Take control of Wei Zhongxian at the start and confiscate 100 million from him!

Chapter 253 Even poison coated in honey must be swallowed.
Before the stench of blood on the Horqin grasslands had been dispelled by the long winds, and before the vultures were still circling for their feast, a reconstruction of order, far more ruthless than the war itself, was already running precisely and rapidly on the track set by that young emperor.

The fall of Khorchin was not the death knell, but a thunderous clarion call.

The massive amounts of spoils transported from the grasslands continue to pour into the interior of the pass.

Mountains of furs, endless Mengniu cows, and tens of thousands of magnificent warhorses filled the air of Xuanfu, a vital border town, with a peculiar mix of wealth and bloodshed.

However, compared to these tangible spoils, an imperial edict from the capital seemed far more significant at this moment.

When this edict, which had been prepared long ago and was ready to be issued immediately after the war ended, was delivered by a messenger personally dispatched by Man Gui, the governor of Xuanfu and Datong, to Ligdan Khan's golden tent, the newly crowned steppe overlord was in high spirits, deploying his troops.

The people and livestock acquired by annexing the Khorchin tribe greatly increased the strength of his Chahar tribe several times over.

Based on the verbal promise made by Man Gui, the Governor-General of Xuanfu and Datong before the war—"Great Khan, go ahead and do it. The land of Khorchin will be your spoils. If the Later Jin invades, His Majesty's heavenly army will not stand idly by!"

Ligdan Khan has already eagerly settled some of the vanguard tribes and soldiers in the lush and fertile eastern pastures of Khorchin, preparing to seize this prime piece of land first.

In his view, with the support and commitment of the powerful ally, the Ming Dynasty, he could almost foresee that in the near future, he would truly recreate the glory of Genghis Khan and become the undisputed ruler of the Mongols!

The edict appears to be a recognition and reward for his actions, even more generous than Man Gui's promise.

"...The former lands of Khorchin are fertile plains stretching for thousands of miles, rich in water and grass. Now that their ruler is gone, the land cannot be without a master, and the people cannot be without a leader. I remember the Great Khan's great service in assisting the royal army this time, and I cannot bear to see his people still living in the harsh northern desert. Therefore, I hereby decree: all the former pastures of Khorchin are granted to the Great Khan. I hope that the Great Khan will lead his people eastward, comfort his remaining people, and forever serve as the northern bulwark of our Great Ming..."

The wording was mild, and the demeanor was generous.

However, as the advisors around Ligdan Khan carefully considered the four words "leading the troops to move east" in the edict, a chill quietly rose from their spines.

Migrating a portion of the tribe to test the waters is a completely different concept from the entire tribe's center of gravity "moving eastward"! The former is expansion, the latter is... blocking a bullet!

"Great Khan, you mustn't!" A wise and experienced advisor immediately advised, "General Man Gui's promise can be our reliance for expansion, but Your Majesty's decree is to push our Chahar tribe completely onto the edge of the Later Jin's blade! Once the main force moves east, there will be no room for maneuver between our tribe and the Later Jin, and we will have no choice but to fight to the death!"

"Yes, Great Khan!" another tribal chief echoed eagerly. "We have just annexed the Khorchin, and the hearts of our people have not yet fully submitted. We need to recuperate. It would be wise for a wise man not to directly confront the Later Jin with our main force at this time!"

Voices of advice and remonstrance rose and fell.

Lindan Khan sat on his throne, stroking the light yet heavy edict in his hand, without uttering a word.

How could he not know that this was a deliberate scheme by the Ming emperor?

Man Gui's promise was bait, but this imperial edict was the real reveal of his true intentions!
But, can he refuse?

Refuse? What reason could he give to refuse? He had already begun migrating his people to the Khorchin, and now the emperor was simply going along with it, giving him a title and turning his probing into national policy.

If it's just a small-scale migration, or even a case of outward compliance but inward defiance, how is that any different from openly slapping the face of the Ming Emperor? This means that this alliance has broken down.

