Most of the time, nomadic people wearing roughly sewn clothes made of animal skins could not have just passed through agricultural civilization.

Whether it is armaments, scale of mobilization, or organizational form, they are far from comparable to the civilization of the Central Plains.

The weapons used by most soldiers on the grassland are mainly made of wood or even animal bones. An iron pot is a rare item on the grassland, and only the nobles have it.

This gap is so huge that it can be said to be overwhelming in all aspects.

Border raids occurred because they could no longer survive, so they assembled a team of half soldiers and half civilians and went south into the Central Plains frontier to fight the autumn wind.

For those big cities that were heavily guarded, no one dared to go there. Instead, they plundered some small villages or small towns.

Small villages that can stay on the frontier are not good at making mistakes and will fight back.

Some small grassland tribes with small populations may be completely wiped out in these villages and towns.

The Central Plains nation is a fighting nation in the true sense.

The three large-scale nomadic invasions in history were also based on the civil strife in the Central Plains dynasties.

In the Jin Dynasty, there was the Rebellion of the Eight Kings first, and after years of war in the Central Plains, the population was depleted, and then there was the "Five Husbands Rebellion".

In fact, the Wuhu people in that incident are no longer pure nomads.

They are a semi-agricultural and semi-nomadic people, with a very high degree of Chineseization.

Then there is Meng Yuan.

Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire was so powerful, it flattened half of the Eurasian continent.

Xixia, a small semi-nomadic and semi-agricultural country, was nothing more than a separatist regime in the Central Plains civilization. The Duke of Xia in the Tang Dynasty was granted the title of Dingnan Jiedu Envoy.

It was such a small separatist country that Genghis Khan fought three times before defeating it. If the Jin Kingdom nearby had not refused to send troops to aid Xixia, Genghis Khan would not have been able to defeat it.

It was only because Wanyan Yongji of the Jin Kingdom was a semi-literate man with little education that Xixia was forced to beg for peace with Mongolia and stationed in Mongolia to attack the Jin Dynasty.

The later Mongolian-Jin war lasted for twenty-four years. Seven years after the death of Genghis Khan, Mongolia did not conquer the Jin Kingdom in one fell swoop, let alone conquer the Southern Song Dynasty and unify the Central Plains.

Even when Kublai Khan took control of the Central Plains, it was because the Southern Song Dynasty lost the Yanshan barrier and the agriculturally developed Beijing-Tianjin area. Liao, Jin, and Mongolia successively inherited control of the north, so they became stronger and stronger as they conquered.

From the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty to the establishment of the Ming Dynasty.

The North was under the rule of ethnic minorities for 240 years.

A full two hundred and forty years, which can be considered as one generation, has produced twelve generations.

The difference is already huge.

This was also the origin of the contradiction between the northern and southern Han people at that time. In the eyes of the southern Han people at that time, the northern Han people could no longer be called Han people.

It was Zhu Yuanzhang who merged the northern and southern Han people again after 240 years.

However, the grassland now is very different from before.

After the Mongol Empire occupied such a large territory, it no longer lagged behind in terms of weapons and armaments. For the Ming Dynasty, the threat was completely different from what it was before.

Moreover, the grassland was of little significance to the Ming Dynasty, which was a farming civilization. It could not grow food, and it was difficult to defend the vast plains. If an army entered the grassland, it would be easily dragged to death.

Even when the Manchus and Qing Dynasties took over the Central Plains for the third time, the Ming Dynasty was not destroyed by the Manchus. It was Li Zicheng who destroyed the Ming Dynasty. The Manchus and the Qing Dynasties took advantage of the chaos in the Central Plains and made a big mistake.

Throughout history, it was more often the nomadic peoples who claimed vassalage and paid tribute to the farming peoples. If they showed signs of rising, they would send troops to attack them.

Just like the Han Dynasty against the Xiongnu, the Tang Dynasty against the Turks, Uighurs, Rouran, and Goguryeo.

Now the Ming Dynasty has the same approach to the grassland.

It's just that the literati who recorded the history books yelled and wrote about us being beaten.

When we beat others, we usually give them a pass, that is, if they don't accept Wang Hua's behavior, they will be punished.

The reason for this is that most dynasties, except for the founding period, emphasized culture over military affairs.

There is a natural conflict between literati and martial men, so it is impossible for literati to praise martial men.

From this point of view, it seems that Zhu Ying does not have much need to build tracks to target the grassland.

This depends on the goal.

The first is the large number of war horses on the grassland.

In ancient times, the speed of information dissemination was the degree of control the court had over the local area.

The faster information spreads, the stronger the court's control over local areas.

It is true that maritime trade will make the Ming Dynasty rich as a whole, but in fact, the strength of its control will be reduced as a result.

Because sea voyages often last for more than half a year, or even several years.

There will be some disobedience to foreign military orders.

This means that the imperial court's ability to restrict maritime trade will become very small.

It can easily lead to a situation where the localities are rich and the central government is weak.

In the past, grasslands were not included in the Chinese version of the map because there was no benefit.

It's different now. A large number of horses can maintain the track. A plain on the grassland makes it much easier to lay the track.

The cultivation of high-yielding crops such as sweet potatoes can also provide the Central Plains with abundant food to support the people on the grasslands.

The increase in population and territory meant that the Ming Dynasty became stronger and stronger. Starting from the grasslands, they would conquer Eurasia again.

With farming civilization at its back, plus prairie cavalry and firearms.

Incorporating all the territory that was once the peak period of Mongolia into the Ming Dynasty will not just be thought of, but actually feasible.

Therefore, after being silent for an unknown amount of time, Zhu Ying's head, which was slightly lowered, slowly raised its head.

Just like before, he looked at the old man with calm eyes and said with a firm voice: "Grandpa, my grandson wants to do something about the track."

Bang!
Chapter completed!