In the second year of the Jubilee (1206), Genghis Khan unified the Mongol tribes and established the Mongol State. In the eighth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1271), Kublai Khan changed the name of the country to "Dayuan" in the I Ching ,"大哉乾元", and by the ninth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1272), the capital was Dadu (Beijing), the first unified dynasty established by ethnic minorities in Chinese history.
From the second year of the Jubilee (1206), Genghis Khan established the Mongol regime, it is counted as 162 years, a total of five emperors and eleven emperors. After the Yuan Dynasty withdrew from the Central Plains, the Northern Yuan regime lasted until the fourth year of Jianwen (1402).
In the middle and late Yuan Dynasty, there were frequent changes in political power, political chaos, and the strict class stratification of the Yuan Dynasty, the largest number of Han Chinese were divided into the lowest class, and a series of restrictions were imposed on Han Chinese, thus triggering a peasant uprising at the end of the Yuan.
Zhu Yuanzhang attacked aggressively, causing the Mongolian Yuan to retreat and retreat to the Mongolian steppe, known as the "Northern Yuan".
Ming and Beiyuan confrontation map
The Mongols who retreated to the Mongolian steppes not only had a sharp decline in their political status, but also could not guarantee even the economy and the most basic livelihood, but the most typical example was that the Mongols could not even produce the iron pot of daily necessities. (This situation did not end until the Jiajing dynasty, the son of the Khan of The Da, used the threat of force to demand a peaceful mutual market.)
Speaking of this, many people can't understand that iron pots are very simple daily necessities, mongolians are not going to be? But it is a matter of fact, and we will talk about the reasons for this today.
The Ming Dynasty imposed a trade blockade on Mongolia
The Yuan Dynasty's harsh hierarchical system overwhelmed the Han Chinese, which eventually led to a succession of peasant revolts at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and the Northern Yuan was forced to retreat to the Mongolian steppes.
Because the Mongols were fierce and belligerent in nature, often harassing the border, burning and looting, the Ming Dynasty introduced a policy to strictly prohibit the Border Trade between Mongolia and Han. Later, due to the needs of Huairou's border policy, a horse market was opened.
The horse market was the trading place opened by the Ming court in the eastern and northern parts of the frontier, and the tea market opened in the west of daming, although it also traded war horses, but it was different from the horse market.
The Ming Dynasty opened five horse markets on the border to trade with the nomads: Kaiyuan Nanguan Mashi, Kaiyuan ChengdongmaShi, Guangning Mashi, Datong Mashi, Xuanfu Mashi, Yansui Mashi, and Ningxia Mashi. However, the items prohibited from trading in the horse market are: weapons, copper and iron, sulfur and so on. "Forbidden city weapons, copper and iron." Therefore, Mongolia is in short supply of various daily necessities, including iron pots for daily necessities.
Horse Market
The Mongols before the Jiajing Dynasty lacked the craftsmen, smelting techniques, and equipment for casting iron.
As early as the twenty-fifth year of Wuding (1300 BC), the Central Plains had begun to use iron tools, such as the Shang Dynasty iron blade copper cymbal, but it was meteoric iron at that time. The jade-handled iron sword of the State of Zhou in the twenty-eighth year (800 BC) of King Xuan of Zhou is the earliest known iron smelting tool in China, which marks the entry of China into the Iron Age.
However, as a nomadic people, Mongolia's manufacturing industry has always lagged seriously behind the Central Plains. It was after the Mongol Yuan entered the Central Plains that the Mongol Rulers exploited the Han people, so they had relatively rich daily necessities. These iron products were all made in the Central Plains, and the Mongols did not master the cast iron technology at all. Therefore, when they retreated to the Mongolian steppe, there was a serious shortage of iron casting talents. The main thing is that the Mongols did not have smelting equipment at all.
The Mongols lacked the raw materials for casting iron and did not have the technology of prospecting, mining, and smelting
After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the Mongolian Yuan retreated to the Mongolian steppe, and the time of relying on the exploitation of the Han people to survive was gone.
The products of the Mongols were livestock products such as horses, furs, meat, dairy products, and, to a lesser extent, camels. In the horse market, the Ming Dynasty provided most silk, cloth, grain, a small number of boots, socks, felt hats, silver bills, etc.
The Mongols want to exchange iron, iron, etc., which can only be a secondary exchange between the Mongols and the private trade, because the iron items are contraband, which is much higher.
Made in iron pots
Moreover, the Mongols simply did not have the technology of prospecting, mining, and smelting, and they could not find ore smelting on their own. Although the Iron Strike Technology of the Mongols is acceptable, it will not smelt technology, and it is difficult to become a rice cooker.
The raw materials for making iron are scarce. During the Yuan Dynasty, these raw materials came from the trade exchange between the Mongols and the Han. However, after the Ming Dynasty, in order to prevent the Mongols from building weapons and rebelling, it was forbidden to trade iron on the frontier, which led to a shortage of Mongolian iron raw materials. According to the records, "Taking weapons as an example, a helmet is equivalent to a hump or nine heads of other livestock, a pair of wrist armor is equivalent to five heads of livestock, a spear is equivalent to five heads of livestock, a collar of armor and stomach (including helmets and wrist armor) is equivalent to ninety heads of livestock, a high-level sword is equivalent to nine heads of livestock, a medium sword is equivalent to five heads of livestock, and a bow and arrow barrel is equivalent to three or nine livestock." ”
Iron products as strategic materials are so tense, let alone iron pots.
Wars are frequent, times are chaotic, and the economy is in recession
During the Northern Yuan Dynasty, wars between various tribes in Mongolia were fought one after another, and wars between Mongols and Han Chinese also occurred frequently. The situation is chaotic and the economy is in serious recession, resulting in people's livelihood. Therefore, the people will not be able to stabilize production, all kinds of materials will not be able to supply, and all kinds of technologies will not be able to develop. Therefore, during the Mongol-Han War, the first material that the Mongols snatched was the iron pot; or some people simply surrendered to the Han and came to live in the Central Plains.
Therefore, at that time, the Mongols, who had just built a Mongolian knife, could not build a more technical iron pot, nor did they have iron to build.