Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1097 [Duan Yu's Methods]

Dali, the royal city.

King Duan Zhengxing fled from the palace in panic, followed by a queen, three concubines, more than a dozen palace maids and eunuchs.

Oh, and two babies.

One of the babies was named Duan Zhixing, and it was unknown whether he had the talent to practice the One Finger Zen.

Nearly twenty of them hid in the garden, hiding in the bushes in groups of three or four. It was normal for some people to stick their butts out, since it was dark and hard to see. If someone came looking for them, they would not be able to hide no matter how well they hid.

There was a lot of noise and chaos outside, and some palace maids and eunuchs even took the opportunity to steal valuables and run away.

Fighting has already begun at the gate of the royal city.

Gao Yucheng's confidants who were sent to guard the palace exchanged arrows with Zhang's private soldiers who came to "rescue the emperor".

Zhang Dexing shouted towards the tower: "Gao Aji, your father has already escaped from the city, do you still want to defend the palace to the death?"

"Bullshit, how could the Ming army attack the city so quickly?"

Gao Aji encouraged the morale and said, "Don't believe this man's lies. The Prime Minister will soon bring troops to help us!"

Zhang Dexing shouted, "Except for the Gao family, all the civil and military officials in the city have surrendered to the Ming Dynasty. If you continue to resist, you will not end well. Quickly capture and kill Gao Aji. Not only can you save your life, but you can also make a contribution!"

"Shoot him to death!" Gao Aji ordered.

Another burst of arrows flew out, but the force became weaker and the accuracy was a little off. The soldiers were all leaving themselves a way to retreat.

For the time being, no one has captured and killed Gao Aji for defecting, simply because they don't know what others think and are afraid that they will be killed if they take action first.

Unfortunately, despite such a good situation, Zhang Dexing did not bring any siege equipment. He only carried a few civilian wooden ladders, which could not pose any threat to the soldiers defending the city.

At this moment, deafening shouts came from the direction of South City.

That was after Dong Mingshou captured the city gate and welcomed the Ming cavalry who had been chasing him into the city.

At the palace, the soldiers guarding the city all changed their expressions.

They were all Gao Yucheng's private soldiers, and their long-established loyalty made them afraid to attack Gao Aji. But they had to escape, and suddenly an officer left the city wall, and his soldiers followed him to escape.

"Open the city gate quickly, it will be too late if we don't leave now!"

When the soldiers at the city gate heard this, they subconsciously worked together to open the city gate, and then rushed out.

Zhang Dexing shouted, "Don't shoot arrows, don't stop them, let them escape!"

The soldiers who were still guarding the city were overjoyed when they found that the first soldiers who rushed out of the city gate and escaped were not killed by Zhang's private soldiers. They immediately ignored everything, threw away their weapons and ran away. No matter how Gao Aji tried to stop them, it was useless.

When most of the defenders had fled, Zhang Dexing suddenly gave the order: "Shoot!"

"shoot!"

The archers in Zhang's private army immediately fired at the city gate.

"Rush over!"

"kill!"

The Gao family soldiers who were slow to escape were first shot at and then surrounded on three sides. They instantly broke down and cried like crazy. Some continued to rush out and were stabbed to death by the enemies outside; some turned around and fled back, colliding with the following friendly troops.

Gao Aji himself had already taken advantage of the chaos to leave, heading deep into the palace with a small number of his diehard followers - he wanted to kidnap the King of Dali.

Duan Yu held a string of prayer beads in his hand and said to the eunuch who had hurried back, "Is the royal city blocked and we can't get out?"

Several eunuchs said with bitter faces: "There is a battle going on at the city gate."

Duan Yu said: "Some of you were arranged by Gao Yuchengsheng, and some were arranged by Gao Guanyinlong. Do you still want to help your master now?"

The eunuchs looked at each other.

Duan Yu suddenly shouted: "If you want to live, just listen to me!"

The eunuchs were like being hit on the head with a slap in the face. They suddenly woke up and knelt down and shouted, "Long live the emperor!"

