Chapter 732: Frustrated at the Failure to Forge Steel

The reinforcements from Mobei came in two waves.

The first wave was the force of Jasaghtu Khan Subadi.

Of Subadi's seven sons, only the youngest was left to tend the hearth; the six elder each brought five hundred cavalry, and every Noyan of the Right Wing contributed a hundred war-riders per household, forming a force of over seven thousand horsemen. With nearly twenty thousand horses in tow, they surged mightily past Guihua City and pressed straight on to the old Yuan capital of Xanadu.

When Lion Liu first received word, he ordered them let through, though he found it a little odd — Subadi had said he would send ten thousand riders to aid the war, yet just over seven thousand showed up.

Of course this was a good thing; Liu Chengzong was absolutely not complaining that they had sent too few troops.

He was hardly short of soldiers and horses at the moment; Mobei did not even need to send troops — just coming by to go through the motions would have been enough.

After all, the distance was vast, and even his proper vassals — Huoluochi of Ü-Tsang and the Oirats of the Tianshan — were not required to send troops, let alone a nominal ally like Mobei.

This Mobei troop dispatch was purely to cement the alliance in form, to avoid misunderstandings and deepen goodwill.

There was no need for them to go blade-to-blade with the Eight Banners in earnest.

Among the Jasaghtu Khanate nobles who came this time, the most important to the Marshal's Office was Subadi's foremost vassal, Ombu Erdeni Khong Tayiji.

He was the chieftain of the Khotgoid tribe, the most powerful noble below the three Khans of Mobei.

Erdeni had clearly not come to join the campaign; every other Noyan had brought at least a hundred cavalry, but he came with a crowd of Jaisang officials, bearing gifts and maps, and had even brought along a junior banner officer from Taimeng Garrison.

Erdeni was in an awkward spot.

Just as Subadi was mustering his forces, Erdeni had been actively preparing for war on his own end, ready to send troops to aid the Tsardom of Russia and strike at Taimeng Garrison as soon as the marshes thawed.

This was dictated by geography and history.

Southwest of the Khotgoid tribe lay the Oirat Confederation, northwest lay Russia, and to the northeast and southeast lay the three divisions of Mobei.

The very reason this tribe existed was that back when the Tatars were ascendant and embarked on the conquest of the Oirats, Abtai Sain Khan, a descendant of Dayan Khan, subjugated the Oirats and dispatched his son Shubgudai to rule over them.

After Abtai's death, the Oirats seized the chance to rebel, killed Shubgudai, and regained a brief freedom. Later, Subadi's father conquered the Oirats again and installed his own cousin, Sholoi Ubashi, as Khong Tayiji, making him a forward post for Khalkha control over the Oirats.

Thus the Khotgoid tribe was born.

But as the Oirats grew stronger and stronger over the past decade and more, and the Russians built one fort after another along their tribal borders,

the Khotgoid tribe not only lost control of the Oirats but found its own security in jeopardy; even their forest-dwelling tributaries were frequently raided by others who sent troops to seize their tribute yields.

Under these circumstances, Erdeni chose to befriend Russia, trading supplies for firearms and support to counterbalance the increasingly assertive Oirats.

After all, they feared the Oirats' rise more than anyone — the moment the Oirats gained the upper hand, they would surely wipe them out first.

This balancing strategy had served them well for years — until the Tianshan Army routed the Russians on the right bank of the Tom River, seized Tomsk City, and spread word of their glorious victory across the entire river basin over the following half year.

The sky over Siberia had changed.

Tribute from the forest-dwelling subjects didn't even need to be seized anymore. A single Taimeng Garrison bannerman in red armor, with two Kyrgyz soldiers carrying flags and drums, would ride into a forest stockade, fire a blast from a three-eyed gun, and the hostages would walk out with the tribute of their own accord.

There was no helping it — through the accounts of Taban, a chieftain of the Kyrgyz tribe who had taken part in the Battle of Tomsk, everyone already knew that Taimeng Garrison was controlled by the Grand Tutor of the distant Central Plains.

General Zhou Riqiang held an officially sealed commission; tribal chiefs were appointed Centurions and drew salaries, and if men died in battle, their families even received compensation.

Those who delivered tribute were not hostages — they were going to study at the garrison school of Taimeng Garrison.

Those among them with a talent for literary or martial studies would be reported to the Grand Tutor by General Zhou and granted the formal rank of Licentiate or Military Cadet, awarded satin robes and sabers, and gifted Taimeng-made three-eyed guns.

Good heavens — when had the forest folk ever received such treatment?

Same tribute, same lives — why not give it to whoever?

I choose the Grand Tutor!

