I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 696 What the People Want

But it shows that after the army regained Hami County, it marched westward.

Along the way, all the local rural nobles who passed by heard the news and disappeared.

Not only did they run away, they also took away everything they could, including food, livestock, and supplies. They also looted and massacred the serfs and civilians who could not be taken away.

Many scattered small villages were attacked miserably by the looting teams of these fleeing nobles.

When the Ming army's main force passed by, everything was devastated as far as the eye could see.

Zhou Haizhong did not let this matter go, but allocated 20,000 shi of grain from the military rations to provide relief to the Hami people who had been looted and attacked.

This is not a woman's kindness, but an attempt to win over the people. The Western Region is vast, sparsely populated, and has a harsh environment and climate.

When the Ming Dynasty immigrated here, they would definitely not be able to immigrate too many people in the early stage. Rural areas like these still had to cooperate with culture and education to carry out Chinese rule over the local people of all ethnic groups.

Now those Hami nobles are going against the grain, killing and plundering their own people, while the Ming army, an outsider, is providing food to the victims.

In this stark contrast, the Ming Dynasty's rule over Hami will only become more stable in the future.

What the people want is sometimes so simple and easy.

Of course, there must be a price for Zhou Haizhong to do this. If he spends 20,000 shi of military rations at one time, there will not be many places for him to attack later.

Although the Ming Dynasty is not short of money now, transporting food from the rear to Hami requires huge financial and material resources, and these are only initial relief, and money and food will continue to be invested later.

This year, Zhou Haizhong's troops could only regain southern Xinjiang and wipe out the half-dead Yarkand people. As for the Dzungar Mongolia in northern Xinjiang, which were also exhausted.

We can only look at opportunities and fight if we can. If we can't fight, we can only consolidate the defense lines in the southern and western regions first, build more immigrant legions, and wait for opportunities later.

Among the generals of the Ming Dynasty, Zhou Haizhong's military ability was not particularly outstanding, nor did he have his own characteristics in using troops. If I really want to talk about the advantages, it is to fight step by step, not to fight uncertain battles, and like to be by the rules and be sure of victory.

And that's enough.

When the emperor established the Right Army Governor's Office in Xi'an, Zhou Haizhong knew that the emperor would take action against the Western Regions sooner or later. He also began to inquire about military information in the Western Regions and Qinghai in advance, and sent agents to follow the merchants and go deep into the hinterland of the Western Regions.

From the major war trends in the Western Regions to the small population growth, food prices, and even the armaments of soldiers, which new Burke was appointed...

To this day, perhaps even the Khan King of Junggar, Galdan Celing himself, knows more about Junggar than Zhou Haizhong does about Junggar's northern frontier.

The army continued to march westward.

Occasionally you can see corpses lying in the desert along the way. These are serfs who were massacred and starved to death. They are collectively called "Hui people", but in fact they are mostly Uighurs, but there are also other ethnic minorities, and even Kazakhs in Central Asia. .

The surviving serfs were frightened when they saw the Ming army and did not dare to approach them. They were also eager for the food of the Ming army.

Then, they saw that these "outsiders" armed with weapons and guns actually used their language to call them over to eat.

The steaming pot was filled with thick porridge.

Although the serfs were doubtful, their desire for life still made them dare to move forward.

After a mouthful of thick porridge that warmed the stomach, a serf in ragged clothes finally couldn't help it and burst into tears. Judging from the face and bones, he should be a Kazakh serf, or maybe a mixed race. Who knows?
Someone took the lead in howling, and soon all the serfs collapsed and cried.

Many even spontaneously kowtowed to the Ming army cooks who served them porridge, muttering nonsense words that the cooks couldn't understand anyway.

"Get up, get up, what do you look like crying and crying here?"

"Don't cry! It's not that I don't want you to eat enough. It's not good to eat too much porridge after being hungry for so many days." "..."

The cooks were quite anxious, with Shaanxi-like accents and Nanjing Mandarin that was not too polished.

