Daming Yuanfu

Gao Pragmatic's explanation made Ma Gui obviously a little surprised. He asked again in disbelief: "The Ordos tribe is going to move west to the Western Regions? Yuanfu, will this matter...Boshu Ketu and Yilduzi agree?" And what does King Shunyi think?"

Gao pragmatic nodded slightly at him, then looked around at everyone and asked: "If you have any questions about this, you might as well ask them all so that I can answer them one by one."

An old acquaintance who had not appeared for a long time and the current chief of staff of the Imperial Guard, Cao Yuan, said: "Boshu Ketu has been under house arrest for many years and was released not long ago. Logically speaking, he should not dare to oppose Yuan Fu's arrangements. Yilduzi and The Chukukur brothers inherited their father's [-] control strings that cut off Huang Taiji. They are the strongest force in the Ordos tribe besides the Jinong headquarters.

Among the two brothers, Chukukur, the second brother, is straightforward. I heard that he admires Yuan Fu very much, so he should not disobey orders. However, the eldest brother, Yilduzi, is a good person. In the opinion of General Yi Mo, if he hadn't With enough benefits, it would be difficult for him to be willing to do so. Therefore, if Yuan Fu said that the general should ask questions, then the general would like to ask this matter: What can be used to persuade Ilduzi? "

Cao Yun is not young, and as chief of staff, he may be begging for his remains in another year or two, and the question he is asking at this moment is indeed more critical, especially showing that he knows the Ordos Department quite well.

Speaking of which, Cao Yun was from the Liaodong Army. He spent almost the entire first half of his life dealing with Chahar and the Jurchens. He should not be very familiar with the Ordos tribe in the Hetao. In fact, this was not the case. After he was reinstated by Gao Pragmatic, his career took on a new lease of life. In the years before he became the Chief of Staff of the Imperial Guard, he served as the Chief of the Changping Army and the Chief of the Taiyuan Army.

Let’s not talk about the Changping General Soldier for now. How could the Taiyuan General Soldier not get to know the Ordos Department? Don't forget what Ma Gui just said, "Taiyuan Town is the main force to guard against the Ordos Mongols' eastward march into the Hebei Plain."

"That's a good question." Gao Pragmatic nodded slightly in affirmation, and then said: "But to explain how to convince the Ordos Ministry to move westward, I have to start from the beginning." He paused, clapped his hands and said loudly : "Come here, please present the topographic map of the Western Region."

"Yes, sir!" A pragmatic servant outside immediately replied. Then he saw two servants of the Gao family wearing brown trousers walking in carrying an obviously huge map. This map uses two yellow pear flower wood shafts that are nearly one person tall, with a skin on the back, which shows that it is well made.

The two men walked behind Gao Pingshi, directly erected the wooden shaft on the ground, and then turned it left and right, slowly unfolding the "Topographic Map of the Western Regions" that was as large as a screen.

Jinghua's mapping method has long been used by the Ming Dynasty's military over the years. This kind of proportional mapping is far more accurate than the previous maps. Now everyone is very pleased with it and likes it very much. However, today's map is different from previous maps. The main difference is that it not only marks the area of ​​mountains, rivers and lakes, but also displays mountains, plains, deserts and other features in an extremely straightforward form - - To put it bluntly, it is the "fake satellite-like topographic map" that is common in later generations.

Gaowu Zhi naturally does not have satellite images now, but this does not prevent him from explaining what he wants to the cartography craftsmen. As Jinghua Trading Company's customs trade has grown in size over the years, the terrain of the Western Region has been drawn for a long time. However, it used to be mostly contour maps, but now it is more straightforward to "visualize" it.

Not only was this picture drawn straightforwardly, but it was also obvious that Gao Pangshi had done "key coloring" before it was produced - all the generals noticed that there were two places in this topographic map of the Western Region that had been undercolored. The bottom color of one area is dark green, and the bottom color of another area is dark blue.

These two places are not only colored, but also marked with text: the former place is marked as "Ili Valley and Seven Rivers Area", and the latter place is marked as "Fergana Basin".

Gao pragmatic stood up and turned to the map to prepare for explanation. When the generals saw him getting up, they all stood up immediately without any need to say hello, including Qi Jiguang and Li Chengliang.

Gao pragmatic pretended not to see it, picked up a pointer, pointed at the "Ili Valley and the Seven Rivers area" and said: "Everyone, as shown in the picture, the so-called Seven Rivers area refers to the seven rivers flowing to the Balkhash Lake. The areas it flows through include the south of Lake Balkhash, the east of Transoxiana in Central Asia, and the surrounding areas centered on Lake Issyk-Kul and the Chu River.

And the "horizontal"-shaped area in the easternmost part will be the most important place for the Ming Dynasty to rule the Western Regions in the future - the Ili River Valley. Today we are talking about the Qihe area. You may not be familiar with it, but there are several places here that you should be familiar with. For example, this is Tang Suiye City, this is General Pei City, and this is—— It's Talas. "

As the pointer pointed out, all the generals present were staring at these three places not far to the west of the Ili River Valley. It can be seen that Suiye City, General Pei City, and Talas are all places that will fall in love with even generals who will be there a thousand years later.

