Chapter 921: The Soul of the Mongols (Seeking Subscriptions)

"Khoshuud?" Zhu Cijiong had not expected Zhu Cilang to ask about the Khoshuud. Wasn't this line of thought a bit too much of a leap? A moment ago they had been discussing how to deal with the former territory of the Daming Commandery at the easternmost edge of eastern Mongolia, and now suddenly they had run off to Tibet.

"Imperial Brother," Zhu Cijiong thought for a moment, "giving the Khoshuud an outer feudatory would be enough. Güshi Khan has no great ambitions; he has always been fairly well-behaved, and he has no major conflicts with Wu Sangui either."

"Is that so?" Zhu Cilang frowned slightly. "But the Snowy Plateau is the soul of the Yellow Hat Mongols! Mongolia is vast beyond measure — it begins in the east with the Nen River grasslands, and in the west it can be counted as far as Moghulistan. It seems there is also a Torghut tribe that went off to some Volga River basin — they certainly ran far!

With territory that vast and tribes that numerous, for us to conquer them one by one is utterly impossible. Yet we cannot simply ignore them either. Otherwise, if one or two great khans arise on the steppe and unite the tribes, our troubles will never end!

So we must grip them by the soul! And this soul of the Yellow Hat Mongols is precisely what Güshi Khan has seized hold of!"

The Mongols of this era could broadly be divided into Yellow Hat Mongols and Green Hat Mongols. The Green Hat Mongols were the Kazakhs, the Uzbeks, and also the Yarkent Khanate, which was now locked in bitter fighting with both the Dzungars and Wu Sangui. The Mughal state that had run off to India could barely be counted among them as well.

Apart from the Yarkent Khanate, which counted as being within the circle of the Celestial Empire, the rest of the Green Hat Mongols had no entanglements with the Great Ming. And even the Yarkent Khanate would not challenge the Great Ming's position within the Celestial Empire's circle. For ever since the collapse of the Timurid Empire, the power of the Green Hat Mongols had been in rapid decline, and they no longer posed any threat to the Great Ming.

But the Yellow Hat Mongols were a different matter!

The Yellow Hat Mongols of this era were still extremely powerful — rising in the west from the Volga, reaching Khorchin in the east, beginning in Siberia in the north, and bordering the Great Wall in the south. At least ten million square kilometers of grassland and desert were all the domain of the Yellow Hat Mongols. Their population was above two million!

That may not seem like much, but their men able to draw a bow and bear armor numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

And among the Yellow Hat Mongols there were always those who could not forget the story of Genghis Khan. Historically, they would not truly settle down until the collapse of the Dzungar Khanate. So the Zhu Emperor had no way to cut the Yellow Hat Mongols out of the picture — over these past two hundred-plus years within the Celestial circle, apart from the few decades of the Manchu rise, the rest of the time it had been the Yellow Hat Mongols and the Great Ming contending for the position of overlord.

Looking further back, ever since the Han–Xiongnu wars for supremacy began, the tribes of the steppe had been locked in endless struggle with the Han Chinese dynasties, coming and going, fighting without cease. The two sides had loved and killed each other for two thousand years — how could you cut that apart?

As for utterly smashing them — whether that could even be done was another question, and even if it could be done, the Zhu Emperor would not do it. Because without the Yellow Hat Mongols occupying this grassland, the Green Hat Mongols and Russia would rush in to fill the void. Wiping out two million nomads across more than ten million square kilometers is impossible! But if the Zhu Emperor spared no cost, it would still be possible to smash all the great myriarchies of the eastern and western Mongols and, for a period of time, drive them westward as far as possible. According to steppe tradition, they would then be absorbed by the Green Hat Mongols of Moghulistan. The Kazakh Khanate or the Uzbek Khanate might both grow powerful — and the most serious outcome could be the resurrection of the Timurid Empire!

These Green Hat Mongols would not let fine young men go off to become lamas serving the Buddha — they would let them breed freely. Heh heh.

So the solution the Zhu Emperor put forward was one that was deeply unsatisfying and required long-term, sustained investment. First, establish internal garrison commands in Southern Mongolia — the four garrisons of Daming, Beiping, Anbei, and Shuofang — and in the west establish the two garrisons of Hexi and Anxi (with the possible addition of a Beiting garrison separated from the Dzungars).

Then use these garrisons to compress the living space of several great Yellow Hat Mongol myriarchies.

Next, support several Yellow Hat Mongol feudatory states and let them control even vaster territories — on the one hand keeping each other in check, and on the other using them to hold off Russia and the Green Hat Mongols.

Finally, the Great Ming Empire must also gain control of the spiritual anchor of the Yellow Hat Mongols — that is, the Yellow Hat holy land on the Snowy Plateau.

