The issue of ethnic minorities has always been a long-standing and difficult problem, and neither the United States, Europe, nor the Soviet Union have ever found a solution. Perhaps in China's history, there was only a period after the founding of the People's Republic of China that almost eliminated the historical legacy of ethnic and religious problems.

But Chongzhen knew very well that it was a miracle created by a group of fearless people who regarded faith as their life, backed by one of the most powerful organizations in China's history.

Wherever there is oppression, there is a roar of resistance, and all the seemingly impregnable walls built by ethnicity and religion crumble before them.

As the general representative of the feudal landlord class of the Ming Dynasty, there is no doubt that he cannot afford to hold up the artifact of the theory of class struggle. And he could not expect that a group of bureaucrats of the feudal landlord class would become liberators.

In this way, there are not many options in front of him. The way the European and American colonizers treated the colonial natives was obviously not suitable for domestic use.

If the two Tusi of Lu'an are just isolated tribes, then Zhu Youzhen originally wanted to completely clean up these two tribes from the sequence of the Chinese nation once and for all.

However, with the collection of information by the Social Investigation Institute on various Tusi in the southwest and the investigation of various historical issues in the southwest region, he already knew at this time that the decision he made at the beginning of the year was too hasty.

A complete break with these ethnic minorities who have been living with the Han people for thousands of years will only turn the southwest region into a barrel, and from then on the southwestern provinces of the Ming Dynasty will not be at peace.

First, there are so many ethnic minorities in the southwest that you can't tell who is from that ethnic group, and once he orders the army to start a war of extermination, it is hard to believe that these troops will seriously identify them before stabbing them.

Second, these ethnic minorities have existed in the southwest region for so long that they have long reached a balance of power and divided their respective spheres of influence. Eliminate one or two of the Toasts, and if they don't control the circle of influence they left behind as soon as possible, these territories will soon be encroached upon by other Toasts.

The problem is that the Han people are not willing to live in these deep mountains and old forests, and even if some Han people migrate in, they will soon be assimilated by the ethnic minorities. In the end, the Ming army was just making a wedding dress for others.

Therefore, in the end, what Chongzhen was able to adopt was proposed by Sun Chengzong and several civilian officials, in addition to suppressing the rebel leaders who resolutely resisted the imperial court, it was to win over the wavering rebel leaders, so as to divide the cohesion within the rebel group.

However, in this way, it is equivalent to defeating a group of big toasts of Yu Chongming and An Bangyan, and supporting another group of small toasts. Even if the current hurdle is passed, the court may not be at ease in the future.

Sun Chengzong was more open than Chongzhen, and he advised Chongzhen like this: "The Tusi Rebellion in the Southwest is a problem of siblings after all, and only the eastern and western captives are the henchmen of the Ming Dynasty." No matter how noisy these toasts are, they can't rush out of the mountains and the Yangtze River pass, and they can't threaten my Ming heart.

Let's first calm down the southwest region and let the imperial court recuperate for a few years, as long as the treasury can be more relaxed, we can solve the problem of Liaodong first.

If Liaodong is gone, Shenjing will be equal to being attacked on both sides, whether it is Lin Dan Khan on the grassland in the west, or Jiannu in Liaodong, they can threaten us. Whether it is from Datong Pass to Shenjing, or from Jinzhou to Shenjing, the road on both sides is not too far. If there is a slight negligence, it will be a turbulent situation in the world.

The minister thinks that compared with the east and west, the southwest toast is just an ugly jumper. As long as the northern border can be settled, sending a border army can capture the rebel and confess his guilt before His Majesty.

What's more, the Southwest Military Academy has already recruited a lot of Tusi disciples, as long as these people can have half of their hearts to the imperial court in the future, the southwest will not be as opposed to the imperial court everywhere as they are today. ”

Although Zhu Youzhen compromised with Sun Chengzong and other officials today, he still put forward two conditions, one was to implement the compulsory military service system, and the other was the militia system.

For the compulsory military service system, Sun Chengzong is actually acceptable, after all, since the beginning of the year, Zhu Youzhen has vaguely revealed this meaning to him. It's just that the conditions were not mature at that time, so Chongzhen just tried it in Shunyi County.

The Daming guard system is almost corrupt, even if the reform of the guard military system is implemented, the land is distributed, and the lifelong military system is changed to a 5-year military system.

Less than one-third of the new army of the third battalion was established from military households, and the rest had to hand over their youth because of the allocation of land in the guards.

According to the plan of the General Staff, in the second half of the year, two more battalions of 6,000 recruits will be recruited from the guard posts in the area south of Gyeonggi, so as to restore the strength of the Gyeonggi Governor's Office to 5 battalions of the new army, 2 battalions of the Beijing army, plus two cavalry divisions and one cavalry wing.

However, as of today, only 2,871 recruits have been recruited from the guards south of Gyeonggi, and not even a single recruit camp has been filled. Faced with this situation, Sun Chengzong felt that it was indeed necessary to recruit soldiers from the civilians outside the guard.

