Chapter 403: Do You Want Lanzhou or Not?

Inside the command tent at Muge Beach.

Liu Chengzong and Dai Daozi sat facing each other. He gave Dai Daozi a careful look — no visible injuries, just a bit thinner — and then smiled. "The main thing is you made it back. The Oirat Tartars didn't give you too hard a time?"

Dai Daozi broke into a grin and nodded. "The Marshal worries for me, but this humble officer got out with his life, and the trip was worth it. At first the Khoshut made me bake in the sun for a while, but after the Dzungar Taiji took me away, things got much easier. He thought I was a Mongol-speaking Han from the Tumed, and wanted to take me back to the Tianshan Mountains to help him create a script."

Create a script?

Liu Chengzong was puzzled. "Why on earth would the Dzungar tribe want to create a script? Don't the Mongols already have a writing system?"

"They do, but the Oirat have been independent from the Northern Yuan for too long. They have too many dialects, and not many people still understand Mongol script. Besides, it's unclear — what's written can't be read clearly, and what's read aloud makes no sense."

Dai Daozi laughed. "This humble officer still managed to gather some intelligence. Mongol law is hard to apply, and Mongol speech is equally hard to communicate with. Actually, the Khong Tayiji had long wanted Buddhist monks to help him with this. It's just that the Oirat have one league and two masters — the Khoshut and the Dzungar hold equal power — so on matters like building cities, codifying laws, or creating a script, neither side can take the lead."

Liu Chengzong pondered for a moment. From the sound of it, the Oirat seemed extremely primitive and backward, but in reality it wasn't that they lacked these things — it was that what they'd had in the past no longer suited them.

This situation was actually very similar to the Marshal's Office before they took Hehuang. Thirty thousand Han who controlled military force and mainstream culture, eighty thousand Mongols, and several hundred thousand tribal peoples — with that kind of population structure, the slightest setback would inevitably make things unsustainable.

Even just to transmit government orders, culture had to be promoted, and in this regard the Han had the advantage.

The world's earliest public-private institution of higher learning was the Jixia Academy in the State of Qi; the earliest private academy's headmaster was named Kong Qiu; the largest ancient institution of higher learning was the Han dynasty's Imperial Academy, with two hundred and forty rooms, one thousand eight hundred and fifty chambers, and over thirty thousand students; the earliest specialized college was the Hongdu Gate Academy founded by Emperor Ling of Han.

From the feudal era of pre-Qin times to the age of the unified empire, from a state having its own Imperial Academy, to every commandery having its own commandery school, to every county having its own county school, all the way down to every fifty households having their own community school.

This land is the place with the most and the densest schools in the entire world — that is the bedrock upon which ancient China's culture flourished, its science and technology advanced rapidly, and it secured a place among the nations of the world.

If there is a chance to change one's fate, it depends on studying — that is an unchanging tradition through the ages.

But the Oirat clearly had no such advantage. According to the intelligence Dai Daozi brought back, their spoken and written language systems had clearly fallen into chaos, making it impossible for their culture to be preserved and passed down — its very existence was in peril.

At this state of affairs, Liu Chengzong clapped his hands in delight. "I'm right here — why would they need to go find monks for help? This intelligence is very useful. What demands does he have for surrendering?"

Dai Daozi had no idea why the Marshal was so pleased about this. He thought for a moment and said, "He hopes the Dzungar can lead the surrendered Oirat nobles and army back to the Tianshan Mountains."

"If the Grand Marshal agrees," he glanced at Liu Chengzong — sure enough, the Grand Marshal wore an expression like he was watching a joke — "he is willing to swear an oath by killing a horse, declare himself a vassal and pay tribute, kowtow and perform obeisance, send annual tribute, and never invade again?"

Liu Chengzong of course looked like he was watching a joke, because the exact same demand was what the Khoshut's Güshi Khan, that fool Dorji, had also been thinking.

He clicked his tongue and shook his head with a laugh. "I've noticed something about these Oirat — their leaders all love to daydream."

"They come to our Qinghai to fight a war, lose, and then still expect to all be sent back. What do they take me, Liu Chengzong, for — a Living Buddha on land?"

