Bento watched with envy as more than five hundred Portuguese sailors walked in the direction of the dock under the "escort" of a group of Ming troops.

He knew that these people would be transported to Fukyo. Until the Portuguese government paid the war reparations, they would spend a few months or years there as sparring partners for the Great Ming Marine, depending on how quickly João IV paid.

However, unlike the usual forced labor of prisoners of war, His Royal Highness the Auxiliary King of the Ming Dynasty promised to pay them wages. Although one gold coin per month is not much, after all, it is along the coast of the capital of the Ming Kingdom, and it is not tiring to be safe.

"Don't look at it," Blanco sighed, "the army escorting us should be almost there." ”

"If only I had been in the Navy." Simang said in frustration, "It is said that we are going to build a new Macao port, which should be carrying timber and the like......

Soon, dozens of Ming troops beckoned their more than 100 Portuguese infantry to come over, and after counting the number of people, an interpreter said loudly: "Now that we go to Macao and Hong Kong, we will follow closely, and those who leave the team without permission will be killed immediately." ”

"Sure enough, it's carrying wood,......," Simão muttered quietly.

The group had just walked less than half a mile when a fast horse suddenly galloped towards them.

The dragon guard officer on horseback turned over from his saddle, handed a document to the Ming officer who was escorting the Portuguese soldiers, and then shouted to the prisoners: "Who knows how to handle artillery?" Who is proficient in using firearms? The gunner has one tael of silver per month, and the gunner has seven coins. ”

Bento listened to the translation and immediately raised his hand and said, "Me! I served as an artillery commander in the Macau Army. ”

"I've used an arquebus for twelve years!"

"I'll do ...... too"

Nunez looked at the enthusiasm of these soldiers, and cautiously asked the interpreter, "Well, I am an officer, and I am familiar with soldier training and command, do you think you need it?" ”

Hearing this, Long Weijun, who was in charge of picking people, came over and patted him on the shoulder, and said with a smile: "Very good, one or two halves of silver a month." ”

When Nunez heard that he could take a half-gold coin, he was immediately overjoyed.

It's not that Zhu Linmiao wants to treat the captives preferentially to give these laborers money, after all, with the encouragement of silver, they can be more attentive to their "work", and some "unique skills" will not be too hidden.

An hour after the departure of the large ship carrying the Portuguese sailors to Fujing, thirty Portuguese army men also got into the carriage of the Dragon Guard and rushed in the direction of Sichuan.

……

Sanzhou City.

According to Zhu Linmiao's orders, the Dragon Guard Army would repair here for two days, and all the soldiers were extremely tired from the previous rapid march.

In the yamen of the Inspection Division, Zhu Linmiao was convening all the officers to discuss the matter.

"According to the confession of the guest Tang, there are about 8,000 defenders in Kunming City." Zhai Shiyun said, "As for the deployment situation, he only said that he didn't know. ”

"Who is in command of the troops in the city?" Zhu Linmiao then asked.

"Well, I don't know."

"Which of the Tusi in Yunnan are Shadingzhou diehards, and which ones are forced to rebel?"

Zhai Shiyun said with a bitter face: "I didn't ask...... The soup guest only shouted for a quick death, and did not recruit anything. ”

I'm going to have to do something inhumane again. Zhu Linmiao sighed and motioned to Shi Lin: "You go and be careful to leave him alive." ”

"Yes!"

Shi Lin turned around and left, and in less than half an hour, he returned and presented seven or eight pages of confession to Zhu Linmiao, "My lord, the surname Tang has been recruited."

"The city of Kunming is guarded by Du Qifei, the deputy general of Sha Dingzhou, and Sha Dingzhou is not in the city. The situation is at the end of the confession, but the surname Tang is not very detailed. ”

Zhu Linmiao nodded, and said with some surprise: "Shadingzhou is based on Kunming, and wants to occupy Yunnan. Why did you leave the city again? ”

Shi Lin said: "Lord Hui, according to Tang's words, Sha Dingzhou wanted to attack Chuxiong with Tusi Lu trillions, so he went to Dongchuan at the beginning of the month, and in order to protect everything, he also asked his most elite four thousand black armor troops to escort him. ”

Chuxiong is the temporary shelter of Mu Tianbo, the Duke of Qianguo, who is responsible for guarding Yunnan. If Mu Tianbo can be killed, Sha Dingzhou will have no one to restrain in Yunnan, and all the toasts will definitely look to the wind.

