There are no old friends outside Yangguan in the west. The westernmost end of the Hexi Corridor and even the Qiwei area west of Jiayu Pass, which was once abandoned by the Ming Dynasty, have been ruled by the Yerkang Khanate for a long time. The Uighurs and others have also converted to Christianity along with the Yelkang...,
It's called wrapping around.
Before the New Year, the emperor left Jiayu Pass, Yumen Pass, and entered Dunhuang all the way.
The vast Gobi Desert and rolling sand mountains.
Everything as far as the eye can see is covered with white snow, a sea of sand and snowfields.
By the Crescent Lake, Zhu Yihai was a little disappointed with Dunhuang.
There used to be a splendid Dunhuang culture in the Western Regions of the Han and Tang Dynasties, but now there is almost no trace of it. Especially after the Ming Dynasty abandoned the Seven Guards of Guanxi, Dunhuang no longer served as a transportation hub connecting the Western Regions and the Central Plains. Especially in the Ming Dynasty, it used to be
The Dunhuang civilization, which was dominated by Han people during the Han and Tang Dynasties, also experienced the Western Xia, Mongolia and Yuan Dynasties, and the Han people were scattered and scattered.
"When I came to the west, what I thought most about was the Guiyi Army. In the late Tang Dynasty, Zhang Yichao overthrew the sixty-year rule of the Tubo nobles in Shazhou. He established the Guiyi Army and then moved westward to Yiwu.
Connecting Lingwu to the east, it gained more than 4,000 miles of land and millions of households. It lasted for 110 years in the Hexi Corridor, from the late Tang Dynasty to the time of Renzong in the Northern Song Dynasty. How amazing is it?"
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, there was a Gaochang State in the Western Regions, which was also established by the Han people in the Central Plains. However, it was very different from the Guiyi Army.
What impressed Zhu Yihai most was that at the end of the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Yichao was able to enter the court after raising troops to seize Hexi. Unfortunately, at that time, the uprising and internal attachment of the Guiyi Army were very difficult for the late Tang Dynasty court, which was seriously ill at that time.
, is also extremely complicated. They are both relieved and worried. The emperor is far beyond the reach of the emperor.
Wen An accompanied the emperor to sit by the Crescent Moon Spring,
Dunhuang is an oasis.
Surrounded by yellow sand, this place used to be very splendid and was an important route of the Silk Road. But later, when traveling from Yumen to Yiwu, Hami no longer needed to pass through here.
This is where it gets weak.
The long accumulation of Huangshan Mountain seems to be able to submerge this oasis at any time, but miraculously, Dunhuang has survived for thousands of years.
"Zhang Qian sent an envoy to the Western Regions and reported to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that the Yuezhi lived in Dunhuang, Qilian. In the sixth year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Dunhuang County was officially established in the Han Dynasty. It has been 1,761 years now."
"Dun means great. Huang means prosperous. It is famous for its wide spread in the Western Region."
Hong Chengchou, who was sitting next to him, smiled and said, "After Xiaguan came to Hexi, I heard another theory. It is said that Dunhuang does not originate from Chinese. In the Classic of Mountains and Seas, Dunxi is the earliest name for Dunhuang, and Dunxi is the local indigenous pronunciation.
Translation: According to some local legends, the Dunhuang version is a translation of Duhuoluo.
Duhuoluo was a Yuezhi people living in Dunhuang and Qilian at that time, and Duhuoluo was also translated as Tocharo."
The Yuezhi people were once a glorious nation in the Western Regions. They escaped from the Huns and moved westward to Central Asia, and later established the Kushan Empire. During the Tang Dynasty, there was also the Tocharian Kingdom in Central Asia, and the Tang Dynasty also established
The Tocharian Protectorate is located in the Syr Darya and Amu Darya river basins, northern Afghanistan, northwest Pakistan, and northeastern Iran.
Wen Anzhi said, "Dunhuang was once inhabited by the Yuezhi people, as well as the Wusun and Sai people. Earlier, the Qiang Rong were nomadic here."
The Huns drove away the Yuezhi people and occupied the entire Hexi Corridor.
