Chapter 1072 1067 [Countdown to Dali’s destruction]
The "peaceful" resolution of the Gao family's internal strife seemed to bring stability to Dali.
But is it possible?
Because Zhu Kang sent troops to defeat Chenla, killed a large number of Chenla soldiers, and sacked Chenla's second largest city, it caused a chain reaction in Southeast Asia.
Tribes such as Yuya, Jinzhan, Guci, and Parsi living on the northern border of Chenla broke away from Chenla's control and joined the rapidly rising Golden Tooth Kingdom.
The Golden Tooth Kingdom's strength greatly increased and there was no threat from the south. Taking advantage of the Gao family's civil strife, they attacked Mengli (Xishuangbanna).
When Gao Zhenshou seized the position of Prime Minister, Xishuangbanna was also captured by the Golden Teeth Kingdom.
Moreover, King Ba Zhen, the golden-toothed king, directly moved his capital to Xishuangbanna. It was obvious that he wanted to develop to the north and even expressed his ambition to destroy the Dali Kingdom.
Where did the Golden Teeth Kingdom come from?
This is a complex tribal federation of ethnic groups, and they are also collectively known as the "gold-toothed barbarians".
The golden-toothed barbarians gradually merged, and many of their descendants became the Dai or Tai people (some also became the Bai people).
The Golden Tooth Kingdom can also be regarded as a country dominated by the Dai people. Especially when they captured Xishuangbanna, they greatly accelerated the speed of their ethnic integration.
For hundreds of years, these tribes have survived in the cracks of Nanzhao (Dali), Annan, Chenla, Bagan and other countries. They have established political power twice, but they were defeated by the big powers and surrendered, and the tribes were forced to form alliances. alliance, and the scale of this alliance is getting bigger and bigger.
They fought with all the surrounding countries, tempered and strengthened in war after war, and formed an extremely fierce and warlike folk custom.
Tribal men are only responsible for hunting, fighting, and iron smelting.
Other tasks, including farming, were done by women with slaves.
Gao Zhenshou, who had just become the prime minister, went south non-stop to conquer the golden-toothed barbarians, because the golden-toothed army had already reached Pu'er!
The two sides fought fiercely from winter to spring, with each other winning or losing.
The Dali Kingdom secured Pu'er, but was unable to recapture Xishuangbanna.
"Father, we can't fight anymore," Gao Shouchang said. "The generals did not dare to speak out in front of my father, but they came to the boy one after another to complain. They first fought against the Thirty-Seven Barbarians, and then traveled over the mountains and ridges to get here, fighting before and after. It took more than half a year. And...this is a high-quality jurisdiction, so there is no need to fight to the death for him."
Gao Zhenshou said angrily: "What a fart, how can this be Gao Liangcheng's territory? Bu'er (Pu'er) was originally under the jurisdiction of Yinsheng Jiedushi, but it was temporarily assigned to Weichu Mansion for custody. Naturally, I will take it when I am the Prime Minister. Come back!"
Xishuangbanna and Pu'er had already produced tea during the Tang Dynasty. The tea trade here was extremely prosperous and could continuously provide wealth.
Gao Zhenshou was reluctant to pay taxes here!
Gao Shouchang said: "The soldiers are resentful. It's almost summer, and many soldiers are looking forward to going home to farm. The golden-toothed barbarians moved their capital to Menglu (Xishuangbanna). They will not stop their troops unless they destroy the country. But we are on an expedition that requires troops, and we cannot decide the winner for a long time, so we cannot let the army continue to be wasted."
If you want to wear a crown, you must bear its weight.
Gao Zhenshou, who had just become the Prime Minister, finally realized the difficulties of Gao Liangcheng.
Those gold-toothed barbarians were really not caused by him. This trouble must be solved now.
As mentioned before, the men of the Golden Teeth Kingdom only do hunting, fighting, iron smelting, and other things. Even farming is done by women and slaves. They can always confront each other on the front line, but the army of the Dali Kingdom cannot do this.
The longer it takes, the more detrimental it will be to Dali's army.
Gao Zhenshou was persuaded by his son and began to summon the generals one after another. Through small talk, he found that most of the generals were not willing to fight with the golden tooth man here.
Some people even suggested abandoning Pu'er and relying on the mountains and rivers to stop the golden-toothed barbarians from moving north in the future.
To put it more bluntly, no matter how much business and taxes are collected here, what nonsense will it do to the nobles whose fiefdoms are in the north?
After much thought, Gao Zhenshou sent an envoy.
When the envoy saw Ba Zhen, the leader of the Golden-Toothed Kingdom, he said in an arrogant tone: "The Golden-Toothed Barbarians were originally a vassal of the Dali vassal. You have now stolen the kingdom. Our Majesty is magnanimous and plans to make you the king..."
Ba Zhen interrupted directly: "Would I care less about Dali's canonization? I have been canonized by Emperor Ming a long time ago. Emperor Zhu was so lenient that he did not allow me to attack Mengjiao (Jiaozhi), and he was abolished because of this incident.
