Ming Zuo

Use retired soldiers to form a construction corps to make up for the lack of national and government power.

I have to say, this is a brilliant move.

Even better, it was not Zuo Menggeng who proposed this method.

This shows that the high level of the empire has enough flexible and realistic means and thinking, so that the country can be governed well.

However, under this proposal, Zuo Menggeng has more room to play.

Many people only thought of using the Construction Corps to govern the Yellow River and the Northwest, but Zuo Menggeng's eyes instantly shifted to the Western Regions.

Because in later generations, that is the stage where the Construction Corps shines.

Combining it with reality at this time, Zuo Menggeng also had to feel that this method is really good and cannot be better.

Since the mid-Tang Dynasty, it has been more than 800 years since the Han nationality left the Western Regions.

For a long time, the traces of the Central Plains Dynasty in the Western Regions have been almost completely wiped out.

In other words, this time the empire re-entered the Western Regions, and it was no different from opening up an unfamiliar territory.

However, the Western Regions are different from the New World.

Although the New World is wider, there are only ignorant and backward natives there, who are easily assimilated by the empire.

The land of the Western Regions has been deeply influenced by Eastern and Western cultures for thousands of years, and has always been the center of cultural collisions.

This has caused the Western Regions to have been gestating civilizations that are in line with the world under the surface barrenness.

Under such a civilization, relatively powerful secular forces will naturally be born.

The people here will also unite with each other because of civilization, forming one relatively solid tribe after another.

In other words, from the surface alone, the Western Regions no longer had room for the Han Chinese to live.

If the empire wanted to bring the Western Regions back under its rule, in addition to strong force, it would naturally need enough population to gain a firm foothold on this land.

Some people may have said, immigration is not enough!

Anyway, the empire has always implemented immigration policy.

Especially in the northwest, immigration was supposed to be carried out.It should be the best of both worlds if they all move to the Western Regions, right?
Sorry, this method really doesn't work.

why?

Because such immigrants are not only not beneficial to the empire, but to ordinary people, they are almost like tyranny.

The Western Regions, the land of tigers and wolves!

The vast world and violent climate make the humans here evolve very powerful and violent.

There is no room for the weak here.

There is no way for ordinary Han people to survive when they come to this place.

After all, the Han people are kind by nature and good at farming, but not good at hunting.

Pushing them into a fighting environment will only scare them, and they will either be killed or run away in fear.

However, for the empire to manage the Western Regions, it must have a sufficient population as the cornerstone.

Since ordinary people cannot immigrate, of course we must focus on the operation of the Construction Corps.

First of all, the Construction Corps is also a soldier and a civilian.

It is a bit like the government soldiers in the Tang Dynasty, and a bit like the military households in the Ming Dynasty.

Although when it comes to the military household system, many people criticize and sneer at it, but this system is not without its advantages.

Especially at the beginning of the founding of the country, the combat effectiveness of the army was extremely strong.

The reclamation transformed from such an army is naturally beneficial.

The stability of the nine borders in the early Ming Dynasty undoubtedly benefited from this system.

The reason why it collapsed later was due to the decline in the combat effectiveness of military households under the evolution of time on the one hand, and economic reasons on the other.

The most important thing is that the Ming Dynasty army and military households were not separated, and in the end both ends were lost.

But the Construction Corps is different.

Because it has an army establishment, it will definitely have a very complete organization and combat effectiveness.

But in addition to the Construction Corps, there is also a strong regular army.

In this way, the Construction Corps is nothing more than a military supplement.

Even if the combat effectiveness is reduced, as long as it can cooperate with the regular army to fight, it will be a great contribution.

The most important thing is that once the Construction Corps has a firm foothold in the Western Regions, it means that the empire can go deep into the people of the Western Regions and have eyes and ears at the grassroots level.

This undoubtedly has a huge effect on local control.

The center's reply was quickly sent to the northwest, with more detailed content.

After Mao Yuanyi and others read it, they all suddenly became enlightened, and their work also had a direction.

Wang Qiaonian immediately went deep into various places in northern Shaanxi, and led officials to travel around, moving the people trapped here to Qiantao, Houtao and other places.

"My God, why did the court send us to the Mongols?"

Of course, the common people may not understand the national policy, but the gap between the misunderstandings is a bit big.

"Da Li, you misunderstood. Now the Hetao side is our place, and it is very safe. Over there, there are good land everywhere, but there are no people. After your family passes by, we will give you [-] acres of land. And yeah... no tax."

The treacherous and stubborn old Qin people are not so easy to talk to.

"It's really a good thing, can it be our turn?"

Wang Qiaonian had been an official in Shaanxi, so he knew how to deal with the people here.

"Then take a look, who else is there in these ten miles and eight villages? Good things don't come cheap for you, and it's not anyone else's turn."

The old Qin people still didn't believe it.

"All these years, we have been beaten and beaten, and everyone has been beaten. If we want to allocate land to us, it is right in front of us. Why do you want us to go to Hetao?"

Wang Qiaonian was very patient.

He pointed to the bare mountains all around him.

"Daddy, look, can this place be successful in farming? After a rain and a mud, yellow soup poured into the stomach. The mountain, the water, and the land are gone, and they have to be restored. Otherwise, future generations Children and grandchildren will have no way out."

Wang Qiaonian did not put on airs, and what he said was down-to-earth, making the common people listen to him.

In fact, these common people know very well what the local area is like.

It's not that they are not diligent, it's not that they don't work, and it's not that they don't think of ways.

But in this poor place with a catty of soil and half a catty of sand, no matter what you plant, it will not grow!
"My family's ancestors have been here for generations, can they come back after leaving?"

Difficulty leaving homeland is one of the biggest difficulties for immigrants.

Wang Qiaonian was still soft-spoken.

"The empire does not restrict household registration. You can go anywhere you want. Come back in a year or 20. If the mountains are green, the water is clear, and the soil is fertile, wouldn't it be better to settle down again?"

Having said all this, what else can the common people do?
Hundreds of thousands of people in northern Shaanxi, who were tortured by the loess and sand, started their relocation journey.

They migrated to places not far away.

Either the front set where Yinchuan is located, or the back set where Guihua City is located.

The reason for this is that these populations seem to be large, but throwing them into the two major plains is still a drop in the bucket.

But when these people moved away, the Northern Shaanxi Plateau would no longer be destroyed by humans.

The next thing to do is to carry out ecological restoration here.

(Not today!)