Chapter 1042 Ji Zijuan’s deep conspiracy
Zaisai’s eyes became serious.
Iron materials were of great use to the tribes. The Zhou Dynasty exerted varying degrees of control over the various tribes in the surrounding grasslands, including the Jurchen tribes in Liaodong. Apart from weapons and armor, iron materials and grain were the first priority, followed by tea and salt. The third one is cloth and medicine, and other things are almost unrestricted.
Although weapons and armor are embargoed materials, in fact, the Mongolian and Jurchen tribes are not that eager for these two things.
On the one hand, weapons have been retained for many years, and the consumption can be made up by making them from iron materials. As for the armor, it is nothing more than a problem of style and quality. There is not much shortage of various parts of ordinary armor. What is lacking is the mixture of iron leaves. High-level armor actually involves fine iron blades, which are still made of iron after all.
For a tribe, iron materials and food are almost the guarantee of survival.
The former has too many demands and uses in terms of military support and civilian use, and is in short supply at all times.
Once the latter encounters a disaster, it is a life-saving guarantee. A tribe can often survive with this life-saving guarantee, and the tribe can even grow stronger. Without this, it may be weakened or even disintegrate.
As for salt and tea, salt is actually produced on the grasslands, but the quality is too poor and the quantity is insufficient. However, this kind of thing is easy to be smuggled in. The situation of tea is similar to that of salt. It can be smuggled in through compressed brick tea. It took a long time to solve the problem, and the merchants also knew that these two types of materials were the most profitable. With thousands of miles of borderland, if there was no light in the east and light in the west, they could always find a way to transport it in.
Only for iron materials and food, neither the Mongolian tribes nor the Jurchens can support themselves at all, and there is even a huge shortage, especially the fine iron used for weapons, arrow clusters and armor.
However, it is said that after the Jianzhou Jurchens occupied Kuandian Liubao, their power increased, and even North Korea in the southeast also changed its attitude towards them. Therefore, the trade of some materials was loosened, and iron materials and grains were more or less able. Got some from North Korea.
Even so, Jianzhou Jurchens are still eager to accumulate iron materials and grain through various channels. For an ambitious tribe, this is the fundamental guarantee for the tribe's growth.
Of course, Zaisai also wants it. If he can obtain the unlimited supply of iron materials from the Great Zhou Dynasty, then he is confident that within ten years, the strength of the five inner Khalkha tribes can be raised to a higher level, that is, against the Chahar people. He is not afraid. Give him twenty years and he can be on par with the Jurchens in Jianzhou. As far as he knows, the iron production capacity of Yongping Prefecture alone is enough to meet the needs of the five Khalkha tribes within ten years. All are satisfied.
But the conditions proposed by Feng Ziying are not simple either.
It is easy to suppress the Horqin people. After all, Horqin belongs to Eastern Mongolia. It is not in the interest of the Mongolian tribes to seek refuge with Jianzhou Jurchens, especially Lindan Batur. Therefore, suppressing the Horqin people is justifiable, and you can also get Lindan Batu. your support.
Although it is risky to fight against the Jianzhou Jurchens, Zaisai was originally dissatisfied with the Jianzhou Jurchens' reaching out to Horqin. The two sides would inevitably have some disagreements and even fight each other. This is not a problem, but if they still want to support Ye He's tribe with Dazhou Competing with the Jianzhou Jurchens for the East China Sea Jurchens is a bit challenging.
Although Lindan Batur is young, he is quite ambitious. Even if Zaisai is not very optimistic about some of Lindan Batur's actions, it does not mean that he will jump out and confront the opponent. If Lindan Batur shows up to do something, The posture of the entire Mongolian leader is making frequent moves, and he will be in an embarrassing state. How to deal with it must be analyzed in detail.
All in all, such an alliance with a vague and flexible framework is a test for both parties. You can use material support to restrain me, and I can also use my performance to counter you. This will test the strength comparison, timing and coordination of both parties. Skill.
Zai Sai lowered his eyes and remained silent. The three people behind him, Mang Gu Da, Bi Ling Tu and Zai Zai, were also a little nervous. Even Bushiyamala's breathing quickened. Whether he agreed or not, This means that a new structure will emerge in the trilateral relations between the five Inner Khalkha tribes, the Yehe tribe and even Liaodong.
I said so much in the beginning, all in a joking manner, because it was either some matters that needed to be dealt with at hand, or some relatively rough framework, but when it comes to the exchange conditions for iron materials, this is what both parties really need. Rigid conditions to be fulfilled.
I can give you enough iron material, but once Liaodong Town or the Yehe tribe supported by Liaodong Town starts a war against the Jurchens in Jianzhou, the five Inner Khalkha tribes will unconditionally side with Liaodong and Yehe tribe, no matter where they are. If one side fails to fulfill the conditions, or believes that the other side has not fulfilled the conditions, the covenant is equivalent to a piece of waste paper.
