Ch.92Western Liao (1)

Around the time Mongolia was rapidly building friendly relations with the Song Dynasty through trade, the Jin Dynasty’s situation was not particularly good.

“The expedition to Goryeo ended in failure, and we’re becoming diplomatically isolated.”

At the words of Chancellor Wanyan Liang, Minister of State Affairs Zhang Hao nodded.

“The situation is not favorable.”

“Shouldn’t we find a way to overcome this?”

“To do that, we would need to subdue Mongolia by force, but…”

The Minister of State Affairs couldn’t help trailing off.

Mobilizing the army meant consuming financial resources.

The Jin Dynasty’s financial state had worsened again because they failed to achieve meaningful results in their recent battle with Goryeo.

In fact, financial problems were a chronic issue for the Jin Dynasty.

Since its founding, the Jin Dynasty had always suffered from insufficient finances.

The current Jin emperor had managed to solve this problem.

After taking several decades to barely escape deficit, they had fallen back into the swamp of debt due to the local war with Goryeo.

In this state, mobilizing troops to punish Mongolia was out of the question.

“We lack the resources to mobilize an army.”

“But we can’t just leave those arrogant Mongols unchecked, can we?”

Even when Prince Wanyan Shunan personally led troops to punish Mongolia, they failed to achieve significant results.

This naturally made them cautious about mobilizing the army again.

“If military mobilization is difficult, how about using external forces?”

“External forces… do you have someone in mind?”

“What about Western Liao?”

“Western Liao…”

Since the Jin Dynasty had inherited hegemony from the Liao Dynasty, relations between them were fundamentally poor.

Therefore, Wanyan Liang couldn’t help but be skeptical about the Minister’s suggestion.

“I don’t think Western Liao will pressure Mongolia at our request.”

“You needn’t worry too much about that.”

“What do you mean?”

“According to reports from our spies in Western Liao, there is currently a Naiman tribe prince there.”

“A Naiman prince? Aren’t the Naimans the ones who were expelled from the steppe after being defeated by Yesugei?”

The Minister nodded at Wanyan Liang’s question.

“That’s right. I’ve heard that the current emperor of Western Liao has a legitimate heir, but he’s still very young. It seems they’re planning to marry his younger sister, Yelu Pusuwan, to the Naiman prince, Kuchlug.”

“It appears they’re trying to preserve the throne by appointing those two as regents.”

“You’ve understood correctly.”

“But even with such methods, if Yelu Pusuwan or Kuchlug harbor other intentions… Ah!”

Wanyan Liang’s eyes widened as he belatedly understood what the Minister was suggesting.

“Isn’t this the perfect situation to create confusion between the two countries using divide-and-conquer tactics?”

“Indeed. Although Western Liao’s influence has diminished, they still pose a threat to us. In this situation, if we support Kuchlug and help him become emperor of Western Liao on the condition that he fights Mongolia, it would be tremendously beneficial for us.”

“Exactly. If Western Liao and Mongolia fight each other, the steppe powers will disintegrate again. This would not only eliminate the northern threat but also leave the Song Dynasty with nowhere to turn for help.”

The Jin Dynasty had always been wary of the Song Dynasty.

This was partly why they attacked Goryeo first, fearing an alliance between Goryeo and Song.

After subduing Goryeo, they watched as Mongolia consumed Western Xia and expanded its power.

Additionally, Mongolia was openly maintaining friendly relations with the Song Dynasty, which was absolutely unacceptable from Jin’s perspective.

In this situation, if they supported Kuchlug, a potential threat remaining in Western Liao, and turned Western Liao into a regime friendly to Jin, the story would change.

Using Western Liao to attack Mongolia would damage both Western Liao and Mongolia.

This would be like getting something for nothing for the Jin Dynasty.

“Hahaha! As expected of the Minister of State Affairs. I must report this to the Emperor immediately.”

“You flatter me. However, there is something that concerns me.”

“What could you possibly worry about with such a perfect plan?”

“What if Kuchlug fails to seize power…”

“Haha! Don’t worry about that. Even if Kuchlug doesn’t become emperor, internal problems in Western Liao would still benefit us, wouldn’t they?”

“It could benefit Jin, but it could also benefit Mongolia. If they attack and occupy Western Liao while it’s in chaos, a serious situation could develop.”

“Mongolia’s power is impressive, but not enough to take on Western Liao. Besides, aren’t they still unable to fully control Western Xia that they’ve occupied?”

“That’s… true.”

