Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 872 Feudalism
Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes.

The rivers and lakes are not about fighting and killing, but about the ways of the world.

In the Qilian River Valley, the emperor rode slowly through the Tiandan war horse. It is known as the throat of Haizang, the capital of tea and horse merchants, and the west of Dangar City, known as Little Beijing.

Outside the Ximen Gonghai Gate, when they heard that the emperor was coming, countless soldiers and civilians spontaneously came to greet them, and greeted them for twenty miles. Regardless of whether they were officials, civil or military, or soldiers and immigrants, even the herdsmen and merchants of the Mongolian Uighur tribes such as Dayu and Yuguer here, they all came here. Greet spontaneously and enthusiastically.

The prestige of the Son of Heaven is at its peak.

This Dangar city has a history of 300 years and was first built during the Hongwu period. However, since the establishment of Xihai County in the Western Han Dynasty, it has gradually become an important commercial and military town.

Dangar is a Tibetan language, and its Chinese name is Dongkeer City, which originally means white conch.

"The majesty of the sage shines on Qinghai." The young third prince Hanwang came from Beijing not long ago, and accompanied the emperor, watching this scene, especially the enthusiastic respect of the herdsmen, he was very impressed.His Royal Highness the King of Han was also 15 years old, and he looked quite like Zhu Yihai.

After these years of conditioning and training, he is no longer the malnourished and skinny man he was when he first came back. He is tall and tall, riding steadily on the horse, and has a good temperament.

"Government is an art. It is not a matter of simple fighting and killing. It requires political tactics. You see the great changes in the Western Regions, and the hospitality of Tanguts, Mongolians, and Uyghurs. It doesn't come naturally."

King Hong of the Han nodded, "I understand, just like the Jurchens. The Jurchens I saw before were all barbaric and cruel, and treated us Han people like pigs and dogs, but this year I went back outside the customs with His Royal Highness, and saw What matters is the respect and obedience of those Jurchens, and even the once fierce and arrogant Jianzhou Eight Banners, but now they are mostly slaves to my Royal Shaofu Supervisor, and they were all conquered by our guns and guns."

"Yes, but not all. Sufficient force deterrence is necessary, but blind force deterrence is not enough. There must be Zhang Youchi. In these years, apart from the severe suppression of Jianlu and rebellion, I still have a lot of other things. Those who have a lot of room, whether it is the Jurchen from the mountains in the east, the sea, the northwest, or the northern and western deserts of the southern Mongolia, or even the tribes of Weizang, Qingkang, etc., also focus on recruiting, marrying and trading with them, do you know why?"

"Win over the majority and attack the small part." Han Wang replied.

"That's right, the core essence of domination is to form alliances, keep forming alliances, always attract the majority as allies, and divide and attack a small number of opponents, so as to remain invincible. , Power is the power to sit and share the fruit, the core is how to divide it, you can’t do whatever you want, you must try to take care of the interests of the majority, let them support you, and at the same time, you can eat the biggest or even the most fruit as possible.”

The emperor severely cracked down on Jianlu and rebels because they threatened the core rule, and they also occupied Shaanxi-Gansu and Liaodong, the two most important corridors of Han land in the east and west. .

As for Mobei outside the Great Wall, or Qingkang in the Western Regions, these places are now beyond the reach of the whip, and the imperial court cannot use the same ruling strategy as the Han Dynasty, so it has to be replaced with a more pragmatic strategy.

"Long live my emperor!"

"Long live!"

"God bless Daming!"

The soldiers and civilians on the side of the road cheered, and the mountains shouted long live.

Zhu Yihai waved his hands to greet everyone, and somewhat enjoyed the scene.

He turned his head and said to the King of Han, "You can't do things out of reality. Even if you have clear goals and lofty ideals, you can look far away, but you must be down-to-earth. Otherwise, you will be ambitious, unrealistic, and difficult to go far. of."

