There is a characteristic of Chinese culture, just like the Tai Chi yin and yang fish, it can always see the pros and cons of one thing. The Han people often say that "everything depends on man-made things" and "man can conquer nature". But at the same time, the Han people also have a saying, which is that "it's up to people to plan things, and it's up to heaven to make things happen", or "it's hard to disobey the destiny of heaven".
Nurhachi insisted that "everything depends on man-made things", and what he probably thought was that "man can conquer nature". However, in the original history, when he stood up for himself and rebelled against the Ming Dynasty, he regarded himself as a "man-made man". It can be seen that no matter who you are, as your identity changes, your thoughts, stance, etc. will also change. Later generations said that those who slay dragons eventually become evil dragons. This is probably the truth.
But at this time, Nurhaci is far from being a dragon, and may not even be called a dragon slayer. He is just a mere "rubber chieftain" who is trembling under the shroud of dragon power and trying every means to grow insignificantly. If it weren't for the Jianzhou soldiers who could fight, they wouldn't even be ranked very high among the captive chiefs.
Fifty thousand people, how capable they are!
And how did Nurhaci gather enough population in the original history? There are two keys: First, the victory of the Jurchen Unification War allowed Nurhaci to bring all the Jurchen tribes under his command. At that time, the total Jurchen population was about 870,000. Although some were lost in the unification war, the remaining There should be six hundred thousand.
Second, the Ming Dynasty himself gave the Jurchens a large population. The key to this matter is the so-called "Gaohuai Rebellion against Liao Dynasty" incident in history. At that time, Li Chengliang went to control Liao Dynasty for the second time, and due to the huge losses of the three major levies in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yijun began to privately send mining tax eunuchs everywhere, and Gao Huai was the one sent to Liaodong.
This person was ruthless and violent in Liaodong, but Li Chengliang not only did not stop him, but also collaborated with Gao Huai. In the end, a large number of Han people in Liaodong had no choice but to seek refuge with the Jurchens, especially in Jianzhou. How many? At that time, Nurhachi established his capital in Jiefan City, and "there were a lot of Han men and women coming and going outside the city, half of them were Hu" - Han people accounted for half.
During the Huang Taiji period, he paid more attention to population issues. From the time he succeeded to the throne to his death, he invaded the mainland of the Ming Dynasty five times in seventeen years. Each time, the main purpose was to plunder the population and property. He even explicitly ordered "not to attack the city, but only to plunder the villages and forts."
For example, in May of the ninth year of Chongzhen, Huang Taiji sent Azige and other troops to fight, capturing 179,820 people and animals, and captured the general Chao Pichang alive.
In March of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the Qing army crossed the canal and broke through Jinan Prefecture in Shandong Province. They defeated the enemy and captured more than 250,000 people. They returned triumphantly in April.
In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, Huang Taiji launched the last entrance battle during his lifetime, and finally reached Yanzhou, Shandong. Conquered three prefectures, eighteen prefectures, and sixty-seven counties, defeated the enemy in thirty-nine places, captured 2,250 taels of gold, 2,255,270 taels of silver, and captured 360,000 people. Nine thousand mouths, cattle, horses, clothing and other items.
Therefore, the problem of insufficient Jurchen population has always been regarded as a key issue by the leaders of Houjin and Qing Dynasties, and plundering the Han people is one of the very important strategies.
Rather than direct military conquest, Gao pragmatism hopes to solve the fundamental problem. For example, regarding the rule or restraint of the Jurchens in Liaodong, Gao Pragmatic has always believed that "forging iron requires one's own strength." If the local strength of Liaodong alone can crush the entire Jurchen clan, how could it end up like what happened in history?
Whether it is reforming the saltworks or building an iron factory, these are all efforts to strengthen "equipment" and belong to external forces. The more critical thing is actually the internal force, that is, people. You must know that there are only about a million Han people in Liaodong at the moment. Faced with the Jurchens who are now competing for supremacy, they can still divide and conquer. If the Jurchens are really unified, Liaodong will not have any absolute advantage.
So this time, while Gao Jingjing decided to divide Jianzhou Jurchen into left and right again, he was also considering another more fundamental issue: Is it possible to evacuate the population to Liaodong, which would not only alleviate the land annexation problem in the interior, but also consolidate Liaodong? Its own governing ability?
Before passing the order to Gao Yimin, he had repeatedly considered and demonstrated carefully, believing that it was still possible to do so, but the results might not be as successful as the "breaking into Guandong" in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.
The first thing to explain is that the basic market of the Yuan Dynasty that Ming Dynasty took over is full of desolation and hundreds of industries are waiting to be prospered. At that time, the entire northern China was in ruins due to the Korean and Song uprisings in the late Yuan Dynasty in the past few decades. Even the traditional Central Plains and Han areas such as Shaanxi and Shanxi had become virgin forests, not to mention Liaodong, which was thousands of miles away. peninsula.
