The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 667 Merging of the Three Proclamations and Six Comforts
This was a decisive and overwhelming battle.

Around noon, a large, dark mass of troops appeared within fifty miles east of Ava City. The Shenwu Camp cavalry, who had already deployed their forces on the north and south sides of Ava City, turned into two black dots and surrounded them.

Before the hour of Wei (1-3 PM), the more than 200,000 troops of the Toungoo Dynasty were surrounded by 400,000 Divine Warrior cavalry, forming an impenetrable barrier.

Then came a burst of gunfire and terrified screams, interspersed with the occasional bellow of an elephant.

The disparity in weaponry was too great; the troops of the Toungoo Dynasty were utterly powerless against the soldiers of the Divine Might Camp and could only suffer defeat.

Before dusk, King Liangyuan ordered his men to raise a white flag and surrender.

By this time, Ava had already been captured.

Yang Yinglong was no ordinary fighter. He could single-handedly fight his way in and out of tens of thousands of the local chieftains' miscellaneous troops in Myanmar, let alone with the hundreds of skilled men under his command.

If Emperor Wanli hadn't ordered him to steal the city gate, he could have wiped out the city's garrison with over a hundred skilled fighters!
He endured it all until news came that Prince Liangyuan had led his army back to reinforce the city. Qin Liangyu fired a piercing arrow outside the city, and only then did he lead his men to clear out the guards at the west gate and welcome the Shenji Battalion soldiers and Sichuan soldiers into the city.

By this time, the city's garrison had long been cleared out, and Wanli was observing the battle situation from the east gate tower with Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan, Prince Zhu Changxun, and Prince Nan Zhu Changzhi.

Although they were far from the battlefield, they could still vaguely see the scene of the Shenwu Camp cavalry encircling them.

The scene of hundreds of thousands of troops surrounding the enemy was truly spectacular. Zhu Changxun was so excited that his face turned red, and Zhu Changzhi, the Prince of the South, was even more excited, dancing with joy.

They all thought the battle would last until sunset.

To everyone's surprise, as the fighting continued, the rapid-fire gunshots gradually faded away, and the dense black dots seemed to suddenly stop moving.

Not long after, Qin Yiming arrived at the city gate with a group of personal guards, cupped his hands and announced loudly, "Your Majesty, the Prince of Liangyuan has surrendered."

It dropped so quickly?

Upon hearing this, both Zhu Changxun and Zhu Changzhi, the Prince of the South, couldn't help but look disappointed.

Wanli nodded with a look of satisfaction and said, "Hmm, not bad. Quickly order your men to disarm them and set up camp five miles east of the city to keep watch."

"The general will obey the order."

Qin Yiming cupped his hands in a respectful gesture, then spurred his horse and galloped away.

Upon seeing this, Prince Zhu Changzhi of the Southern Kingdom sighed softly, "Father, is this the end?"

This is just the beginning.

Emperor Wanli shook his head slightly, then patiently instructed, "Zhi'er, you must remember, conquering a country is easy, but maintaining it is difficult."

This so-called Toungoo Dynasty had no firearms or cannons, so it would be easy for us to deal with them.

However, the three Xuan and six Wei regions in the southeast are constantly embroiled in conflict and chaos, making it far from easy for us to hold this place firmly.

How can we defend this place?
Upon hearing this, Zhu Changzhi, the Prince of Xiaonan, was completely bewildered.

This was his first time coming out to broaden his horizons; he knew absolutely nothing about these things.

Little Zhu Changxun couldn't help but ask, "Father, this place is too far from the Ming Dynasty. It takes more than half a month to get here by boat. How can we defend it?"

The only solution was to send border troops to garrison the area.

Wanli thought for a moment, then asked, "Zhenzhi, have you measured out the approximate size of this vast plain on both sides of the Jinsha River?"

Upon hearing this, Li Zhizao nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I have roughly measured it. This plain is about 1,200 li from north to south and about 400 li from east to west."

This means it is over 600 kilometers long, over 200 kilometers wide, and has an area of ​​approximately 120,000 to 130,000 square kilometers, or nearly 200 million mu!

Wanli nodded slightly and then asked, "Zixian, how is the soil here?"

Xu Guangqi explained in detail: "They seem to be a bit lazy. The climate here is clearly suitable for planting two seasons, but they did not plant a second season after planting one season."

The rice here should have been harvested at the beginning of this month, but I haven't seen how the rice is growing yet.

However, judging from the growth of weeds in the fields, the land here should be quite fertile. Even without much fertilizer, a yield of two and a half shi (a unit of dry measure) per mu (a unit of land area) should not be a problem.

