Dominating the grasslands and defeating the grasslands are always two different things.
From paper data, the grassland population has always been only two to three million, which is already the limit of the grassland's capacity.
The reason why Genghis Khan was so powerful in his era was not that the grassland population was large, but that he included many of the conquered ethnic groups into the Mongolian tribe.
Many of the current Mongolian tribes are domesticated from other ethnic groups.
Some people may have thought that the population of the Central Plains often numbered in the tens of millions, so why did not all the grassland people migrate there in the past dynasties?
There are only two to three million more people, and it’s not like the Central Plains cannot afford to support them.
Wouldn't the border troubles of the grassland disappear in this way?
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty said, I am familiar with this.
I can only say that the idea is very rich, but the reality is too skinny.
This has indeed been done in previous dynasties, but unfortunately it ended in failure.
Not to mention two million, even one million refugees would be a disaster for any dynasty that could destabilize the entire country.
Isn’t it nonsense to think about feeding others when you don’t even have enough to eat?
However, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did not expect that a thousand years later, the Ming Dynasty would be able to complete his unfinished ideal at that time.
This year's grassland is extremely cold, or every year it is colder than the last.
Without the support of the Ming Dynasty, a farming civilization, the life of the grassland people would be difficult, not to mention that the Ming Dynasty now occupies the already scarce pastures on the grasslands, which is simply making things worse.
It can be expected that the number of grassland people who starve to death this winter may reach a peak value within hundreds of years.
While the tribes migrating from the grasslands were starving, the captives from the grasslands who had been converted into cities were living a good life with food to eat and clothing to wear.
Isn't it a good day?
Daming had to take care of two meals a day, and they were still full of meat and fish. Although he couldn't eat and drink as much as he wanted, he was seven to eighty percent full every day.
The so-called orcs will never be slaves unless they have food and shelter.
These grassland people working in Guihua City no longer want to go back to the wandering life of the past.
The only thing that troubles many grassland people is that in addition to their daily work, they also have to attend Chinese studies for an hour.
When dusk falls, someone will gather them together and teach them Chinese and Chinese characters.
Such a thing was the first of its kind in the entire history of the grasslands.
"I don't know what the imperial court is thinking. They want these barbarians to study. Do they want them to obtain merit and then serve our imperial court?"
"Don't say that. There are many ministers in our court who are also Mongolians."
"Hey, I'm just confused, why haven't we encountered such a good time? When we were young, we grazed cattle and pulled grass. How could we have such a situation? Reading and literacy were all the work of the landlords. How long has it been since then?
Everyone should learn to read and write."
"This is a good thing. It is His Highness Taisun's decree that everyone should be educated and literate. In our Ming Dynasty, schools have been set up in every prefecture, state, and county. Even our township has a township-run school."
"I heard that farming is now very sophisticated. It's really a good world."
The soldiers in charge of the inspection chatted one after another. Many of them had a strange feeling that the world was changing so fast that it felt like many years had passed.
Such changes slowly radiated from the capital to the local areas. Many soldiers had been at the border for several years. When they returned to their hometowns, they were completely unrecognizable. It was true that people and things had changed.
The construction of Guihua City did not stop during the winter, and trains continued to bring food to Guihua City.
Because it was the Spring Festival, not many soldiers had gathered on the grassland since Zhu Yuanzhang left. The million-strong army left 300,000 to guard the city, with Geng Bingwen as the commander.
Geng Bingwen achieved great merit in the Battle of Hulunbuir. It can be said that without Geng Bingwen, Zhu Ping would have been killed or captured long ago.
The large number of firearms nourishing the Mongolian army will inevitably greatly increase the strength of the Mongolian army.
Zhu Ping was punished, but Geng Bing was indispensable for his literary contributions, so he should be highly commended.
Lao Zhu thought about it for a long time, but in the end he did not grant Geng Bingwen a dukedom, but gave him the official position of Sizuo Buzheng Envoy, the Provincial Envoy of the Grassland, who was also in charge of 300,000 soldiers and horses in Guihua City.
It's not that Lao Zhu is stingy, it's probably because now is not the time to conquer the world, so of course you have to carefully consider when appointing an official.
When he returned to the palace, the smile on Lao Zhu's face never stopped.
It seemed that only Zhu Xi fought a battle, but in fact when Zhu Yuanzhang was in charge of Daqingshan, the Ming army had never stopped fighting small battles.
