Chapter 1102 1097 [Semi-Chinese herdsmen in the Hexi Corridor]
The painters who made copies in various Buddhist caves were all recalled to Shazhou City.
The government also dispatched manpower to help them sort out the Dunhuang suicide notes. They spent a whole winter doing preliminary sorting, and then packed the boxes with seals and waited for transportation.
Among these documents, there is clear chronological data, and the latest date is the fifth year of Xianping, that is, during the Zhenzong period of the Song Dynasty.
That year, Bao Zheng was only three years old.
Also in that year, a war broke out between the Guiyi Army and the Ganzhou Uighurs. A mutiny broke out within the Guiyi Army. Cao Zongshou forced Cao Yanlu, Cao Yanrui and others to death, and while attaching himself to the Northern Song Dynasty, he also had good relations with the Liao Kingdom.
If this is just the case, it cannot explain why books are hidden in Buddhist caves.
Judging from the fact that more than 90% of the Dunhuang suicide notes are Buddhist scriptures, this behavior is most likely related to religion.
Four years after the civil strife of the Guiyi Army, the Kara Khanate destroyed Khotan!
If you want to analyze more information, the timeline must be pushed forward several decades.
At that time, the Kara Khanate, which originally advocated freedom of religious belief and mainly popularized Buddhism and Manichaeism, took the initiative to convert to Desert Religion in order to survive and expand in Central Asia. Followers of various religions fled eastward, bringing with them knowledge about Desert Religion.
Horror information.
As a result, the three major forces of the Guiyi Army, Khotan, and Gaochang Uighurs formed an alliance to jointly resist the eastward expansion of the Kara Khanate and the Desert Cult.
The Khotan and Gaochang Uighur coalition even took the initiative to attack and capture Kashgar. After that, they fought repeatedly in the Kashgar area for decades.
Later, when Khotan mobilized all its power to march westward, the Gaochang Uighurs also mobilized cavalry from across the country, and even borrowed troops from the Guiyi Army and the Ganzhou Uighurs. The four major Buddhist forces in the Western Regions joined forces to form a "Buddhist Holy War Alliance."
The king of the Kara Khanate died in the battle, and the eastern front troops assembled in Kashgar were also completely annihilated by the Buddhist coalition forces.
Its western front troops were fighting in Central Asia (Bukhara), and the general in charge happened to annihilate the army of the old enemy Samanid Dynasty. The frontline commander of the Karakhanate took advantage of the situation and became the new king, and returned with a great victory.
The Kara army and the servant armies of many Central Asian countries returned to fight back.
The king of Khotan was shocked and sent envoys everywhere to scare people.
None of the allies gave up their choice to watch the show. Not only did the Gaochang Uighurs send troops, the Guiyi Army also sent infantry, the Ganzhou Uighurs sent cavalry, and even all the Tibetan ministries sent troops to support.
From the Hehuang Valley, to the Hexi Corridor, to Hami, Hotan, and Turpan, the major forces quickly united together and launched a decisive battle with the Desert Cult's army in Kashgar.
The equipment of the Buddhist coalition forces was poor, especially the Tibetan army, which even had very few iron armors.
The armor and weapons of the Desert Cult army come from workshops in Talas, Samarkand, Isfahan, Braha, Ghazni, Herat and other places. Moreover, their war horses are extremely sacred and have great influence on Buddhism.
The coalition forces formed a comprehensive crushing attack.
The cavalry troops of the Gaochang Uighurs and Ganzhou Uighurs took the lead in abandoning their allies and withdrawing from the battlefield after suffering heavy losses.
The Tibetan cavalry also fled.
The infantry of Khotan and the Guiyi Army were quickly surrounded by the Desert Cult army after losing the coordination of their cavalry.
The Kingdom of Khotan collapsed a few years later.
The Gaochang Uighurs barely managed to protect themselves.
The heavy casualties of the Guiyi Army led to an imbalance in the internal factions, which led to mutiny and fratricide. The Ganzhou Uighurs took advantage of the civil strife in the Guiyi Army and wanted to expand their territory, so they soon started fighting with the Guiyi Army.
