Chapter 968: The Anti-Celestial Alliance (Seeking Subscriptions)

Satsuma Domain, Kagoshima Castle.

A draft treaty text had already been laid before Shimazu Hisamitsu, the Great Hall (the honorific for a retired domain lord), in the main hall of the Satsuma Domain.

This treaty had been delivered by the Spanish diplomat Caballero, and it was titled the "Anti-Ming Alliance Pact." Its content was an alliance between New Spain and the Satsuma Domain to jointly oppose the Celestial-order system that the Ming state was imposing upon East Asia and the Western Pacific!

Specifically, it opposed the Great Ming's use of the "Suzerain-Vassal Treaty" to turn every "free state" in East Asia into its own vassal state or internal vassal garrison.

In other words, it sought to overthrow the Celestial imperial system that the Great Ming led and was striving to promote!

"Your Excellency the Ambassador, your country of Spain is tens of thousands of li from us. Why do you so detest the Celestial suzerain-vassal system? Has this Celestial suzerain-vassal system harmed Spain's interests?"

The speaker was Shimazu Hisamitsu. He could not speak Chinese, so the house elder Nejime Kiyoo was present to interpret.

And the man he called "Mister Ambassador" was, of course, the Spanish ambassador Caballero.

Caballero had spent many years in the East; he was not only an expert on the East but also an expert on China. It was precisely because he understood China's national conditions and the suzerain-vassal order of the Eastern world well enough that, with the Spanish Eastern Invincible Fleet unable to return home, he had put forward the concept of an "anti-Celestial order" and was attempting to piece together an anti-Celestial alliance.

For Caballero saw in the Celestial Empire the shadow of Europe's Habsburg Empire!

The suzerain-vassal system that the Zhu Emperor wished to build and the great empire to lead Europe that Charles V of the Habsburg dynasty had wished to forge were in fact very similar — at least in Caballero's view they were much the same.

And where Zhu Cilang was luckier than Charles V was that his base was comparatively larger, with a population of 130 or 140 million! The population Charles V could control was, by estimate, never more than 13 or 14 million.

However, Zhu Cilang also had a trouble that Charles V never encountered: his Celestial Empire was unavoidably subject to interference and obstruction from the Western world.

Whereas Charles V's doings in Europe met with comparatively little interference from outside powers.

Hearing Shimazu Hisamitsu's question as relayed by Nejime Kiyoo, Caballero laughed: "Your Excellency the Great Hall, of course Spain must oppose the Celestial Empire, because this world is far, far smaller than you imagine. The emergence of the Celestial Empire will pose a grave threat to the Spanish Empire's world hegemony! If this empire fully takes shape, then everything east of the Strait of Malacca to the western shore of the Pacific — perhaps even to the west coast of the New World — will be placed under the leadership of a single power!

This super-empire will possess land comparable to the Spanish world empire, and its population will very likely be ten times that of the Spanish world empire!

By then, our King, His Majesty Philip IV, will no longer be able to call himself King of the Earth!

Your Excellency the Great Hall, do you not think Spain ought to adopt every possible measure of containment before the Celestial Empire has fully emerged?"

This was a struggle for world hegemony!

Shimazu Hisamitsu's eyes darted back and forth as he calculated how the Shimazu house should extract the greatest benefit from this collision between the two great powers of East and West. Of course, a small player like the Shimazu house would do best to stay out of it! But the problem was that the matter had already come knocking at their door!

Word had just arrived from Kyoto that the Tokugawa shogunate had already petitioned the imperial court to designate the Shimazu family and the Satsuma Domain as enemies of the court!

Once designated enemies of the court, a punitive expedition would surely follow. The shogunate had very likely already become a running dog of the Celestial Court, relying on Celestial support to butcher the Shimazu house like a chicken, to frighten the domains of Japan that were not fully obedient to the shogunate. Oh, not to frighten the domains, but to frighten the domain samurai and ronin!

Shimazu Hisamitsu thought for a moment, then asked: "Besides the Shimazu house and New Spain, who else will join this 'Anti-Ming Alliance Pact'?"

Caballero said: "The Setsen Khan, Tüsheet Khan, and Jasaghtu Khan aimags of the Khalkha Mongols, and the Khorchin aimag of the Eastern Mongols, have already formed an alliance to jointly oppose the Ming state. The Ming state's Andong Protectorate is also considering whether to join the 'Anti-Ming Alliance Pact.' The Kingdom of Joseon may also join. The Shun dynasty, whom the Ming call roving bandits, also opposes the Great Ming Celestial Court, and they are now at war with the Ming army.

