Chapter 1083: I Just Want to Be Cao Zhen!

"Why is the Western Regions unstable again?" Chief Grand Secretary Wei Zaode had just overheard Wu Sanfeng mention the instability in the Western Regions, and now that the Shaanxi matters were concluded, he asked a question.

He had been too comfortable in Japan and did not understand much about domestic affairs, especially that part of the Western Regions.

"It is because of the continuous westward migration of the Khalkha Mongols and the Khorchin Mongol tribes."

The one answering was the Great Ming's "Mongol affairs expert" and foremost frontier prince, Zhu Cijiong. His consort was a princess of the Tumed Khanate, so of course he was well acquainted with Mongol matters.

Zhu Cijiong said: "The Khalkha and Khorchin Mongols of today are not skilled in battle, but they are extremely skilled at moving, and their tribes are not united as one, but rather form an extremely loose confederation of tribes. After being scattered by the government troops and the Tumed and Chahar tribes, most of the small and medium tribes chose to migrate westward and seek refuge with the Dzungar tribe. And the Dzungar tribe, disregarding the court's repeated prohibitions, has kept crossing the Altai Mountains to seize pasturelands that rightfully belong to the Tumed Khanate."

"But why would they seek refuge with the Dzungar tribe?" Wei Zaode asked. "Why not join the Tumed Khanate and the Chahar Khanate? They are the legitimate line of the Golden Family!"

Zhu Cijiong said: "This is because in recent years the Dzungar tribe has already subdued the Great Juz and Middle Juz of the Kazakhs on the Moghulistan steppe, and has begun military campaigns against the Khanate of Bukhara (the Uzbek Khanate), gaining considerable spoils, and has also forced the Khanate of Bukhara to pay tribute to the Dzungar court on the Chu River. The small Khalkha Mongol tribes saw the Dzungars winning victory after victory in the Western Regions, their power flourishing, and moreover seizing the rich pastures of the Great Juz and Middle Juz, so naturally they admired them and all went over to follow them."

In truth, it was simply that joining the Dzungars meant meat to eat!

How could the Khalkha grasslands compare with the pastures of the Great Juz and Middle Juz? And to pasture on the Khalkha grasslands meant honestly herding sheep, with nowhere to go raiding!

North of the Khalkha grasslands was Russia, and the Cossacks and the Tsar's "Santa Claus soldiers" were ferocious when it came to killing Mongols! The descendants of the Golden Horde were nearly wiped out.

South of the Khalkha grasslands was even more untouchable — that was the territory of the Shuofang, Anbei, and Beiping garrisons, and the black-gun troops of those three garrisons were about as ferocious as the Cossacks!

As for east of the Khalkha grasslands, that was the territory of the Daning and Heilongjiang garrisons, and there was also a Liaodong army corps stationed at Shenyang and Liaoyang — they were the fiercest of all!

With everything around the Khalkha so fierce, and the Mongols who had converted to Lamaism no longer able to match their ancestors in ruthlessness, of course they could only go and join the Dzungar Sengge Khan.

"The Dzungars' strength is only because of the court's support!" Wei Zaode said to the Zhu Emperor. "Your Majesty, we previously supported the Dzungars out of fear that they would turn to the eastern barbarians and aid the tiger in its evil. Now that the eastern barbarians have been destroyed, it is no longer appropriate to keep feeding the Dzungar jackal!"

The Zhu Emperor turned and glanced at Wei Zaode. "Does the Chief Grand Secretary think We kept the Dzungars because We feared they would turn to the eastern barbarians?"

Wei Zaode was taken aback and said hurriedly: "This subject is dull-witted and truly does not understand what further use the Dzungars could be to our Great Ming."

Zhu Cilang smiled. "The Dzungars are a trouble, but not the greatest trouble, which is why We have given them support."

"Imperial Brother, is the greatest trouble you speak of Russia?" Zhu Cijiong asked.

"Russia, the Mughals, and Persia are all greater troubles!" Zhu Cilang said. "The lands of Moghulistan and Bukhara today, if not held by the Dzungars, will be held by Russia, the Mughals, or Persia. And We would rather let the Dzungars possess Moghulistan and Bukhara than allow Russia, the Mughals, or Persia to occupy them. Because no matter how strong the Dzungars become, they can no longer keep up with the tide of the times. They have no outlet to the sea, cannot shed their nomadic system for the time being, and are burdened by the Yellow Hat sect. They will never again achieve the strength of the Mongol Yuan or Timur, and in the future they will surely submit to the Celestial Court."

Hearing Zhu Cilang speak thus, Zhu Cijiong, who was extremely knowledgeable about Mongol affairs, could not help frowning. Although the Dzungar tribe had no seaport and still carried strong nomadic habits, paying little attention to building up their root territory.

