Chapter 1218: The Celestial Dynasty's Rescue Troops Come at a Price! (Seeking Subscriptions)

Seeing the sovereign and his two ministers chatting about the Jinling Women's University and the examination for selecting consorts, Bahabandi from the Dzungar Kingdom was somewhat dumbfounded — why are you no longer talking about rescuing Dzungar? That is the great matter of state and war! You are all sage rulers and renowned ministers! How can you toss aside the great matter of state and war and start discussing women?

Emperor Zhu had by now also noticed Bahabandi, who was gaping in bewilderment, so he smiled and said to him: "Envoy of Dzungar, We have already learned of Aurangzeb's goodwill. We shall later dispatch a mission by sea to India to discuss this matter with Aurangzeb. In addition, We shall write a letter to Princess Nisha, which you shall carry back to the Dzungar Kingdom and find an opportunity to deliver to Aurangzeb."

That was it?

Bahabandi even forgot to receive the decree, and only pressed on with repeated questions: "Your Majesty, when will you send troops to rescue the Dzungar Kingdom? Right now the Timurid Empire, the Persian Empire, Russia, the Khanate of Khiva, the Turkmen, and the Kazakhs (the Turkmen and Kazakhs are not really states, just a bunch of tribes) have joined in a great six-nation coalition and are bearing down on us. Dzungar cannot hold out alone!"

What? They still want relief troops? Zhu Cilang's face showed difficulty.

It is so far away — whom could he send? Nine thousand li! Even at a hundred li a day it would take three months to get there, and supplies would have to be secured along the entire route. Emperor Zhu could produce troops capable of marching a hundred li a day, but securing supplies along a nine-thousand-li route was far from easy!

"Envoy of Dzungar, do not be anxious," Zhu Cilang said, unable to give an answer for the moment and so consoling Bahabandi. "The matter of sending troops still requires joint deliberation by the two offices. It is already late today, and there is no time to convene a meeting. How about this: return to the Reception Office and rest for a day, then go to the Grand Marshal's Office tomorrow afternoon to hear the news."

Hear the news? Bahabandi thought to himself: will it be good news or bad news?

Because of the need to discuss the war with the Indians and the matter of marriage alliance, the next day's joint meeting of the two offices was convened early. At the hour of Chen, the ministers gathered in the conference room of the Eastern Warm Pavilion of the Hall of Imperial Supremacy and sat in a circle around the long table. Emperor Zhu had not yet arrived; at this hour he was probably still doing his morning exercises. Since it was summer, he was probably swimming in the "big pool" at the Old Mountain Palace — Zhu Cilang was thoroughly enjoying being emperor, and naturally he had no wish to die young! Quite a few Ming emperors had died young! So he had to be careful and also work hard at physical training.

With the emperor not yet present, the ministers began discussing among themselves, because this matter was rather strange — a marriage alliance and a war arriving together!

What exactly was this Aurangzeb trying to do?

Moreover, to what extent should the war between the Great Ming and the Timurid Empire, the Persian Empire, and the Russian Empire be fought?

Fight they certainly must!

A vassal state of the Great Ming had been attacked — and not merely in a small-scale skirmish, but by "several hundred thousand troops" (so claimed) bearing down with overwhelming force to annihilate the state. How could the Ming court endure such a thing?

But to what extent the Great Ming's war with these three countries should be fought was something that had to be carefully considered.

Because the Great Ming Empire was too far from those three countries, and all three were large and powerful states. Given the Great Ming's present strength, it simply could not destroy them.

There was also the Khanate of Khiva, which, though not so large that it could not be destroyed, was known as the local power in Transoxiana, always strong in soldiers and horses, and its core, the Khwarezm oasis, was remote — not easy to reach even from the Stone Fortress royal city!

There was another problem that had to be considered as well: if the Dzungar Kingdom grew too powerful, it might itself become a trouble!

After all, King Sengge of the Dzungar Kingdom was a descendant of the Oirat Grand Preceptor Esen. His family was highly ambitious and had always sought to replace the Golden Lineage as the ruling clan of the Mongols. To achieve that goal, once they grew strong they might well raise the banner of restoring the Great Mongol Empire.

And so the ministers began to argue.

"This Dzungar really knows how to stir up trouble — offending three powerful states at once, and then coming to the court to ask for troops. The court has just finished fighting the Dutch, the fighting on the Malacca Peninsula and Sumatra is still ongoing, and now Dzungar has dragged us into wars with the Timurids, Persia, Russia, and Khiva. There is not even a moment to catch our breath!"

"The war with the Timurid, Persian, and Russian states is not such a problem — after all, no one can destroy anyone else. The key is to control the scale and not let it grow larger and larger. For both the Timurids and Persia, we can ask the English to mediate, and keep the fighting in Transoxiana, without letting the flames of war spread elsewhere. Only Russia is more troublesome; they also have conflicts with our two vassal states, the Tumed and the Chahar, and there have been constant frictions over the past few years!"

