Tea is not only an ancient non-alcoholic beverage, but also an elegant culture. So few people associate the elegant and elegant fragrance of tea with the bloody war.

However, in history, weak tea has a magical power that affects the rise and fall of countries. Through reading a large number of history books and reading current affairs and newspapers, Nong Tianyi summarized four plants that have influenced world history, including tea. They are:

Tea that has changed human living habits is second to none;

Tobacco, which used to cure all diseases and was known as the "miracle drug", was widely spread;

The sugar cane that led to the bloody slave trade was extremely tragic;

The potatoes that helped the world overcome famine are known as the "God Plant".

This morning, Nong Tianyi explained the lesson "Tea and War" to students in the school, which is a case of war caused by tea in history.

Let's start with the Tea Wars in the early days of history.

A.D. 1573, the first year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty. Since Zhu Yuanzhang captured the capital of Yuan, the Ming Dynasty has been established for 205 years. Emperor Wanli, who ascended the throne this year, was still a child under the age of ten. Zhang Ju, the first auxiliary minister, was a native of Jiangling, Hubei, and presided over state affairs.

The evening sun shone on the Forbidden City, riding a fast horse, with the edict of the 14th descendant of the Ming Dynasty, in the bloody twilight, galloped out of Shanhaiguan.

No one would have thought that the promulgation of this edict would suddenly cause a group of iron horsemen on the northern border and a sudden change in the situation. The Mongol Tumen Zasaktu Khan gathered the Mongolian tribes, and united with the Jurchen Jianzhou Department, and raised a large army to force the Qinghe Pass in Liaodong of the Ming Dynasty.

A big war is about to break out.

It turned out to be an edict ordering the closure of border trade. Border trade with the Ming Dynasty was very important to the Mongols and Jurchen tribes outside the Shanhai Pass, and one thing in particular was a matter of life and death, and they did not hesitate to exchange their precious horses for their lives, precious furs and ginseng.

- This is tea!

Nong Tianyi talked eloquently: In China, tea is mainly produced in the south of the Jianghuai River. In the heyday of the Silk Road, tea, along with silk and porcelain, was a bulk commodity exported to the Western Regions. It can be said that the "Silk Road" is actually the "Silk Tea Road". Through the exchange of food culture, the northern nomadic tribes have formed their own tea drinking characteristics, that is, milk and tea are blended, and tea and dairy products are blended, which is the best example of the combination of nomadic culture and farming culture.

The herdsmen's diet is mostly beef, mutton, milk and other foods, which are hot, greasy and indigestible. Tea contains alkaloids and tea polyphenols, which help in the digestion of food. For nomads, tea, not a drink, is a necessity for survival and a fountain of life.

Therefore, the Central Plains Dynasty also realized that tea was a weapon that could be used to control the northern nomads!

Tea trade, tea and horse markets, since the Tang Dynasty. This tea system was also an important national policy in the Song Dynasty and even in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

In some historical periods, the political attributes of tea far exceeded the commodity attributes. "The major affairs of the country are in Rong, and the major affairs of Rong are in Ma." For a period of time, the tea and horse trade has become an important border government.

In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang continued to implement the policy of "making Rong with tea". As a means of peaceful checks and balances, the frontier policy of "using tea to control the army" has been properly applied and is very effective. However, the more the dynasty declined, the more it pushed this policy to the extreme, and the more it played the opposite role.

The high price and monopoly of tea, and the various behaviors of deliberately lowering the price of horses, made the northern tribes very dissatisfied. In border areas such as Liaodong, the tea trade has repeatedly caused disputes. In addition, the official monopoly has led to the rise of private tea and black tea. Illicit tea and dark tea are abundant in quantity and of better quality, and private traders often sell them across the border at the risk of losing their heads.

In order to discourage private traders, the Ming Dynasty would often close the tea and horse markets, such a decision was originally to protect the dynasty's monopoly position in the tea trade and protect the high monopoly profits, but at the same time that the tea merchants were attacked, the Mongols and Jurchens on the other side of the trade were actually the ultimate victims.

At this time, it was time for discussion, and the students said: the official supply of tea has stopped, and the private way of tea has been cut off, then war is almost the only option.

Nong Tianyi replied: Exactly. In 1573, the Ming Dynasty issued an edict to close the border trade, which was intended to strictly investigate the private merchants who sold tea and strictly punish illegal officials, but the closure of the tea and horse market completely cut off the supply of tea in the border trade.

In desperation, the Mongol tribes united with the Jurchens and jointly raised troops to launch an attack on Qingheguan, an important town in Liaodong of the Ming Dynasty. Coerced the Ming Dynasty to open its borders by force and continued to supply tea outside the customs.

In May, Tumen Zasaktu Khan led the Mongol army to cooperate with the Jurchen tribes to besiege the entire Qinghe city. Qinghe guarded Pei Chengzu desperately resisted. In the end, Qinghe Castle was saved, however, Pei Chengzu, the main general of the Ming army, was killed by Wang Gao, the head of the Jurchen tribe in Jianzhou.

After two years of stalemate between the two sides, the Ming Dynasty restored the tea and horse exchange market in Qinghe. The Ming Dynasty regime regarded the tea and horse exchange market as a strategic weapon, and originally thought that by controlling the supply of tea, it would be able to control the nomads and get rid of border troubles once and for all, but it forgot that the strength of its own national strength was the foundation of maintaining prosperity and security.

At this time, the power struggle within the imperial court was tilting, the officers and soldiers guarding the border were corrupt and weak, and the balance of interests in the tea and horse market was tilting towards the outside of the border.

Originally, the Jurchens were primitive fishing and hunting peoples, and less than 11 years after the Battle of Qinghebao, in 17 horse transactions in March 1584, the Jurchens bought 4,848 iron ploughshares; In the same month, 430 cattle were bought in 29 scalping transactions, which means that the Jurchens have entered the era of agricultural economy.

Some students said that the tea and horse exchange market is no longer a trading place for nomadic tribes to exchange for means of subsistence, but has become a resource channel for the Jurchens to obtain the means of production, production technology, and improve the productivity of the entire nation.

Nong Tianyi replied that the Jurchens had quietly risen outside the Shanhai Pass and had become a powerful force threatening the Central Plains. The Ming Dynasty selected gravediggers for themselves, and the gravediggers who cultivated themselves were becoming weaker and stronger.

In 1644, the Qing Dynasty officially replaced the Ming Dynasty and set the capital in Beijing. This emerging dynasty repeated the mistakes of the past in the national policy of tea. Beginning in the thirties of the 19th century, tea triggered the confrontation between Eastern and Western civilizations in modern times, and then, a brutal war, dragging China into the tragic fate of semi-feudal and semi-colonial. In a way, the poppy-fueled war was a trade war and a tea war.

The Opium Poppy War of 1840 was also a war over tea. After the Industrial Revolution, Europe, especially the United Kingdom, became interested in China, and tea was one of them. The Qing Dynasty, which considered itself a treasure of beauty, valued only silver in foreign trade.

In less than half a century, the British almost ran out of silver, and in order to reverse the trade deficit, the British began to export opium poppies to the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, the war caused by the opium poppy is the beginning of China's modern history. and even advanced the course of world history. However, it is a century-old shame for the Chinese!

After listening to Mr. Nong's explanation, the students were surprised and said that they did not expect that a small piece of tea could have such magical power. The students sighed and sighed again and again.