On the grasslands, it is actually very difficult to have any major wars. The grassland people are very brutal when they go south to plunder, because they have no way out, otherwise they will starve to death.
Facing the Central Plains army, the common practice of the grassland tribes is to run away, fight if they can't run, and surrender if they can't fight.
Zhu Yuanzhang was not interested in leading his army around, and asked his soldiers to conduct a carpet-like search of the entire grassland with Daqing Mountain as the center.
The achievements of each game are not obvious, but the combined effect is great.
The original plan was actually that Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to survive the winter and then take advantage of the grassland tribe's vitality when it was seriously weakened. However, because of Zhu Xi's relationship, the battle plan for the grassland was completed in advance.
Therefore, it does not make much sense for Zhu Yuanzhang to stay in the grassland at this time.
"Dasun, you don't know that when we left, there were still a steady stream of tribesmen coming to Guihua City and asking themselves to be slaves."
"These guys are very poor and have nothing. Even the few cattle and sheep they brought with them are as thin as ribs. It's obvious that they just want to get some food from us to survive this winter."
"We have a lot of food in the Ming Dynasty. Let alone tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people can survive. But guess what, many grassland people came to join us. They asked to be envoys to help us.
Convince more tribes to vote."
"That's what it means to subjugate the enemy without fighting."
"When we left, I was thinking that we still didn't make Guihua City bigger. Now there are half a million people in Guihua City, and people are coming continuously. If this happens more, I guess Guihua City can’t even fit it in.”
"Hey, Da Sun, guess how many war horses we got from the grassland this time?"
In the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Ying were roasting on the fire, holding freshly roasted sweet potatoes in one hand and asking their eldest grandson while eating.
Of course Zhu Ying knew how many horses the old man had captured, but in order to cooperate with the old man, he deliberately asked: "One hundred thousand?"
Zhu Yuanzhang smiled: "No, no, guess again?"
Zhu Yingdao: "Two hundred thousand?"
Zhu Yuanzhang laughed loudly: "Three hundred thousand, which is enough for more than 300,000 war horses. This time our Ming Dynasty will no longer lack cavalry."
"Speaking of military exploits, the first-class merit this time should still belong to the fourth brother. The fourth brother is indeed somewhat capable of us. He took down the three guards of Duoyan without even using a single soldier. Nearly half of the war horses were from Ziduo. From Yan Sanwei."
"After some training next year, we will have 400,000 cavalry on hand. What a guy. This time, we will make a lot of money."
"Then Timur could never have imagined that it only took us eight months to capture the grassland. Now they are probably still deploying their troops and generals, waiting for the next spring to follow us to attack us."
Four hundred thousand cavalry, this number is extremely exaggerated and terrifying.
You must know that when Genghis Khan established the Mongol Empire, he only had 300,000 cavalry.
The Ming Dynasty, which now occupies the grassland, has not completely eliminated the Oara and Tatars. The number of cavalry will reach 400,000 next year. This is naturally because it inherited the legacy of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty.
After Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan took over the Central Plains, and the Mobei Plateau, the birthplace of the Mongol Empire, naturally became the ancestral homeland of the Mongols.
During the nearly one hundred years when the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty ruled the Central Plains, the grasslands developed extremely efficiently.
This was a nomadic civilization that relied on farming civilization. In order to better ensure its rule, the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty naturally attached great importance to raising horses.
Therefore, the number of war horses on the grassland has increased in an extremely exaggerated manner.
However, it is precisely because of raising too many horses that the desertification of the current grasslands is gradually becoming more serious. After all, it is impossible to expect the Mongolians of this era to protect the environment.
At this time in the early Ming Dynasty, it can be said that the number of war horses on the grassland was at its peak.
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang captured 300,000 war horses in the grassland.
It can be seen how many grassland tribes were wiped out.
It has always been the prairie that went south to plunder, but this time it was the Ming Dynasty that went north to seize horses.
"When next spring comes, if Tamerlane doesn't come, we will go over and beat him." Zhu Yuanzhang said angrily.
He has always been unhappy with Timur in his heart because this guy has deceived him for many years.
Fortunately, he thought Timur was sincerely surrendering to the Ming Dynasty, but he turned out to be a white-eyed wolf.
With 400,000 cavalry, Zhu Yuanzhang had great confidence to launch the Western Expedition.
He could completely follow the example of Genghis Khan, invade Central Asia directly, and establish the Ming Dynasty with a wider territory.
