Chapter 176: Ligdan Khan's Royal Court

Ever since the people of the Sunid and Khuchit tribes had been built into burial mounds, more than a dozen tribes, large and small, had been completely wiped out one after another and turned into mounds.

Of course, calling it a complete wipeout isn't entirely accurate — after all, every tribe had more or less some riders who followed Ligdan Khan south to Xuanfu, so much so that Ligdan Khan's troop strength reached a hundred thousand for the first time.

And according to that commander of ten thousand, Bater, there was even a large tribe of ten thousand following behind Ligdan Khan's cavalry to provide support.

Since that's how it was, there was nothing more to say — keep building the mounds, that's the true path.

After building a dozen or so mounds large and small, the Chongzhen Emperor increasingly felt that Li Yunlong's graduation thesis in Drawing Sword made a lot of sense: the style of a unit's first commanding officer becomes that army's style for all the years to come.

This ten-thousand-man cavalry force cobbled together by Prince of Shunyi Bushitu and Khong Tayiji — one could say I am their first commanding officer, so these fellows learned to build burial mounds with great enthusiasm, and they even seemed rather keen on competing with the Capital Camps to see who could build the more impressive mounds, which gave the young Duke Zhang Zhiji quite a headache.

The matter of wanting to measure himself against Wanyan Cheng wasn't even settled yet, and now damn it all, here came another ten-thousand-man cavalry wanting to compete with him — Zhang Zhiji felt it was a colossal pain in the ass.

Yet the great Chongzhen Emperor showed not the slightest intention of stopping them. In any case, the materials used to build the mounds weren't subjects of the Great Ming; he could only wish for more mounds to be built, just for the sight of them.

Marching while building burial mounds, their speed inevitably slowed, and this was with the Chongzhen Emperor bringing virtually no supplies at all — otherwise, the pace would have been even slower.

It took close to a month for the Chongzhen Emperor to bring his force of over sixty thousand cavalry to the vicinity of Ligdan Khan's royal court.

Calling it a royal court, it was really nothing more than a somewhat larger grazing ground — according to the scouts' reports, roughly seventy to eighty thousand people were gathered nearby, with tribes large and small packed together one after another.

The Chongzhen Emperor actually found it quite laughable — with just this damned seventy or eighty thousand people, they wanted to wrestle with the Great Ming?

The Great Ming had a population of nearly a hundred million; even if they pulled out one man in a hundred who dared to fight and kill, they could scrape together a million-strong army, and a single spitball from each could drown the bastards — yet no matter what the Chongzhen Emperor thought, the undeniable fact was that the Great Ming was currently being pinned to the ground and ground into the dirt.

Now that they had reached the vicinity of the royal court, and with the population being somewhat larger, that meant leaks were inevitable — some might even run off to bring word to Ligdan Khan.

The Chongzhen Emperor, who had originally intended to turn Ligdan Khan's entire royal court into a burial mound, racked his brains but could not come up with any good solution, so he simply summoned the commanders of ten thousand, the young Duke Zhang Zhiji, Liu Xingzuo, and Wanyan Cheng for a council before the throne.

Hadn't someone said that three cobblers with their wits combined equal Zhuge Liang? With these four together, surely they could come up with something.

But it was of no damn use at all — even with four top enforcers plus himself, the society's boss, they still couldn't think of any particularly good idea.

On their side, when they set out from Xuanfu they had only sixty-three thousand cavalry, and with those who had died in battle along the way and those lost to illness from the unfamiliar climate, now barely over sixty thousand cavalry remained.

The enemy was a large tribe of seventy to eighty thousand. According to the military texts, if you have ten times the force, surround them — with these numbers, how could they surround and slaughter them?

No matter how much they scratched their heads and tore at their hair, surrounding them was simply impossible — not enough men!

The Chongzhen Emperor thought bitterly: if only he had gritted his teeth a little harder and scraped together a hundred thousand cavalry to go beyond the passes, perhaps he really could have utterly destroyed Ligdan's lair.

In the end, it was Commander Bater who spoke first: "Great Heavenly Khan, in truth we have no need to kill every last one of that dog-slave Ligdan Khan's tribesmen. If we kill most of their able-bodied men and their children, their days will become very hard indeed."

Zhang Zhiji also cupped his hands and said: "I report to Your Majesty: the art of war says, with ten times the force, surround them. Now the Great Ming's cavalry here numbers only sixty thousand, making it difficult to annihilate them completely.

It would be better to follow what Bater suggests — even if we let a small portion go, killing the majority would still be good."

The Chongzhen Emperor, however, was extremely dissatisfied: "How can we not annihilate them completely? My dear ministers, think again. We intend to leave here the largest burial mound yet for his Ligdan Khan."

Fang Zhenghua, as the head of the Inner Depot, indeed knew quite a lot. After thinking it over, he said to the Chongzhen Emperor: "Reporting to His Imperial Highness, back in Xuanfu, was there not a slave who once poisoned the army of the Jianzhou barbarian Dorgon?

Later, this slave will send men to poison their water source — won't these Tartars then be unable to flee?"

The Chongzhen Emperor was just about to cheer when Liu Xingzuo looked at Fang Zhenghua with the gaze one reserves for an idiot and said with a faint, mocking smile: "I venture to ask, how much of this poison did Eunuch Fang bring with him?"

Fang Zhenghua thought for a moment and said: "About ten jin or so, I should think. No more than that; the palace stores are not large either. This is already enough to lay out twenty or thirty thousand people."

Liu Xingzuo laughed: "Never mind twenty or thirty thousand — even one or two thousand would be difficult. Eunuch Fang, you must not realize that drawing water on the steppe is not the same as in the Central Plains.

