Why were there no western regions in the territory of the Ming Dynasty?

The Central Plains Dynasty started from the Han Dynasty. The earliest purpose of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was to contact the neighboring countries in the western regions that had enemies with Xiongnu and fight against Xiongnu together. Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions originally had this purpose, but when Zhang Qian returned to the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty had an overwhelming advantage over the Huns, so there was no need to pull allies in distant places.

However, many western countries are still interested in trading with the Han Dynasty. During the Han dynasty, the south was not fully developed, there was almost no maritime trade, and the economic center of the country was also in the northwest. Therefore, the focus of foreign exchange is in the direction of the western region. Trade with the western regions can bring huge economic benefits, and of course it also has certain political benefits.

By the time of the Tang Dynasty, it was basically the same as the purpose of the Han Dynasty, and it was trading with countries in the western regions. However, after the Anshi Rebellion, on the one hand, the Tang Dynasty had no time to estimate the direction of the western regions, and the rise of Tubo blocked the road to the western regions. On the other hand, the rise of Arabs basically wiped out all the small countries in the western regions that had originally moved to the Tang Dynasty, without the cooperation and control of local people. In the late Tang Dynasty, they abandoned the Western Regions.

The main strategic direction of the Northern Song Dynasty was sixteen states. After Song Zhenzong, Xixia in the northwest also rose, which became an obstacle to the western regions together with Tubo. The Song Dynasty didn't even win sixteen states, how could it have time to govern the western regions? Besides, the scholar-bureaucrat group in Song Dynasty did not support the long-distance conquest war.

In addition, the most important thing is that during the Song Dynasty, the South was already developing vigorously, and maritime trade gradually rose. Arabs all came to the Song Dynasty by sea boat to do business, and the cost and cargo transportation volume were far superior to camel transportation in the western regions. In this case, the western regions are not even chicken ribs, they can't farm land, and there is no benefit in doing business. Why would they do that?

By the time of the Ming Dynasty, the farthest place in the Ming Dynasty was to extend its territory to Hami Wei. In fact, it is only to protect the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia region. Furthermore, the Ming dynasty didn't have that strength, and it was useless to shoot it down. At that time, the agricultural level in that area could not be cultivated or immigrated. After the war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, many areas in the Central Plains were short of people, but no idle people went to the Western Regions.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang drove the Yuan Dynasty out of the Central Plains, the foundation of the Yuan Dynasty is still there, and their influence in the Western Regions is still there. After the recovery of Peiping, Zhu Yuanzhang's biggest trouble also became the resumption of production. To this end, he even appointed several countries that did not levy, giving up opening to the outside world, and it was impossible to have the energy to continue to compete with the Yuan Dynasty in the direction of the Western Regions.

In the Ming Dynasty, maritime trade was more developed and frequent. In the south, which was fully developed in the Song Dynasty, it became an important fiscal and taxation area and grain-producing area in the Ming Dynasty. There are large areas in the south that can feed people and collect taxes, while the barren western region is even less worth operating. So the Ming dynasty never thought about opening to the northwest.

During the Han and Tang dynasties, the economic center of the country was in the northwest, which was close to the western regions, so it was good to manage the western regions. By the Ming Dynasty, the country's strategic defense center was in the north of Mongolia, and the economic center moved to Vietnam more and more, which really didn't match the western regions. How did the ancients know that there were actually mines in that area?

It was only during the reign of Judy, the Ming emperor, that there was a brief opening to the outside world, with only Mongolia in the north and Annan in the south. After Judy's death, the whole line was recycled strategically, and even Annan, who could farm, gave up, let alone considering the western regions that could not farm, and naturally it was not on the map.