Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 725 The Progressive Significance of War

Li Jing is a pure nationalist. In his heart, China is the greatest country in the world. No matter what difficulties China faces, it will eventually survive and defeat its opponents.

At the same time, Li Jing is a pure nationalist. He believes that the Han people are the greatest and most heroic nation in the world.

During the five chaos in China, the Han people were killed by the Hu people, leaving only a few million people, but in the end the Han people still drove the Hu people out of the Central Plains.

The Mongolian cavalry withdrew their troops twice when they conquered the world. The first time was the death of the Mongolian Great Khan Wo Kuotai. If it hadn’t been for the death of Wo Kuotai, the Mongolian army led by Batu (the second son of Genghis Khan’s eldest son Jochi) would have been wiped out the whole of Europe.

The second time was when Mengge Khan died. Since Mengge was killed when he attacked Chongqing, the Mongols were too busy fighting for the position of Khan and had no time to look back. Europe goes on the offensive.

It is precisely because the Han people killed the Mongolian Khan in Chongqing that the Mongols stopped their conquest. It can be said that the Han people saved Europe and even the world.

Although the Mongols later occupied the Central Plains, it took only 90 years for the Han to overthrow the Mongol rule, while the Mongol rule in Eastern Europe lasted for more than two centuries.As for Russia, it was ruled by the Mongols for nearly 400 years. It was not until the 28th year of Wanli (1600) that the Russians conquered the Siberian Khanate, the last regime established by the Mongols in Russia.

(Note: In fact, the regime established by the Mongols in Europe and Russia was overthrown mainly because of the consequences of the Mongols’ internal struggle.

After the death of Genghis Khan's successor Okudei, the Mongolian princes began to elect a new Khan. The most suitable candidate was Batu. The expedition to Europe launched by the Mongols was also called the eldest son's Western Expedition. Batu was the commander. Whether it is military merit, prestige, or ability, Batu is unmatched among the Mongolian kings.The Kipchak Khanate established by Batu, also known as the Golden Horde, ruled Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia, and was the largest of the four Mongolian Khanates.However, Batu took into account that his father was not Genghis Khan's biological son, so he voluntarily gave up the position of Khan.

Batu gave up the position of Khan, but he supported Torrey's son Meng Ge to take over as the Great Khan. With Batu's support, Meng Ge successfully inherited the position of Khan. .

But after Meng Ge died, the Mongols were divided into two factions, Batu supported Kublai Khan's succession (Batu was dead at this time), and Chagatai supported Okudei's descendants to succeed.Immediately, the descendants of Genghis Khan fought for the position of Khan. In the end, Kublai Khan, who was supported by the Batu family, won the successor Khan.

But after years of wars, the Mongols were seriously injured.

And shortly afterwards, Batu's descendants, the Great Khan who took over the Golden Horde, died, and Batu and his brother's descendants fought again for the Khan position of the Golden Horde.In the past hundred years, I don't know how many wars were launched, and finally the huge empire of the Golden Horde was torn apart, giving other countries an opportunity to take advantage of.

However, although the Golden Horde and the Khanates successively established by the Mongols were overthrown, there are still many regimes that have remained, but they have become vassal states of other countries.For example, the Crimean Khanate became a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, and it was not conquered by Tsarist Russia until the middle of the Qing Dynasty (1777).

As for the Uzbek Khanate and the Kazakh Khanate in Central Asia, both were countries established by the descendants of Jochi and have been passed down to modern times. Uzbekistan is actually the name of the descendants of Jochi. )
It is such a powerful nation with unmatched military power, but it was overthrown after only ruling the Han people for 90 years. It is conceivable that the Han people are such a remarkable nation.

Of course, Li Jing believes that the Mongols are also Chinese, and he is also proud of the Mongols' illustrious military exploits. At the same time, he can justifiably recover the lost territory of the Mongols under the banner of recovering the lost land.

However, the territory occupied by the Mongols is too vast, and Li Jing is really powerless to get involved in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

It's not that the Ming army couldn't fight so far, but because Li Jing's ruling philosophy is different from that of the Mongols. The Mongols only want these local governments to surrender and surrender, but Li Jing does not allow these places to have political power or allow foreigners to self-govern.

They can only manage these places by transferring people from the country, and even need to emigrate to these areas, but Daming does not have so many officials to transfer, and it is impossible to emigrate to such a distant place.

In fact, Daming might not even be able to eat Russia's territory. Li Jing thought that it would be good if the Northern Expeditionary Army could take back part of the territory occupied by Russia.

Of course, Li Jing would definitely not formulate strategic goals in this way, which would limit the performance of the Northern Expeditionary Army.

Therefore, Li Jing did not stipulate that where the Northern Expeditionary Army went to complete the task, this was completely different from the two groups of Hong Chengchou and Lu Xiangsheng.

The goals Li Jing set for them were strictly regulated. Li Jing asked Lu Xiangsheng's troops to stop advancing westward when they hit the Himalayas, and Hong Chengchou's troops to stop pushing forward when they hit the Altai Mountains and the foot of the Tianshan Mountains.

