The leader of the country, Duan Zhengxing, panicked and fled from the palace, followed by a queen, three concubines, more than a dozen maids and eunuchs.
Oh, and there are two babies.
One of the babies is named Duan Zhixing, and it is not known whether he has the talent to practice Yiyang Finger.
Nearly twenty of them hid in the garden, hiding in twos and threes among the flowers. Occasionally, some people would stick out their buttocks and expose their buttocks, which was normal. Anyway, it was hard to see clearly in the dark. If someone really came to hide, no matter how good they were, they couldn't hide it.
There was a lot of noise and chaos outside, and some maids and eunuchs even took the opportunity to steal property and run away.
Fighting has begun at the gate of the royal city.
The confidants sent by Gao Yuecheng to guard the palace exchanged bows and arrows with Zhang's private soldiers who came to "rescue" Zhang.
Zhang Dexing roared towards the city tower: "Gao Aji, your father has escaped from the city, do you still want to defend the palace?"
"Fart, how could the Ming army attack the city so quickly?"
Gao Aji encouraged morale and said: "Don't believe this man's lies. The Prime Minister will soon bring troops to help!"
Zhang Dexing shouted: "Except for the Gao family, all the civil and military surnames in the city have surrendered. If you continue to resist stubbornly, you will not end well. Capture and kill Gao Aji quickly, not only can you save your life, but you can also perform meritorious service!"
"Shoot him to death!" Gao Aji ordered.
Another burst of arrows flew out, but the force became smaller and the accuracy was a little ridiculous. The soldiers were leaving a way for themselves to retreat.
No one has been able to capture Gao Aji for the time being, but he switched sides simply because he didn't know what others thought and was afraid that he would be killed if he made the first move.
It is a pity that in this great situation, Zhang Dexing did not bring any siege equipment and only carried a few civilian wooden ladders, which could not pose a threat to the soldiers defending the city at all.
At this moment, a thunderous shout came from the direction of Nancheng.
That was when Dong Mingshou seized the city gate and ushered the Ming cavalry who had been chasing them into the city.
On the palace side, the soldiers guarding the city changed their expressions.
They were all private soldiers born in Gao Yucheng, and their long-term sense of loyalty made them afraid to attack Gao Aji. But they wanted to escape after all. Suddenly, an officer left the city wall, and his soldiers also fled with them.
"Hurry and open the city gate. If you don't leave, it will be too late!"
When the soldiers at the city gate heard this, they subconsciously joined forces to open the city gate, and then rushed out to escape.
Zhang Dexing shouted: "Don't shoot arrows, don't stop them, let them escape!"
They discovered that the soldiers who were the first to rush out of the city gate and escape were not intercepted and killed by Zhang's private soldiers. The soldiers who were still guarding the city were ecstatic. They couldn't care about anything at that moment. They threw away their weapons and ran away, no matter how high they were.
No matter how Aji stopped him, it didn't work.
After most of the defenders had escaped, Zhang Dexing suddenly ordered: "Fire arrows!"
"shoot!"
The archers in Zhang's private army immediately fired volleys at the city gate.
"Rush over!"
"kill!"
The private soldiers of the Gao family who were slow to escape were first shot at and then besieged from three sides. They instantly suffered a psychological breakdown and went crazy crying. Some of them continued to rush out and were stabbed to death by the enemies outside; some turned around and fled back to follow the friendly forces.
Collide together.
Gao Aji himself had already taken advantage of the chaos and left, heading towards the depths of the palace with a small number of die-hard loyalists - he wanted to kidnap the leader of Dali.
Duan Yu held a string of rosary beads and said to the eunuch who returned in a hurry: "The royal city is blocked and you can't get out?"
Several eunuchs said with grim faces: "There is a war going on at the city gate."
Duan Yu said: "Some of you were arranged by Gao Yucheng, 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 yelled: "If you want to survive, just be obedient!"
The eunuchs suddenly woke up as if they had been given a slap in the face, and they all knelt down and shouted: "Long live the Emperor!"
