Save the Bachelor of Heaven

In the ninth year of Tianshun's reign, Empress Dowager Sun passed away.

Xiang Nan was given the posthumous title of "Queen of Xiaogong, Yixian, Ci, Benevolence, Zhuanglie, Qitian Pei Shengzhang" and was buried in Jingling.

In the tenth year of Tianshun's reign, Xiang Nan promoted land reform in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guangxi, and sent 50,000 troops to suppress possible civil uprisings.

As he expected, many local chieftains resisted the change and were unwilling to give up their hereditary power and wealth.

In this regard, Xiang Nan could only say that he would not drink wine as a penalty, and then mobilized a large army to counter the rebellion.

In the twelfth year of Tianshun, after two years of hard fighting, the rebellious chieftains in Yun, Gui, Sichuan and Gui were completely suppressed. The imperial court then dispatched officials to govern the area.

 Register the local fields and people. From then on, they all came under the rule of the Ming Dynasty, and were no longer a foreign land and foreign people.

With this alone, the Ming Dynasty gained nearly one million square kilometers of territory and millions of people, which was naturally a great supplement to the Ming Dynasty's strength.

 …

 After recovering Yun, Gui, Sichuan, and Guangxi, in the thirteenth year of Tianshun, Xiang Nan sent a large number of troops to invade Liaodong.

The Liaodong area was originally the territory of the Ming Dynasty. It was conquered by Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, and the Nuergandu Commandery Department was established here.

But during the Xuande period, because Nurgandusi was vast and sparsely populated, there were only a few Jurchens and Mongolians. Moreover, the area was also very cold and not suitable for human habitation. Most Central Plains people did not like to settle here.

The imperial court sent troops to garrison, which often consumed baggage, food and fodder, which was more than worth the gain and could not make ends meet. Therefore, Emperor Xuande gave up Nuergandusi and left this large area of ​​territory to the local Jurchens and Mongolians, thus leaving it to future generations. Caused great trouble.

Xiang Nan knew that Liaodong was a good place. The Northeast Plain is the largest plain in China. It has a vast territory, fertile land, and rich products, which can feed a lot of people.

Moreover, after capturing the Northeast, the imperial court could encircle the Mongolian country from both the Northeast and the Northwest. So Xiang Nan sent a large army and invaded the northeast.

 Given the strength of the Jurchens and Mongolians in the Northeast at that time, it was naturally difficult to compete with the Ming army.

Not to mention that the Ming army at this time had all become a new army with a recruitment system, and was equipped with advanced artillery and spears. Even during the Jiajing period, no matter how powerful the Ming army was, they were able to suppress the Jurchens at that time.

Had it not been for Wanli, Tianqi, and Chongzhen who later stretched their hips too much, the Ming Dynasty would not have given the Jurchens a chance.

Hence, the Ming army's invasion of Liaodong was not easy to say, but it did not encounter much resistance. The army marched all the way to the northeast and fought until they reached the territory of the wild Jurchens. They stopped fighting further north.

 Because if we go further north, we are already in Siberia. Even in modern times, not many people survive there. In ancient times, when heating and antifreeze measures were not in place, it was even more difficult to survive.

After conquering the Northeast, Xiang Nan immediately issued an order to recruit immigrants to reclaim wasteland in the Northeast. Each person was given one hundred acres of land on a first-come, first-served basis, and the court would not levy taxes for twenty years.

In order to facilitate immigrants to the Northeast, the imperial court also took the initiative to provide travel expenses, buildings, seeds, livestock, etc. Anyway, they attacked the Northeast this time and captured a lot from the Jurchens and Mongolians.

Such treatment naturally attracted a large number of people to the Northeast to reclaim wasteland. After all, in the Northeast, each person has one hundred acres of land, and is also allocated houses, seeds, and livestock, and no taxes are collected for twenty years. This is wealth from heaven.

