The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 331
Bento watched with envy more than 500 Portuguese sailors walking towards the pier under the "escort" of a Ming army.

He knew that these people would be transported to Fujing.Before the Portuguese government pays off the war reparations, they will spend months or years there as sparring partners of the Great Ming Navy, depending on how quickly King Joao IV pays.

However, unlike the usual forced labor of prisoners of war, His Royal Highness the assistant king of Ming Dynasty promised to pay them wages.Although one gold coin per month is not much, but after all, it is on the coast of the capital of the Ming Dynasty, so it is not too tiring to be safe.

"Don't look," Blanco sighed, "The army escorting us should be here soon."

"I wish I had been in the navy." Simao said dejectedly, "It is said that we are going to build a new Macau port, and it should be to carry wood or something..."

Soon, dozens of Ming soldiers greeted them, more than a hundred Portuguese infantry, to go over. After counting the number of people, an interpreter shouted: "Now we are going to Macau Port, and we all follow closely. Anyone who leaves the team without permission will be killed immediately."

"It really is carrying wood..." Simao muttered in a low voice.

The group of people had just walked less than half a mile when a fast horse galloped towards them.

The officer of the Dragon Guards who was riding a horse turned over from the saddle, handed a document to the officer of the Ming army escorting the Portuguese soldiers, and then said loudly to the prisoners: "Who can handle cannons? Who can use firecrackers proficiently? Gunner Yue Yinyi Two, gunslinger seven coins."

After listening to the interpreter, Bento immediately raised his hand and said, "Me! I am the artillery commander of the Macau Army."

"I've used matchlock guns for 12 years!"

"I can also operate..."

Seeing the enthusiasm of these soldiers, Nunes asked the interpreter cautiously: "Well, I am an officer and I am familiar with soldier training and command. Do you think it is necessary?"

Long Weijun, who was in charge of picking people, came over and patted him on the shoulder, and said with a smile, "Very good, one or two and a half silver per month."

When Nunes heard that the interpreter said that he could get one and a half gold coins, he immediately beamed with joy.

It's not that Zhu Linmi gave these workers money because she wanted to treat the prisoners preferentially. After all, with the encouragement of Baiyin, they can be more attentive when they "work", and some "unique skills" will not be too secretive.

An hour after the big ship transporting the Portuguese sailors to Fujing left, thirty Portuguese soldiers also boarded the carriage of the Dragon Guards and rushed towards Sichuan.

……

Sanzhou City.

According to Zhu Linming's order, the Dragon Guards will rest here for two days. All the soldiers were extremely tired from the rapid march before.

In the yamen of the inspection department, Zhu Linmei is convening all the officers to discuss matters.

"According to Guest Tang's statement, there are about [-] defenders in Kunming City." Zhai Shixu said, "As for the deployment situation, he just said he didn't know."

"Who is in charge of the army in the city?" Zhu Linmi asked immediately.

"I don't know."

"Then who are the chieftains in Yunnan who are loyal to Shadingzhou, and who are forced to rebel?"

Zhai Shixu said with a bitter face: "I didn't ask... That guest Tang only asked for a quick death, and didn't ask for anything."

You have to do something inhumane again.Zhu Linmei sighed, motioned to Shi Lin and said, "You go there, be careful to keep him alive."

"Yes!"

Shi Lin turned around and left, returned in less than half an hour, and presented seven or eight pages of confession to Zhu Linming, "My lord, everyone with the surname Tang is recruited.

"The city of Kunming is guarded by Sha Dingzhou's deputy general Du Qifei, but Sha Dingzhou is not in the city. The deployment situation is at the end of the confession, but the person whose surname is Tang doesn't know much about it."

Zhu Linmei nodded, and said with some surprise: "Shadingzhou is based on Kunming, and wants to occupy Yunnan. Why did he leave the city?"

Shi Lin said: "My lord, according to what Tang said, Sha Dingzhou wanted to join forces with Tusi Lu trillion to attack Chuxiong, so he went to Dongchuan at the beginning of the month. Escorted by the Black Armored Army."

