Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 340 Qinghai-Tibet Post Road

"In February of Jiashen, the Lao native official Daoxiang led the chieftains from the small states of Mengsao, Mengzhang, Mengchuan Khouang, Mengzhan and other places to pay tribute to Kunming and requested to come to Beijing to pay tribute."

In February of the fourth year of Yongle, while Zheng He was conducting military campaigns in Southeast Asia, news of the Ming Dynasty's annihilation of Annan also began to spread.

Chieftains from Laos and other places closest to Annan began to collectively send envoys to Kunming, Yunnan, begging to pay tribute to Beijing.

In this regard, Zhu Di also had the idea of ​​incorporating Laos into the system of three propaganda and six consolation, so he summoned Zhu Gaoxu to Wuyingdian.

"I plan to merge all the chieftains who requested tribute this time into the Lao Military and Civilian Propaganda Department, use the native official Daoxianjie as the consolation envoy, and order the Ministry of Rites to cast a seal for them. What do you think?"

In the hall, Zhu Di talked about his thoughts, which was nothing more than wanting to unite all the chieftains in the entire Laos region with swords and threads, and then achieve the local goal of Jisi.

Facing Zhu Di's thoughts, Zhu Gaoxu analyzed it based on the historical materials he had read over the years and Xichang's intelligence collection in Indochina. Then he bowed and said:

"Dad, it is easy to confer tribute and canonize the chieftains in southern Laos, but it is more difficult to control this place. My dear sir, how much do you know about this place?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked Zhu Di, but Zhu Di was also stunned by this question.

Not to mention him, even Li Zhigang, the Minister of Rites, and even the officials of the Ministry of Rites who are responsible for three announcements and six consolations cannot clearly explain the situation in Laos.

"Borrow father's map." Zhu Gaoxu stepped forward, and Wang Yan quickly pulled up the maps hanging behind Zhu Di one by one, finally revealing the rough map of Indochina that Zhu Gaoxu had originally drawn.

Looking at the map of Laos with many errors, Zhu Gaoxu admitted the mistakes he made when drawing this map. After all, he did not have so much time to look through the historical materials of Laos, and Xichang also failed to grasp the situation of the land in Laos. So it's not surprising that errors occur.

"It will take at least more than ten years to build these three post roads at the same time. The imperial court needs to provide food and Xifan Tusi needs to provide manpower."

"Mu's chieftain is from the Naxi ethnic group. They like to follow the trend, so as long as the court does not exploit the local people, they are happy to accept the government's governance."

"If the imperial court wants to strengthen its control over the local area, it must build a land post road from Kunming to the car, and then build a water post road from the car directly to Mengzhan."

Zhu Di asked Zhu Gaoxu, and Zhu Gaoxu said: "I am going to send Liu Zhao and Li Ying to control the 7,000 soldiers and horses in Xining and Beijing. They will enter Tibet from Songpan and Xining respectively and issue edicts to Uzang, Duogan, Orili and other places. Report the construction of the post road and ask the local chieftain to cooperate with the court."

Considering the population of the Naxi people, if a conflict really broke out with the Qing army, they would probably disappear from the history books after the first battle.

"This map is a bit old. My son will replace it with another one for you another day."

"My son read the memorial in Kunming, and the Duke of Guizhou also admitted that the road from Kunming to Cheche (Xishuangbanna) is narrow and rugged, not to mention from Cheche to Laogao, and even to Mengzhang, Mengzhan and other places further south. We can only go by water.”

"Based on the ancient book information that I have mastered, the car is the best place to start sailing. From the car all the way south, at least a horse-drawn boat of about 1,000 yuan can be navigable. During the wet season, it can reach 1,500 yuan. .”

Historically, the Lijiang Mu family relied on the Ming Dynasty but without much support, they still went deep into Qamdo, Batang, Litang and other places from Lijiang, where they mined gold mines, suppressed local rebellions, and ensured that there would be no local rebellion. Big forces threaten the Chengdu Plain.

Zhu Di did not stop talking. He personally pulled the map back to the "General Map of the Four Barbarians in the World", then took the command pole from Zhu Gaoxu's hand, pointed at Xifan District and said:

"The imperial court had to go to war before, so it didn't have the energy to take care of Xifan. However, Xifan is an important horse producing area for the imperial court. I want to build two post roads from Xining and Songpan to Derge. Then, as you said before, Build all the way to Shigatse where the Sakya sect exists."

