Chapter 897 If the king is not the king, then the minister will not be the minister.
Halong Bay, Guilin on the sea.
Xin'an Prefecture, one of the four newly established prefectures of Caoping, Lang Son, Wu'an and Xin'an in Annan during the Ming Dynasty, and Fucheng County are all located in Halong Port in Halong Bay.
There are more than 3,000 islands in Halong Bay, and the beautiful coast is similar to the seaside scenery of Guilin.
Halong Port was not originally named like this. It was originally named An Bang, Luc Thuy, Van Don, etc. For a long time, it was just a remote northern coastal fishing village. Later, Siam and other countries came to Vietnam for trade and applied to establish on the Halong Bay Island.
Zhuangdian is called Yuntun.
Until the arrival of the Shao Tian Dynasty fleet of the Ming Dynasty, the dragon flags on the navy warships fluttered in a mighty and domineering manner, so the locals called it the arrival of the dragon. The Ming army also thought that these indigenous people's words were good, so they named the new port Halong Port.
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When the Ming Navy arrived, there were only four fishing villages with more than 200 households and a population of more than 1,200. In Halong Bay, there are many households that cannot live ashore and can only live in houseboats on the water.
Suffering bullying, this is a very special ethnic group. From the southeastern coast of China to the coast of Indochina, these people can be found everywhere, and they are all suppressed by the land.
After the Ming army arrived, they also followed the Central Plains' policies for Dan households, naturalized them, granted them status, allowed them to settle ashore, and even granted them fields, etc. They canceled the special discriminatory policy against them, and a large number of Dan households along the coast were suddenly
Households come to invest.
Halong Bay has become lively. Not only the Ming fleet has been stationed here, but also the new Halong Port has been built to trade here and facilitate the supply of merchant ships passing by. One of the most important reasons for the rapid prosperity here is that there is one of the largest coalfields in Southeast Asia to the north of Halong Port.
One Hongji Coal Mine.
The Ming Dynasty has long known about the rich coal resource reserves here, especially the excellent anthracite coal that can be mined in the open pit. What's even more rare is that it is close to Halong Bay and is convenient for transportation.
During the Ming Dynasty, Foshan in Guangzhou had the largest iron smelting and processing industry in the entire Ming Dynasty. The Cantonese pot produced in Foshan became famous all over the world and became an important trade product. It even provided excellent and sufficient iron materials for the Ming Dynasty's military industry today.
Foshan's iron smelting manufacturing industry is inseparable from coal. The traditional burning of charcoal is far from enough. The Hongji coal mine in the north of Halong Bay is very close to Foshan. It is especially convenient for shipping, has high reserves, and is easy to mine. The navy of the Ming Dynasty occupied it.
Before the Ming Dynasty, Ming Dynasty began to cooperate in mining here.
After the Ming navy stationed and Annan officially ceded the four prefectures, the Shaofu Supervisor, the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the Ministry of Industry each established a large coal mine, and many Ming merchants also poured in.
Today, there are more than 70,000 people in the mining area, including more than 20,000 mining slaves. Many Cochin Vietnamese also come to the mining area to mine or engage in peripheral services and other industries, making the mining area extremely prosperous and lively.
There are more than 20,000 Han people who went south from Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi.
This huge treasure house has attracted countless people. The mining area is more than 200 miles long and 30 to 40 miles wide. The open-pit reserves are more than 200 million tons and the underground reserves are more than 2 billion tons. The topsoil is still thin and there is a seaside backing.
It has a convenient port and sea transportation. The people of Cochin in the past never thought that the northern part of the country, which they despised, would have such a treasure.
It is only 260 miles away from Beihai Port, 900 miles from Beihai to Guangzhou, and the whole journey is only 1,200 miles. However, it is very convenient for the coal from Hongji Mine to be transported to Halong Port and shipped to Guangzhou and Foshan.
.Because the imperial court took control of this precious coal mine, the iron smelting industry in Guangzhou and Foshan has reached a higher level.
