prosperous age

Chapter 551 Chapter 550 The Three Guards That Don't Exist
Speaking of it, it has been nearly 200 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and the development of the country has undergone great changes.

However, in terms of the national system, it has continued to the system formulated by Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di in the early Ming Dynasty, and there are naturally many outdated places that need to be improved.

Originally, Emperor Jiajing, a superior monarch under special circumstances, could implement these reforms, but unfortunately he was addicted to Taoist practice. It was the "Jiajing New Deal" that stagnated after alleviating the already tense social and class contradictions.

Now Yin Shizhen directly points out that Wei Guangde's suggestion to King Yu is likely to trigger the Liaodong War, allowing the Liaodong Ming Army to withstand attacks from the Mongols and the Jurchens further north.

Still shaking his head with a smile, Wei Guangde said unhurriedly: "The Mongols in Liaodong actually don't have much combat power, they're just scattered. As for the Jurchens over there, are they really capable of resisting the government army?"

"But I'm afraid that the Tartars on the grassland will collude with them, that would be dangerous."

Yin Shizhen said very seriously.

Wei Guangde didn't care, Yin Shizhen and their thoughts were actually to avoid the outbreak of war in Liaodong, which was actually a good thing for the country and soldiers.

But they didn't know that within a hundred years, the now weak and torn Jurchens would be unified by one person, and like other newly unified tribes, under the leadership of their national heroes, an unmatched battle would erupt. force.

His descendants even brought this weak nation into the Central Plains and occupied this great river and mountain.

In the past, Wei Guangde once thought about finding an opportunity to arrange for people to go to Liaodong, and simply exterminate the lineage of the Jianzhou Jurchen patriarch, which would save a lot of trouble.

It's just that the current him doesn't have enough influence, and the time is still far anyway, so he is not in a hurry.

However, since Yu Dayou transferred to Guangxi, Wei Guangde began to pay attention to the Ming Dynasty's transformation of the southwest region, and found that this seemed to be the solution to the Jurchen once and for all.

The policies of the Ming Dynasty towards minority areas were actually very flexible.

The Ming Dynasty was established to receive the political legacy left by the Yuan Dynasty. In the early Ming Dynasty, the strength of the Ming army made the minority nationalities in the southwest fearful, so they could only surrender, just like they did to the Yuan Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty also implemented a soft policy towards them, and those who voluntarily surrendered were treated according to the way the Yuan Dynasty treated them, that is, they still used the local official system to govern these places.

China has a vast territory and many ethnic groups. How to properly handle the relationship between ethnic minorities and Han people has always been a major problem for the rulers.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, in order to strengthen the control over states and counties where ethnic minorities were the majority, tribal leaders were generally authorized to serve as local officials for management, and additional supervisory officials appointed by the imperial court were assigned. This is the detention policy.

When the Jiji policy evolved to a certain stage, that is, when the Yuan Dynasty ruled, the chieftain system was born.

The Mongols overthrew the old dynasty and established the Yuan Dynasty with an unprecedentedly large territory.

In order to strengthen local rule, the Yuan Dynasty established a provincial system whereby the central government directly governed a few areas, and the Jimi prefectures established by the Tang and Song Dynasties before that were all under the jurisdiction of their respective provinces.

In addition, the Yuan Dynasty also implemented the method of "Meng Yi participating in governance" according to the actual situation of various places.

On the one hand, the central rulers dispatched clan and royal families to guard minority areas, and on the other hand, they widely accepted local indigenous leaders and recommended them to become local non-commissioned officers.

In this way, not only can the enthusiasm of the minority people be fully mobilized, but also the rule of the central dynasty in the minority areas can be guaranteed.

The governance strategy of "Mengyi participating in governance" was the predecessor of the "native official system". At that time, the Yuan Dynasty unified all kinds of officials in the country into two categories-"native officials" and "liuguan".

In the two levels of provincial and Xuanweisi, the main officials were the local officials, and the local officials were the supplementary ones, while the local officials were widely recommended at the Lu and lower levels.

In addition, the Yuan Dynasty also gave some special treatment to native officials.As long as the officials were loyal to the court, they were allowed to rule the region for a long time, and they could also inherit official positions.

The Ming Dynasty adopted the policy of "encouragement" and "exercising both power and virtue", which enabled the Ming Dynasty to finally win the support of the ethnic minorities and achieve the effect of winning without fighting.

Of course, this is also the emperor's own thinking.

The emperors of the Ming Dynasty advocated for a long time the idea of ​​"guarding the four barbarians" to govern the border. The management of the southwestern region took "guarding" as the core, took the Yuan as a lesson, and opposed the practice of military expansion based on the southwestern frontier.

