(The new book has been opened. This one will be completed as soon as possible. There will be at least 20,000 words updated today)
Fifteen years after becoming relatively prosperous, Hooker invented something similar to the Newcomen steam engine, triggering a series of new upsurges in scientific research, culture and education, and system improvement in the Ming Dynasty.
The year finally came to an end in a hurry amid the hectic legislative reforms and organizational restructuring of the administrative departments.
The Ming Dynasty, which had been resting for six or seven years by levying corvee and lax taxes on the people, became more tolerant again. It launched some three-pronged measures to promote the New Deal and eliminated many long-standing shortcomings.
Other new laws that have already been implemented will naturally continue to be advanced in an orderly manner, and there is nothing to elaborate on.
After more than a year of hectic system reform, as time came to the summer of 1678, a border problem that had been delayed by the Ming Dynasty for several years finally became serious.
That is Galdan, the leader of the Junggar tribe located in the northwest of the Ming Dynasty. While the Ming Dynasty was busy with internal affairs, he finally seized the window period of several years, swallowed up some surrounding forces, and gradually became more likely to dominate the northwest.
As for the Ming Dynasty, in fact, they had heard about Galdan's movements as early as three to five years ago. However, at that time, the Ming court felt that Galdan was not yet popular and was suitable to be let loose again so that it could "drove tigers and devour wolves" in the future. This included Zhu Shuren himself.
He also thought so, and even persuaded the emperor's son, and finally put it aside for the time being.
On the other hand, it was also because the Ming Dynasty's national power had not yet fully returned to its peak state. After defeating Burma and Yuehe and the Spaniards in Luzon, they spent too much energy in order to further reform the country and control the southern territory.
I am afraid of indigestion if I expand too quickly, so I will tolerate it for the time being and digest it more first.
Five years ago, the Ming Dynasty first heard about the threat of Galdan. It was in 1673. Galdan had just established a mutual trade relationship with the Rakshasa Kingdom, and then went on a northern expedition to defeat another Tatar-Mongolian "Heshuote tribe".
"when.
The specific chronological sequence is roughly as follows: In 1670, Galdan's brother, the former Junggar Khan and Sengge Taiji, who was relatively close to the Ming Dynasty, was assassinated. Civil strife broke out in the Junggar tribe, and then Galdan died.
After a year, in 1671 he reluctantly became the Khan of the Junggar tribe and began to take over the throne.
Of course, when he wanted to succeed to the throne, not everyone was convinced by him, so from 1671 to 1672, he fought a civil war among the Junggar tribes for more than a year before finally wiping out the opposition and unifying the tribe.
However, while he eliminated the rebels in his tribe, some of the rebels also escaped from Junggar and took refuge in another tribe of Western Tatar Mongolia, namely the Kashote tribe.
At that time, the Junggar tribe was located near the "Junggar Basin" taught in geography courses in later generations, which was also the basin and grassland around Ulumqi in later generations.
The territory of the Heshuote tribe is in the northwest of the Junggar tribe and north of the Tianshan Mountains, which is later known as Altay and Karamay. It even extended westward into the territory of Kazakhstan in later generations, all the way to Lake Balkhash (called in Chinese since the Han Dynasty)
Lake Balkhash is the "Yibao Sea" and has always been the natural boundary of the Western Region Protectorate during the Han and Tang dynasties. It was later cut off in the late Qing Dynasty.)
In order to hunt down the traitors who escaped from the Junggar tribe, Galdan began to separate and join forces with the Heshuote tribe in 1673. Sometimes they negotiated and sometimes they fought. Later, because they could not defeat them directly, Galdan made a major decision.
, became the first Khan King in the northwest region to "open his eyes to see the world"——
Galdan chose to trade with the Rakshasa Kingdom Alliance, and agreed to attack the Heshuote tribe from the north and south with the Rakshasa Kingdom. He also promised that once the Heshuote tribe could be destroyed, he would share the land, population, and livestock with the Rakshasa people.
