Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 414 What are you waiting for?
The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was preparing for the severe cold in the future, while Lindan Batur could only face the present.

Even the canal north of Linqing began to freeze earlier than in previous years. This remote northern desert is naturally experiencing a more severe winter.

The snow was very deep and Lindan Batur had difficulty walking on it.

Although there was thick snow on the felt covers on the felt tents near and far, smoke was naturally coming out from the felt covers in the center.

As he walked, he asked, "Did Daiqing Taiji say anything after he woke up?"

"The Taiji is not in a very good spirit, and he did not say much, Great Khan."

Lindan Batur nodded and continued walking forward.

After walking a few steps, the people pulling the sled in front stopped and stepped back to make way.

Lindan Batur walked to the sled and looked at the sleds in front and behind.

Three were covered with felt, but five were not.

He looked at the five sleds behind him, some of which were loaded with firewood and some with dried cow, sheep and horse manure.

"Is that all?" He lifted up a felt-covered sled and took a look, then pointed at the sled and asked the young man who led the team.

"They say it's harder to find after the snow."

Lindan Batur just nodded silently and waved his hand: "Send it."

He looked at the backs of these people, not knowing whether it was really difficult to find those coal stones and iron stones, or whether they wanted to make more space to bring back things that could be burned.

In addition to sending large groups of troops to places where coal and iron can be easily mined, the Khan's court has also mobilized ordinary people to search for these things day by day.

This is because they control the border trade with the Ming Dynasty. Some of the things needed in each felt tent can only be exchanged for coal, iron or other goods needed by the Ming Dynasty.

Lindan Batur continued to walk forward, thinking about his own things.

Although the four Lingnan tribes led by Dai Qing have now lived together with the Chahar and other tribes, this grassland is still very large after all, and they are not usually adjacent to each other.

But this time, it was the four Chahar tribes that moved southward, closer to them.

The situation for the remnants of the Inner Khalkha in Hulunbuir was naturally even more difficult.

This is all due to this cold winter with particularly strong winds and heavy snow.

Lindan Batur wanted to invite Dai Qing to come and celebrate the New Year together, and discuss what to do next year.

Having been the master of the Central Plains for so long, the Mongolian tribes now also celebrate the first day of the first lunar month, but here it is called "Zuo Nian". At that time, the leaders of all sizes gather together and pass the leather strips to each other to celebrate, which is originally a good thing to make peace.

But Daiqing fell ill on the way here and is still not well.

If Lindan Batur wanted to visit him, he would also have to take a long way.

After all, after migrating here, the headquarters had already chosen a location for their felt tents, which were arranged in circles and groups. When the people from the Lingnan tribes came here, they could only try to arrange them in the spare places.

If it were spring, summer, or autumn, we would have arrived very quickly by horseback riding. But now the ground is covered with snow, so riding is worse than walking. Moreover, the weather is so cold this year, so we need to be more careful with the horses, as we have already lost a lot of livestock.

To get there, one must pass through a field of ordinary tribesmen's tents. Lindan Batur was thinking about the losses reported by various tribes this year when he heard a cry for help not too far away from the side.

"I heard that you have an iron pot in your tent. You can let her go to your tent. I will bring you dung cakes every day."

"Aha, but..."

"Let her go in. It's only two years away anyway..."

Lindan Batur looked from a distance and saw a young man standing outside their yurt. Inside the door of the yurt, two heads, one old and one young, were looking out from the gap, while outside the door was a woman holding a little girl.

Now she kept pulling the little girl over and trying to put her into the felt tent, but the young man was at a loss, looking like he neither wanted to refuse nor could he accept it.

"Great Khan, these people all have family members who go to the Huolin River to mine coal." When the person next to him saw Lindan Batur stop, he stepped forward and said, "Those who can come with the Khan's tent must have brave warriors in their families."

Lindan Batur nodded, of course he knew this.

Only the people of Chahar, especially those who have close relations with the Khan's tent, would migrate here with their small tribes and live together with the Khan's tent.

Every family has young and strong people who can go to war at any time. This is the most basic requirement.

The coal fields that were easy to dig, such as those found on the side of the Huolin River, were not accessible to everyone. Now, this was the largest treasure mine that Chahar had discovered and was under its full control.

It is located on the west side of Greater Khingan Range, not far from Gyeongju, which is now controlled by the Ming Dynasty.

Lindan Batur was not willing to buy things back from Tumed through the four tribes of Lingnan. Although it was not easy to cross the Greater Khingan Range, he could get more things in return by going directly to Qingzhou and the border market of Daming.

In addition, the Greater Khingan Range can also be used to cut down the giant trees needed by the Ming Dynasty.

