Chapter 168: Storm Clouds Over the Great Desert

Wen Tiren, hearing Chongzhen repeatedly bring up wool, knew there must be something unusual behind it, so he asked curiously, "Your Majesty keeps mentioning wool — forgive your minister for being dull, I cannot grasp Your Majesty's meaning. What use could this wool possibly have?"

Chongzhen laughed. "We think we can try weaving garments from wool. If it fails once, try twice; if it fails twice, try three times. There will always be a way. When that time comes, won't it have its uses?"

Wen Tiren bowed. "Even so, collecting a small amount of wool at first would suffice. Why set a high price from the very start to buy from those barbarians?"

Chongzhen said, "Why worry whether it's useful or not? It's just finding a pretext anyway.

When those barbarians see fat profits in raising sheep, they'll inevitably raise more sheep. Will their pastures be enough then?

Besides, if they all climb down from horseback to raise sheep, what kind of horse-riding people would they still be? When that time comes, won't they be at the Great Ming's mercy all the same?"

... Shameless! Despicable!

Wen Tiren and the others all cursed inwardly. Just moments ago they had been talking about allying with Ligdan Khan to strike the Jianzhou barbarians — that made him an ally at least, didn't it?

Yet this lord on the dragon throne turned right around and schemed to knock them off their horses — was there ever in this world an emperor so utterly brazen and shameless!

To Wen Tiren and the others, the Chongzhen Emperor's wave of outrageous maneuvering was a method utterly unheard of, but Chongzhen was, after all, a transmigrator who had graduated from the Qidian Transmigrator Training Center — even if he had returned all his historical knowledge, he had at least heard the phrase "sheep eating people."

Even if he didn't know exactly how this eating-people worked, he figured it was simply that raising sheep brought huge profits, so everyone rushed off to raise sheep, and then everything else fell into neglect.

In Chongzhen's view, it didn't matter if he himself couldn't pull off the sheep-eating-people trick.

As long as he produced some fine things like wool overcoats, those profit-hungry merchants would automatically carry out this grand plan of sheep eating people for him, filling in every problem he hadn't considered.

When that time came, all the barbarians on the steppe would go herd sheep. If there weren't enough hands, those merchants would probably even dare to sail overseas and capture slaves to herd sheep!

And then, these fattened pigs would just be waiting for him, the Chongzhen Emperor, to come slaughter a batch.

Of course, the prerequisite was that the Royal Academy under Xu Guangqi's leadership proved capable enough to develop something that could spin wool. According to a book called Tang Brick that he'd studied at the Training Center, it was probably a matter of blending in hemp or something?

He couldn't remember. But no matter. Wasn't there someone called Yi Zhixing or Yi Xingzhi? His father had been killed by someone because he was rather knowledgeable about looms or some such thing? Once the civil examinations were over, he'd toss the kid in to get to work first.

It must be said, the Chongzhen Emperor's imaginings were quite lovely, but reality, that little wench, simply took a dislike to the Chongzhen Emperor. This meeting that was supposed to adjourn ultimately failed to adjourn — that fellow Ligdan Khan was stirring up trouble!

Wen Tiren and the others, having finished the imperial audience, had intended to return home, but they were detained by Xu Xianchun, who had rushed into the palace, and he even dragged them along to seek an audience with Chongzhen.

As it happened, the trouble Ligdan Khan stirred up was fairly simple — in the seventh year of Tianqi, shortly after the Jianzhou barbarians besieged the capital, this fellow Ligdan Khan left the Dorot, one of the Eight Otogs of the Chahar tribe, to guard their homeland, and led tens of thousands westward in migration.

By the first year of Chongzhen, Ligdan Khan had more or less pacified the Right Wing region, driven out the Shunyi Prince Boshetu, and deposed the Jinong Erinchen.

This time, the slap from reality, that little wench, came in the form of news brought by the Shunyi Prince Boshetu — Boshetu himself had been bullied by that bastard Ligdan Khan into a man stripped utterly bare.

What vexed Chongzhen even more was that during Ligdan Khan's westward migration, the Five Tribes of the Inner Khalkha, whom the Great Ming had originally pushed forward to strike the Jianzhou barbarians, had also been attacked and annexed by Ligdan Khan, leaving only the Jarud and Barin tribes by now.

