At the beginning of March, in the Chaganhot area, there is still no breath of spring, the wind is blowing strongly, the earth is yellow, and the world is gloomy.

Only the thawed Ta'er River (i.e., the later Tao'er River), carrying a layer of heavy ice, slowly flows eastward along the wide and flat river channel.

The snowstorm that swept through the northeast at the end of February did not have much impact on the grassland where the Horqin Left Banner was stationed for grazing.

Just a few days have passed, and there are almost no traces of the wind and snow on the wilderness on both sides of the Taal River.

After all, it's March, the coldest winter in Saibei has passed, and no matter how big the sudden wind and snow on the grassland are, it will melt quickly soon after it lands.

The Taer River, which flows dozens of miles south of Chaganhot, has now become a customary border between the Kulen cavalry outpost and the Mongols of the Horqin Left Banner.

When the men and horses of the Kulen tribe arrived here, they would not easily cross the Taer River to the north, and the Mongols of the Horqin Left Banner would not easily cross the Taer River and go south.

The sphere of influence between the two Mongol tribes has completely lost compared to the past.

If it weren't for the fact that the population of the Kulen tribe was still relatively small and could not afford to move north to occupy a larger area north of the Xiliao River (the lower reaches of the Xilamulun River), the situation in the steppes of Eastern Mongolia would have been even more unfavorable for the Horqin Left Banner.

In the middle of December of the third year of Chongzhen, Emperor Chongzhen's imperial attendants, military attache Yang Zhen and Deng Tianhe, with a huge caravan sent by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, went north from the area of the Xiliao River where the cavalry of the Kulun Department was stationed and patrolled, stepped on the ice on the Taer River, crossed the Taer River, and finally arrived in Chaganhot.

Thanks to Hasgan and others, who were born in the Horqin left-wing Mongolian tribe before, they went back to the station of the Horqin left-wing Mongolian tribe with the letters of Hailanzhu and Manzhu Xili.

Otherwise, the current owner of the Horqin Left Banner, Beile Zaisang, would not dare to lead the Mongols of the Horqin Left Banner again with confidence and boldness, and return to the abandoned old city of Chaganhot to settle down and settle in the pastoral.

Chaganhot is the meaning of the white city, which is the origin of the name of the white city of Jilin in later generations.

This place was first the place where the Chahar Mongol leader Lin Dan Khan was stationed in Xi, and after Lin Dan Khan led the main force of the Chahar Mongols to move westward, he was the first to take refuge in the Jurchen Horqin Left Wing Mongolia and got this place.

Later, the power of the Jurchen Eight Banners of the Later Jin Kingdom continued to grow, and the Horqin left-wing Mongolian tribes also continued to gain power, and after getting the Chaganhot area, they continued to move south, looking for more abundant grassland pastures.

As a result, the banks of the Xilamulun River, further south, soon fell into the hands of the powerful Horqin left.

Horqin's left-wing Mongol leader, Jaisang, also immediately moved his tent to the steppe around the Baiyintaohai region, which was more strategically located.

However, after the defeat in the battle against the Karaqin Department in the first year of Chongzhen, the Baiyintaohai area was attacked by the Ming army, and the Zaisangbeile, who heard the news of the hasty withdrawal of the army, did not take long to return to the Chaganhot area with the main force of the left wing of Horqin.

In the winter of the second year of Chongzhen, Zhai Sang, who was unwilling to fail, followed Huang Taiji's Jurchen Eight Banners army of the Later Jin State to the south to conquer Southern Mongolia and the Ming Dynasty.

Especially after the Mongol tribes of Zalut, Zarat, and East and West Uzhumuqin, which belonged to the Dajin Kingdom, were migrated to the territory of the Jurchens in Haixi in the upper reaches of the Songhua River in the east, the always scheming Zaisang found that his Horqin Left Banner was at the forefront of resisting the Ming Dynasty's continued northward movement.

The tribes that originally acted as pawns of the Jurchens on this steppe, such as the original Eastern Mongolian tribes such as the Naiman tribe, the Ao Han tribe, the Bahrain tribe, the Weng Niute tribe and the Keshiketeng tribe, have now either fled and left to join Mobei Mongolia, or they have been wiped out by the Ming army and the Karaqin and Kulun tribes that have joined the Ming army, or they have been annexed by the left and right flanks of Horqin where they are located because the losses are too large and too weak.

In short, the small tribes sandwiched between the Ming Dynasty and the Jurchens of the Later Jin Kingdom disappeared from this grassland one by one.

This situation made him very worried about the situation facing the Horqin Left Banner.

Therefore, soon after returning to Chaganhot after participating in the Gelzhurgen Alliance, Jaisan decided to lead his troops to move north again, leaving Chaganhot, a rammed earth city that was dilapidated but rare in the Eastern Mongolian steppe, and from then on he led his people to nomadize on the grassland north of Chaganhot.

As for Chaganhot, a grassland soil city south of the city, especially the fertile land with water and grass south of the Taer River, he gave up all of them.

