Wanli 1592

Chapter 480 The Severe Cold in Saibei

The winter in the 25th year of Wanli was extremely cold. This severe cold did not make excuses for anyone. God rewarded everyone in the northern land with severe cold, from the emperor to the common people, the Han people, the Mongols, Jurchens, without exception.

According to the past rules, the Han people spend the winter in the city, the Jurchens hide in the mountains, and the Mongols hide in the yurts.

The Han people ate stored grain, the Jurchens ate stored grain and prey, and the Mongols ate slaughtered livestock. Everyone lived in peace and harmony, and as far as possible, they should go out as little as possible, and try not to do anything if they could.

Of course, this is based on the fact that everyone has enough food for the winter and can fully enjoy the good life in the coming year. If something goes wrong, no one will be able to feel the goodness.

Unfortunately, last year and this year something went wrong.

Since last year, I don’t know what’s going on, the weather has suddenly become much colder than in previous years, and the grassland outside the Great Wall has been snowing heavily. The governor of Datong, Mei Guozhen, asked the court to open an additional grain market in Guihua City to sell to the three Tumot of the Niangzi family has enough food to help them survive the winter and support the spring of the next year.

At that time, Zhao Zhigao was still interested in doing things, and he agreed to Mei Guozhen's request. Of course, he knew that the purpose of the Ming court's friendship with the Tumed tribe of the Sanniangzi family was to make it a grassland barrier for the Ming Dynasty, so as to resist the enemies from the Ming Dynasty. Other tribes farther north were not friendly to the Ming court.

They don't care about the life and death of those tribes, as long as the Tumed tribe sticks to Ming Ting's side.

It was also fortunate that the Tumed tribe had a strange woman who admired Daming and Han culture to the point of going crazy. The Tumed tribe became Daming's staunch allies outside the Great Wall during this period of time. He survived that difficult winter, and helped Da Ming kill three waves of invading enemies.

It’s just that the situation this year has undergone some changes, and the severe cold has become even worse. The several major lands that the Ming court relied on to provide military rations to the three towns of Xuanfu, Taiyuan, Datong, have all been severely damaged by the severe cold, resulting in a large area of ​​food failure.

A large number of farmers went bankrupt and lost their land and became refugees. Most of these refugees were organized and thrown to Myanmar, but there was no food.

It was very difficult for the Ming court to mobilize food from Jiangnan and other places to go north to support the garrison, and there was no surplus food to support the Tumed tribe.

Therefore, even though Mei Guozhen went to the court three times, Zhao Zhigao was exhausted and did not have much execution power to help Mei Guozhen.

Xuanfu, Shanxi and other places also have their own difficulties, and no one can help, and Mei Guozhen himself is also in trouble.

The rations in the army are tight, and it is not known when the next batch of rations will arrive. Where can we allocate food to support the Tumed tribe who have suffered another disaster, a large number of fields, and a large number of cattle and sheep frozen to death?
For this reason, the wife of Lalike, the leader of the Tumed tribe, who is respected by the Han people and is called the "Three Niangzi", has come to Datong for the third time to ask for food support.

At this moment, the forty-year-old third lady was sitting in Mei Guozhen's mansion in Han women's clothing, looking at Mei Guozhen with a sad face and Ma Gui with a serious face, feeling quite uneasy in her heart.

She admires the Han culture, and she admires the Han culture. In the dead of night, she just hates that she can't be the daughter of the Han family, enjoying the romance in the magnificent south of the Yangtze River, but has to accept cruel experience in the bitter cold of the Saibei.

Therefore, she thought, if she can make good friends with the Han people, can she be reborn in the Han land in the next life, become a daughter of the Han family, and enjoy the beauty of the daughter of the Han family?
For such an assumption, San Niangzi, as Alda's only sister, single-handedly promoted the reconciliation between the Tumed Ministry and the Ming court after his death, and became the only one in Daming, a country that was extremely stubborn and never had good relations with the northern tribes. An exception object.

In the Ming Dynasty, the Ming court did not make friends with any northern nomadic tribes and relatives. Because of the lessons of the Song Dynasty, Ming people generally believed that marriage is humiliating, and it will not end well to trade women for peace. Therefore, even if they were beaten to Beijing by the Mongols, It is still to organize troops to fight back bravely.

