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

Chapter 700 Congling
After recovering Yarkand and Kashgar, and recruiting the Gilijisi tribes, the overall situation in southern Xinjiang has been basically decided.

The Junggar Mongols in northern Xinjiang knew the movements of the Ming army, but they were unable to do anything because they were in civil strife.

Galdan Celing's consecutive stupid moves have almost exhausted his prestige as the Khan. In addition, the Great Lama of the Snowy Land (use this instead...), who is legitimate as the Khan of Junggar, has also been acquired by the Ming Dynasty. Now he He was raised in a temple in Nanjing to practice Zen and worship Buddha.

Continuous wars have exhausted the elite of the Junggar Mongols, especially the troops directly under the Khan King, and Galdan Celing's position as Khan has begun to become shaky.

This is also the case in history. Galdan Celing went to war against the Manchus without authorization, which resulted in the Mongols being defeated and suffering heavy losses.

After he "died" of the plague coincidentally, his brothers and sons immediately began to fight for power around the throne of Khan.

The Qing court then took advantage of the situation and annihilated the Dzungar Khanate, which had dominated the Western Regions of Central Asia for a while.

There is civil strife in northern Xinjiang, and the overall situation in southern Xinjiang has been decided.

Zhou Haizhong still stayed in Kashgar. He did not immediately lead his troops back to the army. Instead, he met with several Bukhara businessmen to inquire about information: "How is the king of Bukhara doing in recent years?"

As a once prosperous khanate in Central Asia, Bukhara's merchants once controlled the Silk Road leading from Central Asia to the east and west.

The reason why Tsarist Russia was so keen on the Far East and even fought the Yaksa War twice with the Manchu Qing Dynasty was that in addition to wanting to acquire Siberian furs and Chinese land, it also wanted to open up a second trade route besides the Silk Road. Break the Bukhara trade monopoly.

Several businessmen who were interviewed replied: "We have never met the Great Khan, but we heard that the Great Khan only focuses on enjoyment and does not care much about all state affairs. Prime Minister Rahim is solely responsible for all state affairs."

Another businessman added: "Prime Minister Rahim comes from Manget in the north of the Khanate. These Nogai people are very difficult to deal with. Even the former Khan can't do anything to them. By the way, there is also the governor of Haozhi City in the east. , they brought many local tribal cities to rebel against the Great Khan. The Great Khan once sent troops to conquer, but failed, and only obtained the surrender in the name of the Kokand people. "

The Ming Dynasty had already learned the information about the Kokand Khanate's envoy to confer Turgut before.

Although the Kokand Khanate has a small territory, it controls the very important Fergana Basin.

Speaking of this basin directly, many people may not know it, but when it comes to Dawan’s bloody horse... Yes, Dawan comes from the Fergana Basin.

This basin is small in area, but the land is very fertile and can support a population of 40 million people.

The Kokand Khanate has only been independent for twenty years, and its national strength is not yet strong. It will take more than a hundred years for it to officially become a monster.

In the late Qing Dynasty, the Western Region was divided and ruled, and the Hongfu Khanate was established. It took Zuo Gong's intervention to regain it. This was a bad thing done by the Kokand Khanate.

Zhou Haizhong thought for a moment and said: "In other words, in Bukhara now, powerful ministers are in power, the royal power is vacant, foreign races are rising in the north, and rebels are separatist in the east?"

Several businessmen from Bukhara answered honestly: "The general is right."

Zhou Haizhong asked bluntly: "If our Ming army now marches into the Pamir (Tajik) mountains east of Bukhara, bordering Yarkand, will the powerful official in Bukhara resist?"

The businessmen replied: "Probably not. The Pamirs are autonomous by the Tajik people, and the Great Khan only collects taxes here on weekdays. And since the previous Great Khan, domestic taxes have become more and more heavy. There are many Tajiks." There is dissatisfaction. As long as the general does not indiscriminately kill local nobles and imams (green religion), and slightly lowers taxes, the Tajiks will not resist the rule of the Chinese army.”

Zhou Haizhong nodded slightly and thought carefully about the pros and cons.

