Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 836 The cotton ripened hundreds of times, and the tax farmers' uprising began for the first time.

Besides their ineffective handling of the nobility, it's hard to say that the various sultans also won the hearts and minds of the people.

Back then, thanks to various new policies, the Delhi Sultanate gained widespread recognition among Indians and quickly established itself. However, as the country became increasingly chaotic, the sultans began to blindly pursue wealth, leading to a serious rift in the mutual trust between the Turkic soldiers and the local Indian chieftains.

In these Turkic states, grassroots control was primarily achieved through tax farming, as was the case in the various Indian sultanates. Moreover, because Turkic soldiers were not very "grounded" in the local culture, a large number of tax farming positions were held by conquered Indians.

For example, in Bengal, there exists a group called the "Chamindars." This term means "landowners," and in the 13th century, when Bengal had just been conquered, it referred to the remaining indigenous Indian princes in remote areas not yet directly controlled by the Sultan. They nominally submitted to the Sultan, paying tribute. The Sultan, however, was not as religiously fanatical as they claimed; instead, he was quite pragmatic, readily promising them semi-independence in exchange for their submission. This is how this group survived.

As the Sultanate became more formalized, it required more people to carry out administrative orders, especially in taxation. Therefore, more Indians were gradually absorbed into the Sultan's ruling system, becoming local lords responsible for collecting taxes from the Sultan and other high-ranking nobles. These people were also known as "Chamindars."

This process progressed at varying paces across different regions. The Bengal region, with its smaller number of Turkic soldiers and their higher ranks, was where this system was most prevalent. However, with the increasing frequency of wars and the growing financial demands of the Sultan and the high-ranking Jagirdar, the burden on lower-ranking lords began to mount.

Almost simultaneously with the collapse of the Delhi Sultanate, peasant uprisings even broke out in the Bengal and Bihar regions. However, the core of these peasants were not the self-sufficient farmers of the Central Plains, but rather the zaimingdars who managed the villages.

The tax demands imposed by the upper-ranking lords had become unrealistically high. Tax farmers, let alone making a profit, struggled even to pay their quotas and maintain order. Furthermore, under the efficient Persian-style administration, lower-ranking lords could no longer evade their burdens as they had in the past. In areas with heavier burdens, tax farmers found it difficult to adapt to the rapidly increasing demands, and many even went bankrupt. Upon discovering this situation, the Sultan and his military leaders not only failed to stop it but also seized the opportunity to fan the flames, attempting to use this method to bankrupt local lords they disliked, thus gaining direct control over these villages.

Eventually, the tax farmers, unable to bear the oppression any longer, began to revolt. Rebellions led by the Zamindars erupted one after another, spreading throughout northeastern India. Moreover, this method of resistance even became a habit. Until the Mughal and British rule, the local Zamindars were known for their unruly and rebellious nature.

In a place where even tax farmers are driven to rebellion, the abstract nature of governance is evident. If, in the early days of Kharji's rule, some local Indian forces were still willing to serve the Sultan, now, whether out of goodwill or self-interest, the locals are simply hoping for his downfall.

In comparison, although the Yuan Dynasty didn't have a great reputation back home, it was still much better than these Indians. At least, it wasn't to the point that tax farmers were annoyed. Therefore, compared to these earlier conquerors, the Yuan Dynasty was actually the more "benevolent" one. Savvy tax farmers only needed to visit the Yuan Dynasty's territory to immediately know which side to support.

The Javanese side had made thorough preparations beforehand, so after landing, they encountered little resistance. Local strongmen even guided them, providing supplies and support. After easily defeating the Bengal Sultan's negligible navy, they marched straight towards the royal city like an armed parade.

The Yuan army was not large in number. To enhance troop mobility, reduce command and supply pressures, and, more importantly, achieve strategic surprise, they did not bring their numerous vassal native troops this time. Otherwise, even disregarding their basic needs, these people would certainly have had to prepare a large number of ships and supplies themselves, making a scene known to the whole world.

After careful consideration, the Yuan army dispatched only 4,000 men this time to sail across the Western Ocean and begin their conquest.

Initially, they planned to deploy fewer people than this. Although the number was small, this deployment consisted of the elite forces from Javanese territory.

All the soldiers participating in the battle were selected from the "Eight Guards". The designation of this unit was modeled after the imperial guards of the Yuan Dynasty.

In July of the ninth year of Möngke Khan's reign, which is the Tianxiong Era 1259, Möngke Khan suddenly died at the foot of Diaoyu Fortress in Hechuan. This war, which initially seemed like a minor siege of a small city, impacted the entire known world, including the Yuan Dynasty. It could even be said that this was the starting point of the "metaverse."

