Li Yanxian said that the prisoners who were killed were all foreigners, but in fact many of them were Uighurs and had the same ancestors as the nobles of Gaochang.
During the Mid-Tang Dynasty, Mou Yu Khan led the Uighur army southward to help the Tang Dynasty regain Luoyang.
The Sogdians and the Manichaeans, who had been suppressed and struggled to survive, found new partners for cooperation. Many Manichaean monks followed Mou Yu Khan to Mobei.
Immediately, Manichaeism became the state religion of the Uighur Khanate.
The Sogdians helped the Uighurs formulate policies and develop their economy, while the Uighurs supported the Sogdians in spreading Manichaeism, such as asking the Tang Dynasty to build the "Dayun Guangming Temple" in major cities.
The accumulation of more and more wealth and the advancement of civilization made the Uighurs the first khanate in the northern grasslands to build large cities.
The negative effect is: the combat effectiveness of the army continues to decline!
Therefore, the Uighurs perished.
A group of Uighurs fled to the Khitan territory and changed their surname to Xiao. They also merged with the Xi people and developed into descendants of the Liao Kingdom.
One group fled to the Central Plains and was gradually assimilated into the Han people.
One group fled to the territory under the jurisdiction of Tubo. With the disintegration of the Tubo Empire, those living in Gansu were ruled by Xixia, and those living in Qinghai became Yellow-headed Uighurs.
One group fled to the border of Anxi and established the Gaochang Uighur Kingdom, still retaining Manichaeism as the state religion.
One group fled to Central Asia and established the Kara Khanate. While converting the area to Turks, the rulers also converted to desert religions. Moreover, many descendants of the Uighur tribes gradually became oppressed groups.
Judging from this evolution, Yelu Dashi, Gaochang Uighurs, Kara Khanate... they are actually all related by ancestors.
Yelu Dashi was able to quickly annex the Eastern Kara Khanate, and the descendants of the Uighurs who became an oppressed group made a huge contribution. They were originally dissatisfied with the rule of the Kara Khanate, and had even rebelled, directly taking the Yelu Dashi from the land of their ancestors.
Treat it as one of your own!
"Should all Uighur writing be banned?"
This is the main content of Li Yanxian's first memorial to the imperial court.
As winter turned to spring, the imperial edict was sent to Gaochang.
First, reward the soldiers of the three armies.
Second, the Anxi Protectorate was established, Wu Jie was the first Anxi Protector, and Li Yanxian was transferred back to the central government to serve as the left minister of the Ministry of War.
Third, officials have been sent to the Anxi Protectorate.
Fourth, official documents must use Chinese characters, while unofficial documents and scriptures of various religions are temporarily allowed to continue to use Uighur script.
Xinjiang is too far away and the religious power is too strong. In order to avoid one after another rebellion, Emperor Zhu did not carry out a one-size-fits-all approach this time.
Another important reason is the influence of Uighur writing.
The Xixia script was modified by imitating Chinese characters, and many Xixia scholars knew Chinese characters. The Jin script was even more clumsy, and they rarely used it themselves. The scripts of these two countries would be destroyed if they were destroyed, and they would not make any waves at all.
Uighur writing is different.
It borrowed letters from the Sogdians and has been developing for hundreds of years. Even the Manchu and Mongolian characters of later generations are derived from this alphabet.
Once it is banned directly, it will be equivalent to turning all the nobles, scholars and monks in the Gaochang Kingdom into illiterate!
Therefore, Ju Ming relaxed a little and allowed the Uighur script to appear in unofficial documents and scriptures. With the power of Chinese characters and official promotion, it would be a matter of time to kill the Uighur script. If you can win with culture, there is no need to rush to resort to it.
Force.
As the rule of the Ming Dynasty deepens, more and more local people will take the initiative to learn Chinese characters.
Those sent by the imperial court included not only administrative officials, but also many eminent Han monks.
These eminent monks are mainly Buddhists and Nestorians.
Emperor Zhu even directly banned Nestorianism in the Hexi Corridor and confiscated all the Nestorian temples there. The Nestorian monks were thrown into the Anxi Protectorate. Many of them had learned Chinese characters and were about to be assigned to Anxi.
Various Nestorian temples.
Buddhism and Nestorianism, which had the largest number of believers in the old Gaochang Kingdom and had the greatest influence among the people, were the main goals of Sinicization for the Ming Dynasty.
The imperial court even issued a time-limited order: Buddhist and Nestorian monks under the jurisdiction of the Anxi Protectorate, if they cannot read Chinese characters within five years, they are not allowed to hold important positions in temples. Within ten years, if a monk in a temple
If the literacy rate (Chinese characters) is less than 30%, the temple will be banned by the imperial court. Within fifteen years, all scriptures used publicly in the temple must be in Chinese characters!
