Ming Dynasty, capital.
Zhu Yunwen did not know that the war between Timur and Bayezid had ended, but he knew the outcome of this battle.
In less than two years, the situation in the northwest will undergo drastic changes. Zhu Yunwen has not yet made up his mind whether he should lead Timur to the east earlier and conquer the western regions.
Despite this, Shaanxi still received 800,000 taels allocated by the Ministry of Household Affairs. This finance has only one purpose:
Build roads.
According to Zhu Yunwen's plan, huge manpower and funds need to be invested in Shaanxi to connect Xi'an, Lanzhou, Xining, Liangzhou and Suzhou with concrete roads.
But how to arrange roads, how to ensure the logistics of concrete materials, how much manpower to mobilize, and how to construct several lines at the same time are all problems. Even if 50,000 guard sergeants are deployed in concrete road construction, it will not be completed in just one year.
Road construction is difficult, especially in the northwest. Once winter comes, the cold weather makes it difficult to guarantee the quality of construction.
Although the Ministry of Industry expressed opposition, Zhu Yunwen still insisted on focusing the road construction in the northwest. In Zhu Yunwen's view, whether Timur came or not, the Ming Dynasty must win the Western Region.
The reason is not just the thinking of future generations, who think that if they come by themselves, they will not be able to explain it to future generations unless they complete the territory.
Taking back the Western Regions is of extremely important practical significance.
The real enemy of Ming Dynasty is not in the west, but in the north. To the north of the northwest is Wala. Taking back the Western Region can directly threaten Wala's lair and prevent it from easily sending troops south. Once its lair is empty, the Ming Dynasty's cavalry will not be unable to take the initiative to attack.
With the Western Region in hand, Wala did not dare to move easily.
The most important thing is that Zhu Yunwen wants the oil in the Western Regions.
With the continuous production of medical gauze, the supply of oil is becoming increasingly tight. Even though the Ming Dynasty reopened oil wells and extracted oil faster, the annual output is less than 3,000 kilograms, which is only 20 kilograms a month. One hundred and fifty kilograms, this is not the output of one oil well, but the output of the whole country.
But there is no way. There is not much oil in Daming, and shallow oil fields are even rarer. Daming does not have the technology and conditions for deep oil extraction. The only way to solve the oil supply problem is in the Western Regions...
Although the distance is far and the cost is huge, considering that medical gauze is related to the life of the sergeant, and oil can be used as a weapon at critical times, relatively speaking, distance and cost are not important. What is important is that the land has oil and water, which Ming Dynasty needs.
Learning from the lessons of the Han and Tang Dynasties, if we want to control and stabilize the Western Regions for a long time, we must connect the Western Regions with the Central Plains so that they can serve the court and live a valuable life.
Similar to the logic of building roads first if you want to get rich, if you want to control the Western Region, you must build roads first.
Building concrete roads was the basis for future control of the Western Regions.
Once someone rebels in the Western Region, Ming Dynasty can march quickly to get closer. If that doesn't work, he can just kill a bunch of people to quell the rebellion. As for whether the enemy will also use the road advantage to deal with the Ming Dynasty, the problem is even simpler. Wouldn't it be enough to set up a concrete city gate one hundred and fifty miles away...
The road passes through the city gate. If the enemy wants to pass through, no problem. Let's attack the city gate first.
Anyway, concrete materials can be used to build city gates much faster than earth ramming. It also saves manpower and is more durable. Even if it is cut by someone, it can be repaired...
If they are really brave and fight all the way and occupy it, there will be no problem. They can advance the divine machine cannon along the concrete road, bombard the city gates when encountering them, and bombard the cavalry when encountering them, and then take them back.
"Your Majesty, Duke Wei wants to see you."
The chamberlain announced.
Zhu Yunwen nodded, agreed, lowered his head and continued to examine the map, staring at the northwest.
After Xu Huizu finished saluting, he held the document high and said: "Song Sheng sent a letter from Gansu. Hu Hui has successfully arrived in Gansu town. Hami King Anke Timur was frightened because Song Sheng was passing through the northwest. He wanted to request canonization. The envoy has entered Jiayuguan."
Zhu Yunwen took the document, looked at it carefully, and asked seriously: "Tell me, does the Hami of today count as the Hami of the Ming Dynasty?"
Xu Huizu hesitated for a moment and said: "If we talk about it as a monarch and ministers, yes. If we talk about it as a subject, no."
Zhu Yunwen frowned. If you want to plan for the Western Regions, you must first plan for Hami.
But the current Hami belongs to both the Ming Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty. This result is not Schrödinger’s cat that is ready to die or live, but the real reality...
It is said that it belongs to the Ming Dynasty, and yes, many officials in the court think so. After all, Hami surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, and they were all ministers and paid tribute. Naturally, they were subordinates, as well as Hami's territory.
But for most of the military honors and soldiers, Hami cannot be completely regarded as belonging to the Ming Dynasty. Although the Hami courtiers paid tribute and bowed, the Ming army did not fully occupy Hami and had no actual control.
To sum up, Hami is the place of control of the Ming Dynasty!
Ji, the horse's head is also tied.
绻, 牛靷 (yin).
The original meaning of jisi is the rope or belt used to tie up horses and cattle, and it is extended to include control. In other words, although Hami is now nominally a subordinate of the Ming Dynasty and obeys the management of the Ming Dynasty, in fact they have a high degree of autonomy and can rebel immediately.
