels and three generals."

Although Harima was young, his reputation had already spread, which was why Drakpa Gyaltsen sent him to negotiate.

Hou Xian and Li Ying could understand the Western dialect, but Liu Zhao and Mu Tu couldn't, so after Harima spoke, two soldiers walked in outside the door and told the two of them what Harima said.

Hou Xian sat on the throne and bowed his head in the face of Harima's words before saying, "The empowerment national teacher sent you here to tell us what he is going to say?" ”

"Dzhaba Gyaltsen said that we are willing to build a post road for the imperial court, but can we get the imperial court not to station troops in the west."

Khali Mahjong conveyed the thoughts of most of the Western magnates represented by Dzhaba Gyaltsen to Hou Xian, but Li Ying sneered when he heard this: "Then what are we leading the army here for?" ”

Li Ying said, Hou Xian also added: "When we entered the West this time, you ignored the edict to you, and then the local nobles killed our people, and when we went to quell the rebellion, when you sent people to communicate, I had already explained the will of the imperial court." ”

"But in the face of the will of the imperial court, you have been grinding for half a month, and we have no choice but to continue to march to Lasa, and at the same time appease the leaders of various places."

"As a result, because of your mistakes, the monks and leaders of Qamdo City attacked us, and we were forced to fight back."

"Now that the city of Qamdo has been taken, you are only now sending someone to talk about your attitude, which makes the court and the people of the Xifan region make a joke."

Hou Xian said this, and Harima also expressed a very helpless return salute, and at the same time explained: "We don't know the intentions of the imperial court, and if it is just to build a post road, then there is no need to send tens of thousands of troops into Xifan. ”

"I have seen the army of the imperial court, it is very strong and mighty, and I admit that all the warriors of Xifan together cannot defeat them, but if the imperial court only wants to conquer Xifan by force, then the imperial court will never be able to win the hearts of the people of Xifan."

"Conquest by force?" Hou Xianyan's face showed displeasure when he heard this, he got up and took out a document from the thick pile of documents on his desk, and walked down and handed it to Harima.

"At the beginning of the imperial court's decision to build a post road for the west, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of the East Palace wrote the "Rules for Entering the Fan", and asked the whole army to recite it for more than half a year."

"Because of these rules, we did not take the initiative to start a war all the way to the West, but passively defended and counterattacked."

Seeing Hou Xian's righteous indignation, Harima opened the "Rules of Entry" in his arms.

There are 30 articles in this code, which include: respecting the religious beliefs of the people of the Western region, protecting the temple of the western fan, and not allowing them to enter the temple without permission, let alone live in the scripture hall.

Fishing and hunting are not allowed near the temple. Do not get "sacred mountain" to chop firewood and graze.

As well as the people of the West have the custom of sky burial and water burial, it is strictly forbidden to watch, peek and so on.

It can be said that the precautions regarding religion and folk customs in the West have been written down, and even Harima, who has been practicing Buddhism for many years, does not dare to say that he can write such a sincere "Code".

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is a person who understands Buddhism."

Although he had come to negotiate, Harima praised the prince whom he had never met.

However, when praising the individual as an individual, and rising to the collective, Harima can only argue on the basis of reason.

"We see the respect of the officials and soldiers for us, but we can't accept the stationing of troops in Lasa, Sanzhujie (Shigatse) and other places."

"We're stationed to protect you." Li Ying opened his mouth and said: "Your army is weak, our army took the initiative to enter the Xifan to protect the post road to protect the tea and horse post road on which you depend, and you don't need to provide rations, you only need to provide the horse fu that you promised His Majesty Emperor Gao back then, isn't this very harsh?" ”

Li Ying is a military general after all, and what he said is a bit explicit and vulgar, which makes Harima a little unsure of how to answer him.

Fortunately, there was Hou Xian in front of him, and Hou Xian also said to Harima: "We can lower the standard and garrison 1,000 troops in Sanzhujie, Nagqu, Lasa, Dege, Luoluo, Batang, Litang, and Daowu, and 2,000 troops in Qamdo." ”

"After the construction of the Tea Horse Post Road is completed, we will also reduce the garrison as appropriate, and we will never continue to increase the number of troops."

