stubborn thief

Chapter 367 Oirat

Just as Liu Chengzong's army relied on the huge manpower of the people in Lintao Prefecture to overthrow every city outside Lanzhou, the [-] Oirat coalition army led by Guoshi Khan finally arrived in Golmud as he wished after an expedition.

This is almost a flashback to the status of the leader of the Heshuo Special Department. Batur Huntaiji and Mergen Daiqing of the Junggar Department; Suletantaiji and Sumurtaiji; Dalaitaiji and Baoyeden of Duerbert's department all put aside the discord among the various ministries and led their troops to join the expedition.

The Oirat ministries are not a huge monolithic alliance. They only obey the leadership of the Golden Family and the Shuo Te Ministry in name.

Only this time, with unprecedented unity, all the ministries assembled a large army to complete the [-]-mile long march in four months, not to fight against any enemy, but to send away their leader and fight for the limited living space in Qinghai.

The national teacher Khan smiled when he heard the report from the cavalry from Ili in Golmud: The Russians in the north sent envoys to Ili, but they did not see any nobles with status in Oirat.

His envoys went to Xining with a humble attitude, which was not intentional. In fact, another group of envoys also used the same attitude, and with the humble etiquette of their subordinates, they embarked on the road to find the post-Golden Taiji.

This is not a strategic deception, but Guoshi Khan... is really weak.

Focusing on Oirat, this is a huge alliance with nearly 80 Mongols. It not only has the bravery and combat skills of the Mongols, but also has an exceptional unity that is unusual in the Mongolian tradition. They are extremely powerful.

Of course, they are also surrounded by dangers. In the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains controlled by Oirat, to the west is the Kazakh Khanate that has been fighting with it for years, to the east is Khalkha Mongolia, which was peaceful during the war, and to the south is the East Chagatai Khan, which is full of sand. China, and the disturbing Russian expedition to the north.

In such a seemingly evenly matched environment, it is the Heshuo Special Department, which is called Khan by the Golden Family, who is not strong enough, and the Batur Huntaiji of the Junggar Department, who is not from the Golden Family, is superior.

The cold climate did not only attack the Han people and the Jurchens. In the wider world, it afflicted everyone in every country in Eurasia, and the Mongols in Oirat were no exception.

When the land gives people insufficient living space, no matter how intelligent people are, all their actions will eventually lead to one process and two results:
Through war, get more land, or less people.

The unity of the Oirats should have an extraordinary position in the history of the Mongols.

Although it can be said that the Turghut Tribe who moved westward or the Heshuo Special Tribe who moved southward today were squeezed by the rising Junggar Tribe, they were forced to leave their hometowns, but in fact they chose to stay away from their homeland in order to avoid the civil war. A last-ditch effort.

Temujin and Jamuka would not have made such a choice.

The weakness of Borjijin Tulu Baihu lies in the fact that there are only more than [-] elite soldiers in his headquarters on the one hand, and on the other hand that he has no way out.

He has already negotiated with Hui Taiji of Junggar. No matter what he gets in this expedition, the land, population, goods, and livestock will belong to him. In exchange, he will hand over Oirat to Hui Taiji.

Just like the Turghut tribe who moved westward, they will continue to marry each other and maintain a particularly friendly relationship.

The goal of the expedition is very clear, which is to conquer the migrating Chahar, Tumed who settled in Qinghai, and herd herds throughout Qinghai and Uzbekistan.

Because of his surname and title, he can support him in doing such a thing.

He is a descendant of the gold family, the Khan of Oirat, and at the same time he is also the great master of the Yellow Sect of Tubo.

Throughout late March, the nobles of the four tribes of Oirat were having fun in the Gobi Gobi and the rivers of Golmud, and recruited the scattered Mongolian tribes as spies to collect information on the Qinghai Marshal's Mansion.

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 yurt, people stepped on the huge Ottoman tapestry and gathered together with Ili's kumiss.

Batur Huntaiji, who was in his prime, looked like a lion, with a single braid in the middle of his shaved head, which was the standard hairstyle of the Oirats. He was wearing a luxurious plain satin robe, with a flintlock pistol in his waist , sitting proudly on the side of the felt tent.

Behind him stood Mongolian guards in iron armor and ermine ornaments, and Cossack captives who had surrendered in the Northern War.

He played with a few lion tickets worth one or two taels in his hand, and said with a relaxed smile to the chiefs: "We have fought around the salt lake with Chahan's dog legs for more than ten years in the north, and we can easily find the salt lake here. Khan is indeed wise."

