If Qianlong had not conscripted Han civilians, the Heaven and Earth Society's spies would not have been able to infiltrate the Solon camp, and Zhu Jinsong would have lost his intelligence advantage.
In that case, Zhu Jinsong would have had no choice but to confront the Solon camp head-on with his Menglianggu army, to see who was superior: the Solon camp, the Manchus' most trusted forces, or Zhu Jinsong's Menglianggu army, trained according to a rabbit's template.
Zhu Jinsong was very confident in the Menglianggu army. After all, it was an army completely copied from the rabbit's land forces. In a ground war during the Qianlong era, it would have been an unbeatable force.
Moreover, Zhu Jinsong had no intention of fighting the Solon camp and the Mongol Eight Banners to the bitter end.
Taking the Mongol Eight Banners as an example.
When the Great Ming was strong, the Mongolian tribes were also at their peak. This was also the period when the Great Ming and the Mongolian tribes were locked in conflict, with tit-for-tat battles.
When the Great Ming was on the verge of collapse, the three Mongolian warriors, Man Gui, Meng Ruhu, and Hu Dawei, all died fighting for the Great Ming. After Zudashou surrendered, Huang Taiji intended to kill all the Mongolian soldiers under Zudashou.
Even after our Great Qing entered the Central Plains, we have consistently implemented population reduction policies for the Mongols. The so-called Manchu-Mongol marriage alliances were merely a means to win over the Mongol upper classes to achieve the population reduction plan for the entire Mongol population.
Many people have the impression that the population reduction policy was the Great Qing's forceful imposition of rules, such as requiring that for every eight brothers, seven must become lamas, and for every five brothers, four must become lamas. It even stipulated the population of each tribe or of the Mongol Eight Banners, and anyone exceeding this number would be forcibly killed.
In reality, the policy of stipulating population numbers was the "population reduction" carried out by the Jurchen Jin Dynasty on the Mongolian steppes hundreds of years ago. Our Great Qing's population reduction policy towards the Mongols was far more sophisticated.
"No enfeoffment in the south, no severance of kinship in the north; enfeoffment to restrain their power; reverence for religion to restrain their offspring."
This was the population reduction policy that our Great Qing played with the Mongols.
The so-called "no enfeoffment in the south, no severance of kinship in the north" referred to our Great Qing's strategy of courting and utilizing Mongol nobles, continuously sending imperial clan women for marriage alliances, even including the Emperor's own daughters, under the guise of a Manchu-Mongol alliance to jointly suppress the Han people.
The so-called "enfeoffment to restrain their power" meant that our Great Qing divided the Mongols into the inner forty-nine banners and the outer eighty-six banners. Through the banner alliance system, the herdsmen were strictly controlled, and herdsmen were forbidden from grazing beyond their designated banners, with the banner princes being punished if this rule was violated. This ensured that the various tribes on the steppe would not unify through mutual annexation.
As for the so-called "reverence for religion to restrain their offspring," it involved vigorously promoting Tibetan Buddhism and providing various privileges to lamas, attracting Mongol herdsmen to voluntarily become lamas who could not marry or have children, thereby achieving population reduction.
At the same time, our Great Qing strictly prohibited herdsmen from various tribes from coming into contact with Han culture. Even Mongol princes were not allowed to hire Han scribes to learn the Chinese language and script, nor were they permitted to collect Chinese books. This policy of "愚民" (fooling the populace) was intended to stabilize their rule.
For tribes that dared to rebel or resist, our Great Qing suppressed them severely. Furthermore, they dispatched tribes loyal to the Manchu Qing to suppress them, which served to reduce the population and foster hatred and animosity between the tribes.
This logic also applied to the Solon camp.
To ensure the combat effectiveness of the Solon camp, the Great Qing court had always forced the Solons to hunt and raise livestock. While stipulating that the Solons had to pay a certain amount of sable fur as tribute each year, they also prohibited the Solons from learning agriculture, showing no concern for their well-being.
Therefore, our Great Qing did not even need to build the Great Wall, because their methods were far more formidable than building a wall.
Of course, not everyone failed to understand the Great Qing's formidable methods. The declaration in the newspaper "Min Bao" later was proof of this.
This was precisely why Zhu Jinsong was so interested in the various Mongolian tribes and the Solon camp.
In fact, just as a mentally healthy person would not want to see someone beheaded in front of them, it would be difficult for someone who grew up hearing stories about the fifty-six constellations to develop hatred towards other ethnic groups.
The three hundred years of love-hate relationship between the Mongolian tribes and the Great Ming was about to come to an end.
With this thought, Zhu Jinsong tapped his fingers on the table and instructed Ke Zhiming, his intelligence chief, "Find a way to contact the Mongolian tribes and the Solons, and see if we can persuade them to surrender. If they refuse and insist on following the Manchu court to the end, then we'll deal with them differently."
However, the subsequent events were so bizarre that even Zhu Jinsong, the arch-rebel, was bewildered.
First, two individuals speaking with a Beijing accent crept into Xiying Village, which was adjacent to Jinan Prefecture. They inquired everywhere for information about Menglianggu. Eventually, they even revealed that they were spies sent by the Great Qing court, and if possible, they hoped the Han people would help tie them up and send them to Menglianggu to see the leader of Menglianggu, as they had important intelligence to convey.
This turn of events completely stunned the newly established Xiying Village Farmers' Association in Jinan Prefecture.