The emperor's military order for him this time did not require the entire Western Region to be recovered, but all of the southern Xinjiang must be captured, and if there was a chance, the Pamir Plateau controlled by the Tajiks must also be captured as much as possible.

Otherwise, the rule of the Western Region will never be stable.

Pamir is Tajik, meaning the roof of the world, which shows its importance.

In the Tang Dynasty, this was the Congling Shouchu City of the Anxi Governor. In the Yuan Dynasty, strategic expansion was carried out here. Now, only ruins remain.

Historically, when the Manchus and Qing dynasties attacked and destroyed the Junggar Mongols, they also sent envoys to appease most of the local Tajiks, controlled this land in the form of tribute, and consolidated the border defense line from the Western Region to Central Asia.

There is no way, it is indeed difficult to fight here. Almost 80% of it is covered with mountains. It is simply a fantasy for the Ming army, which has come all the way from Gansu to Kashgar to attack a plateau and mountainous area.

The Tajiks don't have to fight the Ming army head-on. As long as they stay in the ravines and fight guerrillas with the Ming army, they can beat the Ming army's logistics to collapse.

Afghanistan is the graveyard of empire!

However, now is indeed a good opportunity. The Bukhara Khanate, which nominally controls the Pamir Plateau, has reached the end of its rope.

The king was completely ignored by his powerful ministers. A foreign tribe rose up in the north, but the powerful minister still came from this foreign tribe. Even the separatist rebellion of the Kokand Khanate in the east could not be dealt with.

As long as the Ming army takes the opportunity to send troops, it won't be easy to capture Congling.

It's just that the fighting strategy needs to be slightly adjusted, and nobles and religious imams can no longer be massacred randomly.

This area is all plateau and mountainous, with only strategic defense value, and it is too far away from the Ming Dynasty, so the cost of immigration and land reclamation is very high.

The local Tajiks and religious forces are huge, even more powerful than the Giljis. They cannot act recklessly and must obey these Tajiks appropriately.

Letting go of some autonomy and restrictive rule are not all bad.

All in all, the current Bukhara Khanate will have to usher in the end of its dynasty in at most five years.

Just five years ago, a powerful man named Nadir Shah emerged from the chaotic and weak Persia. This guy's title was so awesome that he was hailed as "Central Asian Napoleon" and "Alexander II" by later generations.

He first quickly solved the Afghan civil strife, then defeated the powerful Ottoman Empire, and then usurped the throne and usurped power to create a new dynasty.

Then he began his legendary life, punching the Mughal Empire, and the army even fought all the way to the Mughal capital Delhi.

In this case, he still has to conflict with Daming.

Then he attacked the Bukhara Khanate, directly killed the actual last great khan of Bukhara, and plundered a large area of ​​territory. This created the conditions for the Central Asian version of "adding nine tins" to the current Bukhara officials, and also created conditions for Bukhara's powerful officials. The legality of the succession to the Khanate in the late Halla period laid the foundation for disaster.

Because at this time, although Bukhara became weak, civil strife was frequent, and the leaders of various ethnic groups in the country were quite dissatisfied with King Khan, at least this King Khan still had golden blood, a descendant of Genghis Khan, and had unparalleled legitimacy.

Until Mangut's human rights minister usurped the throne, this bloodline orthodoxy was broken, and many ambitious people came out to act as monsters.

Zhou Haizhong was able to basically confirm through just a few words from Bukhara businessmen that today's Bukhara is a paper tiger, not even a paper tiger.

If you can't even solve a small local governor's rebellion, then you're still talking about shit.

Zhou Haizhong continued to inquire about the situation and added details. After careful consideration for a few days, he continued to convene military generals for discussion and meetings, and finally decided to send troops to capture the Pamir Plateau.

The northern border can be ignored for the time being, but the Pamir Plateau is too important. As long as it is captured, the Ming Dynasty only needs to build passes here, and may not even need to build cities. It can protect the southern border by garrisoning troops at various border passes. No worries.

The same is true for Jilijisi in the north of Kashgar. Building several passes here will form a closed border defense line. Even if a superpower appears in Central Asia, it will not be able to invade the Ming Dynasty through the Western Regions.

There is no need to make excuses to capture the Pamirs.

