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

Chapter 798 Heading South to Ketu

Wang Hai never imagined that while he was discussing the matter with Tana, Chaoktu Taiji of Outer Khalkha had already secretly made up his mind.

Chaoktu Taiji was the lord of Outer Khalkha and the great-great-grandson of Dayan Khan. When Ligdan Khan was in power, he initially supported Ligdan Khan and intended to follow him to fight against the Mongolian tribes and unify Outer Khalkha. However, due to various conflicts, especially the different beliefs of the Red Sect and the Yellow Sect, Chaoktu Taiji fell out with Ligdan Khan and colluded with the Khorchin and other tribes to oppose Ligdan Khan, which triggered Ligdan Khan's military action to attack Outer Khalkha.

Do you remember that the Ashe Temur tribe participated in this military action? It was this military action that caused the death of Ashe Temur's eldest son and Tana's brother, Hadan Bater, in northern Mongolia, which led to the outbreak of civil strife in the Ashe Temur tribe. If it were not for Zhu Shencui, the Ashe Temur tribe would have been gone long ago, and how could the current Tenger tribe exist?

Chao Ketu Taiji won the war, but suffered heavy losses. In order to prevent Ligdan Khan from launching another large-scale attack on Outer Khalkha, the cunning Ligdan Khan quickly changed his attitude and surrendered to Ligdan Khan. Seeing this, the ambitious but incompetent Ligdan Khan decided to stop while he was ahead. After all, in Ligdan Khan's view, his target was the Mongolia south of the Gobi Desert. As for the large, poor and barren Mongolia north of the Gobi Desert, he could leave it alone for the time being. It would not be too late to take action after unifying the Mongolia south of the Gobi Desert.

Unfortunately, Lin Danhan failed to do this until his death. Not only that, he was driven out of Chahar by the Chahar tribes, Khorchin, Inner Khalkha and the Jiannu of Liaodong. Later, he suffered a great loss in Tumed. He failed to capture Tumed and led his people to flee to Qinghai in western Mongolia.

After arriving in Qinghai, Lindan Khan was unwilling to accept his defeat and intended to regroup and fight back. However, he never expected that smallpox broke out in Qinghai. The great Khan Lindan Khan succumbed to smallpox and returned to Changshengtian with infinite regrets. With Lindan Khan's death, his tribe began to disintegrate, and the Lindan Khan tribe, which once dominated Mongolia, disappeared.

After the split of Lindan Khan, his sons and wives each led their own tribe and occupied an area, thus the large tribe was reduced to several small and medium-sized tribes.

As time went by, some of these tribes joined several large tribes. For example, Su Tai, the eldest wife who presented the imperial seal to Zhu Shenzhui, and Erkong Golo Ezhe, the eldest son of Lin Danhan, now joined the Tengger tribe. Several wars broke out between them and their old rival Namu Zhong, but neither side could do anything to the other, so they had no choice but to shake hands and make peace, draw borders and develop separately.

With the death of Ligdan Khan and the rise of the Tumed, the sphere of influence of the grassland changed, but most of these changes occurred in southern Mongolia and at most affected the Qinghai area in western Mongolia.

Taking this opportunity, Chaoktu Taiji of Outer Khalkha began to make moves. He spent several years gradually annexing and conquering several other tribes of Outer Khalkha, and initially unified the Mongolian Plateau. As his strength grew, Chaoktu Taiji's ambition gradually expanded. He began to call himself Quetu Khan and set his sights on the southwest of the Mongolian Plateau, which is now the Qinghai region.

From Chao Ketu's point of view, it was too risky to start from the southeast, because there were not only the Khorchin, Inner Khalkha and Chahar tribes in the southeast, but also the Liaodong Jiannu who stood behind them. When they joined forces, even Ligdan Khan could not resist them. If Chao Ketu developed to the southeast, there was no chance for him to win.

As for heading south directly, it was even more impossible. Chao Ketu Taiji knew too well how powerful the Tumed were. The Tumed had a very good relationship with the Ming Dynasty. Before, even the Dorgon brothers and their coalition forces were no match for the Tumed. Going south to compete with the Tumed? Chao Ketu Taiji must be crazy to do that.

After much thought, the only place that could be attacked was the southwest, that is, the area east of Qinghai's Western Mongolia. Because of the death of Ligdan Khan, Ligdan Khan's tribe had been torn apart. Ligdan Khan's wives and sons almost broke their heads to fight for the inheritance left by Ligdan Khan. Although it was calm on the surface, there were hatreds between the tribes. If troops were sent to Qinghai to attack one tribe at this time, the other tribes would definitely not rescue it, but watch it perish. This gave Chao Ketu Taiji an opportunity.

If Chaoktu Taiji could take advantage of the situation to annex the various divided tribes left behind by Ligdan Khan, not only would his strength increase greatly, but he could also take this opportunity to directly open up a passage to western Mongolia. If he could then take Ordos, conquer the entire Qinghai Mongolian tribe, and then march into Tibet, Chaoktu Taiji would be able to become the tribe with the largest territory, the most extensive influence, and the strongest strength among all the Mongolian tribes.

When Chao Ketu Taiji thought of this, he was so excited that he wanted to take down these tribes and occupy these territories immediately. Moreover, he felt that he had a good grasp of the situation this time. He not only mobilized 50,000 troops, but also obtained foreign aid. Chao Ketu Taiji, who was full of ambition, did not wait for the snow to melt in the spring of the next year. He could not wait to send troops as soon as the winter was about to pass, and his troops headed straight to the southwest.

