national surname chiming

Chapter 493 Everything is according to plan

Although Zhu Ciyu nominally became pro-government, in the first six months of pro-government, the big rhythm of the government was still completely controlled by his father Zhu Shuren.

Zhu Ciyu only gained considerable autonomy in handling daily government affairs.For example, Zhu Shuren would sometimes stop participating in the court every few days, especially the Grand Court Meeting.

Anyway, the content of these court meetings is nothing more than whether certain prefectures need disaster relief, whether a certain province needs special funding to strengthen water conservancy repairs, whether there are any new construction projects in Heilongjiang or Kyushu that require additional budget and technical personnel support, and so on.

Any major event that takes a year as a cycle will not be discussed and decided at this kind of court meeting.

This situation is like a group. The original CEO finally does not need to receive a bunch of emails every morning when he arrives at the company, and then waste an hour or two to browse through and pick out the key points to reply.All these tasks can be delegated to newcomers.

Zhu Shuren was already tired of these tedious and mundane tasks, and he was eager to throw them out.And Zhu Ciyu is also full of freshness and energy, and it is just right for the two to get what they need.

Taking advantage of Zhu Ciyu's freshness, the three months between the spring and summer of Xiaokang's fifth year passed quickly and smoothly, and Zhu Ciyu didn't make any fuss.

As time came to May, the Ming court finally started a big move this year according to the original plan—that is, according to the rhythm that Zhu Shuren told his son before, he began to send envoys of diplomatic condemnation to Burma and Vietnam to communicate with them. Vernacular vernacular old accounts from four or five years ago.

As we all know, four and a half years ago, when Zhu Changhao had just passed away and Zhu Ciyu had just ascended the throne, there were still three or four small-scale rebellions by careerists in the Ming Dynasty. .

Although the scale of those rebellions can really be described as pitiful, at most a few thousand armed forces were assembled, and all temporary mobs were counted.The one that lasted the longest didn't last more than two months, and it was immediately extinguished.

But the problem of their remnants escaping and dispersing does still exist, and Daming also has evidence to prove that those people either went north or went south.

Daming was just not in a hurry to pursue it before, and wanted to live a peaceful life for a few years, but this procrastination lasted for a full four years, and now he came to settle the old score.

In mid-summer, the scorching heat of May and June, going to the tropical neighboring countries in the south to fight with each other, this job is of course very hard work, and the health of the envoys must also be considered, whether they can make it to Burma alive in the summer, and whether they will be halfway Heat kills.

So Zhu Shuren did not directly send officials from the Ministry of Rites in Nanjing to Burma, but only sent people from Nanjing to Kunming to announce the decree to Li Dingguo, and then authorized Li Dingguo to select two local officials from Yunnan to go to Burma and Vietnam with credentials.

The living climate environment and adaptability of the local people in Yunnan are not so different from those in Myanmar and Vietnam. The envoys from Nanjing should leave Nanjing in early May and should be able to arrive in Yunnan in mid-June.Officials departing from Kunming will arrive in Myanmar in early July.

……

The rulers of Burma and Vietnam were of course unwilling to give in to Daming's sudden questioning.

The current king of the Taungoo Dynasty in Myanmar is Mangbai, and he was considered a relatively powerful Burmese king at that time——

In the original history, Mangbai killed his elder brother in a coup d'état in 1661. In the following year, he changed his previous king Mang Dali's stock-raising attitude and initiated the disaster of curse water, killing more than 30 ministers of Emperor Yongli. Killed a bunch of guards and soldiers, and then tied Yongli to Wu Sangui, which shows that he is still a bit ruthless.

It's just that history has been completely turned upside down now, and Da Ming has regained his senses, and his relationship with Da Ming had no contradictions before.

However, a person's temperament endowment is often brought out of the mother's womb and formed through the accumulation of years of life experience.Since Mangbai is such a ruthless and ruthless hero, it is destined that he will not become soft just because of the slightest disturbance.

Even though Daming’s statement of credentials was very harsh, his first thought was that “it’s midsummer, and the Ming army can’t do anything against the Burmese army in the tropical rainforest of the southern Shan State Plateau”, so even if he was afraid, he didn’t rush it for a while.

It's better to prepare for the battle first, then recruit foreign aid, and then delay him for a few months to see the direction of the wind.

If there is a chance to stabilize the situation, then there is no need to give in.If the wind direction is wrong, or if there is any danger, it will not be too late to calm down when winter approaches.

Anyway, Daming is the kingdom of the heavens, and they want face and quality.From ancient times to the present, it has never been heard that someone who submitted a letter to Daming to admit his mistakes and surrender, expressing a change of heart, was not accepted by Daming.

Since Daming is so talented, of course he should make full use of this weakness of Daming to take advantage of it as much as possible.

After Mangbai understood this ideal, of course he would not waste time, so he immediately made several preparations.

He recruited his sons Mang Luo, Mang Liti and his confidant Dibouti, plus Van Derif, the business representative of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in Bagu.