Then Huo Qubing, the general of the Hussars, went out to Longxi to attack the Xiongnu, making the entire Hexi Corridor included in the Chinese territory for the first time, and adding four counties in Hexi.
The Silk Road of the Han Dynasty started from Chang'an, passed through the Hexi Corridor to Dunhuang, then left Yumen Pass and Yangguan, along the northern foot of the Kunlun Mountains and the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, and was divided into two north and south routes. The southern route started from Dunhuang, passed through Loulan, and crossed Congling.
Rest, west to ancient Rome.
The northern line starts from Dunhuang, passes through Gaochang, Qiuci, crosses Congling and ends at Dawan.
During the Han and Tang Dynasties, a new road was opened along the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, from Dunhuang to Hami, across the Ili River, and to the Byzantine Empire.
During the Han and Tang Dynasties, the Western Silk Road could be said to be an important route for cultural communication and communication between China and the West, and it was also the busiest international trade route.
Until the late Tang Dynasty, Tubo first occupied the Hexi Corridor, and then the rebel army regained Shazhou. They once ruled 11 states in Hexi, and later contracted and divided Gua and Shazhou. They were ruled by the Zhang family and the Cao family for more than a hundred years. In the Uighur Khanate
After its demise, a large number of Uighurs fled to the Hexi Corridor, and eventually the Guiyi Army was replaced by the Shazhou Uighurs.
"I used to read history books and always yearned for the Western Regions of the Han and Tang Dynasties. But now, I find that there is no trace of the Han and Tang Dynasties here."
Wu Sangui said on the side, "If your Majesty wants to find the ruins of the Han and Tang Dynasties in Dunhuang, you can only go to the Mogao Grottoes in the south. There are nearly a thousand grottoes there, with many murals, colorful sculptures, and wooden structures from the Tang and Song Dynasties.
The eaves of the cave.”
Zhu Yihai had also heard of the name of the Mogao Grottoes, one of the three largest grottoes in China. It is said that in the chaotic modern times, a Taoist priest lived in one of the grottoes. One day, he accidentally discovered a long-buried scripture cave, which contained countless scriptures.
He reported the scriptures and pictures to the county magistrate, but the county magistrate disliked these shabby things. They knew that there were no gold, silver and jewelry, only some old scrolls and pictures, and they were not calligraphy and paintings by famous people, so they didn’t even pay for the travel expenses to transport them to the provincial capital for preservation.
If you are willing to come out, just let Taoist Wang seal it up.
It is said that Taoist Wang was almost illiterate. He was originally from Macheng, Hubei Province. He later became a soldier in Gansu and became a Taoist priest in order to make a living. In those troubled times, the county asked him, a half-true Taoist priest, to manage the Dunhuang Grottoes.
This Taoist king is the master of the cave. After performing rituals, he goes around asking for alms. After getting some money, he will find some local earthworkers with average skills and use a grass brush dipped in lime to paint the exquisite Buddhist murals in the cave.
After brushing it away, he would personally smash the Buddha statues with a sledgehammer, and then use mud and straw poles to pile up spiritual officials and the like. Because he was a Taoist priest and lived in a Buddhist grotto, he wanted to change it into a Taoist temple. Later,
I thought the caves were too small, so I tried to open them with a hammer, but accidentally smashed out a Buddhist scripture cave.
This chapter is not finished yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! He was illiterate and took some to the magistrate. The magistrate asked someone to identify them. Some people thought that these things that had lasted for thousands of years were very valuable and were cultural treasures. Suggestions
It was transported to the provincial capital for preservation and study. When I heard that it was not a calligraphy and painting by a famous person, the county didn't even bother to pay for the shipping fee and sent Taoist Wang away directly.
At this time, the Allied Forces of the Eight Powers invaded, and many countries looted and looted everywhere. Later, a translator named Jiang understood those things, and then told a Western plunderer, who defrauded Taoist Wang of nine pieces at a very low price.
It took seven days to pack more than a thousand scriptures and more than five hundred paintings. In the end, twenty-nine large wooden boxes were packed, five carts were hired, and fifteen horses were used to haul them away.
It is said that the total price of this transaction was thirty pounds.
Taoist Wang also waved goodbye to Stein, thinking that this man was very generous and that Stein was a kind and generous donor.
