When the three guards and four leaders saw the cavalrymen they had arranged to go back home appear in the camp one after another, they knew that they were completely finished.

They couldn't figure out why King Yan did this.

You have to know that it is impossible to cultivate in most parts of the grassland. If the Ming Dynasty wants to rule the grassland, it can only continuously transport food from the inland.

Who can bear such a burden?

Even if the three guards of Doyan surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty would only let them manage themselves and would not provide them with military pay or food, and naturally there would be no need to rule them.

The previous dynasties in the Central Plains invaded the grasslands in order to balance the power of the grasslands. Whoever was stronger would be beaten. This was a common practice. The behavior of Prince Yan Zhu Di clearly violated this practice.

"Don't worry. Not only the people you arranged to leave, but also the clansmen from your respective hometowns will be brought back by me, so that your family can be reunited. After all, a family must be together."

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed.

This great victory made him feel extremely happy. In the 24th year of Hongwu, Zhu Di surrendered the Mongolian leader Nairbukha and captured the Northern Yuan general Solin Temur alive. This was the proudest thing in his life.

Now, one more thing has to be added, which is to pacify the three guards of Doyan.

I have to feel happy.

In the 20th year of Hongwu, the three dukes of the Ming Dynasty, namely, Duke of Ying Fu Youde, Duke of Liang Lan Yu, and Duke of Song Feng Sheng, led an army of 200,000 and forced the three guards of Doyan to surrender.

Now Zhu Di, alone, has completely pacified the Three Guards of Doyan. By this calculation, his contribution is comparable to that of the Three Dukes.

After gathering the scattered soldiers of the Three Guards of Doyan, Zhu Di did not rush to go to war immediately. Instead, he asked his two sons and Zhang Yuzhu Neng to capture all the clansmen from the Three Guards of Doyan's hometown.

The biggest gain this time was the acquisition of nearly 100,000 war horses, which meant that the number of war horses in the Ming Dynasty suddenly soared. No matter how you calculate it, this alone was a great achievement of Zhu Di.

However, unlike the grassland cavalry, it was impossible for Ming army soldiers to become cavalry just by riding on horseback.

The difficulty of riding training is very high, and each cavalryman needs a long time of training, which can be as fast as several months or as short as half a year.

The requirements for cavalry are not just to be able to ride a horse, but also to be able to bend the bow and shoot arrows, load muskets, and fight against the enemy while riding.

The ability of the grassland people to sleep on horseback is not something that can be trained in just a few years.

However, the Ming Dynasty also has ready-made cavalry candidates, but they have not received ideological education and cannot serve as part of the Ming army for the time being.

These captured young and strong men must undergo ideological education at the Military Academy, and only after passing the education can they be incorporated into the Ming army.

Among these, a series of teachings such as propriety, righteousness, integrity and shame should be instilled. The reason why the grassland people were called barbarians was that too many of their customs were very primitive. For example, when the father's wives and concubines died, the sons could inherit, but of course this did not include their biological mothers.

It is hard for people in the Central Plains to imagine such a thing.

For example, if the father's concubine gave birth to a son, and the son inherited the concubine's eldest son and had another son with the concubine, the relationship would be a complete mess.

At this time, the Honghuang mythology system that Zhu Ying had asked Yao Guangxiao to create played a great role at this time.

The first thing all captured non-Ming people came into contact with was the ancient mythology system, which destroyed their primitive beliefs.

The beliefs of the grassland are mainly based on the wolf totem and Changshengtian. Such beliefs are actually very thin and simple, and are completely not on the same level as the huge prehistoric mythology system.

Even in this era, the Honghuang mythology system can be said to be the most complete in structure, especially the concept that Buddha is Tao, which can easily integrate with Buddhist culture.

At present, Buddhist culture has a wide spread area in the world because its idea of ​​keeping the people ignorant and the concept of suffering in this life and happiness in the next life are more in line with the interests of the ruling class.

"This little bastard is really a source of worry for me. He is too murderous."

Although Zhu Gaoxu had left, it was impossible for Zhu Di to hide what he had done.

Killing people for personal gain is a taboo in the military.

However, Zhu Di just cursed and didn't take it seriously. He knew the second son's character very well. He was a reckless man, greedy and ambitious.

But he is indeed good at leading troops in battle.

