Chapter 243: Little Lhazang

The news that the various tribes of Sun-Moon Mountain had refused to pay the surtax spread like wildfire through the Little Bend south of the Yellow River.

When word reached Little Lhazang's ears, the Mongol chieftain, not yet thirty, was wearing a yellow hat and a purple-red clerical robe that brushed the ground, watching the Youning Monastery craftsmen cast a large bronze vessel at the Eight-Cornered City of White Stone Cliff, accompanied by the monastery's Dharma Master, Monk Qucang, and several chieftains.

But what Little Lhazang was casting was not a cannon — it was a bronze statue of Guanyin weighing over two hundred jin.

The exquisite statue, cast by the lost-wax method, had already entered the final polishing stage.

Little Lhazang's piety was interrupted by the news from afar. He turned his head and asked Monk Qucang, "Teacher, a Han army seized the surtax the seven Sun-Moon Mountain tribes owed me at Ju'er Bay. Do you know who they are?"

Monk Qucang closed his eyes and pondered briefly, then spoke a Han name: "Liu Chengzong."

Qucang was one of the few people on this land who could travel freely everywhere.

In his early years, he studied scriptures at Drepung Monastery in Ü-Tsang. Sent into Qinghai by the great-grandson of Altan Khan, the Fourth Dalai Lama, to spread the faith among the Khuluchi tribe, he was also the Dharma Master of Youning Monastery in Xining.

As early as when Liu Chengzong set out westward from Pingliang, Qucang, who was in Xining gathering copper and craftsmen for Little Lhazang, already knew that the Emperor had appointed the Shaanxi rebel leader Liu Chengzong as the Qinghai Pacification Commissioner.

But he did not say so.

Knowledge is a priceless treasure in this world; only when others ask does it attain its due value.

Little Lhazang asked again, "Who is Liu Chengzong?"

Monk Qucang answered very seriously, "A wicked man."

Little Lhazang showed little reaction to this assessment. He merely nodded lightly, intoned a Buddhist invocation, and then said, "There are too many wicked men in the world. My elder brother, Huang Taiji, is also a wicked man."

From the accompanying retinue, one chieftain stepped forward — Bayan Taiji, another son of Khuluchi. He urged, "He is your brother."

Little Lhazang, who had remained impassive until now, finally erupted in anger at these words: "You are his brother too — why don't you go and persuade him? My followers are the most numerous, my pastures the widest. After Father died, his concubines should rightfully have come to me. Why did I let him seize them?"

"In the wars of the Rat and Ox years, the Kyishö Dëpa took a supreme treasure and sought out the Khalkha Abadai to borrow three thousand troops to enter Ü-Tsang. They lost the battle, and he still got the supreme treasure."

Little Lhazang turned his head to look at Monk Qucang: "Ten years ago, we fought our way into Ü-Tsang to protect the Yellow Hat teachings and routed the Tsangpa. What did I get? They gave me a skull cup!"

Bayan Taiji sighed. That truly had been a muddled war.

During the Jiajing era, the Tsang chieftain Shingshapa Tseten Dorje rose in rebellion, allied with the White Sect, gradually grew in power, occupied Tsang, and proclaimed himself the Tsangpa Khan.

By the late Wanli years, just as the great-grandson of Altan Khan died and was enthroned, the fourth Tsangpa Khan expanded outward, gradually encroaching upon and conquering many minor tribal chieftains — small kingdoms like Bhutan and Ngari Gugu.

The Kyishö Dëpa was the local governor of the lower Lhasa River and the patron who supported the Yellow Hat teachings at the time. To preserve himself, he brought out his family treasure, 'Lugyel Shara,' and sent men to invite the Yellow Hat–believing Khalkha Mongols into Tibet to defend the faith.

The Tibet campaign won first, then lost.

At that time, their Khuluchi tribe had not yet fully embraced the Yellow Hat teachings, which was why the Yellow Hats had bypassed those nearby to seek distant help, inviting the chieftains of the northern desert to launch an expedition.

The younger brother of the Khalkha Abadai led his troops forth, but before they even entered Tibet, the war had already begun.

