Song Liangzuo's meeting had just ended, but some Sichuan officials had urgently reported to Bozhou about the campaign. After Yang Yinglong learned about it, he smiled contemptuously and said: "This newcomer Song Futai is interesting. No wonder he couldn't squeeze into the ministry at such an old age. He is indeed ignorant and wants to force me to submit by force. Mr. Sun, you Do you have anything to say about this?"
This Mr. Sun's name is Sun Shitai, and he is worth mentioning. This person is from Yuyao, Zhejiang Province. That generation, including Shaoxing, was a place rich in masters throughout the Ming Dynasty. Sun Shitai also has a special status in the Yang family of Bozhou, equivalent to a military advisor. Only a resourceful person can be worthy of this important position.
However, Sun Shitai was different from ordinary masters. He learned the Imperial Art, and the "Hegemony" in it - the knowledge of helping others achieve hegemony. It is said that Sun Shitai was observing the stars at night in the capital and saw the "guest star disturbing Ziwei" in the southwest. He thought there was a change of dynasty, so he visited the Ming Dynasty and finally found Yang Yinglong in the southwest.
In fact, Yang Yinglong had no objections earlier. He had just been a Tu emperor for a long time, and became a habit of being arrogant and domineering. Later, when something happened, he had to send his son Yang Kedong as a hostage to Chongqing.
There is an old story here that is rarely talked about in later generations, but it has a lot to do with Yang Yinglong's "rebellion" and is worth mentioning. As mentioned before, in order to retaliate against the Fifth Division, Yang Yinglong adopted various means to deal with the Fifth Division and accelerated the pace of persecuting the Fifth Division.
Because Gao Jingshi moved many chieftains from Guangxi south to Annan, most of the old areas of Guangxi chieftains were returned to their native lands. The authority of the imperial court in Guangxi was greatly enhanced. Guangxi's economic development has also been rapidly improved in recent years under Gao Jingshi's planning and arrangements. , finally turned from a bottomless pit in the court's finances into a cash pool, which gave the court the confidence and motivation to gradually return other chieftains to their hometowns.
Under this circumstance, the above-mentioned conflicts between Yang Yinglong and the five divisions under Bozhou were fermented. The fifth division reported Yang Yinglong's crimes to the Ming court. Ye Mengxiong, the governor of Guizhou at the time, immediately asked Bozhou to change his territory and return to his hometown.
In fact, the issue of Bozhou had already entered the court's sight as early as the Jiajing period. At that time, the ministers of Sichuan Province had a dispute over the ownership of Bozhou for the benefit of the province. This time, reports from the five divisions under Bozhou were sent to the court. The court intervened in the Bozhou issue, which complicated the originally simple issue. At the same time, the chieftain Yang of Bozhou lost the initiative to deal with this issue.
With the loss of the initiative to solve the problem, Yang Yinglong was afraid that the intervention of external forces would harm the interests of the Yang family chieftain in Bozhou. During this period, Yang Yinglong's behavior became more and more radical. However, the radical behavior did not solve the problem. Instead, it escalated the problem into a conflict between the Yang family chieftain in Bozhou and the court, which eventually led to the complete break between the Yang family chieftain in Bozhou and the imperial court.
The first was the conflict between Sichuan and Guizhou officials. After Guizhou was established as a province, the importance of Bozhou's geographical location gradually became apparent, and it became the object of competition for Guizhou's governors. Bozhou has an advantageous geographical location, connecting Hubei, Sichuan and Guizhou, making it an important strategic location. Bozhou is located in northern Guizhou, adjacent to Sichuan. It has developed its economy earlier and its economic development status is better than other areas in Guizhou.
Sichuan's advanced production methods and population first entered Bozhou, so Bozhou's agriculture, handicrafts, commerce, etc. all developed well. Bozhou has an advantageous geographical location, good economic development, and strong native soldiers. Naturally, it became the key to the competition between Sichuan and Guizhou officials.
Secondly, there is the problem of the surrounding chieftains. They are wavering at both ends, giving the Ming army a certain opportunity. Among the chieftains around Bozhou, the Shizhu chieftain had a good relationship with the Yang family chieftain in Bozhou. The two sides were related by marriage to each other during the Yang Yinglong period. Chieftain Shizhu Ma's family (Qin Liangyu's husband's family, Baiganbing is from his family) hopes to protect each other and thus form a political marriage with Chieftain Yang's family in Bozhou. Yang Yinglong also hopes to use the power of Shizhu Ma's family to expand his own strength.
