Suiyuan area, Chahar, and Modong areas all belong to Monan Mongolia and belong to three major branches.
Chahar is composed of the Khan tribe, Beihai County King, Chahar County King, plus some small tribes.
Suiyuan is different. Since this is the place where Lin Dan Khan fled and migrated, the Tumut tribe was dispersed, and a large number of small and medium-sized nobles scattered all over Suiyuan like pearls falling on a jade plate.
Therefore, the 100-household system (100 households, 1000 households, 1000 households, 1000 households) was implemented very quickly, so there were no counties in Suiyuan, only prefectures.
Suiyuan Province compiled a fishing net to continuously reduce the power of the nobles.
First, the military power of the nobles was taken back, and the nobles were not allowed to have an army of more than a hundred men.
Then circuit courts were established and judicial power was taken back.
Finally, each hundred households also set up censors, who were responsible for supervising the administrative power of the nobles.
In other words, the administrative power of the nobility, large and small, has also been greatly restricted.
The reason why the Mongolian nobles accepted it with humiliation was because Suiyuan maintained a standing border guard of 20,000 troops for a long time.
Among them, 10,000 cavalry, 5,000 musketeers, and 5,000 spearmen were too much pressure for the Mongols.
Coupled with the prevalence of border trade, wool, cattle and sheep trade, etc., the huge economic benefits made the nobles addicted to it.
The era of shortage of food and clothing is gone forever. The nobles have all kinds of food, wine and tea every day, and they are very happy.
They were reluctant to break such a peaceful life and the order of the grassland maintained by the Ming Dynasty.
Yu Chenglong looked around and saw the Mongolian people walking around, leading horses. Most of them were dressed in linen clothes and dusty. At first glance, they were ordinary herdsmen.
The nobles, on the other hand, were shouting in front of each other. Although they were wearing Mongolian robes, they were made of fine silk and satin and looked very beautiful.
"Sir, do you think these Mongolians eat mutton every day?"
The servant watched eagerly and said curiously.
"No." Yu Chenglong chuckled and said: "Only those nobles can eat meat every day. Ordinary people are not even as good as you. They eat milk mixed with wool and mare's milk, and they can only eat meat during festivals."
"You said you eat meat every day on the grassland. They want to lure you away and make you a slave."
"Besides, when the white disaster strikes, many people will starve to death..."
"Ah?" The servant was shocked and his face changed drastically: "I'm just telling you, there is no such good thing in the world."
"But, sir, there are white plagues on the grassland every few years, so what should we do?"
"Why are you panicking?" Yu Chenglong scolded: "Now that we have silage methods, white disasters are not so scary."
The so-called silage is actually compressed and fermented grass, stored and fed to livestock in the winter.
The reason why the white disaster (snow disaster) is terrible is that the ground is covered with heavy snow for several feet, and the cattle and sheep cannot find the dead grass covered by the snow, so they can only starve to death.
Severe cold is the next best thing.
Cattle and sheep are breeding livestock and cannot be eaten. They are like seeds for farmers and must be kept. During the White Disaster, the reduction of livestock means the reduction of seeds, and they will surely starve to death in the coming year.
After arriving in Jiuyuan, the governor of Suiyuan, the administrative envoy, the administrative envoy, the academic envoy, etc. came to greet him one after another.
The next day, Yu Chenglong took office as the prefect of Jiuyuan.
There is only one Jiuyuan City in the whole government, which is under the direct jurisdiction of the government, and Dingkou under its jurisdiction is second only to Guihua Prefecture.
Jiuyuan Prefecture is located on the north bank of the Yellow River. The Hetao grassland is fertile and can be said to be both arable and grazing.
As a result, its population has reached more than 113,000 people, with 63 households per 100 households, 15 households per 1,000 households, and 8 households per 1,000 households.
And as time goes by, the population increases, and the number of nobles and tribes will continue to increase.
Yu Chenglong was quite puzzled: "There were 84 Jiuyuan stores last year, how come there are only 86 this year?"
The colleague on the side laughed and said: "The master of the palace does not know. Our tribe in Suiyuan has no jurisdiction between hundreds and thousands of households. There is only the level of the title. Once the number of accounts exceeds the upper limit, it is like a big family.
Separate the family."
It turns out that Suiyuan stipulated that for all Mongolian nobles, fifty to two hundred households were divided into one hundred households, two hundred to five hundred households were divided into one thousand households, and five hundred to eight hundred were divided into one thousand households. Anyone who exceeded his title must be divided into families.
.
For example, if the number of Dingkou under Qianhu's banner exceeds the legal number, the excess must be separated out and reorganized into a new tribe, which will be recognized by the court.
"Of course, if you prefer other sons, you can also divide some of the herdsmen out. It is also very cost-effective to divide 50 households out of 800 households for your beloved son."
