After the destruction of the Yuan Dynasty, a new problem was placed in front of Zhu Yuanzhang.
When the Ming army broke through the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, they succeeded in capturing about 100,000 Mongol women. What to do with these 100,000 women has become a big problem. Zhu Yuanzhang only used two tricks to solve the problem, I have to say that he is really clever!
How did Zhu Yuanzhang deal with it? Where is his cleverness?
Kill the captives
For Zhu Yuanzhang, a person who is not very educated and does not understand politics very well, facing this situation for the first time is really a bit helpless.
Seeing Zhu Yuanzhang's hesitation, many ministers gave their own suggestions, but Zhu Yuanzhang didn't seem to hear it, and he still didn't give an order on how to deal with the 100,000 Mongolian women.
So many ministers couldn't help but speculate: "Does the emperor want to fill his harem?" This statement is not impossible, after all, some of these 100,000 women are the concubines of Emperor Yuan Shun.
No matter what age these concubines are, most of them still have charm, and it is not impossible for Zhu Yuanzhang to marry.
If Zhu Yuanzhang marries those concubines, what should he do with the rest? Can't they all be married? So some people speculated: "The emperor should kill them all." This statement was affirmed by many people at the time.
Zhu Yuanzhang's family was not too small, but his parents and other relatives were killed by the Yuan Dynasty.
Therefore, many people think that Zhu Yuanzhang should execute this group of Mongolian women to avenge his family and relatives.
And judging from Zhu Yuanzhang's later brutal character, it is very possible.
In addition, since ancient times, the Han and the nomadic people can be said to have had a feud, which can be traced back to before the Qin Dynasty.
Not to mention before the Qin Dynasty, after Qin Shi Huang established the Qin Dynasty, the nomads in the north became the biggest hidden danger at that time, mainly the Xiongnu.
Since then, nomads have been a major problem for successive dynasties.
Although each dynasty has made many expeditions, the land of Saibei at that time was vast and boundless, and the nomads could not finish fighting.
In this way, the two sides launched a protracted tug-of-war.
In the Western Jin Dynasty, due to Jia Nan's troubled government, the "Eight Kings Rebellion" caused by her directly led to the emergence of the "Five Hu Chaohua".
After this incident, the nomads finally arrived in the beautiful and rich Central Plains region of their dreams.
Later, the Central Plains often changed hands, sometimes the Han people could be unified, sometimes the ethnic minorities could enter, and some ethnic minorities also established feudal dynasties.
Either change of ownership would result in a significant loss of population on both sides.
In addition, when the Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed, it suffered a lot of humiliation, so when the Southern Song Dynasty followed the Mongols to destroy the Jin State, they returned it.
After the Mongols established the Yuan Dynasty, the status of the Han people plummeted. Whether it is in the court or among the people, the Mongols often suppress the Han people in various ways.
And there was also a division of status at that time, and it is said that the Han people in the south had the least status at that time.
For example, if a Mongol kills a Han Chinese in the south, they can only pay for a domestic animal.
And the object of their compensation is not the victim's family, but the local government. It is not difficult to see that most of the Han people during the Yuan Dynasty lived in dire straits.
Zhu Yuanzhang's family was a southern Han at that time, so the death of their family should be related to their low status, after all, they were slaughtered!
So for Zhu Yuanzhang at that time, there was not only a family feud, but also a thousand years of national contradictions.
If Zhu Yuanzhang's violent side was shown at that time, then these 100,000 women were destined to have no life, and this kind of thing did not happen.
After many battles, the Ming army was faced with the problem of a large number of prisoners.
In general, the number of these captives was within fifty thousand, and at least a few thousand.
No matter how many people there are, most of the time Zhu Yuanzhang chooses to execute them all, even if there are 50,000 of them.
Of course, this kind of thing is usually secretly ordered by Zhu Yuanzhang, so there are relatively few records in the history books.
If it is really to be recorded, it is also an order given by a certain general to kill the captives. After all, Zhu Yuanzhang is the king, and the generals are all ministers, so this kind of not seeing the light of day naturally has to be borne by the courtiers.
But then again, why did Zhu Yuanzhang kill all these captives?
In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang at that time had not yet gone on a killing spree like he did later, and he was still a little pitiful at the beginning. In fact, he really wanted to keep these captives for indoctrination.
But there was a problem that there were too many people, for example, when there were 50,000 prisoners, the food supply became a big problem.
At that time, due to the perennial war, the country was already very poor, and Zhu Yuanzhang's army was barely able to eat.
And even if these captives can be fed, Zhu Yuanzhang still needs to face a problem that these Yuan Dynasty soldiers are difficult to educate.
What is engraved in their bones is pride and savagery, so most of them are unwilling to bow to the Han people.
In this case, keeping it is a hidden danger, so it can only be killed.
