Chapter 1709: The Great Mongol Nation Must Exist!

Ligdan Bataar has once again become the Runaway Khan!

And this time it was the most disastrous flight yet!

In the first year of Chongzhen, on the seventh and ninth days of the sixth month, he suffered crushing defeats in both battles — especially the battle on the ninth, when more than forty thousand men encamped at White Climb Mountain, relying on their kuren wagon-fort, thinking they could hold it with ease. Instead, the Ming army first used shielded carts to cover infantry and drive them down the mountain, then built gun emplacements close by, set up twelve General Cannons, and bombarded them for a full two hours. In truth, twelve General Cannons firing for two hours did not do much damage — General Cannons fired very slowly, each gun could not manage thirty rounds in two hours, and all twelve guns together fired only a little over two hundred rounds. The Chahar armed herders killed and wounded came to two or three hundred at most, and even counting losses from trampling one another in panic, it was unlikely to have reached five hundred.

But the bombardment still caused a mental collapse among part of the Chahar armed herders. Zhu Youjian had concentrated his artillery, so for those on the receiving end, the losses were still appalling — standing bolt upright, waiting to be killed or maimed by a shell that might fall at any moment, it truly felt like being in hell!

Never mind the Chahar armed herders — even on the battlefields of the contemporaneous Thirty Years' War in Western Europe, few armies could have withstood it.

However, European armies accustomed to high-intensity warfare, when at a disadvantage in an artillery duel but still superior in numbers, would often choose to sally forth and stake everything on a counterattack.

But Ligdan Bataar is the Runaway Khan!

The counterattack battle on the seventh of the sixth month had already cost him dearly — how would he dare try it again?

So the Runaway Khan, when his defensive line fell into crisis, once again chose to run!

And his flight had long been anticipated by the "divinely prescient" Zhu Youjian. Man Gui's 1,500 household retainers and three regiments of the army before the imperial tent had long been prepared to pursue!

More than five thousand elite cavalry chased the fleeing Chahar troops all the way — hunting them down, driving them on, capturing Chahar herders who fell behind, seizing Chahar livestock and horses. By the morning of the tenth of the sixth month, they had fought their pursuit all the way past the Datong border wall!

Victory reports kept streaming back to the Ming army's main camp, which had just moved to the foot of White Climb Mountain, and into Zhu Youjian's imperial tent. Then came Zhu Youjian's laughter, smug to the extreme: "Hahaha — well fought! Well fought! We shall pursue all the way to the Tumed River plain! Great Princess of the Uriankhai, you are about to stop being the Great Princess!"

Zhu Youjian had by now removed his armor and changed into dragon robes. He sat on a folding camp bed in the middle of the great tent, with a low table set before him. On the table were a wine pot and wine cups, and kneeling beside the table was a woman dressed in gorgeous Mongol attire, pouring wine for Zhu Youjian. This woman was none other than Ligdan Bataar's sister, the Great Princess of the Uriankhai!

Zhu Youjian spoke to the Great Princess in Mongolian. The Great Princess's full but still beautiful face showed little sorrow; she merely smiled and said: "Your Majesty speaks Mongolian, so you naturally know the rules of the steppe — on the steppe, the strong are honored! Your Majesty slew Guiyingqia in battle, captured Uriankhai alive, and routed the Mongol Great Khan utterly. You are the strongest man Uriankhai has ever seen. Uriankhai is convinced and submits willingly — she is content to no longer be the Great Princess, and asks only to serve at Your Majesty's side!"

"Hahaha!" Zhu Youjian laughed loudly. "You are a woman who knows what's good for you — and you're quite pleasing to look at. A little older, perhaps, but well kept!"

Although Zhu Youjian's biological age was only eighteen, his mental age was past ninety, so naturally he did not consider Uriankhai "old."

Moreover, he had no intention of actually destroying the Chahar. For the Chahar were, after all, the legitimate line of the Mongols, and Ligdan Bataar was, after all, the legitimate Great Khan!

As long as he existed, Hong Taiji would have no way to become Great Khan of the Mongols — in the original history, it was only after Ligdan Bataar's death that Hong Taiji became Great Khan of the Mongols, when Ligdan Bataar's son Ejei took the lead in urging him to accept the throne and presented him with the honorific title "Bogd Sechen Khan."

And only by becoming Great Khan of the Mongols could Hong Taiji possess the legitimacy to rule over the Mongols north and south of the Gobi!