The Ming Dynasty took hundreds of years to take down the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. Although after Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty, it no longer adopted a policy of active foreign expansion and turned conservative, but the Ming Dynasty still brought the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau into the imperial rule by virtue of inertia. Return this area that has been separated from the Central Plains for hundreds of years.

Although it failed in Jiaozhi and Burma, and even lost the land of Liangliao outside Shanhaiguan during the apocalypse Chongzhen, it was only the decay of Ming Dynasty at that time.

"What do you think of Qinghai?" Zhu Yihai asked his son.

"It's very good here. When I arrived here a few days ago, I just happened to catch up with the local officials and monks from Dongke Temple to worship the sea together. I participated in this local custom together. I went west from Gonghai Gate and crossed the sun and the moon. The mountain went to Qinghai to worship the God of the Sea.

There was some discomfort when passing Riyue Mountain, but I got used to it after a few days.

A Riyue Mountain, the Loess Plateau to the east is the farming area of ​​the Hehuang Valley, stretches of river valleys, fields and villages, prosperous and lively industrial and commercial towns, Xining Fucheng is even more lively than the mainland.But after passing Riyue Mountain, the west side is very open, and there is an endless great plain. Qinghai Lake is worthy of being called the West Sea. "

The king of Han liked it very much, and the season he came was just in autumn.

The banks of Qinghai Lake and the Hehuang Valley in the early autumn are very beautiful. The agricultural area eight hundred miles east of the Hehuang Valley is full of joy when the crops are harvested.

On the banks of Qinghai Lake in the west, there are herds of cattle and sheep, and horses running. The herdsmen are rushing to shear the sheep before winter, and slaughter the excess males, even some small lambs. Even if there is winter pasture in winter , but there must be insufficient forage. At that time, the male animals and lambs will lose their fat and waste forage. It may not be as cost-effective as slaughtering and selling to Han merchants for a whole winter and spring.

During this harvest season, merchants from the Han region traveled back and forth between the two places along the ancient Silk Road. Camels, yaks, yaks, and pack horses kept carrying all kinds of tea, salt, and fur back and forth. Many new warehouses have been set up in Huangyuan and Huangyuan, as well as many places for primary processing of leather, wool, and cow hair.

What Zhu Hongju, king of the Han Dynasty, saw was not the remote and remote northwest frontier, nor was it wild and dangerous, but a thriving and thriving group, hardworking and simple Han immigrants, hospitable nomads, and loyal soldiers guarding the border.

Of course, there are also local specialties such as plump beef and mutton, strong and resilient Xining blankets, Xining woolen wool, dried yak beef, Qinghai dried plate sturgeon, Huangzhong broad beans, and Huangyuan mature vinegar, which left a deep impression on him.

"I called you here this time, and it's been a long time since I've seen you. You've also become an adult. I let you come here, so we can have a good time and see the scenery of the Northwest."

The king of Han could vaguely guess the main reason why the emperor summoned him. He was crowned in Beijing this year. The emperor and the crown prince were not in Beijing. Zhu Zhenye, grandson of Emperor Jian Guo, presided over the witness together.

The crown prince's Northern Expedition to conquer Jianlu, the emperor issued a special edict prior to his expedition, canonizing Zhu Zhenye, the eldest grandson of the emperor, as the grandson of the emperor, and asked him to stay in Beijing to supervise the country instead of the crown prince.

The emperor's grandson, who is only over one year old, stood up a little early.

However, the crown prince unexpectedly led the army to the Northern Expedition, and the emperor appointed the eldest grandson as the grandson of the emperor, and stayed behind to supervise the country, which made sense.

After being crowned King of Han, he also completed his big marriage immediately.

Princess Han was personally selected by the emperor a long time ago. She also came from Conglong Yuanxun, the son of heaven. She is the daughter of Shen Chenquan, a former cabinet scholar, and she is also from Ningbo.

However, Shen Chenquan is a civil servant. Compared with Zhang Huangyan, his position and family background are similar, but Zhang Huangyan also has a strong relationship with the military. They are all top civil and military feats.

