Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The Ming army was victorious in the Korean Peninsula, but there were still some ignorant barbarians who actually took the initiative to provoke the Ming Dynasty!

The Sichuan Third Division and the General Soldier jointly sent an urgent report——

The Tibetan tribes in Qizhou, Hengzhou, Weizhou, Zhizhou, Tangzhou, Juzhou and Shizhou killed cattle, horses, donkeys and dogs to set up altars and alliances, and gathered more than ten thousand Tibetan soldiers to besiege Maozhou.

There were 500 Ming garrison troops in Maozhou, and the governor and commanders temporarily recruited 3,000 militiamen. The officials and the people defended the city (which only had a low earth wall and no moat) for four days, looking for an opportunity to leave the city for a night attack and defeat the Tibetan coalition forces. However, hundreds of Han people in the suburbs were killed because they were too late to enter the city.

The commander of Maozhou led the army to counterattack, defeated Shi, Dang, and Jianzhou, and killed more than 20 barbarian chiefs and barbarian generals.

The remaining barbarian soldiers returned to their respective Jisi Prefectures, sent envoys to request the alliance to negotiate peace, and asked for a large amount of money and silk.

Sichuan civil and military officials planned to send troops to completely conquer, but they were afraid of taking on the responsibility of border provocation, so they asked the court for next instructions.

There are a large number of the above-mentioned rebellious areas in Jisi Prefecture, and in fact they only include Li County, Wenchuan, and Maoxian County.

Ju Ming convened a meeting of the Cabinet, the Ministry of War and the Privy Council, tapping the urgent report with his fingers: "I really didn't understand it. The Tibetan tribes in western Sichuan came to attack the Ming Dynasty on their own, and it was normal for them to seek peace after losing. But while they were asking for peace, , but still asked for money and cloth from Daming. Who lost?"

Li Hanzhang smiled and said: "How can barbarians know how to reason?"

Fang Mengqing said: "They were spoiled by the former Song Dynasty. This unprovoked rebellion is to force the court to pay money."

Li Bao took out the collected information about the former Song Dynasty:

"These barbarians have always been like this. At first, it was the barbarian chief Dong who asked for an official position, and Song Renzong made him the governor of Jisi Prefecture. He was attached to and rebelled at times, and he was capricious."

"The former Song Dynasty emperor Zhao Ji was so happy that he had great achievements, and officials from all over the country were eager to expand their territory. They lured the barbarian chiefs Dong Shunzi and Dong Yanbo to join them, and changed Baozhou to Qizhou in the Tang Dynasty and Bazhou to Hengzhou in the Tang Dynasty. They awarded the two Dongs Tuanlian For positions such as envoy, military envoy, and post-retention, he was also given 12,100 guan of money, 14,700 stone meters, and 2,850 bolts of silk every year. In addition, he was given silk, satin, brocade, and tea and salt. , some silver.”

After reading this piece of information, all the cabinet ministers despised it.

It is naturally a good thing to expand territory and expand territory, but this kind of expansion during the Huizong period of Song Dynasty is simply the most ridiculous thing in the world.

The barbarians who surrendered to the imperial court not only did not pay tribute, but also needed money from the Song Dynasty.

Except for Song Huizong’s good looks, the Song Dynasty gained nothing!

Li Bao continued: "More than a dozen Jisi Prefectures over there rebelled repeatedly during the reign of Zhenghe of the former Song Dynasty. The Song army only defeated them and did nothing else. Moreover, the barbarian chieftains who surrendered after being defeated, the former Song Dynasty court would still He was awarded an official position and received an additional monthly salary."

"The latest rebellion was at the beginning of our army. We captured the Lizhou Road at that time, and the barbarians took the opportunity to attack the Song Army in Maozhou. The Song Army held on for more than two months, until His Majesty sent a partial division to recover Shiquan (Beichuan). In the past, the siege of Maozhou was solved, and all the civil and military forces in Maozhou surrendered to us. "

Li Hanzhang continued: "Because they were beaten hard by us, after His Majesty took over Sichuan, these barbarian chiefs were relatively peaceful. Until the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the barbarian chiefs headed by Dong took the initiative to submit to the Ming Dynasty and asked for canonization."

