***
Shouzhou is located on the south bank of the Huaihe River, on the southern foot of Bagua Mountain, facing Fengyang to the east, bordering Huoqiu County to the west across the Pishui River, adjacent to Feixi and Lu'an counties to the south, and bordering Yingshang County to the north. The Dongfei River flows from the north of Luzhou, bypasses Shouzhou and merges into the Huaihe River.
This is a key transportation hub heading north and south. The famous Battle of Feishui during the Eastern Jin Dynasty took place here. This war gave rise to such well-known terms as "stop the flow of the river by throwing a whip", "panic-stricken", "every bush and tree looks like an enemy", and "make a comeback".
At this moment, for Irgen Jueluo Ashan in Shouzhou City, he was in a state of panic and every tree and grass seemed to be an enemy.
That damned Guwalja Oboi was unworthy of being called the bravest warrior in Manchuria, but he escaped across the Huai River without saying a word and fled to Yingshang in a flash.
Is this what a first warrior should do? This is clearly a runaway warrior.
In fact, Ashan was somewhat wronging Aobai. Aobai's retreat to Ying was not just because he was afraid of death. It was caused by the ever-increasing internal divisions of the Qing Dynasty.
Since moving south, Duoduo let Aobai do all the hard work. When the main force withdrew, the few thousand troops left for Aobai were all leftovers.
Aobai believed that Duoduo clearly wanted to use the Qin army to destroy him, the main force of Haoge's faction.
Otherwise, if Duoduo really wanted him to stay in Fengyang, he should have left some elite troops so that they would have a chance to break out when the situation became unbearable.
Since Duoduo is unkind, we can't blame Aobai for being unjust.
Ashan was actually a victim of the internal factional struggle within the Qing Dynasty. After a furious rant, he climbed up to the Tongfei Gate in the south, but saw the Qin army camps for several miles outside the city, with flags fluttering in the west wind.
Dozens of Qin soldiers rushed over on horseback, galloping along the outer side of the moat and continuously shooting arrows at the top of the city wall. There were paper strips tied to the arrows.
Ah Shan had someone pick up an arrow and opened the note on it. It said: Those who voluntarily lay down their weapons and surrender will be treated well. Those who resist will be killed without mercy!
After seeing this, Ashan became furious again and ordered his men to collect all the letters of surrender that the Qin army had shot onto the city walls. However, this would have no effect as many soldiers on the city walls had already seen the letters of surrender.
The Qin army's letter of persuasion was so concise that it was like an ultimatum, and its tone left no room for doubt. Either surrender or die.
Ashan, who was furious, immediately gathered two thousand soldiers and went out of the city to fight with the Qin army for a while, but he did not gain any advantage. Both armies suffered dozens of casualties. Ashan saw that the morale of the Qin army was high and his troops could not break through Meng Ke's infantry formation at all, so he had to withdraw his troops hastily back to the city.
Meng Ke sent troops to dig trenches outside the north gate and the east gate to block the Qing army's way out. Then he concentrated his forces at the south gate and the west gate and began to attack the city fiercely. He also sent people to dig tunnels outside the west gate in preparation for blowing down the city wall.
At the same time, Li Jiu's several thousand cavalry also arrived in Shouzhou, making the Qin army even more powerful.
The Qing troops in the city knew that they were trapped and there was no way any troops could cross the Huai River to support them. Their morale was extremely low. But Ashan was unwilling to sit there and wait for death. Under his strict orders, the Qing troops fought hard. But how long could they hold out
***
Qin Mu in Chuzhou City was very confident about the war in Shouzhou. Although he had been suppressing Meng Ke because of his relationship with Huo Sheng, Cui Feng and others, Qin Mu was absolutely confident in his military ability.
With Meng Ke around, there was no need for him to spend all his energy on the war in Shouzhou.
At this time, the good news from Guizhou finally came back, and Qin Mu's attention was temporarily diverted to the southwest.
Sima Kai had obviously put in a lot of effort in the affairs of the southwest. He said: "The southwest region is a mixed region of different ethnic groups, making it difficult to govern. Since the Qin and Han dynasties, successive dynasties have been unable to truly and effectively govern it. However, from the control system adopted in the Han and Tang dynasties to the chieftain system adopted in the Yuan and Ming dynasties, there has been considerable progress in strengthening the governance of the southwest.
After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the three military positions of Xuanweishi, Xuanfushi, and Anfushi that existed in the Yuan Dynasty, three more civil positions of Tuzhifu, Tuzhizhou, and Tuzhixian were added.
Tusi were responsible for certain taxes and levies to the imperial court, and provided troops according to the imperial court's conscription orders; they also maintained their ruling rights as tribal leaders. During the Ming Dynasty, Tusi troops made great contributions to the imperial court. The most typical example was Shizhu Tusi, Qin Liangyu, who fought for the Ming Dynasty all her life and made great military achievements, and was a model of Tusi in the Ming Dynasty.