At the same time, many monks from various sects in Khotan who were persecuted fled to Shazhou and told everyone about the cruelty of the Desert sect.
Not only Buddhist believers, but also other religions in Shazhou feel that the end is coming. They don't know whether the Gaochang Uighurs can stop the expansion of the Desert Sect, and they don't know how long the Guiyi Army and the Ganzhou Uighurs will fight.
In this case, it makes sense to hide Buddhist scriptures in the secret room of the cave.
In that war in the Western Regions, Xixia was advantaged in vain. Both the Guiyi Army and the Ganzhou Uighurs failed to recover, which allowed Xixia to seize the Hexi Corridor very easily.
…
When the snow melted in spring, the painters returned to Luoyang.
The Dunhuang suicide notes and their copied paintings were loaded into more than twenty carts, and the army escorted them along the way.
"What are those?"
Zhou Cong opened the curtain and pointed at the grass grid in the distance.
The officer in charge of the escort said: "Grass grid is also called Shanghuang grid. Initially, the Supreme Emperor sent agricultural officers to make grids with straw on the edge of the desert around Yinchuan Prefecture, saying it could prevent the advancement of sand dunes."
"Is it effective?" Liu Cunzhong asked.
The officer smiled and said: "Straw can be used to feed livestock. At first, farmers and herdsmen were unwilling and did not believe it. The government promoted it for three years. Farmers and herdsmen living near the desert discovered that it was really useful, so they took the initiative in their free time.
Make square grids. It’s not just grass squares. In places where there is no straw, there are also bush branches. It started to be promoted in the Hexi Corridor last year, and it is estimated that it will spread to Shazhou this year.”
Zhou Cong had been copying murals in Shazhou for several years, so he naturally knew the pros and cons, and exclaimed: "If it can really prevent sand dunes from eroding farmland and pastures, the Emperor's method will be famous throughout the ages!"
The grass grid popularized by the Ming Dynasty did not force the planting of trees in the grid.
It's just a matter of tying up the squares. If there are weeds or shrub seeds that fall into the squares by the wind or carried by animals, they will grow naturally if the conditions are suitable.
Only at the edges of deserts where water is relatively convenient, the government will arrange for soldiers and civilians to plant trees.
Herdsmen and farmers are also willing to plant trees because the government has given a promise: as long as the main trunks are not cut down, when the trees grow up, ordinary people can cut the branches and use them as firewood.
Firewood is an important living material in these places!
The convoy stopped outside Ganzhou City. Since there was an army escort, they directly supplied military rations nearby.
Arima City is in the north of the city.
Herdsmen of various ethnic groups nearby will drive horses, sheep and other livestock for trade in the autumn when they are fat and strong.
It is spring now, and there are very few people selling livestock. They mainly sell dairy products, felts, and the furs of livestock that have been frozen to death in winter. By the way, I can buy some salt and seeds. Let alone the herdsmen here who know how to farm, even the herdsmen in Mobei
A small amount of food will also be grown to reduce the risk of famine caused by extreme weather.
Seeing the army escorting a convoy to a stop, herdsmen of all ethnic groups were not afraid and came one after another with dairy products and furs to sell.
The government did not force them to change their hairstyles, but only stipulated that men's clothes must be on the right side and women on the left side, and the reverse must be done when a relative dies in mourning.
In the first few years, the management was very strict, but in the past two years, the government has been too lazy to control it.
Because not all of the foreign races wear clothes with left lapels. In the Han area, some people wear clothes with left lapels backwards, and it has long been common for everyone.
As the Ming Dynasty became more powerful, officials and scholars paid less attention to how foreigners dressed.
The officer ordered his soldiers to stop the herdsmen, but did not disperse them directly.
The painters were about to rest outside the city. At this time, they all got off the carriage and went to see what the herdsmen were selling.
"What kind of skin is this?" Zhou Cong stopped in front of a herdsman.
The herdsman is from the Dangxiang ethnic group, but he can also speak Chinese: "The skin of a grass leopard (snow leopard). Last year when it snowed, a grass leopard got into the sheepfold and killed two of my sheep."
