After hearing Mengchang's statement that the black elf in Kunming could actually gather six or seven hundred soldiers, and the total number of soldiers in Ailao Baiyi was more than 1,500 o'clock, Li Su's first reaction was quite shocked.

Is the elephant so worthless? When I first developed the elephant plow and elephant mill, I didn’t even investigate the information on this area in detail.

If there were so many similarities, Mengchang and Mengxin shouldn't have surrendered so easily. Now that he has strengthened his strength, loyalty seems to be worthy of warning again.

For this reason, Li Su calmly asked Mengchang and Mengxin brothers for a few words before he understood the situation.

It turns out that there is still a big difference between "soldier elephants" and "war elephants". Both war elephants must be adult male elephants weighing at least 15,000 kilograms or more, and they also need to undergo special anti-frightening training so that they will not run wildly because of being shot in an arrow or being stabbed.

The "soldier elephant" is only one that can be ridden by people and can help humans transport freight. Therefore, among the six or seven hundred soldiers of the Kunming Heiyi, there are only one hundred and fifty war elephants that can really fight, accounting for one-quarter.

This data is quite reliable. It is equivalent to the fact that except for the core nest of Mengchang, which has to bear several times the burden of raising elephants, each county such as Qin Zang, Lianran, Qingzhe, Yunnan, etc., each county has only raised dozens of elephants. It only takes ten per township and one or two per village.

In tropical rainforest climate areas, there is no need to work hard to prepare food for elephants in each village. Cut some shrubs, especially banana trees, palm trees, etc., and they can eat stems and leaves. If there are more, it is not a good deal. After all, elephants have too much appetite, and it is too much to eat specifically for elephant seeds.

Li Su later generations also read the war history data and knew that by the latest to the 1940s, Yunnan would still have war elephants. At that time, in order to defend the Yunnan-Burma Highway, some local chieftains dispatched war elephants in the Nujiang Battle, and dozens of war elephants could be killed in a county chieftain. Some people adapted and modified it into novels and wrote them into Chinese textbooks. It can be seen that the scale of feeding elephants in Yunnan has always maintained a good scale.

Unfortunately, things like war elephants are too difficult to transport and cannot fight in a narrow terrain. Moreover, when you go to the north, you have to prepare food specifically for elephants. It is not as cost-effective as breeding in tropical rainforests. It should not be used for war. At most, a few guards of honor will be used to show the majesty of the Hanzhong King's "barbarians surrender."

Elephants are prone to fear of fire and loud noises. Even if the northern warlords do not know about it now, they will learn to fight at most one or two battles in the future. This is a one-time deal.

...

After thoroughly finding out the combat effectiveness of the elephant soldiers of Kunming Heiyi and Ailao Baiyi, Li Su became increasingly suspicious about whether he could use his interests to convince Ailao Baiyi's barbarian chiefs to surrender directly.

Because he also knew that after Gao Yi, the king of Yueli, sent people to help the thief, Li Su did not send troops to destroy Gao Yi, and would definitely leave a seed on both ends of the head and rat in the hearts of other barbarians from afar. Without knocking, there would definitely be people who would not accept it.

Maybe they would think that "the reason why Mengchang and Meng Xin were cowardly was because their brothers' base was too close to the granary of Dianchi Lake, so they were afraid of the Han army's attack by force." And other tribes did not have this problem, so there was no need to be too afraid of the Han army.

In any case, the grain transport road from the newly established Kunming County to Jiandong County and even Yunnan County has been completely leveled by the elephant construction team. The total distance from Kunming to Buwei is 900 miles, and the first four hundred miles can be transported by cattle and horse carriages.

After leaving the leveling dirt road area, turn northwest and walk the bumpy hilly road that is not open to traffic for 200 miles, and you can reach Baiyi, Ailao Baiyi's old nest, Yuyu County (Dali), and then turn southwest from Yuyu and then walk southwest to Buwei before you can reach the capital of Yongchang County through Bonan.

If Li Su wants to build a road further, he must surrender and negotiate with the chiefs of Ailaoyi, otherwise he will cross the border to build the road and build Mengchang's sphere of influence.

