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

Chapter 253 Breaking the Queen
The one who called Zhu Shenzhui was none other than his Mongolian wife Tana. She was different from the Tana he was familiar with. The Tana in front of him was wearing an ordinary Mongolian robe, which was dirty. She also wore a leather armor and a leather hat. Her beautiful face was covered with stains. If you didn't look closely, you wouldn't be able to recognize that this was the beautiful Tana.

Tana ran towards Zhu Shenzui, threw herself into his arms and burst into tears. Her tears wet Zhu Shenzui's shoulders in an instant, which made Zhu Shenzui even more nervous.

"Don't cry, don't cry first. What happened? Where is the child? Where is our child?" Zhu Shenzhui asked anxiously while comforting Tana.

Tengger is his eldest son, who is just over one year old now. Because he has been traveling to the grassland all the time, he has not had much time to spend with the child. When he left last time, the child could not even speak. All he has in his memory is the child’s lovely face and those bright eyes.

He never thought that not only his subordinates were being hunted, but also his wife. Zhu Shenzhui had previously guessed the worst. Could it be that something big had happened to the tribe? But the Ashe Timur tribe was so powerful, who would dare to attack them in this grassland? How could Tana and his people end up like this?
Thinking of Tengger again, Zhu Shenzui's heart ached. If anything happened to the child, Zhu Shenzui really didn't know if he could bear such a blow.

Seeing Zhu Shenzhui's face change drastically and asking about the whereabouts of the child, Tana, who was sobbing, calmed down and told him that the child was fine. At this time, Zhu Shenzhui noticed that Wang Hai was beside him. Wang Hai was also wearing Mongolian clothes, with a bag tied to his chest with a cloth belt, a doll in the bag, and a layer of leather armor outside the bag.

The baby was sleeping soundly, lying on Wang Hai's chest, as if the previous fight had nothing to do with him. One of his little hands was in his mouth, and he smacked his lips from time to time.

"Master! Look, the young master is fine." Wang Hai grinned, untied the cloth belt on his chest, carefully held Tenger in his hands and handed him to Zhu Shenzhui.

Zhu Shenzhui took it and looked at it carefully. Tenger was indeed fine as Wang Hai said. Not only that, he was sleeping soundly. Looking at the child's cute face, Zhu Shenzhui finally breathed a sigh of relief. He smiled and couldn't help but reach out and touch the child's face.

Unexpectedly, the little guy yawned and woke up suddenly. He stared at Zhu Shenzhui with his round eyes and looked confused, as if he had not figured out what happened. When he gradually came to his senses and found that he was not in the familiar arms of his mother, and the person holding him was not Wang Hai, the little guy suddenly flattened his mouth and burst into tears, crying and staring at his legs, waving his hands and struggling, looking left and right, as if looking for the figure of a familiar person.

"Kid, I'm your father! Have you forgotten your father after just a few months of not seeing him?" Seeing Tengger crying loudly in his arms, Zhu Shenzui couldn't help but say to the child.

But it would have been better if he didn't say anything. After he said that, Tengger cried even louder, calling out "Eji" and "Abagha" while crying, and just ignored his father.

For a moment, Zhu Shenzhui was extremely embarrassed, angry and amused. It was Tana who took the child away on her own initiative, held the child and comforted him for a few times. Only then did the little guy stop crying, lay in his mother's arms and buried his head directly, not even looking at the embarrassed Zhu Shenzhui standing aside.

"The child is too young. He hasn't seen you for a few months and doesn't recognize you. He will get familiar with you in the next few days." Tana explained to Zhu Shenzhui. What else could Zhu Shenzhui do? His son didn't recognize his father, and he cried like this when he saw his father. Zhu Shenzhui was helpless!
But just like Tana said, children have poor memories, and it has been several months since he left the grassland, so Tenger has long forgotten what he looks like. It is normal for him to have such a reaction today. After a long time, the child will slowly remember himself and everything will be fine.

Tana and Tengger were both fine, and Zhu Shenzhui felt relieved, but he still didn't understand what had happened.

Zhu Shencui asked Tana about what happened, and Tana told Zhu Shencui in tears that something had happened to the tribe. Her brother, Hadan Bater, the heir of the tribe, had died in battle for the Khan, and most of the warriors brought by the tribe were lost. A few days ago, news came that her father Ashitemur was so angry that he vomited blood and has been bedridden since then.

Hadan Bater was the eldest son of Ashe Temur and the successor chosen by Ashe Temur long ago. If nothing unexpected happened, a hundred years after Ashe Temur died, Hadan Bater would inherit the position of tribal taiji and become the leader of the tribe.

Unexpectedly, at the end of last summer, Lindan Khan gathered his troops again. This time, Lindan Khan was ready to teach Outer Khalkha a lesson.

Previously, because of the betrayal of the Chaohua tribe of Inner Khalkha and the Khorchin tribe, Lin Dan Khan was extremely angry. However, the two consecutive military campaigns did not work. Not only did they fail to eliminate the two tribes, but they also suffered certain losses due to the collusion between the two tribes and the Later Jin. The two wars did not produce any results. The ambitious but incompetent Lin Dan Khan vowed to completely pacify the two tribes and let all the Mongolians on the grassland know who is the real master of this land. But before Lin Dan Khan could continue to attack Inner Khalkha and Khorchin, Sirhunak Duleng Hongtaiji suddenly betrayed him and defected to the Later Jin Jiannu, which made Lin Dan Khan even more furious.

