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

Chapter 403 Decision
During the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Shenzhu concluded that a war was about to break out between the Qing Dynasty and Mongolia, and that Huang Taiji had a high probability of winning this war. Once Chahar fell into Huang Taiji's hands, Lin Danhan would inevitably go west, and there was only one place to go west, which was the Tumed Grassland.

Once Ligdan Khan moved westward and the Mongolian headquarters entered the Tumed grassland, the originally relatively balanced forces among the various Tumed forces were directly disrupted.

As the Great Khan of the Mongols, Ligdan Khan would certainly use the Tumed as the Mongolian headquarters to accumulate strength, intending to make a comeback and retake Chahar.

But in this case, where should the Tumed tribes go? In theory, the Tumed tribes are nominal subordinates of Ligdan Khan and should obey the will of the Khan. But since Ligdan Khan succeeded to the throne, he has been doing perverse things and trying to unify the Mongolian tribes by force. In addition, Ligdan Khan violated the traditions of most Mongolians in terms of faith. This is the same as a Protestant king in a Catholic country. The differences and contradictions in faith made many tribes have objections to Ligdan Khan, especially because Ligdan Khan's character was extremely flawed, he was simple and rough in doing things, and he had no credibility both internally and externally, which made many people very disappointed in Ligdan Khan.

Without mentioning other tribes, let's take the Tenger tribe as an example. The predecessor of the Tenger tribe was the Ashitemur tribe. When Ashitemur was in power, the entire tribe supported Ligdan Khan very much. Every time Ligdan Khan summoned Ashitemur's tribe, they cooperated and helped Ligdan Khan to conquer the east and the west with all their strength.

But even so, the tribe did not benefit in the end. When Ligdan Khan marched north to the northern desert, in order to preserve his headquarters, he actually took thousands of elite soldiers from Ashitemur's tribe as sacrifices and forced Hadan Bater, who was leading the troops at the time, to cover his retreat, which eventually led to serious consequences.

Hadanbaatar died in the battle in Mobei, and his body has not been found yet. Those who died with Hadanbaatar in Mobei were all the most elite warriors in the tribe. Only a few of them returned to the tribe after going through hardships, including Burigude.

Ashi Temur's tribe fought wholeheartedly for Ligdan Khan, but what was the final outcome?
The heir of the tribe, Hadanbaatar, died in the desert. Only one in ten of the tribe's elite returned alive, and even Ashi Timur himself died because of this incident. After Ashi Timur's death, the tribe experienced civil strife. At this time, Ligdan Khan, who was supposed to be the judge of justice, stood aside and watched the civil strife unfold.

If Zhu Shenzui had not happened to come back, quickly put down the civil strife and supported Tana and Tenger to take power, the entire tribe would probably have been finished.

Later, although Lindan Khan conferred the title of Wanhu on Tenger and recognized him as the taiji of the tribe, Lindan Khan did so not out of justice or guilt, but to plot against the Tenger tribe. Later, the Tenger tribe and the Ming Dynasty started bilateral trade. Lindan Khan provoked the relationship between the Tenger tribe and Bushitu, and forced the Tenger tribe to fight Bushitu in the name of the Khan. His intention is obvious.

Under Zhu Shenzui's planning, the Tengger tribe took advantage of the situation and reached an agreement with Bu Shitu in private. They also used the previous war to eliminate internal hidden dangers and annexed the two tribes. Instead of weakening, their strength was further enhanced, which made Ligdan Khan very angry.

Although Lin Dan Khan did not attack the Tenger tribe again afterwards, the two sides still maintained the same appearance as before, but in fact the rift between the Tenger tribe and Lin Dan Khan already existed, they just did not completely break up. Both sides knew that the Tenger tribe was no longer the Ashitemur tribe, and the Tana couple were no longer the Ashitemur father and son. If it were not for the distance and the existence of Bu Shitu who had always been at odds with Lin Dan Khan, Lin Dan Khan might have attacked the Tenger tribe long ago.

This time Huang Taiji was going to fight with Ligdan Khan. Once Ligdan Khan was defeated, the Tenger tribe would face an extremely difficult choice. It was impossible to continue to maintain peace with Ligdan Khan. If Ligdan Khan wanted to annex the Tenger tribe, what would the Tenger tribe do?
Zhu Shenzhui was absolutely unwilling to give up resistance and let Lindan Khan swallow up the Tenger tribe. Not to mention that he had spent so much effort on the Tenger tribe and worked hard for several years to build the strong tribe today.

Are these just wedding clothes for others? Even if Zhu Shenzhui himself is willing, Lin Danhan will never let Tana mother and son go. According to Lin Danhan's usual style, it is very likely that he will give Tana mother and son a false name after annexing the tribe, and then find an opportunity to attack them. This kind of thing is also possible for anyone else, not to mention Lin Danhan. Without the ability to protect himself, all promises are false, and Zhu Shenzhui is very clear about this.

After many days of thinking, Zhu Shenzui has decided to prepare for war. He must consider Tana and her son, as well as the entire tribe. At any cost, he must not let Ligdan Khan control the Tumed grassland, and he must not let the Tenger tribe fall into Ligdan Khan's hands.

