Just as Liu Chengzong's army relied on the huge manpower of the people of Lintao Prefecture to overthrow every city outside Lanzhou, the 40,000 Oirat coalition led by the national adviser Khan finally reached Golmud after an expedition.
This is almost a reflection of the status of the leaders of the Heshuote tribe. Batur Hutaiji and Mergen Daiqing of the Junggar tribe; Mergen Jinong and Gonbuyilden of the Turghut tribe; Sultan Taiji, Sumur Taiji; Dalai Taiji and Baoyilden of Dulbert's tribe all put aside the discord among their tribes and led their troops to fight.
The Oirat tribes are not a huge monolithic alliance. They only obey the leadership of the Golden Family and the Shuote Tribe in name. In fact, each tribe operates independently and even often fights in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains.
Only this time, with an unprecedented show of unity, the various tribes gathered their troops to complete a long march of four thousand miles in four months, not to defeat any enemies, but to send away their leader and fight for the limited living space in Qinghai.
In Golmud, State Counselor Khan smiled as he listened to the cavalry report from Ili: The Russians from the north sent envoys to Ili, but they could not see any high-status nobles in Oirat.
His envoys went to Xining with a humble attitude. This was not intentional. In fact, there was another group of envoys who also used the same attitude and the humble etiquette of subordinates, embarking on the road to find Houjinhuang Taiji.
This is not a strategic deception, but the national teacher Khan... is really weak.
Focusing on Oirat, this is a huge alliance with nearly 800,000 Mongolians. They not only have the bravery and proficiency of the Mongols, but also have an extraordinary unity that is different from the Mongolian tradition. They are extremely powerful.
Of course, they are also surrounded by dangers. To the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains controlled by Oirat, to the west is the Kazakh Khanate, which has been at war with it for many years, to the east is the Khalkha Mongolia, which was at war with it, and to the south is the Eastern Chagatai Khan who is full of sand. country, and the disturbing Russian expedition to the north.
In such a seemingly evenly matched environment, the Heshuote tribe, which is qualified to be called Khan by the Golden family, is not strong enough. The real leader of Oirat is Batur Huitaiji of the Junggar tribe who is not from the Golden family.
The cold climate does not only attack the Han and Jurchens. It tortures everyone in every country in Eurasia in the wider world, and the Mongols in Oirat are no exception.
When the land gives people insufficient living space, no matter how smart they are, all their actions will ultimately lead to one process and two results:
Through war, get more land, or less people.
The unity of Oirat should have an extraordinary place in the history of the Mongols.
Although the Turghut tribe who moved westward or the Heshuote tribe who are now marching south can be said to have been squeezed by the rising Junggar tribe and were forced to leave their hometowns, in fact they chose to stay away from their homeland to avoid civil war and the war between brothers. A last ditch effort.
Temujin and Jamuka would not have made such a choice.
Borjijin Tulubaihu was weak, on the one hand, because his headquarters only had more than 10,000 elite soldiers, and on the other hand, he had no retreat.
He has already negotiated with Hutaiji of Junggar. No matter what he gets from this expedition, the land, population, goods, and livestock will all belong to him. In exchange, he will hand over Oirat to Hutaiji.
Just like the Torgut tribe who moved westward, they will continue to marry each other and maintain extremely friendly relations.
The goal of the expedition is very clear, which is to conquer the Chahar who migrated and the Tumut who settled in Qinghai, and to graze their cattle throughout Qinghai and Uzang.
Because of his surname and title, he can support him in doing such a thing.
He is a descendant of the Golden Family and the Khan of Oirat. At the same time, he is also the great national teacher of the Yellow Sect of Tubo.
Throughout late March, the nobles of the four tribes of Oirat had fun in the Gobi Gobi and rivers of Golmud, recruiting small Mongolian tribes scattered around them as spies to collect intelligence on the Marshal's Mansion in Qinghai.
On the fifth day of April in the sixth year of Chongzhen, four great nobles gathered in Golmud to hold an alliance meeting.
In the huge mobile felt tent, people stepped on a huge tapestry from the Ottomans and gathered together with Ili's kumiss.
Batur Hutaiji, who is in his prime, looks like a lion, with a shaved head and a single braid in the middle, which is the standard hairstyle of the Oirat people. He wears a luxurious plain satin robe and has a flintlock pistol at his waist. , sitting proudly on the side of the felt tent.
Behind him stood Mongolian guards wearing iron armor and ermine ornaments, and Cossack prisoners who had surrendered during the northern war.
He was playing with a few lion tickets worth one tael in his hand, and said with a relaxed smile to the leaders of the tribes: "We have been fighting around the Salt Lake with Chahan's gangsters in the north for more than ten years. We can easily find the Salt Lake here. Khan is indeed wise.”
The Chahan in his mouth was the Tsar.
