Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1134 Falling short of success

After listening to Qitata's account of what he had experienced in recent days, Bumbutai sighed and felt sad.

Bumbutai was born in the Borjigit family of Khorchin. She was the daughter of Borjigit Buhe, the grandfather of Qitate, and also Qitate's aunt. In her heart, Bumbutai sympathized with Qitate's experience. After all, blood is thicker than water. The two were not only aunt and nephew, but Khorchin was their family's territory. Now not only Khorchin was gone, but even Qitate, the leader of Khorchin and the prince of Khorchin appointed by the Qing Dynasty, became like this. How could she not feel sad?

But what does it matter? It is true that Khorchin is gone, but for Bumbutai, the Qing Dynasty is still gone. Compared with Qitate, Bumbutai has suffered much more losses and pressure than the other party. However, whether it is Khorchin or the Qing Dynasty, as long as people are still there, there is hope. If people are gone, then everything is completely over.

Isn't that the case with the Mongols? They have experienced ups and downs for thousands of years. It is common for large tribes to annex small tribes. The rise of one tribe and the demise of another are also commonplace. Didn't the great Genghis Khan also experience the low point of his life when his father, Yesugei, died, his tribe was annexed, and he himself became a civilian, with only his mother and seven children wandering on the grassland, struggling?
Even Genghis Khan had such a life experience, so what is their current situation? Compared with Genghis Khan, at least they still have a lot of people around them, and they still have the capital to protect themselves and rise in the future.

Moreover, Bumbutai understood better than the average woman, or even most people, that the grassland would ultimately belong to the Mongols. Even though the Ming Dynasty had the upper hand for now, the Ming army could not stay on the grassland forever, and they would eventually have to return to the Ming Dynasty.

The people living in this area are the Mongols, not the Ming people. How powerful was the Ming Dynasty when it was founded? They launched many northern expeditions against Mongolia and suppressed Mongolia for decades, but didn't they retreat in the end? As long as they wait patiently for the Ming army to leave, as time goes by, the influence of the Ming Dynasty on the grassland will gradually fade away, and the Mongols will still have the final say on the grassland.

"What are your plans when you come back this time?" Bumbutai asked Qitat.

"My nephew sneaked back to Khorchin this time and planned to hide here first, and then slowly find an opportunity to gather his old subordinates to plan for the future..."

Qitata told Bumbutai that he just wanted to protect himself first and return to Korchin to find a place to hide to avoid risks. He would find a way to regain control of Korchin after the crisis was resolved in a few years.

After all, their family has been in Khorchin for so many years. Although they were defeated, as long as they are alive, they still have a chance in the future. Agudamu's main territory is in Chahar. Even if he takes over Khorchin now, he can't completely control this grassland. As the current head of the Borjigit family, he still has influence on this grassland. There are still some tribes loyal to him. It is not a bad idea to slowly find a way to gather these tribes and regroup.

Bumbutai nodded without commenting on Qitata's idea. She felt that his plan was still feasible, but things were not that easy. She needed to think carefully about what to do.

Since Qitat is back, Bumbutai has to accept him no matter what, not only because he is her nephew but also because he is the Prince of Khorchin. In addition, in Bumbutai's mind, there is another advantage of Qitat coming, that is, compared with outsiders like Ebilun, her nephew Qitat makes her feel more at ease.

After all, Ebilun and his people were Dorgon's people. Although they were loyal to her, they were more loyal to Dorgon. Their loyalty to her was limited because she was the empress dowager and her son was the emperor. But the problem was that the Qing Dynasty was gone. Her so-called empress dowager and Fulin, the emperor, were no longer worthy of the name. In this case, it would not be a big problem if Dorgon did not show up. Once Dorgon came, she and her son would have no power to fight back, and everything would be controlled by Dorgon.

Bumbutai is not an ordinary woman. If she were a "naive and innocent girl", she would not have the status and position she has today. Moreover, the fall of the Qing Dynasty made her feel a great crisis, and she was more aware of the threat posed by Dorgon to herself. Once Dorgon came here and took control of the troops here, she and her son would be equivalent to puppets. With her understanding of Dorgon's character, he would never give up and would definitely use these troops to try to restore the Qing Dynasty and find a way to recapture Liaodong and Shengjing.

