Kunming city.
When the wet season in Yunnan was coming to an end in the seventeenth year of joint rule, a heavy rain seemed to cover the entire southern border of the Dashun Empire. Around Kunming Fucheng, there was also the sound of rain.
In the north of Kunming City, in the Jinwang Valley not far from Wuhua Mountain, there is a small and very simple mansion. Li Dingguo, who has just returned to his mansion in Kunming, is wrapped in a white cloth and has a distant look. Watching the smoke rising and changing from a cup of hot Pu'er tea in front of you.
What could be heard outside the window was the sound of rain hitting the eaves. The sound was messy and disturbing.
Prince Jin, one of the Eight Princes of Dashun, only arrived outside Kunming at noon today. He did not go to Wuhua Mountain immediately to kowtow at Li Guo's coffin and pay homage to the new owner. Instead, he went to his home outside Kunming on the pretext of being tired from the journey. 's mansion. At this time, he had to meet with the three brothers with different surnames to discuss strategies and solutions...Don't work hard for most of his life, only to have it all in vain!
Sun Kewang's slightly hoarse voice sounded in Li Dingguo's ears: "Fourth brother, when I meet the new master tomorrow, don't mention the high prices. No one wants to hear this now... because I can stand in the court. Yes, every family has a big village, and they can’t finish their own rice, flour, pigs and sheep, so why buy them from outside? As for the brocade clothes they wear, they are all made of high-quality Shu brocade, which is more expensive. What’s the harm?”
Li Dingguo seemed to have woken up from a dream. He raised his head in astonishment and looked at the three visiting kings Sun Kewang, Liu Wenxiu and Ai Nengqi.
These three political kings are all elderly now, and the eldest among them, Sun Kewang, has contracted the cold and his voice is a bit hoarse. But what he said is still very reasonable!
The rise in prices in Kunming and even the entire Dashun Kingdom has done more good than harm to the people in the Dashun court.
Because the domestic inflation in Dashun is caused by the excess of gold and silver, and gold and silver are limited after all, how far can the excess go? So inflation will not get out of control.
There are no winners in hyperinflation, but there are winners in limited inflation. For example, the Eight Kings of Dashun are the winners!
There is equal land in Dashun, but that doesn’t mean there are no big landowners in Dashun!
Dashun is a feudal country, how can it be completely equal? Even within the ruling Fubing and Landowning class, the gap between rich and poor was huge. The most common Fubing household owned "forty shi" of land - roughly thirty to forty acres of paddy field or a hundred acres of dry land. The prince, grandson and eight kings who live on the top floor own as much as 80,000 shi of land! Moreover, this is the amount of land that can be occupied within the regulations, and the actual land occupied is only a lot more.
The princes, generals and ministers who owned large tracts of land were actually suppliers rather than consumers of necessary commodities such as rice, flour, pigs, sheep, oil, tea, and homespun cloth.
Moreover, Dashun's "harmonious purchase system" is ineffective for them. No one can force them to sell the materials on hand at low prices, so rising prices mean more profits for them!
In addition, these princes, generals and ministers also received a large amount of gold and silver from the "Indian revenue", and their pockets were filled with Indian silver and Indian gold. Who would object to going south?
"Three brothers, do you all agree to move south?" When Li Dingguo asked, his eyes were fixed on Tang Wang Liu Wenxiu.
Among Zhang Xianzhong's four righteous sons, Sun Kewang has talent, Ai Nengqi has generals, Li Dingguo has handsomeness, and the military advisor who is best at planning the overall situation is Liu Wenxiu.
Therefore, in Dashun's eight-king political system, Sun Kewang teamed up with Niu Jinxing and Gu Junen and was the de facto prime minister of Dashun. Ai Nengqi has been stationed in Chengdu for a long time, serving as an envoy to all parties, and is also responsible for intimidating Uzang. Liu Wenxiu and Song Xiance presided over Dashun's Military Advisor Office together, and planned from the center.
Liu Wenxiu shook his head slightly and said: "The southward march is inevitable. The prince (Li Jicheng) made a fortune in Tianzhu, and everyone is jealous, so the southward march is a general trend and cannot be stopped."
"The people of Tianzhu were not prepared last time, so the prince succeeded. How could there be such a big chance next time?" Li Dingguo still refused to give up and wanted to persuade Liu Wenxiu.
