Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 764 Entering the Western Regions
In April of the 16th year of Chongzhen, Cao Wenzhao led [-] infantry, [-] supply battalions, and more than [-] male and female peasant households. They carried a large amount of grain and grass supplies, went west along the Hexi Corridor, passed through Dunhuang, and left Yumen Pass, along the Silk Road. The commercial road advances westward.

Cao Bianjiao led [-] cavalry out of Yumen Pass, headed north and then west, and went straight to Qiuci, one of the four Anxi towns in the Tang Dynasty; Directly pointing to Shanshan, which is also one of the four towns in Anxi.

This move shows that since the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, the army of the Han court entered the territory of the Western Regions of China for the first time.

Cao Bianjiao's tribe will continue westward after attacking Qiuci, and occupy Shule after crossing Congling.

After Luo Shifang's troops quelled the various forces around Shanshan, they continued westward to recover Khotan.

Cao Wenzhao's central army and immigrants will undertake the task of supplying and responding to the cavalry on the two wings, and will carry out resettlement work in selected places after the situation stabilizes.

Zhu Youjian's will to Cao Wenzhao mentioned that it is necessary to unite all ethnic groups in the vast Western Regions who are loyal to the Han people, resolutely wipe out all armed forces that do not obey Wang Hua, and make the Western Regions a stable and peaceful place as soon as possible.

After the Ming army swept up and completely controlled the Western Regions, within ten years, the imperial court will immigrate 50 people to the Xinjiang province. These populations will be mainly women, so as to solve the problem of reproduction after the officers and soldiers are stationed on the spot .

Zhu Youjian did not object to intermarriage between the officers and soldiers and local women of various ethnic groups, but in the future the Han Chinese will occupy an overwhelming advantage in the number of local people, which cannot be changed. the measures taken.

The reason why the Ming Dynasty did not control the Western Regions when its national strength was the strongest at the beginning of the founding of the country was that apart from the fact that this vast area was too barren, the population was too sparse, and the transportation was too inconvenient, there was another most important factor—since the Southern Song Dynasty, The center of gravity of Chinese civilization gradually shifted to the south, coupled with the rise of the Maritime Silk Road, after the Land Silk Road was destroyed by foreign races in turn, the entire Western Regions were no longer profitable. Therefore, Taizu and Chengzu did not focus on the Western Regions. In the area, the Anxi Seven Guards set up in the early Ming Dynasty only dispatched a small number of garrisons, and gradually disappeared after the middle of the Ming Dynasty.

Qiang Han set up the Protectorate of the Western Regions in the first place because Zhang Qian opened up trade channels with more than [-] large and small countries in the Western Regions since Zhang Qian's mission to the countries of the Western Regions, and it was for the reason of protecting and managing this trade channel.

The countries under the Protectorate of the Western Regions are all subject to the name of the Han, but each country enjoys full autonomy, but the heads of each country must be approved by the Han court before they can take office, otherwise they will be mercilessly attacked.

In other words, the Han Dynasty adopted a policy of confinement to the Western Regions, and did not completely rule this area in the true sense, and the same was true of the later Tang Dynasty.

What Zhu Youjian has to do is unprecedented. He wants to bring this unusually vast area into the territory of China, and it will take decades and a lot of human, financial and material resources to build it. Form a strong fortress to guard against enemies who are likely to come from the western land route in the future.

According to the conditions of this era, it will take at least several generations or even a dozen generations of efforts to manage the harsh climate of the Northwest region well. Make targeted deployments according to the situation, and minimize the inconvenience and loss caused to the local government and the people due to improper strategies.

When it comes to the natural environment, Zhu Youjian can't help but think of the inscriptions submitted by some local officials who were sent to the palace a few days ago.

These inscriptions come from the chief officials of some prefectures and counties in Henan and northern Shaanxi. In the notebooks, they mentioned the same interesting phenomenon: within their jurisdiction, the environment in some places is quietly changing without knowing it, especially Yanchang County, Qingjian County, Yanchuan County, Mizhi County and other places under the jurisdiction of Yan'an Prefecture in northern Shaanxi are most obvious.

