I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 527 Entering Wellness

In the tenth year of Jianwu, spring.

Every household in Nanjing celebrates the New Year.

Sichuan and Yunnan, thousands of miles away, are preparing for war.

The imperial decree for dispatching troops came down from the Nanjing imperial court, and there were also military dispatch orders issued by the Privy Council and the Cabinet. The grain transport fleet has already carried a large amount of grain and grass, starting from the two lakes and arriving in Sichuan and Yunnan first.

As for the rest of the ammunition and baggage, Sichuan and Yunnan had a lot of it, enough to support a war.

With Sichuan and Yunnan preparing for the war in an orderly manner, the New Year passed quickly, and the two thousand white-armed soldiers dispatched by Shili Xuanwei Division also arrived in Chengdu to join forces.

The leading general was also the grandson of the current ambassador, Ma Guangyu.

Zheng Dingrui did not dare to neglect and greeted him warmly: "Shi Ling's Xuanwei envoy to the Ma family is indeed my Ming Zhongliang."

Ma Guangyu was also very considerate. He immediately knelt down on one knee, cupped his hands and said, "Shili's two thousand elite white-pole soldiers are willing to be the vanguard and capture the Tatar puppet emperor alive for the imperial court."

Zheng Dingrui smiled even more happily. He was talking to a smart person who knew current affairs. It was as simple as this: "Okay, okay, with two thousand stone soldiers and white pole soldiers, this battle will be successful. We will wipe out the Tatars on the other side of the river and capture the Tatar puppets alive." emperor."

Some people know the appearance, and naturally some people don't.

The emperor's imperial decree not only required Yunnan to cooperate with Sichuan in the conquest of Kangzang, but also required the chieftains of the two provinces to cooperate with the imperial army in the battle.

As a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty, Shili Xuanwei Si naturally set an example and sent two thousand troops. The rest of the chieftain tribes in western Sichuan saw the situation and understood the imperial court's intentions. They also sent people to sell food. Even those who have nothing can serve as husbandmen and guides.

And these were all recorded by the court. They were nominally to reward merit, but in reality they were to see how many chieftains had unclear intentions or were weak and could forcibly change their status and return to their hometowns.

It can be said that when the emperor's imperial edict arrived in Sichuan, the fate of these chieftains was already doomed. Once the Kangzang Tatars were wiped out, the Ming Dynasty no longer had any worries in the southwest. Next, at least most of these western Sichuan chieftains would have to be forced to repatriate.

Of course, if you are wise, you can still keep your wealth, or even perform well, you can become the first mayor of a local town, prime minister of a local county, or something like that after you change your status.

The highest level can only be given to the Tuxian Prime Minister, because the Han exiled officials are not familiar with the internal affairs of the chieftains, and it is certainly impossible to give these returned chieftains too much power. Moreover, these native officials can only serve one term and have a term of office. Once the term is up, they must be re-elected.

Within two or three terms, native officials had to be elected by the tribesmen within the Tube. After two or three terms, Han officials began to be installed, and the descendants of the chieftains could never become native officials again, even if they were elected.

In the blink of an eye, the spring snow melted, and the Ming army, which had been preparing for war for several months, finally sent out troops.

The Ming army was divided into two groups, and the commander-in-chief was Zheng Dingrui. They marched all the way west from Sichuan to Dadu River to capture Dajianlu first, and then marched all the way from Lijiang to Zhongdian to attack the legendary Shangri-La City. The two armies each had 10,000 troops, so a total of 20,000 regular soldiers were dispatched. The rest were all civilians and auxiliary soldiers recruited from the chieftain's territory.

Shi Ding's two thousand white-armed soldiers were also organized into auxiliary troops. It was not that the Ming army looked down upon the white-armed soldiers, but simply looked down upon the combat effectiveness of the cold weapon troops.

The era of white-armed soldiers has passed as early as the late Ming Dynasty, especially now that the Ming army also has crude rifled guns. Rifled guns are handmade by the Nanjing Ordnance Bureau, and the output is tight. In addition to providing cavalry for the battlefield in northern Xinjiang, it also transports troops to the theater on the western front. Zheng Dingrui was not as wealthy as the rifle dragoons in Northern Xinjiang, but he also had a rifle infantry battalion of 1000 people.