Chuxiong is the temporary shelter of Mu Tianbo, Duke of Guizhou, who is in charge of guarding Yunnan.If Mu Tianbo can be killed, there will be no one to restrain Sha Dingzhou in Yunnan, and the chieftains will definitely wait and see.

Zhu Lin hurriedly took out the map to look at it, and saw that Dongchuan Prefecture is more than 500 miles away from Kunming, and there are many mountains along the way.

He thought about it, and said to the generals in the room: "Sha Dingzhou leaves Kunming, it is a good opportunity for us."

Zhai Shixu pondered: "Your Highness, what do you mean, take advantage of the leader of the bandits to go away, and quickly send troops to capture Kunming?"

Zhu Linmei nodded and said: "Kunming is where the Duke of Guizhou is located, it can be said to be the core of Yunnan, and Shadingzhou only gained momentum after the capture of Kunming.

"If the imperial army can quickly conquer Kunming, all chieftains in Yunnan will scramble to draw a clear line with the sand bandits."

Shi Lin continued from the side: "According to Guest Tang's confession, at least half of the more than [-] chieftains who claim to belong to the sand bandits are forced by the military power. Once the sand bandits lose the battle, they will return to the imperial court." .”

More than 60 chieftains belong to Shadingzhou?Zhu Linmei couldn't help frowning when she heard this, the local officials in Yunnan and Guizhou are so powerful, even if the Shadingzhou rebellion is put down, there is no guarantee that no one will provoke trouble in the future.

In fact, since the Wanli Dynasty, there have been chieftain rebellions in Yunnan and Guizhou, which has diverted a lot of energy from the court.One of the three major campaigns in Wanli was Li Hualong's pacification of the rebellion of Yang Yinglong, the chieftain of Bozhou, and dispatched an army of [-], which cost a lot of money.

He made up his mind that after the matter of Sha Dingzhou was resolved, he must find a way to weaken the chieftain's power and vigorously promote the strategy of reforming the land and returning it to the local people.

Zhu Linming continued: "Nowadays it seems that Shadingzhou occupies most of Yunnan, but most of them are the chieftains who belong to them. As long as these chieftains can be turned around, the power of sand bandits will be reduced several times."

Looking at the map, Zhang Jiayu frowned and said, "My lord, our army is [-] to [-] miles away from Kunming, while the Sand Bandit is only [-] miles away. Even if we continue to march quickly, we may not be able to arrive before the Sand Bandit Kunming."

As soon as he said this, all the generals immediately held their breaths and pondered, but no one could come up with any good strategies for a while.

After a while, Zhu Linmei suddenly said, "What does Sha Dingzhou want to do most right now?"

Zhai Shixu blurted out, "Returning to Your Highness, it is time to attack Chuxiong. Once Chuxiong falls, Duke Qian will lose his shelter, and there will be no place for the imperial court in Yunnan."

Zhu Linmi nodded slightly, and said slowly: "Then we will use Chuxiong as bait." He paused for a moment, then continued, "In addition to Duke Qian, I don't believe that Sha Dingzhou won't take the bait!"

"Chu Xiong? Duke Qian?" Everyone was shocked, thinking that the assistant king's hand is really big enough.

Zhu Linmei looked at the other generals, "If Duke Qian leads all the troops in his hands to attack Wang Nongshan and Ah Mi, how do you think Sha Dingzhou will respond?"

Wang Nongshan is the hometown of Shadingzhou, and Ami, less than a hundred miles to the south, is his wife Wan's territory, which can be said to be the foundation of Shadingzhou.

Everyone said one after another: "The sand bandits will definitely return to southeast Yunnan quickly to defend them."

But Zhang Jiayu shook his head and said: "Shadingzhou maintains a strong military force, and never pays attention to the Ministry of Qian. I expect that he will strictly order Wang Nongshan to raise troops to protect himself, and he will lead the army to attack Chuxiong when it is empty.

(End of this chapter)