Chapter 10 Chapter 10 What is the relationship between Mongolia and the Ming Dynasty

On June 9, the thirty-sixth year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (AD 1771), on the banks of the Chalin River in Ili River, Xinjiang, the Turghut tribe of Mongolia, who had been away from home for more than a century, set out from the Volga River Basin to break through the barriers of Czarist Russia. Thousands of miles, finally under the support of the Qing army, successfully returned to the embrace of China.In October of that year, Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty received Ubaxi, the leader of the Torghut, known as the "Hero of Returning from the East", at the Chengde Mountain Resort, and he was canonized as "Zolik Tuhan". Titles such as "Prince", "Junwang", "Baile", "Beizi" and "Guogong" were canonized one by one.The whole tribe is divided into six groups, and they were respectively placed in the Altai Mountains of Xinjiang, the Yili Udulus Grassland and Bosten Lake, etc., and have multiplied to this day.This is the fierce "Turghut's return to the east" in the history of the Chinese nation.

In this grand and intense story, there is a detail that people have overlooked today: when Qianlong received Wubaxi at the Chengde Mountain Resort, Wubaxi presented two gifts one after another. The meaning of not rebellion, this matter has also become a good story through the ages; the second gift is very special - the "Yongle Seal" of the Ming Dynasty Yongle Emperor Zhu Di canonized Taiping, the former leader of the Turghut Tribe, as the King of Xianyi in the seventh year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty.Sending this object expresses the meaning of belonging to China. This unnoticed plot not only means that the Qing Dynasty inherited the Ming Dynasty’s rule over the Torghuts, but also reveals the changes of the Mongolian tribes in the early Ming Dynasty, which has never been paid much attention.

In the first year of Ming Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang launched the Northern Expedition and conquered the capital of the Yuan Dynasty in one fell swoop. The last emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, Yuan Shundi, fled north in a hurry, and the Ming Dynasty unified the Central Plains.However, the Yuan Dynasty still served as a "state regime", occupying the vast areas of eastern Xinjiang, western Gansu, northern Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, Outer Mongolia, the three northeastern provinces, and today's Amur Province in Russia. Hashili and Yuan Yizong Tuogusi Timur were two generations of monarchs, known as "Northern Yuan" in history.During this period, the Ming Dynasty launched a three-way Northern Expedition in the fifth year of Hongwu (AD 1372). Fu Youde's West Route Army won five battles and five victories. The Xu Da Department of the Central Route Army and the Li Wenzhong Department of the East Route Army suffered setbacks when they marched into Helin, the capital of the Northern Yuan Dynasty (now Hangai Mountain in Mongolia), but they also killed a lot of the Northern Yuan Army.More than ten years later, the Ming Dynasty set up nine borders and set up guards widely, using defense as the offensive to advance step by step.In the 20th year of Hongwu, the Ming army again mobilized 150,000 soldiers to attack Liaodong, and the Northern Yuan Taiwei Naha Chu, who was stationed in Liaodong, surrendered 200,000 people. North Korea's affiliated countries "broke the left arm of the Northern Yuan Dynasty" in one fell swoop.One year later, the Ming army ordered Lan Yu to lead an army of 150,000 to march north, and defeated the "Central Army" of the Beiyuan Dynasty in Yuerhai (now Lake Baikal, Russia), captured 87,000 members of the royal family and troops of the Beiyuan Dynasty, and won the Yuan Dynasty. The "Jade Seal of Chuanguo" of the dynasty.Yuan Yizong Tuogusi Timur, who fled alone, was killed by Ye Sudieer, a member of the Northern Yuan clan, in Tucihe.In the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu, Ye Sudieer officially became the "Northern Yuan Khan", but died of illness not long afterward. Then, the civil war between the "Golden Family" (the descendants of Genghis Khan) for the Khan lasted for several years, until the fourth year of Jianwen in Ming Dynasty , Guilichi, who was not a "golden family", seized the Khan throne, canceled the title of "Yuan", and restored the ancient name of "Tatar". So far, "Yuan" as a regime has become a historical concept.During successive years of civil war, Mongolia was divided into three major parts, the so-called Tatar, Oala, and Wuliangha in the history books of the Ming Dynasty.

Let me talk about Tatar first, that is, the Mongolian tribal alliance led by the "Golden Family", whose sphere of influence mainly includes today's Onon River, Kherlen River and the south of Lake Baikal.In the first year of Yongle, after the Tatar "Taibao" Alutai killed Guilichi, in the sixth year of Yongle (1408 A.D.), he supported Benya, a descendant of Kublai Khan who had returned from "political asylum" in the Timurid Empire. Khan, after that, Arutai "coerced Khan to order the princes" and appointed himself a "grand teacher" to take charge of the power. While frequently harassing the border of the Ming Dynasty, he fought and killed each other with Oala in the west.From Zhu Yuanzhang in the late Hongwu period to Zhu Di in the early Yongle period, they sent envoys to the Tatars many times to appease them, but they were ignored.

