Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2279: Economy and Party Struggle (rd) Wavering

After the conversation, Gao Pingshi thought that the emperor had lost interest in the conversation, and perhaps it was time to return to Qianqing Palace. However, unexpectedly, although Zhu Yijun's face was solemn, he did not stand up. Instead, he pondered for a long time and suddenly said: "Recently, someone has suggested to me that although our country's national power is far greater than that of the Han and Tang Dynasties, the situation is very different from that of the Han and Tang Dynasties." The Tang Dynasty established its capital in Chang'an, which was located in Guanzhong, so it had to take the western regions to defend it. Just as our dynasty made Beijing its capital, it had to take Liaodong to defend it.

However, now we are as strong as Mount Tai in Liaodong, and the Mongolian Tumote and Ordos tribes have abandoned the secret and turned to the light, which is the barrier to the north and west of our capital. From an overview, we can see that the capital city is firmly entrenched, and the pressure on national defense is nothing more than a corner of the northwest.

They believe that under such circumstances, although the Western Regions cannot be said to be meaningless to our Ming Dynasty, at least it is far inferior to that of the Han and Tang Dynasties. If our court has spare power, it is natural to impose a slight punishment when leaving the country, but it may not necessarily be necessary to use all the strength of the country to bring peace and security like in the Han and Tang Dynasties... What do you think of this? "

Gao Pragmatic was a little surprised that the emperor suddenly wavered on regaining the Western Regions. According to his understanding of Zhu Yijun's current mentality, because of the imperial court's repeated victories in foreign wars, his Majesty not only defeated the Can Yuan Khan tribe, the old enemy of the Ming Dynasty for two hundred years, but also gained possession of North Korea through the war of aid and anti-Japanese war. Therefore, His self-confidence and self-esteem are very inflated, and he calls himself a saint.

Under the influence of this mentality, he would approve the Fengchan Taishan plan proposed by Shen Guangyuan, but at the same time, in order to appear more justified, he approved the Western Expedition, intending to regain the Western Regions that the Central Plains Dynasty had lost for hundreds of years. Logically speaking, Zhu Yijun should not waver in the Western Expedition at this time.

So, now that he is shaken, what is the reason? Gao pragmatically thought about it and thought that there was only one thing that could be determined for now: the reasons Zhu Yijun just cited should have been mentioned recently - that is, during the ten days when he was behind closed doors.

As for who made the comment, it's hard to say, but at least it certainly wasn't through a formal recommendation. The reason is simple. Although Gao Pragmatic refuses to pay attention to matters behind closed doors, it does not mean that he is unaware of the trends in the DPRK. At least important trends must have been reported to him through various channels.

What are important trends? At least, as the Western Expedition was a high-level, powerful and costly war, the trends related to it must be important trends. However, Gao Pragmatic did not receive any notification of such important trends. Therefore, what persuaded the emperor was definitely not from formal officials, but from secret reports or people around him.

The secret report is not surprising. Although Wang Zhizhen, the commander-in-chief of Jinyiwei, is a highly pragmatic and half-owning person, Jinyiwei is a Jinyiwei after all. He is not simply a member of the civil service system. If the matter is really important, Wang Zhizhen may not report everything.

He could even make excuses for himself: "Ah, although Brother Yu knew about this, he thought that the emperor would not listen to it, so he never informed him... Please take full responsibility for Brother Yu's fault!"

What can Gao pragmatism do at this time? In fact, it doesn't matter, because his theory makes sense at least on the surface. Gao Pragmatic has no sufficient reason to touch him, let alone really "take responsibility".

Of course, this does not mean that this matter was instigated by Wang Zhizhen, but that the Jinyiwei may have received the secret report, and then Wang Zhizhen decided whether to submit it to the emperor. In addition, Wang Zhizhen does not necessarily not inform Gao Pragmatic, but he can delay it for a while. At this time, things had already affected the emperor. Wang Zhizhen's report was belatedly coming. As for the reason, he could just find any one. Gao Pragmatic even wanted to say thank you.

As for another possibility, it is the advice of people around the emperor, which is also very common. Of course, after several times when powerful officials in the inner court were defeated by Gao Pragmatic, it seems that no one in the inner court dares to offend him, Gao Yuanfu, for the time being.

Since Wang An, the factions of Chen Ju and Liu Ping can be said to have "unified the inner court", and they obviously have no motive to harm Gao Pragmatic - they have been solid allies for more than 20 years, and they are still a community of interests.

So... could it be Concubine Zheng? Gao Pragmatic did have suspicions, but the incident happened suddenly and he had no evidence at all, so there was no point in doubting it now. The most critical thing at the moment is to let Zhu Yijun resolutely regain the Western Regions.

But to be honest, what Zhu Yijun just quoted is actually quite reasonable. There are indeed differences in national conditions between the Ming Dynasty and the Han and Tang Dynasties, so it is somewhat difficult to strengthen Zhu Yijun's determination again.

As we all know, the Han and Tang dynasties tried their best to include the Western Regions in their territory. However, in the Ming Dynasty, this situation was reversed. The Ming Dynasty, especially in the early Ming Dynasty, was indeed powerful, and some of the founding generals had made great military achievements. It was reasonable to say that the glory of the Han and Tang dynasties could be restored and the Western Regions could be unified.

However, history has played a joke on the world. The Ming Dynasty did not regain its homeland in the Western Regions. This historical turning point even caused a lot of speculation in Gao Pragmatic's previous life.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty's decision not to conquer the Western Regions was not due to weakness, but rather a well-thought-out decision.