The Tsangpa Khan, intimidated by the scattered Mongol riders who had entered Tibet to plunder, set up defenses at Lhasa, intending to use the terrain to resist to the death.

Who could have known that the monk-soldiers of Sera and Drepung, the two main monasteries of the Yellow Hats, would fall into internal strife with the Kyishö Dëpa's forces?

The Tsangpa Khan seized the opportunity to counterattack with ten thousand troops, storming the two monasteries and slaughtering over five thousand monks and laypeople. The two monasteries surrendered. By the time Abadai's younger brother arrived in Ü-Tsang after the long journey, the Yellow Hats had already capitulated.

Still, with the relief army now present, the Tsangpa Khan dared not go too far. The price he made the Yellow Hats pay was merely seizing the two monasteries, which were later returned to the Yellow Hats after paying an indemnity of three hundred taels of gold.

A whole circle of war had been fought, tens of thousands had died, the battle lines had not shifted, the sole outcome was three hundred taels of gold, and the situation returned to square one.

The Tsangpa's world was only so big. Having defeated the Yellow Hats, they thought they could rest easy. They issued the Sixteen Laws and ordered that all fortresses throughout Tibet, except the fourteen great estates, be demolished — as if that would let them rest easy.

So when the old Tsangpa died and the new young Tsangpa Khan's succession was still unstable, in the first year of the Tianqi reign, the Khuluchi tribe's Guru Huang Taiji and Little Lhazang allied their forces and entered Tibet.

They saw no fortifications worth mentioning, and naturally, there was no resistance force worth mentioning.

Without fortresses, without fortifications, with plunder as the sole objective — is there anyone in the world who is a match for the Mongols?

Never mind Ü-Tsang — even Shaanxi and Gansu could do nothing about them.

The Mongols had three routes from the northern desert into Tibet. Apart from Hami, the other two lay within the Great Ming's borders, cutting straight across into Amdo, entirely unimpeded.

They had tried to stop them, found it thankless effort, and simply stopped blocking them. Let them pass if they wished, so long as they caused no trouble.

Bayan Taiji, seeing he could not persuade his younger brother, bowed to Monk Qucang and said, "Teacher, please persuade him."

The teacher did not wish to persuade him.

Sometimes, the monks beside Mongol chieftains share the same interests as the chieftains; but at other times, their interests are not the same.

Monk Qucang was well-versed in medicine, Buddhism, Confucianism, mathematics, and many other fields of learning, as well as the Han, Tibetan, and Mongol languages.

He was not only sent by the Fourth Dalai Lama to spread the faith among the Khuluchi tribe, but was also a friend of Sun Juxiang, a native of Qinshui in Shanxi.

Sun Juxiang was the Grand Coordinator of Shaanxi during the Tianqi years, and he had entrusted Qucang with a matter of great importance: to act as an agent between Huang Taiji and Little Lhazang, doing his utmost to escalate the conflict between the two.

Regrettably, the results of this work could later be reported to no one. Sun Juxiang retired from office due to Wei Zhongxian's interference in governance, and his direct contact, the Hezhou Assistant Regional Commander Yuan Panlong, was promoted to Vice General of Dingbian Camp.

So this commission could not be fulfilled.

But fortunately, Guru Huang Taiji was not his disciple, and that Liu Chengzong, who led his army plundering back and forth between Shaanxi and the mountains, was no good man either.

That left only two good men by his side: the Great Ming court and the Khuluchi Little Lhazang. So long as those two did not fight each other, Monk Qucang could not be bothered with anything else.

So he kept his mouth shut, which infuriated Bayan Taiji.

Little Lhazang, however, was delighted: "You see, Teacher also thinks Guru is in the wrong. Father's concubines should have gone to me. He seized my concubines — I'll seize his horses!"

Bayan Taiji said, "Then now that the Han have seized your surtax, what are you going to do about it?"

Little Lhazang said nothing.

The Khuluchi family had eight sons, four of whom had died in the decades-long war against the Great Ming's border defenses.

