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

Chapter 657 Huang Taiji's Vigilance
The news of the great changes in the Ming Dynasty reached Liaodong much later. It was only through channels within the Great Wall that Fan Wencheng learned about it.

After learning what happened in the capital, Fan Wencheng felt something was wrong. He was also afraid that the news would affect Huang Taiji's layout in Korea, so he hurriedly wrote an urgent letter and sent someone to deliver it to Huang Taiji of Korea.

But no matter how hard he tried, by the time Huang Taiji received the letter and returned to Shengjing, more than a month had passed since Zhu Shenzhui captured the capital and was promoted to regent. The delay in news left Huang Taiji with no time to react, so he could only rush back.

"Your Majesty, this is what happened in the capital of the Ming Dynasty. The royal family member Zhu Shenzhui is now the Prince of Jiaocheng and has been promoted to regent to control the government. It is rumored that the Ming Emperor Zhu Youjian is under house arrest by Zhu Shenzhui. The original chaos within the Ming Dynasty has also been gradually settled down..." Fan Wencheng said this to Huang Taiji. After he finished telling the story, Huang Taiji's face looked very solemn. Seeing this, Fan Wencheng stopped talking and just stood there quietly.

"Holding the emperor hostage to control the princes, haha, what a good plan." Suddenly, Huang Taiji laughed, but there was an inexplicable meaning in his laughter. He looked up at Fan Wencheng and asked, "Is this Zhu Shenzhui a member of the royal family of the Shanxi Jin King? So he is the real person behind Hengtong? Before Dorgon was defeated in Mongolia, he was the one behind the Tengger and Tumed tribes?"

Fan Wencheng's mouth was bitter, and he immediately replied: "I think this is very likely. Zhu Shenzhui, as a member of the royal family, suddenly raised an army to purge the emperor and quell the national crisis, and entered the capital. He controlled the emperor and all the civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty in one fell swoop and was promoted to regent. Such a thing is simply not something that an ordinary member of the royal family can do. I'm afraid even the princes can hardly do it."

"But Zhu Shencui succeeded. This shows that he had been scheming and plotting secretly for a long time. Moreover, I have made careful inquiries these days and learned from the news from the Ming Dynasty that Zhu Shencui has an extremely powerful army. This army not only has infantry similar to the Zhejiang Army back then, but also has a large number of Mongolians among its cavalry."

"After Zhu Shenzhui entered the palace, he appointed many Mongolians as palace guards. This shows that he had a very special relationship with the Mongolians. Combined with other things, I think the defeat of the Ninth Prince on the grassland was closely related to Zhu Shenzhui."

Huang Taiji nodded slightly. Fan Wencheng's words were similar to what he thought. It was really shocking that an ordinary member of the royal family who had never been noticed could suddenly do such a big thing. But if you calm down and think carefully, and connect the things before and after, then many things will be clear at a glance.

Huang Taiji thought carefully and shook his head and sighed, "So, at that time, I sent people to the capital to spread rumors, intending to sow discord between the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty and the royal family, and to eliminate the hidden dangers with the power of the Ming Dynasty. This was actually a bit of a poor job."

"I apologize!" Fan Wencheng knelt down and kowtowed to Huang Taiji, saying, "This matter is my fault. I failed to see clearly and thought I had a good plan, but I didn't expect the situation to be so complicated, which led to a big mistake..."

Huang Taiji waved his hand and said, "Mr. Fan, please stand up. This is not your fault. I approved the original arrangement and asked Mr. Fan to do it. Now that it has become like this, I am also responsible. Mr. Fan does not need to blame himself."

After hearing this, Fan Wencheng was so moved that tears streamed down his cheeks. He kowtowed several times before looking up and saying, "Your Majesty has been so kind to me that I would never be able to repay you even if I were to die. Now that the Ming Dynasty has undergone a huge change and Zhu Shenzhu has ascended to the throne, there may be major changes in the future. This move is really unpredictable for the Qing Dynasty, so please do not be careless, Your Majesty."

Huang Taiji nodded. Fan Wencheng's words touched his heart.

As an old rival of the Ming Dynasty, Huang Taiji knew the Ming Dynasty too well, especially since he succeeded to the Khan throne, he had always wanted to invade the Central Plains and replace it. It was for this reason that Huang Taiji changed the country's name from Dajin to Daqing and ascended the throne of emperor.

This time, Huang Taiji took over Korea and attacked Pi Island with the idea of ​​stabilizing the rear. As long as Korea surrendered and the Dongjiang Town of Ming Dynasty in Pi Island was destroyed, there would be no problem in the rear of Qing Dynasty.

After stabilizing the rear, Huang Taiji's next target was the Ming Dynasty. In his eyes, the Ming Dynasty was the Qing Dynasty's biggest enemy. Only by completely defeating the Ming Dynasty could the Qing Dynasty have a chance to rule the Central Plains, and he, the emperor, would not only be able to stay in Liaodong, but also become the master of the world.

This has always been Huang Taiji's dream and the goal he has been working hard for over the years. However, Huang Taiji knew clearly that although his Eight Banners were invincible, it was not so easy to destroy the huge Ming Dynasty and replace it.

Although the Ming Dynasty is weak now, it still has hundreds of millions of people and a strong foundation. How many people can the Eight Banners fight with if they rely solely on war?