But as a former subordinate of Ligdan Khan, and now he is rebelling against him, Zhu Shencui also needs to consider the ideas of ordinary tribesmen. If the internal opposition is too great, it will also be a problem. So Zhu Shencui has been surveying the tribe these days to prevent uncontrollable situations from happening.

After a period of investigation, Zhu Shenzhui felt relieved. Ever since the internal cleansing in the last war with Bu Shitu, the Tenger tribe has been completely controlled by Zhu Shenzhui. Even if there are still some tribesmen who have a good impression of Ligdan Khan or have traditional ideas, they have no possibility of changing the decision as a whole, let alone causing any influence.

This result greatly boosted Zhu Shenzhui's confidence, which was also the key reason for his decision. Otherwise, once the fight started, there would be chaos within the group, and it would be pointless to fight without a unified opinion. By then, the group would be in disarray, and there would be no possibility of defeating the other side.

"Bu Shitu is a cunning fox, so you'd better be careful when cooperating with him." After listening to Zhu Shenzhui's thoughts, Tana kindly reminded him. "Don't worry, no matter how cunning a fox is, it can't escape the bow and arrow in the hands of a hunter. Moreover, for Lin Danhan, once he goes west, the first thing he will worry about is Bu Shitu instead of us. In Lin Danhan's eyes, Bu Shitu is his most powerful opponent. Whether Bu Shitu is willing or not, Lin Danhan will attack him first."

Tana thought about it for a moment and nodded in agreement.

The feud between Bu Shitu and Lin Danhan is not a one-day thing. They have a deep hatred and both want the other to die. Moreover, compared with the Tenger tribe, Bu Shitu is the nominal leader of the Tumed. Only by defeating Bu Shitu and killing this old guy, Lin Danhan who entered the Tumed grassland, could he recover the Tumed tribes.

"So what you mean is to let them fight first, and then we'll benefit?" Tana asked thoughtfully.

Zhu Shenzhui smiled and shook his head. Tana's idea was not wrong. It was indeed a good idea to sit back and watch the war between Bu Shitu and Lin Danhan, and wait until the result was known before the Tenger tribe took action. But the problem was that even if the two sides were fighting, the fisherman would benefit. It depended on the situation. If the Tenger tribe was strong enough to confront Lin Danhan, then this method was wrong.

Unfortunately, even though the Tenger tribe is much stronger now, it is still far behind the military strength of Lin Dan Khan. As the common leader of the Mongols, Lin Dan Khan was known as the leader of 400,000 Mongols at his peak. His 400,000 were not ordinary Mongolian herdsmen, but people who could lead the army to the battlefield.

But now, the power of Lindan Khan is not as strong as before. With several tribes betraying and leaving the Mongolian headquarters, and several consecutive failures in wars, the military force that Lindan Khan can mobilize is about 250,000, and no more than 300,000 at most.

This number is still extremely astonishing. You should know that the total number of all the tribes of Bushitu and Tenger is not so large. As for the combat soldiers that can be mobilized, there are even fewer, and they are simply unable to compete with Ligdan Khan.

Of course, what Lin Danhan is facing now is the attack of Huang Taiji. No one knows how the battle will end before it even starts. But even if Lin Danhan loses and is driven out of Chahar, the military power in his hands is not comparable to that of the Tenger tribe.

Without the ability to directly compete, the so-called "fisherman gains the advantage" is just talk. If he really did that, he would be defeated one by one by the other party. Zhu Shenzhui would not be so stupid as to do that.

Therefore, Zhu Shenzhui thought about it carefully and concluded that the best way to solve this problem was to choose the best time to join Bu Shitu's side when Bu Shitu and Ligdan Khan went to war, and then combine Bu Shitu's strength to fight Ligdan Khan.

Only in this way can the Tenger tribe have a chance of winning. Once Bu Shitu is defeated first, the Tenger tribe will probably not be a match for Ligdan Khan with its strength, and will end up making things worse.

As for the idea of ​​joining forces with Bu Shitu in the war, Zhu Shenzhui had no intention of communicating in advance. As Tana said, Bu Shitu, this old fox, was not an easy target. In the last war, both parties had discussed it privately, but Bu Shitu had a sudden idea and almost succeeded. If Zhu Shenzhui had not been prepared, the other party would have taken advantage of him.

If they had formed a secret alliance in advance, they might have been sold out to Bu Shitu on the battlefield. Zhu Shenzhui was not so stupid as to hand over the initiative to the other party. If he did so, he would be the one who would suffer.

Zhu Shencui must not reveal his true purpose before launching the attack. In order to prevent Ligdan Khan from dealing with the Tenger tribe first, the Tenger tribe had to show the same attitude as before and pretend to support Ligdan Khan. This would truly paralyze both sides.

These things are easy to say but difficult to do. Detailed planning and arrangements are needed. Zhu Shenzhui immediately discussed them in detail with Tana. The couple talked for a whole night and did not finish the discussion until dawn. They came up with a preliminary plan.

(End of this chapter)