I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 363 The Soviet Method
"Rule the entire Mongolian grassland?" Zhu Houzhao asked in surprise.

"That's right! Rule the entire Mongolian grassland," Zhu Houxuan said with a smile.

"Then how can we rule the entire Mongolian grassland?" Zhu Houzhao asked excitedly.

"Have you ever thought about this, brother?"

"I've thought about it! But I haven't thought of a good way. I just realized that I can't use the original method to rule the Mongols," Zhu Houzhao said frankly.

"The previous method? The tribute system?" Zhu Houxun asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yes, yes, yes! You summarized it well, my brother. It's the feudal tribute system." Zhu Houzhao said quickly.

The feudal system is the tribute system. The rulers of the Ming and Qing dynasties believed that the sky is round and the earth is square, with China in the center and the four vassals as its vassals. The rulers of the Ming and Qing dynasties still believed that China was at the center of the world, and the four vassals were its vassals. "If the four barbarians submit, China will be at peace." Therefore, they tried their best to build a stable tribute system to maintain China's peace. China's tribute system originated from the feudal system of the Western Zhou Dynasty. After a long period of development in history, a stable tribute system with complete regulations had been formed in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

The Ming and Qing emperors followed the principle of "giving more and receiving less" and rewarded kings and envoys of various countries with items that were much higher in quantity, quality and value than the tribute items, in order to show the generosity and wealth of the Celestial Empire. There was a fixed number of rewards for tributes. There was no fixed number of rewards for celebrations, condolences and thanksgivings, and there were different levels for each.

This system was widely used in areas surrounding China and was the main means by which the Ming Dynasty ruled the Mongols in the north.

The disadvantage of the feudal tribute system is very obvious. The feudal tribute system only makes the leaders of Mongolian tribes bow their heads and submit to the Celestial Empire. The leaders gain benefits from the Celestial Empire, but the lower-class Mongolian people cannot gain benefits from the Celestial Empire.

When the Ming Dynasty's national strength declines and the rewards become less, the leaders of the Mongolian tribes will become alienated.
Therefore, the feudal tribute system failed on the Mongols. Ruling the Mongols through Mongolian tribal leaders was not effective at all, but instead wasted a lot of financial resources.

"I even thought about slaughtering all the Mongols on the grasslands one day to put an end to it all, but I feel that it would go against the will of heaven and might not necessarily solve the problem..." Zhu Houzhao acted very calmly in front of Zhu Houxun.

"Massacre indeed cannot solve the problem," Zhu Houxuan nodded.

In history, it is not uncommon for a nomadic tribe on the grassland to be wiped out, but the fertile grassland is a huge attraction for any nomadic tribe, and the power gap caused by the massacre will soon be filled by other nomadic tribes.

There are two similar events in Chinese history: one is that Emperor Wu of Han killed all the Huns, which left a power vacuum in the northern grasslands. The Xianbei people who migrated westward from the Greater Khingan Range filled this vacuum and had a profound impact on subsequent Chinese history.

The second event is more recent. Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty massacred the Dzungars. This war created a power vacuum in Xinjiang, which gave the Kazakhs an opportunity to immigrate to Xinjiang, and almost caused the division of Xinjiang in the late Qing Dynasty.

In short, killing nomads cannot solve the problem of nomads, because the vitality of nomads lies in mobility, and it is difficult to control the mobility of nomads with current technical conditions.
In this era, there was a continuous grassland area from the banks of the Dnieper River in eastern Ukraine to the north of Liaoning. This was the range of activities of the Mongols in the Ming Dynasty. As a nomadic people, the Mongols could run away if they could not win the battle and they could still survive by escaping the military deployment range of the agricultural empire.

Faced with the Mongols' mobile, nomadic and combat-oriented lifestyle in which every citizen was a soldier, it was difficult for the Ming Dynasty to launch a war of annihilation.

Even if the Mobei grassland is turned into an uninhabited area, other ethnic groups will soon fill the gap.

"So, what's your brilliant plan, brother?" Zhu Houzhao looked at Zhu Houxun expectantly. Based on his understanding of Zhu Houxun, when Zhu Houxun took the initiative to ask a question, he already had the answer in his mind. "It's not a brilliant plan, just a little idea..." Zhu Houxun said with a smile.

"Tell me quickly!" Zhu Houzhao sat up straight.

"Intimidate Mongolia militarily, control Mongolia economically, assimilate Mongolia culturally, and directly manage Mongolia politically..." Zhu Houxuan said in a solemn voice.

Zhu Houzhao was stunned for a moment, then scratched his head and said embarrassedly: "Brother, what did you say? I don't think I understand."

Uh. Zhu Houxuan also found that what he said was a bit too abstract and indeed difficult to understand.

"But it doesn't matter if I don't understand. If I do as my brother says, can I become the Great Khan of Mongolia in the future?" Zhu Houzhao said with bright eyes.

Zhu Houxuan thought about it and said, "Yes!"

"That's fine! I like this! Haha!" Zhu Houzhao was delighted.

"Actually, my strategy is this." Zhu Houxuan wanted to explain his strategy in detail.

"No need to say more!" Zhu Houzhao interrupted Zhu Houxuan directly.

Zhu Houxuan was a little confused for a moment and didn't quite understand what Zhu Houzhao meant.

"You've said so much. The only thing I can do is to deter Mongolia militarily," Zhu Houzhao said with his hands spread out.

"I can definitely do this one well, and you will have to do the rest. In that case, I don't need to know the specific contents of the rest," Zhu Houzhao said somewhat shamelessly.

Zhu Houxuan listened to Zhu Houzhao's speech in a daze, and suddenly felt that what he said made sense.
Although Zhu Houzhao's tone and rogue expression made Zhu Houxuan feel a little annoyed, a warm feeling surged in his heart - how much Zhu Houzhao trusted him!

Since the Battle of Yingzhou, Zhu Houxuan clearly felt that Zhu Houzhao trusted him more.
Seeing Zhu Houzhao's indifferent look, Zhu Houxuan felt a little touched.
In fact, the reason why Zhu Houxuan proposed the strategy of ruling the Mongols at this time was to quickly resolve the Mongolian issue and then adjust the expansion direction of the Ming Dynasty.

As a time traveler, he did not have much resentment towards the Mongols, but the existence of the Mongols consumed half of the annual revenue of the Ming Dynasty court. So many resources were consumed so inefficiently on the thousands of miles of defense line in the nine northern borders. He could not ignore it.

Moreover, the Mongols were the most suitable targets for gaining military merit and enhancing prestige, so Zhu Houxuan targeted the Mongols.

However, if you use the Mongols to earn military merit too much, it will not be worth it, so you still have to find a way to rule the Mongolian grasslands at a relatively low cost, reduce the financial burden of the Ming Dynasty, and even become a sharp knife in the hands of the Ming Dynasty.
But how to establish a long-term rule on the Mongolian grasslands is really a technical job.
However, some regimes in later generations successfully established long-term rule on the Mongolian grasslands, such as the Qing Dynasty.
Their methods can be used as reference.
However, after careful consideration of the current situation of the Mongolians, Zhu Houxuan decided to try the Soviet method first.
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(End of this chapter)