Chapter 551 550 The Non-Existent Three Guards

Speaking of which, the Ming Dynasty has been established for nearly 200 years, and the country has undergone tremendous development and changes.

However, in terms of the national system, it has continued the system established during the reigns of Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di in the early Ming Dynasty, and there are naturally many inappropriate aspects that need to be improved.

Originally, Emperor Jiajing, a monarch who came to power under special circumstances, could have implemented these reforms, but unfortunately he was obsessed with Taoist practice, and the "Jiajing New Deal" stagnated after easing the already tense social and class contradictions.

Now Yin Shizhen directly pointed out that Wei Guangde's suggestions to Prince Yu might very likely trigger a war in Liaodong, causing the Liaodong Ming army to bear attacks from the Mongols and the Jurchens further north.

Still smiling and shaking his head, Wei Guangde said slowly: "The Mongols in Liaodong actually have no combat power, they are just a pile of scattered sand. As for the Jurchens over there, are they really capable of resisting the government army?"

"But I'm afraid that the Tartars on the grassland will collude with them, which would be dangerous."

Yin Shizhen said very seriously.

Wei Guangde didn't care. Yin Shizhen and his men's idea was actually to avoid the outbreak of war in Liaodong, which was actually a good thing for the country and the soldiers.

But they didn't know that in just a hundred years, the weak and fragmented Jurchens would be unified by one person, and like other newly unified tribes, they would burst out with a powerful and unmatched fighting force under the leadership of their national hero.

His descendants even led this weak nation into the Central Plains and occupied this beautiful land.

In the past, Wei Guangde had thought about finding an opportunity to arrange people to go to Liaodong and directly exterminate the lineage of the Jianzhou Jurchens, so that a lot of trouble could be reduced.

But now he couldn't influence it, and the time was still far away, so he was not in a hurry.

However, since Yu Dayou was transferred to Guangxi, Wei Guangde began to pay attention to the Ming Dynasty's transformation of the southwest region bit by bit, and found that it seemed that this was a way to solve the Jurchens once and for all.

The Ming Dynasty's policy towards ethnic minority areas was actually very flexible.

The establishment of the Ming Dynasty was to accept the political legacy left by the Yuan Dynasty. In the early Ming Dynasty, the strength of the Ming army made the southwestern ethnic minorities fearful and naturally surrendered, just like they did to the Yuan Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty also implemented a conciliatory policy towards them. Those who surrendered voluntarily were treated in the same way as the Yuan Dynasty, that is, they still used the native official system to govern these places.

China has a vast territory and many ethnic groups. How to deal with the relationship between ethnic minorities and the Han people has always been a major problem for the rulers.

During the Tang and Song dynasties, in order to strengthen the control of states and counties where ethnic minorities occupied the majority, tribal leaders were generally authorized to serve as local officials for management, and supervisory officials appointed by the court were added. This is the policy of control.

When the control policy evolved to a certain stage, that is, during the Yuan Dynasty, the chieftain system was derived.

The Mongolians overthrew the old dynasty and established the Yuan Dynasty with an unprecedentedly vast territory. There were many ethnic groups under it. According to historical records, "the Han Dynasty was 9,320 miles from east to west and 13,368 miles from north to south."

In order to strengthen its rule over local areas, the Yuan Dynasty established the provincial system to directly govern minority areas, and the prefectures and cities established by the Tang and Song dynasties before this were also under the jurisdiction of their respective provinces.

In addition, the Yuan Dynasty also implemented the method of "Meng Yi Participation in Governance" according to the actual conditions of various places.

On the one hand, the central rulers sent relatives and royal families to guard minority areas, and on the other hand, they widely accepted local indigenous leaders and recommended them to become local military officers.

In this way, not only can the enthusiasm of minority people be fully mobilized, but also the rule of the central dynasty in minority areas is guaranteed.

The governance strategy of "Meng Yi Participation in Governance" is the predecessor of the "native official system". At that time, the Yuan Dynasty unified all kinds of officials in the country into two categories - "native officials" and "flowing officials".

In the two levels of provinces and Xuanweisi, the main ones are flowing officials and local officials are supplemented, while local officials are widely recommended at the level of roads and below.

In addition, the Yuan Dynasty also gave some special treatment to local officials. As long as the officials were loyal to the court, they were allowed to rule the region for a long time and could inherit the official position.

The Ming Dynasty adopted the policy of "encouragement" and "power and virtue", which enabled the Ming Dynasty to eventually win the support of ethnic minorities and achieve the effect of winning without fighting.

Of course, the emperors also had their own thoughts.

The emperors of the Ming Dynasty long advocated the idea of ​​"guarding the four barbarians" to manage the border. The management of the southwest region was based on "guarding" as the core. They took the Yuan Dynasty as a lesson and opposed the practice of relying on the southwest border to carry out military expansion.