One hundred thousand Eight Banners may seem like a lot, but they are far from the million-strong army of the Ming Dynasty. Huang Taiji had tried this the last time he invaded the heartland of the Ming Dynasty through Mongolia and even approached the capital, but he did not retreat helplessly in the end. Huang Taiji knew the reason very well. Huang Taiji clearly knew that it was unrealistic to destroy the Ming Dynasty with the current power of the Qing Dynasty. The population factor alone was the key factor that could not be overcome. The Ming Dynasty was too big. One hundred thousand Eight Banners could not occupy such a large territory of the Ming Dynasty even if they were scattered. Even though Huang Taiji had established the Mongolian Eight Banners and the Han Army Banner on the basis of the original Eight Banners system in recent years, and plundered everywhere to supplement the population shortage, it still could not meet expectations overall.

However, Huang Taiji was not in a hurry. He knew that it was not so easy to swallow an elephant with a snake, and such a big thing needed to be done slowly.

Since they couldn't swallow it all at once, they would take it slowly, on the one hand, constantly strengthening themselves, and on the other hand, gaining benefits through war while constantly "bleeding" the giant Ming to weaken it. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty was now facing serious internal and external troubles. Not only was there the powerful Qing Dynasty, but the rebellious bandits within the country also made the entire Ming Dynasty in a state of embarrassment.

Bandit leaders such as Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai and Li Zicheng were like locusts swarming wherever they went, causing heavy losses to the local population and production, which caused great headaches for the Ming Dynasty. Now the Ming Dynasty has gathered the strength of several provinces and mobilized heavy troops to encircle and suppress them, but it still has not been able to solve the problem of these bandits. As long as this continues, the Ming Dynasty will not be able to bear it.

The double blow, one from outside and one from inside, could not withstand such a torment even if the Ming Dynasty was strong. As long as he could be patient and wait for the powerful giant Ming Dynasty to fall down, when that day came, Huang Taiji's chance would come.

In the past few years, everything has been just as Huang Taiji expected. The Ming Dynasty is sliding towards the abyss. Huang Taiji is confident that the Ming Dynasty will inevitably fall in ten years at most or several years at least.

But at this time, the Ming Dynasty unexpectedly had such a change, and this change was beyond Huang Taiji's expectations. With Zhu Shenzhu's rise to power, the ruler of the Ming Dynasty changed from Emperor Chongzhen to Zhu Shenzhu, which was not a good thing for Huang Taiji.

Huang Taiji knew Emperor Chongzhen too well. In his eyes, this Ming emperor was a tyrant, and a tyrant who thought he was a wise ruler.

As the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Huang Taiji was far more talented than Nurhaci, especially in terms of his vision for the overall situation and politics, which was beyond the reach of Nurhaci, who only knew how to kill people with a knife.

Huang Taiji knew clearly that for a country like the Ming Dynasty, it was good for the king to have talent, but it was not a big problem if he did not have talent. After all, the political structure that the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang had created by combining the past dynasties was perfect, and Zhu Yuanzhang also took many factors into consideration at the time, and the political structure was mutually restrained to avoid a single power that would threaten the imperial power.

Zhu Yuanzhang was clearly aware that not all of his descendants could be wise rulers. Even if one or two mediocre ones emerged, as long as this political structure operated smoothly, the country could still maintain stable rule.

The three emperors after Zhu Yuanzhang, Yongle, Hongxi and Xuande, adjusted the original political structure, eventually forming the three-legged structure of the Ming Dynasty's imperial power, the Imperial Household Department, and the Cabinet. With the addition of the Six Ministries and the Censorate system, the entire political structure of the Ming Dynasty was impeccable in that era.

Even when Huang Taiji set up the political structure of the Qing Dynasty after he became emperor, he also referred to the structure of the Ming Dynasty, except that there were no two institutions, the Imperial Household Department and the Cabinet. The rest of the structure was almost the same as that of the Ming Dynasty. Huang Taiji was a man of great talent and strategy. If the political structure created by Zhu Yuanzhang was not good, how could he copy it? This shows the advantage of the Ming Dynasty in this regard.

But it was different for Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty. Although he praised himself as a wise and benevolent ruler, he was extremely incompetent. The first thing he did after becoming emperor was to directly destroy the political structure that had worked well for more than two hundred years in the Ming Dynasty and broke the original political balance.

That's not all. Emperor Chongzhen was also stubborn and self-righteous. In his hands, the Imperial Household Department became a decoration, the replacement of the cabinet chief and the cabinet ministers was like a revolving lantern, the power of the East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guard was weakened to the extreme, and Emperor Chongzhen did things without considering the consequences, only based on his own preferences. He was short-sighted and good at passing the buck. Over the years, the Ming Dynasty was in great turmoil. Not only did the country's operation encounter major problems, but even his officials were at a loss as to what to do, not knowing whether it was better to do anything or not.

The Ming Dynasty was full of talented people, far beyond the Qing Dynasty. People like Fan Wencheng were treasures to Huang Taiji, but they were nothing in the Ming Dynasty. This was especially true for the Ming Dynasty's cabinet and six ministries. Were all the officials who could sit in such high positions incompetent?
Huang Taiji was good at leading troops in battles. He understood one thing very well, that is, the battle depends on who is leading the troops. There are many cases in history where an incompetent general leads to the death of the army. The fact that the self-righteous Emperor Chongzhen became the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was a disaster for the Ming Dynasty, but it was the best thing for Huang Taiji.

But now the situation has changed. Zhu Shenzhui, a member of the imperial clan, has taken over the capital and used the emperor to control the government. Although it was the first time that Huang Taiji heard of Zhu Shenzhui's name, he did not dare to underestimate this sudden person. The experience of Dorgon and his brothers had already alerted him. He originally thought that he could use some means to let Emperor Chongzhen solve the trouble for him. Who would have thought that the trouble was not solved, but caused even greater trouble. With Zhu Shenzhui's rise to the throne as regent, things might not be so optimistic in the future.

(End of this chapter)