An unbearable place to raise horses: why was it so difficult to recover Hetao Plain in Ming Dynasty?

Hetao Plain in Inner Mongolia and Ningxia in the northwest of China lies in the winding Yellow River basin. Because of the abundant aquatic plants and fertile land, it has the reputation of "the south of the Yangtze River beyond the Great Wall", which is in sharp contrast with the lack of water resources and barren land in most parts of northwest China. However, this is not the most important thing. Hetao Plain is an excellent place for the Han regime to raise horses. The geographical latitude and climatic conditions in Hetao area can not only raise horses, but also produce high-quality war horses almost equal to those in Central Asia. Horses in Ordos grassland face nomadic people who come and go like the wind, and cavalry is the most important weapon for agricultural people to fight back militarily. Without high-quality war horses, an excellent cavalry unit cannot be maintained. Therefore, for Han people who lack large-scale horse breeding places, Hetao is a particularly important strategic location. However, problems have arisen. Since the change of the civil fort, the Mongols gradually occupied the Hetao area, and the Ming Dynasty organized many military attacks. Why do they always come back in vain? If the last frontier minister who actively advocated the recovery of Hetao was not unjustly killed by Emperor Jiajing, could it really bring back a complete Hetao plain for the Ming Dynasty? First, for the record, why was the governor beheaded? A story about the disaster caused by dredging began in A.D. 1546. In the twenty-fifth year of Jiajing (1546), a 37-year-old assistant minister of the Ministry of War was ordered by the court to go to Shaanxi. The military and political affairs of Dingbian, Anbian and Jingbian, the governor of Yulin, Shaanxi Province, can be seen from their names. These three places are all on the national frontier. Map and trilateral location of Hetao area, but Zeng Mi, why did he suddenly go to Shaanxi? Because of the rise of Ansan Khan of Mongolia, Tumote Ansan Khan unified the various parts of the Mongolian right wing, severely hit the tile thorn in the west, and then went south, not only occupied the Hetao Plain, but also basically controlled Qinghai by Ansan Khan, becoming the most powerful Mongolian leader at that time. Why did you send Zeng Mi to attack Ansan Khan? In the film and television drama, during his tenure as the governor of Shandong, he was ordered to be the governor of Shanxi. He had several fights with Anda Khan in Shanxi and achieved good results. The court found that he had been good at fighting, so he was promoted to assistant minister of the Ministry of War. At this time, An Dan Khan led 100,000 Mongolian cavalry, occupied the Hetao Plain, and often went south to Shaanxi and Shanxi to plunder, posing a great threat to the northwest border of the Ming Dynasty. The imperial court was urgently transferred to be the commander-in-chief of the three capitals, trying to contain the southern crimes committed by An Dan Khan. After serving as the governor of the Trilateral Region, I found things extremely difficult, because Andan Khan occupied the lush Hetao Plain with abundant materials. When Mazhuang is strong, there will be large-scale sneak attacks from time to time, while the Ming army is always in a passive situation. If we want to change this passive situation and turn passivity into initiative, then the fundamental solution is to expel Andan Khan from the Hetao Plain. ""The thief invaded the frontier for a hundred years, according to Hetao ... When he came out of the set, he announced the three major customs to help the earthquake. Entering the collection can be delayed, reconciled, sweet and solid, so as to disturb Guanzhong ... I beg you to kill 60 thousand sharply and benefit two thousand gunmen in Shandong. Whenever you make friends in spring and summer, you can take 50 days' salary, get the moon first by being close to the water, and go straight to its nest. "In the film and television drama, Emperor Jiajing once milled and recovered the strategic policy of Hetao, which won the trust of Emperor Jiajing. He wants money and needs someone to give it to others. Not only did he set aside 202,000 silver for military expenses, but the income of Taicang Treasury in Ming Dynasty was only over 202,000, which was equal to 65,438+00% of the treasury life of the Ministry. The governors of Yansui, Shaanxi and Ningxia who opposed the recovery were all dismissed. Sejong's imperial edict replied: "The discussion on restoration today is so intense that the mill and the town officials carefully planned and paid 200,000 yuan for restoration. "However, this action to recover the Hetao was a disaster. Jiajing twenty-six years (1547), full of ambition. He made full preparations and