Crowned and married.

Then it's time to consider granting the feudal clan.

Among the emperor's sons, the prince and the king of Han were the eldest, and the oldest was only seven years old.

Regarding how the crown prince confers on Jiufan, the imperial court now has a lot of opinions, but it is clear that the emperor has his own plans.

Directly summon the King of Han to Qinghai.

"Let you stay in Qinghai and establish a feudal clan, would you like it?"

"Qinghai is a good place, and all the ministers obey the arrangement of the emperor."

Zhu Yihai has been thinking about the enfeoffment of the prince for several years. The enfeoffment system of the Mongol and Yuan dynasties has great flaws and will inevitably lead to division. The central government and the vassal kings will definitely rebel within three generations, which is not conducive to the centralization of power. .

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the system of enfeoffment of suzerains and vassals established by Zhu Yuanzhang was mainly entrusted to various places, and some were even enfeoffed in frontier fortresses. There were many fortress kings, which meant to screen the center of the vassal, but some of them were too powerful, especially the military power. , Later, the change of Jing Nan also showed the huge loophole risk of this policy.

And Zhu Di succeeded in seizing the throne himself, so he almost overthrew Zhu Yuanzhang's enfeoffment system, took back the guards, etc., and directly let the vassal kings raise pigs in the local area, which not only restricted the role of the vassal kings who screened the vassal center and contributed to the country, but also let the state finances The burden is huge, especially those vassal kings in the Central Plains. Generation after generation, continuous entrustment, high pressure on salary, and easy occupation of military fields and civilian fields to oppress the common people.

However, Zhu Yihai also saw the positive effect brought by the Mu family of Zhu Yuanzhang's adopted son Mu Ying who guarded Yunnan for nearly 300 years. Illegal, he is a big chieftain, but he is still very active in maintaining the central authority of the Ming court.

How to find a balance is very important.

He didn't want the entrusted princes to rebel in the future, or their descendants to rebel against Ming Dynasty, nor did he want to keep pigs locked up in the local area.

He also doesn't like the Tang Dynasty's practice of shutting up all the princes and grandchildren in the capital and raising them in the Five Kings Court and the Baisun Court.

After thinking about it, Zhu Yihai planned to make the King of Han suffer a bit, arrange a frontier land for him, designate a fief, give him some limited military power, and mainly give him the right to supervise the local area.

After entering the city, Zhu Yihai took King Han to watch the sand table.

On the south side of Riyue Mountain, that is, in the south bank of the Longyang Gorge area of ​​the Yellow River, there is a Guide Station. The garrison and the garrison soldiers were all migrated from the Huaisi area on the left of the Yangtze River, and some local aborigines were resettled later.

This Guide is the guide of later generations, including the Jianzha and Guinan areas, mainly concentrated on the south bank of the Yellow River in Longyangxia.

After nearly 300 years, Guide still retains some unique Jiangzuo culture, but it is also mixed with some barbarian styles. There are both Han, Tibetan and Hui here. There are Confucius Temple, City God, and Chinese and Tibetan Buddhism. There are temples of this religion, nearly a hundred of various kinds, thousands of monks, and dozens of sutra halls.

There are both village farming and tribal herdsmen.

For a long time, this place has been Shaanxi under the Ming Dynasty, but at the end of the Ming Dynasty, it once lost control here, but now it is back on track.

The Shaotian Dynasty established a new Heyuan Mansion in the east bank and south bank area of ​​the upper and lower reaches of Longyang Gorge. , Xiahe, Tongren, Linxia, ​​Xunhua, Jianzha, Guide, Guinan, and Tongde are all included in this Heyuan Prefecture.

This Heyuan Mansion, Xining Mansion, and Xihai Mansion, the three mansions were drawn from Gansu Province and put into Qinghai Province, which were directly managed by the imperial court.

This newly established Heyuan Mansion also includes the fiefdom of Yilduqi, the fifth son of Heshuo Tegushi Khan. His fiefdom is on both sides of the Yellow River bend in the north of Jishi Mountain.

