In April of the fifth year of Shunzhi (1648), Emperor Taiji's eldest son, Hauge the First Prince of Su, died, and he was Chinese New Year's Eve nine years old.
As for the reason for Hauge's death, there have always been many opinions, and the more mainstream view is that Hauge was brutally tortured and persecuted in prison, and then died of schizophrenia. In addition, there are two views, one is that Haug was assassinated, and the other is that Hauge was tortured in prison and committed suicide.
However, just a few months before his death, Hauge had just pacified Zhang Xianzhong's Daxi peasant military regime, and it is said that Hauge personally shot Zhang Xianzhong, making an immortal contribution to the unification of the Qing Dynasty. But even so, Hauge still could not escape the tragic end of the persecution and tragic death.
The reason why Hauge will end in such a miserable way, in addition to Dorgon's domineering and vicious and irreconcilable contradictions between him and Dorgon due to the struggle for power, the "pig teammates" around Hauge who are selling for glory also have a very critical role in promoting Hauge's downfall and eventual tragic death.
After the death of Emperor Taiji, the dispute over the throne of the Qing Dynasty made the relationship between Dorgon and Hauge already a matter of water and fire.
In the eighth year of Chongde (1643), Emperor Taiji of the Qing Dynasty died, and because Emperor Taiji did not make any explanations and arrangements for the succession to the throne during his lifetime, it was followed by a seventeen-day dispute over the throne of the Qing Dynasty.
Among them, the most popular candidates are Hauge and Dolgun.
Hauge, the eldest son of Emperor Taiji, was given the title of Prince of Su, one of the "Four Princes", and was in charge of household affairs. Because Hauge had the identity of the Emperor Taiji Prince, hauge at this time was supported by the two yellow flags that emperor Taiji personally led before his death, especially the two yellow flag senior generals represented by Sonny, Turai, Turge, Bayintu, HeLuohui, Tan Tai, Leng Monk Ji and other people, very firmly showed the attitude of supporting Hauge as emperor, coupled with the positive blue flag he was in charge of, Hauge sat on the support of the three flags, and his strength was very strong.
Dorgon, who was given the title of Prince of Rui during the Emperor Taiji period, was also ranked among the "Four Princes", and he was in charge of the affairs of the bureaucracy. At this time, Dorgon had the support of his two half-brothers Azig and Dordor behind him, and these three brothers were in charge of the two white flags that were very powerful in the Eight Banners, and in terms of the number of cattle records alone, the total number of cattle that supported Hauge's two yellow flags and the positive blue flags was only a very slight advantage over the two white flags, which can be said to be evenly matched, and the struggle for the throne also reached a stalemate.
At a time when the two forces were at a stalemate, Daishan the Prince of Li, who commanded the two red flags, and Zilharang, the Prince of Zheng, who commanded the blue flag, successively expressed their support for Hauge's ascension to the throne, which made Hauge's strength on "paper" and the support he received far exceeded that of Dorgon. So Hauge, who felt confident of winning, said his words that made him regret for the rest of his life:
"I am blessed with a small virtue and a thin body, and I can live up to this task."
In fact, this is a very normal polite remark, if it is placed in the Central Plains Han Dynasty, "repeated resignation" has become a rule and system, that is to say, it is not enough to resign once, you have to push off three times in a row to agree to the throne, in the traditional Confucian culture this is a humble way. However, this was not at all in the Qing Dynasty court, which was not highly Sinicized at that time.
Therefore, Hauge, who originally just wanted to be modest, was immediately counterattacked by the Dolgun brothers, and the situation between the two sides once again reached an impasse, and the two yellow flags and two white flags were secretly arranged, and there were faint signs of fire.
Under such circumstances, the Prince of Zheng, Zilharang, proposed that neither Haug nor Dorgon could succeed to the throne, but that Fu Lin, the ninth son of Emperor Taiji, ascended the throne. Neither Hauge nor Dorgon objected to this, and in this way, the five-year-old Fu Lin ascended to the throne, which was the later Shunzhi Emperor.
Some people say that it was Dorgon who hindered Hauge's succession to the throne and made the throne that originally belonged to Hauge change hands to others, but it was precisely because of Hauge's existence that Dorgon was not able to ascend the throne.
