Chapter Three: The Two Heroes of the Western Regions
The attack on Turpan was not Zhu Shou's impulse, nor was it the collective unconscious behavior of the Ming Dynasty's civil service group. ()
As the boundary line that separates the two major ethnic systems of agriculture and nomadism, the Great Wall has a very special status in the history of China.
The strategic defense system of the Ming Dynasty always relied on the Great Wall, with North Zhili and Sanbian as the east and west ends, and Datong as the defense center. This front line established by Xu Da himself has never changed for more than a hundred years.
It's not that the emperors of the Ming Dynasty didn't want to expand their territory, but they had a powerful enemy that was always hanging in the north, which was the Mongolian tribes.
The prerequisite for the Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty to seize the Western Regions was to defeat the Huns and Turks, who were the most powerful at the time. As for the Ming Dynasty, except during the period of Chong Bage and Zhu Laosi, they defeated the Mongolian tribes and fled.
The rest of the time is spent on defense.
However, the Ming Dynasty's bureaucrats never gave up on their ambitions in the Western Regions. It was just that they themselves were too unsatisfactory. Decades ago, they were defeated miserably by Oara in the Battle of Tumubao, and even lost the emperor. Not to mention the Western Expedition.
Facing Turpan, the weakest among the countries in the Western Regions, we have to constantly comfort them, lest these Mongolian tribes explode.
The weak national appeasement policy could not alleviate the conflicts between the Ming and Tulufans. The Hami Kingdom, the pearl in the desert, completely intensified the conflicts between the Ming Empire and Turpan.
It can be seen that as long as the conflict of interest reaches a certain level, no matter how warm the illusion is, it will be shattered one day.
The dark clouds of war have been hanging over the Hami Kingdom since the Chenghua period. Huihui, Uighurs, and Harahui are the three major groups in this country.
During the Yongle period, the Hami Kingdom surrendered to the Ming Dynasty and became the Zhongshun King.
However, the Hami Kingdom was small and weak, and could not even be considered a younger brother among the countries in the Western Regions. The neighboring Turpan Khanate often bullied it.
The Turpan Khanate, also known as the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, was the official branch of the Chagatai Khanate during the Yuan Dynasty. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, this country had long been converted to Hui. The king of the Khan was called the Sultan.
During the Chenghua period, this Khanate had a talented and powerful Khan, who was of Han nationality. He was called Sultan Ali, also known as Yunusi Khan.
He was very depressed in the first half of his life. He and his elder brother failed to compete for the throne and were forced to go into exile in Central Asia. Later, with the help of the Timurid Dynasty of Samarkand in the river, he returned to his hometown and re-ruled the entire Turpan Khanate.
He had a very ambitious goal, which was to completely convert Turpan and the Hexi Corridor into Hui. At the same time, he was also the first Turpan Khan to compete with the Ming Dynasty for the Kingdom of Hami.
Moving eastward and greening the entire Hexi Corridor is his biggest goal in life.
However, in the first year of Hongzhi, King Ali, who wasted too much time in the first half of his life, passed away with the regret that he could not even return to the Hami Kingdom. His successor was his son Aheima.
By the way, it is worth mentioning that his grandson is very interesting, he is Babur of the Mughal Dynasty in India.
Ahema inherited his father Khan's legacy and conquered the Hami Kingdom. He established Shaanba as the King of Hami.
Speaking of Shaanba's rise to power, it has a lot to do with the Ming Dynasty. The proposer was Ma Wensheng.
After Ahema conquered the Hami Kingdom, he never paid attention to the protests of the Ming Empire and went his own way. The Ming Dynasty bureaucrats ignored the actual situation and still showed good intentions. Instead, the wolf-like Ahemah "belittled China".
It wasn't until the civil servants of the Ming Empire got angry and detained the envoys and returned the tributes that Ahema, who thought he was the best in the world, discovered that there was a tiger sleeping beside him.
Then don't wake up this tiger. As the weakest junior figure in the Western Regions, Ahei Ma is very self-aware. He quickly admitted his mistake to the Ming Dynasty and returned Hami's gold seal.
So Ma Wensheng, a fool, said: "Fan people value species and have always been Mongolian. There are Huihui in Hami, three kinds of fearful Uer and Hara Hui, and there are also Xiaolie Bald in Beishan. If we are invading each other, we have to be descendants of Mongolia."
It cannot be suppressed. Now the people of the royal family are in Shaanba, and the loyal and righteous king Tuotuo is a close relative and grandson of Hami."
He had a good plan, picked up the wisdom of his ancestors, and thought about using barbarians to control barbarians all day long. He never thought that Shaanba was just a master who couldn't stick to the wall. Not to mention the buffer zone, even if he governed the country, he was unsatisfactory.
Very.
Emperor Hongzhi, who had been staying in the capital, had no idea about the situation in the Western Regions, so he agreed to Ma Wensheng's bad idea.
After receiving the emperor's order, Aheima immediately became happy. He directed his younger brothers to come to the table one after another to praise Mr. Ma's wisdom and prowess.
Know.
Throughout the Hongzhi Dynasty, Hami was controlled by Turpan forces. Coincidentally, when Zhu Houzhao first ascended the throne, Ahei Ma died inexplicably, and his son Mansuer succeeded him.
According to the principle that a weak country has no diplomacy, King Hami, a virtual ruler with no real power, should honestly act as a buffer zone and be his Prince of Peace. It is a pity that Shaanba, who has just passed the IQ, is behind Aheima.
He died at the same time, and his son Bai Ya proclaimed himself Sultan and was named King Zhongshun.