It has been directly said since ancient times, and the evidence is conclusive. If you go to the local area, you can also find the ruins of Congling Shouzhou City built and expanded by the Tang and Yuan Dynasties.

If the Ming army wanted to attack Congling, they did not need to consider the Bukhara Khanate. Their local rule was weak and they did not have any large cities.

It's just that the plateau and mountainous areas are more troublesome. They are full of mountains, but they are also located at the heart of the Silk Road. When the Ming army reached Kashgar and Yarkand, it was already the beginning of autumn in July, and it would snow within two months, so it was not suitable for marching and fighting. Moreover, after regaining the entire territory of southern Xinjiang, a lot of things need to be done to sort out and control such a large area of ​​land. Just sending the officials and immigrating people will take a lot of time for the Western Expedition army.

After all, with so many immigrants coming here, all they want to share is the local land, which is the most fertile and fertile land in the area.

The army stayed and was responsible for guarding and suppressing disobedience, with priority given to the immigrant population.

Of course, it does not mean that the local people of all ethnic groups were treated harshly. The Ming army helped them drive away the nobles who oppressed them, liberated their status as serfs, allocated land to them, and reduced their taxes.

What's not to like about this?
As a result, the amount of money spent became astronomical, and even the central ministers of the imperial court were shocked.

Fortunately, the court now has money. Such a huge expenditure... is still somewhat unsustainable. It can only be slowly stabilized by absorbing private silver deposits from local banks and casting silver and gold coins.

Yes, it had only been a few years since the silver yuan was issued, and the imperial court began to issue gold yuan on a small scale again.

In fact, the imperial court was spending money like water, and the money in the treasury books was almost unbearable.

Although there are benefits to this, obviously there are many thieves spending money, but domestic prices are not a big problem, people's livelihood has not been affected, the commercial economy in the north has been stimulated to a certain extent, and the problem of silver currency has also been somewhat alleviated.

Some of the ministers in the Ministry of Accounts no longer understand the economic accounts here. How can finance be so fun?
Time flies, winter passes and spring comes.

The imperial court has already begun to send the first batch of monks to the southern border of the recovered Western Region, and the entire process is handled by the officials along the way.

They will then be placed in various places in the Western Regions, and the government will fund the establishment of temples and Taoist temples. The government will also distribute salary and money to support their missionary work in the local area.

Apart from the fact that most ethnic groups are too complex, the problems in the Western Region are often caused by strife and feuds between various ethnic groups. But if we look at the root cause, it is that the religion here is too confusing.

When the Yarkand Khanate was still there, there were frequent civil strife in the middle period of the Khanate, which shook the rule of the Khan.

It happened that at that time, the Suji sect (a combined version of Baishan and Montenegro) was popular in Central Asia, and the Mughal Empire relied on Sufism to stabilize its rule, and Yarkand Khan also followed suit.

Then there is no more then.

First, Sufism split into the White Mountain and Black Mountain factions, and then religious internal strife directly sent the Yarkand Khanate away early. Immediately afterwards, the two factions were fighting in the southern border of the Western Region for more than three hundred years, and the entire southern border was turned into a puddle of muddy water.

By the way, northern Xinjiang is not peaceful this year. I heard that southern Xinjiang was captured by China, and the Yarkand Khanate was in chaos. Dawaqi, who originally had to wait until Galdan Celing's death before he dared to come out to seize power and cause rebellion, couldn't help but launched a rebellion in advance.

Although Dawaqi is young, his grandfather is Lingdun Dobu, the war god of Junggar. He defeated the Tsarist Russian Cossacks and the Manchu Eight Banners Army. He also personally led troops to attack thousands of miles and destroyed the snowy region with only thousands of cavalry. Lazar Khan.

With such a strong family background, the real Khan Galdan Celing suffered successive defeats, lost cities and territory, and could not even recover southern Xinjiang. His political and military success had hit rock bottom.

Countless tribesmen switched to the young and powerful Dawaqi's account, and the two sides were evenly matched. If Ming Dynasty did not intervene, there would be another war in Northern Xinjiang.

The Great War broke out in Northern Xinjiang, and the Ming Army officially sent troops to Southern Xinjiang.

