Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 716
Sanniangzi City is the predecessor of Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia today, and a bright pearl on the prairie of Inner Mongolia.In the Ming Dynasty, it was the largest city on the northern prairie. The city wall was made of blue bricks, majestic and magnificent. There were eight buildings and the Sanyan Glazed Gold and Silver Palace in the city. With a large population, most of the business travelers outside the entrance would be in Gather here, or trade here, or rest here, and then proceed to Outer Mongolia.For those nomads who have always been wandering on the grasslands, this is an incredible miracle. The birth of this city gave them a fixed political center, instead of the capital wandering around on the grasslands with flocks of sheep like before.

However, from the perspective of those business travelers in the past, this pearl on the prairie is actually very watery, the city walls are low and low, and the layout of the city is chaotic. Apart from the palace and the Silver Buddha Temple, there are not many decent buildings.The most terrible thing is that in the fifth year of Chongzhen, Houjin defeated Lin Danhan and set fire to the city after capturing the Sanniangzi City. The Sanniangzi City was completely reduced to scorched earth, and only a few buildings such as the Silver Buddha Temple remained.After Hou Jin withdrew from Tumochuan, Tumote's troops returned to Sanniangzi City, but all they got was a piece of scorched earth.The strength of the current Tumed Ministry is far behind that of the Altan Khan period, and it is unable to rebuild Sanniangzi City in a short period of time, so the Mongols living in the city have to use some houses that have not been burned to sew and mend. Just make do with it, or simply pitch a tent on the scorched earth... Anyway, living in the city is more comfortable than wandering around on the grassland, isn't it?
However, now this dreamy city in the eyes of Mongolians is filled with a strange atmosphere.In fact, this disturbing atmosphere has been brewing since the tragic defeat in the Battle of Yingzhou.

No one thought that the battle of attacking Yingzhou would be lost so badly and completely.If the Ming army used an army of 2000 to defeat them like before, they would still be able to accept it. Because of the disparity in numbers and the superiority of the Ming army in equipment, it would be no surprise that they lost, but this time it was different. The army was less than one thousand, and the Ming army who came to help on a snowy night was only more than [-]. The total strength was only equivalent to one-tenth of the Mongolian army, but they defeated the Mongolian army completely, and almost wiped out the entire army!This slap was so loud and painful that the Mongolian army was unwilling to mention that battle!And Boyan was the one who was slapped the hardest. It was his idea to attack Yingzhou. He was mainly responsible for being beaten so badly. The most terrible thing was that he left the army in a panic when the army collapsed. He fled, which exposed him to angry accusations from many tribes.For several months, Boyan locked himself in the Silver Buddha Temple without seeing anyone, like an ostrich burying its head in the sand to escape reality.

However, there are some things that he cannot escape if he wants to.He was already notorious, but his son-in-law, Tie Mu'er, had a great reputation and began to threaten his status.

To be honest, Tie Muer's performance in the Battle of Yingzhou was not very good, but when the Mongolian army was surrounded by the Ming army in the Sanggan River Delta and was about to be wiped out, he stepped forward to fight against the Ming army. Negotiations, handing over spears, sabers and war horses, saved the lives of more than 1 Mongolian soldiers, which won him countless praises.It must be a shame to disarm the enemy, but the Mongols don't pay attention to this. Their first priority is to survive, to keep themselves alive, and to keep their tribe alive.Timur saved the lives of more than 1 Mongolian youths at the critical moment, enabling dozens of tribes to continue. Naturally, many tribes are grateful to him.Moreover, according to the warriors who fled back, the commander of the Ming army—— Lei Shisheng, who had fought a round from Liaodong to Mongolia and had no opponents, highly appreciated Timur’s quality of being flexible and caring for the overall situation, and gave him a gift. A treasured sword, a steed... The simple Mongolian could not help but move his mind.