The capital was far away in Beijing, the country's economic center of gravity moved southward, and the border defenses were stable at the time of the founding of the country. These were all factors that prompted the Ming Dynasty to abandon the use of troops in the Western Regions.

The original intention of the Han and Tang dynasties to incorporate the Western Regions into their territory was to protect the Central Plains from intrusions by northern nomads such as the Huns and Turks. During the Han Dynasty, the Huns were so powerful that they invaded the Central Plains many times and even besieged Chang'an, posing a huge threat to the Han Dynasty. The Xiongnu forces spanned thousands of miles of territory. They could exert pressure not only in the direction directly north of the Central Plains Dynasty, but also in the direction of the Western Regions. In order to resist the Xiongnu, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did not hesitate to pay the price of blood, and finally drove the Xiongnu out of the Hetao area. The acquisition of the Hetao area provided a springboard for the Han Dynasty to march into the Western Regions.

If the Western Region falls into the hands of the Xiongnu, the Central Plains will be threatened again at any time. Therefore, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty decided to go west to Hangu Pass to eliminate the countries in the Western Regions and ensure that the Western Regions were firmly under the rule of the Han Dynasty.

Whether it was the Han Dynasty or the Tang Dynasty, the main purpose of recovering the Western Regions was to defend the strategic needs of the Central Plains. The reason why the Tang Dynasty sent a large number of troops to the Western Regions was because the power of the Turkic Khanate at that time put tremendous pressure on the Tang Dynasty's borders. After recovering the Western Regions, the power of the Turkic Khanate can be disintegrated and the security of the northern border defense of the Tang Dynasty can be guaranteed.

However, what about the Ming Dynasty? After Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, won the Northern Expedition, the national power of the Ming Dynasty reached its peak. However, Nanjing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, was located on the southeast coast and was far away from the Western Regions. Even if the capital was moved to Beijing, it would still be far away from the Western Regions.

In addition, at that time, the residual Yuan Dynasty was divided and shattered, and the two largest forces were only the Tatars and Oaras. For the Central Plains of the Ming Dynasty, the Western Regions did not pose a substantial threat, so Ming Chengzu did not act like the Han Dynasty. Tang Dynasty was so worried that the Western Regions would become a thorn in the side of the Central Plains.

During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, he sent a large army to conquer the West, which shows that he attached great importance to the Western Regions. The Han army left Hangu Pass, passed through the desert, and fought bloody battles with the Xiongnu. In the end, the Han army won and occupied the fertile land, and all the countries in the Western Regions surrendered.

During the Tang Dynasty, General Su Dingfang and other generals led an army of 100,000 to fight against the Gaochang Kingdom for three days, and finally conquered Gaochang City. After that, the entire Western Regions gradually belonged to the Tang Dynasty. These events undoubtedly showed the control of the Western Regions during the Han and Tang Dynasties, and also relieved the pressure on the northern border at that time.

However, during the Ming Dynasty, due to the remote geographical location of the Western Regions, thousands of miles away from Beijing, even if something happened, it would not directly threaten the security of the capital. Therefore, Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty did not have to worry as much as the previous dynasty in sending out large army expeditions to completely eliminate the threat from the Western Regions.

In this way, the prerequisite that the capital was far away from the Western Regions greatly reduced the attention of the Ming Dynasty court to the Western Regions. The rulers had no intention of using large-scale troops like the previous dynasty, spending countless money on food and soldiers to regain a distant place that had no great strategic significance to the Central Plains. The above can be seen as political factors that caused the Ming Dynasty not to make great efforts to "manage" the Western Regions.

In addition to political factors, there are also economic factors. There is a major trend in Chinese history, that is, the economic center of gravity of the Central Plains dynasties has gradually moved southward. By the Ming Dynasty, this trend became more obvious.

In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang established a capital and power center in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. This area originally had a large population and developed industry and commerce. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the prosperity of southern cities increased by leaps and bounds. In contrast, the northern region has been suffering from long-term wars and economic decline, which cannot be compared with the prosperity of the south.

As differences in economic development emerged, the Ming court naturally paid more attention to the south than the north. Although the Western Region is closer to the northern border, the economic contribution of the north to the Ming Dynasty is far less important than that of the south... and is even close to negligible. Therefore, the Western Regions were inevitably eclipsed in the hearts of the Ming Dynasty rulers and were no longer a battleground.

At the same time, the Ming Dynasty's shipbuilding industry was booming along the southern coast and frequent voyages to the West opened a new chapter in maritime trade and opened up a new horizon for the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty turned its attention to distant overseas countries and naturally lost interest in recovering the Western Regions.

At that time, cities such as Hangzhou and Suzhou in the Jiangnan region were already very prosperous at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. By the Ming Dynasty, these cities had reached their heyday. Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty once praised Suzhou as the best district in the world, which shows its affluence.

The northern region, where the war has been raging for a long time, is dilapidated and all industries are in ruins. The Western Region, which is close to the northern border, has been regarded as a symbol of poverty and backwardness in the eyes of the Ming Dynasty due to its failure to obtain a large amount of resources from the prosperous Central Plains region.

Of course, if we want to dig deeper, the decline of Guanzhong itself is another major factor in the Ming Dynasty losing interest in the Western Regions. However, it will inevitably be a long story, so it is better to stop here.

All in all, there was no political urgency and no economic necessity, which can be seen as the two main reasons why the Ming Dynasty had almost no interest in the Western Regions.

Gao pragmatic knew that in order to persuade the emperor to resolutely conquer the west, he had to start from these two aspects.
-

Thanks to book friends "Book Friends 20170107012220447" and "Book Friends 161226103059108" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!