Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 814 Dunhuang
Dunhuang.

There are no old people in Yangguan in the west, the westernmost end of the Hexi Corridor, and even the Qiwei land west of Jiayuguan, which was once abandoned by the Ming Dynasty, has been ruled by the Yarkand Khanate for a long time, and Huihe and others have also followed the Yarkand to convert. . , is known as entanglement.

Before the new year, the emperor left Jiayu Pass, exited Yumen Pass, and entered Dunhuang all the way.

The vast Gobi, rolling sand hills.

As far as the eye can see, it is covered with white snow, a sea of ​​sand and snow.

By the Crescent Lake, Zhu Yihai was a little disappointed with Dunhuang.

There used to be a splendid Dunhuang culture in the Western Regions of the Han and Tang Dynasties, but now there is almost no trace of it, especially after the Ming Dynasty gave up the Seven Guards of Kansai, Dunhuang was no longer a transportation hub connecting the Central Plains of the Western Regions, especially in the Ming Dynasty. During the Han and Tang Dynasties, the Dunhuang civilization, which was dominated by Han people, also experienced the Xixia and Mengyuan, and the Han people were scattered and sparse.

"I have traveled all the way west, and what I think about the most is the Guiyi Army. In the late Tang Dynasty, Zhang Yichao overthrew the 60-year rule of the Tubo nobles on Shazhou at that time. He established the Guiyi Army. Connecting Lingwu, we got more than 110 miles of land and a family of millions, and it lasted for [-] years in the Hexi Corridor, from the late Tang Dynasty to the time of Renzong in the Northern Song Dynasty, how amazing is it?"

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, there was also Gaochang State in the Western Regions, which was also established by the Han people in the Central Plains, but compared with the Guiyi Army, it was very different.

What Zhu Yihai admired the most was that at the end of the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Yichao was able to enter the court after raising troops to capture Hexi. Unfortunately, at that time, the uprising and internal attachment of the Guiyi Army were extremely ill for the late Tang court. , It is also extremely complicated, they are both relieved and worried, the emperor is far beyond his reach.

Wen Anzhi sat with the emperor by the Crescent Spring,

Dunhuang is an oasis.

Surrounded by yellow sand, this place used to be very splendid and splendid, and it was the main route of the Silk Road, but later Yumen went to Yiwu and Hami without passing through here.

It's so weak here.

The accumulation of Huangshan Mountain seems to be able to submerge this oasis at any time, but the magic is that Dunhuang has survived for thousands of years.

"Zhang Qian went on an envoy to the Western Regions and reported to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that the Shiyue clan lived between Dunhuang and Qilian. In the sixth year of Yuanding, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty formally established Dunhuang County, and it has been 760 years since then."

"Dun, Daye. Huang, Shengye. It is famous for its extensive development of the Western Regions."

Hong Chengchou, who was sitting by the side, smiled and said, "After I came to Hexi, I heard another saying. It is said that Dunhuang did not originate from Chinese. In Shanhaijing, Dunxi is the earliest name for Dunhuang, and Dunxi is the local aboriginal voice. Translation, according to some local legends, Dunhuang is originally a translation of Duhuoluo.

Duhuoluo was a member of the Yuezhi people who lived between Dunhuang and Qilian at that time, and Duhuoluo was also translated as Tucharuo. "

The Yuezhi people used to be a glorious nation in the Western Regions. They escaped the Huns and moved westward to Central Asia, and later established the Guishuang Empire. In the Tang Dynasty, there was Tocharo in Central Asia, and the Tang Dynasty also established The Tocharian Protectorate is located in the Syr Darya River Basin and the Amu Darya River Basin, in northern Afghanistan, in the northwest of Pakistan, and in the northeast of Iran.

Wen Anzhi said, "Dunhuang was indeed inhabited by the Yuezhi people, as well as the Wusun people and the Sai people. Earlier, the Qiang Rong were nomadic here."

The Huns drove out the Yuezhi people and occupied the entire Hexi Corridor.