On the 20th day of the first lunar month, Li Su sent a fast horse envoy to go to Yanyu County to negotiate conditions for surrender, promised trade interests and helped them transfer technology such as terraced fields and plows in exchange for barbarians to surrender.

At the same time, they were also asked to respect Li Ji (Li Yong's son and Li Hui's father), the newly-appointed prefect of Yongchang, and accept his arbitration jurisdiction over disputes between various ministries, but the tribe affairs of each ministries can still be autonomous.

The envoy arrived in Yuyu County on the 22nd and received the head of the Zhurong clan, the largest member of the Ailaoyi, who was welcomed by the leader of the cave master (Note: During the Romance of Zhuge Nanzheng, Meng Huo's brother-in-law and Mrs. Zhurong's younger brother were the leader of the cave master. But because the "death master" is equivalent to the chief/tusi, it is just a position, not a name, so Zhurong's father and grandfather also brought the cave master. At present, this leader of the cave master is counted as a lifetime, and the one in Zhuge Nanzheng might be the second and third lifetimes)

After the envoy conveyed the request, the Lord of the Guidong did not dare to kill the envoy directly, but just politely stated that "the court appointed Li Ji as the prefect, which was the court's business, and the Ailao tribes would not object." As for whether they would really obey Li Ji's disputes among tribes in the future, they obviously wanted to delay Tai Chi, and they would talk about it when there was a dispute.

As for the question of asking them to cooperate with Liu Bei, the general of the Western Expedition, the Zhurong clan answered that "the world is not peaceful, the emperor is displaced, the people are far away from each other, and they do not know the truth." In other words, the emperor has been robbed and does not know who the emperor says means, so we have to ignore anyone.

This is an obvious failure to break up, but it is actually very arrogant and arrogant.

When they arrived, they also made an excuse, saying that "the road was blocked". They hoped that Li Su would kill Mengchang and Gao Yi first and open the most convenient transportation route to the northwest of Yongchang County, so that they could surrender.

However, it was precisely because the cave owner did not dare to kill Li Su's envoy, so the envoy was able to continue to send orders to Bisu, Litang, Bonan, Buwei and other counties to Jina. Unfortunately, the Mulu, the chief of Ailao Yi barbarians in Bisu and Litang counties, and the King of Wugo, also had the same attitude as the Zhurong clan, and did not return to the king. The motive was indeed because they saw that "even Gao Yi is still alive, what are we afraid of? It is more satisfying to be the local emperors themselves, no one cares about it."

Only when I arrived in Bonan County did I meet the first Baiyi clan leader of Ailao with more than 30,000 households and more than 100,000 people, King Duosi, and the prefect who was willing to surrender to Liu Bei's newly conferred title.

(Similarly, the Mulu King, Duosi and Wugo are all considered first, and Zhuge Nanzheng met second and third generations)

As for the arrival of Buwei County, everything went very smoothly, because Li Su's envoy met Li Yong's family. Li Yong was already in his seventies and had been retired for many years. He heard that the general of the Western Expedition brought the imperial seal to enthrone his son Li Ji as the prefect of Yongchang. Li Yong was very grateful and brought all his children and grandchildren to thank him and receive the reward.

Li Ji also immediately made a statement, saying that he had heard that Li Suyou invited the surrendered Kunming Yiman King to send his son to Jiangzhou to learn from the disciples of Cai Yong, the great scholar of the times. Therefore, he also asked Li Sunian to bring his eldest son Li Hui, who had not yet reached the crown, and receive a good education, in order to everyone's surname is Li.

Of course, Li said this not entirely to reassure Li Su. After all, the Li family was originally a migrant official sent by the court and a Han scholar. They really cherished high-quality educational resources. If they could become disciples in Jiangzhou, they could not get many "school district houses" to be exchanged for.

Fortunately, Li Su's envoy was ordered by Li Su before he came. He knew that these things could be agreed, so he allowed all the young people under the age of 20 to go to Jiangzhou and study with Gu Yong.

After all this, Li Su's envoy quickly returned to Yunnan County controlled by Mengchang. It was already early February. He immediately reported to Li Su about the situation of his mission to the tribes and the encirclement of Li Yong's clan.

