Chapter 1722: The Chongzhen Ordo

"Your Majesty, this old subject has heard that the reason you have mustered this great army is to go out onto the steppe and seize the Elder Princess of the Wu Liangha from the Chahar tribe?"

"His Majesty, this Elder Princess of the Wu Liangha truly has nothing good about her. She is no longer young, nearly thirty, and she is a coarse, ugly Tartar woman, utterly unworthy of comparison with the women of our Han people. If Your Majesty finds the palace at Datong cold and lonely, it would be better to select a few good-family women from the great garrison towns to enter the palace."

"Indeed! The women of Datong are very beautiful. This subject is a Datong man and can make the arrangements on Your Majesty's behalf."

"His Majesty, you are raising a great host to go out onto the steppe and seize a woman. If this matter gets out, how will the people of the realm look upon you?"

"Indeed, the words of men are to be feared. Your Majesty, think it over carefully."

Zhu Youjian's edict mustering the great army had only just been issued when the loyal and upright officials, learning that the Emperor intended to go out onto the steppe to seize a woman, all came to remonstrate.

This matter simply could not go unremonstrated! It was one thing for the Emperor to be fond of women and select some commoner girls here in Datong to enter the palace, but how could he go out onto the steppe to seize a Tartar woman? And to bring twenty thousand cavalry to seize her besides — there was no end to such absurdity!

When the loyal and upright officials came to offer their counsel, Zhu Youjian was bent over his desk writing letters to Ligdan Batur and the Elder Princess of the Wu Liangha. He had to tell them that he was coming to carry out a bride-seizure! He had to have the Elder Princess of the Wu Liangha make preparations — best not to remain in the city of Köke Khota, but to wait for the Great Emperor to come and seize her at the Lower Water Sea (the name of a lake) beyond the Datong border wall. And she must also bring along her own tribesmen and herds.

The Chahar tribe practiced the traditional steppe system of appanage division. Not only could the Great Khan's sons each receive a share of the family estate, but daughters received a share as well. And the Wu Liangha's late husband, Guiyingqia, had himself been a great noble of a collateral Chahar tribe, so of course he too had his own tribesmen and herds. Since Guiyingqia had no sons, his tribesmen and herds also passed to the Wu Liangha. The two holdings combined amounted to somewhat more than a thousand households — no small steppe tribe, but no great one either.

And what Zhu Youjian truly valued was precisely this tribe of more than a thousand households of tribesmen. This was the core of the Chongzhen ordo!

That was right — Zhu Youjian was preparing to learn from the not-yet-born "Loan King" Zhu San and establish his own steppe ordo. Then, using this ordo as a foundation, he would absorb some of the small Wu Liangha and Kharchin Mongol tribes that grazed along the Great Wall, gradually forming a Chongzhen Ten-Thousand-Household Ordo.

Only with this Chongzhen Ten-Thousand-Household Ordo would Zhu Youjian's "household retainers of the Son of Heaven" truly gain the ability to range at will across the steppe south of the Gobi. Unlike the Jianzhou Jurchen, who were bold in pitched battle, the Mongols of this era were best at running away. It was not only the one Running-Away Khan who could run — all the other khans were Khan Run-Runs too. Defeating them in a decisive battle was not difficult; the difficulty lay in pursuing them, in catching their main camps amid the boundless steppe, and only then could one deliver a truly devastating blow.

And for Zhu Youjian, the cost of striking at these "Khan Run-Runs" could not be too high, so he could not rely on however many tens of thousands of corvée laborers to haul grain to support tens of thousands of cavalry deep into the steppe and desert. The present Ming dynasty could not afford such a war!

Therefore the only feasible course was to learn from the "Loan King" or learn from the Jianzhou, and firmly control some Mongol tribes, making them drive their cattle and sheep to provide logistical support for his own expeditions.

"Gentlemen," Zhu Youjian had finished writing his letters, set down the brush, and now fixed his burning gaze upon a crowd of loyal and upright officials who understood nothing and only knew how to raise a senseless clamor. In a deep voice he said, "We are not going to seize the Elder Princess of the Wu Liangha — We are going to seize back the Elder Princess of the Wu Liangha!"

Seize... and seize back?

Those present were all officials who could read and write, and of course they understood the difference between the two!

"Your Majesty," Hong Chengchou, whose face bore the look of a treacherous minister, was the first to react. He immediately asked, "Have you already favored the Elder Princess of the Wu Liangha with your attentions?"

Zhu Youjian nodded and said, "Of course We have favored her. And not just once — it is quite possible she is already carrying the dragon seed! Master Hong, do you think We ought to seize her back?"

"You should — you should seize her back!" Hong Chengchou said solemnly. "Since the Elder Princess of the Wu Liangha is Your Majesty's woman, she must not be allowed to be married off to another by the Khutugtu Khan! This subject is willing to lead several thousand iron cavalry on a journey to the Tumed plain and seize the woman for Your Majesty!"

