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

Chapter 265: Are You Kind?
Since we have come to the grassland and have such conditions, we can kill two birds with one stone by training the new army and letting them receive cavalry training at the same time.

On the one hand, it can make up for the shortcomings of the new army, and on the other hand, it can also use this training to enable the new army soldiers to have a deeper understanding of the cavalry warfare mode.

Zhu Shenzhui's future enemies are not only the people of the Ming Dynasty, but also the Later Jin Jiannu. The Later Jin Jiannu are known for their unparalleled cavalry and archery skills. Understanding cavalry tactics will be of great benefit to possible direct battles in the future. Not only that, Zhu Shenzhui also plans to conduct mutual combat training exercises after the cavalry and the new army have undergone certain training, so that both sides can fight in this way in their respective areas of expertise, thereby improving their respective tactics and deepening their battlefield experience.

If possible, the roles of both parties can be exchanged to make up for weaknesses and enhance combat effectiveness. Of course, this is all later talk, at least it is impossible now, everything will have to wait until later.

The Second Concubine also died on the third day after Tenger took over as Taiji. According to public statements, the Second Concubine committed suicide because she was ashamed of her son Galiba's actions and felt sorry for Ashe Temur.

However, this was only an external statement, and only a few people knew the real reason. Zhu Shenzhu originally planned to keep his second wife. Although she was Galiba's biological mother, she was also one of Ashe Temur's wives. In this sense, she was Zhu Shenzhu's mother-in-law and Tana's aunt.

Moreover, the Second Lady was not an ambitious person. Unlike Galiba, she was just an ordinary woman. After Galiba died, Zhu Shenzhu never thought of making things difficult for her. What kind of threat could a mere woman pose? For the sake of his father-in-law, Ashe Temur, he left her in the tribe to live out her old age.

But Tana didn't think so. It wasn't that she hated the Second Wife because of Galiba. Tana also knew that the Second Wife played no role in Galiba's rebellion. Everything that Galiba planned had nothing to do with the Second Wife, and the people killed by Galiba had nothing to do with the Second Wife.

However, Tana felt that even if the Second Concubine was innocent, she should not be allowed to stay. After all, she was the only one of the four wives of Ashi Temur who survived. Now that Tenger had inherited the position of Taiji, the Second Concubine had nominally become the person with the highest seniority among the relatives of the Taiji of the tribe.

According to Mongolian custom, although the Second Concubine had no power, her status was not low. In addition, she was Galiba's biological mother. After the tribe encountered such a major change, if the Second Concubine continued to live, it would be detrimental to her and her son's complete control of the tribe.

Once someone has a different intention and uses the name of the Second Lady to do something privately, it will be a big trouble even if it can be suppressed. Considering this, Tana decided to deal with the Second Lady. As long as the Second Lady dies, there will be no one in the tribe who can threaten Tenger's position, and those possible dangers in the future can be directly eliminated.

Tana kept this matter a secret from Zhu Shenzhui. She didn't want Zhu Shenzhui to intervene in the matter. Although Zhu Shenzhui was already the judge of the tribe, he was a Ming Dynasty man after all. The Mongols should handle their own internal affairs. Zhu Shenzhui's killing of Galiba and killing the second wife were two different things. It would be bad if Zhu Shenzhui's hands were stained with the blood of the second wife.

In this way, when Zhu Shenzhui knew about this, the second wife had been killed by Tana's men, and everything was irreversible. Zhu Shenzhui was just surprised but not angry. He soon understood why Tana did this and why Tana did it without telling him.

He had to admit that his wife had grown extremely fast in such a short period of time after experiencing the great changes in the tribe. Tana used to be just an ordinary Mongolian noblewoman under the wings of her father. In her heart, there was nothing else except her husband and children.

But things are different now. Tana has transformed from an ordinary Mongolian noblewoman into the ruler of a tribe. In order to consolidate her son's status and consider the future of the tribe, she no longer acts on her emotions. Instead, she looks at the problem from a politician's perspective and takes decisive action.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hide it from you, I just felt..." Tana felt a little guilty facing Zhu Shenzhu, and she began to explain to her husband.

