Han Shizu

Chapter 2166: Emperor Shizong Chapter 42: The Darkness Behind the Great Prosperity

It is needless to say that during the heyday of the empire, there were also troubles and chaos. The Han Empire, which was invincible in East Asia, was also not immune to border troubles. There is no need to say much about the barbaric riots, civil unrest, and bandit rebellions that occurred every year in the remote and impoverished areas of the empire. In fact, "security wars" were also the norm within the empire, and were not unique to the feudal states that expanded abroad.

During the Jianlong era, the court's border troubles were not in Andong, where a war almost broke out, but mainly in two places, one in the southwest and the other in Mobei. From the eighth to the eighteenth year of Jianlong, the imperial court led by Liu Wenji also spent a lot of energy in these two directions. These were the only two "military achievements" worth describing in Liu Wenji's entire reign.

How can a prosperous era throughout history be without the embellishment of "martial arts"? It cannot be just the suppression of petty thieves and minor rebellions, there must be some "glorious martial arts" that can be shown off.

First of all, in the southwest, since the Sichuan-Shu rebellion was quelled in the early years of Yongxi and Emperor Taizong's southern tour, in which he summoned the chieftains of the Yunnan and Guizhou tribes in Chengdu, the entire southwest has been peaceful for a full thirty years. Of course, some "daily" unrest was inevitable, but at least on the whole it was still under a stable Han-ruled order, and the wheel of sinicization was also rolling forward in history imperceptibly.

During the past 30 years, the Yunnan and Guizhou regions have made great progress and development. The stability of the political system and the guarantee of social security often stimulate prosperity. That period can be regarded as one of the most civilized and prosperous periods in the history of the Yunnan and Guizhou regions.

Of course, this prosperity was led by Han civilization as the locomotive, and was mainly achieved through close exchanges with the Han people. What ultimately emerged was a situation of integration between Han and Yi peoples.

Economically, although Yunnan and Guizhou were never able to break away from their dependence on Jiannan and aid from the imperial court, their animal husbandry and handicraft industries also flourished. As one of the pillars of the tea-horse economic circle, animal husbandry was an important driving force for its development. The reputation of Yunnan horses spread throughout the southwest. Coupled with various handicrafts, metal smelting, traditional agriculture, and the discovery of medicinal materials such as bezoar and musk, the southwestern mountains with their high mountains, dense forests, and dangerous roads can no longer be completely regarded as remote and poor areas.

In terms of politics and culture, although Yunnan and Guizhou had long been a place where Han and barbarians lived together, "immigrants" coexisted, and even the indigenous people outweighed the immigrants, the court achieved great success in expanding and consolidating the southwest under the influence of a large number of Han officials, Han soldiers, Han merchants, and Han people, as well as the Han civilization classics, customs, and commodities imported with them, and the process of sinicization progressed visibly.

Not to mention the ordinary barbarians, at least among the various barbarian tribes and the upper echelons of the chieftains, Chinese language and Chinese rituals were basically spread. It was not that Han civilization really had some irresistible magic that made the chiefs rush to convert and learn, but in the circle of order established by the Han Empire in Yunnan and Guizhou, if they did not move closer to Hanization and the court, they would suffer.

Accepting Han culture may not make life better, but refusing or even resisting will definitely make life difficult! The root of everything lies in the heavy military forces that the imperial court has maintained in various prefectures, states and towns in Yunnan and Guizhou all year round.

In terms of comprehensive military strength, the Han army in Yunnan and Guizhou is far inferior to that in Jiannan, the core of the southwest. However, if we simply look at the combat effectiveness of the army and see who can fight better, the armies of Yunnan and Guizhou, especially the border troops of Yunnan, are comparable to those in the whole country. This is determined by the politics, geography, and customs of Yunnan and Guizhou.

The rapid development of economy and culture, as well as the stability of social security, often lead to population growth. When the empire's population exploded, the same was true in the southwest region. Even though the growth rate was not as high as that in traditional wealthy regions, in the early Jianlong era, the population of Yunnan and Guizhou exceeded five million.

What is certain is that the actual population is definitely much higher than this number! As a hub for close exchanges with Qianzhong, Jiannan, and Guangnan West, Yunnan Daozhi Shanchanfu (Kunming) has gradually expanded into a large city with a population of 100,000. This scale and level can be ranked among the top even if it is expanded to the entire southwest region.

The development and prosperity of Yunnan and Guizhou in the past thirty years is undeniable and cannot be erased, but at the same time, its social contradictions are also accumulating rapidly. Land conflicts (Due to their special political environment, Yunnan and Guizhou did not carry out the same land tax reform as the inland prefectures), the gap between the rich and the poor, the contradictions between Han and Yi, the greed and exploitation of bureaucrats and dignitaries, and the bloody struggles between Tusi and barbarian tribes.
As time went by, the conflicts accumulated to a certain extent and naturally broke out. In fact, starting from the third year of Jianlong, the unrest in Yunnan and Guizhou began to increase. There were endless incidents of barbarians harassing and killing Han people. The barbarian tribes (including the chieftains) plundered, attacked and expanded against each other.

