The Soldier of the Red Mansion

Chapter 289 Everyone depends on their ability
Although the various tribes of Tu Mao Chuan went through many hardships in the siege of Weng Guanshan, they finally eliminated most of the Hu people who had hidden in the Da Ban Sheng area, but at a great cost to themselves.

Nearly one-third of the casualties were fatal.

The cavalry that went into battle this time consisted of most of the men in each tribe, who had already been pushed to their limits. After these casualties, each tribe was already weakened.

Including the elderly and children, the number of men is less than four thousand.

They were divided into different tribes, each independent of the others. The largest tribe, Erdun Taiji, had fewer than three hundred men under his command. Some smaller tribes could no longer be called tribes, with only a dozen or so men remaining.

Erdun understood one thing.

If each department were to vote for the person they hate the most, Erdun would undoubtedly choose himself as number one.

Arrived in Yunchuan City.

It was far inferior to the cities within Datong Pass, but in Erdun's eyes, it became unshakeable.

With the arrival of Yunchuan City.

Datong is no longer a border town, is it?

Feeling a mix of emotions, I followed Officer Zhou to a courtyard. It was an ordinary courtyard, nothing special about the surrounding area, but there was a person living there.

"Erdun pays his respects to the General."

Erdun pulled open a corner of his robe and knelt down without hesitation.

"No need to kneel, get up."

Wang Xin sat on a stone bench in the courtyard, his face kind.

Seeing Wang Xin's expression, Erdun breathed a sigh of relief.

Wang Xin remained silent, staring at the two pine trees planted in the courtyard.

Erdun dared not disturb him.

The future of their respective departments will now be revealed in Wang Xin's words.

Wang Xin was aware of the losses suffered by each unit, even though he had been prepared for them.

The Hetao region is not just grassland or sand dunes as people imagine; many areas are even similar to those inside the Great Wall.

A grassy earthen slope.

Stones, trees, rivers, and so on.

However, the rainfall is far less than in the inland areas, so they can only maintain a herding lifestyle. But because the rainfall is much better than in the northern deserts, they also have fertile grasslands.

Yunchuan City is an earthen city rebuilt on the site of the old Shanyu City, and its geographical environment is quite good.

The main trees are pine or cypress.

In the original timeline of the Ming Dynasty, during the Jiajing era, the White Lotus sect and many Han Chinese flocked to Tu Mao Chuan. The population of Tu Mao Chuan alone was no less than 100,000 Han Chinese. Therefore, the entire Qian Tao region had hundreds of thousands of people during the Wanli era.

As for the entire grassland, namely Inner and Outer Mongolia, according to historical records, the total population was between two and three million, of which the Han population was around seven hundred thousand.

The three most livable areas—the front, back, and west—are also the areas that attract the largest population.

The population of the entire Hetao region is no less than one million.

The maximum number of livestock per person on the Mongolian steppe or the Central Asian steppe is 26. A family of seven would have 182 head of livestock, while merchants would provide herders with around 100 head.

Moreover, it's in the lower part of the front set.

The average of 26 animals per person includes the desolate desert.

The Sui and Tang dynasties were in a relatively warm period, so their carrying capacity was higher, while the Song dynasty faced greater military pressure.

When the Ming Dynasty entered the Little Ice Age, the pressure on the carrying capacity outside the Great Wall was less, and the main pressure came from the influence left over from the former Yuan Dynasty.

The various tribes of the grasslands have already come to the idea of ​​unification, and are no longer scattered.

As recorded in "Huangming Jingshi Wenbian"

Volume 225: "In recent years, we have taken in the wretched and filthy, and also fed our people. Day by day, month by month, their numbers have multiplied, and now the tribes of Prince Jinang and Anda number three to four hundred thousand."

Volume 335: "Roughly speaking, the Chinese army, with its superior troops, and the enemy's archer cavalry, could each number over 300,000. If we disperse them into nine border regions, the enemy will remain concentrated. Therefore, they can attack one of our nine border regions."

Volume 450: "When Anda received his title, he rode a white horse and a black ox, and swore an oath to Heaven. The Chinese army numbered 800,000, and the enemy army numbered 400,000. They all swore an oath: 'From this day forward, our two families will be at peace and will never again invade each other.'"

Even though the Ming Dynasty destroyed the Yuan Dynasty, the various tribes on the grasslands still retained the inertia of a power structure.

For example, the enemy has more than 300,000 archers, who belong to various tribes. These tribes are not unified and each has several thousand or tens of thousands of troops, each facing pressure from the Ming Dynasty. In this case, the nine border regions, with the same number of hundreds of thousands of troops, can maintain a superior force against each tribe.

However, due to the Yuan Dynasty, the ingrained way of thinking has not disappeared.

