Chapter 1136: The Collision Is About to Begin!

The grand assembly of nations that Zhu Cilang had brought about was not for empty spectacle, nor of course for the tribute goods worth two or three million taels, but to display before the world a Celestial civilization sphere standing guard around the Great Ming Empire, while also coordinating the internal struggles within that Celestial civilization sphere.

Because he already knew that the collision between civilization spheres was about to begin!

At this moment, the Celestial civilization sphere needed to display its existence in high profile.

The Celestial civilization needed to let Christian civilization and Islamic civilization know where its sphere of influence extended, and which countries were under its protection.

It also needed to let all the Christian and Islamic nations know that the Great Ming Empire was not alone, that the Ming was a Celestial empire guarded by layer upon layer of vassal states!

If anyone wanted to move against the Great Ming, they would have to make enemies of Japan, Joseon, Annam, Siam, Chenla, Laos, Ryukyu, Sulu, Brunei, Chahar, Tumed, Dzungar, and all the other vassal states at the same time!

The populations of these vassal states alone, added together, amounted to several tens of millions, and with the population of the Ming homeland itself, there were already two hundred million.

So whoever wanted to challenge the Celestial court had better first count on their fingers at home and calculate how many times greater the population of the Celestial civilization sphere was than their own country's.

Presumably, after counting on their fingers, there would not be too many countries that still dared to offend the Celestial court.

Besides displaying the strength of the Celestial civilization sphere, Zhu Cilang also hoped to use this "great gathering" to strengthen unity and assimilation within the Celestial civilization sphere.

Indeed, the interior of a civilization sphere should of course be assimilated!

In Zhu Cilang's view, compared with the Christian and Islamic civilization spheres, the vast Celestial civilization sphere was strong in its enormous scale but weak in its insufficient degree of assimilation.

Therefore strengthening assimilation and striving to achieve unity out of many was the ultimate goal Zhu Cilang pursued.

And to achieve unity out of many within the civilization sphere, it was necessary to vigorously promote Confucianism, because the only thing the Great Ming had in hand to oppose Christianity and Islam was the Confucianism (Neo-Confucianism) strengthened by the "Zilun Gewu Pian."

Although religion in the Ming homeland had developed into a unity of the three teachings of "Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism," Buddhism was too passive and could not oppose Islam, which spread truth by sword and fire.

Daoism was not much more active either, and its theory was not complete enough, unable to explain itself in many places, so it would encounter great difficulties in external propagation. As for perfecting Daoist theory and then injecting a fighting spirit to make it a powerful religion capable of rivaling Christianity and Islam — that would basically be using the shell of Daoism to found an entirely new religion!

Apart from being politically correct, it would have no meaning.

Moreover, the present unity of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism in the Ming was centered on Confucianism (Neo-Confucianism). And the Neo-Confucianism strengthened by the "Zilun Gewu Pian," because it possessed the theoretical weapon of investigating things to extend knowledge, had risen more than one level in combat strength, so it was simply impossible for an improved Daoism to defeat the new Confucianism.

In fact, Confucian theory could be connected with Western philosophy (especially natural philosophy), and once connected, "discovering Heavenly Principle" could be confirmed to a certain degree through "investigating things to extend knowledge," while at the same time the doctrine of Heavenly Principle could not be falsified.

So Confucian theory was already quite complete, and was simply not something Daoism could defeat. Investigating things to extend knowledge and discovering Heavenly Principle — that was a "religion of science," and using a "religion of immortal cultivation" to challenge a "religion of science," was that not sheer nonsense?

And this quite complete and powerful Confucianism would, to a certain extent, also come into fierce conflict with Tibetan Buddhism and Theravada Buddhism — though the Han Buddhism of the Ming homeland and Japan's Jodo Shinshu, which only knew how to chant "Namo Amitabha," were not much of a problem. The former had already been disciplined by Confucianism, and the latter had no real religious theory.

Compared with the Theravada Buddhism that had little military force, Tibetan Buddhism, backed by the three Mongol vassal states and two vassal garrisons, would undoubtedly be a major power within the Celestial cultural sphere.

Of course, faced with the powerful new Confucianism, Tibetan Buddhism could only remain on the defensive.

As the leader of the new Confucianism and the emperor of the Celestial empire, Zhu Cilang's task now was to vigorously push the new Confucianism into the territory of the Yellow Hat Mongols, while at the same time uniting the Yellow Hat Mongols.

