The change of dynasties is always inevitable, and the rule of the Ming Dynasty lasted for three hundred years and eventually declined, followed by the rise of the Manchus and the establishment of the Qing Dynasty.
The founding emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Aixin Jueluo Nurhachi, his entrepreneurial history can also be called legendary, with the thirteen pairs of armor left by his grandfather, he unified the Jurchen tribe that had been divided for more than 200 years, but unfortunately he finally died of serious illness and hatred, and he could not witness the feat of the Qing Dynasty to dominate the world.
But what kind of life experience did this emperor have? Born in a small clan, how did he grow into a powerful lord step by step?
First of all, we must talk about the distribution of power of the Manchus, the Manchus were called the Jurchens before unification, and the Jurchens in the Ming Dynasty had three major power groups, namely the Jianzhou Jurchen, the Haixi Jurchen, and the East China Sea Jurchen, among which the Jianzhou Jurchen was the most powerful.
As early as 1115, the Jurchens had established the Jin Dynasty, but after the fall of the Jin Dynasty, they could only operate in the Liaodong region, because of their weak strength, so they were attached to the Yuan Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty successively, until the emergence of Nurhachi, the Jurchen tribe was divided for nearly two hundred years to unify.
In the thirty-eighth year of Jiajing (1559), in a small tribe of the left guard of the state of Hetuala, the cry of a baby was heard, and the child born was the eldest son of the chief, that is, Nurhachi.
Originally, as the son of the chieftain, Nurhachi should have eaten and drunk without worry, but his mother Hitara died when he was ten years old, and his stepmother, Nala, was a daughter of the Wangtai clan and was very mean to Nurhachi and his half-brother Shulhaqi.
So when Nurhachi was nineteen years old, he was forced to separate his family and live alone, only a small amount of family property was allocated.
In order to exchange these mountain goods for a few taels of silver, Nurhachi often wandered in Fushun Guanma City, bargaining with Han and Mongolians, and learned not only Mongolian, but also some simple Chinese.
In the second year of Wanli (1574), Nurhachi's grandfather Jianzhou Right Guard commanded Xitara Wang Gao to rebel against the Ming Dynasty and was killed by Li Chengdong, who was guarding Liaodong, while Wang Gao's son Atai escaped by luck and fled all the way back to Gule City.
The Aisin Jueluo family has a great relationship with the Hitara family, not only because Nurhachi's mother is Wang Gao's daughter, but Atai's wife is also Nurhachi's cousin.
As in-laws, the Aixin Jueluo family should naturally support Atai, but they are just a tribe and cannot compete with Li Chengdong's army at all.
Nurhachi's grandfather, who was also the chief of the Jianzhou Zuowei Branch, Jue Chang'an, personally took Nurhachi's father Takshi into the city in order to protect his granddaughter, trying to persuade Atai to surrender.
But what they didn't expect was that in order to invite merit from the Ming army, the city lord of Tulun City, Nikan Wailan, shouted in the city: "Taishi Li has an order, whoever kills Atai will be the city lord of Gule City."
Driven by interests, there was a civil strife in the city of Gule, and the Ming army also took the opportunity to attack it, and under the command of Li Chengdong, slaughtered the entire city, and Jue Chang'an and Takshi were also killed by mistake.
Twenty-five-year-old Nurhachi was very sad to receive the news of the murder of his grandfather and father, although he wanted to raise an army for revenge, but he also knew that he could not compete with the Ming army with his current strength, and if he rashly raised an army, it would only be an egg hitting a stone.
However, if you want to have the strength to compete with the Ming army, there is only one way, and that is to unify the Jurchen people, after more than two hundred years, the national strength of the Ming Dynasty has gradually weakened, and the Jurchen people have gradually regained their vitality.
However, if you want to unify the Jurchen tribe, you must first unify the eight Jurchen tribes of Jianzhou, among which Nurhachi's enemy Nikan Wailan belongs to the Suke Suhu River Department of the Eight Divisions, and the Suke Suhu River Department is the weakest tribe among the eight tribes, so Nurhachi decided to make a move against Nikan Wailan first.
