Emperor Taiji's eldest son, Hauge, although his birth was not noble, but in his power and position, he was the most prominent of all the sons of Emperor Taiji.
Hauge, the eldest son of Emperor Taiji, was born to the Fujin Uranara clan of Emperor Taiji's successor.
After the death of Emperor Taiji's wife and daughter of Eyidu, one of the "Five Ministers" of the Nurhaci period, the Uranara clan became the head of Emperor Taiji's fu jin, and later Empress Xiaoduanwen Zhezhe, who was also the side fujin of emperor taiji at this time.
However, in the eighth year of the Mandate of Heaven (1623), the Uranara clan entered the palace of Nurhaci in a palanquin, and when they met Belle Azig, they did not get off the palanquin to perform the ceremony, and this arrogant and rude behavior made Nurhaci furious and ordered the emperor Taiji to divorce the Uranara clan. After that, there is no historical record of the Uranara clan, and it was from this time that Zhezhe was corrected and became the head of the Imperial Taiji, Fujin, and after the Ascension of the Emperor Taiji, became the Great Fu jin, and later the Empress of the Middle Palace.
Therefore, in terms of origin, Hauge is not noble, and even this has become a major disadvantage of Hauge, but Hauge, as the eldest son of Emperor Taiji, has a huge advantage, that is, his age.
In the eighth year of Chongde (1643 AD), when Emperor Taiji died, Hauge was already 34 years old, and among the surviving imperial Taiji heirs at that time, the oldest was Ye Bushu, who was 16 years old at the time, and Hauge was 18 years older than him, not to mention Fu Lin, who was only 5 years old at this time, and Bomu Bogol, who was only 5 years old at this time.
It is precisely because of the advantage of age that Hauge began to kill the enemy as early as the Nurhaci period and made meritorious achievements. After Emperor Taiji ascended the throne, he followed Emperor Taiji in his southern conquest of the Northern War, and in a series of battles against Mongolia, the Ming Dynasty, and Korea, he made many military achievements, and after Emperor Taiji changed his title to emperor, he was enshrined as the Prince of Heshuosu, one of the "Four Princes", and also took charge of the household department, sitting on an equal footing with his uncles.
At the same time, Hauge was also the banner master of the Zhenglan Banner, and he had a certain amount of military power in his hands, which the other heirs of the Emperor Taiji did not have.
It can be seen that although according to the tradition of "the son is noble to the mother", when the Emperor Taiji died, the most noble of all his heirs was Bomu Bogol, born of the noble concubine Namu Zhong of the Lintong Palace, followed by the Concubine Bumubutai of Yongfu Palace, that is, the fulin born to the later Empress Xiaozhuang, but in terms of power and status, Hauge was the most competitive of the Emperor Taiji's heirs.
In a good situation, Hauge's sentence "Fu Xiao De Bo" made him lose the throne bitterly.
On September 21, 1643, the eighth year of Chongde (1643), The Emperor Taiji suddenly collapsed, and since the Emperor Taiji had not made any arrangements for the succession, according to the system of "eight and Shuobeile ruling the country" established in the Nurhaci period, the eight banner masters elected a new emperor.
The competition for the throne began first between Emperor Taiji's eldest son Hauge and Emperor Taiji's younger brother Dorgon.
In terms of the forces behind the support, the two can be said to be on an equal footing.
In addition to the support of the Zhenglan Banner that he was in charge of, the Zhenghuang Banner and the Yellow Banner led by the Emperor Taiji also stood in Hauge, and the two senior generals of the Yellow Banner, such as Soni, Aobai, Turai, Turg, Baiyintu, Heluohui, Tan Tai, and Leng Monkji, formed a friendship of eight worships and fully supported Hauge's succession.
Dorgon has the support of his brother Azig and his younger brother Dordor, the brothers are united, and the brothers have the powerful white flag and the white flag of the eight flags, and the strength is comparable to the two yellow flags that support Hauge.
At a time when Hauge and Dorgon were at a stalemate, Prince Daishan, the Prince of Li, who held two red flags, and Zilharang, the Prince of Zheng, who commanded the blue flag, expressed their support for Hauge, which made Hauge gain an almost "overwhelming" advantage.
At this time, Hauge has won the support of six of the eight flags, which seems to have been a stable victory, and it is also the common sentiment of people to be modest, so Hauge said:
"I am blessed with a small virtue and a thin body, and I can live up to this task."
Who knows that it is such a humble sentence that has created the biggest mistake and regret of Hauge's life.
The situation, which had become clearer and clearer, fluctuated again, with Azig and Dodo once again fighting back against Hauge, and Daishan angrily preparing to leave. The generals of the two yellow flags, led by Sonny and Aobai, who had already surrounded the palace at this time, spoke out
"I wait for the emperor to eat, the emperor to dress, the emperor to control me, and Enbi is higher than the sky." If I don't make a prince, I'm willing to go from the emperor and the underground."