The reason why Li Jing determined the location of the two men was because they were afraid that Hong and Lu would get hotheaded and continue to advance westward. Most of the mountains here are more than a few thousand meters high, and the terrain is dangerous between the mountains. If you go west from here, it will not harm the soldiers. what?

Therefore, Li Jing strictly ordered Hong and Lu to stop attacking after achieving the strategic goal, and instead establish a political power in the occupied area to consolidate Ming's rule.

As for the Northern Expeditionary Army, Li Jing did not have this restriction. Not only did he not have any restrictions, but he asked them to continue fighting until the logistics support was insufficient and they were unable to fight any more.

Although this order is tactful, it is actually no different from a massacre order when you look at it carefully, because the Northern Expeditionary Army has only 15 people in total. If 15 people want to capture such a large place, it can only be carried out against the enemy country like the Mongols expedition to Europe. Massacre, otherwise, as the battle line draws apart, the safety of the Ming army's logistics cannot be guaranteed.

There is not much psychological burden on the massacre of the Russian Li Jing. In later generations, this country occupied the most territory in China, and forced China to split Mongolia from China. Moreover, this nation is still a nation that does not believe in its word. He promised to return the occupied territories to China, but he refused to return them.

In later generations, Li Jing was unable to take revenge on them. A few years ago, Li Jing did not have the energy to take revenge on them. Now that Li Jing has finally freed up his hands, if he doesn’t deal with them severely, it would be a waste of time for Daming. up.

In July of the 16th year of Chongzhen, the Northern Expedition Army swore to set off.

For this expedition, the Northern Expeditionary Army was divided into three groups: the east was led by Chen Dahu and Zu Dashou, and the attack was launched from Liaodong to the north.The west was led by Liu Erleng and Wu Sangui, starting from Guihua and attacking northward.The central route was led by Cao Wenzhao and Li Dingguo, who launched an attack from the central route to the north.

In terms of numbers, the Northern Expeditionary Army dispatched a total of 15 people. Among the several groups of troops, the Northern Expeditionary Army did not have the largest number of troops, but the Northern Expeditionary Army undoubtedly had the greatest logistical pressure.

Because the direction of the Northern Expeditionary Army's attack was Russia, and the further it went in the direction of Russia, the colder it was in winter. If they didn't prepare winter coats, these soldiers might not be able to survive at all.

For an army of 15, at least 15 sets of cotton-padded clothes, 15 hats and 15 pairs of cotton-padded shoes must be prepared.At the same time, thousands of tents must be prepared, as well as other heating materials, such as braziers, charcoal, etc.

In addition, since the firearms of the Ming army had never been used in such a cold place, in order to prevent the guns from being unbolted or deformed due to the cold weather, the weapons must also be kept warm, which means that more than [-] gun jackets and Thousands of gun suits.

It can be said that heating alone is a great test for logistics support. If food, ammunition, etc. are added, one can imagine how much pressure the logistics will have.

In order to ensure front-line operations, Li Jing mobilized 15 logistics troops. Obviously, the 15 logistics troops don't need so many weapons and ammunition, and the rest of the consumption is the same as that of the main battle troops.

The consumption of 30 people would have been unbearable for any country during the Ming Dynasty, and if a single person was in power, they would not have dared to launch such a large-scale war.

But Li Jing dared, and Li Jing dispatched far more than 30 people. In fact, the total number of combat troops and logistics troops reached more than 150 million.

Judging from Daming's current finances, after this war is over, Daming may be about to go bankrupt.

Of course, Li Jing can't be so confused. Li Jing doesn't just know how to fight but doesn't know how to live. In fact, Li Jing's ability to govern the country is stronger than his military ability.

According to Li Jing's calculations, not only will Daming not go bankrupt after this war, but it will also promote the rapid economic development of Daming.

The reason is very simple, that is, war will promote the development of heavy industry and light industry, especially when humans start to use steam engines, this situation is especially obvious.

In addition, looking at modern history, we will find that almost all major scientific and technological advances occurred during wartime, and the highest technology of each country was initially applied in the military field.

What is Daming's situation now?

Daming had already invented the steam engine and began to utilize steam engine technology.

The equipment used in Daming's military factories is now driven by steam engines, and the textile machines are also driven by steam engines.Of the two, one is heavy industry and the other is light industry.

It is conceivable that when military factories manufacture guns day and night, and textile factories weave cloth day and night, workers will definitely discover the shortcomings of existing equipment and improve them. At this time, technological innovation will occur.

After technological innovation, production efficiency will be accelerated.At this time, people who did not approve of the steam engine and textile machine will gradually accept these machines when they see how efficient these machines are, and even drive other industries to use these machines.When more and more industries began to use these machines, then Daming would truly enter the industrial age.

The current Ming Dynasty only has a population of more than 1 million, and the pressure of the population on the demand for materials is far less than that of later generations. After entering the industrial age, the supply will soon exceed the demand, and the war can just consume the extra produced materials.

Therefore, although the war will consume the wealth of the country, the development of industry can completely make up for these losses.

(End of this chapter)