So, Nurhachi used the thirteen pairs of armor left by his ancestors and fathers to raise troops, and this time the army was only aimed at the Jurchen tribe, so the Ming Dynasty chose to turn a blind eye to this, after all, they were happy to see internal fighting between foreign tribes.
In the 11th year of Wanli (1583), Nurhachi led his troops to attack the city of Tulum, but by the time he arrived at the city, Nikan Wailan had already fled with his wife and children.
It turned out that as early as Nurhachi's departure, Nikan Wailan received the news, and he chose to flee because he was timid and afraid. However, it was precisely because of this that Nurhachi took Tulum City without much effort, and also subdued the old army of Nikan Wailan, and strengthened his ranks.
In this way, all the way to subdue, a few years later, Nurhachi successively subdued the Sukesu Hu tribe, Dong E, Hunhe tribe, and other five tribes, until 1589, it took six years, Nurhachi completely unified the Jianzhou Jurchen tribe, and also issued a national government to call himself "Shulebele".
During this period, Nurhachi's rise naturally attracted the attention of the Ming Dynasty, but he always used the method of retreating land and paying tribute to show loyalty to the Ming Dynasty, so he was not attacked by the Ming Dynasty for more than 30 years.
Although Nurhachi deceived the Ming Dynasty, he could not deceive other tribes, and the Jurchen tribe of the West Sea was very aware of Nurhachi's ambitions. So in 1591, the four tribes of the Xihai Jurchens united with the Mongol cavalry to form a nine-tribe alliance, and went straight to Jianzhou to destroy the Jianzhou Jurchens who wanted to destroy Nurhachi in one fell swoop.
In this battle, Nurhachi defeated the Nine Coalition forces with his outstanding military talent and the unique terrain advantage of Gule Mountain, and it was also because of this battle that Nurhachi became famous.
In the face of the menacing Western Sea Jurchen and Mongol cavalry, Nurhachi's forces were difficult to resist, so he could only defend in Hezig City, but even if he concentrated all his forces, it was difficult to defend.
However, on the opposite side of the city of Hezig there was a mountain of Gul, in which there was a valley for the army to pass, and as long as the top of the hill on both sides was prepared with rolling logs and boulders, it was a military stronghold that could be surprisingly victorious. Therefore, Nurhachi divided part of the already small forces and seized Gule Mountain overnight.
The nine-part coalition army launched a fierce attack, but under Nurhachi's excellent command, the coalition army was repulsed one after another, and the battle situation was stalemate for a while.
However, Nurhachi did not give them this opportunity, and saw that he sent the general Eyidu to lead more than 100 cavalry to provoke the coalition army.
These 100 people are naturally not the opponent of the coalition army, but Nurhachi can't defend the city, which makes the coalition army very annoyed, and now this 100 people are the opportunity for each tribe to make meritorious contributions, so everyone lost their minds and participated in the pursuit.
Under the guidance of Eyidu, the coalition army entered the valley of Gule Mountain, and with the advantage of being familiar with the terrain, Eyidu and others quickly threw off the coalition army.
At the same time, the allied forces in the valley were struggling, and the speed of the march became very slow, and suddenly rolling logs and boulders fell overhead, and everyone realized that this was a trap, but there was no place to hide, and for a time there were heavy casualties.
The commander-in-chief of the Nine Coalition Army, Yehebel Buzhai, also died under the impact of the boulder, and for a time the coalition army could not regroup, Nurhachi took this opportunity to lead his troops to chase and kill, and the coalition army was defeated, and the deep valley was full of corpses, and the battle was also divided into winners and losers.
This battle can be said to be a very crucial battle in Nurhachi's career, and after that, he gradually subdued the four Jurchen tribes of the West Sea, and his power has increased by leaps and bounds.
In the next thirty years, Nurhachi relied on the superiority of his military strength to force the Jurchens of the East China Sea to a dead end, and was finally forced to surrender. So far, Nurhachi has taken most of the Jurchens under his command.
However, the Ming Dynasty did not seem to be aware of Nurhachi's ambitions, and even felt that Nurhachi was loyal, and a year before the establishment of the Later Jin State, the governor of Jiliao also reported to the imperial court that he was "obedient".
But what they didn't expect was that it was this "obedient" Jurchen who would bring a devastating blow to the Ming Dynasty.
