Wanli Ming Emperor

Chapter 217: Change the natives to the Han people and change the barbarians

I want to plant poplar trees in the fields, and the yellow trees in Guangdong and Guangxi.

This is probably similar to the popular nickname for the Anyuan Hou lineage as "a willow tree in Guangdong". These slangs are all metaphors for the all-powerful forces in the local area.

The sentence from Wen Chun refers to the four surnames of Tian, ​​Yang, Cen and Huang. All of them have been chieftains for hundreds of years, having been inherited from the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the Ming Dynasty, and have deep roots.

Zhu Yijun slowly swallowed the tea in his mouth and signaled Wen Chun to stay calm.

Seeing this, Yin Zhengmao was the first to get impatient and asked Wen Chun, "What happened to Yang of Bozhou and Shanglin Cen recently?"

Anything that can be brought to the annual imperial meeting will not happen without warning.

Besides, if they behave themselves, there is no suitable reason for them to change their status.

As for why Yin Zhengmao was so sure that it was Yang of Bozhou and Cen of Shanglin as soon as he opened his mouth, it was probably because the saying of the four surnames was also outdated.

For example, the Tian family was wiped out because of a fight over a mineral vein and a fratricidal fight between brothers.

Tian Chen, together with Huang Xi, led troops to attack Tian Zongding, the envoy of Sinan. Both sides were arrested and brought to the capital. After defending themselves in front of the emperor, they were all beheaded by Emperor Chengzu, and the situation was changed to that of native officials.

It wasn't that Emperor Chengzu was malicious and took advantage of the issue to make a fuss, but that when both sides were defending themselves, they exposed each other's past and offended the emperor and his ministers in the court - Huang Xi, the prefect of Chenzhou, committed adultery with his grandmother; Tian Zongding, the envoy of Sinan, strangled his biological mother.

The court officials at that time could no longer sit still. With such barbarism, was there still any sign of a Confucian world?

Whether it was rebellion or incest and matricide, the crime was punishable by death. Therefore, all the people of the Tian family were shot. Sizhou and Sinan took advantage of the situation to reform the natives and re-educate them. The establishment of Guizhou Province also came from this.

The Huang family was a little more troublesome. They caused a lot of trouble in the Tang Dynasty. After being suppressed time and time again, they were scattered all over Guangdong and Guangxi.

Although the influence is vast, fortunately there is no one to lead it.

In addition, since the Ming Dynasty, the governors and governors-general of Guangdong and Guangxi have repeatedly sorted out and dismembered the Huang family in Guangdong, and at least they have managed to subdue them. People like Yin Zhengmao and Ling Yunyi have helped these chieftains to urbanize.

Therefore, the only remaining four surnames are the Bozhou Yang and the Shanglin Cen. These two remaining surnames are also the top chieftains in Guizhou and Guangxi today.

After hearing Yin Zhengmao's question, Wen Chun realized that the Minister of War had only been in office for more than ten days and might not have finished reading the files yet.

He glanced at the emperor and said perfunctorily, "Let the Grand Secretary know that it is not that they have caused any trouble, but that the imperial court has tolerated the chieftains for two hundred years. It is time to deal with them."

Yin Zhengmao frowned at Wen Chun's perfectly correct nonsense.

Shen Shixing casually said, "The Grand Marshal can go back to the Ministry of War and look through the case files from October 17. There is a joint report of military intelligence submitted by Mu Changzuo, the Duke of Qian and the General of Yunnan, and Chen Wensui, the Right Censor-in-Chief of Yunnan, a month ago."

"The Dongwu Kingdom has once again gathered its troops to invade Yunnan, attacking cities and plundering land, killing people and setting fires, and has even penetrated deep into the Shunning Prefecture area!"

Yin Zhengmao was stunned when he heard this.

Recently, the Ministry of War and the Five Military Commanderies have been dividing up power, and he really hasn't had time to pay attention to this matter.

Especially since Yunnan is thousands of miles away from Beijing, no matter how urgent the military situation is, it will be delayed for several months, so there is no way to rush.