Tongzhi said enviously: "Originally, there was only one noble in the family, but in the end, there were two more nobles. They are rich and wealthy, which is very comfortable."
Yu Chenglong smiled, stroked his beard, flipped through the information, and continued: "Then no one is hiding it?"
"With so many tribes and such a vast grassland, the imperial court can't control them at all. Just hide more people."
"Master Fu, you don't know something. The imperial court has already taken precautions against such thoughts."
It turns out that the overseer is a permanent spy in the tribe, following him all year round and not leaving easily.
Apart from this, the biggest constraint is the pasture.
A tribe will be divided into pastures by the court, and the upper limit of its area is the title. One hundred households have one hundred households' pastures, and one thousand households have one thousand households' pastures.
There are detailed regulations on the transfer routes and locations throughout the year. Do not exceed the rules, otherwise conflicts will arise.
In this case, the population will increase and the grassland will explode sooner or later. Unless there is annexation of tribes or rebellion, there is no other way.
But by doing this, Suiyuan Province will be overwhelmed by Mount Tai, leaving it with only a dead end.
"The imperial court controls all the grasslands in Suiyuan. With a large amount of land in its hands, it is equivalent to holding the lifeblood of the Mongolian tribes. How dare they do anything?"
Tongzhi said smugly: "Such a method was designed by His Majesty himself, and the cabinet ministers, governor of Suiyuan and other officials have continuously supplemented it over the years. There are so many rules and regulations that the Mongols simply cannot get rid of them."
Yu Chenglong nodded and agreed.
Suiyuan's restrictions are extremely restrictive.
For example, regarding noble marriage, it is stipulated that equal nobles are not allowed to marry, that is, a thousand households can only marry deputy thousand households, or nobles of a hundred households, but cannot marry with equal thousand households to prevent them from being connected in series.
In terms of inheritance of titles, the eldest son inheritance system is implemented. The tribesmen and titles are inherited by him. Other sons can only receive property such as gold, silver, cattle and sheep.
Of course, it is also possible if the tribe is divided before death.
At the same time, if there is no son, the title will be inherited by his brother. If there is no brother, the title will be succeeded by one generation.
In any case, a son-in-law may not annex his tribe.
"Master Fu, the most important thing now is the Alxa region."
Tongzhi spoke softly, with a somewhat solemn tone.
Yu Chenglong asked the reason,
He said: "There are four prefectures in Suiyuan, Guihua, Jiuyuan, Dongsheng, and Hetao. In fact, the place in the far west, close to Gansu, is called Alxa."
"Due to its vast territory and sparse population, all efforts were made to build Jiuyuan at that time. The imperial court did not have any spare time to build other cities, so it was ignored and restrained."
"Now that Suiyuan Dingkou is growing rapidly and taxation is comprehensive, it should be time to expand and set up a new government to accommodate herdsmen..."
It turns out that the Alxa area belonged to Juyan and Xiutu counties during the Han Dynasty, and later Xihai County was established.
In the Tang Dynasty, it belonged to the Anbei Protectorate.
In the Ming Dynasty, 50,000 troops were sent out to attack Blackwater City, and this place was abandoned.
The reason for its abandonment is also very simple. Except for the Juyanhai area, the rest is too barren, much worse than Jiuyuan and Suiyuan. You must know that even in the 21st century, its population was only about 200,000.
Now that the governor of Suiyuan needed political achievements, he naturally fell in love with him and did not want to detain him any longer, but directly managed him.
So the governor's office of Suiyuan, after reporting to the court, asked all governments to share military expenditures and organized civilians to drive sheep and cattle.
Obviously, the imperial court did not want to pay and wanted Suiyuan to do it on his own.
The 20,000 border troops stationed in Suiyuan for a long time are not just for a living.
The army can, but military spending is not enough.
After all, the provincial government's reserves are not much and have been used for a long time. It is difficult to spend an additional amount of military expenses, so they can only be apportioned.
"It's easy for civilians to do it, just spend some money, but how much military expenditure is needed?"
Yu Chenglong's heart tightened and he asked quickly.
"Among the four provinces, Guihua Prefecture ranks first, Jiuyuan ranks second, Hetao ranks third, and Dongsheng ranks fourth. We, Jiuyuan, need to share 50,000 yuan..."
There are hundreds of thousands of people in Jiuyuan Prefecture. Regarding the taxes of each tribe, they basically take the corvee lightly and draw one out of a hundred.
That is, one sheep out of a hundred is collected as tax.
The reason why there can't be too many is because there is still room for exploitation by the nobles, and the herdsmen cannot really starve to death!
Cattle, on the other hand, are promoted to be raised due to farming in the hinterland, so they are tax-free, which can be regarded as giving herdsmen many ways to survive.
You know, to feed a family of five on the grassland, at least a hundred sheep are needed. The number of cattle and sheep in Jiuyuan exceeds two million.
