The Prosperous Era of Longwan

In the southwestern border of the Ming Dynasty, in a dense forest west of Nanya Pass and Tiebi Pass, Li Ruzhen, with a pair of panda eyes, sat bored against a big tree, looking up at the sky at a 45-degree angle. He didn't know what attracted him in the sky, but he had been sitting there motionless for half a day.

Originally, he should have been eating and drinking in Baoshan City at this time, but the day before yesterday, his elder brother selected people from the personal guards and said that they should go out to perform tasks. He was curious and clamored to come out.

Then, a team of dozens of people followed him here.

Well, he regretted it now.

And two days of not eating, drinking and sleeping well, it was far from the treatment of marching and fighting in the past.

Not to mention, the march of the Ming army was dozens of miles a day, and they found a place to camp after walking. It was really not as hard as their two days.

Moreover, the military camp was set up by the soldiers. When he entered, he had prepared tents for rest, not to mention how comfortable it was.

This time, they just laid out a straw mat, supported two pieces of wood and put a piece of leather on it to make a tent. It was so small that they could only lie down inside.

This is called a tent.

Li Ruzhen was very unhappy, but there was nothing he could do.

The food was much different from the past, and they only had some dry food they brought with them.

"Third Master, Blind Lin and his men killed a rabbit."

Just as Li Ruzhen was staring at the sky with lifeless eyes, a rustling sound came from the woods next to him, and soon a man came out with a rabbit in his hand.

"Roast it for Third Master, and you will reward me when you return to the city."

When he arrived at this place, Li Ruzhen knew that there was no reward, and he couldn't spend the money.

"Thank you, Third Master, I'll go to the back to make a fire."

The personal guard who was carrying the rabbit smiled and walked eastward with the rabbit in his hand.

"By the way, have Hou San'er and the others come back after going out to get information?"

Li Ruzhen suddenly remembered the mission and hurriedly called the man to ask in a low voice.

"No, we don't know which way they are going now.

You just rest here, Sanye, they will come back to inform us as soon as there is news."

The man stopped and turned to Li Ruzhen and said.

"Damn, I don't know how many days I have to stay here. What if they don't leave from here?"

Li Ruzhen said with a look of despair.

The man saw that he was fine, so he hurried into the woods and roasted rabbits.

According to common sense, the leader of Mengyang should go in this direction, entering Nanyaguan or Tiebiguan, but now they are being hunted by the Burmese army, and it is not ruled out that they will take a detour to Tianmaguan in the south or go north to Menggong to enter Daming.

But the possibility of going through Menggong is the smallest, there is a big river blocking it, and they are in a hurry, and they may not have time to find tools to cross the river.

Moreover, although the roads in the southwest are difficult, there are still narrow paths in the mountains, and it is not necessary to take the main road.

If only a small number of people are traveling, it is okay to take the small path over the mountains and ridges, but it is a bit hard.

But if there are more people and they carry a lot of things, then there is no way to take the mountain road, and they can only take the main road.

The guards have already explored several main roads, and there are Burmese troops lurking on both sides of the road.

Obviously, although the Burmese army's attack on Mengyang was frustrated for a time, they never worried about failure and could not beat the few people in Mengyang.

Therefore, they have prepared a channel to intercept the chieftains of Mengyang to escape to the Ming Dynasty.

Although the southwest is poor, the people are still poor.

Not to mention in the Ming Dynasty, the whole world is the same, even for generations.

The chieftains in the southwest may not be as sophisticated as those local rich people in Jiangnan, the Ming Dynasty, and their quality of life is a little worse, but they are actually very luxurious.

In fact, the gap is more about the difference in living habits.

If we talk about gold, silver and treasures, there is no shortage of them in the southwest, especially in Myanmar.

Various gemstones and jades are produced here, and even the royal family of the Ming Dynasty would come here regularly to buy them.

Moreover, there are copper mines in Yunnan and Myanmar in the Ming Dynasty. As most people know, gold, silver and copper mines are often associated with each other, so not only copper materials are produced here, but also gold and silver are produced. This is also the main place to buy copper materials for the Ming Dynasty to make copper coins.

The Ministry of Revenue is willing to nod its support for the Ming army to send troops to stabilize the situation in Myanmar. It is not without the Ministry of Revenue's intention to want the copper and gold and silver mines here.

The Ming Dynasty is still short of copper and gold and silver. Even though sea trade has been opened, most of the silver has flowed into the hands of merchants, and the court can really not receive much before.

Of course, this tax increase has already begun, and it is inevitable that the silver dollars entering the Ministry of Revenue's warehouse will gradually increase in the future.

