Bright Spring

Zhao Pingdao: "Yunnan Dusi and Meng Yangxuanwei envoy Sixing made a covenant, and Mengyang's jade mines can only be opened by those who are approved by the Dusi."

Diao Ya told the Huaqun natives what Zhao Ping had said, and the natives started shouting again.Diao Ya translated: "This is our place, we dig our own mountains, what does it matter to you?"

Zhao Ping exchanged looks with shopkeeper Xu, shopkeeper Xu clasped his fists and said, "Zhao Baihu has to make up his mind."

Zhao Ping said: "Go and block the road! Tell them to put down the ore before they can leave this place."

The general responded and shouted: "Turn left! Go forward!"

The sergeants lined up and ran to the road outside the mine.

The native coolies pushing the wheelbarrows were blocked on the road, making a lot of noise, and more natives rushed up, pushing and approaching the soldiers of the Ming army.The sergeants held their guns and shields in front, and did not dare to touch the unarmed coolies for a while.

Zhao Ping yelled loudly, and Diao Ya also yelled in local dialect, but to no avail.Not long after, the two elephants rushed towards the road with heavy steps.

If the elephant is approaching, how can the infantry's weak defense line be able to stop it?Zhao Ping ordered the arrows to be released, and there was a "bang bang" sound. The elephant was injured by the arrow and ran to the side of the road screaming, and the natives screamed.The scene became chaotic, and the natives in front of the formation were pushed and crowded onto the large shield, causing the formation of the Ming army to be turbulent.Finally, a sergeant stabbed a native angrily, the blood splashed out, all the soldiers shot out one after another, and soon several natives were stabbed to death in front of them.

There was panic and confusion on the road for a while, and soon the natives ran away.

Zhao Ping saw a few natives in flowery skirts leave the mine and hurried away from the path.He looked at the corpses lying in a pool of blood on the road again, and suddenly felt something was wrong.

There were too few soldiers in the Ming Dynasty, and there was no fortification here, so Zhao Ping decided to go back first.

When the group returned to the barracks, Zhao Ping immediately wrote two letters.One was delivered to the Hanwang Mansion in Yunnan, and the other was sent to the nearby Mengyang Xuanwei Envoy to negotiate with Sijia about the mining covenant.They are all written in Chinese characters, and the fathers of the Si family were envoys who received the consolation envoy of Pingping Burma, so there must be someone who can understand Chinese characters.

Then Zhao Ping ordered martial law in the villages of the troops.

The military camp is also in the village, located near the north gate of the village; there is an open space outside the north gate which is the school yard; the mine is at the foot of the mountain to the west of the village.The situation is different now. The Ming army has 50 and [-] people, and they can only barely defend the village, and the mine can't be taken care of.

In the afternoon, many natives came to the west gate of Juntun Village, put the dead body on a wooden frame, and carried it to the gate.The weather is hot at this time, and it is estimated that it will smell after an afternoon.The natives shouted outside the gate of the village, demanding that the Ming Dynasty officials and soldiers pay for the funeral expenses, eight taels of silver for a dead body, and punish the murderer.

Zhao Ping asked Diao Ya to say that it was already illegal for Meng Yang natives to open mines without permission, and it was unreasonable to take the initiative to attack the army formation.Anyway, we can't agree.

After making a noise for a while, Diao Ya said, "Those people must not be villagers. Villagers must be afraid to see so many armored soldiers, and they are unlikely to bargain with the officers and soldiers."

"When I saw those native people in flowery skirts in the mine behind the mountain, I guessed that they were not ordinary villagers." Zhao Ping nodded.

Diao Ya asked: "General Zhao, who do they think they are?"

"People who are homesick." Zhao Ping frowned.

Diao Ya opened her mouth in surprise, looking at Zhao Ping speechless.

Zhao Ping glanced at the pensive Xu Caiqi, and said: "I heard that not long ago, two pieces of beautiful jade named "Heavenly Match" in Kunming City were sold at high prices of [-] guan and [-] guan. Sijia heard the news , must be dissatisfied with the original [-] per year, they want more benefits."

At this moment, Xu Caiqi said: "General Zhao is worthy of being a scholar, and he told the truth!"

Meng Yangxuan comfort envoy's office is only more than ten miles away from the mine.Early the next morning, Sijia sent someone over.

Sure enough, as expected by Zhao Ping, the envoy of the Si family was very happy, and "quickly" asked to increase the profit of the Mengyang Xuanwei Envoy by twenty times to 16 guan silver!

16 guan? !Zhao Ping suspected that he had heard it wrong, but the envoy of homesickness could speak Chinese, so he repeated the number again...

The King of Han, the pro-son of the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, had as many as 2 regular soldiers guarding the army.Half of these 2 people are in farmland, and the other half are on duty.In fact, the annual military salary of the Hanwang Mansion is about 16 guan, and the guards of the Hanwang Mansion are well-equipped and strong, so the military salary is not low. 16 guan of silver is enough for the [-]-year military salary of the three guards of the Han Dynasty!

Zhao Ping immediately rejected the envoy's proposal, "It was supposed to be the generals who guarded hundreds of households in the palace of the Han Dynasty, and were ordered to control the affairs of the Mengyang mine. Such important matters should have been reported to the Hanwang Palace and the capital of Yunnan first. It is impossible to report the number of tens of thousands!"

The envoy said: "I heard that a pair of jadeites was sold for 16 guan. Now the jade mined in Mengyang is worthless. [-] guan is not too much?"

