Chapter 1211: Loyalty Beyond Words Is Sengge

Aurangzeb had indeed played a masterstroke — for someone as militarily weak as he was, there truly was no better option.

Using his daughter and a huge subsidy to induce Sengge to nominally submit and convert was the politically correct move for the Islamic camp. Islam has no taboo against "marriage alliances and tribute payments." To draw a strongman like Sengge in, giving him a beautiful woman and some rupees was nothing — after all, those rupees were squeezed from the Hindus anyway.

So his "marriage-alliance route" could win him the hearts of Transoxiana to the greatest possible degree. Whether or not it succeeded, the Islamic leaders of Transoxiana would be grateful to this Timurid emperor.

Moreover, he could thereby win Sengge's goodwill. Sengge was not a Mongol Great Khan, nor was he a descendant of the Golden Family. He had originally been a vassal of the Ming dynasty, so he was fairly relaxed about the question of declaring himself a subject — the issue was the price of doing so. To get the Timurid emperor's daughter and three million taels of silver a year, what was there to be dissatisfied about? It was far better than the terms the Great Ming had offered.

Besides, Sengge's kingdom was very isolated in Central Asia — enemies on all sides, and enemies both within and without. His own population was insufficient, only eight hundred thousand at most. How was he to control so much territory and so many Muslim subjects? If he hung out the signboard of Islam and the Timurids, wouldn't his passive situation be reversed in an instant?

So Sengge would certainly be grateful to Aurangzeb for this. Even if he could not accept Aurangzeb's terms, he would still regard Aurangzeb as a friend rather than an enemy. Even if Aurangzeb, in order to win hearts, had to pretend to join the holy war launched by the Khanate of Khiva, Sengge would not take the initiative to attack Samarkand.

In that case, wouldn't Aurangzeb have spent not a single rupee, not given away his daughter, and still gotten to watch a free show while gathering up some of the Muslim warriors defeated by Sengge? Perhaps after Sengge crushed the Khanate of Khiva, he might even leave Samarkand to Aurangzeb. Then Aurangzeb would have both face and substance, and could return to India in glory to deal with those infidels!

"Great King, you must not convert to Islam!"

"Great King, you must not submit to the Timurid Empire either!"

"And you must not marry that Princess Nisa!"

As soon as Shaysta Khan had left, the three people Sengge trusted most — Mingzhu Lama, Sanbao Lama, and his wife Anu Khatun — came to sound the alarm.

Mingzhu Lama said: "The core of the Dzungar state all believe in Buddhism, and the Great Ming Celestial Dynasty honors the Three Teachings. If the Great King converts to the True God, I fear the people's hearts will scatter, the Celestial Emperor will be enraged, and even the Great Lama on the Snowy Plateau will denounce you as an enemy of the Buddha!"

Sanbao Lama added: "And when that time comes, would the Khanate of Khiva, the Persian Empire, the Turkmen tribes, the Kazakh tribes, and that Ottoman Empire treat the Great King as one of their own? Impossible!"

"That Princess Nisa must never be brought into this household!" Anu Khatun said with a pout. "If you dare marry her, I will leave at once and never come back!"

"Anu!" Seeing his wife in a rage, Sengge knew Aurangzeb's "goodwill" was not easy to accept, so he could only shake his head repeatedly. "I have no such idea. An Indian woman, all dark and black — what's good about that? I won't have her. But we can't fall out with this Aurangzeb either! Our Dzungar state has just arrived in Transoxiana, our footing is not yet secure, enemies on all sides — Aurangzeb is the only one who treats us decently."

Anu Khatun said in a low voice: "What do you intend to do?"

"I-I-I—" Glared at by his wife, Sengge hastily shot looks at the two great lamas for help.

Mingzhu Lama frowned and said after hard thought: "Submission is out of the question — it must be refused without the slightest hesitation! Conversion to the True God is also out of the question — it too must be refused without the slightest hesitation! Otherwise, if the Celestial Emperor and the Great Lama exert their power together, Your Highness will be in grave danger."

The foundation of the Dzungar Kingdom was still its eight hundred thousand Mongol followers of Lamaist Buddhism, and Emperor Zhu now firmly controlled the Great Lama through the Ü-Tsang Military Commission and the New Army stationed in Ü-Tsang (very small in number, only a little over a thousand men). So to deal with Sengge there was no need to send troops at all — the Great Lama could simply issue a decree, and with a small amount of silver added, Sengge could be toppled from his throne at once.