Zhu Yuanzhang's humane policy
There are 100,000 Mongolian women today, and with such a large number, eating is even more of a problem.
However, to some extent, these Mongolian women do not have the same blood as Mongolian men, and they are still relatively easy to obey.
So in the end, Zhu Yuanzhang did not kill them, but chose humanized management.
First of all, Zhu Yuanzhang said: "You can go to the land of Saibei to find your emperor, we will not stop you, and we will also provide travel expenses and enough food." ”
This alone has touched many Mongolian women. After all, they are not soldiers, and they have no combat effectiveness at all, so the short-term impact of not returning is not too great.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang said so, most of the Mongolian women did not go back, only some women who missed their relatives went back, and Zhu Yuanzhang also did what he said.
The reason why the remaining Mongolian women did not go back was that they were afraid that Zhu Yuanzhang would break the agreement, and secondly, the environment in the northern part of the country was too bad.
The Central Plains region is much stronger than the environment in the north, and if you go north to find the emperor, you have to consider enduring the erosion of wind and sand. In that case, their delicate and lovely faces will not look good.
Seeing so many Mongolian women choosing to stay, Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy in his heart, because this was exactly what he wanted to see.
Then the second humane policy came, Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Since you choose to stay, you must slowly learn the culture of our Han nationality." ”
"And there is another point, you have to marry us Han people, and other nationalities can't. ”
Zhu Yuanzhang's policy is restrictive.
In fact, this is exactly what Zhu Yuanzhang wanted, after all, so many Mongolian women are a lot of money. If they can really stay and live with the Han people with peace of mind, it will be a good thing.
Because it can alleviate national contradictions to a great extent, which is a very important point. And this policy has also played a role in restoring the population.
The origin of a large number of Mongolian women
As long as these Mongolian women married Han Chinese, it would add at least 200,000 people to the Ming Dynasty. Although the number is not very large at first glance, it is enough in that sparsely populated war era.
What if these Mongolian women can't meet their favorite lovers?
If you can't touch it, the local government will distribute it, so why not get married?
Judging from the subsequent developments, it is a very wise policy to allow the two ethnic groups to marry, which not only eases ethnic tensions and increases the population, but also plays a role in reviving the economy.
So many Mongolian women can also be said to be labor, helping to increase food production.
When the Ming Dynasty was first established, the country not only had a small population base, but also had low grain production and an even lower economy. After all, the main source of a country's economy is nothing more than these ordinary people!
Instead of killing them painfully, it is better to let them stay and work hard, which is simply killing two birds with one stone!
So many Mongolian women stayed in the Ming Dynasty, so naturally there was a lot less labor on the Northern Yuan side.
From the perspective of long-term interests, Zhu Yuanzhang's policy at that time was indeed very clever.
But then again, why did the Ming army find so many Mongol women in the city of Beijing at that time? Of course, they were abandoned by the emperor.
When he learned that Zhu Yuanzhang's army was about to reach Beijing, Emperor Yuan Shun panicked, and then he shouted that he wanted to flee north.
Seeing this, many ministers hurriedly persuaded: "There are still some elite soldiers and strong generals in the city, maybe we can resist Zhu Yuanzhang's army." ”
After hearing this, Emperor Yuan Shun said angrily: "Since you think you can, then you can lead the army to resist!"
Then Emperor Yuan Shun added: "Anyone who wants to be a martyr can go to guard the city gate." I think it's no fun, so you stay and fight, I'll go first, and I'll see you in the northern part of the country. ”
In this way, Emperor Yuan Shun only took a very few concubines and left.
It is said that there were thousands of women in Emperor Yuanshun's harem at that time, and they woke up to find that the emperor had fled in advance.
The emperor ran away, so many ministers followed overnight. In order to reduce the burden, they basically took the boys from the family away, and a considerable number of the women were left behind.
Therefore, after the Ming army invaded the city of Beijing, they found these Mongolian women who had been abandoned by their husbands or fathers.
In fact, it is understandable that they did this, if they dragged their families and ran together, they would definitely be caught up by the Ming army.
Although Emperor Yuan Shun did not bring many people, some of them were still caught up by the Ming army. However, they didn't catch Emperor Yuan Shun, but just caught a few beautiful concubines and went back.
In fact, these women were very lucky to be captured back to the Ming Dynasty, after all, the rule of the late Yuan Dynasty was already very corrupt. Just in time for a new dynasty to emerge, they can also breathe fresh air.
No matter what their status was before, these Mongolian women would be ordinary people when they arrived in the Ming Dynasty.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang was a bit violent in his later period, he was always very friendly to ordinary people. All kinds of policies are showing that he still loves ordinary people the most.
Because only after experiencing the baptism of the storm can you understand the meaning of helping others hold an umbrella.