Liu Wenxiu said: "The coast of Tianzhu is so long that it is difficult to set up defenses. Moreover, the heroes of the country are parallel and conquer each other, so there is a great opportunity to take advantage of it. With the prince's good fighting skills and the elite soldiers of the Long March, there is a great opportunity to take advantage of it!"
"The Emperor of the Zhu family has moved to Wuhan, claiming to be the emperor's personal conquest, and is about to invade on a large scale. At this time, advancing south will definitely shake people's hearts... To advance south is to make a fortune, to defend north is to fight hard!"
Li Dingguo put forward another reason, and he told the truth.
Going north actually does not exist. His purpose in fighting in Shaanxi was to defend the north - to defend the Qinling Mountains and block the Ming army that wanted to go south.
Liu Wenxiu asked: "If we defend the north with all our strength, will we definitely be able to defend it?"
"This..." Li Dingguo hesitated.
He is the coach of the Shaanxi front line, so of course he knows that the war is very difficult!
Regardless of the fact that the combat effectiveness of the Dashun Army was weaker than that of the Ming Army, logistical difficulties were also increasing, so the supply of frontline soldiers was very tight, and most of the government soldiers serving in Shaanxi were in a "loss" state - issued by the imperial court Money and income from one's own land were no longer enough to cover military service and increasing family expenses.
Sun Kewang sighed and said: "Well, Dashun's military system cannot last for a long time. The current 600,000 military households have almost eaten up all the Sichuan people, but they still don't have enough to eat... .And these 600,000 households still have to thrive. What will happen in the future? Should Ding Yu not be allowed to join the army? Who will Ding Yu eat? And if we want to continue to expand the army, where will the fields be?"
At first glance, the government military system is a very ideal military system. It uses fields to support soldiers and integrate soldiers with the people. But if you really use it, you will find that there are flaws.
The flaw is that we must continue to acquire land that can generate profits without requiring large investments. It is actually just a beautiful fantasy to leave the uncultivated land in the northwest, Mongolia, and Southeast Asia to the war-oriented soldiers.
Because the investment in developing new land is huge and the risks are also high, there will inevitably be large-scale losses. Of course, there will also be people who manage well and make a fortune. And the soldiers who have lost money and made a fortune will not be able to continue serving.
Therefore, for the Dashun Prefecture soldiers, the most ideal expansion direction is Shaanxi and Huguang. Directly seizing mature land and becoming military landlords has low risks and stable returns.
But they couldn't defeat the Ming Dynasty...
Sun Kewang said: "Fourth Brother, there seems to be a lot of mature land over there in Tianzhu!"
"Brother, do you want the soldiers to go to Tianzhu?" Li Dingguo was stunned, "Aren't you trying to escape?"
"Run away?" Sun Kewang frowned, "Why is it running away? Third child, do you think this is running away?"
Ai Nengqi was a tiger general. He led the soldiers recruited from the Chengdu Plain to the north of Shaanxi many times to support Li Dingguo. He was deeply touched by the hardships of the northern battlefield. He immediately shook his head and said: "Why can't we run? We followed Lao Long Live back then. Throughout the world, where have you not been?”
"Third brother, do you also support the southern advance?" Li Dingguo asked.
Ai Nengqi shook his head and said: "I do not support southward march, nor am I against southward march."
"What about going north?"
"I don't support it!" Ai Nengqi still shook his head.
"Then you still want to go south..."
Liu Wenxiu on the side interjected: "The third brother has a plan to go west! My eldest brother and I think it is good, and we want to talk to you today."
"To the west?" Li Dingguo asked, "Where to the west?"
"Go west to the plateau!" Ai Nengqi said, "The snow-covered plateau is to the west of Dashun. Although the terrain is steep, the soldiers and horses are very weak. When we were in Chengdu, we sent troops many times to fight with Wuszang's troops. Horses fight with each other, winning every battle, and with very few casualties. I also heard from the captured Mongolians that the great lama on Uzang is regarded as a god by the Mongols... Whoever captures the great lama can win Give orders to the Mongolian tribes!"
Liu Wenxiu added: "We are thinking that if we can go west with 20,000 to 30,000 elite troops to seize the land of Uzang, and then invite the great lama to Yunnan, we may be able to reconcile with Zhungeer and Tumo. The four Mongolian states of Te, Chahar, and Heshuote formed an alliance... This means that everyone is alive!"
