In Chinese history, the Central Plains dynasties that were able to establish effective rule in the desert areas were the Liao, Yuan and Qing dynasties. The Liao and Yuan dynasties themselves were nomadic regimes, and it was natural to rule the desert. Qing Dynasty was a country established by agricultural ethnic groups. Why was it able to unify the Mongolian tribes and continue to manage until the end of the Qing Dynasty?
1, when the nomadic people encountered the Little Ice Period
The Qing Dynasty conquered Mongolia, it was said that God's will. What is God's will? God's will is the necessity of the times.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, China entered the coldest "little ice age" in nearly 10,000 years. The cold affected agricultural production and was not conducive to the prosperity of the farming dynasty. At the same time, the cold has also led to the deterioration of grasslands in the north, desertification continues to advance, and the production of nomadic peoples has suffered a devastating blow. Once the climate becomes colder, nomadic peoples will migrate south and west on a large scale in order to find a warmer place to survive.
For example, during the Ming Dynasty period, because it was too cold, Mongolian tribes abandoned Genghis Khan , which made its fortune, and poured into the relatively warm Hetao Plain . Subsequently, the Hetao region became the center of gravity of the entire Mongolia, and Dayan Khan, Altan Khan, and Lin Dan Khan all rose in this area. In addition, the three Duoyan also gave up the Ordos grassland and chose to move south to the area of the West Liaohe of . Wei Lat Mongolia chose to move westward to the area of Ili River , which has the richest internal rainfall in Asia.
Under the pressure of Mongolia's migration to the south, the Ming Dynasty gave up the Hetao Plain and spent huge manpower, material resources and financial resources to build the ,000-mile Great Wall , but it is still difficult to stop the Mongolian tribe from continuing to move south. Mongolian migration south has caused two major consequences: one is the center of gravity moving south, and the other is the emptiness behind. The center of gravity moves south to the south of the desert. As long as the Central Plains dynasty has a firm foothold in the south of the desert, it will be able to intimidate Mongolia. However, the Ming Dynasty was already terminally ill and could only exchange money for peace.
Ming Great Wall diagram
The opportunity was left to the Qing Dynasty. The Jurchen nation has three ethnic characteristics: farming, nomadic, and fishing and hunting. They know the customs of the Mongolian people well, so conquering Mongolia was an opportunity provided by God to the Jurchens. In 1635, Huang Taiji 's Eight Banners advanced westward, not only occupying South Mongolian , but also taking Mongolian Empire 's 's 's 's 's 's . After that, Huang Taiji was granted the title of the Great Khan of Mongolia, and Khalkha, Hoshuot Mongolia and Weilat all declared surrender to the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty had the privilege of commanding Mongolia.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, not only did China get colder, but the world also get colder. This is the general environment. Therefore, Russia continued to conquer the countries under the division of the Golden Horde in Eastern Europe and advanced towards Siberia. Later, the United States continued to launch attacks on Indian tribes and created a massacre. It seems that the decline of nomadic peoples is really arranged by God.
Nomads in the Eurasian continent migrated southward, causing the entire north to be empty. Russian Empire took the opportunity to advance towards Siberia, cutting off the retreat of all nomadic peoples. The Mongolian tribes fell into a situation where there was the Qing Dynasty before and Russia later. They did not have the strength to deal with the two empires at the same time, and could only surrender to one side to deal with the other side. Due to the reasons of race, religious belief, and other aspects, all Mongolian tribes are more willing to choose to vote in the Qing Dynasty. This is an important factor in the inclusion of Khalkha Mongolia in the Qing Dynasty.
Qingzhuan War
Nomadic peoples Cavalry is also losing its past advantages. First of all, the cavalry of the Qing Dynasty was well-equipped, highly mobility and tightly organized. In addition, the Qing Dynasty was in an upward stage and internal unity caused the Mongolian divisions to lose their power to resist. At the same time, hot weapon continues to evolve, artillery , musket , gunpowder continues to be put into the battlefield, gradually causing the impact of the cavalry to lose its power. Lin Danhan of Huang Taiji's Western Expedition has not used artillery, but since Kangxi personally expedition to Galdan, the Qing Dynasty has begun to transport artillery to the grassland on a large scale, and the skills of war are undergoing earth-shaking changes.
