Zhang Yuanheng did not stay in Nangqian for long. He wrote a letter asking someone to send it to Xining, informing the officials of the Tea and Horse Department that he would go back next spring, and then set off for Luhuo County to find Liu Chengzong's uncle Cai Zhongpan who was stationed there.
On the day of his departure, messengers from Luhuo County arrived in Nangqian and brought the results of Cai Zhongpan's work.
When he heard the news, Liu Chengzong had just bid farewell to Zhang Yuanheng side by side with Sunday Qiang on the bank of the Zaqu River. He couldn't help smiling and then laughing when he heard the news.
He thought to himself that his uncle was too eager to make meritorious deeds. He calculated his schedule and found that it had only been less than a month since he arrived in Luhuo County. Even the government office there had just been established. What results could he achieve?
Despite what he thought in his heart, he still wanted to see the person sent by his uncle, so he asked someone to prepare tea and food for the envoy, and returned to the manor to chat with Sunday Qiang about Xining Mansion.
Not long after, the messenger came to report after having tea and rice.
The envoy sent by his uncle was Liu Chengzong's old acquaintance, Han Lin, the veteran in Yan'an Prefecture who had no thumb on his left hand.
Han Lin first worked as Liu Chengzong's servant with Guo Zashi, but later, like Guo Zashi, he did not follow Liu Chengzong to fight in northern Shaanxi, but followed Liu Chengzu to protect his family.
Because Han Lin could not use a bow, they only had two guns at the time, one was Cao Yao's three-eyed blunderbuss and the other was his uncle's double-barreled hand blunderbuss, so Han Lin failed to catch up with the early opportunity to make contributions to Liu Chengzong's side.
But despite this, his treatment has always been good. He helped the shipping company when he was in northern Shaanxi, and later he continued to work with Mr. Liu. This time, he was brought here by his uncle and followed him to Luhuo County.
When he saw Liu Chengzong again, Han Lin no longer looked like the Lifu who robbed beggars of money in Yan'an Fucheng. He was dressed in armor and his hair was taken care of, and he looked like a serious person.
"Commander."
Seeing his old acquaintance, Liu Chengzong was in a good mood. He asked him to sit down, and then smiled and said: "I really didn't expect that my uncle asked you to come over and tell me what good news there is in the east. Can you enter Sichuan?"
Han Lin shook his head and said: "As the commander-in-chief said, there is no way to enter the river. This time Master Cai asked his subordinates to report, mainly to submit the information about Changhexi and Songpanwei to the commander-in-chief."
Changhe refers to the Dadu River, and Changhe West refers to the land including Dajian Road.
Liu Chengzong expected that Cai Zhongpan could get information about Changhe West, but what surprised him was Songpan Wei: "Luhuo is so far away from Songpan, with Jinchuan Tusi in between, how did he get the information there?"
Han Lin sighed. From his demeanor, Liu Chengzong felt that these sources of information were not very good.
When he spoke, it was true: "As soon as we arrived in Luhuo County, Chieftain Jinchuan sent an envoy to bring money, grain, gold, silver, Sichuan brocade and other items to deliver gifts."
As he spoke, he looked down at the manor and said, "Mr. Cai asked me to bring all the gifts to the Marshal, but one hundred and twenty taels of silver were used by us. I will explain to the Marshal later."
Liu Chengzong nodded and motioned for Han Lin to continue.
"After Jinchuan Chieftain sent the gift, he invited Master Cai to his territory as a guest."
"Jinchuan Chieftain is the leader of the local wizard. His tribe lives in the mountains, and houses and forts are built on the mountains. The local people build watchtowers to guard against beasts and observe mountain torrents. Over time, there has been a trend of competing with each other in terms of watchtowers."
"In the mountains where the terrain is easy to defend but difficult to attack, you will see towering stone castle towers, ranging from a hundred paces away to less than a mile far away. The lowest ones are three or four stories, and the highest ones are seven or eight stories. There are thousands of troops and banquets. When performing martial arts in the mountains, it is intended to be a deterrent."
