Sentence / Kodama
The Son of Heaven guarding the country is the overlap of the political center and the military center, which is conducive to concentrating resources to serve the military, but the personal quality of the emperor is a variable, and if he encounters a military defeat, it will immediately cause violent shocks at the political level. In the case of not being able to mass-produce the hero, if you want to play the card of the Son of Heaven guarding the country, constantly expanding the strategic depth is the only way.
In essence, the Western Han Dynasty is also the model of the Son of Heaven guarding the country, according to the description of Liu Jing, who once sent an envoy to the Xiongnu: "The Xiongnu Henan Baiyang, Lou Fu Wang, go to Chang'an for 700 miles, and you can go to Qinzhong by light riding for one day and one night." ”
It can be seen that although Liu Bang can use the geographical, economic, and military advantages of Guanzhong to control the princes of Guandong, he is always facing the external troubles of the Xiongnu. In order to solve this problem, Liu Bang, under Liu Jing's suggestion, moved the surnames of Qu, Jing, Zhao, and Tian to Guanzhong, and relocated more than 100,000 people at one time to enhance the strength of Guanzhong and guard against the Xiongnu. At the same time, it can also monitor the Kanto Haojie nearby, killing two birds with one stone.
Realistically speaking, if it were not for the contradiction between the imperial court and the princes and kings with different surnames, Luoyang would be the best choice of the capital city of the Western Han Dynasty, which could not only clamp down on the princes of the Quartet in the center, but also use the strategic buffer of Guanzhong to relieve the military pressure of the Xiongnu. But in order to maintain his absolute superiority over the Kwantung princes, Liu Bang could only move the capital to Guanzhong, and the Son of Heaven guarded the country.
Since then, Guanzhong has always faced the strategic threat of the Xiongnu, and it is necessary to produce the Xiongnu from generation to generation in order to continue to play with the Xiongnu. However, it was impossible for the Han Dynasty to mass-produce a hero like Emperor Wu, so in order to break the situation, the only way for the Han Dynasty was to continuously expand the strategic depth in a military way to ensure the security of the national capital.
That's why Huo Qu's sick soldiers went out of Hexi and incorporated the Hexi Corridor into the imperial territory. After Emperor Wu continued to pass through the Western Regions and implemented the strategic plan of breaking the right arm of the Xiongnu, so far, Guanzhong is completely safe.
After that, Emperor Wu drove the Xiongnu out of Monan in one fell swoop by launching the Battle of Mobei, which further lifted the threat of the Xiongnu forces to the Han Dynasty.
At this point, the Han Dynasty is no longer the Son of Heaven guarding the country, and Chang'an is the economic center, political center, and military center.
It can be seen that in the case of not being able to mass-produce the male master, the best way for the Son of Heaven to defend the country is to continuously expand the strategic depth and continuously expand the defense line to ensure the security of the national capital.
This is the historical experience summed up by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty with practice.
The Sui and Tang dynasties also faced the dilemma of the Western Han Dynasty, Li Yuanchu even had the idea of moving the capital to Xiangyang when he ascended the throne, and the Turks were all dry to the shore of Weishui when Li Shimin ascended the throne. Therefore, it is necessary to copy the plan of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and use military means to open up permanent tranquility with one punch, so there is a matter of Emperor Wen of Sui using the technique of Lianheng to split the Turks, and Li Shi's militia went out of the Turks to defeat the Turks. It's all about pre-empting risks for future generations.
Because Shi Jingjiao ceded the Youyun region to the Khitan, the Central Plains Dynasty with the capital of Bianliang was actually the Son of Heaven guarding the country, and the Khitan cavalry crossing the Yellow River could directly threaten Bianjing.
In order to break the situation, it is still necessary to copy the plan of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and use military means to expand the strategic depth, so Zhou Shizong immediately turned around and used troops after subduing the Southern Tang Dynasty, which is to solve historical problems and solve the existential crisis.
