prosperous age

Chapter 1062 1153 Silencing and Rebellion

"Father, father."

Li Rusong rushed into the yard, shouting. Li Chengliang came out with a frown and yelled at him, "What are you doing? Were you chased by a dog?"

"Hehe, if it was a dog, I would just chop it with a knife. I really wouldn't run away."

Li Rusong rushed to Li Chengliang with a playful smile, and then thought of the reason for coming here, and couldn't help but said anxiously: "Dad, I just received news that Mengyang was broken."

"what?"

Li Chengliang was shocked at first, but then he calmed down immediately.

The fact that Mengyang could hold out for two months without being conquered was actually beyond his expectations.

Facing the powerful offensive of the Burmese army, it was rare that Si Ge was able to hold out for such a long time by relying on the few troops he had at his disposal to hold on to a few mountain passes.

"When did it happen?"

Li Chengliang asked calmly.

"Three days ago."

Li Rusong replied hastily: "It is said that Gengma Tusi Han Qian colluded with a leader named Huoba under Si Ge and let the Burmese army invade Mengyang.

Si Ge was caught off guard and suffered heavy losses. Meng Yang could no longer bear it. "

"Is there any news?"

Li Chengliang was more concerned about the chieftains in the southwest. As long as these chieftains were not killed, they would inevitably revive.

In fact, even if they were killed, as long as their descendants were alive, they would run back to the Ming Dynasty.

After the situation in the southwest has calmed down, we may be able to get back the lost items from the court by using the imperial edicts, seals, tokens, and crowns and belts that were awarded that year to prove our identity.

Of course, these are not what Li Chengliang wanted to give.

To put it bluntly, it will leave behind trouble.

Therefore, in Li Chengliang's view, it would be best if all his descendants were killed.

As for the side branches, there are too many of them, and the imperial court would certainly not recognize them.

"I'm not sure about that. The news only says that Si Ge was defeated and the Burmese army is chasing him."

Li Rusong smiled.

He was the oldest among the brothers, so he was the most valued by Li Chengliang. He participated in many military affairs and naturally knew what his father was thinking.

This was the case in Liaodong and also in the southwest. Li Chengliang trained him completely as his successor and even spent a lot of money to invite famous teachers and scholars from the interior to teach him.

This famous teacher and scholar is actually Xu Wei, a well-known figure in history.

Xu Wei failed the imperial examination in his early years. At that time, Japanese pirates were rampant in the south of the Yangtze River. So Xu Wei went to work as a staff member under Hu Zongxian, the governor-general of Jiangnan who was responsible for suppressing the Japanese pirates, and made plans for him.

Therefore, Xu Wei was not only well-educated, but also had outstanding military abilities.

After Hu Zongxian's downfall, Xu Wei was imprisoned as an accomplice and tortured. Although he was released later, he was penniless.

Just when he was in dire straits, he received invitations from Qi Jiguang who was still in Jizhen and Li Chengliang from Liaodong.

However, in the end, Xu Wei did not choose the more familiar Qi Jiguang, but went to Liaodong alone and became the teacher of Li Chengliang's son Li Rusong.

It was not Wei Guangde who proposed to eliminate the chieftains in the southwest, but the result he wanted was that the chieftains had to be eliminated first before there would be a chance for long-term peace and stability in the southwest.

As long as there is a chieftain in the area, the people there will only listen to the chieftain and will not choose to obey the orders of the court.

Li Chengliang saw through this point, so he adopted this strategy towards the chieftains in the southwest.

"Are you just hunting?"

Li Chengliang's eyes flashed, and he immediately said to his son: "Pick some skilled people to go over there, and don't let anyone come back alive."

Li Rusong understood what his father meant. Even if he managed to escape from the Burmese army, he could not be allowed to escape to the Ming Dynasty alive.

Looking around, thinking of a direction to run to, the only direction is Ming Dynasty.

The surrounding areas have been occupied by the Burmese army and he has nowhere else to go.

In order to express his loyalty to Mu Changzuo, Luo Rufang and others, Si Ge killed the men sent by Mang Yinglong to Mengyang to persuade them to surrender. This made him a mortal enemy of Mang Yinglong and he would never accept his surrender.

However, he never expected that the Ming Dynasty had other thoughts. They were unmoved by his actions and still had no intention of sending troops.

Even if such a person saved the Ming Dynasty, the seeds of hatred towards the Ming Dynasty would have already grown in his heart and could not be resolved at all.

After all, the family's hard-earned foundation was almost completely destroyed in his hands.

Such a deep hatred will probably not be eliminated even after several generations.

Li Chengliang was actually a ruthless person, and of course he knew the principle of cutting the grass at its roots. Otherwise, he would not have been able to stand firm in Liaodong for decades and create the strength of the Liaodong clans.