Liu Chengzong frowned: "Is my uncle okay?"
Han Lin hurriedly shook his head and said: "It's okay. The chieftain performed his martial arts and Master Cai drank his wine, but it didn't cause any embarrassment. The chieftain of Jinchuan wants to draw a line with us and pay tribute to the commander every year. This is the tribute bill." .”
As he said this, he took out a list and handed it over. Liu Chengzong glanced at it and saw that the handwriting on it was very familiar and belonged to his uncle.
Every year there are fifty taels of gold, five hundred taels of silver, fifty horses, two hundred loads of tea, two hundred pieces of Sichuan brocade, ten strong men, and ten beauties.
Compared with the Jinchuan chieftain's territory, these tributes are not much. Now, between the Qinghai Marshal's Mansion and the Sichuan and Songpan Wei of the Ming Dynasty, there are only Changhexi and Jinchuan, one in the south and one in the north.
Liu Chengzong read the tribute list and said to Han Lin, "Do they have requirements?"
Tributes alone are not enough.
Han Lin nodded and said: "Yes, the chieftain of Jinchuan hopes that the tributes will continue, and that Han people will not enter Jinchuan, and Jinchuan will not enter Han territory."
Liu Chengzong realized in a blink of an eye that this was right.
If he sincerely surrenders, there is no need to use force to intimidate him, and there is no mention of handing over the seal and edict given to him by the Ming Dynasty, nor does he ask Liu Chengzong to issue the seal and edict, which means that he is just sending some tribute, not surrender.
To put it bluntly, this means...don't come over!
"It means that my uncle went to visit and came back safely with gifts. Chieftain Jinchuan wants to set a boundary with us and not interfere with each other?"
When Liu Chengzong finished speaking, Han Lin smiled and nodded: "Yes, that's what it means."
"Jinchuan Chieftain wants to avoid war." Liu Chengzong said noncommittally, "Then you go on, where is the intelligence on Changhe West?"
"Well..." Han Lin was in trouble and said: "Commander, I'd better continue talking about Songpan Wei. Songpan Wei's matter is connected with Jinchuan."
Liu Chengzong actually didn't care much about Songpanwei. That direction was very safe. If the Tea Horse Road leading from Dajian Road to Sichuan was difficult to walk, with many places where cars couldn't pass, then the Songpan side was even harder to walk, as the mountains, rivers and grasslands were all naturally dangerous.
He was unable to form an army to launch an expedition there, and Songpan Wei's army was unable to come over. The most important thing was that both sides did not have enough motivation to fight in the grassland.
Therefore, compared with the Ming army, he was more concerned about Jinchuan and Changhexi, the two big chieftains who had jurisdiction over countless small chieftains.
However, Han Lin's words were a bit difficult for him to understand: "Songpan Wei, how come he is connected with the Jinchuan Chieftain's matter?"
"The one hundred and twenty taels was when Mr. Cai saw the Han people farming in Jinchuan. When he asked if they were Songpan Wei's banner troops, he bought them back." Facing Liu Chengzong's puzzled and surprised expression, Han Lin nodded heavily and said: " Yes, it’s Songpan Wei’s flag army.”
It is understandable that the banner army is farming, but Songpan Wei's banner army is not farming in Songpan. They have gone to Jinchuan to farm. Liu Chengzong became interested and said: "Tell me more carefully, what is going on?"
He thought that the main task of the Songpan Flag Guard was to build the city wall, and the co-author also had the business of farming land for others?
Han Lin lowered his head. He was also a Ming soldier in the past, and his face was full of cowardice. He took out the map from his luggage and said: "Commander, please look, this is Songpan Wei, bordering Jinchuan Tusi to the southwest."
What was unfolded in front of Liu Chengzong was a sketch, using thick and light lines to draw the road. From the perspective of the Ming Dynasty, Songpanwei was a dead end. There were two mountain roads heading northwest from Sichuan. The final intersection of the mountain roads was the Songpanwei station. .