"Then we need to build a train track across Tubo." Zhu Ying agreed with a smile.
Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but hesitate: "How much money will this cost?"
After saying this, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately smiled and said: "I think the various ethnic groups in Tubo were deeply affected by Timur, so they must help us more in building train tracks."
Zhu Yuanzhang's words obviously meant that he wanted to use Tibetan labor for free, but this was exactly what Zhu Ying wanted.
The grasslands have already been ruled by the Ming Dynasty. Can the Western Tubo Region still escape?
Zhu Ying said: "Grandpa, don't worry about money matters. With your grandson here, you can naturally take care of it."
"A few days ago, envoys came to the King of Zhan. Due to the chaos caused by the gangs in the city, the people are now in dire straits, so the King of Zhan requested to surrender to the Ming Dynasty."
"The active surrender of Champa City is also a matter worthy of celebration for our Ming Dynasty. Their envoys are now living in Tianjie Temple. My grandson means that grandpa will come when the first lunar month of the first lunar month is held.
Leading the matter regarding the transfer of Champa to the Ming Dynasty."
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he knew it was Da Sun's handiwork, so he pointed at Da Sun and said: "You, you, always want to put the credit on this old man like us. We are already half buried in the earth.
How can you care so much?"
"Besides, pacifying the grassland this time is enough for us."
Zhu Ying said with a smile: "Grandpa is always getting stronger. There is no need to talk about old age. I took the initiative to surrender to Zhancheng. I surrendered entirely because of grandpa's majesty."
When Zhu Yuanzhang saw that Dasun insisted, he stopped forcing him.
Let’s talk about some things about the civilized grassland.
The key point of civilizing the grassland lies in the supply of food. If there is no sufficient food supply, then everything is empty talk.
In addition to food, the corn feed needed by war horses is also an important key.
Hundreds of thousands of war horses, especially gathered at the border and Guihua City area.
Naturally, it was impossible for the Ming Dynasty to take these war horses everywhere to find pasture like the grassland people, and it was impossible to supply hundreds of thousands of war horses around Guihua City, so all the concentrated feed for the war horses must be imported from the Ming Dynasty.
Ensuring the supply of concentrated feed can prevent war horses from losing weight in winter, thereby stabilizing the cavalry's combat effectiveness.
It has to be said that without corn, it would have been impossible for the Ming Dynasty to raise so many war horses.
Now, almost all the corn feed grown throughout the northwest has been taken away by the government, just to meet the needs of war horses.
Seeing that the Spring Festival is still a few days away.
A piece of news reached the palace.
Li Jinglong, who set out on September 18th of the 29th year of Hongwu and led a large fleet to the Western Ocean, will be back soon.
It is already the end of the 33rd year of Hongwu, and this voyage to the West lasted more than three years.
However, Li Jinglong would definitely not be able to make it in time for the Spring Festival. This time, Li Jinglong dispatched a speedboat to deliver the news. The actual arrival in the capital would be around the end of the first year.
The main reason is that the treasure ship must be driven by the monsoon, and the end of the year is also the time when the monsoon comes.
Zhu Ying was very excited about this news.
You must know that this is different from Zheng He's voyages to the West in history. This time Li Jinglong set out, in addition to political tasks, there were also trade tasks.
If you bring so much goods out, you will definitely make a lot of money.
Although the Ming Dynasty's treasury is now full, due to the northern expedition to the grasslands, the consumption is still very huge. At least half of the treasury's money is spent on grassland excavation.
Now that the grassland has been captured, there is basically nothing gained except war horses.
There are a lot of cattle and sheep, but these cattle and sheep have to be raised in Guihua City, and they cannot be brought to the capital to add to the national treasury.
The grasslands are already poor, which is why many dynasties don't like to conquer the grasslands.
This year's Spring Festival seems particularly lively to Zhu Yuanzhang.
Because the vassal kings from various places, including Zhu Xi in Huguang, also came back.
Looking at his grandchildren and great-grandsons one after another, Zhu Yuanzhang smiled from ear to ear.
Thanks to his efforts, Lao Zhu's family finally blossomed and grew larger.
On the first day of the first lunar month, there will be a great meeting.
The weather is still a bit cold at the moment, and because there are too many people, it can only be held in Fengtian Square.
As the crown prince, Zhu Ying stood next to Zhu Yuanzhang.
On the first row of steps below are the various princes.
The first thing to do at the beginning of this year is to surrender to Champa.