Therefore, the grasslands generally maintained one or two forces. Although Anda Khan's 300,000 to 400,000 troops were not as many as the Nine Borders, Anda Khan could concentrate his forces to attack one point, while the Nine Borders could not concentrate all their forces to attack Anda Khan.

This continued until the end of the Ming Dynasty.

The key reason is still trade.

The Ming Dynasty's strict control over trade did indeed lead to the complete decline of Mongolia, but the grasslands cannot be moved.

An extremely poor neighbor.

Anyone would have a headache.

Therefore, despite strict defense and control over trade, the Mongols continued to raid the border year after year. Even after repeated failures, their attacks seemed endless, but in reality, it was a sign of their helplessness in the face of life's hardships.

Finally, Anda bestowed tribute.

The two sides reached a settlement and trade was reopened.

As a result, the Tatars, who had persisted for two hundred years, naturally disintegrated and disappeared into the waters of history. On the contrary, the eastern Mongolia, which was still blocked by the Ming Dynasty, namely the Ligdan Khanate, persisted until the end.

However, they also disappeared when the Qing Dynasty opened up trade with Mongolia.

Herdsmen are human beings too.

They are also afraid of death and want to live a good life.

Therefore, defeating the grasslands is not difficult; the difficulty lies in governing them. In reality, trade is still necessary to stabilize governance and integrate the grasslands.

Although the Sui and Tang dynasties unified various tribes through trade, their backward governance led to imbalances, which became a major problem.

In fact, at present...

The economies of grasslands and inland areas are highly complementary.

The inland areas need the grasslands' sheepskins, cowhides, cattle, sheep, ox horns, horses, and animal hides, which are the grasslands' unique advantages—high quality and low price. In turn, the inland areas have countless other goods, including daily necessities, which the grasslands also need.

On the contrary, it is Southeast Asia, and even overseas trade.

It was simply a matter of selling Ming Dynasty goods overseas, but there were no goods that Ming Dynasty needed overseas, only luxury goods such as agate and ivory, and the only slightly better trade was in spices.

Producing and selling products from one's own land, no matter how much money one makes, consumes one's own lifeblood.

Buy other people's stuff.

Alternatively, you could bring in produce from someone else's land, process it, and then sell it to make money. Although it's hard work, it's actually worthwhile.

In terms of productivity, in today's agricultural society, trade between the grasslands and the inland is far more important than maritime trade and luxury goods trade.

However, the Ming Dynasty did not pay enough attention to the economy, which led to the failure of the paper money. As a result, the Ming Dynasty's social and economic development was severely hampered by a severe shortage of money in the market. The domestic silver was far from sufficient, and the paper money could not be used. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty resorted to exchanging its own goods for silver from other countries.

Then came the Qing Dynasty.

Although Western countries had entered the industrial society and their industrial goods were of high quality and low price, surpassing those of China, the people of the Qing Dynasty were extremely poor and lacked consumer demand. Therefore, no matter how many goods there were, they had no value without demand.

Thus the British found opium.

Opium was used to stimulate consumer demand among the people of the Qing Dynasty.

To buy opium, they would sell anything.

The poor sold their only possessions, the very things they had to survive, to buy the opium they needed. That's how Britain made its money at the time.

Opium was used to stimulate demand instead of other commodities.

That being the case.

So how should we govern the area outside the pass?
Of course, we cannot allow merchants to exploit the herders to the point that they become extremely poor and eventually cannot survive, otherwise everything they have achieved now will be in vain.

Therefore, a virtuous cycle is needed.

Merchants made money, herders lived a stable life, and soldiers were protected.

When businessmen make more money, they will inevitably pursue market expansion, and then expansion will occur, which is uncontrollable.

Because there is more than one businessman.

Even if a businessman who has made money doesn't want to expand further, new businessmen will come along to seize the new market.

Even if the risks are great.

As long as there are profits to be made, it will not stop the emergence of businessmen.

Because businessmen are ordinary people themselves.

Unless it's a monopoly, preventing others from entering the market.

Otherwise, countless ordinary people would want to get rich and invest their entire fortunes, even if they lose everything, but new people would still invest, hoping to get rich through business.

This is market regulation.

If you have money, go ahead and invest; even if you lose, it won't affect you.

The money was invested in the market and spent.

Instead of disappearing, it multiplied, becoming two, then four, bringing exponentially more value.

This place is oversupplied.

The market will provide feedback.

There is demand in this area.

The market will also provide feedback.

The worst thing is to interfere with the market, preventing it from responding in a timely manner.

A small matter escalated into an unmanageable problem.

What started as the bankruptcy of a few businessmen turned into suffering for the entire nation.

What is truly noteworthy is...

If merchants possess too many means of production, they form a de facto monopoly. A monopoly represents power, and the merchant is no longer a pure merchant.

Therefore, various taxes such as inheritance tax are required.

For example, inheritance tax may even be halved.

Ordinary families don't care about inheritances of tens or hundreds of taels of silver.