Hussar General Huo Qubing then went out to attack the Xiongnu, bringing the entire Hexi Corridor into the Chinese territory for the first time, adding four counties in Hexi.

The Silk Road in the Han Dynasty started from Chang'an, passed through the Hexi Corridor to Dunhuang, followed Yumen Pass and Yang Pass, along the northern foot of Kunlun Mountain and the southern foot of Tianshan Mountain, and was divided into two routes, north and south.The southern line starts from Dunhuang, passes through Loulan, crosses Congling Mountains to Anxi, and ends in ancient Rome in the west.

The northern line runs from Dunhuang to Dawan via Gaochang, Qiuci and Yuecongling.

During the Han and Tang Dynasties, a new road was opened along the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, from Dunhuang to the Byzantine Empire via Hami and across the Ili River.

In the Han and Tang Dynasties, the Silk Road in the Western Regions was an important route for the communication and exchange of Chinese and Western cultures, and it was also the busiest route for international trade.

Until the late Tang Dynasty, Tubo first occupied the Hexi Corridor, and then the Guiyi Army recovered Shazhou, once ruled the eleven states of Hexi, and later contracted and separated the two states of Gua and Sha. After Zhang and Cao ruled for more than a hundred years.After the demise of the Uyghur Khanate, a large number of Uyghurs lived in the Hexi Corridor, and eventually the Guiyi Army was replaced by the Shazhou Uyghurs.

"When I read history books, I always yearned for the Western Regions of the Han and Tang Dynasties, but now, I find that there is no trace of the Han and Tang Dynasties here."

Wu Sangui said on the side, "If your majesty wants to find the relics of the Han and Tang Dynasties in Dunhuang, you can only go to the Mogao Grottoes in the south. There are nearly a thousand grottoes there. There are many murals and painted sculptures. You can also see the wooden structures of the Tang and Song Cave eaves."

Zhu Yihai also heard the name of Mogao Grottoes, one of the three major grottoes in China. It is said that in the chaotic modern times, a Taoist priest lived in one of the grottoes. One day, he accidentally discovered a long-buried scripture cave. Scriptures, pictures.He reported to the county magistrate, but the county magistrate disliked these dilapidated things. After they knew that there were no gold, silver and jewelry, only some old scripture scrolls and pictures, and they were not famous calligraphy and paintings, they refused to even pay for the travel expenses to the provincial capital for preservation. The Taoist priest sealed it up.

It is said that Taoist Wang was almost illiterate. He was originally from Macheng, Hubei, but later served as a soldier in Gansu, and then became a Taoist priest in order to make a living.

This Taoist king is in charge of the grotto. In addition to doing rituals, he goes around for alms. After getting some money, he will find some local earth craftsmen with ordinary craftsmanship, and use a grass brush dipped in lime to paint the exquisite Buddhist murals in the cave. If you brush it away, you will personally smash the Buddha sculpture with a sledgehammer, and then use mud and straw to pile up spiritual officials and the like. Because he is a Taoist priest and lives in a Buddhist grotto, he wants to change it into a Taoist temple. Disliked that each grotto was too small, so he wanted to use a hammer to open it, but accidentally smashed out a scripture hole.

He was illiterate, so he took some to show to the county magistrate, and the county magistrate asked someone to appraise them. Some people thought that these thousand-year-old things were very valuable, and they were cultural treasures. He didn't even pay for the shipping fee, so he sent Taoist Wang directly.

At this time, the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded, and many countries searched and plundered everywhere. Later, a translator surnamed Jiang understood those things, and then told a Western predator, who cheated 9000 yuan from Taoist Wang at a very low price. It took seven days to pack many scriptures and more than 500 paintings. In the end, 29 large wooden boxes were packed, five carts were hired, and fifteen horses were used to pull them away.

It is said that the total value of this transaction is thirty pounds.

Taoist Wang also waved goodbye to Stein, thinking that this man is very generous, Master Si is a benevolent and generous giver.

