The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 347 Grassland Exercise
The railways in the Ming Dynasty had already been built to Hami and Tannu Uriankhai, so the preparations for war in the Western Regions were completed the earliest.

By the summer of the 18th year of Tiangong, the personnel and supplies needed for this battle had basically been prepared.

Zhu Jianxuan also appointed Ruan Yuan as the governor of the Western Regions in advance, responsible for cooperating with Yang Yuchun's combat operations and handling related civil affairs in the Western Regions.

After the preparatory work was basically completed, Yang Yuchun, governor of the Western Region War Zone, and Wu Xuan jointly sent letters to the tribal leaders in the Western Region, Snow Region, and Central Asia with the cooperation of the Western Factory.

In the name of the governor and provincial governor appointed by the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, all their tribes were required to arrange representatives and delegations to gather in Hami City at the eastern end of the Tianshan Mountains in the summer and autumn of next year to discuss the future order of the Western Regions and Central Asia.

Those who fail to arrive before the beginning of autumn next year will be regarded as traitors and will be exterminated together.

The north and south sides of the Tianshan Mountains, the Qinghai region, the Snowy Plateau, the Seven Rivers Basin, the Fergana Basin, the Syr Darya and Amu Darya basins, these areas are relatively close to the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

After the Ming Dynasty recovered the original territory of the Qing Dynasty in the north, the local tribal leaders gradually established contacts with the Ming Dynasty, either overt or covert.

In addition, after Shun State arrived in India, the emperor and the entire court quickly shifted their main attention to India.

Attention and control over the Mongol allies in the north were rapidly declining.

The Ming Dynasty was the orthodox dynasty that existed in the Shenzhou region for hundreds of years. After the Ming Dynasty destroyed the Qing Dynasty, the Ming Emperor became the only emperor of the Celestial Empire.

The Shun Kingdom, which had already fled to India, was still nominally a vassal of the Ming Dynasty.

Now, the various tribes within the Shun Kingdom system can be nominally regarded as subjects of the Ming Emperor and can nominally have direct dealings with the Ming court.

Therefore, in the past twenty years or so, the exchanges between the Ming Dynasty and these Mongolian tribes have become increasingly frequent.

Especially after the completion of the railway from the Central Plains to Hami and Tannu Uriankhai, the trade volume of industrial products from the Ming Dynasty and agricultural and pastoral products from the Western Regions and Central Asia increased sharply.

The Ming court also established a large number of factories in the western border areas in accordance with the instructions of the Ming Emperor.

There are factories responsible for supplying the needs of the garrison, as well as woolen textile factories, meat processing plants, leather processing plants, etc. that are used to directly consume grassland products.

Hami soon became a distribution center for local products and grassland products of Shenzhou.

More and more Ming Dynasty merchants, as well as merchants from the Western Regions and Central Asia, began to travel between Hami and various population centers in the Western Regions.

The ancient trade routes in the Western Regions and Central Asia quickly became prosperous again.

Due to the economic impact, many tribal leaders and senior officials who have benefited from this are now very inclined to become vassals of the Ming Dynasty.

Anyway, they were vassals of the emperor of Shenzhou Central Plains for most of the time in history, so they had no resistance to such things.

However, some conservatives and tribes whose interests were affected became more resistant to the Ming Dynasty.

Some of them have been secretly communicating with officials of the Ming Dynasty court and personnel of the Western Factory for a long time.

Some people also wrote to the Shun Kingdom court from time to time, asking them to find ways to limit the influence of the Ming Dynasty in the Western Regions.

It’s just that the Emperor of Shun Kingdom’s main focus was diverted, and he was not very concerned about handling these matters.

The result was that more and more tribes had dealings with the Ming Dynasty.

This time, when the documents issued by the Ming government were delivered to the tribal leaders, most of them were not too surprised.

Many people just sighed: "The Ming Dynasty needs to make things clear now."

In the future, we must make the relationship between the two sides clear and completely get rid of Shun State, the nominal intermediate vassal.

Most tribal leaders made a decision quickly and began to arrange officials and contact merchants to organize delegations, preparing to go to Hami for a meeting on time next year.