"But when Emperor Hun of the former Song Dynasty conferred upon them, he gave them more than 10,000 guan of money, more than 10,000 stone rice, and nearly 3,000 bolts of silk every year, as well as silk and satin, salt, tea, and a certain amount of silver. But in the Ming Dynasty, they were conferred with only some official salary. The Tibetan chiefs must be very dissatisfied with this. Over the past ten years, the chiefs have asked for rewards many times, but the court has ignored them."

"Due to the abundant supply of horses in the north and southern Sichuan, the number of horses purchased in western Sichuan is decreasing day by day. Zhufan has lost the profits from selling horses, and his life will definitely become more and more difficult. This rebellion is all about money!"

To put it more directly, the appetites of the Tibetan chiefs in the Jisi Prefectures under Maozhou were squandered by the former Song Dynasty.

They failed and rebelled many times, never winning once, but they reaped benefits every time.

This is because the cost of countering rebellion in the former Song Dynasty was too high. During the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song Dynasty, the riot was so big that the imperial court had to dispatch Shaanxi border troops to suppress it.

Compared with dispatching troops thousands of miles away, the barbarians could be appeased by giving them some money and food every year. The monarchs and ministers of the Song Dynasty thought this method was too cost-effective.

The Song Dynasty felt good about giving it, and the barbarian chiefs felt good about taking it, so it naturally became a habit.

The various Tibetan barbarian chiefs planned to follow the previous rules and cause trouble several times so that the Ming court would also reward them with money and food!

Ju Ming asked: "Are the Nokawa tribes still honest?"

The Yechuan tribes in the Xiaojin County, Baoxing, and Luding areas belong to the Jisi land under the jurisdiction of Yazhou.

Li Hanzhang said: "The dynasty no longer rewards the various tribes in large quantities, and the tribes in Nochuan are naturally dissatisfied. But there is a tea-horse trade road there, which I heard can lead directly to India. As the tea-horse trade road became more and more prosperous, some of the tribes in Nochuan The tribe is relatively respectful to the imperial court.”

Shi Yuangong said: "But there is a hidden danger. The Yechuan tribes that occupy the trade roads have developed rapidly in recent years. According to the news sent back to the Military Intelligence Department by the merchants, there are wars there almost every year, and various tribes are attacking each other. There have been At least five tribes have been annexed. If the situation continues, the Nokawa Forty-six tribes will be unified in at least twenty or thirty years, and several large tribes will be formed."

Qian Chen said: "Tribes that are not on the Tea Horse Trade Road will try their best to lead troops across the border every year and go to other tribes' territories to rob Han caravans. Sichuan merchants who want to trade with Tibet must gather at least a hundred people to dare to set out, and they have to Hire ex-soldiers to protect property.”

Zhu Ming pointed to the large area of ​​Hongyuan, Aba, Ruoergai, and Maerkang: "What kind of power is here?"

Shi Yuangong said: "The Tubo tribes are a mess."

Zhu Ming asked again: "Are there enough Han people in the vassal states under Maozhou?"

Shi Yuangong said: "There are quite a few Han people, and there are even scholars who take the imperial examinations."

Xie Fangshu, the prime minister of the Southern Song Dynasty, came from Weizhou, a vassal state that participated in the rebellion.

Zhu Ming said: "Since there are enough Han people, we should directly change the natives to officials. This year, we will send troops to wipe out the barbarians around Maozhou (Maoxian), and all the barbarian chieftains who have repeatedly rebelled will be exterminated. Especially the Dong family, who got the most benefits in the former Song Dynasty, but they were the leaders of every rebellion. They are ungrateful!"

"Kill them all?" Zhang Tong asked.

Zhu Ming said: "All the male members of the families of those barbarian chieftains will be killed without a single one. Even if they surrender, they will be killed. They surrendered to the former Song Dynasty countless times, and they would lead their troops to rebel after each surrender. As for those barbarian generals and soldiers, two out of ten will be executed after being captured!"