The Ming army's march was extremely smooth, especially the Lijiang troops, who encountered almost no resistance along the way.

Zhongdian theoretically belongs to the territory of the Kangzang Tatars, but it is already located in the border area and was assigned to Yunnan in later generations. Therefore, the Tatars are not interested in this place at all. Even the entire Shangri-La is governed by Tibetan nobles and monks.

The Lijiang Ming army fought along the Jinsha River and captured Zhongdian without any effort. Shangri-La City surrendered without a fight. Because He Xiangming took out the official Buddhist documents of Yixi Gyatso, the seventh emperor in Beijing, which probably means that the seventh emperor discussed Buddhism with the Ming Emperor and felt that the emperor respected the Tibetan Buddhist tradition very much.

He Xiangming captured Zhongdian, then went north along the Jinsha River Valley, passing by Derong, where the chieftain of Derong descended in the wind. And he was willing to take the initiative to lead the Ming army to defeat his master, the chieftain of Batang.

The Ming army had no doubts, because there was no need for it. The Ming army looked down upon the combat effectiveness of the Tibetan soldiers at all. If they were really about to be ambushed, they would save the trouble of finding the main force of these Tibetan soldiers.

The combat effectiveness of these Tibetan soldiers is indeed low, appallingly low. Going further back, the famous Gushi Khan in the late Ming Dynasty was originally a Mongolian who went south from the Western Regions, and he only brought a few thousand Mongolian soldiers with him. They conquered the entire Tibet, Kangzang, and Qinghai, and established the huge Heshuote Khanate.

Then, he did not dare to provoke the Central Plains Dynasty at all. He would submit to whoever became emperor. Because he knew the virtues of Tibet, if he really wanted the Central Plains Dynasty to send troops into Tibet, he would be destroyed in minutes.

This is indeed the case later. Ten years ago, Junggar sent 5000 troops, marched thousands of miles across most of the plateau's uninhabited land, and wiped out Lazang Khan in one battle. Subsequently, when the Qing army entered Tibet, only 7000 troops were dispatched. Although the entire army was wiped out, it was not the fault of the Tibetan soldiers at all, but the fault of the Junggars. The Qing army was still trapped until they ran out of ammunition and food.

The Lijiang troops are overwhelming in the south and are about to stab the Tatar chrysanthemum.

The troops led by Zheng Dingrui finally arrived at Dadu River, where they cordially summoned the chieftains of various tribes and brought greetings from His Majesty the Emperor and the court.

It is worth mentioning that the Ming army saw giant pandas on their first day here. But no one knew him. Even Shen Mingzhang, the most educated staff officer, just said that this beast was a bit like the iron-eating beast recorded in ancient books.

"Iron-eating beast?" Zheng Dingrui was quite surprised.

Shen Mingzhang explained: "Luo Yuan's "Erya Wings" has written: "It is called a tapir. It comes from Jianning County today. It has black and white hair. It is like a bear but small. It can eat snakes, lick iron with its tongue, and can weigh dozens of kilograms. Drowning can eliminate iron and turn it into water. 'In the battle of Zhuolu, the Yellow Emperor of Chiyou used this iron-eating beast as his mount."

Zheng Dingrui was even more surprised: "Is there really a strange beast that eats iron, or is it Chi You's mount?"

Shen Mingzhang shook his head: "It's hard to say, but it's just too similar. There are no pictures in those ancient books, just records and descriptions. I thought they were all made up by predecessors, but I didn't want to see them today, and Jianning County happens to be in Sichuan."

Zheng Dingrui smiled and said: "It doesn't matter, right? After we finish the battle in Kangzang, we can just grab one and take it back. It just so happens that I can offer it to Your Majesty. This was the mount used by Chi You in the battle with the Yellow Emperor. Your Majesty is the emperor, so you should have one."

The problem of iron-eating beasts is just an episode. Although there are more pandas in this era than in later generations, they are not much more, and they are more hidden. It is not that easy to catch.

(End of this chapter)