On September 21, 1643, Huang Taiji died suddenly, and with the death of Huang Taiji, the Qing Dynasty, which was still outside Guanxi, encountered a major political crisis.
Because The death of Emperor Taiji was too sudden, and no heir was designated before his death, who would inherit the throne became the top priority after Emperor Taiji's death. Logically, after the death of Huang Taiji, the throne should be inherited by his son, but in fact, the throne will not necessarily fall into the hands of Huang Taiji's son.
Because as far as the situation was concerned, Dorgon was the most powerful figure in the Qing Dynasty. If he wants to come out and grab the throne, it is really difficult to say who the throne will eventually fall on, but in fact, we also know that later Dorgon retreated to the second place and chose to be the regent, and the throne was ceded to the ninth son of the Emperor Taiji, Shunzhi Emperor Fulin.
According to folklore, it was Xiaozhuang who took the initiative to find Dorgon at that time, and then committed himself to him, so Dorgon fell under Xiaozhuang's pomegranate skirt and was willing to give up the throne.
Is that really the case? What kind of insider information is hidden behind this power struggle? Is this a moral degeneration or a sinister human heart?
In fact, after the death of Emperor Taiji, Dorgon was indeed the most powerful contender for the throne, because in the whole Qing Dynasty, his strength was the strongest, of course, I said that the strength was not only the soldiers and horses he had at hand, but also his ability and prestige.
Let's start with dorgon's abilities.
According to the historical records, Dorgon was the brother of a fierce general who "attacked the city and won the field". For example, in the 11th year of Chongzhen, that is, in 1638 AD, Dolgun led an army into the customs on the orders of Emperor Taiji, and wherever the iron hooves went, he crossed the three provinces of Shanxi, Hebei and Shandong, and for half a year, he turned to two thousand miles. During this period, more than 50 cities were successively conquered, two governor-level officers were killed, and all of them won 57 battles, capturing more than 460,000 people and animals, more than 4,000 gold, and more than 970,000 silver.
This military operation was the largest result of the five large-scale detours of the Eight Banners to attack the Ming Dynasty, and his military feats dwarfed Hauge, Azig, and Dodo, who were known for their bravery and good fighting.
In a series of military operations during the Huang Taiji period, Dolgun had a good performance, it can be said that he was the first general in the Qing army during the Huang Taiji period, and he won honor and status for himself with his military achievements.
What is remarkable is that Dorgon is not only a fierce warrior, but also a special political mind.
For example, Dorgon once said to the university scholar Ganglin, "In the past, when I read the Ming Dynasty's imperial reports, the people below fooled the emperor, and the emperor's will also fooled the people below, which was the most ridiculous, but fortunately I didn't look at it", from which we can see that Dorgon has extraordinary cultural literacy and political sensitivity.
For example, in the first year of Chongdeok, that is, in 1636 AD, Dorgon went out with Emperor Taiji to Korea, he took Ganghwa Island in one fell swoop, captured 76 members of the clan including Korean princesses, princes, and concubines, but he did not kill the captives like other generals of the Qing Dynasty at that time, but treated them with courtesy and returned them to the King of Korea, which greatly touched the King of Korea and then surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.
In the ninth year of Tiancong, Dorgon also made a special contribution, when he went on an expedition to Mongolia Lin Dan Khan, he also got the "Chuanguo Jade Seal" that had been missing for more than 200 years, so Dorgon took the "Chuanguo Jade Seal" back and dedicated it to the Emperor Taiji.
At that time, this "Chuanguo Jade Seal" was considered to be the "Chuanguo Jade Seal" that was handed down from the time of Qin Shi Huang, and in order to obtain this "Chuanguo Jade Seal", Zhu Di, the ancestor of Ming Cheng, made five expeditions to Mongolia, and finally it was gone. Now this "Jade Seal of the Inheritance of the Country" was obtained by The Emperor Taiji, which made the entire Jin Kingdom at that time think that they had been blessed by heaven, and the Emperor Taiji also changed the Yuan Daqing and ascended to the throne of the Emperor of the Qing Empire.
Therefore, Dorgon is a premier figure in terms of military ability, political accomplishment and merit.