At this moment, the main force of the Ming army is still eyeing the Xuanfu line, and that terrifying force that can easily wipe the Khorchin off the map is like a sharp sword hanging over his head that could fall at any time.

But what truly chilled him to the bone was not merely the elite soldiers and fierce generals on the Xuanfu border wall.

Lindan Khan had pieced together a chilling picture from information obtained through various channels: the northern part of the Ming Dynasty, once ravaged by war and rife with bandits, was restoring order at an astonishing speed.

The young emperor used swift and decisive measures to confiscate the wealth of several powerful princes and so-called "sage" families, nationalizing vast amounts of land and establishing numerous refugee settlements called "Emperor's Villages."

This means that the biggest drain on the Ming Dynasty is being plugged!

The refugees were transformed into farmers, and these farmers could be armed at any time when needed, becoming a continuous source of soldiers!
Once the Ming Dynasty, this vast and suffocating empire, achieves internal stability, its terrifying war potential will be fully unleashed.

At that time, the troops in Xuanfu will probably not just be stationed at the border wall.

At any moment, hundreds of thousands of troops could be mobilized, along with endless money and provisions, to launch a relentless expedition to the grasslands... That was a nightmare that even Genghis Khan's descendants could not bear.

The answer is, it can't be stopped.

It can't be stopped now, and it will be even less likely to be stopped in the future.

Moreover, this edict offered him the most irresistible temptation at that moment—legal legitimacy.

With this imperial edict, his occupation of the Khorchin territory was no longer seen as a barbaric act of the strong preying on the weak on the grasslands, but as a legitimate rule recognized by the emperor of the Central Plains.

This is of immeasurable value for his future integration of the various Mongol tribes and establishment of his prestige as the supreme ruler.

He had to swallow this poison coated in honey.

"enough."

Lin Danhan spoke slowly, his voice not loud, but it instantly silenced all the noise.

"The decree of the Ming Emperor shows respect for Ligdan Khan and for the Chahar! The Later Jin and Jurchen are nothing but a bunch of hunters and fishermen, what is there to fear? Do you think our Mongol cavalry is afraid of them?"

He held the edict high, his voice booming like a bell.

"Pass on my order! Select the elite troops and choose a group of followers to migrate eastward immediately! From this day forward, the grasslands of Khorchin will be my eastern pastures and outposts!"

……

Fear is a more effective weapon than swords.

The news that the Khorchin tribe had been completely wiped out of the grasslands by the combined forces of the Ming Dynasty and Chahar within just half a month spread like an earthquake across the entire southern Mongolian steppe.

Every detail of the news was enough to send chills down the spine of anyone who heard it.

—The Ming army only mobilized tens of thousands of troops, yet on the main battlefield, they annihilated the main force of the Khorchin with overwhelming force.

—After the war, all adult Khorchin men were killed or captured, and women and children were divided up by Ligdan Khan. The tribe's lineage and bloodline were thus severed.

—Lindan Khan, the former ruler of Chahar, has now become the sword of the Ming emperor, wielding it against his former kin, and his reward is the entire pastureland of Khorchin. —Those thousands of captured warriors did not become soldiers of the Ming army, but were instead taken into the interior and sent to the mines, where they endured a life more painful than death.

This unprecedented mode of destruction instilled a deep-seated fear in all the Mongol tribes that were wavering between the Ming and Jin dynasties.

The five Inner Khalkha tribes were the first to react.

These tribes, which had previously been flirting with the Later Jin and outwardly obeying but inwardly defying the orders of the Ming Dynasty, immediately dispatched an envoy led by the eldest son of their tribal chief on the third day after receiving the definite news. The envoy, carrying a large sum of money and a large amount of tribute, traveled day and night to Xuanfu.

Before Man Gui, the general of Xuanfu, these once unruly grassland nobles became extremely humble and submissive.

They practically prostrated themselves, expressing their boundless loyalty to the Ming emperor with the most obsequious words, and vehemently condemning the Khorchin's treacherous crimes.

