Chapter 739: Mongols of the World, Unite!

Dala Xike and Murad Bakhsh's faces changed the moment they heard the Western interpreter's translation.

What Sonin had raised was an extremely troublesome legal conundrum!

Did the Mongol Emperor of India acknowledge the Great Khan of All the Mongols in the East or not?

And before answering that question, there was another difficult problem to solve: was the "Timurid Empire of Hindustan" a member of All the Mongols at all?

If it was a member of All the Mongols, then refusing to acknowledge Eyel Zasag Khan — that is, the little Shunzhi Emperor — as Great Khan of All the Mongols would mean the descendants of the "Chagatai line" were challenging for the khanship! Shah Jahan could not even handle the Uzbeks, and now he was supposed to march far away to attack the Mongol homeland? Was that not madness?

But just because Shah Jahan could not go to Mongolia did not mean the Great Khan Shunzhi could not come to India!

In theory, the Great Khan Shunzhi could simply wander over with his herds.

If they denied that the "Timurid Empire of Hindustan" was a member of All the Mongols, would the Great Khan Shunzhi fly into a thunderous rage?

The name "Mongol Empire of India" had already become common usage; the whole world knew it, and it was too late for Shah Jahan to deny it. Would the Great Khan Shunzhi then send troops against India on the charge of "splitting the Mongols"? Would that not be asking for a beating?

But if Shah Jahan acknowledged that the "Timurid Empire of Hindustan" was a member of All the Mongols, and acknowledged the Great Khan Shunzhi as Great Khan of All the Mongols, then would Hindustan not become a vassal of the Great Mongol State? Just like the historical relationship between the Golden Horde, the Chagatai Khanate, the Ögedei Khanate, the Ilkhanate, and the Khanate of the Great Khan?

From then on, the "Timurid Empire of Hindustan" would have to become the "Timurid Khanate of Hindustan."

The matter was so complicated that even Dala Xike, for all that he was Crown Prince, did not dare decide it on his own. He could only have his brother Murad Bakhsh escort the "Great Mongol envoys" slowly on to Agra, while he himself hurried back to Agra ahead of them to discuss countermeasures with his father.

When Shah Jahan learned of the Great Khan Shunzhi's demand, he too felt rather gloomy. How had he, out of nowhere, acquired an extra "Mongol father"? Acknowledge him or not?

Acknowledge him, and he would be a notch lower for no good reason — tribute and such were easy enough to talk about, but being legally a notch below the Great Khan of All the Mongols was still uncomfortable!

Refuse to acknowledge this father, and it might well mean war!

Was this not a case of living in India while disaster came from the steppe?

And India was a place that had always most feared the various barbarians who came smashing in through the Khyber Pass from the northwest! Even if they could not conquer India, they could still plunder it savagely, then go happily home, and come back again after a while.

The Timurid Empire of Hindustan itself had risen to power in exactly that way!

"Father," said Dala Xike, who had been thinking the whole way and now had some idea of what to do, "we have not heard from the Uzbeks of any revival of the Great Mongol State; instead we learned of it from the sea, which shows that the Great Mongol State cannot reach us for the time being. Moreover, I made inquiries about China among the merchants of Surat. At least as of a year ago, the Chinese still had their own empire. They had lost part of their territory, but they had not been destroyed."

Shah Jahan asked, "You mean we should deny that the Timurid Empire of Hindustan is a member of All the Mongols?"

"We neither deny it nor affirm it," said Dala Xike. "We should evade the question, and at the same time send an embassy with a generous gift to Dadu to pay court to the Great Khan of All the Mongols, and incidentally investigate the true situation of this Great Mongol state. If it is truly very powerful, we may as well submit to the Great Khan. If it is only somewhat powerful, we may as well become the Great Khan's friends.

Having one more powerful friend far away is always to the advantage of our Timurid Empire. Perhaps we can use the Great Khan's empire to deal with the Uzbek Khanate."

"Use the Great Khan's empire to deal with the Uzbeks?" The very thought of the Uzbeks gave Shah Jahan a headache.

In the war of 1646 to 1648, Shah Jahan's army had performed well in pitched battles, using matchlocks and light artillery to beat back the Mongol-style army of the Uzbeks.

But the Uzbeks, whose equipment was a whole era behind, had used the old methods of scorched earth and raids on supply lines to inflict heavy losses on Shah Jahan's sixty thousand troops, until in the end he had been forced to withdraw from the deserts and mountains of Central Asia.

