Chapter 198 The Commander-in-Chief of the Three Towns
"To be honest, I really didn't expect you to deal with Annan... like this."
In the small pavilion in the backyard of Prince Yuan Qian's palace, Gao Mengnan was filled with emotion: "Did you plan to put Annan under Jinghua's control from the beginning?"
Gao Pragmatic smiled slightly and said: "Putting Annan under the control of Jinghua is the best situation I expected. In fact, the lowest standard in my mind at the beginning was to control the Mo family and then keep the tug of war with the Zheng family.
In a state of war, in this case, the Mo family will have to rely on Jinghua's power to protect themselves because of the threat from the Zheng family.
But things went too smoothly later on, and I found that the Annan people were not very powerful, and the timing was very coincidental, so it would be better to deal with them once and for all, so as to facilitate the implementation of the next plan."
When Gao Mengnan heard the "next step plan", he suddenly became serious and asked: "When you mentioned this, I have to ask, what do you want to do next? I heard Gao Jue say that you seem to be interested in the people further south.
Are Champa and even Chenla interested?"
Whether it is called Chenla, Khmer, or Cambodia, it actually corresponds to the Phnom Penh Dynasty of Cambodia. In the Song Dynasty, this country was called Chenla, also known as Zhenlifu; in the Yuan Dynasty, it was called "Gan Bozhi"; "History of the Ming Dynasty"
He is called "the willing warrior".
In fact, in the fifth year of Xuande in the Ming Dynasty (1430), Siam invaded the Khmer Empire, surrounded Angkor Thom for seven months, and finally defeated Angkor. Because Angkor was too close to the Siamese border, the Khmer Empire abandoned Angkor and moved its capital to Phnom Penh.
After that, Chinese historical documents began to call this country Cambodia.
After the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, almost all Chinese literature referred to it as "Cambodia".
"Ji Bu Shi", "Gan Bozhi", "Gan Wu Zhe", and "Cambodia" are actually antiphons to Camboja, while Chenla and Zhenlifu come from Siem Reap.
Of course, literature belongs to literature, and some people are still more accustomed to calling it Zhenla, and Gao Mengnan is obviously one of them.
Gao Pragmatic's face suddenly darkened, and there was even a touch of lingering worry. He was silent for a while and then said: "Second brother, I know how to observe the sky and the earth's atmosphere. Do you know this?"
Gao Mengnan was slightly startled and said hesitantly: "I never heard you say it, but I heard many outsiders had this rumor... Is this actually true?"
Of course it's false, it's just that I have to say it now.
Gao Pingshi said: "The phenomena of the sky and the atmosphere of the earth have their own laws, but it is difficult for the world to know them all. There is a saying that 'the morning glow does not go out, but the sunset travels thousands of miles' and so on. In fact, it is a kind of observing the sky, but it is superficial.
"
The implication is that it is not shallow for him to be at a higher level than someone else.
Although Gao Pragmatic was just bragging, Gao Mengnan obviously believed it. There was nothing he could do if he didn't believe it. Some things couldn't be explained.
"So, what did you see in the sky?" Gao Mengnan asked nervously.
Later generations have made it clear that fear comes from ignorance. The same is true for Gao Mengnan's nervousness now. He doesn't understand celestial phenomena, but his younger brother, who is the number one scholar in the Sixth Prize, probably understands, and the miraculous ability of "predicting celestial phenomena" cannot be solved.
It will make people nervous.
Gao Pragmatic looked up at the distant sky and said quietly: "I see that in the next few decades, there will be an unusual number of natural disasters in the Ming Dynasty, especially in the north. Droughts, floods, locusts, ice disasters and even earthquakes can be said to be continuous.
.As a result, food production in many places has been reduced, or even no harvests have been harvested. Thousands of miles of bare land and millions of refugees..."
Gao Mengnan's face was a little dull and he swallowed: "Is it so serious?"
Gao pragmatic nodded heavily and continued: "If I can't see or calculate, then that's fine. But since I can see and calculate, I have to find a way to solve it, or at least alleviate it a little or two.
Do you think it is true, brother, that you have learned so much from me?"
Gao Mengnan nodded: "Yes, it is true." After a pause, he asked: "So, you want to make those fertile fields in Zhenla available to you, so that you can produce more rice in the future to provide for the people of Ming Dynasty?"
"Brother, do you think it's feasible?" Gao pragmatically asked.
"Whether it's feasible or not, I don't know now, but..." Gao Mengnan frowned slightly: "Although the imperial court has always supported the gentry from all over the country to take the initiative to provide relief to the local area and alleviate the disaster, but you said that there are serious and continuous disasters in the entire north, if
The scale of your disaster relief is too large. Will the court misunderstand it?"
"Second brother is really worried." Gao pragmatically said calmly: "So, when the time comes, I won't be able to say that I will provide relief to the people. I can only use the food to negotiate business with the court and try to weaken the sense of relief in it."
"Doing business with the imperial court?" In fact, doing business with the imperial court is not a strange thing. The imperial court often purchases various materials from the private sector. Gao Mengnan is worried about the other side: "If disasters continue in the north, the imperial court will have extra financial resources.
Do you want to buy these grains?”
"In the beginning, the imperial court might be able to afford it, but as time goes by, the imperial court will be less able to afford the money. I'm sure of this." Gao Pragmatic had a worried look on his face, but his tone was calm: "So
, I will need to reach another agreement with the court by then."
