This is an unexpected situation, which means a brand new challenge for Huang Zhiting.
Because of this expedition, she is no longer just a general like in the past, she also has to consider some political factors.
In her opinion, Gao Pragmatic left such a complicated situation in Nanyang to her, which was not only a kind of trust, but also a test.
Because she discovered very early on that the wife Gao Jingjing wanted was by no means a woman who only needed to be a husband and raise children. He seemed to appreciate the kind of woman who could show her own brilliance.
The simplest evidence is that when Gao Pangshi was transferred back to Beijing, the two of them had actually agreed for life. If it were another man, the simplest and most direct choice would have been for Huang Zhiting to resign and return the power of the Huang family to his father Huang Chengzu
, or simply hand it over to her younger brother Huang Yinglei, and she would either stay in the Huang family and be hired by Gao Pragmatic, or even worse, go directly with him.
But Gao Pragmatic did not consider this approach at all. Instead, he kept her in Annan. Not only did he give her a separate "fiefdom", but he also officially helped her to the stage. Together with Cen Ling, they formed two members of Annan's "Guangxi faction".
One of the big giants.
At first, she believed that the main reason Gao Pragmatic did this was that he was worried that Cen Ling would become uncontrollable after he returned to Beijing, so she used herself to contain Cen Ling.
This idea actually seemed right later, but after a while she figured out that this was just the most basic arrangement. In fact, Gao Pragmatic had a more rigorous and profound arrangement than this - he was deliberately giving Annan political power
Create factions.
Because shortly after Gao Pangshi left, Annan's government actually formed three factions: the Beijing faction, the Guangxi faction, and the local faction.
It stands to reason that the Beijing faction and the Guangxi faction are both "Da Ming factions" and should naturally form an alliance to suppress the local faction, but Huang Zhiting soon discovered that things are not that simple.
Because there are divisions within the Guangxi faction.
This kind of differentiation is not simply divided into the Cen faction and the Huang faction. To put it bluntly, it is actually more like the "Yong Ming faction" and the "Yong Gao faction".
Huang Zhiting discovered that she and Cen Ling could not actually represent the entire Guangxi faction, because among the chieftains who "moved" from Guangxi to Annan, only the group that sent the main force when they first followed Gao Pragmatic southward to Annan were the same group as she and Cen Ling.
Cen Ling also fully supports Gao Jingjing and listens to Gao Jingjing's arrangements for all matters.
And those chieftains who had never sent troops or sent very few troops often regarded themselves as loyal ministers of the Ming Dynasty and did not think that they needed to listen to the orders of a "former governor of Guangxi" who had left office.
Originally, this didn't matter, because from an administrative point of view, they now had to listen to the orders of the Annan Metropolitan Division, and the Annan Metropolitan Division itself was actually controlled by Beijing because of the "Jinghua Sixteen Articles".
But here lies the trouble. It is true that Jinghua Group is Annan's national policy group, but the governor himself is still Mo Maoqia. This means that in the eyes of some people, Mo Maoqia is still the "Annan orthodox"
, and Jinghua Group can only be regarded as the "ancient Prime Minister's Mansion" at best.
Then a situation appeared that Huang Zhiting had not expected at all: some chieftains who had moved from Guangxi began to interact privately with the local Annan faction. What alarmed her most was that her brother Huang Yinglei was actually one of them.
At this time, the situation within the Guangxi faction became a secret struggle between the "supporting Gao faction" headed by her and Cen Ling and another group of "supporting Ming faction" headed by Zhao.
The Zhao family was deceived by Huang Zhiting's plan at first (see the volume "Based on Guangxi"). Later, because of the highly pragmatic plan to move the town, they had to come all the way to Annan. Although they were not treated badly in the end and were given a house.
(a Xuanfu Division) plus two states, but in fact compared to the Guangxi period, the territory controlled by the Zhao family was almost one to one, but the population was more than 200,000 more.
It stands to reason that this is a profit, but people's hearts are always worried about inequality rather than scarcity. Zhao still thinks, "Why is it that the Cen and Huang families have become rich and I have to change?"
When Zhao was in Guangxi, he was the most powerful among the chieftains, and now he has naturally become the mainstay of this faction.
As for Huang Yinglei... Huang Zhiting gets a headache every time she thinks of her brother.
In fact, she knew very well why Huang Yinglei got involved with the Zhao family. The reason was very simple. Huang Yinglei felt that everything about the Huang family should belong to him. Why did it seem like they were separated now?
There is obviously a man like him in the family, but my sister can actually branch out on her own? According to the customs of the Ming Dynasty, although female chieftains are not uncommon, the prerequisite for a woman to inherit is that there are no brothers in the family to inherit. So Huang Yinglei felt that since I have this
Brother, why did you let your sister inherit half of it and leave?