From Longyangxia to Liujiaxia, this is a relatively dangerous section of the Yellow River, with many beaches and fast water, it is difficult to pass boats, so you can only take a sheepskin raft or put a wooden raft down the river.

The area on the south bank of the Yellow River is high in the south and high in the north, with mountains and valleys in the east, and plateau pastures in the west.

In Xuande, the southern part of this area was ruled by Longwu Temple Xiari Canghuofu-Longwu Nangsuo, and gradually formed the unity of the true religion in the Regong area. Controlled by Hung Sabatur of the Tumed Ministry of Mongolia.

When Heshuote moved eastward, it was controlled by the fifth son of Gushi Khan, Yil Duqi, but the Xia Ricang Huofu family of Regong Longwu Temple was enshrined as the state since the time of Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty. Five Kingdoms: Division, during the Wanli period, Longwu Temple directly converted to the more influential Gelug Sect.

Now presiding over Xia Ricang Gadan Gyatso is now canonized by the emperor as one of the Eight Hutuktus in Qinghai, and he is in charge of the Yellow Sea area.

In the large area of ​​Huangnan, there are now not only Yildu Qi Nuoyan from Heshuote, but also Xia Ricang Hutuktu, and a group of troops from Tumote, plus Guide and Hezhou generations in the north. The stationing of troops and emigration by Mingwei in the Ming Dynasty became more complicated.

Zhu Yihai now wants to set this large area as a government directly under the imperial court and assign it to Qinghai Province. There will be an imperial battalion stationed in Xie Town, a provincial patrol battalion in Xie Town, and prefects and county magistrates will be sent here.

At the same time, the most important thing is that he intends to entrust the King of Han to come here.

Zhu Yihai planned to build a new city in Guinan, south of Guide, that is, on the banks of the Mangla River between the Yellow River and Xiqing Mountain, to garrison troops and emigrate, and at the same time entrust the King of Han to build a vassal here.

Guinan has poorer conditions than Guide. The southern part of the territory is covered with continuous, tall and towering mountains, which are part of the Xiqing Mountains. The central part is a plateau beach, which is flat and open. The sand dunes are continuous and the grass is a little bit.

The Taiji and valleys formed by the Yellow River and its tributaries, the Shagou River and the Mangla River, are either wide or narrow and relatively flat.

The scattered distribution of mountains, beaches, and valleys is the geographical feature of this area. The mountains are suitable for grazing, the valleys are suitable for agriculture, and the terraces are suitable for farming and animal husbandry. The mountains and rivers are close to each other. In this area where agriculture and animal husbandry meet, the geographical location is very important.

A prince's entrustment and guarding will help Daming expand its borders to the south bank of the Yellow River and under Xiqing Mountain.

Heyuan Mansion is very large, and its essence is Linxia, ​​Hezhou. In the east, there are Jishi Pass and Tumen Pass, as well as Lianhua Fort, Baoan Fort, and Qitai Fort.

Zhu Yihai didn't give such a big whole mansion to King Han.

"The area to the south of Guide is Guinan County. I will send people to build Hancheng and Hanwang Palace there. At that time, the whole Guinan County will be your fief. We will also send the Imperial Battalion, Tunzhen and other sub-battalions to garrison."

"I will give you the land, pastures, and mines in the entire Guinan County. You can hire tenants or buy slaves to farm or herd. I will exempt you from taxes for ten years. After ten years, you will be taxed normally. It is feasible. ?”

The king of Han replied without thinking, "The sons and ministers all obey the arrangement of the emperor."

"Well, things like civil affairs, justice and taxation are too complicated. I'll leave it to someone special to do it. You don't have to worry about it. Your Hanwang Mansion just needs to take care of your own property. I allow you to form a very well-equipped team of no more than 3000 people. The militia is trained, and the officers are dispatched by the imperial court."

"In addition, I have given you the right to supervise. The military and civilian officers and soldiers in the counties of Heyuan Prefecture are all within your supervisory authority."

