Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 469: The Gift of Changshengtian
In this era, smallpox is no different from death. Once infected with smallpox, the consequences are extremely serious.

However, Zhu Shenzui also saw an opportunity in this crisis. Although smallpox was terrible, it was not uncontrollable and might be able to be used.

Many years ago, Zhu Shenzhui had people researching the method of vaccination. Do you remember when he first came to the grassland? At that time, Zhu Shenzhui found several doctors, and even when Tana gave birth, these doctors played a significant role.

Although most of the earliest doctors had returned to Ming Dynasty due to their age and homesickness and were resettled in Ming Dynasty, there were still a few who remained in the grassland. In addition, Zhu Shenzhui paid a large sum of money to let these doctors help him train a group of young people over the years. Among these young people were Ming people and Mongolians, all of whom were smart and reliable children selected from clean families. After a few years, although these people's medical skills were not as good as their teachers, they were barely enough.

It is also because of these doctors that the Tengger tribe has developed rapidly in recent years. You must know that in addition to the necessities of survival on the grassland, medical treatment and illness are one of the factors restricting the development of the Mongolian population.

The Mongols believe in Eternal Heaven, and there are shamans in the Mongolian tribes. Shamanism is an ancient religious belief. The Mongols believe that shamans can communicate with heaven and earth, ancestors and all living things. This belief actually exists in the long history of the Han people. As early as the Shang Dynasty, there were wizards and priests similar to shamanism in the Central Plains. These were the main body of belief at the time. In the Zhou Dynasty, this situation continued. After Zulong swept across the world, unified the world, burned books and buried scholars, this ancient belief was no longer mainstream.

During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, Confucianism was the only school of thought that was respected, and this belief was suppressed, but it did not mean that it disappeared. The "Witchcraft Disaster" in the late reign of Emperor Wu of Han was also due to this reason. In the subsequent dynasties, this belief has never disappeared among the people, but it has changed its appearance and has become a private spread.

The Mongols still worshipped Shamans, but with the introduction of Buddhism, they began to believe in Buddhism as well as Shamans, and the status of Buddhism became increasingly higher. However, even so, Shamans still held an extraordinary status in many tribes.

In addition to their religious influence, shamans often also bear the responsibility of treating medical diseases in the tribe. When Mongolians fall ill, the first thing they do is to go to the shaman for help. The shaman will use herbs to treat the disease, or use religious rituals to "drive away" the disease in the person, thus restoring the person's health.

But in reality, it is hard to say how effective this method is. It is okay for ordinary diseases, but the shamanism has been passed down from generation to generation, so there must be some means. For example, the simple use of herbs can indeed cure diseases, but this treatment is limited to very common treatment methods, and religious rituals account for a large part of the treatment.

Isn't there an adjective in later generations, that is "Mongol doctor", this word is not a good word, usually used to describe "bad doctor" and "quack doctor". This also shows that the shamans are lacking in medical skills, coupled with the harsh living conditions on the grassland, the Mongolian people's production survival rate and average life expectancy are not optimistic.

But after Zhu Shenzui took over the Tengger tribe, as he brought the doctors and medical skills from the Central Plains to the grassland and gradually trained a group of usable doctors, the infant survival rate of the Tengger tribe, including the treatment of ordinary herdsmen's illnesses, was greatly improved. This is also one of the main reasons why the Tengger tribe has developed faster than other tribes and its population has continued to grow over the years.

In the process of using doctors, changes were also made to the tribe's shaman Zhu Shencui. He sent doctors from the Ming Dynasty to teach the tribe's shamans how to systematically learn medical skills and how to use herbs to treat diseases, thereby significantly improving the shamans' medical skills.

As for the opponents, they do not exist at all. Don't forget that according to Mongolian customs, the highest-ranking and most respected shaman in a tribe is often the "chief" or leader of the tribe, and the Great Shaman of the Tenger tribe was held by Ashe Temur himself during the period of Ashe Temur. After the death of Ashe Temur, the position of Great Shaman was temporarily vacant due to the internal strife in the tribe. When Zhu Shenzui helped Tana regain the power of the tribe and supported Tenger to sit on the throne of Taiji, the title of Great Shaman fell on Tana for the needs of tribal rule. So Tana is not only Zhu Shenzui's wife, Aliya of the tribe, Tenger's mother, but also the Great Shaman with the highest status in the entire tribe.

These words are a bit far-fetched. To put it simply, Zhu Shencui not only controls the tribe through political and military means, but also influences the tribe through shamans. In this way, he can do things more conveniently. Considering various factors, Zhu Shencui asked doctors to study the method of vaccination many years ago. Speaking of this method, it has actually existed for a long time, but it is not cowpox but human pox, and it is extremely risky.

