Chapter 53 Arrangements for the aftermath (Part 1)
Gao pragmatically knew something about the White Lotus Sect, which was considered famous in later generations. When he first read novels in his previous life, he always saw that the White Lotus Sect was causing trouble in the Ming Dynasty. Later, he discovered that not only the Ming Dynasty, but even in the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, the White Lotus Sect was also very...
After a few waves of existence, Gao Pragmatic was quite surprised that a White Lotus sect had been tirelessly carrying out the cause of rebellion for hundreds of years. Only then did he pay some attention to this extremely tenacious sect, so he spent some time on a rest day in the afternoon.
I took the time to look up the historical materials of the White Lotus Sect.
You wouldn’t know if you didn’t look it up, but you’ll be surprised when you look it up and you’ll find that the earliest source of the White Lotus Sect can be traced back to the Southern Song Dynasty. Its founder was Wujun Shamen Mao Ziyuan. By the Yuan Dynasty, the White Lotus Sect had further developed and was known as the “Thousand Branches”
"Ten thousand leaves permeate the universe", and the White Lotus Sect of the Ming Dynasty is naturally the inheritance and development of the White Lotus Sect of the Yuan Dynasty.
Although due to well-known reasons, the White Lotus Sect has been banned since the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, it has been banned repeatedly. Its power has developed like a prairie fire, almost all over the country, in Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Shaanxi, Henan, Jiangsu,
There are activities in Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Fujian and other places. Of course, the leaders respected by these White Lotus believers are not necessarily the same person, which means that there are also factions among them.
The Mobei White Lotus Sect mentioned by Cao Gan, according to a high pragmatic understanding and analysis, should mainly flow in from Shanxi and other provinces close to Mobei. For example, Li Fuda, a native of Guoxian County, Shanxi during the Zhengde Period, participated in the creation of Wang Liang and Li Yue
He was involved in rebellion activities and was guarded after the incident. Before that, his grandfather also "used illusions to follow Liu Qianjin and Monk Shi to cause trouble in Chenghua." It can be seen that in the White Lotus Sect, it is still popular for sons to inherit their father's legacy.
Because it was close to the border, in order to strengthen and expand their power to compete with the imperial court, these people used the Mongolian forces that had retreated to Mobei to fight against the official army. In the 24th year of Jiajing, Luo Tingxi and others from Yingzhou, Shanxi, used the White Lotus Sect to confuse the public, "
Because of the plan, he invited the young prince to enter the fortress, use his troops to attack Yanmen, capture Pingyang, and set up Chongzhuo as the leader. He planned to kill the young prince." In the 30th year of Jiajing, the leaders of the White Lotus Sect Xiao Qin, Lu Mingzhen and their companions
Many people led the Mongolian army to invade the border. In the 36th year of Jiajing reign, Yan Hao, the leader of the White Lotus Sect in Yuzhou, Northern Zhili, and others went in and out of Mobei and leaked border information to the Mongols.
From this point of view, these people led the invaders into the country and harmed the Han compatriots. They were guilty of the same crime as traitors, and they all deserved to be killed.
But Gao Pragmatic is not a young angry young man, he is an old angry young man who has been in politics.
The characteristic of young angry youth is: as long as you have committed the crime of being a traitor, you will be punished by death, and you must be executed immediately. Don't mention anything else. When you get the opportunity, you will kill and kill. Kill them all, so that I don't have to worry about it.
It looks upsetting.
The attitude of the old angry young man is different: Even if you have been a traitor, and even now you are still working hard to be a traitor, as long as you are still valuable, I dare to use this trick and let you survive for a few more days while I wait.
It’s not too late to kill you after draining all your value.
This group of White Lotus believers are willing to act as traitors in order to rebel, and they should all deserve to die. However, Gao Pragmatic will first consider it from another angle, such as using them to speed up the sinicization of Mongolia in order to achieve his plan to gradually control Mongolia through economic and political means in the future.
For this "lofty ideal", Gao Pragmatic is willing to let them live a little longer.
While the Ming Dynasty was cracking down on the frequent harassment and plunder by the Mongolian forces in Mobei, it also adopted some restrictive policies such as allowing "tribute" and opening the "horse market". Although these measures also stabilized the situation to a certain extent.