Any family that he targets will be wiped out without mercy.

Such behavior is highly deterrent both internally and externally.

As for the reason why he let Nurhaci go in history, perhaps it was not only because he accidentally killed his family members, but also to show it to other Jurchens.

After all, making the Jurchens surrender is not a simple matter of fighting and killing.

Only by dividing and disintegrating the various Jurchen forces and letting them fight and consume each other could the Ming Dynasty achieve its rule over Liaodong.

But he was wrong and actually left behind a natural general, allowing him to develop in the poor land between the Baishan and Heishui regions, and become the death warrant of the Ming Dynasty.

"Dad, I understand."

Li Rusong replied, turned around and walked out.

He wanted to select people from his personal guards to go to the border. One purpose was to find out the news from Mengyang, but the most important thing was to kill Si Ge and his family and not let them escape into the Ming Dynasty alive.

However, just as he reached the gate of the courtyard, he saw the inspector Luo Rufang rushing in hurriedly.

Judging from his hurried appearance, he had obviously received the news from Meng Yang and ran here to seek advice from Li Chengliang.

"Lord Luo."

Li Rusong pushed him aside and saluted Luo Rufang.

"Rusong, is your father in there?"

Just after Li Rusong went out, Li Chengliang had already returned to the house, so even though Luo Rufang was at the gate of the courtyard, he did not see Li Chengliang.

"In the house."

Li Rusong looked back at the yard and answered hurriedly.

"Then I'll go in and find him."

Luo Rufang didn't bother to talk to Li Rusong. He lifted the hem of his official robe and hurried into the yard.

When Li Rusong saw Luo Rufang like this, he curled his lips and continued to walk out.

But he was still very confused. Logically speaking, shouldn't the Duke of Qian, Mu Changzuo, be the one who knew the latest news and came to find his father?

The Li family was new to Yunnan and had no roots, so it was normal for the news to be delayed. Now even Luo Rufang knew the news. He was a temporary official, and although he had only been here a few years earlier, the Qianguo Mansion, as a local snake, should not have been unaware of the news.

At this time, Mu Changzuo, the Duke of Qian, who was plotting something in Li Rusong's mind, was also walking back and forth in his room, obviously in a very upset mood.

He knew the news earlier than the Li family, but although he was anxious, he never left the yard.

Yes, his information channels are much wider than those of new wealthy families like the Li family.

Although Li Chengliang was very secretive about their trip to the southwest, his words and actions usually revealed some hints of it.

Luo Rufang didn't notice it, but Mu Changzuo, who grew up in the Duke of Qian's Mansion for a long time, noticed it.

You have to know what the situation was like in the Duke of Qian's Mansion before Mu Changzuo inherited the title. People who are not familiar with that period of history would never imagine that it was really a mess.

Therefore, Mu Changzuo is actually very sensitive to people and things.

Moreover, neither Wei Guangde nor Li Chengliang would have thought that the Mu family, located in a remote area, had actually been hiding its own intelligence network in the capital.

The root of this intelligence network is not in the marketplace or officialdom, but in the Imperial Guards.

Which government office in the capital of the Ming Dynasty is most familiar with news from all sides and understands information from all over the country? The first one to be mentioned is the Jinyiwei.

The Jinyiwei not only took root in the streets, but also had spies lurking in various places to collect information. There were even spies lurking in the mansions of many high-ranking officials.

However, the palace had no intention of touching them, so naturally, even if some of them were notorious for crimes, the Jinyiwei would not interfere.

They are just the butcher's knife in the emperor's hand, and they will only chop down when the emperor gives the order.

Although the power of the Jinyiwei was surpassed by the Dongchang for a period of time, the Dongchang still had to rely on the Jinyiwei to enforce the law.

The Mu family left the capital, but they did not dare to completely withdraw, so the third-generation head of the Mu family, Mu Sheng, had already begun to cultivate an intelligence gathering network in the capital.

In order not to attract attention, they start from the bottom and train them, then slowly help them climb up.

As generations went by, the Mu family had already taken root in the Jinyiwei.

However, most of the people trained by the Mu family did not go to the ranks of hundred or thousand households, but developed into the Experience Department, which was in charge of various documents and books within the Jinyiwei.

In other words, their people did not take up military posts but civil service posts.

And this choice has never been noticed, allowing them to hide well.

The civil service department in Jinyiwei is naturally the Lijingsi, which is a civil service department of Jinyiwei, responsible for the sending and receiving of official documents of the organization.

However, there is often a lot of information hidden in these official documents.

Just the several meetings between Wei Guangde and Li Chengliang in the cabinet were recorded and placed in the Jinyiwei archives warehouse.

After Li Chengliang arrived in the southwest, the Mu family sent news to the capital, and the clues were discovered by the Mu family.

