Chapter 615: Mongol Hereditary Vassals

On the distant grasslands of the southern Gobi, He Huchen really was doing the work of northern raiders.

It was a complicated job.

Specifically, just like the former king of these grasslands, Borjigin Ligdan Batur.

Running away.

Because the Later Jin were coming again.

In the fourth month of this year, Dorgon, the Plain White Banner lord in charge of the Later Jin Ministry of Personnel, set out from Shenyang, joined forces with the Khorchin and Kong-Geng Han armies, and by the time his troops crossed the Luan River at Duolun they had already reached eighteen thousand strong, swords pointed at the southern Gobi with ferocious momentum.

But they moved very slowly across the grasslands and, contrary to their usual behavior, pacified the people along the way, killing no one.

Dorgon did not even demand provisions from the various tribes of the southern Gobi, proclaiming to them that the Tiancong Khan's expedition this time would strike only Yang Qi and not punish the tribes, and that Mongols who came to surrender would be treated as always — well fed and cared for.

Upon learning this news, Yang Qi, the Southern Gobi Commander of the Marshal's Office, was so furious in Guihua City that he cursed his own mother.

What the hell do you mean "strike only Yang Qi"? You, the mighty Later Jin, a massive regime that has carved out the northeast — saying something like that, am I, Yang Qi, even worthy of it?

You should be saying "strike only Liu Chengzong"!

Damn it!

But in truth, Yang Qi knew that Hong Taiji hated him to death right now.

And he had every reason to hate him.

In the blink of an eye, another spring and summer had passed. In this half year, Yang Qi himself had indeed done nothing to infringe upon Later Jin interests.

He was merely busy smuggling back and forth, farming, raising sheep, and enfeoffing Mongol nobles — but when he didn't do the real work, someone else did it for him.

The policy of the Southern Gobi Commander's Office was to eat in the east and lodge in the west — eat the Chongzhen Emperor's grain and raise Liu Chengzong's men.

Yang Qi had gone to enormous effort to make Yang Sichang believe that the hundred thousand troops of the Three Khans of the Northern Gobi were his own men, swindling from that side an external aid of twenty thousand shi of rice and grain per month to support the thirteen thousand Han soldiers of the Commander's Office.

But under the Commander's Office's jurisdiction, there were even more Mongol troops. The Three Khans of the Northern Gobi alone, upon returning north, had left behind eighteen thousand cavalry; added to the various tribal troops of the southern Gobi itself, they numbered a full thirty thousand.

His method of caring for them was… enfeoffing nobles.

In Liu Chengzong's name, he divided up the grazing lands of the southern Gobi and enfeoffed them to Mongol nobles of every stripe. If you had ten soldiers, you were made a centurion; if you had a hundred soldiers, you were made a chiliarch.

As for a minor noble with a thousand soldiers — well, congratulations, you're a myriarch of our Southern Gobi Commander's Office!

Under him, the chiliarchs formally appointed by Liu Chengzong's written decree alone numbered twenty-three. Among them, eighteen were of northern Gobi origin and five of southern Gobi origin.

And truly, among all the subordinates of the Marshal's Office, Liu Chengzong granted Commander Yang Qi the greatest autonomy.

When Yang Qi sent the letters of enfeoffment for these people to Lanzhou, the important ministers of the Marshal's Office, including the old master Liu Xiangyu and his teacher Yang Dingrui, all said it was sheer folly.

Absolutely no one agreed.

Liu Chengzong also knew this matter had enormous hidden dangers. The current conditions of the southern Gobi grasslands did not allow for an environment where enfeoffing land to nobles could make them self-sufficient.

What's more, never mind that these soldier-leaders to be enfeoffed had never met him — just looking at the names, even Mongol experts like his godson Ejei and the Marshal's Office's Dalai Taiji had no idea who was who.

Each person's name was very simple, but because they were names translated from Mongolian into Chinese, the twenty-some myriarchs were manageable — Ejei and Dalai could recognize a few — but the two hundred-some chiliarchs were a complete blur; they had no idea of their origins.

Of course their origins couldn't be recognized. On the southern Gobi grasslands, at the chiliarch level, many people's names were made up on the spot.

Because Yang Qi's requirement for enfeoffing a chiliarch was the ability to unite a hundred Mongol soldiers.

This was a very awkward social status.

Ordinary herder-soldiers of slightly lower social status had no surname, had their own given names, and used their given names in daily life.

Mongol nobles of slightly higher social status took tribal names or the names of illustrious ancestors as their surnames, and also had names carefully chosen by the elders of their households.

