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

Chapter 471 Effect
"Husband, look at this."

Tana was smiling, holding a parchment book in her hand. Zhu Shenzhui took it and looked at it, and immediately laughed too.

"Which house is this?"

"This is the ninth family. It seems that it won't be long before the other tribes that are watching will send people over." Tana said with a smile.

As the rumors about the blessing of Eternal Heaven became more and more intense, and with the facts before their eyes, in order to survive and protect themselves, the Tumed tribes finally let go of their original reserve and took the initiative to send people to Guihua City to express their submission to the Tenger tribe and beg the Tenger tribe to also bestow them with the blessing of Eternal Heaven.

The entire Tumed tribe was called the Twelve Tribes. As early as the period of Sanniangzi, the Twelve Tumed tribes were basically determined. Under the rule of Sanniangzi, the Twelve Tribes respected Guihua City as their leader, each divided their sphere of influence, and everyone lived in peace.

When Bu Shitu inherited the throne of King Shunyi and Sanniangzi died soon after, Bu Shitu's prestige was not enough to truly rule the Tumed grassland, so he was nominally the leader of the Tumed and still controlled Guihua City, but in reality the twelve Tumed tribes had already become independent.

In addition, when Ligdan Khan inherited the Khanate, his two cousins, Ligdan Khan and Bushitu, refused to submit to each other, and a war broke out between the two sides because of their grievances. In the end, the war ended with Ligdan Khan's great victory and Bushitu's defeat. Although he still had the title of Shunyi King and preserved the foundation of his tribe, his prestige was once again hit, and he completely lost the possibility of ruling the Tumed tribes.

Over the years, some of the twelve Tumed tribes were close to Bu Shitu, some were close to Ligdan Khan, and some did not offend either side and lived their lives in peace. The tribes would occasionally clash over pastures. Today you fight me, tomorrow I fight you, or these tribes would unite to fight the other two tribes. The fighting has never stopped for decades.

Just like the Tenger tribe was the Ashe Temur tribe before, and Ashe Temur was a tribe loyal to Ligdan Khan. It was also for this reason that the relationship between the Ashe Temur tribe and the Bushitu tribe had not been very good. This was also the reason why Zhu Shenzhui led his troops to quell the civil strife in the tribe and supported Tana and Tenger to take power, killing the chicken to scare the monkey, and directly using a soft persimmon to cut open, in order to give a warning to other tribes that were eyeing it, including Bushitu, which barely maintained the safety of the tribe.

In addition, the Twelve Tumed Tribes are called twelve tribes, but in fact, this so-called twelve tribes is just an imaginary number. At the beginning, there were indeed only twelve tribes, but over the years, the number has been more than this. Now, when the tribes, big and small, are added together, there are nearly twenty tribes in the entire Tumed grassland, which is not a small number.

After the outbreak of smallpox, Zhu Shenzui used vaccination to make Tengger the real master of his tribe and the previously annexed Bushitu tribe, and his status and prestige reached its peak. Then, through a series of operations, he annexed several nearby small tribes, further enhancing the strength of the tribe.

Soon afterwards, smallpox began to spread throughout Tumed. Everyone was in danger, and many tribes turned to the Tengger tribe for help. They expressed their willingness to respect Tengger as the leader of Tumed and to make their tribes dependent on Tengger's subordinates.

Before long, letters were sent to Guihua City from all directions. Zhu Shenzhu treated all these statements, whether true or false, equally. They wanted to obtain the gift of Changshengtian, and it was no problem for them to ask the Tenger tribe to help them, but they had to pay first if they wanted to gain benefits. In addition to recognizing Tenger as the master of the Tumote grassland and as a dependent of the Tenger tribe, these tribes also had to pay some other prices.

As for what the price is, it is simple. It is nothing more than allocating a certain number of cattle, sheep and people to be incorporated into the Tengger tribe based on the size and number of people of the other tribe. In addition, each tribe must send a corresponding number of young and strong people to be incorporated into the Tengger tribe, and they will be converted into warriors of the Tengger tribe among these people.

This condition cannot be said to be not harsh. The number of cattle, sheep and people required by the Tengger tribe is not a small number. If it is a large tribe of 10,000 people, then the cost is nearly 1,000 people and a larger proportion of cattle and sheep. When proposing this condition, Tana once raised an objection, thinking that this condition seemed too harsh and those tribes would probably not be willing, but Zhu Shenzhui told Tana that he had determined such a condition after careful consideration. If he asked for too little, it would be meaningless, and if he asked for too much, the other party would not agree. This number was just right. Compared with the horror and lethality of smallpox, it was worth paying these.

At that time, Lindan Khan was known as the leader of 400,000 Mongols, but it did not actually mean that Lindan Khan had an army of 400,000. The number of 400,000 included all the people in the Mongolian headquarters. In fact, the number of soldiers that could be mobilized was less than half of that.

Once Zhu Shenzui's plan succeeds, although the Tenger tribe will not be as powerful as Ligdan Khan in his heyday, it will not be far behind. By this time, the Tenger tribe will become the overlord of the Tumed grassland, and no tribe will be able to compete.

