stubborn thief

In fact, before Zasaktu Khan Subadi entered the south of the desert, Liu Shizi already knew that he was coming.

During this era, the area south of the desert experienced the struggle between the three Khans, namely, Ligdan's retreat to the west, Tiancong's expedition to the west, and the Khitan's expedition to the east. Then, 230,000 households went on an expedition to the east to destroy the Kharashen. These four huge changes in power eventually formed a strange pattern.

The area west of Ulanqab belonged to the Marshal's Office; the area east of the Greater Khingan Range was still the territory of the Later Jin.

The large tracts of excellent pastures to the east of Jining, west of Xing'an Mountains, north of Kaipingwei, and south of the Kerulen River have become a no-man's land buffer zone.

It's not that no one has tried to lay their hands on this place. In the past, it was the territory of the ten Chahar tribes. It was a first-rate place, and people from all directions were trying to lay their hands on it, but no one had the ability to occupy it for a long time without launching a war.

Of course, the only ones among these four who wanted to occupy territory were Qintu Taiji of the Marshal's Office and Gurusiqibu of the Later Jin.

Both of them were fighting for their homeland and often sent troops across the border. The Harashen tribe sent troops to attack and kill the people in the Marshal's Office, while Qintu Taiji sent his troops to escort the herdsmen in and let the cattle and sheep eat the grass of their hometown.

Shuolei Khan in the north instructed several tribes that had surrendered and were nomadic on both sides of the Kherlen River to graze on the south bank when they had the chance, and to retreat to the north as soon as they spotted enemy troops, so as to recuperate as much as possible and avoid causing trouble.

As for the intentions of the Kaiping Wei Ming army in the south, they were much simpler. They didn't care about the pastures here or who occupied them.

They are the ones who run out to kill people with light swords, fast horses, soft bows and long arrows.

The Marshal's Office, which occupies the most extensive land in southern Mobei, has the biggest difference from the former Khan's court in its personnel composition. It is not as clearly separated from the three tribes in northern Mobei as before.

After all, among the 23 nobles with ten thousand households in the Mobei Military Governor's Office, 18 of them were previously thousand households in the three tribes of Mobei.

So much so that as soon as Subati sent someone to inquire about the news, the intelligence that he was going to Mo Nan was reported by the commanders of the Governor's Office.

People went crazy and told Liu Chengzong the news. Within one day, seven groups of cavalrymen delivered the intelligence to the various camps under his command.

The reason was very simple. This was the closest Liu Chengzong had been to the Wanhu of the tribes south of the desert. He was in Ordos.

However, when the news was received, Liu Shizi was still on the other side of the Maowusu Lake, commanding his troops to attack Yansui Town.

In fact, it was not really a matter of command. Half of the troops under his command were dispersed in small groups to the four towns and two divisions of the Mo Nan Governor's Office to seek food.

Even his own troops were just watching the fun; only twelve battalions, including the Yanqing Brigade, actually participated in the battle to attack Yansui Town.

The intensity of resistance in Yansui Town was very low and the people's morale had long been dispersed.

There were skirmishes involving more than ten, dozens, or at most a hundred people every day, but there had never been a normal battle involving thousands of people.

Most of the border forts surrendered at the sight of the enemy, and a few surrendered when the main force of the army arrived. Only the town of Yulin showed a very firm will to resist.

At the beginning of the war, the idle old generals summoned their old subordinates from all over the place to enter the town, obviously intending to defend it to the death. Liu Chengzong sent a letter of persuasion to surrender, but no one responded.

Later, their wish was fulfilled and troops were sent to encircle the enemy from the north and south.

To the south was Zhang Zhen's Yanqing Brigade, Ding Guodong, Milayin, Dorji Taiji, as well as the troops of Hengshan's Hun Tianxing Hui Dengxiang and Man Tianxing Zhou Qing.

To the north were Liu Fangming, Ma Xiantu, Xu Yong, Wang Yuncheng from Ningxia, plus the three battalions under Ren Quaner of the Second Brigade.

Of course, with so many people surrounding them, they didn't just stand there and watch. The important grain supply station in the rear was being transferred from Pingliang Prefecture to Qingyang Prefecture to transport grain to Yansui Town. These soldiers and horses could also play a role in building roads through mountains and bridges over rivers in various small roads and military forts.

Liu Chengzong basically did not get involved in the war while in Yansui.

He brought Chen Qiuyu's younger brother Chen Qihuang and set up Jingbian County in Hengshan, and made him the county magistrate to organize manpower and material resources to solve the problem of animal power on the grain route passing through Maowusu Lake.