However, this relationship disappeared as Yang Yinglong rebelled against the Ming Dynasty. Shizhu Ma's chieftain did not join forces with Yang Yinglong to rebel against the Ming Dynasty, but instead fought against each other. Historically, Shizhu's Ma chieftain played a great role in the Pingbo War, and even saved the Ming army from crisis. However, at this time, Song Liangzuo had no intention of using Ma's chieftain.
Yang Yinglong was previously called to Chongqing for trial, which ultimately cost him 20,000 gold, but there was still a mystery that was not explained clearly in the previous article. Since the imperial court had been preparing for the decisive battle against the Yuan Dynasty, it basically requested that the affairs of the Southwest Chieftain be delayed as long as possible, so that everything would be easier to handle when the Yuan Dynasty was over. Without the support of the imperial court's military power, officials in the southwest had no choice but to show force against Yang Yinglong's previous illegal behavior, but it was difficult to force him.
The situation remained deadlocked until last May, when Wang Shiqi, the prefect of Chongqing, rode alone to the meeting and met with Yang Yinglong in Songkan. This time, Yang Yinglong did not use his military skills, but instead used his acting skills. He tied himself up, knelt on the roadside and cried bitterly to apologize. He also knelt down to greet Wang Shiqi, kowtowing until his head bled. By the way, this skill was taught by Mr. Sun Shitai Sun.
Not only that, he also offered twelve scapegoats including Huang Yuan, A'ao, and A'Miao to offset his guilt, and accepted a fine of 40,000 gold to help the court collect wood. In the end, Chongqing agreed that Yang Yinglong should be dismissed from his post and his eldest son Yang Chaodong should act as his deputy. His second son Yang Kedong would be temporarily detained as a hostage and would be released after Yang Yinglong paid the fine in full.
Is Yang Yinglong sincerely surrendering, or is he just delaying the attack? There is no clear record in historical data. At that time, Gao Yingshi discussed with his practical colleagues and believed that Yang Yinglong might indeed have the intention of atonement with a fine during this period, otherwise he would not hand over his second son as a hostage. Of course, after paying the fine and redeeming his second son, he may still rebel again, but there should be a relative period of peace in the middle. This is the main reason why Gao Pangshi just recalled Liu Wei to take charge of Sichuan in a leisurely manner. .
However, fate is not as good as fate, and an unexpected incident occurred, killing the hope of peace: Yang Kedong died in prison. The time of death was shortly after Yang Yinglong reached a plea bargain and signed an atonement agreement with the imperial court. At that time, Gao Pragmatic was already serving as a Mongolian and Yuan Dynasty manager, and his whole body and mind were on sending troops outside the Great Wall, and the news did not reach the capital quickly enough (because Not military intelligence), Gao Pragmatic ultimately missed this important information.
In fact, Yang Kedong's death was a natural death - not only was this reported by Chongqing officials, but this was the only logical inference. Because there is really no reason for Chongqing officials to let Yang Yinglong and his eldest son Yang Chaodong go, they gave up 40,000 gold in financial income and only asked for the relatively unimportant life of Yang Kedong. You know, at this time Yang Yinglong had only paid half of his fine, which was the 20,000 gold mentioned above.
But Yang Yinglong, who was immersed in the pain of losing his son, obviously did not think so. Sun Shitai, who felt that he had made mistakes in giving advice, also became a little angry and began to pour dirty water on Chongqing officials and even the court.
Yang Yinglong forcefully demanded that the Chongqing magistrate return Yang Kedong's body. However, the official government had to consider the dignity of the court and obviously could not do whatever you said, so they refused on the grounds that the investigation report had not been completed and urged Bozhou to pay atonement.
At this time, Yang Yinglong was naturally furious and said, "If my son is resurrected, the money will be sent to him." Then he led more than a thousand monks to hold a soul-calling ceremony and rushed back to Bozhou. He believed that this could save Yang Kedong's soul. Take it back to your hometown.
It is understandable that Yang Yinglong also felt the grief of a loving father, but it did not constitute an excuse for him to vent his anger on the public. The Ming court obviously held the same view.
What is anger? He has done so many evil things that I can just give you an example here. Song Shichen, another whistleblower who reported Yang Yinglong's rebellion, had his father Song Luan beaten at home by Yang Yinglong's troops.