This means that planting two seasons can produce nearly one billion bushels of grain!

With so much grain, there's no problem feeding all the people and troops of the Ming Dynasty.

The problem is, these fields need people to cultivate them to produce so much grain. It seems there aren't many people farming here; most of the land along the banks of the Jinsha River is still empty, with no one cultivating it.

Wanli thought for a moment, then asked, "Liangyu, how is the interrogation of the officials of the Toungoo Dynasty going? How many people and how many troops do they have?"

Qin Liangyu recalled, "They counted by the number of households, and they haven't counted the population of each household for over ten years, so it's hard to estimate how many people they have. I only know that they have over a million households."

As for their troops, the claim of 300,000 is an exaggeration; their total strength is only around 250,000.

These more than one million households are about five million people. Even if each household cultivates fifty mu of land, that would only amount to fifty to sixty million mu of land.

In other words, there are at least hundreds of millions of acres of vacant land here.

With so much farmland, relocating a border town here shouldn't be a problem.

The problem is that the nine border regions of the Ming Dynasty are still covered in ice and snow, making migration impossible.

Wanli thought about it carefully again, and then decisively said: "Zijin, after Yiming has taken custody of all the prisoners, you and Yiming will lead the Shenwu Camp soldiers to escort the prisoners to build houses."

The buildings were constructed according to the standards of border garrison garrisons, with thirty garrisons, one hundred and fifty thousand-household garrisons, and one thousand five hundred hundred-household garrisons built first.

You must be careful to divide the households into groups of 100 according to the size of their fields, reserving 200 mu of land for each household initially.

Are they going to start development here again?
Upon hearing this, Xu Guangqi nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand."

Wanli thought for a moment, then carefully instructed, "Zijin, you and Liangyu will lead the Sichuan soldiers to conscript able-bodied men here to dig ditches."

We'll pay you. Each able-bodied man will receive a silver coin and a copper coin worth one tael of silver per month. Recruit as many as you can and dig out all the irrigation ditches on this plain.

Also, could you please compile the "Yellow Register of Taxes and Labor Services" and the "Fish Scale Register" here? All commoners formerly under the Burmese Pacification Commission should be registered.

Upon hearing this, Wang Xiangjin nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand."

After thinking for a moment, Wanli instructed in detail: "Zhenzhi, I will assign you 10,000 Shenji Battalion soldiers and 200 flying shuttle ships. You should carefully survey and map the Burma Pacification Commission."

I love this survey map the most.

Upon hearing this, Li Zhizao nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand."

After thinking for a moment, Wanli instructed in detail: "Kemai, send four thousand flying shuttles and one thousand Weiyuan warships to Luzon Island to transport grain and meat."

Our million-strong force will be staying until at least April next year. We also have over 200,000 prisoners here, and 50,000 troops under Shengwu's command. You can calculate how much food and meat we need and bring them over as soon as possible.

Furthermore, after the relocation from Guyuan Town in April next year, it will take about six months for the more than one million people to have a harvest. We also need to prepare enough food for them for these six months.

"Send someone to tell General Du that they've set aside ten million shi of their harvest for us this season. Once they've harvested, send ships to haul it all in; it must be all here before March."

Upon hearing this, Yu Zigao nodded repeatedly and said, "This subordinate understands."

The development here is almost complete.

Next comes the issue of the three declarations and six comforts.

Wanli thought about it carefully again, and then decisively said: "Weixian, send someone to convey my decree, ordering all the chieftains of Sanxuan and Liuwei to come to Awa City within a month."

Furthermore, you shall send someone to the Mengyang Pacification Commissioner's Office to convey my decree, ordering Shengwu to lead 50,000 Sichuan troops to come here.”

Zhang Weixian, the heir apparent of the Duke of Dingguo, quickly cupped his hands and said, "Your humble servant obeys the decree."

Having said that, he strode away.

After making those arrangements, he finally stopped issuing orders.

Seeing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun couldn't help but ask, "Father, why did you summon the other chieftains from the Three Xuan and Six Wei regions? They don't seem to have rebelled, do they?"

This is not a matter of rebellion or chaos.

Wanli shook his head slightly, then explained in detail: "The reason this place is so chaotic is because the Tusi (chieftains) have too much power."

To completely resolve the issues of the Three Xuan and Six Wei, we must abolish all the Tusi (chieftains) of the Three Xuan and Six Wei and merge them into a single Dusi (military command), just like the current Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan Regional Military Command.

(End of this chapter)