Then, Dorji Chechen Jinong, the son of Ongundulaer of the Ujumchin tribe, and his uncle's son Seleng Erdeni Taiji also fled to the Outer Khalkha in the northern desert due to their disagreement with Ligdan Khan. Susai Batulu Jinong of the Sunite tribe, Tsering Yilden of the Hoqiite tribe, and Dusigar Zasaktu Jinong of the Abaga tribe also fled to the northern desert with their own troops.

The continuous attacks made the Mongolian people panic, and the position of the Great Khan of Ligdan Khan was somewhat unstable. In order to solve this problem and teach those who betrayed him a lesson, Ligdan Khan insisted on gathering troops again. This time he did not intend to attack Inner Khalkha and Khorchin, but to attack the Mongolian North, that is, the Outer Khalkha.

Although Lindan Khan's move was actually inappropriate, as the common leader of the grassland, it was not a good choice to resort to war under such circumstances. Moreover, although there were many reasons why these people betrayed Lindan Khan, some of them were due to religious issues, but the biggest problem was that Lindan Khan had been doing evil things over the years, making enemies everywhere, and making continuous mistakes in politics and military.

If it were Zhu Shenzhui, in this situation, the first thing he would do is to stabilize the internal situation and prevent a similar situation from happening again. Then he would use one faction to fight another, and then use the power of the Ming Dynasty as an ally to directly unite with the Ming Dynasty to attack the Later Jin.

As long as the Ming Dynasty was helped to solve the problem of the Later Jin, both Inner and Outer Khalkha and Khorchin would lose their most powerful support. Then, through various means such as marriage, winning over, and division, the Mongolian headquarters would strengthen its influence over the grasslands, thus solving the problem fundamentally.

But Lindan Khan never did so. He never considered these things. Over the years, Lindan Khan always wanted to suppress with force and never considered political issues. In addition, he was stubborn and would not listen to anyone's opinions. He fought year after year regardless of the actual situation of each tribe, which made the tribes on the grassland suffer.

It would be better if the war initiated by Ligdan Khan was victorious, but the Mongols suffered more defeats than victories in consecutive years. The Mongols are not stupid. It would be ok for them to follow your Khan to fight once or twice, but it happens every time. They suffer huge losses and gain nothing. How can they not have other ideas?
This time, when Lindan Khan sent troops to Outer Khalkha, Ashi Temur was not optimistic about it, and he rejected it from the bottom of his heart. The last time Zhu Shenzhui was in the grassland, the two had discussed this issue privately, and the conclusion they came to was the same. Unfortunately, Ashi Temur was not Zhu Shenzhui. As the leader of the Mongolian tribe and a direct subordinate of Lindan Khan, he could not disobey the Khan's order, unless Ashi Temur had a rebellious heart like others, and directly left Lindan Khan and went far away, or directly surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, but this choice was impossible for the tribe, and the risk was too great.

In desperation, Ashi Temur could only obey the order of Ligdan Khan and send troops. This time, like the previous times, the troops were still led by Hadan Bater. According to Ashi Temur's idea, at most, he would return empty-handed like the previous times. When the war was over, he would just bring the troops back to give an explanation to Ligdan Khan.

But no one expected that something would go wrong during this expedition. This time, Lin Danhan was fighting against the Mongolians in the northern desert, and the territory of the Mongolians in the northern desert was not small. In addition, the environment in the northern desert was much worse than that in the southern desert. Not only was the terrain complex, but there were also large areas of desert. It was extremely difficult to fight in such a place.

Moreover, at the beginning of the war, the Mobei side avoided direct battle with Ligdan Khan, relying on the terrain advantage to lead Ligdan Khan's army by the nose to fight guerrilla warfare. This tactic made Ligdan Khan, who intended to completely resolve the Mobei issue with a decisive battle, very uncomfortable. From the beginning of the war, for more than half a month, except for small-scale battles between the two sides, Ligdan Khan's army did not even find the enemy's main force.

As time went by, the end of summer passed quickly. When autumn came, the weather in Mobei turned cold overnight. It stands to reason that Lin Danhan should have withdrawn his troops at this time, because winter would soon come if he delayed any further. However, Lin Danhan, who was holding back his anger, did not give the order to withdraw his troops. In his opinion, the weather affected both sides. In terms of military strength, his side was stronger. As long as he seized the opportunity to seize the main force of the other side and win it in one battle, all problems would be solved.

Due to Lin Danhan's wrong decision, the Mongolian headquarters' troops began to fall into difficulties. When the short autumn passed, winter began to come, and the first heavy snow fell, the battle could no longer be fought.

The unyielding Lindan Khan still held out for more than ten days, and then he had no choice but to order a withdrawal. But how could it be so easy to withdraw at this time? With the arrival of winter, the withdrawal became much more difficult, and the Mongolian tribes in the northern desert also saw the opportunity to attack. The tribal cavalry that had been hiding from Lindan Khan appeared out of nowhere and began to follow Lindan Khan's army and harass it.

Faced with such a situation, Lindan Khan's withdrawal speed could not be increased at all. After more than half a month, he had not yet been able to withdraw his troops back to Chahar. At this time, Lindan Khan was also anxious. The weather was getting colder and colder, and his supplies were insufficient. In addition, the army marched slowly and did not carry enough supplies for the winter. If he did not withdraw immediately, the whole army might be wiped out.

Lin Dan Khan would never watch his own army suffer. Once he lost the military power, his position as Khan would be over. In order to get out of trouble, Lin Dan Khan made a decision, which was to use the troops of other tribes as a cover to cover the retreat of his main force. Unfortunately, Hadan Bater became a victim and became one of the cover.

(End of this chapter)