Southeast of Nangqian, more than a dozen fast horses galloped in the Gaiqu valley.
Four people were immediately carried on the back, with blood stains on their bodies and many scars on their armor. The only young man who was not wearing armor was named Danba. He had bulging brocade robes with bare shoulders and a panicked expression.
The four masters and servants turned a blind eye to the villages inhabited by Chaba in the river valley and went straight to the manor on the mountain.
This is a mixed Chinese-Tibetan style fortress built in the Yuan Dynasty. It was once the Tuqianhu Yamen under the jurisdiction of Longdawei in the Ming Dynasty.
However, since Yang Yinglong of Bozhou went to war with the imperial court, thousands of households in Sumangtu who lived deep in the hinterland of Duogan no longer paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty.
The slaves in the manor knew Danba and knelt down to salute.
Danba asked Ming where Master Sumang was, threw down the reins, and ran into the manor.
On a stone wall on the second floor of the manor, there is a self-ringing clock as high as the roof.
The fat Mr. Mangsu sat in a rocking chair opposite the chiming clock.
He was wearing a brocade bare-shoulder robe with dark patterns and a beeswax dzi bead pendant. He held a pipe in his left hand and a wine bowl in his right hand, staring at the chiming clock with an expression of intoxication.
"Uncle, how long has it been since you started looking at that thing of yours? How many years have you been looking at it?"
Master Su Mang raised his eyebrows, raised his eyes, and said cheerfully: "Every time you come here, you laugh at my clock. You didn't laugh today...what happened?"
Dunba sighed.
This self-ringing bell was sold by the Portuguese to an Indian noble and found its way to Shigatse. When Su Mang was young, he went to Tibet to worship Buddha and bought it at a high price.
As a nephew, Danba always laughed because Danba was still young when the big clock was brought back. He saw a few words engraved on the base of the clock and asked his uncle if he didn't recognize them. As a result, his uncle vomited when he saw it.
I really vomited, the words written on it are Chinese characters, made in Foshan.
I have been killed three or four times for no reason, and anyone who puts it on me will make them vomit.
But the clock itself is indeed very good. Even now it still represents the world's first-class handcraft quality, with an error of a quarter of an hour every day.
If you want it to tell time on time, you must either adjust it every day or not adjust it for three months.
Danba sat down on the chair. There was a clanking sound on his body. He stood up and took it out of his arms. He dropped a small package on the table.
Su Mang frowned and said, "What is so heavy?"
Ten pounds of gold nuggets.
"Gama is back."
Danba leaned on the back of his chair and said, "Relying on the backer, I sealed a slave boy to take revenge on us."
"So fast?"
Su Mang sat up straight. He knew that Ga Ma would go to the north to bring reinforcements, but he didn't expect to come back with the army so soon.
After thinking about it, he quickly asked: "Should I just beat you, or should I sweep away all those who surrendered to Dunyue Duoji?"
Danba said: "He will take away all the noble lands that surrendered to Baili!"
The nephew's surrender to Dunyue Dorje was mostly due to his suggestion.
In this place, Su Mang's territory is bounded by Nangqian in the northwest and Baili in the southeast. For a long time, the two sides were caught in the middle and lived in peace.
It has always been the case that Duoji in Dunyue wanted to recruit troops, and Su Mang also let him do so. The soldiers sent out on the left and right were the poor and poor Ding.
Duiqiong and Chaba are the two levels of serfs.
There are only two kinds of people here.
One is monks and nobles, whose status can flow between them. Nobles can be monks and officials, and monks can also be nobles;
The other is Chaba, Duiqiong and Langsheng. Their statuses are also transferable. Chaba can become Duiqiong, and Duiqiong can also become Langsheng.
If the people here were divided into a thousand, then there would be about five great monks and nobles and forty-five lesser monks.
The remaining 950 people were 250 Chaba, 300 Duiqiong, 400 slaves and Langsheng.
It is the duty of those bad guys to provide urala to the lord.
Chaiula is the name of a slave, and there are two types of it. One is called Gangzhu, which means one who walks with feet, and the other is called Laton, which means one who takes it out with his hands.
The former is forced labor and the latter is expropriation in kind. Both are free obligations, requiring both support and food.
Su Mang is a kind-hearted nobleman who doesn't like to serve monks and has few arrangements for his subjects.
Other nobles usually asked their serfs to pay half a chai ura every year and work for 180 days without pay.
But in his territory, the serfs were only allowed to pay one-third, which was one hundred and twenty days. People called him the kind-hearted Master Su Mang.
When King Baili Dunyue Duoji came over, he had to decide whether to unite with Nangqian to resist the murderous Baili army. Master Su Mang had made a calculation.
