Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1099: Retreat to Pyongyang

The civil war between Hauge and Dorgon finally broke out, and the two sides fought fiercely in Liaodong and Korea.

With the support of the Ming Dynasty and after truly controlling Korea, Hauge suddenly became much more confident. And with the news from Shengjing, Hauge became extremely dissatisfied with Dorgon. When he heard that Bumbutai actually announced in his capacity as the Empress Dowager that Dorgon would be promoted to the position of Regent Prince of the Emperor's Uncle, Hauge in Seoul cursed and kicked the chair away in anger.

Haoge had always been at odds with Dorgon, especially because it was because of Dorgon that Haoge lost the throne. He was the eldest son of Huang Taiji and the true heir to the throne of the Qing Dynasty, but he was not able to sit on the throne of the emperor. Instead, the throne fell to Fulin, who was still a baby.

In this incident, Hauge lost miserably and completely cut off the possibility of becoming emperor. For this reason, Hauge's resentment towards Dorgon can be imagined, but he was powerless because the overall situation had been decided. In addition, Fulin had the support of many people as emperor, especially the Empress Dowager Zhezhe and Dorgon stood together, so Hauge was powerless.

Haoge had no way to deal with Zhezhe. Although Zhezhe was not his biological mother, she was Huang Taiji's wife, and her status was equivalent to that of the empress of the Qing Dynasty. After Huang Taiji's death, Zhezhe could be said to be the most honorable woman in the Qing Dynasty. Her opinions played a decisive role, and even Haoge's opposition was of no avail.

Without Zhezhe's support, Hauge would not have been able to ascend the throne, and the result would eventually be what it is now. Although he lost the battle for the throne, as the eldest son of the previous emperor and the eldest brother of the current Qing emperor, Hauge's status remained the same. Moreover, Zhezhe was not stupid. She knew the conflict between Hauge and Dorgon. She cleverly used this conflict to make Hauge and Dorgon check and balance each other, and let another regent prince, Jirgalang, be the first regent to balance the internal situation of the Qing Dynasty.

Unfortunately, although Zhezhe had a good idea, she underestimated Dorgon's ambition and decisiveness. In addition, Jirgalang was not worthy of being reused, and he eventually died in unclear circumstances.

After Zhezhe's death, the short-lived balance within the Qing Dynasty was completely broken. With Bumbutai ascending the throne as the real empress dowager, this woman, who had an unclear relationship with Dorgon, directly joined forces with Dorgon, and the two of them colluded unscrupulously. Dorgon first transformed himself from a regent prince to a regent prince, and then from a regent prince to the emperor's uncle, the regent prince. How could Haoge not understand this series of changes?

Before Huang Taiji's body was cold, Bumbutai had an affair with his brother-in-law. How could Hauge, as Huang Taiji's eldest son, tolerate this? Coupled with Dorgon's repeated attacks on Hauge and the great changes in Korea before, Hauge had no way out. He knew that if he obeyed the order from Shengjing and returned, the day he returned would be the day he would die.

In order to protect himself and to seek revenge, Hauge had no choice but to rebel. Moreover, he was not without a foundation in the Qing Dynasty. As the eldest son of Huang Taiji, many nobles in the Eight Banners were loyal to him. In addition, many people were dissatisfied with Dorgon because of what he had done in the past two years. In Hauge's opinion, as long as he raised his arms in Korea, with the troops in his hands, as well as the support of Korea and the Ming Dynasty behind him, he would be able to defeat Dorgon and take back everything he had lost.

But what he never expected was that Hauge underestimated Dorgon and overestimated himself even more.

After the war with Dorgon, Hauge initially gained some advantages and led his troops into Liaodong from Korea, but was soon hit head-on by Dorgon.

After several battles, not only did they fail to repel Dorgon's troops, but they were beaten back step by step by Dorgon. The troops that had crossed the Yalu River retreated to Korea in a panic.

Although the main force of Hauge accounted for a small proportion of the lost troops, most of them were Korean mercenaries, but such losses still made Hauge lose face. He returned to Korea and reorganized his army to fight again. But who would have thought that when Hauge was ready to fight in Yizhou and attack Dorgon halfway across the river, Duoduo took advantage of Hauge's unpreparedness and led a detachment to cross the river from Shuozhou, then went around to the side and attacked Hauge by surprise.

"Dorgon! Duoduo! I will definitely take your lives!" After escaping to Pyongyang in one breath, the embarrassed Hauge could not suppress his anger. Hauge was also a veteran warrior, having followed Huang Taiji in campaigns and made countless contributions, but this time he suffered a great loss at the hands of Dorgon's brothers.

In the battle of Yizhou, Hauge not only lost more than 10,000 Korean troops, but also suffered considerable damage to his own Eight Banners. The Korean troops were fine, as these Koreans were cannon fodder, but the loss of the Eight Banners made Hauge very sad, as these were his old foundation! One less death was one less, not to mention that these people were Eight Banner warriors who had followed him in battle for many years.

Although this battle was caused by Hauge's improper command, the greater reason for the defeat was that the Korean soldiers at his disposal were not worth using. The combat effectiveness of these Korean soldiers was extremely poor, especially the lack of fighting will. When Hauge discovered that Duoduo was coming from Shuozhou to attack his flank, he had clearly responded and sent a troop to stop him in time. According to his idea, as long as he blocked Duoduo's detachment and held off Dorgon's main force in the front to prevent him from crossing the river smoothly, and even repelled Dorgon with the tactic of attacking him halfway across the river, then Duoduo in the northeast was nothing to be afraid of.

After defeating Dorgon, Hauge could free up his hands to deal with Duoduo, who had only a few thousand soldiers. Moreover, Duoduo was alone when he came from Shuozhou deep into the heart of Korea. It would not be difficult for him to annihilate the enemy directly with his ability, but Hauge forgot an important factor, that is, the combat effectiveness of the Korean army was too poor.