But the risk of doing so is too great. In Bumbutai's opinion, it is impossible to succeed. The Ming Dynasty today is not the same as before. It is impossible for Dorgon to copy Nurhaci's actions. Moreover, the Qing Dynasty still lost to the Ming Dynasty even though it had most of Liaodong and so many troops. How can they do it with only a thousand people?
In Bumbutai's view, Dorgon was no longer her support, but the most dangerous uncertainty. Bumbutai even hoped that Dorgon would never appear and never find her. Only in this way could she and her son survive safely, pretending to be Mongolians and patiently waiting for opportunities in Khorchin, waiting for a few years, more than ten years or even longer. As long as the opportunity came, she would rely on her identity and military strength to gradually annex several Mongolian tribes, thereby strengthening herself, first taking back the territory of Khorchin, and then planning Liaodong.

Although this plan takes a longer time, it is more appropriate. Moreover, she is not very old, and her son Fulin is even younger. At their ages, they can afford to wait for more than ten or twenty years. By that time, she will be only in her forties or fifties, not to mention Fulin. After twenty years, he will only be less than thirty, which is the best age for men. If they want to do great things, what does all this waiting mean? Bumbutai has been thinking about these issues these days, but the biggest key to her to achieve this is that there is no one around Bumbutai who can be completely trusted. Now the arrival of Qitat has made up for this defect. Qitat is not only her nephew and the cousin of the little emperor, but also the Prince of Khorchin canonized by the Qing Dynasty. Compared with Ebilun, Bumbutai certainly trusts Qitat more. With him, many plans are much more convenient to implement.

In this way, Bumbutai took in Qitate and incorporated him and his remaining guards into this temporary tribe. Since Qitate's status here was second only to Bumbutai and his son, and he was familiar with Khorchin, Bumbutai used this reason to assign more than a hundred people from the eight banners of Ebilun to Qitate. Ebilun could not refuse this arrangement, and more than a hundred people handed over to Qitate was only less than one-tenth of the current force he controlled. Since the queen mother had this idea, Ebilun agreed.

With these hundred soldiers, plus the thirty or so guards that Qitat had brought back, Qitat now had nearly 150 elite cavalry. After solving the problem of insufficient guards in Qitat's hands, Bumbutai found a reason to entrust the safety of herself and the little emperor to Qitat. After doing these things, Bumbutai felt much more relaxed than before. With Qitat by her side, her sense of security increased greatly.

Then, at Qitate's suggestion, Bumbutai agreed to Qitate's plan to send people to contact his former subordinates and win over the loyal Borjigit family tribal leaders. Of course, Bumbutai also told Qitate that he must be cautious in doing this, and must not expose his intentions and whereabouts unless it is absolutely safe. Qitate knew this, so he acted secretly and quietly sent his confidants to the south. As long as he could win over a few tribes, even small tribes, the capital in the hands of Bumbutai and Qitate would gradually grow and eventually reverse the current situation.

Just when Bumbutai and Qitate sent people to contact the various Khorchin tribes, in the Murjiwei area, Wu Sangui was furious and cursed several generals.

"Waste! A bunch of waste!" In the tent, Wu Sangui was extremely angry, and several generals in front of him hung their heads in silence, with shame on their faces.

Because on the day before, Wu Sangui, who had been chasing Dorgon all the way, finally caught the opponent's tail. He set a trap and planned to defeat Dorgon here in one battle and completely kill this guy who ran faster than a rabbit.

Unexpectedly, the well-planned plan encountered problems during its implementation. His generals, eager for merit, violated their own pre-planned attack too early, which resulted in the main force led by Wu Sangui failing to reach the position in time. Although this battle annihilated Dorgon's elite troops, Dorgon escaped first and failed to retain him.

After the battle, Wu Sangui led his troops to continue the pursuit, but after a whole day of pursuit, he still failed to catch Dorgon, which made Wu Sangui very angry. So he scolded his subordinates, saying that such a good opportunity was missed. Now Dorgon ran away again, and he ran without a trace. It would be even more difficult to find him again.

"Get out! All of you get out!" The more he cursed, the angrier he got. If it weren't for the fact that these guys had followed the Wu family for many years and some of them were his confidants, Wu Sangui would have even planned to chop off their heads by military law.

Fearing that he would kill them in a rage, Wu Sangui held back his anger and told them all to get out. He simply turned a blind eye to it. If he really killed a few of them, wouldn't he feel heartbroken when he calmed down? These bastards really ruined his plans!
When the generals saw Wu Sangui asking them to get out, they hurriedly retreated. When they got outside the tent, they looked at each other and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

This opportunity was too good to be true, and it could be said to be their best chance in the past few months. Unfortunately, it was precisely because they saw victory was in sight and the enemy chief was about to be captured that they could not help but get anxious, and it was precisely because of this that they failed at the last moment.

After looking at each other, everyone sighed and left. Not long after everyone left, a young man came to Wu Sangui's tent, reported his identity outside, and then received a reply from inside, and then entered the tent.

(End of this chapter)