Chapter 28 Section 6 The Influence of Military Factors on Administrative Divisions

In addition to political factors, military factors also play an important role in the division of political regions.One is because military operations are directly related to political goals, and the other is due to the special needs of national security.Under the action of military factors, the size, shape, and boundary of the political area have special performance.In the previous chapters, we have already mentioned such phenomena as the density of border counties and border counties in the Qin Dynasty, the horizontal layout of the border counties in the Han Dynasty, and the small size and large number of Anfusi Roads in the Northern Song Dynasty.Here are two more examples to illustrate that after military operations and military conquest, the division of political regions is often closely related to the process of military operations and military regions.

Today Hunan Province includes the four river basins of Xiang, Zi, Yuan and Li, but in the Song Dynasty, Hunan only covered the two rivers of Hunan and Zi, while the Li and Yuan river basins belonged to Jingbei North Road, so Hubei protruded a tongue to the south It is inserted between Jinghu South Road and Kuizhou Road until it is adjacent to Guangxi (see Figure 6).The emergence of this state is the direct consequence of military action. Although the Xiangxi region had established prefectures and counties in the Tang Dynasty, the rule was not deep, and many places were in a state of imprisonment.During the Xining period of the Song Dynasty, troops were used abroad in the north, and troops were also sent deep into the northern and southern Jiangman areas in western Hunan, intending to transform them into official administrative regions.The person in charge of this operation was Zhang Dun, who later became Zaifu. He used Jinghu North Road as a base, went up the Yuan River, and used the "Three Routes to Pingyi, Qia, and Ding Three States", so Xiangxi officially entered the territory of the Song Dynasty. It was gradually transformed into three prefectures of Chen, Yuan, and Jing, which were controlled by Jinghu North Road. Therefore, in the Song Dynasty, Hubei dominated the area south of Dongting Lake.

As a result, the shape of Jinghu North Road was very irregular, so in the first year of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty (1131 A.D.), Jinghu South North Road was changed to East-West Road, but only one year later, the North-South Road was restored to its original shape.The Yuan Dynasty largely followed the rules of the Song Dynasty, and the Hunan Daoxuanwei Division under the Huguang Province did not have jurisdiction over the Yuan and Li River Basins.It wasn't until the Qing Dynasty that Huguang was divided into Hubei and Hunan provinces that the Western Hunan region was owned by Hunan.

It has been mentioned in Chapter 5 that the division of provinces in the early Yuan Dynasty was a reflection of the temporary wartime system and a direct product of the military conquest process. Now let’s analyze the relationship between provinces and military operations in a little more detail. In the first year of the Mongolian Central Committee (AD 1260), Shaanxi and Sichuan Xingzhongshu Province were established, which governed today's Shaanxi, Sichuan and parts of Gansu.This vast province spanning the north and south of the Qinling Mountains was the result of military conquests from north to south and from east to west.To narrow it down, the north and south areas of the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi today were occupied in the same military operation.At the end of 1230 AD, Genghis Khan’s youngest son, Tuolei, led an army to invade Shaanxi in the Jin Dynasty. In the second year, he crossed the Qinling Mountains, entered the territory of the Song Dynasty, crossed the Dashan Pass, broke Fengzhou, Tuyangzhou, and surrounded Xingyuan (now Hanzhong City); Enter Mianzhou, go south along the Jialing River, and return to Xishui County (now west of Langzhong, Sichuan), with the main force staying between Xingyuan and Yangzhou.So Guanzhong and Hanzhong fell into the hands of the Mongolian army at the same time.This is the reason why Shaanxi occupies the north and south of the Qinling Mountains today.

Five years later, the Mongolian army moved southward with Shaanxi as its base, entered Chengdu, and abandoned it; another five years later (1241 AD), Wang Shixian of the Dahai Department of the Mongolian army entered Shu again, fell into Chengdu, and then occupied other parts of Sichuan.At the same time as entering Chengdu for the first time, the Mongolian army marched westward from Shaanxi to surrender the Qin and Gong prefectures of the Jin Dynasty.Therefore, when Xingzhongshu Province was established later, Shaanxi and Sichuan were formed into Qinshu Province (that is, Shaanxi and Sichuan Province).

In the early Yuan Dynasty, the divisions of the four southern provinces of Huguang, Jiangxi, Jianghuai, and Fujian were also delineated based on the route and time sequence of the Yuan army's march in Ping and Song Dynasties.In June of the eleventh year of Zhiyuan (AD 1274), Yuan Shizu issued an edict to attack the Song Dynasty in an all-round way. In September, Boyan sent troops from Xiangyang, Hubei, and marched southward in a large scale. In December, the Yuan Dynasty army arrived in Hankou.In the second year, the troops were divided into three groups: Prime Minister Boyan led the generals to Lin'an (now Hangzhou), the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, Zuo Cheng Ali Haiya went straight south to take Hunan, Mongolian Wanhu Song Dudai and others went to the Marshal's Mansion to take Jiangxi.

