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

Chapter 1197 Tang's Plan
"This is a great plan!" Sha Dingzhou applauded. He first muddied the waters, and then fished in troubled waters. No matter how the court judged, at least he had a chance. Moreover, as a chieftain of Yunnan, Sha Dingzhou knew Yunnan too well and knew the difference between Yunnan and other provinces. The stability of Yunnan by the Ming Dynasty could not be separated from these chieftains, nor from the Qianguo Mansion. If Mu Tianbo died, not only would the truth not be known, but even the situation of the Ming Dynasty in Yunnan for more than 200 years would change dramatically.

Without the Qianguo Mansion guarding Yunnan, the court would definitely find someone to replace it. Now Kunming is controlled by Sha Dingzhou. Isn't he the best candidate? As long as the court intends to let him replace Mu Tianbo, this matter has a chance of success.

"I admire the Prime Minister's plan. In addition to this matter, there are two more things that the Prime Minister needs to tell us quickly."

Tang Jiabin glanced at Sha Dingzhou and said calmly, "The second thing is, Your Majesty, please pay for it."

"Take out silver? What does that mean?" Sha Dingzhou asked puzzledly.

Tang Jiabin sighed, "Kunming is in chaos, with countless casualties. If you want to stabilize Kunming and occupy Yunnan, you must win the hearts and minds of the people. The will of the people is the foundation of your cause. It is useless to rely solely on the knife in your hand."

Sha Dingzhou looked a little embarrassed, because Tang Jiabin and his trusted generals had had a heated discussion about this issue before. At that time, Sha Dingzhou felt that what Tang Jiabin said was a bit pedantic, and instead he was more inclined to the generals' opinion, that is, whoever holds the knife handle, the foundation of the country will be as stable as Mount Tai.

But after just a few days, Sha Dingzhou realized that his idea was totally wrong. Without the support of the people, even if he had a large number of soldiers and generals, it would be useless. Not to mention separatist Yunnan, it would be difficult for him to even control Kunming now.

"How much silver does this cost?"

"Of course, the more the better." Tang Jiabin explained: "First, we must appease the people of Kunming. Next, we will have to deal with the gentry and officials who were killed in the Kunming Rebellion, as well as the local chieftains involved."

"If the king wants to stabilize the situation, he can't be reluctant to give up the silver. After all, their losses are real. Without silver, it is impossible to appease them, let alone agree that the king will be the ruler of Yunnan."

Tang Jiabin gave an example to explain that Sha Dingzhou must spend the money quickly and send it in time. If it is too late, it will be insincere. When sending the money, he also sent someone to tell the other party that the culprit of the Kunming Incident was not Sha Dingzhou but Mu Tianbo. Now Mu Tianbo is finished, and Sha Dingzhou petitioned the court to let him temporarily guard Yunnan.

Since the losses in Kunming City were all accidental, Sha Dingzhou did not expect Mu Tianbo to be so "crazy". After quelling the Kunming Rebellion, Sha Dingzhou took over the Qianguo Mansion. Since this was done by Mu Tianbo, Sha Dingzhou naturally had to use the money and property obtained from the Qianguo Mansion to compensate for your losses. In this way, he would have an excuse and a reason. As long as the other party accepted the money, it would be tantamount to tacitly agreeing to the matter. In this way, Sha Dingzhou would no longer have these worries.

In other words, this method was also used to win over the chieftains to join Sha Dingzhou's pirate ship. At worst, it would be enough for them to accept the silver and stand idly by. In addition, there were officials and gentry from all over Yunnan. Tang Jiabin suggested that when sending silver, a letter should be sent to all places at the same time. The meaning of this letter was very simple, that is, all Han officials and officials from all prefectures, counties and cities in Yunnan who accepted Sha Dingzhou's orders could be retained or even promoted.

As for the local gentry and some families, Sha Dingzhou must also show an attitude of winning their support and invite them to serve in the government. In this way, a large number of people can be united to serve Sha Dingzhou, and at the same time the local area can be stabilized.

In addition, Tang Jiabin simply calculated the amount of silver that Sha Dingzhou should pay. When Sha Dingzhou heard the number from Tang Jiabin, his face looked very ugly, because Tang Jiabin actually wanted Sha Dingzhou to pay more than 80% of the wealth he got from the Qianguo Mansion and other places in Kunming. This is a huge amount of money. How could Sha Dingzhou, who was used to being poor, not feel distressed?
"Your Majesty, you must be willing to give up. Only by giving up can you gain!" Tang Jiabin advised earnestly: "What's the harm in giving away this silver? As long as we can win over these people to serve Your Majesty and let the whole of Yunnan be under Your Majesty's rule, what does this little silver mean to you?"

"Once you have stabilized Yunnan, whether you are appointed by the court to replace the Duke of Qian, or you establish yourself as the master, won't Yunnan belong to you in the future? With all this, why would you worry about money?"

This sentence immediately enlightened Sha Dingzhou. Tang Jiabin was right! Although silver was a good thing, it was not worth eating or drinking. The key now was to accomplish great things and win over these people to make himself the master of Yunnan.

What's the big deal about paying a little silver? As long as Yunnan is in hand, he will never lack silver in the future. Besides, this silver did not originally belong to Sha Dingzhou. It was looted from the Duke of Qian's Mansion and various places in the city after Sha Dingzhou took Kunming. It is not a loss to use this silver in this place. As long as the goal is achieved, why not?
Furthermore, Sha Dingzhou thought that the money he had given away was just temporarily in the hands of the other party. When he became the real ruler of Yunnan, he would be able to get the money back from the other party. Of course, this was just what Sha Dingzhou thought in his mind, but he didn't say it out loud, because he knew that if he said that, Tang Jiabin would definitely be angry. Now was the time to use Tang Jiabin, and Sha Dingzhou didn't want to have a conflict with Tang Jiabin over this matter.

