Zhu Yijun's various policies on the development of Northeast China are not friendly to the Jurchens. With the influx of a large number of Han people, Zhu Yijun predicts that ethnic conflicts in the Northeast will become unprecedentedly intense.
If politicians cannot maintain a high position, they will always be pushed away by contradictions. Sooner or later, they will be overwhelmed by contradictions.
In order to solve the Jurchen problem, Zhu Yijun planned a three-pronged approach on the basis of eliminating ethnic differences. One set up monk records divisions in various cities in the Northeast, dispatched monks from all over the country to Liaodong to preach the Dharma and fool the people, and completely defeated the shamans in terms of religious beliefs; the other corrupted the senior officials of the Jurchen ministries, rewarded them with luxurious things, and quickly built a life of luxury but nothing. The upper-class group with no fighting spirit created class conflicts within the Jurchens; the three recruited soldiers from the Jurchen bottom class, drawing out their combat effectiveness at the root, and at the same time used military pay to disintegrate the resistance of the Jurchen bottom class.
The imperial court issued a decree to release Jurchens from various tribes to Han people and Korean slaves, and the timing was carefully chosen. If it is carried out in the winter after harvesting the grain, the possibility of encountering fierce resistance from the Jurchen grassroots is slim.
Because they were not good at farming, although the various Jurchen tribes occupied fertile lands, their population growth was extremely slow. Most women, children and the elderly are hungry all year round. In good years, 23 out of 10 Jurchen children die from malnutrition every year; in disaster years, only one or two out of seven or eight children survive.
The contradictions in the economic structure based on national characteristics can only be solved unless the political power can educate them in a targeted manner and adjust the production model at the same time.
Although countless knowledgeable people throughout the ages understand this truth. However, during the prosperous period of the Central Plains, very few people had the ambition to do this and put it into practice. The best in this regard were probably the emperors of the Qing Dynasty and the founders of Taizu and Chengzu in the early Ming Dynasty who were most empathetic to this in the original time and space. Second ancestor.
During the Taizu and Chengzu periods of the Ming Dynasty, on the one hand, they used troops aggressively against the Mongols and Yuan Dynasties. On the other hand, they used naturalized Mongolians and Jurchens on a large scale and encouraged their tribes to move inward. At that time, a large number of Mongolians and Jurchens were dispersed and resettled in various guard posts in Northern Zhili, and were finally completely Chineseized.
During the Yongle period, Zheng He's own clan was the Hui clan, and the man who built Yongning Temple, Yi Shiha, was a Jurchen eunuch - his prosperity had its origins, and Zhu Di's ambition was not something that future generations should despise. Wu Jijue, who was defeated by Zhu Yijun, is the most typical. His ancestors were naturalized Mongolians during the Chengzu period. By Wu Jijue's generation, except for the circle of nobles, almost no one knew about the other civil servants and generals.
But unfortunately, after Renzong, the simple policy of restraint and Confucian conservatism caused extremely slow progress in the reform of the empire in the north and south.
When the military strength of the Central Plains was strong, the policy of restraining ethnic minorities could still maintain the superficial appearance of "paying tribute to all barbarians". When the military strength of the Central Plains was weakened, the territory that had not been reformed and returned to its original state began to suffer large-scale losses. The reasons will not be described again.
As the military power of the Ming Dynasty quickly turned from strength to decline after Tumubao, Nuergandusi's policy of restraining the emperor gradually failed like other aspects of the empire.
The Jurchens lost the suppression of a strong army. Based on the structural contradictions of their own national economy, the Jurchens began to plunder the Han people on a large scale to obtain basic production and living materials. On the other hand, it became an inevitable choice to plunder the Han people who were good at farming as slaves.
At that time, a farmer was considered good at tending ten acres of land a year. Although the land in Liaodong is fertile, the means of production are seriously insufficient. Ten acres of land per year can reach the limit of fifteen shi in the best years.
If the master mistreats the Han slaves and the Han slaves are not motivated, a Jurchen family that raises a Han slave every year will not even be able to collect seven or eight shi of food. ——This is when the women and children at home work together to serve the farmers.
