The newly arrived Gao Jintai did not order to summon the chieftains of Western Guangxi. Naturally, it was not easy for the chieftains to leave the country at will and come to Liuzhou Mansion to see him. However, this did not prevent the chieftains from finding ways to get close to Master Yintai so that they could get to know this young man. What exactly does Yintai want to do with the Bazhai area?
At present, the governor of Guangxi, Zhang Ren, is seriously ill, and the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Liu Yaojie, supports the establishment of chieftains in Bazhai. As long as the high official agrees, then the matter is basically a done deal, and the chieftains can at most argue about it. The family sent people to serve as chieftains in the Bazhai area on the central axis of Guangxi, but there was no need to worry that the imperial court would take this opportunity to gradually advance its power to western Guangxi.
Of course, if the imperial court insisted on advancing, the chieftain of Western Guangxi was not really panicked. In fact, as early as the 28th year of Hongwu, the imperial court had established Nandan Guards in Nandan Prefecture, a serious land in Western Guangxi, and The strength of this guard was far greater than the normal 56-person establishment of a guard, which put tremendous pressure on the chieftains in western Guangxi.
But just nine years later, that is, the second year of Yongle, the imperial court moved the Nandan Guard and relocated it near Shanglin County to the east of Si'en Mansion. Later, it was slightly moved again during the Zhengtong Period, but generally it was still in the eighth year. The village area is not far away.
There were two reasons for moving the Nandan Guard at that time. First, the Bazhai area in central Guangxi continued to be unstable and there were frequent rebellions. It was necessary for the court to dispatch a strong force to suppress the local area. Second, the Nandan Guard was in the Nandan area because "the mountains are high and the forests are dense and dark." "The snakes and insects are poisonous and the grass is wild", "The rain has poisonous currents, and miasma is everywhere", "It is difficult to farm, and it is really not a pleasant place to live." Therefore, the soldiers died less in battle and more from illness. It was not cost-effective, so they had to be transferred.
Therefore, the chieftains in western Guangxi were not afraid that the imperial court would be crazy and insist on forcing their way into western Guangxi at all costs. They were only afraid that the imperial court would slowly advance from east to west through the continuous construction of new cities and towns, and rely on the establishment of new guard posts to gradually establish farmland.
This kind of encroachment is what they can't stand, because it means that the imperial power will expand slowly, firmly but unstoppably westward.
The current arrangements in the Bazhai area are a bellwether for them to understand the court's new attitude. In their view, if the court sets up chieftains in the Bazhai area, it means that the court is content with the status quo. If the court sets up floating officials in the Bazhai area, it may be a sign that the court will gradually move towards the west.
It was a matter of survival that no chieftain family didn't care about, so a few days later, representatives of the major chieftain families gathered secretly in Longtan Town to discuss how to deal with the crisis.
This meeting cannot be called a meeting, it is just a meeting for representatives of various companies to express their opposition to the imperial court's establishment of floating officials in the Bazhai area. As for how the chieftains should respond if Gao Yuntai insists on not agreeing to the establishment of chieftains in Bazhai, and the court finally listens to his words, no one mentioned it publicly in this meeting.
No one has mentioned it publicly, but it does not mean that no one cares. After all, the permanent residence of the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi is in Zhaoqing, Guangdong. It should be noted that the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi was resident in Wuzhou, Guangxi forty-five years ago during Jiajing. Forty-five years after Jiajing, it has been in Guangdong. Zhaoqing is not in Guangzhou anyway.
At this time, the official title of the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi was "Governor-General of the Military Affairs of Guangdong and Guangxi, in charge of food and salary management, salt law, and governor of Guangdong Province." Therefore, when he was in Guangdong, he had the administrative powers conferred by the position of Governor of Guangdong, but when he was in Guangxi, he only had the title of Governor-General. The military power conferred by his post, therefore, his influence on the administrative establishment of Guangxi was not necessarily more valued by the central court than the governor and governor of Guangxi.
In the courtyard of Jinghu Longhu, there is a small building near the water unique to the south. There are four people in the building. They are the four left after the chieftain's meeting. These four chieftains are different from other chieftains. They are the representatives of the four chieftain families who can really speak the most on the issue of resettlement in Bazhai.
In addition to the Seventh Young Master and Miss Huang who were there that day, two other people also stayed, one was Zhao Lizhong, the second master of the Zhao family in Sien Mansion, and the other was Mo Chen, the eldest son of the Mo family in Qingyuan.
If Bazhai is set up to be managed by native officials, the families represented by these four people will have the opportunity to become hereditary chieftains in Bazhai area, so a closed-door meeting was held here.
Although this place is the annex of the Huang family, and Miss Huang is the convener, it was still the seventh son of the Cen family who spoke first.
The Seventh Young Master was still as handsome and elegant as that day. He was holding a gold-painted Japanese fan and wearing a white gown with gold embroidery that only chieftains in Guangxi could wear. At this time, he said slowly but meaningfully, "Master Zhao Er , your family didn’t think about how to squeeze out the official prefect of Si’en Mansion, so that you can be the master of Si’en, but you just focus on the land of Bazhai. Speaking of which, I really don’t understand that you think the court will be willing to see it. Is the power of the Zhao family so unified?"
The second master Zhao, Zhao Lizhong, had a sarcastic look on his chubby round face, and said with a smile, "Although the co-prefect of Si'en Mansion may not sound as good as the prefect of Si'en, the imperial court in Si'en is nothing more than a clay statue of the prefect." The only court garrison in En Mansion is far to the south of Si En. Moreover, there is only one Wuyuan guarding Qianhu Station, less than a thousand soldiers. What's the use? Who doesn't know that Si En Mansion belongs to my Zhao family? No matter what, your father still misses the old land of his ancestors."
Master Cen Qi was not angry after hearing this. He waved his hand and said, "Master Zhao Er, there is no need to provoke me. Although Si'en is the old place of the Cen family, it has been lost for fifty or sixty years. Besides, it was not lost by my Sicheng branch. My father I am just worried that my brother will follow in the footsteps of Cen Meng, expand with all his strength, and attract the imperial army. Forget it if Mr. Zhao Er doesn't appreciate it, why are there so many doubts that my father has always been uninterested in these things? Is it possible? Mr. Zhao Er doesn’t know”
Mr. Zhao Er chuckled and said, "Since your father is not interested, I don't know why you are here, Seventh Young Master."
The Seventh Young Master sighed, "Of course I don't want to make this trip. However, as long as there are matters related to the chieftain, I, Mr. Cen, will always be in trouble. I can't be lazy even if I want to."
As soon as he said these words, the expressions of the other three were a little unkind. You have really confirmed that Mr. Cen is the king of chieftains in Guangxi. In any matter related to chieftains in Guangxi, you, Mr. Cen, must come forward.
However, everyone could not express their objection directly, so they had to remain silent. Mr. Zhao Er and Mr. Mo both looked at Miss Huang.
Miss Huang, however, looked indifferent and smiled slightly, saying, "In that case, I wonder what Mr. Cen thinks about the ownership of the Bazhai land."
I thought that Master Cen would directly say that this is the place that the Cen family favors, and use his power to suppress others. Unexpectedly, Master Cen sighed, "The Cen family has no other meaning in the ownership of the Bazhai land, as long as it is not the imperial court." I, Cen, have no objection to the official coming, but I don’t know which of the three is interested in this place."