Yang Yinglong's methods were: raping his daughter in front of his father and raping his wife in front of her husband; forcing the captives to sit naked in the bushes and using them as live targets for archery fun; stuffing snakes into the male captive's anus and the female captive's (omitted) ), and then set fire to the snake's tail. The burning snake will feel pain and crawl into the human's belly. Both the human and the snake will die tragically.
During the above period, Sun Shitai played an important role. Unlike Yang Yinglong, who only wanted to restore his ancestral business and protect Bozhou, Sun Shitai's goal was clear: to conquer the Central Plains and change the dynasty. He also put forward suggestions such as strengthening ties to nurture seedlings, rebuilding Hailongtun, recruiting troops, rectifying internal affairs, dispatching attacks, and using offense as defense. Sun Shitai really wanted to rebel.
On the one hand, the pain of losing a son is difficult to overcome, but on the other hand, I know that Guizhou and Sichuan will not let me go unless I pay the ransom. Yang Yinglong finally decided to take action, and seizing land to raise seedlings was one of them.
At this time, the Miao people are tough and aggressive, good at using swords, strong bows, poisonous crossbows, and projectiles. In short, they are somewhat similar to the Guangxi Wolf Soldiers. They are a mountain troop with extremely strong combat effectiveness. Such a force is more than enough to deal with the same surnames of the Five Divisions and the Guizhou troops. Yang Yinglong's policy of "seizing land to raise seedlings" is to seize the land of the Five Divisions and Seven Surnames again and distribute it to the Miao people who follow his orders for planting. At the same time, the wives and daughters of the five surnames and seven surnames were also robbed, and Bozhou suddenly became a hell on earth.
Sun Shitai knew very well that the principle of "diplomacy far away and attack close" lay in the gap between the imperial court and the war, so he suggested that Yang Yinglong pretend to ease relations with the imperial court. Therefore, at the end of last year, Yang Yinglong and his eldest son Yang Chaodong each paid tribute 20 giant trees for the emperor's mausoleum construction. For this reason, the Ministry of Industry also jumped out and said some kind words for Yang Yinglong - now that Guangxi's timber is becoming more and more commercialized, this kind of super giant wood has become increasingly difficult to obtain.
As mentioned above, the Songkan survey was discussed. After that, the five long-claimed lands of Huangping, Caotang, Baini, Yuqing, and Chong'an under the jurisdiction of Bozhou were assigned to Guizhou. At this time, under the threat of Yang Yinglong's powerful force, Sun Shitai offered good conditions to encourage the Five Sis and Seven Surnames to return to their homeland... Well, no matter what the motivation was, at this time some of the Five Sis and Seven Surnames defected to Bozhou.
This is something Guizhou doesn’t want to see, but Sichuan thinks it’s “none of my business” and ignores it. Guizhou took a look and said, OK, I'll take care of it myself if you don't care.
So Jiang Dongzhi, the governor of Guizhou, couldn't help it. Maybe he felt that he could recreate the glory of being a pragmatic man and easily surrendered to the chieftains under his rule, so he ordered Yang Guozhu, the commander of the capital, and Li Tingdong, the commander, to lead 3,000 troops to regain the lost territory of the fifth division and advance Suppress Yang Yinglong. Yang Yinglong sent his son Yang Chaodong and younger brother Yang Zhaolong to fight against Huang Pingfei Lianbao.
Feilian Fort is located in Weng'an County in later generations. There is a waterfall named Feilian Spring. The trees here are lush and the terrain is prominent. Yang Yinglong set up an ambush here in advance.
To put it bluntly, most of the ambush battles are a routine. There are various detailed descriptions in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms". They are nothing more than giving you a little sweetness first, luring you to advance step by step, and finally falling into a trap. What's the result of this battle? After the engagement, the Bozhou Army feigned defeat and marched to Tianbangdun, where they lured the officers and soldiers to a heavily ambushed battlefield and annihilated them all. None of the three thousand officers and soldiers survived, including Yang Guozhu and Li Tingdong.
Such a big thing happened at the end of last year, but the court almost didn't know the real situation!
Guizhou officers and soldiers hastily dispatched troops, resulting in the annihilation of the entire army. Of course, they did not dare to honestly confess to the court, but such a big thing could not be concealed, so what should we do? Of course it was a joke: in December, Guizhou vaguely reported important events to the court, saying that Yang Yinglong "relented in his evil ways and killed officers and soldiers."