Such words have the intention of breaking the ship, and the troops of the two white flags are also deploying and mobilizing in and around the city, and an internal fire is about to occur.
At this time, the Prince of Zheng, Zilharang, stood up and proposed a new plan to not establish Hauge and Dolgun, and to support the ninth son of Emperor Taiji as Fulin, which was approved by Daishan and Dolgun, and Hauge, who had no choice but to agree to his brother Fulin to succeed to the throne, which was the later Shunzhi Emperor.
It was precisely because of the weakness and hesitation of personality, and the lack of courage that of course did not let go, that Haug eventually lost the throne. Afterwards, even Dodo "satirized" Hauge by saying:
"Prince Zheng of Heshuo (Zilharang) first proposed to make Er a king, but because the king was soft and weak, he was invincible, and he went to bed."
After losing the throne, Hauge also began his tragic ending.
In the first year of Shunzhi (1644), Hauge was accused of slandering Dorgon, and the person who betrayed Hauge was the same Heluohui who had firmly supported his bid for the throne a year earlier, and Hauge was also sentenced to death. Just when Hauge was also preparing to die generously, the six-year-old Shunzhi Emperor Fu Lin stood up and saved Hauge with tears, and finally Hauge was deposed for his crime, and finally saved his life.
After this, Hauge brought troops into Sichuan to pacify Zhang Xianzhong's Great West regime, and even shot Zhang Xianzhong with his own hands, making an immortal contribution. The good news reached the Capital Division, and the Shunzhi Emperor personally issued an edict to reward Hauge.
However, how could Dorgon, who was already in power at this time, let Hauge go.
In February of the fifth year of Shunzhi (1648), Hauge was imprisoned shortly after returning to Beijing for concealing the fact that his subordinates had committed false credit and using the brother of a sinner, and died in prison in April of the fifth year of Shunzhi (1648), at the age of thirty-nine. After Hauge's death, his Fujins were also occupied by the Dorgon brothers, and the blue flag he commanded was also snatched by Dorgon.
Hauge's tragic ending can be said to be the result of the joint action of many common factors.
First, Hauge lacks a real solid support.
Unlike Dorgon's brothers who work together and support the two white flags, Hauge's other support forces can be said to have "ulterior motives" except for the positive blue flag he is in charge of.
The two yellow flags support Hauge in order to keep their place. After all, the Manchus honored the yellow position, and after the Emperor Taiji came to power, he carried out a "yellow-white exchange" between the two white flags he commanded and the two yellow flags led by the Dolgun brothers, and if it was really Dolgun who succeeded to the throne, it was really possible to carry out another "yellow-white exchange", which was what the two yellow flags did not want to see.
Prince Zilharang of Zheng and Prince Daishan of Li supported Hauge, on the one hand, in consideration of their own interests, and on the other hand, in order to honor the tradition of "father and son succession" and maintain the stability of the court.
Therefore, once there are other heirs of Emperor Taiji who can inherit the throne, then hauge's abandonment will become inevitable, and then the rebellion of HeLuohui and others will rake hauge to illustrate this point.
Secondly, Hauge's personal ability and strategy can be said to be a significant gap compared to Dolgun.
Although Hauge is also very intelligent and capable, Dorgon can be made the Prince of Rui, and a "Rui" can see his wisdom. In particular, Hauge has come all the way, with the protection of the Emperor Taiji, it can be said that with today's position of power, it is a matter of course, and Dorgon is facing the situation that his parents died at a young age, except for the three brothers who are helpless, and today's achievements are completely dependent on his own struggle, which is far from being comparable to Hauge.
This eventually led to Hauge being at a disadvantage in his confrontation with Dolgun, and was eventually killed by Dorgon.
Third, it is Hauge's own personality problem.
As mentioned earlier, Hauge lacks the courage to be unyielding, and this is also the weakness of his personality that accompanies him throughout his life. The cultivation of this character weakness is closely related to his birth mother, mother-in-law and hair-tied wife.
He originally had a noble origin, and had no advantage in status because of his mother's problems; his mother-in-law, Mang Guji, who was also his aunt, was executed by Emperor Taiji Lingchi because of his feud with Huang Taiji; and Hauge, in order to appease Huang Taiji's anger, did not hesitate to kill his own hair-tied wife, who was also MangGuji's daughter.
It is precisely because of these things that Hauge has a lot of "stains", which also makes Hauge lack self-confidence in the face of Dorgon and other Manchurian nobles, and "Fu XiaoDe Bo" has also become his true portrayal.
It is precisely because of the combined action of these internal and external factors that hauge was unable to touch the throne of the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and also created his tragic fate.