Next, Gao Pragmatic briefly talked about the history of the Qihe area.

The earliest residents of the Seven Rivers area were the Sai people. After the Xiongnu became stronger, they defeated the Yuezhi people in the Hexi Corridor, so the Yuezhi people moved westward to the Qihe area, drove away the Sai people, and occupied this area. Later, Zhang Qian went on his first mission to the Western Regions, with the purpose of uniting the Yuezhi people to deal with the Huns.

When Zhang Qian arrived at Qihe, he discovered that the Wusun people had expelled the Yuezhi people and established the Wusun Kingdom here. Wusun State had a population of 60 and was the most powerful country in the Western Region at that time. So Zhang Qian chose to form an alliance with Wusun and made his second mission to the Western Regions.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty later married Liu Xijun to Wusun for the purpose of forming an alliance with Wusun. The reason why the Wusun Kingdom is strong is inseparable from the superior climatic conditions in the Qihe area.

In 60 BC, the Western Region Protectorate of the Han Dynasty was established to control the countries in the Western Region, but it was unable to control Wusun. In this year, Princess Jieyou and the Han Dynasty envoys launched a coup in Wusun, but it failed. In 53 BC, civil strife broke out in the Wusun Kingdom. The Han Dynasty took the opportunity to attack the Wusun Kingdom. The Wusun Kingdom surrendered to the Han Dynasty and became a satellite state of the Han Dynasty.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Wusun Kingdom was still in civil strife, and with the attack of Xianbei, its national power declined even more. However, the Wusun Kingdom existed until the Northern and Southern Dynasties.

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Rouran became stronger. They defeated the Wusun people, causing the Wusun people to migrate to the Congling area, assimilate with the Sezhong and Yuezhi people who arrived here before, and disappear in the long river of history. In the late Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Turks emerged, and this became the center of Western Turk rule. After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, it continued to expand in the Western Regions, and the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains were successively included in the territory of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty established the three prefectures of Yi, Gao, and Ting in the eastern part of the Western Region, and the four towns of Anxi in the Tarim Basin. However, the Qihe area is still controlled by the Western Turks.

In 657, the Tang Dynasty defeated Shaboluo Khan of the Western Turks in the Western Regions and pushed its sphere of influence to the Qihe area. At this time, the Wunu Shibi tribe and the Wudu Lu tribe in the Qihe area were forced to surrender to the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty named them Mengchi Protectorate and Kunling Protectorate respectively. But in fact, these two tribes are independent, and their leaders call themselves the Khan of Ji Qi Jue and the Khan of Xing Xi Mu.

In 662, there was a civil war between the two major khans. The Tang Dynasty took the opportunity to attack and defeated the two major forces. In 679, the Tang Dynasty established a new stronghold in Suiye (Tokmak), which became one of the four new Anxi towns.

However, the Tang Dynasty's control in the Qihe area was very short-lived. During Wu Zetian's period, a tribe from the Western Turks became powerful and established the Tuqishi Khanate. The Khanate occupied the Qihe area for a long time and became very powerful. It was not until 758 that Tuqishi disintegrated due to civil strife.

In the late Tang Dynasty, the Geluolu tribe of the Turks replaced the Tuqishi's rule in the Qihe area. In 840, the Uighur Khanate in Mobei collapsed, and a large number of its Uighurs moved westward. Some of them moved to the Qihe area and merged with Geluolu, establishing the Karakhanid Dynasty in the 10th century. In 1041, the Karakhanid dynasty split into eastern and western parts.

In 1125, the huge Liao Kingdom was destroyed, and the Khitan people moved westward to the Western Regions under the leadership of Yelu Dashi. In 1132, Yelu Dashi proclaimed himself emperor and established the Western Liao Kingdom. After annexing the Gaochang Uighurs, the Western Liao Kingdom began to march into the Qihe area.

In 1134, Eastern Kara Khan became a tributary of Western Liao. After that, Western Liao changed the name of Balashagon, the capital of Kara Khan, to Husi On'er, and it became the capital of Western Liao Empire. This city was the future Burana city of Kyrgyzstan.

By the way, it was precisely because the Western Liao Empire dominated the Western Region and Central Asia that "Khitan" became the word "China" in Russian.

In the 13th century, the Mongol Empire emerged. In 1218, Mongolia destroyed the Western Liao Empire. After that, the Chagatai Khanate appeared on the territory of the original Western Liao Empire. The capital of the Chagatai Khanate was also in the Qihe area, called Alimari, located in what is now Huocheng, Ili, Xinjiang. In 1345, Chagatai split, and its western region belonged to the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, with its capital still in Alimari.