In our Central Plains, we rely on wells, rivers, and lakes for water. But for a great tribe of seventy to eighty thousand people, where could they dig a well that large?

They must rely on a great lake for water, and the lake water must be flowing water at that."

"No matter how potent the poison, once it is dispersed into a great lake capable of supplying drinking water for seventy to eighty thousand people, what toxicity could possibly remain?

Furthermore, these herders' households will certainly have stored water, and those who draw water do so at different times — how could you ensure they all succumb to the poison at once?"

Fang Zhenghua smacked his forehead and said to the Chongzhen Emperor with an embarrassed smile: "This slave deserves death, making a fool of himself before His Imperial Highness."

The Chongzhen Emperor, however, waved his hand and said: "What foolishness is there to speak of? Whatever ideas you have, just say them. One man's wisdom is short; three men's counsel is long."

Liu Xingzuo cupped his hands toward the Chongzhen Emperor and said: "I report to Your Majesty: your minister has read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, wherein it is said that in all uses of force, attacking the mind is best, attacking a city is second; war of the heart is best, war of arms is second.

If we let some people from Ligdan Khan's royal court go, allowing them to bring word to Ligdan Khan, then Ligdan Khan will surely be stricken with terror."

The Chongzhen Emperor, however, said: "The military texts also say that an army burning with grief is sure to win. What if Ligdan Khan fights to the death — then what?"

Liu Xingzuo pondered and said: "It should not come to that. This Ligdan Khan cannot be called a hero; he is more like a ruthless schemer.

With his vitality severely damaged, he should not have the nerve to remain at Xuanfu and fight to the death.

He will either flee a thousand li to lick his wounds, or he will submit to the Great Ming, obediently serving at the Great Ming's command for the time being, waiting for the day he can rise again."

The Chongzhen Emperor thought it over carefully and asked: "On what basis? Minister Liu, you must understand, this is a dangerous gamble. One misstep, and Xuanfu is in peril."

Liu Xingzuo considered for a moment, cupped his hands, and said: "In truth, your minister has no great certainty.

But from the fact that Ligdan Khan fled all the way from Liaodong to this distant place to evade the Jianzhou barbarians' military edge, intending to reunite the Mongol tribes, one can see that this man has grand ambitions but meager talent, forgets righteousness at the sight of petty gain, and prizes his own life too dearly when pursuing great undertakings."

The Chongzhen Emperor brooded for a long while, yet found it hard to make up his mind. If Liu Xingzuo's analysis proved correct, then it would not matter how many they killed today, and they could also lift the military threat to Xuanfu.

But if Ligdan Khan fought to the death, then no matter how fast they rushed back, Xuanfu might still be breached.

The agonized Chongzhen Emperor cursed inwardly: Damn it all, I don't even have a coin — how am I supposed to choose? Toss a shoe? This isn't about picking which road to take; tossing a shoe wouldn't work either.

Enough thinking — gamble! Gamble that his Ligdan Khan doesn't have the guts to fight the Great Ming to the death!

Having made up his mind, the Chongzhen Emperor said bluntly: "In that case, tomorrow we attack openly and in force. However many we can kill, we kill. In any case, we must destroy his Ligdan Khan's royal clan!"

When the sky had just begun to brighten the next day, these sixty-thousand-plus cavalrymen, who for the first time had not a single tent among them — including the Chongzhen Emperor himself — one after another threw off the blankets covering them and began to form up.

The Chongzhen Emperor sneezed and muttered to himself: This damned freakish weather — blazing hot in the daytime, and so cold at night. It's absolutely unreal.

Once the ranks were all formed up, the Chongzhen Emperor immediately mounted his horse, rode a circuit back and forth before the troops, and finally stopped at the very center and shouted: "Today we go for the big score! Ligdan Khan's royal court lies before us!

How many you kill today, how much you plunder — that all depends on you! Move out!"

As his words fell, the Chongzhen Emperor first wheeled his horse around and galloped off.

The mass of cavalry behind him also drew their sabers one after another and charged forward. Only when they were less than ten li from Ligdan Khan's royal court did the entire force halt, allowing the warhorses to rest and recover their strength in preparation for the slaughter to come.

And within the royal court at that moment, apart from the children playing and scuffling, the remaining adults were all tending their sheep or milking their animals, every one of them dreaming of how much fine loot their own household would get when Ligdan Khan returned.

Eternal Blue Heaven favored the Han people too much — they had tea, they had salt, they had every kind of grain; they could build houses and weave very, very fine cloth. In winter, they didn't have to huddle with the lambs, enduring the wind and snow.

But when Ligdan Khan returns, we'll have these things too, won't we? Eternal Blue Heaven bless the Great Khan — may he seize even more this time, and best of all, may the Great Khan restore the glory of Genghis Khan and turn all the Han lands into pasture!

Just as they were thinking this, a series of tremors came through the ground. Those milking stopped their work; those tending sheep began driving their flocks back toward the tribe's location.

The ten-thousand-man cavalry garrison left behind in the tribe also mounted up one after another, preparing to ride out and greet them — this had to be the Great Khan returning from the Han lands; otherwise, where would so many cavalry come from to cause the very earth to tremble like this?

Only, when the great mass of cavalry on the opposite side came into view, the garrison cavalry of ten thousand realized that these were damn well not the Great Khan's troops at all — this was the Ming army!

No more updates in the second half of tonight; they'll all be released together tomorrow evening. I have to be at the bank at 9 tomorrow morning to repair equipment, so this tyrant can only get to sleep a bit earlier. Sorry, brothers.

(End of Chapter)