Gansu in April is already a beautiful season for grass to grow and warblers to fly. （. . Outside the Acropolis of Suzhou, a fortress in the western part of the province that had not been established for many years, a cavalry unit had just returned.

They were on their way to clear out a troop of Oirat Mongol cavalry that was wandering nearby. These bandits set out from Turpan, few in number, but very fierce, plundered many villages, horse farms and forage fields west of Suzhou, and also killed a caravan returning from the southern Qinghai region, which was very arrogant.

In view of this, Liu Jincai, a guerrilla general at Jiayuguan and a general of the Han Army, who was in charge of the defense of the nearby area, immediately ordered Suzhou to send troops to clear it. The horse team stationed in Suzhou urgently dispatched to the surrounding villages to track the traces of this horse bandit, and finally captured about 100 of its people in the area between Jiayuguan and Suzhou Acropolis, and wiped them out after a bloody battle.

"Prepare a decoction and a meal, the brethren need it." A Qing army officer wearing a sheepskin hat threw his horsewhip into the arms of a small soldier who was waiting in front of him, and commanded: "These lowly slaves of Turpan who have lost their country do not dare to resist the barbarians from the river in the front, and they do not dare to show their teeth to the new masters, the Warat people, but they dare to repeatedly cross the border to harass our department. ”

The "unfortunate slaves" mentioned by this officer actually refer to the descendants of the Turpan Khanate, which was destroyed by the Yarkand Khanate about a hundred years ago.

The so-called Turpan Khanate, in fact, was the former Eastern Chagatai Khanate, in the early Ming history of the name "Bei Lost Bali", because of the second Great Khan's son of the fire set up the Golden Horde in Bei Lost Bali (now in Jimsar County, Xinjiang), and later the Ming history called it "Yili Jiangli" Khanate, because the capital was moved to Yili (near Yining in the Ili River Valley of Xinjiang today) during the reign of Crooked Khan. Then, there is even more bizarre, in 1481, Yunus Khan handed over the eastern half of the khanate to his younger son (the Ming history called it Sutan Aheima, that is, the Ahmet Sultan), and the capital was Turpan, so it was once again called the Turpan Khanate.

In fact, the so-called Beshi Bali, Yili Jiangli, and Turpan Khanate are all talking about one country, that is, the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, and the reason why there are so many names is that the Ming Dynasty does not border with the Western Regions (separated by a vassal state of Hami and the loyal and obedient royal department, that is, the so-called Kansai Qiwei is also), and the reason for not understanding it clearly. After all, you can't expect a country that can't even effectively control Qinghai to know everything about Xinjiang, not to mention that the main military pressure of the Ming Dynasty came from the Mongolian steppes in the north.

Since its establishment, the Eastern Chagatai Khanate has been fighting in the east and west. At the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century, the country and the Ming Dynasty brought back and forth in Hami, and the Ming Dynasty sometimes lost the Hami State, and sometimes recovered it (three establishments and three wastes). During the period of Mansur Khan (Mansur Sultan), the national power of the Ming Dynasty declined, and the Eastern Chagatai Khanate completely annexed the Hami State, pushing the border to the west of Jiayuguan, directly bordering the Ming Dynasty, and since then it has been fixed until the Eastern Chagatai Khanate was destroyed by the Yarkand Khanate that rose in Yaerkancheng - interestingly, Saidhan (Said Sultan), who established the Yarkand Khanate, was the younger brother of Mansu Khan and the son of Aheima, who went into exile to Asia for fear of being murdered by his brother and took refuge with his cousin Babur, and killed him again in 1514, Rise from southern Xinjiang and establish the Yarkand Khanate.

Said hated his brother Manssur's persecution of him. Perhaps because this hatred was also passed on to their descendants, after the defeat of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate (the land was divided among the Yarkand and Warat Mongols), they were blind to its remnants, not only because of the heavy tax burden, but also because they had to send a lot of troops to fight, and their lives were miserable.