The Chahan in his mouth is the Tsar.

Tsar is a transliteration of the Greek Caesar to Russian, pronounced similar to Sha or Chahan, as for the latter, it is only the honorific title for the head of the Russian Empire in later generations.

When the Mongols enslaved the Russians in the [-]th century, the Russians also honored the Mongolian Khan as the Tsar.

For the Junggar tribe, Russians are not uncommon. They first came into contact with Russians as early as the 33rd year of Wanli.

In fact, for the Mongolian tribes in the north of Oirat, since they entered the Wanli year, their life has not been easy, 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. The sudden Alta Khan of Tumet sent his troops to conquer Kazakhs. The Mongolian people didn’t even know where Alta Khan was, so they became The tribute of Alta Khan.

After paying tribute for more than ten years, the Junggar of Oirat moved northward. Although Altan Khan was dead, the prestige of the holy lions in the grassland was still there, and they became double tribute residents of Junggar and Tumed.

In a blink of an eye, the Russians came again, and once again became the triple tribute of Junggar, Tumed and Russians.

From the perspective of the Junggar tribe, the quality of these Russian Cossack barbarians is too low to speak human words. While paying tribute to the Junggar nobles, they invaded the Junggar tribute tribes.

Then you can only speak with a machete.

So in the 35th year of Wanli, [-] Zhungeer cavalry surrounded [-] Russians, and used bows and arrows to fight against wooden fort artillery. The battle was very hard. Two years later, the Russians sent envoys to the Zhungeer Ministry. Like today's National Teacher Khan, he surrendered to the Russians at the city of Tara at the mouth of the Angakal River.

Because they were flanked by Tumet and Kazakhs.

The battle for the salt pond mentioned by Huitaiji began in the 38th year of Wanli. Zhungeer broke through the city of Tara and cut off the salt production area that the Cossacks depended on for survival. hit today.

In the process, the Junggar tribe realized the gap in weapons. Therefore, in the 48th year of Wanli, the Junggar tribe ordered the blacksmith Tatars in the lower reaches of the Ob River to imitate Russian muskets and armor for them. These tribal warriors who stick to the ancient nomadic tradition used new armament.

It was also during the battle around Yanchi that Junggar attacked the Nogai tribe in the lower reaches of the Volga to the west and drove the Nogai tribe westward, creating a living space for the Turghut tribe to move westward.

Therefore, the Southern Expedition of the National Teacher Khan of the Heshuo Special Department is actually just the old wisdom of Junggar, and they also want to create a world for the Heshuo Special Department.

After all, Batur Huntaiji asked the Cossack guards behind him to hand over the lion ticket to the national teacher Khan sitting opposite him, and said: "This is something that the small tribes here use to do business with the generalissimo of Xining. They actually No money... These people are more greedy than Chahan's dogs, we can't exchange [-] horses for these useless little pieces of cloth!"

Hui Taiji from the Junggar tribe came here not only for war, but also for trade.

Although compared with its cousins ​​in Eastern Mongolia, Oirat is not scarce in iron, food and other materials necessary for life, but the pressure on food and grass for long-distance expeditions is still not small, and a little supply is needed.

However, in addition to supplies, he led a large camel team and horse team on expeditions, mainly in exchange for Ming Tongbao, silver, silk and porcelain.

Regardless of whether it is the Bukhara Khanate or the Ottoman merchants, there is no shortage of war horses, but as long as they use silver, Tongbao, silk and porcelain, they will all recognize them.

Hun Taiji does not need these things, but the Russians will soon start another war with him, because on the one hand, the envoys of the Russian great monarch came to Oirat this time, hoping to discuss the exchange of prisoners.

Obviously, the exchange of prisoners will facilitate the resumption of the war, so as to avoid killing the prisoners to vent their anger during the war.

On the other hand, the Khiva Khanate near the Aral Sea is hostile to Junggar, which occupies the Silk Road, and they intend to act together with Russia.

Maritime trade has caused the decline of the land Silk Road, but the decline is only from the perspective of the Central Plains Dynasty. After all, it is difficult to imagine the living conditions of a small country under normal circumstances for a country of the size of the Central Plains Dynasty or the Ottomans.

For example, the Khiva Khanate in Khorezm, which is located between the Central Plains and the Ottoman trade route, because the trade route was cut off, the economic level was extremely low, resulting in an extreme lack of culture.

Their great khan was going to compile a history book for his dynasty, but he searched the entire khanate, but he couldn't find anyone who was educated enough to do the job.