Baiyaji's IQ was lower than that of his father. He was known in history as "stupid and violent in nature". He actually thought that he was the master of Hami. He suddenly felt hot and wanted to rebel against the country and stand on his own feet.
Man Su'er became angry now: "You are shameless, so don't blame me for slapping you in the face every day!"
So he sent troops to invade eastward and beat him until he fled in embarrassment.
However, behind Bai Yaji stood the behemoth of the Ming Empire, because Bai Yaji lived in Ganzhou at that time. Mansu'er was very wise. After slapping him a few times, he said to Bai Yaji: Brother, let's make peace.
?
Baiyaji's ambition had long been defeated, and he said with tears in his eyes: Brother, I have been waiting for your words for a long time!
During the Ahema period, the royal family of the Hami Kingdom moved to the Ganzhou area of the Ming Dynasty and received protection from the Ming Dynasty. The original homeland of Hami was managed by three governors.
The governor, Yan Kebola, the prime minister of Hami, and the governor of Huihui, Shui Yihuxian, and the governor of Harahui, Baidilimi, were divided into three types of people to supplement them.
One of them is written by Hu Xian, who has great ambitions and is an unparalleled hero. In the third year of Zhengde, he went to pay tribute to the capital of the Ming Dynasty. In order to avoid being exploited by Wang Yong, the general minister, he did not go with Wang Yong and took his own ultimatum.
, all the way to the capital.
Wang Yong was furious and went to court to punish Yihuxian for breaking the rules.
This memorial fell into the hands of Zhang Yong. At that time, Zhu Shou did not care about the affairs of the Western Regions, and Liu Jin was too lazy to pay attention to such far-off affairs, so Zhang Yong took fifty measures each.
He said to Wang Yong: Stop exploiting your fellow barbarians! Unite!
He said to Shu Yihuxian: Be more honest. If you do this again, you will not be allowed to pay tribute!
Hu Xian, who wrote Yi, couldn't help but be a little stunned. Is this the style of high-ranking officials in the Ming Dynasty? They are not even as good as our low-level local officials in Turpan! If any Mongolian dared to disobey, our swords would have cut his neck long ago.
Come on, let him know what the wolf of iron and blood is.
He committed such a big mistake and destroyed the entire tribute system, but he was not killed! Is this the legendary dynasty that "conquers people with virtue"? What the old Sultan said is indeed correct, this is a sleeping tiger!
The tiger is already asleep, so why are you afraid of it? So the ambition of writing Yi Huxian involuntarily expanded after returning to Hami.
But he forgot that behind him, there was an even bigger hero, Man Su'er.
Mansu'er was not as soft-hearted as Zhang Yong. He felt that Shui Yihuxian was becoming more and more disobedient, so he planned to kill him and establish a new Huihui governor.
When Hu Xian heard the news, he immediately knelt down and begged for mercy: "Little master, I was wrong. I lost all my underwear by mistake. I will give you fifteen hundred pieces of cloth. Please forgive me this time, okay? I will feed all my ambitions."
Give it to the dog!
Mansuer shook his head and said no, the face of the orthodox Khan of the Chahatai Khanate is worth fifteen hundred pieces of cloth?
It is written that when Huxian saw that he was cornered, he gritted his teeth and said cruelly: "The Ming Dynasty is timid and Suzhou is rich. I am willing to act as an internal agent and plot to seize Suzhou for the Sultan!"
That's pretty much it, Mansu'er smiled and nodded.
Suzhou, which is Jiuquan, has been the bridgehead for the Central Plains Dynasty to conquer the Western Regions since ancient times. Likewise, it was also the first stop for the Western Regions Dynasty to attack the Central Plains.
The Hami royal family lived in Ganzhou. As the governor of the Hami Kingdom, Huxian was able to enter and exit Jiayuguan very freely.
During the Ming Dynasty, Gansu was not a province, it was subordinate to Shaanxi.
The big men who are far away in Xi'an don't bother to care about Gansu, which is thousands of miles away. As long as the Yi people don't break into Jiayuguan, as for Dunhuang and Guazhou, where the Han people have lived for more than a thousand years, they are naturally dispensable.
From Yangguan and Yumenguan, which are protected by the desert, all the way back to Jiayuguan, the Ming Dynasty's Western Region policy is full of loopholes, which really makes careerists unable to help but twitch.
Mansu'er, a man of great talent and strategy, inherited the power of his father and ancestors and had already set his sights on Suzhou. So he sent his son-in-law Ma Heimu to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty and explore the reality of Suzhou.
However, Yi Huxian is not a light-saving lamp. While kneeling down to pretend to be a grandson, he secretly informed the Ming Dynasty: Mansu'er wants to rebel!
What! The Mongolian blowflies actually want to betray the Celestial Empire?
The civil servants of the Ming Dynasty were angry and went to court one after another. In the memorial, they killed all the female ancestors of Mansuer generations.
But if you really want to put it into practice, everyone will stay far away. It doesn't matter if you talk and talk, but if you really want to lead the troops into battle, isn't this a disgrace to politeness?
This kind of border policy with Ming Dynasty characteristics would usually end with an imperial edict of condemnation.
As for whether Man Su'er can capture Jiayuguan, whether Shuyi Huxian can stab Man Su'er in the back, and whether the Ming Dynasty will lose Suzhou, such difficult issues are not within the scope of the Ming Dynasty's civil servants.
middle.
Unfortunately, Mansuer and Shuiyihuxian were not very lucky because they met Zhu Shou.
This emperor who traveled from later generations said directly to the two ambitious heroes: Wait, I'm going to slap you in the face!
However, the greatest resistance to the emperor's ambition also came from the civil service group.
And their representatives are Li Dongyang and Li Shoufu. (To be continued...)