Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred and Seventy: In the lower reaches of Heilongjiang, the Ming army came and left
"Witness the blood-eyed great god! This mighty Hun Tong River has dozens of tributaries. From the downstream to the upstream, it is thousands of miles, even ten thousand miles long!..."
"He is a real river and has a spirit. It is said that this was the great flood released by the god Abu Kaenduli when he created the world... Then Baiyun Gege, the youngest daughter of the god, stole the god's treasure box and spread it.
Out of the mountains and plains, let the floods form big rivers..."
Ali, the chief of the Harbarbarians, was chattering away, telling the ancient myths spread among the Jurchen tribes in the south. The barbarian chief Maha Aguda, who came from the north, looked puzzled, hearing these southern Jurchen legends for the first time. As for the
Zuwaro, the chief priest, is stretching out his finger to trace the thick blue line representing Heilongjiang on the map, bit by bit, groping upstream.
"The lower reaches of the river, from the mouth of Usuli Ula in the south to the mouth of the northeasternmost sea, about two thousand miles, is the 'Black Dragon's Tail'! At the mouth of the Ussuli River where the tail starts, is the Xishen River in Suojiang
Wei. And at the end where the Hengu River enters the river, there are Nuer Gandusi and Manjing Wei who are also locked in the river..."
"These two places at the beginning and the end are the most important places in the two thousand miles downstream! The Ming Dynasty not only entrusted a large number of tribal guards along the river, but also sent officers and soldiers to build camps and sent officials from the Han region to manage...
Nuergan Dusi was established in the seventh year of Yongle, and Xishenwei was established in the eighth year of Yongle. They were all over 80 years ago! It was not until the Xuande period more than forty years ago that Nuerqian and Xishenwei were established.
There are still imperial garrison presence..."
"After Xuande, there were great changes in Tumu Fort... Nu'ergandusi moved inward, and all the officers and soldiers in the lower reaches of the river evacuated. The military forts along the river were also handed over to the Jurchen tribes who were canonized by the imperial court... After that, the savage tribes kept coming.
As the tribes along the river continued to move southward, the tribes along the river were repeatedly plundered by the barbarians and fought endlessly. The power of the canonized tribes gradually weakened, and they either moved inward to seek annexation, migrated to the middle and upper reaches of the river, or struggled to hold on until they were attacked by the barbarians..."
"Hey! Witness our ancestors! We, the Harman Guards, have been guarding for three generations from the Xuande period to the current Hongzhi period! ... From two to three thousand people, we fought until only four to five hundred people were left. Almost
It is one of the few remaining imperial guards in the lower reaches of the north... In the end, your Wu Zhe Shanlin Jurchens who went south captured the village and destroyed the tribe..."
"O great god with bloody eyes! The fighting in the lower reaches of the river will never stop, and the only way to stop killing is to kill!... Since you have the bronze seal of the commander of the Manjing Guard in your hands, the Manjing Guard must also be gone.
exist. And the Valka East Sea savages who were plundering from the south have already defeated the Zhetere Mountain Guards stationed at the mouth of the Nuannuan River..."
"As for the Xishen Guard, it is located at the important place at the mouth of the Wusuli River. It is a must-pass for people traveling from north to south. It faces directly the migration and plunder of the barbarians from the East Sea of Valkha and the barbarians from the Huerha North River! Even if there are three guards in the Suojiang River,
The large tribes entrusted with the branch have been garrisoned together, and have been attacked several times. The tribes responsible for guarding have been dying and fleeing. They have abandoned the river mouth for more than ten years, allowing the large tribes of savages to go south..."
"Let me think about it. At present, there are only three guard posts that still exist in the two thousand miles of 'Black Dragon's Tail'...from north to south, there should be only three guard posts: Fushan Guard, Hushi Gate Guard, and Yi'erguli Guard. And
The reason why these three guard tribes are
It can still continue because the stockade is built in a dangerous location, close to mountains and rivers, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack! However, according to the words of those wild people in the mountains and forests, the Fushan Guards six hundred miles to the south have also been besieged and plundered by the wild people.