The Farmers' Association in Jinan Prefecture had encountered many Manchu spies before, but this was the first time they had encountered spies who voluntarily revealed their identities and requested to be tied up and sent to Menglianggu.
After repeatedly confirming that these two so-called spies indeed requested to be sent to Menglianggu, the people from the Xiying Village Farmers' Association joyfully tied them up and sent them to Jinan Prefecture, handing them over to the Jinan Prefecture Farmers' Association.
The problem was that the Jinan Prefecture Farmers' Association was also bewildered. Moreover, these two so-called spies refused to say anything except that they wanted to meet Zhu Jinsong. Therefore, the Jinan Farmers' Association handed them over to Ke Zhiming.
Ke Zhiming sent his subordinates to question them, and the intelligence chief himself became utterly confused.
There were spies who revealed their identities and brought important intelligence to see their young master? And they wouldn't say anything until they met the young master?
What kind of divine operation was this?
After much thought without any breakthrough, and filled with curiosity, Ke Zhiming decided to meet these two people himself.
Upon arriving at the room where they were being held, Ke Zhiming spoke directly, "Speak, who are you, and why are you seeking an audience with my young master?"
The two spies, with their hands tied behind their backs, exchanged glances. One of them tentatively asked, "Who is your young master?"
Ke Zhiming chuckled and said, "You two went to great lengths to see my young master, and now you ask who he is?"
He then sneered and added, "Just confess honestly. That way, you'll suffer less physical pain. If you continue to resist, don't blame me for being impolite."
However, the spy was unfazed by Ke Zhiming's threat and continued to ask, "Do you know the leader of Menglianggu, the one named Zhu Jinsong?"
Ke Zhiming almost spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Damn it, my young master is the leader of Menglianggu, and the leader of Menglianggu is my young master. I've already made it crystal clear, why don't these two understand? Are they genuinely stupid or trying to provoke me?"
Ke Zhiming's expression turned cold as he said, "My young master is the leader of Menglianggu. His given name is Jin, and his courtesy name is Song. My surname is Ke, and I am the Hall Master of the Azure Wood Hall of the Heaven and Earth Society under my young master."
The two spies didn't understand the talk of given and courtesy names, but they understood the words "leader of Menglianggu."
One of the spies exclaimed with great joy, "That's right! Quickly, let us meet your leader."
The other spy chimed in, "Yes, yes, yes. We have something very, very important to tell you. If there was no other way, we wouldn't have resorted to this method."
Ke Zhiming felt his intelligence insulted.
Were there really spies like this in the world?
Demanding to see his young master right off the bat?
And claiming to have something very important to say?
Did anyone in Menglianggu not know that Ke Zhiming was the young master's intelligence chief, and that he knew everything important?
With this thought, Ke Zhiming's face darkened. "My young master is busy with state affairs and doesn't have time to see two insignificant spies like you! If you have something important, you can tell it to this Hall Master first. As long as this Hall Master knows, my young master will naturally know."
The two spies exchanged glances again. One of them asked, "If I tell you, can you guarantee that Zhu Jinsong will know?"
Ke Zhiming nodded in agreement, "This Hall Master can guarantee that as long as what you convey is indeed important, my young master will know immediately."
After receiving Ke Zhiming's guarantee, the spy began to explain, "We are from the Solon tribe. After hearing about Menglianggu, our Solon tribe has been looking for an opportunity to meet you. This time, the Emperor has ordered us to attack you, so the two of us came ahead."
Upon hearing the words "Solon tribe," Ke Zhiming was stunned.
The young master had just said he was going to send people to contact the Solons, and the Solons had come knocking on their door themselves?
Looking at the spy who seemed to have trouble speaking clearly, Ke Zhiming suppressed the urge to draw his saber and strike, took a deep breath, and said, "Continue."
The spy nodded, his face filled with excitement, "After we arrived, we discovered how good the common people managed by Menglianggu are. So, we just wanted to ask, if our Solon camp doesn't fight with you, can we stay here and learn farming from you?"
Another spy exclaimed with great enthusiasm, "Yes! We want to stay and learn farming from you. As long as you agree, we will go back and bring all our Solon people with us."
Ke Zhiming thought, "Are they trying to play me for a fool? If I agree to let you stay, and then you bring the Solon camp here, and then launch a surprise attack when our Menglianggu is unprepared?"
The more Ke Zhiming thought about it, the more uncomfortable he felt.
He, the dignified Hall Master of the Azure Wood Hall of the Heaven and Earth Society, the backbone of Menglianggu's intelligence system, was being played by these two simpletons out of mere curiosity?
Where could he go to seek justice for this?
If this matter got out, his reputation as the intelligence chief would be completely ruined.
A killing intent gradually arose in Ke Zhiming's heart, but he feigned casualness and asked, "If my memory serves me correctly, your Solon camp members should all reside near the Heilongjiang River. If your Solon camp comes to defect, what about the women and children in your tribe?"
One of the spies exclaimed, "As long as you agree, we can bring them! Anyway, our Solon tribe doesn't have that many people, and the old and young women can all ride horses. We can bring them all together, right? What, you don't have enough land here for us to farm?"
Ke Zhiming sneered inwardly, "We have plenty of land in Menglianggu, but I wonder how many people are in your Solon tribe?"
The excited expression on the spy's face dimmed, and he said, "Our Solon tribe has less than twenty thousand people in total. This time, the court has conscripted us to fight you, and our Solon tribe has to provide five thousand cavalry."
"We simply cannot go on living."
ps: First update, aiming for four updates today, same as yesterday.