Central Asia!
Hearing this word, Chen Qia and Zhang Fu both blushed with excitement!
They were His Majesty's confidants. Naturally, they had seen the "Atlas of All Nations" and naturally understood that the Ming Dynasty was just settling down in a corner, occupying East Asia.
It’s such a big world, and there are several continents waiting for them to conquer!
The first to bear the brunt is undoubtedly the land of Central Asia adjacent to the Ming Dynasty!
This land in Central Asia is now the territory of the Timur Empire!
It’s just said that after the death of the lame Timur, the huge Timur empire fell apart, and now there are many large and small countries.
This is great news for Daming!
"However, before marching into Central Asia, there is still one problem to solve, and that is the Western Region and Uzang!"
Western Region!
Uzang!
The importance of the Western Regions is self-evident. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Hexi and even the Western Regions were discovered and pierced by Zhang Qian due to the need for war against the Xiongnu. Starting from the Han Dynasty, encompassing the Western Regions and crossing the Congling Mountains in the west basically became the standard for a unified dynasty. .
With the gradual exploration of the economic, military, strategic and resource significance of the Western Regions, all dynasties in the past dynasties have regarded the Western Regions as their key business areas.
The desert, the blood-stained horses, and the eagerness of passionate men to make great achievements have led generations of famous generals to write immortal legends on the land of the Western Regions.
In addition, for the grassland nomadic forces, the Western Regions were a left hook from the Central Plains Dynasty, which always maintained military deterrence against the grassland nomadic forces. Moreover, controlling the Western Regions was equivalent to controlling the Silk Road, which in turn gained generous taxes and Western culture. While absorbing, it can also ensure the radiation intensity of the Central Plains civilization to the grassland civilization.
Therefore, the land of the Western Regions was extremely important to the Central Plains dynasties of all dynasties.
However, Wu Zang seems to be too different.
Zhang Fu was the first to question.
"Your Majesty, the land of the Western Region is indeed a strategically important place, and there is nothing wrong with taking it. However, although Uzang is a vast land, it is a large desolate land. It seems that it will be of no use to us if we take it down?"
Chen Qia, Minister of the Ministry of War, also nodded.
"What the British government said is true. This land in the Western Region is a little better. In addition to its strategic significance and foreign trade, it can at least grow cotton, raise cattle, sheep, and horses. But this Uzang, no matter how vast it is, seems to be It’s really not of much use to me, Daming!”
Unlike the Western Region, a battleground for military strategists, Uzang has never received much attention from the Central Plains dynasty.
First, because there is no need, the Uszang is sparsely populated and does not pose much of a threat to the Central Plains Dynasty.
The second reason is that it is meaningless. The environment of the ghost place in Wusuzang is too bad for farming, even worse than the Lingbei grassland. Therefore, even if we fight hard to conquer it, we will only gain more than we lose!
When Zhu Gaoxu heard this, he immediately laughed.
"Don't care if it's useful or not, just beat it down first!"
"No amount of land is too much. Even if it is a desert plateau, it is still of great use. At the worst, it can be used to graze cattle and sheep!"
"Besides, we really don't know what its use is now, but maybe future generations will be able to find treasures in the desert?"
"For example, take the Lingbei Province. After the imperial court conquered it, weren't there some short-sighted dogs in the court who clamored about "a useless place" and "the gain is not worth the loss" every day? But now, With the potato as a food artifact, Lingbei Province has become the granary of our Ming Dynasty!"
After hearing this, Chen Qia and Zhang Fu nodded immediately.
Yes, who says it’s useless?
If any more food crops are discovered that can be planted on the Uszang Plateau, it will become a treasure land. Isn't Lingbei Province the best example?
In fact, Zhu Gaoxu did not tell them that there is no place in the world that is useless.
Is Wu Zang useful to the Ming Dynasty?
Of course that works!
Apart from strategic significance, can’t those grassland pastures be used to raise cattle, sheep and horses?
What's more, even if it's useless now, it doesn't mean it won't be useful in the future. The vast land in Uzang and the oil, minerals, energy and other things below are all important resources that are indispensable for future development.
Uzang is the place of Tibet in later generations. Do you dare to say that it is useless?
Apart from anything else, if later generations studied mushroom bombs, wouldn't most of them be conducted in sparsely populated places like Uzang?
Therefore, there is no useless place in this world, even a desert, it has its own value!
"We can put the matter of Uzang later. Our goal is Central Asia, so what we need to solve now is the Western Region."
Zhu Gaoxu ordered the soldiers to bring up the Kan map, which showed the junction of East Asia, the Western Regions and Central Asia.
"You see, the Western Region is actually extremely vast. The areas ruled by the Han Dynasty and the Li and Tang Dynasties were mainly the Altai Mountains in the north, the Tianshan Mountains in the middle, the Kunlun Mountains in the south, the Jungar Basin in the north, and the Tarim Basin in the south, etc. The area where the landforms form.”
"In the north of the Western Region is a vast cold plain. It is sparsely populated and only a handful of fishing and hunting people survive in this area. However, this area is very vast and even larger than our Ming Dynasty. This place can be used as a The ultimate goal.”
"To the west is the Central Asia region, which is the main target of our troops this time. This area is also very suitable for grazing like the grasslands in the north. However, because of the melting snow in these tall mountains, this area It is also very suitable for growing crops such as wheat, cotton, potatoes, etc. It can be called a fertile land!”
Zhu Gaoxu circled a place with a pen, and it turned out to be the Hezhong area of Central Asia.
"According to the news that Jin Yiwei has returned in recent days, the lame Timur in the early years of Yongle has always been evil to the Ming Dynasty and dared to send his army to conquer the Ming Dynasty. As a result, he died of illness on the way, and the war did not break out. "
Upon hearing this, both Zhang Fu and Chen Qia's expressions changed.
How dare foreign barbarians conquer the Ming Dynasty?
Who gave you the courage and courage?
"When Timur was alive, he divided the territory among his descendants, similar to the hereditary system of enfeoffment in the Great Mongol Empire, and designated his eldest grandson Pir Mahima as his heir. However, after Timur died suddenly during the Eastern Expedition , his descendants immediately started fighting among themselves for the throne of Khan!"
"Because Pir Mahima was far away in Afghanistan, Samarkand was captured by Khalil, another grandson of Timur, and made himself Khan. Pir Mahima led his army to fight for the throne, but was defeated by Khalil. , returned to Afghanistan, and was later killed by his subordinates.”
"Then Shaharul, the fourth son of Timur, marched into the river in the name of revenge for Pir Mahima, seized Timur's throne, and sealed Yishahei as the Khalil fief. Therefore, all the original Timurid dynasty The territory, except Western Persia, was unified by Shaharul. The descendants of Timur in Western Persia were soon destroyed by the Black Sheep Dynasty of the Turkmen. Now Shaharul's control area is limited to Transoxiana, Afghanistan and eastern Persia. It has shrunk a lot compared to the Timur Empire in the past.”
"And this time, our target is the Timur-Shaharu dynasty!"
Zhu Gaoxu punched his capital Herat hard.
