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

Chapter 870 Huang Taiji's Helplessness
After dealing with the three, Huang Taiji was not so polite to several Mongolian generals. In addition to the Mongolian generals of the Southern Army who were whipped, the two Mongolian generals of the Western Army who escaped with Suo Hai were in bad luck, because the defeat of the Western Army was caused by the collapse of the Mongolian army, which led to the death of the main general. In a rage, Huang Taiji directly ordered them to be beheaded. The two Mongolian generals were terrified and cried out that they were wronged, but it was no use. After a while, their heads fell to the ground and were put on plates and brought in.

Huang Taiji took a look and waved his hand to have the heads taken away. He also had the two heads sent to the Mongolian tribe's Taiji, and then sent envoys to intimidate the Mongols. They would not give up unless they got some people and cattle and sheep from the Mongols as compensation. At least they had to make up for the losses of this defeat.

After dealing with these people and waiting for everyone to leave, Huang Taiji sat in the chair somewhat tiredly, raising his hand to rub his swollen brows.

In recent years, Huang Taiji has been increasingly feeling exhausted, not only because of the unsuccessful war with the Ming Dynasty, but also because of the internal reasons of the Eight Banners. The Eight Banners were created by Nurhaci, and it was precisely because of the Eight Banners system that the Jurchens, who were originally a mess, were brought together, creating the later Jin regime and the current Qing Dynasty.

Although the Eight Banners system contributed to the rise of the Jurchens, this system also had considerable flaws. Especially as the Jurchens' territory grew larger and their strength grew stronger, the inherent flaws of the Eight Banners system became more serious.

After Huang Taiji proclaimed himself emperor and changed the Later Jin Dynasty into the Qing Dynasty, the drawbacks of the Eight Banners system became even more apparent. There was no problem with the Jurchen regime using the Eight Banners system in the primitive tribal period, but as a new national regime, the Eight Banners system was based on slavery. When the system changed from slavery to a centralized system, the problems of the system were no longer suitable for the current situation.

As the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Huang Taiji had already seen this. He was not Nurhaci who only knew how to fight and kill people. Huang Taiji's political vision was outstanding, not to mention the Qing Dynasty, even in this era. However, the foundation of his identity and regime came from the Eight Banners system. As the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Huang Taiji could only continue to maintain the Eight Banners system despite knowing the defects of the Eight Banners system and could not abolish it. At best, he tried his best to repair the original system.

After inheriting the throne of the Khan, Huang Taiji started to change the Eight Banners system, eliminating the hidden dangers of the Eight Banners system by changing the banners, eliminating dissidents, and replacing the original banner owners with his own people to control each banner. Although his actions have achieved certain results, for example, most of the Eight Banners are now under the control of Huang Taiji, and through the division of the upper three banners and the lower five banners, Huang Taiji directly controls three banners, and together with his son Hauge and his supporters such as Daishan, they have become an absolute force that can overwhelm other banners.

But even so, the fundamental problem of the Eight Banners was still not solved. It was not that Huang Taiji did not want to solve it, but that he could not solve it. The Eight Banners system was inherently flawed. If it was to be completely solved, it could only be completely overturned and a new system would be set up. But once the Eight Banners system was overturned, the rule of the Eight Banners would collapse. As an emperor, he was the emperor because his power came from the Eight Banners. He could not commit suicide, could he? Once the Eight Banners were gone, the Qing Dynasty would also be gone. Where would he go to be the emperor?
In desperation, Huang Taiji could only keep tinkering with the Eight Banners system, and supplement the original Eight Banners system with reference to the Ming Dynasty's political structure. For example, he now imitated the Ming Dynasty in setting up six ministries outside the Eight Banners system structure. The purpose was to make up for the shortcomings of the Eight Banners system, and then use this system to gradually weaken and change the original Eight Banners structure, so as to achieve true centralization.

But it is not easy to do this. It is not as easy as one plus one to combine two completely different systems. There are irreconcilable contradictions. Moreover, the improvement of the court system will directly affect the foundation of the Eight Banners system, which is a serious threat to the Eight Banners nobles and previous vested interests.

These people are not stupid. Their power and wealth all come from the Eight Banners system. In other words, they are the original shareholders of the Later Jin (now the Qing Dynasty). Now Huang Taiji wants to start over and weaken the influence of the Eight Banners through centralized means and return all power to the imperial power. How can these original shareholders agree to this?
In order to achieve this, Huang Taiji has spent too much energy and put in too much effort these days, but the results are unsatisfactory.

Because of Zhu Shenzhu's sudden appearance, history changed. In the original history, Huang Taiji finally succeeded in besieging Jinzhou. Zu Dashou, who was guarding Jinzhou, had to surrender when he had no hope of breaking out and no food to defend the city. Not only did Zu Dashou surrender to Huang Taiji, but even Hong Chengchou, who was sent from the Central Plains battlefield to the Liaodong battlefield by Emperor Chongzhen as a firefighter, was defeated and captured.

The fall of Jinzhou and the capture of Zu Dashou and Hong Chengchou had a profound impact on the Ming Dynasty. After the war, the Ming Dynasty lost the strategic location of the Liaoxi Corridor and could only passively retreat to Shanhaiguan for defense. The entire Liaodong region fell completely into the hands of Huang Taiji. After taking over the entire Liaodong region, Huang Taiji continued to attack everywhere, not only conquering the Suolun tribe in the north, but also bringing the entire southern Mongolia into his sphere of influence.