"So what about the last thing?" Sha Dingzhou finally agreed to the suggestion of paying money to bribe all parties and appease the people of Kunming, and then continued to ask.

"The last thing is naturally Myanmar." Tang Jiabin raised his hand and pointed towards the southeast.

"Are you talking about Mangda?" Sha Dingzhou asked. Tang Jiabin shook his head slightly: "It's Mangbai!"

"Mangbai?" Sha Dingzhou asked in confusion, "Why is it Mangbai? Isn't Mangda the ruler of Myanmar now?"

"Your Majesty knows one side of the story but not the other." Tang Jiabin patiently explained, "It is true that Mangda is the ruler of Myanmar, but in fact, Mangda has always been in poor health, and Mangda has no heir. Mangbai is Mangda's younger brother. In the past two years, the affairs of the country have been basically controlled by Mangbai. If nothing unexpected happens, once Mangda dies, Mangbai will be the next ruler of Myanmar."

Sha Dingzhou nodded thoughtfully and subconsciously looked at Tang Jiabin with a complicated expression, as if he was thinking about something.

Even Sha Dingzhou did not know all the information about the situation in Myanmar, but Tang Jiabin knew it very well. It seemed that Tang Jiabin had already secretly connected with Myanmar. As for what his relationship with Mang Bai was now and how the two sides cooperated, Sha Dingzhou had no idea.

"Please rest assured about the Burmese affairs. This is the backup plan I have prepared for you. I was just worried that if I informed you in advance the news would leak out, so I made the decision on my own..." Tang Jiabin saw Sha Dingzhou's confusion and quickly explained.

"Hahaha, it's okay, it's okay. With the Prime Minister planning for me, what should I worry about?" Sha Dingzhou laughed and waved his hands, then asked Tang Jiabin what the arrangements were in Myanmar and what plans he had with Mang Bai.

Tang Jiabin told Sha Dingzhou that Myanmar has had three dynasties since the establishment of the Toungoo Dynasty. However, as time goes by, especially with the incompetence of the current ruler Mangda, the Toungoo Dynasty is no longer as good as before.

However, compared to the conservative Mangda, Mangbai was much more ambitious than his brother and had always wanted to restore the most prosperous period of the Toungoo Dynasty. Mangbai not only planned to strengthen the power of the Toungoo Dynasty after he succeeded to the throne, but also thought about conquering the surrounding areas.

Historically, after the establishment of the Toungoo Dynasty, it launched conquests in the east and west, attacking surrounding areas. The conquest of Manipur and Shan State brought its national power to its peak. After that, the Toungoo Dynasty also invaded Siam twice, but returned without success. After Mangyingli succeeded to the throne, Myanmar also sent troops to attack Yunnan, but was eventually repelled by Liu Jing and Deng Zilong, and returned in defeat.

After that, the Toungoo Dynasty began to decline. Not only did famines and uprisings break out many times in the country, but also the landing and colonization of European countries in southern Myanmar caused the once powerful Toungoo Dynasty to gradually decline. However, under such circumstances, Mangbai still had the intention to reorganize the Toungoo Dynasty. In recent years, he not only cooperated with Europeans to obtain weapons including artillery and muskets from them, but also planned to complete the conquest of the surrounding areas by his ancestors, and he never forgot to spy on Yunnan.

According to Tang Jiabin's suggestion, we can now invite Mangbai to send troops from Myanmar to attack the three Xuanfusi of Ganya, Zhandafu and Longchuan, and even privately promise that if Mangbai can take these places, Shadingzhou can acquiesce to these places being occupied by Myanmar and becoming the territory of the Toungoo Dynasty.

"Why?" Sha Dingzhou thought for a moment. What good would it do to him to lead Myanmar to attack these places and acquiesce to their occupation of these areas? After all, these were all Yunnan's territories. Although these territories were not in his hands now, who could guarantee that they would not be ruled by him after he controlled all of Yunnan?
Why are you giving this good land to Mang Bai? This will only hurt others and not benefit yourself!

Facing Sha Dingzhou's confusion, Tang Jiabin said only one sentence, which was "Raising an enemy is a way to protect yourself!"

"Raising an enemy to protect oneself?"

"That's right!" Tang Jiabin explained, "Myanmar is a foreign enemy. Once a foreign enemy invades Yunnan, the situation in Yunnan will be completely different. The court will never allow such a thing to happen. Moreover, our Ming Dynasty just solved the Liaodong Jiannu not long ago. If Myanmar is allowed to grow bigger and even annex Yunnan, how can the current emperor sit idly by?"

"But the situation in Yunnan is different now. Mu Tianbo has escaped from Kunming. As long as Your Majesty deals with Mu Tianbo, the court will have to use Your Majesty to pacify the area in order to stabilize Yunnan, even if they are dissatisfied with Your Majesty. In this way, Your Majesty will have a chance to replace the Duke of Qian's Mansion. Even if it is only temporary, you will have a legitimate reason to preside over the overall situation in Yunnan."

"I understand! I understand!" Sha Dingzhou suddenly realized and admired Tang Jiabin's plan very much. With these arrangements made by Tang Jiabin, his control over Yunnan would be stable. Thinking of this, Sha Dingzhou couldn't help laughing and looked at Tang Jiabin with a look of great satisfaction.

(End of this chapter)