This idea of ​​border management was obviously influenced by the traditional national thought since the Han and Tang Dynasties, but it was more focused on the reality faced by the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Taizu often advised ministers and his descendants not to use force against the southwest. The Ming Taizu believed that the places where the "barbarians" were located were mostly remote and wilderness, and the expedition to the southwest was laborious and costly, and even if it was conquered, it would not get much benefit.

These ideas of his were naturally accepted by his descendants, just as they easily decided to give up the Nurgan Dusi in order to reduce military expenditures.

Officials were only sent there regularly for routine inspections, but the local area was ignored.

When the Ming army of Nurgandusi retreated, the already small number of Han people also retreated south with the Ming army and retreated to the Liaodong area.

However, the Ming Dynasty did not blindly implement the native official system in the southwest.

Affected by the Ming Dynasty's policy of focusing on defending against the northern ethnic minorities, the Ming Dynasty tried to use the method of appeasement in the southwestern ethnic regions as much as possible in order to avoid provoking resistance from the southwestern ethnic minorities and stabilize the southwestern ethnic minorities.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty's military and political management in the southwestern ethnic regions was mostly moderate and prudent, and rarely took radical measures.

However, because of the Ming Dynasty's expedient measures under the defense strategy in the southwestern ethnic regions, once the opportunity was found, the Ming Dynasty would carry out the reform of the native officials.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty reformed some chieftains in the southwest, but the measures of the Ming Dynasty to reform the native officials were also quite mild. If the reform of the native officials caused rebellion among local ethnic minorities, the Ming Dynasty would change them back to native officials.

The Ming Dynasty did not take coercive measures to promote the reform of the native officials in the southwestern ethnic regions, but tried to follow the laws of historical development and promote the reform of the native officials in a gentle and prudent way.

This is also the fundamental reason why the rebellion in the southwest occurred frequently in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

The goal of the Ming Dynasty's military and political management of the southwestern ethnic regions has always been clear, that is, to strengthen the centralized rule and maintain the ruling position of the Ming Dynasty in the southwest.

The ethnic policy implemented by the Ming government has always served this purpose.

And now what Wei Guangde wants to do is to implement it in Nurgandusi as well. This is to fundamentally negate the decisions made by the previous emperors on the Liaodong issue, especially when the Han people have withdrawn back to Liaodong in large numbers and there are almost no people in Nurgandusi.

Such a change is simply impossible to achieve in the hands of Emperor Jiajing.

Therefore, Wei Guangde can only turn his attention to Prince Yu, subtly change Prince Yu's position, and gradually implement it after Prince Yu ascends the throne in the future.

As for the Liaodong Mongols and Jurchens, Wei Guangde really doesn't like them.

Don't look at how powerful the Jurchens will be a hundred years later. The Jurchens of this period will be beaten like cutting melons and vegetables when facing the Ming official army.

Otherwise, the plowing and sweeping of the caves would not be launched from time to time to harvest a crop.

In fact, Yang Hao's command of the encirclement and suppression of Jianzhou Jurchens, that is, the Battle of Sarhu, was itself part of the plan to sweep away all the evils. It was just that Emperor Wanli was a bit lazy and the war was launched late, or Nurhaci was really powerful and could quickly accumulate strength in a very short time.

After all, it took only 34 years to accumulate and finally form a crushing strength against the suzerain Ming Dynasty. Nurhaci's ability is unquestionable.

In short, it was because of various reasons that gave him the opportunity to develop his own power, which eventually sounded the bell for the collapse of the Ming Dynasty.

In addition, Wei Guangde also had a guess, that is, the Ming Dynasty's war to aid Korea may also be one of the important reasons for slowing down the Ming army's encirclement and suppression of Jianzhou Jurchens.

However, since he came, he naturally did not want such history to happen again.

After seeing the actions of the Ming Dynasty in the southwest, Wei Guangde planned to copy the policy of changing the natives to the flow and copy it to Liaodong. The first area to implement it was Jianzhou, followed by the various tribes of Haixi Jurchens.

As for the so-called Donghai Jurchens, they are further north, so forget it for the time being.

However, Wei Guangde's biggest headache was the lack of Han people in the area. The implementation of the itinerant official system would face great resistance in the court, because there was no reason for the cause, and it could only be done step by step.

Therefore, he proposed to Prince Yu to raise the administrative level of Liaodong.

"As far as I know, the various tribes of Haixi Jurchen have long had close relations with some Mongolian tribes due to their location, especially the Yehe tribe."

Wei Guangde talked about the news from Liaodong merchants that he learned about the northeast of Liaodong. After all, they have to travel between the Baishan and Heishui to purchase goods all year round, and the information they have is actually more accurate and faster than the Liaodong government.

