Chapter 1470: Downstream of the Heilongjiang River, the Ming Army Came and Left

"The blood-eyed great spirit bears witness! This mighty Hunhe River has dozens of tributaries, and from the lower reaches to the upper reaches, it is thousands of miles long, or even tens of thousands of miles long!..."

"It is a real great river, and it is spiritual. It is said that this was the great flood released when the god Abu Kaenduli created the world... Then, the god's youngest daughter, Baiyun Gege, stole the god's treasure box and scattered it over the mountains and plains, causing the flood to form a great river..."

The chieftain of the Harman tribe, Ali, chattered about the ancient myths circulating among the various tribes of the southern Jurchens. The wild chieftain, Maha Aguda, who came from the north, looked puzzled, as he had heard these legends of the southern Jurchens for the first time. As for the chief priest Zuwaro, he was extending his finger, groping upstream a little bit at the thick blue line representing the Heilongjiang River on the map.

"The lower reaches of the Yangtze River, from the mouth of the Wusuli Ula River in the south to the northeastern estuary, are about 2,000 miles long. They are the 'tail of the black dragon'! At the mouth of the Wusuli River, where the tail begins, is the Xishen Guard that locks the river. At the end, where the Henggu River flows into the river, are the Nurgan Dusi and Manjing Guard that also lock the river..."

"These two places, the beginning and the end, are the most important places in the 2,000-mile lower reaches! The Ming court not only enfeoffed a large number of tribal guards along the Yangtze River, but also sent official troops to build camps and sent officials from the Han area to manage them... The Nurgan Dusi was established in the seventh year of Yongle, and the Xishen Guard was established in the eighth year of Yongle, both of which were more than 80 years ago! Until the Xuande period more than 40 years ago, Nurgan and Xishen Guard still had courts. The imperial garrison existed..."

"After Xuande, there was another great change in Tumubao...Nurgan Dusi moved inland, and all the government troops in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River were evacuated. The military camps along the river were also handed over to the Jurchen tribes appointed by the imperial court...After that, the barbarian tribes continued to move south, and the tribes along the river were repeatedly plundered and killed by the barbarians. The power of the appointed tribes gradually weakened. They either moved inland to request submission and migrated to the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, or held on until they were broken by the barbarians..."

"Hey! The ancestors witnessed! Our Harman Guard has been holding on from the Xuande period to the current Hongzhi period, for three generations! ...From two or three thousand people, they fought to only four or five hundred people, almost one of the few imperial guards left in the lower reaches of the north... In the end, the Wuzheshan Forest Nuzhens who came south of you still captured the village and destroyed the tribe..."

"Great God with bloody eyes! The fighting in the lower reaches of this great river never stops, and the only way to stop killing is to kill! ... Since you have the bronze seal of the commander of Manjing Guard, Manjing Guard must no longer exist. And the Valka East Sea Savages who plundered in the south have already broken through the Zhetele Mountain Guard stationed at the mouth of Nuannuan River..."

"As for Xishen Guard, it is located at the mouth of the Ussuri River. It is a must-pass place for north-south travel. It faces the migration and looting of the Valka East Sea Savages and the Huerha North River Savages! That guard post that locks the river has been broken several times even if there are three large tribes stationed together. The tribe responsible for guarding Some died, some fled, and the river mouth has been abandoned for more than ten years, allowing the savage tribe to move south..."

"Let me think about it. At present, there are only three garrisons left in the two thousand miles of the 'tail of the black dragon'... From north to south, there should be only Fushanwei, Hushimenwei, and Yierguliwei. The reason why these three garrisons can still continue is that the villages are built in dangerous places, close to the mountains and rivers, easy to defend and difficult to attack! However, according to the savages in the mountains, Fushanwei, 600 miles to the south, has also been besieged and looted by the savages and is in danger..."

As the "sitting tiger" chief Ali told the story, the situation of the entire two thousand miles of the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River was like a fog that was gradually revealed in front of everyone. And Zuwaro thought from the perspective of the overall situation, and naturally had a deeper understanding of the arrangements of these "Ming Dynasty Tribal Alliances".

"Lord God! Set up a series of strongholds along the mighty river. Build camps and garrisons, enfeoff surrounding tribes, and control the key points at the mouths of rivers and rivers... Is this long-line arrangement relying on the river the way for the Ming Dynasty to control the lower reaches of the river and control the vast river basin of thousands of miles?"

