Daming Yinghua

Chapter 450: Make Sure Duo Yanwei Doesn’t Backstab

The third thing Zheng Haizhu wanted to do when he came to Daning Town this time was to inspect the effectiveness of the Ming court's appeasement of the Kharchin tribe of Mongolia.

More than half a year ago, after concluding the tripartite meeting of the Ming, Mongolian and Russian parties in the Chahar tribe, Zheng Haizhu turned south with Hezhuo, who could speak Mongolian, to visit Doyan in the Kharchin tribe.

Doyan, during the reign of Taizu to Xuanzong, was the Doyan Guard stationed outside the Great Wall of the Ming Empire to prevent a counterattack by the Northern Yuan Dynasty. They were all Mongolians themselves.

After the Ming court's control over these mercenaries in the north weakened, the Doyan Guard split into thirty-six small tribes, known as the "Thirty-Six Families", which intermarried with the Golden Family, the direct descendants of Genghis Khan, and were incorporated into the Mongolian Kharchin tribe.

However, unlike the Golden Family Kalaqin who lived outside Xuandakou in the west, the Thirty-Six Families of Doyan still grazed in the east and lived outside Xifengkou of the Great Wall in Jizhou Town of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming court still gave annual silver rewards to the thirty-six families of Doyan, just like it did to Chahar, and named their leader "Dudu of the Doyan Guard."

Today, the governor of Doyanwei is named "Subudi".

After Zheng Haizhu actually entered the sphere of influence of Doyan Guard, he understood more and more why, in history, the Later Jin Dynasty tried so hard to win over Doyan Guard in Subu.

This was because Gaotai Fort, where Doyanwei received annual rewards from the Ming court and conducted trade with the Ming Dynasty, was very close to Ningyuan, an important military town in western Liaoning of the Ming Dynasty, and not far from Guangning, which was further north.

This means that the areas actually controlled by the Mongols such as Doyanwei are more important to the Later Jin and the Ming Dynasty than Ligdan Khan of the Chahar tribe in the north.

If the Ming Dynasty had suppressed Doyan, Doyan would not have stabbed the Ming army in the back when Nurhaci or Huang Taiji crossed the Liaohe River to the west to attack important cities such as Guangning.

If the Later Jin Dynasty, like the Khorchin alliance, had obtained the support of Doyan, then Guangning, Ningyuan, Dalinghe and other places outside Shanhaiguan would have been attacked by the Later Jin Dynasty and Doyan. In fact, since Doyan belonged to the Kharchin tribe and Subudi was the "Tabunang" of the Kharchin tribe, equivalent to a first-rank prince, it would have been much easier for the Later Jin Dynasty to use Subudi's mediation to reach an alliance with the entire Kharchin tribe. Then, the actual control of the Later Jin Dynasty extended from Liaodong to the entire Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty from Shanhaiguan to Xuanda.

Fortunately, the time window that Zheng Haizhu traveled through was her greatest golden finger, allowing her to represent the Ming court five years earlier than Huang Taiji and truly win over the Doyan Guards, before Huang Taiji became the Khan of the Later Jin Dynasty.

When he met the leader of the Doyan tribe, Subudi, at the beginning of the year, Zheng Haizhu followed the promise made by Zhu Changluo before and promised Subudi, on top of the annual reward of silver, that every spring, the Ming Dynasty could transport grain from Xifengkou to Subudi's royal tent to alleviate the famine that the tribe often encountered in this season.

But in exchange, in addition to the Doyan tribe standing on the side of the Ming Dynasty, Subudi also had to allow Ming officials to lead craftsmen to explore mineral veins in the mountains within the territories of the thirty-six Doyan families.

Subudi was no fool, so he asked, "You Ming people, do you know that our Duoyan tribe has buried gold?"

Zheng Haizhu said casually: "There is no gold. The governor can send your subordinates to check it out frequently. We just want to get more lead to make muskets for the border troops. Besides, prospecting and mining are all in the mountains, which will not affect your pastures."

Subudi listened to Hezhuo's translation of Zheng Haizhu's words, and thought that if he was close to the Ming Dynasty, if Chahar's Lindan Khan wanted to invade the left wing of Kharchin, he could also treat the Ming Dynasty as his suzerain and seek protection, so he agreed to Zheng Haizhu's conditions and stamped his seal on the Ming Dynasty's letter. Now, eight or nine months have passed, Zheng Haizhu has returned to Daning Town again, and has also waited for Hezhuo, who has been running between the Duoyan tribe and Daning.

