Chapter 906: The Enemy Is in Moscow (Seeking Subscriptions)

Zhu Cilang of course knew that his dear younger brother had taken in two beauties of the Golden Family — two beauties, and you took them both. Truly corrupt. How can it be allowed to pass without a proper lesson?

But this was not the time to lecture his brother, and Zhu Cilang would not let his displeasure show on his face. Instead he nodded with a smile and said, "Very well — if one is to be taken in, two may as well be. We shall take Abunai as Our adopted son. But the bond of father and son between Us and Abunai is not the same as the bond between Us and Bombogor.

Ours with Bombogor is a private bond, while Ours with Abunai represents the bond about to be established between the Great Ming and the Mongols as two nations. Ming and Mongol have been each other's foes for more than two hundred years, fighting one another nearly to mutual destruction. It was even a fight between two tigers that profited an outsider who sat watching. Great Consort, do you know who that outsider is?"

The Great Consort Nangnang did not understand Chinese, so her son Bombogor served as interpreter.

The Great Consort said, "Does Your Majesty mean the Manchu?"

Zhu Cilang smiled. "The Manchu did indeed rise because our two houses fought each other. Had Ming and Mongol laid down their arms earlier, how could there have been a calamity that nearly destroyed us both?"

At that point Zhu Cilang glanced again at the Chongzhen Emperor. A moment ago Chongzhen had been beaming, but now, hearing Zhu Cilang speak of how the Ming-Mongol struggle had profited the Manchu, his face had turned somewhat grim.

Because Zhu Cilang was talking about his blunder!

Chongzhen and Ligdan Khan were plainly a pair of brothers in misfortune, both bullied to tears by Hong Taiji — and yet they had still found the energy to tear at each other over the matter of "tribute-bestowal and market rewards"!

There were two causes for this affair. First, because the Manchu had been sapping his strength from within, Ligdan Khan could no longer hold his ground in the Liao River valley and was forced to migrate west, seeking to conquer the lands and followers of the Right Wing Mongols (chiefly the Tumed and Ordos tribes) and to obtain the tribute-bestowal and market rewards the Ming gave to the Right Wing Mongols.

The second cause was that the Great Ming had produced the wise sovereign Chongzhen, who felt that tribute-bestowal and market rewards damaged the Great Ming's imperial prestige (indeed they did), and so upon taking the throne he issued an edict abolishing all such rewards.

One side came for the market rewards, while the other abolished them all — the result was of course a mutual brawl!

And so from the sixth month of the first year of Chongzhen, the Ming and the Chahar tribe went to war. The fighting lasted until the second year of Chongzhen, and only after repeated defeats and heavy losses was the Chongzhen Emperor forced to make peace with Ligdan Khan on the condition of restoring the market rewards. And although Ligdan Khan was victorious, he too had expended his vitality in the war with the Ming.

Moreover, while the Ming and Ligdan Khan were locked in fierce battle, Hong Taiji launched the "First Campaign against Chahar," seizing the old lands of Chahar and Harqin (beyond Xuanfu, the former site of the Yuan Upper Capital), thereby gaining a route through the Mongol steppe by which to raid Beijing.

The root of the Jisi Incident was largely planted in this "War of Tribute and Bestowal" — had there been no such war, the Great Ming and Ligdan Khan could have maintained the alliance of the Tianqi era, and Hong Taiji most likely would not have dared launch the "First Campaign against Chahar." Even if there had still been a "First Campaign against Chahar," Hong Taiji could not have achieved such great results.

Because Ligdan Khan, with Ming support, even if he could not defeat Hong Taiji, could still have pulled his followers away and then struck back after Hong Taiji withdrew. The Manchu were not herdsmen — could they graze sheep on the steppe? Did they not want their old home in Shengjing? Impossible.

And as long as the Manchu could not firmly control the Chahar steppe, how could there have been a Jisi Incident? Even if Ligdan Khan did not help the Ming block Hong Taiji, Hong Taiji would not have dared enter the passes — because the moment he did, Ligdan Khan would have gone and raided the Khorchin steppe!

If Ligdan Khan had taken the Khorchin steppe, then the three Khalkha tribes would once again have submitted to Ligdan Khan's banner, and Ligdan Khan would have unified the Eastern Mongols. The "Mongol revival" of Dayan Khan's era would have returned. Had that happened, would Hong Taiji not have wept himself to death?

Had there been no Jisi Incident, Li Zicheng and Li Guo would still be junior officers in the Ming army in Gansu, and might well have ended up as loyal martyrs of the Great Ming.