"Lord God, witness! The long line of strongholds along the river set up by the Southern Ming Dynasty is very powerful in military control, and the tribute and appeasement of the surrounding tribes are also very successful. This is indeed the best way!... To expand the influence of the kingdom in this forest, we must learn from the Ming Dynasty that once ruled here!... However, the Ming Dynasty finally chose to withdraw. What is the reason for this?..."

Zuwaro squinted his eyes and stared at the map of the lower reaches of the river. On this two thousand miles of river bank, there are countless wild tribes that have gone south, fighting each other, or fighting with the Jurchen tribe guards left by the Ming Dynasty. This kind of fighting is not one or two years, not once or twice, but can last for more than ten or dozens of years!

It's like sawing a tree with a rope saw. No matter how much rope is worn out or how many wild tribes die, new ropes will be added. The tree that was sawed was sawed off bit by bit, and the branches in the north were broken, breaking the guards along the river. In the end, only the bare trunk, although indestructible, was left standing in the south, standing inside the distant border wall...

"Ali! Has the Ming Dynasty in the south really given up these "military strongholds" and "tributary tribes" in the lower reaches of the north? With their tens of thousands of troops, as powerful as the legend, it should be easy for them to send thousands of troops to attack north along the river, right?..."

"Zu Shaman, the Ming Dynasty's Liaodong border army is very powerful, but it is different from the army of our tribe. The Ming Dynasty's border army needs "money and food", a lot of "money and food"! Once the army sets off, it will be spent. Big and difficult Just imagine! The Ming Dynasty's frontier army may only have a few thousand troops dispatched, but the number of people reported to the court is often twice the size, and whether it is food or equipment, commanders, quartermasters, and supervisors at all levels are all involved. To make a fortune out of it..."

"The two sweeps of Liting during the Chenghua period were said to have cost one million taels of silver each time, consuming the court's one-year surplus...Two troops were sent out to sweep, the first in three years of Chenghua, and the second in The fifteenth year of Chenghua, that is, fifteen years ago. In particular, the second time was the most expensive. Wang Zhi, the supervisor in charge of supervising the army, and officers at all levels did not know how much they took... This was just the logistics of sweeping away the Jianzhou Jurchens in the Songhua River area, starting from Liaodong The transportation is only a thousand or two thousand miles..."

"Twenty-seven years ago, after my father heard about the first court plowing in Jianzhou, he asked the Holy Emperor Xianzong for a memorial to send troops to sweep the lower reaches of the river... As a result, the memorial was seized directly in Liaodong Town. At that time, Zhao Sheng, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, sent someone to call my father over and give him a thunderous reprimand..."

Ali, the chief of the Harman Guards, looked sad and pointed at the location of the Jianzhou Jurchen, from the middle reaches of the Heilongjiang River to the Songhua River, and then to the upper reaches of the Songhua River. And the location of Ha'er Manwei and Nuer Gandusi are four to five thousand miles north from the Jianzhou tribes!

If we add this all up, from Liaodong Town to Nuergan, and from Songhua River to Huntong River, the logistical transportation of food alone would have to be at least six thousand miles! You know, with the barren forest sea in the north, it is impossible to obtain any food supplies from the local tribes. All supplies had to be transported from the rear by vehicle or boat. And to maintain such a long logistical food route, even for an army of several thousand people, how much food would the court have to spend? How much "loss" and "drift" will there be in the middle? I can't even think about it!

"At that time, the Liaodong General Soldier told my father that the Jilin Shipyard was about to be abolished and no new ships would be built. The shipwrights' workshops would either be abandoned or moved inland. As for the Jilin Shipyard area, it would be handed over to the attached Jurchen guards. Mixed with the Jurchen guards on the river. The naval fleet will be laid off in large numbers, and the remaining fleet will be moved to the upper reaches of the Songhua River. From now on, there will be no more new ships to be added, and there will only be fewer and fewer ships..."

"And the Liaodong General Soldier also gave my loyal Harman tribe an opportunity to move inland to the Jianzhou land that had just been wiped out. But after my father saw the tragic situation of the Jianzhou Jurchens, he was afraid and did not dare to Too close to the imperial court’s border troops, and reluctant to leave the ancestral land that has been passed down from generation to generation... Hey! If I had known today, I should have taken advantage of the opportunity to move south with my family..."

"O God of Bloody Eyes! Now twenty-seven years have passed, and the imperial navy that once traversed the river may have completely disappeared! And without such a logistics and transportation navy, if the Ming Dynasty wants to conquer the distant lower reaches of the river, it will It is almost impossible to maintain the logistical transportation of thousands of troops..."

