Chapter 1570: The Day of Great Ming's Unification!

This was a city full of Indian and Arabian-style character, situated right beside the Tongtian River — the Tongtian River was the Hooghly River, which was renamed Tongtian when Li Jicheng took Sadegan and renamed it Western Heaven Prefecture. By the time the Tongtian flowed to the Western Heaven Prefecture area, its channel had already silted up somewhat, and the shipping lane was not very clear, so the city of Western Heaven Prefecture had also begun to decline. Many merchants had moved downstream along the Tongtian to places closer to the sea, though no large commercial port had yet formed there.

Because so many merchants had moved away, the former commercial center of Bengal now seemed somewhat desolate, with large numbers of vacant houses in the city — which actually made it convenient for the army led by Li Jicheng to move in.

And unlike the previous occasions when he had invaded India, this time Li Jicheng had come neither to liberate the untouchables of India, nor to rob the zamindars, jagirdars, and Brahmin lords — he had come to the Western Heaven to be the master.

In order to let both the high and the lowly here in India know that the Great Shun Emperor had now reformed and turned to the proper path, before taking over the Western Heaven, Li Jicheng had recruited large numbers of collaborators — Persian merchants, as well as Rajput warriors who had submitted and nobles of the Brahmin caste. Oh, and he had also prepared a dozen or so elephants and a dozen or so pairs of old cloth shoes... It was the old custom here in India: elephants carrying old cloth shoes to go and demand surrender!

After the army took control of Western Heaven Prefecture, Li Jicheng sent out a dozen or more teams of collaborators leading elephants and carrying old cloth shoes to the cities east of the Hooghly River to demand their surrender. At the same time, he dispatched troops to deploy along the Hooghly and Ganges rivers, either garrisoning castles that surrendered, storming cities that resisted, or building forts at critical points. He kept busy until the winter of 1676 in the Western calendar arrived, and only then did he have a brief chance to catch his breath.

Of course, it was only a brief breather, because the Great Shun had not yet truly gained a firm foothold in Bengal, India... because they had not yet faced the real test: a decisive battle with Aurangzeb's great army on the plains of Bengal!

"My Lord, news from Mysore: Aurangzeb withdrew his troops at the beginning of last month. There is also news from Agra that after withdrawing from Mysore, Aurangzeb did not return to Lahore, but went to Agra instead... and he has moved his entire court to Agra. It seems he intends to use Agra as his base, advance along the Ganges, and fight us to the finish!"

The one reporting this freshly received intelligence to Li Jicheng inside a magnificent palace was the Great Shun's Third Military Adviser, Jalali — the Persian merchant who had served as Li Jicheng's guide when he first entered India.

Because of the success of that guiding mission, Jalali had won Li Jicheng's trust and become an official of the Great Shun, specifically responsible for intelligence in India. The man was quite capable, and using his connections in Persian merchant circles, he had built an intelligence network covering most of India.

He could not obtain top-secret intelligence, but he could generally keep track of Aurangzeb's movements.

After hearing his report, Li Jicheng nodded, then turned his gaze to his father-in-law, Xin Guiyi — he had arrived at the Western Heaven only three days earlier, and had brought with him an account of the several contacts with the Ming side.

The negotiations in Yunnan had gone rather badly! Zhu Hexing insisted that the Shun army must first withdraw from Yunnan before any negotiations could take place.

Moreover, the Ming army had not stopped attacking, but was advancing steadily and methodically, step by step! The progress was not fast, but there was no sign of pause — they pushed forward a little every day, and were already beginning to close in on the city of Dali Prefecture!

Luo Hu, for his part, was like a clever wife who cannot cook without rice, and had been doing his best to avoid battle. But there were still many engagements that could not be avoided, and in order to delay the enemy's advance on Dali, Luo Hu had no choice but to send the Yunnan Shun army into battle. Unfortunately, they met with repeated defeats, suffering one loss after another over the past period.

Public sentiment in Yunnan was gradually growing unsettled, and could hardly hold out much longer!

Now that the decisive battle between the Great Shun and Timur was about to begin, Yunnan could no longer be attended to, and giving it up would not matter... The fear was that the Ming army would push further once they gained an inch — having taken Yunnan, they would set their eyes on Burma, and that would be a huge problem.