The term "Grand Tutor" — this off-kilter word — actually meant "Grand Marshal."

The root of it lay with Khüchür.

That fellow had no education, didn't recognize the two characters for "Grand Marshal," yet fancied himself knowledgeable and was always arguing with people.

And as it happened, north of the Tianshan, from Lake Balkhash to the Sayan Mountains, Khüchür of the Dzungars was notoriously ill-tempered, and no one dared contradict him.

He called it that, so others called it that too; Zhou Riqiang could not correct it fast enough.

The key thing was, Khüchür had even gone to Xi'an — he now knew that "Grand Marshal" was read as "Grand Marshal."

But this man was incapable of admitting his own mistakes.

Besides, Liu Chengzong and that whole crew under him were all so chummy with him.

That bunch — Cao Yao, Zhang Tianlin, Luo Rucai, and the rest — the moment they saw him, it was like meeting one of their own kind. Sit them down together, and so long as there was a table between them, it might as well have been an international summit of robbery magnates.

The Great Khan himself had personally thrashed him; his imperial favor was exceedingly high.

When Khüchür returned to the Tianshan after the New Year, it was as if he had gone for advanced studies. He carried himself like a man who had been to school, able to stand right in front of Zhou Riqiang, point at the two characters for "Grand Marshal" in an official dispatch, and read them as "Grand Tutor."

Where before he would have drawn his blade at any contradiction, now he did not even get riled.

He could wear his Khan-bestowed sable-collared, arrow-sleeved riding robe, calmly adjust nonexistent wide sleeves, and declare with absolute conviction, gesturing with his hand: "I am not wrong. General Zhou is a mere military man; these cultural matters are beyond your grasp, so I shall not waste my breath.

Just wait — my Brother Zhang at the Rites Office is the head of all civil officials. He will send word back any day now to tell you how these two characters are read: north of the Tianshan, it is read 'Grand Tutor.'"

Zhou Riqiang's blood pressure shot higher than the Ural Mountains.

He thought to himself: I am a Provincial Graduate, a fourth-rank Prefect, and have served as an examiner for the Provincial Exams — and you're telling me to let Zhang Xianzhong, that illiterate, teach me to read?

There was truly nothing to be done. Had this been the Central Plains, the old man would have had Khüchür hauled off and given fifty strokes of the heavy bamboo no matter what.

But here in Taimeng Garrison, if Khüchür said it was read "Grand Tutor," then "Grand Tutor" it was. General Zhou held his nose and accepted it.

Now, among the Four Oirat Tribes, the characters for "Grand Marshal" were also pronounced "Grand Marshal."

But in Khüchür's tribe, and among the forest tribes further north whom he had sent men to pacify, as well as those nobles who feared his temperament and power, they all read the characters for "Grand Marshal" as "Grand Tutor."

Or one could say, Khüchür had single-handedly created a Taimeng dialect within the Marshal's Office's most culturally complex Oirat language family.

If nothing else, Khüchür was not the only one familiar with "Grand Tutor" — the forest tribes north of the Tianshan all knew the term well.

It was precisely for this reason that Taimeng Garrison's pacification of the forest tribes had gone so smoothly.

The forest Tatar blacksmiths sent their iron to Taimeng Garrison, where military smiths of Qing princely origin rolled three layers of iron tube, hammered them together, cast the small iron parts, and out came three-eyed guns and ammunition.

A Kyrgyz Centurion in some stockade would have seven or eight of these guns. Under Zhou Riqiang's guidance, they used timber to build small stockades and transformed overnight from forest folk at anyone's mercy into tough nuts to crack, much like the fortified outposts of Russian expeditionary teams.

There were only so many forest-dwelling tributaries, and only so much productivity. If they all went over to Taimeng Garrison, what was the Khotgoid tribe to do?

What would they eat, what would they use, and what would they trade to the Russians for firearms?

And with that, conflict followed right on its heels.

Erdeni and the Rakshasa envoy saw eye to eye on the matter of Taimeng Garrison; both were determined to root out this enemy blocking their enterprise.

They knew Taimeng Garrison not only had the Dzungar cavalry under Chokur, skilled in swift charges, but also possessed firearms and cannons in large numbers — which was precisely why they decided that when the frozen plains thawed, they would advance by both water and land to strike Taimeng Garrison.

At that time, the large number of newly recruited forest centurions at Taimeng Garrison lacked horses and could not quickly reinforce; as long as they seized Tomsk City swiftly, the matter would be settled with one decisive blow.

Just as the frozen plains were about to thaw and the Khotogoid troops had already set out on campaign, Subadi's message arrived, saying that Taimeng Garrison was under the Khitan Khan and ordering him to withdraw his troops.

Who was this Khitan Khan?

