Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Though the Tamil soldiers under Xia Yuqing were not very good at fighting, they were naturally good at burning, killing and looting.

They chased the defeated enemy all the way north, and ran to loot any village they saw.

Faced with the troops who were already looting like crazy, the Han masters did not dare to stop them. But they had to show their authority, so the Han masters also joined in and personally led their own troops to loot the village.

While looting, they set rules that the troops could keep a small amount of property, and most of it needed to be handed over to the master!

This method is easier to accept than prohibiting looting.

After only chasing for dozens of miles, the chasing troops completely lost their organization. Xia Yuqing was very frustrated to find that he could no longer command the troops. They were all scattered in various villages, burning, killing and looting, and he could not gather the soldiers to kill the enemy's lair.

Fortunately, their enemies were also rubbish.

Otherwise, Xia Yuqing would have turned from a great victory to a great defeat if he had only gathered more than a thousand remnants to fight back.

It was really a fight between chickens.

The enemy was a coalition of four noble lords, and the only one who was really powerful was Parakalama. Parakalama's elite troops had been crippled by the Ming Dynasty envoys a few years ago, and the combat effectiveness of the newly trained army was much worse than before.

Although the main force of the coalition and the sea ambushes added up to more than 20,000 people, in fact, more than 70% were peasants.

Under the full-line rout, it was impossible to organize a counterattack.

Lu You stood outside a village and witnessed the brutal robbery throughout the whole process. He frowned and said nothing.

"That's how war works," Qi Qi'an said hastily to comfort him. "When I was young, I lived in Shandong, where bandits were rampant, just like the army in front of us. Bandits in Shandong and Hebei were often unable to attack strong cities, so they let their soldiers plunder villages in the suburbs, and the former Song Dynasty soldiers did not dare to go out of the city to suppress bandits."

Bai Shihou said, "So the discipline of our Ming soldiers is strict, and we can truly be called a benevolent and righteous army."

Lu You sighed, "I am too soft-hearted. But it can also be said that I always wanted to make meritorious deeds on the battlefield, but I couldn't bear to see the soldiers plundering villages."

Fan Chengda said, "Brother Wuguan is a man of benevolence and righteousness."

Wang Lianqing hesitated to speak, and then turned his back and stopped looking at the miserable situation in the village.

In fact, according to the original historical trajectory, the Sinhalese people and their descendants here would also die tragically in 70 or 80 years, and they would almost be killed to the point of becoming mainly Tamils.

At that time, the two major families competed for the throne, and the Kalinga family finally won.

This family is the descendant of Ceylon. Successive kings married Kalinga women from the South Asian subcontinent (probably in Orissa, India, next to Bengal). They plundered the southern part of Ceylon and moved the capital directly to the northernmost part. At the same time, they migrated all the Tamils ​​on the island and massacred and expelled the Sinhalese there.

That is, the royal family members have the blood of the Indian subcontinent, united the Tamils ​​who are also a minority, and changed the ethnic composition of the northern part of Ceylon.

From then on, the northern part of Ceylon became the territory of the Tamils, and this influence has continued to modern society!

Compared with the direct replacement of the race, what is the looting of villages by Xia Yuqing's army?

It can even be said that the descendants of most of the people here can survive because of Xia Yuqing.

Of course, this calculation is nonsense.

Xia Yuqing is now in a state of panic. It took him five days to collect the troops that were scattered and looting everywhere. Some of the more courageous ones even rushed to the north and east hundreds of miles away to rob.

Such a delay gave the enemy a chance to regroup.

Parakalama gathered the defeated soldiers everywhere, and forced the people to join the army, and barely gathered another six or seven thousand people.

But the alliance was declared broken.

Two nobles of the coalition composed of four nobles in the east and north quietly led their troops away, and sent people to contact Xia Yuqing for peace talks.

Xia Yuqing had just gathered his troops when he met the negotiating envoy.

He called several old brothers with the highest military positions, and after some discussion, he decided to accept the peace talks. In addition, he also arranged marriages with the two nobles, and several old brothers came forward to marry women from the other family.

The two sides quickly reached a marriage agreement:

Promise not to invade each other and form a military alliance. If the two nobles are attacked, the Han forces are obliged to send troops to help. The same is true in reverse. For example, this time, the two nobles must lead the remnants to help the Han forces attack Parakalama!

After learning the results of the negotiations between the two sides, the six second-generation officials sat down to chat.

Fan Cheng laughed and said, "It has the flavor of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The King of Ceylon is like the Zhou Emperor, who can only rule the area near the royal city. The local princes attacked each other, and they also formed alliances, and the Han people here also have two allies."

Lu You said, "Although the sparrow is small, it has all the organs. I estimate that in a hundred years, the descendants of the Han people here will be able to unify the entire island."

"I think the descendants of the Han people will probably fight among themselves," said Li Zuqia, "Xia Yuqing himself can't control the army, let alone his descendants. The five hundred soldiers left by the court have all recruited their own troops, and they are likely to become the aristocratic families of the Jin Dynasty. A tiny place can't accommodate five hundred aristocratic families. When they have destroyed all the indigenous forces, or even before they have destroyed them all, the Han people will fight among themselves and swallow each other up."

"It's hard to say," said Wang Lianqing, "After all, there are too few Han people on the island, and at most there will be only 100,000 in a hundred years. If the indigenous people frequently revolt, the Han people may be forced to unite."