In the forty-fourth year of Wanli, Nurhachi established the state of Hetuara and proclaimed himself emperor, with the name of Dajin, becoming the first Great Khan of Houjin, and setting the name of the year as the Mandate of Heaven.
Two years later, Nurhachi read out the "Seven Hatreds" of the Ming Dynasty, enumerating the seven major crimes of the Ming Dynasty against the Jurchens, and at the same time led 20,000 cavalry to attack the Ming Dynasty, capturing Fushun and Qinghe one after another.
At this time, Mingshenzong finally realized the seriousness of the problem, and hurriedly sent Yang Hao, the squire of the military department, to lead the army to attack and quell the rebellion of the Jurchen tribe.
However, due to the lack of troops and salaries, the army of Liao was delayed, and Mingshenzong had no choice but to squeeze out two million salaries from the treasury, and draw troops from Sichuan, Gansu, Zhejiang, Fujian and other places, and also let Korea and Yehe send troops to support.
I have to say that although the strength of the Ming Dynasty is not as strong as before, the foundation is still there, and it mobilized 200,000 troops to claim 470,000 troops, and it rushed straight to Hetuala, the base camp of Houjin.
However, at this time, Nurhachi only had 60,000 troops in his hands, although his army had been fighting all year round and had good combat experience, but in the face of 200,000 troops, it was only a mantis arm to block the car.
Not only that, but the Ming Dynasty also invested a lot of thermal weapons such as guns and forts, so from all aspects, Nurhachi was not an opponent of the Ming army at all.
The Manchu Dynasty also thought so, and because the financial situation of the Ming Dynasty in these years was not optimistic, it was simply unable to support long-term warfare, so Mingshenzong constantly urged Yang Fu to send troops as soon as possible and make a quick decision.
So in order to arrive at the battlefield quickly, Yang Yi divided the army into four routes, but it was precisely because of this decision that Nurhachi had the opportunity to turn defeat into victory.
Because the traditional combat method of the Ming Dynasty was not to disperse the troops, their opponents were generally nomads on the border, good at equestrianism, and once the troops were dispersed, the enemy army would use guerrilla raids, which was very unfavorable for the Ming army.
Of course, it is also advantageous for the troops to be divided into four routes, because the routes chosen are all trade routes to the Jurchens, and the terrain is flat, if they can go hand in hand, then they can reach the Houjin base camp in the shortest time.
But here's the problem, there is no difference in the number of soldiers divided into four routes, plus to face Nurhachi's brave 60,000 army, the chance of victory can be said to be very slim.
Moreover, the commander of the Western Route Army, Juniper, wanted to achieve the first success, braved the heavy snow and traveled hundreds of miles a day, opening up a gap with the other three-way army, and Nurhachi led his army around the rear of the Juniper Army after learning about it, and annihilated it in one fell swoop.
This was followed by the Northern Route Army led by Marin, and before they reached the Salhu Mountain, they received the news of the defeat of the Western Route Army, which surprised Marin, and immediately decided to divide the army into three and turn the defense into an attack, waiting for the support of other teams.
But this trick was meaningless for Nurhachi, who personally led the army with the crown prince of the Four Beylers, and used the advantage of numbers to defeat Marin's army one by one, so that the Northern Route Army was also wiped out.
This move was a great defeat for the Ming army, losing two large armies and having to return with a feather, and this typical battle of winning more with less was called the "Battle of Salhu". ”
Throughout Nurhachi's life, his military talent was not weaker than that of Genghis Khan four hundred years ago, but even so, Nurhachi had times when he was defeated.
This battle was the famous "Battle of Ningyuan" in the 11th year of the Mandate of Heaven (1626), and Nurhachi rarely lost in his life, so he never took Ming Jun in his eyes until he met Yuan Chonghuan, the defender of the Ming Dynasty.
Yuan Chonghuan defeated Nurhachi with the help of the Portuguese-made Hongyi cannon, and it is said that Nurhachi was also injured in this battle, so he had no choice but to retreat.
In July of the same year, Nurhachi fell seriously ill and had a poisonous sore on his body, so he decided to return to Shenyang by boat to heal his wounds, but on the way Nurhachi died of illness at the age of 68.