Countless people are now gathering in this area, and the two wharves in Halong Port are never-ending. Countless coal ships are leaving full of coal, but many commercial ships are coming, some of which are here for supplies.
Some of them are here for re-export processing. After all, coal here is cheap and labor is cheap.
Of course, there were also many ships that came directly to deliver slaves.
Mines require a large number of miners, and slaves are the lowest cost. Royal, government-run, and private companies are all short of manpower, and they all like to use these slave workers, regardless of whether they are from Japan or North Korea.
Or they come from Cochin, Champa, Burma, Luzon, Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Malay Peninsula or India, Africa. No matter whether they are black skinned, white skinned, yellow skinned or brown skinned, they only have one identity when they arrive here, a cheap and easy-to-use mining miner.
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Although the coal mines here can be mined in the open and the topsoil is still thin, mining is still a very labor-intensive industry that requires young and strong labor, and the losses are staggering. Slaves are undoubtedly the best industrial workers.
Wu Sangui stood on the deck of the ship, and the sailboat was entering the port.
Looking at Halong Bay, which is like an ink painting, and then looking at Halong Port, which is as prosperous and lively as the Riverside Scene during Qingming Festival, Wu Sangui stood in the wind, with the sea breeze blowing on his face, but it could not blow away the sadness in his heart.
As the Deputy Protector of the Annan Protectorate of the Ming Dynasty, the Governor of Annan, and a hussar general bearing the seal of Annan General, Wu Sangui was just in his early forties. The 41-year-old Wu Sangui stood on the bow of the ship. Looking back on this half of his life, he was young and proud.
I have also been hesitant and confused. I was once the most dazzling star among the generals of the Ming Dynasty, the savior that the world was looking forward to in the last years of Chongzhen, and then surrendered to the Manchus and then defected to the Manchus. I opened Shanhaiguan and led the Qing troops into the Central Plains.
Carrying the infamy, he could only go all the way to the dark side. Not only did he conquer the city for the Jurchens, he even suppressed and massacred the city mercilessly.
If the Jurchens can secure their position, maybe they will have a place in the new dynasty, and if the Manchus fulfill their promise, he may become the King of Yunnan or Burma. Even if he bears the infamy, it will be worth it.
"Commander, the navy at the port has a ship coming to greet you." A flying cavalry lieutenant came up to remind him.
Wu Sangui looked over and saw a speedboat approaching, with the navy's dragon flag on it.
His eyes became complicated.
The dragon flag is flying.
Who would have thought that the Ming Dynasty could be revived?
Maybe we can't call the Ming Dynasty ZTE, but Zhu Yihai should be called to rebuild the country. Although this Shaotian Dynasty still carries the banner of the Ming Dynasty, and he is also a descendant of Zhu Yuanzhang, it is not the same dynasty as the previous Ming Dynasty. In addition to retaining the name of the country, it is still the Ming Dynasty.
Except for the fact that the man named Zhu is the emperor, he feels that the current Shaotian Dynasty is completely different from the previous Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Yihai, like Liu Xiu, established another dynasty.
Wu Sangui was originally a hero of the new dynasty. After joining the new dynasty, he also exerted a lot of effort and made many achievements.
Not only did he lead Shaanxi and Gansu to surrender, he also surrounded and suppressed the important Tatar force in Huguang, Shaanxi and Gansu led by Meng Qiaofang and others, cutting off another pillar of the Tatars.
Even later, he and Hong Chengchou put down the rebellion in Shaanxi and Gansu and did not hesitate to kill millions of rebels. Then he came to Annan again, and his hands were stained with the blood of the Yue people.
But now, an imperial decree calls him back to Beijing.
"Change my clothes for me."
Wu Sangui returned to the cabin and changed into his official robe, specially putting on the flying fish robe given by the emperor. He looked at the man in the mirror, with the purple robe and jade belt, and the flying fish on the purple robe, which looked like a dragon and python, but after all, it was neither a python nor a dragon.
