"Why?" Li Xiao asked this question very curiously.

"Commander!

Southwest Tusi has existed for thousands of years.

They live in my Chinese land, but they are not my Chinese people, and they do not listen to the orders of my Chinese court.

For thousands of years, each chieftain has done his own thing. When there is peace, they pretend to join in and accumulate strength. When the storm is turbulent, they will take advantage of the situation and rise up.

As early as the time of Emperors Yan and Huang, their ancestor Chiyou was the great enemy of our Chinese nation.

Later, Qin destroyed Bashu and Emperor Wu destroyed Baiyue and leveled Jiaozhi.

They have been dormant for hundreds of years!

But Commander, don’t forget that Wuhu Luanhua was the first Di people from the southwest to establish the Wuhu nation.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, there were records of the Southwest Rebellion.

Nong Zhigao rebelled, and millions of Han people in the southwest were killed.

Even in our Ming Dynasty, Yang Yinglong rebelled during the Shenzong period.

It can be said that because the pressure from the barbarians in the north is great, we have ignored the hidden dangers in the southwest!

Throughout the dynasties, the main focus on the southwest was to appease it.

But how can these people, who are not of my race, be of the same mind as our Central Plains Dynasty?

They are dormant, just hoping to change the dynasty one day when they become powerful.

People like Nong Zhigao and Yang Yinglong are by no means isolated.

In the southwest, there are many people who have great dreams of the Spring and Autumn Period.

They have soldiers, guns, and the right to collect taxes locally.

But these taxes were not paid to the court.

Commander, the southwest is my Chinese territory. All taxes paid by everyone should be paid to my Ming Dynasty.

What qualifications do they have to annex the taxes that should originally belong to the imperial court?

Therefore, I advocate reforming the soil and returning to the current situation.

We must make Southwest China, like other places on our Ming Dynasty territory, respect the imperial court's orders and pay taxes for the imperial court.

so!

I asked my subordinate officials to force them to rebel. Only a one-time thunderous sweep of the acupuncture points can bring the southwest home as quickly as possible!

After the imperial army conquers the southwest, we can set up a school there and let the children there learn our Han classics.

Let them speak Chinese and learn Chinese characters.

After a few generations of this, they will be no different from the Han people in the Central Plains.

At that time, Southwest will truly belong to us. It will belong to the Ming Empire!"

When the old guy got excited, he stood up and started roaring.

The door was opened a crack, and Shunzi peered inside.

Li Xiao stood up, stretched out his hand and shook the old guy's hand.

There is some truth in what the old guy said. Matters in the Southwest should be solved bit by bit instead of slowly.

It would be better to solve it once and for all and let the court take back absolute control.

"Commander, our Ming Dynasty is no longer the Ming Dynasty it used to be. The population has exceeded 300 million. As the population grows, the land will definitely be unable to make ends meet.

The Ming Dynasty needs land, and it needs land dominated by our Han family.

It is precisely because of this that you set up troops in the northwest. It is also because of this that you desperately plunder wealth overseas.

They all want to save more for future generations!

Now that the barbarians in the north of the Ming Dynasty are no longer a scourge, efforts must be made to deal with the cancer of the southwestern chieftains.

Only in this way can we, the Ming Dynasty, truly unify the world."

"Mr. Sun, I just saluted you. You are right, every generation has its own mission.

What our generation can do well should not be left to the next generation."

"Old man Meng Lang, I thought they would tolerate it for a few more days. Thinking about it for a few days, I reported the matter to the commander.

But I didn't expect those southwestern chieftains to be so restless.

But that’s fine, our Ming Dynasty is at the peak of its military power. We can destroy the Southwest in one fell swoop, right now.”

"Today! This time I will go to Guangxi in person and defeat the Southwest in a battle. Let the Southwest become the true territory of my Ming Dynasty."

When the two most powerful people in the Ming Dynasty held hands together, the final solution to the rebellion in the southwest seemed destined.

When a rebellion breaks out in the southwest, the role of the Jinling Yangtze River Bridge becomes prominent.

Lines of supplies needed by the front line are continuously transported to the front line via railways.

Yuan Chonghuan, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, immediately established a wartime headquarters in Guangzhou.

Since the railway from Guangzhou to Nanning has been completed, Nanning is still in the hands of veteran Shang Zhixin.

Carloads of military supplies, as well as a large number of officers and soldiers of the Second Division, rushed to Nanning by train.

In recent years, the Second Division recruited troops, mostly from the south. Moreover, Yuan Chonghuan's successor, his nephew Yuan Baozhong, under Li Xiao's instructions, trained the Second Division into very outstanding mountain infantry.

Because the combat mission of the Second Division is in the south, including the southwest of this rebellion!

Thanks to the existence of the telegraph, the connection between the imperial court and Nanning and Chengdu was never interrupted.

When they learned about the movements of the imperial army, the rebels seemed to be divided.

Some of the rebels turned around and headed south, hoping to take advantage of the Second Division's unsteady foothold and capture Nanning directly.

Let the imperial court have no solid stronghold in Guangxi to use.

Another part of the rebels returned directly to their hometown in Yunnan and Guizhou.

For them, taking Liuzhou was already enough capital. Since they had no ambition to become emperor, they might as well go home with the spoils and live a comfortable life with their wives and children on the hot bed.

There are still some rebels who seem to want to occupy Liuzhou and won't leave.

In their opinion, there is food, drink, and women to play with, and this is paradise.

In comparison, the rebels who attacked Nanning were somewhat ambitious.

At least, they know that there are more money and more beautiful women in Nanning city.

On the airship, Li Xiao saw the rebels below marching on the ground like a meandering black dragon.

Looking down with a telescope, these rebels basically have weapons in their hands. The better ones have rifles, and the worse ones have firecrackers.

Many of the firecrackers looked a lot like the ones I used on Phi Island.

Li Xiao even saw a revolver that had long been out of print in the Liao army.

Originally this thing was a substitute that had to be tinkered with, but I didn't expect that people are still using it now.

Can we still find suitable bullets for this thing?

There were messy bullets fired from inside, and the bullets were useless against an airship flying at an altitude of five thousand meters.

I have never heard of a bullet being able to shoot so high.

"It's just a bunch of rabble! Dropping two Marine Corps divisions here is just killing a chicken with a knife."

Mr. Ao next to him put down his telescope and prepared to find some wine for a drink.

"Although the equipment is not very good, the advantage is more people. Look, there are hundreds of thousands of people scattered all over the mountains and plains!"

Li Xiao didn't understand why people like Mao liked to wear black clothes.

Looking at it from a high altitude, it looks like a large group of ants moving densely on the ground before it rains.

Suddenly, Li Xiao saw a long string of orange fire flashing on the ground.

"Anti-aircraft gun!" With many years of military experience, Li Xiao knew what kind of weapon it was when he saw the tail flame.

Anti-aircraft guns are standard airship killers.

Li Xiao felt his body sinking suddenly, and the scenery in front of him changed rapidly.

The airship that had just been accompanying him below immediately swayed its huge body to block him.

The airship he was riding in climbed quickly, but the airship beneath him quickly smoked and then caught fire!

Artillery fire on the ground can easily hit a flying airship.

Because the airbag of the airship is really too big.

When a hot shell hits the airbag, a large hole will immediately melt open due to heat.

If you are unlucky, you may even get a pair.
To be continued...