Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 490: Western Mongolia

As Li Chengdong led his people to flee to Annan, the Zheng family in Fujian surrendered to the Qian Dynasty, and the area within the Great Wall was finally unified by Meng Jun. According to the traditional Han dynasty, the Qian Dynasty had unified the world, and a new empire began.

The generals of the Qian Dynasty drew their swords and looked around. Looking around the world, the only enemies left were the Qing troops outside the Great Wall. Han Xiong in Guangdong, Lin Shiqi in Guangxi, and Zhao Yongping in Guanzhong all submitted petitions to the emperor, requesting to be transferred to the north, all saying that they wanted to wipe out the area outside the Great Wall in one fell swoop.

Meng Jun unified the interior of China. It would be a lie for Jirgalang, Ajige, Bolo and other nobles of the Eight Banners to say that they were not nervous. Even though Bolo now controlled Korea and often sent money and food from Korea to subsidize the court, the Qing court was still seeking opportunities to survive in the face of the emerging behemoth, the Qian Dynasty.

In Shengjing City.

Fan Wencheng caught a cold and was resting in bed. Jirgalang was worried about the health of Fan Wencheng, a meritorious official and counselor of the Qing Dynasty, so he went to Fan's house to visit him in person.

At this time, Jirgalang was in Fan Wencheng's house.

Fan Wencheng coughed twice, covered his mouth and nose, and said to Jirgalang: "Prince Zheng, I am not feeling well. I am sorry that I cannot come to meet you in person."

Jirgalang sat on the bedside, waved his hand and said, "Mr. Fan, why should you be so polite? There are only two of us here, so I will speak frankly. The Qing Dynasty is in turmoil, and Mr. Fan is the pillar of our Qing Dynasty."

Fan Wencheng said in a somewhat dejected tone: "Meng Jun unified the world so easily. It may not be easy for the Qing Dynasty to enter the country again!"

Jirgalang smiled bitterly and shook his head, saying, "How dare I have such fantasies now? I think hard day and night, and I only wish to protect the ancestral temple and the country of the Qing Dynasty. I don't think about it anymore."

The room was a little dim, and the two were speechless for a moment. In this silence, the air seemed to be frozen, and the occasional sound of wind coming from outside the window added a bit of loneliness.

After a long while, Fan Wencheng asked, "How many troops do you think Meng Jun can mobilize?"

Jirgalang said in a deep voice: "Meng Jun has unified the interior of the country. According to a rough estimate, the number of soldiers that can be mobilized in the country may be as many as 600,000."

Fan Wencheng's throat moved, he swallowed a mouthful of saliva, closed his eyes and shook his head. Now the Qing army had only more than 80,000 troops outside the Great Wall. However, this did not include the Eight Banners of Korea and the Mongolian Banners. No matter how he calculated it, the strength of the Qing Dynasty could not be compared with Meng Jun.

Fan Wencheng paused for a while, opened his eyes, and saw Jirgalang still looking at him. Fan Wencheng sighed and leaned against the head of the bed. The gap in strength between the two sides was so huge that even if he had extraordinary talent, he could not change the gap in hard power.

Since the gap between the two sides cannot be resolved for the time being, then a third party force will be introduced. Thinking of this, Fan Wencheng said in a deep voice: "Your Highness, the emergence of a powerful dynasty in the Central Plains is not a good thing for the surrounding parties. In all dynasties, when the martial arts are strong, there will inevitably be attacks from all directions. Meng Jun will definitely not be an exception."

Jierhalang raised his eyebrows and asked, "Master Fan, do you want to unite the surrounding forces to contain Meng Jun?"

Fan Wencheng nodded but said nothing.

Jirgalang sighed and said, "Wu Sangui, Li Dingguo, and Zheng Sen all surrendered to Meng, Li Chengdong fled to Annan, and Zhu Youlang fled to Burma. Looking around the world, who else can help the Qing Dynasty to contain Meng Jun?"