At that time, the Rakshasa people also wanted to expand on the Central Asian grasslands north of the Tianshan Mountains, and they hit it off with Galdan. They sold Galdan many new muskets, including the latest standard equipment of the Rakshasa shooting army, and even helped Galdan.
Erdan armed a camel artillery unit with camels carrying small artillery pieces.
At the same time, other Tatars such as the Heshuote tribe obviously lacked the foresight to "open their eyes and see the world". Originally, they were all about the same strength and founded the country by cavalry and archery. However, the Junggar tribe suddenly had musketeers and camel artillery, and the Heshuote tribe
How can anyone beat me?
So in just three years, starting from 1674, Junggar reversed its previous decline in the Heshuote. By 1676, it flattened the Heshuote and some other tribes, and completely controlled the entire territory and territory of later generations.
Part of Kazakhstan all the way to Lake Balkhash.
Of course, when the news of the destruction of the Heshuote tribe the year before last came back to Nanjing in the first half of the next year, the Ming Dynasty was not worried about it.
Because the important ministers of the Ming Dynasty generally felt that if the Ming Dynasty conquered the northwest for no reason, it would definitely cause all the Tatars to unite with the same hatred to fight against the Ming Dynasty, and the price paid by the Ming Dynasty would only be greater.
Now the Junggar tribe is willing to take advantage of this hatred and kill other tribes horribly first, making the survivors of other tribes feel resentful. Then when the Ming Dynasty attacks, these people will thank the Ming Dynasty for rescuing them, and they will be able to compete with the eastern region.
The Mongolian tribes like Chahar and Horqin surrendered to the Ming Dynasty and accepted its rule.
Therefore, the Ming Dynasty allowed the Junggar tribe to act white-faced and let the Tatars kill each other and create hatred, without any worries.
If the Ming Dynasty had to worry, at least it had to wait until the Junggar tribe had almost completely expanded, and there were no more enemies to offend.
At this time, the Ming Dynasty once again offended the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty justifiably fought back against the enemy and wiped out the Junggar people who had just fought for many years and were exhausted, and reaped the benefits to the remaining people of other tribes.
Anyway, as long as Junggar is still expanding, still fighting, and still offending more people, there is no need for the Ming Dynasty to worry.
The Ming Dynasty chose to suppress the wave of warnings in 1676. Now more than two years have passed, and the Junggar tribe finally wants to die and will go crazy, provoking several more enemies.
Moreover, during the two years of continuous battles, Galdan relied on Rakshasa muskets and camel cannons, and soon he was about to kill each of the hostile tribes who only used primitive cold weapons. What about the Tatar Dulbert tribe, Hui
The special tribe and other small Mongolian tribes in the desert were all wiped out.
This year, that is, 1678, Galdan once again frantically started a new phase of expansion: he remembered that among the enemies who competed with him for position six years ago, there was a man named Zhuot Babatur, and the Eqirtu behind him.
Khan, after his defeat that year, fled to Qinghai, where he united with local forces to recuperate and try to make a comeback.
Galdan struck first. After unifying the territory and eastern Kazakhstan, his troops turned south and entered the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. He swept across the Yarkand Khanate at the junction of southern Xinjiang and Qinghai, and then turned to attack the territory and Qinghai.
, some small tribes bordering Tibet pursued Oqiltu Khan.
The Yarkand Khanate that he destroyed is said to be the orthodox descendant of the "Chagatai Khanate" that was parallel to the Yuan Dynasty. It is the descendant of one of the four major khanates during the time of Genghis Khan. Now it has also been wiped out by the Junggar tribe.
Of course, the military intelligence sent back from the border area of Qinghai-Tibet could not be sent to the Ming Dynasty immediately, because the Ming Dynasty had not established rule there.
During the Ming Dynasty, there was a certain administrative power in Qinghai, but it was limited to the Hehuang area, that is, the upper reaches of the Yellow River and its tributary Huangshui. The actual westernmost jurisdiction did not extend beyond Qinghai Lake. In fact, this was also the case during the Han and Tang Dynasties.
To the west, it's all in name only.