This kind of border governance thought was obviously influenced by the traditional national thought since the Han and Tang Dynasties, but it focused more on the reality faced by the Ming Dynasty.

Ming Taizu often advised ministers and his descendants not to use force against the southwest region. Ming Taizu believed that most of the "barbarians" were located in remote wilderness.

These ideas of his were naturally accepted by later generations, just as they easily decided to give up Nuer Gandusi in order to reduce military expenditure.

Only officials are sent there for routine inspections, but they don't care about the local area.

When the Nuergandu Siming army retreated, the already very small number of Han people also retreated southward with the Ming army and retreated to the Liaodong area.

However, the Ming Dynasty did not blindly implement the native official system in the southwest.

Affected by the Ming Dynasty's policy of focusing on defending the northern minorities, the Huairou method was used as much as possible in the southwest ethnic areas in order to avoid arousing the resistance of the southwest minorities and stabilize the southwest minorities.

Therefore, most of the military and political policies of the Ming Dynasty in the southwestern minority areas were moderate and safe, and few radical measures were taken.

However, because of the expediency of the Ming Dynasty's defensive strategy in the Southwest Minority Area, once the opportunity is found, the Ming Dynasty will reform the land and return it to the bloc.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty reformed some chieftains in the southwest, but the Ming Dynasty’s measures of reforming the soil and returning them to the local people were also quite moderate. official.

The Ming Dynasty did not take compulsory measures to promote exiled officials in the southwestern minority areas, but tried to conform to the laws of historical development, and implemented the reform of the land to the exiled officials in a gentle and safe manner.

This is also the root cause of frequent rebellions in the Southwest in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

The military and political goals of the Ming Dynasty for the Southwest Minority Areas have always been very clear, that is, to strengthen centralized rule and maintain the Ming Dynasty's dominant position in the Southwest.

The ethnic policies implemented by the Ming government served this purpose from beginning to end.

And what Wei Guangde wants to do now is to implement it in the Nuer Gandu Division. This is to fundamentally negate the decisions made by the previous emperors on the Liaodong issue. Almost no one was there.

It is simply impossible for such a change to be realized in the hands of Emperor Jiajing.

Therefore, Wei Guangde could only turn his attention to King Yu, subtly change King Yu's position, and gradually implement it after King Yu ascended the throne in the future.

As for the Liaodong Mongols and the Jurchens, Wei Guangde really looked down upon them.

Regardless of how powerful the Jurchens will be a hundred years later, the Jurchens in this period will be beaten like melons and vegetables when they face the Ming Dynasty's army.

Otherwise, Li Ting Sweep Point would not launch a wave from time to time to harvest a crop.

In fact, Yang Gao commanded the encirclement and suppression of Jianzhou Jurchen, that is, the Battle of Sarhu, which itself was part of the plan to sweep the hole in Liting, but Emperor Wanli was indeed a bit lazy, and the war started late, or Nurhachi was really powerful , can quickly accumulate strength in a very short period of time.

After all, it took only 34 years of accumulation to finally form a crushing power against the suzerain Ming Dynasty. Nurhachi's ability is beyond doubt.

In short, it was because of various reasons that he was given the opportunity to develop his own power, and finally rang the evening bell for the collapse of the Ming Dynasty.

In addition, Wei Guangde has another guess, that is, the Ming Dynasty's war to aid Korea may also be one of the important reasons that slowed down the Ming army's encirclement and suppression of Jianzhou Jurchen.

However, since he is here, he naturally does not want such a history to happen again.

After seeing the actions of the Ming Dynasty in the southwestern region, Wei Guangde planned to follow the gourd and copy the policy of land reform to Liaodong. The first area to implement it was Jianzhou, followed by the Haixi Jurchen tribes.

As for the so-called Donghai Jurchen, they are farther north, so forget it for now.

However, Wei Guangde’s biggest headache was actually the lack of Han people in the local area. The implementation of the floating official system would have great resistance in the court, because the teacher came from an unknown, and he could only take it step by step.

That's why he proposed to King Yu to raise the administrative level of Liaodong.

"As far as I know, the Jurchen tribes in Haixi have long been closely related to some tribes in Mongolia because of their location, especially the Yehe tribe."

Wei Guangde mentioned that he learned the news about Northeast Liaodong from the merchants in Liaodong. After all, they have to travel between Baishan and Heishui all year round to buy goods, and their information is actually more accurate and faster than the Liaodong government.

"However, because of the deterrence of military force by the officers and soldiers, they can only defy the country's Chaoyang, at least publicly, they dare not openly rebel."