Duan Yu led these eunuchs out, picking up useful things along the way and using them as weapons. When they met the frightened palace maids and eunuchs, they gathered together.
In the blink of an eye, the team grew to more than fifty people.
Duan Yu went straight to his son's palace and recruited more than ten people one after another. He was even taken to the garden by one of the palace maids.
"Get out of here, you can only hide!" Duan Yu stood at the door of the garden and yelled.
When Duan Zhengxing heard that his father was coming, he ran out of the flowers like a drowning man grabbing a life-saving straw: "Father, help!"
Duan Yu took his son and his gang with him and continued to wander around the palace, constantly summoning more maids and eunuchs.
By the time Gao Aji led his troops to kill him, there were already hundreds of people following Duan Yu. They dismantled the legs of tables and chairs to make sticks, and some even took off their belts to use as weapons.
"Take it!" Gao Aji shouted.
However, Duan Yu held a piece of porcelain and pressed it against his son's neck, shouting: "We can die together if we want. Our father and son are dead, and none of you can live. Come on, chop my father and son to death with random knives!"
Duan Zhengxing's throat was sore from the porcelain shards, and he shouted in panic: "Dad, please spare my life..."
Gao Aji was stunned, and so were his soldiers.
Duan Yu added: "Killing Gao Aji and surrendering to the Ming army together with my father and son will be a great achievement."
From the direction of the city gate of the royal city, the shouts of killing are getting smaller and smaller. It is estimated that the battle there has come to an end.
Suddenly, a soldier officer turned towards Gao Aji and said, "Who is willing to follow me and perform meritorious service to save his life? If you are willing, just call for death together!"
"Kill! Kill! Kill..."
More and more soldiers shouted. Gao Aji saw that the situation was not going well and ran away immediately. His own soldiers caught up and hacked him to death.
The private soldiers of the Gao family dragged Gao Aji's body back and knelt down one after another in front of Duan Yu.
Not long after, Zhang Dexing led his troops to rush in and found Duan Yu and his son being protected by soldiers, maids, and eunuchs.
Duan Yu took out a piece of silk cloth from his arms, stood out from the crowd and said: "Gao Yucheng, Gao Guanyinlong and other rebellious ministers and traitors are plotting rebellion. I have invited the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty to help. This is a sign of surrender to the country.
Do you want to stop me from dedicating Dali Kingdom to the Emperor with the blood of my father and my son?"
Zhang Dexing stopped talking, hesitated for more than ten seconds, and suddenly knelt down and said: "I have brought troops to rescue you, so I will protect my two majesties and go to surrender."
As a result, Zhang's private soldiers were also taken over by Duan Yu.
Duan Yu's political skills are extremely clever, otherwise he would not have been able to stay in power for decades. The reason why he has fallen into this situation is not because he is too stupid, but because his fundamentals are too bad to make a difference.
Soon, a group of Ming cavalry rushed outside the royal city. The person in charge of leading the troops was a small Ming army colonel.
They saw that the city gate was wide open and the troops were neatly dressed inside, so it was difficult to rush in for a while.
Duan Yu pulled his son forward and knelt down, held up the blood letter and said: "Duan Zhengyan, the Supreme King of Dali, and his son Duan Zhengxing, King of Dali, offer their surrender to pay homage to the Holy Emperor from afar!"
The Ming cavalry quickly gave way. This was kneeling to the emperor, and they did not dare to accept it.
It wasn't until Duan Yu and his son stood up that the Ming Army Major led the troops in, respectfully took the blood letter and at the same time sent someone back to report to the superior officer.
More and more Ming soldiers entered the city, and in the middle of the night, even Bai Qi came.
Bai Qi got the blood letter and asked about the situation carefully. He even had the eunuchs and soldiers interrogated to find out what happened in the Dali palace tonight.
Finally, Bai Qi sighed and said: "This is a virtuous king, but it is a pity that the court is full of rebellious officials and traitors."
