Xianxia version of Water Margin

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The thirty-seven tribes and twenty-two states of Wuman in Yunnan were quickly pacified by Shi Bao and others, and the Dali area was completely incorporated into the territory of the Yuan Empire.

After the Yuan Empire recovered the Dali Kingdom, its territory had exceeded that of the Tang Dynasty, becoming the dynasty with the largest land area in Chinese history.

However——

Jiang Hongfei's expansion did not stop because of this.

In the twenty-second year of Hongwu, Jiang Hongfei appointed Shi Bao as the commander-in-chief, transferred General Lu back to the Indochina Peninsula to serve as the Central and Southern Envoy, and then sent two armies to attack the Li Dynasty with the cooperation of the Yuan navy led by Zhang Shun and Li Bao.

The current actual ruler of the Li Dynasty, Queen Mother Li (Li Shenzong died, and his eldest son Li Tianzuo succeeded to the throne, and was Li Yingzong. When Li Yingzong succeeded to the throne, he was only three years old, and Queen Mother Li was regent.), hurried to find her favorite Du Yingwu (the younger brother of Li Shenzong's mother, Queen Mother Du) to discuss countermeasures.

Du Yingwu believed that the Dali Kingdom was so submissive to the Yuan Empire that it was destroyed. Their Li Dynasty had a great grudge against the Central Plains Dynasty and was the biggest threat to the Central Plains Dynasty in the Indochina Peninsula. The Yuan Empire would definitely not let the Li Dynasty go. It was useless to surrender and seek peace. It was better to fight the Yuan Empire with the whole country.

A few decades ago, the Li Dynasty was threatened by the Song Dynasty. Li Renzong Li Qiande ordered Li Changjie to lead the navy and Zong Dan to lead the army to invade the Song Dynasty. They conquered Yong, Qin and Lianzhou, killing and setting fire everywhere. More than 50,000 people died in the Song Dynasty, and about 50,000 people were captured. This triggered the Song-Vietnam Xining War. Both sides won and lost. Later, the Song and Yue sides negotiated peace, and the Song army returned north. This war, which lasted for a year and a half, ended just like that. After that, the Li Dynasty paid tribute to the Song Dynasty as before. Song Zhezong promoted Li Qiande to the King of Nanping. The two sides maintained superficial peace.

The Queen Mother Li relied most on Du Yingwu. In fact, her own ability was average, and she was about to be sidelined by Du Yingwu, so she could only listen to Du Yingwu.

So, Du Yingwu gathered 8,000 war elephants and 300,000 troops with the whole country's strength to resist the attack of the Yuan Empire.

But spiritual weapons are the natural nemesis of timid war elephants, and apart from the weakness that war elephants are afraid of spiritual weapons, the military strength of the Yuan and Li armies is not at the same level at all. Therefore, Du Yingwu was defeated without suspense. The Queen Mother Li, the royal family and clan of the Li Dynasty, including Du Yingwu's clan, were all captured by Shi Bao and others, and sent to Yuan Dadu to be presented to Jiang Hongfei. The Li Dynasty was soon incorporated into the territory of the Yuan Empire.

Indochina, this fertile land surrounded by the Strait of Malacca, has always carried endless desires and disputes.

Jiang Hongfei was actually determined to win the Indochina Peninsula. His eyes had already penetrated the clouds and locked tightly on this strategic location.

For Jiang Hongfei, the Indochina Peninsula is not only a geographical coordinate, but also the key to the lifeline of the Yuan Empire's maritime trade.

Once the Strait of Malacca, the throat connecting the East and the West, falls into the hands of the enemy, the marine economy on which the Yuan Empire depends for its survival will suffer a fatal blow.

Therefore, Jiang Hongfei's ambition, like an undercurrent, quietly but firmly points to this land.

As early as several years ago, Jiang Hongfei had begun to lay out his intention to incorporate the Indochina Peninsula into the territory of the Yuan Empire.

However, this is not an easy task.

Although the countries on the Indochina Peninsula are small, their combat power is not bad. Not only have they never troubled the passing merchant ships, but they have paid tribute every year and come to congratulate every year, making it difficult for the Yuan Empire to find a legitimate reason to send troops.

What makes Jiang Hongfei even more headache is that in order to completely control the Strait of Malacca, he must conquer all the countries on the peninsula one by one-Li Dynasty, Champa, Angkor Dynasty, Srivijaya, Queen's Kingdom, Dharabhati, and Pagan.

Faced with such a situation, the Yuan Empire adopted a more covert and complex strategy.

They used their status as a suzerain to cleverly sow the seeds of conflict and suspicion among these small countries.

Sometimes, they would deliberately assign a piece of territory to two or even three countries, causing territorial disputes;

Sometimes, they would intensify cultural conflicts between countries through differences in religion and folk customs.

