The Revolt of the Three Feudatories: All-in at the start in Beijing

"Surrender!"

Upon seeing the cowardly nature of the Brookbus soldiers, Ji Nanshou immediately ordered their weapons to be confiscated.

These fifteen men are all young and strong. Repairing the official road to Tibet is a high-level project that requires their manpower, and it cannot be wasted.

After all the Brookba soldiers had gathered together, Ji Nanshou immediately asked a question in simple Tibetan.

"Who is the highest-ranking official?"

People in countries surrounding Tibet are more or less influenced by the Tibetan language, and can generally understand a long string of words spoken in Tibetan.

One of the young men, with wheat-colored skin and a Tibetan-like appearance, stepped forward.

"My name is Kennan, and I'm the garrison commander here!"

Kennen represents speed and lightning, which matches his streamlined physique, and Ji Nanshou nodded.

Are you familiar with the road to Plakadzong from here?

"How many people are in the city now, and what's the situation?"

Upon hearing this, Kennan began to recall, and then said:

"General, it's a three-day journey from here to Plakazon. The current ruler of Bulukuba is King Debu, and in three days it will be his sixtieth birthday. He will also be marrying a new queen, the most beautiful woman in Bulukuba!"

When talking about King Deb's new queen, Kennan became quite infatuated.

Ji Nanshou, however, sensed an opportunity: with King Debu's birthday and wedding approaching, all the nobles and high-ranking monks would surely gather at Prakazong.

Thinking of this, Ji Nanshou immediately gave the order.

"Order that one captain remain to guard the prisoners, and the rest of you take three days' rations and depart with me immediately!"

At Ji Nanshou's command, the soldiers quickly retrieved food from the fortress, mainly barley and rye, with a small amount of red rice.

Immediately afterwards, the army hurriedly headed south.

From the mountain pass to Plakazong, the entire route is through valleys until the Father River is reached on the second day, at which point the path becomes slightly flatter.

On both sides were endless terraced fields. The emaciated people of Bukba were busy harvesting and gathered in the fields to pick up the fallen grains.

There was nothing they could do; the limited food supplies had been taken by the religion and King Debu, leaving them to subsist on wild vegetables and leftover grains.

Prakhadzong was not a city, but a fortress, or rather a temple, about 200 meters long and 70 or 80 meters wide, nestled between two rivers. It was inhabited by monks and the family of King Deb.

This is also a force of religious unity!

Inside Punaka Monastery, highly accomplished monks were chanting profound Buddhist teachings, while nobles dressed in colorful shawls and robes sat cross-legged. The air was filled with the aroma of wine and meat, creating a scene of peace and prosperity.

The king, Debu, whose temples were gray but who was full of energy, was sitting in the first seat, with his new queen sitting next to him, dressed in a green gown and adorned with rare jewels.

King Deb was already a little drunk. Looking at the noble princess he had taken from the Mughals, he couldn't wait to leave the banquet, so he stood up unsteadily.

"Ladies and gentlemen, all you need to do today is eat and drink well! Come, let's raise our glasses!"

King Debu commanded three thousand elite armored soldiers of Brookba, and the nobles below naturally dared not be negligent, raising their cups and drinking along with him.

Just as King Debu saw that the banquet was almost over, he took the Queen's hand and prepared to walk towards the back courtyard of Punakazong, a soldier covered in blood stumbled into the banquet through a side door and then collapsed at King Debu's feet.

"Your Majesty, enemy troops are attacking from outside!"

"The guards outside can't hold out any longer!"

Upon hearing this, King Debu was completely sober. The guards protecting Punakazon numbered a thousand and were equipped with a hundred matchlock guns, yet they were defeated so easily!

Just as King Debu was preparing to flee, a loud bang was heard, and the banquet door was blown open, letting in a gust of cold wind from the snowy mountains of Tibet, which lessened everyone's drunkenness by a third.

Ji Nanshou, dressed in an earth-yellow cotton armor, led more than twenty guards in, carrying a flintlock pistol in both hands, and exuding a bloody aura.

Ji Nanshou did not expect that the army guarding the castle was actually dancing in groups, without even carrying weapons. It was only five hundred Tibetan soldiers who charged and routed the Brookba soldiers.

Seeing that everyone looked scared, Ji Nanshou swaggered over to a nobleman, grabbed a piece of beef from the plate, and stuffed it into his mouth.

"This meat is good, this meat is really good, but these savages don't deserve to eat it. Send them on their way!"

As soon as Ji Nanshou finished speaking, more than twenty Han soldiers pulled the trigger, and all the nobles hiding behind the table went to the west to meet the Buddha.

Under this shock, King Debu slid in and knelt before Ji Nanshou, kowtowing repeatedly and begging for mercy in Tibetan.

"Don't kill me, please don't kill me!"

"This castle, the gold and silver, and the beautiful women are all yours!"

Ji Nanshou glanced at the princess, his eyes lighting up, but then he remembered the cautionary tale of Lan Yu from the Ming Dynasty sleeping with the concubine of the Yuan Emperor. He immediately slapped himself in the face, thinking to himself:

"We should offer her up. Now that we manage such a large territory, what kind of woman don't we have!"

After suppressing his evil thoughts, Ji Nanshou grabbed the small meat cleaver on the table and held it directly to King Debu's neck.

"Immediately issue the order that all troops obey my command, and surrender all treasures and household registers!"

King Debu dared not delay and immediately gave a wink to the monk beside him. This monk was probably a civil official, and soon he led his men in carrying gold, silver and a large box of household registers.

Ji Nanshou felt distressed, because the gold was only in a small box, and there were also a large number of gold magic items, worth at most five hundred taels.

There was a lot of silver, but it was all in silver coins that looked like copper coins, and it probably added up to ten thousand taels.

Ji Nanshou opened the household register again and thought to himself: A small country is a small country. Its most valuable asset is its people. I don't know if these 70,000 people are enough to open up the official road to Tibet.

Thinking of this, Ji Nanshou beckoned to the monk and took out the marching route map he had drawn before leaving.

"Do you even know anything about road construction? I need a road that allows unimpeded passage through the snowy mountains, preferably one that can accommodate horse-drawn carriages!"

Upon hearing this, the monk returned a Buddhist salute.

"General, if we were to build a road passable by horse-drawn carriages, it would require 10,000 able-bodied men working in shifts, and it would take another six months. However, we don't have enough horses to transport enough food for 10,000 people!"

Phew, as long as it can be fixed!

As for transporting food, as long as they don't starve to death, that's fine!

Do you want to eat your fill?

Thinking of this, Ji Nanshou stuffed the blueprints into the monk's arms, revealing a satisfied expression.

"As long as you can repair the road, that's fine. I'll figure out the food problem. From today onwards, you will be my clerk, in charge of this area!"

After Ji Nanshou finished speaking, he didn't care whether the monks agreed or not, and then took King Debu away from the castle.