"Heshuote?" Zhu Cijiong didn't expect that Zhu Cixiang would ask about Heshuote... Isn't this idea too jumpy? Just now we were discussing how to solve the problem of the old land of Daning Dusi in the easternmost part of Eastern Mongolia, and soon we went to Tibet.
"Brother Imperial," Zhu Cijiong thought for a while, "He Shuote can just be given a vassal status. Gu Shihan doesn't have much ambition, he has always been relatively peaceful, and he doesn't have much conflict with Wu Sangui."
"Really?" Zhu Cixiang frowned slightly, "But the snow-covered plateau is the soul of Yellow Sect Mongolia! Mongolia is extremely vast, starting from the Nenjiang grassland in the east to Mongol-Wultan in the west... There seems to be a land The Erhut tribe went to the Volga River Basin. They traveled so far!
It is completely impossible for us to conquer such a large territory and so many tribes one by one, but we cannot ignore it. Otherwise, if one or two heroes appear on the grassland and mix with other tribes, our troubles will be endless!
So we have to hold on to their souls! But the soul of this Yellow Sect Mongolian was choked by Gu Shihan! "
Mongolia these days can be roughly divided into Yellow Sect Mongolia and Green Sect Mongolia. Green Sect Mongolia includes Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, as well as the Yeerqiang Khanate, which is currently fighting a bitter battle with Zhungar and Wu Sangui. The one who went to India The Mughals were reluctantly included.
Except for the Yeerqiang Khanate, which is included in the circle of the Celestial Empire, the rest of the Green Sect Mongolia has nothing to do with the Ming Dynasty, and even the Yeerqiang Khanate will not challenge the Ming's position in the circle of the Celestial Empire. Because since the collapse of the Timur Empire, the power of the Green Sect Mongolia has begun to decline rapidly, and it will no longer pose any threat to the Ming Dynasty.
But the Yellow Sect Mongolia is different!
In this era, the Yellow Sect Mongolia was still very powerful, with Volga in the west, Horqin in the east, Siberia in the north, and the Great Wall in the south. At least more than 10 million square kilometers of grasslands and deserts are all owned by the Yellow Sect Mongolia. The population is over 2 million!
It doesn't look like there are many, but there are hundreds of thousands of men with bows and armor.
There are always people in Yellow Sect Mongolia who cannot forget the story of Genghis Khan. In history, it was not until the collapse of the Jungar Khanate that it completely stopped. Therefore, Emperor Zhu had no way to cut off the Yellow Sect Mongolia - in the Celestial Circle for more than two hundred years, except for the decades when Manchuria rose, the rest of the time was the Yellow Sect Mongolia and the Ming Dynasty competing for the top position.
Looking further back, from the beginning of the Han-Hungarian War for Hegemony, the tribes on the grassland were fighting non-stop during the Han Dynasty. The two sides have been in love and killing each other for two thousand years, how do you want to cut it off?
As for completely smashing it...whether it can be done is another matter. Even if it can be done, Emperor Zhu will not do it. Because without the Yellow Sect Mongolia to occupy this grassland, the Green Sect Mongolia and the Rakshasa Kingdom will take advantage of it - it is impossible to eliminate two million nomads in more than 10 million square kilometers! However, if Emperor Zhu spares no effort, it is still possible to smash all the large households in East and West Mongolia and drive them as far west as possible within a period of time. According to the tradition on the grasslands, they will be absorbed by the Green Religion Mongolia of Mongolistan. The Kazakh Khanate or the Uzbek Khanate may grow stronger. The most serious situation may be the resurrection of the Timurid Empire!
This Green Sect Mongolia will not let a good young man become a lama to serve the Buddha and let go of childbirth, haha...
Therefore, the solution proposed by Emperor Zhu is a very unpleasant one and requires long-term continuous investment. First, four inner-affiliated towns - Daning, Beiping, Anbei, and Shuofang - were established in Monan Mongolia, and two towns, Hexi and Anxi, were established in the west (possibly plus Beiting Town, which is separated from Jungar). .
Then use these square towns to compress the activity space of a few Huangjiao Mongolian households.
Support a few more Yellow Sect Mongolian vassals and let them control a wider territory. On the one hand, they can restrict each other, and on the other hand, they must use them to resist the Rakshasa Kingdom and Green Sect Mongolia.
Finally, the Ming Empire also had to control the spiritual sustenance of the Yellow Sect in Mongolia, which was the Holy Land of the Yellow Sect on the snowy plateau.