Zhu Youjian nodded approvingly and smiled. "Minister Hong is indeed a pillar of Our court. However, Minister Hong is a Fujian man, and has never served as Governor or Regional Commander in Datong, so he does not know the situation beyond the Datong wall very well!"

"Your Majesty, this subject is willing to lead troops beyond the passes!"

"Your Majesty, this general is willing to make a trip to Guihua City!"

Zhang Yiming and Man Gui understood what Zhu Youjian's words meant, and hurriedly stepped out of line to volunteer. Zhu Youjian smiled and nodded, then turned his gaze upon Zhang Weixian, Zhu Chunchen, and Zhu Guobi.

These three great nobles of merit had, in recent days and under Zhu Youjian's urging, led men to investigate the military colony lands of the Shanxi Regional Military Commission and its eight guards and sixty-four forts. This matter posed no difficulty for them, because their own families had for generations been engaged in encroaching upon military colony lands. As for the tricks involved, they naturally knew them all with perfect clarity.

Moreover, Zhu Youjian had not demanded the return of the military colonies. He merely wanted to collect one dou and two sheng of wheat or millet per mu of colony land, plus a bit of fodder and the like. If they could clear out more than two million mu of military colony land in Datong and collect two hundred fifty thousand shi of colony grain a year, he would be satisfied.

"Good!" Zhu Youjian nodded and said with a smile, "You are all loyal and upright. All of you shall march out with Us! This time, not only Our household retainers shall go forth, but the household retainers of all the Datong generals, and the household retainers of the Capital Camps generals as well!"

"Hong Chengchou and Chen Qiyu, you two shall not go. Remain behind in Datong and take charge of all matters concerning the Datong Governor's yamen and the Datong imperial palace."

What? Take charge of the Datong Governor's yamen and the imperial palace?

Hong Chengchou and Chen Qiyu were both taken aback. Did that not make them the Datong Governor and the Chief Steward of the Prince of Dai's palace? Then what about Zhang Yiming?

Zhu Youjian glanced at Zhang Yiming and smiled. "In this Datong campaign, Minister Zhang's merits have been very great. He may be promoted to Governor-General of Xuanda. Once the Directorate of Ceremonial and the Grand Secretariat arrive in Datong, We shall issue the formal edict."

"Your Majesty," Zhang Yiming said, startled, "are you going to... reside in Datong for a long time?"

Zhu Youjian smiled. "We are going to Datong to escape the summer heat! Of course We must summon the Directorate of Ceremonial and the Grand Secretariat here. At the very least, Xu Yingyuan and Huang Liji must come to Datong."

What? Escape the summer heat? The crowd of loyal and upright officials were stunned again. It was already autumn — what summer heat was there to escape? In another two or three months, Datong would be seeing snow!

Zhu Youjian chuckled. "Gentlemen, go back and prepare. In three days, We shall personally lead twenty thousand iron cavalry out through the Datong border wall and encamp at the Lower Water Sea!"

"All of you, go back and prepare. In three days, We shall personally lead one hundred thousand mighty soldiers, swear an oath, and march south to chastise the Southern Dynasty!"

On the upper reaches of a great river, a tributary of the Liao River which the Mongols called the Laoha Muren, at a riverside pasture called the Kehe Bend, countless yurts had by this time been pitched. All the yurts were spread out around a single great golden tent.

Directly in front of this great golden tent, the Heaven-Cleaving Khan of the Great Jin, Hong Taiji, sat high upon an open-air throne. On either side were two rows of chairs, seating the deliberative Beile of the Great Jin and the taijis of the Left Wing Mongol tribes — the Khorchin, Kharchin, and Inner Khalkha.

Behind these two rows of chairs stood a crowd of warriors and champions of the Great Jin and the Mongol tribes. Hearing Hong Taiji say with his own mouth that they would march south to chastise the Ming dynasty, they all roared in unison with delight.

Hong Taiji looked upon the warriors of the Great Jin and the Mongols, every man rubbing his fists and wiping his palms, and nodded with satisfaction. It seemed this southward campaign against the Ming had a very high chance of success!

Although in the past few days some strange news had come from the Right Wing Mongols — something about the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming whose valor surpassed the entire army, something about the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming slaying the foremost warrior of the Mongols in battle, something about the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming fighting a duel with the Mongol Great Khan — clearly, the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming had not been captured or killed by that Running-Away Khan, Khutugtu Khan! But Hong Taiji still had not abandoned his plan to march south and strike at the border wall of Ji Town!

Because the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming was certainly not in Beijing right now, and had moreover taken with him a considerable number of the Capital Camps' elite troops. Therefore the Great Wall line around Ji Town must be relatively empty, and the Great Jin had an opportunity to exploit!

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(End of Chapter)