Number of immigrants in Yunnan

After Zhu Yuanzhang unified the Central Plains, from September in the 14th year of Hongwu (138 1) to February in the 15th year of Hongwu (1382), he launched the famous "Ming attack on Yunnan". It turned out that after withdrawing from Dadu (now Beijing), the separatist forces entrenched in Yunnan mainly included the late Wang He and the local chieftain who were still loyal to Mongolia. On the first day of September 14th, Zhu Yuanzhang appointed Fu Youde, Hou of Yingchuan, as the general of conquering the south, and led 300,000 troops to conquer Yunnan. First conquer Qujing, then attack Kunming and Uza, and finally conquer Dali (Yunnan), thus pacifying the whole territory of Yunnan. Later, Uzza rebelled and was suppressed by loyal ministers. Wusha, located at the junction of Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, was a military stronghold at that time. After pacifying Yunnan, the Ming government began to station troops in Yunnan in order to develop the southwest and consolidate the border defense. According to historical records, the soldiers stationed at that time were mainly soldiers from Fengyang, Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown.

According to Hou Wencheng's book A Preliminary Study of Yunnan Immigrants in Qingdao in Ming Dynasty, there were a large number of Yunnan immigrants in Qingdao in the early Ming Dynasty. These immigrants are neither indigenous Han Chinese nor ethnic minorities in Yunnan, but Han scholars and their families sent by Zhu Yuanzhang to Yunnan. According to Ming History, in September of the 14th year of Hongwu (138 1), Zhu Yuanzhang sent Fu Youde, Aquamarine and Mu Ying to Yunnan with130,000 troops. In the fifteenth year of Hongwu, the whole territory of Yunnan was pacified, and Mu Ying was ordered to lead an army to guard this place, set up guards and sub-soldiers, set up military camps and reclaim land. Since then, many enlisted non-commissioned officers have settled in Yunnan. According to the appendix V of the Official Records of Dengzhou, Sakao records: "In the second year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1404), the court transferred a large number of Han scholars and military households from Wusawei to Shandong. They went to Chongqing by land, sailed down the Three Gorges, arrived in Yangzhou, Jiangsu, and then turned to the Grand Canal to go north to Huaiyin, abandoning the ship and taking the route of Ganyu, Zhucheng and Zhucheng. That's what Yunnan immigrants mean when they come to Shandong by boat. According to the newly compiled Jimo County Records, there were more than 70,000 military households who moved in in the Ming Dynasty because of the construction of health centers, institutes and military camps. The ancestors of Yunnan immigrants in Qingdao were all farmers who followed Zhu Yuanzhang's uprising, and their ancestral homes were mostly Anhui and Jiangsu. These immigrants brought their traditional culture and folk customs, combined with Qingdao local culture, and formed a unique regional cultural style. Some dialects and folkways in Qingdao are very similar to those in Jianghuai area. For example, pickles in northern Jiangsu are called "salty", and radish pickles in Qingdao are called "hanging stains" (pronounced "melon" in dialect) because they are hung to dry. Another example is the folk yangko flower drum in Jiaonan, which has the charm of Fengyang flower drum in Anhui.

The historical facts recorded in the above two articles are basically the same, and both reflect the characteristics of "collective mobilization to defend the border and the wasteland". Then, after repeated verification, why is there no regional title of "Little Yunnan" in Wushawei, which was founded in the Ming Dynasty in Zhenxiong, Yunnan and Weining, Guizhou? The author believes that in the past, when researching "Little Yunnan", I fell into a misunderstanding, that is, I took it as a regional name, so I couldn't find a solution. In fact, "Little Yunnan" is a slang term for "an immigrant group" as a whole under certain historical conditions, and it is also a folk title for the immigrant group from Yunnan by Shandong aborigines, just as the northeast people call Shandong immigrants "Little Shandong" and the central plains people call Sichuanese "Little Sichuan". "Xiao" here is slang, while "Yunnan" is a regional name, not a place in Yunnan.

If this judgment holds, Yunnan in "Little Yunnan" refers to the Yunnan Road set up as early as the Yuan Dynasty, and Yunnan Province, which was established as a province in the Ming Dynasty, should be the most reasonable explanation.