Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 483: Rewards are hard to come by
"put!"

"Boom boom boom——"

In autumn and July, when the Ming Dynasty was in full swing to promote steam engines and pumps, and continued to restore agriculture and mining policies in the northwest and north, Kunlun Island, tens of thousands of miles away from the Ming Dynasty, was filled with gunfire.

On the plain, dozens of heavy cannons were firing at each other.

The two flags of "Arimei Korea" and "Aimee Japan" belong to the two camps, and nearly 10,000 soldiers and horses have gathered in Wuyangyang.

In addition to them, there were tens of thousands of Kunlun slaves who were simply armed by them.

Stone cannonballs leaped across the plains and smashed into the enemy camp. The Kunlun slaves who acted as servants looked at the scene of their companions flying with blood and flesh in front of them. They couldn't help but fight. Some even tried to escape, but were beaten. Their much smaller Japanese samurai beheaded them on the spot.

After the first round of exploratory shelling, the two armies began to press toward each other.

The Kunlun slaves, who were shirtless and armed with a spear of about ten feet, began to charge under supervision. Their fight was undoubtedly brutal.

Since they had no armor, their lives would end if they were stabbed by a spear.

This is 60,000 gu, which is almost equal to one-tenth of the income of the shogunate, so Kajii Yoshinori will naturally not swallow this breath.

At his call, hundreds of Japanese cavalry launched a charge, and at the same time the Japanese Ashigaru also began to charge.

At night, the military camps on both sides were filled with wailing sounds.

After Ashikaga Yoshitsugu came to power, Japan and the Ming army often traded armor, so their armor was basically the small Ming army armor.

The Ming army camped on the spot and asked the two armies, Tangqi, to summon their own commanders.

Kajii Yosei drew his katana and slashed into the air ahead.

But even so, at such a close distance, they still suffered considerable casualties.

"Clap clap-"

In addition to firearms, they also learned the tactics of the Ming army, so they pressed forward step by step with matchlock guns, while the Korean side used bows and arrows to fight the enemy.

Even if the supervising team killed hundreds of people, they could not get these Kunlun slaves to come forward.

They wanted to take advantage of the end of the Japanese shooting to raid the Japanese army, and Kajii Yoshinori was already prepared for this.

Originally, after the "Hongxi Line", the two sides maintained peace for several years. However, due to an attack by the Koreans half a month ago, the Japanese side lost nearly 6,000 taels of gold.

He became the slave-recruiting general of the shogunate in Kunlun Continent, controlling the 12,000 soldiers and horses sent by the Kanto and shogunate.

"Collect the weapons, only you two can enter the account!"

On the frontal battlefield, the infantry of both sides collided, and the soldiers fought hand to hand with blood and flesh flying everywhere.

The flag officer standing in front of the camp gate gave orders to Kajii Yoshitsugu and Quan Xiangshan, and they willingly took out their weapons and handed them over, then walked into the camp wearing only armor.

"I am Meng Ran, the head of the Kunlun Xuanwei Department. Who gave you the courage to fight against each other here?!"

Those Kunlun slaves had never seen a war on such a scale. They stood back with spears in their hands and cowered, not daring to step forward to fight.

Seeing that it was impossible to decide the outcome, both sides paid gold and retreated their troops, retreating five miles to camp.

On horseback, a slightly tall young general frowned and scolded, and he was the current King of Japan, Kajii Yoshinari, the half-brother of Ashikaga Yoshitsugu.

He began to gather troops and Kunlun slaves to give the Koreans a good look here!
Under his command, the Japanese musketry team began to move forward. The muskets they used were imitations of the Ming Army's matchlocks, but they only learned the form, not the essence.

Their courage has long been worn away by years of gold mining life.

From afternoon to dusk, a fierce battle ensued. The Japanese and Korean sides each suffered hundreds of casualties, but the Kunlun slaves suffered thousands of casualties.

They came to a big tent and bowed and saluted: "Your Majesty, Kajii Yoshinori (Quan Xiangshan), is here to see the angel!"

For a time, the 20,000-strong military formations on both sides began to collide. The Japanese musketeers quickly withdrew their formations. The Korean and Japanese cavalry began to tangle on the plains and continued to fight southward.

"kill!!"

"These Kunlun slaves can only be used as miners. They are not worthy of the title of ashigaru!"

Therefore, the power and range of the matchlock guns in their hands are far inferior to those of the Ming army.

Half an hour later, the Ming army's camp had been set up. Although there were only a hundred people, they didn't take it seriously in the face of tens of thousands of troops.