The Mongols' economy was in jeopardy, but at the same time, the population flow between Mongolia and Han became more frequent and expanded.
In this kind of population flow, on the one hand, some Mongolians followed the tribute team into the Ming Dynasty border and stayed in the interior. For example, in the early years of Zhengtong, more than 10,000 people settled in the capital; on the other hand, it was also accompanied by a large number of Han people moving northward.
.Except for some of the border residents who were plundered by the Mongolian army, the rest are so-called "defectors". In fact, most of these "defectors" are White Lotus believers in the border areas. Most of these White Lotus believers
Coming from Shanxi, they fled from the interior to the Mobei border in order to avoid the imperial court's suppression and pursuit. History books say that "the White Lotus Sect numbered 10,000 people during this period."
These White Lotus believers who fled to Mobei haunted the Central Plains and Mobei border areas. Although they sometimes led the Mongolian army to invade and plunder, they also leaked the situation in the Central Plains to the outside world, and actually acted as traitors. But in turn,
You see, it also played an invisible role in promoting the Sinicization of Mongolia.
For example, the "Chinese traitors" led by Qiu Fu and Zhao Quan fled north to avoid the Ming Dynasty's suppression. They brought advanced production technology from the Central Plains with them, reclaimed land locally, built houses, and taught manufacturing techniques.
The construction of cities, settlements and agricultural production on the desolate grassland turned the former nomadic resort with "sweet water and grass" into a "Bansheng" outside the Great Wall with numerous palaces and cities and thousands of hectares of fertile land. The Mongols therefore transformed from a backward nomadic economy to an advanced one.
Agricultural economic transition and transfer.
At first glance, the Mongols seem to be stronger and more difficult to deal with. However, Gao Pragmatic knows that the settled Mongols are far less scary than the nomadic Mongols. When the Mongols settle down and want to fight with the Han people,
Just use your own shortcomings to attack the enemy's strengths - if you can't beat them, just move thousands of miles away. How troublesome is it to chase them? Moreover, the Ming Dynasty's firearms, especially artillery, are almost ready to fight when faced with the Mongolians who can't beat them and run away if they can't be beaten.
There is no room for display, but once the Mongols build a city and live in it, with a large amount of goods in the city, and they are reluctant to give up, then the Ming Dynasty's heavy firearms can be used to attack the city. In this way, the effectiveness will be obvious.
Gao Pragmatic felt that if the Ming Dynasty after his own magical transformation could not even handle the settled Mongolia, then this plan to save the Ming Dynasty would be meaningless.
Therefore, he asked about the situation in Bansheng City in detail. Cao Gan knew that the Ming Dynasty had always attached great importance to the rebellion of the White Lotus Sect, and he thought Gao Jingshi did the same, so he told Gao Jingshi everything he knew, which really made Gao Qingshi happy.
Pragmatically learned a lot about the development of the White Lotus Sect in Mongolia.
The two chatted for a while. Gao Pragmatic, who was used to making long-term plans, was fine, but Cao Gan lost his temper and said, "Master, since I have taken refuge with the young master, there is one thing that I still need to do with the young master."
Make a decision as soon as possible.”
"What's the matter?"
Cao Gan said: "Will Bailixia continue to maintain the current situation in the future, or does the young master have other plans?"
"Let's maintain the current situation for the time being. Don't worry that I will ask you to stop. I can tell you a little bit about the situation above." Gao Pragmatic pointed at the roof with his index finger and said: "For trade with Mongolia
There are disagreements in the court about this matter, but...some senior ministers believe that only by doing more business with Mongolia will the Mongolians' livelihoods improve. When their livelihoods improve, they will not be obsessed with plundering the Han. Of course.
, the premise here is that we ourselves have to refresh ourselves. If there is no fighting ability, and the Mongols find that robbery is more cost-effective than doing business, they will still come. Only when they feel that war and robbery is a loss-making business, and do it honestly
The business is quite profitable, so they are willing to stay in Mobei obediently and do not dare to think of going south to herd horses."