Still, one piece of news that could at least cheer Chongzhen up a little was this: the Jarud and Barin, the two remaining tribes of the Five Tribes of the Inner Khalkha, had originally wanted to flee north and attach themselves to the Khorchin tribe, but Oba Taiji, who had always been prone to dropping the ball, felt that Khorchin couldn't accommodate these two tribes — you two are one gang, I'm just one man; when the time comes, whether this Khorchin is still mine would be hard to say, wouldn't it?

The two tribes, squeezed out, had originally planned to simply surrender to the Jianzhou barbarians and be done with it.

However, thanks to the deeds of the Chongzhen Emperor, who had played the Jianzhou barbarians and Hong Taiji for fools in the capital — deeds that had already spread to the various tribes of Southern Mongolia — the Jarud and Barin tribes put their heads together and decided, under the leadership of Joriktu, the league chief of the Five Tribes of the Inner Khalkha, to first seek refuge with the Shunyi Prince Boshetu, and then seek to submit to the interior.

Although the Five Tribes of the Inner Khalkha had by now been beaten like dogs and only the Jarud and Barin tribes remained, they were still two large tribes after all. If they sought to submit to the interior, presumably the Ming court would accept them?

However, by the time the Jarud and Barin tribes had toiled all the way to Boshetu's territory, they suddenly discovered that Boshetu was also singing his swan song — the guy had been bullied by Ligdan Khan too, and that old wretch Ligdan Khan was also preparing to target Xuanfu and Datong for a round of plunder, to make up for the losses from the winter dzud.

Well then, this made things much easier — two families join as one, and together go seek help from the Great Ming Emperor!

Through the piecemeal supplements from Wen Tiren and Shi Fenglai, the Chongzhen Emperor finally sorted out the relationships among these several parties.

To put it simply, Ligdan Khan was the nominal overlord of all Mongolia at present, akin to the position of his ancestor Temüjin, but clearly Ligdan didn't have Temüjin's skills, so across Mongolia there had emerged tough customers like Wang Khan, Jamukha, and Senggüm.

For instance, Oba Taiji of Khorchin didn't give a damn about Ligdan, and instead married his younger sister off to Hong Taiji, making the two families kin.

Another example: the Five Tribes of the Inner Khalkha — even if they weren't Great Ming loyal dogs as utterly devoted to the Liu clan as Jin Midi, they were still akin to the Xiongnu cavalry under the Champion Marquis, thoroughly reliable.

As for the Outer Khalkha, there was nothing much to say. They found Ligdan and the Jianzhou barbarians equally disagreeable — but they found the Great Ming disagreeable too, so this tribe, rather like Gaddafi, had simply been chased off to the lands of Mobei to amuse themselves.

Moreover, according to what Joriktu Khan said, the Naiman and Aohan, two Otogs originally loyal to Ligdan Khan, had also been pushed into rebellion by Ligdan Khan and had defected to the Jianzhou barbarians. Winning them back, however, would be very easy.

Chongzhen felt there was nothing wrong with this — in his heart he even wanted to cheer "666."

Judging by Chongzhen's historical knowledge, which was stuffed full of things like vardumpprintf code but contained very little real substance, he had originally thought this Ligdan Khan was some formidable figure.

Now, it seemed he was nothing but trash — wasn't this just pushing the branch-hall underlings of his own Mongol society right into the Great Ming's branch hall?

Since you, Ligdan Khan, dare to give, then what wouldn't I dare to take?

Just con them!

Something about Mongols originating from the Xiongnu, and the Xiongnu originating from Chunwei or Weichun? Forget it, whoever it was doesn't matter. What matters is that everyone shares the same ancestor — wouldn't that let them merge into the Great Ming with perfect legitimacy?

Then con these simple-minded fellows some more, get them to pursue restoring the glory of Genghis Khan, support them in seizing money, seizing grain, seizing the steppe — wouldn't that be just delightful?

Tapping his fingers on the table before him, Chongzhen, having formed a plan in his mind, said to Xu Xianchun, "What of the Shunyi Prince? Has he entered the passes?"

Xu Xianchun bowed. "Reporting to Your Majesty, the Shunyi Prince is now at Xuanfu. Governor Lu Xiangsheng has not permitted him to enter the pass."

Chongzhen gave an "mm," and instructed, "Summon the Shunyi Prince and Joriktu Khan to the capital."

(Chapter End)