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

Chapter 321 Badal

Badar was a close confidant of Elbeg Taiji and was also the person in charge of the delivery trade of Elbeg Taiji's tribe this time.

Escorting the supplies, the group crossed the Tumote grassland and arrived at the Tengger tribe. According to the plan, they would rest in the Tengger tribe for a day and then head south to Zhenlu Fort.

After arriving at the Zhenlu Fort, the goods were counted and handed over, and then settled after being put into storage, and finally returned to the tribe with the traded materials. This process was set by the Tenger tribe, and all the cooperative tribes that traded with the Ming Dynasty through the Tenger tribe operated in this way, and the Elbegji Taiji tribe was no exception.

The first two trades went smoothly. The Tengger tribe followed the rules and established a good reputation on the grassland with the rules of trade in just two months. Now, as the trade progresses, the tribes involved have made a lot of profit, which makes everyone very happy.

But unlike other tribes, Badar brought people this time not only for trade, but also for his special mission, which was to disrupt the trade between the Tengger tribe and the Ming Dynasty, thereby causing a rift between the Tengger tribe and the Ming Dynasty.

As a close confidant of Elbegji Taiji, he could be regarded as one of the most trusted people of Elbegji Taiji in the tribe. It was for this reason that Elbegji Taiji entrusted him with this important task.

According to Elbegji Taiji's instructions, after arriving at Zhenlubao, his people would meet up with the second group of people who had arrived earlier, and then make some noise in Zhenlubao.

The so-called movement was not an ordinary movement, but a "big movement", the purpose of which was to destroy the Tenger tribe's warehouse of supplies in Zhenlu Fort. This warehouse contained not only furs and other good things sent by various tribes, but also tea, grain, cloth, salt, etc. shipped from the Ming Dynasty.

Find an opportunity to quietly set a fire and burn all these things, so as to cause heavy losses to the Tenger tribe. In addition, Elbegji Taiji also ordered that after the fire started, Badar and his men would take advantage of the chaos to kill people, preferably some Ming people in Zhenlu Fort.

Although the bilateral trade was on the Great Wall further south, with the smooth progress of trade in the past two months, the Ming Dynasty also sent some people to Zhenlu Fort. Although the number was not large, there were still more than a dozen of them. If all these people could be killed in one go, the Tengger tribe would have no way to explain to the Ming Dynasty.

Not only the people of the Ming Dynasty, but also the people of the Tenger tribe and other tribes will be killed. As many as possible will be killed, and as much chaos as possible will be caused. By then, the supplies in the Zhenlu Fort will be burned, and many people from all walks of life will die. In this way, the trade between the Tenger tribe and the Ming Dynasty will definitely not be able to continue, and it will even provoke the anger of the Ming Dynasty.

This is Badar's real mission. In order to achieve this goal, Elbegji Taiji paid a lot of price. The previous two batches of trade supplies were fine, but the supplies delivered this time would probably be destroyed in the fire, which would be a big loss for the tribe.

But the loss was worth it, because Bu Shitu had promised Elbegji Taiji that all losses would be borne by Bu Shitu, so all the risk of loss was transferred away.

Moreover, Bu Shitu also promised that he would unite with other tribes to launch a war against the Tengger tribe. After the Tengger tribe was destroyed, some of the Tengger tribe's grasslands, people, cattle and sheep would be given to the Elbegji Taiji tribe. Once these things were obtained, the current losses would be nothing at all, and the Elbegji Taiji tribe would be able to take this opportunity to grow a lot stronger.

Badar was not nervous about this plan. Instead, he was slightly excited. He was even looking forward to the final result.

Now half of the work has been completed. They have brought the goods to the Tengger tribe. It will take a few days for them to reach Zhenlu Fort. When they get there, they will meet up with their own people who were previously stranded in Zhenlu Fort and start working when they find a suitable opportunity.

Thinking of this, Badar's face was full of smiles, as if he had already seen the generous reward that Elbeggi Taiji would give him after his success.

Just when he was happy, a subordinate came to him and brought him good news, that is, the Tengger tribe did not suspect anything. Just like the previous two times, they just heard the news briefly. Next, they will rest here for one night and continue their journey south the next day.

The smooth progress made Badar even more confident, and he did not think much about it and ordered people to make repairs according to the plan. A peaceful night passed, and when the sun rose the next day, Badar and his men packed up and continued their journey. Before leaving, they specially visited Wang Hai, a centurion of the Tenger tribe. After the two sides exchanged polite words, Badar led his people to Zhenlu Fort.

The distance from the Tenger tribe to Zhenlu Fort was not far. They walked slowly because they were carrying goods, cattle, sheep, horses, etc., but it still took them four days to arrive.

The current Zhenlu Fort is completely different from before. It was originally just a military fortress abandoned by the Ming army, but now it has become a place similar to a town.

The central area of ​​Zhenlu Fort is the original fortress structure, which was in disrepair due to years of disrepair. Now, thanks to the renovation by the Tengger tribe, it has mostly restored its original appearance, and many warehouses have been built for trade.

