Ever since 1699, when Lord Zheng annihilated Lord Mo and protected him, Jiaozhi had been in a situation where the north was the only power.
Even though Lord Ruan had seized the Mehe River Delta of the Golden Edge Dynasty, his strength was still not enough to fight against Lord Zheng.
Lord Zheng controlled three times as many people as Lord Ruan. He controlled about three million people while Lord Ruan controlled about one million people. In addition, there were also barbarians living in the mountains and forests. There were about two million people.
According to the standard of absolute militarism, in the Zheng-Ruan War of 1673, Zheng Zheng had a regular army of 100,000 people, 50,000 soldiers, 500 war elephants, and 500 warships.
Lord Ruan had mobilized 40,000 to 50,000 troops, 100 war elephants, and 300 ships. If it wasn't for the high mountains and dense forests in the south of Jiaozhi, Lord Ruan would have been destroyed by Lord Zheng long ago.
Although it was 1712 now, Lord Zheng's strength was not much stronger than 40 years ago.
According to the Jinyiwei's intelligence, there were about 100,000 soldiers under Lord Zheng. 10,000 of them were sailors. Among the other 90,000, only half of them could wear leather armor, and less than 10,000 could wear iron armor.
Only the 5000 Royal Guards beside Lord Zheng were equipped with two layers of armor, and the Royal Guards had more than 500 war elephants. This was a big problem for Zhu Bomu's army.
On May 19th, the 51st year of Kangxi, Lord Zheng was shocked when he learned that tens of thousands of troops had suddenly appeared in the north.
However, in just one night, he had moved the army north of the Zhengjiang River to the Rising Dragon Mansion. Other than the navy, which was left behind to block the river, all the other soldiers were mobilized.
At first, he thought that the Qing Dynasty had sent troops to attack him. However, after some of the people who had watched Zhu Bomu's army secretly reported, he found out that this group of people were actually like them, wearing the clothes and hair accessories of the former Ming Dynasty.
Zheng was not a fool. On the contrary, he was a rare political talent in Lord Zheng's forces. Therefore, after some consideration, he sent out an envoy first.
When Zhu Bomu's army was only twenty miles away from the Rising Dragon Mansion, the messenger arrived in front of the Ming army.
"Envoy of Jiaozhi, greetings…greetings…"
"Forget it, you don't need to pay your respects!" Looking at the 1.6-meter-tall, monkey-faced, and Ming Dynasty official who looked like a monkey, Li Dao didn't know how to address him, so he directly exempted this person from paying his respects.
" Thank you, General." The Jiaozhi envoy's Han language was not bad. It seemed that the Ming Dynasty did not rule Jiaozhi for more than ten years in vain.
Zhu Bomu, who was sitting beside Li Dao, did not speak because he was here to learn, not to show off.
He didn't want to drag the entire army down with him and die in a foreign country because of his "incompetence".
"I gave you a lot of time to gather your men. You don't dare to leave the city to fight?" Looking at the Jiaozhi Envoy, Li Dao laughed heartily. Clearly, he didn't take Lord Zheng seriously.
"This…General, I think we have some misunderstanding.”The Jiaozhi envoy was also at a loss for words.
They were clearly here to investigate the enemy's situation and learn about the enemy's intentions. They did not expect the other party to directly say that they wanted to attack them without giving any reason. It made Jiaozhi unable to find anyone to cry to.
"Misunderstanding? Li Dao, who had a short beard, glanced at Zhu Bomu and Shen Lian beside him. He sat down at the main seat and laughed,""There is no misunderstanding. We are only here to recover our lost territory.”
"Reclaim lost territory?" Hearing this, the messenger was even more confused. The Zheng family had been in peace for more than ten years and had never invaded other countries. How could they talk about recovering their lost territory?
"Hehe, it seems like you don't remember.”Seeing the messenger's expression, Li Dao gestured for the guerrilla general beside him to bring the evidence.
The guerrilla general beside him nodded. Then, he found an ancient file in the accompanying carriage and read it aloud,
"On the third day of the eleventh month of the nineteenth year of Jiajing, Mo Dengyong, the vassal king of Jiaozhi, and dozens of ministers tied themselves up and knelt down. They entered Zhennan Pass and asked for surrender.”
"Emperor Shizong decreed that Jiaozhi would be demoted from a vassal state to a territory, and its thirteen roads would be changed to thirteen Xuanfu departments. Each of them would set up Xuanfu, Tongzhi, Deputy Envoy, and Qian Shi to listen to the promotion and dismissal of the Dutong. He ordered the Mo family to be the Dutong Envoy of Jiaozhi from the second grade, hereditary, and pay tribute once every three years.”
"What is it? Emperor Shizong?" When he inexplicably heard the posthumous title of Emperor Jiajing, the envoy wanted to curse. The Ming Dynasty had been dead for decades, yet he used the sword of the previous dynasty to kill an official of this dynasty?
"What's wrong? Are you dissatisfied?" Looking at the envoy's appearance, Li Dao stood up directly. He was nearly 1.85 meters tall and stood in front of the envoy. He was more than a head taller.
Under Li Dao's mighty posture, the envoy of Jiaozhi was ashamed like a clown. Li Dao followed up his victory and said,""This general is the Southern Conquering General personally conferred by the Ming Emperor Zhu Bomu. I treat Jiaozhi like a brother and never thought that you would turn around and become a prisoner.”
"This trip was supposed to destroy Jiaozhi first, then drive out the Tartars and restore the beautiful mountains and rivers of the Ming Dynasty!”
"If the two countries don't kill the envoys, you can go back and tell Zheng that there is still a way out if you surrender. If you don't surrender, our army will come to the city tomorrow.!!”
" Eh... this... this..." The envoy, who was so frightened by Li Dao that he sat on the ground, did not know what to say. He was directly dragged out by the guerrilla general and thrown out of the camp gate.
Looking at Li Dao's actions, Zhu Bomu was very satisfied, but the explanation at the end was somewhat redundant.
The Great Ming Dynasty had been the father of the surrounding vassal states for hundreds of years. In this day and age, did an old man need a reason to hit his son?
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