The emperor spent three days outside the city before slowly returning to the capital, and when he returned, he also brought back Li Yunhu, the presiding officer of Huilongguan. This eloquent Taoist host, with the support of the emperor, has developed Huilongguan very well in recent years, and has also recruited hundreds of disciples, and has become a celebrity in the suburbs of Beijing for a while.

However, Chongzhen took him back to Beijing this time, not because he admired his profound attainments in Taoist classics, but because he hoped to use his missionary ability to provide religious support for the Ming Dynasty's overseas colonial activities.

By the tenth year of Chongzhen, whether Chongzhen himself was willing or not, the Ming Dynasty had essentially become an overseas colonizing country, and the benefits obtained from overseas territories had gradually become an important part of the Ming Dynasty's finances. At this time, the slogan of shouting the spirit of free trade was no longer enough to safeguard the overseas interests of the Ming Dynasty.

But all the territories that can be colonized by the Ming Dynasty are either vast and sparsely populated, or extremely backward in civilization. The Ming army, armed with artillery and muskets, was always able to conquer these areas with ease. However, the conquest by force does not mean that these areas can be ruled by force, after all, in such a backward area, without the help of the local natives, it is difficult for the Ming Dynasty to develop the local resources.

The Ming Dynasty urgently needed a culture to digest the spiritual beliefs of the local people, and the spread of Confucianism was naturally a way, but in this kind of wild place, it was undoubtedly playing the piano to the cow. The indigenous tribes in these places were able to reproduce through cruel natural competition, and their primitive totem worship was simply difficult to accept the high level of civilization developed by the feudal society of Confucianism.

Zhu Youzhen naturally did not make trouble for himself, and used Tibetan Tantra and Christianity to unify the spiritual beliefs of these natives, which would only sever the cultural ties between these overseas territories and the Ming Dynasty, and eventually provided help to European colonizers and local separatist forces.

The recalibrated doctrine of Taoism is not as attractive as Tibetan Tantra and Christianity, but to some extent it is enough to win the respect of the natives. And after believing in Taoism, if the natives want to be brainwashed by other religions, the difficulty will be several times greater.

After Li Yunhu and his disciples were brought to the capital, they also had to study the Bible translated by the East Asian Tongwenguan over the years, as well as the missionary methods of those Christian missionaries, and have a basic understanding of Christianity, and then go to Vladivostok, Fuso, North America and other places in the autumn to spread Taoist teachings to these regions and maintain the rule of the Ming Dynasty over these regions.

It was also in this year that the East Asian Tongbunkan established the first religious study institute, which conducted research on various religious theories and methods of dissemination, and began to train the various religious figures needed by the Ming Dynasty.

After the Buddha Bathing Festival, the signs of drought in the north this year have reappeared. However, compared with the previous ones, the cabinet and local officials have finally gained some experience, and have also established a system of disaster relief and self-help. In addition, the timely reporting and guidance of public opinion in the newspapers and periodicals, so the mood of the people affected by the disaster in various parts of the north was much calmer than in previous years, waiting for the disaster relief arrangements of the imperial court, local officials, and gentry meetings, and there was no more blind flight as in the past.

The orderly flow of population allowed the imperial court to save a lot of time and material resources when mobilizing materials for disaster relief, coupled with the surrender of the Dutch, so that there was no longer a force that could threaten the Ming merchant ships in East Asia and Southeast Asia, which made the Ming merchant ships that went to various places in the South Seas to do business further active, and raised more materials than expected for the disaster areas in the north. Tianjin, Qingdao, Lianyungang and other northern ports, as well as railways and highways running through the east and west of the Ming Dynasty, have also greatly enhanced the ability of materials to be transported from the coast to the interior, and have made great contributions to the alleviation of drought in the north.

Of course, such relief operations alone do not guarantee that all the victims in the disaster areas will be rescued, but only ensure that the population in these disaster areas will not flee in large numbers and cause the collapse of social order in the surrounding areas. The two consecutive years of spring drought in the north also made the court officials realize that perhaps in the next few years, this situation of drought in the north and flooding in the south will become the norm.

The flood in the south can also be alleviated by building water conservancy facilities. However, due to the successive droughts in the north, the role that water conservancy facilities can play is relatively small; except in some areas, where wells and pumping machines can be used to make use of groundwater for irrigation, many areas cannot even drill wells to produce water, and can only barely keep drinking water for people and livestock.

In such a situation, further migration of people could only be considered, but the limited scale of industrial expansion in the major cities in the north could not absorb all the victims, and the outbreak of plague in Ningxia and the Hetao region temporarily suspended the large-scale resettlement and reclamation operations in these two places.

In this way, the newly recovered Western Regions has become an ideal place to accept the disaster victims in the northwest region to colonize. With the return of Mei Zhihuan, the governor of Ganning, a lot of information about Hami, Balikun, Turpan and other places, Chongzhen and the cabinet paid more and more attention to the feasibility study of immigration to this area.

On the first day of the fourth month of the tenth year of Chongzhen, Zhu Youzhen summoned Wei Chengrun, the head of the military department, in the Xiyuan Jingshe, and advocated recruiting the victims to go to Hami Tuntian Shibian. Wei Chengrun was a jinshi in the first year of Chongzhen, and it can also be said that he was the first protégé of the Son of Heaven when Chongzhen ascended the throne. However, in terms of political leanings, he is closer to Huang Daozhou, Ni Yuanlu and other Yuan Dang.

