novelonline Chapter 942 The World and the People in It
Chapter 942 The World and the People in It
Chapter 942 The World and the People in It
The 1527nd year of the Zhengde reign was in the Western calendar. During this period, the Spanish and Portuguese colonization movements in South America had already begun to gain momentum.
In 1492, Columbus discovered the New World.
In 1500, the Portuguese Cabral arrived in Brazil.
In 1502, Vasco da Gama confirmed that South America was an independent continent.
In 1513, Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean.
In 1521, the Aztec Empire in present-day central Mexico was conquered.
By 1530, after initial exploration and resource exploitation in the Brazilian region, the Portuguese royal family began an organized invasion of Brazil and entered the substantive colonial stage.
The Spaniards also continued to move forward, conquering the Inca Empire located in today's Peru in 1533, El Cuevas in 1534, Colombia in 1538, and Chile in 1541. After that, most of the South American lands including Venezuela, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay were conquered one after another.
This is what is happening on the other side of the world.
And in China,
Wang Shouren would die two years later, in 1529.
In the same year, Yang Tinghe died.
The following year, Yang Yiqing and Xie Qian passed away.
Of course, talented people emerge in every generation. In 1527, Zhang Juzheng was three years old, Ma Fang was ten years old, Li Chengliang was born, and Qi Jiguang would be born in 10.
As for Gao Gong, he was studying the classics, Xu Jie had already made his debut, and the famous doctor Li Shizhen even became an apprentice in a clinic.
There is no lasting peace in the surrounding areas.
In Vietnam, a powerful minister named Mac Dang Dung will suddenly usurp the throne this year and establish the Mac Dynasty.
The Joseon Dynasty of Korea was characterized by a wicked ruler, incompetent ministers, corrupt government, and a violent internal struggle.
In the Kazakh Khanate, Taher Khan was still making enemies everywhere, with constant wars at home and a tense situation with his neighbor, the Bukhara Khanate.
What they don't know is,
At the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, the well-trained Eastern cavalry had already fed their horses and polished their swords.
The vast grassland provided them with the best venue for practicing formations.
When summer arrived, at the end of a hillside in the east, a bright military flag slowly appeared, and a row of dozens of horses stood on the top of the hill, breathing out the cold and wagging their tails.
Han Shierlang, the commander-in-chief of the military region, returned from the capital. He brought not only the imperial edict, but also food and fodder, as well as a thousand war horses allocated to him by the Shaanxi Official Horse Ranch.
The huge team blocked out the sky and splashed up grass and dust.
The powerful army armed with Han nationality consciousness, under the command of the imperial court, with an organization far exceeding that of the Western world, was neatly arranged in the mountain valleys outside the city of Yili.
The soldiers had dry food, cotton armor, ammunition and a passion to achieve success.
Of course, apart from all this, there is also the passion of men on the battlefield.
This land is different from the agricultural civilization. It is more vast and wilder. When you look up, the clouds will seem closer and farther away. Amidst the vicissitudes of life, the only thing that remains unchanged is that only the strong of the times can dominate the grassland.
Now it is Ming's turn.
After Han Shierlang returned from the capital, the Xinjiang Military Region began to enter a violent state of combat readiness.
Lou Fangyong, who came from the mainland specifically to join the army, was appointed as an inspector in the army because of his status as a juren and his extensive knowledge. This was a special position similar to the political commissar in later generations. Of course, he had the task of riding a horse to kill the enemy, but his focus was more on war mobilization.
When the army is really preparing to start a war, this group of people is the busiest.
Lou Fangyong took the map he got from his superiors and went deep into the tent. Under the candlelight, he clenched his fist and said loudly: "Today's world is a world where the strong prey on the weak. Being weak means being enslaved, and being strong means enslaving others! We must conquer more vast territories for ourselves and occupy more grasslands! The Ming Dynasty will win!"
Scenes like this occur in every tent.
The rhetoric is to mobilize everyone's enthusiasm for the nation and for themselves, and let people know that they are fighting for their beautiful home!
In addition to these scattered speeches,
The entire military region also carried out a unified mobilization.
The two armies also began to compete with each other in morale, until one morning, the camp gates opened wide and rows of cavalry began to rush out.
People shouted, "The Ming army is invincible!", "Fight a second war for the Han people", and some were more straightforward, such as "I'm going to kill until I get promoted three levels this time!"
In short, 60,000 cavalrymen who were truly well-trained, highly motivated, and well-supported were released.
They descended along the Tianshan Mountains and headed northwest along the direction of the Ili River.
Not long after coming out of the Ili River Valley, the entire terrain becomes relatively flat and low-lying. Later generations called this place the Kazakh Hills.
There is no doubt that the Central Plains is a place with very favorable climatic conditions.
Coming here across the Tianshan Mountains, although the Kazakh hills are vast and boundless, the climatic defects are difficult to overcome.