Of course, it is actually very laborious to achieve this series of goals!
Don't look at the fact that Emperor Zhu's 200,000 troops gathered around Beijing, disintegrated the Qing Dynasty, and frightened the powerful factions in Manchuria and southern Eastern Mongolia. However, he does not have the ability to fully grasp the more than one million square kilometers of Monan Mongolia, and it will take a long process for the four towns that are to be established or have been established, including Daning, Beiping, Anbei, and Shuofang, to truly develop.
Because these four towns are now very empty, with only a few troops and no armed farmers - Zhu Cixiang has no way to rely on an imperial edict to let millions of Han farmers leave their homes and go to the bitter cold northern land to cultivate and graze in the Little Ice and Fire Period... Four square towns, with up to 70,000 to 80,000 soldiers, most of them infantry, could control more than one million square kilometers of grassland and prevent people from entering?
To achieve this goal, either the Great Wall must be built on the grasslands, or at least hundreds of thousands or millions of armed Han people must go to the grasslands to open thousands of settlements.
However, it was very difficult to open agricultural settlements in the northern grasslands during the Little Ice Age (not impossible, but only a few places had time to cultivate them), and the cost was too high. If thousands of strongholds were spread out at once, the Ming court would have to prepare to transport large quantities of grain to the grasslands to support the settled farmers.
In addition, the Ming court also needs to provide other living subsidies to hundreds of thousands or millions of settled farmers, and the current Ming Dynasty certainly cannot afford such expenses - with that little money, it can burn Southern Mongolia, and even if it is spent in the Pacific, it can reach the Americas. Get Australia!
Even if Emperor Zhu desperately spent huge sums of money to develop the Monan grassland, he could only effectively control one-tenth of the living space of the Yellow Sect Mongolia.
Therefore, Emperor Zhu could only prepare for a long-term quarrel with the Yellow Sect Mongolia... and to have a long-term quarrel with the Yellow Sect Mongolia, he must master the snow-covered plateau!
Because that is the "Holy See" of Yellow Sect Mongolia!
Hearing Zhu Cixiang talk about the soul of Mongolia, Zhu Cijiong also understood a little bit. He thought for a while: "Brother Emperor, as far as I know, all the Mongolian banners that believe in the Yellow Sect will send people to Tibet to make tea. In fact, they are for the Yellow Sect. The great lamas give away their wealth.”
Zhu Cixiang asked: "How much does it cost to go there?"
"It doesn't cost much," Zhu Cijiong said. "Those Mongolian bannermen are so poor, how much can they give to the great lama? Brother Emperor, do you also want to send someone to Tibet to give money to the great lama?"
Zhu Cixiang nodded, but before he could say anything, Emperor Chongzhen suddenly spoke: "Going to Tibet to send money? Isn't this inappropriate? How can I, the great Ming Dynasty, take the initiative to give money to lamas? If those lamas want money from the Celestial Dynasty, For rewards, you should first send people to pay tribute to collect rewards!"
What Chongzhen said is true!
But the great lama would not be so proactive, because the great lama and the Dashun Dynasty were neighbors. If they took the initiative to please the Ming Dynasty, what would Li Guo think?
Moreover, what Emperor Zhu wanted was not a painless tributary relationship. His goal was to bring Tibet, the sacred and indivisible territory of the great motherland, under the direct control of the central government!
Tibet is too important, so it cannot exist as an external vassal. It must at least become an internal vassal town!
This goal is bound to conflict with the pursuit of the Khoshot Khanate. Therefore, before the Ming Dynasty canonized the Khoshot Khanate, Gushi Khan would not allow the great lama to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty - Tibet is a dual regime. Lamas paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty, but Gu Shihan could not achieve the same status, so Gushi Khan's authority would be shaken.
"What my father said makes sense!" Zhu Cixiang did not refute Emperor Chongzhen's words. "It is indeed inappropriate for me to step in...but my father can send people to Tibet to make tea and send money to the great lama."
"What? I came forward? But I don't believe in the lama!"
Zhu Cixi smiled: "It doesn't matter. We don't send money to Tibet because we believe in the Yellow Sect. We send money to the Yellow Sect because the Yellow Sect controls the soul of Mongolia. We have to spend money to buy peace through the Yellow Sect!" He turned his head, He glanced at Zhu Cihuan, the king of Chongqing, and said, "Lao Wu, now my father is sending people to Tibet to make tea. Should you ask my father to leave now? Are you a filial son?"