As for this "kingdom", it was my sister who originally won it... It doesn't matter, the rules are the rules, and what's mine should be mine.
After discovering that the situation had developed like this, Huang Zhiting was a little nervous at the time, but soon she discovered another wonderful thing, that is, Gao Pragmatic had probably expected this situation.
Because the Beijing faction and the "supporting Gao faction" within the Guangxi faction can just suppress the local faction plus the "supporting Ming faction" within the Guangxi faction.
Here we have to talk about the highly pragmatic "enfeoffment". Let's not talk about the three southern towns of Annan (it has just been developed in Annan, and it is a land leased by Beijing). The best developed "original territory" of Annan
In the middle, Gao Pragmatic came up with a "staggered" "enfeoffment".
Roughly speaking, Jinghua occupied Thang Long and Hai Duong, which was regarded as the "central flowering" and then had a channel to connect to the outside. Then Huang Zhiting and Cen Ling occupied the easternmost and westernmost parts, and the remaining parts were "supported by the local faction and Guangxi".
Mingpai" to "fill in the blanks".
If the three southern towns are included at this time, it will form a situation in which Jinghua, Huang Zhiting, and Cen Ling occupy the southeast, southeast, west, and center respectively, and the rest is filled by "unstable elements."
In this situation, if there is any change between the local faction and the Ming-supporting faction, Gao Pragmatism can actually control it.
The most likely possibility is that they went straight to Thang Long, and there are tens of thousands of guards in Thang Long who can hold on. If they can't hold on, they can evacuate by water. There are two ways to evacuate by water according to the river, one is to go directly to the sea, and the other is to go to Thang Long.
Huang Zhiting's Haidong is impossible to "dead".
If they don't move to Shenglong, they can only go to the southeast and west. Huang Zhiting was not familiar with the situation in the three southern towns, but after visiting Jingang this time, she found that there were so many bastions around Jingang.
Knowing that going south is a dead end for them.
Then there are only two ways left, either go west to find trouble with Cen Ling, or go east to find trouble with Huang Zhiting, but no matter who you find, the Thang Long Garrison and the Golden Port Garrison can support you at any time.
Especially since her east coast is close to the sea, with Jinghua's strong maritime power, it is easy to support her. And it is not easy to find trouble with Cen Ling, because the west is a mountainous area, and Cen Ling can hold on for a long time even if he is besieged.
That was enough time for the two major security forces to dispatch and cooperate with Cen Ling to outflank them.
This is Annan's overall situation. I'm afraid no one understood it at first, but now as time goes by, it turns out that everything has been expected by Gao Pangpang, and the countermeasures have been arranged long ago.
However, there has been a slight change in the recent situation, that is, Annan needs to send troops "abroad", and once the war goes smoothly, Annan will become the hand behind Siam and Laos in the future. At this moment, if Annan can still only
Relying on internal checks and balances to maintain stability seems a bit unsatisfactory and it is difficult to concentrate strength.
At this time, Annan needed someone who could completely control the situation.
Huang Zhiting knew that this person did not necessarily have to be herself. She could have chosen Gao Mengnan, or even Gao Wuqin. But although Gao Mengnan's surname was Gao, he was actually the adopted son of Gao Jingshi, Gao Jingshi's uncle. Gao Jingshi was not necessarily willing to take over the entire Annan, Siam and
Luo, Laos and Cambodia were handed over to him.
As for Gao Wuqin, his young age is just one aspect. The most important thing is that his ability has not been proven. How dare Gao Wuqin throw the "land of the Four Kingdoms" to him all at once?
At this time, the best choice was Huang Zhiting, who had a lifelong relationship with him. Although the unification of Huang Zhiting and Vice-President Annan was not at the behest of Gao Pragmatic, he immediately made corresponding arrangements, including transferring Gao
Jing was transferred to Huang Zhiting, which also included asking Huang Zhiting to go to Jingang in person to participate in the military parade, receive troops, inspect defense, etc.
And all of this is not just a task for Huang Zhiting, because as long as she wants to be "Mrs. Gao", then these are all responsibilities.
In the past, it was almost all about fighting, and at most dealing with the internal affairs of a government, and since everyone in the government was surrounded by his cronies, things would certainly be easy to handle.
In the future, we will not only have to deal with the complicated internal affairs of Annan, but also the "diplomacy" of who knows what kind of situation it will be. Of course, the difficulties will be much greater.
So what is happening right now can be used as a training ground.
In the eyes of the Ming Dynasty, Myanmar is its own foreign toast, and Portugal also regards it as the "next dish". The thoughts of its own "Gao Lang" are not clear - what exactly does he intend to do with Myanmar? Let Ming Dynasty
Take it back, or treat it as the second Annan?
He didn't say.