He took the offering table to see Duan Yu and his son, helped the two of them to prevent them from kneeling, and said comfortingly: "With this offering, your father and son will be rich and noble for the rest of their lives. Please stay in the palace for the time being and don't go out until I calm down."
If there is chaos, I will send your whole family to Luoyang."
Hearing this, Duan Yu finally felt at ease: "Little Wang does not seek wealth and honor. He only wants to find a temple in Luoyang to worship Buddha for the rest of his life. I, my children and grandchildren, also asked the general to help me and say a kind word."
Bai Qi said: "It should be."
Over at Longshou Pass, 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 governor of Yunnan Province, came to Dali with many officials.
The civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty cooperated with each other. They first dispersed the local soldiers and horses that had surrendered or been captured, and then sent Duan Yu and his family to Luoyang.
Then the tribesmen with major surnames in Dali Kingdom migrated to their hometowns.
For example, the Gao family only moved away the clan members in Kunming and did not need to make major wars in other places. This was because the Gao family had not yet developed and strengthened the clan power in the new territory.
Take Gao Liangcheng as an example, it only took a few decades for his father to seize the Weichu Mansion, and two generations of hard work only gave birth to more than a dozen descendants.
How did Gao Liangcheng control Weichu Mansion?
One is private armed forces.
The second is local prominent families.
The third is Buddhism and Confucian officials.
No matter whether they have made great achievements or not, no more private soldiers are allowed in Yunnan.
Without private soldiers, local prominent families will no longer submit their services and will only obey the orders of the government from now on.
As for Buddhist and Confucian officials, this thing is unique to Dali.
When Dali Tantric monks study for the imperial examination, they are called "Buddhists and Confucians", sometimes also called "Master Monks". They must "cultivate both Confucianism and Buddhism" to be admitted to the imperial examination. They cannot pass the exam if they only study Buddhism or Confucianism.
But in actual practice, Buddhism is often more emphasized.
"Buddhism and Confucianism" is the key to governing Yunnan in the future. Those who practice Buddhism and Confucianism, pass the imperial examinations, and serve as officials are basically the children of those twenty or so surnames. It is impossible for the content they study to be recognized by the court, and they will not pay attention to it.
There will be a fuss.
Yang Ji said to Bai Qi: "The troops stationed in various places must not relax their vigilance, especially to protect the official schools that are being established one after another. If there are Buddhists and Confucians causing trouble, they can take the opportunity to kill a group of them, and then take advantage of the situation to ban the remaining temples."
Bai Qi nodded and said, "I've also asked, Dali Tantric Buddhism must be strictly guarded. Buddhists and Confucianists here are spread all over the villages. They even persuade every household to enshrine Buddha statues. While reading the books of sages, they also provide them to the villagers.
Witchcraft practices to cure diseases and eliminate disasters are very likely to secretly incite villagers everywhere to revolt."
Yang Ji said: "Dong Mingshou is the leader of the Dali Esoteric Cult. Let him guide the reform of the Dali Esoteric Cult and change all the messy contents. If he disobeys, he will be arrested and sent to Luoyang for a reason, and his son will be in charge of Dali.
Tantric reform. Also, Sanskrit must be exterminated in Yunnan!"
Sanskrit is the official mainstream script in Dali.
If you look for a copy of The Analects of Confucius printed in Chinese characters, most of the annotations will be in Sanskrit. Various plaques and inscriptions, even tombstones, are often engraved in both Chinese and Sanskrit, or even in Sanskrit only.
After Yang Ji learned about the situation two days ago, especially when he got the local sage's book, he was furious when he saw the Sanskrit in the book.
Sanskrit must be banned!
Bai Qi worriedly said: "Once Sanskrit is banned, there will probably be trouble soon."
Although Yang Ji is a civil official, this matter involves the teachings of sages, and he is countless times more radical than Bai Qi: "Someone is making trouble, so I will kill them ruthlessly, and I will have an excuse to demolish the temple!"
