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"Report, Your Majesty, Teng Jitai's men are out looting again..."
The guards came in and reported. Duoduo was furious and shouted coldly, "Come on, tie up Teng Jitai and bring him to my account. Go!"
"twitter!"
"Wait!" Ning Wanwo shouted to stop the guards, then turned to persuade Duoduo, "Your Majesty, please calm down..."
"Why should I calm down? I have warned you time and again, but Teng Jitai has dared to ignore my orders and keep breaking the rules. If I don't punish him today, will anyone obey my military orders in the future?" Duoduo was furious and murderous, and was about to walk out with a knife in hand.
When Ning Wanwo saw Duoduo's attitude, he quickly stepped forward and grabbed him, saying, "Your Highness, I understand what you said, but the army is short of food and the situation is special. The soldiers can't even have enough to eat three meals a day. Teng Jitai probably had to disobey orders and plunder in order to appease his troops. Your Highness, we should first clarify this matter. If we punish Teng Jitai like this, I'm afraid the Mongolian tribes will fall apart!"
After Ning Wanwo's words hit Duoduo's heart like a stone, causing him to ache and his expression changed drastically.
Because of the endless civil unrest under their rule, both Dorgon and Duoduo repeatedly ordered the Qing army not to plunder at will, hoping to appease the people, develop production, and increase national strength. Only in this way would there be hope of gaining a foothold in the Central Plains and annihilating the Qin State.
But Teng Jitai disobeyed orders again and again and allowed his soldiers to plunder. If it was the first time, he could have said something like "since it's your first offense, I'll forgive you this time and it won't happen again."
But this is the third time Teng Jisi has disobeyed orders. If he is not brought to justice again, who will take his military orders seriously in the future
But as Ning Wanwo said, if Teng Jitai was really dealt with, the Mongolian tribes would probably become disunited and the alliance between the Qing Dynasty and Mongolia might even fall apart.
The Sunite tribe originally lived in the north of Zhangjiakou, and later moved to Hanggai and the Khalha area. In the ninth year of Tiancong, Jinong Sousai and Beile Tengjisi paid tribute to the Qing Dynasty, and Huang Taiji conferred Sousai the title of Prince of the Right Wing, and Tengjisi's brother Tengjitai the title of Prince of the Left Wing.
The Sunite tribe was originally one of the Chahar tribes, and had close relations with the Ujumchin, Hochit, Abaga, and Khalkha tribes, which also belonged to the Chahar tribe.
If the Qing Dynasty was strong in the past, it would be easy to deal with Tengjitai, but now that the Qing Dynasty has been greatly weakened, the Mongolian tribes have already been somewhat hesitant. If Tengjitai is dealt with at this time, not only will the Sunite tribe be in trouble, but the Ujumchin, Hoqit, and Abagaotek tribes will also rebel.
It was impossible to do this. It was impossible not to do this. Duoduo was so angry that he had no place to vent his anger. He chopped the desk with a knife. Bang! The desk was split in two. The pens and ink on the desk were scattered all over the floor.
Things in this world are often like this, the poorer you are, the more evil you see; the colder it is, the more windy it is. Duoduo was just about to dispatch troops to the south to deal with Aobai, the thorn in his side, but he didn't expect Teng Jitai to cause this again. He was really overwhelmed.
"Master Ning, what do you think we should do?" The veins on Duoduo's forehead were throbbing, and the murderous intent in his tiger eyes was unabated, as if Ning Wan I couldn't think of a good solution, and he would take action immediately.
Ning Wan's scalp was a little numb. I thought very hard... ... I thought very hard for a while and said, "Your Majesty, why don't you let Teng Jitai make amends for his crime."
"Make meritorious contributions while guilty? How do you make meritorious contributions while guilty?"
"Isn't the prince going to conquer Aobai who refused to obey orders? Let Teng Jitai go. If Teng Jitai can take down Aobai, it can be considered as meritorious service. If not, then punish him. Once the nature of the crime is changed, the Mongolian tribes will have nothing to say."
It sounds nice to say, "making up for one's crime with merit", but it is obvious that this is letting Teng Jitai, this troublemaker, go out to plunder. However, this way of dealing with it is better than directly convicting Teng Jitai of the crime of disobeying orders.
Duoduo spat bitterly, temporarily swallowed his anger, and accepted Ning Wanwo's suggestion. He summoned Teng Jitai, gave him a good scolding, and then ordered him to lead his 2,000 troops south to Yingshang to deal with Aobai.
Aobai, Duoduo and Ajige have always been like enemies. In order to compete for the throne left by Huang Taiji, Aobai and others guarded the gate of the palace with knives and even refused to let Duoduo and others in. The two sides even started fighting. Fortunately, Jirgalang arrived in time to stop them, so as to avoid greater bloody conflict.