They didn't think there was anything wrong with this. In name, they were subjects of the Ming Dynasty, and they could evade questions asked by Li Celing of Shun State.

Moreover, there have been caravans traveling between the two places for a long time, so it is not a problem to send an official person to make a trip.

Of course, there were also tribal leaders who were still loyal to the Shun Kingdom court, and the corresponding news was sent to the royal palace in Delhi before the end of the 18th year of Tiangong.

After receiving the report, Li Celing was shocked and angry, and immediately began to feel conflicted.

Logically speaking, if he had not officially turned against the Ming Dynasty, he should not have prevented the officials arranged by the Ming Dynasty from summoning his subordinates.

In that way, the Ming Dynasty could directly force these tribes to side with the Ming Dynasty, or even cooperate with the Ming Dynasty to attack the Shun Kingdom court in India.

Even if they openly turned against the Ming Dynasty, the planned battle plan was to fortify the city and clear the countryside, rather than actively attacking the Ming Dynasty.

If they concentrated their forces to attack, they might be wiped out by the Ming Dynasty and would have no chance of winning.

If he arranged the Indian army and the army on the grassland to support him, he would intercept the tribes that would definitely attend the meeting.

That might lead to Shun State fighting with its own ministers first.

Before the Ming Dynasty officially takes action, chaos will break out in Shun State, and even if it wins, it will suffer huge losses.

By then, if the Ming Dynasty launches attacks in the Western Regions and India at the same time, the main force of Shun State may be defeated.

Moreover, even if he was prepared to intervene with all his strength, it might be too late.

In winter, the Central Asian region is covered in ice, making it almost impossible to carry out large-scale military operations. The only option is to wait until the spring of the following year.

But there will definitely be many tribal delegations that will set off directly to Hami when the spring comes next year.

Now he no longer has the chance to intercept all the delegations.

After much thought, Li Celing decided to arrange for a special messenger to set out in the winter snow and wind to deliver a letter to the subordinate tribes.

They claimed that they were the lords of all their tribes. The so-called Governor-General of the Western Regions and the Governor of the Western Regions had no power to directly command and manage these tribes.

Li Celing required that no one should leave the original city and grassland without permission, and should not attend the meetings convened by Yang Yuchun and Ruan Yuan.

Li Celing still hoped to wait until the Ming Dynasty took the initiative to attack and Shun State was in a passive defensive situation, so that Shun State could gain a little bit of righteousness and implement the strategy of defending the country with strong defenses.

Therefore, Li Celing still did not openly resist the Ming Dynasty, but continued to find reasons within the original framework.

But the logic that Li Celing talked about is indeed in line with the typical feudal political ecology on the grassland.

The ordinary members of a tribe are directly subordinate to the leader of the tribe, and the Khan cannot manage the tribes of other leaders without going through the leader.

If the Khan insists on doing this, it will lead to conflicts with the subordinate tribes and even armed conflicts.

Before the spring of the 19th year of Tiangong, Li Celing's letters were delivered to the hands of various tribal leaders in the Western Regions and Central Asia.

After reading Li Celing's letter, some leaders who had originally planned to go to Hami became hesitant, and eventually some decided not to go.

Of course, a large number of tribal delegations still arrived in Hami after the arrival of summer.

Then we began to endure the shocks from industry.

Although there had been reports from merchants long ago that the Ming Dynasty had built Hami into a huge city through large-scale construction and garrisoning of troops near Hami.

But the envoys who had not seen it with their own eyes could not imagine the scene and scale of the industrial city before coming to Hami.

When important tribal envoys arrived, Yang Yuchun and Ruan Yuan would personally meet them and try to calm them down.

Then they began to list and rebuke Li Shuo's disloyal behavior and labeled him a thief and bandit.

At the same time, it also shows the attitude of the imperial court that Shun State can no longer manage the Western Regions and Central Asia, and must be directly governed by the imperial court.

As long as the existing tribal leaders in the area did not help the tyrant and focused on assisting the bandits, they could retain most of their power and status.