When the power is strong, they will take the initiative to fight back, and when the power is weak, they will exchange tribute and trade in exchange for the opponent's withdrawal. All in all, they have never kissed each other, let alone made friends. Basically, it has never happened in Chinese history.

Daming has this kind of historical burden and can't let it go, but there is only an exception for San Niangzi. Only this legendary woman can be treated with kindness and friendliness by the Ming court. a tiny gap.

During the more than [-] years when she was in power, the Tumed tribe basically realized the goal of guarding the border for the Ming court. She likes to communicate with Han people and make friends, and she has a good relationship with the military officers and civil officials of the Ming court.

Especially in Datong Town, both the military and the government have a good sense of San Niangzi. When Wu Dui was the governor, he treated her like a daughter. When the great talent Xu Wei traveled to the North, he wrote many poems for her. This strange woman is specially written, which shows that the wise people are pursuing this strange woman.

It is precisely because of this that the name "Three Ladies" has become a passport recognized by both Ming and Mongolia in the border area, and an important and even the only link for Ming and Mongolia to maintain friendly relations.

In order to maintain this bond, she married three "Shunyi Kings" successively, and this one is the grandson of her earliest husband.

Originally, she was unwilling, but under the guiding ideology of the Ming court's "only recognize the third lady", the third lady still accepted her fate, stood up, married three Shunyi kings in a row, and exchanged her daughter's body for more than [-] years of peaceful coexistence.

In the Guihua City she presided over and established, you can often see common people from Ming and Mongolia who trade with each other in a friendly atmosphere. You can even see Sinicized Mongolians and Mongolian Hans everywhere in Guihua City.

However, just such a strange woman, whose handwriting is more reliable than King Shunyi himself, was forced by the severe cold and had no choice but to come to Datong City in person to ask for help from her trusted allies.

It wasn't that she was willing to come, but she was really forced to do so. Even the severe cold of the past two years has been difficult for even the Han people. Will they be able to survive the severe cold in the north?Will the wild wolves farther north be better off?The grassland economy has never been able to support such a large population.

In the course of history, the alternation of the warm period and the little ice age once dominated the trend of Chinese history to a great extent. The large population accumulated during the warm period would become a huge burden during the severe cold period. heavier.

Once the Little Ice Age comes, the land will become unable to produce food for a period of time, the power of the Han people will shrink to the south, and the nomads in the north will have to show sharp blades and go south in order to survive.

The great war between the Han regime and the northern nomadic regime can basically be classified as a survival war triggered by weather.

And at this moment, the survival war is about to come again.

Xiao Ruxun didn't know what kind of influence his coming had brought to this era. He felt that there might or might not be, but his own coming was a mysterious thing, and the impact it would bring would also be unpredictable.

He wanted to change the direction of history, but history did not want to change his direction. From the moment he came, everything was destined to be different from what he remembered.

Of course Mei Guozhen knew that if the matter hadn't reached a serious level, San Niangzi would never come to Datong City in person to ask for help. San Niangzi went out in person, it can only be said that the situation of Tumote's department was so bad that it could not be solved and was on the verge of collapse. the point.

After decades of friendship with the Ming court, most of the Tumed people, who were basically used to peace, were unwilling to go to war again. They lived together with the Han people, learned how the Han people farmed and built houses, and lived a stable life of the Han people.

A considerable part of them did not want to go back to the past, so the moderate faction who occupied the mainstream had to push out the leader, San Niangzi, and asked the Ming court for relief.

It was the same last year, and they got through it safely. This year was more stringent than last year, and they had to ask the Ming court again. They have to eat porridge to survive, let alone take out food to support them.

"Mei Futai, is it true that there is no food left?"

The third lady still didn't want to go back empty-handed. She knew very well that if she went back empty-handed, the Tumet people would be completely desperate, and the blow of such despair would be fatal.

She knew very well that her one-sided policy of befriending the Ming court was supported by many people, but there was a very important hidden danger, that was her third husband, the current king of Shunyi, Lalike.