Qin Mu asked calmly, "So according to you, should our dynasty continue to use the chieftain system to appease the southwestern tribes?"
"No, my Lord. I think the Tusi system is also full of drawbacks. Tusi in various places enjoy various privileges, have their own armies, set up private prisons, fight and kill each other, and seriously hinder the centralization of power. In the early Ming Dynasty, in order to control the southwest, the Guizhou Provincial Administration alone needed to deploy nearly 200,000 troops, which cost a lot of money.
On the other hand, once the control of the Central Plains dynasty weakened, rebellions would often break out. The She An Rebellion during the Tianqi period lasted for seventeen years, affecting the four provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and Guangxi, with more than a million casualties. Now there are also An Rupan and Sha Dingzhou who are trying to establish themselves as kings.
This time, the General of the Southern Expedition is sweeping away the chieftains of the Shuixi clan, so naturally, the best strategy is to take the opportunity to change the chieftains into officials. However, I think that the change of the chieftains of the Shuixi clan into officials may be delayed for a while. If the change is made immediately, it is very likely that all the chieftains in the southwest will become hostile to our Great Qin."
Qin Mu did not comment and continued to ask: "We can discuss the timing, but sooner or later we have to change the natives to the official system. The problem now is that 200,000 to 300,000 Yi people are scattered in the misty and foggy areas of Shuixi, and it is difficult to govern them even if we send officials. How can we solve this problem?"
Sima Kai replied confidently: "I think that if we want to succeed in changing the natives to Han people, we need to start from two aspects: one is to assimilate the barbarians with the Han people, and the other is to control the barbarians with the barbarians."
"Tell me more about it."
"Yes, King Qin." Sima Kai bowed and continued, "The so-called Hanization of the barbarians means moving these tribes living in remote areas, or building cities in relatively flat areas, and moving in Han people to educate them, or directly moving them to areas dominated by Han people to gradually assimilate them.
As for using barbarians to control barbarians, they should be treated differently. The barbarians are divided into the familiar barbarians and the uninhabited barbarians, and the easy and difficult barbarians. The court should win over the familiar barbarians to attack the uninhabited barbarians, and win over those living in relatively flat areas to attack those living in deep mountains and forests.
For example, this time, the transportation in the area where the Song family lives in Shuidong is relatively convenient, while the Shuixi family lives in the mountains. We should use Shuidong to control Shuixi. Once Shuixi is resolved, it will not be difficult to control Shuidong in the future.
Now the whole country is at war, various chieftains are ready to make moves, fighting for territory, conflicts are intensifying, it is a good time for our Great Qin to implement the policy of pulling one away and defeating one after another. In this way, the court may use military force in the southwest for a longer time and cost more, but I think that the court should not regret this small expense, but should seek to solve the problem once and for all, and must not compromise.
Another way is to divide the chieftains from within. Many of the chieftains in the southwest still practice slavery. The chieftains exploit and abuse the people under their jurisdiction, commit all kinds of crimes, and are cruel and tyrannical. The people have no place to appeal for their grievances or to complain about their sufferings. In fact, there are many contradictions within the chieftains. The court can take advantage of the contradictions between the chieftains and the people, divide them, and disintegrate them from within. "
Qin Mu nodded repeatedly after listening to Sima Kai's strategy of transforming the natives into officials. It must be said that Sima Kai's views were quite unique. Qin Mu even suspected that he had received guidance from his father.
Afterwards, Qin Mu asked Gu Jun'en and others for advice. Gu Jun'en said, "I also agree that we should vigorously suppress the enemy and not just do it casually. The Ming Taizu continued to use the Yuan system to set up Tusi, and its drawbacks are obvious.
In the early Ming Dynasty, there were more than 100,000 troops stationed in Guizhou. Countless expenses were incurred over the generations, but the barbarians still rebelled endlessly. After the Yongle period, Sinan and Sizhou were reformed into Han people, Qiandong was able to be well governed during the Ming Dynasty. Now that our dynasty has reformed Shuixi into Han people, Guizhou will basically be stable.
Now the focus is on Yunnan. Sha Dingzhou's rebellion has affected the entire Yunnan. The Ming army in Yunnan has long since collapsed. This chaos is actually a fight between the chieftains. As Lord Sima said, the fight between the chieftains in Yunnan has intensified the contradictions between them. It is the time for our Great Qin to divide and attack.
During the last twenty years of the Ming Dynasty, there was great chaos in Yuan, but Yunnan had been relatively stable. In order to smoothly transform the natives into officials and solve the problem once and for all, I think it would be better to let Yunnan be in chaos for a while longer.
Since ancient times, people’s minds settle down only after a long period of chaos. Moreover, the longer the chaos lasts, the weaker the chieftains will become in the war... "
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.(To be continued..)
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