It is precisely because of the risk that the method of human pox has not been promoted, but this method is not completely useless, and it is only a thin layer of window paper away from the real successful method. So when Zhu Shenzhu found a few doctors who knew the method of human pox and asked them to try to change human pox to cowpox for experiments, they soon had results, and after many attempts, the risk was controlled to an extremely low level. So Zhu Shenzhu now has the method of cowpox in his hands, but it has not been officially promoted. After all, smallpox is too terrible. Relying on current scientific medical methods, to obtain cowpox, you must first infect cows with smallpox, and the condition for cows to be infected with smallpox is that smallpox will only occur after an outbreak. For this reason, Zhu Shenzhu did not vaccinate the entire Tengger tribe on a large scale except for his family and a small number of people.

And now, Lindan Khan died of smallpox. This indicated that smallpox had broken out in Qinghai and was highly contagious. Otherwise, given Lindan Khan's high status, it would have been impossible for him to be easily infected with smallpox.

In this case, the possibility of large-scale vaccination exists. Zhu Shenzui plans to take advantage of these opportunities to send his doctors to vaccinate the entire Tengger tribe with cowpox. The benefit of doing so is not only that it can prevent the Tengger tribe from being infected with smallpox, but also that all the people in the tribe will have immunity from smallpox infection once and for all. In addition, although smallpox is terrible, it will no longer pose a threat after vaccination. Instead, the spread of smallpox can be used to directly solve the problem of the rule of the Tumo grassland.

Zhu Shenzui thought about using force to unify the Tumed Grassland. After the Tenger tribe swallowed up Bushitu's legacy, the Tenger tribe has now become the most powerful tribe in the Tumed Grassland. In addition, the acquisition of the title of Shunyi King has given the Tenger tribe the legal right to become the master of the Tumed Grassland.

But even so, it is not so easy to make the Tumed tribes completely submit to the Tenger tribe. As early as the Bu Shitu period, he failed to do so and was just a nominal leader. It is also difficult to unify the Tumed grassland if it is done by force. Although the Tenger tribe now has the most powerful force, the other tribes are not bad either. Once the other side unites, it will be difficult to defeat them in a short time.

Even if you can win the opponent on the battlefield, it is another matter to make them convinced. This is the method used by Lin Dan Khan to unify the various Mongolian tribes, but what was the result? Although Lin Dan Khan won many conquests against various tribes and subdued many tribes by force, the result was not as expected. Not only did he fail to unify the various tribes, but he also caused the various tribes to resent Lin Dan Khan. Isn't this the reason why Lin Dan Khan was eventually deserted by his friends and relatives and was driven away from Chahar?
The Mongols are a nomadic people. Unlike the people of the Ming Dynasty, they survive on the grasslands by relying on herdsmen and cattle and sheep. Moreover, they are mainly scattered in tribes across the vast grasslands, so it is difficult to achieve this by relying on coercive means of war.

Therefore, if Zhu Shenzui wanted Tenger to become the true leader of the Tumed, it would not work just by force. He had to use political and other means. Although all the tribes now nominally recognized the Tenger tribe as the leader of the Tumed, in fact, the way they treated the Tenger tribe was no different from how they treated Bu Shitu in the past. The so-called submission was only on the surface.

Because of the previous incident with Ligdan Khan, and the fact that the Chahar tribes in the east were close to Huang Taiji, Zhu Shenzui's arrangements in the tribe were mainly to guard against possible attacks from both sides on the Tumed, especially from Ligdan Khan who was driven to Qinghai.

For these reasons, after Zhu Shenzhui captured Guihua City and annexed Bushitu's tribe, he did not attack other tribes directly. The key was that he was not completely sure that he could subdue the tribes. He was even more worried that once the war broke out, if Ligdan Khan fought back, the Tengger tribe would face the crisis of being united by the other side. Therefore, stabilizing the situation was the most important thing. The unification of the Tumed could be done slowly after resolving external threats.

This was Zhu Shenzhui's original plan. He thought it would take at least several years to achieve this, especially to resolve the threat from Ligdan Khan first. But he never expected that Ligdan Khan would suddenly die, and he died of smallpox. After the surprise, Zhu Shenzhui immediately thought of a perfect solution.

He did what he said. After discussing with Tana, Tana convened a tribal meeting in the name of the great shaman and seriously told the tribal leaders, generals and chiefs that smallpox had broken out in Qinghai, that Ligdan Khan had died of smallpox, and that smallpox had spread eastward from Qinghai and entered the Tumot grassland.

Upon hearing the news, everyone was horrified, and the fear of smallpox was evident on everyone's face. At this time, Tana claimed that she had received the will of the Eternal Heaven, who ordered Tana to teach her a way to avoid the spread of smallpox, and even to never be threatened by smallpox infection. This was a gift from the Eternal Heaven to the Tenger tribe, and it was also a sacred will of the Eternal Heaven to recognize Tenger's rule over the grassland. Tenger was the Eternal Heaven's recognized agent on the grassland, and as long as they became the people of Jurhan, the Eternal Heaven would also give them this gift.

(End of this chapter)