Grassland, Guihua City (now Hohhot).
Guihua City was first built in the sixth year of the Longqing reign of the Ming Dynasty. The then leader of the Tumed tribe, Altan Khan, and his wife Sanniangzi summoned skilled craftsmen from all ethnic groups and built a city with blue bricks on the plain south of the Daqing Mountains and northeast of the Yellow River, imitating the appearance of Yuan Dadu.
This city built with blue bricks looks blue from a distance, so the Mongols named it "Kukuhetun", which means blue city.
In the third year of Wanli's reign, the city was completed and the Ming court named it Guihua City.
In the ninth year of Wanli, Altan Khan and Sanniangzi expanded Guihua City.
Since Sanniangzi was in charge of all major matters during the construction and expansion process, the people of the Tumed tribe called Guihua City Sanniangzi City.
In the fifth year of Chongzhen, Huang Taiji defeated Ligdan Khan and chased him to Guihua City, where he set fire to the city and severely damaged the city walls.
......
The Ming army that delivered the letter consisted of five people, each riding two horses as they traveled across the boundless grassland.
As the sun was about to set, they whipped their horses and sped up.
finally...
The group arrived outside Guihua City before sunset.
Looking at the well-repaired city wall, the Ming army who delivered the letter was somewhat surprised.
"The Mongols are repairing the wall so quickly!" exclaimed a Ming soldier.
"How can it be fast? It took our dynasty five years for the city wall to be destroyed, and our dynasty took twenty-two years to repair it. That's slow enough!"
"Okay, stop talking. Watch your mouth when we get into the city."
"Don't worry, sir. We will keep our mouth shut!"
After discussing, the five Ming soldiers walked towards the city gate side by side.
The defenders inside and outside the city had already discovered the five people. Before they could get close, dozens of Mongolian soldiers surrounded them.
They wore iron helmets and armor, held bows and arrows and swords in their hands, and looked alert.
"What are you doing here? This is the Mongolian territory, not your Ming court's territory!" asked a Mongolian soldier.
They had already guessed the identity of the Ming army through their attire and flags.
"My name is Wang Baolin. I'm here to discuss something on the orders of Lord Lu Daqi, the governor-general of the three borders of Shaanxi Province of the Ming Dynasty." The leading Ming army soldier said in not very fluent Mongolian.
"Lü Daqi?" The Mongolian soldier was a little surprised. "I don't know him! Just tell me who you are looking for, and I will report it!"
"Of course, we're going to find your leader!" Wang Baolin said.
"We, the Tumed tribe, have no leader!"
"What?" This time it was Wang Baolin's turn to be surprised. "How is that possible?"
Seeing this, the Mongolian soldiers explained the reason to Wang Baolin as quickly as possible.
The Western Tumed tribe surrendered to the Jiannu as early as the fifth year of Chongzhen.
The then leader Omubu led the tribe to surrender to Huang Taiji.
However, Ombu did not surrender sincerely.
On the surface, he surrendered to the Jiannu, but in private he was flirting with the Outer Khalkha tribe and the Ming court, intending to unite to fight against the Jiannu.
As a result, Yuetuo got the news, deposed Omubu from his position as leader, and arrested him and put him in prison in Shengjing.
In the ninth year of Chongzhen, Omubu was released and returned to Guihua City.
At this time, the Tumed tribe had already been reorganized by the Jiannu.
After the reorganization, the Tumed tribe no longer had a leader, but was divided into left and right wing flags.
Each of the two wing banners has a governor to jointly manage Tumed affairs.
The commander-in-chief of the left wing was called Guluge, and the commander-in-chief of the right wing was called Hanggao.
"So..." The Mongolian soldier asked Wang Baolin, "Who are you going to look for? The left wing commander-in-chief Guluge, or the right wing commander-in-chief Hanggao?"
"Look for them all!" Wang Baolin replied.
The Mongolian soldier rolled his eyes at him and turned to deliver the message.
Naturalized in the city.
Guluge, the Tumed Left Wing Commander, and Hanggao, the Tumed Right Wing Commander, were sitting and drinking tea.
"Report," a Mongolian soldier walked in quickly, "Your Excellencies, there are five Ming soldiers outside the city who want to see you."
"Ming army?" Guluge was very confused. "What are they going to do?"
"I don't know. He just said that he came here to discuss matters under the order of Lü Daqi, the governor of the three borders of Shaanxi."
Guluge and Hanggao looked at each other and quickly came together to discuss.
"To see or not to see?" Guluge asked.
"Let's not meet... We have already surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and the Ming court is the Qing Dynasty's mortal enemy. If Liaodong knew that you and I met with the Ming court envoys privately, we would most likely be punished." Hang Gao said worriedly.
"I think it's okay. The Ming court sent envoys here just to ask us to send envoys to pay tribute. The worst that can happen is that we can refuse. But if we anger the Ming court and stop the border trade, we will have no supplies for the winter this year!"
"This..." Hang Gao hesitated.
After a moment, the two reached a consensus: "Bring them here."
"Yes, sir."
Wang Baolin and his party were quickly brought before the two governors. After they saluted and verified their identities, Wang Baolin took out a letter from his arms and handed it over: "This is a letter from Lord Lu to you two."
After reading the contents of the letter, Guluge smiled and said, "I never thought that this day would come to you!"
"What's wrong?" Hang Gao asked before he finished reading the content of the letter.
"Lü Daqi said that the people in Guanzhong lacked oxen, mules and horses, so he wanted to expand the scale of border trade."
Hang Gao suddenly realized: "So that's what it is!"
Wang Baolin clasped his hands and said, "From what I can see... do you two adults agree?"
Guluge and Hanggao looked at each other again and shook their heads at the same time: "No!"
"Why?"
"We are not short of supplies at the moment, so we don't want to expand the scale of trade."
"If there is no shortage today, will there be no shortage tomorrow?" Wang Baolin asked back.
"This..." Although Guluge and Hanggao couldn't explain the reason, they just disagreed.
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