Lindan Batur had matured a little more. After seeing the situation over there, he continued to move forward silently.

Even the people of Chahar have at least one or two people in their families who can feed themselves on the other side of the Horqin River. Do they still need to send their children to better-off families to spend the winter?
Iron pot...it would be much better to have an iron pot.

Without an iron pan, you can only roast it or chew it dry.

Although Lindan Batur did not understand the real reason behind it, he knew that the iron pot could indeed make the dried meat more tender and the soup more filling, which was very different.

To put it bluntly, it's like cooking porridge when there's not enough rice. If you add some other wild vegetables, it will eventually make it more filling.

And the huge demand for iron pots on the grassland today... Well, we can’t blame our ancestors for living a comfortable life in the south for a long time.

Before the Mongols became the masters of the south, there was no habit of using iron pots on the grasslands.

It was only after he became the ruler of the Central Plains that iron pots became widely used in the grasslands. This thing is so easy to use, and it is a world of difference from the original method of only being able to cook food over a campfire.

However, after retreating back to the grassland, the grassland people who had become accustomed to the days of "iron pot freedom" could never go back.

But iron pans suddenly became scarce.

When you are a first-class person, you don't need to learn any skills to make things yourself. Back to the grassland, you can't make things yourself. Technology is only one aspect, what about fuel?

Nowadays, the fuel needed to keep warm is mainly animal dung, which is dried in the air or in the sun for heating or cooking. To smelt iron, at least charcoal is needed, right? If charcoal is popularized, why would the grassland tribes use dry dung as fuel? Do you like the taste?
After being driven back by the Ming Dynasty, they also tried to use clay pots as a substitute.

It's not that it can't be replaced, but it can only be replaced a little bit.

Because tribes had to move around all the time, clay pots were more easily damaged.

And they could only be bought from the Ming Dynasty or other people. Therefore, iron pots became the hard currency on the grassland. If there was an iron pot at home, even women could raise two more.

The Ming Dynasty had long banned the sale of ironware in the grasslands. In the past, people could only obtain some ironware through looting or smuggling. Now the situation has changed. Ironware is indeed no longer banned, but it is impossible to give it away for free. We still have to exchange it for goods.

Although there is no longer a shortage of iron pots, the ironware needed on the grassland is not just iron pots.

How many casualties had been suffered in the previous battle? Lindan Batur surrendered in humiliation, and brought back many people, but not many weapons.

Knife, arrowhead...

Coupled with the worsening weather, the losses this winter were huge. If I go to Gyeongju again in the spring, I will probably get 30% less than I originally thought.

With a heavy heart, he finally arrived at the felt tent where Dai Qing was recuperating.

As one of the big leaders, his felt tent was naturally second only to the Khan's tent.

Ordinary families usually have a small felt tent of four hanas, or at most six hanas.

The so-called Khana is a very important "property" in the yurt. It is used to form the walls of the yurt and is made of the more precious and durable wood on the grassland. It can be folded up or pulled apart to form a diamond-shaped mesh wall.

Think about it, it has to be flexible enough to form a circle to form a wall, it has to be strong enough to serve as a skeleton to support the uni pole on the top of the felt bag, and it has to be durable enough to be stored, moved and reassembled. How precious is this thing?

Therefore, it is good for an ordinary Mongolian family to have four Khanas forming a yurt in a circle. The whole family can squeeze in and keep warm in winter.

Ordinary families are not like the Khan or the chieftain, who have many women in their tents and need to deal with other things.

The felt tent where Dai Qing is recuperating now is quite large, supported by twelve Khanas, and covers an area of ​​about five to six hundred square meters according to later standards.

Although it is still not as good as the sweat tent which is of different style, it looks like a small castle from a distance.

When they arrived at the tent, Dai Qing's son came to greet them personally.

Once inside the tent, it was much warmer.

Lindan Batur first took off his outer cloak, then went to the charcoal basin in the tent to warm himself up: "Is Taiji awake, or is he asleep again?"

"We knew the Khan was coming, so we have been waiting for him." Dai Qing's son replied, "Khan, drink some hot mare's milk to warm yourself up first. I will go and help Abu out."

"Let's go in together and let Taiji rest."

Lindan Batur rubbed his hands and went inside.

His eyes swept over the charcoal basin that was burning brightly. Of course, the charcoal in it was good. The charcoal was also in a thick iron basin, placed on a wooden frame. Judging from the style of the wooden frame, it was definitely the work of a skilled Han craftsman.

The charcoal basin in Lindan Batur's own tent is not necessarily better than this one. He is now reluctant to use more of this kind of good charcoal that does not emit smoke and can only be burned by the Han people.