The Great Ming under Zhu Cilang's leadership, however, was now strong in soldiers and horses, enough to flatten both Fulin in Beijing and Abunai on the Chahar steppe. But he would not do anything so "satisfying," because the Chahar Mongols, the legitimate line of the Great Mongol State, had many enemies!

Dodo beyond the passes was one! If the Chahar legitimate line were gone, then he could continue to usurp the title of Great Khan of the Mongols to control the three Khalkha tribes and the Khorchin tribe.

Sengge in the northwest was another! Never mind that Sengge was now the Great Ming's Grand Protector of the Northern Court — how could the Choros house of the Oirat possibly give up its dream of replacing the Golden Family and unifying the Mongols?

If Zhu Cilang destroyed the legitimate line of the Golden Family on behalf of the Choros house, then the Oirat Choros house would rise exactly as fortune allowed, gather the Mongol tribes, and the Great Ming would then have to fight the Dzungar War!

But if the Chahar Mongol legitimate line survived, then the branches of the Golden Family in Inner and Outer Mongolia would have to uphold the Chahar house.

In that case the Oirat Choros house would have to behave itself and serve as loyal subjects of the Great Ming — otherwise they would face a combined assault by the Great Ming, the Golden Family, the Kazakhs, the Uzbeks, and Russia!

Yet Dodo and the Choros house were not what Emperor Zhu worried about most. These two enemies could both be crushed by the present Great Ming Empire through sheer strength. But the third party that would profit from the destruction of the Golden Family's legitimate line — Tsarist Russia — was an opponent the Great Ming Empire would find very difficult to defeat completely.

"Great Consort," Zhu Cilang said, "the Manchu state is on the verge of destruction. Even with Dodo as a remnant branch, it can no longer be a great calamity. What We worry about is the western nation of Russia!

Russia has already destroyed the descendants of the Golden Horde, and has now seized the Baikal lands of the Bargu people, leaping from a small western state to a vast nation stretching ten thousand li. The Oirat of the Western Mongols have already come under their attack and lost much territory. Only by relying on Our dynasty's support have they stabilized their position. Moreover, the Russians come from the extreme cold lands of the northwest; they love cold and fear heat, and the cold of the Khalkha Mongols is exactly what the Russians like. Therefore the lands lost by the successor khanates of the Golden Horde have all been completely occupied by the Russians, and most of the descendants of the Golden Horde khans have been slaughtered by them. If the Mongols perish at the hands of Russia, it will be extinction!

And once the Mongols are extinct, Russia will become the Great Ming's near neighbor to the north, and the Great Ming's northern frontier will never know peace!"

Compared with Russia, the Great Ming could never exterminate the Mongol race. Because the Han are an agrarian people; they do not practice nomadic herding, and they fear the extreme cold of the north. And the Mongols are a nomadic people — if they cannot defeat the Great Ming, can they not simply flee far away? A Great Ming northern expedition with heavy troops would inevitably consume staggering resources, and heavy troops could not be permanently garrisoned on the steppe. Once the Ming army withdrew, the Mongols would come back. If they then obtained Russian support, the northern frontier would become an enormous quagmire. And the Russians, having already exterminated many Mongol khanates, how could they possibly spare the legitimate line of the Mongol homeland?

Although the Great Consort Nangnang had heard of Russia's fearsome reputation, she did not know much about it. But she would not contradict Emperor Zhu's face, so she nodded repeatedly and pretended to agree wholeheartedly.

Zhu Cilang knew she was merely humoring him, but he did not make much of it, because a weak Mongol legitimate line was exactly the tool he needed.

"Great Consort," Zhu Cilang said, "We heard that you and Bombogor were coming, so We had a 'Treaty of Sovereign and Vassal' prepared. This treaty is meant to define the relationship between the Mongols and the Great Ming: the Great Ming is the sovereign, the Mongols are the vassal; We are the father, Abunai is the son. And the Mongol vassalage shall be half outer vassal, half inner vassal. The Khalkha Mongol lands shall be the outer vassal, to be jointly administered in the future by Chahar and Ordos — Chahar as khan, Ordos as his deputy.

We shall also set aside pasturelands within the jurisdictions of the Andong Protectorate, the Andong Protectorate, and the Heilongjiang Protectorate for the Chahar and Ordos herders to use as winter refuge from the cold. These winter pastures are not outer-vassal Mongol land; they belong to the Great Ming's inner-vassal Andong Protectorate, Andong Protectorate, and Heilongjiang Protectorate. But the Chahar and Ordos tribes will be permitted to use them in winter, and thus the Mongols are half an inner vassal.

In addition, We shall each year distribute to the Chahar and Ordos tribes cloth, ironware, firearms and ammunition, and shall help you build fortresses on the lands bordering Russia in the north, as a defense for the long term!"

(End of Chapter)