Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1027 1022 [Someone is always looking for death]

The Ming army was winning victory after victory on the Korean Peninsula, but there were still some blind barbarians who took the initiative to provoke the Ming!
The three Sichuan officials and the general jointly sent an urgent message:

The foreign tribes of Qizhou, Hengzhou, Weizhou, Zhizhou, Dangzhou, Gongzhou and Shizhou killed cattle, horses, donkeys and dogs, set up an altar for an alliance, and gathered more than 10,000 foreign soldiers to besiege Maozhou.

Maozhou had 500 Ming garrison troops, and the prefect and the commander recruited 3,000 militiamen. The officials and civilians held the city (which only had low earthen walls and no moat) for four days, then found an opportunity to attack at night and defeated the Tibetan army. However, hundreds of Han people in the suburbs were killed because they did not have time to enter the city.

The commander of Maozhou led the army to counterattack, conquered the three states of Shi, Dang and Dang, and killed more than 20 barbarian chiefs and generals.

The remaining barbarian soldiers retreated to their respective vassal states, sent envoys to request a meeting for peace, and demanded a large amount of money and silk.

Sichuan's civil and military officials all planned to send troops to conquer the region completely, but were afraid of taking responsibility for provoking border conflict, so they requested the court to give them further instructions.

Among the areas that rebelled mentioned above, there were a large number of vassal states, but in fact they were only around Lixian, Wenchuan, and Maoxian.

Zhu Ming called a meeting of the Cabinet, the Ministry of War, and the Privy Council, tapping on the urgent report with his fingers: "I really don't understand. The tribes in western Sichuan came to attack the Ming Dynasty on their own, and it is normal for them to ask for peace after losing the battle. But while they were asking for peace, they also asked for money and cloth from the Ming Dynasty. Who lost the battle?"

Li Hanzhang laughed and said, "How can barbarians understand reason?"

Fang Mengqing said: "They were spoiled by the former Song Dynasty. This unprovoked rebellion is just to force the court to pay money."

Li Bao took out the collected information about the pre-Song Dynasty:

"These barbarians have always been like this. At first, it was the barbarian chieftain Dong who sought an official position, and Song Renzong appointed him as the governor of a tributary state. He sometimes submits and sometimes rebels, and is fickle."

"Zhao Ji, the incompetent emperor of the former Song Dynasty, was fond of grandiose achievements, and officials from all over the country were eager to expand the territory. They lured the barbarian chiefs Dong Shunzhi and Dong Yanbo to surrender, and changed the Tang Dynasty Baozhou to Qizhou, and changed the Tang Dynasty Bazhou to Hengzhou. They granted the two Dongs positions such as Tuanlianshi, Jiedushi, and Liuhou. They also gave them 12,100 strings of money, 14,700 shi of rice, 2,850 pieces of silk every year, and a certain amount of silk, satin, brocade, tea, salt, and silver."

When this information was read out, the ministers in the cabinet and the ministries were all filled with contempt.

Expanding territory is naturally a good thing, but the kind of expansion during the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song was simply ridiculous.

The barbarians who surrendered to the imperial court not only did not pay tribute, but also required the Song Dynasty to pay them money.

Apart from saving face for Emperor Huizong of Song, the Song Dynasty gained nothing!

Li Bao continued, "More than a dozen vassal states over there rebelled repeatedly during the Zhenghe period of the former Song Dynasty. The Song army simply defeated them and did nothing else. Moreover, the former Song court would reward the barbarian chieftains who surrendered after being defeated with official positions and give them an extra monthly salary."

"The most recent rebellion was at the beginning of our uprising. We seized Lizhou Road at that time, and the barbarians took the opportunity to attack the Song army in Maozhou. The Song army held out for more than two months until Your Majesty sent a detachment to recapture Shiquan (Beichuan), and then lifted the siege of Maozhou. All the civil and military officials in Maozhou surrendered to us at that time."

Li Hanzhang went on to say, "Because they were beaten so hard by us, after Your Majesty occupied Sichuan, these barbarian chieftains were relatively peaceful. Until the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the barbarian chieftains headed by the Dong family took the initiative to submit to the Ming Dynasty and request to be enthroned."

