Huang Zhiting did put forward her own suggestion, but it was another letter, sealed with fire paint. Judging from the coat of arms, it can only be opened by Gao Pangshi. Someone from the Ministry of Internal Affairs left the letter in Baiyu Tower, and he would not know until he went there in person.
The motorcade accelerated back to Baiyu Tower. As soon as they arrived at the square garden outside the building, Gao Pragmatic saw Liu Xin standing on the stone steps, seemingly waiting for him. He took a few steps forward, and sure enough, Liu Xin smiled slightly and said, "My boss."
These actions and words are obviously just a face-saving project, just for the eyes of the highly pragmatic followers. Gao Pingshi knew in his heart that she must be here for Nanzhang's affairs, so he nodded and said, "Go in and talk."
After entering the Baiyu Building, Gao pragmatic took Liu Xin and Gao Mo to his study. Sure enough, there was a letter on the table in the study room. The wax paint on the letter was stamped with a delicate pattern of a heron holding a fish.
The heron is one of children's totems and a symbol of rice harvest. In the "Mo Jing" among the children, the egret is an animal created by Buluotuo, the ancestor of the children. It is also an auspicious bird worshiped by the ancestors of the children. It is said that it has the ability to reach the sky.
On children's bronze drums, there are often many patterns of herons flying around the sun. Another pattern is the pattern of a heron holding a fish stamped on the paint. [Note: If you are interested, you can search on "Bronze Drum with a Flying Heron and a Fish Pattern". ]
This soaring heron pattern was originally commonly used by young female chieftains, but in Beijing - or today's southern Xinjiang, only Huang Zhiting can use it, which is equivalent to a status symbol. Generally, when Huang Zhiting writes to Gao Pragmatic, if she uses a flying heron to circle the sun, it is probably a family matter; if she uses a flying heron to hold a fish, it is probably an official matter in southern Xinjiang.
Gao Yingshi looked at the emblem of a heron holding a fish on the paint, and already understood most of Huang Zhiting's attitude in this letter: she believed that Huang Yinglei's matter this time was not a family matter but a business matter.
After pondering for a moment, Gao pragmatically opened the letter with a paper knife, took out the letter paper and read it. This letter is not long and is divided into two parts in terms of content.
The first half is an apology. In the letter, Huang Zhiting defined Huang Yinglei's behavior as disobedience and rebellion, and said that such a situation was due to her sister's incompetent teaching and ineffective control, and she asked for punishment.
The bottom half is disposal. She stated in the letter that she had ordered the Vientiane Guard Army to prepare for battle, but its current main responsibility was to target Vientiane City.
In addition, she ordered the Jinggang Garrison to dispatch more than 8,000 troops from the two alliances, and the Phnom Penh Garrison to send more than 8,000 troops from the two alliances, together with more than 12,000 people from the Dingnan Garrison and the Three Associations led by herself, and more than 4,000 directly affiliated wolf soldiers who accompanied them in Dingnan City. , a total of more than 32,000 people, surrounding Vientiane on three sides - if the Vientiane garrison is included, there will be a total of more than 50,000 people, surrounding Vientiane City on four sides.
Furthermore, she asked Gao Yingshi to order the abolition of the title of "Mengzhan Town" and "Mengzhan Prince" in Nanzhang Kingdom.
The Nanzhang Kingdom is composed of various "men", large and small, and the meaning of "men" is roughly equivalent to city-states. The administrative structure of Nanzhang Kingdom is the same as that of most Theravada Buddhist countries in Southeast Asia. The territory can be divided into three categories:
The first category is the "Gyeonggi" area directly ruled by the king. Although the word Gyeonggi in Chinese generally only means the capital city and its vicinity, which is usually not very big, small countries like Nanzhang are different. This area is not only not small in its territory, but also mostly relatively developed core areas. ;
The second category is the "direct vassal" area where the king sends his loyal royal family to rule. The governors of the Zhifan region could be either floating officials or local officials, but they were all directly appointed and dismissed by the king. For example, after Bijue's father, King Setathira, moved his capital to Nanghan (Vientiane), he appointed his younger brother Ubalut as King Mengshan (King of Luang Prabang). Setathira's grandfather, Vishunara, was also appointed as the Marquis of Nanghan (Marquis of Wanxiang) before becoming king;
The third category is the "foreign vassal" areas of hereditary chiefs in border areas. For example, the Huapan area (near Annan, known as "Penman" in Annan historical records) was inherited by the local chieftains (named "Qin family") from generation to generation.
Mengzhan is an area in the southeast of Nanzhang Kingdom, located on the Bolofing Plateau. It is named after its main city called Chambasak. This is also the fiefdom of Huang Yinglei after he moved the town from Annan to Nanzhang. After Nanzhang became independent from Burma, due to the relocation of the town, Mengzhan Town was established with Champasak as its administrative seat - a "town" similar to the military towns of the Ming Dynasty.
