Chapter 737: Arrival in the Mongol Empire

Just as the Great Ming and the Shun were busy "carving up" the Indochinese Peninsula, a Spanish galleon carrying an embassy from the Great Qing had already arrived at Surat, the largest port of the Mongol Empire.

This was an inland river port, situated on the right bank of the mouth of a river called the Tapti — a port city with a very long history and very rich produce.

Sonin, one of the Five Ministers visiting Europe, was at that moment standing on the forecastle of the galleon, gazing at the exotic city before him, and asked the caballero beside him in stiff Japanese (Hispanian): "Lord Justice, have we reached Europe?"

He had already been drifting at sea for several months!

Spain, that world empire, had too many enemies. If they had taken the Pacific route it would have been better — there were as yet no other European powers there. But the caballero had deliberately arranged for the Five Ministers of the Great Qing to go by way of Malacca into the Indian Ocean, where all along the route lay Dutch and Portuguese colonial outposts. A Spanish ship had to be careful, or it might be sunk by those black-hearted Dutchmen and Portuguese.

So they had barely put in to shore the whole way, and even when they did, they dared not linger — after replenishing fresh water and provisions, they set out again at once.

The Five Ministers, who had never been to sea like this, all suffered for it. The worst off was Fan Yongdou — he was already an old man, and how could his old bones stand such tossing about? He was now lying flat and motionless, on the verge of death!

Sonin thought of old Fan and sighed. But still, at least they had finally arrived.

"No, no, this is not Europe," the caballero said. "This is Surat, port of the Mongol Empire."

"The Mongol Empire?" Sonin was taken aback, and dropped the "Japanese" altogether. "Mongols? You said Mongols?"

The caballero had been learning Chinese from Sonin along the way and could now speak a little. He nodded and said, "Yes, the Mongols!"

"The Mongols of Genghis Khan?"

"Yes, yes, those very Mongols!" The caballero nodded earnestly. "We have reached Mongolia!"

It's over, Sonin thought to himself. This Hispanian has gone mad from seasickness — since when did Mongolia have a sea?

"This really is the Mongol Empire!" The caballero, seeing the look on Sonin's face, said with a laugh, "If it were not for coming to the Mongol Empire, I would have had this galleon take the Pacific route.

Minister Sonin, do you think there is only one Mongolia in the world?"

Sonin stared blankly. "Is there a second Mongolia?"

The caballero nodded and pointed at the bustling harbor before them: "This is the second Mongolia! It was founded one hundred and twenty years ago by Emperor Babur, sixth-generation descendant of Emperor Timur, after he conquered northwestern India. This Emperor Babur named the state he established the Mongol Empire!"

Sonin and his party had arrived in the land that later generations would call the Mughal Empire — though "Mughal" is in fact simply the Persian word for Mongol, so the correct name of the Mughal Empire is the Mongol Empire!

It was only later historians who, to distinguish this Mongol Empire in India from the Great Mongol State, used the name Mughal Empire.

But the caballero had deliberately emphasized the "Mongol concept" of the Mughal Empire, for a very simple reason: the Shunzhi Emperor was the Mongol Ejei Jasagh Khan!

And Sonin and the other Five Ministers were, accordingly, an embassy dispatched by the Great Khan of the Mongols.

Now that the Great Khan of the Mongols had sent envoys to the Mongol Empire, could the Emperor of the Mongol Empire, Shah Jahan, fail to entertain them well?

Shunzhi was the Great Khan of the Mongols, and Shah Jahan was the Emperor of the Mongols — both were "descendants" of Genghis Khan, so they were kin. With Mongol relatives from so far away sending envoys, how delighted Emperor Shah Jahan must be!

And should not the two Mongolias establish friendly and mutually supportive relations? Even if you will not do it for the face of Allah, you must do it for the face of Genghis Khan!

Once the two Mongolias became friendly, then the Spanish Empire, which had served as the go-between for the two Mongolias, would naturally gain two friends as well. If it could go one step further and bring about a triple alliance of the Spanish Empire, the Mongol Empire, and the Great Qing Empire, then perhaps Spain's declining fortunes could be reversed.

