Chapter 922: Inviting the Dharma King (Please Subscribe)

"Of course this younger brother is a filial son — this younger brother obeys Imperial Brother in everything!"

Hearing his brother put it that way, Zhu Cihuan naturally had to compete for the title of filial son! Who didn't know that Zhu Cilang was the Great Ming's Twenty-Fifth Filial Exemplar, and that he valued filial piety above all?

But Chongzhen's brow furrowed deeply — His Imperial Father was still alive, so how could a filial son obey Imperial Brother in everything? Shouldn't a filial son obey his father? Only after the father is gone does the eldest brother stand in the father's place! If you're already treating your eldest brother as your father, then you are being unfilial!

Zhu Cilang was quite satisfied. "Good, good — a true filial son indeed! Imperial Father, you see Fifth Brother's wholehearted filial devotion. Why not send him on a trip to Tibet?"

The Retired Emperor Chongzhen could only smile wryly and nod. "Cihuan is indeed filial. Your father will send you on this journey. It's just that your father's purse is empty — I have no silver for the tea offering. What is to be done?"

Zhu Cilang smiled. "We will put up the silver for the tea offering. We still have some savings — We'll start with fifty thousand taels!"

"Imperial Brother, there's no need for that much," Zhu Cijiong reminded him. "Ten thousand taels is more than enough. Fifty thousand is excessive."

"Not excessive, not excessive," Zhu Cilang said, waving his hand. "Our Imperial Father has plenty of silver, and he is sincere in his devotion to the Buddha. He also plans to build a hundred lamaseries on the steppe, and to build a resplendent head temple in Beijing at a cost of five hundred thousand taels, and to invite an enlightened Khutuktu to reside there permanently. So a first donation of fifty thousand taels in tea money is merely a token of his sincerity. If his wish is granted, there will be even more tea money."

That's going to cost a million taels, isn't it? Who exactly is paying for all this? Don't tell me it's coming out of Our pocket? Chongzhen thought to himself: even if the court pays, it's still not right! This is all the fat and blood of the people! How can it be spent like this? It's simply outrageous!

Before Chongzhen could open his mouth to object, Zhu Cijiong was already shaking his head. "Not easy, not easy. Imperial Brother must want to invite the Venerable Dharma King to Beijing, right? But this generation's Venerable Dharma King is the son of Tüsheet Khan Gombodorji — I'm afraid he can't be invited just by spending a bit of money."

The Venerable Dharma King was the Jebtsundamba, said to be the reincarnation of an eminent monk who was one of the five hundred bhikkhus before Shakyamuni's seat. After this eminent monk had been reincarnated fifteen times, he became the Jonang school's eminent monk Taranatha. Taranatha had once preached the Dharma in Khalkha Mongolia for twenty years and won the devotion of the princes and herdsmen of all the Khalkha tribes, and was called the Jebtsundamba — that is, the Venerable Sage, or the Venerable Dharma King.

This eminent monk passed away in the seventh year of Chongzhen, and in the eighth year of Chongzhen he was discovered to have been reincarnated as Zanabazar, son of Tüsheet Khan Gombodorji. A few years ago this Zanabazar followed the Fifth Great Lama — who had come to Beijing to chant sutras for Dorgon — back to Tibet, and became the latter's disciple. He is still in Tibet studying the chanting of sutras.

Zhu Cilang said with a smile, "Third Brother is mistaken. Imperial Father is sincere in his devotion to the Buddha and wishes to invite the Venerable Dharma King to Beijing to preach the Dharma. Where there is utmost sincerity, even metal and stone are moved. So the Dharma King will certainly come to Beijing! Imperial Father, is your heart sincere or not?"

Sincere my ass! Chongzhen thought to himself: Your Imperial Father doesn't believe in lamas at all!

Seeing Chongzhen remain silent, Zhu Cilang nodded, then said to Zhu Cihuan, "Fifth Brother, your heart must also be sincere. You must make sure the Great Lama and the Dharma King Güshi Khan see Imperial Father's sincerity."

Zhu Cihuan nodded repeatedly and said, "Imperial Brother is right." He thought for a moment. "This younger brother will go find a monk to shave my head and ordain me. That should count as sincere, right?"

"No!" Zhu Cilang frowned. "How can you shave your head and become a monk? If you become a monk, how can you still demonstrate sincerity?"

"Exactly!" Zhu Cijiong said. "Fifth Brother, you haven't even taken a wife — how can you renounce the world? If you are truly sincere, you should take a wife first!"

What does that mean?

Both Zhu Cihuan and the Retired Emperor Chongzhen were utterly baffled.

"Third Brother knows what true sincerity is!" Zhu Cilang nodded. "We will have the Great Consort Nangnang make arrangements for Fifth Brother to marry a Chahar princess."