At the same time, because Huang Yinglei is the husband of the eldest princess (Nanzhang was not called a consort at first, but now because of the relationship between Jinghua and Ming Dynasty, people sometimes call him this way), according to custom, he should have the title of prince. So Nuo Jiao Gumeng ordered that Huang Yinglei be canonized as the Prince of Mengzhan of Nanzhang Kingdom.
It should be added here that when Princess Biyaju revolted against the Burmese puppet regime of her uncle Ubalut, the city where the base camp was located was Attapeu, not far east of Champassak. Later, Mengzhan Town also included Attapeu City and nearby areas.
In other words, Huang Yinglei was very powerful in the Boluofen Plateau in the southeast of Nanzhang Kingdom, and because of his relationship with Princess Bijue, the couple's local popularity was not low.
Huang Yinglei's own weapons were his wolf soldiers, which numbered three thousand. According to Huang Zhiting, these three thousand wolf soldiers have two characteristics: first, they are elite. Since Huang Yinglei is the eldest son of the main branch of the Huang family, although he is naughty, he was still regarded as the heir to the main branch, so the wolf soldiers under his command are all elite. The selected ones are no worse than the wolf soldiers directly under Huang Zhiting.
Second, this group of wolf soldiers had been commanded by Huang Zhiting for a long time. It was not until Jinghua conquered the entire southern Xinjiang and Huang Yinglei moved the town to occupy it that Huang Zhiting returned these elite wolf soldiers to Huang Yinglei's hands.
Although she didn't say it explicitly, Gao pragmatic guessed that she took this into consideration when she personally led the troops to Vientiane this time. The reason is simple. These people and elites have been under her command for a long time. She may be considering conquering them peacefully.
Generally speaking, two conditions are required for peaceful conquest: first, the person who goes to conquer must be famous, such as Guo Ziyi who rode back to the falcon soldiers alone. Huang Zhiting has this one. Although most of her power in southern Xinjiang comes from her status as "Mrs. Gao", her reputation is really not that. Her reputation is earned by herself.
From the Battle of Lang Son, to the expedition to Burma, to the pacification of Siam, and even the destruction of Cambodia, she was the one who arranged various deployments from Nancheng. The Han people in southern Xinjiang often call her and Liu Xin the peerless twins, but compared with their achievements, Huang Zhiting is more prominent. Coupled with the relationship between status, everyone defaulted to Huang Zhiting first.
Since the wolf soldiers have been led by her for a long time, she naturally respects this reputation even more. Therefore, in this regard, it is normal for Huang Zhiting to have such thoughts.
The second condition is power. The most straightforward meaning of power is how many soldiers you bring. After all, Guo Ziyi's situation is relatively rare, and it is still difficult for ordinary people to do it.
Huang Zhiting mobilized more than 30,000 troops this time. Including the Vientiane garrison, the total number was more than 50,000. This strength is naturally crushing compared to Huang Yinglei and Biajue.
Princess Bijue handed over power very thoroughly at that time. After marrying Huang Yinglei, she no longer needed to personally command the army. The former Nanzhang Royal Forest Army, which had only less than 500 people around her for a long time, acted as a security force. Huang Yinglei's situation has just been mentioned. In his early years, because he was incompetent, the military power was always held by his sister Huang Zhiting. It was not until he moved to the town to capture the 3,000 wolf soldiers.
In other words, the couple's theoretical direct force totals 3,500 people. Among them, 3,000 wolf soldiers may abandon the secret and turn to the bright side after learning about Huang Zhiting's personal expedition.
But there is another situation here, that is, Nanzhang's imperial army once reached a maximum of 40,000 to 50,000 people. Later, because Gao Pragmatic believed that Nanzhang was poor and deep inland, there was no need to maintain so many soldiers, so he made a big move , when the Vientiane Guard Army was reorganized based on the Nanzhang Royal Forest Army, almost 30,000 of the nearly 50,000 people were directly cut off, leaving only about 20,000 people.
Next, Gao pragmatically adjusted the establishment of the garrison armies in southern Xinjiang according to a similar establishment of the Imperial Guards of the Ming Dynasty, that is, from top to bottom, there are eight levels: army, town, association, standard, battalion, company, platoon, and shed. Among them, the town is the basic organizational structure and is organized into various garrison corps.
This basic organization means the basic units for combat. Large-scale troop deployments are usually carried out from town to town, or at least one association and one association. For example, Huang Zhiting's conquest this time is based on the association.
When "organized into various garrison armies", the number of towns under the jurisdiction of each garrison army varied. For example, the largest garrison in southern Xinjiang is now the Dingnan garrison. It has a total of about 60,000 people in five towns and has ten concords and several independent artillery battalions, horse camps, and engineering battalions. The smallest garrison is The Vientiane Guard Army only has two towns and more than 20,000 people in total, and apart from the four associations, there are also few independent battalions under its jurisdiction.