Most of his territory is pasture land, with only eight manors. Every year, Chaiula cultivates 6 kilograms of highland barley, and harvests 3 kilograms of leased land, with an income of 1,800 shi.
Six cattle farms raise 2,400 yaks; two sheep farms raise 1,800 sheep.
Every year, we collect 50,000 jins of ghee and 6,000 jins of milk residue.
Coupled with the extra income from handicrafts and debt, Su Mang should actually have a pretty good life.
But every year, five to six hundred lamas pass through his territory, come to chant sutras, stay for a month and a half, and even eat and drink. 50,000 kilograms of grain and 7,000 kilograms of ghee are wasted.
In addition to offering offerings to the Three Treasures five times a month, serving tea to the temple twice, and paying tribute to the Tibetan temple every year... half of the income is gone without anyone noticing.
King Baili who came with the troops was different, he was very considerate.
Without asking any questions, they drove all the monks away without saying a word. The four temples in the territory each got their own torches and burned them cleanly, like a living Bodhisattva who saved the suffering.
For such hard work, King Baili only asked for a tribute of 500 cows.
Five hundred cows was a lot for him, but this tribute would not be paid every year. What Su Mang was thinking about at that time was that when the Gama monks from Nangqian moved back to reinforce the troops and drive away the Baili army, this would still be his land, and There are no monks.
Compared to this benefit, five hundred cows is insignificant.
So Su Mang surrendered very neatly, and even took the nephew next door to surrender together so that the Bodhisattvas of Bai Lijun could go over and do some work.
But he never expected that Monk Gama would actually want to take back all the nobles' lands.
The chiming clock on the wall rang.
Su Mang narrowed his eyes and thought about countermeasures. When the bell stopped, he stared and said, "You can live here peacefully. I'll see who among the slaves dares to cross Gaiqu."
"Then Monk Gama is just trying to regain the lost territory. Does he still want to swallow me?"
Danba felt that his uncle was too optimistic. Although crossing Gaiqu was no longer Nangqian's territory, he did not think Ga Ma would stop.
He came from the northwest, and he really saved his life. He shook his head and was still frightened: "Uncle, you haven't seen that all the villagers are upset, and there are also those Duiqiong and Chaba." , I found myself serving as a soldier for others."
Danba snorted, his eyes like a trapped animal: "Just like that kid named Basang can be a master, they can also be a master."
Su Mang opened his eyes wide, and after thinking for a moment, he narrowed his eyes and said cautiously: "The monk is greedy, Ga Ma can't do this."
"yes!"
Danba nodded firmly: "I think this is probably the backer behind him. Those Han people's ideas... are about to change."
Su Mangzuo blew out the cigarette on the chair, shook his head while holding the cigarette rod and sneered: "What a fart."
After that, he raised his foot and kicked Lang Sheng, who was kneeling by the side holding a silver plate, and said, "Go and find the butler."
After Lang Sheng left, Su Mang said to his nephew: "Only those from outside don't need to send uladahs. They don't need to send uladahs. People in the land adjacent to Nangqian will oppose them. You said that in this land, you want to avoid sending uladahs." Are there more people, or are there more people who want to send Ula?"
He snorted: "Gama is seeking his own death."
"But slaves will come to them."
Danba was indeed frightened by the beating. He said, uncle, you didn’t see it.
"The Mongolian cavalry surrounded my village, and the slave boys threw stones and rushed in with torches. My bird gunners couldn't climb up to the border wall. They finally had the courage to climb up. They took a hundred steps. When four or five muskets flashed from outside, he was still angry, crying like a ghost and howling like a wolf, so scared that no one else dared to go up."
As he spoke, Danba lifted up his bare-shouldered robe and the cotton coat underneath, revealing the blood marks on his arms and said, "More than twenty people ran out on horseback. Mima and the others were all dead, and two of my horses were also killed."
Su Mang thought for a moment and realized that he had never seen such a scene before.
He had seen Mongolian herdsmen, slave soldiers, and the Han army west of Changhe, but he had never seen the three armies fighting together.
"You are right, the slaves want to run away, but who lets them run away?"
Su Mang raised his hand and knocked on the table: "What if the sheep runs away? Of course, let the dogs chase it. Anyone who dares to run will be skinned. If we get a few good skins, who else dares to run?"
"Uncle, don't be so picky all the time."
Danba squeezed his eyes and looked disgusted: "After the skin is peeled off, the cubs will be gone. The three cubs have one tongue and one eye. They drive a stake in the ground and tie them with ropes. They can still plant a gram of land without delaying breeding."
"ha!"