Now the Ming Dynasty court can maintain its operation, and even has a slight surplus, mostly due to the casting of silver coins.

In the north of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Tongbao has been accepted on the market.

There is no doubt that the copper-silver alloy has guaranteed weight and quality.

After receiving the silver coins, the merchants melted them and knew that there was a certain proportion of silver and other metals in them. Although it was a bit of a loss, it was indeed very convenient for them to make them into silver coins for circulation.

Moreover, it costs money to mint silver coins, so the merchants are willing to accept this loss.

Anyway, the taxes paid to the court by this shrunken silver are calculated according to the value of Tongbao, not the actual silver content, which is fair.

The biggest headache for the Ministry of Revenue now is the lack of silver.

Although there is a lot of silver in the treasury, not to mention the emperor's private treasury and the Taifu Temple Changying treasury as a base, the demand for the circulation of trading silver among the people of the Ming Dynasty is very large, and the mint can't cope with it even if it rushes to work overnight.

Just think about it, if all the silver spent was converted into silver coins and no more silver was allowed, the court would have to spend millions of taels of silver every year.

Now only a small amount of silver flows to Jiangnan, where there are more local tyrants and bigger businesses.

Outside Nanya Pass and Tiebi Pass, two groups of people were lurking near various passages one after the other.

It must be said that the so-called Burmese ambushing they found was actually their own people, and everyone came with the same purpose.

However, they dared not communicate with each other, and even hid from each other.

Outside Manmo City, a team of Burmese soldiers were patrolling along the avenue outside the city, and suddenly found a team of soldiers wearing Mengyang uniforms coming in front.

"Attention, enemy attack, go back and report to the leader."

The leading Burmese captain ordered loudly.

Under his command, the Burmese soldiers behind him quickly gathered together, holding rattan shields and holding spears flat, and two fast-footed ones were already running back quickly. They were going to report to Manmo City and request reinforcements.

The original leader of Manmo City surrendered when the Burmese army was at the gates of the city. After that, the Burmese army changed into the clothes of the Mengyang army and pretended to be Mengyang's soldiers to continue defending the city.

However, after they controlled Manmo, they closed the traffic and did not allow people to come and go.

As for the reason for closing the border, it was naturally because they were fighting with the Burmese army and were worried that the Burmese army would enter Manmo City.

As for the merchants from the Ming Dynasty, they also used this reason to refuse them from entering Mengyang.

This is actually very unreasonable, but they still did it.

In theory, if there is a war, the demand for materials will increase, and the arrival of Ming Dynasty merchants should be more welcome, and they should rush to buy the materials they can use.

However, perhaps they have become accustomed to it.

As long as the flag is not raised publicly, the Ming Dynasty will not care even if they know about it.

Every year, they just need to use the seal of the envoy to stamp a congratulatory letter and send it to Kunming, and everyone maintains a superficial relationship.

Well, this was just a pretense before. Now that Mengyang has been breached by the Burmese army, they are too lazy to continue pretending and have changed into the Burmese army's own equipment.

However, it is strange that the Mengyang soldiers coming from the opposite side did not form a battle array after seeing them, nor did they turn around and flee, but continued to walk towards them.

The Burmese army formed a semicircular formation, and they also guarded against the ambush of Mengyang soldiers on both sides of the road, ready to surround them.

However, after the loose formation of the Mengyang soldiers approached and was only about 20 feet away, they seemed to have just discovered them and stopped one after another.

Then, several people walked out of the crowd of Mengyang soldiers, obviously leaders like captains, and continued to walk towards them.

Although they were carrying weapons, they did not intend to pull them out.

The Burmese captain was relieved when he saw this posture. These were Mengyang soldiers who were about to surrender.

During this period, there were really many Mengyang soldiers who surrendered in batches and in an organized manner.

After Si Ge found that he could not stop them and could not see the reinforcements from the Ming Dynasty abandoning their men and horses and running away, Meng Yangbing had already begun to choose to surrender without restraint.

At first, it was just a few individuals, but later it developed into small teams and large teams that began to surrender.

As long as the Burmese army arrived at the mountain passes and passes that were difficult to conquer in the past, the defenders there would quickly open the gates and surrender.

They did not want to die, nor did they want to continue fighting. Their chieftains had all run away, so why fight.

It can be said that in these places in the southwest, the chieftains are really the sky for these people.

Although they were oppressed and exploited by the chieftains, they were not used to such a life without the chieftains.

In fact, the situation in the inland areas of the Ming Dynasty was similar, except that it was not the chieftains who ruled there, but the landlords and gentry, the head of the village, and the elders of the village.

