Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 1342
A heavy snowstorm affected the Ming Dynasty's battle against the Kingdom of Jin. Shanxi, Hebei, Liaodong and other places also experienced snow disasters of varying degrees. There were many people whose houses were crushed by the heavy snow, and the government had to mobilize the gentry to organize rescue.

The Mongolian grassland to the north of Yanshan Mountain is already covered with snow, and the Mongolian Guiyi who surrendered to the Ming Dynasty inevitably suffered from snow disasters.

The ability of nomads to resist natural disasters is much weaker than that of the Central Plains dynasty. A snowstorm is enough to destroy a tribe.

However, Guiyi Mongolia, which is located on the front line of the Great Wall, has a relatively easy life because of the support of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty established order for them, demarcated pastures, and sold the cattle, sheep, and horses they raised to the Ming Dynasty. The meat, wool, and leather they provided for the Ming Dynasty could be exchanged for a lot of grain and salt, so even cattle and sheep A large number of people froze to death. With the previous reserves, they can survive the next year.

North of Yanshan Mountain, on the Bashang Plateau where the Luan River originates, a fortress stands on the snow-capped grassland.

This is Dingbei Fort, a military fort built here after the Ming Dynasty defeated Monan Mongolia and Modong Mongolia. The structure of the fort was based on the fortress of Heyi in Nanyang.

Dingbei Fort is not big, it is mainly used for military purposes, and occasionally a part is rented out as a warehouse for companies traveling to and from Mongolia.

In order to reduce the pressure of supplies, there are no civilians in the fort, only [-] cavalry are stationed. Their duties are to prohibit the tribes from crossing the border and nomadic, deal with the conflicts between the tribes, and then collect taxes.

Such fortresses are not limited to North Fort, they usually go deep into the grassland for hundreds of miles. It is because of their existence that the Ming Dynasty can manage the grassland.

The Ming Dynasty split the surrendered Mongolian tribe into small tribes of about a thousand people and let them be managed, with the intention of establishing a stable order on the grassland where the strong preyed on the weak and the tribes merged.

It is easy to see a fort, but it is difficult to maintain it, especially the transportation of food. However, the Ming Dynasty had a strategy for this. On the one hand, it collected cattle and sheep from various ministries as taxes, and on the other hand, it implemented a wool monopoly system, allowing herdsmen to send wool to the fort. If the merchant wanted wool, it had to help the court transport a batch of grain to the fortress, and then had the right to buy and sell wool.

This inspiration came from the salt introduction system in the early Ming Dynasty, and its implementation did indeed reduce the cost of the Ming Dynasty's rule of Mongolia, not only reducing the effort, but also some surplus profits.

In recent years, as the Ming army gained a firm foothold in the grasslands, the Ming Dynasty's rule over Guiyi Mongolia has really achieved certain results. The Great Wall under the control of the Ming Dynasty has been very peaceful in the past two years.

However, there are gains and losses. With the improvement of the peaceful environment and living conditions, these Guiyi Mongols will naturally lose their wildness gradually, and their desire for war will decrease accordingly.

After all, people still yearn for order, and the risk of robbery is too high. If you can live a good life, your life safety will be guaranteed, even if you are a nomad, you will not make fun of your own life.

At the end of October in the eighth year of co-government, the snow fell early and heavily on the grasslands, and the Mongolian grasslands were covered with snow. In the past, it must have been a year of catastrophe, and the Mongols who could not survive would have to go south to rob again, but this year's situation, there is changed.

At this time, on a snow-covered prairie, more than a dozen Guiyi Mongolians, wearing bloated cotton coats and sheepskin felt hats, were driving six or seven hundred cattle and sheep to the east of Dingbei Fort.

The leader of the team is a Mongolian man in his 40s. He is the deputy thousand householder of the Chihe tribe in the west of Dingbei Fort. cotton.

This year, the snow is heavy and the weather is cold. The cattle and sheep in the tribe have started to freeze to death. The herdsmen can't take care of too many cattle and sheep, so they decided to rush a batch to sell in the customs.

It's the end of the year now, and Guannei has already started preparing for the festival. The price of beef and mutton has risen a bit. After they sell it, they will exchange some food, tea and other things needed on the grassland to go back.

If they encountered this kind of snow disaster in previous years, they could only watch the cattle and sheep freeze to death, starve to death, and then rot.

In the coming year, they will have to slaughter and eat the remaining cattle and sheep. When there are no cattle and sheep, the whole tribe will suffer from famine, and they can only desperately grab other people's grain and cattle and sheep.

This year they can drive the cattle and sheep into Guanzhong to sell, exchange a batch of grain back, and eat more grain and less meat next year, so that the cattle and sheep that have survived the winter can continue to reproduce and give birth to more lambs.

Behind the leading man, a ten-year-old boy followed on horseback. His nose was red from the cold, and he kept running a clear runny nose. He wiped it off with his sleeve, and asked with a white breath: "Ah Uncle Ba, how far is there to go!"

The Ming Dynasty gave Guiyi Mongolia eight Chinese surnames, and the first Mongolian man had a Chinese name, but it wasn’t long before he was given a Chinese name, so he was still called Uncle Aba when he was young.

