Chapter 1572: Just Want to Keep Working Another Forty Years!

A great host was making its way through the peaks and valleys of the Gaoligong Mountains.

If one looked down from some high summit, one would see how vast this southward-moving column was — stretching south beyond sight, and stretching back beyond sight as well. It surged onward in mighty waves, men and horses numbering in the hundreds of thousands. The vanguard had already passed through Hanlong Pass and was marching upon the soil of Burma, while the elite troops bringing up the rear were still on the eastern slopes of the Gaoligong Mountains.

This was not a great army made up of soldiers and civilian porters hauling military grain, but a host that included countless women, children, and ordinary folk. They supported the old and led the young by the hand, dragging along their families, carrying what little property they had on their backs, trudging south step by stumbling step. The sturdier men mostly pushed single-wheeled carts loaded with sack after sack of rice. Every mule and horse was used to carry grain — not a single horse bore on its back any living person still able to walk.

Luo Hu, the Shun Pacification Commissioner of Yunnan, was also among this southward-moving host, though he was not in the vanguard or the main body, but in the rearguard bringing up the rear. He too was not riding, but like an ordinary soldier wore puttees and straw sandals, donned cloth-faced iron armor, and carried his rations, water canteen, and weapons, walking step by step.

With him were all sturdy, able-bodied men, in blue coats and white caps, some shouldering long spears, some carrying firelocks on their backs, every man bearing rations and a water canteen, marching in silence.

An indescribable air of solemn tragedy hung over this southward-moving host and would not lift.

This was a defeated army... a mighty defeated army!

The equipment of this army was quite excellent! More than two-thirds of the infantry were equipped with firelocks, and among them flintlocks accounted for close to one-third, while the remaining musketeers also carried heavy firelocks of tremendous power. The long spears used by the pikemen also looked formidable — all of them uniform eighteen-foot long spears. There were also a small number of shield-bearers, every one of them equipped with javelins.

And whether flintlocks, matchlocks, long spears, saber-and-shield, or javelins — all were kept in excellent condition.

Moreover, every officer and soldier had blue cloth-faced iron armor for protection, and beneath their white felt caps there was also an iron helmet to protect the skull.

There were also some cavalrymen leading tall warhorses, which drew the eye as well. These were no Yunnan or Sichuan ponies, but Marwari horses from India! Every one was spirited and fine, clearly a superior breed produced through careful breeding.

This set of military equipment, had it been placed in the original history, would have been enough to serve as the terminator of the Manchu Qing dynasty!

Besides the powerful equipment, the soldiers in the army were also mostly tall and strong, clearly men who had undergone rigorous training from childhood and had been raised with ample nutrition.

Fine soldiers, fine horses, fine weapons... and no small number of them either — a full fifteen thousand men!

An elite force that should have been able to rampage across the world had now become a nationless army in exile, fleeing in panic...

Just thinking about it was heartbreaking!

Yet every one of them had truly done all they could!

Over the past year and more, Luo Hu — commanding the army under the name Li Jicheng — had led this force into repeated engagements with the Ming army commanded by Zhu Hexing, whether by ambush, by surprise attack, or by holding fast to strategic passes... he had used every method, but without exception had met with defeat.

To have been defeated so many times and still not collapse or scatter, but to withdraw from Yunnan preserving the bearing of a proper army, itself already spoke volumes.

The present Shun army was not weak — far from weak, it was in fact quite formidable!

But the enemy they encountered was even stronger... it was not that they did not try, but that the Ming army's strength was simply monstrous!

The Shun army's musketeers were still mainly using matchlocks, while their enemy had already begun equipping itself with rifled guns and using Minie balls.

Such a gap could no longer be reversed by training, morale, or military strategy.

So they could only choose to leave... to go to India and become "Kshatriya lords."

Thus the great army marched on in silence. No one looked back, and apart from meals and rest, no one halted. They marched on for about two more days, and at last emerged from the Gaoligong Mountains, arriving before Hanlong Pass within the jurisdiction of the Longchuan Pacification Commission.

The mighty pass stood before them — to the south lay Burma, to the north lay China!