Of course, Dai Qingnian is already quite old, and now he is sick.

However, the four Lingnan tribes and the Tumed tribe were close to each other, and they could communicate with the Ming Dynasty's Qingzhou and the Lingnan Jurchens through the Xilamulun River Valley, so they had their own special channels.

Since Daiqing's felt tent was large, there was no need to use curtains to separate the interior like in ordinary homes.

Arriving at the inner room where Dai Qing was lying, Lindan Batur sat directly on the carpet and asked earnestly, "How does Taiji feel?"

"Much better." Dai Qing started coughing again after saying this, and just then some hot mare's milk tea was brought in.

After taking a sip, Lindan Batur looked at Dai Qing, sighed and said, "Taiji must take good care of his health. This time, I was impatient again and shouldn't have invited Taiji over in such cold weather."

Dai Qing shook his head and said slowly: "Even if the Khan didn't ask me to come, I would come seeing that the weather is so bad. Besides, how can I not come to celebrate the White Festival with the Khan?"

After a pause, he continued, "I came here first. When the weather turned cold, I was worried that the tribesmen in the north would have a hard time surviving the winter, so I exchanged a lot of inferior charcoal from Tumed. In the heavy snow, the transportation is slow, and I'm afraid I have to wait another ten days."

Lindanbatu was immediately moved, his eyes slightly red: "Taiji, wait for me..."

"Alas." Dai Qing continued to shake his head. "We are all descendants of Genghis Khan. The more things are like this now, the more we need to help each other. If more people can survive this winter, we can raise more cattle, sheep and horses next year, so that we can have a good winter again."

Lindan Batur lowered his head and whispered: "If the south of Xilamulun River and Liaodong were still there..."

"Gone is gone, Khan."

He raised his head again and looked at Dai Qing's serious eyes. After a while, he said, "Taiji has aged a little in the past two years."

"Is the Khan afraid that I will age too quickly? The faster I age, the better."

Lindan Batur's eyes dimmed a little, and he lowered his head again and muttered to himself: "Is this all we can do, year after year?"

After Dai Qing stopped looking him in the eye, she seemed a little confused and powerless.

"If not, should we first fight with Tumed, Yehe, and Khorchin, and then try to see if there is any way to deal with the Ming Dynasty's guns and cannons?"

Lindan Batur's body trembled slightly: "What if there is a white disaster like this year every year?"

"If that's the case, let's go to Aohan to hide first." Dai Qing said softly, "I can make arrangements before I'm too old to speak."

Seeing that Lindan Batur was silent, Dai Qing said earnestly: "It is not the past, Great Khan. The reason why we divided the left and right wings into two groups, each with 60,000 households, was because the tribes were strong and had plenty of pastures. Now, the right wing has long been independent and has been canonized by the Ming Dynasty. Chahar and Khalkha can no longer be divided so clearly. This year, I want to ask the Great Khan to think carefully about it. How can the Khan's tent unite the Chahar tribes and Chaohua and the others? It is better to do this first."

After saying so much, he coughed a few times, drank two sips of mare's milk tea to moisten his throat, and then continued, "Gathering together in the winter is a good idea. It doesn't matter which tribe's men get into which tribe's women's yurts. With more bellies, the tribe will have more hope in the future. Now we can't just divide the pastures and the tribes. The Han people are constantly changing the rules and government offices. If we continue to do the same as before, it will only become more and more difficult."

Lindan Batur nodded: "I will listen to Taiji."

In the bitter winter wind and snow, the Khan's Central Wanhu, who were retreating to recuperate, seemed to be becoming a historical term.

To the south are the increasingly powerful Han people. There is still a layer of the same or different ethnicity between them and the Han people, but this layer is now relying on its position between the Ming Dynasty and them to get along with both sides, and their lives are much better than theirs.

Since the Khanate has in fact long been a hollow entity, what is the point of continuing to cling to its past dignity and glory?
Dai Qing was glad to see that the young Khan still had ambitions, but he was getting older and older, and he had to sincerely remind him to curb his ambitions, lest he let the tribe suffer again because of his arrogance and lack of ability, as he had done two years ago.

In this regard, public and private are one. The four Lingnan tribes were hit harder, so how could they fight back on their own?
Dai Qing talked a lot, but ended with only one sentence.

"The Khan must remember that he is younger than him!"

Lindan Batur nodded heavily.

Zhu Changluo didn't know that they were also trying to reform and find a way out, and was prepared to wait with the advantage of their age.

If you knew, I'm afraid you would just laugh and cry.

I am waiting for the Industrial Revolution of Ming Dynasty. What are you waiting for? Waiting for my death?

(End of this chapter)