In fact, Jirgalang did not expect, or did not expect it to happen so quickly, that Li Chengdong, the Zheng family, the Yongli court, and even the villain Wu Sangui, all fled or surrendered. In the blink of an eye, the only dynasty that could compete with Meng Jun was the Qing Dynasty.

At this time, Fan Wencheng coughed for a long time, took Jirgalang's hand, and said: "Annan and Myanmar in the south are useless. The only one that the Qing Dynasty can rely on for help is Western Mongolia in the west!"

In the tenth year of Chongzhen, the leader of the four Eleuth Mongolian tribes, Gushri Khan of the Khoshut tribe, sent envoys to pay tribute to Huang Taiji. In the second year of Longwu, Gushri Khan again presented tribute, and the Qing court gave him armor, bows and arrows and ordered him to govern the Eleuth tribes.

The Eleuth Mongols were divided into four major tribes: the Khoshut, the Dzungar, the Torghut, and the Dzungar.

The Dzungar tribe, also known as the Choros tribe, initially roamed in the middle and upper reaches of the Irtysh River to the Hobok River and the Sari Mountains. Later, they roamed in the Ili River basin east of Lake Balkhash and north of the Tianshan Mountains, with the Ili River basin as their center.

The Durbet tribe roamed along the Irtysh River, the Torghut tribe originally roamed in Tarbagatai and to the north of it, and the Khoshut tribe roamed in the Urumqi area on both sides of the Emin River.

Although the four tribes of Western Mongolia nominally submitted to the Qing court, in reality, the Qing court's orders could not be transmitted to Western Mongolia at all. Even if the Qing court issued an order, whether the four tribes of Western Mongolia would obey was another matter.

Moreover, the Qing court had already lost the interior of the country and had lost 90% of its strength. Without the strong national power to back it up, the Western Mongols might have completely forgotten their submission to Huang Taiji.

"The four tribes of Moxi?" Jirgalang said with a frown.

Fan Wencheng nodded and said in a deep voice: "Yes, if we can offer great benefits, if the four tribes can be united, we will have more than 100,000 soldiers. If the Qing Dynasty can convince the four tribes to send troops to threaten Guanzhong and the northwest border, then it will be able to divert most of Meng Jun's attention."

"The four tribes are in the west of the desert, and they have no grudge against Meng Jun. Will they come?" Jirgalang asked.

Fan Wencheng was not actually sure, but now he had to try his best to save the situation. It was better than just waiting to die. All the families inside the Great Wall were wiped out so easily by Meng Jun, and the Qing Dynasty could only find more enemies for Meng Jun outside.

At present, the barbarians on the sea were not only disdained by the Central Plains, but even the Qing court did not take those barbarians seriously. Fan Wencheng's first idea was to start with the Central Plains' biggest opponent throughout the dynasties, the nomadic grasslands.

Fan Wencheng took a deep breath and said, "Your Highness, Mongolia has always had ambitions for the Central Plains. Mongolia has not forgotten the glory of the Yuan Empire. Now Meng Jun has just unified the interior of the country, and the northwest border area is not yet completely stable. If he can attack the northwest at this time, Meng Jun will not be able to use large-scale troops outside the border for at least five years!"

After listening to Fan Wencheng's words, Jirgalang nodded. Regardless of whether it would work or not, at least contacting the four tribes of Moxi was indeed a way.

Jirgalang sighed and said, "Just follow what Master Fan said. I will send people to contact the four tribes in western Mo."

The two fell into a brief silence again, and seemed to have a thousand words to say to each other. Finally, Jirgalang stood up, said a few words of comfort to let Fan Wencheng rest and recuperate, and then turned and left.

Fan Wencheng stared at Jirgalang's back. In the setting sun, the shadow seemed helpless, until the door was closed by the servants outside, leaving Fan Wencheng alone in the room, sighing.