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

Chapter 884 Return to Guizhou
Zhu Su hurriedly asked the reason, and after Xie Rong's detailed explanation, he finally knew what had happened in Guiyang City.

Guiyang City was a new city, and apart from the trading grounds for the two Guizhou guards and the surrounding tribes and merchants, there were not many civilians living there. Therefore, there were no civil servants in the city, except for Ma Ye's commanding office and Xie Jin, who was temporarily staying there to coordinate the management of the trading grounds with the Shuixi and Shuidong tribes, there were no other offices.

To a certain extent, it can be said that Ma Ye is now in charge of both military and political affairs in Guiyang City, like a frontier governor.

It just so happened that Ma Ye, whether intentionally or unintentionally, always had frictions with the Shuixi and Shuidong tribes. Although Xie Jin mediated every time, he never changed. Since Zhu Su left, the relationship between the Shuixi and Shuidong tribes and the Guizhou Weiming Army became worse and worse. However, Ai Cui and Song Qin actually benefited from the Guizhou market and recognized Zhu Su's efforts, so they always endured the humiliation and did not cause any major turmoil.

However, more than a month ago, the conflict between the two suddenly broke out to an extreme level: in Guiyang City, a violent conflict suddenly broke out between Shuixi West and Guizhou Guard. Both sides fought fiercely, and Ai Cui was imprisoned...

"Ma Ye imprisoned Ai Cui?" Zhu Su frowned. "How dare he, a commander, imprison Ai Cui, a local chieftain? What happened? Why did Ma Ye accuse Shui Xi of wanting to rebel?"

"This... I don't know." Xie Rong was speechless. Zhu Su could not help but get angry and said with wide eyes: "I don't know this, I don't know that, what on earth is Xie Jin doing in Guizhou?"

He left Xie Jin in Guiyang because he was worried that the matter of winning over the chieftains would end with his departure, so he left an agent. Although Xie Jin was a bit arrogant, he was well-educated and capable. Otherwise, he would not have been able to preside over the compilation of the Yongle Encyclopedia and become the chief minister of the Yongle Dynasty.

Zhu Su thought, although such a talented person had not yet experienced the later events, it would be a waste of talent to use him to pacify the southwest. He really didn't expect that such a small matter would lead to such a mess.

"Brother...brother is in charge of all the affairs of the market and has no intention of caring about what Ma Tongzhi does. What's more, brother has no permanent position in the court and cannot interfere in the affairs of Guizhou Wei..." Seeing that Zhu Su was angry, Xie Rong was afraid and could only speak timidly to defend Xie Jin.

Zhu Su's face was as gloomy as water, and he knew that what Xie Rong said was somewhat reasonable. Xie Jin stayed in Guiyang as a guest official of the Zhou Palace, assisting the chieftains of the two tribes of Shuixi and Shuidong to establish the market and communicate with the guards. To be honest, he was just a student, while Ma Ye was the commander-in-chief and a royal relative. If he wanted to spare Xie Jin, Xie Jin would really have no way to deal with him.

However, since he bypassed Li Jin, a guest official in the royal palace, it can also be considered that Ma Ye was slapping the face of himself, the King of Zhou.

"Forget it." Zhu Su waved his hands, feeling quite helpless. He had thought that by waiting for Xie Jin's messenger, he would know the whole story, and report it to Zhu in advance so that the court could make preparations early. However, he did not expect that Xie Jin did not know the whole story either. He only knew that Ma Ye was deliberately causing trouble, and he knew nothing about his motives and methods.

This situation naturally could not be reported to Zhu Yuanzhang. He was the King of Zhou, not an imperial censor who reported things based on hearsay. Zhu Yuanzhang was the emperor, and he would not arrest a general for no reason just because he listened to his son's one-sided statement.

I still have to wait until I visit Guizhou again to find out the clues.

Zhu Su, who received the imperial order, then took the road to Guizhou. This time, he did not take the sea route to Lianzhou first, but took the usual route, passing Pingxi, passing Wusa, and finally reaching Guizhou.

This trunk road is relatively new. During the reign of Emperor Lizong of the Southern Song Dynasty, in order to set up garrisons to prepare for Mongolia, the Song court issued an edict to the governor of Jinghu to open up roads in the Huangping, Qinglang and Pingxi areas. Later, during the Yuan Dynasty, the Luo clan ghost country entrenched in Yunnan and Guizhou rebelled against the Yuan Dynasty, causing traffic congestion in Sizhou and Bozhou. The Yuan court ordered the road to be cleared again, but it has only been a few decades since then.

However, it is always difficult to open a road in the mountains. If it is not maintained for a few years, it will often be lost in the mountains. This road is still used by merchants, but even so, Zhu Su had a very difficult time walking along it. There were mountains upon mountains, and the road in front of him was sometimes shallow and sometimes deep. Some of it was winding along the mountains, and some was deep in the dense forest. There were also heavy smoke and miasma, as well as tigers, leopards, snakes and insects, which made people unbearable.

Ma Ye reported Ai Cui's rebellion. Although Zhu Su did not believe it, he still had to bring some soldiers with him to be on the safe side. Nearly a hundred people were winding in the mountains, and the progress was even slower. Fortunately, under Zhu Su's strict order, this team had extremely high standards in terms of hygiene. The whole army was not allowed to drink raw water or eat raw food. There were customized rules for walking, sitting and lying down, and various medicinal materials were also prepared. This prevented this team from being trapped by the "smoke and miasma" disease. Although the journey was a little difficult, it was safe and sound.

"The conditions in the smoky and humid southwest are indeed too difficult, especially the road... As the saying goes, if you want to get rich, you must first build roads... With such a difficult and arduous road, our ancestors were able to open up the southwest and make it as close to China as a family. It is really rare." The road conditions were complicated, and Zhu Su naturally couldn't sit still in the high car. He thought while looking at the road opened up by his ancestors.

"No matter what, the problem of this road must be solved. Once the road is open, more merchants will come and go. With more merchants on the road, the relationship between Yunnan and Guizhou and the central government will become closer."

If we want to make Yunnan and Guizhou as close as one family with China, it is not enough to abolish the local officials and set up a few temporary officials. We must make it not a remote place, so that the people of Yunnan and Guizhou can be integrated with the people of China. Zhu Su did not know that the road to Yunnan and Guizhou was so difficult to travel. He only wanted to use the market to attract merchants and connect the southwest with the Central Plains. Now it seems that repairing the road is also indispensable.

Just as he was lost in thought, he saw Di Meng, who was leading the way, rushing over: "Your Highness, someone is blocking our way ahead."

"From what they said... they seem to be from the Yi ethnic minority in the western part of the water..."

"Yi people..." Zhu Su's eyes narrowed, and he quickened his pace and said, "Take me there quickly."

Di Meng was unable to stop them. He thought that if the Yi people dared to block the road, they might really have rebellious intentions. If Zhu Su was allowed to show up, it might be dangerous. But Zhu Su had already strode forward without hesitation and separated from the team. He knew Zhu Su's character very well and knew that it would be useless to say anything at this time, so he could not say much. He could only follow quickly and ask people to be on guard.

(End of this chapter)