Further to the west, there is a large swamp that stretches for 600 miles. To the southwest, it borders the Jinchuan territory, which is the forefront of the Sichuan Han people's northwest expansion.
But the situation of Songpan Wei is not as good as it seems, because on the picture Han Lin holds, Songpan Wei is surrounded by densely packed XX and XX.
Not only in the north and west, Songpanwei has two roads leading to Sichuan, called Songpan South Road and Songpan East Road. The south road is marked to Maozhou, Chengdu Prefecture, and the east road is marked to Pingwu, Longan Prefecture.
Han Lin explained: "Songpanwei has more than 30 fortresses and gates. Most of them are in places where grains are not grown and boats are not accessible. Every year, more than 45,000 shi of tax and grain are allocated from Chengdu and other places to meet the food needs. These are Food and supplies are transported through these two roads.”
"It is said that the road that stretches for hundreds of miles is on the cliffs, and some sections are only connected by the Yunzhong Plank Road."
Listening to Han Lin's description, Liu Chengzong imagined the hundreds of watchtowers in Jinchuan and the endless plank roads in the clouds in Songpan. He couldn't help but murmur to himself: "I really want to go there and have a look."
He was only distracted for a moment, then pointed to the word "Baicao" specially marked between the two roads in Songpan on the map and asked: "Then what does this mean?"
"Oh, that's the Baicao Twenty-Eight Village in Songpan. It used to be the most ferocious. There were chieftains in the surrounding areas who governed the Qiang people, but there was no one to govern the Baicao land, so they slaughtered the merchants without any fuss. However, during the Jiajing period, this matter That’s it.”
Liu Chengzong asked: "How to solve it?"
"He Qing, the general on the left side of Songpan, is from Chengdu. He originally wanted to send 30,000 troops, but later found out that the Baicao area was unfavorable for the deployment of large troops, so he sent 9,000 troops deep into the Qiang land. In the battle of Zomaling, they captured 47 forts and destroyed the fortresses. Four thousand eight hundred houses, free from the problem of white grass."
Han Lin shook his head as he spoke: "There are no Baicao Qiang today. Thirty years after that war, foreign tribes invaded Songpan. The local Qiang were worried about being implicated, so more than 8,900 people from the 28 villages invited themselves. The gangsters changed customs, sold knives, and bought calves. Now they have Han surnames, and they all raise cattle and become extremely rich."
Liu Chengzong sighed in his heart, He Qing had such martial arts, but he had never even heard of this person.
Jiajinglong's prowess in martial arts made him particularly envious of people born at that time. If he had been born at that time, he would have been thinking about becoming a general.
He asked: "Later, why haven't I heard of this General He?"
"Oh, he guarded Songpan for more than 20 years. In the 33rd year of Jiajing, when the Japanese invaders came from the sea, the imperial court transferred the old general and his soldiers to Susong to serve as deputy commander-in-chief, and prime minister of Zhejiang and Suzhou and Songhai defense."
Han Lin spoke calmly, but Liu Chengzong squeezed out a curse word from between his teeth: "Damn, I just praised the imperial court in my heart."
Transferring a famous general from Shu who has never seen the sea in his life to the southeast to serve as Prime Minister of Coastal Defense. Is this an order that a primate can give?
"Commander, please calm down." Han Lin didn't act as if he hadn't seen Liu Chengzong angry. He said in a neutral tone: "This story is not yet time to make people angry. The old general could not make meritorious deeds in the past. He was impeached and dismissed from office. He died. .”
Liu Chengzong was not angry now. He understood that even if he was born in the reign of Jiajing and Longwan and became a general, even if there was no overall rebellion, he would still have to find a place to separate his rule.
Isn't it expected that one cannot make achievements and make a difference? People should not be sent there, to Guangdong and Guangxi to fight wild beasts. Mountain warfare is the professional counterpart.