In order to secure the frontal battlefield of Yizhou, Hauge put all his main forces on how to repel Dorgon, and was careless about Duoduo's attack. Although he sent 15,000 troops to stop Duoduo, he forgot that the proportion of the Eight Banners in the 15,000 troops was only more than 700, and the rest were Korean troops.

In Hauge's view, no matter how poor the Korean soldiers' fighting power was, with several times the number of troops of Duoduo and his own more than 700 elite soldiers of the Eight Banners, even if they could not win, they would definitely have no problem holding on. But the facts gave Hauge a blow. Not long after the war in the northeast, these Korean soldiers were defeated by Duoduo on the battlefield. The entire battlefield was full of Korean soldiers who threw away their armor and cried and fled. Even if Hauge's Eight Banners tried their best to stop them, they could not stop them. Not only that, after the collapse, these Korean soldiers were driven away by Duoduo and rushed directly to Hauge's line, crushing the troops behind him at once. When Hauge learned of this situation, he was shocked and wanted to mobilize troops to stabilize the position, but it was too late. How could Dorgon give him this opportunity? The main force of Dorgon on the front took advantage of the chaos in Hauge's army to cross the river and attack. Duoduo led his troops to charge fiercely, pointing directly at Hauge's central army. Hauge's army was defeated by the attack from both sides. If he had not made a decisive move and ran away, he might have been finished in this battle.

This defeat made Hauge see the truth clearly. Although the number of Korean soldiers was large, they were a mob and had little combat effectiveness. In fact, these Korean soldiers were not as good as the previous Ming army. They were only good at defending the city, but it would not be effective if they were sent out for a field battle. On the contrary, it would hinder the Ming army.

Thinking back to the defeat in Yizhou, Hauge became more and more furious. He even planned to have Ajige taken out of prison and chop off his head to vent his anger, but as soon as this idea came up, Hauge suppressed it. He was honest and not a fool. He could become the successor of Huang Taiji and was trained by Huang Taiji for many years. If Hauge was just a reckless man who didn't care about the consequences, it would be too much to underestimate him.

"Someone come here!" Hauge suppressed his anger and shouted outside.

"Master!" As soon as the words fell, the subordinates waiting outside hurried in and bowed to Haoge.

"Go, call Jingwuer... and invite him over!" Hauge changed his words halfway through his sentence.

The subordinate responded and then walked out quickly. After half an hour, Jing Wuer arrived.

"Your Highness..." When he saw Hauge, Jingwuer did not bow to Hauge according to the etiquette of the Eight Banners, but bowed with a smile.

Seeing this, Haoge frowned slightly, but he didn't know what to say. After all, although Jing Wuer was a Manchu, he had long since rebelled against the Qing Dynasty and defected to the Ming Dynasty with a part of the Zhenglan Banner a few years ago. Now Jing Wuer was no longer a Qing man, but a general of the Ming Dynasty, and together with Guan Bao, he had a military position in the Ming Dynasty.

Now Jing Wuer's military position in the Ming Dynasty is not low, he holds the rank of General of the Nation and the rank of General of Guerrilla. When he defected to the Zhenglan Banner of the Ming Dynasty, he was reorganized into a brigade, led by Jing Wuer and Guan Bao.

Because of their different status, Jingwuer's army did not accompany Hauge to fight against Dorgon, but stayed behind. After all, Hauge could not command Jingwuer, who was a member of the Ming Dynasty, a force sent by the Ming Dynasty to assist Hauge, so it was impossible for him to obey Hauge's orders.

Of course, for various reasons, Jing Wuer was nominally a subordinate of Hauge, but in reality he only obeyed orders and not declarations, and the two sides maintained a rather delicate relationship. When Jing Wuer came to Korea, he had already been instructed that he could do whatever he wanted except supporting Hauge on the premise of ensuring the safety of his Zhenglan Banner, and he did not need to obey Hauge's orders.

"Come on, sit down! Bring me some tea!" Hauge forced a smile, invited Jing Wuer to sit down, and gave instructions to his attendants.

Jing Wuer was not polite, and once again thanked Haoge with a bow, and then sat down generously. Seeing him like this, Haoge's eyes twitched slightly, and he felt a little uncomfortable. Jing Wuer was just a garrison commander of Jinzhou Guards, a Niulu of Zhenglan. Such a person had no right to sit in front of him before, let alone stand and answer. You must know that Haoge, the eldest son of Huang Taiji, controlled many elite soldiers of the Eight Banners, and there were 23 Eight Banners generals of the same level as Jing Wuer.

Moreover, Hauge is now the leader of the Zhenglan Banner. As a member of the Zhenglan Banner, Jingwuer should call Hauge "master". However, this servant actually behaved like this in front of him, which made Hauge angry.

After suppressing his anger and waiting for tea to be served, Haoge waved his hand and asked everyone to leave. Then he said, "The defeat in Yizhou was my fault. Now we have to retreat to Pyongyang. Dorgon will definitely march to Pyongyang next. Although Pyongyang is high and has thick walls, the Korean army is really not worth using. In addition, Dorgon brought a lot of Han troops and firearms with him. Given the situation in Pyongyang, it may be difficult to defend!"

Jing Wuer nodded slightly without saying anything, pretending to continue listening.

Haoge continued, "Although I am not afraid of Dorgon, I do not have as many troops as he does. In addition, the Korean soldiers are useless in field battles. But if we want to defend Pyongyang, we cannot just defend it. This way, we will have no room for maneuver, and we will not be able to repel the enemy. I wonder what the general thinks of this? What can you teach me?"

(End of this chapter)