My life skills in Daming Liver

Western Region.

Yu Dayou and Lu Er looked at each other, and both saw the amazement in each other's eyes.

Young people in the southeast are really ambitious!

The second thing Gao Wuguan did when he arrived at Wuyuan City was to open up the Silk Road, the road to the Western Regions!

Gao Wuguan then talked about history:

"Since the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, due to the threat from Mongolia, it has also attached great importance to the Western Regions."

"But after Tumubao, the Ming Dynasty gradually lost control of the Western Regions, especially the decline of the Seven Guards of Kansai."

Yu Dayou nodded. He was a military householder and knew this history very well.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the Ming court still attached great importance to the management of the Western Regions. It established the Seven Guards of Guanxi in Gansu to control the Western Regions.

The Ming court once extended its tentacles to the Western Regions and even implemented a tribute and canonization system for small countries in the Western Regions.

However, with the rise of Tumubao and Wala, they began to isolate the Western Regions, and the Ming court's influence on the Western Regions decreased day by day.

During the Jiajing period, the Ming Dynasty completely abolished the Seven Guards of Guanxi, which meant that the Ming Dynasty lost control of the entire Western Region.

Gao Wuguan has obviously done a lot of homework. He said:

"Nowadays, the major forces in the Western Regions, apart from the Oara tribe occupying the northwestern part of the grassland, are Turpan and Yarkand. These two countries have been fighting in the Western Regions to compete for the legitimacy of the Eastern Chahatai Khanate."

"The Ming Dynasty has been neglecting to take care of the Hetao and the Western Regions. Oara and Tumut have risen one after another. The problem of the grasslands cannot be solved, let alone the Western Regions."

Yu Dayou and Lu Er both nodded.

In fact, the territory of Ming Dynasty is also constantly changing.

Many people use the territorial map of the early Ming Dynasty to explain the power of the Ming Dynasty, but this is actually wrong.

The Ming Dynasty did indeed do well. In its management of the south, the Ming Dynasty stabilized the areas of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi, and even occupied Annan for a time. It did not compromise on the southwest issue, which can be regarded as leaving a good foundation for future generations. .

However, under the emperor's righteousness to guard the country, the Ming court did not handle the northern issue well.

The problem of the northern grasslands, the problem of barbarians in the Northeast, and the most neglected problem of the Western Regions.

Yes, the Mongolians in the northern grasslands and the savages in the northeast are too busy, so where are there any ideas for managing the Western Regions?

Gao Wuguan said: "Before coming to Wuyuan City, the Grand Governor once talked about the reasons for the decline of the Prairie Silk Road."

Silk Road, the earliest Silk Road was from the Western Regions to Central Asia. This was a trade route that was opened in the Han Dynasty and reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty.

Datang made great efforts in managing the Western Regions.

Gao Wuguan said: "In fact, the management of frontiers in all dynasties mainly depends on whether it is profitable. This is the problem of the feudal dynasty itself. Under the monarchy, everyone considers the cost of governance, not the nation and territory. question."

"The Grand Governor talked about the Qiang rebellion in the northwest of the Eastern Han Dynasty. When the threat of rebellion in a place exceeds the cost of governance, and even when such rebellion may threaten the imperial power, the rulers tend to abandon these troubled areas."

"The Ming Dynasty occupied Annan in the early days and then withdrew from Annan. This was also the reason."

"The Governor said that in fact, the reason why the Ming Dynasty gave up on managing the Western Regions was because the Silk Road in the Western Regions declined."

Yu Dayou is a general. He has never thought about problems from a perspective other than military. Today's words from Gao Wuguan gave him a different perspective.

"The Western Region trade route was once the main foreign trade route of the Han and Tang Dynasties. At that time, the camel bells in the Western Regions brought wealth, so the Han and Tang Dynasties spared no effort to manage the Western Regions."

"But with the desertification of the Western Regions, some oases once recorded in history books have disappeared, and the old route in the Western Regions has become increasingly difficult to follow after the Western Regions lost order, so the Western Regions trade routes gradually became less 'worthy'. The management of the Western Region has also lost its support.”

"The rise of the Maritime Silk Road and the Ancient Tea Horse Road also allowed the Ming court to focus its business on the southwest region."

“The Ancient Tea Horse Road completely usurped the status of the trade routes in the Western Regions.”

Lu Er nodded.

The Ancient Tea Horse Road entered Myanmar from Yunnan, then traded with Indian princes, and then traded with Central Asia through Himalayan caravans. This new Silk Road could also meet the needs of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ancient Tea Horse Road can be exchanged for horses, and you can also get various specialties from the Western Regions. However, the cost of operating Yunnan is much higher than facing the northern grassland, the Holy Land of King Juan.

Also because the Ming court made great efforts in managing the southwest, the southwest territory has always been relatively stable.

In the historical timeline that Su Ze traveled through, in order to stabilize Guizhou, Wanli also launched the Battle of Bozhou, one of the three major campaigns, and invested half of the country's troops in pacifying the southwest.