Sonin understood now. "Lord Justice, you want us to pay our respects to the Mongol Emperor of the land of India in the name of envoys of the Great Khan of the Mongols?"

The caballero laughed: "Is not the Emperor of the Great Qing also the Great Khan of the Mongols? In the West, two states may share one sovereign. I think you should meet the Mongols of India in the name of envoy of the Great Mongol Ejei Jasagh Khan and concurrently of the Emperor of the Great Qing."

"Yes, yes, yes — and write the state letter in Mongolian!" the caballero said. "Minister Sonin, do you know Mongolian?"

"Know it? Of course I know it!"

Sonin was a man of great learning, versed in five languages: Manchu, Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Japanese! Writing a state letter in Mongolian was, of course, a trivial matter.

The problem, however, was that Shah Jahan, the Emperor of the Mongol Empire here in India, could not read the Mongol script.

In Agra, capital of the Indian Mongol Empire, within the magnificent and splendid Jahangir Mahal Palace, Shah Jahan — Emperor of the Mongol Empire and Shadow of Allah on Earth — was gazing through a window at the still-unfinished Taj Mahal. The white and graceful mausoleum stood on the plain not far from the Jahangir Mahal Palace.

Ever since the Persian Taj Mahal had died of puerperal fever, Shah Jahan had often kept vigil before the window that looked out upon the Taj Mahal construction site, watching with his own eyes as this mausoleum — said to be the most luxurious in all the world — was built up bit by bit.

Of course, he was merely lovelorn; he had not on that account neglected affairs of state or military matters.

Taj Mahal had died in 1631, nineteen years ago now. In those nineteen years Shah Jahan had continued his militaristic expansion. Not only did he expand his territory in India, steadily striking at the power of the Hindu princes, but he also waged a prolonged back-and-forth war in Afghanistan against the Safavid dynasty of Iran, and in 1638 he seized Kandahar. In 1646 he even launched, as if possessed, a war against the Khanate of Bukhara, successively capturing Badakhshan and Balkh, the Khanate's territories in northern Afghanistan, and then dispatched his third son Aurangzeb to continue leading the army northward into the desolate mountains and steppes of Central Asia — Shah Jahan's goal being Samarkand and Bukhara, the ancestral homeland of his forebears in Central Asia.

In the end, however, this war met with disastrous defeat in 1648, when it fell into stalemate and supply lines could no longer be maintained.

Thereupon the Safavid dynasty of Iran seized the opportunity to counterattack and retook Kandahar just as the Indian Mongol Empire was freshly defeated.

Shah Jahan, having suffered defeat, did not give up. In 1649 he launched a counteroffensive against Kandahar, but was defeated once again.

Unwilling to accept failure, Shah Jahan was now preparing a second counteroffensive against Kandahar.

"Father! Father! The envoys of the Mongol State have reached Surat."

The voice of his son Murad Bakhsh suddenly rang in Shah Jahan's ears. He turned and saw his fourth son, Murad Bakhsh — who served in Surat as Naval Governor-General (commander of the Mongol Empire's navy) — standing travel-worn behind him, a silk scroll in his hand.

"What did you say?" Shah Jahan asked.

"The envoys of the Mongol State have arrived at Surat."

"The Mongol State? Is that not what others mistakenly call us?"

Murad Bakhsh said with a smile: "Not us — the Great Mongol State of the northern steppes! The Great Khan of the Great Mongol State heard that there was still a Mongol Empire in India, and so sent envoys across ten thousand li."

"Has the Great Mongol State not already..." Shah Jahan was somewhat uncertain.

"Father, the envoys of the Great Mongol State say that the Great Mongol State has been revived, and that six years ago it stormed Dadu once more. It now rules over a small half of China, Eastern Mongolia, the Mongol homeland, and Western Mongolia."

"Is this true?" Shah Jahan found it hard to believe. He knew this son of his was a bit simple-minded and easily deceived, so he asked, "You have not been tricked, have you?"

"No," Murad Bakhsh said. "They also presented a state letter. I have already read it — it is written in the Mongol script."

Shah Jahan was taken aback. "You can read the Mongol script?"

"A little... I know all nineteen letters."

(End of Chapter)