Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 843: Return to the country
Annan, located in the southwest of the Ming Dynasty, adjacent to Yunnan and Guizhou, can be regarded as locking the southwest gateway of the Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, it was also the last country left in Zhu Su's plan of "annexing the Three Kingdoms".

Among the Three Kingdoms, the Ming Dynasty intervened in Japan because of the chaos of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Now most of the Japanese have been directly vassalized by the Ming Dynasty, and the King of Japan has lived in the Ming territory for a long time, with only a nominal title left. The Ming Dynasty intervened in Korea because of the rebellion of Lee Seong-gye. Although Lee Seong-gye is still in confrontation with Lee Sun-chang, the Duke of Korea who supported the "young lord", his sphere of influence is no longer outside the capital, and it is only a matter of time before Korea is incorporated into the Ming Dynasty. Only Annan has not been taken by the Ming Dynasty because there is no righteousness for the time being.

According to historical development, it was not until the Yongle period that the powerful minister Hu of Annan would usurp the throne of the King of Annan. At that time, the Ming Dynasty, as the suzerain state, would have enough righteousness to intervene in Annan and wait for an opportunity to take Annan into its possession.

Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to Annan. Knowing that the impact of the Little Ice Age first hit the north and then the south, Zhu Yuanzhang always had an obsession with the land in the south. Annan was located in the south of the Ming Dynasty. If Annan could be taken and turned into arable land, even if the Little Ice Age came a hundred years later, the people of the Ming Dynasty would not be short of money and food because of the arable land.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang had long ago arranged for his generals to secretly sharpen their swords against Annan in the southwest. Generals Li Wenzhong and Lan Yu were stationed in Lianzhou to secretly train their troops in preparation for the Ming Dynasty to take over Annan.

However, the Sizhou barbarian rebellion gave Zhu a wake-up call... You must know that in history, when Zhu Si was in power, he also took Annan. But Annan was in constant civil unrest, and it was lost again not long after... He was sharpening his knife to take Annan, what if he could not gain a foothold in Annan and lost it as in the original history?
Why did Annan get lost... Zhu Yuanzhang believed that it was because the Ming Dynasty’s foundation in Yunnan and Guizhou was not yet solid enough.

Yunnan and Guizhou border Annan. If you want to influence Annan, you must pass through Yunnan and Guizhou. However, there are many chieftains in Yunnan and Guizhou. When Yunnan was recovered, the Ming army only defeated the Liang King of the Yuan Dynasty. The Duan family and many chieftains in Yunnan surrendered... These chieftains have been operating in the local area for thousands of years. They surrendered to the Tang Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty. There is no patriotism. They said they surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, but in fact they only obeyed the Ming Dynasty's dispatch in name. In fact, those chieftains were local emperors in their own tribes, and the Ming Dynasty's court had little influence on them.

Not to mention Guizhou, Yunnan at least had a Yuan Liang Wang who was resisting stubbornly. In the process of conquering Liang Wang, the power of many Yunnan chieftains who were attached to Liang Wang was weakened... But when the chieftains in Guizhou heard about the change in the Central Plains, they quickly surrendered to the Ming Dynasty. For these chieftains, Zhu could only set up a nominal Guizhou Xuanwei Office to comfort the local area, and these chieftains who had been passed down for thousands of years were still free. The jurisdiction and influence of the Guizhou Xuanwei Office on the local area were actually minimal.

If it were normal, it would be easy to say. The Central Plains Dynasty during the pre-Tang and pre-Han dynasties also ruled the smoky and humid southwestern areas in this way. If they were to force them to be directly governed by the imperial court, it would not only be time-consuming and laborious, but it might not be effective.

Therefore, it was harmless to rule in name only and adopt a relaxed control policy towards the chieftains. After all, this was what all dynasties had done.

But now it is no longer possible... If the Ming Dynasty wants to take Annan, it has to strengthen its control over the Yunnan-Guizhou region. Otherwise, if the Yunnan-Guizhou region is like it is now, with a barbarian rebellion every three days and a chieftain rioting every five days... How can the Ming Dynasty influence and control Annan in the southwest through this place?

...No, we can rest and recuperate, but we can't ignore the problems of Yunnan and Guizhou. Before the Ming Dynasty restarts the policy of expanding its territory and conquering Annan, it must thoroughly govern Yunnan and Guizhou and make them a handle for the Ming Dynasty to control Annan and even the southwestern countries!
However, how could the policy of changing the natives into commoners be accomplished in just three or five days?

"Come on, King Xuan Zhou, enter the palace!" Old Zhu quickly made a decision about who to let solve this difficult problem.

……

Zhu Su's vacation ended sadly. After learning about the events in Nanyang, he quickly handed over his orders to Old Zhu, and relinquished all military power and returned to his palace. Before the expedition, he had already handed over many affairs such as the Baoyuan Bureau and the Imperial College. Now that he had relinquished his military power, he was free from all worries. He had worked like a cow and a horse for Old Zhu for many years, running around north and south. He was already in his twenties, but he didn't even have a son. He was so busy that he had no time to rest.

Now, all the knowledge in his stomach was almost drained by Zhu Yuanzhang, and it was not the turn of a prince with considerable military achievements to take care of state affairs. It was just a good opportunity for him to steal a few days of leisure, hide in the palace, be a homebody and make wives, and live a very happy life.

I thought that the Ming Dynasty had begun to recuperate and that nothing would happen to me in the short term. However, I didn't expect that after only two days of leisure, I was sent to Yunnan and Guizhou by Zhu Yuanzhang's oral order to subdue the chieftains.

"…It's not that easy to subdue the chieftains. The Ming and Qing dynasties lasted for hundreds of years, and the reform of the chieftain system also lasted for hundreds of years. There are only a few imperial officials in the Yunnan and Guizhou regions… Do you really think that I, a time traveler, can do anything? Can I become a fat man in one bite?"

Zhu Su complained to Old Zhu all the way. At least the things he did before were foresighted, or perhaps they were the result of his vision and knowledge far beyond the present era. But to change the land system to the official system... this is obviously a long and arduous process, how can it be done overnight?

But Old Zhu only identified him... He thought that since he was a time traveler, maybe after seeing the local situation, he could come up with some ingenious plan to handle this matter. Who else could do this job but him? If it was someone else, they would just follow the routine and it would be useless.

It is hard to disobey the emperor's order, and it is also hard to disobey the father's order... So Zhu Su could only bid farewell to his short and happy life as a prince in tears, and devote himself once again to the great construction work of the Ming Dynasty court.

His first stop was not Yunnan, nor Guizhou, but Lianzhou Prefecture… Not because Lianzhou was the crux of the Tusi problem, but because Lan Yu and Li Wenzhong were stationed in Lianzhou. Sending Zhu Su south to reform Tusi was ultimately just a mission that was not made public. The official intention was to order King Zhou to Lianzhou to command the troops of Duke Cao and Duke Liang, so that they could go out of Sizhou and quell the civil unrest of the barbarians in the caves of Sizhou.

After all, the Tusi system has been passed down for hundreds of years, and in Yunnan and Guizhou, they can be said to be small countries within countries that hold their own military and political power. If they do not hold military power, it would be a pipe dream to change Tusi to Han people.

(End of this chapter)