2, Mongolians conquered Tibet, but the Huang Cult conquered Mongolia
The climate was dry and cold, which accelerated the Mongolian migration westward. Since the Ming Dynasty, the various tribes of Weila continued to move westward and finally reached the Ili River Valley, which had the most abundant rainfall in Asia, until the powerful Junggar Khanate was established in the early Qing Dynasty. The Turkuts in the Weila Alliance moved further west to the warm Caspian coast, and the Heshuote tribes moved south to Qinghai, conquering the entire Qinghai-Tibet Plateau .
We can also analyze why the Mongolians can conquer the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from a climatic perspective. During the Tang Dynasty, the climate was warm, and large areas of permafrost on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau thawed, and a large number of areas suitable for farming and nomadic emerged, so the population of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau reached its historical peak. At that time, , Tubo rose under such conditions. After the Song Dynasty , the climate was dry and cold, the ecology of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau deteriorated, the economy declined, and the population decreased significantly. Therefore, the Mongolian cavalry crossed the Hexi Corridor twice and conquered the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Qingtan Plateau
Tibetan ethnic groups, their force declined, but religion rose. After the establishment of Yuan Dynasty , Tibet's Basiba was stamped as the national teacher by Kublai and became the religious leader of the country, and Tibetan Buddhism gradually became the belief of the Mongolian people. In 1573, Altan Khan conquered Qinghai and Kang District, and asked the Dalai Lama, the leader of the Gelug school in Tibet to join the Qinghai Alliance. After that, Altan Khan announced his conversion to the Lama religion.
The Dalai Lama in Tibet became the spiritual sustenance of the Mongols. Even the Turkuts who moved west to Eastern Europe would often send people to Tibet to make tea. The Qing Dynasty saw this right, so it was necessary to send troops to Tibet. As early as 1642, the Fifth Dalai Lama sent envoys to Shenyang, Shengjing, and accepted the enthronement of the Qing Dynasty. During the reigns of Kangxi and Yongzheng, the Qing Dynasty and the Junggar and were repeatedly contested on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. They do not need this barren land to provide taxes, but they need the Huang Cult Holy City here to command the world.
Finally, the Qing Dynasty obtained Tibet and stationed troops in Tibet, setting up ministers in Tibet. During the , during the Yongzheng period, some systems for the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama were formulated; by the Qianlong period, a series of laws were promulgated in Tibet. Through this series of policies, the Qing Dynasty basically controlled Tibetan Buddhism.
In the 17th century, Khalkha Mongolia also had its own religious leader, namely "Zhebuzundanba". In 1691, Kangxi included Mobei into the territory and stipulated that the inheritance of the Zhebuzundanba Living Buddha system would be enfeoffed by the Qing emperor. By the Qianlong period, it was stipulated that the reincarnation of living Buddhas in Mongolia must be searched in Tibet, so that Mongolia's religious rights were firmly controlled.
Mongols who believe in Tibetan Buddhism will invest a large amount of funds in the construction of temples and build magnificent temples. Will the Mongolians still be willing to leave? As a result, the nomadic scope of the Mongolians narrowed, and they no longer floated around, but instead moved around the temple, and the temple became the spiritual sustenance of the Mongolians.
Mongol temples
Since you cannot travel far away, cattle and sheep cannot eat the best grass, then the economy of the grassland will be affected and the population will naturally decline. But the Mongolians were happy with this, because the Qing Dynasty would bring them a large number of daily necessities. As long as they were happy around the temple, they could naturally live a carefree life.
3, migration is prohibited, nomads can no longer snowball.
The most southern-most nomads deal with is their mobility characteristics. The nomadic people have flexible and rapid cavalry. Once the army in the Central Plains enters the grassland to attack, they can avoid the edge, wait for the army in the Central Plains to attack when the food and supplies are insufficient, and even directly attack the logistics forces. Once their main force is eliminated, they choose to surrender. The Central Plains dynasty was unable to station troops on the grasslands, so they could only accept this nominal surrender and then hurriedly retreated.