Because of his great prestige and fame, coupled with the strong support of the Ming Dynasty, he was able to replace her husband as the actual power holder of the Tumet tribe, but her husband was still the most orthodox power owner in the legal system.

Her husband was not so willing to follow Daming's one-sided path, and even hovered on the verge of betraying Daming a few times, but was dragged back by her. For this reason, he still complains.

Unlike her who admires Han culture, her little husband is full of wolfish thinking.

Even if the soldiers in charge obey her orders, and even she has [-] elite cavalry directly under her, this is based on the fact that she can seek benefits for everyone, win the support of the Ming court and receive a lot of rewards. It is her reputation, her ruling foundation.

But once it comes to a very special moment, such as when everyone is hungry, is the nomad willing to learn from the Han people and become a refugee waiting to die, or is she willing to obey her little husband's order, mount a horse again and brandish a steel knife for food? What about a way out?

She doesn't want to know.

Mei Guozhen knew it clearly.

"Third lady, it's not that I don't want to help you. If I didn't, at this time last year, I wouldn't have advocated to support the Tumote Department with a large amount of food to help you survive the cold winter. It is really very cold this year, and there is a large area of ​​food in Guanzhong and Beidi. No harvest, the imperial court has transferred grain from the south of the Yangtze River to support us, and the soldiers can only live on porridge, where is there any extra grain?"

Mei Guozhen let out a long sigh.

As long as he can help, he is definitely willing, but...

"Third lady, let's be honest, let alone the army, my Ma family has been guarding Datong for generations, and my family has a lot of land, but last year and this year were consecutively severe winters, and most of the food was frozen to death. In previous years, the Cangtou army under my command was short food, I can still provide a little relief, but right now, the tenants in my own family are barely getting by."

The third lady covered her face in pain.

If there is food, everything will turn around, but if there is no food, everything will stop!
"Even if it's just a little bit, it can give the tribe some hope, so that they can at least continue to survive and not fall into despair. Once the tribe is desperate, it will be difficult to control!"

San Niangzi tried her best to explain her situation.

Mei Guozhen and Ma Gui don't know this, they are not newcomers who have not experienced war, let alone Ma Gui, a veteran general, knows the Tumed tribe outside the Great Wall quite well.

Even Mei Guozhen stayed in the Northwest Frontier after experiencing the Battle of Ningxia a few years ago. Years of experience have made him well versed in border affairs and he is a brave general.

If there is no food, it will be tantamount to pushing the Tumed tribe to the brink of collapse. The Ming court's decades of win-win efforts will come to naught, and the strange woman San Niangzi will no longer exist. More than just some rice grains?
Even if it is squeezed through the gaps between the teeth, the third lady should go back to do business and appease the Tumote department. Even if it is temporary, it must be stabilized, at least for a few days, and the soldiers and officials here will bear it for the time being. Mei Guozhen himself decided to lead by example, and Ma Gui decided to donate at least a little food.

Afterwards, San Niangzi left with a batch of food with great gratitude, leaving Mei Guozhen and Ma Gui with dignified faces and annoyed endlessly.

The Tumote Department is an ally of Daming, and has helped Daming avoid many disasters. The third lady has spared no effort to help Daming resolve disputes, and some disputes that may develop into wars have also been resolved internally by her.

Daming could never afford to lose such a strange woman. It was precisely because of the existence of Tumote that Magui was able to send troops to Ningxia to quell the rebellion without worrying about the safety of Datong.

These necessary investments are well worth it, well worth it, even super worth it.

But now that Daming couldn't get any more food, he was almost starving to death, so how could there be food for them?Give it any more, if they didn't fight over to grab the food, the soldiers on their side would mutiny first, then it would be over!
"Futai, in the current situation, we should ask the court as soon as possible how long it will take for the food to arrive? This batch of food will last for three to five days at most, and there will be no next time for us."

"Of course I know, Mr. Ma, you go clean up and accompany me to visit a few people. If it succeeds, there may be a turning point for this matter."

Ma Gui understood.

"Futai, those people..."

"It's okay, the country is in trouble, and they can't be alone. At this moment, they should be able to see clearly that if we can't stand it, they will be finished. They will not be confused about this matter."

Mei Guozhen made up his mind.

(End of this chapter)