At this moment, a team of more than a hundred people galloped from the east on tall war horses.

After a brief match burning, a thousand musketeers fired the loaded ammunition from their matchlock guns instantly.

Their muskets are just imitations. Except for an extra match rope and an extended barrel, the rest of their functions are still fire door guns.

They imitated the Ming army and used heavy armor to get past the Korean arrow rain, and finally raised their matchlock guns twenty steps away from the Korean army.

Tangqi from both sides detected them, and they who originally intended to scold them dismounted and knelt on the ground when they saw the banner with the word "朙" coming out of the fire.

At the same time that the camp was being set up, Japan's Kajii Yosei and North Korea's Quan Xiangshan appeared in front of the Ming army's camp wearing armor and leading more than a hundred guards.

Under such circumstances, the Kunlun slaves under both sides only lost hundreds of people in the battle, and then they fled back to their own formations.

In the past few years, he has been continuously conquering the Kunlun slaves and capturing the Kunlun slaves to mine gold mines. However, during this period, the friction with North Korea inevitably increased.

Gunshots rang out, and hundreds of Korean soldiers were hit and fell. At this time, hundreds of cavalry on both sides of the Korean army began to charge.

Kajii Yoshinori wanted to destroy North Korea in one fell swoop. He believed that no one except China could stand up to the brave Japanese samurai at hand-to-hand combat!

"charge!!"

A young figure walked out. He was around 20 years old, and his official position was the sixth rank chief of the Kunlun Xuanwei Division.

Although they are only the sixth-rank officials of the Celestial Dynasty, to the two of them, they are more powerful than the masters of their own country.

"Back to the angel..."

Kajii Yoshinori quickly explained the reason for their war, and Quan Xiangshan heard the words and quickly excused himself: "Angel, these are all his slanderous words!"

"Did I give you permission to speak?"

Meng Ran frowned and glared at Quan Xiangshan. Quan Xiangshan quickly lowered his head, while Kajii Yosei smiled lightly and then explained to Meng Ran.

When he finished everything, Meng Ran asked him: "Was there any evidence left by North Korea at the scene?"

"Of course, I have already brought it with you. It's just outside the camp!" Kajii Yoshinori responded quickly.

"Bring it up." Meng Ran nodded and motioned for him to bring the things up. Upon seeing this, Kajii Yoshinori quickly turned around to get the evidence.

After he left, Meng Ran frowned and looked at Quan Xiangshan: "Tell me honestly, did you have an attack?"

"Your Majesty..." Quan Xiangshan breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing the angel standing on his side, he hurriedly said: "We did attack, but we didn't get the six thousand taels of gold he said. We only got Three thousand taels, of which one thousand taels are intended to be donated to the Celestial Empire.”

Quan Xiangshan changed the real number of six thousand taels into three thousand taels, and promised to contribute one thousand taels to the Celestial Empire, which actually meant to honor Meng Ran.

Meng Ran nodded when he heard this: "If the evidence is sufficient, then I can't help you, so you should be careful."

"I accept your order..." Quan Xiangshan smiled, and then quickly returned to his anxious expression when he heard the footsteps behind him.

At this time, Kajii Yoshitsune led two shirtless men escorted by the Ming army to the tent and bowed: "Lord Angel, this is my evidence, this is their military status card!"

Kajii Yoshinori presented two North Korean military registration plaques with both hands. This scene made Quan Xiangshan look ugly. Although Meng Ran was a little helpless, he still took it pretending to be dignified.

"Well, it is indeed North Korea's military registration plate."

He set his sights on Quan Xiangshan. Obviously, if Quan Xiangshan couldn't say anything, there was nothing he could do.

"Angel, the two of them ordered this attack privately. I didn't know about it. Besides, we didn't steal any gold!"

Quan Xiangshan bit him to death without grabbing the gold, which made Kajii Yosei very angry.

When Meng Ran saw this, he immediately threw his military registration card to the ground and pretended to be furious: "The witnesses and physical evidence are conclusive, but you still don't plead guilty?"

"Angel, I am wronged!" Quan Xiangshan knelt on the ground and cried: "Japan has 12,000 soldiers, but we in Korea only have 9,000. How can we rob them who are stronger than us?"

"Nonsense!" Kajii Yoshinori spoke Chinese very well. He bowed to Meng Ran and said, "Sir, he clearly wants to be greedy for gold."

"This gold is the gold that the king specially asked me to transport to China for tribute and trade. What he robbed was not gold, but Japan's tribute to China!"