"Commander, Geng Zhongming is dead, Qian Qianyi is also dead, Beijing is a trap, you can't go." Zhang Guozhu, dressed in a unicorn uniform, persuaded at the side.
"Once you enter the capital, there will be no chance of survival. We have made many great contributions to the imperial court through life and death. Now that the world is at peace, we have begun to kill rabbits and cook birds. How can we agree?"
Wu Sangui glanced at Zhang Guozhu and continued to stare at himself in the mirror.
Zhang Guozhu was still there to persuade him, and he had already persuaded him all the way. Wu Sangui knew that Zhang Guozhu's words were not all for his own benefit, and Zhang was also a surrendered general.
He was also a Ming Dynasty Liaodong frontier general and a Tieling frontier army. After the Qing army entered the Pass, he fought under Liu Zeqing. Liu Zeqing surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, but he did not. He ran to Chongming and supported a group of governor general soldiers who fled here.
King Yiyang was the superintendent of the country. After that, he followed Chen Wu and others of the dynasty southward to Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Chen Wu attacked Zhu Yihai, Huang Binqing defeated the emperor, and Zhang Guozhu, as A Wu's subordinate, also had his own calculations and wanted to seize the opportunity. He pretended to surrender to Wang Mingqian who stayed in Dinghai, but in the end he pretended to surrender and seize the city, and finally wanted to seize the city.
Ningbo, as a result Wang Zhiren responded in time, Zhang Guozhu failed to steal the chicken but lost the rice. Not only did Ningbo fail to be captured, Dinghai was also lost, and even his men and horses were almost completely lost. Finally, he took some of his soldiers to the sea and fled north.
Went to Hangzhou and surrendered the Qing army.
Compared with the Dynasty Xian who went south to annex Zhu Yihai, Zhang Guozhu took many detours. Dynasty Xian was deceived by Huang Binqing and then joined Zhu Yihai alone. Although he sat on the bench for many years, he later won his trust and slowly took up the post.
In actual service, he has even become General Weizang now.
After Zhang Guozhu surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, although he was promoted to deputy general, later promoted to commander-in-chief, and then named admiral, the battlefield of Zhu Yihai's Northern Expedition was in the land of Sanwu, and Zhang Guozhu bore the brunt of it. He was defeated repeatedly in battles, and in the end he did not escape the fate of being forced to surrender.
After that, he was treated worse than Dynasty and sat on the bench longer. Fortunately, he later went to Hebei from the sea to guerrilla behind enemy lines, and then went to Liaodong to circumvent the rear, and actually made some achievements. With that fierceness, Zhang Guozhu also got a
He was known as a tough general and later went to Shaanxi and Gansu with Wu Sangui to quell the rebellion. He was the first in every battle and was called the God of Killer along with Zhang Yong. Each of them had the blood of hundreds of thousands of people on their hands.
Later he was transferred to Yunnan, and then to Annan. He and Wu Sangui were old partners. Wu Sangui was the governor of Annan, and he was the admiral of the Annan patrol camp.
Wu Sangui was the Duke of Liang, so he also had to be named the Duke of Gui.
At the beginning of this year, the imperial court also granted him the title of Taibao, the crown prince, adding to the total of 1,800 households in total. It is already quite good to have such an official title.
But suddenly the imperial court issued an edict asking them to hand over their seals and enter Beijing immediately. Everything changed.
The deaths of Geng Zhongming and Qian Qianyi, especially the appearance of Sin Chen Lu, made them all aware of what was happening.
The incident happened suddenly. Ouchi's imperial guards escorted the pedestrians who announced the decree. They also summoned several Annan generals with the imperial edict and asked them to mobilize their elites to come directly to see them. They didn't give them any time to think about their reaction, and urged them again and again.
, they had no choice but to hand over their military symbols, official seals, etc., and then follow them northward.
They were about to enter Halong Port. After replenishing supplies here, the next stop was Guangxi Beihai Port, which was directly out of Annam Province. They had no chance to turn around.