Tsar is the transliteration of the Greek Caesar into Russian, and is pronounced like Shah or Chahan. As for the subsequent emperor, it is just the honorific title for the head of the Russian Empire in later generations.
When the Mongols enslaved the Russians in the 13th century, the Russians also honored the Mongol Khan as Tsar.
For the Junggar tribe, the Russians are not uncommon. They first came into contact with the Russians as early as the thirty-third year of Wanli.
In fact, for the Mongolian tribes in the north of Oirat, their lives have not been easy since the Wanli year, and they are used to paying tribute from both sides.
It was not easy for them to live in a world of ice and snow. It was good to pay tribute to the Kazakh Khan. Unexpectedly, Tumote's Anda Khan launched an expedition to overthrow the Kazakhs. The old Mongolian people did not even know where Anda Khan was, so they became The tribute people of Anda Khan.
After paying tribute for more than ten years, the Junggars of Oirat moved north. Although Anda Khan was dead, the power of the Holy Lion of the Grassland was still there, and they became dual tributes of the Junggars and Tumut.
In a blink of an eye, the Russians came again, and once again became the triple tribute of the Junggars, Tumuts and the Russians.
From the perspective of the Junggar tribe, the quality of these Cossack barbarians from Russia was too low, and it was useless to speak human words. While they paid tribute to the Junggar nobles, they also invaded the Junggar tribute tribes.
Then you can only speak with a machete.
So in the thirty-fifth year of Wanli, 5,000 Dzungar cavalry surrounded 200 Russians, using bows, arrows and machetes to fight against wooden fort artillery. The battle was very hard. Two years later, the Russians sent envoys to the Dzungar tribe. Like today's national advisor Khan, Gur surrendered to the Russians at the city of Tara at the mouth of the Angakkar River.
Because they were flanked by Tumut and Kazakh.
The battle for the salt ponds mentioned by Huitaiji began in the 38th year of Wanli. Zhungeer captured the city of Tala and cut off the salt production area that the Cossacks relied on for survival. The two sides fought, peace, looted and traded around the salt ponds. I continue to fight on and off until today.
In the process, the Junggar tribe realized the gap in weapons. Therefore, in the forty-eighth year of Wanli, the Junggar tribe ordered the blacksmith Tatars in the lower reaches of the Ob River to imitate Russian muskets and armor. These tribal warriors who adhere to the ancient nomadic tradition used new weapons.
Also during the war around the Salt Pond, the Junggars attacked the Nogai tribe in the lower reaches of the Volga River to the west and expelled the Nogai tribe to the west, creating a living space for the Torgut tribe to move westward.
Therefore, the southern expedition of the Heshuote Department's national division Khan was actually just an old wisdom of the Junggars. They also wanted to carve out a world for the Heshuote Department.
After that, Batur Hutaiji asked the Cossack guard behind him to hand the lion ticket to the national counselor Khan sitting opposite him, and said: "This is what the small tribes here use to do business with the Xining Generalissimo. They actually No need for money... These people are more greedy than Chahan's thugs, we can't exchange 10,000 horses for these useless little pieces of cloth!"
Huitai Ji from the Junggar tribe came here not only for war, but also for trade.
Although compared to its cousins in Eastern Mongolia, Oirat is not scarce in iron, food and other materials necessary for life, but the pressure of food and grass for long-distance expeditions is still not small, and some supplies are needed.
However, in addition to supplies, he took a large camel and horse team on an expedition, mainly in exchange for Tongbao, silver, silk, satin and porcelain from the Ming Dynasty.
Regardless of whether it is the Bukhara Khanate or Ottoman merchants, there is no shortage of war horses, but as long as they use silver, Tongbao, silk, satin and porcelain, they will accept it.
Khuteiji does not need these things, but the Russians will soon start another war with him, because on the one hand, the Russian monarch's envoys came to Oirat this time in the hope of negotiating an exchange of prisoners.
Obviously, exchanging prisoners makes it easier to restart the war, so as to avoid killing prisoners to vent anger when the war starts.
On the other hand, the Khiva Khanate near the Aral Sea hates the Junggars who occupy the Silk Road, and they plan to act together with Russia.
Maritime trade caused the decline of the overland Silk Road, but the decline was only from the perspective of the Central Plains Dynasty. After all, it is difficult to imagine the living conditions of a small country in a country the size of the Central Plains Dynasty or the Ottoman Empire under normal circumstances.
For example, the Khiva Khanate in Khorezm was located between the Central Plains and the Ottoman trade routes. Because the trade routes were cut off, the economic level was extremely low, resulting in an extreme lack of culture.
Their great khan was preparing to compile a history book for his dynasty, but he searched throughout the khanate and could not find anyone with enough education to do the job.
Huitaiji's musketeers were very good at bullying the Mongolian tribes, but it was almost impossible to fight against the Russians. After all, they were not that skilled.
The gun is just a pipe, which is very easy to make, but the gun is of no use against the Russian earthen fortresses.