Without time to think about it, Yin Zhengmao frowned and asked, "Didn't the battle of Shidian in the fifth year of Wanli force Mang Yinglong to sign the treaty and pay tribute? Why is he making a comeback now?!"

In the first year of the Wanli reign, the young emperor, in order to reorganize the Beijing camp and establish his authority over the nobles, had the Duke of Qian executed. He also forced the new Duke, Mu Changzuo, to come to Beijing to meet him repeatedly and control Yunnan remotely, on the grounds that the Duke of Qian's Mansion was "far away from the capital."

At the same time, out of distrust of the Qianguo Mansion, which forged fire talismans to mobilize troops and killed local officials, the emperor ordered Chen Wensui to take office as the governor of Yunnan, recruit 20,000 soldiers, suppress Yunnan, and eliminate the remaining poison.

Coincidentally.

In the fifth year of Wanli's reign, when both the government and the public were saying that this move was too wasteful and should be appropriately cut back, Yunnan was invaded by the Dongwu Dynasty of Burma.

Since the 35th year of Jiajing, Mang Yinglong colluded with the Portuguese and frequently caused chaos in the Three Xuans, killing the envoys of Xuanfu. However, his active invasion of the Ming border still caught the Ming court by surprise.

Fortunately, Yunnan, which was still under the high pressure of Governor Chen, erupted with extraordinary strength and directly annihilated the invading enemies of the Dongwu Dynasty in one fell swoop, and even "led troops to chase them, chasing and killing them, and the Burmese soldiers were greatly defeated, with only a few survivors."

It was really unexpected that the Dongwu Dynasty signed a humiliating treaty under such circumstances, but within two years, the dynasty attacked again.

"Mang Yinglong died at the beginning of the year. After his son Mang Yingli succeeded to the throne, he claimed that his father had left behind a hidden disease. Under the pretext of avenging his father, he gathered tens of thousands of troops and invaded the border again."

Wang Zongyi explained, with a somewhat gloomy expression.

They have made an alliance but then invaded again, they have paid tribute but then started a war again. They are truly barbarians among barbarians!
Seeing that his colleagues had almost finished explaining to the new Minister of War, Wen Chun spoke again: "This time the Burmese invaded, Longchuan rebelled and fled to Yueyang, and Mubang Hanqian and his party members were spying."

"The chieftains of Yunnan refused to come when summoned, and took advantage of their neighbors. We can only share rewards but not hatred."

"The chieftains of Guangxi took advantage of the situation to loot, threaten and invite rewards, and stir up chaos."

"At the same time, Guizhou Governor Wang Ning reported to the emperor that the Yang family of Bozhou was ready to make a move and had close contacts with the rebels of Longchuan who fled to Yueyang, and there might be some conspiracy."

"Just as Chen Wensui requested in the fifth year of Wanli, the chieftains have been almost completely corrupted by the three proclamations and six consolations. If we don't make determined efforts to manage the southwest, it will inevitably lead to great trouble!"

After Wen Chun's words reached this point, Yin Zhengmao finally realized what was going on with this Chief Censor.

Wen Chun is different from people like Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue.

The Cabinet assists in handling major government affairs, and always has a share of credit as long as the country is revived. However, the Censorate has the power to check and balance the Prime Minister, so it is impossible for the Chief Censor to join the Cabinet.

Therefore, if Wen Chun wanted to leave his name in history, he had to find something to do. Just like Hai Rui who cleared the official atmosphere, Li Zaiting who presided over the opening of the sea, and Li Zhi who deduced Confucian classics, Wen Chun also had to find his own "strategy".

At the moment, it seems that it should be in the southwest.

Wen Chun ignored his colleagues' thoughts and continued, "Whether to fight or make peace with the Dongwu Dynasty is still up to the Five Military Commanders' Office to make the final decision."

"But managing the internal affairs of the southwest is an urgent matter!"

He turned to face the emperor and said: "Your Majesty, I would like to vigorously develop the southwest, starting from Gui and Guang, to change the natives into Han people and transform the barbarians with the Chinese!"

Southwest China generally refers to the provinces of Guizhou, Guangxi, Yunnan, and Sichuan. However, Duman and Tusi are not the same species, so they are often omitted.