In addition, the following content was also spread in the form of rumors. If other sects do not follow Buddhism and Nestorianism, and do not take the initiative to learn Chinese characters and chant sutras in Chinese, the imperial court will ban the spread of this religion in the future.
In disguise, various sects are forced to sinicize!
Anyway, don't worry about religious issues, just stick to Buddhism and Nestorianism - these two are the mainstream.
The Manichaeism in Gaochang has long been separated from the masses and lost its influence among the people because it has been the Uighur state religion for hundreds of years. It is completely different from the Manichaeism in the Han region. The former represents the interests of the nobles, while the latter is a professional rebel.
If both sides meet, they will definitely denounce each other as heretics.
Zoroastrianism also continued to decline, but it was just the opposite of Manichaeism.
Because Gaochang Manichaeism is separated from the masses, most of its believers belong to the upper class.
As for Zoroastrianism in Gaochang, the temples in the city have almost been demolished. They mainly exist in vast rural areas, and most of their believers are small and medium-sized nobles and ordinary people. And because of doctrinal issues, this religion cannot become big - it was given the name "Zoroastora" in Persia.
Nationalist characteristics, no matter how they are improved, will inevitably become more and more niche, so they are ostracized by all sects in the Gaochang area.
If the imperial court did not take the initiative to support Zoroastrianism, the religion would definitely die out naturally.
As for Gaochang Taoism, because it was too niche, the court was too lazy to take care of it, leaving it to the Uighur Taoist priests to enclose their territory for their own sake.
Shamanism and the like are similar to Taoism.
…
The snow melted and excess troops were evacuated.
Gaochang has a garrison of 6,000 troops and 25,000 immigrants.
Illinois has 3,000 troops stationed and 20,000 immigrants.
Shanshan has 800 troops stationed and 3,000 immigrants.
Datun has 800 troops stationed and 1,000 immigrants.
Yanqi has a garrison of 3,000 troops and 10,000 immigrants.
In Qiuci, there are 6,000 troops stationed and 10,000 immigrants.
Hotan, one thousand troops stationed, one thousand immigrants.
In Zhangbali, there are 5,000 troops stationed and 10,000 immigrants.
There are 20,600 troops stationed in the entire area under the jurisdiction of the Anxi Protectorate. However, there are only 10,000 fully-off-the-job field troops, and the remaining garrison troops are semi-off-the-job.
Accordingly, the Ningxia Governor's Mansion was transferred to Ningxia Province ahead of schedule, reducing the number of troops in the areas bordering Shaanxi.
The number of troops stationed in Shaanxi also decreased again.
The troops withdrawn from Shaanxi and Ningxia were all thrown into the jurisdiction of the newly established Anxi Protectorate.
The remaining provinces sending troops this time will also leave a small number of troops behind.
Because the relevant soldiers need to defend thousands of miles away, everyone will be compensated with money. If they want to bring their family members over, all the expenses will be borne by the court. If due to special circumstances, such as a brother dying of illness and becoming an only son, you can apply to stay in your place of origin and transfer.
Other troops.
Although there are 20,000 troops stationed in the Anxi Protectorate, in terms of the number of troops in the country, the actual increase in troops is only four to five thousand.
The expenditures in the past few years must have been huge, not only to transport military rations, but also to provide various materials for immigrants. But once the tax exemption period for immigrants has passed, plus the amount of taxes paid by local people, the Anxi Protectorate can do it
Become self-sufficient.
If there are casualties in the army here, priority will be given to replenishing them from Han immigrants.
Five years later, soldiers began to be recruited from local young men, but the annual recruitment ratio needed to be strictly limited.
Ten years later, recruitment can be opened up, but the proportion of Han people in each army must remain above 70% at all times.
This restriction can be lifted after the Protectorate is converted into a province, because that means that the degree of Chineseization in the Anxi area has been sufficient.
…
Wu Juyuan came from the suburbs of Kaifeng.
His father's name is Wu Song, and his first teacher is Wu Jialiang. He is the eldest son, so he is also called Wu Dalang.
Wu Jialiang helped pick this name, hoping that he would be named on the gold medal list and become an official.
It's a pity that Wu Juyuan is not a student, but he is good at martial arts.
He planned to join the army to seek a future, but his father Wu Song did not allow it, saying that he would be killed sooner or later.
Wu Juyuan's family has more than 200 acres of land, some of which was allocated by the government and some of which was bought by his father.
In addition to land, his family also opened an oil pressing mill.