“For example, Jinghua is allowed to send troops south to Cambodia and other places to raise cheap food for the country, and at the same time... it is allowed to transfer internal refugees to Annam, Champa, Cambodia and other places as ‘real borders’.”
Needless to say, Annan, Champa, Cambodia and other countries were all theoretically vassal states of the Ming Dynasty, and "real borders" were not nonsense in name.
Gao Mengnan thought carefully: At first glance, this method is indeed the best of both worlds, but... will the court doubt the intention of seeking truth?
When he raised this question, Gao Pragmatic tilted his head slightly and said: "Because of such worries, Jinghua's asking price cannot be too low, and it must be 'discussed in business'."
He sighed and said: "At that time, I will propose to implement what Jinghua is doing in Annan in Champa, Cambodia and other places. In other words... in addition to ensuring that the place is still a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, Jinghua will control
All powers in these countries and regions will be fully under the control of Beijing."
Gao Mengnan's face became tense, he looked around cautiously, and lowered his voice and said, "Aren't you afraid that the emperor will suspect that you want to establish a new country?"
"To be honest, brother, this is also something I have been worried about recently." Gao Pragmatic sighed: "The emperor has great trust in me, but if I am in Annan...or the countries in southern Xinjiang are becoming more and more powerful.
It’s big, but it’s hard to guarantee that the emperor won’t think too much about it.”
"Then what should we do?" Gao Mengnan became nervous: "Everything else is easy to say. With the reputation and status of our Gao family, no matter how rich we are in the country, it will not be a problem, but if in the southern Xinjiang countries... we actually surpass the royal families
Above that, isn't it a country within a country? Besides, you now control an army of 80,000 in Annan. If you add servants and so on, or even wolf soldiers, it will be an army of more than 100,000. If the territory is expanded in the future,
If we expand, we will probably have hundreds of thousands of troops at our disposal sooner or later... I wonder if the emperor wouldn't be worried!"
Gao pragmatic nodded and said: "So, now I may still have the opportunity to serve abroad, but from now on... I may have to stay in the capital and not go out."
"Oh... you mean to use yourself as a hostage in exchange for the emperor's peace of mind?" Gao Mengnan felt a little more at ease, and then hesitantly said: "It doesn't sound impossible, but... you must be careful, don't really
It has aroused suspicion. When the time comes, you will be in the capital, and if the emperor is persuaded by the traitor, you will be in too much danger."
"Probably not. There are several points here that can ensure my safety." Gao Pragmatic thought for a while and said: "First, I am a civilian official after all. As long as I do not take over the military power of the imperial court, generally speaking, the imperial court will
It is unlikely that he would attack me. No civil servants in the world would agree. Even officials from the Xinxue school cannot tolerate such a situation."
"Secondly, the countries in southern Xinjiang will provide continuous support to the Ming Dynasty. The more frequent and serious the disasters the court faces, the more inseparable it is from this support. If you kill me in that case, Nan Xinjiang will
Do we still need the support of Xinjiang? Not to mention whether the emperor is such a ruthless person, even if he is, he still has to consider the consequences... Is my power in southern Xinjiang more serious and the harm is more serious, or the country is thousands of miles away and there are hundreds of refugees.
Is Wan Wan's harm more serious? I think the emperor will have an account in his mind."
"Thirdly, he also needs to consider that since I will have such great power in southern Xinjiang by then, if I were to suddenly kill me and create a 'complete rebellion in southern Xinjiang', would the Ming Dynasty be able to afford it?"
Gao Mengnan swallowed, feeling a little panicked, and sighed: "This...if the situation really comes to that point, you will be in a situation like walking on the edge of a cliff. I always feel that it is very dangerous."
Gao pragmatic also nodded and said: "So I have been thinking recently whether I can have a good talk with the emperor. After all, he and I have been together since childhood and have been classmates for ten years. Perhaps in his view, southern Xinjiang
The countries are nothing more than barbarian lands, no matter how powerful I am here, as long as they don’t let me go south, it won’t be a big problem at all?”
Gao Mengnan thought for a while and felt that this was not impossible. After all, the Ming Dynasty did not pay much attention to these southern barbarians. Even though many of them were thousands of years old, in fact, in the eyes of the Ming Dynasty, they were just big chieftains - the Ming Dynasty.
He is so confident, I don’t know whether to cry or laugh.
"Well, I don't think anyone knows the emperor as well as you. Since you think so, you should be somewhat sure. Brother Yu won't ask any more questions..." Gao Mengnan frowned: "Then let me ask you this time
Are you planning to let me be the 'logistics manager' again to prepare for future wars against Champa and other places?"
Gao pragmatically said: "In fact, it may not only be Champa, but Cambodia may also need you to preside over another thing - support a pair of lost princes and princesses in the Nanzhang Kingdom, help them fight against Burma, and even help them recover."
country, and also to win over the anti-Myanmar forces in Siam... It would be best to have them join forces with the Nanzhang country to cause some trouble for Myanmar."
"Your plan is really big." Gao Mengnan said with a wry smile: "I think these things are a bit much, and I don't know if I can handle them."
Gao pragmatic nodded and said sincerely: "It's quite complicated, but I will give the second brother enough authority... The three towns of Nie'an, Hue, and Guangnan are now the 'leases' of Jinghua, and I plan to let the second brother come
As the commander-in-chief of these three towns, Gao Zhang's Jingang garrison will also be led by his second brother during wartime."
----------
Thanks to book friend "Xuan You Ming" for your monthly ticket support, thank you! Please continue to ask for subscriptions and various tickets!~