Erdeni had never even heard of such a person!

After some explanation — a Han marshal, the Taishi of the Oirat, the Great Khan of the Inner Steppe, not of the Borjigin clan, currently campaigning in the Central Plains, his army having pushed as far as the Uriankhai.

A little lightbulb went off beside Erdeni's head: Esen!

But even if Esen crawled out of his grave, seizing my subjects still requires an explanation, no?

Erdeni had originally wanted to contest the matter, but Subadi said Liu Chengzong had tens of thousands of cavalry stationed right in the Inner Steppe — why not first recall your troops, come with me to the Inner Steppe to take a look, and then decide after we return.

In fact, he did not even make it as far as meeting Liu Chengzong before his idea of resistance changed.

Because on the road, Erdeni saw the second wave of people coming from the Outer Steppe to the Inner Steppe — the Tüsheet Khanate was on the move with their herds.

Gombu Khan personally led the party: over a dozen Noyan nobles, more than a thousand cavalry, over a thousand herding soldiers, driving tens of thousands of cattle, sheep, and fine horses, along with over a thousand carts of felt tents, hides, furs, and medicinal materials — all the way south, rolling mightily across the grasslands, grazing the grass along the route down to bare stubble.

The most absurd part was that Erdeni spotted among them the son of Sechen Khan Sholoi — Prince Babu.

He felt like a bear in hibernation, waking to find the outside world had completely changed.

By all logic, with several thousand cavalry of their Jasaghtu Khanate advancing toward the Inner Steppe in a murderous mood, and the Tüsheet Khanate's two thousand or so people traveling with goods, when they met on the road, Gombu ought at least to send someone to ask what they were up to.

He did not.

Gombu and Babu's destination was roughly the same as theirs — both were heading to the Inner Steppe.

The difference was that for Subadi's Jasaghtu Khanate, at least what the nobles told the soldiers was that they were going to the Khingan Range to join the war; they planned to fight first, then drive their surplus horses to the Shaanxi border to sell.

Gombu's Tüsheet Khanate, on the other hand, had no intention of going to war; they had merely obtained a transit permit from Guihua City to migrate with their herds to the Shanxi border and trade through the Ming frontier markets.

Gombu Khan and Prince Babu had no need to personally take part in such minor matters as leading a trade caravan; their purpose was in fact the same as Erdeni's — to go to the Khingan Range to meet Liu Chengzong.

At this moment, the Khingan Range was truly bustling beyond measure.

The Ming envoy had also arrived.

It was the old acquaintance Cao Huachun, accompanying the Grand Secretary of the Eastern Pavilion and Minister of Rites Qian Shisheng, bearing Emperor Chongzhen's edict, along with the Ming's intercepted letters between Hong Taiji and Liu Chengzong regarding an alliance to attack the Ming, and a formal rebuke on the matter.

Inside the central army encampment below Horse Mane Mountain, Qian Shisheng was full of stiff-backed defiance.

He wanted to proclaim the edict and waited for Liu Chengzong and his guards to perform the ritual obeisance, but the Marshal's Manor staff remained utterly unmoved.

Qian Shisheng simply stood there holding the edict, equally motionless, chin raised, glaring down his nostrils at Liu Chengzong.

Cao Huachun had feared exactly this on the way here; he hid at the back, not daring to let out a breath. Seeing the deadlock with no way out, he finally stepped forward past the crowd: "Marshal Liu, it's one of our own — Cao Huachun, an old acquaintance."

"Oh, Eunuch Cao has come — why hide at the back? I didn't even see you."

Liu Chengzong still had a pleasant face for Cao Huachun; the impression was deep.

This grand eunuch from the palace possessed a special ability: without needing a chair, he could stand just to the right of a yamen's main hall and blend in as one seamless whole.

Liu the Lion also intended to let the thoroughly arrogant Qian Shisheng cool his heels, so he waved Cao Huachun over with great warmth: "One of our own, no need to stand on ceremony — quickly, find somewhere to sit."

Cao Huachun's back was drenched in sweat, his heart nearly frozen through.

He knew perfectly well that whenever this Grand Marshal Liu opened his mouth, nothing good ever came out. With a whole crowd of officials and military officers who'd come from Beijing standing behind him, if you talk to me like that at first meeting, am I ever going back to Beijing or not?

But Cao Huachun also knew that Liu Chengzong might well have spoken those words in complete sincerity.

After all, this was already the third time he had been dispatched to Liu Chengzong.

Given the Marshal's Manor's territory, Liu Chengzong might very well not have met some of his own subordinate commanders even three times.

"Marshal, I am merely one who serves others; standing is fine. Grand Secretary Qian is on his first mission as envoy — I ask the Marshal to be forbearing."