Since the ninth year of Chongzhen, when the disaster victims in northern Shaanxi were moved westward to Pingliang and Lintao, and to the south to Xi’an, until the end of the [-]th year of Chongzhen, the area of ​​northern Shaanxi that was most affected by the climate of the Little Glacier had already had nine out of ten households. In addition to the tens of thousands of households in each county, almost all rural households migrated to the above-mentioned prefectures to beg for work under the organization of the local government.

It is precisely because a large number of people have left this area that the drought in northern Shaanxi has eased a lot in the six years since the 11th year of Chongzhen, and the annual rainfall has gradually increased. The originally bare Loess Plateau has been covered by vegetation. As a result, many rivers that have dried up and stopped flowing have re-flowed one after another, and the water source comes from the mountains and plains.

After reading these titles with similar content, Zhu Youjian immediately thought of a short film he had seen in later generations. The film was based on the theme of changes in the natural environment after all human beings on the earth died out, reminding people to care for the environment. To protect this blue planet.

And the simulated scenario shown in this film is exactly in line with the content of those titles: nature has already started its self-repair function, and the degraded natural environment is slowly recovering. If this situation continues, in another ten years, The original hardest-hit areas are not to say that they have recovered, but at least they have the basic conditions for people to survive.

The emergence of this situation made Zhu Youjian very happy.

Unexpectedly, the relevant measures he was forced to take in desperation unexpectedly touched a certain switch of nature, which made the environment that had been continuously deteriorating turn for the better. This kind of unexpected joy made his mood instantly change. Be happy.

This is similar to the conversion of farmland to forests implemented by later generations. It seems that this strategy must be continued until the environment in the Northwest is completely restored.

Judging from the current population of Ming Dynasty, there is still a large amount of arable land that has not been cultivated in the mainland alone, especially the major grain bases of later generations - Henan, Northeast China, Shandong and other places, all of which are currently caused by population shortage or continuous natural disasters. A large amount of land is idle, and there are also food supplements in Southeast Asia, so it is only necessary to focus on the development of cultivated land. There is no need to relocate to areas where the environment is recovering, and it will not be too late when the population increases in the future.

In October of the 16th year of Chongzhen, more than [-] people from Li Zicheng's department were fighting with more than [-] people from the Turghut and Uighur tribes in the plain west of Shanshan. Under the guidance of the guides of the troops, Cao Bianjiao led his troops to charge out suddenly, and the [-] cavalry were like a monstrous torrent, smashing the three troops in the melee to pieces.

Relying on the keen sense of smell developed on the battlefield for many years, Li Zicheng quickly fled the battlefield with Liu Zongmin, Liu Fangliang, Hao Yaoqi, Dang Shousu and other eighteen cavalry at the critical moment.

Judging from the experience of more than ten battles with the official army after leaving the fortress, Li Zicheng took it for granted that he could still escape this time. There will be no further pursuit.

The conscious connivance of the officers and soldiers over the years has created an illusion for Li Zicheng. He escaped from death several times at the most critical moments, making him mistakenly believe that he is blessed by the heavens. world.

Cao Bianjiao personally led fifty soldiers to pursue this small group of deserters.

Because he has long been very familiar with the image of Li Zicheng's wide-brimmed felt hat, even if Li Zicheng decisively ordered his soldiers to throw away the "Li" character to recognize the flag, it would have no effect.

After two days and two nights of uninterrupted fleeing and chasing, Cao Bianjiao and Ma Yang even picked three rogue generals, Hao Yaoqi, Liu Fangliang, and Dang Shousu. Li Zicheng was captured together, and then these two famous figures in history were sent to the capital.

At this point, the anti-thief forces that destroyed Daming in the original history were finally wiped out.At the same time, the Spanish fleet consisting of more than 30 gunboats and merchant ships, carrying [-] Spanish troops also arrived off the coast of Manila.

　Thank you 20170707145840593 for the reward.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)