At some point Luo Hu had taken a position on high ground, watching the great host pass beneath his feet toward Hanlong Pass, his eyes already brimming with tears.

Just then, someone galloped out from Hanlong Pass, reached the foot of the hill, found Luo Hu's command banner, walked up the slope on foot, and only when he came before Luo Hu did he salute: "Father Marshal, I have finally awaited you."

Luo Hu glanced at the man — it was his own son Luo Ke, no longer a youth, but a stout man in middle age.

Luo Hu nodded: "We have finally arrived..."

Luo Ke asked again: "Father Marshal, how far behind are the Ming troops?"

"A dozen li or so..." said Luo Hu. "Following all the way, courteously escorting us out of the country!"

As he spoke, he glanced once more at Hanlong Pass and sighed: "Once we pass through this gate... we will no longer be people of China!"

"Father Marshal..." Luo Ke had been to India many times and knew well its wealth, and he also knew much about the affairs of the world, so he smiled and consoled his father: "It is no great matter. Many of the Zhu emperor's sons and brothers have also gone abroad. Some have gone even farther than us — to the New Continent, to the Southern Continent... those are the truly wild and barbarous lands! The India we are going to is a good place, and rich! Once we go to India, our descendants for generations to come will never know poverty."

"So be it..." Luo Hu sighed and asked in a low voice, "Have the coffins of the two old majesties been brought out?"

"They have been brought out... they are within Hanlong Pass!"

So when Luo Hu had arranged the general withdrawal, he had instructed his son to handle this matter — to have the coffins of Li Zicheng and Li Guo removed from the Dragon Valley mausoleum and transported to Hanlong Pass. Then Luo Hu would personally escort the two coffins to the Western Heaven Prefecture in India for burial!

Western Heaven Prefecture was a fine place for burying people... guaranteed passage to the Western Paradise!

Luo Hu and Luo Ke, escorting the coffins of Li Zicheng and Li Guo, were almost the last to leave Hanlong Pass and set foot on the soil of Mubang Prefecture in Burma.

And on the very day after their departure, a sun-and-moon banner was already fluttering proudly above Hanlong Pass!

This meant that the great chaos of the Ming realm that had begun in the final years of Wanli had at last been brought to a full stop.

The Ming was finally unified! All lost territory had been recovered, and the Ming Empire was at last whole!

The Ming troops who had recovered Hanlong Pass, even as they set up defenses, dispatched fast riders toward Kunming Prefecture, carrying this long-awaited good news for all the people of the Ming up Wuhua Mountain, and reported it to the Crown Prince Zhu Hexing and the Crown Princess Ding Yuying.

"Your Highness, this consort congratulates you... the Ming has finally been unified in your hands!" The Crown Princess, who had accompanied her husband on the southern campaign and shared in the management of military and civil affairs, was also somewhat overcome with tears of joy, her eyes glistening.

The campaign to pacify Yunnan was one they absolutely could not afford to lose!

And not only could they not lose — they had to win it handsomely!

The present result was still fairly satisfactory. Although it had taken a bit over a year from start to finish, with a long period of preparation beforehand, and although there had been no earth-shaking decisive battle, still — the skilled warrior wins no dazzling victories!

Anyone who truly understood military affairs would recognize the brilliance of Zhu Hexing's generalship... from beginning to end, he had not given the enemy a single opening. Whatever stratagem Luo Hu employed, it was like ramming one's head against a rock — apart from a bloodied, broken head, there was no other outcome.

Moreover, pacifying Yunnan was not only a military campaign, but also an economic reckoning and a political struggle!

The hardest part was not taking the province, but holding it, holding it securely, and not losing too much money in the process... and also having to settle matters on every side, to build up and bring under control the feudal forces of Yunnan — only then could there be lasting peace and stability.

To have arranged all this work properly in just over a year already showed that the couple Zhu Hexing and Ding Yuying had not disappointed Zhu Cilang.

Zhu Hexing's eyes were also glistening with tears. His position as Crown Prince was now secure!

He smiled and said to his wife: "Yuying, write a memorial to Imperial Father... report the victory to Imperial Father. We have not failed his expectations — Yunnan is pacified!"