Back in the mansion, Gao Pragmatic stepped back and asked Gao Mo to bring in all the recent reports on southern Xinjiang and read them carefully page by page. After a long time, Gao pragmatically put down the last page of the report, closed his eyes, and leaned back on the Taishi chair without saying a word, which seemed to be both resting and meditating.
As mentioned before, after Gao Yuan arrived in southern Xinjiang, he showed obvious signs of being close to his uncle's Huang family at the reception banquet that day. Not only did he obviously elevate Huang Hu's status, but he also praised his second uncle Huang Yingping the next day. He also asked the Nanyang Fleet to immediately dispatch ships to Huang Yingping's hereditary territory Ngee Ann Mansion to urgently recruit 3,500 Huang family wolf soldiers to fight with Huang The five hundred people he brought this time were recruited to form a group to accompany him on the expedition.
Then, he began to "win over" Liu Xin's garrison generals who stayed in Siam. Liu Weizhong, deputy commander of the Dingnan Garrison Command, is the leader of the more than 3,000 soldiers Liu Xin left in Dingnan. He also won Gao Yuan's favor this time, and was ordered to allocate one of the two bids of troops in his hand to Gao Yuan [Note: there are about 1,756 people in one bid] to serve as part of Gao Yuan's personal soldiers.
At this time, Gao Yuan represented his father, Gao Gao, who was pragmatic and had sufficient authority to mobilize these troops. Theoretically speaking, before Liu Xin and Huang Zhiting rushed to southern Xinjiang one after another, both the military and political circles in southern Xinjiang had to obey his orders.
In addition to the above two forces, as Huang Zhiting's biological son, Gao Yuan also unceremoniously called on his mother's wolf soldiers and horses [Note: there are 4038 people in one alliance]. This Xielang soldiers came from Hailong Mansion, Huang Zhiting's hereditary territory. Many of them had participated in the Battle of Lang Son and were famous elites in southern Xinjiang.
In this way, as soon as Gao Yuan arrived in Dingnan, he immediately prepared about 10,000 Chinese soldiers for himself, and they were all elite.
However, this also made many people suddenly feel worried - the personal troops that the young master prepared for him were all "foreign relatives' troops", which... was not a good sign.
That night, Gao Ruichun was invited to visit Gao Mengnan, and he was accompanied by his brother Gao Ruilong and cousin Gao Zhang.
This is the first time these two people appear. A brief introduction:
Gao Ruilong is the second younger brother of Gao Ruichu. His courtesy name is Taifu and he was born in Sui Gong. He had been admitted to Quanzhou Tongpan, but he resigned and did not take up the post. Originally, Quanzhou had always been a famous seaport city in China and an important trading port after the opening of the sea in the Ming Dynasty. Being a general judge here was definitely a big job.
However, Gao Ruilong knew very well that he was not a Jinshi. Being able to "take the exam and teach general judgment" may be a reflection of his own ability. But if he was arranged to take up a post in Quanzhou, it must be due to the influence of his uncle Gao Pragmatic's face - this is not You need to speak in a pragmatic manner, or even hint, and the officials will naturally make good arrangements.
However, Gao Ruilong firstly did not want to cause gossip to his uncle, and secondly, he also believed that the upper limit of his official career was too low (because he was not a Jinshi), so after discussing with his eldest brother, he simply took the initiative to come to southern Xinjiang, planning to stay in southern Xinjiang. It’s been a long time working hard in this “family business”.
Gao Pragmatic was also informed of his arrival. Gao Pragmatic did not object to his idea, and he was very important to him. He immediately appointed him as the garrison envoy of Beiboni.
"Boni", later known as Kalimantan, is the third largest island in the world, with an area of more than 740,000 square kilometers, which is twice the size of Japan. Of course, the current population of this island is far less than that of Japan. According to a simple census organized by southern Xinjiang not long ago, the island may currently have only a million people, and its Han people (including naturalized Han people) do not exceed 20,000.