"Each vassal state will be merged into a county, and officials will be sent to govern. The land that is most suitable for farming will be relocated to the surrounding Han people to settle there. Recruit immigrants from Long'an, Mianzhu, Shenquan, Yongkang and other counties, and at least 5,000 Han people will be relocated there!"

"Yes!"

The ministers accepted the order.

Zhu Ming continued: "Next year, we will send troops from Yazhou again to wipe out the Yechuan tribes. Recruit immigrants in the jurisdiction of Chengdu Prefecture. The population there is increasing, and many of them are landless farmers. If they are unwilling to volunteer, they will be forcibly recruited. At least 8,000 immigrants will be relocated to farm in the Yechuan area!"

The Yechuan area can be simply understood as the Big and Small Jinchuan, but it is only a small part of the Big Jinchuan, and there are more areas such as Luding County and Baoxing County. There were 46 tribes in Yechuan, each of which was as big as a dozen villages, and a strong tribe was equivalent to 30 or 40 villages.

Now the 46 tribes are accelerating their annexation. If we don't take action now, it will be difficult to deal with them after the tribes are unified.

The Ming Dynasty is not Mongolia, and it is not in a hurry to take over the snow area in one fell swoop.

This year, we will take down the tributary states under Maozhou, and next year we will take down the Yechuan tribes under Yazhou, and at the same time migrate the people there to consolidate the territory.

If we don't do this, we will have to repeat the mistakes of the former Song Dynasty, and the remnants of the tribes will rebel endlessly.

How did the Mongols solve the rebellion problem?

When they conquered a place, they forced the local leader to send troops and took the tribe to fight another place. Using war to reduce the population and continuously snowball to expand the territory, the potential risk of rebellion will be eliminated with the casualties on the battlefield.

This method is very useful during expansion, but social production is often devastated in the places where the Mongolian army passes!

It will take two years to solve the border problems in western Sichuan, and ten years to consolidate the territory. Then we will attack Songpan, Hongyuan, and Ruoergai. The ultimate goal is to connect with Gannan and Longnan.

As for most areas of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, they will be temporarily controlled.

Zhu Ming emphasized: "Before Sichuan generals send troops, ask the caravans about precautions. On the mountains, breathing is difficult and there may even be sudden death!"

The specific battle plan will be formulated by the Ministry of War and the Privy Council, and Zhu Ming does not need to intervene personally.

For the Ming court, these two battles are small battles, and there is no need to bother soldiers from other provinces. Sichuan civil and military can handle it themselves.

What really needs to be paid attention to is the terrain and climate. It is too troublesome to have mountains and valleys everywhere. The barbarian tribes are very likely to go into the mountains to fight guerrilla warfare.

The military meeting in front of the emperor ended, and the ministers dispersed one after another.

The barbarian chief Dong wanted to take advantage of the rebellion to gain benefits, but their news was too closed, and they thought that the Ming Dynasty was still the same as the former Song Dynasty.

Rebellion?

Seeking death!

Even if the Dong family surrenders this time, they will be exterminated.

The ancestors of those guys were either authentic Han people or Hanized Qiang people. Now they have been completely Tuboized, and they rebel with foreigners every now and then. Emperor Zhu's patience has reached its limit.

At this moment, far away in Hengzhou (north of Wenchuan).

Although Dong Yanbo, the governor and chief of Hengzhou, suffered a defeat, his tribe did not suffer much loss.

He is waiting for the Ming Dynasty court to confer official titles and reward money.

Dong Yanbo had a lot of official positions in the former Song Dynasty, and was awarded 10,000 strings of money, 10,000 stones of rice, and thousands of silk every year. The Ming Dynasty court was too stingy. He took the initiative to surrender, but the benefits he received were not even a fraction of the former Song Dynasty.

If Emperor Zhu does not give an explanation this time, he will continue to rebel next year until the court gives him officials, money and food!

He has many allies. There are four chiefs in his own family, the Dong family alone.

The Dong family has been operating here since the Tang Dynasty and Tubo period. The Ming Dynasty, which was founded more than ten years ago, is nothing.

("Reforming the Late Qing Dynasty" is really good. I finished reading it overnight yesterday.)