"You mean … to confer titles separately?"
After listening to Ma Cheng's words, Xiao Ruxun looked at Ma Cheng.
"Yes, in my opinion, since the former Ming Dynasty has conferred the position of Annan Commander, we can completely change it. The Mo Clan actually occupies the Gaoping area. Although it is only a small piece of land, it can still be conferred the title of Gaoping Commander. If the Li Clan wants the King of Annan, we can confer it to them. There is no relationship between the King of Annan and the Gaoping Commander."
Xiao Ruxun was very satisfied with Ma Cheng. He was very sensible.
"This … does it mean that the Gaoping Commander will be directly under the rule of Daqin, and the King of Annan will only rule the south of Gaoping?"
Li Tingji reacted and was immediately fascinated by Ma Cheng's idea.
This openly invading other people's territory can really be done in such a justified way!
"That's right, why not?"
Ma Cheng didn't care about Li Tingji's opinion.
Li Tingji looked at Xiao Ruxun and said hesitantly, "After all, Annan is my vassal state. In this way, I'm afraid they will protest."
"Protest? Why should they protest? Don't they want the King of Annan? Didn't I confer it to them? What other objections do they have? What other objections do they dare to have?
In those years, Emperor Chengzu of the former Ming Dynasty destroyed them and established state and county rule, which was later abolished. Annan has been the territory of Huaxia since ancient times. If they still have any objections, I will send the army south to negotiate with them. "
Xiao Ruxun didn't care about Annan at all. Besides, since he was responsible for cleaning up the mess of the former Ming Dynasty, he couldn't refuse the benefits.
Emperor Jiajing was not a fool. He directly lowered the status of the country and legally brought Annan into the rule of the Daming, which meant that the Daming had legal ownership of the territory of Annan.
This fact had not changed until now. The Mo Clan still had the title of Annan Commander.
Now that the two clans were fighting, it was difficult for Daqin to handle, so they could only deal with it in this way. Both sides could get benefits, and both sides could get what they wanted.
What the Mo Clan wanted was to struggle at death's door. They didn't dare to hope to unify Annan, while the Li Clan wanted nothing more than the name of legitimacy. Now that both requirements were met, what else did they want?
Want to resist?
Do you think the suzerainty of the suzerain is just for show?
Since ancient times, the suzerainty of the Central Dynasty was not just for show. It could be used frequently. If a vassal state wanted to be ruled in the name of orthodoxy, it must be conferred by the Central Dynasty. Only then could it be justifiable. The suzerain was equivalent to the head of the vassal state. It had the right to decide and interfere.
When a vassal state has internal strife, the Central Dynasty, as the sovereign state, has the right to send troops to intervene. This is reasonable and legal. If a vassal state dares to resist, it will be a great disrespect, and the sovereign state has the right to directly send troops to annihilate it.
However, this power was not often used by the suzerain. This was because the suzerain did not have nothing better to do. They paid attention to foreign affairs every day. Domestic affairs were more important. The disputes between small foreign countries were not worth the emperor's attention at all.
This time, Xiao Ruxun was also very angry. It was only because the Mo Group and the Li Group fought in the downtown area of Beijing that he had to gather people and waste precious time to discuss and deal with these problems.
Since the Mo Group and the Li Group dared to use him like this, they must be prepared to receive the wrath of the suzerain.
Twenty strokes of the cane was a small warning. If they dared to cause trouble again, it would not be as simple as a cane.
As for how to deal with it, that was the right of the suzerain. It was not allowed to interfere!
Therefore, very soon, Xiao Ruxun issued the imperial edict.
Chen Xie received the imperial edict and immediately announced it. Then, he grabbed the envoys of the Mo Group and the Li Group and began to flog them twenty times. They were flogged until their skin and flesh were torn and they cried out in pain. After the flogging, he announced the results of His Majesty's handling of the Mo Group and the Li Group.
He officially conferred the title of the King of Annan. He would enjoy the ruling power of Annan. It was quasi-hereditary. He would be a subject of the Daqin.
He conferred the title of the Commander of Gaoping. He would govern Gaoping. It was quasi-hereditary. He would also be a subject of the Daqin.
Both sides immediately stopped fighting. They were not allowed to fight in private. Otherwise, the Daqin would definitely send troops to intervene.