commanded various armies to launch a full-scale air military panic war against Andan Khan, who was entrenched in the Hetao Plain. In this confrontation, the Ming army made a good start, forcing Andan Khan to withdraw from the Hetao Plain and retreat westward across the Yellow River. However, due to the enemy of Gansu's general commanders in the west, the fighters were delayed and not timely. The action of recovering Hetao, which was highly hoped by Emperor Jiajing, cost a lot of manpower and material resources, but it was such a bleak result that the emperor was very disappointed. However, Zeng was unwilling. With the support of Xia Yan, the then cabinet records, in August, Emperor Jiajing played "Please retreat from Hetao" and asked to organize a second set of actions to encircle the Andahan tribe. Different from the first solicitation, Emperor Jiajing's confidence wavered after a failed return. Can such a military action that consumes national strength really successfully achieve the goal of annihilating the strength of Andan Khan? From the first collection action, the court had great objections. Is it necessary to do it again now? Sejong imperial edict ""Today, the thief is set one by one. Is the teacher famous? Do soldiers have enough food? Is success necessary? What's the point of milling, such as ancestors poisoning? "Emperor Jiajing's vacillating psychology was caught by Yan Song, the second assistant of the cabinet at that time. Yan Song insisted that he did not agree to launch Jiji action again, and questioned the motives of those who advocated Jiji action and the governor Zeng. He was crowned with the great crime of collusion between the minister of the interior and the general of the frontier fortress, instigated the impeachment of the Gansu company commanders who delayed the fighter plane, framed the deduction of salary, concealed the defeat and deceived the emperor. Emperor Jiajing quickly accepted these accusations. In the twenty-seventh year of Jiajing (1548), in January, and were imprisoned one after another. After three joint examinations, he was beheaded in June of the same year, and the collection came to an end. Killing Zeng not only led to the failure of the plan to recover the Hetao Plain, but also declared the end of the action to recover the Hetao in the Ming Dynasty, and there was no plan to recover the Hetao after that. " "Courtiers discuss crimes, and those who discuss the resumption will be deprived of their salaries, and they will be punished as officials, and the court staff will be poor. Therefore, the reassembly stopped. " Second, the reason why the resistance to recover the Hetao is so great is that as early as when it was first proposed to recover the Hetao, there were many voices of opposition in the imperial court. Not only the dismissed governors of Yansui, Shaanxi and Ningxia, but also the Ministry of War once raised objections, claiming that it was so easy to try to expel the Mongols who had occupied the Hetao for decades with only tens of thousands of troops and 50 days' rations. Those who oppose the recovery of Hetao are all conservatives. Are they afraid of war? After careful and in-depth analysis, we will find that things are not as simple as black and white. There has been a saying since ancient times that those who fight are not necessarily brave, and those who make peace are not necessarily afraid. At that time, the officials who opposed the recovery of Hetao could not be summarized as cowardice and incompetence, but also had legitimate considerations. Ming Xianzong in film and television dramas can be traced back to the period of Ming Xianzong. As early as Ming Xianzong, Mongols occupied the Hetao Plain. In order to eliminate the huge border threat posed by Mongols, a strategy called "search operation" was launched at that time. The basic principle of this action is that once the Mongols gather in Hetao, they will organize an army to sweep them until they are completely expelled from the Hetao area. During the Chenghua period, Aro, the Mongolian Tatar Department, occupied Hetao and led troops to Shaanxi and Ningxia to plunder and make trouble. Therefore, in the sixth and eighth years of Chenghua (1472), with the strong support of Ming Xianzong, the Ming Dynasty conducted two large-scale search operations, both of which were larger than the plan to recover the flattened Hetao River, and each time more than 80,000 troops were sent. During the Chenghua period, from Bai Gui, the minister of the Ministry of War, Ma Wensheng, the governor of Shaanxi, to Wang Yue, the governor of military affairs, the famous ministers responsible for collecting actions were brilliant. These are all famous ministers who are good at fighting in the Ming Dynasty. No matter the input of troops or the collocation of command teams, the collection action in Chenghua years was much higher than the