The main force of the Yuan army led by Boyan began in February of the twelfth year of the Yuan Dynasty. He went to Anqing Prefecture, Taiping Prefecture and Hezhou, and entered Jiankang Prefecture (now Nanjing) and Ningguo Prefecture (now Xuancheng). Yuan, and then from Jiankang to Changzhou, to Pingjiang Mansion (now Suzhou).In the first month of the thirteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty, he entered Jiaxing Mansion, and the army was in Gaoting Mountain, so the Song Dynasty surrendered, and the Yuan army entered Lin'an. In February, most of Liangzhe Road returned to Yuan.The later Jianghuai Province was set up based on the Huainan East and West Roads, Jiangdong Road and Liangzhe Road conquered by this military operation.After the Song Dynasty surrendered, some ministers embraced Emperor Gang and entered the sea, so Boyan sent people to Quanzhou to instigate rebellion against Pu Shougeng's brothers and descend to the Yuan Dynasty.In the fourteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty, Song Fujian Road entered the Yuan Dynasty and set it up as Fujian Province.

The way to attack Hunan was defeated in March of the twelfth year of the Yuan Dynasty (AD 1275). Song soldiers were defeated at Jingjiangkou, and Yuezhou (now Yueyang) descended to the Yuan Dynasty. The army appeases the two lakes. In October, the Yuan army attacked Tanzhou (now Changsha), the capital of Hunan.Later, the Yuan army entered Guangxi from Vietnam and fell into the capital Jingjiang Mansion (now Guilin). Ali Haiya then divided his troops to take all parts of Guangxi.In the fourth year, Guangnan West Road was all "attached".Later, the Huguang Province was built, consisting of Songjing Lake North North Road and Guangnan West Road, from the source of Huai River in the north to Hainan Island in the south, with a longitudinal length of more than 1,600 kilometers from north to south.

On the way to attack Jiangxi, in November of the twelfth year of the Yuan Dynasty, in the army Cilongxing Mansion (now Nanchang), Song Jiangxi transferred envoys to surrender.The Marshal's Mansion of the Xingdu ordered the Jiangxi provinces to belong to them, and Jiangxi Road belonged to the Yuan Dynasty.In June of the following year, the Xingdu Marshal's Mansion was about to march into Guangdong, but was obstructed by Song soldiers and asked for reinforcements. All the states on the South East Road were "attached", and the front-line war in Jiangxi and Guangdong was over.The later Jiangxi Province was formed by merging Songjiang West Road and Guangdong Road. It runs from the Yangtze River in the north to the seashore in the south, forming a narrow and long shape.

In addition, as early as 1253 A.D., Kublai Khan set out from Yibin, Sichuan, divided his troops into three groups, crossed the Jinsha River with a leather bag, broke Dali, and pacified Yunnan.After Kublai Khan proclaimed himself emperor, he named his prince, Hu Gechi, the king of Yunnan. In the twelfth year of Zhiyuan, that is, the second year after the imperial edict was issued to attack the Song Dynasty, the Xingzhongshu Province of Yunnan was officially established. Therefore, in the seventeenth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1280 A.D.) after the Great Ding of the Yuan Dynasty, the whole territory was divided into the above six provinces and seven parts directly under the central government.At that time, the scope of the abdomen was extremely wide, including the vast area north of the Huai River and east of the Yellow River between the mountains and Shaanxi.Obviously, the division of the six provinces is entirely a direct result of military operations (at the same time, the capitals of each province are also the command centers of military operations).This wartime system could not meet the administrative needs of peacetime, so after a period of time, this system was gradually adjusted.

First of all, the Sichuan province was separated from the Qin and Shu provinces. This happened in the 23rd year of the Yuan Dynasty (AD 1286). Sichuan appeared as a single high-level administrative region for the first time in Chinese history.However, the scope of Sichuan at this time was different from that of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Road in the Song Dynasty. Since the Hanzhong Basin fell into the hands of Mongolia at the same time as the area north of the Qinling Mountains, it was firmly integrated with Shaanxi and no longer belonged to Sichuan. . The second is to establish a new province. In the 28th year of the Yuan Dynasty (1291 AD), the area south of the Yellow River in Zhongshu Province and the area north of the Yangtze River in Huguang Province and Jianghuai Province were designated as Henan Jiangbei Province.Then the Jianghuai Province was renamed Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces, and in the third year of Dade (1299 AD), Fujian Province was dismissed and entered into Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces.So the six provinces at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty were adjusted to seven provinces in the middle of the Yuan Dynasty. In addition, the Liaoyang Province was established in the northeast, the Gansu Province was established in the northwest, and the Lingbei Province was established in the north of Outer Mongolia. Therefore, the administrative division system in the middle of the Yuan Dynasty was Zhongshu Province and ten Xingzhongshu Provinces. The pattern has generally entered a more reasonable stage.