Chapter 19 foreword

The highest ideal of Ming Chengzu is to be a prosperous and famous king who has surpassed the ages. To achieve this ideal, it is not enough to only have domestic stability and prosperity, but also have an infinitely vast territory and a situation where guests are all over the world.It can be said that since Zhu Di took the throne, he has devoted his whole life to this, and the first to bear the brunt is to solve the Mongolian issue.We have dissected Ming Chengzu's Mongolian policy, and we can roughly understand the pros and cons of his entire ethnic policy. In the Ming Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty, there was China.At the beginning, "Emperor Shun went out of Yuyang in the north, spun into the desert, and restored the old capital without losing the old things.The heirs of Emperor Shun of the Yuan Dynasty, Aiyou Shili Dala and Tugustimur, successively changed the titles of Yuan Xuanguang and Tianyuan, and still called themselves the Great Yuan Empire, which was called Beiyuan in history.Since then, there has been a situation of confrontation between the Ming Dynasty and the Mongolian tribal regime for a long period of time.During the Hongwu period, a lot of energy was spent on solving the Mongolian issue.Zhu Yuanzhang sent famous generals such as Xu Da, Li Wenzhong, Feng Sheng, and Lan Yu, as well as princes of Qin, Jin, and Yan, to the Northern Expedition successively. Although there were setbacks, there were many victories.At the same time as this kind of force attack, Zhu Yuanzhang also adopted a whole set of defensive and gentle policies.In the northern frontier, from east to west, he placed the kings of Liao, Ning, Yan, Gu, Dai, Jin, Qin, Han, An, Qing, Min, and Su (some princes did not become vassals at the time of Hongwu), and controlled the armies. Guard the border, and use generous treatment to attract the old Yuan forces to join.These measures by Zhu Yuanzhang were extremely effective. Coupled with the divisions and disputes within the Northern Yuan Dynasty, the Ming Empire took the initiative in the struggle against the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty.

After Zhu Di came to the throne, he inherited Zhu Yuanzhang's policy and developed it, which also achieved remarkable results.However, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di's Mongolian policy contained flaws, which not only prevented Hong Yongchao from fundamentally solving the Mongolian problem, but also left their policy model to future generations, which also caused a series of problems.Therefore, the "History of the Ming Dynasty" said that "the border defense will be very heavy in the end of the Ming Dynasty", and the "northern captives" have always been an important threat to the north.