The Golden Horde's true elite forces were stationed on the borders, while only a few tens of thousands of 'lowly people' from the harsh northern lands were truly capable of fighting.
The rest of the troops were the descendants of the warriors who were the founders of the Golden Horde. They were all granted the title of Golden Nobles by the first Great Khan, but at this time, the most corrupt and decadent were those so-called Golden Nobles.
Let alone drawing a bow, some of them even struggled to ride horses. Relying on them to withstand the attack of the 300,000-strong army of the Great Zhou was simply a joke.
"Quickly go to the Vajra Bright Wheel Temple and invite National Preceptor Bastu here!"
The Vajra Mind Wheel Temple held extraordinary significance for the Golden Horde. At this critical moment, the first thing Khan Tumur thought of was not how to send troops to deal with the situation, but to seek out the abbot of the Vajra Mind Wheel Temple, who was also the Grand Preceptor of the Golden Horde, Bastu.
Half an hour later, a Tibetan monk dressed in a gold and red robe stepped straight into the main hall.
The monk was probably in his sixties, with deep, dark eyes that gleamed with a strange black light. His ears hung down to his shoulders, and even the muscles all over his body gleamed with a black light, making him appear somewhat sinister.
"Grand Preceptor! The Great Zhou has invaded my Golden Horde and is now at our gates. Please, Grand Preceptor, save me!"
Bastu sneered: "The Great Khan is panicking now? But who was it that insisted on moving the capital from the northern core of my Golden Horde to a place less than three hundred miles from the border of the Great Zhou?"
Who was it that moved the fiefdoms of the wealthy nobles to fertile lands to appease them, causing them to become complacent and now so fat that even horses can't carry them!
Upon hearing this, Tumur couldn't help but show an embarrassed expression.
Because these measures were all initiated by him and his father.
The original capital of the Golden Horde was in the central part of the north, but the winters there were too cold, making it a typical harsh and cold place. So his father moved the capital to a place closer to the border of the Great Zhou.
The climate here is much better than in the north, but it's too close to the Great Zhou Dynasty and has no strategic depth whatsoever.
However, the Golden Horde never imagined that one day those cowardly Southern Dynasty people would actually dare to take the initiative to attack.
As for winning over those noble gold dignitaries, that was Tumur's doing.
After so many generations, the Golden Horde began to fight for power among its members, and the struggle for the position of Great Khan was extremely fierce.
Tumur initially granted these fiefdoms to the Golden Horde nobles in his bid for the Great Khanate, which led to severe corruption within the upper echelons of the Golden Horde.
Bastu sighed, "There's no other way now but to fight and drag it out until those Buddhist envoys return. Only then can we truly stop the people of Great Zhou."
Tumur frowned and said, "Grand Preceptor, the Buddhist Kingdom only has three envoys, while the Great Zhou has 300,000!"
Are you sure you're not kidding me? You think we can hold off 300,000 people with just three people?
"Why don't you escort the royal family back to the north? We can take a roundabout route and wear down the Zhou's 300,000-strong army with the harsh cold of the north."
"Three people? Hmph! Don't even mention 300,000, even 3 million wouldn't be enough to stop the envoy from the Buddhist Kingdom!"
Tumur's eyes revealed a look of reverence: "That is an ultimate power that you cannot imagine, Great Khan. As long as the envoy from the Buddhist Kingdom returns, it will be easy for him to march directly to the capital of the Great Zhou and kill that little emperor!"
The entrance to the Buddhist kingdom is located in the ancient capital of the North, so we must not retreat to the North, lest we disturb the three envoys from the Buddhist kingdom.
We urge the Great Khan to dispatch troops, mobilizing all available soldiers both inside and outside the capital, to intercept the Great Zhou army and prevent them from advancing an inch!
A bitter look immediately appeared on Tumur's face.
He never expected that he had come to seek help from Bastu, but instead, Bastu ordered him to hold the capital to the death.
However, Tumur dared not disobey Bastu's orders.
The divine authority of the Vajra Mind Wheel Temple was superior to that of the imperial authority of the Golden Horde.
If Bastu wanted to depose him, his brothers, his sons, and even his brothers' sons would be eager to beg Bastu to become the Great Khan.
Left with no other choice, Tumur had to issue an edict summoning all available troops in the capital to the front lines to prepare for the battle against the Great Zhou.
Even he himself dragged his bulky body, wearing a heavy suit of armor, ready to personally lead the army into battle.
However, the Golden Horde was now too corrupt, and after searching inside and outside the capital, Tumur could only find an army of 200,000.
But in reality, only a few tens of thousands of soldiers in this 200,000-strong army were actually capable of fighting; the majority were commoners and nobles used to make up the numbers.
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