The following year, 1260, Kublai Khan preemptively declared himself emperor. On May 5th, Kublai Khan issued his enthronement edict, "Edict of the Emperor's Ascension to the Throne," in Yanjing (Beijing), changing previous customs by referring to himself as "朕" (Zhen, meaning "I" or "the Emperor"), honoring his elder brother Möngke as "先皇" (Xianhuang, meaning "Former Emperor"), and bestowing upon him the temple name "宪宗" (Xianzong). On June 29th, Kublai Khan issued the "Edict of Establishing the Zhongtong Era," officially establishing the era name "中统" (Zhongtong), which was also the first era name among the Mongol-affiliated states. From then on, the basic structure of the dynasty began to be built.

However, many Mongol nobles were dissatisfied and, in Karakorum, enthroned Ariq Böke as Khan, preparing for a southward advance. Furthermore, the original Great Khan's personal guard, the Kheshig, chose to march north to Karakorum to support Ariq Böke. To counter this unfavorable situation, Kublai Khan expanded his army, relying on Han Chinese hereditary nobles in Hebei. The first batch of personal guards, numbering over 30,000, known as the "Wuwei Army," was personally led by Kublai Khan and formed the core fighting force of his side.

Under Kublai Khan's command, the Wuwei Army participated in the decisive Battle of Shimutunaur, defeating Ariq Böke's main force. Afterwards, Kublai Khan organized an expeditionary force to the north, conquering Karakorum; the core of this force consisted of 10,000 Wuwei Army soldiers. In 1264, after winning the civil war, Kublai Khan issued the "Edict of Changing the Era Name to Zhiyuan," officially establishing "Great Yuan" as the national title and changing the era name to "Zhiyuan." The Wuwei Army was also formalized, establishing its organization into three guards: Left, Central, and Right.

In 1279, Kublai Khan continued to expand the Han army of the Three Guards, adding two more guards, the Front Guard and the Rear Guard. Each guard had more than 10,000 men and established positions such as Commander-in-Chief and Deputy Commander-in-Chief to manage them.

In its early stages, the Five Guards of Han Chinese primarily served as escorts for the emperor's travels and palace guards. After the wars between the Yuan Dynasty and the Mongols gradually subsided, their functions expanded. Besides their primary duties of guarding Dadu (Beijing) and protecting the empire's core, they also began undertaking tasks such as land reclamation and construction projects. They possessed their own dedicated land reclamation areas in the capital region and participated in projects such as the construction of Dadu's city walls and the dredging of waterways. In the later Yuan Dynasty, although the court outwardly cracked down on established Han Chinese hereditary nobles and no longer valued the traditional Han Chinese army centered around Hebei people, the central Han Chinese army's main position was not replaced; instead, it continued to expand, adding the Wuwei, Zuowei Shuaifu, and Youwei Shuaifu, ultimately forming the "Eight Guards of Han Chinese Army."

During the late Yuan Dynasty, the Eight Guards Han Army remained the main force of the regular troops that the court could mobilize. During the reign of Emperor Shun of Yuan, the Yellow River flooded again. Minister Jia Lu insisted on submitting a memorial, saying that the Yellow River must be controlled. With the support of Chancellor Tuotuo, Jia Lu personally went to the flood-stricken areas, traveling thousands of miles to investigate the situation in various places, and finally formulated a construction strategy.

In addition to the local conscripted laborers, the Yuan court also dispatched eight Han Chinese guards to serve as the backbone of Jia Lu's forces. Thanks to their efforts, the river management project commenced in April of the eleventh year of the Zhizheng era; by July, over 280 li of the river channel had been dredged and cleared, completing the dredging work; in August, water was released into the old course; in September, boats could pass, and the work of closing breaches began; in November, the civil engineering was completed, and all the dike closures were finished. The entire project took a total of 190 days, successfully closing the breach at the Baimao Dike and restoring the Yellow River to its original course.

After the Yellow River flood control was completed, the Yuan court dispatched Jia Lu to lead the flood control corps to participate in the suppression of the Red Turban Rebellion. It turned out that in the same year, the eleventh year of the Zhizheng era, taking advantage of Jia Lu's river control efforts, Han Shantong and Liu Futong launched an uprising in Yingzhou. By the end of the year, with the river works completed, rebel armies were everywhere.

The Yuan court reacted swiftly, dispatching Privy Councilors Hesi and Tuchi with 6,000 Asu troops to attack Liu Futong's forces. However, the Asu troops, who had performed admirably in the battles of the two capitals and were heavily relied upon by the Yuan court, proved utterly ineffective against a truly motivated enemy. Hesi and his men spent their days drinking, while their soldiers only knew how to plunder. When the battle commenced and they discovered the Red Turban army outnumbered them, Hesi was terrified. He whipped his whip and shouted "Abu! Abu!" (meaning "Run!"), then led the retreat. The entire Yuan army collapsed without even engaging in combat.

