Chapter Three: The Path of the Iron Pot

Tokhtua was not at all surprised by Guo Kang’s assessment.

"You know the caliber of the people I have around me," he said, shrugging. "Among all these folks, not one of them is... well, a man of literary virtue. It’s taken us a great deal of effort just to write this much."

"With only our own resources, this is all we can manage for now. Don’t worry, I’m not leaving it all to you," he added. "I’ve called for several other helpers."

Seeing that Tokhtua had resigned himself to the situation, Guo Kang could only nod in understanding. He turned his gaze back to the single line of text. Judging by the choice of words, Tokhtua and his team had indeed deliberated carefully.

"The Great Qin Great Roman Ulus" was a formal designation only recently adopted. Guo Kang suspected it was an imitation of the nomenclature used by the Yuan Dynasty.

The term "Ulus" is a feature of steppe terminology, roughly encompassing both the meanings of "subjects" and "territory." Because the steppe is vast and sparsely populated, and the people are frequently on the move, focusing solely on "territory" lacks significance. An Ulus can be understood simply as a group of subjects and the various pastures they occupy, which together form a unit of enfeoffment.

When the Mongol regime was first established, it was called the "Yeke Mongol Ulus." Translated directly, it is quite... rustic, simply meaning "the great Mongol territory."

Later, when Kublai Khan proclaimed himself Emperor and adopted "Great Yuan" as the dynastic title, the full name of the Yuan Dynasty in documents sent to other khanates was written as "The Great Yuan Great Mongol Ulus." In official Yuan parlance, the Great Yuan was the Mongols, and the Mongols were the Great Yuan; they were one and the same. Some documents simply wrote it as "The Great Mongol Ulus, known as the 'Great Yuan'."

As for why both were included despite meaning the same thing... perhaps it was a case of repeating what is important.

Of course, these were the Yuan Dynasty’s own claims. Whether other khanates regarded the Great Yuan regime as the Mongols is another matter, depending on the specific time and circumstances.

For the current Purple Tent Khanate, this phrasing could be borrowed. "Great Qin" was the ancient Central Plains term for Rome, and "Roman" was the local name, but they expressed the same meaning. Stacking them together—"The Roman State, known as the 'Great Qin'"—made it easier to understand and sounded much more official.

"Basileus Khan" was easier to grasp. The official title of the Purple Tent Khanate’s emperor was the Greek term "Basileus." Ever since the Purple Tent was still operating in Bulgaria as a minor power, everyone had known this title. For convenience, people colloquially called him "Basileus Khan." Over time, it became the customary khan-title for the Roman Emperor.

The second half of the sentence concerned the address for the Ming Dynasty.

There were, in fact, many ways to refer to the Ming. Among the various Mongol-affiliated khanates, there was a surplus of names. The most popular was to simply use the dynastic title, "Great Ming Ulus," or to add an ethnic prefix, calling it the "Khitan Great Ming State."

In correspondence between the Ming and its tributaries or garrison regions, it was often called "Duo-Tuo-La-Du Ulus" or "Duo-Tuo-La-Du Khazar," which translates directly to "The Inner Lands."

In external documents, however, the official Ming-preferred translation was "Dunta Ulus," meaning "The Central State." This was the officially designated name, the most formal Mongol-language designation. Using this name would certainly make the Ming people happier.

As for the final part, "Zhu Tianping Khagan," that referred to the current Ming Emperor.

Guo Kang himself was surprised to hear from others that in this world, Zhu Biao, the eldest son of the Ming founder Zhu Yuanzhang, had not died young but had ascended the throne normally, adopting the reign title "Tianping." It was then that Guo Kang realized the changes in this world might be more complex than his foster father simply possessing "internal energy."

"Khagan" is an honorific above "Khan." If an ordinary Khan is a king, the Khagan is an emperor. In the Yuan Dynasty, this word was translated directly as Emperor. The title "Zhu Tianping Khagan" was also a habitual usage.