No matter what, the Chahar were the legitimate line of the Mongols, while the Khoshut were merely an offshoot of the Khorchin tribe — they couldn't make it in the eastern steppe, so they went over to the western Mongols, the Oirat. After reaching the Oirat, they built themselves up under the banner of the Golden Family, and later, taking advantage of the chaos among the eastern Mongols, gathered up many herdsmen who had migrated west. By the generation of Güshi Khan's grandfather, they had finally become the leaders of the Oirat confederation. But by Güshi Khan's own generation, because of the renewed rise of the Dzungar tribe, they had been forced to move south into Qinghai and Tibet to develop. With Güshi Khan's status being what it was, he naturally could not fail to show respect to the legitimate Chahar line.

"Imperial Brother," Zhu Cijiong shook his head again, "merely marrying a Chahar princess is probably still not sincere enough!"

"You have a point," Zhu Cilang said, thinking it over. "We will also have Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun lead twelve thousand elite horse and foot soldiers to escort Fifth Brother onto the plateau, and order Wu Sangui to move three thousand musket cavalry to the shores of Qinghai Lake! With sincerity like that, it should be enough to move Güshi Khan and the Great Lama, shouldn't it?"

Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun's troops were camped outside Beijing — twelve thousand men in total, of whom two thousand were cavalry and ten thousand infantry.

As for Wu Sangui, over the past two years he had joined forces with the Dzungar tribe in a great war against the Yarkent Khanate, and the war was now entering its final stage. Wu Sangui's army had already recovered Hami Guard and the old territory of Xizhou, while the rest of the Yarkent Khanate's lands had been seized by the Dzungar tribe — it should be explained that this war had nothing to do with the native peoples of the Western Regions; it was merely a feudal hegemonic war between Wu Sangui and the Dzungar tribe on one side, and the descendants of the Chagatai khans who had invaded from Central Asia on the other.

"Enough, more than enough," Zhu Cijiong said with a laugh. "Güshi Khan and the Great Lama are both reasonable men. Seeing how sincere we are, they will certainly allow the Venerable Dharma King to come to Beijing to chant sutras for Imperial Father."

He looked at Chongzhen with a beaming smile. "Imperial Father, your many years of heartfelt desire can finally be fulfilled!"

Chongzhen gave a faint, ambiguous smile. "Our son, that you can think of using the Yellow Hat sect to control the steppe is indeed somewhat cleverer than your father. But so many generations of our dynasty's former emperors — including the Exalted Founder, the Great High Emperor himself — were unable to pacify the steppe once and for all. Don't expect that a few Yellow Hat great lamas can make all the Mongols on the steppe lay down their butcher's knives!"

"Imperial Father speaks truly." Zhu Cilang, for once, agreed with Chongzhen's opinion. He let out a breath. "The steppe is so vast — how could there be any once-and-for-all solution? Your son dares not harbor such extravagant hopes. The governance of the steppe requires persistent, long-term effort. Perhaps even if your son spends decades of work, it may only bring part of the steppe from barbarism into civilization!"

While Zhu Cilang was busy dispatching his good brother Zhu Cihuan up to the plateau to offer tea and invite the Dharma King, Guan Aobai was in Busan with De Velasco, interviewing Russians.

The first to be led into the main hall of the Andong Army naval headquarters by Aobai's brother Guan Muma (Murima) were several dozen "short-bearded men" with fair skin, pale blue eyes, slightly curly hair, somewhat prominent brow ridges, and unusually thick beards and eyebrows. At a glance, they did look a bit like "hairy foreigners," but as Aobai looked at them, something felt off.

Aobai asked, "Murima, where did you find these Russians? They don't look quite right!"

"Brother, they're all Ainu from Sakhalin Island," Guan Muma said. "Last time, after we defeated the Japanese on Sakhalin, we set up a Sakhalin Jalangga Banner Office on the island, registered all the able-bodied men of every clan, and made them serve in rotation. These men were all assigned to the Pacific Fleet as sailors. Didn't you say you wanted to find some Westerners to play the part of Russians? So I thought of them. How do they look?"

Aobai glanced at De Velasco. "Old De, do they look the part to you?"

De Velasco studied them for a while. "They look all right. The hair color isn't quite right, but it can be dyed. But can they speak Russian?"

Guan Muma shook his head. "Of course not, but we can have them pretend to be mute."

De Velasco turned back to Aobai and said, "Admiral, time is pressing. If we need more men to swell the numbers and make a show of strength, we'll have to use them."

Aobai thought it over and nodded. "Then it will have to be so. Old De, how are the muskets coming along? Have they all been engraved with Russian script? We can't do it like last time — carving a few Chinese characters to fool people!"

(End of Chapter)