"But when the foolish emperor of the former Song Dynasty conferred titles on them, he granted them more than 10,000 strings of money, more than 10,000 dan of rice, nearly 3,000 pieces of silk, silk, satin, salt, tea and silver every year. The Ming Dynasty only gave them some official salaries, and the chieftains must be very dissatisfied with this. Over the past ten years, the chieftains have repeatedly requested rewards, but the court has ignored them."

"Due to the abundant supply of horses in the north and southern Sichuan, the purchase of horses in western Sichuan has been decreasing. The various tribes have lost the profits from selling horses, and their lives are definitely getting harder and harder. This rebellion is all about money!"

To put it more directly, the appetites of the chieftains of the various vassal states under the jurisdiction of Maozhou had been spoiled by the former Song Dynasty.

They were defeated and rebelled repeatedly, never won a battle, but they always gained benefits.

This was because the cost of suppressing the rebellion in the former Song Dynasty was too high. The rebellion during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song was particularly serious, and the court had to dispatch border troops from Shaanxi to suppress it.

Compared with mobilizing troops thousands of miles away, the Song Dynasty's rulers and ministers believed that it was more cost-effective to appease the barbarians by giving them some money and food every year.

The Song Dynasty was happy to give gifts, and the barbarian chiefs were happy to receive them, so it naturally became a habit.

The barbarian chieftains planned to follow the previous rules and make a few big fuss to force the Ming court to reward them with money and food!

Zhu Ming asked: "Are the tribes of Nogawa still behaving well?"

The Yechuan tribes, located in Xiaojin County, Baoxing and Luding, were vassal lands under the jurisdiction of Yazhou.

Li Hanzhang said: "The imperial court no longer rewards the tribes in large quantities, so the Yechuan tribes are naturally dissatisfied. But there is a tea-horse trade route there, which is said to lead directly to India. As the tea-horse trade route becomes more and more prosperous, some of the tribes in the Yechuan tribes are relatively respectful to the imperial court."

Shi Yuangong said, "But there is a hidden danger. The Nogawa tribes that occupy the trade route have grown rapidly in strength in recent years. According to the news sent back to the Military Intelligence Department by merchants, there are wars almost every year, and the tribes attack each other. At least five tribes have been annexed. If we let it continue, in at most 20 to 30 years, the 46 Nogawa tribes will be unified. Even if they are not unified, they will form several large tribes."

Qian Chen said: "Tribes not on the Tea-Horse Trade Road would try every means to lead their troops across the border every year to rob Han merchant caravans in other tribes' territories. Sichuan merchants going to Tubo for trade had to gather at least a hundred people before they dared to set out, and they had to hire retired soldiers to protect their property."

Zhu Ming pointed to the large area of ​​Hongyuan, Aba, Ruoergai, and Maerkang and asked: "What kind of power is this?"

Shi Yuangong said: "The Tibetan tribes are like a pile of loose sand."

Zhu Ming asked again: "Are there enough Han people in the vassal states under Maozhou?" Shi Yuangong said: "There are quite a few Han people, and there are even scholars who take the imperial examinations."

Xie Fangshu, the prime minister of the Southern Song Dynasty, came from Weizhou, a vassal state that participated in the rebellion.

Zhu Ming said: "Since there are enough Han people, we should just change the natives to Han people. Send troops this year to wipe out the barbarians around Maozhou (Maoxian), and exterminate all the barbarian chieftains who have repeatedly rebelled. Especially the Dong family, they got the most benefits in the former Song Dynasty, but they were the ones who led the rebellion every time. They are ungrateful!"

"Kill them all?" Zhang Tong asked.

Zhu Ming said: "All the male members of the families of those barbarian chieftains will be killed without a single survivor. Even if they lead their troops to surrender, they will be killed. They surrendered to the former Song Dynasty countless times, and each time they surrendered, they would lead their troops to rebel again. As for those barbarian generals and soldiers, after being captured, two out of ten will be executed!"

