Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 529 Military Parade

The grassland and the Central Plains are like fate. In the thousands of years of history, there have been constant conflicts. However, only during the Yuan and Qing dynasties did the grassland peoples not go south to invade the Central Plains.

Meng Jun learned about the Qing Dynasty's strategy for controlling Mongolia after carefully studying some documents left by the Qing court in the city, the introduction of Gulbuha who was familiar with the grassland and some Qing officials who surrendered to the Qianlong Dynasty, as well as some impressions of later generations.

Among these, the most important is the implementation of the alliance system and marriage policy.

The Qing government implemented a divide and rule strategy in Mongolia politically, dividing the entire Mongolia into 18 leagues, 32 tribes, and more than 200 banners, making sure that they were not subordinate to each other and were not allowed to migrate across banners, farm, or travel. This was equivalent to dividing the grasslands and drawing lines to form prisons, completely cutting off the rise of a powerful tribe from the root.

As for the policy of marriage, since Nurhaci started his rebellion, the Manchu nobles have been constantly intermarrying with Mongolian princes and nobles. Either the emperor or the princes married Mongolian concubines, or the princesses married people from the grasslands.

The continuous intermarriage strengthened the blood relationship between the Qing court and the grassland, and also increased the Mongolian tribes' identification and dependence on the Qing court, and the relationship between the two sides became closer and closer.

But regarding the marriage, Meng Jun felt that he could marry a Mongolian concubine, but he could not marry his daughter to the grassland to suffer. This was Meng Jun's personal selfish desire.

The Qing court also awarded titles to the Mongolian tribes according to their degree of loyalty, closeness, and the status and influence of the tribes, including Khan, Prince, Duke, Taiji, Beile, Beizi, Zhenguogong, and E'erfu, a total of 18 levels.

Mongolian princes and nobles who obtained hereditary titles enjoyed various political privileges and favorable economic treatments. As long as they did not oppose the Qing court and had no ulterior motives, the Mongolian nobles could do whatever they wanted in their territory.

The Qing court also stipulated that Mongolia could only conduct limited trade with the Central Plains at designated locations and times, and had to pay high taxes, which meant that Mongolia's economic resources could only rely on the grants and charity of the Qing Dynasty.

The Qing Dynasty's economic control over Mongolia was comprehensive. The trade of many goods such as salt, tea, cloth, silk, ironware, and medicinal materials were monopolized by the Qing court.

Meng Jun knew that these measures were very effective. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, he promoted the Yellow Sect and reduced the population. In short, he restricted the grassland in all aspects. However, after the invasion of Rakshasas, the grassland was vulnerable to them.

Although the Qian Dynasty is powerful now, it is still very difficult to completely control Mongolia. Even the Qing Dynasty took hundreds of years to slowly tighten the shackles.

Meng Jun believed that if they really wanted long-term peace and stability, they must export Han culture. However, there were not many Han people on the grasslands. It would be a long process to get the Mongolian tribes to accept Han culture, and Meng Jun still needed time.

The time came to the first month of the third year of Zhaowu.

On the banks of the Liao River, white tents stretched for miles. The camp was full of walking Mongols, as well as cattle, sheep and horses that followed the army.

For this meeting, leaders of all the tribes in the south of the desert and some major tribes in the north of the desert came to the outskirts of Shenyang to hold an alliance with the Qian Dynasty, which had just overthrown the Qing Dynasty.

The leaders of the Mongolian tribes only knew that they were coming for a meeting, and Meng Jun did not inform them that there would be a large-scale military parade.

In the first month of spring, the north wind blows across the Liaodong land. With the arrival of spring, all things begin to revive.

Meng Jun gathered the leaders of the major tribes in the north and south of the desert on the outskirts of Shenyang and commanded all the troops.

There were more than 100,000 people participating in the military parade this time. The scene could be described as flags covering the sky and drums deafening the heavens.

In history, the largest military parade like the one held by Meng Jun can be traced back to a grand military parade during the Yongle period.

The reason for the Yongle Military Parade was that Timur, who had unified Persia, threatened to lead his troops to the east to conquer the Ming Dynasty.

When Timur's envoy came to the Ming court, he spoke wildly and was extremely disrespectful to Emperor Yongle. Zhu Di then mobilized nearly 200,000 troops and held a grand military parade. After this parade, not a single Timur cavalry was seen at the border throughout the Ming Dynasty.

Early in the morning, Meng Jun officially gave the order to hold a grand review. In this parade, there were 20,000 cavalry, 70,000 infantry, 20,000 firearms soldiers, and more than 200 artillery pieces of various sizes.

Meng Jun built a high platform on the outskirts of Shenyang and invited the leaders of various tribes to the platform to review the troops.

All those participating in the military parade have put on new uniforms, especially the first line of guards, which were originally reorganized from the heavy armored troops to form Meng Jun's guards.

They were dressed in heavy armor, iron helmets, and their attire was very bright and beautiful. Everyone looked mighty and majestic.

Next came Zhao Yongping's Wu'an Town, Bai Yongfu's Guwu Town, then Qian Biao's Wuning Town, as well as Gao Jinku, Liang Min, Yang Sanwu, Wang Fuchen, Li Laiheng, Hao Yongzhong and other towns, and finally Huang Cheng's cavalry troops.

As the military parade began, the leaders of the various tribes realized that they were not fools. The Qian Dynasty held this grand military parade during the alliance meeting just to show its military might and intimidate them.

All the troops were wearing distinctive armor, and their spears and swords were like a forest when they marched, and their battle array was neat and tidy, which looked magnificent from a distance.

When each formation reached the platform, they would shout like a tsunami: "Long live His Majesty!"

Especially the musket formation. Whenever they arrived at the high platform, they would raise their muskets in unison and march forward in a straight line, like towering mountains, shouting, "Long live His Majesty!"

The heads of various tribes all had expressions of shock on their faces. Only a powerful empire could give birth to such an army. The heads of various tribes were extremely shocked at the beginning, but became somewhat numb in the end. The Central Plains was indeed a place with vast territory and abundant population. Even after so many years of war, it could still have such a large and elite army.

The entire military parade lasted from early morning to afternoon, during which a series of tactics were practiced, including musket volleys, artillery bombardment of target walls, cavalry raids, and outflanking maneuvers.

After the military parade, Meng Jun said to all the leaders: "Since the reign of Emperor Chongzhen of the former Ming Dynasty, the Central Plains has been in turmoil. I started my army in the south of the Yangtze River and annihilated all the heroes. Even the invincible Eight Banners were completely destroyed by me. Now that the country is unified, I hope to resolve the disputes between the grasslands and the Central Plains for thousands of years. My mission and yours is to end the disputes and share a peaceful and prosperous era!"

(I was almost crying because I wrote more than a thousand words, but somehow, they were all gone in an instant⊙﹏⊙)