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

Chapter 926 Haoge
"Your Majesty, Prince Su is here." Wu Liangfu reported.

"Let him in!" said Huang Taiji.

After a while, Huang Taiji's eldest son, Prince Su Haoge, walked in quickly. When he saw Huang Taiji, he quickly saluted and said, "Greetings to Father."

"Get up and sit down to talk." Huang Taiji raised his hand and said.

Hauge stood up and sat down next to Huang Taiji. He was Huang Taiji's eldest son. After Huang Taiji succeeded to the throne, he was first conferred the title of Beile and became one of the new four Beile. After Huang Taiji ascended the throne, Hauge's status rose with the times. He was promoted from Beile to Prince Su, and was in charge of the Zhenglan Banner. He was the person Huang Taiji trusted the most.

Father and son fight together in battle, brothers fight together to kill tigers. Hauge is three years older than Dorgon. He followed Nurhaci and Huang Taiji to fight since he was a child. He was very brave on the battlefield and had outstanding military achievements. Before the Qing Dynasty attacked Korea, Hauge was one of the main generals. After conquering Korea, Huang Taiji let him manage the Ministry of Revenue in order to train Hauge. The Ministry of Revenue is in charge of money among the six ministries. This shows that Huang Taiji trusted and valued Hauge and deliberately trained him as his successor.

Looking at his son who was in his thirties, Huang Taiji could not help but sigh in his heart. Compared with himself, Hauge was more like a warrior. Although Huang Taiji also fought on the battlefield, his figure was different from Nurhaci and his brothers. The slightly fat Huang Taiji did not look so oppressive. On the contrary, his son Hauge was more like his grandfather, tall and burly, with the appearance of a fierce general.

Haoge was not only as strong as a general, but also had a character. He was straightforward and generous. He had a high prestige in the Eight Banners, and many people in the army supported Haoge. However, as a father, he knew his son too well. His eldest son was good in everything except one thing, that is, his character was too direct and he didn't have many twists and turns. As a general, he was fully qualified, but as an heir to the throne, Haoge's character was not good enough. Being an emperor was not about leading troops to fight. On the battlefield, you only need to consider your opponents and tactics, but on the throne, you need to consider many more issues. Moreover, politics is not something that a mere warrior can easily handle. It requires deeper scheming, strategy and vision.

It was precisely because of this that Huang Taiji let Hauge take charge of the Ministry of Revenue. Firstly, the Ministry of Revenue was an important department and the purse of the Qing Dynasty. Huang Taiji would not feel at ease if the purse was in the hands of other people. He would only feel at ease if it was in the hands of Hauge.

Secondly, by taking charge of the Ministry of Revenue, he learned how to govern and prepare for the succession to the throne in the future, which was also Huang Taiji's expectation for Hauge. Huang Taiji carefully cultivated Hauge over the years, but unfortunately, although Hauge had made some progress, his talent did not really meet Huang Taiji's requirements in politics, which was a pity.

Huang Taiji sighed inwardly. He had quite a few sons, a total of eleven. Among them, the second son Luoluo and the third son Luo Bohui died in childhood, and the eighth son died before he could be named. The fourth son Yebusu had mediocre ability and was not up to the task. The fifth son Shuose was a complete reckless man. Apart from leading troops to fight, he had no political acumen. The sixth son Gaosai was completely opposite to the other five. He loved calligraphy and painting and literature and had no interest in politics. As for the other sons, they were still young and had not grown up yet.

Although he had many sons, it seemed that only the eldest son, Haoge, had some ability. He was good at fighting, not to mention that he had made some progress in the political experience of the Ministry of Revenue in the past two years. Although he had not yet reached Huang Taiji's expectations, he was making progress after all, right? If he was given a few more years, he might be able to inherit the position of the Qing emperor in the future.

If it were in the past few years, Huang Taiji would not have considered this issue at all, but in the past two years, Huang Taiji had to consider the arrangements after his death.

Now nearly fifty years old, he has obviously felt a lack of energy in the past two years, especially after the Siege of Jinzhou. Huang Taiji's health began to decline. Although Huang Taiji still appeared strong in front of outsiders, he knew the condition of his own body very well.

Huang Taiji had originally been in poor health, and he was the only fattest among his brothers. Although he had fought in battles since he was young and was a good fighter on the battlefield, his physical fitness was far inferior to that of his other brothers, and he had many health problems on a daily basis.

During the war, Huang Taiji had a nosebleed, which he could not stop, and a large amount of blood flowed out. He would also feel dizzy from time to time, and often felt short of breath when sleeping at night.