For example, its northern part is the wider Siberian Plain. However, because there are no high mountains blocking the way, the Kazakh hilly region is very cold in winter. The temperature often drops below minus 30 degrees Celsius, making it difficult for livestock to survive the cold winter.
Because it is located deep inland and has no water vapor, this area has a typical continental arid and semi-arid climate.
Only some oases are suitable for agricultural cultivation. Most of the area is grassland, grassland that stretches as far as the eye can see. Of course, the grassland here is different from the alpine meadows in Xinjiang.
Because the terrain here is lower, there is a river running through it, although the runoff is not large.
Of course, in this area with a harsh climate, the Ili River Valley is still a "pearl".
The Kazakh people make a living by herding and live in the form of tribes on this grassland.
And the hills mean that the army will have to constantly travel between mountain tops and valleys.
They walked and walked like this, and finally one day, they stood on a slightly higher hillside, looking out at a large green meadow, and then saw the top of the tent.
As for the tribes of the Kazakh Khanate, suddenly one day they would see a huge black army appearing on the nameless hillside. They would gather more and more like ants until they filled the hillside and the valley bottom.
Years of war have made them know what this is without much thought.
I don't know which herdsman recognized them, so he went from tent to tent and shouted, "The Ming army from the east is coming! The Ming army from the east is coming!"
Great confusion ensued, as the original soldiers were pushed out to participate in the upcoming battle.
On the Ming army side,
Han Shierlang was fascinated by the sunset in the western sky.
"We have finally arrived here."
The deputy generals around him all pulled the reins and showed excited faces, "General, after this battle, we will be the Han army that has fought the farthest."
He didn't say general, he said army.
In fact, the Han general who fought the farthest should be another person. His name was Guo Kan. He served in the Mongol Empire and his farthest battle was as far as the Mediterranean.
Han Shierlang smiled after hearing this, "You have a good plan. Fighting only as far as Yibohai is not the farthest. What? You still want to fight thousands of miles away?"
"Gao Xianzhi was defeated by Heng Ross back then. That was our ancestor. We need to restore his dignity."
The people around laughed at him, "Just because your last name is Gao, he is your ancestor?"
"That's for sure. General, I think this opportunity is a combination of good timing, good location and good people. The Tang army only had 20,000 soldiers back then, while we have 60,000. Our weapons are also more advanced, and the emperor fully supports us. If we fail again this time, it will be hard to tell when our descendants will set foot here again."
From this perspective, they have a heavy task ahead of them.
In reality, ancient armies did not think this way.
But under Zhu Houzhao's transformation, the frontier guard troops of the Ming Dynasty now have a broad historical perspective. This is not only a choice of political rule, but also a means to enhance combat effectiveness.
What's the reason not to use it?
To a certain extent, the current Ming army already has the prototype of a modern nation-state army.
Of course, we are still some distance away from the people's army with invincible faith and absolute loyalty.
"Alright, let's let them know how powerful our advanced weapons are! Pass the order, keep moving forward, and when we're close enough, fire the cannons! Blast them!"
Although cannons are difficult to carry, you have to bring some with you. What if you encounter a fortified city like a tortoise shell on the way? !
……
The war in the Western Regions finally began.
This was an exciting era, and even later generations have been repeating this history:
In the 22nd year of Zhengde's reign, the ambitious Emperor Zhengde made great strides in expanding his empire after several years of preparation. The mighty Han cavalry once again joined the melee and struggle in Central Asia since the heyday of the Tang Dynasty.
This plan was implemented after learning from the lessons of previous generations, because logistics had always been the Ming Dynasty's weakness in its struggle for hegemony in Central Asia. Emperor Zhengde waited until twenty-two years after he ascended the throne before officially launching a war against the Kazakh Khanate.
At that time, the Ming Dynasty was a powerful country with a simple and efficient military command system. Slaves transported from Southeast Asia became an important force in logistics transportation. Bags of food were carried to the top of the Tianshan Mountains by the legs of slaves and horses and other livestock.
People have never been able to explain why Emperor Zhengde, who had never been to Xinjiang, had such a deep understanding of the vastness of Xinjiang and the difficulties of road transportation, to the point that he repeatedly emphasized the importance of logistics in his comments and refused to take risks when he was unprepared.
Just as people don't understand why Emperor Zhengde knew that Xinjiang was suitable for growing cotton and why he was so sure that Westerners were occupying the world, what is even more confusing is why Emperor Zhengde attached so much importance to the territory in the northern permafrost zone that was so cold that it was unsuitable for human survival.
This mysterious and magnificent era has so many inexplicable wonders that it is loved and studied by the vast majority of history lovers.
Some even say that the Zhengde Dynasty was divided into two, and the turning point was the 22nd year of Zhengde.
Before this, although the Ming Dynasty also launched wars, they always had specific reasons and were quite restrained when fighting.
But after that, the wars launched by the Ming Dynasty might sometimes be just for the purpose of "conquest", and the army construction and weapons and equipment that were ahead of their time also enabled the Ming cavalry to catch up with the Mongols who died under their swords.
(End of this chapter)