"However, because of the deterrence of the military force, they can only obey the imperial court in public, at least they dare not rebel openly on the surface."

Hearing Wei Guangde say this, Yin Shizun nodded.

In the situation in Liaodong, the Jurchens did run to the Han territory from time to time to rob some property and people, but they would soon be intercepted and killed by the military, and then some of their tribal leaders would be punished.

"On the surface, they are obedient, but on the surface, they are plundering" is the situation in Liaodong during this period.

"The fundamental reason is the influence of the retreat of our Ming army to the south a hundred years ago.

There is no official army stationed in such a large Nurgan Dusi. Those natives are naturally arrogant and think they can challenge the majesty of the dynasty.

Even though the court sent officials to Nurgan from time to time, the contempt of the Jurchen people for our Ming Dynasty is still inevitable.

In addition, because our dynasty attacked the powerful Jurchen tribes with force, the antagonism between our dynasty and the Jurchen tribes was further aroused.

In the long run, if the current situation is maintained, it is fine for the Jurchen tribes to fight each other, but once the Jurchen tribes are unified, it will be a great threat to our Ming Dynasty's rule in Liaodong and the Nurgan area. It was a fatal blow. "

When Wei Guangde said this, he glanced at Yin Shizeng who seemed to be in deep thought, and then continued: "In my opinion, we should take advantage of the current situation of our dynasty crushing the Jurchens to directly break up their long-established tribal system.

The land system was changed to flow, and they were not allowed to continue to divide the tribes according to the tribal system. Instead, they were divided into various places by force, divided into states and counties, and officials were sent to manage them.

The chiefs of each tribe moved south according to the golden seal and imperial edict issued by the court, and lived in a place designated by the court. They were completely separated from their tribesmen, so that the court could restore its control over the Nurgan Dusi area. "

"It sounds simple, but they will never sit back and wait to be killed. The rebellion of the chieftains in the southwest is a representative example."

Yin Shizhen shook his head and said.

"Yes, it is difficult to conquer the southwest region."

Wei Guangde smiled, but paused for a moment, and then continued: "But if we ignore it, there is no guarantee that we will annex each other, and even the united Jurchens will not backlash against us.

Brother Zhengfu, does he still remember the incident of ‘Fake tribute from the king’? "

"The king's fake tribute?"

Yin Shizhen frowned slightly when he heard Wei Guangde mention this.

Of course he knew about this matter, and it caused quite a stir in the court.

In fact, the matter is also simple, that is, Duolinshan and other guardsmen from Haixi, Governor Qianshi Ezhenge, etc. came to pay tribute to the horse, and guards commanders such as Gucheng and Zhihata paid tribute at the same time.

During the roll call for rewards, Brother Ezhen called Zhu Yi Naiwangzhong tribe Ekenie and others, instead of Weihata and others from Gucheng, and he was an impostor.

At that time, there was an uproar in the court, because the people who came to pay tribute all carried the gold seals and imperial edicts issued by the Ming Dynasty to confirm their identities, but some of them were accused of being impostors, not to mention being identified in front of the emperor.

The final accurate information obtained after investigation is that Wang Zhongzhong first joined forces with the Haixi Yi Wuyunzhu to rob Tie Leshan and other Wei Yi people, and captured Tu Langzhong and others, who carried the gold seal and the thirty-five edicts, and then Disguised as them and went to the capital to pay tribute.

This incident was a big deal at the time, but the most important thing is that it fully demonstrated that the Ming Dynasty had seriously neglected the actual situation of Nuer Gandusi's entrustment of various guards, and could not even identify the identities of these leaders.

The imperial court granted tribal leaders official positions, seals, imperial crowns, and court uniforms. Tribal leaders who wanted to go to Beijing to pay tribute or to go to Liaodong Ma Market for trade must bring their own seals and edicts to prove their identity.

This subsidiary identity authentication system based on seals and edicts has been maintained for more than a hundred years, but it has long since changed.

"What is the current situation of the Jurchens and the three guards of Uliangha? Does Brother Zhengfu know?"

Wei Guangde asked again.

But this time Wei Guangde didn't wait for him to answer, so he thought to himself and said: "There is not much news about the Jurchen tribe, and my knowledge is limited. However, as far as I know, the three guards of Wuliangha have been captured by Chahar and Nei Kalkha, Horqin and other parts were eaten.

The gold seals and edicts given by the imperial court were also taken away by them. After getting these edicts, they pretended to be the three guards to associate with our Ming Dynasty. This is also the reason why the so-called three guards of Wuliangha often rebelled.

Wherever there is Wuliangha now, the so-called "Duoyan", "Taining" and "Fuyu" have long been the Chahar, Nekalka, Horqin and other tribes. "

"really?"

Yin Shizhen exclaimed.