It really was quite a headache!

"…Our Dzungar tribe intends to establish a Dzungar Kingdom in the Great Juz, Middle Juz, and part of the Little Juz regions, as well as in the grassland zones of the Irtysh, Ob, and Yenisei river basins, to serve as a western bulwark of the Celestial court. We humbly beg His Majesty the Great Emperor to grant approval!"

Inside the western warm chamber of the Hall of Imperial Supremacy, the one formally presenting the Dzungar tribe's request to found a kingdom to the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming was none other than Galdan.

He unfolded an enormous map before Zhu Cilang, and what the map depicted was an extremely vast Dzungar Kingdom!

A kingdom, not a khanate!

"Does Sengge know the difference between a kingdom and a khanate?" Zhu Cilang asked with a smile.

Clearly, he was not angered by the Dzungar request to found a kingdom, because establishing the Dzungar Kingdom had originally been his own proposal!

The suzerain-vassal system was not grand unification!

Rather, it was the optimal combination of administrative cost and territorial area. Under the transportation and communication conditions of the seventeenth century, establishing rule by appointed officials across the entire Celestial realm was an impossible task. Therefore establishing a three-tier system of rule — directly administered provinces, internal dependencies, and external vassals — was the only way to govern the Celestial empire.

And the land the Dzungar Kingdom would occupy was too far from the center of the Ming, with too many enemies around it and a situation too complex, so that it could not be governed as an internal vassal garrison, and only a vassal kingdom could be established.

"Your Majesty, my elder brother Sengge knows the difference between a kingdom and a khanate," Galdan replied. "After much deliberation, my elder brother has resolved to obey Your Majesty's will and establish the Dzungar Kingdom."

The greatest difference between a kingdom and a khanate was that the latter would adopt the organizational form of a steppe nomadic state, closer to a tribal confederation.

While the former would take the states of the Central Plains as its model and establish a "proper" state.

"Then…" Zhu Cilang asked, "if Dzungar is a kingdom, where will the kingdom's center of rule be?"

"At Stone City," Galdan said, "that is, the city the Uzbeks call Tashkent!"

Tashkent was located at the junction of the nomadic and agricultural zones of Central Asia, an ancient city with a long history.

"Has it already been taken?" Zhu Cilang asked.

"It should have been taken by now," Galdan said. "When I led the embassy out of Chu River City, my elder brother was commanding troops besieging Tashkent. My elder brother's army has the cannons Your Majesty gifted, enough to break Tashkent's walls."

What the Ming court had provided to the Dzungar Khanate was a new type of six-catty cannon, cast from bronze, capable of firing six-catty solid shot and grapeshot. Although not enough to breach a bastion fort, it was more than sufficient against the traditional fortresses of Central Asia.

"How does he plan to govern the vast grassland regions?" Zhu Cilang asked again.

"My elder brother wishes to enfeoff internal vassal tribes on the grasslands, while at the same time building bastion forts that can garrison a certain number of troops for long periods," Galdan said. "The internal vassal tribes will be nomadic ten-thousand-households. In total, eight ten-thousand-households will be established — Front, Rear, Left, Right, East, South, West, and North — each ruled by my brothers and uncles. These eight vassal tribes will be composed mainly of Dzungar herders willing to continue their way of life, mixed with some Kazakh herders.

And the garrison bastion forts will be directly subordinate to the royal court, guarded by the royal court's army."

"Then how will the tribes under the royal court be managed?" Zhu Cilang inquired further.

"My elder brother wishes to establish three ten-thousand-households under the royal court — Upper, Middle, and Lower," Galdan said. "The Upper Ten-Thousand-Household will garrison Chu River, the Lower Ten-Thousand-Household will garrison Stone City, and the Middle Ten-Thousand-Household will garrison Kokand… if Kokand can be captured.

At the same time as establishing the royal court's three ten-thousand-households, my elder brother also wishes to establish three prefectures — Chu River, Stone City, and Kokand — to govern the common people of the three prefectures."

Zhu Cilang nodded repeatedly. "Sengge must have some capable men by his side, yes?"

Galdan replied: "There are two Yellow Hat lamas, both Mongols — one called Lama Mingzhu and one called Lama Sanbao. Both are very capable, and are my elder brother's right-hand men. In addition… there are also quite a few talented men from Manchuria serving the Dzungar Kingdom."

(End of Chapter)