When Zhu Yihai heard about the Dunhuang Grottoes, he couldn't help but think of Taoist Wang, Jiang Translator and Master Si.
At this time, the thousands of volumes of scriptures in the cave, and even the scriptures that Tang Monk Tripitaka retrieved and translated, should still be sealed inside.
It is said that the grottoes in Dunhuang were first created in the second year of Jianyuan of the former Qin Dynasty by the monk Lezun. Later, Zen Master Fa Liang continued to build the caves. By the Northern Liang period, a small monk community was formed here. At first, these caves were only used as a place for hermits and monks to practice.
, and later developed to serve the monasteries that emerged nearby.
China's relationship with the Western Regions began with Zhang Qian and Huo Qubing. After the continuous management of the Han Dynasty, the prosperity of the Silk Road in the Western Regions was achieved.
Later, the Five Hus invaded China, the Five Hus and Sixteen Kingdoms, the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the Central Plains were in civil strife, but there were still many Han descendants in the Western Regions.
Zhang Jun of the former Liang Dynasty merged the three counties of Dunhuang, Jinchang and Gaochang and the three battalions of the Western Region Protector, Wuji Xiaowei and Yumen Grand Protector, and called it Shazhou.
During the Tang Dynasty, there were 3,300 Doulu troops stationed in Shazhou City, subordinate to the Hexi Jiedu Envoy stationed in Liangzhou.
After the Anshi Rebellion, the armies from the Western Regions returned to the Central Plains, which isolated Hexi and was eventually occupied by the Tibetans. After Zhang Yichao's uprising, the Han people in Hexi united all strata and ethnic groups and still held on for more than a hundred years, and were eventually occupied by the Uighurs.
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Later came the Mongol Western Expedition, then the Chagatai Khanate, and then the Yarkand Khanate.
In the early Ming Dynasty, the Mongols who garrisoned the Seven Guards of Guanxi moved east to Longyou and became the Yugu people. The Uighurs followed Yarkant to occupy this place and became the Dahui people who believed in Taoism.
However, by this time, Hong Chengchou, Wu Sangui, Li Chengdong, Zhang Yong, Zhao Liangdong, Gao Jinzhong and other vanguard forces on the right and left repeatedly raided the area. The Guanxi Seven Guards or the Mongols either retreated to the north or were transported away as prisoners.
The once lively Dunhuang once seemed a little deserted, with only a few vanguard troops.
Later, the emperor issued an order and the vanguard army was turned into a garrison on the spot, and all the soldiers were given fields and land. They even rewarded some of the captives from Duanhui as slaves, gave them some of the Duanhui women as wives and concubines, and gave them some captured Duanhui women as their concubines.
Cattle and horses were awarded to them.
Let them build forts and villages to protect these oases for the Ming Dynasty.
The emperor did not pursue the trophies looted by the vanguard army. He also encouraged them to bring their families and tribesmen over, and they would also be given land after their arrival.
When Zhu Yihai led the imperial guards to Dunhuang, the place was very lively.
There were the khans and Taijis from the khanates in the Western Regions who had already arrived to wait for the emperor, as well as envoys from the Yarkand Kingdom, as well as the vanguard army and their family members who had moved here.
The Dang River passes through Dunhuang City.
The yellow sand is long, and outside Dunhuang Castle, there are company tents everywhere.
During the Han and Tang Dynasties, this place was also a center of Buddhism and a place of dynasty. It had a developed trade economy and a prosperous culture. It had been dormant for many years. Now that the emperor has come to the west and all the Khans have come to dynasty, it has become lively again.
The glorious culture of the Western Regions in the Han and Tang dynasties should be found in the Dunhuang Grottoes.
The grottoes on the cliff at the eastern foot of Mingsha Mountain in the south of Dunhuang City have witnessed the rise and fall of this place over the course of more than a thousand years.
The Han people came, then disappeared, and now they are here again.
"The murals and Buddhist statues in the Mingsha Mountain Grottoes should be carefully protected. They are not only Buddhist things, but also historical and cultural accumulation, and should be left to future generations."