Although these methods were not clever, they were extremely effective, and the wars on the Indochina Peninsula continued.

In particular, the open and secret struggles between the Ly Dynasty, Champa, and the Angkor Dynasty, as well as the feud between Dharapatti and the Queen's Kingdom, plunged the entire peninsula into endless disputes.

The feud between Dharapatti and the Queen's Kingdom is particularly fascinating.

The former was established by the Mon people, and the latter was dominated by the Thais. There was a deep ethnic gap between the two countries.

Coupled with the many territorial disputes and wars in history, the hatred between the two countries was like a prairie fire that was difficult to extinguish.

Among them, the most tragic battle was when Dharabhati sent 20,000 troops to attack the Queen's Kingdom, but almost all of them were annihilated by the Queen's poisonous arrows.

This battle not only deepened the hatred between the two countries, but also greatly damaged their national strength.

However, even in such a chaotic world, the small countries on the Indochina Peninsula did not seem to realize the true intentions of the Yuan Empire.

They were still obsessed with fighting each other, and some even speculated that these countries might be deliberately creating chaos in order to resist external threats through internal unity.

But this speculation was soon shattered by reality.

Just like the eve of the Jin and Song dynasties facing the Mongolian iron hoof.

Both the Song and Jin dynasties were well aware of the danger of destruction, and there were wise men who proposed an alliance to resist together, but regretted that the old grudges were difficult to resolve, and the Southern Song Dynasty even added insult to injury when the Jin Dynasty fell.

Today, the Yuan Empire has sent troops to the Queen's Kingdom, and Dharabhati has not only not shown any help, but has greedily plundered its territory and population in its time of crisis.

When the Yuan Empire finally showed its fangs and began to conquer these countries one by one, they suddenly realized it, but it was too late.

In short.

The countries on the Indochina Peninsula all thought they were very powerful.

Especially the Angkor Dynasty, which thought it was powerful, had 200,000 war elephants, unlimited financial resources, and a territory "east to the sea, west to Pagan, and south to Karossi", and had been competing with the Li Dynasty for Champa.

As a result, after sweeping Champa, the Yuan army was attacked by the Angkor Dynasty. Its king Suryavarman II led the country's troops (a million) and took the initiative to fight the Yuan army.

As a result, they were defeated by the Yuan army.

The Yuan army then turned its attention to the Queendom.

The queen, Hariphunchai XVII, who had just ascended the throne, was young and energetic, and she was confident that her poison arrows were powerful, and wanted to compete with the Yuan Empire.

However, she was a frog in the well, and had no idea that their poison arrows would be so pale and powerless against the red cannons and thunder chariots of the Yuan Empire.

The Yuan army wiped out the 100,000 troops of the Queen's Kingdom in a short time and approached the capital.

Faced with such a desperate situation, the ministers of the Queen's Kingdom had to launch a mutiny and offer Hariphunchai XVII and his royal family members to the Yuan Empire in order to protect themselves.

The fall of the Queen's Kingdom made Dharabhati feel an unprecedented crisis.

However, it did not choose to unite with the Queen's Kingdom to fight the enemy, but formed a military alliance with Srivijaya behind it.

But such an alliance seemed so fragile in front of the powerful Yuan army.

In just over two months, Dharabhati and Srivijaya were successively annexed by the Yuan Empire.

So far, the Strait of Malacca that Jiang Hongfei had dreamed of finally fell completely into the control of the Yuan Empire.

Immediately afterwards, the Yuan Empire ignored the repeated requests for peace from King Rathihapati of Pagan and resolutely launched a land and sea expedition.

Since the death of Jiang Xidao, the royal power of Pagan has changed. The kings have either indulged in luxury and pleasure or indulged in temple construction. The people's strength has been exhausted and the country's power has gradually declined.     After Rathihapati ascended the throne, his tyranny caused widespread rebellion. The mystery of his life experience added to the discord between brothers, and he could only suppress it with an iron fist.

At this time, the Shan forces rose in the north of Pagan and continued to invade, making Pagan worse.

Faced with the Yuan cavalry sweeping across East Asia and Southeast Asia, Pagan was unable to resist, and eventually Indochina became part of the territory of the Yuan Empire.

…

The Yuan Empire's brilliant achievements were unprecedented in history, and the whole country should celebrate and join in the celebration.

However, under this seemingly impeccable glory, the empire's backbone ministers looked worried and uneasy.

Their worries were not groundless, but came from the unknown undercurrents deep in the empire.

From the perspective of its vast territory, the Yuan Empire has undoubtedly stood at the pinnacle of history. Jiang Hongfei's reputation can even surpass that of Qin Shi Huang, Han Wudi, and Tang Zong.

But in this seemingly indestructible empire, there are actually hidden dangers everywhere.