"I remember that you recruited three thousand Xifan firearms battalions for training in the army. Is this also for this post road?"

"If that's the case, then it's up to you to send someone to check it out and build it if possible."

"Actually, their connection is not close, so it is right to canonize the most prestigious swordsman among them."

"However, in this way, it is easy for Daoxianji to develop and grow. Although he is very respectful to the court, the court has to guard against it."

"For such chieftains, I thought we could make more use of them. For example, we could build a post road from Lijiang to Santang, Qamdo and other places, and use the Mu clan in Lijiang to maintain local peace."

Faced with this problematic map, Zhu Gaoxu modified the map with a brush, and then explained to Zhu Di:

"The chieftains you mentioned just now, father, are all Thai city-states in the middle reaches of the Lancang River (Mekong River)."

"Yes!" After hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu nodded.

Zhu Gaoxu took the command pole from Zhu Di, pointed at Lijiang and said: "The Mu family of Lijiang chieftain actively responded to the imperial court's policy of returning native land to exile. Now the imperial court has sent exiled officials to the local area, and both parties have cooperated to govern the local area for half a year. No conflicts broke out."

"At the same time, let Lijiang Commander Mu Tu lead 3,000 troops from Lijiang to Qamdo, join Liu Zhao and Li Ying, and then go to Lhasa and Shigatse."

Zhu Gaoxu was deeply impressed by Mu's toast, mainly because he traveled to Lijiang in his previous life and saw various information about Mu's toast.

"On Zheng He's side, if Chenla can feel the sincerity of the imperial court, this water post road can be built from Mengzhan to Chenla's capital in the future, all the way south to Nanyang."

He looked at Zhu Gaoxu with satisfaction in his eyes. After all, many of Zhu Gaoxu's political views were very consistent with him.

After all, he was doing geology, and Zhu Gaoxu didn't know about other things. He still remembered these work-related things, not to mention that he had traveled to Xishuangbanna in his previous life.

Zhu Di is quite upright. If he doesn't understand something, he just asks.

If Zhu Gaoxu remembers it correctly, the Mu clan of Lijiang should have donated no less than 50,000 taels of gold and silver to the Ming Dynasty during the Wanli, Tianqi, and Chongzhen periods.

As for the construction of the Duogan and Wuszang Post Roads, except for his father and his son, I am afraid no one is willing to invest millions of money and food in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, a place that is painful and has no output except war horses.

"In this way, we can first demonstrate the power of the imperial court, and then allow the chieftains from all over the country to cooperate with the imperial court. Finally, we can show it with emotion and reason, so that the entire Xifan knows the importance of this post road."

Zhu Di asked Zhu Gaoxu, but Zhu Gaoxu didn't remember the starting point of navigation on the Lancang River in modern times. He only remembered that you could board a boat from Xishuangbanna and go south, so he nodded:

"What are you going to do?"

Ming Dynasty's external intelligence has always been poor, so Xichang became an organization to fill in this area.

For the big chieftains in a remote place like Lijiang, being able to donate so much gold and silver to the Ming Dynasty was enough to prove their loyalty. As for the subsequent surrender to the Qing Dynasty, Zhu Gaoxu could also understand.

Speaking of this, Zhu Gaoxu was still worried that Zhu Di didn't know who Chenla was, so he pointed to the south specifically: "Zhenla is also Gan Bizhi and Khmer."

“Is this the river, and it’s only navigable from a car?”

Not only that, they did not feel any distress when paying taxes to the Ming Dynasty. They also actively donated gold and silver to wars in the late Ming Dynasty such as the War to Resist Japanese Aggression and Aid Korea, the Battle of Sarhu, and the She'an Rebellion.

"If you ask me, it means you know something about that place. In that case, you can tell me about it."

"My son has calculated that once this road is successfully constructed, the amount of tea flowing into Xifan from the imperial court every year will exceed five million jins. This will also be beneficial to the chieftains of Xifan, and the imperial court will also be able to obtain sufficient horse resources."

"During the Zhizheng period, Meng Sao (Luang Prabang) merged with city-states such as Meng Chang (Vientiane), Meng Xuan Khouang (Xuan Khouang), Meng Zhan (Champasak), etc. to form the Thai Union country "Meng Nan Zhang" (Lancang country), its territory is the Lancang River (Mekong River) basin, starting from the Changshan Mountains in the east, connecting Mengrun (today's northern Taipei) and Mengsu (today's central and northern Thailand) to the west, Chenla to the south, and Chexuanweisi to the north Menglu (Xishuangbanna)."