Of course, achieving this whole series of objectives would actually be extremely arduous!

Never mind that the Zhu Emperor's two hundred thousand troops were massed around Beijing and had shattered the Great Qing state, cowing the Manchus and the power-holders of southern eastern Mongolia. He still did not have the ability to fully control the more than one million square kilometers of Southern Mongolia. And the four garrisons of Daming, Beiping, Anbei, and Shuofang — whether already established or planned — would need a long process before they could truly develop.

Because these four garrisons were hollow at present: they had only a few troops and no armed peasants. Zhu Cilang had no way to rely on a single imperial edict to make over a million Han Chinese peasants abandon their homes and go to the bitter cold northern lands of the Little Ice Age to reclaim land and herd livestock. The four garrisons could at most hold seventy or eighty thousand soldiers, most of them infantry — how could they possibly control more than a million square kilometers of grassland and keep people out?

To achieve that goal, one would either have to build a Great Wall across the steppe, or send at least several hundred thousand to a million armed Han commoners up onto the grassland to open up a thousand settlements.

But during the Little Ice Age, opening agricultural footholds on the northern steppe was very difficult — not impossible, but only a few places were suitable for cultivation — and the cost was far too high. If a thousand footholds were spread out all at once, the Ming court would have to prepare to transport large quantities of grain onto the steppe to support the settled peasants.

In addition, the Ming court would need to issue other living subsidies to several hundred thousand or even a million settled peasants, and the present Great Ming certainly could not bear such expenditures. If there was that much money to burn on Southern Mongolia, one might as well throw it into the Pacific and still reach the Americas or take Australia!

Even if the Zhu Emperor disregarded everything and bore the enormous cost of developing the Southern Mongolian steppe, it would only amount to effectively controlling one-tenth of the Yellow Hat Mongols' living space.

So the Zhu Emperor could only prepare himself for a long-term war of attrition with the Yellow Hat Mongols — and to wage a long-term war of attrition with the Yellow Hat Mongols, he absolutely had to control the Snowy Plateau!

Because that place was the "papal court" of the Yellow Hat Mongols!

Hearing Zhu Cilang speak of the soul of the Mongols, Zhu Cijiong began to understand somewhat. He thought for a while: "Imperial Brother, as far as your younger brother knows, every Mongol banner that follows the Yellow Hat faith sends men into Tibet to boil tea — in practice, it is giving alms of wealth to the great lamas of the Yellow Hat."

Zhu Cilang asked, "How much does one trip cost?"

"It doesn't cost much," Zhu Cijiong said. "Those Mongol banners are so poor — how much can they give the great lamas? Imperial Brother, do you also intend to send men into Tibet to give money to the great lamas?"

Zhu Cilang nodded, but before he could speak, the Chongzhen Retired Emperor beside him suddenly opened his mouth: "Entering Tibet to give money? I fear that would be improper. Our Great Ming is a grand Celestial Dynasty — how can we take the initiative to send money to lamas? If those lamas want rewards from the Celestial Dynasty, they should first send men to come to court, offer tribute, and beg for rewards!"

What Chongzhen said was quite right!

But the great lamas would not be so proactive, because the great lamas were neighbors of the Shun dynasty. If they took the initiative to curry favor with the Great Ming, what would Li Guo think?

And what the Zhu Emperor wanted was not that sort of lukewarm tributary relationship. His goal was to bring Tibet — the sacred and indivisible territory of the great motherland — under the direct control of the central government!

Tibet was far too important, so it could not exist as an outer feudatory; at the very least it had to become an internal feudatory garrison!

And this goal was necessarily in conflict with the aspirations of the Khoshuud Khanate. Therefore, before the Great Ming enfeoffed the Khoshuud Khanate, Güshi Khan would not permit the great lamas to offer tribute to the Ming court. Tibet was a dual polity — if the great lamas offered tribute to the Great Ming while Güshi Khan could not obtain equal status, then Güshi Khan's authority would be shaken.

"Imperial Father speaks rightly!" Zhu Cilang did not contradict the Chongzhen Retired Emperor. "For Us to act personally would indeed be improper. However, Imperial Father could act personally and send men into Tibet to boil tea and give money to the great lamas."

"What? Us personally? But We do not believe in lamas!"

Zhu Cilang smiled: "It doesn't matter. We are not sending money to Tibet because we believe in the Yellow Hat faith. We give money to the Yellow Hat because the Yellow Hat holds the soul of the Mongols, and we must spend money through the Yellow Hat to buy peace!" He turned his head and glanced at the Prince of Chongqing, Zhu Cihuan. "Fifth Brother, now that Imperial Father is going to send men into Tibet to boil tea, shouldn't you make this trip on Imperial Father's behalf? Are you a filial son?"

(End of Chapter)