Work overtime

Chapter 790

Jiang Yuebai listened to the opinions of the two important officials, thought about it, and said:
"I agree with Lord Lu. To deal with the Torghut tribe, we should unite with the Choros tribe. In addition, we should send an additional 200,000 troops from the south to attack them from both sides. We should wipe out the Torghut tribe in one fell swoop and drive them to areas further west and north. The Torghut tribe humiliated the Ming Dynasty during the funeral of Emperor Jingwen. This revenge should be avenged.

As for Annan, I think we cannot retreat. The more we retreat, the more we lose. We should continue to divide and destroy them. On the one hand, we should win them over and divide them, and on the other hand, we should still strike them firmly. If there are not enough troops, we can dispatch them from Yunnan and Guangxi, and concentrate all the troops to strike together. As for the Japanese pirates in the southeast, we can directly use the new weapons developed in recent years, and let Lao Si support them from Ryukyu.

The Jurchens did as the prime minister of Zhou said, using money, official positions and titles to win over and divide the people, using the barbarians to control the barbarians. "

Only at this moment can one appreciate the wisdom of Li Chengji's tolerance and restraint towards the Choros tribe.

The lineage of the queen's father was dealt with, but the lineage of the new leader was treated with courtesy, and the two brothers were treated separately. At the same time, the crown prince was not appointed immediately, giving the latter hope. The Choros tribe was suppressed and won over, always leaving some room. Now it can be used at a critical moment, instead of being pushed to the enemy Torghut camp and strengthening the enemy's strength.

Prime Minister Zhou said worriedly, "Since ancient times, it has been taboo to fight with multiple forces, as it would cause enemies from both sides. If we fight with three forces, I'm afraid we won't be able to do it. Moreover, we missed the farming season in the spring, so the harvest this year will definitely not be enough, which may cause famine and civil unrest."

Jiang Yuebai nodded, "It's two, not three. The Japanese pirates don't need to call in extra troops. Fighting with multiple forces is indeed more risky, so we must mobilize all the surrounding forces to break through effectively. We can only win and not lose.

The key to using troops is to catch them by surprise. Now the surrounding countries are taking advantage of the fact that the Ming Dynasty dare not launch an all-out attack, so they are fearless and will not concentrate most of their forces in one place. But if we do the opposite and send a large number of troops to the border, we will definitely catch them off guard, severely inflict damage on them, and make them dare not invade again for several years.

As for the food problem, firstly, we have enough food stored, and secondly, after we occupied Annan and Laos, both places are rich in rice, which can alleviate the problem. Thirdly, we ordered all places to further promote cassava, sweet potatoes and potatoes. It won't be a problem to get through this year. As long as we get through this year, we will win. "

Jiang Yuebai spoke slowly. Zhou Xiang unconsciously opened his mouth slightly, raised his head and looked at this woman who was only forty years old, his eyes once again showing shock and respect. Lu Ruilin felt the same way. His eyes were bright, and a strange emotion grew in his heart.

On the southeast coast, Jiang Yuebai's brothers had become the backbone of the southeast navy after nearly 20 years of development. They had spent a lot of money to develop new cannons and firearms in recent years and used them all to attack the Japanese pirates. In a few attempts, they killed more than 4,000 Japanese pirates, which directly cut off the Japanese pirates' vitality.

The twelfth prince of Yeon Tae Wan Yi was hit by a stray bullet from the Japanese pirates and died of his injuries.

The Fourth Prince, with a fleet loaded with sophisticated equipment, found the island where the Japanese pirates were hiding. He directly bombarded the island, catching all the remaining soldiers and generals and razing the island to the ground.

But the Eastern Chagatai Khanate in the northwest was not so easy to deal with. They joined forces with the rebels in Tibet, harassed and looted the border cities of the two countries, encroached on the northwest area of ​​the Ming Dynasty, and caused heavy casualties.

In addition to immediately sending Feng Qian to the Eastern Chagatai Khanate to ask it to remain neutral in the encirclement and suppression of the Torghut tribe, Jiang Yuebai also sent envoys to the Snow Region to win over and negotiate.

In addition to these, of course, we still beat them, beat them hard, and beat them to death.

Jiang Yuebai appointed Qi Ming as the General of the Western Expedition, led an army of 200,000, and sent him to assist the Sixth Prince in quelling the rebellion of the Torghut tribe and defeating them to death.

In the competition between countries, there is no room for showing weakness.

Once you show weakness, the other party will not pity you; on the contrary, they will only think about how to unite with other friends to bring you down, eat you, and divide you.