Three died directly at the hands of Ming troops; the other died at the hands of tribal soldiers under the Emperor's protection.

On the other hand, the Khuluchi family's wish to establish a monastery at White Stone Cliff in Niegongchuan had persisted for decades, only to be destroyed by Ming troops time and again.

They said, if the court builds me a monastery, I will submit and never rebel. The court firmly believed they intended to build a fortress and refused in the harshest terms.

So they tried to gather timber and build the monastery themselves, amassing over ten thousand great logs, ten arm-spans around, left to season at Shaoyabu. After great effort, they were finally dried.

The Ming army sent twenty soldiers and five tribal soldiers, who crept over from Hezhou and set a fire that burned for a day and a night, leaving behind a field of charcoal — enough to keep warm for ten years without worry.

Later, when the Ming army contracted its defense lines in the late Wanli years, the Khuluchi tribe secretly built a few small temples in the Little Bend. To this day, they have never again entertained the idea of building a large monastery.

Such grievances, the kind that make one feel wronged just to think of, threaded through Little Lhazang's entire upbringing.

Even now, he remained deeply wary of the Ming army.

If Buyan Taiji hadn't asked, he wouldn't have wanted to think about it anyway — they were just seven broke tribes at Sun Moon Mountain, so what if he robbed them?

But Buyan Taiji's question put him on the spot, and he could only say, "Shh… do not disturb the casting of the sacred image."

Buyan knew exactly how his mind worked and prodded further: "You can swallow it when Han people seize your tribute-paying tribes, yet when Guru merely took your father's concubine, you sent men from seven tribes to raid his grazing lands north of the lake?"

"Then raid it is!" Little Latsun, stung, erupted in anger. "He raids Sun Moon Mountain, I'll march into Hezhou and seize their women to sell off to Dajianlu!"

Buyan shook his head with a sigh, as if lamenting a hopeless student. He wanted Little Latsun to stop the mutual raiding with Guru Hong Taiji, but his younger brother would rather go to war with the Han than stop attacking his elder brother — it left him deeply frustrated.

The situation they were in now was far from safe. Guru Hong Taiji's side had Khalkha men, and their side had Khalkha men too.

Buyan had a vague sense that the Khalkha tribes entering the Western Sea already had a few too many men and horses.

Besides, how many brothels does Dajianlu even have? You raid a few Tibetan tribes, seize some women, and the occasional Sichuan Han merchant who comes to trade buys them and sells them off to the brothels of Dajianlu to greet and entertain customers.

Seize several hundred people — even if you want to sell them, someone has to be buying.

But this, unexpectedly, made Monk Qucang anxious, and he hastily interjected: "Latsun, Hezhou and Liu Chengzong are not on the same side."

Little Latsun had been speaking in anger to begin with, and now, still not having cooled off, he glared and said, "They're all Han people, what difference does it make!"

Monk Qucang had never encountered a situation like Liu Chengzong's either. He thought hard about how to describe it. "Although the Emperor granted him an official post, he and the Emperor are not on the same side. Attacking Hezhou would not be revenge against him; instead, it would only provoke a powerful enemy from outside."

"Impossible!"

Little Latsun spoke with absolute certainty, waving his hand dismissively. "The messenger said he is the Qinghai Pacification Commissioner, riding a third-rank official."

Monk Qucang was stunned too and pondered it for a long time, utterly baffled.

He had lived for long periods in Xining and Lanzhou, and had seen everyone from high officials and nobles down to lowly runners and peddlers.

He frowned and said, "That shouldn't be. The customs of the Central Plains are different — they don't ride people over there."

Little Latsun shook his head, unable to figure it out.

But there was one thing he could figure out: "Teacher said he and the Emperor are not on the same side, which means these people currently have no home."

When Qucang nodded, what surfaced on Little Latsun's face was not excitement, but worry.

As a man of the Holochi tribe, which had been locked in struggle with the Great Ming border forces for decades, he knew exactly how the Ming army was structured.

So he said, "The message said I should send someone to negotiate with Liu Chengzong… brother."