"Absurd!" Quan Xiangshan stopped crying and retorted as soon as he heard how harshly Kajii Yosheng had slapped the hat on him.

Robbery of tributes can be a big or small matter. If Emperor Hongxi gets angry, North Korea is in danger of being destroyed. Naturally, he would not dare to admit it.

"If the angels don't believe it, they can thoroughly investigate North Korea's accounts. There is absolutely no way they have an extra six thousand taels of gold!"

Kajii Yoshinori was smart and knew to let Meng Ran check the accounts.

Seeing this, Quan Xiangshan could only bow his head helplessly: "Angel, the people below did send a sum of gold, but it was only three thousand taels, not six thousand taels."

"Angel, I have an account book here as proof!" Kajii Yosei interrupted quickly and took out an account book from his arms.

Meng Ran's face didn't look good. Seeing that a thousand taels of gold were wasted, he felt uncomfortable in his heart.

After he took the account book and flipped through it briefly, he frowned and said, "Why is there only 5,672 taels of gold in this account book?"

"Back to Angel, it's because we have a transaction that has not been recorded in the book!" Kajii Yoshinori felt a headache, and Meng Ran also frowned when he heard this:

"Your account book can only prove that you have this gold. As for the remaining three hundred taels..."

"Angel, we are willing to hand over these 5,672 taels of gold." Quan Xiangshan heard that he could keep some, and immediately admitted the account.

His words let Meng Ran know that he had been deceived by Quan Xiangshan just now. In an instant, he said with a cold face: "You promised to be so decisive. It seems that you really have six thousand taels."

"No, I only got more than 5,000 taels. I even dropped some on the way and they picked them up."

Quan Xiangshan knew that Meng Ran was not very happy, so he winked secretly.

Seeing this, Meng Ran could only suppress his temper, turned to Kajii Yoshinori and said:
"I asked them to return what they took away. As for the things that are not in the accounts, I have nothing to do." "This..." Kajii Yosei's face looked ugly. More than three hundred taels of gold is not a small amount. It can support hundreds. It's not enough, not to mention that they suffered a lot of casualties in the battle today.

"That's it."

Meng Ran closed the album and handed it to Kajii Yosei.

Seeing this, Kajii Yoshinori had no choice but to suffer the loss of being dumb and stared at Quan Xiangshan with angry eyes.

Quan Xiangshan ignored his gaze and bowed to Meng Ran: "Angel, we will deliver the gold early in the morning."

"Go back quickly!"

Meng Ran explained and walked into the tent with a flick of his sleeves. When Quan Xiangshan saw him walking into the tent, he immediately glanced at Kajii Yoshinori provocatively.

"A dog relies on human power!" Kajii Yoshinori cursed in a low voice at him. Quan Xiangshan's face darkened, he turned around and walked out of the camp quickly.

Upon seeing this, Kajii Yoshinori also bowed to Meng Ran in the tent, then turned around and walked out of the camp.

A few hours later, Quan Xiangshan and more than ten guards carried eleven small boxes to the camp and placed one of them in front of Meng Ran.

"Sir, this is a gift to the Celestial Empire. Please accept it."

"Okay, you can leave." Meng Ran was still dissatisfied with Quan Xiangshan's plan for his own affairs. Quan Xiangshan didn't have anything to say when he saw this. After bowing respectfully in return, he turned around and left with everyone.

After ordering someone to collect the box, Meng Ran notified Kajii Yoshinori to come and collect the remaining ten boxes of gold.

He only brought back five thousand taels of the original six thousand taels, but Meng Ran's box contained five hundred taels of broken gold.

After Kajii Yoshinori got the gold, he led his troops to withdraw in the early morning. Upon seeing this, Quan Xiangshan also broke camp and withdrew his troops.

After they left, Meng Ran looked at his box containing gold and chuckled. An official next to him also laughed and said, "Sir, this must be at least five hundred taels, right?"

"Absolutely." Meng Ran nodded lightly and said with a smile: "Take out two hundred taels and hand them over to the court, leaving three hundred taels for when I return to Beijing to buy a birthday gift for my father when my three-year term is up."

Meng Ran's father was Meng Zhang, the Duke of Liao, who was the commander of the capital of Daning and the governor of the rear army.

As Meng Zhang's second son, Meng Ran was born in the 33rd year of Hongwu, when the Bohai Navy advanced into Jianghuai.

Therefore, when Meng Zhang helped Zhu Gaoxu stabilize the world and returned to Bohai, Meng Ran was already four years old.

Even so, he was busy with government affairs and recruitment work and neglected to discipline Meng Ran. Instead, his eldest brother Meng Mao, who was five years older than him, was often taken with him by his father.