Dai Daozi knew Liu Chengzong would react like this and gave a wry smile. "Grand Marshal, I told him the same thing. But what the Khong Tayiji said does have some reason to it. He said they marched five thousand li to Qinghai and lost. Even if we killed them all, if we marched five thousand li over there, we'd have trouble winning too — and even if we won, we'd have trouble controlling both sides of the Tianshan Mountains."

He's got nerve!

Liu Chengzong rose to his feet. He knew the Dzungar Taiji was speaking the truth.

Setting everything else aside, the journey of a thousand li, crossing a great desert in between, and worst of all, there wasn't even a single city over by the Tianshan Mountains. If he dispatched troops to attack the Tianshan, it would be about the same as the Great Ming dispatching troops to attack him, or him dispatching troops into the Kham region — maybe even harder.

No road infrastructure, no supply reserves, not even villages to plunder. Even if the army could luck into a few victories, long-term occupation with insufficient supplies would trap them in a predicament of defeat without battle.

Liu Chengzong took a few steps inside the tent, then turned to Dai Daozi. "Take out your notebook and write this down."

Dai Daozi hurriedly complied, pulling out the small personal notebook he'd just retrieved from a subordinate — the one that recorded the merits and demerits of relay soldiers. He patted himself all over but couldn't find a brush, so he forced a smile, took a charcoal pencil from the Marshal's desk, and said, "Grand Marshal, I'm ready."

Liu Chengzong nodded and began pacing the tent, speaking as he walked. "Swearing an oath by killing a horse, declaring vassalage and paying tribute, never invading again — these are mandatory. Since they'll never invade again, we might as well form an eternal alliance. The Marshal's Office will station troops in the Tianshan, establish prefectures and counties. All tribes will study Han writing and learn Han speech. They will produce maps of Oirat mountains, rivers, and terrain."

Dai Daozi's eyes went wide and he blurted out an exclamation — he nearly snapped the charcoal pencil in his grip. What 'eternal alliance'? This was the dagger coming out from behind the map scroll.

He thought to himself, the Grand Marshal says the Oirat leaders love to daydream, but their own Grand Marshal isn't much different.

It was just that the Oirat leaders, having lost the war, were dreaming of a draw, while their Grand Marshal, having won the war, was dreaming of an occupied vassal state — both were excessive.

"Not done yet. Keep writing."

Liu Chengzong took a few more steps and turned. "The Güshi Khan is recuperating in Xining and won't be going back. The Khoshut will receive a grazing territory in Qinghai. From the Dzungar troops who took part in the war, three thousand six hundred men will be selected; the remainder are permitted to be taken back. As for the leaders and nobles of the surrendering tribes, depending on their attitude in surrendering, I may also permit a few to be taken back."

"When the Marshal's Office faces war, all Oirat tribes must answer the summons of the Tianshan General and join the campaign. Oirat nobles and officials will all hold official posts and noble titles from the Marshal's Office. Their principal wives will receive honorific patents, all under the jurisdiction of the Marshal's Office's Rites Department. They will report to Fort Julwan annually to give an account of their duties and will receive annual salaries."

Dai Daozi's face was full of confusion, but he didn't dare ask: which department was the Marshal's Office's Rites Department?

Never mind that the office didn't even exist yet — at this point, the bricks for building the office probably hadn't even started being fired.

Let alone this business of 'when the Marshal's Office faces war'... When war came, they'd first have to run five thousand li northwest to deliver the order. The Tianshan General would then conscript troops across a territory a thousand li wide. Once conscripted, they'd run another five thousand li back from the Tianshan.

At sixty li a day just for marching, it would take the army three or four months just to get here.

"When the Oirat tribes face war, the Tianshan General also has the duty to assist the tribes in defending their territory. All prefectures and counties will have their cities built and land allocated by the Tianshan General, who will construct offices and establish schools. Prefectures will select one thousand qing of farmland, counties five hundred qing. The government will hire civilians as tenant farmers, open mines and quarry stone — no noble may interfere or obstruct."