Judging from such a population size and structure, Jinghua's rule on Bo Ni Island can be said to be extremely weak, but this is not necessarily the case. Boni was originally one of the tributary kingdoms of the Ming Dynasty, but the king of Boni passed away a few years ago. Because he had no children, the clansmen fought fiercely and fought fiercely. In the end, he had no choice but to make his daughter the leader.
But at this time, Bo Ni was only a tributary state to the Ming Dynasty in name, and actually surrendered to Java. Therefore, after the Nanyang Raiders were completed, Jinghua became the de facto master of Bo Ni.
Of course, like other kingdoms in southern Xinjiang, Gao Pragmatic retains the nominal ruling status of "Queen Boni" and actually rules with the Jinghua Advisory Group. After Gao Ruilong was appointed as the governor of Bei Boni, the so-called Queen of Boni became even more insignificant, not even a rubber stamp. [Note: The degree of development of Beibo Ni is relatively high, and Nan Bo Ni also has highly pragmatically appointed garrison envoys, so this is why it is said. ]
Gao Ruichu is currently the patrol envoy of Longya, which is equivalent to the governor of Longya Peninsula (Malay Peninsula); the area under the jurisdiction of the governor of Beiboni is actually larger than that of Longya Peninsula, but Gao Ruilong is only the governor - this position is similar to the prefect . This is because the Longya Peninsula is much more developed than Boni and has a much larger population. No matter how you put it, the two brothers can be regarded as members of the Gao family with a certain status in southern Xinjiang.
Another person Gao Ruichuan brought was his cousin Gao Zhang. Gao Zhang was born in the fifth room of the Gao family and was the son of Gao Wuben, Gao Pragmatic's cousin.
Gao Wuben is very good at giving birth, but not very good at raising children. He gave birth to ten sons, but only two survived to adulthood: the second son Gao Qi and the tenth son Gao Zhang.
Gao Qi needs no introduction. His courtesy name is Yufu, and he is the current intelligence secretary of the Secretariat. With Gao Mo's old age and frailty recently, Gao Pragmatic has been cultivating him and preparing him to take over the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He is an important confidant. .
As the tenth son, Gao Zhang is seven years younger than his second brother. His courtesy name was Ban Feng, and he was born as a member of the Communist Party of China, but he did not like reading. Instead, he liked business matters, so he gave up his ambition for fame and came to southern Xinjiang. After Gao pragmatically got to know Gao Qi, he appointed him as the director of Longya Port (Malacca Port), responsible for the daily management of this most important commercial port in Southeast Asia, as a staged training.
The common characteristic of these three people is obvious: they are all members of the Gao family. The three of them visited Gao Mengnan together, which was understandable in normal times, as they were meeting the elders of the clan. However, if you come to visit the Gao family clan members with the highest status in southern Xinjiang at this moment, you will inevitably attract attention-for example, someone from the Ministry of Internal Affairs recorded the time they entered the Siam Prime Minister's Palace and the time they left the palace. As for them What did I say to Gao Mengnan in the Prime Minister's Mansion...
"Second uncle, we haven't seen the eldest young master very often. You are always an elder. How do you evaluate the eldest young master's behavior these past two days?" The person who asked the question was Gao Ruilong.
Gao Mengnan sat on the throne and said calmly: "Yuan'er is very independent, which can be said to be like his father."
Gao Ruilong raised his eyebrows slightly: "Uncle Liu has always been very trusting to his clan members. We are all deeply grateful for this, but the eldest young master...at least for now, it seems that he is more trusting to my uncle's family."
Gao Mengnan figured this out that day, but there were some things he couldn't express directly to his three nephews, so he said: "You also said you haven't met him much, how do you know who he is? Now that he is close to his uncle's family, Maybe it’s just using the help of my uncle’s family to raise soldiers, what’s the crime?”
"Of course you can't accuse." This time it was Gao Ruiqiu who took over the conversation and said: "The eldest young master came to take charge of the military affairs of the Western Expedition on the order of Uncle Six. Naturally, he has the say as to which army he wants to recruit as his own soldiers. Calculate.
