Chapter 1673: No Indemnities, No Marriage Alliances!

The moment Wang Zhichen brought up the Hutudun Khan of the Chahar tribe — that is, Ligdan Khan — Sun Chengzong and Wang Zaijin, who had dealt with him during their time in the Ji-Liao command, couldn't help sighing.

Huang Liji didn't know much about the Mongol situation beyond the passes, so he could only turn to Sun Chengzong and Wang Zaijin for advice. Before he even opened his mouth he saw two bitter faces, so he asked: "Zhizheng, Mingchu, you two are both well versed in frontier affairs. What are your views on the Chahar tribe's westward migration? Over the years the Chahar tribe has taken, bit by bit, a full million taels in market rewards from us, and we've never seen them clash with the eastern barbarians and the Jianzhou slaves more than a few times. Why would they suddenly move west to make war on the Shunyi Prince's people? What exactly is he after?"

Before the Battle of Sarhu, relations between the Ming and the Chahar tribe and the other major tribes of the Left Wing Mongols had been thoroughly wretched — the two sides had been fighting to the death for no one knew how many years. But after Sarhu, both sides sensed danger and began huddling together for warmth. In the autumn of the forty-seventh year of Wanli, the Ming's chief eunuch Wang You took four thousand taels of silver as an envoy to the Hutudun Khan's court at Chahan Hot. After negotiations, the two sides reached an agreement by which the Ming would pay forty thousand taels in market rewards in exchange for the Chahar tribe's help defending Guangning.

After the Battle of Guangning, the Ming again asked the Hutudun Khan to help defend Shanhai Pass, and continued paying market rewards, gradually raising the amount step by step to one hundred twenty thousand taels a year. By the seventh year of Tianqi, the Hutudun Khan had taken from the Great Ming court a sum amounting to a full million taels of silver.

Yet the Hutudun Khan, who had taken so many benefits from the Ming, feared the Jurchen like a tiger! Never mind fighting the Jianzhou Jurchen for the Ming's sake — even for his own great enterprise of unifying the Left Wing Mongols, he didn't dare meet the Jianzhou Jurchen head-on. In the fourth year of Tianqi, the Hutudun Khan had once sent troops to chastise the Khorchin tribe, which leaned toward the Jianzhou Jurchen. The Khorchin appealed to Nurhaci for help, and Nurhaci sent Mang Gūltai with five thousand men to put on a show of force — and that was enough to frighten off the Hutudun Khan, who styled himself "Baturu Genghis Khan, Lord of the Forty Myriad Mongols."

After this anticlimactic Chahar siege of the Khorchin, the Hutudun Khan's prestige was utterly ruined, and every tribe on the Left Wing Mongol steppe began drifting away from the Chahar. The Hutudun Khan's response was "pacify within before resisting without": while continuing to avoid a decisive battle with the Jianzhou Jurchen, he swallowed up the people of the five Inner Khalkha tribes, whom the Jianzhou Jurchen had been chastising. In the end he quickly wrecked the five Inner Khalkha tribes, who might have become his allies in joint resistance against the Jianzhou Jurchen. Though he did gain a fair amount of plunder and strengthened the Chahar main tribe.

But the Jianzhou Jurchen gained even more — not only devouring many of the five Inner Khalkha tribes' people, but also winning prestige. Even the Naiman and Aohan camps among the Chahar's eight great camps (otogs) opened secret communications with the Jianzhou Jurchen — though the leaders of these two camps did not truly intend to go over to the Jianzhou Jurchen; they wanted to mediate the conflict between the Jianzhou Jurchen and the Hutudun Khan.

Hong Taiji, who had inherited Nurhaci's great position, was also a master bluffer. He immediately seized the chance to spread a rumor that the Naiman and Aohan camps were going to defect to the Jianzhou Jurchen. And the Hutudun Khan, honest as ever, believed it at once and immediately sent troops to attack the Naiman and Aohan camps — and the leaders of those two camps were the Hutudun Khan's own elders! Being attacked like that, they were so outraged that they really did defect to Jianzhou.

And when the Hutudun Khan saw the Jianzhou Jurchen send troops to their aid, he wilted again, so frightened that he abandoned even his old lair and moved west to seize the territory of the Right Wing Mongol Shunyi Prince's (Tumed) tribe. This Hutudun Khan might be a coward when facing the Jianzhou Jurchen, but his Chahar tribe had been in a state of war all these years, and compared to the Shunyi Prince's tribe, which had enjoyed decades of market rewards and lived in peace and stability, they were far stronger!

So as soon as the Hutudun Khan's great army arrived, the Shunyi Prince Bushitu could not hold out, and sent a messenger begging for help to the Ming's Regional Commander headquarters at Datong.