Speaking of this, Ali, the chief of the Harman Guards, sighed. Ever since the imperial court decided to abandon the Jilin Shipyard twenty or thirty years ago, the entire tributary rule in the middle and lower reaches of the Hutong River has basically come to an end. Without Jilin Shipyard, there would be no big ships. Without the logistical supplies of a large fleet of ships to maintain transportation, the Ming army would not be able to maintain its military presence in the lower reaches of the river.

It is said that a sharp conflict broke out within the court over whether the Jilin Shipyard should be abandoned or maintained. In the end, the "Chenghua Account Book" produced by the civil servants overwhelmed the "Yongle Book Book" produced by the eunuchs. In the final analysis, the imperial court cannot afford military expenditures or at least hundreds of thousands of taels of silver a year to maintain the tribute-guard system that mixes the middle and lower reaches of the river!

In fact, according to clear records, seven years later in the 15th year of Hongzhi, of the 8.357 million hectares of land in the thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty, only 4.228 million hectares could be taxed, or only about half of it. The other half is the land owned by feudal lords and gentry, and they do not need to pay taxes. The land tax recorded in the Ming Dynasty was about 16.8 million shi. At this time, one stone of rice was about 0.6 taels of silver, and 1,680 stones of grain could be converted into about 10 million taels of silver. The total industrial and commercial tax and salt tax in the entire Ming Dynasty was only more than one million taels. The final amount of corvee and tribute was less than two million taels. The two together accounted for more than 30% of Tian Fu, 3 to 4 million taels.

Yes, during the Hongzhi period of ZTE, the entire 13 provinces of the Ming Dynasty had a population of over 100 million, but the annual income was only more than 13 million taels! The industrial and commercial tax and salt tax only account for more than one million, about 7-8%. And this number is actually the peak of Ming Dynasty income! Comparable to the early years of Yuanyou in the Northern Song Dynasty, 24 million guan of grain, 6 million guan of cash and cloth, and a total of 30 million guan of land tax were levied. There were more than twice the land tax, 75 million guan of commercial taxes, and levies. The official national annual revenue was about That's a five-fold difference. And even taking into account the maximum 1.6 times difference between one stone in the Ming Dynasty and one stone in the Song Dynasty, the annual income of the Song Dynasty was at least three times that of the Ming Dynasty. During the Ming Dynasty, the country's annual income at its peak was only one-third of what it was during the Yuanyou period of the Northern Song Dynasty? I simply thought there was something wrong with the recorded numbers.

In the following Wanli years, the amount of silver earned from Tian Fu would be reduced to five million taels. During the Chongzhen period, it even made the diligent and thrifty Emperor Chongzhen cry...

So, where did Ming’s money go? No one can explain it. Anyway, the imperial court has no money. It must abolish the border guards, must withhold the salaries of the border troops, and must try to save money...

"Holy Emperor! Although the Ming army has withdrawn, we, the garrisons and tribes that are thousands of miles away and still willing to pay tribute, are still generously rewarded!"

"During the Xuande period, my grandfather went to Liaodong Kaiyuan to pay tribute almost every year when it was convenient to pay tribute. As long as he paid tribute of two horses and two bundles of sable skins, he could get several times the reward in return. Not only did he get the common colorful clothes, silk, and wine, but he could also get ironware as a loyal tribe that had paid tribute for generations. Once he even got the heirloom armor..."

"Since sixteen years ago, that is, in the fourteenth year of Chenghua (1478), after I took over the position of the chief of Harman, I have paid tribute to Liaodong Town five times in total, following the rule of paying tribute every three years. In these years, the savages have been looting everywhere, cutting off the roads along the way, and breaking through the garrisons, so paying tribute has become much more difficult and dangerous! But the rewards from the court The gifts were generous. Even my commander's copper seal and the Ming army armor I was wearing were given to me when I first paid tribute in the 14th year of Chenghua..."

"Hey! According to the practice of paying tribute every three years, if my Harman tribe was still there, it would be time to pay tribute again in the spring of the following year! As long as we can bring back the rewards given by the court, it will be a big harvest. And the real big harvest is to take the tribe's fur stocks to the prosperous big market in Kaiyuan and trade with Han fur merchants... That can make the whole tribe a fortune! ..."

"Ali, what did you say? ! The spring of the following year is the time when the Harman tribe pays tribute every three years? The big market of the city-state of Kaiyuan in the Liaodong state of the Ming Dynasty? It is very prosperous and has everything? ..."

Hearing this, Zuwaro's eyes moved and he immediately had an idea.