The news that Zhu Di had plundered the three guards of Doyan soon reached Aluta.

After all, this commotion was huge, with more than 200,000 people, so it was normal for thousands or even tens of thousands of people to escape.

There were many cases of intermarriage between Aluta's Asut tribe and the three guards of Doyan. After these people escaped, they naturally came to Aluta.

"What do the Ming army want to do? They actually want to abduct all the people. Are they crazy?"

When Aluta heard the news, he felt terrible.

This is like removing the fuel from under the cauldron.

Without the support of the people, what future does the tribe have? As of now, the entire Doyan Three Guards can be considered useless.

Aluta did not dare to be careless and immediately sent people to investigate the movements of Prince of Yan Zhu Di.

As for Prince of Yan Zhu Di, after basically plundering all the people of the three guards of Doyan, he dispatched an army of 50,000 people to send these people to Zhu Yuanzhang's central military camp.

Most of these more than 200,000 people will be punished with forced labor as criminals, while the young and strong people between the ages of 14 and 30 will be sent to the detention center of the grassland military base for reform.

After the transformation, if they could make meritorious contributions on the battlefield, their families would be able to obtain Ming Dynasty household registration, migrate to the Ming Dynasty border, or live in a newly built city.

Before the Northern Expedition, these strategies, arrangements, and procedures had already been determined, and there was a complete set of detailed plans to educate the grassland people.

The news of Zhu Di's great victory soon reached Zhu Yuanzhang.

"Old Four does have some brains, and he's pretty good at fighting."

Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy when he got the news. There were only so many powerful tribes on the grassland now. Among all the tribes, the Three Guards of Doyan were among the top ones.

As far as Western Mongolia and the Mobei Plateau are concerned, the three most powerful guards are Tatar, Asut and Doyan.

Now if one of the three is eliminated, it would be equivalent to a great victory for the Ming army.

Dealing with the remaining two will be much easier.

If Zhu Di were to defeat Aluta as well, the entire northern desert would fall into the hands of the Ming Dynasty.

"Your Majesty, the traces of the Tatars have been found. They fled along the Onon River to the east of Lake Baikal," Feng Sheng reported.

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "What's going on with the second brother? The fourth brother has already subdued the three guards of Duoyan, why hasn't he made any move yet?"

Feng Sheng replied: "Your Majesty, the King of Qin did not pursue the Tatars, but led his army directly to Lake Beier. Perhaps the King of Qin wanted to cut off the Tatars in this way."

Where Lake Beilang is located is the Hulunbuir grassland, the birthplace of the Mongolian people.

King Qin Zhu Chong obviously understood that the Tatars were too fast to run and that he would suffer a great loss if he chased them. So, relying on strong logistical support, he simply went straight to Huanglong and marched into the Hulunbuir grassland.

As long as the Hulunbuir grassland is occupied, the Tatars will have no choice but to fight the Ming Dynasty.

"Forget it, let them go. Have you chosen a site for building the city?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked.

The army is now located in a place that will be called Hohhot in later generations.

Of course, there was no city here, and the earliest Guihua City was built more than a hundred years later.

"Your Majesty, I have already seen that the place in the shadow of the Daqing Mountains and on the bank of the Yellow River is the most suitable place to build a city." Feng Sheng replied respectfully.

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded: "Then let's settle it this way."

After some thought, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict.

"Order Lan Yu and Fu Youde to lead 50,000 troops each to conquer the various tribes on the grasslands. All the people they see will be captured and used as labor to build the city."

"As you wish."

After determining the bridgehead, Zhu Yuanzhang's purge began.

At this time, the railway tracks had basically been built, capable of transporting large amounts of supplies. There was no need to worry about logistical support, and naturally a larger-scale sweep of the various grassland tribes could be carried out.

Now is the most beautiful moment of the entire grassland, the time when the grassland blooms. From the start of the expedition on March 3rd to now, it is almost June and it has taken nearly three months.

The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty will follow the guide to occupy all the best pastures on the grassland and force the various tribes on the grassland to fight against the Ming army.

If they just keep hiding, the impact on the tribe will be huge.

In the summer on the grassland, all tribes have to graze cattle and sheep. Only at this time can the cattle and sheep grow better. If they continue to migrate, the losses to the entire tribe will be extremely huge.