What needs to be made clear is that Hami in the Ming Dynasty does not refer to the city of Hami in later generations, but generally refers to Hami and a large area of land around it. Historically, the Seven Guards of Guanxi established in the Ming Dynasty are all considered Hami, but because Hami is the largest area , the most populous, is named after it.
Xu Huizu knew the importance of this piece of land in Hami, and Zhu Yuanzhang also knew it.
Hami is the junction of the Western Region and Gansu, west of Jiayuguan, and is an extremely important hub on the ancient Silk Road.
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Hami was governed by Wunasili, a descendant of Chagatai. After the demise of the Chagatai Khanate, Wunasli occupied Hami and became king, first as King Weiwu, and later as King Su.
In the fifth year of Hongwu, Feng Sheng's Western Expedition had already reached Guazhou and Shazhou (Dunhuang). After that, he did not go further west to capture Hami, but returned to Jiayuguan.
In the 13th year of Hongwu's reign, Pu Ying, the governor of Gansu, asked for orders to march westward. After achieving certain results, he returned to Suzhou. However, in the 20th year of Hongwu, Pu Ying, who had been guarding the northwest, followed Feng Sheng in the Northern Expedition. Feng Sheng surrendered Naha in the northeast and returned to the court with his troops. However, Pu Ying, who was in charge of the rear palace, was captured and captured by Can Yuan, and later committed suicide.
Pu Ying's death disrupted Zhu Yuanzhang's plan to explore the northwest. Upon seeing this, Wu Nasili, the king of Hami at that time, first asked the Ming Dynasty to open a horse market. After receiving no agreement, he turned against him and defended Hami. In the 24th year of Hongwu, he even intercepted and killed the tribute mission of the Uighurs in the Western Regions and plundered the tribute. things.
Zhu Yuanzhang could no longer tolerate it and sent the governors Liu Zhen and Song Sheng to lead troops to attack. Song Sheng led his troops to attack the city of Hami, and captured Hami princes Bieergyong Timur and Sangli Shige alive. Wuna Shili escaped with a small number of relatives.
In the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu, Wuna Shili had to pay tribute and declare himself a vassal under the pressure of Song Sheng and Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang agreed and set up Anding, Handong and other guards, forming a strategic encirclement of Hami.
In the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu, Wuna Shili died in fear. His younger brother Anke Timur succeeded to the throne and became the new King of Hami. He also treated the Ming court officials with caution.
Two years before Zhu Yunwen came to the throne, Anke Timur was still very honest. When Yili invaded Hami, he also took the initiative to inform the intelligence and asked Ming Dynasty to support weapons, showing the face of an honest man.
But after Song Sheng returned to Beijing, Anke Timur was somewhat distracted. However, as the Tatars and Oara were attacked near Qiaoba Mountain, the Northern Yuan Dynasty suffered some losses at the hands of the Ming Dynasty, especially when Song Sheng returned to the northwest again. , and became the commander-in-chief of Shaanxi Xingdu Division. In order to buy horses, they either went north to rob Oala, or went west to buy war horses from Yilibaoli. They even set up horse markets in Anding and other places in Hami, which greatly promoted the formation of a large army. Cavalry posture.
Although Anke Timur was in Hami, he also knew that he was not Song Sheng's opponent, so he had to listen to the Ming Dynasty honestly. Now in order to protect himself, he even started to learn from Mahamu and asked the Ming Dynasty to be canonized to show that he was Really surrendered.
Zhu Yunwen looked at Xu Huizu and said seriously: "It's good that Anke Timur's envoys are here. You can ask them to bring a message to Anke Timur. The Ming Dynasty is building a horse farm. I hope he will do his best."
Xu Huizu asked: "If Anke Timur does not want to contribute..."
Zhu Yunwen sneered, a little disdainfully: "If he doesn't want to contribute, then we can do it ourselves."
Xu Huizu understood that Zhu Yunwen did not intend to give Anke Timur any other options. If he did not give him war horses, then Ming Dynasty would send troops to Hami to grab war horses.
"If we occupy Hami, I'm worried that Wala and Yili will be uneasy and may even use more of their strength to defend against Mu Sheng instead of against Timur."
Xu Huizu said seriously.
Zhu Yunwen nodded, this is indeed a problem.
Yili was sandwiched between the Ming Dynasty and the Timurid Empire. There was still a buffer zone of more than a thousand miles to the Jiayuguan Pass of the Ming Dynasty, that is, the Hami area, but to the Timurid Empire, there was no buffer zone at all...
If Song Sheng really occupied Hami at this time, Shamichagan in Yiliba would have to disperse his forces to guard against the Ming Dynasty. It would be even more impossible to use his hands to weaken Timur.
"Ankh Timur had no other choice."
Zhu Yunwen does not plan to completely take back Hami and other places now, but he plans to order more war horses.
Xu Huizu thought for a while and found that it was indeed the case. How could Anke Timur be so good? To the north was Oara, which he did not dare to go to. To the west was Yilibaili, who had a grudge against him. To the east was the Ming Dynasty, which he could not afford to offend...
As long as you don't move, you can only give away the horse.
Zhu Yunwen took a look at the map and said: "I am preparing to patrol the north. You can go with me. As for the defense of the capital, I will leave it to Ru Yu, Chen Di, Xu Yingxu, Liu Jun and the Security Bureau."
Xu Huizu smiled and agreed: "It is my honor to accompany the emperor on his northern tour."
Zhu Yunwen laughed: "As long as you are not afraid of hardship."
Enduring hardship?
Xu Huizu was a little confused. The Northern Inspection Tour was not a private visit incognito. He was being served by a large number of people. How could he endure the hardship?