Zhou Cong asked: "How much?"
Dangxiang herdsman's eyes flashed, and he decided to extort money severely: "Three pieces of money!"
Afraid of frightening Zhou Cong, he quickly added: "Don't be too expensive for this husband. You see, the skin is not damaged. My two sons and I beat it to death with wooden sticks."
Zhou Cong was shocked by such a cheap price. He immediately checked the fur and paid for it: "There is indeed no damage. It is barely worth the three dollars."
Paying the money with one hand and delivering the goods with the other hand, both parties feel that they have taken advantage.
Zhou Cong happily put away the snow leopard skin and asked casually: "Which tribe are you from?"
The herdsman from Dangxiang laughed and said: "Why are we divided into tribes? Our place is called Yuhe Township. The herdsmen are classified into Baojia according to the number of households. When paying taxes to the government, the Baojia chief comes to collect them. The big herdsmen were killed by the officers and soldiers, and the pastures left behind
My family got a share. I received two sheep at first, and then two more. There were more than twenty sheep and one horse left, which were loaned to me by the government and were repaid last year."
"That's almost thirty sheep. Can we survive?" Zhou Cong asked.
A herdsman from Dangxiang said: "Those who are about to give birth, including the lambs, my family has more than 40 sheep. The first three years are tax-free, and the government also provides food relief when there is a white disaster. After the first few years, it is a good life."
The pastures allocated by the government to herdsmen were obtained from large herdsmen.
The livestock distributed and loaned by the government to herdsmen were seized from the Xixia army.
The Ming court did not allocate much money and supplies, but the herdsmen were very grateful. Because apart from allocating pastures and giving livestock, the government today does not have heavy taxes and servitude. It is not like Xixia who drove the herdsmen to death, and even forced the herdsmen to death.
The Lord has raised an army and rebelled!
There are various phenomena of exploiting the people in Han Dynasty. Are all honest officials here in Ningxia? Of course it is impossible, the officials here also exploit the people.
But no matter how exploitative they are, compared to Xixia, they are considered clean and honest.
With the brutal expropriation of Xixia as a reference, the herdsmen of all ethnic groups were extremely satisfied with the Ming Dynasty. They even felt that officials should exploit the people, and those who could not squeeze the herdsmen to death were good officials.
Today, there are no large herdsmen in the entire Ningxia region, only many small and medium-sized herdsmen remain.
If the bottom herdsmen have difficulty in living, they can also graze their cattle for the middle-level herdsmen. It is equivalent to the farmers cultivating their own land while renting the land under the name of the middle-level landlords.
In the blink of an eye, the Dangxiang herdsman sold another piece of leather, and said happily to Zhou Cong: "I was afraid of war before, and the government punished me severely. If someone from any family was selected as a regular soldier, he had to lead the army's horses home to raise them." If you die, you will lose everything. Now I am looking forward to fighting."
Zhou Cong was greatly surprised: "What are you looking forward to fighting for?"
Dangxiang herdsman said: "A few years ago, when the imperial court went on an expedition to the Western Regions, two of my sons were selected. One son worked as a farmer to help transport grain from Ganzhou to Shazhou, and he could earn wages. The other son served as an assistant. The soldier went to the Western Regions and stayed in the north of the Tianshan Mountains to serve as a cavalryman and was given a pasture. The government gave him a wife and sent him back two ounces of money last year."
"That's really a good deal." Zhou Cong nodded and said.
The herdsman from Dangxiang laughed and said: "My eldest grandson is strong and can ride a horse when he is only six years old. When he grows up, he will be sent to be a cavalry. Our Ming cavalry has a very high salary, and can also fight and serve as an official. In the past, in Not so in the Xia Kingdom. If you want to be an officer, you must at least be a small herdsman. We herdsmen have no hope of success even though we fight our best on the battlefield."
Zhou Cong listened to the other party speaking Chinese and wearing right-hand clothes. He felt that the Dangxiang herdsmen here would be completely Chineseized in two or three generations.
Of course, this is because they are close to Ganzhou City, and it is definitely not that easy for herdsmen in more remote areas to become Chinese.