Oala, also known as "Oirat Mongolia", was called Han Yici in the Yuan Dynasty. It first lived in the Yeseni River Basin in Russia, and gradually moved south during the Yuan Dynasty. The tribes are the Huite tribe and its leader Tupolo, the Choros tribe and its leader Mahamu, and the Kelieyixi tribe and its leader Taiping.Among them, the Kelie Yixi Department was the predecessor of the later Torghut.The Ming Dynasty, which was well versed in "distanced friendship and close attack", frequently sent envoys to the three tribes of Wala since the end of Hongwu. Ning Wang", Taiping, the leader of the Kelie Yixi tribe, was called the "Xianyi King", and the "Yongle Seal" returned to Qianlong by Ubaxi came from this.Later, the "Shunning King" Mahamu gradually became the strongest among them, gradually mastered the power of Oala, and had a long-term civil war with the Tatars in the east. .Soon after Zhu Di ascended the throne in the first year of Yongle, Tatars and Oirats sent envoys to pay tribute at the same time. Zhu Di warmly received him. Later, he used economic means to win over various Mongolian ministries. Recruiting Mongolian tribes, he also allocated land on the border to appease the surrendered Mongolians.In the seventh year of Yongle, first Tatar "National Duke" Atan Buhua led his troops to surrender, and then Tatar "Prime Minister" Temporary Bu led 30,000 people to Ningxia, and Zhu Di "feasted generously".From time to time, the Ming army recruited Mongols to join the army in the border areas, conferring official positions and giving Chinese names. Even if there were occasional rebellions after the annexation, Zhu Di's attitude was quite tolerant.In the eighth year of Yongle, Hubao, the leader of the Mongolian confederation, misunderstood rumors and led his troops to defect. Zhu Di forbade the Ming Frontier army from chasing and killing him, and sent envoys to catch up with Hubao on fast horses. Dehubao finally led his troops back to the south, and was later resettled in Lintao, Gansu Province. After that, he went to great lengths to defend the frontier and was loyal to Ming Dynasty all his life.Under Huairou, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the history of the Mongols going south to join them is endless, especially Zhu Di's Yongle era.

As for Wuliangha, which is weaker among the three tribes of Mongolia, it was actually "reorganized" by the Liaodong Naha tribe that was attached to Ming Dynasty in Zhu Yuanzhang's time. Its territory is centered on Nenjiang, including today's Xiliaohe and Laohahe areas.In the 22nd year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang set up Taining Guard, Duoyan Guard, and Fuyu Guard in the local area, also known as "Wuliangha Sanwei" and "Duoyan Sanwei". The "Battle of Jingnan" made a lot of contributions.After the war, Zhu Di moved King Ning south to Jiangxi, allocated all of the Daning area (now Ningcheng, Inner Mongolia) originally belonging to King Ning to Wuliangha Sanwei, and set up a horse market in Kaiyuan, Jilin in the third year of Yongle to carry out trade.Compared with the three tribes of Wala who received the canonization of the Ming Dynasty in the Yongle Dynasty, they became the "official officials" of the Ming Dynasty as early as the Hongwu Dynasty.

In the eleventh year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, Alutai, the "Taishi" of the Tatar tribe, who had suffered heavy military blows from the Ming Dynasty several times, accepted the canonization of the "King Hening" of the Ming Dynasty.So far, from Zhu Yuanzhang to Zhu Di, after 40 years of painstaking efforts, both the Tatar and Oirat tribes accepted the "title" of the Ming Dynasty, thus establishing a ruling system in which the various Mongolian tribes checked each other and were "ruled by the arch" of the Ming Dynasty.At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the situation on the Mongolian Plateau was changing. Although this system was occasionally broken, it remained unchanged. It eventually evolved into the Qing Dynasty's "Alliance Flag" system. This system also means that the Northern Yuan Dynasty was a "foreign country" compared to the Ming Dynasty. The tribes of Mongolia, as the famous historian Zhu Shaohou said, became "local governments under the jurisdiction of the central government of the Ming Dynasty".