A few years ago, one of the religious leaders of the Yarkand Khanate colluded with the 5th Snow Mountain Monk (you know... ), wanting to overthrow the Yarkand Khanate. So the monk of the Snow Mountain found the Warat Mongol leader Galdan who believed in Tibetan Buddhism, and destroyed the country that had been established for more than 160 years. However, this does not mean that these new masters will give the inhabitants of the old lands of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate a good face. On the contrary, the Warat Mongols, who had rejected the Green Religion many times over the years, and firmly believed in the Yellow Religion, were very interested in the Moors (you know... is even more disgusted, completely driven by them as cannon fodder, and life is still miserable.

In the past two years, perhaps at the request of Galdan, more and more Turpan people have attacked the border from the Hami area, occasionally mixed with some elite Warat Mongol soldiers. Surprisingly, these soldiers, horses, and firearms, which had been subordinate to the Dzungar Khanate, were quite numerous, and they were also very skillful in their use, which caught the Manchu troops stationed in the northwestern frontier by surprise and suffered a lot of losses. Later, they transferred thousands of musketeers from Henan, and at the same time mobilized a large number of artillery from Jinzhou and Beijing (and also established a large artillery casting field in Xi'an) to reinforce the Gansu area, so that the balance of power was maintained.

However, after entering 1685, the Dzungar Khanate cavalry in Kobian became larger and larger, which made the Qing court very nervous. In desperation, they began to send a large number of sergeants stationed in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, and other relatively inland areas to garrison the border to increase the strength of the troops in Gansu and prevent a sudden attack by the enemy's main army.

Of course, as the supreme ruler of the Qing Dynasty, the Kangxi Emperor was always most concerned about the movement of the Mongolian steppe, rather than the northwestern border of Gansu. The reason is simple, the main weapon that the Manchurians relied on to rule the Han land was the Mongols! The Manchurian Emperor had always been the Great Khan of many Mongols, and his authority and influence in the Mongolian steppes were very heavy, so they were extremely wary of any Mongol tribe that might rise. After all, their own population has always been very limited, and they need to use the power of the Mongolian world to integrate and rule the Han people in Guannei, and the Mongolian steppe has the rules of the steppe, and its customs are very different from those in the interior, once a strong challenger appears, then things will become very troublesome.

Historically, the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong dynasties persistently conquered Dzungar Mongolia, and finally completely conquered and defeated this steppe empire that had competed with the Manchu Qing for a hundred years, and the prestige of the Manchu emperor in the Mongolian world reached an unparalleled height and became the undisputed Great Khan of the Mongol tribes. Otherwise, do you think that even if the Mongol princes had allied at Doronor in 1691, they would not have rebelled again? How can they be so easy to talk to! Everything still depends on strength.

Therefore, on the one hand, the Beijing court increased its troops to the northwest frontier, and on the other hand, sent a number of envoys to the steppes to liaise with the various ministries, whether it was to intimidate or to build relations, in short, to make every effort to stabilize its prestige in the Mongolian steppe, reduce the influence of the hungry wolf Galdan, and keep things under their control.

In this way, it is naturally impossible for the Beijing court to pay as much attention to the south as before, and the pressure on the Dashun State, the main secessionist regime in the south, will inevitably be greatly reduced, especially when the situation around Gansu suddenly becomes tense.

So, when the Manchu Emperor sent an envoy to Hubei to reach a cease-fire agreement with Li Laiheng's envoys, even if it was temporary, everything was doomed: this paper agreement determined the future strategic trend of the mainland, the Mongolian steppe, and even the Asian region, and perhaps affected the layout of the people on the east coast on the mainland. However, this is all for the future, and it is natural for later generations to deal with it, and no one can formulate a strategy that will never have to be modified, even if he has insight into the direction of history.

"Those Mongol cavalry were wiped out?" A small officer who was familiar with him came out and asked.

"What Mongols? It's just a return. If I meet the elite rider under the Golden Tent of Galdan, will I still have the life to come back? Moreover, I am afraid that this time the matter is not over, I heard that the Junggar side has also sent many people into Qinghai, and the Xining City side is afraid that there will be some trouble. The imperial court's control in Qinghai was not very stable, and so far only a few strongholds had been established, surrounded by hostile Mongols, Hui or Tibetans, which was really dangerous. The cavalry officer drank most of the jug of wine, and then said with the strength of the wine.

