Dorgon was undoubtedly the most powerful figure in the early Shunzhi Dynasty. After the death of Emperor Taiji, he successfully prevented Hauge from succeeding to the throne, and established the young Fu Lin as emperor, becoming the regent himself and monopolizing power.
Since becoming regent, Dorgon has intensified his crackdown on Hauge's forces, eventually persecuting Hauge to death, and Hauge's party has also scattered. Dorgon also made a big deal of arrangements for his cronies to hold important positions. His two brothers, Azig and Dododo, were in high positions and were his right and left arms.
After Dorgon's power at the court was consolidated, he began to inflate himself. His ambition is to become an emperor, so everything he does is towards the goal of becoming an emperor.
Let's see how he inflates himself.
In October of the first year of Shunzhi, Dorgon forced the young emperor to make him the regent of his uncle. His concubines, palaces, and official clothes were all richer, grander, and more luxurious than those of ordinary princes. According to historical records, the palace where Dorgon lived was carved with dragons and tigers, carved dragons and painted phoenixes, and the regulations were equivalent to those of the emperor, and the degree of luxury was even greater. However, Dorgon was still not satisfied. In the second year of Shunzhi, he instigated his cronies to play the song and demanded that he be made the regent of the emperor's uncle. The young emperor obeyed the orders, and had to issue an edict and make Dorgon the regent of the emperor's uncle. With this title, he enjoyed more of the temples, and he was entitled to the kneeling of the ministers. In this way, he is equivalent to an emperor.
In the fourth year of Shunzhi, another minister came up, saying that Dorgon had done a great job and suggested that it was not necessary to kneel before Fu Lin on New Year's Day. The little emperor dared to object, but had to agree.
In November of the fifth year of Shunzhi, the emperor issued another edict, changing Dorgon's title of Emperor Uncle Regent to Emperor Regent, and removing the word uncle, meaning that he was the emperor's father, that is, he was the emperor of Taishang. The edict also says, "Whoever submits the will of this chapter shall be the regent of the Emperor's father." Dorgon was in a position of great power, and all the affairs of the state and the approval of the ministers were handled by him, and the orders he issued could be issued directly in the form of edicts without going through the Shunzhi Emperor.
By this time, Dorgon's position of power had reached an incomparable peak.
Dorgon contributed greatly to the smooth entry of the Qing Dynasty and the unification of the whole country, and even played a decisive role. However, in the feudal dynasty, the most taboo thing for ministers is to shock the lord. All the ministers who were highly praised by the personal merits did not have a good end.
With the Qing army's crusade throughout the country, the peasant revolt was gradually suppressed. Dorgon's desire for power grew, and his private life was impoverished and extravagant.
In the second year of Shunzhi, Dorgon imitated the Ming Dynasty's practice of selecting palace women, and selected a group of beautiful women in the Eight Banners to enrich his harem. After conquering the Khalkha, beautiful women were selected from the Khalkha to enrich the harem, and even had a married wife.
When Dorgon saw that the Korean princess was beautiful and delicate, he forced the Korean to give the princess to him and marry him. The Joseon, hindered by Dorgon's power, had to comply and send the princess to his palace. Dorgon trampled on the beautiful princess, and after venting, ordered her to be sent back to North Korea. This made the Korean royal family very embarrassed. As if that wasn't enough, Dorgon also forced the Korean royal family to offer him more beauties. Dorgon's actions caused resentment among the Korean royal family.
Dorgon's wives and concubines are clearly recorded, Fujin- that is, as many as six wives and four concubines, in addition, there are many nameless. Some of these women were Koreans, some Were Mongolians, and of course there were Manchus.
But, strangely enough, Dorgon had so many women, so energetic, but only one daughter and no son. The history books say that Dorgon was not in good health. He was young and strong, but his fertility was so low, so it can be inferred that his health was indeed not good.
As soon as the state was decided, Dorgon ordered a large number of construction projects. In July of the seventh year of Shunzhi (1650), Dorgon ordered the construction of a small city in luanhe town, Chengde, Hebei, to escape the summer, called Kara City. In order to build this summer city, he ordered an additional nine provinces of money and grain 2.46 million taels of silver.
In December of the seventh year of Shunzhi, Dorgon went hunting outside Saiwai and inspected the progress of the construction of Kara City. The history books record that while hunting, Dorgon accidentally fell off his horse and injured his body. The guards sent him to the city of Kara, where he fell ill and died at the age of thirty-nine.
The young Fu Lin was surprised to hear the news of Dorgon's death. In his prime, anyone who listens to it can't help but be surprised.
After Dorgon's death, he enjoyed extremely high treatment, and Fu Lin ordered him to be posthumously named Emperor Chengzong of Qing, with the title of "Emperor Yi", and the funeral was solemn and grand.
However, Shunzhi did not want Dorgon to settle down. Two months later, a minister suddenly came to the stage, saying that Dorgon had committed a great crime of rebellion before his death, and even tried to rebel. After Shunzhi read these edicts, he was furious and ordered that Dorgon's brother Azig be arrested and dorgon's henchmen imprisoned. The power that Dorgon had cultivated over the years collapsed in an instant. Shunzhi then ordered that all the seals granted to Dorgon be stripped away and that the tomb be exhumed.
This shows how much the Shunzhi Emperor hated Dorgon.
If you want to destroy it, you must first make it crazy. Although Dorgon was instrumental in the great clearance and unification of the whole country. However, his high achievements shocked the lord, flew high, and extravagantly corrupted, hastening his demise.