The way to maintain this balance, in addition to the Ming Dynasty's Huairou policy, is also the ebb and flow of the major forces fighting each other.The wars during this period can be described as intertwined and complicated between the Ming-Mongolian War and the civil wars of various Mongolian ministries. Since the first year of Yongle (1403 A.D.) when Wala and Tatar went to war, the Tatar, who had the upper hand in terms of population and resources, was victorious and full of ambition. Arutai was also extremely arrogant towards the Ming Dynasty.In the seventh year of Yongle (AD 1409), Zhu Di, in the name of congratulating Ben Yashili on his succession as Khan, condemned the rites department to Guo Ji (that is, the Ming envoy who was detained by Timur for nearly ten years) to Tatar The Tartar "Wang Ting" and Lin sent envoys to return the captives who fought in previous years, and presented lottery coins and other things, and said in the letter of credence that "Khan King Shuomo, we can live in peace with each other", trying to express peace and sincerity. Arutai actually beheaded Guo Ji, and Li Yao, a hundred households in the Daming Mission, fled back with the army.Alutai immediately rectified its troops and horses, preparing to invade the Wuliangha Sanwei, which was the "barrier" of the Ming Dynasty.After the news came, Zhu Di was furious. In September, he sent Qiu Fu, the Duke of Qi, to lead an expedition of 100,000 elite soldiers. Unexpectedly, after the army reached the Kerulun River, Qiu Fu refused to listen to the dissuasion of Li Yuan, the deputy general, and led thousands of soldiers to break away from the army and rush forward. , was surrounded by the Tatar army, Qiu Fu was killed, and then the Tatar army pursued the victory, the 100,000 Ming army was defeated, and the deputy generals Wang Cong, Li Yuan, and Huo Zhen all died in battle.When the news of his defeat came, Zhu Di decided to avenge his shame. On the first month of the following year, he issued an imperial edict for his own conquest, assembled an army of 500,000, and left Juyongguan on February 13th to march north.After careful investigation, May finally captured the main force of the Tatar army in the Onan River, Genghis Khan's hometown.In mid-May, Zhu Di and Benya lost their place in a decisive battle at the Onan River. Zhu Di took the lead and led his soldiers to charge. Benya was defeated and fled with only 7 people. Distribution of rations. All the Mongolian tribes came to surrender one after another under the "attack of the heart". On June 8, Zhu Di's army besieged Alutai in Feiyungou.Zhu Di followed his plan, pretending to negotiate with Arutai first, and then launched a surprise attack, using Liu Sheng's magical camp firearms to bombard and kill Arutai for more than a hundred miles.On July 3, the army returned to Kaiping.So far, the first northern expedition of the Ming Dynasty ended with heavy damage to the Tatars.

After the war, in December of the eighth year of Yongle, Arutai sent envoys to apologize, donated horses, and took the opportunity to beg Zhu Di to allow him to move to Liaodong to govern the Jurchen tribe.Zhu Di wanted to use Arutai to contain Wala, so he rejected Arutai's request, but said that the past should not be blamed.In December of the same year, Zhu Di sent an envoy to return Alutai's brother and sister who had been separated for nearly 20 years in the Ming Dynasty. Since then, the relationship between the two families has gradually become closer.But at that time, Mahamu, the leader of the Wara, took the opportunity to become big. He not only annexed many territories that belonged to the Tatars, but also captured the Mongolian Khan Ben Yashili who fled after the Onan River War.In May of the tenth year of Yongle (AD 1412), Mahamu killed Ben Ya and lost his position, and sent envoys to "ask for merit and reward" to the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Di deeply felt that Mahamu "this slave is proud", and the rift between the two sides deepened.In the following year, Mahamu sent envoys to negotiate with the Ming Dynasty, demanding that the Ming Dynasty return the Oirat tribes who had defected to Gansu, Shaanxi and other provinces. Zhu Di sent eunuch Haitong to Oirat to denounce Mahamu's crimes face to face, and the relationship between the two sides became increasingly bad.Arutai took the opportunity to send envoys to pay tribute five times in a row in the same year. In July, Zhu Di named Arutai King of Hening. Mahamu was furious when he heard about it, and frequently sent troops to attack Arutai.In November, Mahamu broke through Arutai, and took advantage of the opportunity to arrive at Yinma River, intending to completely wipe out the Tatars and unify Mobei.In order to prevent Mahamu from succeeding, Zhu Di "decided to discuss it".After careful preparation, on March 17 of the following year, Zhu Di led an army of 500,000 to march north again, and specially appointed the emperor's eldest grandson Zhu Zhanji (later Emperor Xuande) to accompany him. Harassing the Ming army, fighting and retreating, intending to lure the Ming army into deep combat before encircling and annihilating, Zhu Di went all the way north, and arrived at Hulan on June 1, where Mahamu had gathered tens of thousands of the most elite troops from the three Wala tribes. cavalry.On June 7th, the decisive battle started. The Oirat army camped on the high mountain and launched a condescending charge. Zhu Di ordered the Shenji Battalion to bombard with firearms, and then led the cavalry to charge.Zhu Chong, the commander-in-chief of the Ming army, bombarded the Taiping Department of the right wing of the Oala army (that is, the "Turhut" army) with firearms, opening a gap, and Hou Linbin of Fengcheng (the "Commander of Annandu" of the Ming Dynasty who later died in Vietnam) outflanked from the left wing. After suffering heavy casualties and crushing the Polo tribe, Zhu Di took the opportunity to attack the Mahamu army with his own soldiers, and ordered his firearms to fire in volley. The desperate impact and "high-tech" finally collapsed the whole line of Wala. The Ming army pursued the victory and broke through again at Tuci River The Oirat Army, Mahamu, Taiping, and Polo fled separately while it was getting dark.Zhu Di wanted to continue marching north, but Zhu Zhanji, the eldest grandson of the emperor who accompanied him, advised him "not to chase after him", and then withdrew his troops.This battle caused Wala to suffer heavy casualties and greatly weakened its strength.The situation on the Mongolian plateau has returned to "mutual containment" again.

