Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 104 Arrangements for Aftermath (Part [-])
Gao Wushi has a little understanding of the famous White Lotus Sect in later generations. When he read novels in his previous life, he always saw the White Lotus Sect in the Ming Dynasty. After a few waves of presence, Gao Wushi was quite surprised that the White Lotus Sect has been tirelessly carrying out the great cause of rebellion for hundreds of years. Only then did he pay attention to this sect with extremely tenacious vitality, so he spent a little time in the afternoon on a rest day. Time to check the historical materials of the White Lotus Sect.

If you don't check, you don't know. If you check, you will be shocked. The earliest source of the White Lotus Sect can be traced back to the Southern Song Dynasty. Its founder is Mao Ziyuan, a monk in Wujun.In the Yuan Dynasty, the White Lotus Sect was further developed, known as "thousands of branches and leaves all over the universe", and the White Lotus Sect in the Ming Dynasty was naturally the inheritance and development of the White Lotus Sect in the Yuan Dynasty.

Although due to well-known reasons, the White Lotus Sect has been banned since the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, but it has been banned repeatedly. There are activities in Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Fujian and other places.Of course, the leaders worshiped by these White Lotus believers may not all be the same person, that is to say, there are also sects among them.

The Mobei White Lotus Sect mentioned by Cao Gan, according to the high-practical understanding and analysis, should have mainly flowed in from Shanxi and other provinces close to Mobei.For example, during the Zhengde period, Li Fuda, a native of Nao County, Shanxi Province, participated in the rebellion of Wang Liang and Li Yue, and was garrisoned on the border after the incident. Before that, his grandfather also "used Liu Qianjin and Monk Shi to create chaos in Chenghua by illusion", so we can see this The White Lotus Sect is also popular for sons to inherit their father's career.

Because of its proximity to the border, in order to strengthen and expand the power to contend with the imperial court, these people used the Mongolian forces that had retreated to Mobei to fight against the official army.In the 24th year of Jiajing, Luo Tingxi, a native of Yingzhou, Shanxi, and others used the White Lotus Sect to confuse the public, "Because of the plan to invite the little prince to enter the fortress, use his soldiers to attack Yanmen, take Pingyang, and set up Chongzhuo as the main one, and plan to kill the little prince." In the 30th year of Jiajing, Xiao Qin, Lu Mingzhen, the leader of the Bailian sect, and many people in the same party led the Mongolian army to invade the border.In the 36th year of Jiajing, Yan Hao, the head of the Bailian sect in Yuzhou, Beizhili Province, and others entered and left Mobei, revealing side affairs to the Mongols.

From this point of view, these people lead bandits into the customs to harm the Han compatriots, the crime is the same as traitors, and they should all be killed.

But Gao Yushi is not a young cynic, he is an old cynic who has been in politics.

The characteristics of young angry youths are: as long as you have done the deeds of a traitor, you deserve to die, and you must execute it immediately, and don’t mention anything else. If you catch the opportunity, you will kill and kill, and you will kill it once and for all. Looking upset.

The attitude of the old cynics is different: Even if you have been a traitor, and even continue to be a traitor conscientiously, as long as you are still valuable, I will dare to use the plan and let you live for a few more days, waiting for me It's not too late to kill after you've drained your value.

In order to rebel, these white lotus believers are willing to act as traitors, and they should all deserve to die, but Gao Pragmatic will first consider it from another angle, such as using them to speed up the sinicization of Mongolia, so as to achieve his plan to gradually control Mongolia with economic and political means in the future, For this "lofty ideal", Gao Yushi is willing to let them live for a while longer.

Because the Ming Dynasty was cracking down on the frequent inbound harassment and looting of the Mongolian forces in Mobei, it also adopted some restrictive policies such as allowing "tributes" and opening up the "horse market".Although these measures stabilized the precarious economy of the Mongols to a certain extent, they also made the population flow between Mongolia and Han more frequent and expanded.

In this kind of population flow, on the one hand, some Mongolians stayed in the interior with the tribute team entering the border of Ming Dynasty. For example, in the early years of Zhengtong, more than 1 people settled in the capital; .Except for some of these border residents who were looted by the Mongolian army, the rest are so-called "defectors".Most of these "defectors" are actually White Lotus believers in the border areas.Most of these White Lotus believers came from Shanxi. In order to avoid the suppression and pursuit of the imperial court, they fled from the inland to the border of Mobei. According to the history books, "there were [-] White Lotus believers."

These White Lotus believers who fled to Mobei haunted the Central Plains and the border areas of Mobei. Although they sometimes led the invasion and looting of the Mongolian army, they also leaked the situation in the Central Plains to the outside, and actually acted as traitors. But in turn Look, but it also played a role in promoting the Sinicization of Mongolia invisibly.

For example, the "Chinese traitors" headed by Qiu Fu and Zhao Quan fled north to avoid the suppression of the Ming Dynasty. They brought the advanced production technology of the Central Plains to reclaim land, build houses, and teach manufacturing techniques. Building cities and settling down on the desolate grassland and carrying out agricultural production turned the former nomadic resort of "sweet water and grass" into "Bansheng" outside the Great Wall with many palaces and cities and thousands of hectares of fertile land. Therefore, the Mongols changed from a backward nomadic economy to an advanced one. Agricultural Economic Transition and Shift.

At first glance, the Mongols are therefore stronger and seem more difficult to deal with.However, Gao Wushi knew that the settled Mongols were far less terrifying than the nomadic Mongols.When the Mongols settled down and wanted to fight against the Han people, they would use their own weaknesses to attack their strengths—if you couldn’t beat them, they would move thousands of miles away. How troublesome would it be to chase them down?Moreover, Daming's firearms, especially artillery, have little room to play against the Mongols who can fight if they can beat them, and run away if they can't beat them. Then Daming's heavy firearms can be used to attack the city, and in this way, the effect is obvious.

Gao Wushi felt that if Daming, after his own demonic transformation, could not even deal with the settled Mongolia, then this plan to save the Ming would be meaningless.

Therefore, he asked about the situation in Bansheng City very carefully. Cao Gan knew that the Ming court had always attached great importance to these rebellions of the White Lotus Sect. Pragmatically, I have learned a lot about the development of the White Lotus Sect in Mongolia.

The two chatted for a while, and Gao Wushi, who is used to making long-term plans, was fine, but Cao Gan lost his composure, and said, "Master, since the young one has already taken refuge in the Young Master's family, there is one thing that still needs to be done by the Young Master." Decide as soon as possible."

"What's the matter?"

Cao Gan said: "Will Bailixia continue to maintain the current situation in the future, or does the young master have other arrangements?"

"Maintain the current situation for the time being. Don't worry that I will let you stop. I can tell you a little bit about the situation above." Gao Wushi pointed at the roof with his index finger and said: "For trade with Mongolia It is not that there is no disagreement in the imperial court about this matter, but... quite a few senior ministers believe that only by doing more business with Mongolia, the livelihood of the Mongols will improve, and their livelihood will improve so that they will not go to Han to plunder. Of course , The premise here is that we have to refresh ourselves. If there is no combat power, and the Mongols find that robbery is more cost-effective than doing business, they will still come. Only when they think that fighting and robbery is a loss-making business, and honestly do it The business is quite profitable, so they are willing to stay in Mobei obediently, and dare not have the idea of ​​going south to herd horses."

(End of this chapter)