Huang Zhiting didn't think Gao Jingshi wanted to hide anything from her. She thought Gao Jingshi probably hadn't decided yet, maybe he was hesitating, or maybe he planned to make a decision based on the situation.
But Gao Pragmatic's hesitation does not mean that she also hesitates. In fact, she does not hesitate at all.
In her opinion, it didn't matter whether the Ming Dynasty had Burma as its external Xuanwei Department. It had never been taken seriously before. If Burma had not danced happily and even started to peek into the hinterland of Yunnan, the Ming Dynasty would not have bothered to care about its life or death.
On Gao Pangshi's side, he has been planning on Myanmar for a long time, accepting the Dao brothers and sisters, contacting Na Li Xuan, and even preparing troops and horses.
Therefore, in Huang Zhiting's view, although he sent troops this time to cooperate with Yunnan's counterattack, in the final analysis, he wanted to find a way to turn Myanmar into the second Annan.
Since it is one's own reserved land, it is best not to keep certain future troubles - such as the Portuguese de Brito mentioned by Alfaro. It is even better to prevent the Portuguese from having any ideas about Myanmar. This is a bit difficult.
Done.
Not to mention that the Portuguese are difficult to deal with, De Brito alone is very troublesome.
Huang Zhiting has seen the situation map drawn by Gao Pangshi. That "Ceylon" is not close to Myanmar. It is absolutely impossible for her to send troops to Ceylon this time to destroy De Brito's lair. The only way is to lure De Brito himself.
Come to Myanmar to die.
But when I go to Myanmar, I have to face the pressure of Mang Yingli going south to return reinforcements at any time. The Portuguese are also very strong, and now they have to add the Spaniards who have just annexed Portugal...
Wait, merger?
Huang Zhiting's heart moved and she thought to herself: Gao Lang said that Spain and Portugal were rivals. The guy named Philip II led troops into Portugal and then forcibly ascended the throne. Doesn't that mean...
She turned her beautiful eyes and suddenly said to Alfaro: "I once heard that after the Portuguese controlled the Malacca sea route, the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty were not allowed to cross westward, and merchants from Tianzhu were not allowed to come eastward. Now your fleet comes from the Philippines, but they want to
It seems that traveling back to Europe via Malacca is not covered by the Portuguese ban?”
Alfaro listened to the translation, hesitated for a moment, and finally shook his head and said: "Your Excellency, you have misunderstood. The Kingdom of Portugal has not relaxed the ban yet. The reason why our fleet dares to leave is because the commander of the fleet, Sir Diego, is carrying King Philip II with him.
His majesty's order, his status... In the words of your country, he is an imperial envoy."
Unexpectedly, Huang Zhiting was still reluctant and asked: "This is a bit strange. Since the king of your country is also the king of Portugal, why can't he directly order the Portuguese in Malacca to relax the ban? Could it be that... these Portuguese countries
Officials dare to disobey orders?"
In this era, most of the priests who are willing to travel far and wide to preach the gospel still have relatively firm beliefs. Although they know clearly that the "Joan of the East" in front of him is trying to trick him, they are not willing to lie.
He was silent for a while, then finally said with a wry smile: "Your Excellency, to be honest, the situation in Portugal is relatively complicated. Although His Majesty the King has been crowned, there are indeed some voices of opposition in Portugal. Moreover, His Majesty has always been kind and unwilling to
He puts his own will completely above the people, so it is difficult for your Majesty to announce the lifting of this ban in the short term."
If Gao Pragmatic were here, he would probably sneer in his heart, because he knows that Philip II's rule in Portugal is not stable at all, and it can even be said that trouble may occur at any time.
This situation began with the crisis of the Portuguese throne. It was the summer of 1578, when King Sebastian of Portugal led an invading army and landed in Tangier with the deposed Sultan Abdul Malik II of Morocco. He was arrogant and self-confident.
However, he refused to listen to the advice of his subordinates, went deep into the enemy's territory alone, and launched the most painful battle in Portuguese history with Sultan Abdul Malik I of Morocco.
In this battle, although the Moroccan army was slightly inferior in equipment, it attacked very fiercely. The Portuguese army led by Sebastian was forced to retreat. Then when crossing the Mahazan River, the Portuguese king accidentally drowned. He was only 24 years old.
age.
It would be fine if this old man died himself. The problem is that he is the only son of the former King of Portugal, Joao III. In other words, Joao III's line will be extinct when he comes to him. Therefore, the Kingdom of Portugal is vacant and must be selected based on blood.
The new king.
The person who was the same generation as John III and the second in line of succession to the King of Portugal at that time was his sister Princess Isabel.
This princess was the wife of Charles V and the mother of Philip II. Therefore, theoretically speaking, King Philip II of Spain should be indisputably the direct heir.