In short, the good news was that in this short sentence, Tokhtua and his team had considered the nuances and the sensitivities of both sides, clearly having performed diligent research. The bad news was that, after all that deliberation, this was the only sentence they had managed to write.

Of course, there was no helping it. As Tokhtua himself said, his subordinates were simply not cut out for this.

To maintain a balance and court local nobles, his attendants and close ministers were almost all Bulgarian or Serbian. The reason for this lay in the overwhelming influence of the Greek women in the palace.

To secure more support, intermarriage with locals was a common option. Ever since the Purple Tent moved south, the primary wives of successive Khans had almost all been Greek, with the exception of Tokhtua’s great-grandfather, the great Purple Tent ruler Basil Yeriog Borjiginus.

Daughters from the great Eastern Roman families had held the inner court for generations. The Khanate’s territory was vast, but the princesses and noblewomen from Bulgaria, Serbia, and the Rus lands could never outmaneuver these cunning Greek matrons. Even the Khans and the Pillars of the State were often driven to distraction by them.

In the early days of the Khanate, polygamy was practiced, and these signs were already obvious. Later, as the Khanate became increasingly Roman and monogamy became the mainstream, the advantage of the Greek noblewomen became irreversible.

The Khanate needed the support of the Greeks, but could not allow them to completely control the palace. As a countermeasure, successive Khans had to cultivate cadres for their heirs from a young age, having them bond with talents from other ethnic groups early on to avoid being manipulated by their mothers and maternal families. This included forming "anda" (blood brotherhood) with people like Guo Kang, as well as selecting these young Serbian followers.

However, while these men were fine for fighting, asking them to handle diplomacy with the Ming was asking too much...

The problem was that relations with the Ming were of vital importance to the Khanate. Sooner or later, they would have to take on this task; there was no avoiding it.

For the Khanate, commerce was essential.

Constantinople was prosperous precisely because it sat at the mouth of the Black Sea, forcing all goods from every direction to transit and gather there. Once trade routes were monopolized or diverted by others, the city would quickly suffer massive losses, or even turn into a bottomless pit that consumed the empire’s economy from within.

The Golden Horde once provided a prime example of this.

During the reign of Uzbeg Khan, the power of the Golden Horde was at its zenith; from the Yuan Dynasty to Bulgaria, all were lands under the Great Khan. The court invested heavily in building and maintaining roads and post stations, garrisoning them with heavy troops.

Caravans didn’t even need to carry food, fodder, or hire guides, because for a fee, the post stations and settlements along the way provided everything needed. There was no need to worry about bandits, either, because all the tribes along the route had been thoroughly subdued by the Great Khan.

This made trade extremely smooth. Starting from Yuan Dadu, it took only 270 days to reach Europe, including time for loading, unloading, and transit across land and sea.

These investments brought massive returns. The steppe route maintained by the Golden Horde, being shorter and more convenient, once replaced the ancient Silk Road that went through Central Asia and Persia. Goods from the East flowed continuously into the capital, Sarai, and then on to Europe and Western Asia.

These goods brought the Khanate unimaginable wealth. Arab travelers recorded that this city on the steppe had surpassed the prosperity of the cities in Persia and Mesopotamia. Even the entire Rus region entered an era of unprecedented richness—an era that likely would not be seen again for a very long time.

Among these goods, silk was the most famous early on. But in terms of trade volume, the largest were porcelain and ironware. Especially in maritime trade, ironware accounted for the largest share of the weight.

Whether by sea or land, the most common type of ironware exported was the large iron pot. The so-called Maritime Silk Road could just as easily be called the "Iron Pot Road."

It could be said that the iron pot was the lifeblood of the Khanate.

This was evident in many ways. For instance, the last emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, Toghon Temür, had a name that meant "Iron Pot."

When even the emperor was named "Iron Pot," one could see how important this item was.

Even Tokhtua himself—his name, in fact, also meant "pot."