New Han Dynasty 1834

Chapter 3 The Great Han Dynasty

Seeing this, Liu Yulong was relatively satisfied and immediately issued a new order:

"The others returned to their offices to handle affairs, while the governors of the various governor-general's offices, the military advisors of the military advisor's offices, and the military commanders stayed behind to discuss next year's war plans."

Most of the noble military officers who had been there for so long, after paying their respects and listening to the emperor say a few words, were immediately driven out.

But the vast majority of them not only had no complaints, but almost all of them immediately showed their joy.

Because the new emperor really wants to restore the habits of the founding emperor.

As expected of the holy grandson personally trained by the founding emperor, he is indeed of one mind with us men in the army.

Everyone immediately clasped their hands in a fist and bowed in unison to accept the order:

"Your Majesty, we obey!"

Then those who were supposed to stay stood still, while those who were supposed to leave carefully backed away from the Wuying Hall.

Liu Yulong grew up in the military and was very familiar with Xun Gui and the officers.

He knew that as long as he could restore Liu Desheng's military policies, most of the nobles and officers would support him.

As long as they continue their external campaigns as they did when Liu Desheng was in power, the military system should not experience any major chaos in the next ten years or so.

After the ordinary nobles and officers left the Wuying Hall, only the governor of the governor's office, the military advisor of the military advisor's office, the military commander of the military command, and Zhu Huan's personal attendants and secretaries remained at the scene.

Liu Yulong ordered his personal guards to go out and relay the message, and instructed the guards in front of the palace to bring over two large square tables and spread out a "Complete Map of the World" on the tables, which was the world map at that time.

With Liu Desheng's direct guidance, the Han Dynasty's mapmaking level is now very high. They also use publicly available European maps as references, combined with Liu Desheng's ability to predict the future, to create maps.

The world map that Liu Yulong sees now, although it is far less exquisite and detailed than modern printed maps, has no obvious errors in the outlines of major landmasses and the course of rivers.

The current territory of the Great Han Dynasty was roughly based on the territory of the Qing Dynasty in 1820, plus the Buryat region between Lake Baikal and the upper reaches of the Heilongjiang River.

Beyond these territories that could be considered part of the homeland, the Han Dynasty also had several traditional vassal states.

The most stable vassal states were Korea and Vietnam, as well as the Ryukyu Kingdom, which was effectively occupied by the Satsuma Domain of Japan.

Then there are Burma and Siam, which verbally acknowledged submission but secretly declared themselves emperors.

Then there are the regions west of the Western Regions, including the Khanate of Kokand, Nepal, and Bhutan, which nominally submitted to the Han Dynasty and Russia, as well as the Kazakh Khanate, which submitted to both the Han Dynasty and Russia.

Finally, there's the Luzon Islands, which include the Sulu Sultanate at the southernmost tip of the Philippines, and Brunei at the northernmost tip of Borneo.

Liu Desheng did not pay much attention to matters concerning vassal states, tribute, and diplomacy. The few vassal states that existed at the time were formed by the other parties continuing the tradition of taking the initiative to pay tribute and become vassals.

The other side's goal was either to prevent the big men from attacking them first, or to win over the big men to help them suppress their enemies.

Liu Desheng rarely interfered directly in the affairs of the vassal states.

However, Liu Desheng devoted a great deal of effort to governing the land within his territory.

They successively eliminated all the border warlords of any size and completed a comprehensive land redistribution and militia transformation.

The map of the Qing Dynasty in 1820 commonly seen today, as depicted by Tan Qixiang, is not the same as the territory as the Qing Dynasty itself perceived.

Rather, it refers to the area nominally belonging to the Qing Dynasty, or the Qing Dynasty's borders recognized by Europeans, which were gradually established through border treaties signed with various European countries after the Qing Dynasty entered the European-dominated world order.

In this process, the Qing Dynasty lost its traditional Eastern status as the "common ruler of the world," but it also gained nominal ownership of a large number of uninhabited areas, at least with the recognition of the treaty signatories.

According to traditional Chinese thinking, not all of this land is directly administered territory; there are still a large number of "vassal states."

In the Qing Dynasty's own understanding, Mongolia, the Western Regions, and the Kham-Tibet region were basically "vassal states".

The most basic Mongolian region was divided into "Inner Mongolia" and "Outer Mongolia" during the Qing Dynasty. Inner Mongolia was the Mongolian tribes and lands directly managed by the Qing emperors, while Outer Mongolia was a semi-independent vassal state.

The Kangzang region was also a vassal state, and the Khoja brothers in the Western Regions were semi-independent vassal states before their "rebellion." However, their pursuit of complete independence forced Emperor Qianlong to exert great effort to conquer them, but after the war, they were still vassal states.

During the reigns of Emperors Qianlong and Jiaqing, the Qing Dynasty was unable to directly control the Western Regions and the Mongolian Plateau because it lacked sufficient manpower.

The Manchu ruling group was short-handed.

The Manchu Qing dynasty represented the pinnacle of classical conquering empires, with a far greater ability to rule its territory than the Yuan dynasty. They developed the technology of a small ethnic group ruling a large country to its extreme, but they also reached their limit.

The Qing dynasty's ruling method involved first establishing Manchu cities in the most important capital region and surrounding areas, and then establishing Manchu cities in important cities and strategic locations such as provincial capitals as key strongholds.

For the vast areas of the interior, ordinary Manchu and Mongol soldiers and Green Standard Army servants were dispersed and assigned to most ordinary prefectures, counties, and towns for garrison duty, and even to more important townships.

