Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1195 Escape
Tang Jiabin originally thought that Sha Dingzhou would listen to his advice and follow his advice. But Sha Dingzhou thought about it and told Tang Jiabin that since the army was already doing this, it would be inappropriate to stop it immediately, fearing that it would arouse the indignation of the brothers below. It would be better to continue to indulge them in looting for a while and then restrain them after today.

According to Sha Dingzhou's idea, one day of looting was enough, at least the harvest of the day could satisfy his subordinates. As for continuing to loot, it was indeed inappropriate. After all, Kunming City could not be razed to the ground. After taking Kunming, he would still be the King of Dian. He couldn't just rob a prosperous Kunming, right? Otherwise, what would he do as the King of Dian?
Therefore, Sha Dingzhou thought that since he had agreed to the looting, he should not go back on his word. One day was enough. When his subordinates were satisfied tomorrow, they could gather their troops and send troops to pursue him. In addition, Sha Dingzhou himself did not fully agree with Tang Jiabin's judgment that Mu Tianbo might have fled to Wuding. This was just a guess. He thought that Mu Tianbo should have fled to Chuxiong, and there were already more than a thousand troops chasing him. Even if Mu Tianbo changed direction in the middle of the journey, his subordinates could still follow him. Why bother to send troops to Luoci to intercept him?
Just like that, Sha Dingzhou smiled and persuaded Tang Jiabin to wait a while, and promised to send troops to Luoci to intercept early tomorrow morning. Hearing this answer, Tang Jiabin could not help persuading him again, but Sha Dingzhou waved his hand and told him not to say anything more. He also said that Tang Jiabin had made a great contribution in capturing Kunming today, and he would reward him later. After working all night, Tang Jiabin was probably tired, so he should go down and have a rest first.

With a cold face, Tang Jiabin left the Duke of Qian's Mansion and headed towards his residence in Kunming. When he returned to his residence, he waved his guards to retreat and went into the house alone.

After entering the house, Tang Jiabin closed the door. As soon as the door was closed, Tang Jiabin could no longer endure it and cursed: "You are not worthy of being my advisor!"

Tang Jiabin is now extremely disappointed with Sha Dingzhou. Before, he thought that Sha Dingzhou was a pretty good lord. Although he was not as good as those great figures in history, he was an outstanding local chieftain in Yunnan.

Sha Dingzhou has territory and soldiers, is fierce in fighting, and is good to his subordinates, especially his own people. He is also ambitious and can listen to his plans and suggestions, and has great trust in him.

In Tang Jiabin's opinion, Sha Dingzhou is a good lord. He can also display his strengths and establish merits under Sha Dingzhou.

Under his own planning over the years, Sha Dingzhou has also come to where he is today step by step, and finally captured Kunming with a thunderous blow, thus occupying the most important city in Yunnan. After Kunming was captured, Tang Jiabin's previous plan was nearly half completed. Next, as long as Kunming is used as a base, and then combined with Sha Dingzhou's previous territory, it will be easy to increase strength in a short period of time.

The next step was to deal with the various Ming troops in Yunnan one by one, and at the same time win over, bribe or suppress the various chieftains in Yunnan. After everything was settled, it would be a natural thing for Sha Dingzhou to be named King of Dian. After he ascended the throne of King of Dian, he would reorganize Yunnan to resist the imperial court. Even if the Ming Dynasty attacked at that time, the imperial army would not be able to do anything about Sha Dingzhou for a while due to Yunnan's geographical advantages. What's more, Tang Jiabin also found two ways out for Sha Dingzhou. One was that if he could not stop the imperial army, he could surrender, establish his own regime and replace the Duke of Qian in Yunnan.

Secondly, Tang Jiabin had already colluded with Myanmar and had given them many benefits. At that time, Myanmar would help Sha Dingzhou at an appropriate opportunity to help him fight against the imperial court. Even if these two steps failed, Tang Jiabin still had another way, which was to lead his people to retreat to Myanmar directly. As long as he arrived in Myanmar, the imperial court would have no way to deal with him. In the future, he could still be a chieftain in Myanmar and protect himself.

I have to say that Tang Jiabin has considered the issue very carefully, and judging from the facts, things are developing step by step as expected.

But the key to the problem lies in Mu Tianbo. To achieve these, we must first completely get rid of Mu Tianbo.

As the Duke of Qian, Mu Tianbo was the key to the Ming Dynasty's control over Yunnan. Although Yunnan had three divisions, the Duke of Qian ruled Yunnan for generations, and his status and influence were not comparable to those of the governors and governors. Moreover, Mu Tianbo was the nominal highest military commander in Yunnan. The local guards and other troops in Yunnan were under Mu Tianbo's control. If Mu Tianbo could be killed first, and then Kunming City and officials at all levels in the city could be controlled by a mutiny, then the entire Yunnan would become a mess, and the Ming army in various places would not be enough to fear.

Without the leader, Sha Dingzhou could use his army to defeat the Ming army in Yunnan one by one and completely eliminate them. And through the captured officials at all levels, he could also control the prefectures and cities in Yunnan and completely bring Yunnan under his control.

But now an accident happened, because Mu Tianbo's servants and guards fought desperately to buy Mu Tianbo time to escape. After Sha Dingzhou's army captured the Duke of Qian's Mansion, Mu Tianbo had already escaped and ran out of Kunming City while the west gate had not yet been occupied by Sha Dingzhou's troops.

This accident made Tang Jiabin very disappointed. In fact, according to his plan, this accident should not have happened. Unfortunately, Tang Jiabin overestimated the execution ability of Sha Dingzhou's troops. Because of the lack of coordination among the various units after the launch, the west gate was not occupied immediately. In addition, when attacking the Qianguo Mansion, the two detours did not arrive at the location within the specified time, which allowed Mu Tianbo to escape by chance.