They eagerly presented their tribal maps and household registers, expressing their willingness to be inventoried by Ming officials and to serve the Celestial Empire forever.

They are afraid.

They finally understood that the young emperor sitting in the Forbidden City was unlike any of his ancestors.

Making an enemy of this emperor would not only result in defeat, peace negotiations, and the payment of indemnities and tributes.

The outcome is death!
The entire tribe was completely and cleanly wiped off this grassland, leaving not a trace.

Those small tribes that had once been eager to exploit the borders of the Ming Dynasty suddenly became docile and obedient overnight.

The bandits and raiders on the border also miraculously disappeared.

An unprecedented fear, like an invisible Great Wall, loomed over the southern grasslands.

It is more fortified than any formidable pass or any army!
"When the emperor is angry, millions will die and blood will flow for miles." This saying may have been an exaggeration in operas and legends in the past.

But now everyone on the grassland knows that it's true!

……

Liaodong.

The uprising took place at the agreed time, with great fanfare, and lasted for several days.
The Ming army, which had been maintaining a high-pressure offensive at the front, suddenly ran out of strength.

Almost simultaneously, to the south of the Later Jin, Mao Wenlong, the general of Pi Island who had been harassing Huang Taiji at sea and causing him great headaches, also seemed to have had his fill of looting, and led his elusive navy to quietly withdraw from the coast of Jinzhou and Lushun.

All the military pressure seemed to vanish within just a few days.

It took the Later Jin spies, who were lurking in various places, a full ten days to painstakingly piece together all the fragmented information that had occurred on the distant Khorchin grassland into a chilling picture.

When this final intelligence report was placed on Huang Taiji's desk, the great ruler of the Qing Dynasty fell silent.

For a full hour, he sat there motionless, repeatedly looking at every word on the intelligence report.

Sweat seeped from his forehead and slowly slid down.

He finally understood everything.

Sun Chuanting's fierce offensive on the western front was not for a decisive battle at all, but a large-scale feint. Its sole purpose was to pin his main force firmly in the Liaoxi Corridor, preventing them from having time to look westward.

Mao Wenlong's raids on the southern front were not for the purpose of conquering cities and seizing territory, but rather to create chaos and further divert the Later Jin's troops and attention.

Everything was to cover up the real killing move—on the northern front, the Ming Dynasty and the Chahar joined forces to launch a war of annihilation against the Khorchin!
Now, with everything settled, the true nature of this game has been revealed in a grotesque manner.

Huang Taiji slowly got up and walked to the map.

His gaze swept across the entire territory of the Later Jin, and an unprecedented chill enveloped him.

To the west, although Sun Chuanting's army had temporarily retreated, its elite troops remained intact and could make a comeback at any time, like a sharp sword hanging over their heads.

To the south, Mao Wenlong's navy, like hungry wolves at sea, could pounce again at any moment and tear apart his long and fragile coastline.

The most devastating change, however, came from the north.

The Horqin Grassland, once a strategic buffer zone, has disappeared.

Now occupying that place is a new neighbor, Ligdan Khan, who has just devoured all of Khorchin's power and become unprecedentedly powerful.

The ambitious ruler of Chahar now has his troops stationed on his flank and rear, like a tiger that has been fed its fill of flesh and blood, eyeing him menacingly.

And there were no longer any barriers between him and himself.

Encircled from three sides!

A perfect strategic encirclement was quietly formed in just over ten days.

What brought all this together was merely a seemingly insignificant campaign against internal strife among the barbarians.

Huang Taiji felt a wave of dizziness.

He once again experienced what it means to "devise strategies within the command tent and win battles a thousand miles away"!
He and his Qing Dynasty were like moths trapped in a spider web; no matter how much they struggled, they could only sink deeper and deeper.

Before the opponent had even engaged in a real battle with him, he had already been driven into a desperate situation.

The entire chessboard situation was completely reversed because of the placement of a single piece.

Ironically, he didn't realize all of this until the game was over.

The real player never showed his face on the chessboard from beginning to end!
(End of this chapter)