After the Asuwei's inexplicable defeat, the Yuan court realized something was amiss and quickly escalated its response. At this critical moment, however, Toqto'a wanted to give his younger brother, Yesen Temur, some military merit and insisted on making him commander-in-chief.

Of course, compared to many abstract figures at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Toqto'a, although a traditional powerful minister of the Yuan Dynasty, still possessed certain abilities. Knowing that his younger brother lacked the ability, he specially arranged a group of relatively capable officials and generals to assist him—in reality, he had them fight on his behalf, while Yesen Temur could simply "hold the fort." To this end, he selected the Grand Councilor Gongbuban and assigned him the Han guards as the main force for the encirclement and suppression.

During the time the Yuan army was deployed, Liu Futong had already captured Runing Prefecture, Guangzhou and Xizhou, and his rebel army had expanded to 100,000 men. However, this Yuan army was, after all, a specially selected elite force, and its momentum was indeed very strong. By March of the twelfth year of Zhiyuan, it had successively recovered Nanyang, Runing, Tang and Sui, causing the rebel army to fall into a temporary slump.

However, after realizing the situation was extremely favorable, Gongbuban became arrogant. Before the war was even completely over, he began celebrating his victory halfway through. Tens of thousands of troops were stationed on the banks of the Shahe River in Runing, where Gongbuban drank himself into a stupor every day, sometimes even remaining unconscious for extended periods. The army was left unattended and began to disorganize.

Liu Futong, however, was a man with great resilience. He was not discouraged by his previous setbacks, but instead continued to observe and plan calmly. After discovering the situation of this Yuan army, he immediately organized his elite men to launch a night attack on the camp, beheading Gongbuban on the spot, and then escaped unscathed.

The more difficult part was that the Yuan army was in such disarray that soldiers were running around in all directions, and it wasn't until the next morning that they discovered their commander had died under mysterious circumstances. The entire army was terrified and fled for over 300 li (approximately 150 kilometers) before finally stopping…

With Gongbuban's sudden and disastrous defeat, Esen Timur was left to lead the army himself. In May, he led an army of 300,000 to re-enter the Shahe region. However, he was never suited to command troops, and the previous attacks there had instilled in him a deep fear, leading him to constantly consult divination and prayer. With such a leader, the army's morale plummeted. Later, when the Red Turban Army launched a surprise attack, chaos erupted. Esen Timur did nothing but prepare to flee. A knowledgeable officer, presumably arranged by Toqto'a, quickly stopped him, saying that the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers were at stake. Esen Timur retorted, "Isn't my life a life too?" and then fled. In the end, only a little over 10,000 managed to escape back.

After these armies mysteriously collapsed, there was simply no force left to mobilize in the Central Plains. Toqto'a forcibly protected Esen Temur, but in this situation, someone had to take responsibility, so he had to take the lead himself.

Tuotuo himself was still quite capable. In the autumn, he led a large army south, defeated the Zhima Li tribe, occupied the important city of Xuzhou, and massacred the inhabitants. In addition, he supported the local landlord militias in Henan and Jiangnan provinces, instigating these highly motivated people to actively suppress the rebel army, thus suppressing the Red Turban Army once again.

Afterwards, Toqto'a believed that the major problem had been solved, so he returned to the capital and handed over the remaining work to Jia Lu.

To be fair, there was nothing wrong with making this decision. Historically, large construction teams like these generally possessed strong combat capabilities. Moreover, Jia Lu had not only laborers but also a genuine main force of Han soldiers under his command. Coincidentally, in February of that year, Guo Zixing of Dingyuan raised an army and captured Haozhou City. Therefore, Jia Lu led his army to attack and begin the siege, preparing to wipe out the "bandit den" there.

However, the "Water Control Corps" began its siege in September, but suffered a major defeat in October. Pingzhang Yueqicha'er's battalion was defeated by the city's defenders and forced to retreat. In December, Jialu reorganized and launched another attack, but still could not break through.

In May of the following year, Jia Lu died of exhaustion and shortness of breath outside the city.

After Jia Lu's death, his followers were unable to even maintain their ranks and disbanded on the spot. The once formidable Eight Guards Han Army came to an abrupt and chaotic end.

These events at the end of the Yuan Dynasty were perhaps too outrageous, becoming a source of regret for the gentry loyal to the Yuan Dynasty. Therefore, after the establishment of the Javanese Yuan Dynasty, these well-known organizations were gradually restored. Currently, similar to the early Yuan Dynasty, they are also composed of personal guards from various powerful clans.

(End of this chapter)