He needs cannon.
It was difficult to make cannons, because they had to be made of copper. He had also captured cast-iron cannons from the Russians, but he didn't know how those things were cast.
The Russian prisoners did not know that their cast-iron cannons were also bought.
There are only a few countries in the world that can cast iron cannons, and Russia, which uses wooden farm tools, is not among them.
Huitaiji sold the horse to the Ming Dynasty in exchange for silver and silk, and then used the silver and silk to buy some camel cannon from the west. Next year, he would go back to the north to deal with the fur traders and bandits in Qiuming.
But combined with the lion ticket and the price of goods in the Juerwan market, Huitaiji clapped his hands: "Then Liu Chengzong must have carefully calculated. Nine sheep are exchanged for one knife. How can others make money?"
This price is clearly stated to prevent middlemen from making the difference, which makes people angry.
The national advisor Khan sat aside, just like the ordinary nobles of the tribes present, far less imposing than Huitai Ji.
Just like the surname Bo'er Zijin, they once conquered all directions with their strong soldiers and horses, making this surname a golden family, but the golden family itself is not the reason for their strong soldiers and horses.
The emperor's soldiers and horses are strong, and the same is true for Khan.
In other words, in this era of deteriorating climate, emperors, khans, kings, and sultans all over the world are the same. When the external living space becomes smaller, people are eager to follow powerful heroes rather than noble blood.
Strong soldiers and horses are the backbone of a person. Heshuote was unable to compete with Junggar in Oirat, and he did not speak with so much dignity. He just looked at the lion ticket and said: "Buy some food from the Marshal's Mansion and attack Chahar first. See his reaction."
After garrisoning troops in Golmud for more than ten days and summarizing intelligence from the Marshal's Office reported by small departments from various places, National Advisor Khan made a relatively optimistic assessment of the situation.
He said: "The Tumed Taijis of the Marshal's Mansion have all gone to Uzang. The large areas of land in Qinghai that cannot be farmed are extremely empty. There are only a few inns. After Chahar Lindan Khan is annihilated, we can then negotiate with the Marshal's Mansion. , to divide these pasture lands.”
"There is nothing to negotiate. Do you really plan to pay rent to the Han people?"
Huitai Ji laughed, shook his head and said: "I heard that the best places here are one on the sea and two on Guide. We are waiting for an opportunity to draw out their main force. The land here is vast. We can run fast and annihilate them. , grab some craftsmen and go back."
Batur Hutaiji knew that the Han people were very skilled. It would be of no benefit to him to only attack Lin Dan Khan in Chahar. He was just making a wedding dress for the Heshu Special Department. Of course, this wedding dress made him happy.
As long as Oirat's national advisor Khan stays in Qinghai, when he returns to the Tianshan Mountains, the entire four tribes will be able to claim the title of Khan in a short time.
However, if we can plunder some Han craftsmen and make cannons for them, it will be much easier to deal with the Russians in the north.
"Buy it. Isn't this how Choktu Taiji of Khalkha was annihilated by him?"
The National Preceptor Khan felt that it was pointless to start a war with the Han people. His tribe rarely cultivated land and was mainly nomadic. It had little conflict with the Han people. However, Lin Dan Khan and Tumote of Chahar were the number one enemies.
Now that most of Tumut has entered Uzang, that is the main battlefield for him.
The Junggars are different. In their trade with the Russians, they exchanged furs for rye seeds that could be grown in the north. Many tribute residents of the Junggars have planted rye.
Therefore, the Junggar people naturally felt that the Han people were also enemies fighting for their living space.
"What are you buying? I heard that he only has a dozen cannons, which are not as many as the fur traders in Tyumen. Where can they sell them to me?"
Batur Hutaiji shook his head. He was very confident in the combat effectiveness of the Junggar tribe.
There are 3,000 musket-wielding soldiers in his 10,000-strong army, equipped with various types of muskets manufactured by Yarkand, Ottoman, Moscow, England, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
Among them, the Ottoman muskets were bought, the Yarkand muskets were stolen, and the muskets from other countries were snatched from Russian fur traders.
There are also two materials, copper and iron, and three production methods of cast copper, cast iron and wrought iron, including breech-loaded French guns, front-loaded smoothbore guns, long and short, and nine types of artillery of various models, some captured and some bought, a total of nine. .
At least as far as the Mongols are concerned, Batur Hutaiji believes that the only thing that limits Junggar at this time is that they have too few people. In time, they will be the most powerful khanate among all the countries established by the Mongols.
Finally, the scattered rangers came to report that they finally found the enemy. Lindan Khan of Chahar was stationed at the foot of Wulan Mountain and was moving towards Chaka Salt Lake.
People say that there is a mountain fortress of the Marshal's Mansion.
Batur Hutaiji thought to himself, fighting around the Salt Lake? I'm familiar with it!