However, after recovering Yingzhou and Mozhou, as well as the three passes of Waqiao Pass, Yijin Pass, and Sikou Pass, Zhou Shizong suddenly fell ill and had to return to his division. After the death of Zhou Shizong, the Central Plains Dynasty still failed to resolve the existential crisis.
The reason why Zhao Kuangyin wanted to move the capital to Luoyang and Chang'an was to get rid of this crisis and use the geographical advantages of Luoyang and Chang'an as a defense to ensure the safety of the national capital. However, under the obstruction of the Jin Dynasty's forces, the matter of moving the capital was not resolved.
After Guangyi ascended the throne, he used troops twice in a row, but both of them failed, and he almost became a prisoner of the Khitans. It is difficult for the Zhao and Song officials to solve the dilemma of the Son of Heaven guarding the country, and the reality is that the quality of the Great Song Emperor will definitely decline, let alone solve this problem.
The Northern Song Dynasty is also the Son of Heaven guarding the country Source/Stills
In 1004 AD, Empress Dowager Xiao and Emperor Yelu Longxu led the Khitan iron cavalry to advance to Lanzhou at once, directly threatening the safety of Bianjing, the capital of the Great Song Dynasty. Song Zhenzong was in a panic at that time, and he was ready to move the capital to Chengdu.
In the end, the two sides signed the alliance of the Yuanyuan to shake hands and make peace, which is equivalent to the Song Dynasty using the New Year's coins in exchange for the security of the country. However, after the rise of the Jin State and the destruction of the Liao State, the Northern Song Dynasty immediately faced an existential crisis, and the Jin army went straight to Bianjing from Hebei and directly destroyed the Northern Song Dynasty with a beheading operation.
It can be seen that the Son of Heaven in the Northern Song Dynasty guarding the country is a pit, and the reasons are: the quality of the Zhao and Song official families declined; The Northern Song Dynasty has not been able to expand its strategic depth. I can only accept the result of Jingkang's shame.
If you look at it this way, the only way to break the situation in the Northern Song Dynasty is to move the capital. It's just that after Taizu, it was no longer possible for the Northern Song Dynasty to move the capital.
The Jin State and the Yuan Dynasty that followed did not have this problem at all, because the grassland forces themselves were their sphere of influence, and there was no problem of the Son of Heaven guarding the country. However, after the rise of the Mongol power, the capital of the Jin State immediately became a military town, and was repeatedly attacked by the Mongol cavalry. In the absence of a male lord to deal with the crisis, the Jin State could only move its capital to Bianliang. But after the fall of Zhongdu, Bianliang also became a country, and it was only a matter of time before it was captured.
After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, although the national capital was in the economic center of the southeast and there was no need to worry about food, it was far away from the military center, and it was impossible to coordinate the fight against the Northern Yuan Dynasty, even the northwest could not take into account, which was very easy to cause the north to have a separatist force by virtue of military superiority and threaten the political center of Jiangnan.
In order to solve the problem, Zhu Yuanzhang prepared to move the capital from Nanjing to Xi'an in the northwest. Since 1389, Zhu Yuanzhang has set out to pass through the northwest: let Lan Yu, the Duke of Liangguo, train troops in Sichuan, let Xu Zuhui, the Duke of Wei, and others prepare for the border in Shaanxi, let Jingning Hou Yesheng train in Gansu, set up a tea and horse division in Sichuan and Shaanxi to trade with the Mongols, and let Feng Sheng, the Duke of Song, and others act in charge of military affairs in Shaanxi and other places...
Politically, economically, and militarily are all tilting to the northwest in preparation for the relocation of the capital.
In August 1391, Zhu Yuanzhang sent the crown prince Zhu Biao to inspect Shaanxi, comfort the elders in Guanzhong, and inspect Xi'an, hoping to develop the northwest in his own hands, and then complete the move of the capital in Zhu Biao's hands.