The Torghut tribe was severely defeated by Qi Ming, the Sixth Prince of the Northwest, and the leader of the Khoshut tribe. The Eastern Chagatai Khanate was hesitant because of Feng Qian's lobbying and did not send troops to support the Torghut tribe. Instead, it invaded Ming territory near Gansu where Ming troops were weak.

The following year, the new era name was Jiashun, which is known in history as the first year of Jiashun.

In the first month of the year, Zhou Xiang died of a serious illness. Before his death, he told his sons, "When the king's army conquers the Central Plains in the north, don't forget to tell your father during the family sacrifice." He also told them, "The Empress Dowager is a talented woman who cares about her country and the world. Only she can help the young emperor stabilize the country and pacify the world. As long as you don't follow the example of Wu, you must firmly support the Empress Dowager."

Zhou Shipeng died at the age of 67. He was posthumously awarded the title of "Prince Grand Tutor" and the title of Duke of Chengyi, which was inherited by his descendants. He was given the posthumous title of "Wenxiang" and was buried in the Tomb of Loyal Officials in the Imperial Mausoleum. His eldest son inherited the title of Marquis of Chengyi.

Officials speculated on many candidates for succession, and Jiang Yuebai promoted Du Heng, the Minister of Revenue, to the position of Left Prime Minister. Zhang Xueliang, the Assistant Minister of Agriculture, was transferred to become the Minister of Revenue. His younger brother Jiang Bingliang was promoted from the Director of Revenue to the Deputy Director of Agriculture, and was in charge of the national promotion of sweet potatoes and yams, and was sent to various parts of the country.

Not long after, Ye Xiang also died of illness. He was posthumously named Marquis of Longding and given the posthumous title "Gong". His eldest son Ye Zhuqing succeeded to the title of Earl of Longding.

To everyone's surprise, Jiang Yuebai promoted Li Gongliang, the Minister of War, to the position of Right Prime Minister, promoted Lu Ruilin, the Assistant Minister of War, to the position of Minister of War, and transferred Li Tai, who was guarding Liaodong Town, back to the position of Assistant Minister of War. Meng Shu took over the original position.

The court officials all said that the Empress Dowager favored the descendants of the Li family. Although her intentions were still sinister, it was better than Wu's massacre of the descendants of the Li family.

In February, the Tuerhut rebels sent a letter of surrender, asking the Ming Dynasty to forgive their mistakes. From now on, they will obey the Ming Dynasty and never dare to rebel again.

Jiang Yuebai did not accept his surrender. Sixteen years ago, her niece Jiang Qingqing, who was sent by her to marry, was frequently abused by Temujin after her marriage, and was killed as a sacrifice before the Torghut tribe rebelled.

How can we bear the humiliation in the past and the hatred now? Blood debt must be paid with blood.

She issued an imperial decree that anyone who captured Temujin, the leader of the rebellion, and his followers and handed them over to the Anxi Protectorate would not only be exempted from taxes for one year, but also be rewarded handsomely. Only the parents, wives, and children of the leader of the rebellion would be executed, and the rest would be pardoned.

Soon someone came with Temujin's head to claim the reward. The Sixth Prince of Anxi Protectorate, following Jiang Yuebai's instructions, hung all the heads of the rebels on the city wall and publicly rewarded the informer. The informer and his relatives were soon killed by Temujin's supporters.

By taking advantage of the internal conflicts among the tribe, the number of young and middle-aged rebels in the Torghut tribe was quickly reduced. Finally, all suspicious people related to Temujin were thoroughly cleared out on the grounds of "hiding rebels."

For a time, blood flowed like a river. Some of the Torghuts moved westward to the Kazakh Khanate in panic. Jiang Yuebai ordered that the 50,000 troops brought by the Choros, Khoshut, and Qi Ming be deployed in the territory that originally belonged to the Torghuts. The Choros served as the administrative leader, the Khoshut and Qi Ming served as the left and right deputies, and Qi Ming's troops arranged the city defense.

Subsequently, people were relocated from Ningxia, Gansu, Shaanxi and other places to fill the gap.

At the same time, under the pretext of hunting down treasonous rebels, the Ming army moved southward along the border of the Torghut tribe to encroach on the border cities in the Turpan Basin area of ​​the Eastern Chagatai Khanate.

Because of the entanglement of three military forces, including the elite cavalry of the Sixth Prince's father-in-law and the leader of the Khoshut tribe, the garrison of the Anxi Commandery, and Qiming's army of more than 100,000, they had an overwhelming advantage and were unstoppable.

The Khoshut tribe and the Eastern Chagatai Khanate had been fighting for territory for nearly a hundred years, pulling each other and often clashing. Today, they had an absolute chance to crush them, and their morale was unprecedentedly high. The elite troops acted as the vanguard, quickly occupied most of Turpan, looted the occupied towns, and quickly moved forward in a large-scale manner.