However, for estates worth tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of taels, more than half of the estate tax will be levied.

In effect, it had the same effect as the hereditary demotion of noble families.

The nobles originally held hereditary positions.

They were initially demoted generation after generation, and after several generations they had nothing left. At first, no noble family could accept it, even though they considered it a title passed down from their ancestors. In the end, they accepted it anyway.

Businessmen have no right to object either.

However, after the landlord class replaced the aristocratic families and powerful clans, the rulers forgot to control the power of the landlords and merchants.

Land is also a heritage.

Landlords passed down their land from one generation to the next, accumulating wealth with each generation, until small landlords became large landlords – this is what leads to a loss of control.

The heritage of tens or even hundreds of acres of land can be ignored.

Land heritage spanning thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of acres is subject to the same inheritance tax.

However, these are all just my own thoughts.

If I dared to do that now, I'd probably be dead on the street tomorrow.

Wang Xin couldn't help but smile.

Let's solve the problem of the Hu people right now.

With a clear understanding, Wang Xin knew what he should do.

Upon noticing Wang Xin's smile, Erdun became nervous and lowered his head in a respectful manner.

To know.

Back when Feng Yong was in the Northeast, no Taiji (local chieftain) had ever adopted such a humble attitude.

"Many people think that when I talk about following the Zhou rites, I'm just using it as an excuse to attack the Hu people," Wang Xin sighed. "We both understand the principle that those who are not of our race will have different hearts."

Erdun quickly replied, "General Wang, rest assured, I will always be loyal to you. If I break my promise, may I die a horrible death."

Wang Xin ignored it.

If the Hu people become powerful, they will surely kill the Zhou people.

This is an inevitable truth.

Believe it or not, it won't change the outcome.

On the contrary, when the Zhou people became powerful, they might not necessarily have killed the Hu people. History has proven that many chieftains survived into later generations and continued to exist as village chiefs for generations.

“Your strength is formidable, threatening Datong, and you have been raiding and plundering the pass for many years. Therefore, you are enemies, and as enemies, you should be completely eliminated,” Wang Xin said mercilessly.

Erdun hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

I felt a chill run down my spine.

Logically, Wang Xin wouldn't kill him, but who dares to say they've guessed his thoughts?
You never know what you might say that might displease him, and the next moment he might chop off your head. This feeling is unbearable, yet it's also despairing because you're helpless.

Wang Xin sighed.

"Now that the strength of each department is weaker, I can easily wipe them out. But I often tell you to follow the Zhou rites. I don't know if you have listened to me."

sometimes.

He also had to consider the thoughts of the people of Da Zhou.

The Great Zhou Dynasty had a population of hundreds of millions.

More than 90% of them had never been in contact with the Hu people.

They didn't dislike the Hu people, but they disliked the officials even more.

The Zhou people, who comprised less than 10% of the border residents, truly disliked the Hu people.

This is the downside of having too large a population.

Unable to unite.

On the contrary, the small tribes are unusually united.

Everyone says the Zhou people were united, but that's just self-deception. The Zhou people were not united at all, and they loved to indulge in self-deception and self-pity.

Erdun sensed the killing intent, and at the same time, a flash of inspiration struck him.

“General Wang, from this day forward our tribe will practice the Zhou rites and speak the Zhou language. We will certainly not disappoint you.”

Wang Xin nodded.

I have no intention of forcibly implementing this outside the Great Wall.

The Zhou rites were a more advanced civilization than those of the tribes outside the pass. Even if they didn't promote them themselves, the tribes would eventually take the initiative to absorb and learn them, searching through the Zhou's writings word by word, and eventually claiming them as their own.

For now.

Wang Xin planned to give a lenient approach to those who were willing to learn the Zhou rites.

Erdun was soaked to the bone after leaving the courtyard. He glanced back instinctively, shivered, and quickly hurried away.

The tribe has no future.

This person is terrifying.

To save his own life, he sent his sons to study inside the Great Wall.

Erdun had already begun to think about how to learn to be a member of the Great Zhou, to visit the general more often, to reveal the news of the various tribes to the general, and to become the general's eyes and ears. Erdun's eyes lit up; he had found a way out.

After Erdun left.

Xue Ke came over carrying a pile of account books.

"Dispose of these account books and prepare to return to the capital," Wang Xin instructed.

Xue Ke nodded.

The situation in Dabansheng has stabilized, but governance is not something that can be achieved overnight. The biggest risk is Ou Yanhu.

The three-year campaign to quell the rebellion has begun successfully.

It's fine for everyone to want what's theirs, but what's most worrying is when they don't ask anything of themselves.

A person's value.

It depends on what others want from him.

These people have something to ask of me, and they just happen to become my bargaining chips.

A blacksmith must be strong himself.

Next, it's up to each of us to see who can stand firm.

(End of this chapter)