As it turned out, Zhao Min's trip to the Song was only a cover. Her real goal was to contact the rebel armies in the Shandong and Henan regions.
In the past few years, the Mongols had fallen into a quagmire of war with other countries. Temujin was very dissatisfied with this. Thus, he decided to adjust the entire strategy.
According to Temujin's plan, the Mongols would make friends with distant countries and attack close ones. They would first stop fighting with some countries and free up their forces to destroy others.
But when deciding which country to stop fighting with, an unexpected problem occurred. Temujin was getting old and was about to return to Tengri in a few years. All the Mongol kings were eagerly waiting for the Khan's position.
But the choice of the next Khan was not something that Temujin could casually decide alone. According to Mongolian tradition, only the one with the most military achievements and the highest prestige could become the Khan.
If Temujin appointed someone who could not be trusted by the masses, it would be fine while he was still alive. With Temujin's prestige, no one would dare to make a move against him. But once Temujin returned to the Everlasting Sky, none of the other kings who held military power would obey the Khan in name. The Mongolians were destined to be torn apart.
How could Temujin not know this? That was why he appointed the kings early on and let them fight for their own country. This way, it would be clear who had the most military achievements and who had the highest prestige.
The kings also did their best to attack their target countries, afraid that they would fall behind their competitors. At this critical moment in the fight for the throne, which king would be willing to ally with their target country?
For example, if the Mongols allied with the Southern Song Dynasty, then Khubilai, who was in charge of attacking the Southern Song Dynasty, would have no military achievements to fight for. If they allied with the Manchus, then Ali Buge, who was in charge of attacking the Manchus, would also not agree. If they allied with the countries of the Western Regions, then of course Xu Liegu would not agree either.
The kings were already fully fledged. Using the power of the nobles and ministers, they all wanted to ally with the target countries of their competitors. But because everyone's strength was about the same, no one could get what they wanted. Thus, the strategy of making friends with distant countries and attacking close ones could not be carried out.
Temujin had no choice but to come up with other ideas. Among the most powerful Princes, apart from Zhao Min's father, Cha Han, the Prince of Ruyang, the rest were all Temujin's grandsons. No matter how they fought, the throne would always be in the hands of his own people.
However, the Prince of Ruyang, Chahan, was the son of Temujin's sworn brother, Muhuali. His influence was simply too great. Although he was currently acting as if he was detached from the struggle for the throne, Temujin was deeply afraid that his grandsons would fight amongst themselves, and in the end, Chahan, the fisherman, would reap the benefits.
Therefore, Temujin quickly turned his attention to Chahan. However, the Prince of Ruyang's military exploits were illustrious, and he was also the elder of Khubilai and Ali Bugge. Among all the kings, his position was superior, so it would not be easy to touch him.
No one knew what sin the Prince of Ruyang had committed in his previous life to have given birth to a girl like Zhao Min, who was always focused on the Ming Dynasty's Zhang Wuji. From then on, this caused the Prince of Ruyang to lose many battles in the Western Region. Seeing that the power of the Ming Dynasty and the Hui Tribes of the Great and Small Hezhuo was growing, Temujin finally had a reason to make a move against the Ruyang Palace.
Of course, it would not work if he did it directly, so he could only weaken the Ruyang Palace step by step. The first step was to move the Ruyang Palace out of their deeply rooted headquarters in the Western Region. It just so happened that Ali Bugge could not gain any advantage over the Manchurian Qing, so Temujin planned to use the reason that the war was not going well to have Chahan and Ali Bugge exchange fiefs. Ali Bugge would go to the Western Region to deal with the Ming Dynasty and the Hui Tribes, while Chahan would deal with the Manchurian Qing and the Jin Kingdom. Of course, this was not officially announced, but the news had been deliberately leaked from the royal court. As soon as the Ruyang Palace found out, it immediately exploded.
The people led by Crown Prince Wang Baobao believed that the Khan was deliberately siding with Ali Bugge. Ali Bugge controlled the most elite cavalry of the Mongolian headquarters, but he was sending the Ruyang Palace to deal with the Manchurian Qing and the Jin Kingdom, which were the most powerful forces. It was obvious that he wanted Ali Bugge to come to the Western Region to earn military merits and help him fight for the throne in the future.
Although Zhao Min faintly felt that something was wrong, she did not dare to think in that direction. It was the Prince of Ruyang who sighed deeply. After staying alone in his study for a day, he began to make arrangements to take over Ali Bugge's mess in the future.
As a veteran general in the army, the Prince of Ruyang was much more experienced than Ali Bugge. Learning from the previous lesson that Ali Bugge only knew how to fight the Jin Kingdom and the Manchurian Qing head-on, he sent Zhao Min ahead of time to the hinterlands of the Jin Kingdom and the Manchurian Qing Kingdom to contact the various volunteer armies in the country, intending to drag down the two powerful countries from within.
In the past, the Jin Kingdom destroyed the huge Northern Song Dynasty in a short time, but they could not digest the territory of the Northern Song Dynasty. In the Yellow River Valley, the people in the Central Plains missed the Northern Song Dynasty. There were many local separatist armed forces. In addition, the Jin Kingdom had been fighting with the Mongolians in recent years, so their finances were extremely tight and they had to increase the taxes of the people. As a result, more volunteer armies were formed. The Red Coat Army, which was active at the junction of Henan and Shandong, was the largest of them.
The Manchurian Qing Kingdom was not much better. Calls to fight against the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty came one after another. The Heaven and Earth Association, the Red Flower Society, the Divine Dragon Island, the Zheng Family of Taiwan, and the Golden Snake Camp of Shandong. Because of Kangxi, the situation was not as bad as the Jin Kingdom. Among them, the Golden Snake Camp of Shandong, which was the most powerful force, was also destroyed by him.
But Zhao Min was keenly aware that the Golden Snake Camp still had great value. On the one hand, she was going to contact the Red Coat Army, and on the other hand, she was going to support a spokesperson in the divided Golden Snake Camp. She was going to reunite the Golden Snake Camp, which involved the energy of the Manchurian Qing Dynasty.
Of course, they could not let the Manchurian Qing and the Jin Kingdom know about this in advance, so they used the pretense of going to the Southern Song Dynasty. This was also the reason why Zhao Min and the others did not go through Xiangyang and had to pass through the Jin and Qing Kingdoms.
Zhao Min saw that Yang Miaozhen's martial arts were so strong, she was happy and worried at the same time. She was happy that the Jin Kingdom had such a big problem and would not be able to eat and sleep well. She was worried that with Yang Miaozhen's strength, she might not accept the Mongolian offer. She originally wanted to use Jinlun Fawang and the Xuanming Elders to threaten her.
Looking at Yang Miaozhen, who had the upper hand, and thinking of how calm Song Qingshu was in front of Jinlun Fawang and the Xuanming Elders, Zhao Min disappointedly gave up on this idea.
Ding!
With a crisp sound, the two figures in the field separated.
Yang Miaozhen's face was pale. She smiled bitterly and said, "I lost."
As soon as she said this, her subordinates all looked at her in disbelief. There was an uproar in the forest, "How can this be? Didn't the Fourth Lady have the upper hand just now?"
Yang Miaozhen's face turned cold and she said angrily, "What do you know? A loss is a loss. Do you think I'm lying to you?"
Seeing Yang Miaozhen's female power, the heroes of the forest kept quiet out of fear. Song Qingshu felt that it was quite interesting. He quickly pointed to the wound on his chest and explained, "If it wasn't for the Fourth Lady showing mercy, Song Mou would have died from his injuries. Looking at it this way, it was at most a draw."
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