The Youngest Prince Of The English Royalty House [EN]: Chapter 198

[Counterattack (1)]

‘I’ll return it as I received it, a thousandfold.’

King John, having suddenly lost his brother, was understandably in a foul mood, and the inherent negativity within him, a trait of his troublesome nation, began to boil over.

He prepared a counterattack against Europe, wielding a metaphorical dagger aimed at subtly exploiting the weaknesses of the Mongol Empire.

While the Mongol forces at the front were impenetrable, their rear was riddled with vulnerabilities.

He targeted another weakness: those ‘pretending to be subdued’ within Jochi’s governorate. Specifically, the ‘governor’ himself.

That governor was Chagatai, Temujin’s second son, entrusted with managing the Silk Road. This crucial artery sustained the Holy Mongol Empire’s power, supplying the war effort.

Temujin had entrusted the Silk Road to Chagatai as a final test, but Chagatai succumbed to corruption faster than anticipated.

He prematurely believed he held an insurmountable advantage in the succession battle.

‘Huhu. See? I told you, I’m the only successor Father recognizes, Chagatai!’

Chagatai, who had been active in the Persian conquest, was a capable member of the imperial family, but possessed the personality of a common scoundrel.

He considered his brother Jochi a mere bastard, not a true sibling, and believed it was his right to inherit the vast empire Temujin had forged.

‘But Jochi is still hanging around, so I need to amass more wealth to screw him over.’

Perhaps driven by this, Chagatai began making increasingly exorbitant demands on his vassals, leading to the embezzlement of public funds along the Silk Road. This stemmed from Chagatai’s lack of broad political vision.

Unsurprisingly, morale among his subordinates plummeted.

‘Hah…’

‘How much more are they going to squeeze out of us this time?’

‘They persecute us because we aren’t Mongols.’

‘Isn’t the problem the sons, not the Great Khan?’

Even Mongols who flattered Chagatai and foreign henchmen sighed in discontent.

Chagatai cared little for mercy, tolerance, or governance. His sole interest lay in hoarding gold and silver treasures in his personal warehouse.

Under the guise of tribute collection, Chagatai’s vassals, unwilling to bear the losses themselves, resorted to plunder from the bottom up, leaving the common people to suffer.

For Chagatai’s wealth and glory, the inhabitants along the Silk Road grew increasingly miserable.

‘Please save us!’

‘We don’t have flour to make bread!’

‘If you take that away, how are we supposed to live?’

‘Please return my daughter!’

‘We’ll starve to death if this continues!’

‘That’s our last food!’

As conditions worsened, riots, reminiscent of those under King John, sporadically erupted.

‘Governor, there’s a riot.’

‘Tell the local officials to suppress it.’

‘We need support.’

‘Those mayflies should take care of themselves.’

However, Chagatai, convinced of his status as the true ‘Crown Prince,’ ignored these uprisings, even with full knowledge of them.

‘I need more money to eliminate that bastard Jochi.’

Chagatai, a scoundrel obsessed with becoming the second Great Khan, a Chagatai-John, ruthlessly extorted the people of the Silk Road, his source of wealth.

The people, exhausted by Chagatai’s tyranny, were on the verge of revolt, needing only a spark.

‘This is the chance.’

Those who had been waiting for this moment began to act.

‘We, the Goryeo [Korean] people.’

‘The Persians.’

‘The Polish.’

‘The Khwarazmians [Central Asian people].’

‘The Han Chinese.’

-Resist the tyranny of the incompetent Governor Chagatai!

As people began to step forward.

The people along the Silk Road also began to sympathize.

-We feel the same!

Soon, knights from the Teutonic Order began to persuade the locals, and the ruled class immediately took up arms and began using guerrilla tactics.

‘Let’s begin!’

They diverted attention by placing rioters at the forefront, then hid in the city’s shadows, slaughtering Mongol soldiers.

‘Kill them!’

‘It’s an attack!’

‘You damn bastards!’

Some commanders were assassinated by women and children before they could even react.

And the commanders who managed to grasp the situation and tried to annihilate these rioters.

-Boom.

Were blown up.

‘The Mongols are surrounded!’

‘Let’s defeat the villains!’

‘General, there’s nowhere to escape!’

‘What the hell is our Governor Chagatai doing!’

Were surrounded and summarily executed.

The scene was horrific.

Christian and Muslim brothers, as well as commanders from nations destroyed by the Mongols, were filled with venom.

But what’s truly ironic is that those who feared being ousted by Chagatai for speaking the truth concealed the severity of the threats.

They merely protected their own territories, constantly contemplating ‘escape,’ while feeding false reports to Chagatai.

‘It’s nothing serious.’

‘The governor’s proud commanders can easily crush these small forces.’

Lee Yang-moo, an Easterner leading the ‘rebels,’ muttered as he watched this.

‘Hah… Is this the Mongol Empire that threatened us?’

It seemed as though all the Mongols he had once feared were now in Europe.

* * *

-Jochi Governorate, Maragheh-

This news also reached Jochi, the brother Chagatai despised most.

‘That’s what happened.’

Jochi, after hearing about the incident on the Silk Road from his adjutant Subutai, stared at Subutai blankly for a moment.

‘Hahaha.’

Then he burst into laughter.

‘…’

But Jochi’s vassals couldn’t join in his laughter.

They knew Jochi was angrier than anyone else.

A riot had occurred in the Jochi Governorate not long ago, but he had personally raised an army, suppressed all the rioters, and executed the corrupt commanders as a warning.