Whenever the villagers had something at home that they could not make the decision, they would go to them.

As for the government, the poor people dared not think about it.

Even if something big happened, it was mostly these people who came forward to deal with the government, and the people consciously avoided it.

This is the normal life of the people of the Ming Dynasty and the way to solve the problem.

Soon, the people on the opposite side walked to the front of the Burmese army. The leader took off his sword and threw it on the ground, and then shouted to the people on the opposite side: "We are Si Ge's guards. Si Ge wants to abandon his people and flee to the Ming Dynasty. We don't want to follow him, so we will capture him and present him to the Burmese king."

"You caught Si Ge?"

The captain of the Burmese army was ecstatic when he heard that Si Ge was in their hands.

They also received the news, so they patrolled everywhere, just to catch Si Ge.

The king hated him to the bone and dared to kill the envoy of the Toungoo Dynasty.

Si Ge must die.

When the Burmese army confirmed the identity of Si Ge and his family, they looked at the dejected Si Ge and immediately escorted them to Manmo City with great fanfare.

If Si Ge was still resisting, the local people in Mengyang might still have a thought in their hearts and might not surrender sincerely.

But now that Si Ge has been captured, the Burmese king can naturally arrange for others to serve as the chieftains here and become the new masters of this area.

In order to make the people of Mengyang surrender, the Burmese army had no scruples and directly dragged Si Ge through the streets for public display.

Mengyang is not a big place, and Si Ge often inspects various places.

Therefore, many people here have seen him.

After all, he is a chieftain. When he comes here, he usually rides an elephant or a horse, and is guarded by his personal guards on both sides. He doesn't care about anything at all.

Soon, the news that Si Ge was captured by the Burmese army spread throughout the city like wings, and the Burmese army commander here also hurriedly reported the matter to the Burmese king.

The credit that fell from the sky must be taken.

Whether Si Ge lived or died had nothing to do with him. Anyway, he was waiting for the king's reward. Maybe he could have a piece of land and become a chieftain himself.

The chieftain was actually a local lord or a local emperor. He could do whatever he wanted in his own territory. Everyone envied him.

Of course, the chieftains in wealthy places were even more enviable.

Three days later, Li Ruzhen, who had been feeding mosquitoes in the forest for a few days, finally received the news that Si Ge had been captured by the Burmese army. None of his family members escaped. They were captured by his personal guards and presented to the Burmese king Mang Yinglong.

"Let's go, gather the people we sent out, and we'll go back."

Li Ruzhen cursed and ordered to go back.

The forests in the southwest are really not a place for people to stay. There are many snakes, insects, rats and ants. These days, it is really not a place for people to stay. It is completely different from the forests in Liaodong.

Well, after just guarding here for a few days, Li Ruzhen already missed the forests in Liaodong.

In fact, the people brought out this time are in a similar situation.

They were born and raised in Liaodong. They have been thousands of miles away from home. It is impossible not to miss home.

"Third Master, it seems that we have to call some locals when we go back, otherwise we will have a hard time these days."

A close guard whispered in Li Ruzhen's ear.

"Well, that makes sense."

Li Ruzhen nodded.

The life of surviving in the wilderness in the southwest forests these days has made these Northeast men miserable.

If it weren't for finding two locals to help, I'm afraid they might not survive.

"Send someone to send a message home."

Li Ruzhen ordered again.

Their goal was used by the Burmese army, so even if the mission was not completed, they naturally had to tell their old father.

As for the group of people sent by Mu Changzuo, they had received the news long before the Li family knew the news.

There were spies from the Mu family in Manmo City. When the parade was in the streets, someone took a shortcut out of the city and ran to report the news.

At this time in Mengyang City, Mang Yinglong was already sitting in the position that Si Ge used to be in. Under him were the chieftains of various families who led troops to help in the battle.

At this time, outside Mengyang City, the Burmese army had assembled nearly 200,000 people and 300 war elephants. Even when his father unified Myanmar, he did not have such a force. It can be said that it was the most glorious moment of the Toungoo Dynasty.

With so many soldiers and generals under his command, Mang Yinglong naturally had infinite expectations.

After the troops and horses were rested, they took advantage of the victory and continued to march towards the Ming Dynasty.

Mang Yinglong had already planned to fight all the way to Kunming and then negotiate with the Ming Dynasty. This time, he had to bite off a piece of meat from the Ming Dynasty no matter what.

At this time, Mang Yinglong was full of pride and could not help but toast with the chieftains.

The chieftains from all over Myanmar, who had never seen so many troops, naturally flattered him. Everyone was overwhelmed by the victory and was already feeling proud. (End of this chapter)