The tribal representatives who came to the meeting confirmed what they had guessed and were basically able to accept the reality.

The Ming Dynasty court and the Shun Kingdom can make trouble as long as their own interests are not affected.

In this way, time slowly came to July 2, the 19th year of Tiangong, which was the day when the Beginning of Autumn arrived.

Together, Yang Yuchun and Ruan Yuan gathered all the tribal representatives in the wilderness outside the city and had the garrison hold a simple military parade.

Originally, the escort corps of these tribes also wanted to participate and show off their experience in riding and swordsmanship.

But after the Ming army began their performance, no one had time to think about this anymore.

First, the Ming Dynasty's regular infantry formed a square formation with standard bolt-action rifles, and then fired collectively in rows.

The wood and straw men three hundred meters away were torn into pieces by several rounds of bolt-fire shooting by these soldiers.

Representatives from various tribes, as well as the accompanying guard officers and soldiers, were all stunned when they saw this scene.

They were shocked by the range, accuracy, and rate of fire of the bolt-action rifle. Many of them had heard about the power of the Ming Dynasty's Australian repeating rifle, but most of them had never seen it with their own eyes.

In particular, I have never seen an organized army using Australian automatic rifles to launch a concentrated attack.

Now that they saw it live, they were all stunned.

Most of the tribes from the Western Regions and Central Asia have Mongolian traditions. Even in the few areas suitable for farming, they have to rely on cavalry to fight against the surrounding tribes.

Throughout the classical era, cavalry had huge psychological and practical advantages over infantry.

In the era of pure cold weapons, although well-trained spear phalanxes could defend against cavalry, most of the time they were only in a "defensive" state.

The spears could only wait for the cavalry to attack and had almost no initiative.

If the spearmen are not well trained, they will still be at a disadvantage when facing cavalry.

Facing the impact of cavalry, the psychological quality of soldiers is very important, and psychological quality is something difficult to train.

If the pikemen were transformed into musketmen, the strength of both sides would be basically balanced.

Musketeers were now able to take the initiative in the attack, and could usually open fire at a distance of one hundred meters, but the hit rate at this distance was not high.

At this time, the cavalry usually enters a high-speed running state, but has not yet entered the final charge state.

Starting the charge too early will cause the cavalry to scatter.

Musketeers have good killing power within fifty meters, and those who can hold their guns until fifty meters before firing are already elite soldiers.

It is at this stage that the cavalry enters a truly high-speed charge state.

Both sides have their own major advantages, which means there is a relatively fair chance for competition, and it is a period of equal strength.

By the time the musketeers start using rifled guns and are able to shoot at a distance of two hundred or even three hundred meters, the situation will turn into a great disadvantage for the cavalry.

Because when the enemy is more than 300 meters away, the cavalry is usually just walking and has not accelerated yet.

Now the Ming Dynasty's infantry can not only launch attacks from three hundred meters away, but also have extremely high firing rates and terrifying shooting accuracy.

If the cavalry charges this kind of infantry line again, it would be tantamount to committing suicide.

Before they could even reach the infantry, they were shot into sieves and fragments along with their horses.

Most of the tribal envoys and officers did not have a clear understanding of the fact that times had changed.

But they all instinctively sensed the threat of this weapon.

Many people instinctively think about how to obtain this weapon and use it for their own army.

Otherwise, everyone will really have to submit to the Ming Dynasty in the future. There will be no way to be vassal in name only, and there will be no freedom.

The governor and the governor of the Ming Dynasty seemed to have anticipated their thoughts.

After the demonstration at the front was over, a group of veterans were arranged to come directly in front of these messengers to disassemble and introduce the bolt-action rifles they used on the spot.

Actively tell them how these rifles are produced, what technologies and equipment are needed, and what standards need to be met.

Many tribal envoys were very surprised by this behavior and did not understand why the Ming Dynasty took the initiative to introduce the production methods of their secret weapons.

At the same time, they were also trying hard to memorize the soldiers' explanations in their hearts, so as to arrange for craftsmen to try production after returning.