In two years' time, my father will be celebrating his 50th birthday. The gold and silver he has accumulated in Kunlun Continent is enough to buy a good gift.

Thinking of this, Meng Ran couldn't help but smile, hoping that his father would look down upon him after this incident.

Therefore, he could not help but add to the officials: "By the way, with the two hundred taels of gold handed over to the imperial court, remember to attach a memorial about this matter, do you understand?"

"I understand, I will take care of it after I return to Ma Lindi." The official responded, and then Meng Ran also began to give orders to break camp and return to Ma Lindi.

A few days later, two hundred taels of gold and the memorial were sent to Beijing. At the same time, the city of Beijing seemed extremely busy.

Zhu Gaoxu didn't want to change Laos' agrarian rule in advance, but he couldn't stand the chieftains of Laos and wanted to die.

On the fourth day of June, the Lao Xuanwei envoy Daoxiangui led 20,000 territorial troops to attack Chefu and fought with Mu Sheng who was stationed in Chefu.

The sword line relied on the complex terrain of Chefu to drive the elephant soldiers to fight the Ming army during the rainy season. The Ming army's firearms were difficult to use during the rainy season, thus causing a lot of casualties to the Ming army.

Muchun learned about the situation on the front line, led 500 light cavalry southward, and sent an order to Wang Zhao, who was stationed in Zhenkang, to come to the rescue.

Wang Zhao led the three guards of his headquarters to go south, met with Muchun at Pu'er Mansion, and then got into the car south.

After rushing to the front line, Muchun took over the military power from Mu Sheng, controlled Wang Zhao and began to counterattack.

Although firearms cannot be used during the rainy season, Mu Chun is not only good at firearms.

On June 17, Mu Chun took advantage of the sudden lull in the heavy rain to launch a surprise attack. He went straight to the Lao Chieftain's barracks and rode his horse into the barracks. The two brothers Qu Yu and Qu Tao fought among the rebels and suddenly killed Dao Xian Gan, the son of Dao Xian Gui. .

The swordsman retreated in fear, and Mu Chun personally led five hundred cavalry to pursue them, chasing the swordsmen to the Lancang River.

Seeing this, Daoxianji organized nearly ten thousand soldiers to fight back. Mu Chun was not afraid at all, and led five hundred cavalry to rush into the formation and trample it with four hooves.

Qu Yu, Qu Tao and Wang Zhao fought hard from left to right. He Fu's son, Ningyuan Marquis He Fu, slashed the large banner with a sword. Seeing the banner fall, the local soldiers jumped into the Lancang River to escape, and many drowned.

Daoxian ordered people to chop down the trees, carry the driftwood and flee to the south of the Lancang River, heading towards Maoxin.

In this battle, Muchun killed 20,000 native soldiers, beheaded more than 6,000 people, captured more than 8,000 people, and drowned more than 3,000 people. Only less than 2,000 people who followed the sword line managed to escape back to Langnanta City.

Seven days later, Daoxiang sent an envoy to surrender, offering ten tame elephants, twenty pairs of ivory, six rhinos, ten boxes of spices, and two boxes of gold and silverware.

When the news reached Beijing, Zhu Gaoxu rewarded him with a copper mine in Muchun, Chehou of Mu Sheng, Kangbo of Wang Zhaozhen, three hundred colorful coins of Qu Yu, Qu Tao and He Feng, the third grade, and General Zhao Yong for the first time.

Perhaps because he was too old, Wang Zhao died of illness on his way back to Zhenkang at the age of 64.

After Zhu Gaoxu learned the news, he posthumously awarded Wang Zhao the title of Marquis of Zhenkang, with the posthumous title of Zhongyi, and a shrine in Zhenkang. His title was assumed by his eldest son Wang Kui.

When the news of Wang Zhao's death and his return from illness reached Longchuan, Wang Xuan was encircling and suppressing the rebellious chieftains in Mengyang. When he learned of the imperial reward, he immediately went to Zhu Gaoxu to express his gratitude. Wang Kui in Mengding also went to Shu to replace his father. Thank you.

It seems that the veteran gradually retired, and Qu Neng, who was based in Xichuan and was responsible for the management of the Snowy Mountains, also came to Shu to become an official. After Zhu Gaoxu failed to retain him several times, he finally agreed to his appointment and transferred Qu Yu to control the Sichuan Xingdu Division.

In mid-August, Ping An, who was guarding Hami, died. After hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu posthumously awarded him the title of Marquis of Haixi, and only awarded his son Ping Yizheng the second rank of San rank.