Since the early Song Dynasty, the local areas have been under vassalage, and the early Yuan Dynasty established chieftains, but for hundreds of years until now, there has been little management.

Even in this dynasty, the national policy in the southwest is to maintain peace and tranquility - taxes and people's livelihood are not important, just don't cause trouble.

But the situation in the court now is obviously different.

As Wen Chun spoke, his chest heaved and he looked like he could hardly control himself. There was a reason for this.

In the sixth year of the Wanli reign, Chen Wensui, the governor of Yunnan, was rewarded for his usefulness in defeating the enemy. In the Wenhua Hall, he described the vision of governing the southwest to the emperor and his ministers.

In Chen Wensui's conception, the "Three Xuans" were used to build the outer defense line, and Yunnan was used as the inner defense line, "to issue an order to all the barbarians, to pacify the Three Xuans, to build city walls, and to stabilize Yunnan."

At the same time, the chieftains in Guangdong and Guizhou were "changed into prefectures and counties, land was divided, schools were set up, and the Xia people were transformed into barbarians." By accelerating the sinicization and using the Xia people to transform the barbarians, the goal of advancing the heartland to the southwest was achieved. The chieftains were turned into prefectures and counties, and the Sanxuan people were turned into chieftains, ultimately achieving the effect of "great governance of the southwest."

However, under the consensus that the southwest was a tax-depleted area, the picture painted by Chen Wensui still failed to impress many court officials, even though Myanmar had just invaded. Instead, it was too radical and "contrary to the views of the time."

In the end, only Wen Chun was moved.

After reading files for several days, meeting with students and former officials in the southwest, and learning about geography and humanities, Wen Chun met with Chen Wensui privately.

You can say that Wen Chun was working for the country, or that he was eyeing the big pie of "great governance in the southwest, a famous official of a generation" that would go down in history.

In short, it is Wen Chun who now supports the Yunnan Governor Chen Wensui and the national policy of governing the southwest.

After Wen Chun’s impassioned speech.

The emperor remained silent and did not comment.

The ministers were not surprised. In the past two years, the emperor had become more and more mysterious. During the meetings, apart from a brief outline at the beginning, he rarely interrupted and allowed the ministers to speak freely.

Without the emperor's order, Shen Shixing could only put pressure on Wen Chun based on his work experience, saying, "After the various states set up officials, there were often five or six rebellions within ten years or so, and we had to suppress them without rest."

"Premier Wen, if we force the transformation of the southwest into aboriginal people, I'm afraid that it will fail and the situation will be stalemate, which will cause the national treasury to lose blood in vain."

"By then, the infamy of 'swilling the blood of good people to useless places' will probably return with a vengeance."

The last few words sound like something a scholar-official in the early Song Dynasty would say, but in fact, they are Wang Yangming’s political views on the southwest.

To be arrogant, our dynasty was founded under the background of the fall of the world, and we attach much more importance to using Chinese culture to transform the barbarians than any other dynasty in history.

Compared with the Former Han Dynasty which arbitrarily migrated the northern barbarians to the counties and prefectures to live together, the Former Tang Dynasty which implemented too many benevolent policies and led to the local barbarization, and the Former Song Dynasty which allowed the northwest to be integrated by foreign races to become the Western Xia, only the second ancestor of the Ming Dynasty dreamed of Confucianizing the two capitals and thirteen provinces into the Chinese people.

But even so, once the founding spirit was lost, later generations naturally became conservative.

Facing the rebellion of the Tian family, Emperor Chengzu immediately sent 50,000 troops to suppress it and established Guizhou. However, facing the rebellious barbarians in Guangxi who wanted to be officials, Emperor Yingzong immediately said, "If it saves my border expenses, why should I be stingy with an official position?" and then he massively increased the number of local officials.

Even Wang Yangming, who was well versed in foreign affairs, held the attitude that "the uselessness of itinerant officials is obvious."

Basically, it’s too difficult!

The reform of the native system was not just talk. It involved a power struggle between native officials and officials of the Han and barbarian systems, the differences in customs between the Han and barbarian peoples, and the geographical restrictions on the extension of the court's governance area.