Huntaiji's Musketeers bullied the Mongolian tribes very well, but it was almost meaningless to fight against the Russians, after all, they were not that proficient.

The gun is just a pipe, which is very easy to make, but the gun is useless against the Russian civil fortress.

He needs guns.

Cannons are not easy, because they have to be made of copper. He also seized 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 guns 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.

Huntaiji sold the horses to Daming for silver and silk, and then used the silver and silk to buy some camel guns from the west, and returned to the north next year to clean up the fur traders and robbers in Tyumen.

But combined with the price of the lion ticket and the prices in the Juerwan market, Hun Taiji clapped his hands together: "Then Liu Chengzong must have done the calculation carefully. How can others make money by exchanging nine sheep for one knife?"

This price is to make it clear that the middlemen are not allowed to make a difference, which makes people angry.

Sitting aside, Guoshi Khan was just like the ordinary nobles present, far less imposing than Huntaiji.

Just like the surname Bo'er Jijin, they once conquered the Quartet with strong soldiers and horses, making this surname a golden family, but the golden family itself is not the reason for the military strength.

The Son of Heaven does it for those with strong soldiers and strong horses, and so does 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 instead of noble blood.

A strong soldier and a strong horse are the backs of a person. He Shuote is unable to compete with Junggar in Oirat, and he does not have so much dignity when he speaks. He just looked at the lion ticket and said: "Buy some food from the Marshal's Mansion, and go to Chahar first. Let's see how he reacts."

After more than ten days of garrisoning in Golmud and collecting information from the Marshal's Mansion reported by small ministries around the country, Guoshi Khan was more optimistic about the situation.

He said: "The Tumotetaiji from the Marshal's Mansion have all gone to Uzang, and the large areas of land in Qinghai that cannot be farmed are extremely empty. There are only a few post stations. After Chahar Lindan Khan is wiped out, we will negotiate with the Marshal's Mansion. , divide these pastures."

"There is nothing to negotiate, do you really plan to pay rent to the Han people?"

Hun Taiji laughed, shook his head and said: "I heard that the best places here are firstly at sea and secondly in Guide. We wait for the opportunity to draw their main force out. The land here is vast, so we can run fast and annihilate them. , grab some craftsmen and go back."

Batur Huntaiji knew that the Han people were very skilled, and it was of no use to him to fight only Lin Danhan in Chahar. He was just making a wedding dress for the Heshuo Special Department. Of course, the wedding dress made him happy.

As long as Oirat's national teacher Khan stays in Qinghai, when he returns to the entire four divisions of Tianshan Mountain, it won't be long before he can be called Khan.

However, if some Chinese craftsmen can be taken back to make cannons for him, it will be much easier to deal with the Russians in the north.

"Buy it, isn't that how Chuktutaiji of Khalkha was annihilated by him?"

Guoshi Khan felt that it was meaningless for him to go to war with the Han people. His tribe seldom farmed land and was mainly nomadic, so it had little conflict with the Han people. However, Lin Dan Khan and Tumot of Chahar were the number one enemies.

Now most of Tumed has entered Uz-Tibet, which is the main battlefield for him.

But Junggar is different. In the trade with the Russians, they exchanged furs for rye seeds that can be planted in the north. Many tributes in Junggar planted rye.

That's why Junggar naturally felt that the Han people were also enemies who robbed living space.

"What should I buy? I heard that he only has a dozen cannons, which are not as many as the fur traders in Tyumen. Where can I sell them?"

Batur Huntaiji shook his head, he was very confident in the fighting power of the Junggar tribe.

His [-]-strong army has [-] musket-using soldiers, equipped with various types of muskets manufactured by Yarkand, Ottoman, Moscow, England, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

Among them, Ottoman muskets were bought, Yarkand muskets were stolen, and muskets from other countries were all snatched from Russian fur traders.

There are also two materials of copper and iron, and three production methods of cast copper, cast iron and wrought iron, including rear-mounted Francophones and front-mounted smoothbore guns. There are nine kinds of artillery of various models, some captured or bought, a total of nine guns .

At least within the scope of the Mongols, Batuer Huntaiji believes that what restricts Junggar at this time is that they are still too few. 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 had finally found the enemy. Lin Danhan of Chahar was stationed at the foot of Ulan Mountain and was moving towards Chaka Salt Lake.

People say that there is a mountain castle in the Marshal's Mansion.

Batur Huntaiji thought to himself, fighting around the salt lake?I am familiar with it!

　good afternoon!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)