After Wang Gao was overthrown, the Jurchens were all under the authority of the imperial court. Although the crisis of food shortage is not imminent, ordinary Jurchen tribesmen have lost their Han slaves and are in a panic about having no one to farm next year. Although many poor Jurchen tribesmen were already part-farming and part-grazing, without the guidance of the Han people, they had no confidence at all.
For the lower-level Jurchen tribesmen who had lost hope at this time, they were suddenly told that Liaodong Shuqi was recruiting troops and receiving favorable treatment. They really felt the emperor's supreme favor.
The imperial court promised that any Jurchen who surrendered to the army with his own soldiers and horses would immediately be given fifteen shi of Anjia grain, and seven shi of grain and four kilograms of cotton every year. When he joined the army, his head merits would be the same as those of Han soldiers. Those who surrender to the army without horses will have their food rations halved and the rest the same.
For those who have served in the army for more than three years or who have achieved first-level merit, the government will organize their families to form a support pair with the Han people. The farmland of the two families will be merged, and the Han people will guide their family members in farming techniques, and they will receive rations of 64%.
These two policies are like a ray of sunshine piercing the dark clouds, giving the Jurchen people at the bottom of the country unlimited hope for survival.
The effect was beyond the most optimistic estimates of Zhu Yijun and the imperial court: the Jurchen cavalry joined the army enthusiastically, like trickles of water flowing into a lake.
Before the spring of the third year of Wanli came, the number of Jurchens who participated in the selection and were qualified to join the army had reached 50,000, carrying more than 8,000 horses in total. In many Jurchen families, there were touching scenes of wives sending their husbands and mothers sending their children to join the army to protect their families and the country.
There was a Jurchen tribe member who had many sons in the family. Except for leaving his youngest son to guard the house, the other six brothers joined the army together with his father. They were received and commended by Zhang Xueyan, the governor of Liaodong, and were set up as examples.
According to a report by Li Chengliang, who was most familiar with the situation of various Jurchen tribes, there were about 260,000 to 70,000 men distributed among the white mountains and black waters at this time, and about one-third of them had combat skills. When the imperial court removed the fence, more than half of the Jurchen soldiers were fished out.
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The enthusiastic participation of Jurchen tribesmen at the grassroots level in the army caused severe panic among the captive chiefs. Since the Jurchen warriors who joined the army were unevenly distributed among various tribes, small tribes with poor living conditions were almost turned into empty shells by the imperial court.
As a result, overt or covert resistance is almost inevitable. However, no matter how strong the resistance is, it cannot resist the people's desire for food. According to the provisions of the recruitment order, the Liaodong General Military Office will receive reports every day after the new year, reporting on the leaders of their own tribes preventing their people from joining the army.
The Liaodong General Military Office set up reception points in many border towns to receive petitions from sneaky Jurchen tribesmen, which became a spectacle that stunned the court.
Based on the verified reports, General Li raised his butcher knife high and set off waves of bloodshed in the Northeast.
At the same time, civil servants including Liu Yingjie and Zhang Xueyan accompanied the Jurchen chieftain to play and sing day and night. Zhu Yijun once said jokingly that if any of the Jiliao civil servants did not suffer from stomach bleeding after drinking, they would be derelict in their duties.
The emperor also changed from the stingy appearance of previous emperors in the Ming Dynasty in rewarding Jurchens. Jewelry and satin, exquisite porcelain, dazzling horse gear, and exquisite daily necessities from Rishenglong were all given to Wangtai, Nalin, and Juechangan like flowing water. Led by a large group of Jurchen nobles.
In the later period, Jurchen nobles were embarrassed to draw their bows without a fine jade finger, and they could not ride a horse without a whip with gold beads tied on it. Whoever marries a daughter without a few pieces of silk hanging around the horse's neck will only be looked down upon when she gets to her husband's family.
By the end of the third year of Wanli, the Imperial Cavalry, formed by the emperor in Beijing and composed entirely of Jurchen nobles' sons, with the banner name "Ying Yang", completely collapsed the resistance of the Jurchen upper-level establishment. Nurhaci, who changed his Chinese name to Tong Chizhong, He also became a member of the glorious Ying Yang Army.