Only this batch of people who had a certain rallying power within their original tribes — their identity was that of commoners who handled affairs for the nobility. They did not use their own names but were mostly addressed by their positions. When requesting enfeoffment, they would also leave behind the names that sounded most prestigious to them.

This resulted in, when the two hundred-some chiliarchs registered their names, seven Jaisangs, sixteen Darkhans, and nineteen Baturus.

That was still normal. What was even more absurd were eight Mergens, fourteen Bökes, sixteen Chechens, six Manglais, nine Bo'orchus, and thirteen Galaachis.

Translated, that meant Sharpshooter, Wrestler, Great Wisdom, Vanguard Officer, Cook, and Fire-Tender.

Yang Qi figured that with such a high rate of duplicate names, not to mention it would be an eyesore for the Grand Marshal, but simply considering the convenience of future management, he had to get some proper names, so he suggested they carefully choose a name and use the new one going forward.

But actually, as far as Liu Chengzong was concerned, whatever they were called didn't matter.

He still overrode all objections and wrote the enfeoffment documents for these Mongol soldier-leaders.

There was only one reason… though it may sound a bit cold-hearted, he truly did not believe these people could survive the pincer attack of the Great Ming and the Later Jin.

So whatever they were called didn't matter.

But then again, if they really did fight a bloody battle to protect his southern Gobi exclave and ultimately survived, then it would be only right and proper for him to enfeoff the land to them.

However, neither Yang Qi nor Liu Chengzong had intended it, and both underestimated just how greatly the matter of "becoming a noble" would motivate these Mongol soldier-leaders of commoner origin.

Although they had never met the Great Khan Liu far away in Qinghai, each one likened himself to the Han hereditary vassals of Kublai Khan's Yuan Empire. From the moment they accepted the enfeoffment, they were ready to push Liu Chengzong onto the imperial throne.

Although the term "Han hereditary vassals" contains the word "Han" and the main body was Han people during the Mongol Empire, it was actually a Mongol tradition that ran counter to sinicization.

When the Mongols entered the Central Plains and used methods designed by Han people to govern Han people, that was sinicization; when Han people entered the grasslands and used methods designed by Mongols to govern Mongols, that was mongolization.

The Han tradition is that the Son of Heaven, as a mortal, performs the deeds of gods — a paragon brimming with divinity — and uses this as the legitimacy of his rule, extending grace, reducing vassal power, and concentrating authority, gathering the strength of millions into one place, unleashing unparalleled power across the vast territory.

The Han hereditary vassals of the Mongol Empire were precisely a nomadic enfeoffment system that ran counter to sinicization.

But the Yuan Dynasty sinicized. Kublai Khan suppressed and abolished the Han hereditary vassals.

And at this very moment, Liu Chengzong's Mongol hereditary vassals appeared exceptionally bizarre. It was neither sinicization nor mongolization; this act itself ran counter to the Mongol traditions of the time.

Because the Mongols of today were no longer the primitive Mongols, but the Northern Yuan Mongols. The Northern Yuan itself was a very, very highly sinicized nomadic empire.

The reason it seemed so similar to the pre-Yuan Mongols was that centuries of war and blockade with the Ming Dynasty had caused a cultural rupture, sending it back to a dark age where it could not even produce paper.

In reality, even in that dark age of cultural rupture, compared to their nomadic relatives to the west, the Northern Yuan Mongols were still highly civilized cultured people in terms of political systems, architecture, art, and other aspects.

In all the world, neither the Great Ming Emperor nor the Later Jin Khan would grant these nomadic mud-legs land and hereditary official posts. Only Liu Chengzong, holed up in Qinghai, was the source of their power to rule the land.

So their first concern was not whether they themselves could inherit their posts, but whether Liu Chengzong could inherit his.

It was this unintentional act that drew immense hatred for Yang Qi from Hong Taiji.

There was no other reason. The true Mongol nobles of the southern Gobi — those few myriarchs of the Marshal's Office of southern Gobi origin — were all very calm after accepting enfeoffment.

They knew what they faced after accepting enfeoffment: their tribesmen lacked grain, their livestock were dying, and they faced the dual threat of the Ming court and the Later Jin.

But those Mongol hereditary chiliarchs who had just been appointed were extremely restless, and one after another sought out the most powerful Mongol nobles of Mobei, who were also the two former khans of the Mobei steppe.

One was Omubu of the Tumed tribe; the other was Ordos Jinong Erinchen.

Their demand was just one thing: Lead us south, smash through the Great Ming, and have an audience with the Great Khan!