It’s in danger…”
As the "Sitting Tiger" Chief Ali narrated, the situation of the entire two thousand miles downstream of Heilongjiang was like a mist that was lifted, gradually revealed in front of everyone. Zuwaro thought from the perspective of the overall situation,
Naturally, I have a deeper understanding of the arrangements of these "Great Ming Tribe Alliance".
"O Lord God! Set up a series of strongholds along the mighty river. Build strongholds and garrisons, ennoble the surrounding tribes, and control the river mouths and important places at the river mouths... This long-term arrangement relies on the river, and the Ming Dynasty controls the lower reaches of the river.
Is there any way to cover a vast river basin of thousands of miles?”
"Witness the Lord God! The long line of strongholds along the river set up by the Ming Dynasty in the south is very powerful in terms of military control, and it is also very successful in paying tribute to the surrounding tribes. This is indeed the best way! ... To expand the influence of the kingdom in this forest sea
, we must learn from the Ming Dynasty that once ruled here! ... However, the Ming Dynasty finally chose to evacuate. What is the reason for this?..."
Zuwaro squinted his eyes and stared at the map of the lower reaches of the river. Along these two thousand miles of river bank, there are currently countless savage tribes going south, fighting each other, or fighting with the mature tribesmen guard left by the Ming Dynasty. This kind of fighting
Not a year or two, not once or twice, but something that can last for more than ten years!
It's like sawing a tree with a rope saw. No matter how many ropes are worn out or how many savage tribes die, new ropes will be replenished. The sawed tree has its northern branches cut off little by little.
, broke off various guard posts along the river. In the end, only the bare main trunk, although indestructible, was still standing in the south, standing within the distant side wall...
"Ali! Has the Ming Dynasty in the south really given up on these 'military strongholds' and 'tributary tribes' in the lower reaches of the north? With their army said to be tens of thousands, as powerful as legends, they sent thousands of legions along the way.
It should be easy to go north along the river to attack, 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 out, it will be spent.
Big and many are difficult
Just imagine! The Ming Dynasty's border army may only have a few thousand people 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 military supervisors at all levels are all involved.
To make a fortune out of it…”
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "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 year's surplus...Two troops were sent out to sweep,
The first time was in Chenghua for three years, and the second time was in Chenghua for fifteen years.
That was fifteen years ago. Especially the second time was the most expensive. Wang Zhi, the superintendent in charge of supervising the army, and officers at all levels did not know how much they took... This was only the sweep of Jianzhou along the Songhua River.
Jurchen, the logistics transportation from Liaodong is only a thousand or two thousand miles away..."
"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 Jurchens in Jianzhou, from the middle reaches of Heilongjiang to the Songhua River, and then to the upper reaches of the Songhua River. The location of the Harman Guards and Nuer Gandusi was about 100 meters away from Jianzhou.
All tribes, we have to go four to five thousand miles north!
If we add this all up, from Liaodong Town to Nuergan, and from Songhua River to Huntong River, the logistics and food transportation alone would have to be at least 6,000 miles! You know, with the barren forest sea in the north, it is impossible to transport food from the local
What food supplies can be obtained from the tribe? All
All the supplies had to be transported from the rear by vehicles and ships. 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? The "loss" and "drift" in the middle
, how many more will there be? I can’t even think about it!
"At that time, the General Soldier of Liaodong told my father that the Jilin Shipyard was about to be abolished and no more 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 Jurchen guards attached to it. They would be mixed with those 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 inward 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 frontier troops, and reluctant to part with the ancestral land that has been passed down from generation to generation... Sigh! If I had known today, I should have taken advantage of the opportunity to move south as a family..."
"O God of Bloody Eyes! Now twenty-seven years have passed, and the imperial navy that once roamed the rivers has probably completely ceased to exist! And without such a logistics and transportation navy, if the Ming Dynasty wants to conquer the distant lower reaches of the rivers, it will
If we cannot maintain the logistics of thousands of troops, it will be almost impossible..."