"In addition, if there are rebels in the West, then we can also solve problems and troubles for the empowerment of the national teachers."

Hou Xian's words made Harima quiet, and he calmly analyzed it.

In the previous negotiations, Hou Xian was prepared to garrison 3,000 troops in Lhasa, 2,000 in Shigatse, 3,000 in Qamdo, and 3,000 in the rest of the country.

Now after adjustment, the main strength of the Ming army is mainly stationed in the Weizang area of Duogan, followed by Wusizang.

If they really moved, then Zhapa Gyaltsen could also secretly assemble the armies of Nagqu, Rasa, Dangxiong, and Qushui.

As long as each family is willing, it is completely possible to pull out six or seven thousand people to fight against the Ming army in Lasa, and cut off the supply of the Ming army in Sanzhujie and other places.

Harima pondered whether Zhaba Gyaltsen was willing, and then saluted Hou Xian: "If you follow the rules of Emperor Gao, then Ma Fu is enough to crush the people of Xifan." ”

Harima's words made Hou Xian sneer in his heart, Zhu Yuanzhang's horse endowment is one horse per year for three households, and these horses can also be exchanged for tea to benefit the people of Xifan, and the profit that is really earned by Daming is very small.

However, even so, the nobles were reluctant, after all, the slaves' horses needed to be paid.

Now that the Ming army has advanced into Qamdo, this group of people is still so hard-mouthed.

If it weren't for His Majesty and His Royal Highness to explain it early, Hou Xian really wanted to go directly to Lasa.

"The imperial court took into account the situation in the west, so it decided to build a tea horse post road, so that the tea that poured into the west increased from one million catties to millions of catties."

"As for the horse endowment, the imperial court also promised that one horse from the five households could be used as a soil endowment, and would give a hundred catties of dry tea to the people of these five households."

When Hou Xian said this, his eyes kept looking at Harima, which made Harima also know that this was Hou Xian's bottom line.

"In that case, I am willing to go to the Sakya Hall and tell Drakpa Gyaltsen Thi about this."

Harima didn't leave immediately, but waited for Hou Xian's arrangement, after all, if it wasn't for Hou Xian's nod, he wouldn't have been able to get out of Qamdo.

"Come on, send the monk Harimah away."

Hou Xian spoke, and suddenly two naturalized Western Fan Ming soldiers walked out of the courtyard.

Escorted by them, Harima walked out of the city of Chamdo without incident, and his horses were fed bean feed.

Riding on horseback, he returned to the Sakya Temple, and after many days of travel, he came to the outside of the Sakya Temple on the Three Bamboo Festival.

Sakya Monastery was founded in the sixth year of Xining in the Northern Song Dynasty, more than 300 years ago, and its founder was Kun Gongchojiebu of the Sakya School.

Originally, he built the Sakya Monastery, mainly known as the main temple of the Sakya sect, and his Kun family centered on the Sakya Monastery and gradually formed the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism.

At the end of the Song Dynasty, the monk Phags-pa prepared to establish the local government in Tibet, and the Sakya Monastery became the capital of the Sakya local government, and also became the political, military, and cultural center of the Xifan region.

In order to expand his influence, Pas-pa recruited 130,000 households of migrant workers to build the Sakya South Monastery on the south bank of the Zhongqu River, and finally completed the entire construction scale of the Sakya Monastery.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the founder of the Pamdrukpa regime, Jangqu Gyaltsen, convened a collective meeting of the political and religious elites of the Sakya faction and reached an agreement, deciding that the Pamrubpa regime would replace the Sakya faction with the Sakya Temple, and thus the Pamdrukpa regime replaced the Sakya regime.

In this regard, whether it was the Yuan Dynasty at that time or the Ming Dynasty later, the two dynasties recognized the Pamu Druba regime's takeover of the ruling power of the West and obtained the highest ruling power in the West Place.