The riot in the Jochi Governorate was merely Godfrey’s initial probe, but Jochi’s commanders, unaware of this, held their governor in high regard, finding no fault in him except for the suspicion surrounding his ‘bloodline.’

Jochi heard that a similar riot had erupted in the Chagatai Governorate.

And he laughed because Chagatai’s response was so incompetent, unlike his own.

‘Ha, what the hell is Chagatai doing!’

He was pathetic. The one who should be suppressing the riot was blinded by flatterers and was raising military funds to drive out Jochi himself.

‘And that won’t even become military funds. Because he likes luxury.’

‘Governor…’

‘Generals, I don’t know if that child Chagatai is sane or not.’

‘That is…’

‘Are you treating me like a guest?’

At Jochi’s cold voice.

‘That’s not it.’

The generals waved their hands.

‘If that’s not the case, you would have informed me before this happened.’

Normally, he would have suppressed his emotions and endured, but the fact that Chagatai was ignoring the riot and focusing on other things made Jochi’s emotions turn cold.

‘That bloodline… that seed…’

Jochi.

He was the eldest son who should have been treated fairly in the Holy Roman Empire, which valued Christian culture, but he was subtly snubbed in the Mongol camp.

He knew exactly why he wasn’t being recognized as the eldest son.

It was because of the tragedy of his mother being kidnapped and raped by the Merkit tribe while he was in her womb.

Thus, Jochi’s bloodline was perpetually questioned.

It was suspected that he was not the seed of the great Temujin, but the tainted seed of the Merkit.

‘You are not my brother, but a bastard. A damn Merkit bastard!’

The one who voiced the most doubts was his younger brother Chagatai, born of the same mother.

Jochi, who had suffered an indelible emotional wound from his younger brother, even hated the name Jochi (guest). Moreover, he was saddened that the Mongol emperor, who had become a Christian empire, did not change his name.

On the surface, his father Temujin recognized Jochi as his son, as a husband who could not protect his wife, but Temujin already thought of him as an outsider.

Was that why?

‘Mother, why did you give birth to me?’

Jochi began to resent his mother, a victim with no fault of her own. He felt depressed, thinking, ‘It would have been better if I hadn’t been born.’

‘How long do I have to watch Chagatai’s incompetence?’

At that moment.

-Chagatai has defeated ten thousand, but Jochi has defeated a million.

A song was heard in front of Jochi’s tent.

‘This is from the Bible… the song of Saul and David.’

‘Governor… this is a plot to create discord.’

Subutai, who had grasped the situation, said.

Of course, Jochi knew it was a plot even without being told, but his expression remained grim.

‘Vicious.’

‘This is the enemy’s scheme to provoke Chagatai.’

Because this wasn’t a scheme aimed at him.

* * *

-Chagatai Governorate, Almalik-

An old vassal was watching carefully. The opponent was a younger Mongol general than himself, but age was not the issue. It was because he was Temujin’s son.

‘Governor…’

‘How dare you!’

Chagatai was furious. It wasn’t because a riot had broken out due to his corruption.

Chagatai didn’t care about those lowly people. He had released the elite troops he had been saving a few days ago, confident they would soon crush the rioters and restore peace.

At some point, within his governorate.

-Chagatai has defeated ten thousand, but Jochi has defeated a million.

A song with strange lyrics began to spread from mouth to mouth.

Even the Mongols who believed in Christianity recognized that this song imitated the song in Samuel that praised David and denigrated Saul.

And now, a strange song was spreading that Jochi was greater than Chagatai. If a suspicious song had spread during the war, they should have immediately suspected the enemies and strengthened security.

But Chagatai was different.

‘I’ll kill him. Jochi! Bastard, bastard!’

Many people lose their composure and are swayed by emotions, and unfortunately, Chagatai was one of them.

He usually ‘claimed’ to be the great elite prince of the Mongol people, but he had a bad habit of overlooking the bigger picture.

‘This is Jochi’s trick! Otherwise, why is this mess only happening in my land, unlike his governorate!’

‘Governor, don’t you know this is a plot to create discord? It’s wartime now.’

‘It’s not discord, it’s a holy war!’

‘A holy war?’

‘God does not allow dirty blood. What is the reason why he drove out the bastard Ishmael and made Isaac the successor of Abraham?’

Chagatai refused to be overshadowed, even by a bastard, and he had already lost his mind.

* * *

-Somewhere in Syria-

Godfrey received a report.

‘It has gone as Your Excellency thought.’

‘It is a scheme devised by the great King John.’

The key to this plan was to involve Jebe, a respected elder, or his adjutant for mediation. Jebe, ultimately a vassal, would have to address the brothers’ conflict in the eastern rear.

‘Grand General Jamukha is occupied with the Eastern Roman Empire… he has no resources to spare.’

The Eastern Roman Empire was fully engaged, determined to reclaim half of Anatolia.

‘Yes, it’s successful for now.’

He had intelligence agents incite unrest in the Jochi Governorate to study Mongol suppression tactics. Then, using this knowledge, they instigated a rebellion in the Chagatai Governorate, where corruption was even more rampant.

Simultaneously, they spread rumors and songs comparing ‘Jochi,’ who swiftly quelled the riot, and ‘Chagatai,’ who had nothing to show for himself except his bloodline.

Originally, Chagatai should have recognized the situation, but he lost his composure simply because he was being outshone by a ‘bastard.’

Everything was falling into place, and Godfrey wore a proud smile, a rare sight for him.

‘The one who replaces Jebe… is inferior to Jebe. Because unlike Jebe, he didn’t understand us. And soon the landing force will arrive.’

‘Prepare to welcome our comrades.’

No matter how powerful an empire is, internal division weakens its strength.

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