Chapter 046 Tuotuo is willing to serve as the imperial envoy
Ten thousand fine cavalry were walking calmly on the grassland. It was Gao Pragmatic and Qataiji and his party. Apparently, Qiataji had been convinced by Gao Pragmatic and had now joined forces with him.
The highly pragmatic imperial envoy's honor guard is basically a decoration. His riding skills are quite good now, so he usually rides a horse to avoid slowing down the team.
His equestrian skills, in his own words, are fine in other aspects except for fighting on horseback. Not only can he gallop, he can even do a few tricks, such as hiding in stirrups for a short period of time.
This kind of thing is no longer a problem for him now.
Chatterji could only describe his performance as extremely surprised. Of course, after the surprise, he was filled with sincere admiration.
He knew Gao Jingshi's identity very well. He was the nephew of Duke Wen Zheng, a classmate of Emperor Wanli, the sixth number one scholar in the Ming Dynasty, the concubine of the left concubine of Zhan Shifu, and the attendant of the Hanlin Academy. Such a typical civil servant of the Ming Dynasty actually had good skills.
Riding skills, this is as magical as asking him to go to the Hanlin Academy to talk about learning and Taoism. It completely subverted his thirty years of views on the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty.
No wonder the Great Khan in the past never considered occupying the territory of the Ming Dynasty for a long time and sneered at the words of Zhao Quan and others who encouraged him. Now it seems that the Great Khan is still wise and wise. Whenever there is a high and pragmatic civil servant in the Ming Dynasty, Tumote will
There is no hope of accomplishing such a miracle.
How many such civil servants were there in the Ming Dynasty?
Chatterji didn't know, but he knew that at least there was one in front of him.
Forget it, for the sake of mutual trade, just give in on some things, it’s not a big deal. At least, Dacheng Taiji is also a direct bloodline of the Golden Family, and is a proud son blessed by the eternal god.
He was thinking about these things in confusion when suddenly he heard Gao Pragmatic beside him ask: "Is this area always like this?"
"Ah? Which one?" Qataiji looked in the direction of Gao Pragmatic's finger, only to see that it was an ordinary piece of grass in front of him.
Gao Pragmatic reminded: "Why are there still a lot of loess exposed on those grasslands, and not even grass is covered with them?"
Qataiji looked surprised and said: "Most of the pastures in Monan are like this. There are very few places covered with grass. At least it has been like this since I was a child."
"Really?" Gao Pragmatic frowned slightly, and thought to himself: There is a saying that "the Yellow River is full of harm, but only one set of wealth is rich." Isn't this where the front set of one of the "three sets" is located? Why is soil erosion so serious?
?
Gao Pangshi just asked this sentence, mainly because he remembered a statement on the Later World Internet, which believed that the Ming Dynasty extremely lacked strategic foresight, so it gave up on the Hetao. Especially later, I answered that in Tumochuan (belonging to the Qiantao area), we vigorously developed agriculture.
Later, this argument became even more popular, believing that the Ming court foolishly gave up large areas of strategically important territory.
Those who say this may have never seen China’s precipitation distribution map. In fact, the core territory occupied by the Ming Dynasty in Guannei, except for northern Shanxi and northern Shaanxi, is all within the 400 mm precipitation line.
The northern part of Shanxi is the two major border towns of Xuanfu and Datong, and the northern part of Shaanxi is the so-called three border towns of Shaanxi. These two places are typical military and national defense towns. It is impossible for them to support their own expenses.
It’s a blood transfusion from the Mainland.
The front, back and west sets of the Yellow River are actually outside the 400mm precipitation line.
These three places are collectively called the Hetao. Where are they specifically located?
"The Yellow River is blocked on three sides around the Hetao. The soil is fertile and can be cultivated. It is close to Yulinbao, Shaanxi Province (later Shaanxi Yulin), east to Shanxi Piantou Pass (later Shanxi Pianguan County), west to Ningxia Town (later Yinchuan), and east to west.
Two thousand miles; from Bianqiang in the south to the Yellow River in the north, the far one is eight or nine hundred miles, and the near one is two or three hundred miles." - This paragraph is from "History of the Ming Dynasty".
Okay, that still doesn't seem clear enough.
In fact, the Loop is the large bend in the Yellow River. The northeast corner of the outer bend is the front loop, the northwest corner is the back loop, and the west loop near Yinchuan is the west loop.
Not counting the outer part first, the inner part was called Henan by the Ming Dynasty because it was located south of the Yellow River. The approximate scope corresponds to the Mu Us Sandy Land, the Ordos Plateau, the Kubuqi Desert and the Hetao Plain in later generations.
It is a pity that most of the Hetao in the Ming Dynasty was outside the 400 mm precipitation line, so the precipitation in the Hetao was actually quite scarce and was not suitable for large-scale farming. Moreover, there is also the Mu Us Desert, one of the four largest deserts in China, within the Hetao.