Therefore, in order to avoid being attacked from both front and rear, Li Jicheng still wanted to make peace with the Ming as soon as possible...

"Old Xin," Li Jicheng said to his nominal father-in-law, "I'll still have to trouble you to make a trip to Nanjing... The old Zhu family's crown prince is hard to talk to, so go and speak with their emperor instead!"

"My Lord," Xin Guiyi had been traveling back and forth quite hard these days, worn so thin that his face was now creased and he looked like a long-suffering old man, "I am not afraid of hardship, but the Zhu family's emperor may not be so easy to talk to! Aurangzeb's daughter, Princess Nisha, is the Zhu emperor's favored consort..."

Zhu Cilang liked intelligent women, and Princess Nisha's intelligence and talent were surely the highest in his harem... so Zhu Cilang had always been very fond of her, and over the years the two had had a son and a daughter, which together with the earlier "Little Third" made three fruits of their love.

"Isn't she just an Indian beauty?" Li Jicheng waved his hand. "I'll send him ten Indian beauties... all the prettiest ones!"

"My Lord," Song Yaowen cautioned, "this matter probably cannot be settled by sending a few beauties..."

"Then what should I send?" Li Jicheng frowned. "Gold, silver, and jewels?"

"My Lord," the Third Military Adviser Jalali interjected, "it is not gold, silver, and jewels either... What the Zhu family's emperor wants is probably for us to sign and put our seal on something called a 'Treaty for the Protection of Neutrality and Freedom'!"

"Oh... who are Neutrality and Freedom?" Li Jicheng asked. "What are they?"

"My Lord, neutrality means a neutral country — that is, a country that helps neither side when two parties are at war. Freedom means free trade by neutral countries..." Jalali explained. "The Ming emperor simply wants us not to plunder the merchant ships of neutral countries passing through the Bay of Bengal."

"What are you talking about?" Li Jicheng's face hardened. "We stopped robbing long ago... We only collect protection fees!"

The Great Shun had now learned its lesson, knowing that it could not keep plundering forever — that was a one-off deal. If you robbed too much, people would either stop coming, or upgrade their armaments so you could not rob them at all! So collecting protection fees was a long-term business...

"My Lord is right, quite right..." Jalali said with a smile. "So this treaty is something we can sign."

"Then that settles it!" Li Jicheng said to Xin Guiyi again, "Old Xin, I'll have to trouble you to make the trip... Go to Nanjing in the name of an envoy of the Great Shun State of India."

"My Lord," Song Yaowen added, "that title probably will not do... The Zhu family's Ming dynasty has always called our Great Shun a false dynasty."

"Then what do we do?" Li Jicheng frowned. "We can't change the name of our state, can we?"

"That is not necessary," Song Yaowen said. "Why not use the name Western Heaven Prefecture instead!"

"Western Heaven Prefecture?" Li Jicheng laughed. "That works too! Go in the name of an envoy of the Western Heaven Emperor... Just tell Zhu Cilang that from now on the Western Heaven belongs to me, and the Eastern Land belongs to him — the two houses will keep to their own affairs and not interfere with each other!"

The Ming, Yingtian Prefecture, Old Mountain Palace.

The Zhu Emperor had spent the night at Princess Nisha's Red Fort again, and very pleasantly too! It was almost the hour of si by the time he got up. After washing and dressing, he was enjoying an Indian-style breakfast of puri pancakes, thick mutton-trotter soup, and cream dumplings... It was a bit greasy, and the Zhu Emperor, now getting on in years and beginning to guard against the three highs, did not dare eat much — he was just gnawing on a mutton trotter.

Princess Nisha likewise did not dare eat and drink too much; she had to maintain her slender figure — although the Zhu Emperor liked her talent, he also craved her body. If she really became a fat woman, how could she expect the Emperor's favor? So after eating one cream dumpling and one thin pancake, she stopped eating and began reading memorials to the Zhu Emperor.

"Oh..." When she opened a memorial sent by the Foreign Ministry, before she even began reading, she let out a surprised sound.

"What is it?" Zhu Cilang asked.

"Your Majesty," Princess Nisha said with a smile, "the Foreign Ministry's memorial says that people have come from the Western Heaven!"