Maybe in the future, instead of going to Tibet to make tea and worship the Buddha, the Mongolians can come directly to Dunhuang to pay homage to the Buddha? Perhaps in the future, this can be made the first place to restore Buddhism in Central Asia in the Western Regions, and people from all ethnic groups in the Western Regions can come here.
"The land in Dunhuang is fertile and the products are abundant. The vanguard army is stationed for farming and guarding. I also mobilized another imperial camp to station and defend."
The Ming Dynasty once regarded Dunhuang as a remote frontier with sparsely populated roads, even worse than the wilderness of Lingbei, and abandoned it. But in Zhu Yihai's view, Dunhuang is an outpost* that must not be abandoned and is rare.
Western Oasis.
The position here is the bridgehead connecting the Western Regions. The vanguard army is changed to the Reclamation Regiment, and then the imperial battalion is transferred to garrison. The Reclamation Regiment develops agriculture. It can also be used for farming during wartime and during leisure time, using agriculture to supply the garrison and trade. Then
The future will be very good if we develop trade, even handicrafts, mining and forestry, etc.
In order to restore the place as soon as possible, Zhu Yihai even adjusted some policies towards the Japanese and distributed some Japanese prisoners to the garrison troops as serfs.
At the same time, more fields and more slaves were given to the imperial soldiers stationed here.
"Dunhuang is one of the four major oases in Gansu. There are about 500,000 acres of land for growing grains, and another 100,000 acres of woodland for growing fruit trees. There are also many grasslands that can be cultivated and grazed, and
Located on the key road to the Western Region, it is a treasure land."
Originating from the Yema River in the Qilian Mountains, the Dang River flows from the southeast through Dunhuang (Shazhou) into the Shule River, and flows northeast, connecting several oases, Anxi Prefecture (Guazhou), and Yumen.
The Shule River is also the second largest water system in the Hexi Corridor originating from the Qilian Mountains. It used to flow into Lop Nur. It is said that water flows eastward, but the Shule River is a reverse flow river flowing westward.
The sun and the moon go west, and the water flows east, but the Shule River also goes west like the sun and the moon, and eventually disappears in the desert.
The Shule River, which is more than a thousand miles long, is a river flowing with gold and silver in Guanxi. It irrigates every oasis agricultural area.
The majestic Qilian snow, the rolling Shule River, and the Crescent Moon Spring made the emperor look at the Jietian Battalion in the distance. They were the troops of the Khans of Mobei, the Western Regions, and even the Turgut Khans and Yi Khans who were far away on the Volga River on the north bank of the Caspian Sea.
Envoys from the Kazakh Khanate west of Bohai also came.
This time the emperor visited Dunhuang in the west, and the war against the green Yarkand was about to break out. The entire Central Asia region was paying close attention, and even became uneasy and nervous.
The Khiva Khanate in the river, the Bukhara Khanate, the Safavid Dynasty in Persia, and the Mughal Empire in Tianzhu, as well as the leaders of the Uzbek Mingge tribe from the Fergana Basin also sent representatives, and they are still here
It belongs to the Bukhara Khanate and was once occupied by the Yarkands, but the leader of the Mingge clan has always sought independence.
The Minge tribe is a branch of the Uzbeks who moved south to the river from the former Golden Horde. Both the Bukhara Khanate and the Khiva Khanate claimed to be descendants of the Uzbek hero Shaibani. Bukhara was once the strongest, but now
At that time, its power was already weak, and its actual controlled territory only remained in the Hezhong area where the capital was located.
In the Fergana region, the Kho Zhuo who believe in the *mystical* Sufi sect have already begun to automate their territory. The Minge tribe, led by their leader, has been resisting the religious regime and trying to establish their own khanate and get rid of the rule of Bukhara.
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The Ming Dynasty wanted to unite with the Mongolian khanates and even bring Kazakhs together to attack the Yarkand Khanate, which believed in Christianity. Although several countries that also believed in Christianity were worried about death, they had their own agendas. This time, each country
The purpose of sending envoys here is to seek personal gain.
Two Uzbek khanates and an Uzbek tribe seeking independence. They are all descendants of the Golden Horde and Mongolian descendants, but they are a mixture of Iranian, Turkic, Mongolian, Kipchak, and Garolu people.
