Chieftain, also known as native official, is an official position established by the Ming Dynasty in the northwest and southwest regions and is filled by the chiefs of the native people and is hereditary.
Of course, the chieftain system was not originated by Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty, but inherited the system of the Yuan Dynasty.
During the Yuan Dynasty, the chieftain system was directly established in the southwest region where ethnic minorities lived together.
For the vast borders of the Yuan Dynasty, the Yunnan-Guizhou region in the southwest was too remote. There were mountains and forests everywhere, with high mountains and dense forests.
If you want to completely eradicate these local snakes, it is better to focus on appeasement. After all, remote areas are really not worth the trouble.
Simply establish the chieftain system, which is equivalent to ethnic minority autonomy and let them govern themselves. The rulers of the Yuan Dynasty only need them to surrender.
Last year, the Ming Dynasty conquered Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and other places, continuing the system before the Yuan Dynasty. Today, most of the southwest is still governed by chieftain autonomy.
According to their levels, chieftains can be divided into military positions such as Xuanweisheng, Xuanfushi, and appeasement envoys, and civil servants such as Tuzhifu, Tuzhizhou, and Tuzhixian.
Before the Yuan Dynasty, various feudal dynasties had already adopted the method of "ruling the local people with local officials", that is, granting officials and titles to the chieftains of the border chieftains to rule their own people.
In the Yuan Dynasty, the leaders of various ethnic groups were granted the official positions of Xuan comfort envoy, Xuan appeasement envoy, Comfort envoy and Recruitment envoy.
In the Ming Dynasty, there were two types of chieftains set up in the areas where natives of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi were inhabited:
One is under the jurisdiction of military departments, such as the Xuanwei Department, the Xuanfu Department, the Appeasement Department, the Recruitment Department, etc.;
The other type is under the jurisdiction of the administrative department, and is based on the Han regional administrative system of prefectures, prefectures, and counties, with local magistrates, local magistrates, and local magistrates.
Both types of official positions are held by native leaders.
Chieftains were subordinate to the Ministry of Personnel, and their positions were hereditary. They were given seals by the court, and systems such as inheritance, ranking, assessment, tribute, and collection were established.
In addition to paying tribute and levies to the court, chieftains still retained traditional governing institutions and powers within their jurisdiction.
Therefore, for the chieftains, they are the local emperors, and the natives of each tribe are their subjects, or slaves, who take whatever they ask for.
In addition, many chieftains have feuds with each other, which means that it is impossible for chieftains to live in peace with each other.
In the southwest region, rebellions often broke out. Although they may not be targeting the Ming Dynasty, in order to maintain local peace, the court would naturally send people to solve them.
This will make the chieftains also hostile to the Ming Dynasty, so this conflict will become more and more intense.
The war between the chieftains and the Ming Dynasty began in the Hongwu period and lasted until the end of the Ming Dynasty. Even after the demise of the Ming Dynasty, the chieftains were still active in the southwest region. During the Qing Dynasty, they also continued to rebel, which made the court anxious. .
Especially during the Wanli period, the rebellion of the Yang family in Bozhou lasted for nearly eight years, which greatly weakened the national power of the Ming Dynasty and even affected the subsequent Battle of Sarhu.
It can be said that the Southwest Chieftain is like a cancer that grew on the Ming Dynasty. It has been repeatedly tormenting the Ming Dynasty court since the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The Ming Dynasty court, from beginning to end, was unable to completely solve this cancer, and was eventually dragged to death by the chieftain of the Southwest.
Since Li Jin came to Hepu County and began to provide disaster relief, the native people who were originally in the deep mountains and old forests have gradually walked out of the mountains and forests.
However, these natives did not come out willingly. They were coerced by the chieftain and had to go out of the mountains and come to Hepu County to receive the food provided by Li Jin.
In recent years, rainfall has been frequent in the south, and it is not only the people of Hepu County who have been affected by the floods. The people in Shiwandashan and the villages in the mountains and forests are already starved of food.
They were unwilling to go out of the mountain before because even if they went out, they would get nothing. After all, the people in Hepu County were also poor, and they would not be able to grab anything good if they went out.
The county magistrate of Hepu County was once a bandit. It was even more foolish to ask the magistrate to provide disaster relief.
Only this time when Li Jin took office, he not only eliminated the incompetent county magistrate, but was also willing to provide money and food to help the people.
For this reason, Li Jin even specifically emphasized that no matter whether they are Han people or natives, they are all treated equally, and no one can receive two bowls of white porridge every day.
The natives were so hungry that their eyes turned green, but now that Li Jin's notice was posted, all the natives and common people in other counties in Qinzhou who could not survive flocked towards Hepu County.
In just over ten days, the small county town that originally had only more than 50,000 people has now gathered nearly 200,000 ordinary people and natives.
Led by the chieftain, these natives eagerly came to Hepu County, hoping to have a free lunch.
When Li Jin saw this kind of formation, he was not surprised at all. Instead, with a wave of his hand, he directly asked people to start disaster relief activities throughout the county as stated on the notice.
Porridge sheds rose up one after another, and the food that originally poured in from all directions was now dispersed by Li Jin like water.
No one knows why Li Jin did this?
Anyway, what the people know is that Li Jin, the prefect of Qinzhou, has a lot of food. It is said that Li Jin's food is enough for them to eat for a year and they can't finish it.
The entire people of Hepu County were immersed in joy. What they didn't know was that all of this was just Li Jin's plan.
Where is the free lunch in this world?