The Eastern Chagatai Khanate then sent envoys to seek peace.

While the Sixth Prince continued to sweep forward, he sent envoys to negotiate, demanding the handover of the rebel leader who had fled to East Chagatai and renegotiating the border line.

This battle, from forcefully suppressing the rebellion of the Torghut tribe, to sweeping across the Turpan area, and then continuing to advance into the Yarkand area, greatly destroyed the Mongolian rebel strength and fought back against the Eastern Chagatai Khanate's encroachment on the northwestern border of the Ming Dynasty.

Just as the Eastern Chagatai Khanate mobilized its troops to march northward to resist the Ming army that continued to advance southward, Jiang Yuebai ordered General Xie Lingjie, the commander of Shaanxi Province and who had once defeated the Oirats and captured Jie Li Khan alive, to march westward from the Aduanwei, Quxianwei and Hamiwei in the south at the same time to form an encirclement and pincer attack.

In one fell swoop, they occupied the three major cities of Hoboksari, Beshbalik, and Turpan, as well as the narrow north-south area extending to Aduanwei, ensuring control over the Silk Road. By the time the two sides held formal peace talks, Jiang Yuebai had already mobilized officials from nearby areas to take over the above-mentioned occupied areas, cleaned up the battlefield, thoroughly purged the original Eastern Chagatai bureaucrats in the city, adopted a policy of appeasement for the people in the city, including tax amnesty, and selected local leaders of prestigious families who supported the Ming army to serve in important positions in the new government.

The jurisdiction of the vast Shaanxi Protectorate, which spanned from east to west, was redivided, and the area west of the Shaanxi Xingdusi and the newly occupied area were designated as a complete new administrative region, and the Qinghai Protectorate was added.

Qi Ming was appointed as the Protector General of Qinghai Protectorate, and was granted the title of General Zhaoyi, and led his troops to garrison Gaochang. He was granted marriage to Jiang Bingqian's third daughter Jiang Xianfang as his successor.

Xie Lingjie, the commander of Shaanxi Province who had made many outstanding achievements, was given a title. The father of Concubine Xie, who had entered the palace with Jiang Yuebai, was made Marquis of Anping, with an official salary of 1,000 stones.

The crisis in the north was effectively resolved with the joint efforts of many forces, and not only that, the territory was expanded. The situation in Annan was much more complicated. There were many people, different cultural customs, and dense water networks. The remnants of the Chen Dynasty's royal court and government officials continued to revive and try to restore the old country, with a large number of supporters.

Some officials in the imperial court began to suggest that the constant riots in Annan were a waste of military resources and that the occupation of Annan should be abandoned and replaced with the previous vassal relationship.

But Jiang Yuebai turned a deaf ear to such voices. How could he spit out the meat he had eaten? Moreover, Annan, Laos, and Yingcheng were close together, which was extremely critical to the upcoming Age of Exploration.

The capital of the Ming Dynasty was too far north, and it had always faced threats from nomadic peoples in the north. If they wanted to strengthen their influence in Southeast Asia, they had to have a stronghold. And Annan was a good choice. Just like Han Ziqian would stop in Yingcheng every time he went to Southeast Asia. Controlling Annan meant controlling Yingcheng, and there would be multiple convenient ports.

Annan must be preserved and cannot be abandoned.

She promoted the Tenth Prince to the position of Protector General of Annan Protectorate, transferred General Zhao who was originally stationed in Annan back to Yunnan, and then transferred her younger brother Jiang Binggong from Anbei Protectorate to Annan Protectorate as Deputy Protector General.

She thought that one of the reasons why Annan always had problems was probably because General Zhao did not know how to fight against Annan. Annan's army was made up of elephants and javelins. There must be a trick to fighting against them.

According to the suggestions submitted by the Tenth Prince, 47 states and 157 counties were set up in Annan, and 10 guards with 2,000 households were set up. The different taxes collected in various places were unified into one standard, and a relaxed and light tax policy was implemented. At the same time, the customs were changed, and the policies in the Mongolian region were learned. Schools were widely built in Annan to teach Chinese and cultural courses, so as to achieve cultural integration with the inland areas.

Du Ruo and Chen Ping were transferred to serve as commanders and divided into two areas to carry out the promotion and dissemination of knowledge.

It can be said that the Annan region has assembled the most elite team of cadres, just to completely take it down like they did in the Mongolian region.

The Chen Dynasty officials who were friendly with the Ming Dynasty were given high positions and generous salaries, intermarried with royal relatives and court officials, arranged for their legitimate children to move to the capital, provided them with house servants, a green channel for studying at the Imperial Academy, and regular jobs. It can be said that the treatment was extremely generous.