I want to take back the King's Golden Seal given to me for my throne. I'm not afraid of the Ming Kingdom, but will I be afraid of your Dali Kingdom?"
The Dali envoy was immediately speechless.
How could remote barbarians know how powerful the Ming Dynasty was?
Historically, Ba Zhen first went to the Southern Song Dynasty to ask for a canonization. Later, in order to avoid a four-front war, he was forced to agree to Dali's canonization and called himself the "Supreme Buddha Lord of Jinglong Golden Palace".
Now, the Annan Kingdom has just been renamed as Jiaozhi Province, and it is too busy cleaning up the interior to take care of the Golden Tooth Kingdom. Zhenla was defeated by Zhu Kang again, and there are rebellions in the country, and it can't take care of the Golden Tooth Kingdom. Dali himself is a mess.
, also don’t want to start a war with the Golden Tooth Country.
In such a situation, how could Ba Zhen accept the canonization of Dali?
He even wanted to take advantage of the situation and destroy the Dali Kingdom!
Ba Zhen grinned with a gold tooth, and angrily scolded the envoy with his halberd finger: "Also, you are not allowed to call the Golden Tooth Kingdom anymore, this is the Jinglong Golden Palace Kingdom!"
"In the Tang Dynasty, you were called the Jin Teeth... tribe." The Dali envoy omitted the word "barbarian" in order to frighten his power.
Ba Zhen said: "That is a contemptuous name for us!"
Gold teeth are really gold teeth, made of gold pieces into braces, which are only removed when eating.
They also have brother tribes, the Silver-toothed Man and the Black-toothed Man, who also use silver pieces to make braces or directly dye their teeth black.
This is a privilege belonging to aristocratic men, not commoners or women.
The Dali envoy gradually became more arrogant from the initial bossy attitude, but still could not convince Ba Zhen to accept the canonization.
He could only return to the city to report the news and come back a few days later.
This time, an agreement was reached. Both sides stopped their troops. Dali recognized the Golden Teeth's possession of Xishuangbanna, but the Golden Teeth were not allowed to attack the Pu'er area again.
Gao Zhenshou and Ba Zhen, each with a small number of troops, met outside Pu'er City to swear an oath, and also invited the Bodhisattva Buddha to be a witness.
In early summer, both sides withdrew their troops from Pu'er.
Gao Zhenshou led the army back over the mountains and ridges. Before he reached Dali City, a horse came to report: "Bu'er (Pu'er) is gone!"
"Why not?" Gao Zhenshou was shocked. The messenger said: "The gold-toothed barbarians entered the city disguised as a tea seller and lurked in the city. Then the gold-toothed army rushed to kill them. The barbarians in the city set fire at night, and the defenders fought in fear.
Run away."
Gao Zhenshou was furious: "Ba Zhen, the barbarian, claimed to be the Supreme Buddha Lord, but he dared to break the oath he made in front of the Bodhisattva Buddha! Isn't he afraid of losing his majesty?"
It's useless to say more.
Pu'er was lost, and because of the mountains and rivers blocking it, Dali was better able to defend the south.
But the premise is that all the territory in the south is abandoned.
In another time and space, the Golden Tooth Kingdom continued to encroach on the territory of Dali, and finally even actually controlled Lincang, Dehong and other places.
Pu'er fell, and Gao Zhenshou's prestige plummeted.
He urgently returned to Dali City to control the king, spent a lot of money to bribe the Gao princes, and promoted the titles of nobles of various surnames.
The political situation was finally stabilized.
Ba Zhen, who had captured Pu'er, changed his past enterprising spirit and began to build a large-scale construction project in Xishuangbanna.
Countless captured civilians and soldiers worked there day and night, and many bodies were dragged and burned every day. They died of exhaustion.
Not only did they build a new capital, they also overhauled Buddhist temples and even invited eminent monks from Chenla to be abbots.
He is not only a king, but also a religious leader - the Supreme Buddha.
Then they imitated neighboring countries and established a three-level administrative system of "mang-qian-bang". It was similar to provinces and counties, but the "state" level was more like larger rural tribes. (In later generations, many place names in Yunnan and Southeast Asia were
With the word "国", it is most likely related to the Golden Teeth Kingdom.)
…
After reading the telegram in Luoyang, Ju Ming couldn't help but sigh: "It's such a mess, people have taken over Pu'er, and the monarchs and ministers of Dali pretended that nothing happened."
Zhang Bor thought to himself: If the King of Yu had not defeated Zhenla and Annan had become Jiaozhi Province, how could the Golden Tooth Kingdom dare to march north with all its strength?
Naturally, these words could not be said. Zhang Bor's speech was: "Dali has lost cities and territory one after another. Its soldiers have no fighting spirit and will have no fighting spirit. We can send troops."
Li Hanzhang said: "I thought we could postpone it for two years. Attacking Dali will require countless money and food to immigrate. In the past two years, the expedition to Western Liao and the emigration to the Anxi Protectorate have almost emptied the treasury. Fortunately, the weather has been good and there is some surplus.
"
"This opportunity cannot be missed," Li Bao said.