Little Latsun looked toward Buyan Taiji. "Go and talk with him on my behalf. See whether his force is ten thousand Han civilians, or ten thousand Han soldiers."

Little Latsun had calculated his own strength. He had five thousand riders in his main tribe, and counting the tribes subordinate to him, he could probably mobilize fewer than twenty thousand herders and Tibetan soldiers.

On his elder brother Guru Hong Taiji's side, there were three thousand riders in the main tribe, and he could probably mobilize nine thousand men.

It was precisely because of this that the two brothers could separately occupy the fertile grazing lands of the Little River Bend and the slightly less fertile pastures west of the Yellow River.

And with their forces, they could move freely in and out between Qinghai and Ü-Tsang. Although they could not gain a firm foothold in the Ü-Tsang region, the Tsangpa Khan could do nothing about them either.

For him, if Liu Chengzong's people were ten thousand Han civilians, then friendly relations could provide him with very powerful support.

But if it were over ten thousand homeless Han soldiers appearing north of Sun Moon Mountain, to Little Latsun, that would be even more terrifying than hearing that some tribe with five thousand tents had entered Qinghai.

The reason for the fear did not lie in troop strength or equipment. It lay in the fact that they had converted to Buddhism — the noyans all had estates around the monasteries now, and the herders all had homes around the monasteries too.

If that was an army of homeless Han soldiers, what would that mean?

It would no longer be them moving freely in and out of Han territory, but Han people moving freely in and out of the pastures around the monasteries.

The desperate outlaws would become someone else — wouldn't that be a complete reversal of who was attacking and who was defending?

"Send someone to meet him on one hand, and prepare for war on the other."

Monk Qucang said, "Give him those things the Tsangpa gave you. See if he uses them. If he does, there will be no need to fight."

"Things the Tsangpa gave me?"

Little Latsun racked his brains, thinking that aside from fighting the Tsangpa, he'd had no friendly exchanges with them. What valuables had they ever given him? Nothing!

Monk Qucang said expressionlessly, "The Sixteen Laws."

"The Sixteen Laws?"

Little Latsun knew of them. They were the laws the Tsangpa Khan had promulgated in Ü-Tsang. Now some Tibetan tribes in Qinghai used them too, though more still used the old Fifteen Laws.

But the Mongols did not use them. The Western Sea Mongols used the Altan Law.

Little Latsun asked, "What use would that be to him? Could I give him the Altan Law instead?"

"When Altan Khan created the Altan Law, he had Han people assisting him. The code is extremely similar to Han law in many places. Giving it to him would be useless."

Monk Qucang shook his head, then said, "Give him the Tsangpa's Sixteen Laws. If he is willing to use them, then grant him a piece of grazing land and collect tribute from him — he will also be willing to give it to you."

"If he is unwilling to use them, then prepare to go to war with him."

The reasoning behind this, Monk Qucang did not explain.

It was a legal code designed to let the nobility live in pleasure. If those Han people were willing to use it, they would naturally become people as utterly devoid of ambition as the Tsangpa.

How could anyone stop themselves from pursuing pleasure?

Impossible — unless they were pursuing a pleasure farther-reaching and greater, only then could they stop themselves from indulging in the short term.

What was farther-reaching and greater?

Qinghai.

The whole of Qinghai.

"Then I will follow Teacher's advice. Brother, meet with him on my behalf. Give him the Tsangpa's Sixteen Laws. Tell him that if he is willing to use them, Latsun will cede Haibei to him. Each year…"

Little Latsun thought and thought, unsure how much tribute to levy on Liu Chengzong.

Before he could figure that out, Buyan frowned and said, "Haibei? You want to send him to attack Guru?"

"If Guru doesn't fight him, that's the end of it. I won't fight him either. I'll cede Haibei to him, and I'll stop fighting Guru too."

Little Latsun chuckled lightly. "Isn't this exactly what you wanted? I have an idea now."

As he spoke, Little Latsun cheerfully patted his elder brother Buyan on the shoulder. "A thousand horses. Give me a thousand horses a year, and I'll give him all of Haibei."