"Your method is good, but it costs a lot." Zhu Di followed Zhu Gaoxu to look at the Lancang River basin and had to praise:

"By mastering this river, the imperial court will greatly strengthen its control over Laos and Chenla in the future, and will not be afraid of them causing chaos."

"My son does think so, but now my son is thinking about three things."

"Based on the construction of 50,000 people, the rations consumed by 50,000 people are not that much. Counting 10,000 troops, it is only 300,000 dan at most."

"But compared to this, the real cost is the loss on the road."

"Even my son can't calculate this loss now. It can only be calculated after walking through it."

Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Di were talking, but Zhu Di stroked his beard when he heard the words and did not answer immediately. After all, judging from what Zhu Gaoxu said, the cost of building the Tibet post road must be quite high, and judging from his appearance, he seemed to be planning to build a post in Xifan. garrison.

"Isn't it necessary to garrison Xifan?" Zhu Di asked tentatively, but Zhu Gaoxu shook his head and said:

"Only the garrison can maintain the maintenance of the post road and push the horse tax originally formulated by grandpa into the depths of Xifan."

When Zhu Yuanzhang first appeased Xifan, he mentioned "losing horses as gifts". The original text is "If there are three thousand households, three households will give out one horse, and if there are four thousand households, four households will give out one horse. It will be designated as a local gift, and the concubines will give it to them." I know that I respect you and observe the courtesy of serving the imperial court."

However, this policy was only implemented in Xining, Songpan and other places, and could not be implemented further into Xifan. For this reason, Zhu Yuanzhang also reduced the import of Xifan tea.

Zhu Gaoxu also knew about this at the time, but he also knew that tea alone could indeed keep Xifan from being in chaos, but it was impossible to get them to pay taxes.

Only by stationing troops in Xifan can Xifan honestly lose horses and make gifts.

Judging from the number of household registrations reported by Chieftain Xifan himself, if this policy can really be implemented, the northwest of the Ming Dynasty can obtain 20,000 to 30,000 to 30,000 horses every year, which is definitely not a small number.

Even if a horse was sold for ten thousand guan, it would be enough to maintain the Western army's garrison in the future.

As for whether any chieftains would rebel, Zhu Gaoxu didn't consider this at all.

Judging from Liu Zhao's construction of the post road, Zhu Di's request to garrison troops, and Zhu Di's Ming army ordering Pazhu Dishe to hand over the Sakya Hall to the original owner of the Sakya sect, there is no doubt that Xifan was very weak at this time. He couldn't even resist the Ming Dynasty.

Even if they occasionally encountered disobedient little chieftains who attacked the Ming army, they were mostly killed by the Ming army as thieves.

But this is not surprising. The size of the Ming army's envoys to Xifan has always been large, ranging from four hundred to more than a thousand people. This kind of power is not something that a small chieftain can deal with.

Not to mention the current internal political divisions in Qinghai and Tibet, resources are basically obtained from the Ming Dynasty, and it has long lost the style of the heyday of the Tang Dynasty.

Ten thousand troops advanced to Xifan, let alone the attack by the little chieftain, even Pazhu Dishe had to accept the Ming's edict honestly.

"I am going to send Hou Xian as an angel regarding Xifan. He is from Xifan, so he should be good at doing this."

After Zhu Di heard the general idea and determined that except for the issue of garrisoning troops, Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu were relatively close to each other, he announced the candidates he wanted to send.

"Hou Xian is indeed good." Zhu Gaoxu nodded. Upon seeing this, Zhu Di said to Wang Yan:

"You can tell Hou Xian about this later and ask him to come see me."

"My slave," Wang Yan responded, and Zhu Gaoxu saw this and said, "Does father have anything else to do?" "No, you can go." Zhu Di stroked his beard with a very calm expression. , like a libertine who pulls up his pants and refuses to recognize anyone.

"I'll take my leave." Seeing Zhu Di like this, Zhu Gaoxu could only smile bitterly, shake his head and leave Wuying Hall.

The new year has begun, and he has a lot of work on his hands, especially the exams in the past few days.

Since Zhu Gaoxu added the content of "Arithmetic" in the imperial examination, even he himself is not sure whether this year's imperial examination rankings are the same as in history.

But he didn't care. After all, this imperial examination was just a test for him. If the officials reacted violently, he would slowly take action.

But at the moment, they don't have any violent reaction, which is not surprising when you think about it. After all, he didn't add too many junior high school mathematics problems to the arithmetic chapter this time, and the candidates of the Ming Dynasty can still handle it.