"As for the marriage matter, do not refuse it for now." At this point Mingzhu stole a glance at Anu Khatun and saw a tigress about to explode. "Of course, the Great King himself cannot marry this Princess Nisa."

"Then who will marry her?" Sengge asked. "One of my sons?"

Sanbao Lama hastily shook his head. "Not appropriate, not appropriate. The Prince's marriage requires the Emperor's approval. How could the Emperor possibly agree to His Highness marrying a princess of the Timurid state?"

"Then who will marry her?"

"We could — we could recommend Princess Nisa to the Son of Heaven as a consort!" Sanbao Lama said. "Aurangzeb should not refuse the Great King's goodwill. Even if the matter does not work out, we can still maintain peace with the Timurid Empire for a stretch of time. That way we can free our hands to deal with the Khanate of Khiva!"

What? Give Princess Nisa to the Great Ming Emperor? Sengge was thoroughly displeased the moment he heard it. A fine bridegroom turned matchmaker just like that — the fat meat at his lips flying away?

"This plan is excellent!" Anu Khatun laughed. "Great King, let us do it this way!"

"This, this—" Sengge hemmed and hawed, unwilling to nod. Anu Khatun's gaze grew colder and colder, until finally Sengge had no choice but to ask with a frown, "Then how do we answer this Shaysta Khan?"

Indeed — he could hardly say, "This king has passed your princess on to someone else," could he?

"Let your servant and Mingzhu go and speak for you!" Sanbao Lama immediately stepped forward, dragging Mingzhu along with him.

"But this king—" Sengge still felt something was off.

Anu Khatun said: "The situation in the Fergana Basin has been unstable lately. The Great King must personally lead troops to suppress it and has no time to see the Timurid Empire's envoy again!"

The two great lamas looked at Sengge. Sengge nodded. "So be it, so be it."

The moment Shaysta Khan saw the two great lamas with their solemn, dignified bearing, he knew something was wrong. If Sengge had agreed to convert to Islam, he certainly would not have sent two lamas to notify him!

Mingzhu Lama was a scholar of formidable learning and had a special gift for languages (otherwise he could never have produced Nalan Xingde), and he had already learned Persian from others. So today's talks needed no interpreter — Mingzhu would speak directly with Shaysta Khan (a Persian immigrant who of course spoke Persian).

Sanbao Lama, Songgotu, could also understand a little Persian, so he listened at the side.

"... Princess Nisa's beauty and wisdom have reached the ears of the Great Ming Emperor far away in Yingtian Prefecture. When the Dzungar King left Yingtian Prefecture in former days (Sengge had never been to Yingtian), the Son of Heaven wished to ask the Dzungar King to act as matchmaker and welcome the Princess as a Noble Consort. Therefore the Great King dare not accept Alamgir's goodwill, and further wishes to ask His Majesty Alamgir to give the Princess in marriage to His Majesty the Great Ming Emperor."

"What? Wh-what did you say?" Shaysta Khan was stunned again and again. He had never imagined that Sengge would use the princess's marriage to drag the Great Ming Emperor into the matter.

"Your Excellency Wazir, the Dzungar Great King wishes to make a match between Princess Nisa and the Great Ming Son of Heaven." Mingzhu Lama said, "This is a good thing. His Majesty Alamgir would not object, would he?"

Was this a good thing? Shaysta Khan thought it over carefully and suddenly realized that Sengge's suggestion was not bad after all. For the Timurid Empire, the greatest interest lay in preserving Central Asia as a source of soldiers, winning the hearts of Central Asian Muslim warriors, while at the same time avoiding actually going to war with the powerful Dzungar Kingdom.

So with Dzungar King Sengge refusing conversion and submission, putting forward the marriage of Princess Nisa and the Great Ming Son of Heaven as a shield was actually quite good. With this connection in place, even if the Dzungar Kingdom gave the Khivan Kingdom a thorough beating, it presumably would not dare march south to seize Samarkand.

And once the situation in Samarkand stabilized, Emperor Aurangzeb could take his Transoxiana army back to India to dominate and rule as he pleased.

(End of Chapter)