It took three months for the news of Galdan's invasion of Qinghai and Tibet to reach Xining Guard, which was actually controlled by the Ming Dynasty, in June of that year (Xining Guard further west, to the coast of Qinghai Lake, was part of the Ming Dynasty during the Ming Dynasty)
The scope of "Uzang" is no longer under the direct jurisdiction of Damingliu officials)
After arriving at Xiningwei, the subsequent journey was a bit faster. According to the normal expedited military situation of three to four hundred miles per day, we arrived in Nanjing in more than a month.
…
However, when the news came back that Galdan had invaded Qinghai-Tibet, the timing was very bad, and the Ming court was unable to deal with him at all.
There is no other reason than that in the 16th year of the well-off period, a nationwide severe drought happened in the Ming Dynasty, and it was too busy to take care of itself.
As mentioned before, in history, in the 17th and 18th years of Kangxi's reign, a nationwide severe drought occurred, and it was a "severe drought in both the north and the south" for two consecutive years. In the 18th year of Kangxi's reign, a severe drought occurred in Hebei.
A massive earthquake caused the Yellow River, which had a small amount of water, to burst its banks, causing numerous casualties and losses.
After all, even if the most intense period of the Little Ice Age has passed, natural disasters will not occur for ten or eight consecutive years.
Historically, in the early Kangxi period, basically every place had major disasters in an average of 20% of the years, and the remaining 80% of the years were barely tolerable or had good weather, which was considered very good.
These changes in the natural environment and climate cannot be changed by Zhu Shuren's butterfly effect, so corresponding to today's Ming Dynasty, the two years of the 16th and 17th years of Xiaokang also corresponded to the continuous disasters in the 17th and 18th years of Kangxi, which is worthy of
It is called the most serious year since Zhu Ciyu came to the throne.
Considering that the ancients were somewhat superstitious, even if the Ming Dynasty popularized mathematics and science education and promoted new learning, it was only the ninth year since the founding of Nanjing University. There is still a huge gap in mathematics and science talents across the country.
Under such circumstances, it would be good if the emperor could not issue edicts to sin against himself and not take natural disasters upon himself, but how could he still use troops and resort to force?
So, after hearing that the Yarkand Khanate had been destroyed and that some other tribal khanates in the Uzbek region had been invaded by Galdan, the Ming Dynasty had no choice but to endure it.
After a final calculation, they just asked Gu Yanwu to send people from the vassal to "mediate the peace talks". In the spirit of "the Uzbeg area, many khanates and tribes are vassal to the Ming Dynasty. I hope that Junggar will not be ungrateful and will not pursue Eqi."
"Ertu Khan expanded the scope of his attack" to persuade the Junggar people to behave themselves.
Otherwise, as the co-owner of the world, Ming Dynasty will definitely stand up for the younger brothers who pay tribute to the Ming vassal! Just like the Japanese invaders invaded Korea 80 years ago, Ming Dynasty stood up for North Korea!
The Ming Dynasty received the news of the accident in Uzang in August of this year. The results of the discussion were finalized, and it was already October when the envoy was finally sent. Considering the severe cold on the plateau in winter, it was impossible for the envoy to go to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in winter.
Therefore, when the envoy finally arrived at Lanzhou Guard, it was already the twelfth lunar month of winter. It was only in the spring of the following year that he continued westward and contacted the people of the Junggar tribe in the early summer of this year.
The envoy of the Ming Dynasty put aside his harsh words. Fortunately, Galdan is not stupid now. He also knows that he cannot make too many enemies at the same time, so he deceived the envoy of the Ming Dynasty and made false promises.
He said that he would definitely not invade the innocent small country in the Uzbek region. As long as he could hunt down and kill Oqiltu Khan himself and his family, he would stop and would no longer use military force to expand and harm innocent people.
The envoys of the Ming Dynasty could not find any other evidence of his crimes for the time being. Seeing that Galdan was willing to pledge his oath in black and white, they had no choice but to believe him first and return to Nanjing with Galdan's letter of guarantee.