Zhang Guozhu did not want to sit back and wait for death.
Zhang Guozhu, a former Liaodong border general and later a military leader in troubled times, was older than Wu Sangui and had rich experiences in his half-life. He knew very well that if he went to Beijing, he would definitely end up like Geng Zhongming.
He was unwilling to do so.
This once capricious military leader, when faced with an emergency like this, immediately thought of rebelling against his mother.
It's just that Wu Sangui didn't listen to his advice along the way.
"If you are not a king, then your ministers will not be your ministers. If Emperor Shao Tian has no faith, then we will no longer be loyal to him."
Wu Sangui tidied up his Feiyu clothes, looked at Zhang Guozhu, and asked directly: "What's wrong? We are just the lambs to be slaughtered now. We are the knives and we are the meat. We don't even have any soldiers around us now. What do you think? I'll take it."
With your sword and your bow, the two of us will cut down the imperial guards of Ouchi, and then cut down the Imperial Guards sent by Annan to escort us? Seize this ship, and then bombard Halong Port, occupy Halong Port, and then pull it apart.
Flag of rebellion?”
Today is different from the past.
Zhang Guozhu is not a rule-abiding person, and he, Wu Sangui, is naturally not a general in his own right. Since the Chongzhen Dynasty, they have repeatedly said that they can turn over clouds and rain and jump repeatedly with a soldier in hand. After all, as long as they
With a knife, a gun, and a man in his hand, he is the grass-headed king in troubled times.
But since they surrendered Zhu Yihai, Zhu Yihai no longer gave them such capital.
After Wu Sangui surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, the Tatars at least let him command most of the old troops, but Zhu Yihai didn't give him a chance at all. As soon as he surrendered, he reorganized the army and transferred troops. The old generals moved east and west, and most of his troops were
He was reorganized, and later he was simply transferred to serve in the court, breaking away from the old tribe.
Later, he quelled the rebellion in Shaanxi and Gansu, and then guarded Annan. Although his authority was quite heavy, he no longer had real military power.
The military system construction of the Shaotian Dynasty itself was different from that of the Ming Dynasty. The servant troops that the generals relied on most in the past were no longer in the Shaotian Dynasty.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The troops directly under the generals' standard battalions are gone.
Outside of the various levels of the Zhenxiebiao camp, even if it is a town admiral or commander-in-chief, he no longer has full power. He has military orders, staff, logistics, supervision and other major departments, each of which is divided by officers. There are several deputy positions under the chief general.
They are completely subordinates to the master-general, with each having their own responsibilities and supervising and balancing each other. The master-general only has a greater say in command.
Under these systems, even if Wu Sangui was the governor of Annan, it would be difficult for him to respond directly and rebel directly.
After all, the local army in the Ming Dynasty was divided into several major systems, including the garrison defense camp system, the provincial patrol camp system, and the regiment training system. In addition, the towns and post towns were also local armed forces, but they each had their own command systems.
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For example, the provincial defense battalions are only under the command of the defense battalion admiral, the provincial defense and patrol garrison battalions are only under the provincial patrol admiral, and the newly restored command and envoy departments are only responsible for regiment training, recruitment and mobilization, etc.
As the governor of Annan, Wu Sangui actually had less authority than the governor of the mainland. Like the governor of the mainland, he did not have the authority to directly command and mobilize the garrisoned defense camps. The mobilization of provincial camps, regiment training, garrison towns, etc. also had to go through the joint efforts of the governor and the governor.
Department, and passed through the provincial governor, provincial capital commander, regimental training commander, etc.
Among them, the most elite garrison and defense battalion cannot be mobilized. They can only request cooperation and must obtain approval from the imperial court.
In addition, there is also a navy stationed in Annan. The navy is also a type of defense battalion and has no right to mobilize.
If it was to suppress the indigenous rebellion in Annan, then if the procedures were complete, Wu Sangui would be able to mobilize the troops under his command, even request the cooperation of the army and navy stationed in the defense camp, and recruit troops from the Mo family and Wu family in Annan.