Xu Caiqi clasped his fists and bowed to Zhao Ping. Seeing Zhao Ping nod, Xu Caiqi said, "You don't know. The rumored emerald is a match made in heaven. This kind of jade is rare and rare, and it is not found every year. What's more, even if It is a match made in heaven, and it cannot be exchanged for [-] taels of silver. The people who bought this jade are King Ning and King Han... The Mengyang mine is under the protection of King Han's mansion, which makes you think that King Han will really spend so much silver to buy this jade from the Shen family. Jade?"

"What do you mean?" asked the messenger.

Xu Caiqi said: "The implication is that you may have wrongly estimated the huge profits of jadeite; the rumors are not credible, but the merchants are just trying to promote the reputation of jadeite. In fact, the interest we got is far from that much, let alone 16 yuan. A huge amount of silver."

The envoy said: "Our great king was deceived by the Han people, eight thousand guan of silver is nothing at all!"

Zhao Ping said: "This matter is of great importance. You must first report it to the Yunnan government before you can reply to Meng Yang's consolation envoy. I will ask Sijia to evacuate the people on the mine first, and those who caused trouble outside the Juntun village will also be evacuated." How about waiting for the government offices in Kunming to send envoys again to discuss with the envoys of Mengyang Xuanwei?"

At this moment, Xu Caiqi approached Zhao Ping and whispered a few words.Zhao Ping nodded after hearing this, and then clasped his fists to the messenger and said: "The king of Han once mentioned another method with the Shen family, the owner of the mine. In addition to sharing profits, the Si family can also open mines, but they can only sell them to the Shen family. At that time The head of the family believes that the chieftain is unable to mine the mine, so he decided to only distribute profits."

The envoy thought for a while and said, "Then I will go back and report your words to the consolation envoy, the great king Meng Yang. People were killed outside, and all the dead were villagers. If the general does not pay for the funeral expenses, I am afraid it will be difficult to convince the public."

Zhao Ping immediately replied: "We don't want this kind of thing to happen, but the fault of this matter is not with the officers and soldiers. If you lose money this time, the next time the villagers here don't follow the rules, won't it just increase the number of deaths and injuries?"

The envoy said coldly: "Listen to your honor!"

The two sides talked for a long time, and broke up unhappy.Zhao Ping personally sent the envoy out of the village gate.

Last night, the corpses outside the gate of the village stink.The generals and shopkeepers were afraid of the plague, so they fired guns on the wall to scare the natives.Then dispatch troops to rush out of the west gate, pour tung oil and firewood on them forcibly, and burn the corpses.

Black smoke billowed from the fire of tung oil firewood.Zhao Ping stood behind the earthen wall, looking out, and was looking at each other with the natives through the black smoke.The natives didn't come up to put out the fire, but they didn't disperse either.

The mine has been opened peacefully for the past three months, and the peaceful situation may be just a flash in the pan.The mutually beneficial transactions between the native villagers and the Han merchants and people, and the scenes of exchanges and gestures may also be gone forever.The affairs of this world are not determined by the wishes of good people.

Zhao Ping remained silent for a long time, standing between the flames and thick smoke, thinking about what happened in the past two days.He was a little worried that he didn't do a good job, but after thinking about it, everything was done according to the rules and principles. If the chieftain is going to make trouble, what can he do?

At this moment, Xu Caiqi also walked up the earthen wall.Zhao Ping said casually: "Even if we make concessions first, the chieftain may still make progress!"

Chapter 272 The Storm

In the bushes in the valley, the elephant roared "Woo...", and the sound from the elephant's trunk was as loud as a horn.The heavy elephant feet stepped on the ground, and the earth seemed to be trembling.Many native soldiers and no less than dozens of elephants came out of the forest one after another!

"Woo!" An elephant let out a long cry, and uprooted a bush with its trunk, and many soldiers with knives and guns rushed out of the valley.

...Zhao Ping stood on the rammed earth wall of Dongzhai Gate, gazed at the rolling mountains in the distance, turned to Xu Caiqi and said: "I'm afraid I can't stay here for a long time. Shopkeeper Xu can bring some people and leave quickly." If you take the road to the south and turn eastward, you may be able to escape to Qianhu in Tengchong."

Just now Xu Caiqi heard the military situation reported by the scouts with his own ears, pondered for a moment, then clasped his fists and said: "In this case, I wish Zhao Baihu the victory!"

Zhao Ping nodded his head, then turned to look at Diao Ya, the daughter of the local in charge: "Miss Diao Ya also left first with Shopkeeper Xu."

Diao Ya asked, "General Zhao won't go with us?"

Zhao Pingdao: "Defending the land and keeping the people safe is the duty of the general. Losing the city, losing land, and fleeing in battle have always been serious crimes in the Ming Dynasty. I can't leave, otherwise, if I can escape back, it will still be a death penalty!"

Diao Ya shook her head and said, "Then I won't leave either. When Meng Yang chieftain army arrives, Zhao Baihu also needs someone who can speak local language to talk to them."

Zhao Ping didn't persuade her too much, he just said: "This place is more dangerous than good, and Miss Diao Ya is not a soldier of the Ming Dynasty. You can try to escape from birth and decide whether to stay or not. Shopkeeper Xu, it's not too late, let's go!"

Xu Caiqi clenched his fists and said: "If I can return to Yunnan, I will definitely report everything here to the Palace of the King of Han. Farewell!"

A group of merchants left the mine from the Nanzhai Gate.

But in less than half an hour, scouts came to report that Xu Caiqi and his group were intercepted by the chieftain army on the road, and they were all killed on the road on the spot!

After hearing this, Zhao Ping shouted: "The whole army is preparing for battle, and the minzhuang each bring their equipment to help!"

"Order!"