Hearing what Wei Guangde said, Yin Shizhen nodded.

In the situation in Liaodong, the Jurchen people did go to the border of the Han people to plunder from time to time, robbing some property and people, but they would be intercepted and killed by the government army soon, and then some of their tribal leaders would be punished.

"Yang is obedience, and yin is plundering", which is the situation in Liaodong during this period.

"The root cause is still the influence of our Ming army retreating south a hundred years ago.

Such a big slave Gandusi, there is no official army stationed in our country, those natives are naturally arrogant, thinking that they can challenge the prestige of the country.

Even though the imperial court sent officials to inspect Nuergan from time to time, the contempt of the Jurchens towards me, Daming, was still unavoidable.

And because of our dynasty's forceful attack on the powerful Jurchen tribe, the antagonism between our dynasty and the Jurchen tribe has been further promoted.

If things go on like this, if the current situation is maintained, the Jurchen tribes will fight on their own, but once the Jurchen tribes are unified, it will be a fatal blow to my Ming Dynasty in Liaodong and the Nuergan area. "

When Wei Guangde said this, he glanced at the Yin Shizhen who seemed to be in deep thought, and Wei Guangde continued: "In my opinion, it is time to take advantage of the current situation of our court's crushing of the Jurchens to directly break their long-established tribal system.

They were not allowed to continue to divide the ministries according to the tribal system, but they were divided into various places by force, divided by states and counties, and officials were sent to manage them.

The chiefs of the various tribes moved south according to the golden seal and imperial decree issued by the imperial court, and lived in places designated by the imperial court, so that they could be completely separated from their clansmen, so as to restore the imperial court's control over the Nuergandusi area. "

"It's easy to say, but they will never stand still. The chieftain's rebellion in the southwestern region is the representative."

Yin Shizhen shook his head at this time and said.

"Yes, it is still difficult to conquer the southwest region."

Wei Guangde laughed, but after a pause, he went on to say: "But if we ignore it, there is no guarantee that we will annex each other, and even the combined Jurchen will not turn against me.

Brother Zhengfu, do you still remember the incident of 'the fake tribute in the middle of the king'? "

"Fake tribute among kings?"

When Yin Shizhen heard Wei Guangde mentioning this matter, he frowned slightly.

Of course he knew about this, and there was a lot of trouble in the court back then.

In fact, the matter is also simple, that is, Haixi Duolinshan and other guards, the governor Qian Erzhen, and others came to pay tribute to the horse, and Gucheng and other guard commanders Tong Zhihata and others paid tribute at the same time.

During the roll call for rewards, Brother Ezhen called Zhu Yi Nai Wangzhong tribe E Kina and others, not Gucheng and Weihata and others, who were impostors.

At that time, there was an uproar in the court, because the people who came to pay tribute all confirmed their identities with the golden seals and imperial edicts issued by the Ming Dynasty, but some of them were accused of being impostors, let alone being identified in front of the imperial court.

In the end, the exact situation obtained after investigation is that Wang Zhongbu first and Haixi Yiwu Yun lived together with the killers Tie Lieshan and other Weiyi to take Bald Langzhong and others, and seized them to carry 35 golden seals and edicts, and then disguised them as They went to the capital to pay tribute.

This incident was a big deal at the time, but in fact the most important thing is that this incident fully demonstrated that the Ming Dynasty had seriously neglected the actual situation of Nuer Gandusi's entrustment of the various guards at the beginning, and could not even identify the identities of these chieftains.

The imperial court bestowed official positions on the tribal leaders, as well as seals, imperial crowns, and court clothes. Tribal leaders who wanted to go to Beijing to pay tribute or go to Liaodong Mashi for trade must bring their own seals and imperial edicts to verify their identities.

This set of subsidiary identity authentication system based on seals and edicts has been maintained for more than a hundred years, but by now things have changed.

"Now Jurchen and Wuliangha Sanwei, what is the situation, brother Zhengfu?"

Wei Guangde asked again.

But this time Wei Guangde didn't wait for him to answer, so he said to himself: "There is not much news about the Jurchen tribe, and my knowledge is limited. Kalka, Horqin and other parts are eaten.

The golden seals and edicts granted by the imperial court were also seized by them, and after they got these edicts, they pretended to be Sanwei and communicated with our Ming Dynasty. This is also the reason why the so-called Wuliangha Sanwei often rebelled.

Now where there is Wuliangha, the so-called "Duoyan", "Taining" and "Fuyu" are already Chahar, Neikalka, Horqin and other tribes. "

"really?"

Yin Shizhen cried out in shock.

(End of this chapter)