"Ai Laoyi is so shameless? The governor has promised so many benefits, but they are still unwilling to cooperate?" When he heard the reward, Mengchang was still the same. The Mengxin brothers found it incredible.

After all, they saw Li Su's miracles such as "forcing the poison from thousands of miles away from the Lu River" and "making elephants and plowing terraces". They thought it was too cost-effective to surrender to Li Su, and Li Su did not interfere with the jurisdiction of internal affairs in their tribe from beginning to end. As long as they listen to Liu Bei's orders, what's wrong with this?

Li Su was not surprised by it, and heard the words and sneered: "Sure enough, our reputation and good reputation have spread too slowly. We cannot make those distant people awe in their hearts. Okay, since they are not convinced, let them fulfill their wishes."

When Mengchang heard this, he was frightened and quickly expressed his opinion: "Does the governor want to attack Zhurong and other troops by force? Our Meng family is willing to... help 5,000 soldiers - and ask the governor to forgive us for our hardships. Last year, he was bewitched by Jing Yi and was recruited with the losses. We have lost 5,000 troops. Moreover, this winter is busy with labor and construction, and we have not rested with the people. Now it is spring plowing, so we really cannot send more troops."

The total number of black people in Kunming is only 400,000 to 500,000, and the number of male strong men is only 100,000. One five-centered person can draw 20,000 to 30,000. However, last year, five thousand lost, and only 20,000 were left after 50,000.

Active offense is not as good as internal defense operations, so you can only draw a small half of your troops to attack, and the remaining reserves must defend their own nests. In addition, the spring plowing is half a day, so you can only send 5,000 troops.

Similarly, Li Su and Guan Yu and Zhang Fei's troops were not idle this winter. Some were training, some were fighting against rebellions and sweeping away thieves on a small scale, and some were also involved in labor and construction. To defend the fertile land of the Battery Basin and the major transportation routes such as Wei County, a total of more than 5,000 soldiers were also left.

After doing this, if we really want to attack Ailaoyi, the combat troops used for the attack would be dispatched 10,000 points.

In contrast, Ailaoyi has a population of more than 700,000. Even if there are about 200,000 people in several small tribes such as Duosi, and King Mulu, there are still more than 500,000 people who are inclined to be independent. If they also draw a defensive battle in the interior, it will be easy to draw at least 30,000 combat troops.

What's more, if the safety of the tribe is involved, the mobilization efforts can be increased. If the chief of the Barbarian King is at risk of being destroyed, temporary measures such as four or even three strong men to join the army may also occur.

Li Su just waved his hand lightly to the Meng brothers' statement: "It is enough for you to send 5,000 troops when you go to the battle of Yuyu, but I still have a condition. If Ailaoyi comes to attack you first, you must do some effort in the defense war. This will not delay the spring plowing, right?"

Defensive battles are fighting at home, and the delay of mobilization is much shorter, so you can go back to farm after the battle.

Seeing that Li Su had recognized his military scale, Mengchang hurriedly said: "That's natural. If Ailaoyi attacks, we are defending our own homeland. How dare we fight to the death?"

Li Su: "That's fine - don't worry, I'm not a warlike person and will not attack Ailaoyi directly. I will ask the soldiers to continue to build roads along Yunnan County to Yanyu County. Use elephant flat ground to build dozens of miles, and they will not be able to sit still by themselves."

Until this moment, Li Su didn't want to leave the reputation of "I just destroyed him just because others didn't listen to me." He hoped to play a demonstration role and let other small tribes of Ailaoyi who were still watching form an understanding: the Han people are here to ensure the business environment and road construction, and all the Han people want is local stability, so they must hold the "right to arbitrate between tribes" in their hands.

If the Han people built roads through the territory of Yanyu County, causing the Ailao tribe in Yanyu County to attack the Han army, then the Ailao people themselves seek death, and all diplomatic mistakes are from the Ailao people. Moreover, using the enemy's underestimation of the enemy to fight a defensive counterattack to consume the enemy first is much easier than directly killing the door.
Chapter completed!