I just don’t know what will happen to those candidates who are not good at arithmetic when questions such as geometry, calculus, equations, etc. arise in the future.

In a moment of thought, Zhu Gaoxu also returned to Chunhe Hall in a carriage and sent someone to call Li Ying.

About an hour later, Zhu Gaoxu heard footsteps and said in advance before the eunuch on duty could speak: "Let him come in."

His early opening surprised everyone, but the eunuch on duty still let Li Ying into the hall.

Li Ying comes here often, after all, Zhu Gaoxu will call him from time to time to test his problems.

"Li Ying, the commander of Uzangdu, comes to see His Highness!"

Li Ying bowed and sang, and Zhu Gaoxu also put down the brush in his hand, rubbed his brows, and then said:

"Counting the time, you have been training with three thousand soldiers for a year and a half."

"I remember you said that six thousand soldiers and horses could resist more than ten thousand armored soldiers. But what about now?"

Zhu Gaoxu looked at Li Ying with interest, wanting to see what he could say.

Li Ying puffed up his chest after hearing this: "If there are enough guns and artillery, the three thousand in the Jingxi Firearms Camp are enough to defeat tens of thousands of soldiers."

From being able to resist six thousand at the beginning to defeating three thousand now, there is no reason why Li Ying is so proud.

Not to mention anything else, the shotgun shells from the field artillery alone were enough to defeat the Spanish vanguard cavalry whose morale was not high. As long as the vanguard was defeated, the defeat of tens of thousands of troops would only take place in an instant.

"I have just come back from Wuying Palace. The imperial court will issue an order soon, ordering you to accept the control of the Western eunuch Hou Xian, and Liu Zhao from Hezhou and Mu Tu from Lijiang will each lead an army of ten thousand people. He entered Xifan in three ways to appease Xifan, and issued orders to the chieftains of Xifan, large and small, to build three post roads for the imperial court."

"Whether your Wuszangdu commander will lead from afar or control real power depends on you."

Zhu Gaoxu picked up the teacup and took a sip, while Li Ying was very excited.

Before he could speak, Zhu Gaoxu added fuel to his fire: "According to your age, if you do well in Uzang, you should be able to enter Beijing and enter the Right Army Governor's Mansion around forty-five."

"Yes! I will do my best!" Li Ying couldn't help but raise her voice and bowed when she heard that she could enter the Right Army Governor's Mansion.

"To be specific, Hou Xian should be looking for you in the next few days, and he will tell you what to do." Zhu Gaoxu said, looking at Li Ying calmly:

"I still say the same thing, the salary given by the imperial court is enough for the job, and the reward given to you will never be less."

"I hope things like Xining taking in runaways and privately opening farms will not happen in the future."

"Your Majesty..." Li Ying's mouth was dry, but she didn't expect that Zhu Gaoxu would still remember that incident: "I will follow your instructions."

"Go down." Zhu Gaoxu waved his hand, and Li Ying was surprised and delighted to exit the Chunhe Hall carefully.

Watching him leave, Yi Shiha, who was standing in the palace, cautiously said, "Is Your Highness worried that it will be difficult to control him?"

"He and his men are all Xifan. If he holds great power in Uzang but has no fear of it, it will be detrimental to the court."

Zhu Gaoxu said, and at the same time he also asked Yishiha: "How are the hundreds of thousands of Jianwen ministers who were exiled to Yunnan by the imperial court now?"

Exiling the Han people directly to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau would undoubtedly lead to their death, but it would be much safer if they were exiled to Yunnan first and then to Qinghai-Tibet.

Of course, Zhu Gaoxu was not going to exile this group of people. He was planning to recruit Han soldiers from this group of people who could be stationed in Qinghai and Tibet permanently.

"There are not many people who have died from miasma and disease. It is mainly because of your good teachings, Your Highness. These people are afraid of death and they all remember what they can eat and what they can drink."

"In the three years since they entered Yunnan, they have basically settled down there. Yunnan has also benefited from this, and has reclaimed nearly one million acres of private land."

"A few days ago, I went to visit the Sixth Army Governor's Mansion. Counting the army's farmland, the imperial court has nearly three million acres of cultivated land in Yunnan."

Yi Shiha's words made Zhu Gaoxu chuckle and nod, obviously very satisfied.

