Chapter 3 This Great Wall is not the Great Wall

The Ming Dynasty's nine-sided unity is not correct if it is placed in the entire three hundred years of the Ming Dynasty. But in the historical era of the early Ming Dynasty, it is correct.

Even if it is the same as the originality, and the defense system of Datong is also a defense system based on offense, not defense.

If you look at the entire Ming Nine Sides, the same is true.

Zhu Qizhen didn't want to admit it, and he had to admit one thing, the peak of the Ming Dynasty's military strength was not the Yongle Dynasty, but the Hongwu Dynasty.

Since then, the Ming military has been declining.

This kind of military weakness may not be too obvious in the Yongle years, but when it comes to him, the upper echelons may not have obvious experience, but the front-line commanders have already had a deep understanding.

This Great Wall system is actually forcing the enemy from the north to the south to several strategic nodes to fight a decisive battle.

If you can defeat the enemy in the north in a field battle. There is no problem with this system.

But judging by the feedback from the front-line commanders, they did not show much confidence in this.

Zhu Qizhen looked at several passages around Beijing, but none of them were completely closed. This is also the reason why the tile spur can hit the city of Beijing in one go.

Zhu Qizhen's face did not show it at all, but his heart was stirring repeatedly.

Zhu Qizhen suddenly said: "Needless to say, Shanxi Town, let's talk about what's going on in Yan'an, this autumn, thousands of horses entered Yan'an, and Shaanxi shook." At that time, Qing was in Gansu, and when he returned, he also passed through Yan'an, can you tell me about it? ”

Xu Xi said: "Yes." ”

He sighed slightly and said: "Speaking of Yan'an, I have to say Hetao, speaking of which, Yan'an has always been the mainland of the imperial court, but now it is suffering from the disaster of soldiers, but it is because of the internal relocation of Dongshengwei. ”

"The so-called Hetao is the Hetao in the shape of a few characters in the north of the Yellow River, this place is mostly desert, the north is facing the river on three sides, and the south is facing Yan'an."

"Ningxia in the west, and Dongshengwei in the east."

"Generally speaking, the Tartars will not go south from the north, because they have to cross the desert, it is beyond their ability, they can only enter from the east and west, and Ningxia will not be able to pass through them, but Dongshengwei can cross it. The imperial court abolished Dongshengwei, and there was a gap in the Hetao, which was also the reason why the Tartars were able to enter. ”

"After the battle of Yan'an's founding of the country, it was the first time to encounter the Tartars, so it was a little mishandled."

Zhu Qizhen thought about the Hetao, and suddenly clicked on the original place of Dong Shengwei, and said, "Which tribe is here?" ”

Xu Xi looked at it and said, "It's a thorn." ”

Zhu Qizhen reached out and took a cinnabar pen and circled it around the Hetao again.

These are all problems that Zhu Qizhen decided to solve. To tell the truth, the front of the imperial court is already very long, from Liaodong, Xuan

Big, Gansu, Ningxia, several directions, Zhu Qizhen doesn't want to have another Shaanxi battlefield.

Each additional strategic direction not only represents the consumption of more money and food, but also the suffering of the local people. So since the Tartar or the tile thorn didn't notice the Hetao before, Zhu Qizhen didn't want him to pay attention here.

Therefore, re-enforcing the east and sealing the eastern part of the Hetao is also something that Zhu Qizhen must do.

Zhu Qizhen is still relatively familiar with Xuanda, and the one he is least familiar with is the northwest direction, Zhu Qizhen said: "Let's talk about a few military towns in the northwest." ”

Xu Xi was silent for a while, and said: "The northwest is like a foreign land, does Your Majesty know about Western Xia?" ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "Of course I know. ”

Xu Xi said: "Your Majesty knows that the death of Western Xia, it is rumored that the concubine of Western Xia injured Genghis Khan, so Mongolia opened a killing ring against Western Xia, and the hometown of Western Xia is uninhabited for thousands of miles, and several towns in the northwest are also the hometown of Western Xia." ”

"The battle of Lingbei of the National Dynasty was divided into three northern expeditions, among which Feng Sheng attacked Gansu. As a result, the battle of Lingbei was lost, the king of Zhongshan fought and retreated, and many soldiers were lost, and the king of Qiyang lost a number of horses, and the generals suffered countless losses. Only at that time, Feng Sheng returned all the way and relocated the population of the northwest, which was only 150,000. ”

"Even if since Hongwu, there has been a great increase in Tuntian and a lot of health centers, but there are really not many people in the northwest."

