The government office of Juerwan Baihu Office is covered with thick wool blankets.
Liu Chengzong sat in the middle and communicated with the left and right generals about the march route to the south.
Master Chen and Monk Ga Ma sit on the left, while Chen Qindai and Dai Qing and Baiyan Taiji sit on the right.
In the middle, there are several maps of cowhide or sheepskin, connecting Qinghai and Weizang.
The situation in the yamen was very interesting. The Xifan monks and Mongolian Nayan on the left and right looked at the Han generals who were whispering in the middle with extremely expectant eyes.
If Monk Gama just wanted Liu Chengzong to take back his homeland for him, the Mongolian nobles seemed a little fanatical. They hoped that Liu Chengzong could take them to a more distant place - Uzang.
This is very contradictory for Liu Shishi.
These maps are connected together to outline a route from Qinghai via Kham District to Uizang, but the characteristics of the three places are very obvious.
He saves people by himself, with river valleys crisscrossing the Kham region and bitter cold in the snow-capped mountains of Weizang. Only at the foot of the Qilian Mountains is there a vast expanse of fertile pasture by the Qinghai Lake.
The political and religious center of the Snowy Region must be Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.
As the king of Khan on the grassland, his pastoral areas, soldiers and horses, and people are all in Qinghai.
Why are the Mongols so keen to enter Tibet?
When Liu Chengzong raised his question, Taiji was stunned for a long time.
He shook his head with his eyes straight at first, looking not very smart.
After a while, he came back to his senses, nodded firmly and said: "We must go to Tibet to defend our religion!"
Guard you big-headed ghost.
Based on Liu Shishi's understanding of the pretense of Taiji, this Mongolian nobleman who nominally believes in the Yellow Sect actually believes in the Donkey Meat Fire Sect.
He respected his leader Cao Yao more than any other Buddha statue. Since he led his troops to move to Haibei to station as pastors, he has been preaching among the tribes, attracting countless Mongolians to bring their own donkeys to eat and drink with the Lion Army.
With the expansion and development of the sect, there are even signs of religious reform. Recently, they have been wanting Cao Yao to try stewing haggis soup in a large iron pot.
It is said that Taiji is also very confused. No one has ever asked him why he wants to go to Tibet; he has never thought about why he wants to go to Tibet.
It was unlikely that he would suddenly be expected to say one, two, three, four, five, and he didn't know how to explain it to Liu Chengzong.
Liu Chengzong waited for a long time, and then finally said a few words: "We must keep an eye on the monks, otherwise we will not be able to stay in Qinghai for a long time."
After thinking for a long time, Baiyan Taiji's words finally came together: "If we go to Tibet to defend the religion, the monks will not find others to go to Tibet to defend the religion."
Liu Chengzong understood. To put it bluntly, he didn't care what kind of religion Wei taught, but it was very important for them to get the monks in Wei Zang to stop their disputes, become honest, and stop trying to lure people into Tibet from the outside. He asked: "Then you will not suffer from altitude sickness when you enter Tibet?"
Baiyan Taiji was teased by Liu Chengzong and said: "Commander, what are you thinking? We will get sick. It won't be too much. We can just carry it in Nangqian and we will be over."
Liu Chengzong keenly captured one word: "Nang Qian?"
Baiyan Taiji also understood that this Han commander had never gone south and did not know the geography of entering Weizang from Kham.
He explained to Liu Chengzong: "If you don't climb the mountain, Nangqian is the highest place in Kham and Uizang, a little higher than Haibei. If you walk fast, some people will get sick there."
"Perhaps twenty or thirty out of a thousand people will get sick? It only takes a few days. After Nangqian, places like Lhasa and Zangba Khan's Shigatse are almost as high as Haibei."
This time it was Liu Chengzong's turn to be confused.
He thought that Nangqian, where Yushu was located, was the lowest place in Weizang, so he thought of an expedition.
Now tell me, that is the highest place?
Moreover, he had always thought that the Mongols relied on their high magic defense to move in and out of snowy areas. Everyone was the same for a long time, relying on their thick blood.
He said to Baiyan Taiji: "Your thinking is wrong. The more you go to Tibet to defend the religion, the more power the monks will have. If you raise a few nobles and give them a title, you can get help from Mongolia. You
It is bound to become their puppet."
Liu Chengzong said, looking down at his hand. He had a list in his hand, and now there were four names.
Everyone above is a Heshuo leader who is willing to obey Liu Chengzong's call to allied forces southward.
Their organizational structure is the alliance flag system established by Dayan Khan's wife Mandu Haihatun, which divides the land into pieces of pastureland, each of which is composed of one thousand households, called Otok.
On the pasture land, every Mongolian must be a herdsman in this Otok. During wartime, all herdsmen send troops to form an armed group called Heshuo. In theory, each Otok needs to send thousands of troops.<
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Several Otoks make up ten thousand households.