Zhu Shenzhui said nothing, but reached out and gently hugged Tana in his arms: "I should be the one to say sorry. You did the right thing. I didn't think of this before. What you have done now is just to fill the gap and avoid possible troubles in the future."

"If I had considered this at the time, I would have directly disposed of the Second Concubine when I dealt with Galiba, and announced to the public that the Second Concubine died in the chaos of the battle. I'm afraid no one would have suspected anything. But I didn't do that at the time. I was not thoughtful enough."

Zhu Shenzhui's words made Tana smile, and the worry in her heart was completely relieved. She originally thought that Zhu Shenzhui would blame her, but now Zhu Shenzhui not only did not blame her, but comforted her instead, which made her very happy.

Like a kitten, Tana rubbed her head gently against Zhu Shenzhui's chest, then looked up at her man with a relieved smile on her face.

"Do you think I'm a vicious woman?"

"Silly girl!" Zhu Shenzhui smiled and tapped her forehead with his hand. "That's not vicious at all. You just did what you should do. And don't forget, I'm a member of the Ming royal family. There is no shortage of open and covert attacks among the Ming royal family, even within the royal family."

"No matter how glamorous the politics may appear, its core is always dirty. All means are for the purpose. As long as the purpose is achieved, any means are not excessive. The winner is the king and the loser is the bandit. This has been the case since ancient times. Besides, you are doing this for Tenger and for the entire tribe. As long as the tribe is well, the people of the tribe can live in peace, and this will be passed down from generation to generation forever."

"What's the big deal about sacrificing a mere Second Lady? She's just a woman, not to mention she's Galiba's biological mother. Regardless of what she did, her death is not unjust. For the sake of the majority, making a decision to punish one person, what's wrong with that?" Looking into Tana's eyes, Zhu Shenzhui asked again: "Do you still remember Third Lady?"

"Of course I remember!" Tana nodded. She had seen Sanniangzi when she was young, and she had always regarded Sanniangzi as her idol. On the first day she met Zhu Shenzhui, Tana told Zhu Shenzhui that she had two biggest wishes, one was to visit the Ming Dynasty, and the other was to become a person like Sanniangzi.

"Since you know Sanniangzi, you should know what kind of person she is. When she assisted Altan Khan and Huang Taiji, she made similar choices as you. To be honest, Sanniangzi killed many more people than you, and some of them were truly innocent. But who can say that Sanniangzi killed the wrong people? Who can deny Sanniangzi's lofty status and prestige in Mongolia?"

"I understand, thank you, my man!" Tana's eyes lit up. Zhu Shenzhui's words completely put her mind at ease, and the slight guilt she had for poisoning the Second Lady also disappeared in an instant.

Zhu Shencui was right. She was no longer just Zhu Shencui's wife, nor was she just Tengger's mother. She was the mother of the tribal Taiji and the Aliya of the tribe. The rise and fall of tens of thousands of people in the tribe depended on her. He had to consider the majority of people.

In this case, what does a mere Second Concubine mean? If her death can frighten those hidden opponents within the tribe, or if it can be used to stabilize the tribe, then her death is worth it.

From the moment we are born, we are heading towards death. No one can escape the call of Eternal Heaven, not even the great Genghis Khan.

Since this will be the outcome sooner or later, why not exchange the life of the Second Lady for so many others?
After she had untied her worries, Tana had no more worries. She and Zhu Shenzhu discussed the internal adjustments of the tribe after the death of the second wife. Not far from them, the nominal leader of the tribe, the highest-ranking Taiji Tenger, was sleeping soundly. The little guy had just played with the toys that Zhu Shenzhu brought from Daming for a long time. He drank milk when he was tired and fell asleep after eating and drinking. He had no intention of joining his parents' discussion. Anyway, his parents would arrange everything. He was still young. Now, apart from eating, drinking, playing, sleeping and pooping, he didn't care about anything else.