Liu Shizi looked relaxed, but actually he was not that calm inside.

Because he made a lot of preparations and did a lot of things. Although he pulled the army to Ordos, nominally for the purpose of attacking Yulin City from both inside and outside, in fact he was preparing for a conflict with the Later Jin.

Attacking Ningxia first and then Yansui were both to eliminate future troubles.

Now that the future trouble has been eliminated, if Huang Taiji does not send troops, he will be in trouble.

The huge number of surrendered soldiers in Ningxia and Yansui continued to expand their territory and their momentum was unstoppable. He had to fight a battle, and it couldn't be a war of such low intensity as the one in Yulin.

If the Later Jin did not come, he would have to attack places like Shanxi, Henan, or Huguang.

In short, war is inevitable, and all he can choose is his opponent.

At this critical juncture, Subati's arrival made Liu Chengzong particularly excited.

When he received the news, he handed over the full authority of the siege of Yulin Town to Ren Quaner, the general of the Second Brigade, and led his troops to Guihua City.

Although Yang Qi was not in the Mobei Governor's Office, Wang Chengen, He Huchen, Taiji Qintu and Elinchen together governed Mobei quite well.

At least where Liu Shizi passed, although there were many deserts and Gobi, every settled tribe repaired canals, built forts, cultivated land, and grazed livestock. They were not desolate, and even looked more prosperous than Yansui Town south of the border wall.

But this was actually his illusion.

Jinong E'erlinchen here was the leader of the 230,000-household attack on the Kharashen tribe last year, and he achieved the greatest gains in the battle.

The harvest was given to the tribesmen at the suggestion of Sanang Taiji. After a year of breeding, the cattle and sheep would certainly bring great prosperity and vitality to the area.

The prosperity of Ordos did not come from anyone's governance or development, but was built on the attacks and plundering of the Karashian tribe that almost led to their demise.

In fact, this scene also shocked the Zasaktu Khan Subadi who came from Mobei.

It was Liu Chengzong’s first time to come to Mo Nan, so he didn’t have much feeling.

Subadi just left last year and came back this year. He has seen the development of the Monan Governor's Office clearly.

When I came here last year, Guihua City had hardly changed from before, except that it had become dilapidated due to multiple wars.

When I came back this year, I didn’t feel anything special about Subadi. It was no different from Mobei, with the same hills and Gobi desert, and the same vast land and sparse population.

It's nothing more than that the several Wanhu tribes along the way are all living a peaceful life, with herds of cattle and sheep, and they look a little prosperous.

But it is spring after all. As the saying goes, sheep in February are thrown over the wall. This means that there is no grass to eat in winter, and the sheep in spring are so thin that they can be thrown over the wall at will.

No matter how many livestock there are, they all look skinny and weak, and they are not very beautiful at all.

However, Subati knew very well that the changes that had taken place in the 18,000 Mongolian soldiers in the northern desert meant that the Governor's Office in the southern desert had extremely terrifying creativity and cohesion.

They started from almost nothing.

Of course, he would not attribute all these changes to Yang Qi. At most, he could only admit that the southern barbarians under Liu Chengzong were indeed powerful.

Isn't that barbaric enough? The Halashen tribe, a legend on the southern steppes of the desert, was such a big tribe, and it was gone in the blink of an eye.

Subati was well aware of Subudi's legendary experience in establishing the Harashen tribe.

It’s not that they have any personal relationship, but their surnames are different, but their names are the same, both meaning treasure.

It's hard not to notice someone with the same name as yourself.

Subudi's experience in establishing Kharashen is indeed legendary. He is like a Mongolian version of Lu Bu. He started out as a small official in a border area. He was fickle in weighing the pros and cons. He served Ding Yuan and killed Ding Yuan, served Dong Zhuo and killed Dong Zhuo, and was eventually promoted to Marquis Wen and took charge of the government.

The same was true for Subudi. He served Kharashen Khan Laskabu as Kharashen's son-in-law, but later squeezed out Laskabu. He was appointed as the Governor of Doyan by the Ming Dynasty, but sent troops to follow Jin in attacking Ming. He formed an alliance with Huang Taiji, but sent troops to plunder Huang Taiji, and finally made his son the Khan of Kharashen.

Subadi's surname was Borjigin, while Subudi's surname was Uriankhai. Because of this, Subadi, who came from a noble family, admired Subudi more - after all, he was not his lord.