The attitude now shown by the Ming Dynasty is clearly to build cities on the grassland, which means that they may escape from summer to winter.

But now the combat effectiveness of the grassland people is completely disproportionate to that of the Ming army.

The Ming army, almost entirely equipped with matchlock muskets, was not afraid of the attacks of the grassland people at all. The Ming army adopted a coordinated approach of cavalry and infantry, with about 1,000 cavalry for every 10,000 infantrymen.

Among the 10,000 infantrymen, in addition to the food and muskets they carry, there will also be 20 cannons.

With such a powerful lineup of firearms, even tens of thousands of grassland cavalry could not successfully attack the camp.

They would carry several months' worth of dry food, and even if they moved at a slower pace, they would be able to move forward steadily and force their way past the grassland tribes' strongholds.

At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang also set up a special grain transport team to replenish food and fodder.

In this way, a barrier like the Great Wall was formed, which posed a threat to the grassland tribes.

History always repeats itself in an amazing way. Zhu Yuanzhang also named the newly built city Guihua City, which means submission to the king.

When Guihua City was first established, a large number of captives were brought in for labor every day.

They are all tribes from the grassland.

Not all grassland tribes could escape like the Tatars, the Oirat, and the Arutai, because each tribe raised its own cattle and sheep, which were their food and they could not abandon them, so naturally they could not move quickly.

The Ming army directly captured such tribes and treated them as criminals, and their cattle and sheep were naturally confiscated.

The only good thing was that they could eat food every day while working.

In fact, for most of the lower-class herdsmen, their lives are now better than before.

You have to know that the exploitation of the lower-class people by the grassland nobles was more thorough than that of the Ming Dynasty. In the eyes of the grassland nobles, the lower-class people were completely their private property. Everything they had belonged to them, and they could not be called human beings.

In the Ming Dynasty, even if you are a criminal, you are still considered a human being.

The Ming Dynasty’s current labor management system is relatively complete. Compared with the Ming Dynasty, the management system here on the grassland seems to be much stricter, but it is still no problem to give them food to eat.

These criminals who were forced to work were allowed to eat two meals a day, mainly rice mixed with sweet potatoes.

It is easier to feel full when rice is mixed with sweet potatoes.

After a day or two, you can still see some meat.

It is usually a thick soup made from the internal organs of slaughtered cattle and sheep.

High-intensity labor can easily kill a person if he does not get some nutritional supplements.

Except for those grassland nobles, most of the herdsmen were very honest and did not cause any trouble at all.

As for all the grassland nobles, the first thing they did was to deprive them of their noble status and demote them to criminals.

Even if they are captured young and strong men who have the skills of riding and archery, they still have to do labor for a month before being sent to the grassland military base for transformation depending on the situation.

The reason for doing this is that there are too many prisoners in the Ming Dynasty.

Among them, the majority came from Prince Yan's side, but the others, added together, should not be underestimated.

The total number has now approached 400,000.

This also began to increase the burden of food for the Ming Dynasty.

Fortunately, the Ming Dynasty's grain reserves have always been sufficient. From the very beginning of maritime trade, that is, when the maritime ban was lifted, Zhu Ying began to consciously guide the import of grain, especially from Southeast Asia.

One of the means is to give birth to Nanyang manor owners.

The maritime trade caravans formed by the Jiangnan families of the Ming Dynasty had to pay a certain amount of grain every year before they would be allowed to continue to have the right to sail the following year.

Zhu Ying didn't care what means they used or where they got the food from. If they couldn't get the food, they would face huge fines and even be deprived of their maritime trade qualifications.

Merchants, of course, want to maximize their profits, but faced with the court's conditions, they can only find ways to accomplish their goals.

Therefore, raising serfs became a very popular thing in Southeast Asia.

Kunlun slaves are especially popular.

Because the Ming Dynasty prohibited the import of Kunlun slaves, once discovered, they would be forced to do forced labor and the officials would be demoted to commoners.

Kunlun slaves are completely black and difficult to hide, so few dare to take the risk.

They are basically raised overseas.

Kunlun slaves are very strong and can become good serfs with a little training. Nowadays, the landowners in Southeast Asia have a large number of Kunlun slaves working under them, continuously growing food for the Ming Dynasty.

With the reserves over the years, the Ming army would not be short of food even if they stayed on the grassland for three to five years, let alone one year.