In Henan and Zeku counties in the south, Zhu Yihai plans to build Heshuote Autonomous County in Qi Nuoyan, Yildu.

The newly established Xiahe, Tongren, and Luqu counties were allocated to the six local Tusi Kajia tribes that had existed since the Tubo era.

Maqu County is handed over to the Tumed Department here for self-government.

Zhu Yihai re-delineated the boundaries of several major forces in Heyuan Mansion, divided and ruled them.

There are two counties in Yilduqi, three counties in Kajia Liubu, and the counties in the north are all directly under the Ming Dynasty, and one county is entrusted to the King of Han.

In addition, several places in the west and south of Hequjishi Shanxi are still under Yilduqi, but these places are not under the jurisdiction of Heyuan Prefecture.

Nearly a hundred monasteries including Longwu Temple still belonged to them in terms of land, people, and livestock. Zhu Yihai just made adjustments to set up temple-owned townships based on the land owned by these monasteries, and they still governed themselves.

"I have sent people to investigate. Guinan County can reclaim arable land of up to one million mu and use natural grassland of tens of millions of mu. It is not a problem to graze hundreds of thousands of livestock. It is also suitable for growing rapeseed and highland barley."

"The Yellow River surrounds the northwest, and the snow-capped mountains protect the east and west. This is the key position of the Bailan Ancient Road, an important ancient road. It connects Hehuang in the north and connects Sichuan and Yunnan in the south. There is great potential."

"I thank my father and emperor for your kindness and reward!" The king of Han accepted the order happily, not even half dissatisfied. For him who had suffered so much, he didn't have much ambition.

The emperor allocated a county fiefdom for him in Qinghai, and directly gave him the millions of acres of arable land and tens of millions of acres of grassland. He felt very satisfied.

He doesn't even care about the lack of the right to govern the people.

In fact, if possible, he would prefer to stay in Beijing, even if he was allowed to go to Nanjing, but his father said that he hoped that he could establish Qinghai, the south bank of the Yellow River, and the center of the Pingfan court, so he had no second thoughts.

"In the future, your descendants, who have both talents and virtues, will naturally continue to be entrusted to other important border areas by the imperial court, and they will continue to build vassals to guard and screen the center of the vassal."

The sons and grandsons of the vassal clan, who are capable, can learn literature and martial arts, take the imperial examinations and go to the battlefield, make meritorious deeds, and confer feudal vassals on merit. landlord.

"I will draw money from internal funds to build Guinan County Han City and Hanwang Palace for you, and it will not be too extravagant. You have to work hard on the rest. Of course, I will also give you a sum of money to start the development. The future development of Yinzi and some subordinates depends on your own ability and your own efforts."

"I hope you can cherish this fief and maintain it well. It can not only develop farming and grazing, but also use the convenient transportation of the Bailan Ancient Road to develop business and trade. This is the foundation of your future generations. You must do it well. "

Enfeoff a county, monitor a mansion, and have [-] militiamen who cannot leave the county and leave the mansion. They cannot be mobilized except in wartime. The emperor still restricts the fiefdom power of the Han king, but also gives him certain powers to show off the power of the vassal special role.

He is a representative of the royal family, guarding the place, monitoring civil and military affairs, and at the same time, he is not directly given the power to exercise political power and command troops.

And the whole Heyuan Mansion, the northwest frontier, mixed with various ethnic groups, the autonomy of the fiefdoms of several major forces, is more and more a test for the kings. Fortunately, with the support of the imperial court's imperial camp, garrison town, and provincial camp, there is no need to go too far worry.

"I have already summoned Yildu Qi Nuoyan, the chieftains of the six tribes of Kajia, Hutuktu of Longwu Temple, and Tumed Huitaiji. You will be neighbors in the future. I have already chosen Yao Qisheng, the prefect of Jinan, is on the Haixi Road branch of Qinghai, so you can go to him directly if you have anything to do in the future."

(End of this chapter)