To put it bluntly, the reason why Mingting gave up managing the Western Regions was because the Western Regions were no longer profitable.

After the rise of the Maritime Silk Road, the value of the Silk Road on the road has further declined.

Gao Wuguan said: "But this is only in terms of trade. The Governor said that today is an era of great changes that have never been seen in history. The Western Region and the northern grasslands are not only trade, they are also important resource producers!"

Gao Wuguan recalled a speech Su Ze gave to all the officers in the southeast very early on.

Su Ze said at that time:

"Today is a time of great strife, and it is an era different from the past. What we do today will determine China's national destiny for hundreds of years to come."

At the beginning, Gao Wuguan didn't take it seriously. Wasn't it just a change of dynasty? How many times has this happened in history? Is there anything special about this?

But before the Chinese New Year this time, Gao Wuguan returned to his hometown in Henan. When his hometown persuaded his father Gao Gong to go to Nanjing for retirement, he had some exchanges with his father Gao Gong.

After summarizing his gains and losses in governing the Ming Dynasty, Gao Gong also said the same thing.

Gao Wuguan still remembers the exchange between himself and his father Gao Gong.

"Times have changed. It was only after I stepped down that I began to study books and study before I understood this matter. Your Grand Governor is much better than being a father. No wonder he has achieved such success."

Gao Wuguan still asked with some confusion: "Father, is this war different from the changes in dynasties in history?"

Gao Gong shook his head and said, "It's completely different. Could it be that you are in the southeast and don't see any difference?"

Gao Wuguan shook his head.

Gao Gong said: "Times have changed."

"The previous world was the Central Plains. Apart from the Central Plains, the rest of the world were distant frontiers."

"The classics of the Han Dynasty have already recorded civilizations in distant regions. During the Tang Dynasty, the Battle of Henglus in the Western Regions also made the Tang Dynasty understand that there was a dynasty almost as powerful as the Tang Dynasty to the west of the Western Regions."

"This was especially true in the Yuan Dynasty. The entire Western Region was the land of the Chagatai Khanate. The records of the Yuan people not only recorded the west of the Western Region, but also recorded the vast land further to the west, as well as a civilization that was completely different from ours in the Central Plains. "

Gao Gong said: "Although these countries are also included in ancient classics, before the age of navigation, these countries were recorded in books."

"But it's different now."

“Trade ties the entire world together.”

Gao Gong said: "The mines of Japan are related to the silver in our Central Plains, and the trade in distant America can affect the inflow of silver from the entire Central Plains."

"If a merchant ship is robbed by pirates at sea, it will cause a country's food shortage."

"A war in the East may affect the price of tea in the West."

"The world is becoming more closely connected than ever before."

Gao Wuguan did not expect that his father, who was studying in his hometown in Henan, would come up with deeper insights than most people in the southeast.

Yes, in the education that Gaowu Guan received in the past, the Central Plains is the Central Plains, and places other than the Central Plains are barbarians.

This is also the idea of ​​​​governing all the dynasties that ruled the Central Plains.

Except for the Central Plains area, the barbarian areas are not of much value.

The land in the grasslands has no value, and troops must be stationed to occupy these lands. If there is no income from trade, there is no need to occupy such places.

Even trade was of no value in Confucian culture, which suppressed commerce.

The Ming Dynasty could abandon Daewang Island and not develop it, and North Korea could also relocate all the residents of Jeju Island. The stability of its rule would even exceed its need for territory.

Gao Wuguan said to Yu Dayou: "General, times have changed."

"For us, the grassland is no longer a burden that requires us to spend military power and only invest in maintaining stability without benefiting from it."

"The wool from the grassland can become an important raw material in wool textile workshops, and the meat from the grassland can also be transported to the dining tables in the Central Plains."

“The population of the grasslands is an important market for Southeast products.”

"Not to mention the minerals under this land."

Yu Dayou nodded quickly.

The grassland is rich in mineral resources. Yu Dayou discovered iron ore and coal mines near Wuyuan City, and also discovered many other mineral deposits.

Gao Wuguan said: "Territory and population will be more important than ever before."

"In the future, war will not compete with the leadership ability of a certain general, but the mobilization and logistics capabilities of a country, and these capabilities rely on the vast population and huge territory. This is what the Grand Governor calls strategic depth. .”

"The Grand Governor once asserted that the coming era will be the era of great powers, that is, the era of great powers."

“Only a country with a large enough population and a large enough territory can dominate the world.”

"In the future, the world will only be divided into great powers and non-great powers. Countries other than the great powers will be just a chessboard and dumping market for the great powers."

"After the era of great powers comes to an end, those that can dominate the world will inevitably be the few big countries with the largest territory, the most advanced technology, and the largest population."

"That's why the Grand Governor attaches so much importance to the situation created by the General. This is also why the Grand Governor attaches so much importance to the grassland."

"General Yu, we need to make the grassland more valuable."