The Eight Banners were used to control the Mongols, and then together with the Mongols, they controlled the Han Chinese servants and soldiers, who were then used to suppress and monitor the civilians.

This way, most resistance forces can be nipped in the bud.

In Mongolia, the Yellow Sect was actively introduced and tolerated, allowing only one son per Mongolian family to marry and have children, while the other sons had to become monks or lamas, thus reducing the Mongolian population.

The Yellow Sect does not require asceticism and even has a rich tradition of tantric practices. Many Yellow Sect lamas also need women, and there are many Mongolian women of the same age in the area who are also unmarried. The two sides then engage in sexual relations in Yellow Sect temples.

This created an environment very suitable for the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. The Qing court also condoned the spread of syphilis in Mongolia in conjunction with the spread of Tibetan Buddhism. By the late Qing Dynasty, more than half of the Mongolians had been infected with syphilis.

The Qing dynasty also condoned Shanxi merchants to lend money at exorbitant interest rates in Mongolia, corrupting and controlling the Mongol Khans and leaders, allowing these high-ranking Mongol officials to exploit ordinary Mongolians to pay off debts and purchase luxury goods.

Although the Manchus and Mongols were nominally united under the Qing Dynasty, the Mongol population not only did not increase in the mid-to-late Qing period, but actually began to decline continuously.

In the Manchu homeland of Northeast China, the Manchus did not allow the Solon and other wild Jurchen people to enter cities or cultivate land, meaning they were not allowed to have a relatively stable way of life.

They were forced to continue living like savages, hunting and fishing in the jungles and snowfields of Northeast China.

Maintaining their wildness and fighting ability in this way, and using them as the vanguard of the Qing army when attacking fortified positions, resulted in most of the young and strong men dying on the battlefield.

The Solons were the true brotherly clans of the Manchu Eight Banners, but their total population decreased from the early to the late Qing Dynasty.

They also established the Willow Palisade in Liaodong, prohibiting local Manchus, Han Chinese, and Mongols from contacting each other. At the same time, they blockaded Liaodong, prohibiting ordinary Manchus from migrating there, thus treating Liaodong as a private reserve and escape route for the Manchu Eight Banners.

In the Western Regions and Southwest China, the Eight Banners and Mongols were used to control and suppress the Han people, and Han servants were used to control the Hui, Uyghur, Miao and Man populations in the Western Regions and Southwest China, just like the British introduced Indians as policemen in Hong Kong.

As the pinnacle of feudal conquest empires, the Manchu Qing dynasty was adept at using Manchus to control non-Han peoples, non-Han peoples to control Han peoples, Han peoples to control non-Han peoples, and Han peoples to control Miao peoples... bringing the technology of driving various ethnic groups to mutual hostility and restraint to its extreme.

The Qing dynasty constructed the darkest cage that imprisoned the Chinese land and surrounding ethnic groups. The Qing rule was the darkest period before the Chinese land and surrounding regions entered modern society.

However, the number of the core Manchu Eight Banners descendants was still too small.

Although there were enough Han Chinese in the mainland, there weren't enough Manchu and Mongol people to allow for unrestricted migration to the Western Regions.

Therefore, although Emperor Qianlong defeated the Dzungars, the Western Regions did not quickly stabilize. Later, rebellions and wars broke out one after another, including those led by the Khoja brothers, Zhang Ge'er, Kokand, and Yaqub Beg.

It wasn't until Zuo Zongtang recaptured the Western Regions and lifted restrictions on sending Han Chinese to the region that the Western Regions finally stabilized.

After Han Chinese migrated to the Northeast and the Western Regions, the Northeast and the Western Regions were once again part of China.

Now that Liu Desheng is the emperor of the Great Han Dynasty leading the revival of the Han people, he will naturally allow more Han people to be sent to the border regions.

Where people from the Western Regions and the Manchu bannermen of the Northeast could live, Han people could also live.

The Manchu Qing dynasty, through its system of designated grazing areas and its active promotion of Tibetan Buddhism and population reduction policies, continuously tormented the Mongols for over a century. By this time, the Mongols had largely settled down, and the Han Chinese were naturally able to manage them.

At the same time, the land in the interior had long been developed to the point of exhaustion, and the population in the interior was approaching the limit that the land could support under the current level of technology. Many of the poor people were willing to venture to the frontier.

With the support of the imperial court, the organization of militia garrisons for farming, the distribution of weapons and the organization of training ensured security.

During the Qing Dynasty, the Little Ice Age was coming to an end, the global climate was gradually warming up, and the influx of high-yield crops from the New World led to a steady increase in the population of Han areas under the high-pressure rule of the Qing Dynasty.

The population in the north has fully recovered, and a large number of Han Chinese people live in the southern Mongolian region. There are many stable settlements in the Hexi Corridor region, and Han Chinese are also active in the Western Regions and northern Mongolian region.

After the Han army captures the strongholds here, they can immediately obtain basic supplies and recruit local Han people as soldiers and guides, enabling them to fight in these areas.

They continued to send militia from the mainland to the local areas to cultivate land or graze livestock, and to garrison and control the most important lands and cities.

By physically eliminating the local ruling class with the army and turning the local common people into servants of the Han Dynasty, the Han court could directly rule these frontier lands.

Although many places were not suitable for establishing prefectures and counties, the simple military settlements and garrisons were sufficient for management.

Liu Desheng, keeping pace with the times and leveraging the ever-advancing agricultural, pastoral, military, and political technologies, spent most of his life completely controlling the border regions.