It's easy to kill people, but it's not easy to reproduce.

If the Hundred Years War of the Song and Xia Dynasty seriously destroyed the ecology of the northwest, then the massacre of the Yuan Dynasty against the Western Xia Dynasty turned the northwest into a blank field.

Although it was already two hundred years ago.

But the Yuan Dynasty is obviously not a dynasty that will recuperate, that is, the restoration of the northwest, it is only a few decades. Coupled with the ecological breakdown in the northwest, and now it is the Xiaoice River period, the overall climate is cold.

The recovery of the population of the Northwest has always been quite difficult.

In this era, without population, there is nothing.

There is another reason, that is, the political ecology of the imperial court, if the imperial court established the capital of Chang'an, the attitude towards the northwest would be different, but now it is Beijing.

Therefore, the chaos in the northwest is not as dangerous as the imperial court, no matter how big it is.

Why would they invest so much manpower and material resources in such a place to cultivate fields, and in such a drought and water-scarce place? The cost is conceivable.

Tuntian in Gansu Province was built on a large number of water conservancy projects.

If you don't count political battles, it's not cost-effective when you count economic battles alone.

Xu Xi said: "Ningxia is still good, once after Lanzhou and then to the west, I saw the invasion of yellow sand, almost connected into a line, a town in Gansu, almost a straight line, just on the north road of Qilian Mountain, relying on several rivers melted by snow on Qilian Mountain, to the north is yellow sand, to the south is the mountains, also."

There is one point that is particularly noteworthy. ”

"It is the area west of Lanzhou and east of Zhuang Langwei, where Tartars often sneak through."

Zhu Qizhen couldn't understand for a while, what was wrong with this area, Xu Xi saw this, stretched out his finger and drew a line from the map, Zhu Qizhen looked at it and gasped

From this one, it is directly connected to Xining and the grassland.

It also severed the connection between Gansu Town and Shaanxi, so that Gansu Town was left alone.

Zhu Qizhen naturally knew that the grassland peoples, including the tile spurs, might not be able to defeat the Ming army in frontal battles, offensive and defensive battles, and from Lanzhou, that is, Lanzhou Zhongwei to Zhuang Langwei. It is also a castle next to a castle.

But Zhu Qizhen still felt a trace of cold sweat on his back.

Why so?

Because at this moment, the main force of the tile spur is in Hami.

It can be said that the westward expansion of the tile spur has become a reality in the seven years of orthodoxy, but after several battles between the tile spur and Hami, Hami has already asked the imperial court for help.

And the biggest thing in the court today is this one thing.

The westernmost part of Gansu Town is Jiayu Pass, and outside Jiayu Pass is the Seven Guards of Guanxi, and the head of the Seven Guards of Kansai is Hami.

In fact, the seven guards of Guanxi are not honest, they have robbed the merchants and tribute envoys, and they don't even have food to eat, and they haven't plundered Gansu and fought with Gansu towns.

The main opinion in the court is that they don't want to save the seven guards of Kansai. But Zhu Qizhen didn't think so in his heart, give up the seven guards in Kansai today, whether he will give up Qinghai Fanwei tomorrow, and whether he will give up the slaves to do these guards the day after tomorrow.

Give up step by step, hand over the barriers of the imperial court to others, not to mention, the prestige of the imperial court is lost, just every step will make the tile spur stronger.

The strength of the tile spur finally fell on the imperial court.

But looking at Xu Xi's simple line alone, Zhu Qizhen seemed to see a huge battle of annihilation.

If the imperial court wants to rescue the seven guards of Guanxi, there is only one route, nothing else, that is, along the town of Gansu, that is, the northern foot of Qilian Mountain.

And this paragraph is a gap.

It's only a few hundred miles from Xining.

The rule of the imperial court in Qinghai is also based on customs, in other words, it is just some toast, many of which are left over from the Yuan Dynasty.

Not to mention, the imperial army drove all the way from Beijing to the northwest to consume, just to say, the tile spur is really desperately stuck on this road, and hundreds of thousands of troops can stay in Gansu Town, this kind of narrow and long strip without depth and lack of food.

Although this is only a possibility, it is enough for Zhu Qizhen to stay awake at night.

Zhu Qizhen sighed in his heart, and the idea of supporting the Kansai Qiwei slowly faded. It's just that Zhu Qizhen has a clearer understanding of the crisis in the northwest.