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Until Gao Pragmatic crossed over, China was still investing huge amounts of money in afforestation in the Mu Us Desert. Therefore, the phrase "the soil is fertile and can be cultivated with mulberry" in "History of the Ming Dynasty" is very problematic. Even if it is not nonsense, it obviously does not mean anything.
Maybe it's such a large piece of desert.
There is such a large desert. You told me that the soil is fertile and can be cultivated with mulberry trees. Can you plow one of them and let me see?
Therefore, in the Hetao area, there are actually only three alluvial plains on the edge of the Yellow River that are suitable for farming and can rely on the river for irrigation. However, because the Yellow River once changed its course, the area in Yinchuan did not exist in the Ming Dynasty.
In other words, there is only a narrow area in the north of the big bend that can be used for agricultural cultivation.
If we compare it with the maps of later generations, from east to west, from Hohhot to Baotou, and then to the narrow strip of Bayannur, it is the front set plus the back set.
Qantao and Houtao are the so-called areas suitable for farming with fertile soil and arable mulberry trees. This is an enclave suitable for farming outside the traditional Han Dynasty.
Modern people often confuse these two geographical concepts. Some people probably think of this land thousands of miles away from Yinchuan in Ningxia to Yulin when they talk about Hetao. They even think that this large piece of land is a blessed land on earth with rich water and grass.
All in all, the Zhenhetao area in the Ming Dynasty was not suitable for farming. What was suitable for farming was actually the Fengzhoutan area outside the Yellow River to the north of the Yellow River, and it was also used for river irrigation. The water and grass near Ordos in the Hetao were rich, but due to precipitation
The amount is insufficient, so it is more suitable for grazing than farming. This area is near the area where "Taolu" often moved in the Ming Dynasty. It is also the place where Kangxi, the master of rabbit shooting in the Qing Dynasty, shot 300 rabbits a day.
At this time, it can basically explain why the Ming Dynasty did not occupy the Hetao: an area that is not suitable for farming, once it is occupied, a continuous supply of military supplies is needed to meet the needs of the garrison. For the Ming Dynasty, this was a piece of land.
Regions that cannot support themselves will become a huge financial burden.
The Daningwei established in the early Ming Dynasty was also a place that could not be self-sufficient and had to expend the energy of the four inland provinces to supply it. Therefore, if we take a look at the Hetao, it will inevitably become a huge financial burden if we occupy the Hetao.
If you really want to occupy it, then you might as well occupy Fengzhou Beach, which is the front area.
However, the problem is that Qiantao itself is also a farming enclave. It is a bit far away from the traditional Han Dynasty and does not directly border. It is separated from Datong and Xuanfu, which are the focus of defense in Shanxi Province, by large mountains. Whether it is military or military
Strategically, there were many problems. If the local garrison was stationed for a long time, the local garrison could easily become a lone army. Therefore, although Arimei sent troops to sneak attack and burned the city once, they did not occupy this place.
intention.
The above is just a geographical issue, let’s just talk about giving up the Loop.
In fact, the Ming Dynasty could not even talk about giving up the Loop, because the Ming Dynasty never actually controlled the Loop, so how could it talk about giving up?
In fact, in the early Ming Dynasty, the Hetao area was just a no-man's land that no one cared about. In the early Ming Dynasty, after the Yuan Dynasty withdrew its forces to the north, the number of Mongolians in the Hetao was sparse, so they directly took the step of converting the remaining areas in the Hetao.
The simple and crude policy of expelling or moving people to the inland - "In the fourth year, the general Tang Hebing attacked Chahannao'er, captured the fierce general Huchenzhenjun general Xie Cheng and others, surrendered them, and moved them into the inland, and the Hetao Suixu"
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In other words, the few remaining tribes were moved into the interior, artificially creating a no-man's land and turning it into a military buffer zone.
Many people in later generations, including perhaps some people in the Ming and Qing dynasties, regard the Ming Dynasty's abandonment of Dongshengwei as the Ming Dynasty's abandonment of the Loop. In fact, this understanding is a typical Zhuge Liang-style cognitive error.
The place where Dongsheng Guard was set up was also outside Tao, near Fengzhou Beach. In fact, in the early Ming Dynasty, this place was only a link in the Shanxi defense system. It was an outpost for the army to march from Shanxi in the early Ming Dynasty's elastic defense system.
It is not set up to defend and control the Loop.
Therefore, the abolition of Dongshengwei had nothing to do with Hetao. It was just a strategic adjustment. During the Hongwu and Yongle years of the early Ming Dynasty, it was impossible to foresee the civil changes and the troubles of Taolu. Zhu Yuanzhang and
It is true that Zhu Di can fight, but he is not a fairy after all. In their generation, because the Hetao was an uninhabited land, in fact, there was no need to fortify it at all.
However, a few years later, when the Tatars were oppressed by the Oara and had to move to the Hetao area, causing trouble with captives, the Ming Dynasty looked back and saw - Damn it! Why was such an important place like Dongshengwei abandoned?