As the troops were sent to Ketu Taiji, the first to bear the brunt was a medium-sized tribe that split from the tribe of Lindan Khan. Because of its geographical location, this tribe was on the route of Ketu Taiji. After the war broke out, Naren, one of Lindan Khan's wives who controlled the tribe, was shocked. On the one hand, she mobilized troops to resist, and on the other hand, she asked for help from her sisters, hoping that other wives would save her and her son's tribe because they had served Lindan Khan together. Unfortunately, Naren's request for help did not receive any response, especially Sutai and Namu Zhong did not take it seriously at all. When the two of them were fighting each other, they both hoped to get Naren's support, but Naren decided not to help either side in order to gain benefits for her son, but instead instigated the situation and gained benefits for herself.

Because of this, Naren had offended both Sutai and Namu Zhong. Now that the army was approaching Naren and asking them for help, how could Sutai and Namu Zhong pay any attention to her? They wished that this stinky woman Naren and her son would be destroyed by Chaoketu Taiji.

Naren did not expect that what she had done before would make the enemy hate her and not come to rescue her. She had no choice but to fight back. However, her tribe only had more than 10,000 people. How could they possibly compete with Chaoketu's 50,000 troops? They were defeated on the first day of the battle. Seeing that the situation was not good, Naren hurriedly fled with her son, but she did not escape in the end. She was caught up by Chaoketu Taiji's troops and captured.

The Naren tribe was defeated in no time, and Chao Ketu Taiji did not stop and continued to march south. At this time, Su Tai and Namu Zhong found that the situation was not good. Since the Naren tribe blocking the north was destroyed, their tribe became the first to bear the brunt. Seeing that Chao Ketu Taiji's army was about to kill them, the two women were panicked.

These two women still have some brains. Coupled with Naren's previous experience, they know that if they don't unite now, they will be defeated by the other side. By then, not only will they lose their tribe and territory, but they will not even be able to protect themselves.

In desperation, the two decided to join forces and quickly sent messengers to contact Huo A'ao, Abahai, Menggu, and the Altan Qiqige sisters to inform them of the crisis. If everyone did not want to be destroyed by Chao Ketu Taiji who was heading south, they must unite and resist together.

The other women also knew the situation and understood that continuing the internal struggle at this time would be a dead end. In order to survive, they had to unite as one. So the tribes temporarily united to form a large army to fight against Chao Ketu Taiji who was heading south, but they still could not defeat Chao Ketu Taiji's army. The front line failed one after another and the army suffered heavy losses. Seeing that they would be finished if they continued, Su Tai hurriedly asked the Tumed tribe for help and asked the Tumed tribe to send troops to rescue him. Namu Zhong and others were also not idle. They hurriedly found the Khoshut lord Gushri Khan, the Junggar lord Batur Hong Taiji and others and asked them to send troops to rescue him.

When Guihua City received the rescue, Tana was very surprised after reading the letter. She did not expect that Chao Ketu Taiji would raise troops to attack Qinghai and even swallow up Naren's tribe.

Now the various tribes that originally belonged to Ligdan Khan have temporarily united, but they are still unable to resist Chaoktu Taiji's army. If no rescue is provided, Chaoktu Taiji will win. Once he annexes the various forces left by Ligdan Khan, his strength will increase dramatically. Moreover, this time he sent troops to Qinghai with the intention of targeting western Mongolia and Tibet. Once he succeeds, coupled with the northern Mongolia that he originally controlled, this result will be unacceptable in any way.

The reason why the widows of Lindan Khan were kept and allowed to split the tribe and form various tribes in Qinghai was to weaken the tribal power from the west. Moreover, having these tribes blocking the west could also serve as a barrier, just like Chahar in the east.

In theory, this layout was very appropriate. Due to the conflicts among the widows of Lindan Khan, it was impossible for these tribes to unite, let alone form a large tribe like Lindan Khan did during his lifetime to pose a threat.

On the contrary, their existence makes Tumed safer and allows them to develop themselves with peace of mind. As for how to deal with them in the future, it is also very simple. When the day comes that Tumed plans to move westward, they can simply send troops to annex it. With Tumed's military strength, these tribes cannot resist it alone.

But they never expected that before Tumed himself took action, Chaoketu Taiji took action first. Once these tribes were annexed by Chaoketu Taiji, not only would the previous barrier be gone, but they would also face a ferocious hungry wolf right beside them. This was a situation that Tumed absolutely did not want to see. In addition, Sutai had already defected to the Tenger tribe and was considered a member of the Tumed tribe. Moreover, Sutai had offered the imperial seal that year. For both public and private reasons, it was impossible not to rescue them.

Thinking of this, Tana hurriedly summoned Wang Hai, Burigude, Hatulig and others to discuss the matter. After listening to it, everyone expressed that they must rescue him. They must not sit idly by and watch Chaoktu annex the remaining tribes of Ligdan Khan and take over Qinghai. For this reason, considering the reasons on the Ming side, Tana decided to send Burigude as the commander-in-chief and Morge as the vanguard, leading 10,000 cavalry to the west for rescue. It would be enough if they could repel Chaoktu Taiji. There was no need to fight to the death with the other side. Their goal was only to solve the problem of Chaoktu Taiji annexing the tribes, not to fight a decisive battle with the other side. There was no need to consume too much of their own strength in this war.

(End of this chapter)