Chapter 44 The Beginning of the Battle of Annan
Why is this happening?
Because the land was vast and sparsely populated at that time, even if a place was conquered, the management costs would be huge, and the gains might even outweigh the losses. In this case, some pure economic benefits are the most cost-effective.
And that's what happened in Myanmar.
There is no denying that the core area of Myanmar is already quite prosperous. After all, Myanmar can be considered a part of the radiation of ancient Indian civilization, and its history is quite long.
But except for a few places, many places are vast and sparsely populated, and are divided into different places by nature. It is not easy to assign people to manage them.
Even lose money. .
This is actually why the Ming court only had to admit that it was a vassal of the Ming Dynasty.
In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang just started to say that what he gained was not enough to expand the land. But it costs a lot and the gain outweighs the loss. As for the so-called tributes handed over by chieftains from various places, the Ming court also looked down upon them.
In terms of economic interests, it is best for these chieftains not to cause trouble to the Ming court. That's the biggest benefit.
The Ming court never thought about anything else.
In response to this situation, He Xi believed that the best way to conquer Myanmar was to attack the city first, attack the heart first, slow down the war first, and fight quickly first.
Therefore, He Xi finally decided to select more than 10,000 southern soldiers and send them to Yunnan. These people were all southerners. They are much more adaptable to the climate in Myanmar.
The more important thing is not to fight, but to persuade these chieftains to switch to the court.
As a result, more than 10,000 people fought in Myanmar for a long time, and could even be said to supervise the war. They led a group of obedient chieftains and beat other disobedient chieftains, while the people behind them were building roads day after day.
Just like this, it is nibbling towards the south little by little.
He doesn't look good, and he doesn't have the courage to swallow up thousands of miles like a tiger. But overall, it was pretty smooth. The most important thing is to save money.
Anyway, the Heavenly Soldiers will not end until the last chieftain is killed. The best weapons of the Ming Dynasty soldiers are not actually firecrackers and artillery, but the industrial products produced by the Ming Dynasty. Things shipped from Nanjing to the front line would cost several times as soon as they changed hands.
It was enough to make these chieftain soldiers feel that their lives were worth it. Why do it yourself?
It should be noted that if a Ming soldier dies, there will be at least one hundred yuan in pension. At least. Moreover, if a chieftain soldier dies, there will be no change at all in the court's account books. The chieftain will handle it himself.
However, this is a lukewarm approach. It is destined to make many people in the army dissatisfied because they cannot perform meritorious service.
In addition, several princes were reluctant to leave Nanjing because they were dissatisfied with their fiefdoms, especially Zhu Yuntong, Zhu Xiongying's younger brother. He looked down upon many overseas fiefdoms. But I have been coveting Annan for a long time. After all, Annan was once the land of China, and all kinds of customs are called Little China.
It is much better to live somewhere than to start from scratch overseas.
How could he not intervene?
In addition, He Xi's promotion of vernacular literature promoted the development of the newspaper industry. After the world was reunified, education was promoted, and the most common way to promote vernacular literature was newspapers.
Originally newspapers only existed in Beijing and Nanjing, but now they exist in almost every provincial capital.
He has read statistics and found that there were more than a thousand kinds of newspapers and periodicals published by the Ming Dynasty. Of course, many of them were still alive, could barely hold a breath, and were no longer around.
Most of them are in vernacular.
This also made the press feel a little out of control. After all, the Ming court originally only had to manage no more than a dozen newspapers, but now there were so many at once that it was impossible to manage them.
In addition, writing is really not something that ordinary people can do.
Many old scholars were most resistant to He Xi's New Deal. However, their literary talents and literary accomplishments are treasures of this era. These people naturally have a place in the rapidly advancing newspaper world.
In short, this matter has developed so fast because of the accumulation of circumstances from all aspects.
The result is,
This made He Xi smile bitterly.
He Xi said, "Brother Yao, what do you think I should do?"
Yao Guangxiao said: "Now, do you have any other way to go?"
He Xi said: "Brother Yao is right. I have no other choice."
At this moment, He Xi's power seemed to have reached its peak. But He Xi himself knew that he was already in a state of remorse.
Since Dingguo was elected, Zhu Xiongying seemed to have disappeared suddenly. On many major matters, he does not express his opinions, but only respects the opinions of the cabinet.
Naturally, no one in the cabinet dared to confront He Xi.
He Xi's power seems to be unmatched by anyone in the world. But in fact, the reason for such a result is that Zhu Xiongying lost face and wanted to keep his reputation.
After all, after the establishment of the country, Zhu Xiongying was recognized by the world as the emperor. As these participants returned to their hometowns, news that the Ming Dynasty had regained stability spread to the world. But everything is centered around Zhu Xiongying.
Rather than He Xi.
