Chapter 1393: Asia's First Republic (Please Subscribe)

While Luo Zhichen, bearing his mission and gifts, was traveling with Zhu Cilang's Indian brother-in-law **** toward Delhi, the capital of the Timurid Empire in India, Shayista Khan and the Shun Empire's envoys Gu Conglong and Xin Guiyi had already arrived ahead of them.

The extortion letter brought by Gu Conglong and Xin Guiyi was written in two languages, Chinese and Urdu, so Aurangzeb could read and understand it himself.

Its contents went without saying—of course it threatened war, demanding from the war-loving Aurangzeb a sum of wealth that seemed not too large: rice or flour worth four to five million rupees.

Four to five million rupees was certainly no small amount—equivalent to over one million taels of silver.

But for the empire ruled by Aurangzeb, and for Bengal, which Li Jicheng threatened in the letter to invade, it was no great sum.

After returning from Central Asia with greatly increased strength, Aurangzeb had sharply raised taxes, increasing the agricultural tax from the original one-third of the harvest to one-half of the harvest!

In addition, Aurangzeb had greatly increased the tariffs on merchants who were not followers of the Arabian faith.

Through these tax increases, his empire's annual fiscal revenue had grown from roughly two hundred million rupees to roughly three hundred million rupees—equivalent to one hundred million taels of silver!

And Bengal Province, as the wealthiest province of Aurangzeb's empire, contributed taxes amounting to as much as several tens of millions of rupees.

If Li Jicheng truly had the ability to invade Bengal and plunder it on a grand scale, how could he possibly ask for only three or four million rupees, such a paltry sum? He should at least demand ten million rupees...

The wise and brilliant Great Emperor Aurangzeb had already sensed something wrong the moment he finished reading Li Jicheng's extortion letter!

The insatiably greedy bandit Li Jicheng was asking for far too little... so little it was unreasonable!

If it was unreasonable, then there must be a scheme! Emperor Aurangzeb quickly pieced together in his mind the content of Li Jicheng's trick—this king of bandits must be trying to lull him into complacency first, and then launch a sudden attack.

Wearing an old white robe, both hands resting on a treasured sword that looked somewhat exaggeratedly large, his face dark and frighteningly grim, the Great Emperor fixed the two Shun Empire envoys with a cold, penetrating gaze, looking every bit ready to cut someone down.

Gu Conglong was not particularly afraid, and stood there boldly, staring back at Aurangzeb.

Xin Guiyi could not manage it—Aurangzeb was his former lord. Although today was the first time he had ever met Aurangzeb face to face, he had long heard of Aurangzeb's cruelty... this was a demon king who had forced his father from the throne and killed his brothers!

And Xin Guiyi was, moreover, a traitor... his conscience was uneasy!

Now, with Aurangzeb glaring at him, the man had begun to tremble.

There was indeed a scheme!

Seeing Xin Guiyi trembling, Aurangzeb was now certain in his heart.

The king of bandits, Li Jicheng, was playing tricks again!

"Go back and tell that king of bandits," Aurangzeb said in rapid, urgent Urdu, his voice full of menace, "I will not give him a single grain of rice or a pinch of flour... The Timurid Empire may be wealthy, but it will not give any wealth to bandits.

The only thing I can send to Li Jicheng is a slipper—my slipper!"

Princess Nisha's slipper had already been given away, so all that remained was the Great Emperor Aurangzeb's old slipper... Over these past few years, relying on his new Central Asian army, quite a few small states and principalities in India had received slippers!

"Your Majesty, do you truly intend to go to war with the roving bandits of the East?" The king of bandits' envoys had been driven out of Aurangzeb's court, but the Governor-General of Bengal, Shayista Khan, had not left with them.

Glancing at the deeply worried Shayista Khan, Aurangzeb sighed softly and said in a low voice: "**** is bringing the Ming envoys to Delhi... This time the Ming envoys have brought the sincerity of an alliance—large quantities of new-style muskets and cannon, as well as the Ming dynasty's latest explosive shells.

In addition, there is a treaty awaiting my signature—an alliance we cannot refuse!"