In the past few years, there were constant floods and droughts. The imperial court restricted the sales of rice wine and encouraged private brewing of liquor. His father Wu Song took the opportunity to secretly brew rice wine for the rich in the city to secretly satisfy their greed.
Last year, because the liquor restriction was lifted, the business of privately brewing rice wine could not continue, so Wu Song recruited people to make liquor instead.
Moreover, the family also started to raise pigs, and the distiller's grains can be fed to the pigs.
There is a pig tyrant in Kaifeng, and he regularly goes to the countryside to buy pigs.
When facing Wu Song, the pig tyrant did not dare to lower the price too much. Firstly, Wu Song did not raise many pigs, and secondly, Wu Song had a great reputation. After several interactions, the pig tyrant even bowed to Wu Song.
son.
This kind of family can be considered a well-off family.
Moreover, with Wu Song's ability, it was very easy for the government to recruit civilian men for long-distance service and hire people to replace them.
But last year, this was not possible. Civil and military officials came directly from the household register, and a young man who was of the right age, had brothers in the family, and was single was forcibly recruited!
At first, Wu Juyuan only loaded grain and grass from Kaifeng onto the ship, but he could also take the ship all the way to Shaanxi.
Confused, I went to the Hexi Corridor to transport grain and grass back and forth between Guazhou and Suzhou.
In winter, the road was blocked by heavy snow, so he was left in Guazhou, saying that he could go home in the spring.
In the spring, just as he was about to leave, the government suddenly announced that the number of immigrants would be increased. Wu Juyuan was unlucky enough to be selected as an immigrant.
The other selected civilian husbands were crying all the way.
Wu Juyuan seemed a little excited. He was 18 years old. He had studied the Four Books and Six Classics, was proficient in new mathematics, and was very good at martial arts. However, his knowledge was still far from being a scholar, but his father Wu Song insisted that he continue to study.
He is not allowed to serve as a soldier. This time he goes to the Western Regions and he might be able to show off his talents!
Passing through hundreds of miles of uninhabited land, there are only five bitter springs along the way.
Such a harsh environment frightened other people into turning their faces pale, thinking that the entire Western Region was like this.
Finally, after going through all the hardships, they arrived in Yizhou and camped outside the city waiting for distribution.
After waiting for several days, Wu Juyuan was called over to queue up.
The clerk took the roster and whispered: "Wu Juyuan."
A sergeant with a loud voice next to him immediately shouted: "Who is Wu Juyuan?"
Wu Juyuan quickly ran out of the team: "I am Wu Juyuan."
The clerk asked: "Wu Juyuan, a native of Kaifeng, Tokyo, is eighteen years old this year. He has two adult brothers at home. Are you yourself? If you were hired for service, you can tell us now."
Who the hell dares to say that?
Even if he is on duty, he dare not say it openly.
"It's me." Wu Juyuan bowed.
The clerk smiled and said: "Looking at your words and deeds, you have still studied. Unfortunately, the places nearby have been filled, and you are the last two batches. Hotan and Datun are more difficult, so I will arrange for you to immigrate to Kucha.
"
At this time, Kucha City was on the Kuqa side of Aksu.
Wu Juyuan continued to stay in Illinois for a few days, and then set off with other immigrants.
There were more than 2,000 immigrants, and they were the last group to go to Kucha. I heard that the army, officials and previous groups of immigrants had already passed away.
Wu Juyuan was temporarily appointed as the battalion commander because he could write and calculate.
The person in charge of leading them was an officer, and the other temporary battalion commanders also had different backgrounds. Some of them were educated like Wu Juyuan, and some had participated in militia training.
At the same time, they also obtained supplies.
A large cart pulled by many mules, carrying grain, farm tools, seeds, clothing and ordnance.
The official who distributed the supplies said: "There are not enough cattle for the moment, so we will make do with mules and horses to plow the fields. As for the ordnance, check it first and replace it if it is damaged."
Yuan was overjoyed at the martial arts examination.
Not only did he receive a spear, a waist knife, a pair of leather armor, and a crossbow, but because he served as the temporary battalion commander, the government directly issued a war horse.
When Wu Juyuan saw the bow and arrow, he ran over and asked, "Can the crossbow be replaced with a horse bow? A foot bow is also acceptable."
"You know how to ride and shoot?" the quartermaster was quite surprised.
Wu Juyuan smiled and said: "I am skilled in bow and horse."
The quartermaster also smiled: "Qiuci is on the border. There may be a war, and you might be able to serve as a soldier in the future."
Wu Juyuan said: "I want to be a general in charge of the army!"
"Ha ha ha ha!"
"Have ambition!"
The other soldiers around him laughed and praised him.