"Okay." Zasai finally nodded, "I agree, but I will put forward some specific terms. The five Inner Khalkha tribes cannot be involved unlimitedly in the war with Jianzhou Jurchens. I need some restrictive conditions. .”
This is expected. If Zaisai agrees without hesitation, Feng Ziying will suspect that the other party has no sincerity in fulfilling the contract.
This matter was finally solved by herself. Although there are still many troubles in the follow-up, and even the work in the capital city is probably more complicated and dangerous than dealing with Zai Sai, Feng Ziying feels that all this is worth.
The court's thoughts, the emperor's intentions, the arrangements for the capital camp, and the layout of one's own forces in the capital in the future all need to be carefully considered. How to take these aspects into consideration and maximize one's own interests requires careful consideration. Plan ahead and think long term, otherwise why would you bother to take such painstaking efforts for such a thankless job?
While everyone felt that the tens of thousands of captured soldiers from the Beijing camp were a bunch of waste and worthless, Feng Ziying didn't see it that way.
He roughly understood the thoughts of Emperor Yonglong, and he would definitely take action against the Jingying camp, but the Jingying camp itself could not be revoked. The ancestral system of the three major camps was inherited from the Ming Dynasty, and there must be a reason.
There are many emperor's personal troops in the capital city. The Four Guards Battalion, the Warriors Camp, and the Standard Guards. These three forces can be regarded as the emperor's personal troops. Among them, the Four Guards Battalion is directly led by the Royal Horse Prison Chamberlain, who is also the Great Zhou Dynasty. The only pro-army led by a chamberlain.
However, these pro-army forces have a big problem, that is, they are too small in number. For example, the Four Guards Battalion only has 12,000 people, and only two of them are selected as forwards. The other two battalions are from their hometowns, that is, two battalions are elite and two Belongs to the reserves.
The standard guard only has 1,800 people, and the warrior camp only has 3,000 people.
The pro-army force of this size is indeed too small, so the three major battalions of the Beijing Camp must be relied upon to truly take on the heavy responsibility of guarding the outer and inner areas of the capital city.
Now that the Jingying camp was finally coaxed out of the capital city by Emperor Yonglong and the Ministry of War, and then he was pushed to do this, the entire structure of the Jingying camp had a big problem, and more than half of the troops disappeared. Of course Emperor Yonglong was happy to see it. It was successful, but it was impossible for these more than 50,000 soldiers to ignore it.
In Feng Ziying's view, the problem that Emperor Yonglong wanted to solve in the capital camp was nothing more than the problem of generals and officers. As for the soldiers, he certainly hoped to have a group of elite soldiers, but it is obviously unrealistic now. At most, it is only for the more than fifty thousand soldiers. The captives were eliminated and the best were eliminated.
No matter what happens to these more than 50,000 soldiers who return to the capital city, even if all of them have their military status revoked and become civilians, these more than 50,000 soldiers and their 1.2 million family members will still live in the capital city. So everything I have done today , no matter who they are, they will remember their kindness in their hearts, which can be regarded as a disguised way of accumulating prestige and popularity for themselves.
You must know that these are the people of the capital city. You can win the gratitude of nearly 20% of the residents of the capital city in one fell swoop. How can you do that with two hundred thousand taels of silver? What's more, the money was not paid by oneself.
It can be said that this is using the court's money to buy people's hearts for themselves, and they do so with peace of mind and confidence, and no one can tell what it is.
This kind of people's hearts and influence in the capital city are invisible at first glance, but over time, this influence will play an unexpected role, especially when you have plans in the future.
Of course, in fact, Feng Ziying believes that most of the more than 50,000 people will return to the Beijing camp.
As these soldiers who have been in the army for generations, if they are really not allowed to serve as soldiers, they will become a hidden danger of instability if they stay in the capital city. As well as their dependents, one or two hundred thousand people, no one dares to express their position easily.
So even though Emperor Yonglong and the Ministry of War were very reluctant, reality still forced them to give in and compromise. Of course, all their officers and generals would be replaced, but so what?
What he needs is subtle infiltration influence, and he does not need substantial control now. That is what Emperor Yonglong wants to firmly grasp. Of course, he will not compete with the other party.
This kind of opportunity is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so Feng Ziying thought over and over again and still felt that she could not give up such an opportunity, even if it would cost a lot of effort and do a lot of extra work.
Back in Lulong City, Feng Ziying sent the report to the court by express delivery. However, considering the confidentiality of the matter, Feng Ziying directly sent someone to the Ministry of War to report to Zhang Jingqiu and Chai Ke, through whom he reported to the court and the emperor.
He and Zaisai can afford to wait for three to five days, but if it takes longer, it’s hard to say. The same goes for Lin Dan Batur’s pressure on Zaisai.
Looking at the strong horse galloping straight to the west, Feng Ziying was also thinking, faced with such mixed news, what would the court, cabinet, Ministry of War, Emperor Yonglong and others think and how would they deal with all the follow-up?
(End of this chapter)