In the ten years or so after the establishment of prefectures and counties, there was a repetitive cycle of gathering people to riot, suppressing rebellions, issuing imperial edicts to appease the people, governing, and killing officials to rebel...

It can be said to be a protracted process, costly and laborious.

After suffering such losses several times, the officials' willingness to change the local customs and return to Han Chinese was naturally greatly reduced, and they even preferred to learn from the former Song Dynasty and refuse to sinicize the territories within their territory.

Now that Wen Chun wants to implement the Southwestern policy under such extremely conservative circumstances, the people he needs to convince the most are his colleagues in the palace.

Not only Shen Shixing and his colleagues in the six ministries, but even the emperor looked at him with sidelong glances.

For a moment, everyone focused their attention on Wen Chun.

Wen Chun naturally understood that this was a difficult situation. It would be very difficult to elevate the will of the Governor of Yunnan and himself, the Left Censor-in-Chief, to the will of the state.

He pulled himself together and responded calmly: "The feudal system was not abolished by the ancient sage kings Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen and Wu. It's not that they didn't want to abolish it, but they couldn't do it. Feudalism is not what the sages wanted."

As soon as he finished speaking, colleagues from the six ministries looked at Shen Shixing at the same time.

Shen Shixing was silent and thoughtful.

Zhu Yijun also became more and more interested.

Wen Chun's answer seemed to be completely unrelated, but in fact it was a rather fierce response to Shen Shixing. This was a quote from Liu Zongyuan's "On Feudalism" - a political essay that was generally recognized as transcending political tactics and reaching the realm of political principles.

In order to argue that the replacement of the feudal system by the county system was an inevitable development of history, Liu Zongyuan opened his article with this sentence quoted by Wen Chun: The sage was certainly right, but feudalism was not the sage's original intention. It was just that the conditions in the era in which the sage lived were the only ones.

Feudalism was just a choice of the times under the circumstances at that time, but we should look at the problem from a developmental perspective. Once the "trends are favorable", a sage would choose counties rather than feudalism.

Therefore, when Shen Shixing quoted the political views of the sage of the School of Mind to refute Wen Chun's Southwest Strategy, the latter immediately responded with this.

Wang Yangming was certainly right at that time, but that was a conclusion he drew based on the local customs and people of that time. Now the times are very different and the world is very different.

Wen Chun looked around at his colleagues and said solemnly, "It has been two hundred years since our dynasty came to power. During these two hundred years, the southwest geography has been developed, the Chinese population has doubled, and the Han and Yi peoples have merged for several generations. The changes can be described as earth-shaking."

"It is now possible to transform the barbarians with the help of the Chinese. Compared with the beginning of the country, it will be twice as effective with half the effort. It is absolutely incomparable!"

After two hundred years of evolution in geography, population and culture, the foundation for the policy of changing the native peoples to Han Chinese is certainly getting better day by day.

Whether it is efficiency, cost, or the frequency of chieftains' rebellion, we cannot stick to the old ways.

After saying that, Wen Chun took out another file from his sleeve and motioned his colleagues to pass it around.

Wang Zongyi took it first and took a quick glance. It was mostly about the geography and humanities of the southwest.

In particular, the origins of the major chieftains are listed in great detail.

For example, the Yang family of Bozhou were originally Luyi, that is, the ancestors of the Yi nationality. They took advantage of the situation and submitted a memorial to the Tang court, claiming that they had fought against Luyi in the third year of Qianfu and stayed in Bozhou. In the Song Dynasty, they claimed to be their ancestor, Yang Siquan, and then they claimed to be Yang Ye, and finally they evolved into adopting descendants of Yang's generals, etc. This tells the story of their process of approaching Chinese culture and education, and how to prescribe the right remedy.

In addition, there is the current status of the sinicization of chieftains, the speed of the spread of Buddhism in Yunnan, Guizhou and other places, the comparison between culture and education and the previous Song Dynasty and the early years of the country, and so on.

Obviously, Wen Chun came prepared.

When it was circulated to Wang Guoguang, Old Wang handed it to Zhu Heng without even looking at it.

The former touched his hair and sighed: "Having said that, Mr. Wen, you should know that doing things always costs money."

