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

Chapter 872: Building a New City
The chieftains in Yunnan and Guizhou are a hundred times more powerful than those in Lianzhou. Naturally, it is a hundred times more difficult to win them over. In addition to the chieftains who have already submitted to the Ming Dynasty, there are also many foreigners who are deep in the mountains and do not know the changes in the world. If they are not handled properly, it will be like a spark falling into a gunpowder barrel, instantly exploding a bunch of demons and monsters. Moreover, the terrain of Guizhou is complex. If a big chieftain rebels here, it is often difficult to quell it in a short time. Therefore, Zhu Su must be very cautious.

However, he had gained enough experience in Lianzhou. He came to Guizhou to be a boy who delivered money, so he did not expect to cause displeasure to the chieftains.

"Haha, everyone, please stand up." Zhu Su said. He was smiling and polite, and compared with the serious Lan Yu, he gave these chieftains enough face. "The southwestern half of my Ming Dynasty is all thanks to you. You are all the pillars of my Ming Dynasty!"

"Come, come, come, no need to be polite, please take your seat. I was ordered to come here to suppress the bandits, and I have long wanted to meet all of you pillars of society."

Seeing the sincere words and polite behavior of the King of Zhou, the chieftains who were somewhat nervous at first relaxed a little. They thought that His Royal Highness the King of Zhou had invited them to the military camp to hold a Hongmen Banquet!
After all, the Ming army was too scary. Over the years, the imperial court had been chasing the enemy and showing great desire for land. Although these chieftains were indeed affiliated with the imperial court in name, they were actually local tyrants in the local area. Who knew if the Hongwu Emperor would change his mind and kill all the chieftains?

The chieftains breathed a sigh of relief, and the tense people relaxed. Seeing this, Zhu Su smiled and said straight to the point: "The reason why I summoned all the chieftains is because I have a great event and I want you to help me."

"As you all know, I am a proponent of commerce. I was instrumental in opening up the two northern and southern maritime Silk Roads."

"This king believes that business is a good way to promote the common development of all parts of China. Therefore, this king came to the southwest, in addition to suppressing those bandits, there is another matter."

"We want to open up the Southwest Trade Route so that the Southwest can trade with the Central Plains and the south of the Yangtze River, so that the Southwest can also benefit and develop through commerce, and thus make the Southwest a prosperous and powerful province of our Ming Dynasty!"

All the chieftains listened quietly. Some thought, so that's why, they wanted to open up trade routes, no wonder they needed to summon all the chieftains. They were close to Lianzhou, and although they didn't know the details of what happened in Lianzhou, they knew that His Royal Highness the King of Zhou had opened a market in Lianzhou before... so they naturally trusted Zhu Su's words.

"Your Highness, do you want to rebuild the trade route?" Shuixi Tusi and Guizhou Xuanwei Envoy Ai Cui was a man in his fifties. He wore a local official's official robe, but his face was reddish brown, and it was obvious at a glance that he was not a Han Chinese. In fact, he was not a Han Chinese. He was a Yi Tusi, and his Mongolian name was Boyan Buhua. When the Ming Dynasty swept across the world, he saw that the world was set, so he led the Shuixi troops to surrender to the Ming Dynasty and was named Xuanwei Envoy.

As Yi people, they have lived here for generations, so they are naturally happy for the court to come forward to dig these mountain roads. "We naturally strongly support this matter, but I don't know what Your Highness needs us to do? If you want us to dig the mountains, it is really..."

Ai Cui said deliberately. Although he was willing to build the road, he only hoped that the imperial court would take charge of it. They had lived in the mountains for generations, so they naturally knew how difficult it was to build a road in such a terrain. Most of the roads in Yunnan and Guizhou today still use the old roads built during the Qin Shihuang period! If the imperial court wanted to recruit these chieftains to build mountains for nothing, they would not be willing to do it.

Zhu Su was naturally aware of these chieftains' little tricks. Don't look at the honest face of the Aicui chieftain, but if she didn't have some tricks in her heart, could she have survived the transition between the Yuan and Ming dynasties and preserved her power? If he really regarded them as some ignorant mountain tribe, he would definitely suffer a great loss.

However, Zhu Su had already made up his mind about this, so he smiled and said, "Opening mountains and building roads should be done by the court... But what I'm talking about is not the road building, but another more important matter that I want to discuss with you."

"More important matters?" This time, it was Shuidong Tusi Song Qin who spoke. "Please speak clearly, Your Highness."

"I want to build a new city here!" Zhu Su said.

……

The banquet ended in a bad mood. The King of Zhou was going to build a city here. This was big news and the chieftains needed to digest it carefully. Naturally, they had no mood to feast for the time being.

Building a city is different from building a road. Building a road benefits these chieftains in the mountains. If the road is unobstructed, they can attract merchants or set up checkpoints along the way, which is profitable. Therefore, basically no one would oppose the court's road construction.

But building a city... that's different.

Indeed, His Royal Highness King Zhou explicitly stated that the purpose of building a city was to establish a trading post in the city for the various tribes in Yunnan and Guizhou to trade here. It sounds like building a road, which can also dredge the local area and stimulate the development of commerce between the territories of various chieftains.

However, Guizhou is different from Lianzhou. Lianzhou is located on the coast and has a smooth sea route. Guizhou is mountainous and the roads in the mountains are difficult to travel, so it is difficult for merchants to reach. Moreover, most of these places do not have any special products, unlike the South Pearls in Lianzhou, and only some medicinal materials and mountain products are worth showing off... How many merchants can they attract?
If we build a market but have no merchants, wouldn't that be a waste of time?
And there is another huge problem. In order to build a city, one must choose a precious land to lay the foundation of the city... But the problem is that all the plains and even gentle slopes and low mountains suitable for building a city have been occupied by the chieftains. Where can there be land for the court to build a city and establish a monopoly?

The city is a nail of the imperial court, and all the cities in the northern border are like this. The vicinity of the city must be subject to the authority of the imperial court, and the city must be governed by officials of the Ming Dynasty... Who would be willing to give up their own land to invite such a great god to their vicinity to watch over them? Isn't it nice to live a carefree life with the emperor far away?

Therefore, many chieftains showed little interest in Zhu Su's proposal to establish Cheng, and some even tried to shirk responsibility.

If you want to build it, just build it somewhere else far away from me... The chieftains are used to living a carefree life in their small piece of land, so how could they be willing to indulge Zhu Su's whimsical idea?
(End of this chapter)