Duan Yu led these eunuchs out, picking up anything useful along the way and using it as a weapon, and gathering together any panicked palace maids and eunuchs he encountered.

In the blink of an eye, the team grew to more than fifty people.

Duan Yu went straight to his son's bedroom, and gradually gathered more than ten people. He was also taken to the garden by one of the palace maids.

"Get out now, you just know how to hide!" Duan Yu shouted as he stood at the garden gate.

When Duan Zhengxing heard that it was his father who came, he rushed out from the flowers like a drowning man grabbing a life-saving straw, "Father, help me!"

Duan Yu took his son and his gang with him and continued to wander around the palace, constantly recruiting more palace maids and eunuchs.

By the time Gao Aji led his troops to attack, there were already hundreds of people following Duan Yu. They dismantled the legs of tables and chairs to make sticks, and some even untied their belts to use as weapons.

"Get him!" Gao Aji shouted.

Duan Yu, however, held a piece of porcelain against his son's neck and shouted, "If you want to die, let's die together. If my father and I die, neither of you will live. Come on, chop my father and I to death with your swords!"

Duan Zhengxing's throat was hurt by the porcelain shards, and he shouted in panic, "Daddy, spare my life..."

Gao Aji was stunned, and so were his soldiers. Duan Yu said again: "Kill Gao Aji, and surrender to the Ming army with my father and son, and you will be a great merit."

The shouting and screaming coming from the direction of the royal city's gate was getting smaller and smaller, and it was estimated that the battle there was coming to an end.

Suddenly, a personal guard officer turned to Gao Aji and said, "Who is willing to follow me to make merit and save his life? If you are willing, let's shout and kill together!"

"Kill! Kill! Kill..."

More and more soldiers shouted, and Gao Aji fled when he saw the situation was not good. However, he was caught up by his own soldiers and hacked to death.

Gao's private soldiers dragged Gao Aji's body back and knelt down in front of Duan Yu one after another.

Soon, Zhang Dexing led his troops to rush in and found that Duan Yu and his son were surrounded by soldiers, palace maids, and eunuchs.

Duan Yu pulled out a piece of silk from his bosom, stepped out from the crowd and said, "Gao Yuchengsheng, Gao Guanyinlong and other traitors are plotting rebellion, and I invited the Ming soldiers to help. This is a letter of surrender, written in the blood of my father and son. Do you want to stop me from offering Dali to the emperor?"

Zhang Dexing hesitated for more than ten seconds before kneeling down and saying, "I am here with my troops to rescue you. I will escort you two to surrender."

As a result, Zhang's private soldiers were also taken over by Duan Yu.

Duan Yu's political tactics were extremely clever, otherwise he would not have been able to maintain his throne for decades. The reason he ended up like this was not because he was too incompetent, but because his foundation was too rotten to achieve anything.

Soon, a team of Ming cavalry rushed to the outside of the royal city, led by a Ming army lieutenant colonel.

They saw that the city gate was wide open and the soldiers inside were in neat formation, so it was difficult to rush in for a while.

Duan Yu pulled his son forward and knelt on the ground, holding up the blood-written letter and saying, "Duan Zhengyan, the Grand King of Dali, and his son Duan Zhengxing, the King of Dali, present a letter of surrender and pay homage to the Holy Emperor from afar!"

The Ming cavalry hurriedly made way. This was kneeling to the emperor, and they dared not accept it.

Only after Duan Yu and his son stood up did the Ming army lieutenant lead his troops in, respectfully took the blood-written surrender letter, and sent someone back to report to his superiors.

More and more Ming soldiers entered the city. In the second half of the night, even Bai Qi came.

Bai Qi received the surrender letter written in blood and inquired about the situation carefully. He even had the eunuchs and the surrendered soldiers interrogated to find out what happened in the Dali Palace tonight.

Finally, Bai Qi sighed and said, "This is a wise king, but it's a pity that the court is full of traitors."