"It's not far away. After walking for more than ten miles, we will reach Dingbei Fort. After paying the tax and getting the customs clearance document, we will go south to the market inside the customs." The man replied with a smile.

Guiyi Mongolia wants to trade in the customs. It has to go to a nearby military fort to pay taxes, leave some cattle and sheep as rations for the military fort, and then the officials of the military fort will give them customs clearance documents, indicating the quantity and type of goods and accompanying personnel. They can pass the customs and enter the market within the Great Wall to trade.

In the past two years, Monan has been peaceful, there has been no fighting, and no one has come to rob the pastures. Merchants from Guanzhong and Liaodong are also willing to come, and the prices of the goods they bring are also lower. Guiyi Mongolia's life is generally much better.

In the past, merchants dared not come because of the unrest and disputes among various ministries. Therefore, an iron pot and a catty of tea leaves could be exchanged for a cow and sheep. Now that the trade routes are open, more merchants come and more goods come, and the price drops. , they can get more items in exchange, so life will be easier.

This year, the tribe has exchanged a lot of tea and salt just for shearing sheep, so Uncle Aba is in a good mood.

When the young man heard that he could go to Guannei, he couldn't help being excited. Uncle Aba looked at him and smiled and said, "You will be fifteen next year. If you want to go to Guannei, you can talk to your father and ask him to send you to Nanjing. Study, see the world, and by the way, help Uncle bring some things to your brother Aman, it is said that he spends a lot of money in Nanjing."

"Really?" The boy became a little excited.His elder brother was sent to Nanjing last year. He came back not long ago and brought back many good things. He described the pass as heaven, and the young man was very fascinated.

For the surrendered Guiyi Mongols, the Ming Dynasty would give each tribe a few quotas at intervals, send Guiyi teenagers in their teens to study in Nanjing, and then send them to the army for three years, and then send them back to accept the return based on their merits. Yiqianhu, Deputy Qianhu, Baihu and other official positions helped the court manage the tribe.Of course, if he doesn't want to come back, he can give up and choose to stay in the pass.

These quotas are in the hands of the leaders and officers of the tribe, which is considered a privilege. The young man is the leader of the tribe, the son of Qianhu who was granted by the Ming Dynasty, so it is not a problem to get a quota.

The man raised his head, "Of course, if you don't go to the south, you have to get a Chinese name and learn Chinese. After you go, if you fail the exam and you are driven back to the grassland, your father will be ashamed."

For the Ming Dynasty, the first thing to absorb must be the talents in Guiyi. Only by attracting talents can the Mongolian grassland be managed well for the Ming Dynasty.

This test is an examination of those Guiyi teenagers. Of course, the most critical part of the examination is the examination of politics, to see if they are close enough to understand and regard themselves as enlightened after studying.

Only those who pass the political examination are eligible to continue their studies, and then go back to accept the official system of their parents. If they are not awakened enough, they can only be sent back to herd cattle.

The boy was a little excited, and wiped his nose with his sleeve, "Don't worry, Uncle Abba, if Abba lets me go, I will definitely not embarrass him."

The man nodded, smiled at the young man, then looked up at the sky, and suddenly said to the Guiyi men behind him: "It's getting late, we have to arrive at Dingbei Fort before dark, everyone speed up Speed ​​up."

It was very cold and snowy, and it would be very difficult to spend the night outside. After Uncle Aba finished speaking, he asked the boy to help herd the cattle and sheep.

At that moment, everyone kept yelling, especially the young man who was full of energy. He and more than a dozen men on horseback were driving hundreds of cattle and sheep, moving slowly on the vast white grassland.

A group of people hurried on their way in a happy mood, but at this moment, Uncle Aba, who was riding in front of the horse, suddenly changed his face and turned his head to look north. He only felt that the ground suddenly trembled.

Although in the past two years, Guiyi Mongolia did not know how to use weapons and took advantage of herdsmen who were grazing for the Ming Dynasty, but Uncle Aba was obviously familiar with this sound. It was the sound of cavalry galloping and hoofs trampling the ground.

The other Guiyi Mongols also sensed the movement and looked to the north one after another. On the white grassland in the distance, a large black figure suddenly appeared, and thousands of cavalry appeared in their field of vision.

At this time, there were bursts of low-pitched horns in the field, and the cavalry galloped rapidly.

Guiyi Mongolia saw a large banner and a group of Mongolian cavalry holding spears and bows in their field of vision.

Uncle Aba turned pale immediately, and immediately exclaimed, "No! It's Mobei Mongolia!"

A heavy snowfall caused catastrophe in Mobei Mongolia. Most of the cattle and sheep froze to death. They had no choice. They knew that the Ming Dynasty was powerful, but they could only go south to plunder.

The Mongolian cavalry who appeared soon found Guiyi Mongolia in the distance and the cattle and sheep they were driving. The Mongolian leader pointed forward, and nearly a thousand cavalry rushed towards them.

"Run away! Don't worry about cattle and sheep!" Uncle Aba shouted in horror, and immediately ordered: "Go to Dingxi Fort!"

A group of people left their cattle and sheep and fled eastward. After a while, the Mongolian cavalry roared to kill them. Several Guiyi men couldn't escape, and were shot off their horses by the cavalry, and their bodies fell on the snow-white grassland...
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(End of this chapter)