But if he wants to rebel, then he has no formalities.
Not to mention that now that the Ming Dynasty is at its peak, if he wants to rebel, who is willing to join him? Not even the Mo family in Thang Long City, the Wu family in Tuyen Quang, or even the Nguyen family in Hue will never openly support him.
If Wu Sangui had a choice, would he still wait to be captured?
"You can't sit still and wait for death!" Zhang Guozhu was unwilling to give in. This kind of military leader had come through the troubled times, and he still had the idea of rebellion if he couldn't do it.
"Maybe killing us at the neck is the best destination for us. At least we can save our family." Wu Sangui sighed. His heart was full of unwillingness, but he was bound to death and could do nothing.
Thinking about the dignified Wu Sangui, he is now guarding Annan as the governor, but the emperor actually only sent a few imperial guards to escort the nine-level traveler and proclaimed an imperial edict to capture him.
He didn't even have the slightest strength left to resist.
He actually had some personal soldiers in Annan, and even some slain servants whom he kept secretly, but he was taken away without even a chance to summon them.
opposite?
Of course he wants to rebel, but now he has no capital at all, so what can he do to rebel?
Is it really possible to get emotional for a moment and turn back with such anger?
What's the result?
Wu Sangui always likes to make decisions before taking action, and likes to think twice before making a move. He always thinks before and after, and is a very calculating person. Perhaps he still retains the business talent of the old Wu family in his bones.
"Commander, I also have my own mine in the mining area. There are many clan members and relatives there, as well as many servants and slaves. I know that Marshal also has many people in the mining area, and the guards in the mine also have many weapons.
After we enter the port, we will find an opportunity to escape to the northern mining area, recruit people and occupy the mining area first, and then encourage the miners' slaves to rebel. We promise that as long as they follow the army, we will return their freedom, and even get rewards for killing the enemy. Let's seize the mine first.
Capture Halong Harbor again..."
Wu Sangui admired Zhang Guozhu's bold adventure. This plan was not ordinary bold.
"How many servant guards and slave workers are there in our mines? Do you know how many armed guards there are in the three major mines run by the royal family and the government? Do you know how many soldiers the court has stationed there? How many militiamen and regiment training are there, especially
In Halong Port, how many gunboats and sailors do you know about the navy here?"
If you want to go to the mine to raise a flag to rebel, it will be as difficult as climbing to the sky.
But Zhang Guozhu had already gritted his teeth and said, "I am willing to kill myself and dare to pull the emperor down. Since Zhu Yihai will not give us a way to survive, then we will fight with him. We will only die if we lose."
"If you don't fight back, one of us will die. If you lose, the whole family will be executed." Wu Sangui reminded.
"Why should the commander be so depressed? We may not be sure of defeat. We are raising flags and raising troops in the mines. If we can't take Halong Bay, we will go west at worst. There are still opportunities in the mountains. If it doesn't work, we will keep going southwest.
It is better to go to that barbaric land and occupy the land and become the king than to sit back and wait for someone to be captured."
Wu Sangui knew that he was talking about the Nanzhang Kingdom to the west of Annan. The Nanzhang Kingdom was formerly ruled by the Mon people's Chenla Kingdom. After Chenla's decline, the Thai city-states in the middle reaches of the Mekong River gradually became independent city-states. Later, the alliance of city-states formed the Thai People's Republic of China.
The alliance country Nanzhang Kingdom, also called Lancang Kingdom, was later forced to surrender to Anguo.
At this time, the strength of the Nanzhang Kingdom was weak, and there were even constant internal strife. It was faintly divided into four major separatist forces such as Mengzhan. Under the encirclement of Annan, Burma, and Siam, Nanzhang, a landlocked country in the middle reaches of the Mekong River, became increasingly weak.
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If he could pull an army over, Wu Sangui believed that he would really have a chance to occupy the territory and become king. Moreover, the place was inland, remote and backward, so even the Ming army might not be able to encircle and suppress it.