But the situation is different now. Thanks to Zhu Shenzhu, the Battle of Jinzhou was not lost. The Ming Dynasty not only defended the city of Jinzhou, but also used the tactic of crossing the sea to attack and caused chaos in the rear of Huang Taiji. Even the Zhenglan Banner rebelled.

Besides, Zu Dashou and Hong Chengchou are doing well now. Zu Dashou is still the garrison commander of Jinzhou, and the Liaoxi Corridor is still in the hands of the Ming army. As for Hong Chengchou, after solving the problem of the bandits in the Central Plains, he is now the governor of Huguang and is very proud of himself.

If nothing unexpected happened, Hong Chengchou might be summoned to Beijing after staying in the post of Governor-General of Huguang for a few years, and then he would either be appointed as a minister or directly enter the cabinet as a cabinet elder. By then, it would be no problem for Huang Taiji to be in a high position without Zu Dashou, after all, Zu Dashou was just a military general. But now it is completely different without Hong Chengchou. In history, Hong Chengchou was captured after the Battle of Jinzhou, and soon after, Hong Chengchou surrendered to Huang Taiji. It was because of Hong Chengchou's surrender that Huang Taiji finally completed the integration of the centralized system and the Eight Banners system, making his Qing Dynasty completely transformed from the original slave regime to the feudal regime, which made it possible for him to rule the Central Plains later.

In other words, Hong Chengchou was of great significance to Huang Taiji. Perhaps without Hong Chengchou, there would be no Qing Dynasty. Now Hong Chengchou was serving as the Governor of Huguang in the Ming Dynasty. It was impossible for Huang Taiji to change the Eight Banners system by his own ability, even if he had the help of Fan Wencheng. Although Fan Wencheng had some talents, his talents were very limited and could not be compared with Hong Chengchou.

"Someone come here!" After an unknown amount of time, Huang Taiji shouted.

As soon as he finished speaking, a eunuch appeared from the side. Yes! It was a eunuch.

In the past, the Jurchen rulers of the Later Jin Dynasty did not have eunuchs around them, and Nurhaci did not like such eunuchs. But now Huang Taiji is different. The Later Jin Dynasty has become the Qing Dynasty, and he, Huang Taiji, has also become the emperor from the original Khan.

Since he was the emperor, how could he not have eunuchs around him? But there were no eunuchs in Liaodong before. But during the Jiyi Rebellion, didn't Huang Taiji lead his army to attack the capital of the Ming Dynasty? He almost took down the capital. During this war, Huang Taiji plundered many Ming people and returned to Liaodong, and there were actually several eunuchs among these plundered Ming people.

These eunuchs were just minor eunuchs stationed in the capital. Because Huang Taiji's army arrived too suddenly, they learned the news too late and had no time to escape, and unfortunately became prisoners.

Soon after they were captured, their identities were known to the Jurchens. After learning that they were eunuchs, the Jurchens originally planned to kill them directly. In the eyes of the Jurchens, eunuchs were useless. A few eunuchs could not be carried by shoulders or hands, and it would be a waste of food to leave them alone. But when Huang Taiji learned that a few eunuchs were captured, he became interested and specially asked someone to send these eunuchs to him for a look. After seeing them, Huang Taiji kept them. It was necessary for the emperor to have eunuchs serving him, so these eunuchs became the first eunuchs in the Shengjing Palace.

The eunuch serving today is called Wu Liangfu. Wu Liangfu entered the palace as a young man. He was the lowest-ranking eunuch in the palace and did not even have a rank. After staying in the palace for a few years, he finally flattered a managing eunuch and worshipped him as his godfather. Only then did he have the opportunity to make a name for himself. He was previously sent from the palace to work in the imperial farm near the capital, but he did not expect that this guy was unlucky. The first time he went out of the palace to work, he encountered the disaster of Huang Taiji leading his troops to attack the pass. Before he had time to run, he was captured by the Eight Banners soldiers with others. If Wu Liangfu had not been quick-witted and begged for mercy quickly, and if he had not been wearing eunuch clothes at the time, the Eight Banners soldiers would have thought he was an official and would not have killed him. He became a prisoner and was later spotted by Huang Taiji and brought to the Shengjing Palace.

After Wu Liangfu surrendered to Huang Taiji, he used all his skills to serve his new master. In the past two years, as Huang Taiji trusted him, his status gradually increased, and he was considered to have established a firm foothold here. Today, he was serving, and when he heard Huang Taiji calling for help, he ran out from the side, knelt down and kowtowed to ask the emperor what he wanted.

"Go and find Mr. Fan for me." Huang Taiji said.

Wu Liangfu responded and quickly got up to convey the order. Not long after, Fan Wencheng hurried over.

When Fan Wencheng met Huang Taiji, he first kowtowed and called himself a slave. Logically speaking, as a Han Chinese, Fan Wencheng could only be called a subject and not a slave. However, Huang Taiji gave him the identity of a bannerman because Fan Wencheng had defected to the Later Jin during the old Khan's period and had always been loyal to him. He went from being a Ming man to a bondservant of the Red Banner. Although his status in the banner was not high, he was still a bannerman after all. The change in identity gave him the honor of calling himself a slave.

(End of this chapter)