However, there is one thing that puzzles my nephew: all the troops in southern Xinjiang are all members of the sixth uncle's family, and the eldest young master is the Marquis of Nanning. After all, these soldiers and horses belong to him after all. Then why did he refuse to select his own soldiers from these garrison troops, but chose the distant ones instead of the near ones, and insisted on recruiting troops from his uncle's family?
Besides, the Huang family's wolf soldiers were still soldiers from his mother's family and his uncle's family. He could just call them as personal soldiers, but Liu Weizhong... they were the secretary-general's personal soldiers, and they were also part of the Dingnancheng garrison. If he just opened his mouth like this and transferred half of them, wouldn't he be afraid that if something happened, it would be difficult to explain in the future? "
Gao Mengnan shook his head and said: "Although the Dingnancheng garrison has been under the responsibility of my wife and the secretary-general these years, under the false name of Siam Palace Guards. But you should also know that this is just because my wife represents Nanning." When he was in charge of southern Xinjiang, he was an expedient, not an economic system.
Siam originally had five towns in Dingnan, which was the most powerful military force in southern Xinjiang, and the first town in Dingnan was stationed in Ayutthaya (the capital of Siam, later known as Bangkok, was only 20 miles northwest of Dingnan City.), Not to mention transferring half of them, even if all Dingnan's troops were mobilized, who would dare to cause chaos under the nose of the first town? What's more, nearly half of the main force of the Nanyang Fleet is also stationed in Dingnangang, with tens of thousands of sailors on board. How can anyone dare to ignore this force? "
Brothers Gao Ruichuan and Gao Ruilong looked at each other, each frowning and saying nothing. Gao Zhang on the side couldn't help but said: "Second uncle, we are all members of our own family, so we might as well say something clearly. Although I am young and ignorant, I have been studying for several years. There is something I really can't help but want to ask... …”
Gao Mengnan glanced at him and asked, "What are you talking about?"
Gao Zhang took a deep breath and asked: "Second uncle will never forget the Zhu Lu Rebellion, right? The situation of our Gao family is very good at first glance, but the two aunts Huang and Liu, compared to Empress Lu back then... It doesn’t seem to be much different.”
"Bastard!" Gao Mengnan suddenly slapped the armrest and glared: "Is this what you learned from studying?"
Gao Zhang did not expect Gao Mengnan's sudden change of expression. He was so frightened by his loud shout that he cowered and said: "Why is the second uncle so angry? My nephew is telling the truth... Madam has been sitting alone in southern Xinjiang for so many years, and countless people have benefited from her." Count, and the Secretary-General is like the chief assistant of Jinghua.
One of these two aunts is in charge of the military, and the other is in charge of politics. Judging from the eldest young master's words and deeds today, I am afraid that the two aunts have a very good relationship in private. Now that Uncle Liu is the chief minister of the dynasty, he has to take care of everything. How can he have the energy to care about southern Xinjiang? If this is the case, wouldn’t our capital and our southern frontier have to worry about the hen and chicken sitting in the morning? "
Gao Mengnan took a deep breath and said slowly: "If you have any other ideas, you might as well say them once."
"Say what you say, little nephew, I can't tell anyone anything." Gao Zhang stiffened his neck and said, "Sixth uncle became the chief assistant, and also sent away the annoying Shen Yiguan. Now there is only one Zhou Yong in his care." When you are surrounded by people who raise their hands, the cabinet is nothing more than Uncle Six running the show.
At this time, the imperial court is sending troops to the northwest again. The sixth uncle's mind must be on the court affairs and he cannot take care of our southern Xinjiang area. Now the eldest young master is here first, and the secretary-general will be here soon, and then the wife will definitely go south... Second uncle, if the two aunts have a close relationship, and the eldest young master is obsessed with getting close to his mother and aunt, and only listens to their mercy in everything, then Who do we, the members of the Gao family, count? We can't just become outsiders instead! "
——
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(End of chapter)