Do not underestimate this legitimacy. Before Hong Taiji, the Great Khan of the Mongols had never been chosen by the principle of "he with the strongest army and horses takes it." From Genghis Khan onward, for more than four hundred years, the Mongol khanship had always belonged to the Golden Family.

Therefore, as long as Ligdan Bataar still drew breath, and as long as the Chahar had not yet submitted to the Manchus, Hong Taiji would have no way to truly conquer the Mongols.

And the Khorchin and their ilk, in the eyes of the broader Mongol people, were just like Li Yongfang and Fan Wencheng in the eyes of the Han — traitors and villains!

So Zhu Youjian's thrashing of the Chahar at Datong did not mean he wanted to destroy the Chahar. He only wanted to teach the Chahar a lesson, so that they would never again come into Ming territory to burn, kill, and plunder.

Since Zhu Youjian did not intend to destroy the Chahar, then Uriankhai's status as Great Princess was very valuable indeed!

Zhu Youjian looked at Uriankhai with a smile. "We know the customs of the Mongols. We killed your husband and seized you — so We can become your new husband!"

Uriankhai nodded, her cheeks flushing slightly, and bowed to Zhu Youjian: "Your Majesty is a hero without equal under heaven. Uriankhai is sincerely convinced and willingly serves — even as a slave or a maidservant, she would have no complaint."

"But what We want is the Great Princess of the Northern Yuan!" Zhu Youjian asked with a smile. "Uriankhai, can you manage that?"

Uriankhai was taken aback. "Your Majesty means—"

Zhu Youjian smiled: "We will release you back to the Tumed River plain. You will persuade Ligdan Bataar to form an alliance and a marriage bond with Us. Then you will come to the Ming in the name of that marriage alliance, and become Our Noble Consort. Uriankhai, are you willing?"

"Your Majesty... do you truly not intend to destroy the Chahar?" A flash of surprised delight crossed Uriankhai's face.

Being a slave or maidservant, versus coming as a Great Princess to be a Noble Consort — those were two completely different treatments.

Zhu Youjian smiled: "We were only joking with you just now. As long as the Chahar do not court their own destruction, We have no intention of destroying them!"

Uriankhai understood what Zhu Youjian meant by "courting their own destruction." She furrowed her gently curved brows. "But for the Chahar to survive, they must obtain Your Majesty's market bounty..."

Zhu Youjian shook his head and said: "You are wrong, and Ligdan Bataar is wrong too. What the Chahar need is not market bounty, but the farmland of the Tumed River plain and the grasslands of the Ordos! The farmland of the Tumed River plain can provide grain for the Chahar, and the grasslands of the Ordos can provide them cattle, sheep, and horses. And the Chahar can use their horses to trade with the Ming for silk, cloth, ironware, and tea. We will not give market bounty, but We can open border markets and permit the Chahar to trade freely with the Ming without any restrictions. Because once We take you as a consort, the Ming and the Chahar will be kin by marriage."

The Ming had always used material blockades to contain the steppe, and had indeed achieved some results. But Zhu Youjian now regarded the Jianzhou Jurchen as his most dangerous enemy, so naturally he would no longer use blockades to weaken the Chahar, the legitimate line of the Mongols.

"Your Majesty," Uriankhai was still somewhat worried, "but my elder brother has returned from this invasion of Datong in crushing defeat. There will surely be many within the Chahar who oppose him. If he cannot produce a sum of silver to placate them..."

Zhu Youjian smiled faintly, fully confident: "Is Our support not enough for him? Taking you as Our consort is the greatest support We can give him! If any of the Chahar tribes dares to defy him, We will send troops to help him fight them. A lethal effect is always better than giving money!"

"Uriankhai understands," the Great Princess paused. "Then when may I set out for the Tumed River plain?"

"The sooner the better," Zhu Youjian said to Uriankhai with a smile. "Go today. We will give you three or four hundred Chahar prisoners to escort you to the Tumed River plain. Also — the men We sent earlier, Zu Kefa and Li Chengyun, are they still alive?"

"Both are," Uriankhai said. "My elder brother merely detained them; he did them no harm."

Zu Kefa, that great diplomat, had gotten off to a rough start — detained on his very first mission!

"Good," Zhu Youjian smiled. "Then let them run the errand and serve as the matchmakers for this marriage alliance between our two houses!"

(End of Chapter)