He Zhuo reported to Zheng Haizhu: "From spring to autumn, the Doyan tribe did not harass the Ming villages near the border wall. However, when the craftsmen from Yunnan and Zhejiang sent by Lieutenant General Zhang first arrived in the Shuangjianzi Mountain area of ​​the Doyan tribe, the Mongols still made things difficult for them. Fortunately, after General Man and I escorted Master Wang to meet with Subudi, the situation improved a lot. The Mongols really gave Master Wang face."

The "Master Wang" mentioned by He Zhuo is Wang Xiangqian.

He was a heavyweight figure in the late Ming Dynasty, a civil servant who was a Jinshi graduate. He traveled from Xuanda to Sichuan and then to Ji and Liao, helping the Ming Dynasty resist the northern barbarians and the eastern barbarians and quell the rebellion in the southwest.

Zheng Haizhu was not familiar with every important military official in the late Ming Dynasty, but before she went to Xuanda to meet Governor Cui Jingrong, she specifically visited the Prime Minister Ye Xianggao to consult the empire's civil officials who had always had a deterrent effect on Mongolia. The first person Ye Xianggao mentioned was Wang Xiangqian.

Ye Xianggao, who did not blindly advocate fighting to the end on border affairs, saw that Zheng Haizhu did not have a radical stance towards Mongolia, so he specifically pointed out to her that although Wang Xianggan had won many victories for the court, he had never advocated "those who are not of our race must be killed as soon as possible." He even proposed to the court the strategy of treating the Mongolian tribes differently and trying to appease the Mongolians south of the desert.

Zheng Haizhu kept Wang Xiangqian in mind and proposed to Zhu Changluo to reinstate him after returning to Beijing. Later, after fighting at the Confucius Mansion in Shandong, he made a special visit to Wang Xiangqian, who was at home on leave, to humbly ask for advice on how to deal with the Mongols.

Although Wang Xianggan was already in his seventies, he still had some aspirations of being an old horse in the stable. He finally responded to the call of the emperor and the court and returned to the capital. However, he was unwilling to take charge of the Ministry of War. He wanted to be a member of the think tank who offered advice to Zhu Changluo, just like Xu Guangqi.

This time, after Zheng Haizhu had made preliminary preparations in Doyanwei, he felt that Wang Xianggan, an old minister of the Ming Dynasty who had once intimidated the Mongols on the grassland, still had to go to Subudi to show his face. So he proposed to Zhu Changluo that he should give the old man the title of Chief Censor and have him represent the Ming Dynasty on a mission to Doyanwei, where they could kill a white horse, drink a glass of wine, and swear an oath.

Sure enough, Subudi fell for it.

Zheng Haizhu then told He Zhuo: "If the prospecting is successful and we start digging the mine, I will emphasize to Master Huang and General Ma that we must recruit our Ming people to send them over, even refugees from Shanxi and Shaanxi, and do not use the Mongols from Doyanwei. Secondly, the ore that is dug out should be brought back to Daning and handed over to Mr. Song Yingxing to have people smelt it. Do not build a furnace in Doyanwei to fry silver for the sake of convenience."

Silver mines are often associated with lead. It is said that there is lead on the mountain and silver underneath. Therefore, when Zheng Haizhu deceived Subudi, he said that Daming was here to dig lead. Naturally, the work of refining silver cannot be done near the mine.

As for the future, if the Later Jin was really driven to the upper reaches of Huerha to seize territory from Russia, which was looking for an outlet to the sea, and the Ming military power surrounding Doyanwei continued to increase, it would not matter if Subudi or his successor knew the truth about the silver mine.

Just like in Yunnan today, silver mine production is under the absolute control of the Ming court. The local chieftains can only open a few small mines near the big mines and dig a little, and they dare not ask the Ming court for a share of the pie.

In the final analysis, the fist must be strong.

Before Zheng Haizhu left Daning Town, he held a small meeting with Huang Zunsu, Ma Xianglin and Man Gui.

"There have always been spies sent by Nurhaci outside the Great Wall, and the Mongols of Khorchin would also disguise themselves as merchants to spy. In the next six months, Daning Town will spread rumors that it is willing to help Ligdan Khan and fight westward, making Nurhaci believe that in the early spring of next year, the 7,000 to 8,000-man team of Daning Town outside the Great Wall will not be able to support Kaiyuan and Tieling."