In addition, the abundance of people allowed Zhu Shencui to strengthen the armament and combat effectiveness of his own tribe while weakening other tribes. According to subsequent plans, even if Zhu Shencui could train according to the needs of professional cavalry, it would be enough to draw out a more powerful elite cavalry. Before the Tengger tribe captured Guihua City, the total strength of the entire tribe could draw out more than 10,000 cavalry, plus the new army in their hands, the total strength reached nearly 20,000.

Such a force was not considered strong in the entire grassland, especially compared to Lin Danhan who could easily mobilize more than 100,000 cavalry. Even the force that Bu Shitu could mobilize was not as strong. Don't forget that Zhu Shenzhui's army was different from other Mongolian tribes. From the beginning, Zhu Shenzhui's army was trained by professional soldiers. In particular, his new army was trained more strictly according to the original Qi family army and equipped with the best weapons. Its combat effectiveness far exceeded that of ordinary Mongolian cavalry.

This was also the main reason why Zhu Shenzhui was able to annihilate Lin Danhan's southern army in one fell swoop, turning his 30,000 cavalry into ashes. And later, he took Guihua City, subdued Bushitu's tribe, and directly annexed his tribe. The military force in his hands also played a great role.

After annexing the Bushitu tribe, the number of cavalry under Zhu Shenzhui expanded from the original to more than 16,000. It was not that he did not want to increase the number, but the consumption of professional cavalry was too great, and it was not profitable to support such a large army.

As for the number of new troops in the grassland, it remained the same, only some suitable Mongolians were transferred to make up for the previous casualties. On the Ming side, the training of the new troops in Zhaowuling continued. The two units added up to nearly 4,000 people in the entire new army, which was close to the limit of Zhu Shencui's ability to maintain troops.

Now that the tribes have surrendered, the strength of the Tengger tribe has been further enhanced. With these people and cattle and sheep, his subsequent expansion of the army has become possible. If nothing unexpected happens, Zhu Shenzui plans to expand the cavalry to nearly 20,000 people, plus the new army in his hands. With this force, let alone the entire Tumed grassland, he would dare to challenge even the Chahar tribes if they unite.

This is not an ordinary Mongolian cavalry, but an absolutely elite cavalry, a very powerful military force, and the source of Zhu Shenzui's confidence.

"It seems that someone is still undecided." Zhu Shenzhui said thoughtfully after listening to Tana's words.

"There's no rush. They will eventually surrender. Without the blessing of Eternal Heaven, they would have no other way to go except to flee to the northern desert." Tana said with a smile. The outbreak of smallpox has spread, and no one can stop it. Facing the threat of smallpox, they don't have many choices. If they don't ask for help from the Tengger tribe in time, they can only flee to the northern desert.

Because no matter east, west or south, they were not suitable places to go, and Mobei could barely be regarded as a place to avoid smallpox because of its terrain. However, if they went to Mobei, they would have to abandon the pastures and grasslands they had now. The conditions in Mobei were harsh, and once they left the Tumote grassland, it would not be easy to come back.

The grasslands were like this. The Mongolian tribes had never stopped robbing for resources, especially the neighboring tribes that belonged to the same grassland. This was also the reason why the Mongolian tribes often had conflicts and even wars. So in the face of such a situation, unless the other tribes were ready not to return to the Tumote grassland, they would eventually have only one choice in the face of the threat of smallpox.

Zhu Shenzhui smiled and nodded. Tana was right. They would eventually surrender. And judging from the current situation, most tribes made the same choice, which was to ask for help from the Tenger tribe. After all, facing the threat of smallpox, it was not unacceptable to surrender to the Tenger tribe. Compared with their own lives and the survival of the tribe, although the price was higher, it was worth it.

As for those tribes that are still holding out, they are simply worried about being annexed by the Tengger tribe, so they plan to wait and see which way the wind is blowing. Perhaps they believe that the smallpox will eventually pass, and if they can survive this crisis, there is no need to rely on the Tengger tribe, and they won't have to pay any price. Isn't that a good idea?

But how could Zhu Shencui let them have their way? The reason why smallpox spread so quickly in the Tumote grassland, apart from the lifting of the blockade in the direction of Qinghai, was another unknown reason, that is, Zhu Shencui instructed people to deliberately spread smallpox on the grassland.

After solving the problem of vaccination, smallpox no longer posed any threat to him. Then smallpox changed from the god of death to a tool in Zhu Shenzui's hands. Using the spread of smallpox to achieve his goal was what Zhu Shenzui really wanted to do.

In fact, this method had already been used during the time of Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan and his descendants conquered countless countries, and when they destroyed countries, they often threw the corpses of people or animals infected with the plague into the enemy's cities, and then patiently waited for the plague to break out. By that time, defeating the enemy became an easy task. It was this method, coupled with the invincible Mongolian cavalry that swept across the world in field battles, that enabled the Mongols to eventually establish the largest empire in human history.

(End of this chapter)