And what happened next made the minds of these Mongolians more active.When the terrible black disaster swept across the entire Mongolian plateau, the grazing of almost all Mongolian tribes was in trouble. The livestock lacked fodder, lacked water, and died in large numbers. At this time, the Mongolians thought of the Ming army.Under their begging, Tie Mu'er stepped forward again, went to negotiate with Lei Shisheng, and sold a large number of livestock that the tribes could not take care of to the Ming army in exchange for food. Lei Shisheng readily agreed. .Thanks to this, when the tribes were tortured by the black plague and went crazy, eating the meat of the sick and dead livestock until they vomited, the Timur family used those skinny livestock to exchange a large amount of grain from the Ming army. .The most amazing thing is that Tie Muer found that the pastures controlled by the Ming army were still rich in water and grass, and after they were not affected by the black disaster, he tried to propose to foster his own herds in some of the empty pastures. When Fengmei moved out again and offered a quarter of the herd as reward, Lei Shisheng still agreed.

Then there is tragedy.

After Boyan learned of all this, he became furious, roared repeatedly, and smashed several exquisite glazed artifacts to pieces: "What does Tie Muer want to do? Take refuge in the Han Dog!?"

His confidant Hai Du fanned the flames: "This Timur is so ignorant! He has been confused by the little benefits the Han people have given him, and has completely forgotten how cunning and insidious the Han people are! If you don't stop him, our tribe Sooner or later it will be destroyed in his hands!"

Boyan said: "Let Timur come to see me!"

Hai Du fully agreed, but when he went to Tie Mu'er, he changed his rhetoric, claiming that Da Khan was very satisfied with his series of friendly actions with the Ming army and protecting the whole tribe, so he asked him to increase his activities and send more directions to the army. The Ming army wanted something to allow more tribes to survive this long winter.Tie Mu'er didn't know whether it was right or wrong to do what he did, but after getting Boyan's affirmation, he was relieved, and naturally agreed--in fact, this is the only way to make Tumote survive the black disaster However, the ability of nomads to resist natural disasters is very weak.But he never dreamed that when Haidu returned to Boyan, he changed his story again:
"Tie Muer refuses to come over!"

Boyan almost drew his knife and slashed at the person: "He won't come over!?"

Hai Du said: "Yes! Tie Mu'er is busy selling our precious herds to Ming Gou at a low price. A horse is only exchanged for two or three bags of grains, and a sheep is only exchanged for a few buckets of beans!"

Boyan didn't speak, his eyes were full of murderous intent.

Haidu strikes while the iron is hot: "Minggou is very good to Tie Mu'er! With the same number of herds, his tribe can get twice as much food from Minggou! In addition to food, materials such as salt, steel, cotton cloth, tea, etc. Minggou is also open to him! I have seen it all from him. The salt that Minggou gave him was as white as snow, and the steel knife that Minggou gave him was so sharp that it could cut two strong men in half! Now he has used such Equipped with weapons and equipped an army of more than 6000 people, and fed the horses with the grain exchanged from Minggou..."

Boyan gritted his teeth and asked, "What on earth does he want to do?"

Hai Du said: "Who knows? Maybe he wants to be the master of Kukuhetun (that is, Hohhot, which means "green city")!"

Boyan shouted angrily: "How dare he!?" He pulled out the machete and cut off a big corner of an antique table!

His family's status has been strongly challenged, and Boyan expressed his anger, wishing to kill Tie Mu'er to avoid future troubles.But he was able to become the overlord of Tumochuan because he had a few tricks, and he couldn't be fooled by a few nonsense.After calming down, he sent a number of spies to Timur's tribe to investigate the news, first to confirm the authenticity.But what the spies reported shocked him: Timur was indeed selling livestock at a low price crazily in exchange for food!Not only did he sell his own tribe at a low price, but he also tricked other tribes into handing over their livestock to him, and then sold it to the Ming army at a lower price to make huge profits!Hearing the news, Boyan was already furious.These livestock are the foundation of the survival of the tribes. Timur deceived the tribes and sold the livestock cheaply for his own self-interest. Isn't this trying to break the roots of Tumed!According to Boyan's previous temperament, he had already brought [-] cavalry to kill people, but in the battle of Yingzhou, Tumote's strength was severely injured, and he couldn't afford it anymore. He suppressed his anger and sent people to attack Tie Mu Er severely reprimanded him and asked him to stop as soon as possible.