Ling Guxu retorted: "The Prime Minister of Dali is unpopular, and his political affairs will only become more and more chaotic. If you miss the opportunity at hand, you will have more opportunities to send troops in the future."
Zhang Guangdao said: "Sichuan, Guangxi, and Hunan provinces have already stocked up on grain and grass more than a year in advance. Military rations have actually been enough for a long time. All the court needs to allocate are various materials for subsequent immigration."
Wei Liangchen asked: "This time we send troops, we will also immigrate to Guizhou. How much should the number of immigrants be? In addition to Sichuan, which other province should provide immigrants? More and more people from Fujian and Guangdong provinces are going to sea. I'm afraid it won't be easy to force them.
We are recruiting immigrants, and Guangxi, Hunan, and Hubei are best left alone."
The ministers argued for a while, and then Ju Ming began to speak.
"This time to conquer Dali, we don't need to send too many troops. The total strength of the field army and regular army is 40,000. Then we select retired soldiers and trained militiamen, a total of 50,000 auxiliary troops, and try to persuade them to stay
Yunnan."
"The first batch of immigrants totaling 150,000 people was conscripted from Sichuan, Huainan, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang. They served as food transporters with the army and stayed in Yunnan and Guizhou after the war. Three years later, another 100,000 immigrants were conscripted. All
Organize it into a protective armor and practice it in your spare time, so it can be used for farming and fighting."
"The Ministry of Household Affairs, the Ministry of War, and the Supervisory Office all sent people to accompany the army to restrain the civil and military officials and prevent a large number of immigrants from dying! The Imperial Hospital summoned the best doctors in the country and collected medicinal materials from all over the country to properly prevent and treat diseases of the soldiers and immigrants.
Miasma plague!"
Pan Lianggui, the Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, said: "Your Majesty, there are too many immigrants. There must be enough money, but not enough food. If local governments suddenly purchase food on a large scale, local food prices will definitely skyrocket. Otherwise, wait for the Anxi Governor to
The government is self-sufficient and no longer needs to transport food supplies from the customs. When the time comes, will we go to conquer Dali?"
Ju Ming said: "It's not a big deal if the price of food rises a little, as long as it is controlled within ten cents per catty. The weather has been good in the past two years, and both the government and the private sector have stored food. In addition, you can go to Cochin Province to buy food."
Under normal circumstances, the price of food is generally around four or five cents.
Grain dealers go to the countryside to buy grain during the harvest season and even lower the price to two or three cents per catty, making it difficult for farmers to sell it even if they don't sell it.
If there is a good harvest, in order to avoid low prices and harming farmers, local governments will deliberately raise the price to buy the goods at a relatively low price and store them in Changping warehouses.
For two consecutive years, the Ming Dynasty had good weather, and there were a lot of stocks in Changpingcang across the country.
Although the Anxi Protectorate spent a lot of money and kept asking for additional immigrants, it only used Changpingcang in the northern provinces.
Because Sichuan often sent troops to conquer the barbarians, there was not much food stored there.
Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Fujian suffered huge floods a few years ago, and there were many subsequent minor floods. All kinds of constructive recovery require money and food. There is not much food in stock.
As for Guangdong and Guangxi, it would be a good idea not to go to other provinces to buy grain.
That leaves only Hunan, Hubei and Huainan.
As water conservancy projects have become more complete and the population has gradually increased, the grain output in the two lakes areas has caught up.
Huainan has always been a big granary.
There were 40,000 regular soldiers, 50,000 auxiliary soldiers, and 150,000 civilians and immigrants. In addition, the mobilization of supplies from each province also required Cao troops and a large number of civilians, as well as the follow-up resettlement of 200,000 soldiers and civilians. The whole set of food consumption was indeed very large.
It is so big that it can consume all Changping warehouses in Hunan, Hubei and Huainan provinces without affecting water transportation.
The reason for this is that Emperor Zhu issued a death order and the survival rate of those immigrants must be guaranteed.
From the time an immigrant is recruited, to the county, prefecture, and province for reporting, and then all the way to Guizhou and Yunnan, he needs to consume food throughout the process. Not to mention the officials and troops responsible for the recruitment and escort.
Moreover, the Yungui Mountain Road is too difficult to walk.
It is estimated that more than half of the food transported there has to be consumed on the rugged roads.
The logistics consumption of conquering Dali is no less than that of conquering the Western Regions!
Ju Ming said: "The Inspectorate sent more censors to inspect the local areas. If there is any problem in Changpingcang, they will immediately investigate and deal with it. If there is a fire in Changpingcang, everyone from the warehouse envoy to the petty officials will be beheaded. The local chief officials, as well as specialized officials, will be beheaded.
All officials in charge will be dismissed from their posts, and if there are any cases involved, they will be dealt with according to law."
The ministers held their breath and concentrated, thinking that another batch of heads would be lost.
"Shu Duke Bai Qi serves as the commander-in-chief of the Southern Expedition. Lin Chong, the commander-in-chief of Sichuan, and Yang Zaixing, the commander-in-chief of Guangxi, serve as deputy commanders."