This is just like when Lu Bu was alive, everyone talked about his bravery. Anyway, I am not Ding Yuan or Dong Zhuo.

As a result, the huge fortune accumulated by such a powerful man like Subudi was destroyed by the barbarians under Yang Qi after his death.

Of course, these people were not actually the Han soldiers who were "Liu Chengzong's southern barbarians" in Subati's mind.

In fact, it was the tribesmen of the three khans in the northern desert who stayed in the southern desert, and they led Ordos Jinong Elinchen to rush over and burn, kill and loot.

But Subati didn't believe it.

Don’t I know how brave and capable my own people are?
They can do something as big as that? That's just bullshit!
They must be the Han soldiers under Liu Chengzong’s command who have no fear of gods or Buddhas and no respect for the emperor!
After all, the ferocity of that group of people was obvious to all the great nobles in the western part of Mobei. Even a tough man like Batur Hun Taiji of Oirats was beaten into submission. It was not surprising that their people went to deal with Harashen, who had the support of the Later Jin.

Subadi also felt that Liu Chengzong was quite a humane leader. Look, all the cattle and sheep looted by the Han soldiers during the expedition were arranged for our people. This Han Khan treats us Mongols really well!

But when Subati entered Hetao from the mountain pass in the north of Wuyuan, he was stunned by the scene before him.

As far as the eye can see, there are winding mountain roads cleared by knives and axes between the mountains. The commanding heights of each mountain are like a small construction site. Next to the simple wooden village, people lead mules to transport bricks and stones from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain, and one pier beacon tower after another is under construction.

The logs obtained from clearing the mountain roads were also piled at the foot of the mountain to dry, and some of them had been used to build a long wooden wall at the low mountain pass.

From Langshan Mountain to Yinshan Mountain, there are such projects everywhere. The huge projects show Yang Qi's ambitions that exceed his capabilities.

But in fact, the scale of the project of the Monan Governor's Office is not as large as it seems.

The Hetao area, where the four towns of Yunzhong, Wuyuan, Shuofang and Yanmen, the core area of ​​the Monan Military Governor's Office, are located, overlaps with the ancient Zhao Great Wall and Qin Great Wall on the periphery.

In fact, there are remains of the Great Wall of Han Dynasty, but the Great Wall of Han Dynasty is made of rammed earth on flat ground. After thousands of years of wind, rain, cold and heat, no grass grows on it. It is not comfortable to walk on, but it is always trampled by people and horses.

Most of the remains that remain today are only one or two feet high. Everyone believes that this is a gift from nature and a naturally formed road on the grassland.

They just cleared the mountain roads, repaired the long-abandoned remains of the ancient Great Wall, built kilns at the foot of the mountain, and built a few fortresses and beacon towers on the mountain.

Not only that, but also because of the extremely low productivity of the Governor's Office and Yang Qi's escape back to Xi'an, the beacon towers and forts in the west were basically not built except for the wooden wall of Shankouzi.

However, the Daqingshan defense line in the east, which was under the charge of Taiji Qintu, was doing quite well because many Han people from Shanxi went out of the border to avoid the plague last year and received a lot of manpower.

This is actually pretty fucked up.

The source of the plague should be the former land of Harashen, because many people died in the war and the survivors had no food. Fleas carrying the disease bit rats, and the rats were eaten by people. People infected the soldiers who went out of the border and were bitten by fleas again. Finally, groups of rats followed the water source south into Shanxi.

As a result, the people of Shanxi fled to the sparsely populated areas outside the Great Wall to avoid the plague.

But no matter what, the vast and sparsely populated environment outside the Great Wall and the fact that the people have not encountered major epidemics do provide a certain resistance to the spread of diseases.

A common situation outside the Great Wall is that people don’t even know the plague is coming, and the plague has already gone.

After all, once it is infected, the winter pasture will be gone, and the yin and yang will be separated.

Within the mountain fortress complex, large tracts of wasteland on both sides of the Hetao Yellow River have been reclaimed, and there are earthen forts, farmlands, houses and dugouts everywhere. There are even city walls being built, felt tents everywhere, and herds of cattle and sheep, which looks like a settled place on the frontier.

Even the gaps in the walls of Guihua City were repaired.

Especially after entering the Hetao area, there is a small square camp next to every settlement along the way. The camp is made of logs as fences and rammed earth as walls, with red lion cannons placed on the walls. The Han army in distinctive armor is stationed in the camp, and dragon flags are hung on the walls.

This scene really shocked Subati.