Omubu thought to himself, will you bastards just settle the hell down.

I believe you are sincere in wanting me to have an audience with the Great Khan.

But my Tumed tribe's rations can only last until September right now. If we attack the Great Ming in the south, I'll be dead by May, goddamn it. I think you want to send me to have an audience with Ligdan Khan.

Compared to Omubu, Ordos Jinong Erinchen was a man of greater culture.

He explained to the Mongol hereditary chiliarchs, in simple but profound terms, the economic principles behind Grand Commander Yang Qi's fostering of Han troops and his use of the Circle Trade.

Erinchen explained to everyone: The Jinong does not doubt your thirst to rise above your station, but attacking Ningxia, Shaanxi, or Shanxi would all break the Circle Trade, cutting off grain supplies for Grand Commander Yang Qi's Han troops.

Then before we even smash through the Great Ming, Grand Commander Yang Qi's Han troops will beat you up first.

The Mongol hereditary chiliarchs looked at each other, utterly dumbfounded.

This kind of political economy involving the Chongzhen Emperor was clearly far too profound for these bumpkins of the steppe.

But fortunately, people trusted Erinchen the Jinong, and one after another demanded that Erinchen give them an idea — they couldn't just burn time in Mobei for nothing.

Originally, these minor Mongol officials and herdsman heroes had all relied on personal prestige to painstakingly gather a hundred able-bodied men and scrape together a unit, in order to answer Yang Qi's call.

Now that the framework of their startup teams was set up and they had their Khitan Khan appointments, it wouldn't do to have no project and just burn time.

If they burned any more time, they'd be too hungry to have the strength to hit anyone.

As the Mongol Jinong, Erinchen ought to give them an idea.

But as a human being, Erinchen thought, what damn idea can I give you? I myself have to go eat at Yang Qi's house to survive this winter.

What's more, as a ruler of the Golden Lineage, Erinchen actually felt the same way seeing these non-Golden Lineage Mongol hereditary chiliarchs occupying land as Ligdan Khan had felt seeing him presumptuously declare himself khan.

It was a deep-seated discomfort from the bottom of his heart.

However, Erinchen had a Myriarch at his side, his most trusted friend and vassal — the lord of the Besud and Uxin tribes, Saghang Sechen Hong Taiji.

Saghang came from a family of profound learning and was well-versed in historiography. He had outlined the history book he was compiling, "The Origin of the Mongols," which would include the history of Indian royal lineages, Tibetan royal lineages, Mongol khan lineages, Han Chinese imperial lineages, and the Great Ming imperial lineage.

He had even prepared an outline for the Jurchen khan lineage history and Liu Chengzong's imperial lineage history... he'd write about whoever won.

Anyway, a history book like this would take at least twenty or thirty years to finish. Saghang figured he could just watch and see who had the last laugh.

Thirty years is but a snap of the fingers in history, but for a human life, thirty years can hold far too many events — enough for Ligdan Khan to go from a famous lord among captives who lashed the steppe, to dry bones in a tomb by the shores of Qinghai Lake.

In this era, even the wisest of men could not clearly see where the world would ultimately slide toward.

For Saghang, it was indeed a slide.

In any case, with Ligdan Khan's passing, the Mongols had lost their chance to contend for the world. No matter who won the world, it was all a goddamn slide downward.

Saghang told Erinchen, who didn't want to deal with this matter: "The Jinong must help them."

At this moment, there was no need to consider any grand trends. Amid the torrent of the era, with the Mongols in comprehensive decline, what Erinchen needed to do was try his best to make as many Mongols as possible trust him and rally around the Ordos.

The stronger this force became, the safer Erinchen would be, no matter who Mobei ultimately belonged to.

And the safer Erinchen was, the less the Ordos Mongols would be fish on a chopping block for others to butcher. No matter who Mobei ultimately belonged to, there would be a place for the Mongols.

Erinchen mulled it over — it really did seem to be the case. Before having an audience with Liu Chengzong, the more troops the Ordos could mobilize and the higher their prestige among the Mongol tribes, the greater their value would be when they met Liu Chengzong.

If they were united as one, so tightly knit they couldn't be pulled apart, then the Marshal's Office ruling the Ordos through him would be the most time-saving and effort-saving method.

Then let's go on campaign.

Yang Qi's Circle Trade could not be destroyed, and there wasn't much choice in attack direction — just the east.

The Kharchin tribe grazing beyond Zhangjiakou.