Thus, after initially unifying China, the Ming Dynasty began the last large-scale nationwide immigration in the history of Chinese immigration. In a sense, the Hongwu Great Migration can be regarded as the re-colonization and re-consolidation of traditional Han areas by the Han people since the Han and Tang Dynasties.
Before the founding of the Ming Dynasty and after the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, the Han people behaved in a really embarrassing manner during this period of decline: they lost Yanyun, Henan, Hebei, Hexi, Ningxia, Hetao, and Vietnam... In the end, Yiguan was still unable to escape when he crossed south. The flag of the Mongolian army even planted on the island of Java, which was so embarrassing!
In the Northeast, starting from the Western Jin Dynasty in the fourth century AD, the four Korean counties of the Han Dynasty were lost, as well as Liaodong. Except for the brief military occupation in the early Tang Dynasty, the Andong Protectorate withdrew again and again, from Pyongyang to Liaodong, and then from Liaodong to western Liaoning.
In the early years of the prosperous Tang Dynasty and the Kaiyuan Dynasty, the hard work of Taizong and Gaozong was in vain. Not to mention the achievements of the destruction of Goguryeo were stolen by Silla, Liaodong also became the sphere of influence of the Bohai Kingdom. Later, during the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty, which could not even control the three towns in Hebei Province, talked about restoring Liaodong and Jin Ouquan?
Adding up the above time, the land of Liaodong has probably been lost to the Han Central Plains Dynasty for more than a thousand years.
When the Ming Dynasty army conquered Yanyun and land and water once again set foot on Liaodong, the feeling was probably not much different from that of "the Western Regions have been separated for a thousand years, and it's already Iraq when we see each other again". The Ming Dynasty, facing its homeland of the Han and Tang Dynasties after more than a thousand years of separation, began its management of the Northeast without any foundation for governance.
In fact, in the early Ming Dynasty, during the Hongwu period, not only troops were stationed in Liaodong, but immigrants were also carried out at the same time. The immigrants were mainly the army, exiled prisoners, and criminal officials, which were generally similar to the management of the Western Regions by the Han and Tang Dynasties.
However, the situation is very strange. Until the end of Wanli and before Nurhaqi raised his army, the growth rate of Liaodong's population had not been large, and even fell instead of rising in some periods. Gao Pragmatic thinks there are probably the following reasons:
First, the living conditions in Liaodong have been harsh since ancient times. People in the early Ming Dynasty bluntly said that Liaodong was surrounded by enemies on three sides, with the Jurchens, North Korea, and Mongolia surrounding it, so there must be constant wars.
The second is the collapse of the garrison and garrison system since Xuande. Hereditary officers annexed the garrison fields, drank the blood of the soldiers, and ate empty pay. It has become a common phenomenon for soldiers to flee in large numbers.
Third, Daning was withdrawn in the Yongle year, and Kaiping was withdrawn in the Xuande year (the current Kaiping of Gaowu Shi was withdrawn from this Kaiping). After experiencing the Tumubao incident, the Ming Dynasty changed its national defense policy from active defense and even active offense to passive defense. The connection between Liaodong and the Central Plains. During the Jiajing period, after the northern Mongolian tribes completely established themselves in Monan, the only road access was the Liaoxi Corridor. Liaodong lost its barrier and indirectly became an isolated land. Furthermore, due to the construction of the concave-shaped border wall in Liaodong, its strategic space was also locked on the peninsula.
Fourth, until the end of the Ming Dynasty, even in the powerful Hongxuan era, it could not truly rule Mongolia like the Qing Dynasty. The two sides have always been in a relationship of war and peace, and an inseparable relationship. As a result, Liaodong has wars and is restless every year.
Fifth, after the Ming Dynasty moved its capital to Beijing, Liaodong was completely positioned as a buffer zone for the capital to absorb damage, which aggravated the situation in Liaodong, the site of the Fourth Battle.
Returning to Liaodong in the early Ming Dynasty, the environment in Liaodong in the early Ming Dynasty was explained earlier. It was surrounded by enemies on three sides, including the Jurchens, North Korea, and Mongolia. None of them was a fuel-efficient lamp. Therefore, Ming Dynasty's management of the Northeast was also directed at these three.
During the Hongwu period, Zhu Yuanzhang once planned to reset the Liaoyang Province of the Yuan Dynasty and directly control the Northeast. However, with the succession of Zhaozong of the Northern Yuan Dynasty, he not only united with the northwest Yuan Dynasty princes, but also united with Wang Baobao's tribe to gain a foothold in Mobei. At the same time, They were engaged in small and medium-sized wars with the Ming Dynasty in Monan, such as tug-of-war and demolition of towers; in the northeast, Naha, which belonged to the Northern Yuan Dynasty, sent out 200,000 troops to attack Ming Liaodong.