Although the information was not comprehensive, after all, Wei Guangde and Li Chengliang met not only in the cabinet, but also in the government office and other places, but Mu Changzuo had some guesses based on the information he collected.

Based on these analyses, Mu Changzuo had already given up the idea of ​​rescuing Si Ge, and even before Li Chengliang made a decision, he had already sent his assassins to the border to silence him.

There are many chieftains in the southwest region, and the relationships between them are actually quite complicated, and many of them are not even known to outsiders.

Even when the Ming Dynasty was very prestigious, the chieftains in the southwest region committed many illegal acts.

For example, during the Chenghua period, Zhou Binwu, a businessman from Jiangxi, persuaded Meng Mihan to bribe the chief minister Wan'an, who was known for his greed, and others to protect him in his act of annexing Mubang's land and to speak for him in the court.

As the local boss, the Duke of Qian's Mansion was naturally the main source of information for the court. Even the news that the Mu family passed on to the capital could influence the court's final decision.

It can be said that the Duke of Qian’s Mansion cannot escape blame for the current situation in Myanmar and other places.

The three Xuans and six Weis vied with each other to send money and goods to the Duke of Qian's Mansion and even the capital, asking him to speak for them and act as a protective umbrella.

Since court officials took the lead in accepting bribes and sheltering bad people, which led to conflicts between local chieftains, it is not surprising that the Southwestern Yi people began to resent the court.

The Ming court employed the wrong people and its prestige was lost. This was the root cause of the chaos in Myanmar.

Of course, this mess is also related to the decline in the abilities of the previous generations of Dukes of Qian. After all, they went too far.

All these happened under the table, and naturally no one would notice them after the cabinet changed.

Mu Changzuo is now worried that Li Chengliang will discover this and report it to the court.

After all, after doing so many things, it is impossible that no clues were left.

However, suspicion is suspicion, and as long as there is no conclusive evidence, it will not affect the overall situation.

But if he had come here, resenting him for not taking any action and talking nonsense to Li Chengliang, the situation would have been very different.

Mu Changzuo was not familiar with Li Chengliang, nor did he know how ruthless he was, otherwise he would not have to worry about anything and would not have sent people to kill Si Ge.

In fact, what Mu Changzuo was considering at this time was that even if the chieftains in the southwest were captured by the imperial court, they must not be left alive. They must not be allowed to blame the Duke of Qian's Mansion, or use this as a threat to ask for help in escaping the crime.

Anyway, two of the three main decision-makers in Yongchang Prefecture of the Ming Dynasty have issued kill orders against Si Ge, and only Luo Rufang, the inspector who is the least valued by Si Ge, really wants to save him. It cannot but be said that this is a great irony.

"Hurry, go over the mountain ahead and you will reach Nanya Pass.

As long as we enter Nanyaguan, we will be safe."

In the mountains east of Mengyang, a group of nearly a hundred people were struggling forward. The person leading them was none other than Si Ge, the Mengyang envoy.

After being betrayed by his subordinates, Si Ge knew that he was unable to continue, so he abandoned his soldiers and let them continue to resist, and fled to the Ming Dynasty with his personal guards and his family.

At this time, Si Ge no longer dared to trust his generals because he didn't know whether others had betrayed him.

He gave up the main road and took his men on a difficult trek through the dangerous mountain roads that were not suitable for a large army to march on. Finally, they approached the border of the Ming Dynasty.

Although his choice made his progress extremely slow, it did help him avoid the danger of being hunted down along the way.

The fact that they have not encountered any pursuit from the Burmese army so far is proof of this.

However, the road was difficult and dangerous. He could still hold on because of his desire to survive, but some of his subordinates could not accept it.

The most important thing is that during this escape, all his subordinates abandoned their families and followed Si to escape, and they also had to protect his family.

And after that?

The uncertain future is the root cause of the instability of these guards.

What Si Ge didn't know was that several captains of the royal guards had already discussed privately several times, considering whether to kidnap Si Ge and send him to the Burmese king in exchange for wealth and glory.

Yes, Mang Yinglong is still very popular in Myanmar because he is clear about rewards and punishments. The chieftains and soldiers who follow him will receive generous rewards after winning every war.

Although wars were frequent, everything seemed insignificant in the face of readily available money.

Moreover, because the Burmese army has been making great progress, no one now doubts Mang Yinglong's command ability and the combat effectiveness of the Burmese army.

This is also the reason why many militaristic countries can cover up all domestic contradictions simply by relying on military victories.

It is not only a spiritual victory, but also a material gain.

"We can't wait any longer. We have to do it tonight and tie them up while they are asleep."

"What about those people?"

"Tie them all up. Those who are willing will be released, and those who are unwilling will be killed."

After a moment of silence, several team leaders nodded quietly.