Because the Mongolian cavalry patrol of the Kulun Department, which was funded and armed by the Liaodong Governor's Office of the Ming Dynasty, has begun to appear again and again on the grasslands along the Taer River.

Jaisan was not afraid of the cavalry outposts of the Kulun Ministry, what he was worried about was the Ming Dynasty standing behind the cavalry sentry of the Kulun Ministry.

Jaisan is very familiar with the past events of that year, that is, the betrayal of Chahar by the Horqin Mongol tribes and the co-leader of the Mongols, Lin Dan Khan.

At that time, his father, Manggu Sitaiji, betrayed Lin Dan Khan and took refuge in Nuer Hachi because he was unwilling to be caught in the middle of the war between Lin Dan Khan and Nuer Hachi, and he was unwilling to be forced to lead the Horqin left-wing Mongols to act as cannon fodder for Lin Dan Khan to attack the Jurchens who had just established the country.

Now, after a few wars, Jaisambel is facing the same situation as his father, Manggu Sitaiji.

It's just that the powerful side is no longer the Jurchens who rose in the northeast with strong force and had just established a country.

It's the far south, the old empire that has been in existence for nearly three hundred years.

What should he do, where should he go from here?

Ever since he returned to the territory of the Horqin left-wing Mongols after following the Jurchen army southward and losing the battle, the nearly fifty-year-old Jaisan has been thinking about this fateful question.

If his father, Manggu Si Taiji, had no choice, then for him, he was not without a choice.

Especially when Hasgan and the others suddenly returned to the grassland pastures of the Horqin left-wing Mongolian tribe located north of Chaganhot for the first time with the eldest daughter of Jaisang, and the letter of Manzhu Xili, the eldest of the living sons, Jaisan and his Horqin left-wing Mongolian tribe had a better choice.

In that year, the Ming army of the Saibei Wulie Battalion raided Baiyintaohai, wantonly slaughtered the old and weak women and children left behind in the old camp on the left wing of Horqin, and snatched the eldest daughter Hari Zhula, who was regarded as the pearl of the palm of Zhaisang, making his plan to conquer the Karaqin Mongols and avenge his eldest son Wu Keshan completely failed.

Every time he recalls this past, Zhai Sang's heart is full of resentment, and how many times he gritted his teeth and made up his mind to wash away this shame, and he couldn't wait to immediately kill all the men and horses of the Ming army's martial arts battalion that raided Baiyintaohai.

However, as time passed, with the defeat of the Jurchen army of Huangtaiji, Zhaisang realized that revenge was far away.

When the letters between Hari Zhula and Manzhu Xili were sent back to the Horqin grassland by Hasgan and others, they learned that their eldest daughter really married the emperor of the Ming Dynasty and became the favorite concubine of the Ming Emperor, and his detained son Manzhu Xili was also safe and sound, and he was also a high-ranking official in the court of the Ming Dynasty.

In the final analysis, the death of his eldest son Wu Keshan, the death of his second son Chahan, and the deaths of those old and weak women and children who stayed behind in the rear of the left wing of Horqin to guard Baiyintaohai were not all the responsibility of the Ming Dynasty, let alone the responsibility of the emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

Now there is a relationship between Hari Zhula and Manzhu Xili, and there is no unbreakable knot between Horqin left-wing Mongolia and the Ming Dynasty emperor.

However, Zhai Sang, who received the letter from Harizhula and Manzhu Xili for the first time, hesitated and did not make a choice, but tacitly agreed to the request brought by Hasgan and others, and helped find and acquiesce to the family of Emperor Ming's concubine Ulan Tuya and Emperor Ning's concubine Su Rina.

Needless to say, it must be the forces that stand on the side of the Horqin left-wing Mongolian tribes, and let them go to the Ming Dynasty to reunite with Ulan Tuya and Su Rina, which is naturally beneficial to Horqin left-wing Mongolia.

Since then, Jaisan's mind has begun to change.

Although it was not explicitly stated, one day through the relationship between Hari Zhula and Manzhu Xili to change the court and join the Ming Dynasty, it has become a hidden choice in the depths of Zhaisang's heart.

And not long after receiving the letter from Hari Zhula and Manzhu Xili, in the autumn of the third year of Chongzhen, Jaisangbel returned to Chaganhot with the men and horses of the Horqin Left Banner.

It's just that out of the deep-rooted fear of the Jurchens, as well as the intermarriages and marriages with the Jurchen Eight Banners, Jaisangbel has been unable to make up his mind.

It wasn't until Hasgan brought a letter from Harizhula, who had just been promoted to a noble concubine, for the second time, and brought Emperor Chongzhen's imperial attendants, military attaches Yang Zhen, Deng Tianhe, and a huge caravan to Chaganhot.

And this is also the fundamental reason why Zhai Sang thought about it and finally did not go to Shenyang, the capital of the Dajin Kingdom, to make a pilgrimage to Tiancong Khan Huang Taiji.

And the fundamental reason behind this, except for Yang Zhen, Deng Tianhe and Jaisangbel himself, no one else knows, including Borzigit Bumubutai, who desperately exonerated his father Zaisangbel in the palace of the Khan of Shenyang.