Wala "Shunning King" Maha's wooden house leaked and it rained all night.In the thirteenth year of Yongle, Arutai launched a surprise attack and killed the puppet Khan Daliba supported by Mahamu. Mahamu made Er Senhu, a descendant of Genghis Khan's younger brother, as Khan. Defeated by Alutai, he himself was killed.After hearing the news, Zhu Di sent envoys to hang sacrifices, and ordered his son Tuo Huan to inherit the title of "King of Shunning".In the 17th and 19th years of Yongle, Alutai attacked Wala twice and won a complete victory. Under the spring breeze, he refused to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty again, and wooed Wuliangha Sanwei to fight against the Ming Dynasty.Seeing that the "balance" in Mobei would be broken again, Zhu Di launched the third personal expedition in the 20th year of Yongle (1422 AD). Near Ulaanbaatar, Alutai had already fled away at this time.In July, Zhu Di ordered an attack on the three guards of Wuliangha who had colluded with Alutai on the way back to the teacher. Qulihe in Inner Mongolia broke Wuliangha.Although Alutai escaped, his strength was greatly damaged, and he was defeated by Tuohuan one after another in the same year.The brooding Zhu Di launched the fourth Northern Expedition in July of the following year on the pretext that Arutai was plotting to invade the frontier.The army set off in July and swept the Mongolian plateau for three months, but failed to find Alutai. Even so, a large number of Tatar tribes joined them one after another, especially the son of Benya who lost his way. Zhu Di was very happy. He was given the name "Jin Zhong" and returned to his teacher in October.Jin Zhong told all the "military secrets" of Alutai, and repeatedly urged Zhu Di to continue the northern expedition. On March 1, the 22nd year of Yongle, with Jin Zhong as his guide, Zhu Di launched the fifth northern expedition.The army carried out a "carpet search" on the Mongolian plateau. By June, it had traveled to Russia, but there was no sign of Arutai.On June 15th, the Ming army received information that Alutai was less than a hundred miles to the west, and the famous general Zhang Fu "asked for a month's rations, and led the elite to ride deep."But Zhu Di was tired and ordered the class teacher.On July 17, Zhu Di died of illness in Yumuchuan on his way back to his teacher at the age of 65.According to Mongolian historical records, on the day Zhang Fu volunteered to pursue him, Arutai hid in Mount Hara, which was only two days away from the main force of the Ming army to the west.