Since last autumn, Zhou Haizhong has been making preparations in Kashgar and reporting to the court at the same time. When the snow melts in the spring, the troops will be launched in Congling.

Not many troops were dispatched, only 5,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry were sent, and locals from the Western Regions were used as guides. Less than 10,000 people fought towards the Pamir Plateau.

No, in the official documents of the Ming army, this place has been marked as Congling.

Pioneer general Zhou Chong led his army to kill Selekul (Tashkorgan Tajik Autonomous County) in the southeastern valley of Benconngling.

There is no city built here yet, and only some Tajik tribes live there.

Seeing the Ming army coming, no one wanted to resist, they all came to surrender obediently. For these Tajiks, they can submit to anyone. As long as they are not oppressed too hard, they don't care whether the person above them is the Khan of Bukhara or the Emperor of Ming Dynasty.

"Is this the former site of Congling Shouchuo City?"

The entire river valley is very wide, with large areas of fertile pasture, which is indeed suitable for reclamation and city building.

Zhou Chong appeased the local Tajik tribe and galloped away. As expected, he discovered the Congling Shouchu City mentioned in the military intelligence documents.

In later generations, this Congling Shouchuo City became a local 5A-level scenic spot for the development of tourism.

Liu Shouye, the civilian officer in charge of translation and missionary work, looked at the abandoned ancient city in front of him and couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "Times have changed and the situation has changed. This once glorious Congling Shoujue is now so abandoned."

Zhou Chong shook his head and said: "The king of Bukhara is simply stupid. He didn't build a city on such a huge land and allowed this ancient city to be abandoned."

Liu Shouye said: "Thanks to King Bukhara's incompetence, our army was able to recover this place so easily. When we completely recover Congling and other areas, we must go up to His Majesty and build a city and garrison here."

It is certain that the city will be built and garrisoned, but when the Ming army actually builds the city, the Tajik tribes that originally submitted here will definitely have to react, or they may start a rebellion.

The Tajiks can tolerate Bukhara and China ruling them, but they certainly cannot tolerate China building a city here and occupying their land.

Even if the Manchus regained this place, they regarded it as a territory controlled by Chun Jisi and never thought of building a city in Congling.

Selekul was captured effortlessly, and the Ming army left a thousand infantry troops stationed while the main force continued to march westward.

In this battle, the Ming Dynasty did not seek to completely annex this place, but it definitely had to capture it all, including Congling in the Tang Dynasty.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Congling was divided into "Bapa" according to geography.

From north to south they are: Heshkuzhuk, Sarez, Langkuli, Alchur, Dapa, Xiaopa, Takdunbash, and Wakhan.

When the Ming Dynasty ruled here in the future, they could also build cities and garrison troops here according to the "Bapa" divisions.

We don't need too many troops. One battalion in each city is enough. The Tajiks have become accustomed to adapting to the situation. They will follow whoever comes. As long as the emperor does not impose heavy taxes, they will not run out to rebel.

In fact, all the Bukhara Khans had little interest in collecting taxes here, because this place is full of mountains and very poor. The taxes collected were mainly commercial taxes brought by the Silk Road, which actually had nothing to do with the Tajik ministries. Very big.

Therefore, even the Kokand Khanate could not stand the brutal rule of Bukhara and jumped out to separate itself, but Congling could still maintain normalcy.

If the Ming Dynasty wanted to maintain long-term peace and stability in Congling in the future, in addition to building cities and garrisoning troops and strengthening military border defenses, it would also focus on cultural and educational reforms and vigorously develop the overland Silk Road.

Although there was maritime trade, the overland Silk Road was not completely cut off. Even the tea and horse trade in the southwest was still there, and even developed significantly.

Regardless of whether they were in the Western Regions or the grasslands, the core reason for their disobedience to the imperial control lay in the word "poor".

If we use commerce and trade to make them rich, then there will be no need for the court to carry out assimilation reforms. The tribes in the grasslands and the Western Regions will take the initiative to assimilate to the Han people.

　Almost over

　　There are also Mount Buzhou and K2 in the Pamir Plateau.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)