Erinchen immediately wanted to inform Yang Qi of this news; after all, under the Marshal's Office's legal framework, the Mobei Grand Commander was the superior officer who oversaw him.

On the other hand, he figured Yang Qi would also like this plan. In any case, it was a certainty that the Later Jin would campaign against Mobei again this year, and when that happened, Gulusiqibu of the Kharchin tribe would definitely join the campaign.

Since they were enemies sooner or later anyway, better to strike them first before the Later Jin army mobilized — seize their livestock and kill their people.

But the problem was, Yang Qi was now even more nomadic than the nomads, afraid of death to an extreme degree, roaming the steppe all day with his command retinue so that no one could find him.

Time waits for no man. Erinchen immediately assembled over two hundred chiliarchs, coordinating with three thousand troops of the Ordos tribe, combining forces to twenty thousand men. At the turn of spring and summer, they advanced grandly toward Zhangjiakou and launched a surprise attack on the Kharchin tribe.

Normally, successful surprise attacks are very difficult to pull off on the steppe.

Because Mongolia was a nomadic society completely dominated by nobles, with intricate and complex marriage alliances and interest relationships between the leaders of each tribe. The tribes were also widely distributed, and mustering forces required a relatively long time.

So much so that on the steppe, there were no walls that didn't leak wind.

But this time was different. The Mongol hereditary chiliarchs were all of bumpkin origin, with no marriage alliances whatsoever, and the Ordos tribe was relatively closed off and independent.

So much so that until the troops marched, not only had the Kharchin tribe received no word, even their own superior officer Yang Qi, roaming the steppe, had received no word.

Over twenty thousand cavalry, composed of the Ordos tribe, Mobei Mongols, and Monan Mongols, surged grandly into the Kharchin tribe's grazing lands in early summer.

Those Mongol hereditary chiliarchs who were veteran Mongol soldiers had no skill for pitched battles, but they were all too familiar with this kind of small-scale burning, killing, and plundering. Killing and looting as they went, over half a month they raided every grazing ground of the Kharchin, then fled westward like a gust of wind.

The timing of their raid was just right — the Kharchin lord Gulusiqibu happened to be leading troops eastward to meet Dorgon's western expedition army.

When Dorgon arrived with his troops and saw the wretched state of the Kharchin tribe, plundered clean, he was nearly brought to tears of rage.

The reason he had, contrary to his usual behavior, been exceptionally gentle to the Mongol tribes along the way was entirely because he was on this campaign with a mission.

The situation within the Later Jin state was very poor.

The previous year's Xuan-Da campaign had inflicted heavy losses. The surrendered Han troops kept running west, and the Eight Banners were sparsely populated. Relying solely on the Manchu Eight Banners, busy being born and busy dying, could no longer meet military needs.

After the war, over three hundred niru were disbanded by Hong Taiji and consolidated into two hundred and forty, and they began large-scale captures of Wild Jurchens and Fishskin Tatars in the northeast.

From last autumn and winter to this spring and summer alone, over two thousand Fishskin Tatar able-bodied men had been dragged out of the deep mountains and old forests and armed. At the same time, a massive plan was formulated to supplement each niru with two hundred young Fishskin Tatar boys as war reserves.

So on this deployment, Dorgon absolutely dared not again invade Ming territory through Xuan-Da. He hadn't even prepared to directly engage Liu Chengzong's Mobei Grand Commander Yang Qi in battle, but rather intended to intimidate Yang Qi and avoid combat.

Because Hong Taiji judged that the Later Jin's domestic situation had been ravaged by last year's war, but Yang Qi was dirt poor, having just arrived in Mobei, which had been ravaged by war for decades. He wouldn't be having an easy time these past six months either, and most likely wouldn't dare to fight a pitched battle with them.

So the purpose of this deployment was entirely to overawe the Mobei tribes, to create for the newly amalgamated Manchus in Liaodong an image that the Northern Yuan's fate was exhausted and the Monan Mongols had all surrendered to the Jin state, in order to recruit Mongol banner troops and stabilize the domestic situation.

If this western expedition failed and could not achieve its intended objectives, Dorgon would have no choice but to send Mongols to buy a piece of jade from the Great Ming.

He could carve a Heirloom Imperial Seal himself, bring it back to present to Hong Taiji, using the excuse that Ligdan Khan lost the Heirloom Imperial Seal during his flight, to show that the divine artifact has returned and Heaven's mandate rests with him.

Then he could be the first to proclaim himself emperor, and snatch the dynastic title of Daiching, the Nation of Warriors, right out from under that foolish Daiching Khitan Khan in the northwest.