The Revolt of the Three Feudatories: All-in at the start in Beijing

Inside a yurt north of Guihua City, Dalai, a Mongolian man who had just fed his livestock, sat with his wife and three sons warming themselves by the fire.

The eldest son, who had just turned eighteen, remained silent for a long time before finally mustering the courage to stand up.

"Father, last month, Tsering Dondub Taiji was selecting warriors from our thousand-household commandery. I have been chosen by Taiji as his personal guard, and we have been training together. Tomorrow I will depart south with the army!"

The Dalai Lama frowned upon hearing this. "Bater, you've been physically strong since childhood, and your horsemanship and archery skills are exceptional. I had intended for you to follow the descendants of the Golden Family, but you..."

The Dalai Lama was a prisoner of the Chahar tribe and a personal guard of the eldest grandson of Ligdan Khan. His worship of the Golden Family was much stronger than that of other Mongols.

Batel could hear the objection, and his bear-like body took two steps back, almost knocking his two younger brothers over.

"No, the wise man who taught us said that Galdan Taiji was guided by the Eternal Heaven and said that we Mongols are all descendants of one person, namely the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang!"

"The Great Khan is the true Han, we are the legitimate rulers of the Central Plains, and Galdan Taiji will lead us back to the Central Plains, drive out the Manchu Tartars, and reclaim the land of our ancestors!"

After hearing Batel's words, the Dalai Lama felt his mind was blank. What was all this about?

Who is Liu Bang?

What does this have to do with us Mongolians?

Compared to the Dalai Lama's confusion, Batel's two younger brothers were different. They were still young and dared to think. They had never been exposed to such ideas and only knew that they would fight for the nobility when they grew up.

Now that they hear that their ancestor was actually an emperor, isn't that an existence even more noble than the nobility?

They even felt a vague sense of pride.

"Whatever you want, whatever you want!" The Dalai Lama was old and couldn't fight back, so he could only cover his forehead. "What you do from now on is entirely your prerogative!"

Upon hearing this, Batel simply sat down and continued to warm himself by the fire, while telling his two younger brothers about Liu Bang's uprising after slaying the white snake, Emperor Wu of Han's sweeping away of the Xiongnu, and Emperor Guangwu's second restoration of the Han Dynasty.

The two younger brothers listened with great interest, wishing they could grow up immediately and follow Galdan to become the Great Man again.

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking.

That is, the first day of the second month in 1674 AD.

Batel stepped out of the yurt, stretched his limbs, and exhaled a puff of mist. He was now wearing the cloth-covered iron armor that only a centurion could wear.

Mounting their best warhorses, they galloped south towards Guihua City. Cavalrymen continued to gather along the way, and by the time they reached the south gate of Guihua City, ten thousand light cavalrymen had already assembled.

On the flank of these 10,000 light cavalry, a large number of cavalrymen were still gathering. These men were all wearing cloth-covered iron armor, and the helmets of centurions and chiliarchs had red triangular flags on top.

This is Subutai's 30,000 iron cavalry.

Not finished yet.

Another 30,000 infantrymen arrived, along with 5,000 swordsmen and shieldmen, 5,000 archers, and 20,000 spearmen, lined up in order.

Once all the troops had assembled, Liu Weiqing and Subutai rode up on horseback. Subutai, who was the most prestigious, led his personal guards to the very center and raised his fist.

"Today, our Galdan Taiji will marry the beautiful Borjigin Uyun from the Golden Family!"

"At the same time, in order to unite our great Mongol Empire, Galdan Taiji will receive the baptism of the Eternal Heaven and become the Great Khan!"

All the soldiers knew that they were going south to reclaim their land for the Great Mongol and the Great Han. They were completely bewildered when they suddenly heard about getting married and becoming Khan.

However, all the centurions had already been notified and sworn an oath to Galdan, raising their fists and shouting:

"Tengri Khan!"

"Our own Great Khan!"

Upon hearing the name Tengri Khan, some of the more educated Mongolian soldiers were taken aback, because Tengri Khan means "Khan of Heaven's Mandate" in Mongolian.

Of course, it can also be interpreted as Heavenly Khan.

The centurion had taken the lead, and after a month of forced brainwashing, all the Mongol soldiers joined in the chant:

"Tengri Khan!"

"The Great Khan of the Mongols!"

"Roar roar roar!"

The shouts of 70,000 people shook the entire area surrounding Guihua City, and even the warhorses began to neigh.

At the same time, with shouts, eight Mongolian men, each 1.8 meters tall, wearing red headscarves, shirtless and wearing long trousers, carried an open-air palanquin with a grid pattern, step by step climbing up the city wall, each step so steady.

And standing on the palanquin was Galdan!

At this time, he was not wearing Mongolian clothing, but a black and red ceremonial robe with nine five-clawed golden dragons spitting pearls on it, and a twelve-tassel crown on his head.

From a professional's perspective, the fabric is cheap, the embroidery is irregular, and the overall style is very tacky, extremely tacky, absolutely outrageously tacky!

But there was nothing they could do. Galdan had squandered all the limited funds of the Dzungar Khanate, leaving them penniless. Where would they get good fabrics and so many jewels? They could only piece together what they had, and at most they could make up for it later.

This sudden coronation ceremony and the extra soldiers were naturally all planned by Galdan.

If a tribe wants to rule the Central Plains, it must have a legitimate reason. When you defeat the enemy army, you must give the local gentry and prisoners a reason to surrender to you. Huang Taiji played this very well.

However, the Manchu population was ultimately too small, and their deep-seated inferiority and fear made them feel extremely uneasy after entering the pass.

After gaining a foothold, they began various massacres. Not to mention the Three Massacres of Jiading and the Ten Days of Yangzhou, other places like Jiangyin, Guangzhou, Datong, and even Sichuan were filled with killings. This was all a way to intimidate the Han people.

The forced haircuts and clothing changes were a test, a test of where the Han people's bottom line lay. This was fundamentally an internal struggle, and in the end, the Jiangnan gentry softened and gave up resistance first. By the time they wanted to resist later, they were already meat on the chopping block.

Otherwise, with nearly 100 million Han people holding out, a true dragon will surely rise from the common people. Just by using the issue of shaving heads and changing clothes, the Manchus will be killed until they are exterminated.

Galdan wanted to take control of the Central Plains, but with the Manchus setting an example and setting a bad precedent, his first step was to raise his banner outside the Great Wall, brainwash and unite the Mongols. Once he entered Hebei, people would naturally come forward to follow him.

Mongolians over forty years old have fixed mindsets, so Galdan recruited soldiers extensively, all of them young, and promoted the Han Dynasty to them, emphasizing the nobility of being Mongolians and having the bloodline of the Han emperor.

However, doing so would be like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

The Mongols gathered in the Yinshan Mountains and the naturalized Mongols, along with the women and children of Chahar and the 60,000 people of the Dzungar, totaled no more than 150,000. Adding the Han slaves, the total number was no more than 200,000. Yet now there are 70,000 full-time soldiers.

Even if all the newly added infantry were Han Chinese, they were already on the verge of extinction, because there would be no one to graze their livestock after spring, and if they waited any longer, they would die. So Galdan was still going all in, and if he didn't succeed, he would become a demon.