In fact, by the time Datong's urgent dispatch reached Beijing, the Shunyi Prince Bushitu had already been defeated and had lost his old lair, the city of Kuku Hoton (Guihua City). Only, no one on the Ming court side knew it yet — Zhu Youjian, of course, did — but Sun Chengzong and Wang Zaijin both knew the Chahar tribe's strength, and could well imagine that the Shunyi Prince's forces would quickly collapse.

And the Chahar tribe's westward migration and the Shunyi Prince's tribe's destruction, in the eyes of Wang Zaijin and Sun Chengzong, were actually an opportunity to achieve their own goals.

"What else could he be after? Obviously he wants to avoid the Jianzhou slaves' edge, swallow up the Right Wing Mongols' territory, and then sit on the mountain watching the tigers fight while he keeps asking us for money!" Wang Zaijin had nothing good to say. As he spoke his face was full of killing intent, as though he were about to take his blade to the Hutudun Khan.

Huang Liji glanced again at Sun Chengzong. Sun Chengzong snorted coldly: "This Hutudun Khan is truly a piece of work. He took all that money from us and did nothing, and now he's actually moved west!

But our foremost enemy is still the Jianzhou slaves, the eastern barbarians. Toward the Hutudun Khan we should still try to placate him."

Wang Zaijin said: "Even if we placate him, we should first let him know how formidable our Great Ming is! Otherwise the Hutudun Khan will surely push his luck, and our Great Ming's northwest will never know peace again!"

Huang Liji frowned: "Mingchu, you mean first suppress, then pacify?"

Wang Zaijin nodded: "First deal him a painful chastisement, then pacify him afterward. Only then will the northwest be stable!"

Sun Chengzong shook his head: "Mingchu, how many battle-worthy troops do the three garrisons of Datong, Yulin, and Ningxia have right now? And these past few years the northwest has suffered drought year after year; the common people can barely survive. Over in Guanzhong, people have already risen in revolt!"

He was speaking of the Wang Er uprising that had broken out in Weibei, Guanzhong, in the seventh year of Tianqi. That uprising was still a spark now, but if it was not stamped out in time, it could very well become a prairie fire.

Sun Chengzong continued: "Even setting aside the drought and the people's suffering in the northwest — does the court have the money to go to war with the Hutudun Khan?"

Wang Zaijin chuckled: "The Grand Granary has no money, but the Inner Transport Treasury does!"

Didn't it just!

The officials in the hall brightened the moment they heard Wang Zaijin's words!

The young Son of Heaven had just confiscated the two clans of Wei Zhongxian and Madam Ke, and had also sold quite a few indulgences — otherwise how could he have bypassed the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of War, and the Ji-Liao Supreme Commander's headquarters, those "middlemen," and paid Mao Wenlong directly?

Since the Son of Heaven was so rich, let him take out a bit to use for chastising the Hutudun Khan!

Wang Zaijin said with a smile: "This dynasty has always refused to pay indemnities, refused to make marriage alliances, and refused to cede territory — especially to a barbarian like this Hutudun Khan, whose strength is meager but whose face is thick!"

"Right! No indemnities, no marriage alliances, no ceding territory!"

"We must not indulge the Hutudun Khan!"

"He must be severely chastised!"

The assembled high ministers at once reached a unified opinion — whether or not the Hutudun Khan was actually chastised was another matter, but this pretext looked excellent!

Huang Liji nodded and said: "Since you are all of this mind, then at this afternoon's policy discussion in the Hall of Literary Splendor, we shall all advocate chastisement together!"

Afternoon arrived quickly.

The Grand Secretariat, the supervising secretaries and censors, and the Commanders and several Commandants of the Capital Camps entered the Eastern Flowery Gate together and, led by eunuchs, arrived at the Hall of Literary Splendor, where the Son of Heaven read and deliberated on governance.

The moment they entered the hall, they discovered that two men had arrived before them. At the sight of these two, the assembled ministers' mood immediately soured.

It turned out the early arrivals were Luo Yangxing, Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and Liu Chao, the Eastern Depot's managing eunuch.

Zhu Youjian seemed to be in excellent spirits. After the assembled ministers had kowtowed, he called out cheerfully: "Rise, rise."

Seeing that the ministers had all scrambled to their feet, he said with another smile: "Let Us tell you good news! The Embroidered Uniform Guard's Northern Provost has been fully reorganized. It can open its doors and get to work at once!"

Was that good news?

The ministers all felt their scalps go numb!

Zhu Youjian continued: "The second piece of good news is that Liu Chao, the Eastern Depot's managing eunuch, has done his work well. He has finished confiscating the households of the traitor Wei and the traitor Ke, every branch of both clans, and done it thoroughly! The gold, silver, treasures, goods, and various properties seized convert to no less than sixteen million taels of silver! Ha ha ha, the confiscation accounts have been checked over by members of the Wei and Ke families themselves, and are essentially without error!

We, this Emperor, now at last have some funds in the privy purse that can be used to support the garrisons at the front fighting bitterly against the eastern barbarians. We spending money in this way — none of you have any objections, do you?"

(End of Chapter)