Chapter 904: Fulin, Someone Has His Eye on Your Throne!

"What did you say? Who sent you?"

Hei Wentao was asking the questions at this moment, standing in for Zhu Cihuan, who was already grinning from ear to ear. The person being questioned was none other than Chahar Guhalun.

This fellow was Ligdan Khan's eldest grandson, but he was not born of the primary wife — he was born of a concubine — so he could not inherit the Borjigin surname and instead used the Chahar clan name. In the original history, this fellow's third son, Tubotu, because he served as an official in Suzhou for a long time, added "Su" to his own surname, becoming Su-Chahar. Later still, Su-Chahar Tubotu's grandson even became the General of Guangzhou.

Of course, history had now changed, and there would be no more General of Guangzhou surnamed Su-Chahar.

"In reply to the General," Chahar Guhalun, who had served as an official in Beijing for many years and therefore spoke fluent Chinese, said, "this humble official was sent by the Great Consort Nangnang and the Chahar Prince!"

"Didn't the Great Consort Nangnang marry Hong Taiji?" Hei Wentao had once served as the lead guard for Emperor Zhu, and had been ordered to investigate the family circumstances of the Shunzhi Emperor with Bumbutai, who had settled in Nanjing. So he knew that this Great Consort Nangnang was Shunzhi's stepmother, Hong Taiji's Western Palace Noble Consort, and in the ninth year of Shunzhi she had been further honored as the Great Noble Consort Yijing. She was also the birth mother of the Shunzhi Emperor's younger brother, Bumbogor. How had a person like that ended up on the Chahar steppe?

Chahar Guhalun smiled. "The Great Consort used the pretext of going to Chahar to muster troops, and obtained an edict from that traitor Fulin, before taking Bumbogor to Chahar to seek refuge with the Prince of Chahar."

The current Prince of Chahar was named Abunai, Ligdan Khan's youngest son. He had not yet been born when Ligdan Khan died — he was a posthumous child — and his birth mother was none other than the Great Consort Nangnang, Namjung. In other words, this Abunai was Bumbogor's elder brother by the same mother.

"So then, the Chahar Eight Banners all obey Prince Abunai and the Great Consort Nangnang now?" Hei Wentao asked.

"Of course!" Chahar Guhalun said. "Although the Chahar Eight Banners are Inner-subject Mongols, the Chahar Prince's residual authority remains, and the Great Consort herself also has many old followers, plus there is Bumbogor, whom the false emperor in Beijing has just enfeoffed as Prince Xiang. So the officials of all the Chahar banners dare not disobey the orders of the Great Consort, the Prince, and Bumbogor. Prince Chahar is now the master of Chahar."

It turned out that this Great Consort Nangnang also wielded very strong influence on the Chahar steppe. This was because Ligdan Khan had a rather peculiar way of thinking. Other Mongol khans liked to divide their followers among their sons, but Ligdan Khan divided his followers among his wives. The eight great consorts each had their own followers, and the Great Consort Nangnang was Ligdan Khan's primary wife, first among the eight great consorts, in charge of the Ahetu Tumet-Ordos.

So when Shunzhi let the Great Consort Nangnang out of Beijing, it was like releasing a tiger back to the mountains.

But once this tigress reached the Chahar steppe, she ran into a big problem: Prince Dai, Zhu Cijiong, and the Khan of Karakorum, Erinchen, were advancing from the Tumed plain to the west, intent on seizing the followers of the Chahar Eight Banners.

This Erinchen and Prince Abunai were both descendants of Dayan Khan, and among the many Golden Family lines both could be considered direct-line descendants. Their direct ancestor was none other than Ayushiridara, the Yuan Zhaozong who had lost the Central Plains. However, Abunai was of the direct line descended from Dayan Khan, while Erinchen belonged to the cadet line descended from Dayan Khan through Altan Khan.

Although both lines were descendants of Dayan Khan, they had long fought each other, and both factions wanted to become master of the Mongols.

Historically, when Ligdan Khan was pressed by the Manchus and forced to move west, he had also, along the way, given the Tumed a thorough beating. So the faction of Erinchen and the faction of the Prince of Chahar had deep enmity.

If Erinchen became the common lord of the Mongols, Prince Abunai's days would not be easy.

But the Great Consort Nangnang and Abunai did not dare openly oppose Erinchen, because behind Erinchen stood the Ming Prince Dai, Zhu Cijiong.

So they could only find a way to contact another royal army, and Zhu Cihuan, flying the banner of the Commandery Prince of Chongqing, looked like a fairly reliable royal army.