He first instructed Crown Prince Mang Luo: "You supervised it yourself immediately, and people arrested a group of scapegoats. Among them must be some remnants of the Ming rebels who entered Burma a few years ago.

Find two chieftains of the chieftain tribe who have been swinging between Ming and Burmese in recent years.Then the former was captured alive and brought back to the Ming Dynasty envoy, and the latter was chopped up directly, and the Ming Dynasty envoy took the head back.

Then he formally replied to the Daming envoy with good words, saying that the fact of taking in the traitor was a temporary mistake and was not intentional.It’s just that it’s been a long time, and most of the immigrants have disappeared. I can only find these few in Myanmar, and they have already handed them over, which shows the sincerity of my Myanmar.

However, Daming's request to cede all the chieftain tribes to Daming cannot be fulfilled for a while. I hope that Daming will withdraw this request, and there is no way to talk about the rest of the cession of land for compensation. "

Even if Mangbai intends to resist, he will not give Daming face completely.He felt that killing a few minor characters among the surrendered generals, as well as a few disobedient tribal chieftains, and giving Daming a step down, was a price he could pay.After all, this is all about saving face, and there is almost no real benefit.

Mang Luo didn't disobey his father's intention, and did it directly.

After the frontal diplomacy stabilized, Mangbai continued his internal armaments and attempts to win over other foreign aid.

So he ordered his other son, Mang Liti, to mobilize Myanmar's own army as soon as possible, to strengthen the walls and clear the country, and to prepare for the war.

Again, he ordered his confidant minister, Di Buti, to contact various forces in Vietnam to see if anyone was willing to form a group against Daming.

This man can be regarded as a well-known diplomatic liar under Mangbai. In history, Mangbai sent him to deceive Mu Guogong and Emperor Yongli, saying that he would invite them to drink curse water and make an oath, and then deceive everyone around Emperor Yongli Come kill.

Accepting the task of uniting Vietnam at this moment can be regarded as returning to the old business, a coincidence of history.

Today's Vietnam is actually divided into two dynasties and four surnames, and the interior is also very chaotic. It is absolutely impossible to say that all the forces are willing to join forces to deal with Daming.

However, considering the internal enmity between various forces in Vietnam.So once a part of them joins Da Ming, the other part will definitely have to fight against Da Ming, so it is indeed worth uniting.

……

After arranging the three aspects of delay, mobilization and finding foreign aid, Mangbai's last pawn was his trade relationship with the Dutch East India Company——

But don't think of Myanmar in the 1660s as a primitive Nanban country.At that time, the Taungoo Kingdom of Burma already had a standing army of 7 people, of which 5000 were musketeers using originally imported Dutch flintlock guns.

Because the Dutch opened a VOC office in Burma’s Bago Port as early as 1627. When the conflict between Ming Dynasty and Myanmar broke out, the history of trade between the Burmese and Western colonists has lasted for 40 years. .

To put it bluntly, the exchange mode between Myanmar and the West at that time was already close to the Mughal Empire in India to a certain extent. The British, the Dutch, and the Portuguese all did business all year round.They will not ban the sea like the Ming and Qing dynasties in history.

It is precisely for this reason that the Qing army actually suffered several defeats during the conflicts with Myanmar during the Yongzheng period and the Qing-Myanmar war during the Qianlong period in history (but people like Agui and Heshen reported internally that Victory), because after the Burmese army entered the 18th century, the muskets were definitely much more powerful than the Qing army.

Audiences of later generations imagined the Burmese army as only relying on poisonous arrows and war elephants to win, all because of the poisonous whitewashing of Qiong Yao's braided dramas such as "Huan Zhu Ge Ge".

Of course, since ancient times, when Europeans traded with East Asian and Southeast Asian countries, they always kept a hand.

So even though Myanmar has been doing business with the Dutch East India Company for 40 years, the muskets they actually bought are basically the products of the previous generation of the Dutch in terms of quality and style.

European colonists were never kind enough to sell the most advanced weapons directly to Asians.

Consider the bloody iterations and eliminations of the past 30 years of war in Europe, and the Dutch struggle with Britain in the past half century.The mainstream of the flintlock guns sold by the Dutch to the King of Burma are pre-war production models that were eliminated by the war after the 1618-year war in 30. There are about [-] to [-] pieces.

There are also a few that were eliminated during the first Anglo-Dutch war in 1652. This is already considered the best, and more than 1000 were equipped in the Burmese army.

But now, facing the direct threat of Ming Dynasty, Mangbai had no choice but to continue to spend more rubies, sapphires and other precious jewels in the Burmese treasury, promised the Dutch a certain mining right, and tried every means to urgently purchase more weapons from the Netherlands.

VOC's business representative in Bagu, Van Derif, was also a little embarrassed when he heard about Mangbai's request.Because the trade relationship between the Netherlands and Daming is still pretty good now, he doesn't want to get into trouble anymore.

However, the integrity of European colonial adventurers is after all at the level of domestic slaves with three surnames per capita. How can principles be worth real money for personal benefits?Mangbai has been dealing with the Dutch for many years, so he chose to give Van Derif a large amount of bribes and jewelry, and immediately made the Dutch submit.