In terms of Han population and cultivated land, the current level of development in Yunnan directly matches that of the Jiajing period in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

Even if Zhu Gaoxu does not interfere with anything now, and the Yunnan Chengxuan Administrative Envoy makes his own arrangements, the number of Han people in Yunnan will not be less than one million in twenty years, and the cultivated land may develop to four to five million acres.

If Zhu Gaoxu is willing to allocate part of the court's resources to Yunnan, then Yunnan's sinicization and land reclamation will speed up, which will support the Ming army to go deeper into the southwest and change the Three Proclamations and Six Comforts from weak restraints to strong restraints.

"What are the conditions in Liaodong, Shandong, Bohai, and Daning, such as cultivated land, population, horse administration, education, etc."

Seeing that Yunnan was on the right track, Zhu Gaoxu set his sights on his own base, which would be the big granary in the north of the Ming Dynasty in the future.

"Last year, the task of opening up wasteland was delayed because of the Northern Expedition, but the situation is still very impressive."

Yishiha first reminded Zhu Gaoxu, and then explained:

"Liaodong has a population of more than 2 million and 40,000 people. Last year, the registered cultivated land was nearly 9 million acres. There are more than 3,400 water conservancy projects. The local grain production per mu has basically remained at about eight buckets."

"The local horse administration office recorded more than 76,000 draft horses, more than 20,000 riding horses, and more than 4,000 military horses."

"There are more than 390,000 students in Liaodong, more than hundreds of thousands of students have graduated, and more than 67,000 people can participate in government affairs."

Yishiha paused at this point: "Sun Cheng asked Shu what to do with the thirty-nine thousand students who are too young."

When Yi Shiha said this, Zhu Gaoxu said without hesitation: "Let them teach students from Liaodong, Shandong, Bohai, Daning and other places who will just enter school next year and are under ten years old."

The students in official schools are too young, a problem that Zhu Gaoxu cannot solve for the time being.

It would take at least four more years to start the second stage of middle school, and he couldn't let these young students wait for four years.

Therefore, it is the best way to let them go to various places in Shandong and Liaodong to teach students under the age of ten.

"Yes." Seeing Zhu Gaoxu's instructions, Yishiha wrote down his words and then continued to report.

"Shandong has more than 57 million acres of arable land, a population of more than 5.2 million, and about 360,000 students. The exact number is still being calculated. After all, the school has just started."

"As for the more than 1.2 million acres of cultivated land in Daning, there are 170,000 people distributed, but the three guards of Modong in the north have less than 50,000, more than 20,000 draft horses, 5,000 riding horses, and two military horses. Thousands, more than 20,000 students.”

"Bohai is slightly richer, with a population of over 520,000, a student body of over 95,000, and cultivated land..."

Yishiha reported on Zhu Gaoxu's basic situation, and it must be said that he has made great progress.

However, Zhu Gaoxu still specifically explained this: "Liaodong and Bohai cannot only focus on agriculture, but more importantly, industry, mining, lumber and other workshops and factories."

"Sun Cheng must know how many gold, silver, copper, iron and coal mines are mined in Liaodong every year, how much wood is cut down, and how much firewood is transported."

"Let me take the more than 30 million kilograms of firewood, 6 million kilograms of coal, and 500,000 kilograms of iron ingots supplied to Shandong by the Liaodong sea route last year. These two revenues generated more than 40,000 kilograms of income for Liaodong, excluding lumberyards and coal mines. From the workers’ wages, Liaodong made a net profit of 20,000 yuan.”

"These things can be found everywhere in Liaodong and the Bohai Sea. We must learn to use the Yalu River water transportation and the Liaohe River water transportation to transport firewood, coal, and iron materials."

"In addition to these, can Bohai organize the villages below to go hunting collectively and hunt furs for the dignitaries in Jiangnan to make money?"

“We could make money doing this before, why not now?”

Zhu Gaoxu taught Yi Shiha step by step how to make money, and Yi Shiha also took notes one after another, preparing to let Sun Cheng organize all these things.

In Zhu Gaoxu's view, it is true that the Northeast will be the granary supplying Beijing in the future, but it must also become the "industrial" base of the Ming Dynasty.

If you blindly rely on the land for food, then when the Little Ice Age comes and the Northeast is hit by floods from the Three Rivers, it may be difficult to be self-sufficient. If future emperors still try to exploit the Northeast, then it may be the version of "post-finance income" for millions of refugees. closed.

Let the Northeast become an exporter of resources and handicraft products, and increase the proportion of workers. This is the long-term solution now...

(End of this chapter)