The Ministry of Revenue’s golden rule is that no matter how fantastically someone describes the policy, they must answer one question – where does the money come from and where does it go.

However, times have changed. The southwest is poor and its income is not enough to make ends meet. This is a fact that cannot be changed in a short period of time.

To put it bluntly, the security war is a bottomless pit. Even if the southwestern provinces succeed in implementing the policy of local rule, they may not be able to recoup their investment afterwards.

If you look at the economics, it's a huge loss.

Wen Chun did not shy away from Wang Guoguang's questioning and nodded calmly: "This matter is indeed a waste of money."

Without waiting for Wang Guoguang to say anything else, Wen Chun said loudly: "The Rong and Di people are wolves, and we must not hate them. The Chinese people are close friends, and we must not abandon them."

"The southwestern provinces were originally Han Chinese. Since Emperor Taizu has rebuilt China, how can he be content to treat them as foreign relatives from whom he can levy resources and mobilize manpower?"

"Grand Minister, this is the destiny of our dynasty. If we don't spend this money now, it may cost more in the future."

When these words were spoken, Wang Zongyi was shocked and moved.

He subconsciously slammed the table and stood up, clapping his hands and praising: "The General Secretary's words are reasonable!"

After saying this, he realized his impoliteness and turned to the emperor to apologize.

Zhu Yijun ignored these details and just looked Wen Chun up and down.

After several years of new policies, the spirit and energy of these ministers have been honed.

Wen Chun's words were quite subtle, but they hit the nail on the head.

The so-called "mandate of our dynasty" is not just empty boasting.

People in later generations often joked that the borders of the empire would always be constantly infested with barbarians.

All I can say is that China has been powerful for so long over the past three thousand years that everything seems to be taken for granted.

But the land doesn’t care about these things. Whoever conquers this land will own it. Every dynasty and every generation has to “cross the mountains and start again from the beginning.”

There is no choice but to go through this process. If the Chinese don't do it, the barbarians will.

When the former Song refused to absorb the new land, it lost its status as a "beacon of civilization" in the eyes of its domestic slaves, the Tanguts, who preferred to create their own language and customs and establish a separate country.

When the Mongols dominated the world for a hundred years, Confucian dress and robes completely collapsed, Chinese culture and education were cut off, common people wore Semite clothes, and wealthy and aristocratic families took pride in Mongolian names - if it had not reached the point where "most of the Chinese were traitors" and he had to appease the majority of the people in the world, Emperor Taizu would have acknowledged the legitimacy of the Mongols out of sheer boredom.

As for changing customs and habits, it is not something that Zhu Yuanzhang can do just by raising his hand and people will start to dress properly again.

Restricting intermarriage between Han and barbarians and forcing them to wear Confucian clothing and speak Han language was an extremely arduous process. It was not until the Jiajing period that traitors completely lost their value in united front work, and Emperor Shizong was able to abolish the sacrifices to the former Yuan Dynasty.

This is not a natural result. It is the Mandate of Heaven that the Ming Dynasty obtained step by step, from expelling the Tartars, saving the nation from extinction, to transforming the barbarians into Han people and changing the natives into Han people.

This road must continue, there is no room for stopping.

Once they are content with the status quo, the chieftains will not disappear naturally. By then, An Lushan of the former Tang Dynasty and the Dangxiang people of the former Song Dynasty will have plenty of stories to tell the Ming Dynasty.

If the pace had not been slowed down in the past hundred years, there would not have been a folk song in Bozhou in the past two years, such as "The emperor has the power of ten thousand troops, and we have the dangers of ten thousand mountains", which clearly indicates the intention of separatism.

Talking about saving money now? You may end up spending ten times more in the future!
Wen Chun's words were so noble and righteous that even an old Confucian like Wang Zongyi slammed his head in anger when he heard them.

Shen Shixing, Wang Xijue, and Shen Li were silent for a moment before they were defeated: "General Xianzheng's argument!"

Seeing Wen Chun's maneuvering and convincing his colleagues in the palace one by one, the emperor finally took action.

Zhu Yijun put down the teacup in his hand, making a slight sound against the table.