In particular, the newly incorporated Indochina Peninsula has become a huge stone in the heart of the empire.

The land of Indochina is intertwined with Thai, Mon, Burmese, Shan and other ethnic groups. Ethnic conflicts are deeply rooted, and some have even lasted for thousands of years and are difficult to reconcile.

And religious issues are like adding fuel to the fire, making the situation more complicated.

Buddhism, the dominant religion in Indochina, is further divided into Mahayana and Hinayana sects, which are incompatible with each other.

Coupled with the intervention of Brahmanism, the conflict between religions has intensified and almost reached the point where it cannot be resolved.

Back then, the Li Dynasty changed dynasties because of the exclusion of Brahmans, which led to the displacement of Buddhists.

This historical legacy still affects the stability of Indochina.

What is more difficult is that with Jiang Hongfei's conquest of Indochina, a large number of women from the royal family, royal family, clan and clergy were included in the harem.

Most of these women have firm beliefs, and some are even high-ranking priests or saints. Their arrival undoubtedly adds a bit of strange color to Jiang Hongfei's harem.

In the harem, these women have their own thoughts and try to spread their religious beliefs under the protection of Jiang Hongfei, turning the harem into their own holy places.

What's more, some even want to pull Jiang Hongfei into the religion and respect him as the leader.

Faced with such chaos, Jiang Hongfei did not get angry, but showed his wisdom and tolerance.

He ordered all women to take off their clothes and kneel in a row, regardless of their beliefs, and treat them equally.

Afterwards, he personally punished them to serve as a warning to others, and set rules for freedom of belief in the harem: freedom of preaching, but never forcing or infighting.

Although Jiang Hongfei did not believe in religion, he had awe for it.

He knew that throughout history, many wars had been caused by religion, and they were often protracted and difficult to quell.

Therefore, he chose to resolve this potential crisis with tolerance and wisdom.

In his opinion, it would not be a bad thing if the women in the harem could have some faith and participate in religious activities.

At least, this would allow them to find some comfort in their boring harem life.

However, this little episode in the harem made Jiang Hongfei realize the severity of the religious issues in Indochina.

Imagine, if such problems spread throughout the Indochina, what a disaster it would be?

Fortunately, Jiang Hongfei did not come unprepared.

He knew that to govern such a complex region, not only powerful military force but also wise strategies were needed.

So, the Yuan Empire promulgated a series of religious laws and regulations aimed at maintaining religious harmony and social stability.

The two most important constitutions are: 1. Government officials must be non-believers. Once they are found to have joined any sect, they will be dismissed immediately; 2. No religion may have armed forces. Once discovered, they must be eliminated.

The introduction of these two constitutions fundamentally eliminated the possibility of religious interference in politics and ensured the independence and integrity of secular power.

In addition, the Yuan Empire also encouraged the spread of loyalty to the emperor, patriotism and atheism.

In addition to religious issues, the Indochina Peninsula also had complex ethnic conflicts, backward slavery, and the resettlement of a large number of surrendered troops that needed to be resolved.

But Jiang Hongfei did not back down. He formulated a series of national policies to deal with these challenges.

He liberated all slaves in the Indochina Peninsula, bringing them freedom and hope; he formulated a plan to relocate 20 million Han people to the Indochina Peninsula to strengthen ethnic integration and cultural exchanges; he also relocated nobles from various countries to the interior to eliminate potential resistance.

Finally, he used the railway as a link to closely connect the Indochina Peninsula with the Yuan Empire, making it an inseparable part of the empire.

However, the ministers of the Yuan Empire did not relax because of this.

They knew that the implementation of these policies and plans required extremely high governance levels and capabilities. A little carelessness could lead to a greater crisis. In particular, the huge army reorganized from the surrendered army was like a huge gunpowder barrel. Once it exploded, the consequences would be disastrous.

Moreover, the Yuan Empire, although strong and rich, faced unprecedented challenges.

Its huge military force had reached 3.5 million people, and the annual military expenditure was as high as 140 million strings, which almost swallowed up the empire's financial bottom line in peacetime.

Imagine that during the heyday of the Zhao Song Dynasty, the annual tax revenue could hardly support such military expenditure.

And this was only in peacetime. If it was wartime, it would be even worse. The cost would definitely double, approaching the 200 million string mark.

What worried the court officials even more was that Jiang Hongfei's ambition to expand abroad was not yet complete. He actually secretly ordered the army to gather in the southwest and Mobei, indicating that a new war is about to begin.

The wheel of the Yuan Empire's expansion is rolling forward, when will it stop?

Some people privately discuss that the real threat to the Yuan Dynasty may be this wise ruler himself.

Even more, they worry that Jiang Hongfei, as the founder of the empire, may bury this glorious foundation with his own hands.

The future of the Yuan Empire is shrouded in an unknown cloud...

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