As soon as Zhu Yihai heard about the Dunhuang Grottoes, he couldn't help but think of Taoist Wang, Translator Jiang and Master Si.

At this time, in the grotto, the ten thousand volumes of scriptures, and even the scriptures brought back by Tang Monk Sanzang for translation, should still be sealed inside.

It is said that the grottoes in Dunhuang were first built in the second year of the Jianyuan period of the former Qin Dynasty by Monk Le Zun, and later by Zen Master Faliang. In the Northern Liang Dynasty, a small monk community was formed here. At first, these caves were only used as a place for hermits and monks to practice. , later developed to serve the monasteries that sprang up nearby.

The relationship between China and the Western Regions began with Zhang Qian and Huo Qubing. After the continuous management of the Han Dynasty, the Silk Road in the Western Regions was prosperous.

Later, the Five Hus and Sixteen Kingdoms ruled in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and there were civil strife in the Central Plains, but there were still many Han children in the Western Regions.

Zhang Jun of Qianliang merged the three counties of Dunhuang, Jinchang, and Gaochang with the three battalions of the Western Regions Governor, Wuji Xiaowei, and Yumen Guard Army, and called it Shazhou.

During the Tang Dynasty, there were [-] Doulu troops stationed in Shazhou City, which belonged to the Hexi Jiedushi stationed in Liangzhou.

After the Anshi Rebellion, the armies of the Western Regions returned to the Central Plains, which isolated Hexi and was finally occupied by Tubo. After the Zhang Yichao Uprising, the Han people in Hexi united all classes and ethnic groups and still persisted for more than a hundred years. Finally, it was occupied by the Uighurs .

Then came the Mongolian Western Expedition, then the Chagatai Khanate, and then the Yarkand Khanate.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the Mongols stationed in the Seven Guards of Kansai moved eastward to Longyou and became the later Yugur people. The Uyghurs followed the Yarkands to occupy this place and became a group of people who believed in Buddhism.

However, by this time, Hong Chengchou, Wu Sangui, Li Chengdong, Zhang Yong, Zhao Liangdong, Gao Jinzhong and other left and right vanguards repeatedly mopped up, and the entanglement of the Seven Guards of Kansai or the Mongols either withdrew to the north or were taken away as prisoners.

Dunhuang, which was once bustling, once seemed a little deserted, with only a few pioneers.

Later, the emperor decreed that the vanguard army was turned into a town on the spot, and all the soldiers were given fields and land. The cattle and horses were equally distributed to them.

Let them build Tunpu and Tunzhuang to protect these oases for Ming Dynasty.

The emperor did not pursue the spoils looted by the vanguard army, and encouraged them to bring their families and clansmen over, and after they came, they would also share the land.

When Zhu Yihai led the imperial guards to Dunhuang, it was very lively here.

There were Khans and Taijis from the Khanates in the Western Regions who had already arrived to wait for the emperor, as well as envoys from the Yarkand Kingdom, as well as the vanguard army and their family members who had moved here.

The Dang River passes through the city of Dunhuang.

The yellow sand is long, and there are tents everywhere outside Dunhuang Castle.

During the Han and Tang Dynasties, it was also the center of Buddhism, and it was the center of various dynasties. .The land, with a developed trade economy and a prosperous culture, has been silent for many years. Now that the emperor has come to the west and the Khans have come to the court, it is lively again.

The glorious culture of the Western Regions in the Han and Tang Dynasties actually had to be found in the Dunhuang Grottoes.

The grottoes on the cliffs at the eastern foot of Mingsha Mountain in the south of Dunhuang City have witnessed the ups and downs of this place after more than a thousand years.

The Han people came and disappeared, and now they are coming again.

"The murals and Buddha statues in the Mingsha Mountain Grottoes should be well protected. Those things are not only Buddhist, but also the accumulation of history and culture. Let them be left to future generations."

Maybe in the future, the Mongols don't have to go to Tibet to make tea and worship the Buddha, but can directly come to Dunhuang to pay homage to the Buddha?Perhaps in the future, this place can also become the first place to restore Buddhism in Central Asia in the Western Regions, so that Semu people from all ethnic groups in the Western Regions can come here.