"Speak, then. What do your Great Consort and the Prince of Chahar want? Rewards or titles? This Prince can help pass the word along." Having learned that the visitors were not here to rob him, the Commandery Prince of Chongqing, Zhu Cihuan, finally put on the airs of a prince, receiving Chahar Guhalun inside the wagon-fort that Hei Wentao had ordered set up.

"In reply to Your Highness," Chahar Guhalun said with an ingratiating smile, "my family's Great Consort and Prince wish only to submit to the Great Ming as subjects, and to ask the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming to issue an edict ordering Erinchen's Tumed to stop seizing our Chahar lands and followers.

Furthermore, my family's Great Consort believes that Fulin's rebellion in Beijing is a severing of himself from the Great Ming and from all under Heaven, and is surely a dead end. And once he dies, the title of Prince Gong will fall vacant. The Great Consort hopes to have Bumbogor go to Nanjing to become Prince Gong, and she is willing to go to Nanjing together with Bumbogor."

Zhu Cihuan nodded. "So it's Fulin's princely title you've got your eye on. That's an iron-cap prince, and with double stipends at that! Very well, very well. This Prince will certainly relay your request to the Son of Heaven. However, this Prince must now escort a shipment of reward goods to Zhangjiakou Fort. You might as well come with this Prince, and once this Prince has completed his mission, he will take you back to Tianjin for an audience with His Majesty."

Chahar Guhalun asked, "His Majesty's imperial carriage has already reached Tianjin?"

"It has, it has already arrived!" Zhu Cihuan said. "The Son of Heaven has reached Tianjin with two hundred thousand celestial troops, and will soon be at the walls of Beijing. If your Chahar tribe truly wishes to submit, you should send troops to aid the campaign!"

"Our Chahar tribe will certainly send troops!" Chahar Guhalun nodded repeatedly. "The Great Consort and the Prince have both said that as long as the Son of Heaven is willing to accept the Chahar tribe's submission, the Chahar tribe is willing to send troops to aid the campaign!"

"Good, good, good." Zhu Cihuan was a muddle-headed prince who had no idea how significant the Chahar tribe's submission to the Great Ming truly was. He merely nodded absent-mindedly.

But Zhu Cijiong at Zhangjiakou was far more formidable than his fifth brother. His current position had been won through desperate struggle. He had seen too much danger at Datong, the Lüliang Mountains, and Yulin Garrison, and he was an old opponent of the Southern Mongols. He understood all too well the Chahar tribe's influence among the Mongols.

The word "Chahar" roughly meant "household," "servants," "guards," or "palace guard." After Dayan Khan rose and once again unified the Mongols, he redivided the tumens and, following the old precedent of Genghis Khan, established his own keshig army, which was called the Central Chahar Tumen.

In other words, the Central Chahar Tumen was the Great Khan of the Mongols' personal tumen.

Therefore, only the leader of the Mongol Golden Family who possessed the Central Chahar Tumen was the legitimate Great Khan of the Mongols!

If the Central Chahar Tumen abandoned Fulin and directly submitted to the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming, then Fulin would completely lose his title as Great Khan of the Mongols.

"Fifth Brother," Zhu Cijiong said after hearing the report that Hei Wentao delivered on Zhu Cihuan's behalf, immediately realizing that the Great Ming could not let this opportunity pass, "make the effort to return at once with General Hei and Chahar Guhalun to the old Chahar camp, and bring the Great Consort Nangnang and Bumbogor together to Tianjin Garrison. Also, take another fifty carts of goods to give to Abunai, so he can use them to recruit followers and be ready at any time to march south upon receiving the edict!"

Zhu Cihuan hesitated. "Third Brother, our imperial elder brother hasn't yet agreed to the Chahar tribe's request. Will they be willing to hand over their own mother and younger brother?"

Zhu Cijiong was taken aback, then glared at his brother. "Old Fifth, what are you thinking? The Central Chahar Tumen wants to submit — how could Eldest Brother possibly refuse? Do you know how much trouble the Chahar tribe caused us when they migrated east to the Liao River bend during the Jiajing era? If we can get the Chahar and Tumed tribes to migrate north together, how great would the benefit be for the stability of the northern frontier?

If in the future we can turn the Mongols into a three-way balance of power among Chahar, Tumed, and Dzungar, then our Nine Border Garrisons will be absolutely secure! Enough, no more talk. Leave at once for the old Chahar camp."

(End of Chapter)