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 Yangtze River has basically come to an end. Without the Jilin Shipyard, there would be no
Without large ships and a fleet of large ships to maintain the logistical supplies for 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 Ledger" presented by the civil servants prevailed over the "Yongle Book" presented by the eunuchs. In the final analysis
, the imperial court could not afford military spending, or at least hundreds of thousands of taels of silver a year, to maintain the tribute-guard system that was mixed with the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River!
In fact, according to clear records, seven years later in the fifteenth 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, which was only about half. The remaining half was
The vassal kings and gentry did not need to pay taxes on the land. The land tax recorded in the Ming Dynasty was about
There are 16.8 million shi. At this time, one stone of rice is about 0.6 taels of silver, and 1,680 shi of grain can be converted into about 10 million taels of silver. The total industrial and commercial tax and salt tax of the entire Ming Dynasty are only more than one million taels. The final corvee and soil tribute are
For color, it is less than 2 million taels. The two combined are more than 30% of the land tax, 3-4 million taels.
Yes, during the Hongzhi period of Zhongxing, the entire Ming Dynasty's 13 provinces had a population of over 100 million, and the annual income was only more than 13 million taels! And the industrial and commercial tax and salt tax only accounted for more than 1 million, about 7-8%. And this figure
, it turned out to be the peak of the Ming Dynasty's annual income! Compared with the early years of Yuanyou in the Northern Song Dynasty, 24 million stones of rice, 6 million guan of cash and cloth, a total of 30 million guan of land tax, and two land tax were collected.
More than 1.6 times, 75 million guan of business tax, reduced labor... The apparent annual income of the country is about five times the difference. And even if we include the maximum difference of 1.6 times between one stone in the Ming Dynasty and one stone in the Song Dynasty, the annual income of the Song Dynasty is at least
Three times that of the Ming Dynasty. The national annual income during the Ming Dynasty's heyday was only one-third of that during the Yuanyou period of the Northern Song Dynasty? I simply thought there was something wrong with the recorded figures...
In the following Wanli period, the amount of land tax exchanged for silver dropped to five million taels. In the Chongzhen period, it even made the thrifty Emperor Chongzhen cry...
So, where did the money of the Ming Dynasty go? No one can explain. Anyway, the court has no money. It must abolish the border guards, must withhold the salaries of the border troops, and must try to save money...
"Your Majesty, Holy Emperor! Although the Ming Dynasty's army has withdrawn, we still have generous rewards for those of us who are thousands of miles away and are still willing to pay tribute!"
"My grandfather was in the Xuande period, when it was convenient to pay tribute. He went to Kaiyuan, Liaodong almost every year to pay tribute. As long as he paid tribute to two horses and two bundles of mink skins, he could get several times the reward. In addition to common colorful clothes,
Silk, wine, and even iron tools as loyal tribesmen who have paid tribute for generations, and once even obtained an heirloom iron armor..."
"Sixteen years ago, that is, the fourteenth year of Chenghua (1478), after I took over as the chief of Harman, I went to Liaodong Town to pay tribute five times in total, paying tribute every three years. In these years, barbarians are everywhere.
Looting, cutting off roads along the way, breaking guard posts, and paying tribute are much more difficult and dangerous! But the rewards from the court are still generous. Even my commander's copper seal and the Ming army armor I wear are from the 14th year of Chenghua.
I gave it to you when I paid tribute for the first time..."
"Hey! Counting it together, according to the custom of paying tribute every three years, if our Harman tribe is still there, it will be time to pay tribute again in the spring of the following year! The rewards given by the court are not small as long as they can be brought back.
Harvest. And the real bulk of the harvest is to take the tribe's fur inventory to the prosperous big market in Kaiyuan and trade with Han fur merchants... That can make the entire tribe make a fortune!..."
"Ali, what are you talking about?! The spring of the year after tomorrow is the time when the Harman Tribe pays tribute every three years? The big market in the city-state of Kaiyuan in the Liaodong Kingdom of the Ming Dynasty? It is very prosperous and has everything?..."
Hearing this, Zuvalo's eyes moved and he immediately had an idea.