The surrounding area is full of houses built around the central area, including many Mongolian yurts set up by the Mongols. There are quite a few people here, more than a thousand people, including people from the Tenger tribe, Mongolian herdsmen who originally lived in Zhenlubao, and Ming people who fled north. Now there are people from other tribes who come to trade, plus people from the Ming Dynasty. These people are different. Among them, there are several Mongols divided by tribe. Everyone gathered here happily, transported the tribe's supplies with the help of the Tenger tribe, and then traded and returned to the tribe happily with the completed transactions.

The concentration of population also led to the prosperity of Zhenlubao. Now Zhenlubao is not only a warehouse for storing materials, but also a material transfer point and another trading point for the Mongols besides trading with the Ming Dynasty. So many people here also need to eat, have entertainment, etc. In just over two months, it naturally became a place similar to a market town. Some smart Ming people and Mongols also opened wine shops and other shops here to meet other needs.

The Tenger tribe did not stop such changes, but instead encouraged them. For this reason, all kinds of shops sprang up like mushrooms after rain, not only for the Mongols, but also for the Ming people in Zhenlubao. As long as they did business in a lawful manner, the Tenger tribe would not make things difficult for them, and would even specially allocate an area for them.

The prosperity of commerce also promoted the continuous increase of the population of Zhenlubao. If it continued like this, it would take less than a year for Zhenlubao to grow from a military fortress into a town of considerable size. If the Tengger tribe had a little more courage and built a city directly on the original basis of Zhenlubao, this city might not necessarily become the next naturalized city.

Arriving at Zhenlu Fort and seeing the bustling scene here, Badal even felt like he had arrived in Guihua City.

However, compared with Guihua City, the commercial atmosphere here is more intense. A large amount of materials are entering, transiting and stockpiled here. Several warehouses near the central area can be seen at a glance. The warehouses are guarded by people from the Tenger tribe, and it is not easy for ordinary people to approach. However, Badal took the opportunity of the handover to investigate carefully and found that the guards were not too strict. Due to the busy flow of goods in and out, there were also many loopholes.

This time, Badar brought more goods than the previous two times. The arrival of so many goods, including cattle, sheep and horses, made the already small Zhenlu Fort even more crowded. Especially, cattle, sheep and horses, living creatures, could not be directly stored like fur and other goods, and had to be placed separately near the Zhenlu Fort, which took some time.

Badar asked his men to be in charge of the trade with the Tengger people, and took them to visit various places in Zhenlu Fort.

After walking around for nearly an hour and memorizing the general situation here, Badar returned to their temporary residence. When he arrived at the place, his subordinates who had been waiting for a long time came to greet him and whispered a few words in his ear. Badar nodded and walked straight towards his yurt.

"Sir!" When they walked into the yurt, two Mongolians were already waiting inside. When they saw Badar, they quickly stood up and saluted.

His eyes swept over them, Badal nodded and kindly asked them to sit down, then served them milk tea. While drinking the tea, Badal went straight to the point and asked about the preparations.

"Sir, please look..." These two people were the second group to come to Zhenlu Fort, and they were also the pioneers in the implementation of the Badal Plan.

One of them took out a piece of paper from his bosom and spread it out in front of Badar. On the paper was detailed information about Zhenlu Fort, including not only its structure, the number and location of Tenger guards, but also the locations of residences of Mongols from other tribes and the Ming people in Zhenlu Fort.

In addition, even the several warehouses in the central area are clearly known. What is stored in each warehouse, the approximate quantity of materials, the time, place, scope and handover process of materials entering and leaving the warehouse every day, etc. are all clearly marked.

In order to confuse the Tenger tribe, the Elbegji Taiji tribe was also very careful. The people sent the first time were all responsible for trade and did not undertake other tasks. The second time, the people were different. These two people were responsible for serving as Badar's outposts and preparing for the implementation of Badar's plan.

They have been secretly observing, recording and inquiring about everything in Zhenlubao these days, and have already figured out the situation of Zhenlubao very clearly. Now that Badar has arrived with the third group of people, it also means that the plan will be implemented soon.

Looking at the information drawn on the paper, Badar recalled what he had seen today and nodded slightly in his heart, very satisfied with their preparations. He asked some questions that he was not clear about, and the other party answered them fluently, which made Badar even more satisfied.

"Sir, the best opportunity is tomorrow night." After finishing talking about the contents on the drawing, the Mongolian suggested.

"Why tomorrow night?" Badar asked puzzled.

The Mongolian told him that a batch of supplies would be delivered from the Ming Dynasty tomorrow, and the quantity of these supplies was not small. The Zhenlu Fort would use these supplies to trade with the tribes the day after tomorrow. This also meant that the Zhenlu Fort warehouse would have the most supplies tomorrow night, and because a large amount of supplies would be stored in one day, the Tenger tribe would also have to send a large number of people. When the storage was completed, it was the most relaxed time, so it was the best time to launch the attack.

(End of this chapter)