Eternal Blue Sky E-Book

alastair macleod

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Shock and Awe, the Mongol way of conquest and their love of fluid continuous war, are stemmed for a moment, not by the Great Wall but by the precepts of Buddhism, Confucianism and the settled organised minds of the Han Chinese.

Kublai Khan, first Mongol Emperor of China, finds his own impulses for revenge put to the challenge as he deals with his younger brother.

Leseprobe

Alastair Macleod

Eternal Blue Sky

To the Steppe and the Eternal Blue Sky BookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

Eternal Blue Sky

1264 AD Khanbaliq, Northern China.

“Who will persist O Kublai when you have gone?”

“You mean the Mongols? Will they persist? My son Zhenjin is a mirror of me; he knows my policies.” “And after him?”

“His son.”

“But Zhenjin has taken a woman of the Han as his principle wife.”

“And so?”

“His offspring will learn the ways of the Han through Hanli.”

“And lose those of the Mongol? He knows to keep up the ways and the Yasa code.”

“Will he live here or in a Ger, on horseback?”

“Meaning?”

“Is Zhenjin not already lured to the Han way?”

Kublai was silent. What was his advisor driving at?

The Han were like termites - they built hard walls, paved streets, gardens. They were settled, but also in their minds.

Kublai looked out of his palace, still under construction.

In his own mind he was moving freely over the steppe as he had done when he was young.

“My secret name is Steppe Eagle. That was not always my name. After my grandfather developed our mode of sudden attack, of shock and awe, towns and cities trembled at our approach.”

“That was also because of the massacres.” Said Liu.

There was a silence.

Liu Bingzhong then said,

“My secret name is Walled City.”

But the Chinese advisor had set Kublai thinking. “Perhaps Zhenjin was drawn to the Han way? But how could he when in his early youth he had been out there in the north on horseback, controlling and extending the Mongol Empire?

“Yes the massacres; men, women, children; if they did not submit.” He could hear the screams now.

“Do you not regret those?” prompted Liu.

“Regret? Our Buddhist friend in the court says Mongols have no compassion. He is right but it is because life is brutal on the steppe, harsh winters, famine, family feuds and we have no religion like his.”

“But you could learn.”

“And become weak like your people?”

“Are we weak?” Said Liu Bingzhong.

“Yes,” said Kublai, “your wall could not keep us out.”

“But we must have something for you to stay.”

“Yes,” said Kublai, “we stay. It is not our way to stay. We build no cities, yet we have built an empire.”

“Yes, it is a paradox, difficult for me to understand.” Said Liu.

“It is simple. The grazing is good. Our empire now stretches from the China Sea to the Kievan Rus and trade flows freely on the Silk Road.”

“But you have done it in blood and built resentment.”

“We are hunters and stockmen. We kill animals for food. We kill a sheep by cutting it open and squeezing the heart until it stops beating - killing is second nature.” “Even of humans?”

“Shamanism says we are little different from animals.”

“Buddhism is opposite,” said Liu, “every human birth is precious and they preach compassion – care for others.”

“Yes my wife tells me this. The monk Haiyun instructs her. But we cannot give up eating meat,” said Kublai, “Vegetables will not grow on the steppe. Now,” he said rising, “I and the court must go to Shangdu (the summer capital) to escape the heat.”

He turned to Ochicher, officer of his bodyguard.