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Jia-jing: Year 19, Month 6, Day 28

31 Jul 1540

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The Xian-ning Marquis Qiu Luan and the Minister Mao Bo-wen memorialized:

"Mo Fang-ying rebelled and certainly should be punished under the law. It is rumoured that he is already dead and some say that he was struck dead by a thunderbolt. His whereabouts are unknown. If they do not immediately submit, the arrangements for the expedition and pacification should be carried out together. Thus, from Guang-dong we will need to employ 36,000 Han and Tatar government troops as well as soldiers experienced on the seas, and from Guang-xi we will need 75,000 native troops. In addition, 380,000 shi of grain, 880,000 liang of silver and 600,000-plus horses will be required. It is requested that the native troops from Yong-shun and Bao-jing Pacification Superintendencies in Hu-guang as well as the naval troops from Zhang-zhou and Quan-zhou in Fu-jian be mobilized. It is also requested that the 23,700 liang of grain tax silver and the 107,000 liang from the salt and iron taxes which the Guang-dong Provincial Administration Commission has not yet forwarded to the capital treasury be retained for use, and that the administration commissioner of the right Hu Zong-ming and others as well as the chief officials of the various offices, prefectures, subprefectures and counties under Guang-dong/Guang-xi and Yun-nan, who are due to proceed to the Court, be exempted from making a personal appearance. It is further requested that, as Zhang Yue, who was originally the prefect of Lian-zhou and who has since been promoted to administration vice commissioner of Zhe-jiang, is very knowledgable in respect of the yi situation, he be transferred to a post in Guang-dong in the Hai-bei general administration circuit, to prepare for the attack."

The Ministry of War advised of the memorial and the Emperor approved all the requests, saying:

"I have already assigned the Annam expedition to these two ministers. I hope that the spirits have struck Fang-ying and his father dead. Even, if they are still alive, they will certainly soon die. All the living things in that distant place have long suffered bitterness and calamity, but Heaven's punishment has not yet been carried out. You officials are to immediately send notice that the two ministers are to devote themselves to making plans, so that total success can be achieved and the yi and the Chinese can be at peace. All the matters regarding the retention and employment of officials and the retention of taxes which were to have been sent to the capital are all to be handled as proposed. In future, when memorials concerning Annam military matters arrive, the relevant office is to re-memorialize them within three days."

It was also commanded that the silver from the grain taxes and from the salt taxes in Guang-dong for the 17th and 18th years of the Jia-jing reign, which would normally have been sent to the capital, be retained and used for military rations.

Shi-zong: juan 238.8a-b

Zhong-yang Yan-jiu yuan Ming Shi-lu, volume 81, page 4849/50

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Preferred form of citation for this entry:

Geoff Wade, translator, Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu: an open access resource, Singapore: Asia Research Institute and the Singapore E-Press, National University of Singapore, http://epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/reign/jia-jing/year-19-month-6-day-28, accessed January 22, 2019