If purely from the perspective of identity, there is a gap between Hauge and the two young sons of the Emperor Taiji, namely Fu Lin, born to the Concubine Bumubutai of Yongfu Palace, and Bomu Bogol, born to the noble concubine of the Lin toe Palace, after all, Hauge's birth mother has been divorced from the Emperor Taiji by Nurhaci, and has not received any canonization since then, so this has become a hard wound on Hauge's identity. In addition, Huang Taiji had previously married three concubines from the Mongolian Horqin tribe, including Empress Zhezhe, which showed that if Huang Taiji could continue to live, he would inevitably choose a prince with Mongolian blood, especially Horqin blood, to inherit the throne, and in this regard, Hauge was not the preferred target of Emperor Taiji Lichu.
In accordance with the ancient Chinese principle of succession of "having a concubine", "no concubine standing long", "brother and brother", Hauge sat on the identity of the emperor's eldest son, compared to Dorgon, he has the qualification of priority succession, coupled with his outstanding military achievements, so it has a strong appeal and cohesion, and then can reunite the two yellow flags in the case of a group of dragons without a leader, forming a force against Dolgun, so that Dorgon does not dare to act rashly, but also successfully leaves the throne in the blood of the emperor Taiji.
After Zilharang proposed to support Fu Lin as emperor, Hauge, although he had a lot of displeasure and disobedience in his heart, still accepted this result very calmly, and for Fu Lin's wholehearted assistance, it can be said that he understood the overall situation and took the overall situation into account, and became an important force to contain the dorgon forces, which was a huge contribution to Shunzhi.
However, it is precisely because of this that an irreconcilable sharp contradiction arises between Dorgon and Hauge, who not only becomes Dolgun's "enemy", but also one of Dorgon's most important political enemies on the road to power.
In order to overthrow Hauge, Dorgon suppressed it by disintegrating the two yellow flags from within.
Because Prince Zheng's Zilharang had "meritorious service" for Shunzhi's ascension to the throne, during the imperial Taiji period, it was second only to Prince Li Daishan, ranking second in the order of hundred officials, so Zilharang became the first auxiliary prince. And Dorgon also became an auxiliary prince because of his status and merits during the Emperor Taiji period, ranking after Zilharang in status.
However, at this time, Zilharang, knowing that his ability in strategy and power was inferior to Dolgun, chose to take the initiative to give in, which was to take the initiative to put himself behind Dolgun, so that Dolgun had the absolute right to speak. At the same time, Daishan, the only remaining prince of the "Four Princes", due to his advanced age and being suppressed by the Emperor Taiji for many years, although he has a high reputation and influence, he has long been far away from the center of power and is in a state of peace of mind, which makes Hauge the biggest threat to Dorgon.
Of course, although Dorgon was extremely resentful of Hauge, he did not immediately directly target Hauge, on the one hand, although Hauge at this time lost the throne and was expelled from the core of the rule, he still had a very strong strength, on the other hand, if Dorgon rushed to attack Hauge without any reason, he would inevitably arouse the vigilance of Daishan and Zilharang and others, but would put himself in a disadvantageous situation.
Therefore, Dorgon chose to make the two yellow flags his primary target, especially sonny, Aobai and other people who had previously supported Hauge, and were brutally persecuted by Dorgon, and Dorgon acted in addition to weakening Hauge's support, which was also to weaken the foundation of Shunzhi's imperial rule, after all, the two yellow flags were nominally led by the Shunzhi Emperor.
Under the high-pressure situation of Dorgon, the Bayintu family first rebelled.
Baiyintu's younger brother Gong Adai denounced Zilharang, saying that he had secretly expressed his dissatisfaction with Dolgun, and as a result, Zilharang was not only fined 5,000 taels of silver, but also gradually kicked out of the center of power, and the post of auxiliary prince was abolished, and Dolgun's brother Dordor was replaced.
Immediately after that, Heluohui, who was deeply trusted by Hauge, also defected.
He first took the initiative to report to Dorgon that Turai, Turg, and Shubilon were deposed. He then reveals to Dorgon that Hauge's words have slandered Dorgon.
"Dorgon was a sick and unblessed man, thin in stature, suffering from wind disease, often dizzy, and sudden death in his prime, mostly related to indulgence."
This undoubtedly allowed Dorgon to find an excuse to punish Hauge, and almost killed Hauge, and finally because the Shunzhi Emperor "wept and did not eat", Hauge saved his life, but he was also reduced to a common man.
Subsequently, Tan Tai and Leng Monk Ji also surrendered to Dolgun successively, and actively reported and exposed the generals and courtiers of the other two yellow flags, which caused the disintegration of the two yellow flags by Dorgon and their strength was greatly weakened.