Dala Xike suggested, "If we can get the Great Khan's army to sack Transoxiana, which the Uzbeks rule, then perhaps after the Great Khan's army returns laden with spoils, we can take Samarkand and Bukhara."

To the Timurid Empire of Hindustan, the wealth of Central Asia was not worth mentioning. Shah Jahan only needed Samarkand and Bukhara, those two pieces of territory, to prove his own greatness. Even if all he got were two ruins, Shah Jahan would not mind.

Shah Jahan pondered. "But would the Great Khan's empire, after occupying Transoxiana, then covet the wealth of India?"

"Perhaps," said Dala Xike, knitting his brows with an air of deep deliberation, "but we should still ally with them to destroy the Uzbeks, because the Uzbek khans can also claim kinship with Genghis Khan. They are the heirs of the Golden Horde, the true Golden Lineage!

So they too are members of the Mongols of the whole world!"

The "Indian Mongols" and the "Great Qing Mongols" were in fact both counterfeit goods. The Emperor of the Indian Mongols had only a thin thread of Golden Lineage blood, and even that came through the maternal line. And the Great Khan Shunzhi was no descendant of Genghis Khan at all, not even through the maternal line.

But the Shibanid family that had founded the Uzbek Khanate was Golden Lineage through and through, descended from Jochi.

And the Astrakhan dynasty that currently ruled the Uzbek Khanate was descended from Kuchuk Muhammad, Khan of the Kipchaks, and therefore also of the line of Jochi.

This Astrakhan dynasty had originally possessed its own khanate in the lower Volga region and the steppe lands of the southern Caucasus. Later the khanate was destroyed by Ivan the Terrible, and its rulers fled to Bukhara, the capital of the Uzbek Khanate. One of its princes married the daughter of Iskander Khan of the Shibanid dynasty, and since Iskander Khan had no sons, the khanship in the end passed to this prince.

Shah Jahan did not at once grasp his son's meaning. "Dala Xike, do you think the Astrakhan dynasty will go and contend with Eyel Zasag Khan for the position of Great Khan of the Mongols?"

"No," said Dala Xike, shaking his head. "Far more likely, they will bow their heads and submit to Eyel Zasag Khan, and then borrow the power of the Great Khan's empire to attack India!"

This talent for wild speculation was truly something else.

Shah Jahan thought it over and nodded. "You are right. We should strike first! Dala Xike, go at once and prepare a generous gift for the Great Khan. Do not be stingy with money. Whatever it costs, as long as the Uzbek Khanate can be destroyed, spend it!"

In fact, no matter how much money was spent hiring the Mongol Great Khan to help, it would still be cheaper than Shah Jahan sending troops from India himself!

Shah Jahan's army had long ceased to be a nomadic army. It was an army made up of "jagir" military aristocrats — that is, landlord soldiers, who could not drive their cattle and sheep along, grazing as they fought. They had to rely on the supply transport of Indian merchants.

The cost of keeping sixty thousand troops in the field for two years made even the fabulously wealthy Timurid Empire of India wince with pain!

"You wish to send envoys to Dadu to present gifts to the Great Khan? Excellent! The Great Khan will certainly be delighted!"

In the city of Agra, Sonin, who had already been settled by his Indian Mongol brethren into a magnificent mansion, heard from the Crown Prince of the Indian Mongols news that overjoyed him.

He had come to India with the intention of muddling through, and had never expected to actually pull it off!

Caballero, who was attending him, quickly reminded him in stiff Chinese, "Minister Sonin, the Great Qing should seek an alliance with the Mongol Empire of India! Two great Mongol empires should join hands and together deal with the enemies of the Great Mongols."

Sonin thought it over and agreed — this was a matter to strike while the iron was hot!

"Your Highness," Sonin quickly said to Dala Xike in "Japanese," "the Great Khan sent us to India precisely to unite with the Mongol Empire of India, so that together we may resist the Great Mongols' most ferocious enemy!"

"Who is the Great Mongols' most ferocious enemy?" asked Dala Xike.

"The Ming, of course!"

"Only the Ming?" Dala Xike asked again.

"And Russia!"

"Anyone else?" Dala Xike asked once more.

"Japan as well!"

"Anyone else?"

"For the time being, no one else."

"Then may we propose an enemy?" Dala Xike asked with a smile.

"Of course. Go ahead."

"We consider the Uzbek Khanate also an enemy of the Great Mongols!"

"Very well! Then add this Uz-whatever-k."

The Uzbek Khanate was simply cursed by fate — clearly of Golden Lineage blood, yet it had become an enemy of the Great Mongols!

(End of Chapter)