When the ministers' attention turned to him, Zhu Yijun slowly spoke: "Mr. Wen's words really moved me."

"Changing customs and habits, using Chinese to transform barbarians, must never be left to future generations!"

Wen Chun breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the government had settled its policy.

However, the necessity has been discussed, but the methodology still needs to be discussed.

Zhu Yijun nodded to Wen Chun and said, "The matter of changing the chieftains in the southwest to official positions will be handed over to Mr. Wen. After the specific rules are finalized, we will discuss it in the court."

"I only have one thing to tell you."

Wen Chun listened attentively.

Zhu Yijun hesitated for a moment, then slowly said, "Since I ascended the throne, this is only one example of changing the system of natives to civilians."

"It was in Lin'an, Yunnan. The native official Pu Chongzheng seduced the Nung bandits and raised an army to rebel. After the rebellion was quelled, the natives were changed to exiles."

"Whether it was Sizhou during the Yongle reign, Sien Prefecture in Guangxi during the Hongzhi reign, or even Weilizhou and Zuozhou, all of them were first plotted by Tian Chen, Cen Jun, Wang Shou and others, and then they took advantage of the situation to do so."

"Now, if we rashly change the status quo for no reason, we may bring disaster upon ourselves."

"Which ones should be won over, which ones should be eliminated, which ones should be allowed to return to their ancestral home and move to the mainland, and which ones should be handled specially? The scale must be grasped carefully!"

Don't think these toasts won't connect in series.

The statement that war broke out everywhere at the end of a dynasty is not just a rhetoric.

The Mongols in the north, the Jurchens in Liaodong, the Japanese pirates in the southeast, the White Lotus cult in the Central Plains, the rebel army in Shaanxi... Apart from these, the southwest has never been peaceful.

Not to mention the Ming-Myanmar War that lasted intermittently for fifty years, the She'an Rebellion alone, which caused more than one million deaths and injuries, cannot be ignored.

Chieftains who own land, money and soldiers will always be the reserve force in the fight for supremacy.

It is not an easy task to take action against others in advance. If it is really an easy achievement, the previous emperors would have done it long ago. How could they have been restrained for two hundred years?

What we are afraid of is that the chieftains in Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou and other places are afraid of being in trouble, so they simply take the initiative and join forces to rebel!

Wen Chun is a capable minister, but after all, he is in control of a remote area, so he needs to be extremely cautious.

Fortunately, winning over friendly forces, appeasing neutrals, and killing dissidents are the basic skills of court officials. Wen Zongxian nodded repeatedly and echoed: "Your Majesty is right. I want to start the division from the Cen and Yang clans..."

Zhu Yijun had a bird's-eye view and was busy with all kinds of affairs, so he was always willing to delegate power when it came to such specific operational matters.

He waved his hand and said, "The details will be presented to Wenhua Hall after the New Year."

Wen Chun is quick to follow good advice.

The annual meeting is almost coming to an end.

Several matters were discussed in general.

After the general direction is determined, it will be handed over to the cabinet and ministries for discussion, details to be discussed, and specific implementation.

Of course, in addition to major policies such as maritime trade and southwest China, the most undisputed major policy in the eighth year of Wanli was still the land measurement.

Zhu Yijun glanced at Wang Xijue, Wang Guoguang, Shen Li and others.

"Let's talk about Dutian."

He spoke softly.

Zhang Hong on the side stepped forward tacitly and handed over the files prepared for the land measurement.

The emperor paused for a moment to give his ministers time to read the documents.

"It has only been more than half a year since the land survey began, but local officials, royal family members, and wealthy families have taken turns to obstruct it, from the Dai King who gathered a crowd to beat and kill the small officials who were conducting the land survey, to the Chizhou prefect Guo Siwei who pretended to obey but actually disobeyed, and even to the local wealthy families who destroyed the dikes and flooded the fields. One after another, they came on the scene."

"Don't give these people a chance to turn back from their wrong path. In a few days it will be the eighth year of the Wanli reign..."

Zhu Yijun looked around at his ministers with disgust on his face and said, "After the New Year, we will start killing them."

(End of this chapter)