Chapter 1741: Zhu Youjian Gets Fooled Too!

"Great Emperor, Great Princess, Tabunang Ma Baobao of the Doyan tribe, and Tabunang Suonamu of the Doyan tribe, have come to pay their respects!"

At this moment Zhu Youjian was sitting in his own tent, leafing through memorials forwarded from the Grand Secretariat via the traveling palace's Directorate of Ceremonial in Xuanfu's garrison town. He had not, as some of the noble houses in Beijing had expected, remained in Xuanfu to oversee the land surveys and field inspections. Instead he had truly gone out beyond the Longmen Guard's section of the Great Wall, taking the Uriankhai Chiliarch Wo'erduo and ten thousand Sons of Heaven household retainers with him, roaming the Bashang grasslands at the northern foot of the Yan Mountains. His purpose in roaming the grasslands at this time was of course not hunting or herding, but to take the knife to the various Kharchin Left Wing tribes along the Bashang grasslands and the northern slopes of the Yan Mountains.

Hong Taiji's home base was not something Zhu Youjian could plunder — not because the road was too far. With the Mongol herders recruited by the Great Princess of Uriankhai to help tend the sheep and cattle, plus a bit of raiding and buying on the grasslands, supplying more than ten thousand men was not a major problem. But Hong Taiji had not emptied his nest; he had left more than half of the Eight Banners troops to guard the home front. The ten thousand Sons of Heaven household retainers Zhu Youjian had brought from Datong, plus the two thousand Mongol iron cavalry under the Uriankhai Chiliarch Wo'erduo, even if they crossed the Bashang grasslands and a thousand li of forest to reach the Liao River bend, would still be no match for the Eight Banners troops left on guard and the Khorchin Mongol cavalry — one man would have to fight several of theirs! So for this period Zhu Youjian had used a butcher's cleaver to kill a chicken, and plundered the home bases of the various Kharchin Left Wing tribes.

The Kharchin tribe, also called the Doyan tribe, was not small in numbers, but it was far too scattered, divided into thirty-six little hilltop factions. So anyone who came along could bully them!

Previously they had been bullied by the Hutudun Khan, so they submitted to the Great Jin state. Then, because of the two great battles between the Great Jin state and the Duoluote camp left behind by the Chahar tribe, famine broke out. Later they tried to swindle grain out of Zhu Youjian and failed, so they sent troops to help Hong Taiji plunder the Great Ming. Now the warriors they had sent to plunder the Great Ming had still not come home, and the little Ming Emperor, somehow or other, had brought along a Great Princess of the Chahar tribe to plunder them in return.

Well then — twelve thousand iron cavalry who killed without blinking! Never mind that the Kharchin main force was absent; even if they had all been there, it would still have been like chopping melons and slicing vegetables.

But chopping people was not Zhu Youjian's goal. His goal was still to win over the various Kharchin Left Wing tribes of the northern Yan Mountains and the Bashang grasslands for his own use, and to establish a new Doyan Chiliarch Wo'erduo.

With this Chiliarch Wo'erduo, he would be able to control the Yan Mountain region east of Xuanfu and the grasslands north of Xuanfu. Then if Hong Taiji wanted to enter the passes to plunder again, it would not be so easy.

So once he had chopped enough people, he had the Great Princess of Uriankhai send envoys to summon the various Tabunangs of the Kharchin Left Wing to surrender.

The so-called Tabunang was originally a title for those who married descendants of Genghis Khan. Later it evolved into a rank of nobility, that is, "nobles whose sons would for generations marry princesses." Since most of the Kharchin tribal leaders were not descendants of Genghis Khan, in order to elevate their own bloodline they called themselves Tabunang, and if conditions permitted, they would actually marry women of the Borjigin clan.

But the Borjigin women these Kharchin Tabunangs could get their hands on could not compare with the Great Princess of Uriankhai. Therefore, before Zhu Youjian, who had taken the Great Princess of Uriankhai as a consort, these two Tabunangs, Maji and Suonamu, could not hold their heads up — whether by the legitimacy of the Great Ming (they were descendants of the Three Doyan Guards) or by the legitimacy of the Northern Yuan.

At a single word of summons from Zhu Youjian, two imperial bodyguards at once led the two Mongols in. The one in front was a man of about forty, short and stocky, wearing a very loose Ming military officer's robe and an oversized black gauze cap. He glanced at Zhu Youjian sitting there and immediately prostrated himself on the ground: "Your subject Ma Baobao of the Doyan Guard kowtows to His Majesty!"

No one knew what bloodline this Mongol had, but he spoke Chinese very fluently, and he even had a Chinese surname — Ma. Who knew whether it had been a surname granted to his ancestors back when the Three Doyan Guards were loyal subjects of the Great Ming?

Behind him was a man in his thirties, dressed in a Mongol-style silk robe that looked very splendid. He wore no hat, and his head was shaved in the Mongol fashion — the crown gleaming, the hair on both sides of his head braided and hanging down beside his ears.