It turned out that Aurangzeb had already received the report that **** had sent word of, and knew that the Ming Emperor wished to form an alliance with the Timurid Empire of India.

"An alliance?" Shayista Khan was somewhat surprised. "An alliance to deal with the roving bandits of the East together?"

"Of course not," Aurangzeb said. "The roving bandits of the East may be a nuisance to us, but to the Great Ming they are not worth mentioning... What the Ming Emperor wants is for us to stand together against the Westerners—against France and Holland, and perhaps Portugal as well!

Moreover, he hopes that I can continue to exert influence in Central Asia and recruit more warriors to India, so as to relieve the pressure on the Dzungars and the Khoshuts."

It turned out that over the past two years, the three Great Ming vassal states—the Dzungar Kingdom, the Khoshut Kingdom, and the Dai Kingdom—had not been faring too well in Central Asia.

On the one hand, they had encountered stubborn resistance from the Central Asian followers of the Arabian faith backed by Russia; on the other hand, conflicts had arisen among the three Great Ming vassal states over the distribution of territory!

The Dai Kingdom of Zhu Cijiong and the westward-migrating Khoshut Kingdom both occupied territory that the Dzungar Kingdom had painstakingly conquered—how could there possibly be no conflict among the three?

In addition, after the Khoshut tribe of U-Tsang had been driven out by Li Dingguo, Ai Nengqi, and Liu Wenxiu, they had escorted the Grand Lama to Anxi, and had now reached Kashgar, on the verge of entering the Western Regions.

This made the already complicated situation in the Western Regions even more complicated!

The Dzungar Kingdom, the Khoshut Kingdom, and the Dai Kingdom all wanted to gain the Grand Lama. But the Ming court hoped the Grand Lama would remain in Anxi and go nowhere else...

At the same time, Zhu Cilang also worried that the struggle among the Dzungars, Khoshuts, and the Dai Kingdom would cause drastic changes in the Central Asian situation, and so he planned to send someone to Central Asia to mediate.

He knew that the conflicts among the three Central Asian parties ultimately stemmed from insufficient territory to go around. To fully resolve it, the only way was to work from the side of expansion.

And to obtain more land, he could only ask Aurangzeb for help... As long as Aurangzeb could send people to the territories of the Dzungars, Khoshuts, and the Dai Kingdom to recruit fighters, the Great Ming's three vassal states would have an easier time—every fighter Aurangzeb took away meant one less enemy in Central Asia opposing the Ming's "three vassal states."

"Your Majesty, if we recruit large numbers of Central Asian warriors to India, Central Asia may fall completely into the hands of the Mongols of the East!" Shayista Khan warned in a low voice.

Aurangzeb nodded and said with a bitter smile: "I know, but in fact this matter is to our advantage!"

"Advantage?" Shayista Khan was taken aback. "Your Majesty, I cannot see where the advantage lies."

"Shayista Khan," Aurangzeb said, "how have you forgotten the source of the ghulam warriors and the Mamluk warriors?"

Reminded by Aurangzeb, Shayista Khan finally understood Aurangzeb's thinking—Aurangzeb wanted to purchase slave boys from Central Asia to train his own Sultan's guard!

Aurangzeb said with a bitter smile: "The long course of history shows that only slave warriors trained from childhood are the most reliable armed force in the hands of us monarchs who believe in the True God! Are not the ghulam warriors, the Mamluk warriors, and the Janissary warriors all sourced from slave warriors trained from childhood? Was not the Central Asian region, which in those days was not fully ruled by the Arabian faith, the main source of these slave warriors?

Is not the reason the Ottoman Empire can still remain strong today precisely because it still possesses a few territories inhabited by Christians from which it can recruit child soldiers? If the Ottomans forced the Christians there to convert, thereby losing the possibility of recruiting slave warriors, the Ottoman Empire would long since have ceased to exist!

Shayista, now do you understand why I am pleased to see those Buddhists return to Central Asia? Because only when they return to Central Asia can we possess a reliable source of soldiers. With slave soldiers, we can rule all—or at least most—of India!"