When Liu Chengzong finished speaking, he finally lowered his eyes and noticed Dai Daozi's expression.

It was the expression of someone watching another person daydream — exactly what Liu Chengzong had expected.

He smiled, then continued. "Trade shall be opened between the two regions. Twenty merchant caravans will be dispatched annually, each issued a bronze trade plaque. Those without plaques may not trade. For those with plaques, all manner of commercial goods — firearms, cannons, weapons, armor — shall be entirely unrestricted, sold and purchased at official prices set by the Fort Julwan market... The bronze plaques shall all be issued by the Marshal's Office."

Liu Chengzong paused here, then added, "Ten plaques for Fort Julwan, and ten plaques shared among the Oirat tribal leaders."

At first, Dai Daozi had thought the Grand Marshal's conditions were the ravings of a fool, but when the condition of completely unrestricted trade was laid out, he began to think this matter might actually be negotiable.

It just also made him a little worried — wouldn't this count as... aiding the enemy?

The Marshal's Office would arm the Oirat, and then once the Oirat had enough firearms and cannons, they'd turn around and attack them.

Liu Chengzong saw Dai Daozi's misgivings and reassured him. "It's fine. Just go and negotiate with the Dzungar Taiji like this and see how he reacts."

Selling firearms and cannons to the Oirat naturally carried danger, but the firearms and cannon trade could in turn feed the manufacturing capacity of his arsenals and train more skilled craftsmen — he would always be able to suppress them.

Besides, the Oirat tribal leaders only had ten caravans a year between them. They couldn't haul back many cannons, and the vast distance made transporting heavy artillery a pipe dream.

What Liu Chengzong intended to supply the Oirat with was a monkey-model version of firearms and cannons — slightly less refined in specifications than the Marshal's Office's own military equipment: a little smaller in caliber, a little shorter in length, and a little heavier in weight.

If taking such a risk could transform the uncontrollable Oirat into a vassal state, and then gradually bring them under semi-control through culture and trade, then to Liu Chengzong, it would all be worth it.

To achieve total control without experiencing a war of conquest fought locally in the Tianshan Mountains was the raving of a fool.

But his focus was not a western expedition into Central Asia — it was contending for the Central Plains. For now, he had only two requirements of the Oirat: one, don't stab him in the back; two, block Russia's continued eastward expansion.

As long as he could accomplish those two things, it would be enough for him.

Liu Chengzong believed that the Central Plains dynasties, in their normal form, feared no opponent under heaven.

Dai Daozi noted down all the key points, saluted Liu Chengzong, then turned and left the tent, heading toward the Dzungar camp surrounded by heavy troops.

Just then, Wang Wenxiu came forward leading a young soldier. The man wore only a suit of chainmail and didn't look like a regular soldier of the Marshal's Office.

The soldier stepped forward and saluted. "Marshal, this humble one is the Third Master's personal attendant, Guilai. My brother is called Desheng."

"Fine names!"

Liu Chengzong had just voiced his praise when Guilai pulled a letter from his waist and presented it with both hands: "This is a letter Third Master wrote to the Marshal."

The moment Liu Chengzong saw the letter, his eyes narrowed involuntarily. Chengyun knew they were at war here — if nothing was wrong, he was unlikely to write during a battle.

Liu Chengzong thought something had happened in Hehuang, but as he opened the letter, he couldn't help but relax and chuckle.

In the letter, Chengyun excitedly told him that while tracing the Lanzhou plunder, he had found the Guard Officer from Lintao who had imitated the crime. His name was Shi Xiang, formerly an unconfirmed Assistant Commander of the Lintao Guard.

Just half a month ago, Kong Xiaochen, the Lanzhou Assistant Regional Commander who had once taken a thousand taels of silver as a bribe and sold Li Wanqing twenty-three thousand jin of gunpowder for fifteen hundred taels, had been dismissed from his post for his failure to defend Lanzhou and was being sent to the capital as a public example.