There was no cruelty on Su Mang's face, he just wanted to eat meat tonight as if it was normal. He praised: "You said well, take him out for a walk every day and see who dares to run!"
Not long after, the butler with only one hand came quickly in a satin jacket, bowed and asked, "Master, are you looking for me?"
Danba knew the housekeeper. This young man was a cavalryman raised by his uncle at home. Later, he lost his hand during the war, so he became a chaplain in charge of a single estate, and later became a housekeeper.
"Send people to give orders to the eight Zhuangzi. Send soldiers to bring weapons to protect the official stronghold. Send shepherds along Gaiqu to keep an eye on the other side of the river. If you see slave boys or Mongolians running around, catch them and report them quickly."
When the housekeeper took the order and left, Danba still shook his head and said: "Uncle, a wolf that eats a whole horse cannot fill its stomach by eating a sheep. Sooner or later, they will come, so we need to make more preparations."
"I know. Are you talking about Bai Li, who is on the front line in Qamdo?"
Su Mang turned around and pointed at Danba and asked: "Have you ever thought about why the Han army wanted Gama to be canonized as a slave? They could obviously take Timba from Gama. Without slaves, Gama would not be able to give them anything. What’s the benefit to them?”
Danbal was stunned for a moment and shook his head.
He hadn't thought about it. He was just running for his life and didn't even think about it.
Now when his uncle said it, he came back to his senses: "Yeah, what good does this do to them?"
Master Su Mang was confident and asked again: "Have you seen the Han army?"
Danba shook his head, then nodded: "I saw a few officers, wearing helmets and cotton armor, in the team."
"That means we didn't see the army."
"I didn't see it." Danba thought for a while and added: "But it should be the Han army who fired a few muskets in the forest, right? Where did the Gamas and Mongols get their muskets? Even if they have muskets, they can't shoot accurately."
"now it's right!"
Su Mang raised his hand and tapped the table twice, and said firmly: "Military strength, slaves can serve as soldiers for them, but the Han people can't stay in Anduo... They don't have enough troops!"
Danba stretched his neck and widened his eyes: "Uncle, how long has it been since you went out? The whole Kham area has gone crazy. The leader of the Han people is called Liu He. He is known as the generalissimo. He led 20,000 Han troops and 40,000 Mongolians. Come on Nang Qian."
This time it was Su Mang's turn to glare.
It is true that he has a territory that he has not been out of for a long time. The last time he went out was to Ganden Monastery two years ago.
But 20,000 Han troops and 40,000 Mongols?
"There are only 20,000 people in the entire Nangqian. How can we get food rations for 60,000 people? They have already rushed to loot all the manors. It is impossible to bring so much food from the Han Dynasty."
Su Mang analyzed along this line of thinking and found that the so-called 60,000 soldiers were definitely a lie. Even if the Han army could have 20,000, the Mongols could not have 40,000.
The entire Qinghai can organize 40,000 Mongolian troops.
What none of the Mongolian Taijis could do, how could a newly arrived Han military leader unite the scattered Mongolian nobles?
impossible.
"But they do have a lot of Mongolians."
"Mongols belong to Mongols. They want to enter Tibet. They can't come all the way here just to regain the lost territory for Monk Gama."
Danba asked: "What does uncle plan to do?"
"As you thought, please ask King Baili's army for help. Now we know that the Han army is not large in number, so we have been holding off and encouraging the slave boys to serve as their soldiers."
Su Mang smiled and said: "They are quite smart. Now we know that if we can persuade King Baili to use troops, the battlefield will be at the Gaiqu River. They thought they would deal with a few hundred of us, but in fact they would have to deal with tens of thousands of King Baili's troops. "
He shook his head: "Let me think about it, how can I persuade King Baili to move his army over and ambush them severely."
Danba looked overjoyed: "Then, my territory?"
"There is no other way anyway. If you want to get the land back, you must participate in this battle, and you must stand on the side of King Baili and fight with all your strength. When the war is over and King Baili wins the war, the land will naturally belong to you."
Su Mang exhaled, shook his head and said, "If Ga Ma wins, you will really lose your land."
"Then let's do it! I will listen to you." Danba nodded one after another, raised his hand and slammed it on the table: "Then fight, all the slave boys in the family are dead, take advantage of this battle to capture more prisoners and bring them back Plant the land for me!”
The two slave owners, uncle and nephew, discussed carefully, made a thorough plan, and soon prepared a gift for King Baili Dunyue Duoji.
Of course, the two of them did not forget to find out the information clearly, and sent a few trustworthy Langsheng across the Gaiqu River to go in the direction of Nang Qian's army to find out the information.
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