It typically took a long time to fully absorb occupied territories.

It was nearly impossible for Mongolia to completely control Western Xia, a completely different ethnic group with no shared culture.

Even the Jin Dynasty, despite occupying the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun for a long time, still couldn’t fully control the Han people.

The biggest problem was that the ruling Jin people were few in number.

Similarly, the Mongols were relatively few compared to the Western Xia people.

This left the possibility that the subjugated population could rise up at any time.

“Moreover, unlike Jin, this is Mongolia’s first expedition. Even if the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors were resurrected, it would be impossible for them to easily govern a subjugated population with a different culture.”

The Minister nodded at Wanyan Liang’s confident words.

As he said, the Mongols, who had only fed grass to horses on the steppe, knew nothing about governance.

* * *

“As Elunka said, the Western Xia people are assimilating quickly.”

As political, economic, cultural, and military stability was established, the Western Xia people were accepting the Ulus’s rule faster than anyone.

The way Mongol warriors were received during patrols was evidence of this.

Typically, when invaders patrol, locals either hide out of fear or harbor hostility.

But now, Western Xia people didn’t particularly react to Mongol warriors.

They even preferred Mongol soldiers over Western Xia soldiers to mediate when fights broke out among themselves.

As the Ulus’s rule spread so quickly, marriages between the two ethnic groups began to progress rapidly.

“Seeing this, I’d say Bekhter has talent for administration after all.”

Bekhter organized a major national event when he married the daughter of the Western Xia emperor.

The event was none other than marriages between Mongol men and widowed or unmarried Western Xia women.

The war between Mongolia and Western Xia had resulted in many Western Xia men being severely injured or killed.

This naturally led to an increase in women of marriageable age and widows.

Ordering them to marry Mongols might seem somewhat coercive, but this was the medieval era.

Few people could refuse the orders of the Khan of Western Xia.

Whether they liked it or not, large-scale marriages between the two nations proceeded. As a result, the sound of crying babies never ceased in Western Xia homes.

“It’s not time to relax yet, but at this rate, there shouldn’t be major problems even if we go on another foreign expedition.”

Modern people might be surprised to hear this.

Even though Western Xia control had entered a stable phase, many risk factors remained.

But despite these risks, the Ulus had to go on expeditions.

“While internal development is important, right now we need to quickly secure power through foreign expeditions.”

Expeditions were necessary to maintain military power.

This might sound strange for a settled nation, but the situation was different for the nomadic Ulus.

With a high proportion of troops relative to the country’s size, maintaining them naturally required a lot of money.

To supplement these finances, internal industries needed to be developed, but

by the time Song-Western Xia trade or national development could cover these military costs, Mongol soldiers might no longer be threatening.

So now, when nomadic cavalry was at its strongest and surrounding countries had low vigilance against Mongolia, was the time to expand as much as possible.

“However, we lack justification…”

Mongolia currently had only one justification.

It was that Jin Emperor Hailing had brutally killed Ambaghai Khan, an ancestor of the Borjigin clan.

But this justification wasn’t enough to fight the Jin Dynasty immediately, as the Ulus was still too small.

Again, the Jin Dynasty was one of the great powers of this era, having overthrown the Liao Dynasty and Northern Song.

To fight such a country, the Ulus needed to grow larger.

To increase in size, they needed to consume surrounding countries.

Conquering small Tibetan states or small Himalayan countries was one option.

But the problem was that these countries were not worth the effort of conquest.

Therefore, they needed a suitable power to consume, and there was exactly one such power.

“I wonder if something won’t happen in Western Liao.”

Western Liao.

Larger than the Ulus, but if internal problems arose, it would be a power worth targeting.

The benefits of conquering Western Liao would be enormous.

First, they could control the entire steppe route.

This meant controlling all East-West trade passing through the Silk Road.

This steppe route was both a trade route and a supply line.

Therefore, during a western expedition, they could transport unlimited rice from the Song Dynasty using this supply line.

Besides the advantages explained above, there were many other benefits to conquering Western Liao.

That’s why I couldn’t help but earnestly pray for something to happen in Western Liao.

Perhaps my thoughts reached heaven.

Suddenly, the ger door opened, and Elunka approached me with an urgent expression.

“Great Khan!”

“Could it be that something has happened in Western Liao?”

“…H-how did you know? I… I actually came to tell you where the escaped Naiman tribe members went…”

It was just a guess, but it turned out to be true.

I could only stare at Elunka with a dumbfounded expression.