In this regard, after Zhu Yuanzhang consolidated and developed the Ming Dynasty's national defense in the north, strengthened the defenses, and immigrated through the five northern provinces to recuperate and recover, he continued to send generals to the Northern Yuan Dynasty to carry out the war to clear the desert. .
Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang never gave up his efforts for a peaceful solution, but after Yuan Zhaozong refused to coexist peacefully with the Ming Dynasty, the only way to solve the problem was by force. Finally, after the great victory at Lanyuyuerhai, the center of Beiyuan was completely defeated. Tianyuan Emperor Tuogu Si Timur was killed during his escape, and Beiyuan collapsed and split.
Prior to this, the Ming army also surrendered Nahachu through the Battle of Jinshan. At the same time, it achieved certain results in recruiting the Ulliangha tribe. By setting up three guards, it became a barrier to Liaodong.
In fact, at this time, the Ming Dynasty only had a few large strongholds and sporadic fortresses in the north. The complete implementation of the nine-sided system in later generations had to wait until the Jiajing period. At the same time, the initial completion of the Ming Great Wall was also during the Jiajing period. This is the situation in Mongolia.
While Zhu Yuanzhang was committed to solving the Mongolian issue, the dispute between Ming Dynasty and North Korea in Northeast Asia became increasingly fierce. In the late fourteenth century, following the uprising of the Red Turban Army at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the peninsular Goryeo took advantage of the chaos in the Central Plains to get rid of the control of the Yuan Dynasty, and then actively promoted the northward policy, which pushed the northern boundary of Goryeo from the Datong River to the coast of the Yalu River.
By the time the Ming Dynasty entered Liaodong, Goryeo had not only established a stable rule along the Yalu River, but also began to recruit the Jurchen tribe across the Yalu River. When the Ming Dynasty wanted to set up a garrison in the former Yuan Dynasty's hometown in the northern part of the peninsula, Goryeo even intervened in Liaodong affairs and did not hesitate to launch a war in order to consolidate its achievements.
At this time, Goryeo general Ri Chenggui launched a coup during the march, seized power in Goryeo, and later directly established North Korea. However, the new North Korean regime inherited the northward policy of the Goryeo Dynasty and coveted the Northeast region.
What should be noted here is that North Korea at that time was not the so-called harmless little China during the Wanli aid period. At that time, it was even called the small overlord of Northeast Asia, posing a fatal threat to Liaodong.
Facing the new North Korean regime, Zhu Yuanzhang did several smart things. First of all, due to the righteousness of the suzerainty, North Korea was never given a formal title. In the end, Hongwu I did not formally canonize Li Chenggui, and only gave him a "power to know the affairs of Korea" - in name, Li Chenggui was still a temporary worker and a powerful official who usurped the throne. Failure to speak the right words led to the embarrassing situation during the founding of North Korea.
Secondly, Zhu Yuanzhang used the tribute trade under the vassal system to conduct unequal trade with North Korea's war horse resources left in the Yuan Dynasty, either by bartering, or by forcing North Korea to pay tribute to the horses and plundering North Korea's war horses.
Since the Ming Dynasty was in an absolutely dominant position in the trade between the two sides and monopolized the pricing and trading methods of war horses, after a long period of unequal trade, the quality and quantity of Korean war horses declined significantly, and they could never restore the grandeur of the early Joseon period. This has been discussed previously in this book and the details will not be repeated here.
Thirdly, Zhu Yuanzhang imposed a technical blockade on North Korea and blocked strategic resources as much as possible. For example, gunpowder formulas, cannon-making techniques, and beef tendons required for Korean crossbows were either restricted or not provided. All in all, it is to do everything possible to weaken and restrict North Korea through non-war means. This is the situation in North Korea.
So what about the Jurchen situation? Zhu Yuanzhang carried out recruitment work in the Jurchen area, but since the Hongwu period mainly targeted Mongolia and North Korea, large-scale recruitment of the Jurchens was not until the Yongle period. The appeasement of the Jurchen region during the Hongwu period was not as good as the Korean regime on the peninsula, but it was also because of the long-term weakening of North Korea during the Hongwu period that North Korea stopped on the south bank of the Yalu River and no longer had the strength to enter the Northeast.
Probably in the late Hongwu period, the Ming Dynasty basically solved the Mongolian harassment in the Northeast, and achieved extraordinary results in weakening North Korea's military power. The work of recruiting and uniting the Jurchens also began to be implemented.
On this issue, Zhu Yuanzhang basically did what one generation should do, which was far better than his economic work. During the Yongle period, the Ming Dynasty established the Nuer Gandu Division in the Jurchen area, carried out large-scale recruitment work, and basically solved the Jurchen problem. It gave up the policy of using both Monan Shitu Guards and Jisi Guards in Mongolia during the Hongwu period, fully implemented Jisi Xutu, and five outposts. In Mobei, Sanli Luting continued Hongwu's aggressive offensive trend.