In the end, Van Derif said in private: "Your Majesty the King, you want to get more Dutch muskets, unless you agree to two additional conditions."

Mangbai didn't talk too much nonsense, and let Van Derif just fart.Van Derif was not polite: "First of all, we in the Netherlands don't want to have a deadlock in relations with Daming, so no matter how many muskets you get, if your country really goes to war with Daming in the future, please bite the bullet,

It is admitted that these muskets were gradually accumulated before the war, because of the trade in the past 40 years.Anyway, even if we deliver the goods after the war in your country, we will only admit that it was delivered before the war, or the information is not well-informed, and the specific traders do not know that you have started a war with Daming. "

Mangbai didn't bother to worry about this point, and nodded straightforwardly: "Okay, I just want weapons, so why betray you if you have nothing to do? Your Netherlands is thousands of miles away. If you betray you, you can't be dragged into war with Daming. It’s all about harming others and benefiting oneself. Alright, let’s talk about the next condition.”

Van Derif continued to offer the price: "Another difficulty in selling you weapons is that the delivery cycle is too long. If you can wait two years, or at least one and a half years, then we can go back to the Netherlands and place an order slowly, and then ship it .

But I am afraid that if you are in a hurry, the supply scale is very limited. I can only find a way to communicate with the garrisons in Batavia and Palembang as soon as possible to replace some of our VOC's active equipment. It is urgent. supply to you.

But we want to ensure the safety of our own trade, we can only give a small part, and the price will be very high - how much we can provide depends on your bid, you know, we take a lot of risk in this kind of trade . "

Mangbai also understood this point, saying that as long as the Dutch try to help him raise money, the price is negotiable.As for the gadgets that will be delivered in one and a half years, he absolutely can't wait. Let the Dutch's own armed forces wait for the replenishment in one and a half years. He can give a small deposit first, but it is impossible to pay the full amount in advance. .

Van Derif and Mangbai negotiated again, and finally set a deposit of [-]% for new European orders, and the remaining [-]% will wait for one and a half to two years before cash on delivery.As for the spot goods transferred from Batavia and other places, Mangbai must pay the full amount immediately, and the payment will be delivered.

After making this plan, Mangbai was finally not so worried.All he can do is wait, because even if the muskets are transported from Batavia to Bago, the round trip will take more than two months, which is much faster than the one and a half years of transferring goods from Europe.

While waiting, he would continue to argue with Daming's diplomacy. If he could solve the problem without ceding the land or giving up the vassal chieftain, even if he wanted to give Daming some gifts, that would be acceptable.

It's a pity that Reckless's wrangling attempts didn't work. Daming always killed him and demanded land as an apology, and Myanmar had to give up those chieftains on the Shan plateau who were swinging between Daming and Myanmar.

In other words, for the sins of the past, Daming only allowed Myanmar to retain most of its directly-administered territories, and for those places where even Myanmar itself could only be ruled by "Jimi", they had to be handed over to Daming, and then Daming would slowly reform the territory .

With such a stalemate in the negotiations, Mangbai also fell into hesitation, and the time dragged on for more than a month, and it was almost late August.

Just when Mangbai was hesitating, he was shocked by the news that a gun went off at the border.

That day was about the [-]th day of the eighth lunar month. Although the Mid-Autumn Festival had passed, the scorching heat had not yet completely ended on the tropical rainforest plateau in Southeast Asia.Mangbai never thought that the Ming army might attack at this time.In his original forecast, the Ming army would have to wait until October to come again.
Because winter is the coolest in the south, and the rainy season in the ninth month of the lunar calendar on the Shan State Plateau has not yet ended, so it is hot and humid.Although it does not rain all the time, even if it is just a torrential rain for an hour or two around noon every day, it will lead to muddy humidity and mosquito breeding.

Mangbai has become accustomed to the setting that "people in the Central Plains cannot endure the humid tropical living environment". This setting has been branded in the hearts of the monarchs of Southeast Asian countries since Zhu Di invaded Vietnam.Now that the Ming army made a surprise attack, they caught the Burmese by surprise.

Because there were not enough troops deployed at the front, after the Ming envoy suddenly announced that "the negotiations broke down because Myanmar was not sincere and refused to agree to the conditions of the Ming ultimatum", the Ming army immediately drove straight in, and first obtained the initial stage of interspersed operations in the border area. victory.

Because the Burmese army was not fully fortified, Li Dingguo led tens of thousands of elite Ming troops to enter Burma from Yunnan along the Nu River valley.

After using cavalry artillery to penetrate several Burmese camps and fortresses along the throat of the Nu River valley, Li Dingguo continued to advance rapidly, leaving behind the flank troops of the Burmese army that fell on both sides of the Nu River, and also cut off their supply through the waterway. channel.

At this point in the matter, Mangbai could only admit that he was unlucky, and immediately organized the main force of the Burmese army, preparing to go north to intercept Li Dingguo.

(End of this chapter)