The local government and the army simply suppressed these riots as usual, just as they had been doing for the past thirty years. However, the old methods were obviously unable to solve the problems of the new stage, which led to the unrest, unstable social order, and rising crime rates, which gradually led to unrest and turmoil in the entire Yunnan and Guizhou.

The "Sichuan-Yunnan" tea-horse trade was affected, and the loss of direct interests naturally attracted the attention of relevant departments. After Zhang Shixun, the then Governor of Southwest China, learned of the situation, he attached great importance to it and personally reported it to the court in a memorial.

But inertia also exists at the core of the empire, and the court did not take it too seriously at the beginning. After all, the unrest in Yunnan and Guizhou had never been truly quelled. It was just a riot that would die down after a while.

Of course, the killing and looting of Han people could not be tolerated, and Zhang Shixun also had to be given face, so the court issued a relatively harsh urging order to the Yunnan and Guizhou yamen, requiring the two yamen to strictly restrain and rectify and restore public order. At the same time, a decree was issued to the chieftains of the two yamen, requiring them to cooperate with the Han government to maintain stability in Yunnan and Guizhou and quickly restore regional stability.

If such a move had taken place during the reign of Emperor Taizong or even Emperor Kangzong, the effect would have been immediate. But to be fair, by the time of Jianlong, the chieftains in the southwest, who were far away from the emperor, had long lost the awe and even gratitude they had felt thirty years earlier towards the imperial court.

Therefore, when the imperial edict was issued, few chieftains responded, or they did not seem to need the court's intervention. Those who lived a peaceful life continued to live a peaceful life, and those who attacked each other continued to fight fiercely.

The local government and the garrison troops did not dare to ignore the imperial decree and still mobilized in large numbers and struck hard, achieving certain results. However, there were not many who were truly committed to suppressing the bandits and maintaining stability.

In contrast, some government officials and military forces took advantage of this opportunity to kill and plunder the barbarians. Conflicts were intensified, and it was not surprising that greater chaos would come.

Seeing that public security in the southwest was difficult to maintain and the chaos was getting worse, the imperial court gradually began to pay attention to it. Liu Wenji became even more angry at the two government offices' failure to maintain stability, and even their dereliction of duty and lip service.

Therefore, from the fifth to the eighth year of Jianlong, Liu Wenji carried out frequent rectifications in Yunnan and Guizhou from politics to military. However, this rectification brought severe pain to the military and political affairs of the southwest, and also led to the further loss of control of the original order.

The biggest turmoil occurred in the late autumn of the eighth year of Jianlong, when the three Ningzhou tribes (Ayue, Hezheng, and Wang Nongshan) at the junction of Yunnan and Guangxi jointly raised the flag against the Han Dynasty.

The reason why this rebellion initially attracted the attention of the Yunnan Provincial Governorate was simply because the three tribes of Jiaohe were hereditary chieftains appointed by the imperial court. This kind of betrayal and provocation was much more serious than ordinary barbarism.

Therefore, after learning of the rebellion, the defenders of Zui Ningzhou quickly attacked, intending to nip the rebellion in the bud. However, they were unexpectedly defeated by the three rebel forces. Zui Ningzhou was lost, and the rebellion spread from a remote small state in Yunnan to a wider area.

Unlike the Sichuan Uprising more than 30 years ago, although there were smoke of war everywhere and many rebel armies gathered, the Jiannan rebels were the main force from beginning to end, with two rebel leaders, Wang Xiaobo and Li Shun.

The rebellion in Yunnan and Guizhou lasted longer, but no alliance was formed, no unified command was formed. It seemed that everyone was dissatisfied with the Han people and the rule of the Han court, so someone took the lead in rebelling against the Han, and then they followed suit and raised the banner of rebellion, or took advantage of the chaos to expand their power. While rebelling against the Han, they still did not stop killing and annexing each other.
However, even in such a magical "rebellion", the scale and scope of the rebellion showed a trend of expansion throughout the ninth year of Jianlong. By the beginning of the tenth year of Jianlong, when the southwestern rebellion was at its peak, more than half of the areas in Yunnan and Guizhou had rebellions by local chieftains or barbarians.

Yunnan, the source of the rebellion, was almost completely occupied by the rebels. Even though the government troops maintained a strong position with their strong strength, they were still passive in suppressing the rebellion under the situation of war everywhere. Often, one rebellion was suppressed, and another rebellion broke out again, and the government troops were exhausted.

This situation occurred not only because the rebels fully utilized their "local tyrant" attributes, but also because many Han tyrants could not hold back and wanted to take advantage of the situation. At the same time, many lower-class Han and barbarian people who were oppressed by the government and chieftains also gathered together to plot rebellion.

Therefore, at least in the ninth year of Jianlong, almost the entire Yunnan Province was in chaos.
(End of this chapter)