"Dunhuang's land is fertile and rich in products. The vanguard army is stationed in farming and guarding, and I also transferred the imperial battalion to station in defense."

The Ming Dynasty once regarded Dunhuang as a remote frontier, sparsely populated, even worse than Lingbei, and abandoned it.But in Zhu Yihai's view, Dunhuang is an outpost*, a rare oasis in the Western Regions that must not be given up.

The positioning here is to connect the bridgehead of the Western Regions. The vanguard army will be changed to the Reclamation Regiment, and then the Imperial Battalion will be transferred to garrison. The Reclamation Regiment will develop agriculture.Then develop trade, even handicrafts, mining and forestry, etc., the future will still be very good.

In order to restore the place as soon as possible, Zhu Yihai even adjusted some of his policies on the Communist Party, and distributed some of the Communist Party captives to the soldiers as serfs.

At the same time, more fields and more slaves will be allocated to the imperial soldiers stationed here.

"Dunhuang is one of the four major oases in Gansu. There are about 50 mu of land for growing grain, [-] mu of woodland for planting fruit trees, and a lot of grassland, which can be cultivated and pastured. On the main road leading to the Western Regions, it is a treasure land."

Originating from the Qilian Mountains, the Yema River and the Dang River flow into the Shule River through Dunhuang (Shazhou) from the southeast, and flow northeast, connecting several oases, Anxi (Guazhou) and Yumen.

The Shule River is also the second largest water system in the Hexi Corridor that originated in the Qilian Mountains. It used to flow into Lop Nur. It is said that the water flows eastward, but the Shule River is a reverse-flowing river that flows westward.

The sun and the moon go west, and the water flows east, but the Shule River also goes west like the sun and the moon, and finally disappears in the desert.

The Shule River, which is more than a thousand miles away, is a river that flows gold and silver in Guanxi, and it is the river that irrigates the oasis agricultural areas.

The majestic Qilian Snow, the rolling Shule River, the Emperor looked at the Tiantian company camp in the distance by the Crescent Spring, it was the troops of the Khans of the Western Regions and Mobei, and even the Turghut Khan and the Barbarians were far away on the Volga River on the north bank of the Caspian Sea. The envoys of the Kazakh Khanate west of Bohai also came.

This time the emperor was on a westward tour of Dunhuang, and the war against the Green Yarkand was imminent, and the entire Central Asian region was watching closely, even nervously.

The Khiva Khanate in the river, the Bukhara Khanate, the Safavid Dynasty in Persia, the Mughal Empire in India, and the Uzbek Minger tribe leaders from the Fergana Basin also sent representatives. Belonging to the rule of the Bukhara Khanate, it was once occupied by Yarkand, but the leader of the Minge clan has always sought to be self-reliant.

The Minge tribe is a branch of the Uzbeks who moved south from the original Golden Horde to the river. Both the Bukhara Khanate and the Khiva Khanate claim to be descendants of the Uzbek hero Shaybani. Bukhara was once the strongest, but so far At that time, it was already in decline, and its actual dominance was only a part of the Hezhong area where the capital was located.

In the Fergana region, the Hezhuo who believe in the *mystical* Sufi sect have long begun to self-govern their territories. Under the leadership of the leader, the Minge tribe has been resisting the Islamic regime, trying to establish themselves as a khanate and get rid of the rule of Bukhara .

The Ming Dynasty wants to unite with the Mongolian Khanates and even the Kazakhs to attack the Yarkand Khanate, which believes in Islam. Several countries that also believe in Islam, although they are worried about death, have their own ghosts. Sending envoys here is all about seeking personal gain.

Two Uzbek Khanates and an Uzbek tribe seeking self-reliance are both descendants of the Golden Horde and Mongolia, but they belong to Iran, Turks, Mongolia, Chincha, Ge Luolu, etc. The established nation can be said to be a country ruled by the green Turkic Mongolian nobles. Anyway, it is a very complicated group of people. Because it is located in the river, the Eastern and Western cultures are constantly pouring in. The forces of all parties compete here, and gradually formed the 72 parts of Uzbekistan. .