Only after saying these pleasant words did Cao Huachun add: "The Grand Marshal is magnanimous — might you first accept the edict?"

"No hurry. A Grand Secretary, is he?"

Liu Chengzong scrutinized Qian Shisheng with eyes full of suspicion, then shot a dubious glance at Cao Huachun.

He was thinking: what on earth did Chongzhen send this Grand Secretary here for?

Could it be that this man had provoked Chongzhen to fury, and since the Emperor couldn't do anything about him, he sent him here to borrow a knife to kill?

After all, no matter how big the matter, Cao Huachun alone could handle it perfectly; there was absolutely no need to send a Grand Secretary — someone who couldn't get things done and only ruined them.

Liu the Lion said: "Since he's a Grand Secretary, I won't stoop to his level. If you don't wish to proclaim the edict, so be it. First go down, eat and drink well, and wait for my Minister of Rites to arrive — let him negotiate with you."

Qian Shisheng did not want to leave, but this was Liu Chengzong's territory, and his words were as good as gold.

Zhang Yong had just moments ago brought over an armchair because Liu Chengzong told Cao Huachun to sit anywhere; now, hearing the order for Qian Shisheng to go down, he promptly signaled two Tiger Guard soldiers on duty, who half-dragged, half-pulled Qian Shisheng away.

Once Qian Shisheng had been dragged off, Liu Chengzong beckoned Cao Huachun over again, had him sit closer, and asked: "Tell me — how did this man anger His Majesty? Does he intend for him to die here, or is he not to go back?"

Cao Huachun was stunned. What kind of perception did this Liu Chengzong have? He dared not touch such a topic and hurriedly said: "Marshal Liu, I would never dare speak so. Grand Secretary Qian is a pillar of the state…"

"Ha. A pillar of the state."

Liu the Lion nearly burst into belly laughter. Unable to hold back, he said: "His Majesty sent a pillar of the state to me? Either you or His Majesty must have a broken brain… Fine, if you don't want to talk, we'll set him aside for now."

Liu Chengzong straightened up and said with a serious expression: "Inside the Pass — the army provisions I requested, have they been dispatched? That force of over ten thousand Eight Banners troops that entered the frontier — has Ajige been killed yet?"

Cao Huachun thought to himself: Ajige killed? When he left the frontier, Changping City had just fallen; key points in the capital region like Liangxiang were all being ravaged, and places like Zhuozhou and Gu'an were still in the midst of battle. Even the central court had no idea where Ajige was — how was anyone supposed to go kill him?

Liu the Lion did not even need his answer; just looking at his expression, he understood the battle situation perfectly and also knew that the Ming court's provisions were most likely not ready either.

This made him furrow his brow in disgust: "My troops marched out of the frontier from Shaanxi, passed through Guihua City, and attacked all the way east beyond the Khingan Range. Both wings of Khorchin are nearly wiped out. Inside, we block Ajige's route out of the frontier; outside, we pin down Hong Taiji's main forces beyond the Pass. A court so vast — can it not even finish off a mere ten-thousand-plus enemy troops within its own heartland?"

Cao Huachun, shamed by these words, looked away and changed the subject: "At the pass, Hong Taiji's letter was intercepted — addressed to Marshal Liu. The letter spoke of jointly attacking the court, and so on…"

Liu Chengzong fell entirely into a state of wanting to speak, then stopping, then wanting to speak again.

He was furious at their failure to make good.

"Who cares what he said! Even if I truly intended to join hands with the eastern brigands, the court should reinforce the Miyun defense line as it must — but shouldn't it also finish off Ajige's force first?"

"If I wanted to fight, I'd go fight Shanxi and Henan. What would I be doing outside the capital? Even if I led troops to take Beijing and seized the Guan-Ning line, wouldn't I still have to fight the Eastern Invaders?"

"Such a simple truth, yet His Majesty cannot grasp it... forget it."

Liu Chengzong waved his hand dismissively, then pointed west and said, "Xing'an Ridge — you'll go see it in a while. Those building the city there are all captives from the various tribes east of the ridge who submitted to the Eastern Invaders. When you return, tell His Majesty and the Grand Secretariat ministers: I don't expect them to do much — just eliminate Ajige as quickly as possible, so the people of the capital region are spared further devastation."

"Speed is the essence of war. The Guan-Ning Army — if Shenyang is empty, strike and take it if you can. The Shandong Army — cross the sea to Korea and reinforce the defense without delay."

"If you do nothing at all, then once this window passes, you're on your own. When the Eastern Invaders recover their momentum, that tributary state will certainly be lost."

?? Good afternoon!

? (End of Chapter)