He took the surrender letter to Duan Yu and his son, helped them stand up and stopped them from kneeling, and comforted them, saying: "With this surrender letter, you and your son can guarantee wealth and honor for the rest of your lives. Please stay in the palace for the time being and don't go out. When I calm down the chaos, I will send your whole family to Luoyang."

Hearing this, Duan Yu finally felt relieved: "I don't seek wealth and honor. I just want to find a temple in Luoyang to worship Buddha for the rest of my life. I, your children and grandchildren, would like to ask the general to say a few good words for me."

Bai Qi said, "It should be."

At Longshou Pass, upon hearing that Longwei Pass and Dali City had fallen one after another, Gao Guanyinlong directly opened the pass and surrendered to Lin Chong.

Half a month later, Yang Ji, the Left Governor of Yunnan Province, came to Dali with many officials.

The civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty cooperated with each other, first dismissing the surrendered or captured local soldiers and horses, and then sending Duan Yu and his family to Luoyang.

Then the clansmen of the major surnames of Dali Kingdom who were still in their hometowns were relocated.

For example, the Gao clan only moved the clan members in Kunming, and there was no need to start a war in other places. This was because the Gao clan had not yet developed and expanded its clan power in the new territory.

Take Gao Liangcheng for example; his father had only seized the Weichu Mansion for a few decades, and even after two generations tried their best to reproduce, they only had more than a dozen descendants.

Then how did Gao Liangcheng control the Weichu Mansion?
One is private armed forces.

The second is the local prominent family.

The third group is Buddhist and Confucian officials.

Regardless of whether they have made great contributions or not, private soldiers are not allowed in Yunnan.

Without private soldiers, local prominent families will no longer serve and will only obey orders from the government.

As for Buddhist and Confucian officials, this thing is a characteristic of Dali.

The Dali Esoteric Buddhist monks who studied for the imperial examinations were called "Buddhist monks" or "teacher monks". They had to "cultivate both Confucianism and Buddhism" to pass the imperial examinations. They could not pass the examinations if they only cultivated Buddhism or Confucianism.

But in actual practice, more emphasis is often placed on Buddhism.

"Buddhism and Confucianism" is the key to governing Yunnan in the future. Those who practice Buddhism and Confucianism, take the imperial examination and become officials are basically the children of those twenty or so surnames. The content they study cannot be recognized by the court, and they will cause trouble if they are not careful.

Yang Ji said to Bai Qi: "The troops stationed in various places must not relax their vigilance, especially to protect the official schools that have been established one after another. If there are Buddhists and Confucianists causing trouble, we can take the opportunity to kill a group of them, and then take advantage of the situation to ban the redundant temples."

Bai Qi nodded and said, "I have also asked about this. The Dali Esoteric Sect must be strictly monitored. Buddhists and Confucianists here are spread all over the villages. They even persuade every household to worship Buddha statues. While reading the books of sages, they also use witchcraft to cure the villagers' illnesses and eliminate disasters. It is very likely that they are secretly inciting the villagers to riot."

Yang Ji said: "Dong Mingshou is the leader of Dali Esoteric Buddhism. Let him lead the reform of Dali Esoteric Buddhism and change all those messy contents. If he doesn't obey, find a reason to arrest him and send him to Luoyang, and replace him with his son to lead the reform of Dali Esoteric Buddhism. Also, Sanskrit must be eradicated in Yunnan!"

Sanskrit was the official mainstream language in the Dali Kingdom.

If you randomly pick up a copy of the Analects printed in Chinese characters, you will find that it is mostly annotated in Sanskrit. Various plaques and inscriptions, even tombstones, are often inscribed in both Chinese and Sanskrit, or even in Sanskrit alone.

After Yang Ji learned about the situation two days ago, especially when he got his hands on the local sage books, he was furious when he saw the Sanskrit in the books.

Sanskrit must be banned!

Bai Qi said worriedly, "Once Sanskrit is banned, there will be trouble soon."

Although Yang Ji was a civil servant, this matter involved the teachings of sages, and he was countless times more radical than Bai Qi: "If someone is causing trouble, just kill them ruthlessly, and it will be an excuse to demolish the temple!"

(End of this chapter)