Yet the Choros clan had always been ambitious, cherishing the deluded dream of replacing the Golden Family and leading the Mongols to rebuild a great empire. And having been cooped up on the great steppes of the Western Regions all along, they actually lacked any broader perspective — if they truly stirred up trouble, it would still be very troublesome!

Zhu Cilang seemed also worried about provoking a war, and said to Wu Sanfu: "Sanfu, issue a directive in the name of the Marshal's Office to the Anxi Protectorate, ordering them to hold the mountain passes and fortresses securely and guard carefully against Dzungar incursions."

The Great Ming's "number one messenger" said: "This subject receives the decree."

The Marshal's Office directive was issued on the second day of the fourth month of the twelfth year of Hongxing, sent by the Office of Transmission at six-hundred-li express speed, and five days later, on the afternoon of the seventh day of the fourth month, it was delivered to Wu Sangui's Qishan camp.

At this time Wu Sangui was striving to become the Great Ming's Cao Zhen — though in truth he need not have gone to so much trouble. He only needed to hold the Qishan camp securely, keep watch over the several Qinling mountain passes, and block Li Dingguo's northward advance.

And that was exactly the effect the Zhu Emperor wanted. Otherwise he could have gritted his teeth and, regardless of cost, mobilized heavy troops to reinforce Gansu and Shaanxi. Although Gansu and Shaanxi lacked grain, with a base of twenty to thirty million mu of arable land and a population of several million, if everyone ate a little less, supplying two hundred thousand troops for several months of fighting would not be a problem.

With two hundred thousand elite troops fighting for several months, was there any fear of not driving back Li Dingguo?

But Zhu Cilang also knew that just as Zhuge Liang could launch five northern expeditions, Li Dingguo could likewise suffer repeated defeats and keep fighting. Because the Shun was now a feudal military state! The state had only two great matters: first, war; second, farming.

Such a state had tremendous tenacity in a fight to the death! And it did not fear losing men. They were not like the eastern barbarians, with only a few tens of thousands of able-bodied men who could not afford heavy losses. The Shun had more than two hundred thousand military-farm households. If each household raised three sons, the next generation would be over seven hundred thousand! If some did not die off, how would the land be divided? Each military farmer received 40 shi; how much would seven hundred fifty thousand need? Thirty million shi! The Shun court would also need to take at least fifteen million shi (including collection costs). How much land did Sichuan plus Yunnan have? How could it support forty-five million shi?

Moreover, the Shun state's policy of land allocation by headcount was a policy that nurtured the people — egalitarianism was the best way to raise the population! Therefore the Shun's birth rate was certainly higher than the Great Ming's. And present-day Sichuan had not experienced the three-way tug-of-war among the Ming, Qing, and Xi, so its population base was considerable. It was estimated that the population had already surpassed thirty million! In another ten or twenty years, forty or fifty million would be reached.

By then, if the founding-generation leaders like Li Guo and Li Laiheng were gone, peasant uprisings would begin.

Therefore Zhu Cilang's method for dealing with the Shun was one word — blockade! Block them in, suffocate them!

Just as Sima Yi had blockaded Zhuge Liang back in the day.

But Wu Sangui was unwilling to play Sima Yi. He felt he was the Great Ming's Cao Zhen, Cao Zidan!

After the previous defeat at Xihe, Wu Sangui was very unwilling to accept it, and worked hard to draw troops from Guanzhong, Hexi, Shuofang, and Xining, preparing to fight another battle at Xihe before the fifth month.

When the Marshal's Office directive arrived, he was in the command headquarters of the Qishan camp, discussing with Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun, who had just arrived, how to fight again at Xihe.

Seeing that Wu Sangui had finished reading the directive, Kong Tingxun asked with a shameless grin: "Duke of Liang, what did the Marshal's Office directive say? Is it going to reward us? How much is a roving bandit's head worth?"

Wu Sangui glanced at him and snorted with a laugh: "This dynasty no longer counts head merit, so don't get your hopes up. And the roving bandit Li Dingguo has strong troops and is not easy to deal with; heads are not so easy to cut. In this battle, we do not seek to kill the enemy, only to seize land. We need only advance step by step, pushing sixty li south from Qishan, and seize the roving bandits' Xihe farmland, and we will have won."

"Xihe farmland?" Kong Tingxun did not understand. "Where is that?"

"It is Xihe County," Wu Sangui said. "The roving bandits have opened many terraced fields there. We only need to destroy those terraces, and we can force Li Dingguo to retreat. Once he retreats, we can claim our reward."

Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun exchanged glances, and both breathed a sigh of relief. Advancing step by step was good — it saved them from fighting the roving bandits to the death, which was too dangerous. Everyone was just drawing military pay; there was no need to fight desperately against those madmen.

(End of Chapter)