Today's Pamu Drukpa regime is the first to be Zhaba Gyaltsen, who has been in power since the Hongwu period, but he is busy because of Hou Xian's entry into the West.

When he was nervous, Harima, who had been sent by him, walked into the Sakya Hall of the Sakya Monastery and bowed to the Buddha statue before he looked at Drakpa Gyaltsen, who was sitting on a futon.

Although Dzhapa Gyaltsen has been in power since the 18th year of Hongwu, he is only 30 years old now, which is the time of his physical strength.

Seeing Harima's return, Dzhaba Gyaltsen slowly opened his eyes, and Harima also saluted him in person, and explained his experience of going to Qamdo, as well as the result of the conversation with Hou Xian.

After listening to all this, Dzhaba Gyaltsen calculated in his heart for a long time, knowing that he was not an opponent of the Ming army, even if he pulled the head of the entire Shannan region and Shanbei region, he was not an opponent, so he was very satisfied that Harima could achieve such a result.

"You did a good job in this matter, I will tell them the rest, don't embarrass you."

......Seeing that Dzhaba Gyaltsen was like this, Harima, "I don't think they will end so easily." ”

"The officers and troops entered Zephan in order to assert their power over the land of Zephan and the power of the land of Zephan is in the Sakya Temple."

Harima spoke his thoughts very slowly, and Dzhapa Gyaltsen stopped chanting when he heard this, his eyes showing concern.

The entry of the Ming army into the West did not mean that they could defeat the West Fan people by force alone, because the Pamu Druba regime still existed, and even if the West Fan people were defeated, they could still regroup.

If you want to crush the position of the Pamu Drukpa regime in the hearts of the people of the Western Fans, the first thing to do is to take the Sakya Temple.

Once the Sakya Hall is lost, it will soon become clear to the heads of the people in the world that the heavens of Xifan no longer belong to Pamu Drukpa, but to the Ming Dynasty, or to the regime recognized by the Ming Dynasty.

As soon as they are aware of this, the Napamutukpa regime will soon be divided and go into decline.

"We are now powerless to resist their ......"

Dzhaba Gyaltsen's voice was very weak, and he seemed to say something he didn't want to admit.

Indeed, now he is struggling to even pull out a few thousand people, how to fight against the Ming army?

The attack on the Ming army by the people of Qamdo and other places was not accidental, it was the result of deliberate instigation by someone, but their performance is enough to show how big the gap between the Ming army and the Western army is.

As far as Dzhaba Gyaltsen knows, the Ming army killed six or seven thousand people along the way, but except for about 100 of them who were unable to fight because of illness, the rest of the casualties added up to less than 60.

The gap between the two sides is too big, and the West is no longer the Tubo of the past, and they can only protect their safety by accepting the arrangement.

Seeing Dzhaba Gyaltsen say this, Harima also seemed to be drained of his strength, got up and swayed and left the Sakya Hall.

Shortly after his departure, Drakpa Gyaltsen gathered his monks and asked them to spread their message to the ears of the various leaders.

With the departure of this group of monks, the heads of various places soon collapsed, and the recruitment of the Ming army to build a post road was ignored from the beginning, and now it is responsive.

Zhaba Gyaltsen's softening let the leaders of the entire Western Fan region know the strength of the Ming army.

Because the progress was too smooth, Hou Xian left the army to garrison various places, and he led 4,000 people to march towards Sanzhujie.

In September, Hou Xian came to the Three Bamboo Festival and met Drakpa Gyaltsen of the Sakya Hall on the way of the monks.

The next day, Hou Xian wrote a letter asking Kuaima to send the letter to Nanjing.

Braving the cold, the fast horses stopped and stopped, and it was not until the beginning of winter that the letter arrived in Chengdu, and the officials of Chengdu also sent Tang Qi to send the urgent letter to Nanjing.

When the letter arrived in Nanjing, it happened to be the fifteenth day of the winter month, and Zheng He from the south also sent the news.