Zhu Linmiao hurriedly took out the map to watch, and saw that Dongchuan Mansion was more than 500 miles away from Kunming, and there were many mountains along the way.

His thoughts were spinning, and he said to the generals in the house: "Sha Dingzhou's departure from Kunming is a good opportunity for us. ”

Zhai Shiyun groaned: "What does Your Highness mean to take advantage of the thief's head to go away and quickly send troops to seize Kunming?" ”

Zhu Linmiao nodded and said: "Kunming is where the Qianguo Mansion is located, which can be said to be the core of Yunnan, and Shadingzhou is only gaining momentum after the capture of Kunming.

"If the imperial army can quickly conquer Kunming, the Tusi of Yunnan will compete to draw a line with the sand thieves."

Shi Lin continued: "According to the confession of the Tang guest, at least more than half of the more than 60 Tusi who claim to belong to the sand thieves are forced by military might. Once the sand thieves lose the battle, they will revert to the imperial court. ”

More than 60 toasts are attached to Shadingzhou? Zhu Linmiao couldn't help frowning when he heard this, the local officials in the land of Yunnan and Guizhou were so huge, even if the Shadingzhou rebellion was quelled, it was difficult to guarantee that no one would stir up trouble in the future.

In fact, since the Wanli Dynasty, Yungui has continued to have Tusi rebellions, which has restrained a lot of energy in the imperial court. One of the three major expeditions of Wanli was Li Hualong's pacification of Yang Yinglong's rebellion in Banzhou, and he dispatched an army of 100,000 troops, which cost a lot of money.

He made up his mind in his heart that when the matter of Shadingzhou was resolved, he would definitely find a way to weaken the Tusi power and vigorously promote the transformation of the land and return to the stream.

Zhu Linmiao said: "Nowadays, it seems that Shadingzhou occupies most of Yunnan, but most of them are attached toasts. As long as these toasts can be reversed, the power of the sand thieves will definitely decrease several times. ”

Zhang Jiayu on the side looked at the map and frowned: "My lord, our army is 16,700 miles away from Kunming, and the sand thieves are only more than 500 miles away. Even if we continue to march rapidly, I am afraid that it will be difficult to reach Kunming before the sand thieves. ”

As soon as he said this, the generals immediately held their breath and pondered, but for a while, no one could come up with any good ideas.

After a while, Zhu Linmiao suddenly said, "What does Sha Dingzhou want to do most right now?" ”

Zhai Shiyun blurted out, "Back to Your Highness, it should be to capture Chuxiong." As soon as Chuxiong fell, the Duke of Qianguo lost his place to live, and there was no place for the imperial court in Yunnan. ”

Zhu Linmiao nodded slightly, and said slowly: "Then we will use Chu Xiong as bait," he paused for a moment and continued, "Plus Qianguo Gong, I don't believe that Sha Dingzhou will not take the bait!" ”

"Chu Xiong? Qianguo Gong? Everyone was shocked, and said that the auxiliary king's hand was really big enough.

Zhu Linmiao looked at the generals who were doing it, "If the Duke of Qianguo leads all the horses in his hands to enter the army, Wang Nongshan and Ah Mi, how do you say Sha Dingzhou will respond?" ”

Wang Nongshan is Shadingzhou's hometown, and Ah Mi, less than 100 miles to the south, is his wife Wan's territory, which can be said to be the foundation of Shadingzhou.

Everyone said: "The sand thieves will definitely return to the southeast of Yunnan as soon as possible." ”

Zhang Jiayu shook his head and said: "Sha Dingzhou has a strong army, and he has never taken the Qianguo Ministry in his eyes. I expected that he would strictly order Wang Rongshan to raise troops to protect himself, and he took advantage of Chuxiong's emptiness to lead his army to attack it.