Bai Shihou said: "I'm afraid there are more than 100,000. Not only can they give birth to their own children, but they can also recruit fellow villagers from the Ming Dynasty. Aren't there many fellow villagers who come to join them now? Sometimes, one person can recruit dozens or hundreds of poor fellow villagers."

The six people could not come up with any results from their discussion. Who knows what this deformed Han Chinese force will eventually develop into.

After Xia Yuqing led his troops for dozens of miles, he camped and sent out scouts to inquire about the enemy's situation. He also waited for the two nobles to lead their troops to form an alliance.

During the alliance ceremony, Buddhist monks and Brahmin monks chanted mantras to communicate with the gods.

But the person officiating the ceremony invited Lu You to make a guest appearance.

Xia Yuqing introduced the two nobles: "This is the son of the Minister of Rites of the Ming Dynasty. The Ministry of Rites is in charge of rituals and sacrifices. Well... you can regard this Mr. Lu as the son of Kassapa or the high priest of the Ming Dynasty. "

The Ceylon nobles witnessed the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty and were instantly in awe of Lu You.

Lu You couldn't laugh or cry about this, so he presided over the alliance ceremony according to Chinese etiquette.

Since these guys formed an alliance, it was naturally impossible for Lu You to use Tailuo gift on them, just to avoid killing cattle and circumventing the taboos of Brahmanism.

He is not considered a prince, but he can be regarded as a minister, and he can also use Shaolao etiquette.

Pigs and sheep were slaughtered, sacrifices were made to heaven and earth, and the alliance was read out.

Lu You read the alliance letter in parallel prose in Ming Dynasty Mandarin. Not only the two Ceylon nobles could not understand it, but also many old Han brothers could not understand it.

Just don’t understand it, it’s even more mysterious and solemn!

When he learned that his ally not only ran away, but also formed an alliance with Xia Yuqing, Parakarama was shocked and angry.

"Your Majesty, Bahanu has left with his troops!" the trusted minister came to report in a panic.

Parakarama once killed the king and became independent, but in private he still asked his followers to call him His Majesty the King.

Parakarama chased him out on horseback, but the last ally's troops had not yet completely walked out of the city gate. He overcame the crowd and stopped him: "Bahanu, are you just going to give up and allow those foreign races to occupy the land?"

Bahanu asked: "The Ming people are a foreign race, aren't the Tamils? In the past thousand years, Tamils ​​have been coming to settle on the island. Who can drive them all away? At least the Ming people allow us to believe in Buddhism. The Ming emperor also consecrated five great Kasyapas. Those Tamils ​​were the most abominable. They forced the monks to convert to Brahmanism and turned all Buddhist temples into Brahmin temples. If I had to choose, I would rather let the Ming people rule. Ceylon, not the damn Cholas and Tamils.”

"If you back down now, the Ming people will one day invade your territory," Parakarama said. "They will kill you and your heirs, and take away your land, property, wife, and daughters. Just like they did in previous years.”

Bahanu said: "It's different now. They are willing to form an alliance with the island's nobles."

Parakarama sneered: "That's their despicable trick. Because I raised an army to resist, they were willing to ally with the local nobles. If I were defeated and killed, and no one would threaten them anymore, those Ming people would definitely turn their backs. of."

Bahanu said: "It will be a matter of the future to fall out. If I continue to fight with your alliance, I will soon be killed by the people of the Ming Dynasty. The people of the Ming Dynasty are protected by Vajra Bodhisattva. They can control thunder and fire. Our army cannot Get the win.”

"Idiot, that's not thunder and fire, that's just a weapon!" Parakarama said angrily.

Bahanu sighed: "But the soldiers all thought it was thunder and fire. Some said it was the blessing of Bodhisattva, and some said it was the devil's encouragement. Anyway, the soldiers did not believe that it was the power of mortals. My soldiers are like this, and your soldiers are similar. They have no idea. I don’t want to fight anymore. You have thousands of troops now, but many of them are forced civilians. Can you really win?”

Parakarama was silent for a moment.

"I'm leaving, may the Buddha bless you." Bahanu said.

Parakarama pressed the hilt of the knife, wanting to rush over and kill Bahanu, and then annex the remaining soldiers of the opponent.

But he still chose to exercise restraint after all. At this time, annexing the troops would be a bad thing if they really fought, and they might defect during the battle.

Bahanu took the remaining troops to the southeast. Not long after, a scout came to report that the Ming people's vanguard was already more than ten miles due south.

Parakarama thought about it, weighing the gains and losses over and over again.

His heart drove him to fight to the end, but his reason persuaded him to run away.

After all, reason prevailed, and Parakarama took his family and more than a hundred confidants and fled by boat to Kalinga on the northeastern coast of India.

Kalinga is an ancient Indian country. When Master Xuanzang came to learn Buddhist scriptures, Kalinga had been destroyed and sparsely populated. Now it has become a nation, and the rulers there are local nobles.

Parakarama's mother was the daughter of the prince of Kalinga.

Historically, it was precisely because Parakarama had Kalinga blood that all his descendants who became kings married Kalinga women as queens. In the end, the conflict with the local royal family became increasingly fierce, and the capital was simply moved to Jaffna and supported the rise of the Tamil people.

Now Parakarama is equivalent to fleeing to Kalinga to join his grandfather.

As soon as the lord ran away, the soldiers had no intention of fighting. Xia Yuqing captured this place without any blood and expanded the Han power to the northernmost part of Ceylon Island.

Nearly a quarter of the entire island is either directly owned by the Han people or is the territory of the Han people's allies.

Moreover, Xia Yuqing captured the port city of Jaffna.