But in fact, it is said that Taiji is the nominal leader of Wanhu, but he does not have Wanhu, and his subordinates can only organize three Qianhu.
The names on this page look more like a family tree.
For example, Baoyan Taiji's own name is the great-grandson of the fourth son of Dayan Khan, the fourth son of Dayan Khan, Huang Taiji.
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Liu Shishi hates iron. He has a very intimidating surname. How come he is willing to work as a free thug?
Weibo shook his head firmly: "What can we do? They can give people a slogan that everyone believes in, and if they hold on to the Dharma, they can..."
I wanted to say that if I had the Dharma in hand and the title of Khan, I could expand my territory, but at this point he couldn't go on.
Because Liu Chengzong sneered and interrupted him: "No, you can't."
It is said that Taiji has long realized that the situation in Qinghai has changed. This Han army stationed at the source of Huangshui can bring about ever-changing changes to Qinghai and even the northwest.
But for now, the deterrent effect brought by this army is not enough.
He looked at the Gama monk opposite, maybe they had a common understanding of this matter.
This land has never lacked rulers, but each ruler has a place he wants to rule, and is beyond the reach of greater places.
No one cares about the appearance of a Supreme Emperor above their heads, and to some extent, the local emperors are all looking for a reliable Supreme Emperor for themselves.
But this is not only about strength, but also about determination and will.
For Baiyan, the Emperor of Ming Dynasty in the Forbidden City thousands of miles away and the Tianming Khan of Hou Jin who established the capital in Shenyang are both powerful, so what's the use?
"The Han people say, listen to their words and watch their actions."
Baiyan looked Liu Chengzong in the eyes and said: "Now it is easy to prove that the monk title works, but it is difficult to prove that the monk title does not work, so it can still be done."
Liu Chengzong said no more.
He learned something new.
In Shaanxi, he realized that the power of rule comes from the hope of life.
In Qinghai, he realized that the power of rule may also come from the possibility of death.
It will be more effective to send out troops and defeat King Baili for a good month than to waste words for seven days and seven nights.
Soon, the news came that Liu Chengzong was about to form a coalition with Baiyan Taiji to march to the south, and the herdsmen who came from various places to trade in Juerwan were brought back to the Mongolian tribes from all directions.
More and more Mongolian nobles and their troops are coming here.
What people admire is not the name of Liu Chengzong, nor the name of Taiji, but the name that the monks may give them after entering Tibet.
The long journey south is full of dangers for most of the small nobles who only have a few dozen herdsmen.
But if we gather together to form a coalition, the road south will be clear.
Even Liu Chengzong did not expect that in the land of Qinghai, entering Tibet would have such great appeal.
More and more herdsmen tribes gathered near Qinghai Lake, making Liu Shishi very busy. Every day he met several new Mongolian small chiefs, accompanied by Chen Qindai, chatted with them, inspected the composition of their troops, and sent out several
gifts.
To be honest, Liu Shizi never thought that giving away two iron pots, a few wooden boxes, a Yanling knife or a blanket would gain the favor of the entire tribe.
People say that Marshal Liu is a very generous man. Although he is a Han, he is different from the stingy emperor and is very willing to fight with him.
So much so that after half a month of this kind of day, Liu Shizi has already summed up a set of rules for giving gifts. As long as he follows this rule, not one of the ten people will make a mistake.
Look at the leader’s last name.
If you are a descendant of the Jin family with the surname Bo'er, it is right to give him two steel-embedded axes. If you also bring a well-polished Yanling knife without any equipment or scabbard, it will be as good as a real brother.
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But if the surname is not Bo'er Jijin, but a small tribal leader in other remote places, then they will have to bleed a lot and give them two wooden boxes of lacquerware and a set of silver jewelry worth three to five taels of silver.
See a satisfied smile.
The rule is very simple. The more golden the family is, the poorer it is in terms of iron tools, armor, and weapons, but there is no shortage of exquisite artifacts passed down from ancestors.
As for other small tribes, because they had not fought a major war with the Ming Dynasty and lost very few iron tools, they could basically maintain poor self-sufficiency. On the contrary, they had a great demand for decorations made by skilled craftsmen.
In fact, the latter was Liu Shizi’s impression of Mongolian warriors before he entered Qinghai.
It is said that Taiji's tribe is well-nourished and of good size, but the age span in terms of equipment is very large. Most of them stayed in the transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age, and only a few elites have entered the Iron Age.
The situation in other tribes is just the opposite. For example, Liu Chengzong recently met Xie Erhu.
This Xie Erhu belongs to the Yongxiebu tribe. His real name is Baerhu or something. He was called Erhu by Liu Chengzong. Because he is from Yongxiebu, his surname is Xie and he is called Xie Erhu.