In terms of race, culture, and religion, they are indeed closer to Yarkand. After all, they are almost the letter-green forces ruled by the Turkic Mongols, but they often fight back and forth themselves, so don't talk about brothers Affection.

They are basically a mixed ethnic group, but the upper class is Mongolian, Turkized, and accepts Islam.

Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kazakhs, Yarkands, etc. used to be nomadic tribes with a short history of settlement.

They have a bad relationship with the Oirat Mongols. Although they originated from Mongolia, one side is already Iraqi, while the other side believes in Tibetan Buddhism. Several countries in Central Asia have even become Turkic.

Turkic Mongols is a very interesting thing. It is not a simple concept like Sinicized Hu people. Mongols conquered and ruled all over the world, but there are too few Mongols. As the core ruling class, they have to cooperate with the local people. integrate.

Because their number is too small, they are assimilated after a long time of integration. Not only do they not look like Mongolians, but they can’t even speak Mongolian. They speak the local Turkic language and even get used to Turkic customs. Wait.

Timur, who once conquered Central Asia, is a representative of the Turkic Mongols. After decades of fighting, Timur established a huge empire by force.When the Timurid Empire flourished, it ruled not only the middle of the river, Khwarazm, and areas around the Caspian Sea, but also parts of India, Persia, and South Caucasus.

He doesn't know Mongolian, but he is proficient in Turkic and even Persian.

"History of the Yuan Dynasty" records that Timur was born in the Barulas tribe of Mongolia. His ancestor Halachaer was of the same clan as Genghis Khan, and he was an out-and-out Mongol.But Timur did not really identify himself as a Mongol, but was inclined to Persia in cultural awareness.

Many Central Asians and even Westerners believe that Timur is just a Turkic man pretending to be a Mongolian nobleman, but even the history of the Yuan Dynasty has written that Timur is a Mongol.

Just like some people deliberately said that the Sui and Tang Dynasties were not the Han Dynasty, and that Li Shimin was actually a Xianbei.

They called the Ili Khanate, the Chagatai Khanate, the Golden Horde, the Kazan Khanate, the Nogai Khanate, the Crimean Khanate, the Timurid Empire and the Mughal Empire as Turkic Mongol country.

It is also said that there are many Turkic Mongolian ethnic groups living in the territory of the Chagatai Khanate, called Mughalstan, Yarkand in the west, and Uigurstan (Turpan Khanate) in the east.

The Turkic Mongols are regarded as a class, not an ethnic group, but in fact, 300 years have passed since the Mongolian Western Expedition, and those little Mongols have ruled various ethnic groups for hundreds of years, and those who have integrated earlier are no different from the local people.

But they insist that they are Mongolians, but they speak Turkic or Persian, use Turkic characters or use traditional customs of Turkic people, and they don’t even look like Mongolians at all, but they still insist that they are Mongolians people.

At present, a group of Turkic Mongols such as Yerkand, Khiva, Turpan, and Mughals can be regarded as one side on the surface, and they have the meaning of forming a group to fight against the Oirat Mongols, but in fact Zhu Yihai believes that this group of Xinlv likes to fight against the Oirat Mongols. with *.People who attack and invade others in the name of war are not all the way.

The relationship between them is far less close than that of the Oirat Mongols, let alone their blood relatives with Eastern Mongolia, but even the leaders of various tribes in Eastern Mongolia have the same ancestors six or seven generations ago. They are still fighting hard, and no one is convinced. The Khan leaders of the Turkic Mongolian Kingdom can only go back hundreds of years to trace the ancestor Genghis Khan, so there is no unity at all.

Maybe they will be superficially threatening, but just ignore it.

*war.

It's not just the church that fights.

Zhu Yihai decided to start a war against Central Asia and launch the first western expedition, starting with Yarkand.

(End of this chapter)