But he was still somewhat disapproving of the establishment of a militia in the county. However, the emperor felt that the establishment of a militia had two advantages, one was to control the local demobilized soldiers, and the other was to protect the local people.

In Sun Chengzong's view, there is one of the biggest disadvantages of setting up a militia organization, and if the local militia organization falls into the hands of people with bad intentions, it will not become the biggest scourge in the local area. In addition, the militia had to be equipped with powerful arquebuses, which always made him feel like he was digging his own grave.

Zhu Youzhen had to persuade again: "Compared with swords, guns and spears, I still think arquebuses and shotguns are the most suitable for these militiamen." Swords, guns and spears require a long period of training, and these militias need to have the courage to engage in hand-to-hand combat, and I think it is difficult for militias who have little time to train to fight the rebels.

This arquebus is different from a shotgun, as long as you can load, aim, and fire, even ordinary people can easily learn. And it is easier to put the gun twenty or thirty steps apart than to face to face hand-to-hand combat.

Besides, firearms without * are equivalent to burning sticks, and even if the rebels collected some firearms, they would not be able to produce them. But swords, guns, and spears are different, and the rebels can equip their own team with these weapons. thus creating a threat to our civilians..."

Under Chongzhen's persuasion, Sun Chengzong finally agreed to implement the militia system among the Han immigrants in Yongning first, and then expand it if the effect was good.

After convincing Sun Chengzong, Zhu Youzhen finally breathed a sigh of relief. As long as these Han people have the power to protect themselves, then the ethnic minorities in the southwestern provinces will at least restrain themselves and will no longer turn their butcher knives at these ordinary people.

As long as the number of Han Chinese in the southwest region returns to a normal level, then at least there will be no tendency towards independence in these areas, which will give him time to arrange slowly.

In the final analysis, it is a question of identity and unbalanced economic development to alleviate the contradictions between ethnic minorities in southwest China and ordinary people of the Han nationality. Only by letting the ethnic minorities in the southwest accept the concept of the national community and the civilized way of life of the Central Plains, let their economy become a part of the Ming economy and society, instead of living a self-enclosed life of slash-and-burn. Ethnic minorities and Han Chinese can be us, instead of thinking of Han people as evil people who have robbed them of their land.

At the same time, in a large cloth village in Chongbeifang outside Chongwen Gate, several guys came to the door because there were no guests, and they all baked around the charcoal stove in front of the hall to keep warm.

One of the young men, who was quite young, asked his companions with concern, "Isn't the store already lively at such times in previous years?" How can this year be so deserted, and if this continues, will we be able to stay in the store next year? ”

The other older guy was obviously not so worried, he said lazily: "What's the panic, I can't stay here, so it's a big deal to go to the Chongwen store of the Sihai Commercial Bank on the opposite street to find an errand."

I heard from the guys in their store that even if they were apprentices there, in addition to free food and lodging, they could also get an ocean of pocket money a month. The apprenticeship is only one year, and the shopkeeper is not allowed to beat and scold the apprentice. If I hadn't been out of school in half a year, I would have run over a long time ago. ”

Hearing him say this, several other young men who had just entered the store for less than a year were suddenly moved, and they came up one after another, asking him for details.

Looking at this group of impetuous-minded junior apprentices, a young man sitting closest to the charcoal basin and avoiding the tuyere finally couldn't help coughing, and suddenly the apprentices quieted down.

The young man glanced at the big-mouthed fellow, watched him stop his mouth, and then said angrily, "What do you think?" We were all brought up from Feiyun Buzhuang from our hometown in Taiping.

The owner of Feiyun Buzhuang is also good to the guys, the owner hasn't said anything about layoffs, and you guys are in a mess, do you think the shopkeeper of the Four Seas Commercial Bank will take you in if he hears about this? It's freezing on this day, and you've been kicked out by the owner, are you going to go back thousands of miles hungry?

Besides, who is Huang Laodong's family, you are all Taiping people, and you have offended him. Isn't it really that he doesn't care about his family in the countryside? ”

Under the young man's whispered reprimand, the apprentice suddenly nodded again and again, not daring to think about changing jobs anymore. The young man let these apprentices go, and calmly ordered: "Don't be lazy around here one by one, even if there are no guests, go find some work to do." Xiao San and Xiao Wu go and sweep the snow at the door, don't let the guests slip when they come to the door..."

After all these lazy little guys were gone, there were only 4 people left in front of the brazier, and the young guy who had almost caused an accident just now hurriedly said to the young man with a smiling face: "Brother Wu, it's all because I couldn't control my mouth just now, and I almost caused trouble again." However, do you think our cloth village will continue to open next year? ”

Qi Dawu looked at the wooden shelves of the store full of cloth, and then glanced at the closed small door leading to the backyard, and said with a slight frown: "The world has changed, the shopkeeper and Huang Dongjia still want to hold on to the old one, I see, hanging." ”