plan of recovering Hetao in Jiajing years. However, under such a high standard configuration, the results of the two search operations are still bleak, but they can't beat it. Every time the army set out, the Mongols ran away like oil on the soles of their feet. He came back after the search army moved back to the camp. In this way, finding the cover has become a cat-and-mouse game. As a result, before the Mongols could take the lead, the Ming Dynasty could not bear it. Every time we look for the cover, it costs a huge amount of national finance, but it can't effectively annihilate the strength of Mongolian tribes. On the contrary, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan provinces, which provided logistical support, complained to Wang Yue on the road: "Kou learned that our troops were concentrated, moved to Linjiang and sneaked north, and almost surrendered without a fight." However, the mountainous areas and Shaanxi are dry and there is a shortage of straw grain. The border area has long been cold and frozen. It's really hard to get it according to time. Please take defensive measures, and I will return to the DPRK for the time being. "The search operation finally stopped in strong opposition, took the initiative to stick to the border defense situation and began to build the Great Wall instead of searching. He said, "Building a wall is a lasting strategy, which can be dealt with quickly. Mr. Lu doesn't come to pay tribute, and there is no need to send someone to recruit. Third, why did the Hetao area get lost again? The most fundamental reason is that the Hetao area began to show a serious desertification trend in the Ming Dynasty. According to Han Zhaoqing's "Changes of Mu Us Desert Sandy Land in Ming Dynasty and Its Relationship with Reclamation in Surrounding Areas", Mu Us Sandy Land not only advanced to Yulin Great Wall in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, but also once buried the Great Wall. In the thirty-seventh year of Wanli, the Ming army also organized a large-scale sand cleaning operation. This directly led to the failure to realize the basic immigration policy of the Ming Dynasty. Because it is impossible to establish an efficient farming system in Hetao area, it is inevitable to maintain a large-scale army stationed in Hetao for a long time. In the late ancient times when the traffic was inconvenient, it was unrealistic to supply grain and grass from the south, so it became the only choice. Therefore, every search operation has to rely on the increasing taxes in the surrounding areas to provide logistical support. However, these areas are barren and prone to natural disasters, and are already in a state of shortage of funds. Frequent use of troops has led to a series of social problems and brought a heavy burden to the people in northwest China. Therefore, it is easy to understand why the rulers of Yansui, Shaanxi and Ningxia at that time were most firmly opposed to milling the Hetao. The governor's military affairs faithfully said: "The people of one province in Shaanxi are the troops of four towns, and they are given heavy services, with less food and more people." Therefore, there is income every year, which is still not enough to use. It is inevitable to take it from internal funds. Gu Yan, director of Shaanxi Cost Supervision Bureau, said: "In recent years, we have been sorry for our soldiers, but we have been losing. People in Shaanxi are particularly tired. Since childhood, people have been in chaos one after another, and have been starving for hundreds of millions of years. People have suffered a lot. 4. Re-discuss the plan to recover the Hetao Plain. Therefore, due to the supply difficulties in the later period, every time the Ming army expelled the Mongols from Hetao, it had to leave Hetao after a short military victory. As soon as the army left, the Mongols came back to occupy the Hetao area, which made the Hetao problem not fundamentally solved. From Chenghua's search operation to Jiajing's repeated actions, we can find that it is not difficult to expel Mongols from Hetao in the Ming Dynasty, and it has been realized several times. However, the financial situation in the northwest of Ming Dynasty and the ecological deterioration of Hetao led to the inability to open up wasteland, which was the most fundamental reason that restricted the thorough solution of the problem of Hetao in Ming Dynasty. Therefore, even if Jiajing Emperor approved Zeng Mi's repeated operation for the second time, he could expel Andan Khan from the Hetao area as he wished, but he would also face the old problem of supply in the late Chenghua period. The army still could not stay in Hetao for a long time and had to withdraw. The Mongols occupied the Hetao area again, and the reconstruction action could not play a really effective role in eliminating the threat of Mongolian forces.