However, Arutai "hidden from the first day of the new year but not the fifteenth day". Although it did not fight the Ming army, its exhaustion also caused a great loss of strength.What Zhu Di didn't expect until his death was that the "strategic balance" on the Mongolian plateau that he personally built was completely broken by his two hasty northern expeditions in his later years.Although Tuo Huan, who succeeded the "King of Shunning", adopted a friendly attitude towards the Ming Dynasty throughout his life and frequently sent envoys to pay tribute, in fact he was neither "loyal and obedient" nor "peaceful".On the one hand, in the first year of Hongxi (AD 1425), he made Tuotuo Buhua, the grandnephew of Ben Yashili, Khan, and called himself "Taishi". In the ninth year of Xuande (AD 1434), Arutai was killed in the Badain Jaran Desert in Mongolia, thus controlling Tatar.He also tried his best to win over Wuliangha Sanwei, the "barrier" of the Ming Dynasty. He sent envoys to recruit many times, and the two gradually linked up.At the same time, he aggressively eliminated dissidents internally. Just three days after Zhu Di's death, "Xianyi King" Taiping was killed by Tuohuan, and a year later, "Taiping King" Polo committed suicide after being defeated by Tuohuan.It is particularly worth mentioning that he changed the name of the Taiping "Kelie Yixi tribe" to the Torghut tribe, which means "guarding the army" in Mongolian. Later, the tribe that created the "Miracle of Returning to the East" came from this Come. In the fourth year of Ming Zhengtong (AD 1439), Tuohuan passed away, and his son first inherited the title of "King of Shunning". This person was awarded by the Ming court because he created the myth of capturing the Ming emperor alive in the later "Tumu Fort Change". He is well known up and down, but before that, he has been invincible in the Mongolian Plateau and even in Central Asia.Internally, he imitated the Yuan Dynasty and set up "Zhongshu Sheng" and "Six Departments" to consolidate his rule.He was very "economically savvy" and "political savvy" about the Ming Dynasty. On the one hand, he frequently communicated with the Ming Dynasty to make the Ming Dynasty monarchs and officials relax their vigilance; , Recruiting soldiers and craftsmen who fled due to the annexation of military settlements on the border of the Ming Dynasty to "teach the method of firearms practice", and soon had a firearms force that surpassed the Mongolian Plateau.For Wuliangha, he resorted to marriage, bribery and other means to win him over to his side.To the west, he not only captured the Xinjiang Hami, Chijin and other guards that Zhu Di painstakingly managed in the sixth year of Zhengtong, but also marched into Central Asia, and plundered the Timurid Empire and other Central Asian countries in the seventh year of Zhengtong. "Plundered countless treasures, and even defeated the Eastern Front Army of the Ottoman Turkish Empire (that is, the "Tuluma Kingdom" mentioned in both Ming History and Mongolian historical materials) in the ninth year of Zhengtong. Before the "Tumu Fort Change", after two generations of leaders, Wala had established a Mongolian tribal alliance that was loyal to the Ming Dynasty on the surface, but truly powerful. The "strategic balance" that Zhu Di painstakingly maintained throughout his life was less than 20 years old. was easily broken. Speaking of the breaking of this "strategic balance", Wuliangha Sanwei is also indispensable. After the "Battle of Jingnan", Zhu Di gave Wuliangha the territory of the original King Ning to expand his strength.During the Yongle period, although Wuliangha was severely beaten during Zhu Di's third northern expedition, after Zhu Di's death, he soon linked up with the Tatars and continued to have friction with the Ming Dynasty.After Ming Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji ascended the throne, he personally conquered in the third year of Xuande (1428 A.D.), and went out of Xifengkou in October. He defeated Wuliangha's three guards in the battle of Kuanhe, and the leader of Wuliangha, Wan Zhetie, was in a panic. Mu'er and others hurried to Beijing to apologize.But two years later, the Ming Dynasty gave up the important town of Kaipingwei (now Duolun, Inner Mongolia).Kaipingwei was the "upper capital" of the former Yuan Dynasty. Since Li Wenzhong conquered it in the second year of Hongwu (AD 1369), it has been painstakingly managed for decades. Zhu Di regarded it as a strategic place and declared that "if Kaiping is stable, then Liaodong, Gansu , Ningxia worry-free".After Zhu Di bestowed the hometown of King Ning to Wuliangha, Kaipingwei became a key pawn to restrain Wuliangha.However, Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty had no long-term strategy. He moved it to Dushibao (now Shibao County, Hebei Province) in the fifth year of Xuande, and abandoned the land for more than 300 miles. Wuliangha, who had lost control, was confident from then on, and expanded wantonly with the support of Wala. And they often attacked and plundered the border gates of the Ming Dynasty. What used to be a "barrier" has become a "border trouble" today.In the ninth year of Ming Zhengtong (AD 1444), the Ming Dynasty, aware of the serious problems, sent Zhu Yong, Xu Heng, Ma Liang, and Chen Huaibing to attack Wuliangha in four directions. Zhu Yong did not dare to march as far as Pingquan County, Hebei. Xu Heng was cowardly and did not dare to fight all the way.Chen Huai and Ma Liang searched and hunted, but found no enemy at all.Only Yang Hong, the general of Xuanfu, took the opportunity to attack Fuyuwei in the "Three Guards" by surprise, and captured the leader Maric alive.But this battle did not really hit the strength of Wuliangha Sanwei, and the resentful Wuliangha Sanwei became more determined to join Wala from then on.And the doomed battle between the Ming Dynasty and the "Mongolian Tribal Alliance" was about to break out from then on.