Sitting in the Chunhe Hall with a wall of fire and a fire road, Zhu Gaoxu read Hou Xian's letter at a glance, and sighed after reading it:

"I really can't imagine that Tubo, which once had hundreds of thousands of troops attacking the Tang Dynasty, is now the biggest regime that can't even pull out 5,000 soldiers and horses."

Zhu Gaoxu sighed, and Yishaha next to him also nodded: "The slave maid thought that there would be a few fierce battles, but she didn't want to have a few conflicts only in Santang and Qamdu. ”

"The conflict in your mouth is probably a test of their greatest strength." Zhu Gaoxu shook his head, and many questions in his heart were answered.

In the case of Qinghai-Tibet, 10,000 troops are indeed a waste, and 5,000 is enough to control the entire Qinghai-Tibet.

And if nothing else, with the gradual decline of the world temperature in the Ming Dynasty, the living environment of Qinghai and Tibet will continue to deteriorate, and I am afraid that it will not be able to make waves in the future.

"The loss of this grain transportation is indeed beyond my imagination."

Zhu Gaoxu picked up the note written by Liu Zhao in Qamdo, which read: "Songpan shipped 50,000 stones, and it took two months to transport them to Qamdo, and only more than 16,000 stones remained].

"Nearly seventy percent of the 50,000 stone was transported to Qamdo, and if it continues to arrive in Shigatse and Lasa, the 16,000 stone of grain may only be able to reach less than 5,000 stone."

"In addition to the difficulty in transporting grain, the main problem is to eat."

Zhu Gaoxu looked at the cooking rice that Liu Zhaozuo wrote on the book was not cooked, and the soldiers could only eat raw rice, so they fell ill and lost a lot of troops.

The Western soldiers are still like this, let alone the Han soldiers.

"How's the pressure cooker going?"

He looked up at Yishaha, who also nodded and said, "It's not difficult, it's all out." ”

The pressure cooker is not a technical thing, there was already a similar bear-foot copper tripod in the Western Han Dynasty, but the cost was expensive.

Zhu Gaoxu doesn't need such good-looking things, just needs to be usable.

"Let the craftsmen go to Chengdu Mansion to make it, and ship it to Xifan in batches."

"In addition, I went to ask my father to issue an edict to canonize Liu Zhao as the commander of Duogandu, and canonize Mutu as the commander of Duogandu."

"Yes." He also asked, "What should Zheng He do over there?" ”

"I'll take a look first." Zhu Gaoxu picked up Zheng He's recital, opened it and flipped through it, only then did he see Zheng He's specific situation.

A month earlier, they had just finished their contact with Boni and Sulu on the island of Kalimantan, and then they were walking north, but they were caught in a storm on the way and went in the wrong direction, so they accidentally arrived in Mindanao, south of Luzon.

There, however, they had some conflicts with the local natives, and after replenishing the fresh water, they walked north, and succeeded in reaching the Manila part of the main island of Luzon, where they also met the local Chinese and their leader, Xu Chai Lao.

According to Zhu Gaoxu's confession, Zheng He canonized Xu Chai Lao as the Luzon Propaganda Envoy, placed the Luzon Propaganda and Consolation Division, and set up Nanhaiwei and Luzon Wei.

According to the results of Zheng He's half-month compilation of Qi people's households, there are nearly 20,000 local Han people in Luzon, which is a relatively large number, and many of them have also experienced water and soil adaptation, and they are good soldiers.

Now that Zheng He and the others had begun to divide their fleets to meet the kings and envoys of various countries, the reason for writing to Zhu Gaoxu was to ask who would be entrusted with the management of the Old Port Propaganda Division and the Luzon Propaganda Division in Nanyang, and which governor's office would belong to at the same time.

Faced with the problem, Zhu Gaoxu filled in Cui Jun's name without thinking, and at the same time handed over the two Xuanwei Divisions to the jurisdiction of the Navy Governor's Office.

When Zhu Pi ended, he handed the song to Yishiha, and at the same time got up and looked at the "General Map of the Four Yi Binfu in the World" behind him, and pointed to the direction of the old port and Luzon in Nanyang and said:

"These two places, it's time to change colors......"

(End of chapter)