The envoys of the Mo Group and the Li Group were stunned. After a while, the envoy of the Mo Group was overjoyed. The envoy of the Li Group was shocked.
After the envoy of the Mo Group returned, he quickly sent someone to thank the Emperor of the Daqin. He accepted the conferment and immediately left Beijing for home.
The envoy of the Li Group once again sent someone to ask for an audience with the Emperor of the Daqin. As a result, he was told that the Emperor was busy with government affairs and had no time to see them. He asked them to get the conferment and go back as soon as possible. They should not stay in the capital to cause trouble.
The envoy of the Li Group was not reconciled. He begged his grandfather and grandmother. He wanted to spend money to open a way to visit the Emperor of the Daqin. As a result, he fell into the hands of the Investigation Department. The person in charge of bribery in the envoy group was beheaded. The others were beaten out of the capital and driven away.
The news spread very quickly. Soon, many people knew that the envoy of the King of Annan had offended the Emperor of the Daqin. It was estimated that he would be in trouble.
When the news was sent back to Zheng Song, a powerful minister of the Li Dynasty in Annan, he was also surprised and resentful.
How could he not see the trick played by the Daqin? They actually directly denied Annan's sovereignty over the Gaoping area. It was not a small area. It was a provincial establishment.
And now, most of it was under his governance. The Mo Group only controlled a small area the size of a palm, close to the border of the Daqin. They actually wanted to regain the sovereignty of the Gaoping area?
In their dreams!
Zheng Song had the intention to immediately mobilize the army to attack the Mo Group. He wanted to make this matter an established fact. He wanted to directly destroy the Mo Group and let the Daqin suffer in silence. However, before he could send troops, he was informed that Laos and Cambodia were separately conducting military exercises at the border. They had gathered tens of thousands of troops and horses. He did not know what they were thinking.
Zheng Song immediately understood that this was a warning from the Daqin to him.
In the past, when Xiao Ruxun was running his business in Myanmar, the pressure he exerted on the countries of Southeast Asia was very powerful. Even the insufferably arrogant Tung Yu Dynasty was destroyed. The King of Siam, Naresuan, was obedient to him, and the other small countries did not have any objections.
When Xiao Ruxun went on a northern expedition, the Mo Group, which controlled the Southern Pass area at that time, had lent Xiao Ruxun a way and befriended him. Now, it seemed that Xiao Ruxun was returning the favor.
Nowadays, the Li Group was not very stable internally. Zheng Song was in power, and it was not that there were no opponents in the court. The Ruan Group was very dissatisfied with him.
And the Ruan Group had many supporters. At this moment, if he rashly attacked the Mo Group and angered the Daqin, not to mention whether Laos and Cambodia would send troops, and not to mention whether the Daqin would send troops out of anger, there would certainly be people who would cause trouble internally.
Zheng Song considered it over and over again and decided to swallow his anger for the time being. After dealing with the internal problems and cleaning up the small separatist forces in the south, he would then deal with the Mo Group with all his strength. Now that he had obtained the title of King of Annam bestowed by the Daqin, his basic goal had been achieved.
With the righteous title in hand, wasn't it just a matter of saying a word to suppress anyone?
Thus, Zheng Song tacitly approved of the Daqin's arrangements for the Mo Group and tacitly approved of the Mo Group's struggling at death's door. However, the Gaoping region that had already been seized into his hands could not be taken back. He would definitely firmly control it.
Then, he told the puppet-like Emperor of the Li Group to come forward and accept the title bestowed by the Daqin and officially assume the position of King of Annam. Then, he would send an envoy to express allegiance to the Daqin.
The Emperor of the Li Group did as he was told and stabilized his position as King of Annam. In the north, where the remnants of the Mo Group's forces were entrenched, the local Emperor of the Mo Group finally returned to his own land. He announced his appointment as the Commander of Gaoping of the Daqin and established his rule over the Gaoping region.
In reality, it was only a county struggling at death's door. If Zheng Song did not cause trouble or provoke, the Daqin would not directly send troops to seize the Gaoping region.
At present, the southwest was about to be mobilized. What Xiao Ruxun wanted was stability, the stability of the surrounding environment, so that he could freely deploy troops to the southwest, thoroughly solve the local chieftain problem, reshape the region, establish a system of officials, and establish the Central Empire's direct rule over the area.
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