He waved his hand, unwilling to say more on this matter, and said: "According to what you said, Songpan Wei's situation should be pretty good. How could the Banner Army be reduced to farming for Fanzi Tusi?"
"Commander, that battle happened a hundred years ago. What kind of battle can lead to peace for a hundred years?" Han Lin shook his head and said: "Since Bozhou used troops, many chieftains have seen the decline of the imperial court's national power and have rebelled. "
"Especially before and after the earthquake, the forts and gates built by General He were destroyed by the earthquake. The soldiers were exhausted from building the fortifications. The Fanqiang occupied dangerous passes. Local officials were worried about causing trouble. They gradually ignored the occasional looting and only called the soldiers. After receiving the army rations, I bought some wine and cloth, which was called reward."
"When the chieftain's Fanqiang passed by the military fort, he asked for rewards from the garrison, including money for dismounting and mounting, money for quenching thirst, money for crossing the fort, money for hot clothes, money for strength, money for partial hands... there are countless rewards. When the fields need to be plowed, some guard money is needed. The army went to plow the fields, and after the plowing was completed, they were sent back to guard.”
After saying this, Han Lin fixedly looked at Liu Chengzong, raised his fist and said: "Commander, the Songpan Guards are having a hard time making a living. They have become a lone army surrounded by Fanqiang. If they plan well, they can take them all."
Liu Chengzong raised his hand and slapped it on the table: "How dare you line up to stop Zhang Tianlin after you're like this! You're a coward and an insult to our ancestors!"
What he was scolding was not the banner army, but the civil and military officers who wanted more but less.
Liu Chengzong leaned back in his chair, raised his hand and tapped his forehead lightly with his knuckles. He gestured to Han Lin with his other hand and said, "I have to think about this carefully. Go on, Changhe West."
He could recruit Songpan's flag army, but he could not protect Songpan's guards.
It was difficult for the Ming Dynasty to transport grain to Songpan Wei. It had to walk three to four hundred miles of mountain roads, but beyond the mountains was Sichuan, which could afford it.
If he wants to transport grain to Songpan, he has to go around the grassland, which is at least 800 miles away, and this side of the grassland is still Kangning Mansion, which cannot be self-sufficient in food.
When it came to Changhe West, Han Lin finally lost his depressed expression, raised his eyebrows and smiled: "Commander, Changhe West is much better than these two places. Since the Tatars occupied Qinghai, the imperial court has ordered Tibetans to travel back and forth. , all took the south road, so they were extremely prosperous."
"There are forty or fifty manors along the way, called Guozhuang. Among them, thirteen of the larger ones are called Duoji's Gusa, which means a large manor with stone slabs. The owners of the Guozhuang are all Tubai under Chieftain Mingzheng. Belonging to the household and steward."
Han Lin smiled and explained to Liu Chengzong word by word, and then said: "The last thing they want to do is fight with the commander-in-chief. In seven days..."
Han Lin raised his hand and gestured with an exaggerated expression: "I sent people to Luhuo eight times, just to ask the commander what he thinks of them."
Liu Shizi asked in confusion: "What do you think?"
"Yes, if the commander-in-chief doesn't give orders to Chang Hexi, they won't be able to sleep well."
Han Lin raised his hand and made a three sign and said: "Last year, from the Diaomen Tea Horse Company in Yazhou on the edge of Sichuan, through the chieftain's territory in Shen Village, Luding, and across the Hexi River, the official tea entering Tibet amounted to three million jins, and the private trade was even more many."
"All the Thirteen Guozhuang in Lucheng made profits from business trips, food and lodging. The general stationed 500 troops in Luhuotun. The township officials also recruited hundreds of civilians, horsemen and archers, but they had no orders. They were like hanging on the With the knife on their neck, merchants coming and going from Tibet no longer dare to stay at their place."
Upon hearing this, Liu Chengzong raised his hand and patted his forehead, dumbfounded.
Such a big and powerful toast opened a B&B in the late Ming Dynasty?
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