?Why was such an important place like the Loop abandoned?
In addition, many people of later generations, even those in the Ming Dynasty, like to use the Han and Tang Dynasties as a comparison to "restore the Hetao". In fact, the Ming Dynasty is not very suitable to use the Han and Tang Dynasties to compare, because as the economic center of gravity moved southward, the capital
It is no longer in Guanzhong but in Beijing (this is actually not accurate. In fact, the first capital in the hearts of the Ming Dynasty was Nanjing, so after Chongzhen died, many officials went to Nanjing to commit suicide or continue to resist).
Simply put, due to the shift in the country's political and economic focus, the strategic threat to the Central Plains from the Hetao is far less than it was during the Han and Tang Dynasties. After all, the Hetao can directly approach Longyou Guanzhong, and the Ming Dynasty's ruling center is not in Guanzhong.
The motivation like that of the Han and Tang dynasties must be to seize the Hetao. If we want to seize and control it, the only reason is to open up the map and use the people's wealth to gain fame.
How did Zeng Mian die? Internal power struggle is of course a very important reason, but it is also one of the reasons.
Therefore, in Gao Pragmatic's view, the Hetao itself is of little use and can at most be used as a horse breeding farm. However, the Han people don't like raising horses (trading at a loss is worse than farming), so they are forced to raise horses, and the result is just like raising horses in Hebei. Just like horses, there were no big problems at first, but after a few decades, public dissatisfaction boiled over. Not only were horses unable to be raised, but the public scolding was also huge, and batch after batch of horses were even produced at every turn. Horse thieves have become a source of chaos to local security.
The bandits in Hebei are now almost extinct. It is not just that the cavalry in Jinghua who collected money from the government were particularly effective in combating them. The more fundamental reason is that Gao Pragmatic controlled the Bailixia horse bandits at that time and opened up a channel for doing business with Tumut.
, so the government gradually released the pressure on horse-raising among the people. When the tribute was finally completed and mutual trade was opened, the people in Hebei basically no longer had the pressure to raise horses, so the horse bandits no longer existed - the skin did not exist.
, How can General Mao be attached?
Gao Pragmatic has always believed that many things do not need to be solved by fighting. In fact, it is just like practicing medicine. You only treat the symptoms. If something is cured here, it will be broken there. Doctors seem to be very powerful and always cure the disease with medicine. But what is the use?
?It is better to go directly to the source of the disease, that is the real solution to the problem.
When it comes to governing the country, it's useless to be Bian Que. Bian Que's eldest brother is really powerful. If it doesn't work, Bian Que and his second brother's level can make do.
But now Qataiji's words make Gao pragmatic a little worried. Not only the front and back covers in Fengzhoutan area are also subject to soil erosion, right?
But after thinking about it again, I feel a little lucky: Now Tumut has begun to change his governance thinking and vigorously engage in agriculture, which means that they will pay more and more attention to irrigation and maintaining soil fertility, rather than the purely nomadic period in the past.
When the water and grass are no longer abundant, they migrate to other places, leaving deserts and Gobis everywhere.
It seems that Ba Han Naji should really be regarded as Chechen Khan. Compared with him and Xin Ai, who is more willing to live a settled farming life like the Han people? There is no need to compare - Ba Han Naji has lived in Daban for a long time.
Shengcheng, while Xin Ai has been living in a felt tent. Which one of them is more inclined to farming, is there any need to compare?
However, I would like to remind you, Hannaji, not to be like some Chinese people in later generations who are always "****". They can vigorously sinicize the Tumote, but they must not fully sinicize - if you fully sinicize, who will
Come and help my Ming Dynasty raise cattle and sheep for the cavalry?
Gao Pragmatic then said to Qataiji: "In farming, the most important thing is not only the quality of seeds and proper cultivation, but also the maintenance of soil fertility. For example, here in Tumochuan, according to my opinion, the soil fertility is still good.
But the protection is not appropriate. If things go on like this - I mean, maybe in ten or twenty years, we may not be able to grow any crops."
"Can't you grow crops?" Qataiji was shocked. The reason why Tumut was basically not afraid of white and black disasters now was because he relied on the mutual market and the crops grown by the Han people. This was a matter of life and death, so he couldn't help but hurry up and hurriedly
He asked: "Then how to maintain the soil's strength? We Mongolians don't understand this."
Gao pragmatic smiled and said: "I am Wenkui of the Ming Dynasty. How to maintain the soil's strength... I naturally know."
Qia Taiji was overjoyed and was about to continue asking when he suddenly realized that Gao Pingshi's smile was somewhat meaningful. He suddenly realized it, hesitated for a moment, and said with emotion: "Qin envoys all the great talents in the world, and Tuo Tuo cannot escape Qin's words or deeds."
It doesn’t matter, as long as you can help me, Tumut, avoid being harmed by natural disasters and escape... I am willing to drive for the imperial envoy."
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