There is no way around this. After all, in the hearts of people all over the world, the two concepts of emperor and country are highly overlapped. It even feels like that the emperor is the country and the country is the emperor.
Although there are some differences between loyalty to the emperor and loyalty to the country. But in many things, they appear to be consistent most of the time.
When the country is stabilized, Zhu Xiongying's foundation will be solid. Not to mention, He Xi made certain concessions to Zhu Xiongying in terms of military power.
And is what He Xi is doing now a good thing?
No, after three years of being in charge, even a dog would hate it. Not to mention the first assistant. What's more, he is the chief minister who is attacking the world.
Reshuffling the world, even if He Xi paid attention to his tactics, he didn't know how many people he offended. The more He Xi does, the more people will oppose He Xi and the more people will support Zhu Xiongying.
Why should Zhu Xiongying stop He Xi?
What's more, what He Xi wants to do is also what Zhu Xiongying wants to do.
There are invisible enemies in front of He Xi. It seems that no one dares to openly oppose He Xi, but whenever there is an opportunity, countless people will appear and oppose He Xi. Just like this one thing.
He Xi must not be weak at all.
Because once he shows his weakness, he will encounter more enemies. He Xi understood very well that it was not that he had no opponents, but that most people could not see the hope of victory. They are all just waiting and watching.
Once someone feels that he can defeat He Xi. Then things will be difficult to handle.
At least there was a disturbance in the government and the opposition.
He Xi hopes that the world will be peaceful, at least until He Xi completes the restructuring of the entire world. But the more we hope for peace, the less we can retreat. Whether it is internally or externally.
After all, people are all cheap, and the easiest thing is to push the envelope.
Therefore, He Xi will prepare for two wars. One is internal and the other is external.
In foreign wars, some restless people are released to bite others. After all, what Ming Dynasty is least afraid of now is war. Now the Ming Dynasty's military power is a level higher than that of the entire world. King Yan has repeatedly won against Timur, and it is definitely not because of Timur.
But King Yan is too powerful.
For the same thing, He Xi never felt that the Ming army would be unable to win in foreign campaigns. He Xi was thinking about other things.
After He Xi made up his mind, he immediately took a preemptive strike and announced a war against Annan to bring order to the chaos.
The first person He Xi summoned was Ye Chen, not to ask Ye Chen to take command, but to ask him to recommend a general.
The person Ye Chen recommended was none other than someone else. It was Zhang Ming.
After all, Zhang Ming is the direct descendant of He Xi. He also performed well in the North-South War. Now he is also the commander of an army. He is considered a high-level general and his title has reached Viscount.
Although it is not a high-level title. But from a refugee to a viscount, it only took a few years, which can be regarded as a legend.
In Ye Chen's opinion, it doesn't take much force to defeat Annan. Sending one army south is enough.
He Xi could only shake his head at this.
Ye Chen is still not politically sensitive.
If we attack Annan, will we only attack Annan? No, and the fight against Annan was to extend the life of the Annan royal family? No, that's an internal queue.
Never go too far and let yourself pick all the fruits.
However, He Xi still supports Ye Shen's idea of cultivating direct descendants.
Therefore, it was decided to attack from the land with Zhang Ming as the vanguard and Fang Guan as the deputy to attack from the sea. Fang Guan is considered a veteran, and this is his last battle.
His best years were spent in Nanyang. He missed the battle between the North and the South, and now he has no title. Moreover, the Nanyang Governor's Mansion is now under the jurisdiction of the imperial court.
The local forces in Nanyang also need to be purged to a certain extent, not to mention the Lu family. With Lu Zhongheng gone, the Lu family doesn’t have to deal with anything. As for the Fang family, Fang Chengfeng was there, so Fang Guan had to give some comfort.
Transfer him from Nanyang to fight in a battle, get some credit, and then retire.
It can be regarded as the last care for He Xi, his original partner.
Zhang Ming was the first to enter the battlefield and make contributions in the future. It is natural that the troops sent later would be directly under Zhang Ming's command. If Zhang Ming could achieve the feat of pacifying Annan, He Xi wouldn't mind giving Zhang Ming a British duke.
However, it is not enough to have an Annan for the Duke of the country. After all, with the improvement of the Ming army's strength. Ming Dynasty Wuxun is becoming more and more valuable. The merit of destroying a country may have been worth a duke in the past, but in this era, that may not be the case.
When it comes to the military, He Xi doesn't have to worry too much. Foreign wars are managed by the Privy Council. Ye Chen will keep an eye on him and it is unlikely that he will lose the battle.
What He Xi is worried about is nothing else. It should be the internal war. To be precise, it is the purge of Guangdong. He Xi must kill one person to make a warning to others and be cruel to Guangdong.
Let the people below know that many of his men died. Don't think that because he has been quiet in the past few years, he is a vegetarian.