Zhu Yuanzhang wants to move the capital to Xi'an Photo source/stills
In this way, the Ming Dynasty formed a pattern of southeast economy, northwest politics, and northeast military, and the great emperor sat in the northwest, not only through the canal to transport the wealth of the southeast to Xi'an to support the Beijing division, but also to use the northwest nobles and military advantages to clamp the northeast vassal kings.
The most important thing is that even if the northeast is threatened, the Ming will not be too passive, because the northwest has enough strategic depth to ensure the security of the political center.
But the death of Crown Prince Zhu Biao changed all that. At the beginning of Zhu Yunwen's accession to the throne, before landing the will of Taizu to move the capital to Xi'an, he first played the card of cutting the domain. Because Zhu Yuanzhang almost emptied the powerful nobles of the Ming Dynasty during his lifetime, and Zhu Yunwen's practice of elevating the status of civil officials offended the remaining nobles, so, even though Zhu Yunwen had military and economic advantages, he still lost completely in the process of fighting against Zhu Di, the king of Yan, and the Ming Dynasty switched to Zhu Di's Yongle Dynasty.
After Zhu Di ascended the throne, he adjusted Taizu's strategy of moving the capital and changed Xi'an to Beiping, because Beiping was his base camp, which could help him sit on the throne and directly control the Northeast elite who fought against the Northern Yuan.
In order to implement the strategy of moving the capital to Beiping, Zhu Di played the following cards: migrants to enrich Beiping, build the imperial palace, inspect Beiping, dredge the Huitong River, and build the Changling Mausoleum...
Everything has been done to this extent, and the relocation of the capital of the Ming Dynasty to Beiping has become a foregone conclusion. After moving the capital to Beiping, the Ming Dynasty also became the pattern of the Son of Heaven guarding the country.
As a result, the military center and political center of the Ming Dynasty highly overlapped, and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was used to transport the wealth of the southeast to Beiping, forming a pattern in which the emperor directly controlled the border army and depended on the southeast economically.
There's nothing wrong with this, as long as Daming has a hero like Zhu Di. However, it is difficult to say whether the Ming Dynasty can maintain the pattern of the male lord after Zhu Di, therefore, for the safety of the national capital, Zhu Di must intensively attack Mongolia in the north and expand the strategic depth of Beiping. This is the core reason why Zhu Di later continued to make northern expeditions to Mongolia, and finally died in the army.
Zhu Di's expansion has no practical results Source/stills
After Zhu Di, the defense line of the Ming Dynasty further shrank inward, from Kaipingwei and Daningwei to the area of Juyongguan and Gubeikou.
This is very dangerous, Beiping is easy to be approached by the Mongolian cavalry in the absence of a strategic buffer, and the ability of the Great Tomorrow is still a cliff-like downward rhythm. From this point of view, the tragedy of the Tumubao seems to be difficult to avoid.
After the change of Tumubao, the Ming Dynasty is still the old car and the old road, there is not much breakthrough in the strategic depth, and the internal friction is becoming more and more serious, at this time, the great tomorrow is actually sitting on the stove to be roasted, and finally burned to death Emperor Chongzhen.
It can be seen that there are pros and cons to everything, and the way the Son of Heaven guards the country can concentrate resources against foreign enemies, and it can also allow the emperor to control the elite soldiers and horses along the border, but this model is extremely dependent on the hero. If the heroes cannot form a relay, then they can only continue to expand the strategic depth.
But the Ming Dynasty later failed to meet the two main parameters, and could only passively perish.
Therefore, stop advocating that the Son of Heaven guards the country, this model has a threshold, and not everyone can do it.
The later Qing Dynasty did not have this problem, and like the Yuan Dynasty, the grassland forces were the peripheral forces that defended them.
If you look at it this way, only the Han Dynasty played the card of the Son of Heaven guarding the country, and completed the extension of the strategic space during the reign of the male lord, strengthened the safety factor of the national capital, and also hit the enemy hard.
Da Ming, on the contrary, was affected by this card.
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