"The scourge of Dzungaria is really getting bigger and bigger, the Yarkand country has been destroyed, and the Warat Mongolia has been unified, so it won't be a disaster to our hometown in Shaanxi in the future, right?" The little officer asked worriedly, his weather-covered face full of gloom. He wasn't afraid, in fact, they had been born and died all the time in northern Shaanxi, and they had taken these things lightly, but they were still worried that their hometown fathers and elders would be harassed and even slaughtered by the Dzungar Khanate's iron cavalry.

"Probably not. The imperial court also had soldiers and horses in northern Shaanxi, and there were many muskets, and the field battle was unfavorable, and the defense of the city would not be defeated by the enemy. After thinking about it, the cavalry officer said: "Besides, our Qindi, even children can hold spear formations, and when it is really time to fight for their lives, it is still unknown who will kill the deer." The only thing to worry about is that the situation in the south is about to turn over. ”

It can be seen that the cavalry officers are still quite confident in the defense of their hometowns, and at the same time they are also a little worried about the Dashun regime in the south, worried that they will take the opportunity to make trouble in the north and let them suffer from the enemy. Although they are not very afraid of it, it is always a hassle and uncomfortable.

Of course, this cavalry officer had faintly heard of the "overseas visitors" who had seized the territory of Denglai and Ningshao, and he was a little surprised by the ability of these foreign forces that had fought with the imperial court for so many years but had never been exterminated, and he was even more worried that when they were in full swing with the Dzungar Mongols, they would brazenly attack and attack the Gyeonggi stronghold in western Shandong and even Hebei, which would cause too much damage!

But these are all things that the old man should consider, and for those of them who serve as soldiers and eat food, it is enough to do what is in front of them. That is, it is better to think about how to save yourself and your comrades to the greatest extent possible in the battle of the Dzungar cavalry, and bring the old brothers back to their hometown in Shaanxi as much as possible.

"In two days, another guest army from Han will arrive in the city, and Suzhou will be even stronger. I heard that the imperial court had ordered the construction of many forts along the line of Suzhou, Ganzhou, Liangzhou, and Xining, and planned to use fortification tactics to block the eastward advance of these Mongols. The shape of the stockade is somewhat interesting, I heard that it was learned from the remnants of the camp in the south, what is it called, it is notoriously easy to defend and difficult to attack. There is no need to station a few people, and it can block the way, which really makes it difficult for those Dzungar Mongolian horse teams to move an inch. The cavalry officer continued.

Of course, he did not say that in order to build these forts, the Qing court ordered the cutting of large trees in the area of Longnan, and at the same time found sites in Shaanxi and Gansu to overhaul brick kilns to provide raw materials for these forts. In order to transport these materials more efficiently, the Qing court also planned to levy and distribute people's power in the Shaanxi and Gansu areas, and build a wood-clad iron track from Fengxiang Mansion and Gongchang Mansion to Liangzhou in the northwest border - there is no doubt that this is a new thing learned from the people on the east coast of Denglai, a traditional transportation system with much higher efficiency of horse-drawn carriage transportation.

There are many similar examples. For example, the Qing people tried their best to collect books from Denglai or Ningshao that were published openly and privately by the people on the east coast, and compiled a lot of their useful knowledge into a book and applied it to the localities. In particular, some small knowledge and tips about agriculture and animal husbandry (all published in the textbooks of the agricultural school), the Manchu court paid the most attention, and also began to pilot in the Huangzhuang, if it is really good, it will soon be promoted to the whole country, which is also amazing.

For example, the Manchu court paid a great deal of money to acquire new textile machines from foreign merchants who came to trade in order to increase the output of silk and cotton cloth produced by the government-run weaving bureaus they had established. You know, these weaving bureaus are the money bags of the Manchu court, the root of life, the scale is quite large, the technology has not been without progress in recent years, it is actually a very interesting thing.

It is difficult to say what the Dzungar Mongols, which had risen rapidly in the Western Regions, would be like in the face of such a Qing state. The world has changed a lot, the Dzungar is the same, the Qing State is the same, what will be the outcome in the future, whether the Dzungar Khan will dominate the steppe, or the Bogd Khan will sweep all directions, depending on their own creation. And in this process, didn't there be any subtle changes in the political, military, and economic pattern within the Qing Dynasty?