Perhaps considering the mood of the generals of the Yan Mansion, Zhu Gaoxu did not give Ping An a posthumous title, but even so, the generals of the Yan Mansion were still a little dissatisfied. After all, during the Battle of Jingnan, Ping An killed many people from the Yan Mansion.

However, Zhu Gaoxu suppressed all these dissatisfactions.

After suppressing public opinion, Zhu Gaoxu also had to consider who should take over Hami after Ping An's death.

On the fifth day of September, Zhu Gaoxu established the Western Regions Capital Division in Hami Mansion, and ordered Chen Mao to go out to Hami to serve as the commander of the Western Regions Capital.

Shortly after Chen Mao left Hami, Wu Gao died of illness in Lanzhou.

Regarding Wu Gao's death, Zhu Gaoxu seemed to have a very headache. After all, compared with the peace, Wu Gao killed a lot of Bohai brothers.

As he expected, after Wu Gao died of illness, many Bohai generals came to the rescue one after another, constantly criticizing Wu Gao for blocking the Bohai Navy from going south and causing trouble to the Bohai Navy.

It is true that Zhu Gaoxu also hated Wu Gao's methods in retrospect, but Wu Gao was a meritorious minister of the Ming Dynasty after all.

On the first day of October, after more than half a month of wrangling, Zhu Gaoxu finally finalized Wu Gao's matter.

"Wu Gao was posthumously given the title of Duke of Jiang, and was buried in Zijin Mountain. He was given the posthumous title of Wu Lie, and his son Wu was promoted to a noble title!"

In the Fengtian Palace, Zhu Gaoxu announced this matter to Chang Chao, and this was far more unacceptable than Ping An's posthumous gift.

"Your Majesty, I think it's inappropriate!"

"Your Majesty, I also think it's inappropriate!"

"Your Majesty, although Wu Gao has meritorious service, he does not deserve this posthumous title!"

"His Majesty……"

After Zhu Gaoxu's decree was publicized, Li Shi, Richard and others from the Bohai group exploded and expressed their opposition.

They can still recall Wu Gao's tactics, and they won't be able to forget them even decades later, because they are so disgusting.

Facing the generals' words, Zhu Gaoxu touched his mustache and said nothing, but just glanced at the temple.

In the temple, all military attachés aged thirty-five and above were impeaching Wu Gao, and even some young civil servants were following suit.

Either their brothers were killed by Wu Gao, or their father and brother were killed by Wu Gao, and they wanted to eat his flesh and destroy his bones.

Zhu Gaoxu originally thought that the guys from Jiangnan would say a few words for Wu Gao, but instead they closed their mouths and lowered their heads, like quails.

Under such circumstances, Zhu Gaoxu could only sigh in his heart.

In fact, given Wu Gao's ability, Zhu Gaoxu really hoped that he could join the court and serve as a military attache in Beijing, but he followed the wrong person and killed too many of his brothers.

It's just about his achievements. Whether it was training troops to quell rebellions during the Hongwu period, or returning to the country during the Yongle period, for the Ming Dynasty, he had merit.

There are people like him like Li Jinglong, Xu Kai, and Liu Zhen, but they are all not allowed to enter the court due to various reasons and can only guard the border outside.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but sigh.

"Ugh……"

He sighed, and all the ministers closed their mouths, but when he saw this, he also spoke:

"Wu Gao returned to his hometown during the Yongle period. He has made many contributions but cannot be rewarded. It is all because I take care of your emotions."

"In the past, when the Qing emperor was on his side, I said that he and I were each our own masters, so there was no fault in this, but rather a contribution to the Ming Dynasty."

"If there is really a mistake and resentment, you should put your resentment on the person who forced us into trouble."

"Looking at it now, you have completely forgotten these words."

"Wu Gao and you have a personal grudge. Now that we have left, why are we still forcing each other so hard?"

"Wu Gao's achievements deserve this treatment. If you want to complain, then blame me."

After Zhu Gaoxu finished speaking, he stood up and walked towards the back of Fengtian Hall.

Upon seeing this, the minister of Honglu Temple immediately sang: "Dismiss the court!"

"Long live Long live Long live……"

As the ministers sang, Zhu Gaoxu shook his head. He knew that his move might break some people's hearts, but now he had to take the overall situation into consideration.

If Wu Gao could not receive a posthumous title for his achievements like this, what would the other military officers and ministers of Hongwu think?

After walking out of Fengtian Hall, Zhu Gaoxu glanced at the gloomy sky and sighed...

(End of this chapter)