"Each vassal state will be merged into a county, and officials will be sent to govern. The land that is most suitable for farming will be used to relocate Han people from the surrounding areas to settle there. Immigrants will be recruited from Long'an, Mianzhu, Shenquan, Yongkang and other counties. At least 5,000 Han people will be relocated there!"

"Yes!"

All ministers took orders.

Zhu Ming continued, "Next year, we will send troops from Yazhou to wipe out the Yechuan tribes. We will also recruit immigrants in the Chengdu Prefecture. The population there is increasing, and many of them are landless farmers. If they are unwilling to apply, we will force them to work. We will need to have at least 8,000 immigrants to farm in the Yechuan area!"

The Yechuan area can be simply understood as the Big and Small Jinchuan, but it is only a small part of the Big Jinchuan, and has more areas such as Luding County and Baoxing County. There were 46 tribes in Yechuan originally, and each tribe was as big as a dozen villages. A strong tribe was equivalent to 30 or 40 villages.

Now the forty-six departments are accelerating their merger. If we don't take action now to wipe them out, it will be difficult to unify them once they are unified.

The Ming Dynasty was not Mongolia and was not in a hurry to take over the snowy area in one fell swoop.

This year we will take over the Jimizhou under Maozhou, and next year we will take over the Yechuan tribes under Yazhou. At the same time, we will relocate the people there to consolidate our territory.

If we don't do this, we will have to repeat the mistakes of the previous Song Dynasty, with endless rebellions by the remnants of the various tribes.

How did the Mongols resolve the rebellion problem?
When they conquered a place, they would force the local leader to lead the troops to attack another place. They used war to reduce the population and expand their territory. The potential risk of rebellion was gradually eliminated with the casualties on the battlefield.

This method is very useful during expansion, but wherever the Mongolian army passes, social production often suffers devastating damage!
It took two years to resolve the border problems in western Sichuan, and ten years to consolidate the territory. Then we would attack Songpan, Hongyuan, and Ruoergai. The ultimate goal was to connect with Gannan and Longnan.

As for most areas of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, temporary control was implemented.

Zhu Ming emphasized: "Before Sichuan generals send troops, they should ask the caravans about precautions. High up in the mountains, breathing is difficult and there is even the possibility of sudden death!"

The specific combat plan will be formulated by the Ministry of War and the Privy Council, so Zhu Ming does not need to intervene personally.

For the Ming Dynasty court, these two battles were minor ones, and there was no need to bother soldiers from other provinces. The Sichuan civil and military forces could handle it on their own.

What we really need to pay attention to is the terrain and climate. Having mountains and valleys everywhere would be too troublesome, and the barbarian tribes would most likely go into the mountains and fight guerrilla warfare.

The imperial military meeting ended and the ministers left one after another.

The barbarian chieftain Dong wanted to gain benefits by rebellion, but they were too isolated from the news and thought that the Ming Dynasty was still doing the same thing as the former Song Dynasty.

Rebellion?

court death!

This time even if the Dong family surrenders, their entire family will be exterminated.

The ancestors of those guys were either authentic Han people or sinicized Qiang people. But now they have been completely assimilated into the Tibetans, and they have been rebelling every now and then with other ethnic groups. Emperor Zhu's patience has reached its limit.

At this moment, far away in Hengzhou (north of Wenchuan).

Although Dong Yanbo, the governor and chief of Hengzhou, suffered a defeat, his tribe did not suffer great losses.

He was waiting for the Ming court to confer an official title and reward him with money.

Dong Yanbo held a lot of official positions in the former Song Dynasty, and was rewarded with millions of coins, tens of thousands of dan of rice, and thousands of silk every year. The Ming Dynasty court was too stingy, and he took the initiative to surrender, but the benefits he received were not even a fraction of what he had received in the former Song Dynasty.

If Emperor Zhu does not give an explanation this time, he will continue to rebel next year until the court gives him officials, money and food!
He had many allies. His own family, the Dong clan, had four chiefs.

The Dong family has been doing business here since the Tang Dynasty and Tubo period. The Ming Dynasty, which was only established for more than ten years, is nothing.

("Reforming the Late Qing Dynasty" is really good. I finished reading it overnight yesterday.)
(End of this chapter)