Here I would also like to mention the cold monk machine in particular. At the beginning, Leng Monk Ji was a close confidant of Mang Guji, and when the contradiction between Mang Guji and Huang Taiji was gradually sharpening, it was he who "betrayed the lord and sought glory" and took the initiative to expose the two banner leaders of these two blue flags, Mang Guertaidege, and their sister Mang Guji for "plotting against him", resulting in the zhenglan banner being annexed by Huang Taiji, killing more than a thousand people, and even Mang Guji himself was executed by Emperor Taiji Lingchi. This time, the leng monk repeated the trick and betrayed the many officials of the two yellow flags again for his own benefit.
Of the eight, the only people who did not defect to Dorgon were Soni, Aobai, Turai, and Turg.
Turai, the son of Fei Yingdong, the head of the "Founding Five Ministers", Turg, the son of Eyidu, one of the "Founding Five Ministers", and after the death of Eyidu, married Princess Mukush, the daughter of Nurhaci, who was originally his father's wife, so Dorgon had mercy on these two men, and they had died in the early years of Shunzhi.
As for Sonny and Aobai, they were brutally suppressed by Dolgun.
Sony, deposed of all titles, was sent to Shengjing to guard the imperial tomb. As for Aobai, he was punished by Dorgon three times and almost died. It was not until Dorgon's death that Soni and Aobai were able to regain their identities and regain their role as the Shunzhi Emperor.
Hauge, who returned from the Western Expedition, was tortured to death by Dorgon.
In the third year of Shunzhi (1646), Hauge was made a general of Jingyuan and led troops to Sichuan to pacify Zhang Xianzhong's Daxi regime.
Prior to this, after Li Zicheng, Dorgon let his brother Azig lead the army, and when attacking the small court of the Southern Ming Dynasty in Jiangnan, he arranged for his brother Duoduo to lead the army, this time, Dorgon "broke the sky" and let Hauge lead the army to attack Zhang Xianzhong, which also showed that Dorgon must have other ideas and arrangements.
On the one hand, Dorgon was using Hauge and another Zilharang who was a threat to him to stabilize his position in the DPRK; on the other hand, this was also Dorgon's strategy of "killing people with a knife", allowing Hauge to recruit Zhang Xianzhong, no doubt seeing Zhang Xianzhong's fierceness and the complexity of Sichuan's terrain and people's livelihood, and wanted to use this to strike Hauge, and even more hoped to see Haug buried in it.
However, what Dorgon did not expect was that Hauge not only retreated from Sichuan, but also completed the goal of pacifying Zhang Xianzhong's Daxi regime, and Hauge also shot Zhang Xianzhong with his own hands, thus making a great achievement.
But if Hauge is really rewarded for his merits, Dorgon must be ten thousand unwilling, he will not give Hauge a chance to make a comeback, and at this time he is already the "Emperor Uncle Regent", with great power in his hands, so he also began to act against Hauge
In February of the fifth year of Shunzhi (1648), Hauge returned to Beijing after victory, but what awaited Hauge was such "false" charges as taking rewards and improperly employing people, and Hauge was imprisoned by Dorgon and began to suffer torture.
In April of that year, Hauge died a tragic death, not only the blue flag under his command was obtained by Dorgon, but even his Fujin was snatched by Dorgon and Azig, and the first Prince Su of the Qing Dynasty ended his life in such a tragic and humiliating way.
In fact, if you look closely, there is also a feeling of "both shengyu and he shengliang" between Hauge and Dorgon.
First, it's two people who are similar in age. Although Dorgon was Hauge's uncle, he was three years younger than Hauge, and both died at the age of thirty-nine.
Secondly, the mothers of both men suffered misfortune. Hauge's biological mother, Uranara, was the aunt of Dolgun's mother, Princess Abbahai, who was divorced by Nurhaci and the Emperor Taiji, while Abbahai ended in martyrdom.
Again, both were teenagers and had the power and status of the court.
In the end, both ended up with a very tragic ending, and in the process suffered betrayal by their former cronies. Hauge's side is the Heluohui, Leng Zengji and others who once supported him, and the Dorgon side is the Sukhsaha he once trusted and valued, in other words, these two people were "pitted to death" by their own people.
In the eighth year of Shunzhi (1651), the pro-government Shunzhi Emperor immediately rehabilitated Zhaoxue for his eldest brother Hauge, and at the same time liquidated "the threat of coercion, so that Prince Su would not be allowed to die, so that he would accept his concubines, and take his property", as one of dorgon's sixteen major crimes. In this way, Hauge was posthumously honored as the Prince of Heshuosu, and was seized by his fourth son FuShou (富绶) the hereditary Prince of Hauge and Shuo, while Shunzhi also took the white flag under dorgon and returned it to the Hauge family.
At this point, the feud between Hauge and Dorgon can also be regarded as a consummation