This Mongol looked much more "authentic": big build, broad flat face, small eyes, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted — he looked like he could go wrestle at a Naadam festival.

But however fierce this fellow looked, before Zhu Youjian, whose martial prowess was the greatest under heaven, he did not dare show the slightest negligence — otherwise he would be shot with a black gun!

After the Battle of White Mountain at Datong, Zhu Youjian had begun expanding the "black-gun cavalry." Fighting on horseback with black guns had been the killer move by which the unfilial son of his previous life had countered the Manchu cavalry's superiority. At that time, when quality warhorses were in short supply and the light cavalry's fighting ability was inferior to the enemy's, the unfilial son's black-gun cavalry had used small-unit cavalry tactics and coordinated fire, along with marksmanship with firearms, to inflict heavy losses on the elite Manchu riders across the vast battlefield, thereby seizing the initiative on the field.

The current Zhu Youjian, though not so short of horses, still had personal cavalry whose individual fighting ability fell far short of the Eight Banners elite. And their numbers were small too — the Eight Banners troops numbered in the tens of thousands no matter what! Even if only ten White Armor soldiers could be drawn from each niru, their total would still reach more than three thousand, and the Red Armor soldiers numbered more than ten thousand. But Zhu Youjian's personal cavalry, no matter how much he expanded it, could never reach the numbers of the Eight Banners troops, nor could its elite ever number more than ten thousand.

Therefore Zhu Youjian could only imitate the black-gun cavalry and take the path of tactical coordination rather than individual valor to deal with the Manchus' White Armor and Red Armor soldiers.

After the Battle of White Mountain, Zhu Youjian had selected a batch of younger riders from the various regiments below and had them learn from the young riders around him how to use the Rumi musket and black-gun tactics.

And in this campaign out beyond the Longmen Guard's border wall to sweep the Kharchin Left Wing tribes, black-gun tactics had been employed even more widely. Many warriors of high martial skill had been shot with black guns — among them warriors of Suonamu's own force!

"Your subject Suonamu of the Doyan Guard kowtows to His Majesty!" Suonamu also knelt and kowtowed to Zhu Youjian, but he spoke in Mongol.

"Rise, and be seated!" Zhu Youjian closed the memorial he had been reading, fixed the two men with a grim gaze, and asked in Mongol, "You still remember the Doyan Guard... not easy! But We do not intend to restore the Three Doyan Guards. We intend to establish a Doyan Chiliarch Wo'erduo, to stand alongside the Uriankhai Wo'erduo. Since you are the first to come and submit, you shall serve as Left and Right Jaisang of the Doyan Chiliarch Wo'erduo, and also as Chiliarchs."

"Your subject thanks His Majesty for his great grace."

"Your subject thanks Your Majesty for his generous favor."

Ma Baobao and Suonamu hurriedly kowtowed in gratitude. Jaisang was the steward of a Chiliarch Wo'erduo! And the office of Chiliarch sounded quite grand as well.

But Zhu Youjian shook his head and said: "Do not be in a hurry to give thanks, because We will break up the submitted Doyan tribes and reorganize them into units of ten, of a hundred, and of a thousand. The heads of the Hundred and Thousand units will no longer be hereditary, but will be appointed and dismissed by the Chiliarch Wo'erduo according to ability and merit. And the sons of meritorious Chiliarchs and Centurions may be appointed one rank lower. Are you willing?"

So Zhu Youjian intended to centralize power within the Uriankhai Chiliarch Wo'erduo and the Doyan Chiliarch Wo'erduo!

"Willing, willing — your subject is willing to follow His Majesty!"

"Your subject is also willing..."

If they were unwilling, they would be dragged out and shot with a black gun! How would Ma Baobao and Suonamu dare say they were unwilling?

Zhu Youjian nodded and added: "Furthermore, We will return inside the passes within a few days." He pointed to the Great Princess of Uriankhai, who was accompanying him in the tent. "The Great Princess will lead the Uriankhai iron cavalry and remain in the Doyan Chiliarch Wo'erduo, presiding over the overall situation on Our behalf. You are to obey the Great Princess."

"Your subject will surely follow the Great Princess's lead!"

"Your subject will surely be obedient!"

Zhu Youjian waved his hand and dismissed the two Mongols, then turned to the Great Princess of Uriankhai, who was already pregnant, and smiled. "Great Princess, We had originally intended to spend the winter with you beyond the wall. But We have just received a report that the villain Dorgon, hateful to the extreme, is attempting to rob the imperial tombs at Tianshou Mountain. So We must return and cut down this tomb-raiding Beile!"

"Your consort wishes Your Majesty swift victory!" the Uriankhai princess said with her lips, but in her heart she found it very strange. How had Dorgon become a tomb robber? The Chahar tribe had dealt with the Later Jin for so many years and had never heard that they were in that line of business!

(End of Chapter)