About 200 miles to the north of Zunhua City, it is the winter pasture of a small tribe of Karaqin tribe, here is backed by mountains and rivers, the grass and trees are flourishing, and the scenery is very beautiful. The Mongols originally had the habit of long-distance nomadic life, and the reason why the Karaqin tribe was divided into left and right wings was also because of this custom.

The Mongolian steppe in southern Mo and the wilderness outside the Ming Pass are the places where the Karaqin tribe originally migrated back and forth to nomadism. However, after some Mongolian tribes discovered the Rehe River in the north of Zunhua City, some small tribes gave up the difficult journey of long-distance migration and chose to live a small nomadic life in this area for four seasons of rotational grazing.

Because there are mountains here to block the cold current from the Mongolian plateau in winter, and it is close to the Great Wall of the Ming people to exchange some living materials, so the life of the 36 departments is still better than that of the compatriots on the Mongolian steppe.

However, the drastic changes in the climate over the past 10 years, especially the drought of the year before and last year, caused a large number of livestock to die in the 36 departments that were closed, and the herders had no livelihood for a while.

Although the emperor of the Ming Kingdom finally distributed some rice and grain to the herdsmen of 36 departments, the Ming people's relief action did not pass through the hands of the leaders of the various departments, but adopted the method of organizing the people into households and fixing the pastures according to the heads of the herdsmen.

Some small and medium-sized tribes quickly accepted the requirements of the Ming people, and under the oppression of the large tribes, they could not occupy good pastures, and obeyed the orders of the Ming people, and they could also obtain good pastures near the Great Wall of the Ming people.

Now, as long as they accept the Ming people's settlement of their own tribes, they can settle in this pasture, and they can also obtain the protection of the Ming people, and get additional trading opportunities, so the leaders of the small and medium-sized tribes naturally expressed their willingness to hand over their power over the tribe to the officials appointed by the Ming people.

But for those larger tribes, such conditions proposed by the Ming people were naturally unreasonable. This policy of relief not only deprived the large tribes of their dominion over the smaller tribes, but also undermined the ancient traditional power that the tribal chiefs had over their people, which had been handed down from the time of Genghis Khan.

Under such circumstances, the preservation of the traditional customs of the Mongols became a lingering thought among the leaders of these larger tribes. And Huang Taiji continued to send envoys to win over the upper-class nobles of the 36th Ministry, and the rhetoric brought by these envoys was so beautiful and approachable, which was completely different from the high level of the Ming officials, which made the upper-class nobles of the 36th Ministries fall to the side of the idea of forming an alliance with Houjin.

Of course, the main factor that prompted most of the leaders of the 36 Ministries to betray the Ming Dynasty was that since the establishment of the Later Jin Dynasty, the war between the Later Jin and the Ming State has never been lost. In the eyes of the 36th Ministry of Guanmen, the huge and invincible Ming army was easily defeated and slaughtered by the Later Jin, which made them afraid of the force of the Later Jin.

And Lin Dan Khan moved westward, and the Ming people did not send troops to support the right-wing Mongolian tribes who were friendly with the Ming people, which made the leaders of the 36 tribes feel disappointed. The leaders of the 36th Division immediately realized that if they did not accept the hand of friendship extended by Houjin, then both Lin Dan Khan and Huang Taiji might use troops against the 36th Division, and the Ming people would help them at that time? This is an obvious answer.

The leaders of the upper nobles who closed the 36th department finally gave in to the Later Jin and sent people to Shenyang to make an alliance with the Great Khan of the Later Jin Dynasty, Huang Taiji. But as soon as they left Shenyang, they heard that the Ming had finally sent troops to shelter the Mongol tribes on the right flank, defeating the Chahars who wanted to annex them.

In this battle on the grassland of Fengzhen, the Ming people won more with less, and even defeated the elite cavalry of the Chahar Department with cavalry, and even Lin Dan Khan almost fell into the hands of the Ming people. When the news came, the leaders of the 36th Department of the closed door suddenly became a little drunk.

The Ming army lost several times to the Houjin, which made the upper nobles of the 36th Department inevitably despise the combat effectiveness of the Ming army. In their eyes, the elite of the Ming army in Liaodong has almost lost in the hands of the Houjin, and now the Ming army has almost lost the ability to fight in the field in addition to defending the city.

Therefore, even if the news of the 36 tribes defecting to Houjin spread, the Ming army was helpless against them. Even if the Ming army sent troops to recruit 36 troops, they would be able to support the arrival of Houjin reinforcements.

However, if the cavalry of the Ming army can defeat the elite cavalry of the Chahar department, then none of the leaders of the 36th division think that the herdsmen they gathered can resist the surprise attack of the Ming cavalry.

With the news coming, the 36 ministries had already unanimously agreed to vote for Houjin, but suddenly there was a change. Those small tribes who had already obtained the pastures arranged by the Ming people had reluctantly agreed to join Houjin, which was completely under the coercion of the leaders of the big tribes, plus the threat of Houjin's force.

In the time of the alliance with the Houjin Huimeng, the names that appeared on the alliance book were only the names of more than a dozen major clan leaders, and most of the small tribes were not qualified to participate in the alliance at all. According to the agreement of the two sides, these small tribes will be forcibly incorporated into the larger tribes after the two sides have joined the alliance. In the future, Houjin's orders will be conveyed to the 36 tribes through these large tribal leaders.