In history, Han Dynasty and Huns fought for two hundred years, but they have never been able to occupy the desert.The Tang Dynasty confronted the Turks in the north for more than 100 years, and only made the Turks surrender nominally for 30 years. Later, the military strength of the Jin Dynasty was so strong that it could not achieve military garrison in the northern desert, and was just waiting to see the rise of the Mongolian tribe. The Ming Dynasty and Mongolia fought a 200-year war, but never resolved the Mongolian issue.
Therefore, the Central Plains dynasty chose to build the Great Wall against the northern nomadic peoples. This is a negative defensive strategy and seems to be a rogue move. After all, the consumption and risk of expedition to the desert are very high, and it is very likely that even the main force of others cannot be found, and even the entire army is wiped out. For example, Zhu Di repeatedly launched northern expeditions to Mongolia, but once a total of 100,000 troops were destroyed. Other personal expeditions failed to find the main force of Mongolia, and finally had to choose to retreat the imperial defense line south.
. The Jurchens knew these characteristics of nomadic peoples well, so they came up with a strict system to limit the mobility of nomadic peoples, that is, the alliance flag system . In 1635, Huang Taiji was fully implemented in Mongolia in southern desert for the first time. This system is the first time that a dynasty in Chinese history has effectively governed nomadic areas, rather than staying in the situation of enthronement. Since then, the Qing Dynasty implemented the alliance flag system in Khalkha, Qinghai Hoshuot and Weilat Mongolian areas. After the establishment of the alliance flag system, the boundary between the Mongolian tribes was divided, and the scope of activities of each Mongolian tribe cannot exceed its own territory. The alliance flag system greatly narrowed the nomadic scope of the Mongolians. Since it cannot exceed the scope of nomadic scope, annexation between tribes cannot occur. Without tribal annexation, a nomadic empire across the desert cannot be established.
Of course, in order to prevent the escalation of problems and avoid the annexation of Mongolian tribes, the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty convened an alliance as a Khan to resolve the conflicts between the tribes. Through alliance , Mongolian tribes will be in peace and will also enhance everyone's sense of identity with the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, the Qing Dynasty did not choose to build the Great Wall to resist Mongolia's southward journey, but instead incorporated Mongolia into the imperial administrative system, leaving everyone without a sense of confrontation. The so-called "giving kindness to Khalkha makes it more solid than the Great Wall."
Qing Dynasty Mongolians
Of course, the Qing Dynasty would also station troops in Mongolia to prevent the annexation of Mongolian tribes and the invasion of foreign enemies. In Chinese history, except for the Yuan Dynasty established by the Mongolian people themselves, Mongolian people only had the Liao Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty. Although the Tang Dynasty had Anbei Protectorate , the Protectorate is an empty shell mechanism. The Protectorate was the Uighur tribe, and the leader of the Uighurs served as the Protector. Later, the Uighurs rose in the desert and unified the tribes with the help of the title of the Tang Dynasty, and eventually became the enemy of the Tang Dynasty.
In order to achieve long-term military stationing in the northern Mohe region, the Qing Dynasty opened up land in the northern Mohe region and carried out military farming. You heard it right. The Qing Dynasty did carry out military farming in the northern part of the desert, and also in the northernmost area of Kobudo, which is a miracle in Chinese history. The Qing Dynasty was also in the "Little Ice Age", and it was not easy to be able to farm in the northern desert.
military soldiers in the northwest of the Qing Dynasty
In addition, the Qing Dynasty also adopted marriage and enthronement to win over Mongolian nobles and realize the integration of Manchu, Mongolia and Han. These policies are more familiar to everyone, so I will not introduce them one by one here. In addition to the right time and place, the Qing Dynasty was able to completely solve the problem of nomadic peoples, but also rely more on a series of systems of the Qing Dynasty. The famous scholar Ge Jianxiong once believed that a dynasty that was built in a dual unity of nomadic and farming could not be completed, but could only be completed by northern ethnic minorities.