However, in Zhu Youzhen's view, Wei Chengrun still has the possibility of shaping. Therefore, after meeting Wei Chengrun, he said to him bluntly: "You suggested in your previous letter that recruiting the disaster victims from the northwest region to go to Tuntian Shibian in the Hami region can not only solve the problem of the disaster victims in the northwest region, but also maintain social stability in the newly returned Hami region, which is quite good.

In fact, the governor of Ganning, Mei Zhihuan, also had this meaning. The Western Regions south of the Tianshan Mountains is vast and sparsely populated, and most of them live around the Six Cities. However, as long as the local water sources can be utilized, 100,000 people can be relocated in the eastern basins such as Hami, Balikun, and Turpan alone.

The Western Regions has been a vassal state of China since the Han Dynasty, and it has directly become a dependency of China in the Tang Dynasty. Now that this place has been recovered, we naturally have to make a good living, and we can't let it fall back to the barbarians. And if we want the Western Regions to become an inseparable territory of our country from now on, population is a major factor. Without the population who identified with the Ming Dynasty, there would be no land in the Ming Dynasty.

I have discussed your and Mei Zhihuan's proposal in detail with the General Staff and the Cabinet, and the Imperial Court believes that it is a basic state policy to emigrate to the Western Regions. In the next five years, we will relocate no less than 100,000 people to Hami, Balikun and Turpan. In order to ensure that the region has a short-term self-protection ability in the event of an invasion, it can hold out until the completion of the mobilization of troops in the Gansu region.

Both the Cabinet and I hope that you will be able to serve as the ambassador of Tuntian in the eastern Xinjiang region, and be in charge of the military and civilian affairs of Tuntian in Hami, Balikun, and Turpan, as well as the construction of local self-defense forces. Do you have any questions? ”

Wei Chengrun was able to write to the imperial court, so he naturally wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to do something, so he also put enough effort into studying the previous work such as the restructuring of health centers in Hebei and other places. After hearing the emperor's inquiry, he naturally agreed with sincere fear.

Chongzhen, who had already conducted a full investigation of Wei Chengrun, did not ask him about the affairs of Tuntian again, but took him to the side of the map.

Zhu Youzhen pointed to the map and said, "In addition to making you the ambassador of Tuntian, I also hope that you can convey my meaning to Mei Zhihuan, the governor of Ganning..."

Wei Chengrun immediately pricked up his ears and listened, he watched the emperor draw a circle on the map of the Western Regions and said: "The homeland is newly attached, and this place can be called Xinjiang in the future." Although we now control most of the eastern and southern frontiers, the Yarkand Khanate should still exist for the time being, and only after the population of our Ming Dynasty has a local advantage can we digest this region.

Therefore, the governor of Ganning suggested that Kreqi Khan, Prince Ibraim, and Prince Suritang divide the Yarkand Khanate, and I agreed in principle. But acknowledging their power over the Yarkand Khanate does not mean that we will do nothing about the region in the future. After all, this place, unlike other regions, is destined to be recovered.

Kashgar, Yarkand, and Khotan controlled by Krech Khan were too far away from the Central Plains to be temporarily controlled by diplomatic and commercial means. But in Aksu, Kucha, and Anle City, which are occupied by Prince Ibraim and Prince Suritan, we all need to garrison troops and appoint political advisers.

In particular, in the Tuoxun, Korla, and Tiemenguan areas between Prince Ibraim and Prince Suritang, the imperial court has decided to transfer Mongolian tribes and some Han Chinese from Qinghai and Fengzhen to station, so as to completely separate the two places. Arslan's department was stationed in Korla City, and Meng Qiaofang's department was stationed in Kuqa to ensure that the area was owned by our Ming Dynasty.

After you take people into the Hami, Balikun, and Turpan areas for tuntian, you must build the eastern Xinjiang region into a logistics base for the Ming Dynasty to settle in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains. In particular, it is necessary to gradually expand our sphere of influence to the northern part of the Tianshan Mountains and turn Urumqi of the Heshute Department into a stronghold for us to enter northern Xinjiang.

In northern Xinjiang, we need to support the Heshute tribe in the struggle for the leadership of the Oirat tribe and promote the Oirat division to conquer the Kazakh steppe to the west. In southern Xinjiang, we must support the Yarkand Khanate's conquest of the Bukhara Khanate, open the passage from Kashgar to Samarkand, and obtain the Ferghana Basin.

According to the intelligence brought back by the caravan, the Fergana Basin is the richest area between Kashgar and Hezhong, and as long as this area can be obtained, it can basically control the surrounding poor mountainous areas and ensure the security of the entire southern Xinjiang region.

In addition, before we take the Fergana Basin, and after thoroughly digesting the territory of the Yarkand Khanate, I agree in principle to support the Kyrgyz in establishing a state near Lake Issyk-Kul.

However, the Governor's Office of Ganning should be careful not to allow this new state to become our enemy, and it must not allow them to cross the Tien Shan Mountains to the north and enter the Ili River Valley.

Finally, he told Mei Zhihuan that I agreed to set up a Southern Xinjiang Overseer in the Korla region under the Ganning Governor's Office, and Fan Yixuan could be the first Overseer, and ordered him to formulate and report the organizational structure and personnel list of the Overseer's Office as soon as possible.

In view of the long distance between the southern frontier and the capital, I will grant the Southern Xinjiang Governor's discretionary powers, and the Ganning Governor's Office will be responsible for reviewing whether such powers have been abused..."