In 1455, the Eastern Chagatai Khanate split again, with the northern part becoming the Turpan Khanate and the southern part forming the Yarkand Khanate. The center of gravity of the Turpan Khanate shifted to the Turpan area.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the Turpan Khanate collapsed, and its territory was occupied by the Mongolian Mongols (the Oirat tribes, also known as the Oara tribes). At this time, a powerful country - the Kazakh Khanate - had been formed in Central Asia. Oirat Mongolia and the Kazakh Khanate fought many wars. In original history, it was not until 1615 to 1652 that Kazakhstan won victory and occupied the Qihe area relatively firmly.

However, during the Galdan period, the Oirat Mongols became stronger and established the Junggar Khanate. Galdan defeated the Kazakh Khanate, recaptured the Qihe area, and made Ili the capital of the Khanate.

After Galdan's death, Cewang Alabutan became the Great Khan of Junggar. He defeated the Kazakh Khanate in 1699, causing the Kazakh Khanate to split into three khanates: Dayuzi, Zhongyuzi, and Xiaoyuzi, all of which submitted to Junggar. What follows is the battle between the Tatars and Junggars, etc., which I won’t go into details.

The highly pragmatic "talking about the past" naturally does not talk about the Junggar Khanate, but only talks about "the present". By the way, he also tells the generals about the current situation of the Oara tribes. [Note: These situations have been discussed previously. ]
Finally, the practical pointer pointed at the Qihe area and drew a large circle, and then drew a small circle in the Yili River Valley in the easternmost part of the Qihe area, and concluded: "The Qihe area is the most important area in the Western Region, and also the most important area in the Western Region. The area must be controlled by the Ming Dynasty. However, there are almost no Han people there now, so we cannot attempt to control such a large area from the beginning, but must make distinctions.

To put it simply, the most elite part of the Qihe area and the most convenient for the Ming Dynasty to defend is the Ili River Valley - please look at the terrain of the Ili River Valley: it is a horizontal figure-eight shape, with high mountains and dangerous terrain in the north and south. The east is connected to the interior of our Western Region and the opening is smaller; the west is connected to the entire Qihe region and the opening is slightly larger.

All forces in the Western Region mainly fight with cavalry, and it is impossible to cross the glacial chasms in the north and south of the Ili Valley. There is no risk of loss in either way. There is a long and slender valley in the east of the valley that leads to the east, which means that it is relatively easy for our army to supply the rear. Therefore, if you want to defend Ili, you only need to defend towards the west and be able to defeat the enemy coming from the front. There is almost no need to worry about other conspiracies. "

Gao Pragmatic paused for a moment, seemingly giving the generals time to digest what he just said, and then continued: "At this point, you may have already guessed how I want to convince the Ordos Department... Yes, our method of persuading them is very simple - we are prepared to give them the most lush pastures in the Western Regions, and the entire seven-river area except the Ili River Valley!"

These words were very pragmatic and powerful, but as soon as he said them, he felt that something was wrong, and immediately added: "I believe that with my emperor's majestic talent and great strategy, he will be able to see the mystery of this strategy, and he will happily agree to it." .”

It's dangerous, it's dangerous!
The Ordos tribe was "given" such a large piece of geomantic treasure land. How could a minister say this casually? Fortunately, Gao Pragmatic reacted quickly and made prompt repairs. He quickly pulled out the emperor's tiger skin and used it as a banner.

In fact, the generals didn't care about Gao Wushi's problems at first. After all, everyone was attracted by his plan and were thinking about serious things. On the contrary, it was his last words that made everyone come to their senses. , and then each of them felt a little scared... This kind of statement is indeed risky, but it is also very troublesome for them.

Why bother? First of all, the high pragmatic holy family members and prestige are obvious. No matter who among them, if they take this to complain to the emperor, the emperor may not believe it, and even if he believes it, he may not care, then they will become the villains who are stirring up trouble. , God knows if Yuan Fu will use his head to scare the monkeys.

Secondly, Yuan Fu's current prestige and strength are indeed astonishing. If... I mean just in case, if something terrible happens in the future, then wouldn't it be a felony if he didn't report today's incident to His Majesty? ? Maybe it will turn into a "rebellion and rebellion", then no one knows what will happen... Maybe we can only hope that Yuan Fu will win?
Bah, bah, bah, don't think about such a fatal thing! It’s so scary!
"Ahem!" It seemed that Qi Jiguang had the most magnanimous mind, or maybe he didn't think Gao Pragmatic had any disloyal intentions at all, so he broke the weird atmosphere in the field and said, "If so, the Ordos Department has indeed taken a big advantage. , Logically speaking, they should not refuse, but this matter may still be a little difficult... The Ordos tribe is a special tribe of the Mongols who guard Temujin's mausoleum. If they are to be transferred, will King Shunyi agree?"
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Thanks to book friends "Yun Fuyue Yu" and "Yuan Zhou" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!
PS: Considering that Eastern Mongolia has almost completed "integration", this move cannot be said to be using barbarians to control barbarians, but it should be regarded as "cavalry to control cavalry", right? I think the idea is okay. Of course, there must also be some supporting means to ensure the loyalty of the Ordos Department, which will be written later.