Thinking about these things is a big warning to Guo Kang.
Because as mentioned before, the Purple Horde Khanate itself was actually a small tribe that governed a large country.
In comparison, their advantage is probably that Europeans don't care about this issue.
In ancient Rome itself, a small number of citizens ruled the entire Mediterranean in its early years, and later gradually liberalized citizenship rights. Later European countries did not care about this at all. Even the most "localized" French royal family actually has ancestors from East Frankland.
On the other hand, Europeans seem to have little concept of "legality". Their country does not correspond one-to-one with a certain civilization, and the legitimacy narrative they use does not have the same logic as that of the Central Plains. What these people are pursuing now is, at most, simply "taking advantage of Rome's popularity."
In comparison, the cultural level of the Qing Dynasty was very high, and the level of brutality was not a big deal here. If it were placed in this place, it would be a dynasty with high legitimacy.
As for religion, that's not a problem. Just learn from the French pen pals and catch the Pope. It can even be stipulated that future papal elections must be drawn by lot. Now, it’s not only legal, but also democratic...
What is really troubling is that the Purple Horde Khanate wants to learn from the Central Plains model and establish a strong and stable foundation. But the Khan's court was timid. On the one hand, it is because some cultural concepts from the Central Plains are not adapted to the local environment here and cannot find corresponding things; on the other hand, it is also my own problem.
Qianlong's argument at that time actually took advantage of a definitional loophole: in the late Ming Dynasty, Liaodong was also called Sanhan.
For this situation, you can refer to Gu Yanwu's record back then. According to him, since the loss of Liaoyang during the Tianqi period, documents such as memorials in the imperial court have called Liao people "Three Hans" for the purpose of "outside" - that is, the traditional act of expelling Han nationality.
By demonstrating that the local area is Han, not Han, it can be proved that the imperial court did not lose important areas, previous losses were minor problems, and the situation was still under control.
After that, the Liao people also began to call themselves Sanhan to "come from outside". Even local officials call it that. Mao Wenlong's letter directly stated that it would take two years to "pace the Liao Dynasty to exterminate the slaves and restore the old business of the Three Koreas." This shows that this has become a common pronoun.
Qianlong, on the other hand, forcibly connected this extended "Three Hans" with the Three Hans in history books. He discovered that among the ancient Mahan tribes, there was a person named "Aixiangguo", which was homophonic with "Aixin", so he thought this was the origin of his family. In addition, he also believed that "Three Hans" actually meant "Three Khans", which means the ministries under the rule of the three Khans, indicating that such names existed at that time.
By using homophones twice, Qianlong completed a series of arguments.
It was much simpler for the Purple Horde Khanate. They were really outsiders, and they felt no guilt in beating up the local nobles. Of course, this also caused them to be incompatible with the local forces. People basically regarded them as a natural disaster...
Guo Kang told Tuo Huan, Li Xuanying and others about the concept of "Yellow Peril" in later generations, and how much Europeans rejected the East. However, those people not only did not think it was a slur, they were also very happy. They thought the word was cool and very domineering upon hearing it.
Tuo Huan told Guo Kang that the characteristic of the barbarians is that they are afraid of power but not moral. The only way to keep them calm and in awe is to beat him until he gets scared. To put it bluntly, this is what people do.
However, Guo Kang is still not satisfied with this.
He felt that simply conquering and defeating the barbarians was not enough, he also had to consider subsequent strategies. Wu Qi said: "It is easy to win, but difficult to defend." The most important thing is how to use the momentum to expand one's power.
The previous operations of the Purple Horde Khanate were actually pretty good, but to a large extent it was not a conscious behavior, but a series of passive responses, which were purely forced out by the harsh environment and military pressure.
The princes of the early years actually had the attitude of "the king of Xia and the barbarians". They also felt that the people under their rule were barbarians who were beginning to accept enlightenment. Even if they were very united with each other, this attitude has always existed. As for the small Byzantine country that is fighting a civil war in the south, no one takes it seriously, and few people even care about it.
As a rare literate person in the Khan's court at that time, Guo Gai had a great interest in finding orthodoxy and the succession of rise and fall. He was also one of the few people who started looking for a suitable claimant from then on. The future development direction is not so much a national policy as it is Guo Gai's personal "Jingluo" behavior. Until now, Guo Kang suspected that this was the result of Guo Gai insisting on finding a substitute because he was far away from his homeland.
In fact, according to the family, Boyan Timur and others proposed that Guo Gai find a son to marry a Greek, but Guo Gai was unwilling, so Boyan Timur arranged for his own son. Top. If you think about it carefully, it's actually quite interesting.
By the time of the Civil War, the country was getting bigger and bigger, and it finally became a thorn in the side of the surrounding powerful countries. At the same time, the conflicts within the Khanate also intensified, and the step by step pressure of the steppe nobles brought greater pressure. Eventually, these two contradictions broke out in the most intense form of military confrontation, resulting in the most dangerous, but possibly the most influential war in the history of the Purple Horde Khanate.
Before the war, the core area of the Purple Horde Khanate was actually not like Rome of this era, nor was it like the Golden Horde next to it. Instead, it looked a bit like the Yuan Dynasty. They are also a great khan and a group of Han military leaders who monopolize force, ruling all kinds of people. What the rulers recognized was the Han culture covered with a layer of Khanate skin.
Of course, you have to say it was like ancient Rome. Anyway, ancient Rome was indeed a Western Zhou-style country, which was quite different from today's Rome.
After the war, the Purple Horde Khanate as a whole became less and less like a khanate. By the time of Basil III, a translation agency was set up in the court, which was responsible for translating documents related to various eastern khanates. In the entire Khan's court, those who could speak Turkic were already professional diplomats, and Mongolian even Rare than that.
The overall identity of the country has completely become "Rome". The upper-class nobles no longer regard themselves as teachers and enlighteners, and they no longer insist that they and the local people are two different civilizations. They began to identify themselves as Rome and repeatedly claimed that all citizens belonged to Roman civilization. As for the customs and habits that were still persisting and were originally regarded as Han culture, they also argued that they were part of Roman civilization.
Of course, on the other hand, anyone with a little knowledge knows that this "Rome" cultural style is not the same as ancient Rome. Neutral scholars generally call it "New Roman style", while those hostile to the Purple Horde call it "Eastern Roman style".
Thanks to the help of the Purple Horde Khanate, the Eastern Roman Empire, which had always been regarded as an "Eastern country", was now regarded by them as a Western country.
To be honest, Guo Kang himself didn't know what this was.
Just like how much of the culture of the "Hellenistic Age" is Greek and how much is Persian, it is unclear how much of this "New Roman style" is Roman, how much is Han, and how much is other, it is actually the same. Can't explain clearly...
(End of chapter)