It can be said that it is a green Turkic country ruled by the Mongolian aristocracy. Anyway, it is a very complex group of people. Because it is located in the river, Eastern and Western cultures continue to pour in, and various forces compete here, gradually forming the Uzbek Seventies.
Two.
In terms of race, culture, and religion, they are indeed closer to the Yarkands. After all, they are almost the same green forces ruled by the Turkic Mongols. However, they themselves often fight back and forth, so there is no talk of brothers.
Affection.
They are basically a mixed ethnic group, but the upper class is Mongolian, has become Turkic, and has accepted Christianity.
Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kazakhs, Yarkands, etc. were all nomadic tribes in the past, and their history of settlement was very short.
They have a bad relationship with the Oirat Mongols. Although they originated from Mongolia, one side has become Islamic, while the other has embraced Tibetan Buddhism. Several countries in Central Asia have even become Turkic.
The Turkic Mongols are a very interesting thing. They are not simply a concept like the Sinicized Hu people. The Mongols conquered the west and ruled various places, but there were too few Mongols. As the core ruling class, they had to compete with the locals.
Integrate.
Because they were too few in number, they were assimilated after such integration for a long time. Not only did they not look like Mongolians, they could not even speak Mongolian. They spoke the local Turkic language and were even accustomed to Turkic customs.
wait.
Tamerlane, who once conquered Central Asia, was a representative of the Turkic Mongols. After decades of conquest, Timur established a huge empire by force. When the Timur Empire flourished, the land under its jurisdiction included not only
Transoxiana, Khwarezm, and areas near the Caspian Sea, as well as parts of India, Persia, and the South Caucasus.
He does not know Mongolian, but is proficient in Turkic and even Persian.
"History of the Yuan Dynasty" records that Timur was born in the Baluras tribe of Mongolia. His ancestors, Harachar and Genghis Khan, were from the same clan. They were out-and-out Mongolians. However, Timur did not really identify himself as a Mongolian.
It is cultural consciousness that leans towards Persia.
Many Central Asians and even Westerners believe that Timur is just a Turk pretending to be a Mongolian noble, but even the history of the Yuan Dynasty writes that Timur was a Mongolian.
Just like some people deliberately say that the Sui and Tang Dynasties were not Han dynasties and that Li Shimin was actually a Xianbei person, it is nonsense.
They refer to the Ilkhanate, Chagatai Khanate, Golden Horde, Kazan Khanate, Nogai Khanate, Crimean Khanate, Timurid Empire and Mughal Empire as Turkicization
Mongolian country.
It is also said that there are many Turkic Mongolian ethnic groups living in the territory of the Chagatai Khanate, which are called Mughalstan, with Yarkand in the west and Uighurstan (Turpan Khanate) in the east.
The Turkic Mongols are regarded as a class, not an ethnic group, but in fact, two or three hundred years have passed since the Mongols' Western Expedition. The Mongolians have ruled various ethnic groups for hundreds of years, and they have long since integrated and become indistinguishable from the locals.
.
But they insist that they are Mongolians, but they speak Turkic or Persian, use Turkic characters or use traditional Turkic customs, and they don’t even look like Mongolians at all, but they still insist that they are Mongolians.
people.
Nowadays, the Yarkand, Khiva, Turpan, Mughal and other Turkic Mongols can be regarded as one side on the surface, with the intention of uniting to fight against the Oirat Mongols. But in fact, Zhu Yihai believes that this group of believers likes to fight.
Those who attack and invade others in the name of war are not the same people at all.
The relationship between them is far less close than that between the Oirat Mongols, let alone the blood relatives between them in Eastern Mongolia. Even the leaders of the various tribes in Eastern Mongolia had the same ancestors six or seven generations ago.
They are still fighting hard to distinguish each other. No one is convinced by the other. The leaders of the Khans of the Turkic Mongolia can only go back hundreds of years to pursue Genghis Khan, their ancestor. How can there be any unity at all?
Maybe they will threaten you, but just ignore them.
*war.
It’s not just the church that fights.
Zhu Yihai decided to start a war in Central Asia and launched the first western expedition, starting with Yarkand.