"Are Khiva, the Kazakhs, and the Turkmen not troublesome? They may not be able to touch us, but what if Sengge destroys them? The Dzungar Kingdom is already large enough. If it swallows the Little Jüz, the Samarkand oasis, the Khwarezm oasis, the Bukhara oasis, and the Turkmen sands — heh heh, that would be another great Timurid Empire!"

"Surely not? How many people does the Dzungar Kingdom proper even have? Only twelve tümens. How could it swallow so much territory? And the Dzungar Kingdom is founded on Buddhism, while those lands are all the domain of the followers of Islam. I reckon the Dzungar Kingdom at most could become a Western Liao."

While the ministers were chatting, the imperial guards at the front suddenly roared: "His Majesty arrives! All officials, welcome him respectfully!"

Hearing that the emperor had come, the ministers stopped arguing, all rose with the utmost deference, and bowed in salute toward Zhu Cilang, who had just finished his morning exercise.

"Your subjects respectfully inquire after His Majesty the Emperor's sacred well-being!"

"We are well!" Zhu Cilang said with a smile, waving at the ministers. "Sit, all of you sit."

As he spoke, he himself sat down on the imperial seat at the head of the long conference table. A eunuch from the Directorate of Ceremonial came over carrying a stack of memorials and placed them before Emperor Zhu.

Zhu Cilang picked up the top one, opened it, and saw that it was the memorial from King Sengge of Dzungar seeking aid.

"The Dzungar Kingdom, a vassal of the Celestial Dynasty, has submitted a memorial stating that it is being jointly attacked by six states — the Timurids, Persia, Russia, Khiva, the Turkmen, and the Kazakhs — and is in imminent peril, requesting that our Great Ming send troops to the rescue." Zhu Cilang paused. "We hold that since the Dzungar vassal state is a subject of the Celestial Dynasty, the Celestial Dynasty cannot sit by and watch it face the calamity of national destruction without rescuing it. But neither can the Celestial Dynasty send troops for nothing!"

What? Not send troops for nothing? The ministers were all astonished — could it be that the Celestial Dynasty now charged a fee for rescuing its vassals?

"Your Majesty," Shi Kefa, who had just replaced Qian Qianyi as Minister of Rites, was the first to speak. "This subject has heard that the Dzungar Kingdom is very poor, and I fear it cannot produce much money to hire the Celestial Dynasty's relief troops!"

"We know the Dzungar Kingdom is poor," Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "But the Dzungar Kingdom is very large! Three thousand li from east to west, and three thousand li from north to south. If this time it defeats the six states of the Timurids, Persia, Russia, Khiva, the Turkmen, and the Kazakhs, it will inevitably expand again. Since the Celestial Dynasty is sending relief troops, should it not receive a share of the Dzungar Kingdom's land?"

That was even possible?

Shi Kefa was taken aback. By Emperor Zhu's logic, after the Wanli-era war in Joseon, should the Ming not also have carved off a piece of Joseon's territory?

Zhu Cilang said: "The Celestial Dynasty is the father, and the vassal is the son. When the son is in trouble, the father must of course exert himself. But the son cannot use the father for nothing; he should repay the father within the limits of his ability. The father exerting himself for the son is kindness; the son repaying the father is filial piety. With a kind father and a filial son, the Celestial Dynasty can flourish and prosper. In the past, when the Celestial Dynasty aided Joseon and took not a sliver of land, it denied Joseon the chance to perform the filial piety of a son. And in the Yongle era, when it first aided Annam and then swallowed the country, it lost the kindness a father-state ought to have. Both approaches were improper, and We shall not do either. We shall first agree on terms with Sengge's envoy, and only then send relief troops. That is the kindness and filial piety proper between father and son states!"

Shi Kefa had spent many years serving in the provinces and had only recently entered the central government, so he was truly unaccustomed to Emperor Zhu's practice of "even close father and son settle accounts clearly," and stood there open-mouthed, not knowing what to say. But Chief Grand Secretary Wei Zaode had long grown used to this emperor whose abacus beads clicked away so briskly, and immediately took up the thread and asked: "May this subject ask which piece of land Your Majesty wishes the Dzungar Kingdom to offer?"

Zhu Cilang had long since worked it all out, and said with a smile: "The heartland of the Dzungar domain is Mongol, and Mongols need pastureland, so We shall not take the great plains and grasslands. We only want some mountain land! We have heard that east of the Chu River, in the Tianshan Mountains, there is a great lake, called the Great Clear Pool in Tang times, whose surroundings are quite rich and sparsely populated, just right for settlement and cultivation. We want it, and later We shall establish another vassal state there to guard the western frontier together with Dzungar for the Celestial Dynasty."

(End of Chapter)