However, if these officials pretended to surrender but actually engaged in rebellious activities, their entire clan would be punished. If their clan members reported the incident, they would be exempted from being punished and could even receive a high reward.

Submission is heaven, rebellion is hell.

After several traitors were severely exterminated throughout their entire clans, it had a strong deterrent effect.

It is human nature to seek benefits and avoid harm, especially officials who always know how to weigh the pros and cons.

In addition, the resettlement policy adopted by Emperor Gaozu after conquering a place was followed to carry out a comprehensive blood transfusion in Annan. The large families of the indigenous residents were split into core families consisting of only husbands, wives and children, and they were relocated to the nearby areas, such as Guizhou, Guangxi, Hunan and Hubei, which are located in the mountains. At the same time, the young and middle-aged people in Guangdong, Fujian and Jilong were relocated to the Annan area.

No new policies have been adopted in other areas, and the original policies have basically been used, but they have been further refined and fine-tuned in implementation in various places.

Except for one policy. That is paying taxes. Previously, royal relatives, officials, nobles, and scholars were exempt from paying taxes. Now, everyone has to pay taxes.

Among them, royal relatives, nobles and wealthy businessmen have the highest tax rate, officials are in the second tier, and scholars, farmers and ordinary small vendors have the lowest tax rate.

Business tax was imposed on all businesses. Luxury goods such as silk, tea, gold, silver and jewelry were taxed at high rates. The tax rates for salt, iron and tobacco were set by the Ministry of Revenue.

For wealthy businessmen who build bridges, pave roads, and repair schools, preferential tax rates will be applied according to the amount of their donation.

Six-year compulsory education was piloted in the two provincial governments of Hunan and Hubei, teaching five courses: Chinese, mathematics, science, morality, and Mongolian.

Chinese is the study of the traditional Four Books and Five Classics, poetry and songs. Mathematics is the traditional Chinese version of the elementary school textbooks for the nine-year compulsory education.

Science integrates the basic knowledge of physics, chemistry, biology, and agronomy, focusing on being easy to understand, intuitive, and practical. Morality integrates the comprehensive content of social etiquette, social ethics, ideology and politics, law, and other courses, focusing on establishing correct values, understanding the law, and being consistent with national policies.

The science section was written by Jiang Yuebai himself, while the morality section was written by the Imperial Academy and reviewed by various ministries.

The textbooks for the Mongolian language course were organized and compiled by the Ministry of Rites, edited and proofread by the Chuanlu Temple, reviewed by the Hanlin Academy, and finally approved by the State Council.

When the policy was first implemented, it caused an uproar and local resistance was very strong.

Jiang Yuebai started by providing free teaching to the common people, ignoring the nobles and wealthy families for the time being and allowing them to teach freely in private schools.

But it turns out that the effect is very good. Especially the science classes, which are all about daily life and have many outdoor observation and practice courses, such as raising silkworms and observing ants moving, which aroused the children's strong interest.

The same is true for Mongolian language classes. Now the imperial examination requires a foreign language. The government promotes the idea of ​​Mongolian and Chinese as one family, and Mongolian has become the most practical language.

The official Mongolian textbooks follow the principle of gradual progress, integrating listening, speaking, reading and writing, which is in line with the rules of children learning languages. The textbooks are constantly optimized and iterated in teaching, becoming more and more perfect; teaching exchange and learning activities are organized in various places, and the teaching methods are constantly optimized.

Moreover, learning a language is about application and communication, and the large classroom provides a rich application scenario. When the children are off class, they speak Chinese and Mongolian at the same time, and soon they are fully integrated. This is much more interesting than hiring a Mongolian tutor at home.

Therefore, many children from aristocratic families went to attend the classes and naturally joined in the classroom learning.

In order to take care of these children, Jiang Yuebai opened a school for aristocratic families in a larger city, specifically for the children of aristocratic families. The conditions in all aspects were better than those of ordinary schools. But like in later generations, aristocratic families had to pay higher tuition fees.

Whether it is an ordinary primary school or an aristocratic primary school, the admissions are the same for both genders, and girls can also enter the school to study.

In the fifth year, national promotion began.

From the initial implementation to the full promotion, the government has been recruiting adult men and women with no criminal records from Mongolia to serve as Mongolian language teachers in inland areas all year round. The central government pays them salaries and includes them in a special system called the public institution system.

If these Mongolians commit crimes, they will be disqualified from the system and sent back to Mongolia. At the same time, their immediate family members will be prohibited from participating in the selection of Mongolian language teachers.