What's more, Xiang Nan has been doing things for the people in the past few years since he ascended the throne. Abolition of military households, anti-corruption in the military, anti-corruption of civil servants, sharing of land between farmers and farmers, returning waste to the public, all gentry and gentry working as errands, and paying grain as one... All kinds of measures that benefit the people have given Xiang Nan a high reputation among the people, so the people are willing to I believe that after arriving in the Northeast, we can really get fields, food, livestock and houses.

This kind of trust is hard-earned, and it is precisely based on this trust that the people of Zhili, Qilu, and Sanjin embarked on the road of immigrating to the Northeast with their families.

In view of this, Xiang Nan immediately arranged for officials to guide the immigrants. He not only sent guards to **** the immigrants to avoid being harassed by bandits, but also set up porridge sheds and tea shops along the way for the immigrants to rest. They also seized the time to set up immigration settlements in the Northeast, build houses, and clear land for immigrants to live in.

 Fortunately, in these years, the imperial court opened customs and mutual trade, and made a lot of money. Measures such as the sharing of land between tenants, the return of waste to the public, the integration of gentry and gentry as errands, and the integration of grain payments also increased a lot of taxes for the court.

Especially in the past two years, Xiang Nan launched a large-scale anti-corruption campaign and ransacked the homes of corrupt officials.

 The so-called Heshen fell, Jiaqing was full. It can be said that under Xiang Nan's rule, Heshen was everywhere.

Not to mention how greedy the civil servants and generals were, but to say that the vassal kings and lords had both fiefdoms and salaries. They usually stayed in the fish and meat country, harmed the people, and plundered, and the accumulated wealth amounted to millions of taels.

Hence, just by cracking down on corruption, Xiang Nan added hundreds of millions of taels of silver to the national treasury, enough to support his war in the Northeast.

 …

 After conquering the Northeast, in the 14th year of Tianshun, Xiang Nan's troops came out of Yumen Pass and invaded the Eastern Chagatai Khanate.

The Eastern Chagatai Khanate was established by the descendants of Chagatai. Its main territory was in the Western Region, also known as Yilibali.

This khanate was established in the fourteenth century. In the mid-fifteenth century, the king of the khanate, Waisi Khan, died, and the Eastern Chagatai Khanate was divided into two parts: the east and the west. Part of it is centered on Gaochang, and part of it is centered on Shule.

 The relationship between the Eastern Chagatai Khanate and the Ming Dynasty was good and bad. When it was good, they would send envoys to the Ming Dynasty to sue for peace, hoping to open up mutual markets and trade with each other. But in bad times, soldiers are often sent to the border to harass them.

The reason why the Ming Dynasty sent heavy troops to strictly guard Yumen Pass was to defend against the eastern invasion of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate.

Now Xiang Nan is preparing to capture the Eastern Chagatai Khanate and regain the Western Region. Moreover, after capturing the Western Region, we can invade Qinghai-Tibet to the south, Mongolia to the north, and Central Asia to the west...

  It can be said that conquering the Western Regions was of great benefit to the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, Xiang Nan did not hesitate to send heavy troops and spend a lot of money to capture the Eastern Chagatai Khanate.

 The army of one hundred thousand troops set out immediately.

After the death of Waisi Khan in the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, the eldest son Yunusi and the youngest son also split into two parts, the east and the west, in order to fight for power.

 Among them, the youngest son also received support from more nobles, while the eldest son Yu Nusi received support from the Timurid Empire in Central Asia. Therefore, the two sides often fought internally and fought fiercely, thus consuming a lot of combat power.

It is precisely for this reason that when Xiang Nan sent an army of 100,000 to attack the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, they were invincible and invincible.

 The most powerful cavalry of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate had almost no advantage over artillery, machine guns, and rifles. The faster they charged, the faster they died, just like mowing grass.

 As a result, the Eastern Chagatai Khanate's army was defeated and invincible. Even the Ming army chasing after them could not catch up.