Xie Erhu used to live as a herder in the Qaidam Basin. Someone in the tribe accidentally found gold while digging a manure pit, which attracted others to covet it. After losing a fight, he and his tribe came over with more than 200 wives and children to seek shelter.
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There are only a small number of people in this tribe, and the tribesmen don't think that's the case. There are forty-four warriors, with an average height of 1.6 meters, and each person is malnourished and bow-legged.
But each of them is wearing hard leather armor, with iron beams and copper nails nailed to the leather armor. When the quiver is opened, all copper arrows are found. One person can shoot three of the shepherd soldiers under Baiyan.
Originally, Liu Shizi wanted to give him a set of three taels of silverware, but Xie Erhu said that he hadn’t eaten food in several years.
Isn’t it hard to say that the lion wants to eat vegetables? This matter is easy to handle!
The army is preparing to go out, and the Chinese military camp is busy preparing meals for the army. The person supervising this matter is Ma Ke, a native of Xining.
With a wave of the lion's hand, forty pounds of Xining pickles selected by Ma Ke were delivered to Xie Erhu.
Xie Erhu was so happy that he said it was so satisfying.
In the Qaidam Basin, he mainly eats rhodiola rosea and wolfberry as snacks. Although they are very healthy, they cannot be eaten as vegetables.
The place of Huaidan was not suitable for living people in the agricultural era.
Yong Xiebu was among the two big tribes in Qinghai and entered Qinghai earlier than Huo Luochi, but like Huo Luochi, he was crippled by the Ming army in the Three Battles of Huangzhong.
Later, Yongxiebu had an internal fight with Huo Luochi and lost, so Huo Luochi occupied the fertile area around the lake. Yongxiebu had no choice but to retreat to Dachuidan and Xiaokuidan to start a difficult journey of survival.
But each has its own advantages. The food in the east is not luxurious, but being neighbors with the Ming army cannot save your life, and weapons and armor cannot be used as heirlooms. The west is not suitable for human survival, but without the Ming army, you can gain a very tenacious spirit by fighting against the sky and the earth.
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By mid-April, the number of this team had exceeded Liu Chengzong's expectations.
Taiji, Lazun and Guruhuang Taiji each sent 2,000 men and horses, and the refugees from all over the country who came to enter Tibet also gathered 6,000 men and horses, a total of 12,000 troops, driving livestock and spreading from the north to the south. Each of these groups has their own purposes, and no one can control these troops.
Although Liu Chengzong is the leader, he can really control less than half of the leaders.
Such a large number of Mongols made the generals of the Lion Army very uneasy. In order to maintain their status as leader, they could only further increase the number of troops dispatched.
In the end, the Lion Army decided to turn this war to regain territory in Nangqian into a process of showing off its power to the entire Qinghai.
Liu Chengzong selected generals Wang Wenxiu, Cao Yao, General Qian Li Laoji, Zhang Tianlin, Zhong Hu, Luo Rucai, Gao Yingdeng, and Huang Shengxiao from three training camps. He also selected 7,200 sergeants and organized them into two battalions on the left and right to march south.
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The remaining staff generals Yang Yao and Qian Commander Yang Chengzu, Wei Qian'er, and Han Shiyou were organized into left-behind battalions, stationed in Haibei and Juerwan, and formed a corner with Liu Chengzu's tribe in Xining to guard their hometown.
Liu Chengzong did not intend to take away all the troops. In fact, his purpose was to divide the troops and station them in key locations.
On the south shore of Qinghai Lake, directly opposite the mountain pass, Zhong Hu was ordered to lead 1,200 troops to stay, leaving a nail to occupy the Chaka Salt Pond.
At this point, the entire area around the lake has been sealed off and brought into its own sphere of influence. As soon as the warships are built, they can quickly provide support around Qinghai Lake.
They were not the earliest troops to set out, but they were the most obvious indicators of this expeditionary force numbering as many as 20,000.
The Mongolian tribes were stationed wherever they went, and Liu Chengzong's army brought fried noodles with them, but they found that they did not need to eat them.
The Mongolian tribes accompanying the army all recognized lion tickets, and each of the five thousand generals brought 400 taels of notes. They formulated a strict procurement procedure and allowed 80% of their military rations to be supplemented by purchasing cattle and sheep from the tribes stationed along the way.
But it is forbidden to only find one tribe, lest you buy up all the other people's cattle and sheep.
But it actually proved that Liu Chengzong thought too much. All tribes discovered business opportunities, and used axes and other things along the way to buy cattle and sheep from surrounding Mongolian tribes, and then sold them to Liu Chengzong's troops.
So much so that they ate wherever they went, and exchanged one or two notes for four sheep during the march. Both sides felt that they had made a lot of money.
Although he was quite tired, the road from Gannan to Golok was difficult, and several soldiers from each department suffered from altitude sickness, but Liu Shishi had never experienced such an easy march in his life!