This time, Aobai really went too far. Not only did he abandon Fengyang, he even ignored the lives of Ashan's thousands of troops and fled to Yingshang in one breath. Now he has been repeatedly summoned but has not been able to come back. He is also secretly communicating with Qin Mu's envoys and flirting with them. His treasonous intentions have been exposed. It is not excessive to kill all nine generations of his clan.
***
It is said that after Teng Jitai accepted Duoduo's order to "make up for his crime with merit", he was very happy and set out with his 2,000 men.
When entering the Pass, the Sunite tribe had a total of 4,000 elite soldiers who followed Teng Jitai. Now half of them have been lost, leaving only 2,000.
In general, the losses of the Sunite tribe were the smallest, while the losses of other Mongolian tribes were even more severe, and everyone was complaining.
However, the Jurchens had suffered heavy losses in strength, and the Mongolian tribes were not much better off, so they reluctantly tied themselves together with the Jurchens, hoping to get some of their money back.
But people like Teng Jitai did not take the Jurchens seriously in their hearts. The fact that he dared to disobey Duoduo's military orders and repeatedly allowed his troops to plunder was the best proof of this.
Now Duoduo really didn't dare to do anything to him. On the contrary, he gave him a task called "making up for one's crime with merit", which was actually a disguised task for him to rob. Teng Jitai was very happy and naturally, he looked down on the Jurchens even more.
Two thousand Mongolian soldiers, led by him, rushed away, and only a hundred miles away from Bozhou, they began to plunder again. The Qing magistrate of Yimen County came to stop them, but Teng Jitai ordered him to beat them black and blue, and then threw them on the roadside, which was extremely arrogant.
They camped at a place called Caojiaji at night, and lit a fire in the local people's huts to keep warm. When night fell, the cavalrymen from the periphery brought back a tribesman named Huerci.
When Teng Jitai saw Huerci, he was greatly surprised. Huerci knelt down with a thump and said excitedly: "Prince, I thought I would never see you again, Prince..."
When Huerci said this, he was so excited that he was choking and unable to speak. Teng Jitai lifted him up and asked, "Huerci, how did you escape back? Where are the others? Is there anyone who escaped back?"
Huerci was a centurion under his command. He disappeared in the battle of Chuzhou. Teng Jitai thought he was killed or captured.
Huerci choked up and said, "Your Majesty, I didn't escape back. The Qin army deliberately let me back. That night, I was captured due to exhaustion in Chushui and was taken to Ma'an Mountain to mine iron ore... More than 800 people from our Sunite tribe were captured and taken to Ma'an Mountain to mine. The Qin army only let me back and told me to tell your Majesty..."
Teng Jitai was even more surprised and asked suspiciously, "Who told you to bring a message? What message?"
"My Lord, the person I met was the Minister of the Ministry of Rites of Qin, named Song Xiance. He said that the King of Qin...Mr. Qin asked him to come. He asked me to tell the King that Qin hopes to have good relations with our Sunite tribe."
"Qin Mu? He wants to make friends with our Sunite tribe?"
"Yes, Prince. That Song Xiance said that their enemy is the Jurchens. As long as our Sunite tribe breaks away from the Jurchens and no longer works for them, they are willing to make friends with us. He also said..."
"What else?" Teng Jitai asked more urgently.
"Prince, they also said that if our Sunite tribe is willing to cooperate with the Qin State and destroy the Jurchens together, the Qin State will fully support the prince to become the Khan of Mongolia in the future."
"Did the Qin people really say that?"
"Your Majesty, I have said everything according to Song Xiance's original words. Your Majesty, Song Xiance also said that if you are willing to form an alliance with the State of Qin, you should send an envoy to Shouzhou. As soon as our envoy arrives in Shouzhou, the State of Qin will immediately release several hundred of our people to show its sincerity. However..."
"But what? Tell me now."
Huerci said, "Prince, Song Xiance said that if the prince is really sincere, when sending an envoy to Shouzhou, even if it is not the prince himself, he should send a captain of a thousand men. This will show that we are sincere. As long as this is met, as soon as our envoy arrives, Qin will immediately release our people."
Teng Jitai's mind was in a turmoil for a moment. To be honest, he didn't know what he was feeling. It was shock, astonishment, joy, doubt, it was all very complicated.
The Sunite tribe was not like the Qin State, which had a population of millions, so a few hundred soldiers were already very precious to them.
Not to mention what benefits the Sunite tribe could gain from cooperation between the two sides, the mere fact that they could send an envoy to Shouzhou and get back hundreds of captured tribesmen was a temptation that Teng Jitai could not resist.
Teng Jitai was a little confused, so he called two of his captains, Huluwo and Bulie, to discuss the matter...
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ps: It’s the end of the month, I’ll update three more times and ask for monthly votes!
.(To be continued..)
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