Zhu Youzheng, who was reviewing the memorial, paused, raised his head and asked:
"Who did you say is back?"
Wang Chaofu said excitedly:
"Your Majesty, this is Sun Yunhe, who went to Mongolia to serve as a member of the Imperial Guards' Qian family, Sun Yunhe!"
"Let him enter the palace to see me quickly!"
Zhu Youxiao's current mood cannot be expressed in words. He only knows that the information from outside the customs that he urgently needs now is available.
As soon as Sun Yunhe entered the Qianqing Palace, he saw Zhu Youxiao on the throne, knelt on the ground and kowtowed heavily and said:
"Sun Yunhe, the imperial guard of thousands of households, has returned to the capital to resume his duties, and respectfully wishes my emperor's peace!"
"Pingsheng!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Compared to a few months ago, Sun Yunhe had changed so much that Zhu Youxiao couldn't even recognize him unless he looked carefully.
He also greeted with emotion:
"I'm going to Mongolia now, thank you for your hard work!"
Sun Yunhe replied movedly:
"I will go through fire and water for His Majesty, even to the death!"
With such loyal ministers, why worry about being unable to revive the Ming Dynasty!
"First tell me about the situation on the grassland. How many people came out of the fortress and how many were disabled or dead!"
"Your Majesty, there are a total of ninety people out of the fortress this time, including forty-five Jinyiwei and ministers, and fifteen people each from Xuanfu, Datong, and Liaodong towns will not be admitted at night."
"Twenty-seven of them died on the grassland, most of them were members of the Jinyi Guards, a total of twenty-one!"
Unexpectedly, only a small force went out to conduct reconnaissance, and the casualties reached nearly one-third. Moreover, the team was led by Ye Bushou, who was familiar with the outside world. It seemed that the dangers of the grassland were not exaggerated.
"Wang Banban, made a decree: Sun Yunhe will be promoted to the commander of Jin Yiwei and the commander of the former military governor's office. He will be given two sets of Feiyu uniforms, a reward of 5,000 taels of silver, and a hundred pieces of brocade. The rest of the cavalry will be promoted to the second rank. Level, reward three thousand taels of silver and fifty pieces of brocade!"
"The rest of those who died in battle will receive a pension of one thousand taels of silver, and a qualified son will be selected from their family to be hereditary guard for hundreds of households. The same will be done to those who died in the battle at night, and all their families will be moved to the capital to live!"
The man in the family is dead. If there are no other pillars to support him, the family will soon collapse. Moreover, the border is always war-torn, so the whole family may be gone one day.
"On behalf of my brothers, I thank His Majesty for His grace!"
"Chao Fu, go and announce that Duke Yingying, Zhang Yu, Chen Ce, Qi Jin, and that Mongolian are here to attack the Qing Palace, hurry up!"
Upon hearing about the Mongols, Sun Yunhe also said quickly:
"Your Majesty, I have collected seventeen Mongolians in the grassland. I relied on them to successfully return to the pass. Moreover, all their troops are dissatisfied with Lin Dan Khan. Maybe they can take advantage of it."
It is a well-known fact that the Mongolian tribes are not united. Especially since the Longqing period, the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia have established regular trade with each other. Many Mongolians no longer want to live like horse bandits.
Because they could exchange medicinal materials, cattle, sheep, horses and other things that were only available on the grasslands with the Ming Dynasty in exchange for food, silver, and salt, and they just wanted to survive.
"Then order them to enter the palace and wait outside the palace first."
"Tell me about the situation on the grassland first!"
Sun Yunhe bowed and said:
"Your Majesty, apart from a few relatively large tribes on the Monan Grassland, there are many other small tribes who are dissatisfied, but they dare not speak out because of Lin Dan Khan's tens of thousands of cavalry."
"I also captured a Mongolian messenger on the road. This person said that their tribe has surrendered to the Ming Dynasty. This is the letter I found on him. It is for the son of the head of a thousand households!"
Zhu Youxiao knew that he was talking about Ah Hai. No wonder there was no reply for so long. It turned out that he was intercepted by Sun Yunhe.
Zhu Youxiao opened the envelope and saw that it was all in Mongolian, which he couldn't understand at all.
"Wang Banban, go find the people who wrote the last letter and ask them to translate this letter into Chinese!"
It's not that Zhu Youxiao can't trust them, it's just that this matter is of great importance and there can't be any mistakes.
"Don't make any public announcement about this later, and don't mention the recruitment of the seventeen Mongolians!" Zhu Youxiao talked to Sun Yunhe about the situation on the grassland again, while waiting for the British Duke and the others.
It took nearly an hour for these people to arrive. Fortunately, Zhang Yu and Qi Jin lived in the inner city, but the British Duke was in the military camp outside the city. He was basically in charge of everything in the army.
"Okay, come with me to the inner hall!" Chen Ce and Qi Jin were shocked when they saw such a large sand table. They didn't expect that His Majesty had such a large and detailed sand table in the Qianqing Palace.
Fortunately for the British Duke, Zhu Youxiao gave him the detailed drawings. He was ordered to build an identical sand table in the military camp some time ago, and it was basically error-free.
"Sun Yunhe, please explain it first. If there are any other mistakes, we will correct them later."
Sun Yunhe took out the map and spread it on the ground. When everyone looked at it, they saw that there were many dense records on the map, and the locations of some larger tribes were basically marked.
Some errors originally recorded on the map have also been corrected. This is Sun Yunhe's best effort.
This was also thanks to the recruited Mongolians, who took Sun Yunhe around on the grassland for nearly a month, and clearly explained in what season they migrated and in which month where they were going.
I saw him pointing to the largest punctuation mark and saying:
"Your Majesty, Lindan Khan built a city on the grassland called Chahanhot, which is where his capital is. He has been here all year round. I observed it from a distance. The size is several percent larger than the county town in the pass. I don't know how strong it is. !”
"The people stationed in the city are his close relatives, with a total of nearly 100,000 households. There are two 10,000 households on the left and right wings of the city responsible for guarding, and the distance is within a hundred miles."
"In addition to these two 10,000 households, with this city as the center, there are 10,000 or 1,000 households each stationed in the nearby grasslands, forming a circular shape. These tribes are also directly under the direct jurisdiction of Lin Dan Khan."
"Some other small tribes or tribes with poor strength are far away. Some of them are suppressed, and some of them are inseparable from Lin Dan Khan."
Sun Yunhe briefly introduced the general situation of the Chahar tribe, and Zhu Youxiao already had a good idea. He calculated that Lin Danhan could assemble no less than 50,000 cavalry in a short period of time, and these were basically his. Direct power.
It is also his fundamental strength. Without these tens of thousands of cavalry, he would not be able to secure his position as the Great Khan.
Apart from these, everything else is nothing to worry about. These people don't even have the same heart as Lin Danhan. At most, they only do superficial things.
In an environment like the grassland where the weak can eat the strong, strength is the basis for survival. If the losses are heavy, even cattle and sheep are inferior to the grassland, the tribe will definitely be annexed by others.
"Ahilai, where is your tribe?"
Zhu Youxiao had been observing his facial expression. Although he didn't find anything obvious, he still asked worriedly.