After being scolded by the special envoy, Tie Muer felt that he was more wronged than Dou E.It is true that he is helping the tribes to sell livestock, but that is what the tribes begged for his help, and it is not him who stole it by chance!The black disaster is getting more and more serious. There has been no snow for more than 30 days. There are fewer and fewer pastures suitable for grazing, and the livestock are getting weaker and weaker. The livestock were exchanged for grain and cotton cloth from the Ming army, and everyone ran over to ask him for help like a drowning man catching a life-saving straw—the current livestock is too weak to sell for a price. The coach has friendship, and if he comes forward, he may be able to sell at a relatively better price.Timur didn't refuse, and went to Lei Shisheng again, and his request was satisfied again. Lei Shisheng bought the weaker livestock at the same price. Take out part of the grain and give it to Tie Mu'er to express my gratitude.This was originally a good thing. The Ming army bought a large number of livestock at the cheapest price, and the Mongols got life-saving food. Sell ​​the livestock and profit from it yourself!

The aggrieved Tie Mu'er wanted to go back to Sanniangzi City to explain all this to his father-in-law, but the special envoy said that Da Khan was in poor health and should not see guests. In desperation, he wrote a letter for the special envoy to take back, detailing what he had done for.

The letter was in Boyan's hands, and he wrote it very clearly. However, no one could convince a suspicious person.The fiasco in Yingzhou discredited Boyan, while Tie Muer's reputation got better and better. It was really difficult for Boyan to trust him.

"Right now the city is short of food, why don't we ask him to hand over five thousand shi of wheat. If he refuses to hand over, he's naturally dissatisfied. If he is willing to hand over, then there's no problem!" Dogleg Zihai came up with a good idea.

Boyan thought it was not bad, so he wrote another letter and asked Haidu to go to Zhang Luo himself.Haidu caught up with a large group of steeds and came to Tie Muer's tribe. He asked him to sell these horses to the Ming army for two thousand shi of barley. Qun took it to the Ming army and successfully exchanged for two thousand shi of barley.Then Haidu took the two thousand stones of barley back to Sanniangzi City to go on business.

As for the letter, he had already thrown it into the stove and burned it.

Back in Sanniangzi City, Hai Du said to Boyan with a sad face, "Tie Mu'er said that five thousand shi was too much, he couldn't take it out, so he only gave two thousand shi!"

Boyan hummed lightly without much reaction.This was not beyond his expectation. In the Mongolian plateau, food is very precious. If Timur can take out five thousand shi of wheat in one go, he will not be able to sleep. .The two thousand shi of wheat calmed down the anger in his heart a little bit. Now Sanniangzi City is really short of food, and eating the meat of those sick and dead livestock every day almost makes people sick.He opened the bag, took out a handful of wheat to check, it was not bad, the grains were big and round, and the golden color was very pleasing, but if you put a few grains in your mouth and chewed them, no matter how you chewed them, it would not feel right.He opened another bag, picked up a few pills and put them in his mouth to chew, the taste was still the same!Finally, he angrily threw the wheat in his hand on the ground, shouting: "This is something to feed the livestock!"

Hai Du was so frightened that he knelt on the ground and shouted, "How...how is it possible!"

Boyan stared at him, and asked each word: "Did you tell him clearly that he wants wheat?"

Hai Du kept saying, "I told him that Kuku and Tun are very short of food now, and they want five thousand shi of wheat!"

Uncle's face was ashen, his eyes were burning: "How dare he fool me by taking the barley for livestock as wheat? It's just unreasonable, I can't spare him!"

Originally, barley is also a good thing. It can be used to brew beer and cook porridge. However, because barley has more fiber, it cannot be used to make pasta. The nutrition and taste of barley are much worse than that of wheat.In the Mongolian plateau where there is a shortage of food, no one is in the mood to slowly stew around the stove, boil the wheat grains little by little, and spend several hours cooking a pot of thick barley porridge. There is no other use.

To fool the overlord of Tumochuan by using the barley fed to the livestock as wheat, Tie Muer deliberately wanted to court death!

(End of this chapter)