Of course, only ability and merit are not enough, and whether or not to seize the throne is to a large extent a matter of unity of opinion. It's just that the Qing Dynasty at that time had not yet entered the Central Plains, so the inheritance tradition of the Qing Dynasty at that time could not be understood according to our Confucian thinking, according to Confucian thinking, it should be inherited by the eldest son, but in fact, in the case of Huang Taiji, he was the eighth son of Nurhaci, and the Shunzhi Emperor Fulin who later inherited Huang Taiji was not the eldest son of Huang Taiji, but the ninth son, so the Jurchens at that time did not decide the heir according to the Confucian concept in our Han culture.
At that time, the Qing Dynasty still continued the tradition of the Jurchens to a large extent, and from this point of view, Dorgon was qualified to inherit the throne.
According to jurchen tradition, property was inherited by the younger son, and Nurhaci in his later years,
The two yellow flags, which symbolized the Khan's throne, were handed over to the three brothers Dorgon, Azig, and Dodo, and Dorgon, Azig, and Dodo were all born to Nurhaci's concubine Abahai.
Only at the time of Nurhaci's death, the three Dolgun brothers were still young, nurhaci also made a will, asking Abahai to be martyred for him, so the three Dolgun brothers lost their position in an instant, and The Emperor Taiji took advantage of this chaos and gradually controlled the situation before becoming the head of the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, according to the tradition of the Jurchens, Dorgon was qualified to inherit the throne, but his throne was previously taken away by Huang Taiji, and now that Huang Taiji is dead, he wants to get involved in the throne, which is completely in the past for the Manchus at that time, and it is also completely reasonable.
At the same time, the Jurchens also had the custom of selection, that is, to determine the heir to the highest power according to ability, prestige and status, and from this point of view, Dorgon should not be tolerated.
Therefore, when emperor Taiji died, whether in terms of ability, merit, status or legal theory, Dorgon could completely inherit the throne, so why didn't Dorgon compete for the throne? Is Dolgun stupid? Or is it because Dorgon really fell under the pomegranate skirt of Xiaozhuang?
In fact, Dorgon was a very shrewd person, if he could grab the throne at that time, he would have grabbed it a long time ago, and the reason why he did not grab it was because he did not have enough certainty, and the grasp of seizing the throne was not big, in the end, it depended on strength.
At that time, the Qing Dynasty could basically be divided into two factions, one was the one headed by Dolgun, who intended to support Dorgon to inherit the throne. There was also a faction that was naturally opposed to Dorgon's succession to the throne, led by Hauge, the eldest son of Emperor Taiji.
Let's first look at the basic disk of the two sides, the basic disk of Dorgon is controlled by his three brothers, the two white flags, and Hauge is the flag owner of the positive blue flag, so the positive blue flag is the basic disk of Hauge.
Having said the basics, let's look at the attitude of the other Five Flags.
At that time, although the two yellow flags were directly subordinate to the emperor Taiji, it was reasonable to support the crown prince's succession, but in fact, the two yellow flags also had two important ministers to support Dolgun;
The banner master of the two red flags is Daishan, who is the eldest son of Nurhaci and the eldest brother of Emperor Taiji and Dolgun, and although Daishan and his son support Dolgun, they are also worried that supporting Dolgun will cause serious infighting and lead to the demise of Manchuria, so there is no explicit support for Dolgun;
Dorgon is on par with Hauge
The blue-flagd banner lord Zilharang was also ambiguous, supporting both the crown prince's succession and Dorgon's support.
Therefore, before deciding on the heir to the throne, most of the two yellow flags will stand in the position of the crown heir, while a small number will stand on the side of Dolgun, from this point of view, the Dorgon faction has about two half-flags, and the Hauge faction also has about two half-flags.
And the remaining three flags, it is difficult to say. If Dorgon insisted on seizing the throne at that time, although the result is not easy to say, it is certain that a large-scale civil war will inevitably break out, if such a serious civil unrest occurs, the strength of the Qing Dynasty will inevitably be greatly damaged, even if it can be won in the end, the entire Qing Dynasty will basically be tossed almost, if so, do not say that in the future into the Central Plains, I am afraid that when it has not yet entered the Central Plains, the Ming Dynasty can also destroy them.
So Dorgon just grabbed it, and what he grabbed was only a devastated Qing, and such a victory itself was meaningless. So if you were Dolgun at the time, what would you do?
In fact, we can see from Dorgon's later performance that he is clever.