If 20,000 sheep are levied a year, and each sheep has 5 cents, that’s just 10,000 yuan.
Fortunately, there are still two to three thousand Han Chinese in Jiuyuan City, who are military families. They plant crops on an area of about 100,000 acres, and they can collect about 10,000 acres every year.
Comparing the two aspects, agriculture is much better than grazing.
The largest income comes from the merchants in the city. Their taxes, rents, and consumption can bring 130,000 commercial taxes to Jiuyuan Prefecture a year.
In conjunction with this, Jiuyuan Prefecture sells nearly 200,000 sheep, 5,000 cattle, 100,000 dans of wool, and 20,000 to 30,000 horses every year.
The consumption of cloth, salt, tea, ironware, porcelain, etc. is a huge number.
"Can the treasury be able to support it?"
Yu Chenglong asked tentatively.
"Unless the 30,000 acres of cultivated land newly developed this year and the official roads under construction are stopped, the 50,000 yuan will not be enough."
"That can't stop."
Yu Chenglong gritted his teeth and said: "Those 30,000 acres of land cost 30,000 yuan. How can we give up halfway?"
Develop official land and lease it to the down-and-out Mongol race. You can harvest 10,000 kilograms of grain in a year, and the cost of land reclamation can be recovered in three to five years. This is another half-measure, and it will be a huge loss.
"That's all."
Yu Chenglong thought about it and felt that such a political task must be taken on, but at the same time he could not give up halfway. He could only make up his mind:
"Sell 10,000 acres of land in advance to raise enough military expenses."
…
At the same time, in Anxi Province.
Although it has already entered autumn, the whole of Urumqi is still busy and lively.
Urumqi is named after the Heshuote tribe called it the Great Grassland. This is the place where it transitions in winter. Even in autumn, the ground is still green.
After Li Dingguo returned to Anxi after a long journey, he began to change the defenses of the garrison in various places to prevent his army from being overwhelmed.
Anxi Province was divided into north and south.
Southern Xinjiang is a desert, so each oases is divided into counties and townships according to their size, and then a government is set up in the large oases to take charge of their jurisdiction.
Among them, the southern Xinjiang region is centered on the six prefectures of Kashgar, Yarkand (Yarkand), Khotan, Aksu, Wush, and Kuqa.
The population is approximately 400,000.
In northern Xinjiang, the population is about 300,000.
The total number is only 700,000, which is barely the population of a prefecture in the mainland, but the scope of its jurisdiction is equivalent to several provinces.
Most of them are grasslands, basins, and fertile pastures. A large number of Gansu immigrants and military families reclaimed wasteland and built a large number of cultivated fields.
At the same time, many Mongolian herdsmen were also domesticated and started farming, thus becoming farmers.
The entire Northern Xinjiang began with one city, Urumqi, and gradually added Yinli and Xihai, which are called the three towns of Northern Xinjiang.
Among them, Yinli is in the Yinli River Valley, and the West Sea is in the southern corner of Balkhash Lake.
For Lake Balkhash, Anxi Province named it Xihai, so its city is also Xihai.
This is the westernmost city in the entire Ming Dynasty, with only a few merchants and garrison troops, numbering two to three thousand people.
Around Urumqi, Li Dingguo built three cities in succession, which formed the horns of each other.
In fact, although Urumqi was relatively central in later generations, in Anxi at this time, Yin Li was actually in the center.
Li Dingguo has been thinking about moving the provincial government office to Yinli, but after thinking about it, he still feels that it is not suitable at the moment.
Because Urumqi is very close to Hami, it is easy to provide support in case of danger.
At this time, Turpan was already a prefecture in Gansu, and it could be regarded as a fist extending into Anxi. It was extremely convenient for both supporting and relocating people.
But after returning from Beijing, he felt that it was imperative to move the Governor's Palace to Yinli.
When the subordinate generals and envoys asked about the reason, Li Dingguo said: "Yin Li is the most convenient for the imperial court to use troops."
We just went ahead and at the beginning of September, the General Mansion was moved to Yinli.
As a result, Yinli became prosperous instantly and the amount of cultivated land increased greatly.
At this time, garrison generals from various places received the news one after another and came to Yinli to pay their respects.
Li Dingguo raised his head and said: "To make a long story short, when I went to Beijing this time, His Majesty personally told me to conquer the Bukhara Khanate, which will be the vassal state of the future King of Liao."
As soon as these words came out, everyone in the hall was shocked.
Immediately, a large number of calls for battle were heard.
No matter how hard everyone tried to suppress it, the smiles on their faces could not be hidden.
War and military exploits are the reasons why everyone chooses to come to Anxi.
At the same time, many Mongolian generals were also eager to try.
Among the 30,000 frontier troops in Anxi, 10,000 Mongolians, 10,000 Uighurs, and another 10,000 Han Chinese were mixed and scattered.