In addition, Russia in the west, the Uzbek Khanate, and the Kazakh Khanate are all unanimously opposed to the Great Ming.

Your Excellency the Great Hall, please do not hesitate any longer. Join the 'Anti-Ming Alliance Pact' at once!

As soon as you sign the pact, Spanish cannon and artillerymen will be in place immediately!"

Shimazu Hisamitsu and Nejime Kiyoo exchanged a glance, both somewhat helpless. They could only sign. The situation was plain: joining the "Anti-Ming Alliance Pact" meant nine chances in ten of death; not joining meant certain death with no chance at all!

So the Great Ming Celestial Court still had quite a few enemies after all!

Since it was a Celestial Empire, how could it possibly have no enemies?

And the enemies all knew that the Celestial Empire was now quite capable in a fight, so they had all learned to be crafty and would not foolishly offer themselves up for a beating the way the Shunzhi Emperor had — the Great Ming's enemies all missed the wise sovereign Chongzhen, while Zhu Cilang would miss the little Shunzhi Emperor.

Because the enemies had grown cunning, the Zhu Emperor's two campaigns against the Khalkha Mongols and the Khorchin Mongols had both failed to achieve quick victory.

The northern desert steppe and the Eastern Mongol steppe — what a vast territory!

At least two million square kilometers!

Chasing the mobile Mongol nomadic states across such an immense expanse of boundless steppe and endless desert — how could it be easy? Especially since the Setsen Khan, Tüsheet Khan, and Jasaghtu Khan aimags and the Khorchin aimag had all adopted a strategy of avoiding battle, herding as far north as possible, avoiding engagement with the Ming's Model Army (the regular line troops) and the Garrison Army (the four garrisons of Shuofang, Anbei, Beiping, and Daning), while concentrating their strength to strike at the Chahar and Tumed Mongols.

And although the Chahar and Tumed had both received firearms (mainly matchlocks), armor, and fine bows from the Ming, these two groups had not changed the tribal system that put them at a disadvantage in war, and having been controlled by the Qing for too long, they had partly lost their nomadic ability. They had looked fine on the southern steppe, but once they entered the northern desert, they too fell into the trap set by the three Khalkha aimags.

The latter first set fire to the grasslands in the southern part of the northern desert steppe, then polluted the water sources with dead horses and dead sheep, causing great hardship for the northward-advancing Chahar and Tumed.

Thus the war against the Khalkha Mongols and the Eastern Mongols that began in the ninth year of Hongxing did not achieve victory as quickly as expected, but instead bogged down into a protracted struggle.

On the Eastern Mongol steppe, Huang Degong did not rush to open battle with the Khorchin aimag. Instead, he led the Daning Army, which had come from afar, to first secure a foothold in the area northeast of the Yan Mountains and around Mount Mameng.

The Daning Army first rebuilt the Daning Guard city in the hilly country southwest of Mount Mameng as its base, and then sought out valleys suitable for cultivation northeast of the Yan Mountains and around Mount Mameng, establishing fourteen garrison-settlement towns to settle the Daning Army's officers, soldiers, and their families who had migrated from Huaibei.

At the same time, Huang Degong also dispatched troops to subjugate the Mongol tribes of the Josotu League that had formerly belonged to the Qing, forcing them to migrate north or submit to the Daning Army. For the Josotu League Mongol tribes that submitted, Huang Degong used the Qing method of governing the Inner Mongols, establishing the Six Guards of Daning (the former three Kharchin banners), dividing the pasturelands among them and settling them in fixed residences and grazing areas.

On the Khalkha front, however, the Tumed and Chahar, supported by the three garrisons of Anbei, Beiping, and Shuofang, were somewhat rash. Ignoring the burned grasslands and polluted water sources, they resolutely pushed north, and even split their forces into two columns, advancing respectively to the vicinity of Karakorum and the Kherlen River.

As a result, the Chahar, north of the Kherlen River at the foot of Mount Üürsai Khan, ran into a combined army of the Setsen Khan aimag, the Khorchin aimag, and Russia!

The two sides fought fiercely for a day and a night. Although the Chahar's great army had driven the armies of the Setsen Khan and Khorchin aimags to the brink of collapse, a thousand Russian "Santa Claus" soldiers suddenly appeared on the battlefield and delivered a devastating volley with heavy matchlocks, shattering the Chahar cavalry in a single blow!

(End of Chapter)