In the first step, Dorgon said as soon as he came up that he supported the succession of the crown prince, and as soon as this statement came out, Hauge could not refute it, and the flag owners of the other flags immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and finally did not have to fight a civil war. And they all supported the crown prince's succession, so they immediately fell to Dorgon.
In the second step, Dorgon pushed the boat along the water and proposed to support the ninth son of the Emperor Taiji, who was only 6 years old at the time, fu lin to succeed to the throne, in fact, at this time, in addition to the three banners of the dorgon and Hauge basic disk, for the other five flags, as long as it is the crown prince's inheritance, they do not care which prince inherits, so this proposal is also quickly passed.
In the third step, after deciding that Fu Lin would inherit the throne, since the emperor was young, someone should assist the government, so Dorgon took the opportunity to become the auxiliary king together with Zilharang, assisting the young emperor Fu Lin in handling government affairs. And Dorgon pulling Zilharang to assist the government is also a means of concealing people's ears, and those present will feel that he Dolgun wants to monopolize power.
However, Dorgon's purpose was of course to monopolize power, but things could not be rushed, and the meal still had to be eaten bite by bite, so there was the next fourth step.
Just a month after Fu Lin ascended the throne, Dorgon, in the name of the little emperor, ordered Zilharang to lead an army to attack Jinzhou and Ningyuan. At the same time, in the name of the little emperor, Dorgon promoted himself and Zilharan to regent, although the regent and the auxiliary prince are only one word apart, but in terms of power is a world of difference, once he becomes the regent, it means that he can give orders on behalf of the emperor, that is, Dolgun has become the actual emperor.
A month later, when Zilharang returned from the front, he found that Dolgun had already emptied him, and everyone only consulted Dolgun when they encountered things, and did not pay attention to him as the regent, so Zilharang became a nominal regent, but fortunately Zilharang was a wise man who protected himself, and when he encountered this situation, he fortunately lay flat.
By this time, Dorgon was already in power, and later Dorgon got it again
uncle
regent
, the title of regent of the emperor's uncle, or even the title of the emperor's father regent,
In the 6 years from dorgon's appointment as regent until his unexpected death, Dorgon was the de facto emperor of the Qing Dynasty.
So the cleverness of Dorgon is that when everyone else cares about a fictitious throne, what he cares about most is the most important thing, that is, actual power.
If Dorgon wanted to grab the throne at that time, whether he could grab it was difficult to say, even if he won, it was a close to failure, rather than doing a thing that was extremely risky, even if he won, it was better to do something with very little risk but great return.
And once the power is in hand, what you want to do, you can naturally do. For example, in the fourth year of Shunzhi, that is, in February 1647, Dorgon himself misbehaved, and he also grabbed Zilharang's pigtails and said that Zilharang was the first to build the government, and used bronze lions, copper turtles, and copper cranes without authorization, and was fined 2,000 silver, and directly dismissed him from his auxiliary political position.
Subsequently, Dorgon arrested and imprisoned Hauge for concealing the crime of his subordinates and using the sinner's brother, and eventually died in prison. During Hauge's arrest and imprisonment, Dorgon also ordered someone to falsely accuse Zilharang, saying that he had plotted a misdeed during the Emperor's great funeral, plotted to establish Prince Hauge of Su, and that after he entered the customs, he had unauthorized order to order the two blue flags to set up camps, and so on. In short, it is to find all kinds of reasons to kill Zilharan. In the end, fortunately, it was the Manchu ministers who opposed it, and Zilharang was demoted from light to the king of Dora County, and only then did he pick up a life.
In the end, in fact, the entire Qing Dynasty is actually controlled by Dorgon, if Dorgon did not accidentally die on the way to hunting at the age of 38, according to normal circumstances, he should be able to live for more than 20 years, if Dorgon continues to be the regent for more than 20 years, will he seize the throne in the end? Or to become a figure like Cao Cao, and after everything is ready, let his son take the throne after his death?
I am not Dorgon, naturally it is difficult to say, but at least we can be sure that Dorgon is indeed a person who is good at scheming, and in this game of power after the death of Emperor Taiji, he is indeed the ultimate victor.
It's just that his luck is not good, the sky is not a false fate, and eventually he died young, if he did not die so early, whether Shunzhi's throne could sit down all the time, it is really difficult to say.