To put it simply, according to this covenant, the only independence of the 36 small and medium-sized tribes of the Guanmen will be lost, and it is not as good as the Ming people's resettlement policy for these small tribes. At least the Ming people did not completely take away the status and power of these small clan leaders, and also gave a certain amount of financial subsidies.

In comparison, these small tribes naturally preferred to be attached to the Ming Kingdom. It's just that they are a little worried that the Ming people can't beat the Houjin, and now that the Ming army can defeat the Chahars, they suddenly let these small clan leaders change their ways and stand on the side of the Ming State again.

Thirteen tribes refused to obey the alliance of the Houhou Jinhuimeng, although these 13 tribes accounted for less than one-fifth of the population of the 36 tribes of the Guanmen. However, the number of tribes in the 36 tribes who have devoted themselves to Houjin is about the same, and more tribes are waiting and watching, and no one is willing to press the wrong treasure in Ming and Houjin.

The total population of the 36 closed divisions is only 5 or 60,000 people, and the Ding Zhuang who can go to the battlefield is only 7 or 8 thousand horsemen. Most of these cavalrymen were also poorly equipped and had little real battlefield experience. Although the momentum of the rise of the Houjin was favored by the leaders of the 36 tribes, the Ming Kingdom, which defeated the Chahar people, did not seem to have reached the situation of the lamp drying up.

If Houjin and Daming can't hold each other, then the 36 closed doors between the two countries will become beans in two huge grinding discs, and the end will only be crushed.

Some of the more naïve young people in the 36 departments still want to move the tribe to the vast grassland outside Shenyang. But for the upper nobility of the 36th Division, this is obviously the worst option. They advocated taking refuge in Houjin because they wanted to keep their status and power. If the tribe was moved to the Later Jin country, how could the Jurchens, who were stronger than the Ming people, allow them to continue to control their own tribes.

In the midst of the disturbances, a mainstream opinion was finally formed within the 36 Ministries, that is, the results of Jin's southward expedition to the Ming in the future shall prevail. If the Houjin won a complete victory, then the remaining 23 of the 36 divisions would be subject to the covenant, and the Ming army, which had suffered heavy losses, would not have the energy to go out of the customs to conquer the 36 divisions that had taken refuge in the Houjin.

If the Houjin sent troops to lose their troops this time, then they begged the Ming State for mercy and were willing to unconditionally accept the various policies issued by the Ming State for the 36 Ministries. The Ming people have always paid attention to Huairou Yuanyi, and after dealing with the Ming people for such a long time, the surrender and betrayal of the Ming Dynasty by the Mongolian tribes is already a common thing, so the leaders of the 36 departments have no psychological burden at all when they talk about this.

In this expedition, the 36th Ministry also decided to send only 500 people led by Tabu Nang Burhatu to lead the way for the Houjin army, and another 2,000 people were gathered to make plans to enter the customs depending on the smoothness of the Houjin army.

When the Houjin army was stationed in Qingcheng, a cronie beside Se Ling also quietly rode a horse to this small tribe station called Du Leng Tribe.

Du Leng is the name of the leader of the small tribe, which is only a small tribe of 78 tents with a population of just over 500. Although the Du Leng tribe was small, the daughter of the leader was a favored concubine of Se Leng, so the Du Leng tribe occupied several fertile pastures without worrying about the bullying of other tribes.

Last year, the Ming merchants found an ore near the pasture of the Duleng Department, and immediately purchased a mining area from the Duleng Department to dig the ore, and the price of the Ming people to purchase this ore was quite high, so the Duleng Department quickly settled in this winter pasture and no longer practiced nomadism to protect this mining area.

The Duleng Department also sent a large amount of property to the color leng, and obtained the promise of the color leng to let the Du Leng department keep the mining area, and of course, the color leng also obtained 3% of the benefits of the mining area.

After learning how to dig and distinguish ore from the Ming people, Du Leng also began to try to dig ore and sell it to the Ming people. In the year of the great drought, there were Mongols who had nowhere to graze their cattle in the steppe, so a small village and town soon formed here, and the Ming people also built a trading house here to collect and sell ore and Ming goods.

Seleng sent his own cronies to come over to prohibit Du Lengbu and Ming Shang from returning to Guannai for the time being, so as not to encounter the Houjin army and suffer from the pond fish.

On the one hand, he was trying to protect his own interests, and on the other hand, he also hoped that someone from these Ming merchants would bring the news back to Guannai and raise an alarm for the Ming army.

The split of opinions within the 36th Ministry of Guanmen made Se Leng's mind about defecting to Houjin also half-hearted, he wanted to take this opportunity to leave a communication channel for Mingguo, if Houjin failed this expedition, he would also use this reason to negotiate peace with Mingguo.

But he didn't want to give a warning too obviously, lest Hou Jin would vent his anger on the heads of the 36 department after he learned about it. Therefore, such a small hand was arranged to warn the Ming merchants here through the Du Leng Department.

If there were people loyal to the Ming Kingdom among these Ming merchants, they would naturally send his warnings back to the Ming Kingdom. If these merchants were unwilling to take the risk, or if they did not rush back to the Guannai to report to the officials and soldiers before the Houjin army.

Se Ling thought that this was the arrangement of the Immortal Heaven, which proved that the Mandate of Heaven was in Jin and not in the Ming Kingdom. And he has already repaid the favor of the Ming Kingdom for the 36 ministries in the past