The Horqin Tribe's defection was a great thing for Xiao Ruxun.
The Horqin tribe had a relatively high status and strength among the many Mongolian tribes. According to the original historical trajectory, this tribe would have a profound influence on the rule of the Manchurian Qing Empire in the next hundreds of years.
From 1612 AD, when Nurhaci proposed to the Horqin Emperor Jimin 'an, to 1912 AD, the fall of the Qing Dynasty, a total of three hundred years, 118 Qing Dynasty princesses and princesses were married to various Mongolian tribes, among which 24 were married to the Horqin tribe.
There were also many women from the Horqin tribe who joined the Manchurian royal family to consolidate the marriage alliance.
The most famous one was a very important woman who was born in the Horqin tribe in the early years of the Manchurian Qing. She married Huang Taiji and made a great contribution to the Manchurian Qing entering the pass and consolidating their power.
Her Mongolian surname was Borjigit, and her name was Bumubutai. She was Huang Taiji's concubine and Emperor Shunzhi's mother. After her death, she was posthumously honored as Empress Xiaozhuang Renxuan Chengxian Gongyi Zhi De Chunhui Yi Tian Qi Sheng Wen Empress.
In the Manchurian Qing Dynasty, the relationship between the Horqin tribe and the Manchurian royal family was very close. No one could get away from the other. Daughters from one side married to the other side, and daughters from the other side married back to the other side. The Manchurian Qing was very skilled in consolidating and winning over the grasslands.
The alliance between the Horqin tribe and the Manchurian Qing Dynasty began with Weng Guodai and his son. Originally, the Horqin tribe and Nurhachi were enemies. Later, Nurhachi's power grew too great, and the Horqin tribe felt it was difficult to fight against him. In order to avoid being killed, they chose to take the initiative to ally.
The Horqin tribe was not a small tribe without strength. Otherwise, the Manchurian Qing Dynasty would not have spent so much energy and wealth to win over the Horqin tribe. Now, for Xiao Ruxun, the Horqin tribe was also an indispensable helper to achieve his goal in the future. However, Xiao Ruxun did not see them as an alliance. From the beginning, they were subjects.
Weng Guodai himself knew that he was too weak for Xiao Ruxun. It was not easy for him to get special care. Otherwise, it was not impossible for Xiao Ruxun to directly unite with Buyan to destroy the Horqin tribe. On the contrary, it was very likely.
Now that Horqin had the protection of Daqin, and Xiao Ruxun had the cooperation of Horqin, they would have one more helper on the prairie. In the future, when the northern expedition was launched, it would be less troublesome.
Wiping out all of the Northern Barbarians was impossible. Xiao Ruxun planned to rope in some honest barbarians and build cities for them to live in. Then, he would also build cities for the Han people to live in on the grasslands and vigorously develop the Han people's own animal husbandry.
To put it bluntly, the biggest disadvantage that the dynasties of the Central Plains faced against the nomads was the lack of mobility. Every dynasty and every generation would face this problem, but there were also some successful solutions.
The way to succeed was to build cities for the nomads to live in. When they got used to living in comfortable houses and no longer had to move around, would they be able to go back to living in tents?
As the saying goes, the barefooted are not afraid of the barefooted. Although the shoe-wearing dynasties of the Central Plains were powerful, they could not compare to these barefooted people who were not afraid of death. If they wanted to tame them, the best way was to let them wear shoes, so that they would have something to worry about.
This would reduce their mobility at the most fundamental level, so that they would have the concept of a home. Their home would become something that truly existed and could not be moved away. In this way, their wildness would be reduced over a long period of time.
The so-called conquest was to focus on military, political, and economic matters at the same time. After these three aspects were completed, the conquest would be complete. The Mongolian Empire still existed in name. The Ming Dynasty had confronted it for more than two hundred years and still could not completely defeat the Mongolian Empire. Xiao Ruxun wanted it to become history.
After Weng Guodai and Buyan were stabilized, the congratulatory envoy from the Yarkand Khaganate also came. Maheima Khan did not come in person, but sent an envoy. The envoy's rank was very high, and he was on the same level as the Prime Minister of the Yarkand Khaganate. He gave Xiao Ruxun five hundred warhorses as a gift.
These days, warhorses were definitely a strategic resource for the country. Xiao Ruxun chose suitable places to raise horses and encouraged the local rich families to raise horses. He vigorously promoted the horse policy in order to accumulate the strength of the cavalry, so that in the future, it would be convenient to completely attack the enemies on the grasslands.
In the past, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty could only get one hundred thousand horsemen. The number of horsemen of the Ming Empire far exceeded that of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. When it was Xiao Ruxun's turn, Xiao Ruxun felt that he needed to maintain at least two hundred thousand horsemen for the northern expedition. And before and after the war, the standing number of this horsemen could not be less than one hundred thousand.
The Yarkand Khaganate gave five hundred warhorses. Although the number was not worth mentioning in terms of overall strategy, as a congratulatory gift, the value was much better than the gifts from the other larger vassal states. Naturally, when they gave such a big gift, they would not ask for little.
What they asked for was nothing more than trade.
When Xiao Ruxun received the envoy of the Yarkand Khaganate and invited them to dinner, the envoy said that he hoped that Xiao Ruxun could be like the former Ming Dynasty and allow the two countries to have peaceful and friendly trade, each taking what they need. Wouldn't that be perfect?
Xiao Ruxun didn't think much about this. She had sealed off Jiayu Pass under very special circumstances and cut off trade. Now that the situation in the Empire had stabilized and her position as the Empress was stable, it was time to open up trade and let everyone feel the prosperity and wealth of the Great Qin Empire.
"Your Majesty's country is prosperous and rich. Everyone in our country is very yearning for it. I hope that Your Majesty can satisfy our desire for trade. Everyone in our country will be grateful."
Their Chinese interpreter conveyed the envoy's meaning to Xiao Ruxun with a somewhat poor pronunciation. Anyway, Xiao Ruxun could not understand what the envoy was mumbling.
"I understand the thoughts of your country. In the past, the civil war had not yet subsided. In order to ensure national security, I ordered the blockade of Jiayuguan and cut off trade. But my original intention was not to cut off trade. So now that the country is peaceful, I think it is possible to reopen trade."
Xiao Ruxun also conveyed her message to the emissary. The interpreter was pleasantly surprised and quickly translated it to the emissary. The emissary was overjoyed. He stood up and kowtowed to Xiao Ruxun, expressing their joy.
Later, Xiao Ruxun arranged for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the envoy of the Yarkand Khaganate to discuss the re-establishment of diplomatic and commercial trade routes. This kind of small matter was not what he needed to care about.
Compared to these trivial matters, he was more concerned about the level of training in the army. Seeing that his birthday was only a month away, whether these guys were reliable or not, and whether they could support him or not, was really important.
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