After chatting for a while, Tana suddenly remembered what Zhu Shenzhui had just said about the filthiness of the Ming royal family and the imperial family, and couldn't help but ask this question out of curiosity.

Since there was nothing to do anyway, Zhu Shenzui picked out some things he knew and told Tana. He not only talked about the rumors within the Ming royal family, but also the origins of his clan. Especially when she heard that Zhu Shenzui's ancestor was a descendant of the Jin Wang lineage, the legitimate son of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and that his great-grandfather was Zhu Qihan, the fifth son of Zhu Zhonghong, the second generation Prince of Jiaocheng and the general who defended the country, Tana curiously asked who the current Prince of Jiaocheng was.

Zhu Shenzhu sighed and told Tana that their Jiaocheng prince lineage had long been stripped of its title, because in the 26th year of Jiajing, the last Jiaocheng prince Zhu Biao was promoted to General of the Auxiliary State. Afterwards, he inherited his elder brother's title as a cousin, surrendered himself and usurped the title, and no longer inherited it. He died in the 4th year of Longqing, and his title was stripped.

After being stripped of their title, Zhu Shenzui and his branch returned to the lineage of King Jin and became low-level royal family members. This was also the reason why Zhu Shenzui and his branch were not welcomed in Pingyang City. As a branch that returned to the lineage of King Jin, the title of King Jiaocheng was long gone, and there was no one to protect them, so they could only barely make ends meet by relying on their salaries.

However, the salaries from the court had always been in arrears, and life became increasingly difficult after the death of his father and brother. In order to survive, Zhu Shenzui could only find ways to support himself and his sister-in-law and niece. So he took the risk to lead the people of Wangjia Village to engage in salt smuggling. Later, he took the opportunity of getting a salt shop to start the smuggling trade from the Ming Dynasty to the grassland. Only then did he come to the grassland and met Tana.

There are some things that Zhu Shenzui had never said before, and Tana naturally didn't know either, but today she learned about them from Zhu Shenzui.

After listening to Zhu Shenzhu's story, Tana was a little angry. She said that there was still a branch of the Jiaocheng Kings in the Ming Dynasty. Why didn't the emperor give the title to this branch after Zhu Biao's death but instead removed the title? This is really unfair.

Hearing what Tana said, Zhu Shenzhui couldn't help but laugh, saying with a smile, "Who knows what the emperor is thinking?" Besides, there were various reasons for the removal of the title of Jiaocheng King. Maybe he thought that removing the title of Jiaocheng King would reduce his salary. Besides, it was more than 50 years ago. At that time, not to mention himself, even his father was not born yet.

Furthermore, if it were not the case, I would not have been forced to come to the grassland to do business and get to know Tana. Everything in this world is already predetermined, and a blessing in disguise.

Moreover, if this is really the case, then logically speaking, their line of Prince of Jin was still Zhu Yuanzhang's legitimate son. Theoretically speaking, Zhu Laosi had no qualifications to ascend the throne of the Ming Dynasty. After Zhu Biao's death, even if Emperor Jianwen was no longer fit to be emperor, in terms of legitimate and illegitimate children, both the second Prince of Qin and the second Prince of Jin were more qualified. However, Zhu Di launched the Jingnan Campaign, and ascended the throne as a illegitimate son pretending to be a legitimate son, thus replacing Zhu Di.

"Humph! We Mongols don't care about that. Since my man's bloodline is more noble than the current Ming emperor's bloodline, he is eligible to compete for the Ming emperor's position. Maybe you, my man, will have a chance to ascend to that position in the future."

Zhu Shencui burst out laughing. Tana really dared to think so. However, the succession to the throne of Khan of the Mongols was different from that of the Ming Dynasty. It was not wrong for her to think so. But this was just something that they and their husband could only talk about. It must not be spread out. Even if Zhu Shencui did have this idea, he could not say it openly.

(End of this chapter)