After eating the thick porridge, the Ming army left some rations and prepared to continue marching westward. The military officers accompanying them would come here to receive them.

"Oh? There are many local villagers who plan to join the army and become civilian husbands?" Zhou Haizhong said.

Staff officer and army interpreter Yu Xiaomin nodded and said: "Yes, as long as they can manage the porridge. Of course, if the porridge is not enough, they still need to have dry food, otherwise they will lose strength."

Zhou Haizhong shook his head: "This Western Region is really unexpected. We are obviously outsiders, and we are not even of the same race as them, but instead we want to follow the army and civilians with us and help us fight against their own people."

Yu Xiaomin said: "To put it bluntly, these serfs are not much better than the tenants in the Tatar period, and may even live a worse life. They have no land, and even their meals depend on the mood of the nobles. If they are not treated as human beings, their lives will be They are not taken seriously by the nobles. Take this time, when our army comes to the Western Region, they have to kill a group of nobles before they can escape. They can starve the serfs to death if they take away the food. The Ming Dynasty treats them as human beings and gives them food relief. The people of the Western Regions will naturally join the Celestial Dynasty, which is what the people want!"

"You are right, this is what the people want." Zhou Haizhong grinned, "Since they want to follow, let them follow the army! As for the rations, they should be calculated according to normal civilians. Don't be too petty, let them see Being a commoner with the Celestial Empire is no worse than being a slave under the original nobles of the Western Regions."

The Ming army went from Hami to Turpan, relieving serfs along the way and winning the hearts of the people in the Western Regions.

Turpan, Luqin.

Turpan Burke's name was Emin Hezhuo. As soon as he heard this title, he knew that this guy was at least a little green.

His grandfather and father were both leaders in the Turpan area, and it was not until his generation that they moved to Luxin City.

This guy's life experience is quite outstanding in this corner of the Western Region. He was first dissatisfied with Junggar's occupation and secretly defected to the Qing Dynasty. As a result, his whole family was killed by Cewang Alabutan.

Then, Emin and Zhuo single-handedly relied on religion to gather power and just took back the rule of the Turpan region from Cewang Alabutan.

Until the late Yongzheng period, when Galdan Celing went to war with the Manchus, Emin and Zhuo led only more than 300 troops and defended Lukqin City for more than 40 days. They repelled the attack of more than 2000 Junggar troops and killed 200. The enemy forces in Duzungar persisted until the Qing army came to rescue them.

This guy is also a good person. Even though Yongzheng's reinforcements came so slowly, he still didn't have any dissatisfaction. Instead, he went out of the city to greet them in person with great fanfare.

The rewards given to him by the Manchu Qing Dynasty were also very good. From Yongzheng to Qianlong, this guy was constantly valued and rewarded by the Qing court. In the end, he was allowed to stay in Yarkant to manage the affairs of the local Uighurs.

You must know that at that time, the Yarkand region had "27 villages, 30,000 households, and more than 100,000 people." It was not only the most populous region in the southern Tianshan Mountains, but also the most important political and economic center in southern Xinjiang.

Just such awards and appointments show that Emin and Zhuo were very popular in the Qing court.

It's a pity that he was in the emperor's heart for the Qing court slips, but he was a nuisance to the Ming court.

The nobles who fled from Hami to Turpan have spread the word about what the Ming army "did" in Hami.

The nobles were all killed, leaving only the serfs and civilians, and they refused to accept surrender.

Emin and Zhuo originally had some doubts in their hearts, but when they heard the news, they knew they had no choice.

He could submit to the Han emperor, even accept the canonization of the Han emperor, and let the emperor station troops in his territory, as long as he retained his hereditary berk and Turpan's religious beliefs.

But it's obvious that the Han emperor didn't think so. The other party didn't want to keep hereditary nobles like himself. It was even rumored that he didn't even want to keep religion (this is not a rumor).

In the past, Emin and Zhuo could challenge the powerful Cewang Alabutan for power, but now they can also challenge the Han emperor.

And there are also huge believers in Turpan.

(End of this chapter)