Things have come to this, and Tang Jiabin is helpless, but there is still a chance to save the situation. Although Mu Tianbo ran out of Kunming City, as long as he is chased all the way, whether capturing him alive or killing him, as long as Mu Tianbo's problem is solved, Yunnan can still be controlled in the end.

But at this time, a problem arose. Sha Dingzhou's army was busy looting in Kunming City and could not immediately mobilize troops to Luoci to intercept.

What made Tang Jiabin most dissatisfied was that Sha Dingzhou not only did not believe his judgment, but believed that Mu Tianbo would not go to Wuding but must have gone to Chuxiong. Even his suggestion to restrain military discipline and stop his subordinates from looting in Kunming was rejected. This result made Tang Jiabin doubt his own vision for the first time. Is Sha Dingzhou really a master? What else could be more important than catching Mu Tianbo now? What if Mu Tianbo escapes? In addition, while letting his soldiers loot in Kunming, Sha Dingzhou only thought about appeasing his subordinates. Didn't he think about the people's hearts? Sha Dingzhou was originally a chieftain rebellion. In order to control Yunnan, in addition to killing Mu Tianbo, he had to win the hearts of the people with the court!

Kunming is the capital of Yunnan. Not only are there officials and government offices at all levels of the imperial court in the city, but there are also many gentry families living in the city. Moreover, the relationship between these gentry families and the local chieftains is intricate, and once they are disturbed, the impact will be huge.

Sha Dingzhou allowed his troops to do this, which completely ruined the people's morale and offended other chieftains and local forces that could have been won over. Did Sha Dingzhou do this just to give his subordinates a little benefit and ignore the overall situation? Did he lose his mind?

This great event has not really been accomplished yet. Just after taking over Kunming City and moving into the Duke of Qian's Mansion, Sha Dingzhou has already claimed to be alone. Does he really think that the whole of Yunnan is in his hands? The Ming army in Yunnan is still there, the attitudes of the local chieftains are still unclear, and even the local gentry are still unclear about what they think, not to mention that Mu Tianbo has not been caught yet.

Under such circumstances, Sha Dingzhou was the first to become arrogant, and this attitude greatly disappointed Tang Jiabin. For this reason alone, Tang Jiabin was not optimistic about Sha Dingzhou's future. If Mu Tianbo really escaped, coupled with the serious consequences of looting by the soldiers, how could Sha Dingzhou's own strength be a match for the Ming army and other chieftains?
The more complacent you are now, the more miserable your future will be. Tang Jiabin is a scholar, and he has a good understanding of history. He knows a thing or two about what a wise ruler is. For example, how can Sha Dingzhou look like a wise ruler now?
In the following days, Tang Jiabin became more worried about Sha Dingzhou's situation.

Although Sha Dingzhou kept his promise and only allowed his troops to plunder Kunming for one day, he ordered an end to the looting "feast" and began to restrain his troops on the second day. However, by then the whole of Kunming was in ruins, not to mention the mansions of officials and the homes of the gentry, even the homes of ordinary people were also damaged by Sha Dingzhou's men.

In just one day, countless families were destroyed and people died in Kunming. Even officials at all levels, including Right Governor Wang Dehua, Kunming Prefect Liu Tingbiao, and Co-Governor Qian Sheng, who did not have time to escape from Kunming, were killed in the chaos, and many of their family members died in the rebellion.

The same was true for other local gentry and wealthy families. Countless people committed suicide after being killed and insulted. Their property was looted by the rebel army. The city was littered with corpses, which was a horrifying sight.

Although Sha Dingzhou ordered that looting was no longer allowed and military discipline was enforced, how could the various troops, who had already tasted the sweetness, stop so quickly? In fact, it was three days before Kunming completely restored order. This was the result of Sha Dingzhou's ruthlessness, and he sent his personal guards to patrol the city and strictly discipline his subordinates.

After order was restored in the city, Sha Dingzhou sent an army to Luoci to intercept Mu Tianbo, but it was too late.

After leaving the city, Mu Tianbo fled westward with his men, turning north halfway. In order to ensure a smooth escape, Mu Tianbo decisively divided his troops, letting some of his men pretend to continue heading towards Chuxiong, while he himself and his family headed towards Wuding.

On the second day after the troops were divided, the servants and guards who were heading to Chuxiong were caught up by Sha Dingzhou's troops behind them. After a fierce battle, dozens of people were all killed. After the battle, Sha Dingzhou's people did not find Mu Tianbo among them, nor did they find any other traces of people heading to Chuxiong. As a result, the pursuing generals suddenly realized that Mu Tianbo might have turned north in advance, so they immediately turned around and pursued him. After a lot of effort, they finally caught up with Mu Tianbo and his group near Luoci.

At this time, Mu Tianbo was about to pass Luoci and enter Wuding area. He would be safe when he reached Wuding. But the enemy had already caught up with him, so Mu Tianbo had no choice but to rush to Wuding alone with a few guards, not caring about his family at all.

The remaining family members, under the protection of Mu Tianbo's servants and personal guards, fought and retreated against enemies that far outnumbered them. Although they fought to the death and refused to surrender, the gap in strength between the two sides was too great, and in the end they all died heroically.

After the family servants and guards died in the battle, Mu Tianbo's mother Li and wife Jiao saw that they had nowhere to go. In order to avoid humiliation, they committed suicide. When the enemy caught up and found their bodies, they still couldn't find Mu Tianbo and continued to chase. But in the end, they failed, allowing Mu Tianbo to get ahead of Luoci and escape into the Wuding area. When Mu Tianbo ran to Wuding City, when he saw the Ming army flag flying on the top of the city, this dignified Duke of Qian was already dishevelled and burst into tears.

(End of this chapter)