Then they reconnected with the three guards of Ulyanha who had lost contact due to the Jingnan War. In addition to insisting on the technical blockade, material restrictions, horse purchases and other necessary measures against North Korea during the Hongwu period, they also gave up the area south of the Yalu River that was disputed with North Korea and concentrated on business. Jurchen region.
This time can be regarded as the golden period of large-scale immigration to Liaodong, but the Ming Dynasty in the Yongle period was very similar to the Gaozong period in the early Tang Dynasty. By inheriting the painstaking achievements of the previous dynasty, adhering to the vassal world view with Chinese characteristics, focusing on restraint, supplemented by powerful military strikes, and coupled with economic control, it has expanded its territorial sphere of influence to the extreme.
However, similar to the collapse of the military system in the early Tang Dynasty, the guard system collapsed in the early Ming Dynasty, and most areas either actually gave up or shelved it. At the same time, we are also facing a population shortage. The Guan area, such as the Yunnan-Guizhou region, and the Huguang region are not yet saturated, and there is not much energy to put Liaodong first.
The dilemma of Yongle immigration in the early Ming Dynasty was that, first, the Jingnan Campaign drained away the military strength in Monan during the Hongwu period, and the Daning Dusi existed in name only in the early Yongle period and simply moved inland. Even though the Mongolian tribes did not dare to go south to stabilize their nomads due to the powerful military threat in the early Ming Dynasty, creating a vacuum area, it also left no protection and support base during the immigration process.
From the middle and late Ming Dynasty to the Wanli era, the main dilemma was opposite to that in the early Ming Dynasty. There is a sufficient population, but the state's executive power has declined and the health system has collapsed. The strength of Jiliao Xuan's border army has dropped significantly compared to the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Defending the territory is just fine, and expanding the border is basically a dream.
Especially during the Wanli period, the Three Great Conquests were fought. Although they won, they almost lost all their wealth in the end. If they thought about expansion, they no longer had such power.
However, the emergence of Gao Pragmatic changed this situation and made him feel that he had a foundation of strength to immigrate to Liaodong.
First of all, half of the Mongolian problem has been solved, and the other half will most likely be solved in three or four years. Secondly, the Korean problem no longer exists. At this time, North Korea is already weak and will wait for the Japanese to plow through it in a few years. Needless to say, in the future, it is very likely that the Ming Dynasty will take whatever it says and completely degenerate into a child regime.
The only problem left was the Jurchens, but it was only the sixteenth year of Wanli, not the forty-sixth year of Wanli. Nurhachi was still early to rise, and even under the suppression and differentiation of his superiors, he was likely to lose the opportunity to rise. The problem of foreign enemies is not serious.
Liaodong now has corn, tussah, cotton, coal-fired kang, sea salt, iron works, Hokkaido rice, etc., as well as highly pragmatic and advanced servants and armed forces and Xuanda elites. It can be said that except for the population itself, other conditions are basically in place. , we can just wait for the immigrants to arrive and enrich the local area of Liaodong.
This is also one of the important reasons why we must stabilize the Liaodong border and refrain from fighting at this stage. If there are any problems, it is probably that the imperial court has not yet formed this idea, let alone issued a policy.
The only good news is probably that Gao Jingshi is the Minister of Household Affairs in the Ming Dynasty. After years of hard work, Zhu Yijun also felt that there was something wrong with the Ming court doing nothing for disaster relief. Now whenever a disaster occurs, he will ask the Ministry of Household Affairs to see if there is anything. There are ways to think of it.
The victims in the disaster area are the best immigrants that Gao Pragmatic can think of. During the Little Ice Age, disasters occurred from north to south. Moving victims from the north to Liaodong first could not only relieve the pressure on the disaster-stricken areas, but also enrich Liaodong. It was the best of both worlds.
In other words, the difficulty is probably how to transport the victims and resettle them properly. However, this matter must be pragmatic and there is a way. Jinghua's water transportation capacity can obviously be used, and the Liaohe Hetao area recovered after the Battle of Southern Liaoning is obviously the best resettlement location - it is also the Liaohe Plain.
Gao Yimin looked at Cao Yun, who had just been chatting with him, and thought to himself: I want to use Cao Yuan's achievements in dividing Jianzhou to pull Li Chengliang down, push Cao Yun to the position of commander-in-chief of Liaodong, and then colonize the Liaohe Hetao Plain. But I don’t know whether Nurhachi in Hetuala City intends to resist stubbornly, or choose to "surrender and lose half"?
While I was thinking about it, I suddenly heard a messenger coming from outside to report: "Report——General, the Second Captive Chief, Beleshur Haqi, has sent an envoy to pay homage!"
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