After reading the letter, Yang Jing felt a little bitter in his heart, and the joy of receiving these treasures was also diluted a lot by the heaviness of the letter.
Speaking of the brothers Mu Tianbo and Li Dingguo, they are really a pair of tragic brothers.
Li Dingguo was the adopted son of Zhang Xianzhong, the leader of the late Ming rebels. When he grew up, he was good at fighting and made the Ming army cry like ghosts and wolves. However, when Zhang Xianzhong led his troops to resist the Qing army and was unfortunately shot to death in Fenghuang Mountain in Xichong, Li Dingguo decisively defected to the Southern Ming and became the number one general under the Yongli Emperor Zhu Youlang.
Not to mention Mu Tianbo, he is the hereditary Duke of Qian, and his ancestor is Mu Ying, a famous general of the founding of the Ming Dynasty. Naturally, his identity and status are many times higher than that of Li Dingguo, who came from a humble background.
However, after Li Dingguo defected to the Southern Ming court, he defeated the rebellious Sun Kewang and the Qing army and was highly regarded by Emperor Yongli. Gradually, he became the head of the military officers of the Southern Ming court, and gradually became a good brother with Mu Tianbo, the head of the civil officials of the Southern Ming court.
In order to protect the Yongli Emperor Zhu Youlang and the weak Southern Ming regime, this pair of brothers worked tirelessly and took the lead.
Mu Tianbo accompanied Zhu Youlang into Burma, but eventually died in a foreign land, and even his body could not be found. After Emperor Yongli entered Burma, Li Dingguo led his incomplete troops alone to resist the powerful Qing army. Although Gongchang Wang Bai Wenxuan later led his troops to join Li Dingguo's troops, compared with the powerful Qing army, Li Dingguo had a hard time fighting. Later, after Wu Sangui killed Emperor Yongli, this last loyal general of the Southern Ming Dynasty could not stand the stimulation and died of depression a year later.
It is not difficult to judge from this letter that Mu Tianbo was indeed a loyal minister. Emperor Yongli was placed under house arrest by Sun Kewang in Guizhou for three years, and was finally rescued by Li Dingguo in the ninth year of the Yongli reign. After Li Dingguo escorted Emperor Yongli to Chuncheng, Mu Tianbo began to raise military funds in preparation for a long-term resistance against the Qing army.
From the ninth year of the Yongli reign to the end of the twelfth year of the Yongli reign, in more than three years, Mu Tianbo was able to raise 200,000 taels of gold and 1 million taels of silver, which was already remarkable. The Yongli Emperor finally took out his own concubines as well, including his collection of precious calligraphy and paintings, the original copy of the "Yongle Encyclopedia", and gold, silver and jewelry. This also shows that the Yongli Emperor actually had some ideas at this time.
In fact, if the Qing army had not been so powerful and the Yongli Emperor's mother, the Queen Mother, was too timid and kept instigating the Yongli Emperor to seek refuge in Burma, Zhu Youlang would have been forced to enter Burma and was eventually captured by the rebellious King of Toungoo. Instead, if he had stayed in Yunnan and Yunnan from the beginning, with Mu Tianbo in literature and Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan in military affairs, the Southern Ming Dynasty might have been able to hold out for a longer period of time.
It is said that many great historical events were often ruined by women (PS: Serious statement: I have no problem with my female compatriots!). In fact, even after Emperor Yongli entered Burma, he had the opportunity to stay in the Sino-Myanmar border area or even return to Yunnan. However, he had to continue to go deeper into Burma because of the Queen Mother's unwillingness.
Yang Jing knew this part of history. Zhu Youlang, Mu Tianbo and other imperial entourage entered Burma on the 26th day of the first month of the intercalary year in the 16th year of Shunzhi, which was the 13th year of Yongli. On the 29th day, they arrived at Manmo, which is near Bhamo. The local Burmese native official Sixian came to greet them, and Emperor Yongli gave them gold medals and silk as gifts.
At that time, Mu Tianbo, Duke of Qian, Wang Weihua, Marquis of Huating, and Li Chongshi, the eunuch in charge of the Eastern Palace Seal, were still relatively clear-headed. They believed that if the fate of the court was completely placed under the protection of Myanmar, there would be unpredictable consequences if the attitude of the Myanmar authorities changed.
Therefore, after discussion, they jointly proposed: "This place is on the Burmese border, and we have not yet penetrated deeply. If we send half of the civil and military officers to accompany Your Majesty into Burma, and use the other half to lead the Crown Prince into the tea mountains to command the various camps, then Your Majesty will have external support in Burma. Otherwise, if we penetrate deep into the barbarian's lair, we will not be able to communicate with the inside and outside, and we will eventually be trapped."
Emperor Yongli thought this suggestion made sense and could be considered. However, Empress Wang, Zhu Youlang's mother, was reluctant to let her son leave her side and insisted on not letting him go. In the end, Zhu Youlang had no choice but to move on.
On the second day of the second lunar month, the day when the dragon raises its head, the Burmese king sent four passenger ships to welcome the emperor. As the ships were small, Emperor Yongli selected 646 officials to accompany the three palaces southward by water, some of whom even paid for the ships themselves; the remaining 900 people, protected by the general Pan Shirong, rode on land on horseback.
In fact, the attitude of the Burmese king can be seen from the ship sent by the Burmese king to welcome him, and Mu Tianbo and his people's concerns are also very correct. If Zhu Youlang did not board the ship at that time, but led his troops to station near Manmo, relying on the dangerous terrain, he might not be able to stop the attack of the Qing army.
Unfortunately, because of the old woman, the Queen Mother, Zhu Youlang had to continue moving forward. As a result, after arriving at Ava City, which is Mandalay, the King of Burma did not let Zhu Youlang cross the river. Instead, he arranged Zhu Youlang and his party on the opposite side of the Irrawaddy River and built a "bamboo city" with bamboo for Zhu Youlang and his party to live in.
Later, Mangda's younger brother Mangbai launched a coup, killed his brother Mangda, and became the king of Myanmar. In the three years before Mangda was killed by his brother, the Burmese king had never met Zhu Youlang.
Zhu Youlang had an extremely hard three years in Burma. Even the golden imperial seal was smashed by the eunuchs and divided up as money.
If Zhu Youlang had not entered Burma at that time, but continued to resist the Qing troops on the Sino-Myanmar border or in Yunnan and Yunnan, perhaps the fate of the Southern Ming court would have been different.
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