…
With Galdan's barbarian temperament, who strictly adheres to the law of the jungle, and a hard fist is the truth,
The guarantee he swore to the Ming Dynasty was of course worthless in the end. It was just like a fart, and it was even less credible than Sima Yi pointing out that Luo Shui farted.
So after the Ming Dynasty envoy left, he successfully hunted down Oqiltu Khan himself before the end of 1679, and also killed all his famous adult sons. It is said that he had already divided the Tatars among themselves.
The factions were completely unified and integrated.
However, in the process of hunting down Oqiltu Khan, Oqiltu Khan must have also won over some small countries and tribes in Uzizang to join forces with him, or used the last of his heavy gold and property to bribe the locals.
Therefore, when Oqiltu Khan dies, there will definitely be new forces and new khanates that have grievances and conflicts with Galdan. It is like the spread of contamination.
Galdan is on the rise of his country, so how could he stop here?
So of course he chose to continue to expand the occupation, continue to burn, kill, loot and conquer. In just one year, he completely took over half of Qinghai in the west.
He also infiltrated and conquered the snowy areas, recruited subordinate brothers, and at least forced several tribes from the small Uzbek country to surrender to the Junggars instead of the Ming Dynasty.
…
When things got to this point, Galdan's treachery and swearing were completely exposed.
However, in 1679, the Ming Dynasty happened to be the second year of "consecutive droughts in the north and south". It also encountered an earthquake in Hebei. The situation was worse than the previous year, and the Ming Dynasty was still unable to spare any money.
The previous disasters in 1678, the 16th year of moderate prosperity, could at least be overcome with the help of the Ming Dynasty's much stronger water conservancy facilities than the Qing Dynasty during the same period in history.
Because there was a lot of rain in the previous year, the dredged ponds and lakes in various places in the Ming Dynasty had abundant water storage, which ensured that at least half of the summer grain harvest in 1678 could be harvested. It was only the autumn grain that year, because the water storage was complete.
When we ran out of money, we had no choice but to reduce revenue by more than half, and some provinces even had no revenue at all.
Fortunately, the Ming Dynasty had a solid foundation and the people had enough food, so there was no large-scale starvation problem.
But by 1679, due to the severe drought the previous year, and the continuous drought, water conservancy facilities could not save it. Some provinces in the north had no summer grain harvests, and the production in the south was severely reduced. Instead, rain began to fall at the end of autumn.
It rains, so I can barely rely on replanting to rush to plant overwintering crops, so I can have something to eat.
The most serious one was Hebei. Due to concurrent earthquakes and the Yellow River bursting, more than 100,000 people died and drowned (in history, during the Kangxi period, more than 200,000 people died directly from earthquakes and bursts). Because some areas
The collapse of the administrative system made it impossible to organize effective disaster relief operations, and more than 200,000 people died of starvation.
In the entire territory of Hebei and the area near the Yellow River in northern Henan, more than 300,000 people died a year. This was a state that the Ming Dynasty tried its best to save, accounting for more than 5% of the local population. (Kangxi in parallel time and space at least
More than ten percent of Hebei’s population died)
It can only be said that the productivity is too underdeveloped and it is really impossible to resist the continuous natural disasters. The Ming Dynasty has done much better than the Qing Dynasty at the same time. At least the minor disasters in previous years have been successfully dealt with.
Continuous disasters left the Ming Dynasty with no time to take care of itself. The imperial court had to issue an edict to show mercy and exempt the entire country from land tax for two consecutive years. This put a huge pressure on the imperial court's military food expenditure.
This means that in two years, the court did not collect a grain of free grain and rice, and only relied on old grain reserves and grain purchased with Ding tax money to distribute rations to the army, corvee personnel and officials.
Finally, in order to reduce the pressure, the army had to reduce the amount of training by half and reduce patrols.
Let the army plant more drought-tolerant, short-lived and fast vegetables with a short growth cycle and low water consumption in their own fields to subsidize their ration needs. The court's grain reserves can only be used to prioritize the rations of officials and the corvee population.
The nutrition level of the army has declined. They have been carrying half food and half vegetables for two years, and their training has also been slightly slackened.