And this Shi Xiang, the Assistant Commander of the Lintao Guard, had spent a huge sum — three thousand taels of silver — to work connections in the Ministry of War. Digging up some old heads from who knows where, he first secured the unconfirmed post of Lintao Guard Commander, then took the actual vacancy of Lanzhou Assistant Regional Commander.

In the official circles of the northwest, this was a rather strange man.

At a critical juncture like this, if one sought military power and wealth, there was no need to fixate on the Lanzhou Assistant Regional Commander post. In the vast northwest, where couldn't one seek an Assistant Regional Commander position?

Who didn't know that the Lanzhou Assistant Regional Commander post was a death sentence right now!

Yet, of all things, Shi Xiang wanted exactly that — Lanzhou Assistant Regional Commander.

But in Liu Chengyun's eyes, Shi Xiang was no fool.

He sent men to Lanzhou and Lintao to inquire about Shi Xiang's background. It was easy to find out — he came from a poor, distant branch of a prominent Lintao clan. His father had earned a hereditary Assistant Commander post through the Three Victories of Huangzhong, but Shi Xiang's inheritance of the office had not gone smoothly; he failed the examinations several times.

Later, he sold off all his family's land, and that very year, he inherited his father's post as he wished, becoming an unconfirmed Assistant Commander.

A man like this — Chengyun was certain that relying on an unconfirmed Assistant Commander post, he would have to work at least five lifetimes to scrape together three thousand taels of silver. To suddenly have so much money to grease the wheels, the source had to be illegitimate.

So Chengyun sent his two guard brothers, Desheng and Guilai, to test this Assistant Regional Commander Shi at his yamen in Lanzhou. The news they brought back delighted Chengyun, and he wrote this letter in urgent haste.

Liu Chengzong folded the letter, turned to Guilai, and asked, "Chengyun said the rest should be told to me by you two brothers. Tell me, what happened after that?"

Guilai's smile was simple and honest, completely unlike a ruthless man who buried water mines in latrines and used a feces-powered launcher to blast a Yazhou Chiliarch into the sky.

He said, "Assistant Regional Commander Shi did not deny our probing. He even treated us brothers to food and drink, and took very good care of us for several days. In the end, he asked us to take a message back to Third Master, and Third Master sent me to relay it to the Marshal."

"What message?"

"Shi Xiang said, to trouble Third Master to ask the Marshal — do you want Lanzhou or not?"

Liu Chengzong laughed aloud. This fellow was rather interesting, advancing step by step with every move secured.

Back when he sent him cattle and sheep, Liu Chengzong already knew this man would eventually show his hand. He just hadn't expected the man to be bolder than he imagined, directly scheming his way into the dangerous post of Lanzhou Assistant Regional Commander.

Now, asking whether he wanted Lanzhou — Liu Chengzong understood his scheme perfectly.

Very likely, this kid had wanted to jump ship a long time ago. Everything he was doing now was simply following the plan.

The day his involvement in the plunder came to light, he would have already secured the key post of Lanzhou Assistant Regional Commander. Then he would sell Lanzhou to the Marshal's Headquarters, and with the Marshal's Headquarters at his back, cleanly wash away his crimes in the eyes of the imperial court.

A cicada shedding its golden shell, and gaining a confirmed official post — a ruthless man. Stick a tail on his rear, and he'd be craftier than a monkey.

Liu Chengzong smiled at Guilai and said, "Go back and tell Chengyun there's no rush to take Lanzhou. You two brothers should drop by Shi Xiang's place often when you're free, and gather more information."

Guilai clasped his fists in acknowledgment, then suddenly remembered something else and said, "Right, Marshal, the Han River has flooded badly. Third Master says the Eight Great Kings have entered Hanzhong and will most likely sweep up the famine refugees and push into Sichuan."

"Eight Great Kings?"

Liu Chengzong felt the name was very familiar, but for a moment he couldn't quite place it. Seeing him furrow his brow, Guilai added, "Third Master said he's an old acquaintance. The year you and the Eldest Master answered the recruitment call, that Yan'an constable ate at your family's banquet."

At these words, a memory flashed through his mind like lightning.

Zhang Xianzhong, the Yan'an constable — had entered Sichuan.

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Good evening!