Chapter 1763: Feudal Military Colonization with Great Ming Characteristics

Hong Taiji had made up his mind to treat the Yan Mountains as the Qishan Mountains, and to outdo that village bumpkin Zhuge in farming — truly a praiseworthy spirit! That village bumpkin Zhuge had at least once personally tilled the fields at Nanyang, and under him were plenty of old Sichuan peasants who knew how to farm. But Hong Taiji? When had he ever farmed? Could he even tell wheat, barley, oats, and rye apart? And on top of that, he had dragged two or three hundred thousand Mongols from beyond the Jizhen and Xuanfu border walls — was he planning to have Mongols compete with Han Chinese at farming?

Although the Kharchin Mongols did know how to farm, and had opened up farmland in many of the valleys of the Yan Mountains outside the wall, their farming skills were none too clever — every year they had to import grain from the Great Ming! With skills like that, going off to open military farms — was he not afraid of farming at a loss?

Perhaps Hong Taiji had never imagined that farming could lose money?

Just as Hong Taiji was setting the Mongols to farming, Zhu Youjian was also dealing with Mongols. But the ones he encountered by the Ji Canal beyond the passes were all Mongols with no intention of farming — they were the elite of the Uriankhai Tumen Ordo and the Doyan Tumen Ordo, three thousand iron cavalry in all, each man with three horses, who had followed the Grand Princess of the Uriankhai south from the Bashang grasslands, sweeping aside the Kharchin Mongol tribes that would not submit, and had pushed all the way to Hushiha Town near the Miyun border wall before halting their advance, deploying defenses around Hushiha Town and waiting for Zhu Youjian to come out beyond the border again.

And Zhu Youjian did not keep the Grand Princess of the Uriankhai waiting long. Once he confirmed that Hong Taiji, this "Manchu Zhuge Liang," had withdrawn from Tangzhi Mountain and exited the Jizhen border wall through Modaoyu, he immediately split his forces into two columns. Yuan Chonghuan and Zu Dashou formed one column, leading the troops belonging to the Liaozhen and New Jizhen garrisons eastward; after exiting Shanhai Pass, they advanced into the mountainous region of western Liaoning, into the territory at the upper reaches of the Daling River that had originally belonged to the Great Ming's Yingzhou Guard — Yingzhou Guard was not a single guard, but was divided into four garrison farms, Left, Right, Front, and Center, occupying the entire middle and upper Daling River region, all of which had belonged to the Beiping Regional Military Commission during the Hongwu era. But because Zhu Di had borrowed the Mongol cavalry of the Doyan Three Guards during the Jingnan Campaign, he had moved the four Yingzhou garrison farms inward and granted this land to the Doyan Three Guards. And the Kharchin Mongols had developed out of some of the tribes of the Doyan Three Guards.

The Kharchin Mongols settled in the middle and upper Daling River had also gone over to Hong Taiji, and had contributed troops and grain to the invasion campaign — and of course had suffered heavy losses as a result. Not only had they lost many able-bodied men, but because they had provided precious rations to the Later Jin army as military provisions, they had gained nothing at all. So from the winter of the first year of Chongzhen, the Kharchin Mongol tribes of the Daling River valley had begun to suffer famine (that year many places in North China and the Northeast had been hit by drought, and the Kharchin Mongols' territory, having been in a constant state of war, was in an especially dire situation). In Zhu Youjian's view, this was the perfect moment to send troops and seize the old lands of the four Yingzhou garrison farms!

The other great army was the one Zhu Youjian personally commanded: the former Jizhen troops, the Capital Camps troops (eighteen thousand men under Zhu Chunchen and Zhang Fengyi), the Miyun troops, and the headquarters guard — roughly sixty thousand men in all. They exited the border wall through the Chaohe Guard Station under Miyun Town, advanced north along the Chao River, and on the tenth day of the tenth month finally reached Hushiha Town, which was already under the control of the Grand Princess of the Uriankhai.

Hushiha Town had belonged to the five garrison farms of Xingzhou during the Hongwu era of the Ming, and had likewise been under the Beiping Regional Military Commission; later it too had been occupied by the Kharchin Mongols.

Zhu Youjian's objective in this campaign beyond the wall was the old lands of the five Xingzhou garrison farms and of Huizhou Guard, which adjoined Xingzhou — that is, the area north of the Miyun border wall and east of the Xuanfu border wall.

According to plan, Zhu Youjian would establish one garrison town and one defense city on the old territory of the five Xingzhou garrison farms, and at the same time set up ten chiliarch stations (guards), then move at least ten thousand households of military colonists (civilians) out beyond the border wall to settle on the territory of the ten chiliarch stations (guards). At the same time, he would order Zhao Shuaijiao to select officers and men from the Jizhen troops under his command who were willing to be enfeoffed with guard stations, and on the old Huizhou lands beyond the border wall of Zunhua County and Yongping Prefecture, likewise establish one defense city and ten chiliarch stations, and also move ten thousand households of military colonists (civilians) out beyond the border wall to settle and farm.