However, the highly pragmatic emperor's classmate was not easy to fool, and he could even tell at a glance that there must be something fishy in it, so he urgently sent an order to Guizhou to explain in detail, and those who failed to report or lied about military information would be severely punished. Seeing that the lid could no longer be kept, Guizhou had no choice but to admit the defeat honestly.
The emperor was originally focused on defeating the Yuan Dynasty, but before the defeat of the Yuan Dynasty came, Guizhou suffered a big defeat, which made him so angry that he could not control his temper. So Zhu Yijun ignored the disciplinary measures of the cabinet and Xini, and ordered that a large number of officials including Jiang Dongzhi, the governor of Guizhou, be dismissed from office and replaced by Guo Zizhang as governor. At the same time, the war against Bozhou was handed over to Sichuan, which had a stronger military. Song Liangzuo was also urgently sent to Sichuan at that time.
Since Sun Shitai, the military advisor, studied "hegemony", he was relatively good at military affairs, but it did not mean that he did not have an overall view of the situation. Therefore, when faced with Yang Yinglong's question, he immediately gave an answer.
Sun Shitai said: "Grand Master, if Bozhou goes to war with the official army, it will have a great impact. The relationship between this matter is very sensitive. The two provinces of Guizhou and Shu have made up their minds to change their land and return to their hometown. If the Grand Master shows weakness at this time, Bozhou Yang The family will be ordered to return to the fields to farm, and their prosperity will no longer exist.
This battle has to be fought, but the grand master must remember that this is only a battle. After the war, he must immediately swear an oath to the court and beg the emperor for mercy. The only person who can stop the two provinces is the emperor. From now on, we should act cautiously and not give others the leverage. As for the future, we should plan it slowly. "
He calls Yang Yinglong the Grand Master here, which is different from the way the Mongolians call Gao Jingshi and other frontier officials the Grand Master. Yang Yinglong here is the Grand Master because he calls himself "the 30th generation grandmaster of the Tang Dynasty", which means "I have a very rich ancestor", Sun Shitai Just do what you like.
In recent years, the military power of the imperial court has been at its peak. Yang Yinglong really didn't feel that he could replace Zhu Ming, nor did he feel that he could resist him for a long time. His purpose had always been to advance before retreating and preserve the family business, so he nodded in agreement.
Sun Shitai asked Yinglong how he planned to deploy, and Yang Yinglong replied: "Song Liangzuo's troops are divided into three groups. The troops are scattered and can be defeated individually. I can pretend to deploy the main force along the way to bluff, and hide an ambush at Loushanguan, so that people can pretend to surrender as a bait." , lure the main force to attack in the east and attack in the west. Once the main force of the Ming army is defeated, the remaining stragglers will retreat on their own. Peace talks will be possible by then."
Sun Shitai thought it was feasible, and showed his master's professionalism by carefully detailing Yang Yinglong's arrangement. Mr. Sun spoke clearly and clearly, which made Yang Yinglong very satisfied.
Then Yang Yinglong summoned the soldiers of Bozhou and said: "The two provinces of Guizhou and Shu have repeatedly made things difficult for me in Bozhou recently. The previous defeat of Guizhou was not far away, but this time they dared to send troops without permission to invade our territory. Since the Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties, Bozhou has been without war. Unfortunately, the ancestors of Ercao were all heroes of Bozhou. It is precisely for this reason that Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty recruited us to submit to the Ming Dynasty and become the chieftains of the Miao territory and govern this place for generations.
Nowadays, ruthless officials are running rampant and are attacking us with swords without the permission of the imperial court. In order to protect the peace of Bozhou, I am willing to personally go into battle and defeat the enemy. Afterwards, I will report to the emperor to repay Bozhou's justice and ask for your help! "
After Yang Yinglong said this, the crowd became excited. The Bozhou Army also dispatched five thousand troops this time, abandoning the pass and setting up an ambush. Guo Cheng, the Ming army's northern route, led more than 5,000 Sichuan soldiers without knowing it, and marched straight ahead; Wang Zhihan's southern route, with more than 10,000 Ming troops, had arrived near Loushanguan, a dangerous strategic point in Bozhou. The Miao soldiers at Loushanguan collapsed upon hearing the news, and the Ming army easily occupied it that night. The Ming army ordered its troops to be stationed at Baishikou.
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