He thought to himself that given the emphasis the Governor's Office placed on defensive measures, even if Emperor Chongde raised an army this year, he might not be able to break into the Hetao area. In that case, his Zasaktu tribe should go south to help.

Getting some food for the soldiers is secondary.

The key point is that he saw that the Mo Nan Governor's Office did have the ability to occupy Mo Nan for a long time in the chaos.

Subati was different from other people on the Mongolian grasslands. He went to Xining to meet Liu Chengzong.

The young Dunta Khan had thousands of powerful soldiers and possessed wizardly skills to control smallpox. Although he humbled himself and lived in a simple place, he was still heroic and made no secret of his ambition to unite Mongolia with the Han soldiers and achieve great things.

He even made predictions like a real wizard or shaman, using bewitching words to predict that the day when the Jurchens surpassed the Mongols would be the day to seize real power and kill people.

This prophecy is coming true. The Khans of Khorchin and Karashen "voluntarily" gave up their titles and accepted the official positions and titles of Daiqing Gulun.

Of course, to Subati, this prophecy is bullshit.

Let’s say you, Liu Chengzong, granted titles to many Oirats nobles, and the titles they gave were low. Dai Qing Gulun was able to be conferred the title of Prince of Khorchin Khan.

What kind of title did you, Dunta Khan, give to Batur Hun Taiji?
But he is only an earl!

The only thing that happened was that the noble titles such as Taiji were not abolished.

But because of this, when Shuolei heard the news that Emperor Chongde was going to send troops, he immediately asked Babu to tell the news to Subadi, who then informed Liu Chengzong.

Whether or not to abolish the Mongolian title is not important to Subadi. He has only 6,000 troops directly under his command, and the nobles under his command can send out 60,000 troops. Even if he leaves 6,000 people in the south of the desert, he can still send out more than 50,000 troops.

Even if he became a prince under Emperor Chongde, his power would be weakened under the centralization of power, but it would not be a loss of face.

Subati never enjoyed centralized power. He was just an aristocratic leader supported by nobles of all sizes.

Shuolei is different.

The Chechen Khanate had no great nobles, or even large tribes, only a few tribes that had been subordinate to Chahar in the past. Chechnya was a tribe, and Shuolei himself was the lord of an army of 40,000.

Therefore, it was impossible for Shuolei to accept the Later Jin's practice of abolishing the title of Khan, splitting up the tribes and centralizing power.

In fact, if he was not afraid of retaliation from the Later Jin Dynasty, and the Marshal's Office was not strong enough to extend to the Greater Khingan Range to provide him with reinforcements, the accession of Emperor Chongde to the throne and the policy of Khorchin Khan to remove the Khan title would be enough for Shuolei to send troops to attack Daiqing Gulun.

On the contrary, Subadi, who had long been allied with Liu Chengzong, was not enthusiastic about this battle.

He just came to check out the situation in the south of the desert and fulfill his duty as an ally to the Governor's Office, in order to prevent Liu Chengzong and Yang Qi from being caught off guard and having Guihua City seized by Dai Qing Gulun's Eight Banners Army. Then his Zasaktu tribe would be unsafe.

But the further they went, the more nervous Subati became, because he saw more and more Han troops.

In the Chi Le River under the Yin Mountains, one can see large areas of Han army camps, which firmly guard Qingcheng.

In the distance, a group of cavalrymen from Guihua City rode up and came ten miles outside the city to greet them.

The two leaders dismounted. One of them, a bearded man wearing an iron hat and carrying a bow and sword, did not speak. The other one, whom Subadi recognized, was the former Chahar Prime Minister Sang Gaoletu Chechen.

The latter dismounted and saluted, saying, "I am the Minister of the Court of Dunta Ulus Khan and the Captain of the Huben Camp, Gao Letu, paying my respects to Zasaktu Khan."

After that, he gestured to the iron hat beside him and introduced: "This is Zhang Xianzhong, the Minister of Rites of the Marshal's Office and the General of the Western Brigade. I am here to greet you at the order of the Khan."

Only then did Zhang Xianzhong clasp his hands and bow.

Before Subati could recover from the shock of seeing Chahar Zaisan.

Gao Letu turned sideways, stretched out his hand toward the city gate and said, "The Khitan Khan has been waiting for you in the temple for a long time."

Subadi’s eyes widened even more: Liu, Liu Chengzong is here?

With such a large military force, how could he know that Huang Taiji was going to send troops to the south of the desert!
Could it be a wizard? (End of this chapter)