As a result, they were confused after listening for a while. There were too many steps and requirements, and too many things they had never heard of or seen before.

Almost every process and every indicator cannot be completed by our own craftsmen.

In fact, the reason why Daming introduced them to them was to make them understand that even if they understood these technologies, they would not be able to use them themselves.

The complexity of industrial technology limits the upper limit of nomadic civilization.

When a settled nation obtains equipment that cannot be produced or even maintained in a nomadic state, and this equipment can directly determine the outcome of a war.

Then the countdown for the nomadic people to exit the stage of history began.

If nomadic people do not change their ways to settle down and build basic industries in one place, they will not be able to produce highly complex new weapons on their own.

If nomadic people switch to a settled lifestyle, they will find themselves competing with the already settled peoples.

It is originally about competing with others in the field where others are good at.

The key point is that due to the huge gap in land and product occupied in the classical era, the local production capacity of nomadic peoples was difficult to catch up with that of settled peoples.

The final result is naturally to become a vassal of the traditional settled ethnic groups.

As the envoys and legions from various tribes in the Western Regions, Central Asia, and the Snowy Region were stunned, the exercise or arms display entered the next stage.

Soldiers began to display assault rifles, submachine guns, water-cooled machine guns, and shoulder-fired small rocket launchers.

Once again, a large number of wooden dummies were smashed into pieces and debris.

After the performance, veterans were arranged to explain the structure and production methods of these weapons, as well as the production indicators of all components.

Next came the armored vehicles equipped with machine guns, the four-wheeled motorized infantry vehicles towing artillery, and the two-wheeled motorized cavalry infantry vehicles.

The enormous power, load, speed, and effects of these machines after being equipped with weapons once again shocked the audience.

But this is not the final link. The last army to appear is the "Flying Cavalry".

The huge metal plane circled above the heads of everyone present, then flew low over the ground in front of them, strafing targets on the ground with its onboard machine guns.

This display made many people more excited.

I don’t know how many people shouted the name of their own God in their hearts, unable to understand why this huge piece of metal could fly directly. Many people thought it was a magic.

At this moment, these planes demonstrated their final function, taking out the 500-kilogram bombs they were carrying and dropping them on a small hill not far from the scene.

Along with deafening explosions, terrifying flames rose and fell on the top of the designated hill, and huge columns of smoke shot up into the sky.

Throughout the entire presentation, the sound became purer and purer, until in the end only the sound of explosions remained.

The country bumpkins in the Western Regions and Central Asia had never seen such a horrific scene and had never imagined that war could be fought like this.

The bolt-action rifle that initially surprised them was just the standard weapon of ordinary soldiers in the Ming army!

Each item presented later made them feel a deeper fear.

Especially those flying machines and weapons that can launch attacks from the sky made many of them feel their hair stand on end.

That terrifying speed and mobility made their cavalry completely meaningless.

After these direct displays, Yang Yuchun took them to visit the garage, hangar, ammunition depot and material warehouse.

Let them see the endless vehicles and the endless flying machines.

There were also huge piles of artillery and ammunition.

And there is also a huge military camp where countless Ming soldiers live.

After a day of simple exercises and visits, Yang Yuchun and Ruan Yuan hosted an open-air banquet for all the envoys and accompanying officers.

In an extremely large venue, Ruan Yuan spoke using a prepared loudspeaker.

Let one person's voice appear simultaneously in all directions, so that thousands of people at the scene can hear it clearly.

Ruan Yuan assured all of them that as long as they were loyal subjects of the Ming Emperor, the weapons of the Ming army would be used to protect them.

As long as they have no second thoughts about the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty and are willing to obey the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty's orders, they do not need to be afraid of these weapons.

Both the content and the form of Ruan Yuan's speech stimulated everyone again.

Many people couldn't help muttering to themselves, thinking that they were either dreaming or that the Ming emperor and his ministers had become gods.

They quickly confirmed by various methods that they were not dreaming.

In the end, they all began to be thankful that their leader made the right choice, otherwise they would have been reduced to ashes by these artifacts.

(End of this chapter)