Chapter 166: Covenant and Horse Purchase

Instead of the current situation where he only has a reputation but other departments ignore him.

In order to show his sincerity, Chongzhen expressed his knowledge that Ligdan Khan was fighting a life-and-death battle with the Thirty-Six Kharachin families, and that he was willing to send troops to attack Ligdan Khan from the east and west to completely eliminate Kharachin.

The Ming Dynasty only wanted a portion of the war horses, and the rest all belonged to Ligdan Khan.

Man Gui also took out the secret letter seized by the Dorlot tribe, which was written by Huang Taiji to Kharchin agreeing to join forces to attack Ligdan Khan.

It proves that even if Lin Danhan had no intention of fighting with Huang Taiji, he would not let him go, and he also uses the fact that Dorote was almost destroyed by him to convince others.

Lin Danhan had a gloomy face. He nodded as he listened, sometimes angry and sometimes happy.

Lin Danhan had no objection to joining forces with the Ming Dynasty.

Not to mention that the alliance had been signed during the Tianqi period, even when his son-in-law was killed by the Datong border army, didn't Emperor Chongzhen still offer 100,000 taels of silver as a funeral gift?

Therefore, at the end of the seventh year of Tianqi, the two parties signed another agreement to strengthen cooperation.

But Lin Danhan only took the money and did not do any work, so even if an agreement was reached, he would still do his job.

Therefore, there was no reason for him to disagree with this alliance which was more beneficial to him.

Although Lin Danhan was confident that he could defeat Kharchin alone, they were all sons of the grassland, and it would be difficult to chase the enemy if they really ran away.

Now that the Ming Dynasty is willing to send real troops to attack Kharchin together with Ligdan Khan, Ligdan Khan naturally wants it very much.

Moreover, keeping Huang Taiji out of Mongolia would be the greatest benefit to Ligdan Khan.

In this way, Lin Danhan could attack without worrying about Huang Taiji joining forces with the Mongolian tribes to steal his property.

However, when he heard Man Gui's request that after conquering Kharchin, Lindan Khan would need to send at least 10,000 elite troops to garrison Kharchin to support Dorlot and the Jinzhou Ming army, he became hesitant.

Although Lin Danhan boasted to the Ming court that he had an army of 400,000, in reality he only had about 100,000. Moreover, after so many years, some fled and some died, and now there are only a few tens of thousands of people who can ride horses.

If we divide 10,000 people in Kalaqin, wouldn't our power be greatly reduced?

Seeing this, Man Gui advised, "Kalaqin has abundant water and grass. If we don't send troops to graze after conquering it, won't it be reoccupied by other tribes or even the remnants of the Kalaqin?"

"Then what's the point of sending troops to Kalaqin? Besides, living in Kalaqin can provide you, Khan, with a steady supply of cattle and sheep! Moreover, the Ming Dynasty has abolished all rewards, and only the Dorlot tribe is rewarded for trade. If you leave some troops in Kalaqin, you can also participate in the trade nearby, right?"

Lin Danhan thought about it and it made sense. Besides, in order to show its sincerity, the Ming Dynasty was willing to send troops to help Lin Danhan eliminate Kharchin. It would be unreasonable for him to remain unwilling to contribute.

However, there were different opinions on the number of garrison troops, so after a round of bargaining, Lin Danhan successfully reduced the number to 5,000.

Mangui thought that with these five thousand troops plus Dorote's troops, there were a thousand troops in total, which was considered a powerful force on the grassland. It was barely enough to guard the passage from Liaodong into Mongolia.

As for the so-called final plan that the Ming court would help Ligdan Khan unify Mongolia only after pacifying Liaodong, Ligdan Khan did not care much.

As long as Huang Taiji and the Ming Dynasty do not cause trouble, Lin Danhan believes that he has the strength to unify Mongolia.

This is indeed true in history. If it weren't for Huang Taiji, Lindan Khan might have really been able to unify Mongolia.

After unifying Mongolia... Haha, Ming Dynasty? What Ming Dynasty?
Now it's Dayuan!
Thus, in a positive atmosphere, the two sides reached a strategic agreement. And Man Gui, who was straightforward, also gained some personal gains, but it is not right to say that he gained personal gains.

Because Mangui took this opportunity to propose to Ligdan Khan that if there were any horses left over from the horses he looted on the grassland in the future, Mangui could try to exchange them for salt, tea, cloth and other things.

Lin Dan Khan ran around the grassland and indeed seized a lot of people, livestock, cattle, sheep and horses, so he was indeed quite wealthy.

In addition, since the alliance had just been signed, he gave face and directly offered a thousand horses to trade with Man Gui.

After agreeing on the transaction amount, Man Gui said that he would try to deliver the promised materials after returning.

However, when the carefree Man Gui wanted to take the horses away first and then slowly collect supplies after returning, Lin Danhan just smiled and said nothing.

Man Gui was so angry that he rolled his eyes and thought that Lin Danhan was stingy.

But it was good enough that the other party agreed to change, so Mangui didn't dare to get angry or say anything more.

Mangui stayed in Lindan Khan's camp and drank for two days. On the third day, he couldn't wait to say goodbye and leave.

I was so excited along the way, thinking that I had connected with Lin Danhan. The crappy Guanning Iron Cavalry was nothing compared to my soon-to-be-born Datong Iron Cavalry!

Yuan Chonghuan and Zhao Ruejiao, you two bastards, just wait for me to throw horse manure on your faces!

But when he returned to the Datong General's Mansion, Man Gui began to worry again.

After the reign of Emperor Longqing, in the trade with the Mongolian Tartars, the price of a high-quality Mongolian horse was about eight taels of silver.

If the cost is calculated directly using materials such as grain, salt, and cloth, the cost can be even lower due to the cost of transporting the materials.

But the problem is that even if one thousand horses were sold at eight taels of silver each, without any middlemen making a profit from the difference, it would still cost eight thousand taels of silver.

But what Lin Danhan wanted was supplies. Eight thousand taels of silver and eight thousand taels of supplies are completely different concepts. This involves many issues such as purchasing, transportation, and customs clearance.

Moreover, there will be losses in the process of transporting grain and salt on the road, so eight thousand taels of supplies require ten thousand taels of supplies.

If it was just food, the loss would be doubled!
This also includes food and drink for the grain transport team on the road.

However, the most crucial thing is that the imperial court has now ordered a ban on trade, and except for Jinzhou, all other passes are prohibited from trading with the Tatars.

If Man Gui wanted to successfully exchange back the thousand war horses, it would not be possible without the court's explicit permission.

Thinking of this, Man Gui immediately wrote a memorial to Chongzhen, requesting the emperor to allocate funds to purchase war horses and allow him to purchase supplies from Datong and transport them out of the Great Wall.

In fact, Man Gui could also choose to transport the supplies to Jinzhou first, and then transport them from Jinzhou to Guihua. In this way, Man Gui only needed to request funding, which was relatively simple and would have fewer twists and turns.

But Man Gui now doesn't want to deal with Yuan Chonghuan at all, and the losses have increased several times, which is not cost-effective.

The memorial soon arrived in the capital, and Chongzhen approved it without any hesitation.

It's just a few thousand taels of silver, which is not money for Chongzhen today!

(End of this chapter)