The second in line of succession after him is Antonio, the illegitimate son of Joao III's brother Louis, who is the abbot of Claes Monastery; the third in line of succession is Joao III's brother, the regent Archbishop En.
Rick, he is the only living brother of King Joao III; and the last in line is Duchess Catarina, daughter of Prince Duarte, brother of Joao III.
As a result, after Sebastian's death, the only surviving brother of his father Joao III, the regent Archbishop Enrique, first ascended to the throne of the king. However, King Enrique was already 64 years old at the time and was frail and could not have any more children.
Once he dies, the throne can only be inherited by the crown princes of his grandchildren. Among the grandchildren, Philip II is ranked first, followed by Antonio and Catarina.
But now, it is not just a matter of blood. The Portuguese must consider one thing: if they choose Antonio, it means choosing Portugal's independence; and if they choose King Philip II of Spain, they choose to be with Spain.
The union of the Spanish throne. At the same time, given the strength of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, Portugal will inevitably only play the role of "little brother" in the future.
As a result, the Portuguese nobles and upper class tended to choose to unite with Spain, because at this time Morocco demanded a large ransom from Portugal for releasing prisoners of war. The nobles were eager to make up for their blood, and chose Philip II, which was to choose wealth——
Philip II owned two major silver mines in America and a large number of minerals.
Moreover, the union with Spain also means the opening of the border between Spain and Portugal. Portugal's mainland and its trade in the east and Brazil can be protected by Spain's powerful fleet. However, the craftsmen, fishermen and urban civilians at the bottom openly support
Independent because they were very dissatisfied with the nobility.
Later, during the battle for the throne, Antonio was declared the King of Portugal due to the support of the majority of the people. Philip II was so angry that he simply led his troops into Lisbon and was crowned king with the support of the nobles.
However, the people at the bottom of Portugal did not like Philip II, who was deposed by the Netherlands, and there was serious opposition between the upper and lower classes in Portugal.
It can be said that Portugal is now like the crater of an active volcano, which may erupt at any time. Under such circumstances, how could Philip II dare to directly lift the navigation ban on Malacca? You must know that most of the colonists in those colonies were
They went out to "open up" because they couldn't survive in the country. If Philip II further stimulates them, these scum might just follow the example of the Dutch and declare their independence.
Huang Zhiting is not Gao Pragmatic. She obviously cannot know the domestic situation in Portugal so well, but she has an almost blind trust in Gao Pragmatic. Gao Pragmatic told her: Philip II's rule in Portugal is very unstable because of the two countries.
The contradiction is a huge conflict of interests - Spain has always coveted Portugal's vast market in the east, while the Portuguese adhere to the "Treaty of Tordesillas" and believe that the Pope has divided the colonial scope of both parties and Spain cannot exceed it.
Gao Pragmatic said that even if the Portuguese upper class wants to use Spain's strength to reduce their pressure, they only want to use Spain and do not really want to share interests with Spain. At the same time, the Spanish nobles and the king are not of the same mind. They just want to
The Portuguese market is not willing to help Portugal wipe its butt, because Spain is also in a lot of troubles at the moment, especially in the Netherlands - the situation there has been so corrupt that Spain has deployed 80,000 to 90,000 troops in the Netherlands.
If you can't control the situation, why would you want to be a shooter for Portugal?
Huang Zhiting smiled in front of Alfaro for the first time and said with a smile: "I have a deal. I wonder if your envoy is willing to hear about it?"
Alfaro blinked and bowed slightly: "Please speak clearly."
Huang Zhiting said calmly: "The Ming Dynasty lent Macao to Spain as a temporary residence and trading point, and at the same time expelled the Portuguese."
Alfaro's expression changed drastically: "This... Your Excellency, are you serious about this?"
"really."
"Sir, with all due respect, can you guarantee that you have such authority?"
"I don't." Huang Zhiting smiled slightly: "However, Jinghua's boss Gao Qiu Zhengong can guarantee it."
"I have heard about this most knowledgeable man in the Ming Empire, but as far as I know, he is not currently serving in the southern part of the empire. I'm worried..."
"Zhang Gong, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, was his colleague when he was serving in Guangxi, and Gao Gong had a life-saving grace for Zhang Gong. Since you have studied Chinese, you should know how important a life-saving grace is in the eyes of Han people."
Alfaro took a deep breath, his throat moved several times, and then asked: "This is a serious matter. I'm afraid I need to discuss it carefully with Sir Diego before I can make an answer. However, I want to ask one thing first: Your Excellency needs
What does Spain do?”
Huang Zhiting smiled again, this time with a warm spring smile.
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Thanks to book friends "Piping Xiantu", "Source of Horror w", and "Dou'er 852" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!
PS: This chapter talks about the situation in Spain and Portugal, which may be considered too short by some readers, so I specially gave it about 800 words.