If the colonization and reclamation of Xingzhou, Huizhou, and Yingzhou over in western Liaoning could succeed, then Hong Taiji could forget about ever entering the Great Wall again in this lifetime.

Moreover, the success of the Xingzhou, Huizhou, and Yingzhou colonization would mean that the Great Ming dynasty had reversed its ever-shrinking decline and entered once more into a period of expansion.

Zhu Youjian, who in his previous life had spent more than fifty years learning how to be an emperor, knew all too well what expansion meant to a country like the Great Ming!

The Han lands of the Great Ming were now overcrowded, and the Northern Metropolitan Region at the feet of the Son of Heaven even more so — many people, little land, and with the climate growing colder and drier by the year, feeding everyone was becoming more and more of a problem.

And the only way to solve the problem of feeding people was expansion!

But Zhu Youjian could not learn from that unfilial son of his and treat expansion as a business — not only because Zhu Youjian had never learned his unfilial son's business skills, but because his Great Ming was still centered on Beijing, not on the southeast coast, where industry, commerce, and maritime trade were highly developed.

So Zhu Youjian's Great Ming could only take the route of feudal military colonization — and the guard-and-battalion system left by the ancestors, and the chiliarch system passed down from the Mongols, were in fact the tools of feudal military colonization!

For whether it was the Great Ming guards or the Mongol chiliarchies, both united soldiers and civilians, and both could move as complete units.

As for the two tumen ordos under the Grand Princess of the Uriankhai's jurisdiction, they likewise united soldiers and civilians, and could moreover undertake long marches!

If these tumen ordos and the military-civilian chiliarch stations could be combined, then feudal military colonization with Great Ming characteristics might gain wings like a tiger!

The so-called Hushiha Town was in fact a fortress of timber and rammed earth, standing in a valley by the Chao River. Outside the fortress there was a small market, presumably where Ming merchants and Mongols traded. Around it were some abandoned fields; because of the drought of the previous spring and summer and the warfare that followed, the fields were full of withered crops and wild grass.

Where the Kharchin Mongols who had originally lived here had gone, no one knew. Now only the Grand Princess of the Uriankhai's Mongol cavalry remained, drawn up in ranks outside the fortress to welcome their lord and master.

When Zhu Youjian, leading the two or three thousand headquarters cavalry and some officials who had gone on ahead, reached Hushiha Town, the Grand Princess of the Uriankhai had already changed into ceremonial dress and, leading several beautiful serving maids chosen from the two tumen ordos, came out through the fortress gate and knelt in respectful welcome.

Zhu Youjian had just defeated the Later Jin's Tiancong Khan, Hong Taiji, and had once again charged into battle himself — indisputably the foremost warrior of the Great Ming — so the Grand Princess of the Uriankhai was of course utterly and completely awed.

"Rise!" Zhu Youjian swung down from horseback and glanced at this woman who was already carrying his child, then said with a smile, "Well done — you've already reached Hushiha Town!"

Although the Uriankhai woman was pregnant, she still rose nimbly to her feet and fell in beside Zhu Youjian, reporting with a smile as she walked the Emperor inward: "Your Majesty, this slave merely borrowed your mighty name to pacify the tribes beyond the Xuanzhen border wall. Now the Saihanba grasslands and everything beyond the Xuanzhen border wall are Your Majesty's territory."

The Saihanba grasslands were the grazing grounds of the Doyan Tumen Ordo, and Zhu Youjian also planned to build a traveling palace there, to be used for pacifying the grasslands.

"How many registered households do the two tumen ordos have now?" Zhu Youjian asked.

"In reply to Your Majesty, the Uriankhai Tumen Ordo now has eight thousand registered households, while the Doyan Tumen Ordo has fewer people, only five thousand households. About half of these people are Kharchin, and half are Uriankhai."

Zhu Youjian nodded slightly and asked, "Any news of Hong Taiji?"

"Your Majesty, Hong Taiji has also gathered up many Kharchin people and withdrawn to the east bank of the Luan River." The Grand Princess of the Uriankhai said, "This slave has also heard that Hong Taiji plans to open military farms at Mameng Mountain. He intends to mix the captured Kharchin Mongols with the Mongols who had already submitted to him into a Mongol Eight Banners, and set them to farming in the Yan Mountains!"

"What? Mongols farming?" Zhu Youjian burst out laughing. "He really can dream it up."

The Uriankhai woman laughed: "What do Mongols know about farming! Next year he'll farm himself a harvest of absolutely nothing!"

Zhu Youjian laughed: "Let him farm. We are not afraid to compete with him at growing grain." He paused, then looked at the Uriankhai woman and smiled. "Grand Princess, We have another matter to discuss with you. We are thinking of holding a great assembly of all the Mongol tribes on the Saihanba grasslands — can you help arrange it?"

(End of Chapter)