The rest, such as the Thang Long, Golden Port, Bago, Phnom Penh and other garrison, usually have around three to four towns.
The Royal Forest Army of Nanzhang was cut off by more than 30,000 people. These people were the meritorious troops of Princess Bijue when she raised the army. Of course, they could not be dismissed directly with a single order. So a compromise was made at that time, and the "royal property" of the original puppet king Ubalut of the Southern Palm near Vientiane, including fields, mountains, forests, etc., was distributed to the more than 30,000 people according to merit and status.
To a certain extent, these more than 30,000 soldiers are actually like "military troops" near Vientiane, staying near Vientiane. Now that Princess Bijue has declared regency and returned to Vientiane, Gao Pragmatic estimates that she will definitely not forget these people, and will most likely reorganize them into an army for use.
As a result, the strength in the hands of Huang Yinglei and Biajue immediately increased to more than 30,000 people, which can be regarded as a not weak force. Huang Zhiting wants to subdue the wolf soldiers. In addition to the eldest lady's historical reputation, the wolf soldiers will definitely also consider their own strength. It is not impossible for these more than 30,000 soldiers to give them the illusion that they can fight.
Of course, although these more than 30,000 people had been the army earlier, their disadvantages were also obvious. First of all, the so-called Nanzhang Royal Forest Army before the reorganization was not very effective - in the original history, this army, under the command of Princess Biajue, did invade Vientiane City from the southeast and overthrew the rule of Ubalu. But the problem is that the Myanmar army suppressed them as soon as they arrived, which shows that their strength is just that.
Another disadvantage is weapons and equipment and training. There is nothing to say about weapons and equipment. Although the reorganized Vientiane Guard Army still receives the lowest attention in southern Xinjiang, after all, as a guard force, the equipment of the infantry in each unit is still effective. Ascension, muskets and cold weapons are all fully equipped. Apart from the establishment of a town, the main reason is that the independent artillery battalion, independent horse battalion and other town-directed troops have a lower proportion than other towns.
----------
I'm so twisted. I'm writing this chapter a little slowly. I'm still about 700 words short. I'm going to post a few duplicates first. I have to prevent theft. I'll just refresh my subscription after half an hour. I'm sorry.
When "organized into various garrison armies", the number of towns under the jurisdiction of each garrison army varied. For example, the largest garrison in southern Xinjiang is now the Dingnan garrison. It has a total of about 60,000 people in five towns and has ten concords and several independent artillery battalions, horse camps, and engineering battalions. The smallest garrison is The Vientiane Guard Army only has two towns and more than 20,000 people in total. In addition to the four associations, there are also few independent battalions under its jurisdiction.
The rest, such as the Thang Long, Golden Port, Bago, Phnom Penh and other garrison, usually have around three to four towns.
The Royal Forest Army of Nanzhang was cut off by more than 30,000 people. These people were the meritorious troops of Princess Bijue when she raised the army. Of course, they could not be dismissed directly with a single order. So a compromise was made at that time, and the "royal property" of the original puppet king Ubalut of the Southern Palm near Vientiane, including fields, mountains, forests, etc., was distributed to the more than 30,000 people according to merit and status.
To a certain extent, these more than 30,000 soldiers are actually like "military troops" near Vientiane, staying near Vientiane. Now that Princess Bijue has declared regency and returned to Vientiane, Gao Pragmatic estimates that she will definitely not forget these people, and will most likely reorganize them into an army for use.
As a result, the strength in the hands of Huang Yinglei and Biajue immediately increased to more than 30,000 people, which can be regarded as a not weak force. Huang Zhiting wants to subdue the wolf soldiers. In addition to considering the eldest lady's historical reputation, the wolf soldiers will definitely also consider their own strength. It is not impossible for these more than 30,000 soldiers to give them the illusion that they can fight.
Of course, although these more than 30,000 people had been the army earlier, their disadvantages were also obvious. First of all, the so-called Nanzhang Royal Forest Army before the reorganization was not very effective - in the original history, this army, under the command of Princess Biajue, did invade Vientiane City from the southeast and overthrew the rule of Ubalu. But the problem is that the Myanmar army suppressed them as soon as they arrived, which shows that their strength is just that.
Another disadvantage is weapons and equipment and training. There is nothing to say about weapons and equipment. Although the reorganized Vientiane Guard Army still receives the lowest attention in southern Xinjiang, after all, as a guard force, the equipment of the infantry in each unit is still effective. Ascension, muskets and cold weapons are fully equipped. Apart from the establishment of a town, the main reason is that the independent artillery battalion, independent horse battalion and other town-directed troops have a lower proportion than other towns.