Judging from the medical knowledge of later generations, Huang Taiji probably had congenital vascular disease, hypertension, diabetes and other diseases. Such patients not only need to take medicine for a long time, but also need to rest in peace. But how could Huang Taiji, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, abandon political affairs and rest in peace? When he was busy, he sometimes didn't sleep for days and nights. When he encountered a war, he had to sleep in the open air and suffered a lot. Under such circumstances, his illness would not only not be cured, but would become more serious, and it would continue to worsen with age.

In addition, Huang Taiji had another problem, that is, he had too many women. This is not because Huang Taiji was lustful. Of course, as a man, especially an emperor, it is normal to be lustful. It is a moral issue for ordinary people to find countless women to have children, but this is different for the emperor. This is to make contributions and efforts for the country.

Just like Zhu Shencui, because there was only Xu Jingqiu as the queen and no other concubines, the ministers kept advising Zhu Shencui to take a concubine.

Because only when Zhu Shenzhui has more women around him and gives birth to more sons, can the Ming Dynasty be as stable as Mount Tai. Talents are the foundation of a country, and this is the same for the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty. The more sons Huang Taiji has, the more stable the foundation of the Qing Dynasty will be. Isn't it natural for the emperor to look for women?
This is only one aspect. Another aspect is that Huang Taiji used marriage to win over the various Mongolian tribes and the Eight Banners. His women all had backgrounds. They were either noble ladies from Mongolian tribes or daughters of powerful families in the Eight Banners. He used marriage to make these women his wives, thereby tying these people and the forces together with himself. Although this method is simple, it is extremely effective. Cao Cao, who was known as a "wife lover" in history, was also the case. Many people in later generations slandered Cao Cao for only liking other people's wives, but the actual situation was not like this. Cao Cao certainly liked beauties. Which normal man doesn't like beauties? But to say that Cao Cao only liked other people's wives is nonsense. Although it is true that he took in many widows, the problem is that most of the women he took in had backgrounds.

Some of the women were daughters of aristocratic families at the time, some were widows of warlords, and others were women captured by his defeated opponents. Marrying these women through marriage could play a role in winning over and appeasing the political masses, and this was Cao Cao's real purpose.

The same was true for Huang Taiji. The number of women around him was more than his sons, totaling more than a dozen. And this was because after Lindan Khan's death, Zhu Shenzui blocked Huang Taiji's plan to annex Tumed, and at the same time helped Lindan Khan's widows to redivide the grassland, allowing them to gradually settle down.

If it weren't for this, Huang Taiji would have captured Tumed long ago. With Tumed in hand, the remnants of Lindan Khan would not be able to compete with Huang Taiji without him. At that time, the only way for the remnants of Lindan Khan, including his widow, was to surrender to Huang Taiji and ask for his asylum.

This is also true in actual history. After the remnants of Lin Danhan surrendered to Huang Taiji, all of Lin Danhan's eight wives were taken into Huang Taiji's harem and became his women. He did not let any of them go. This shows that Huang Taiji had so many women, and it was impossible for Huang Taiji to just let them go. He had to appease them every now and then, right?

In this way, it is hard to say how many days Huang Taiji can rest in a month. If he continues for a long time, even his iron body will be hollowed out. Moreover, Huang Taiji was ill and not in good health. After a long time, he obviously felt that something was wrong with his condition. Huang Taiji noticed this and began to learn how to maintain his health. At the same time, he also planned for the arrangement of his successor.

"Father, those bastards from the Solon tribe don't take you seriously at all. The tribute that was promised before is actually much less this time!" Sitting down, Hauge couldn't help but said to Huang Taiji.

"What's missing?" Huang Taiji asked.

Haoge reached out and took out a piece of paper from his bosom and handed it to Huang Taiji, saying, "I have asked someone to sort it out. Please take a look at this."

Huang Taiji took the paper and started reading it. The paper clearly stated the amount of tribute paid by the Solon tribe. Indeed, as Hauge had said, a lot of things were missing and it was far from the amount agreed upon at the beginning.

A flash of anger flashed across Huang Taiji's face. The Solon tribe was quite courageous! Could it be that they thought they were no longer respected because they won a battle last time? Or did they think they could compete with the Qing Dynasty just because they got some military equipment and supplies from the Ming Dynasty?

Huang Taiji had always wanted to completely subdue the Solon tribe and annex it for his own use. But he did not expect such a change to happen later. After the Ming Dynasty secretly sent a lot of supplies to the Solon tribe by sea, the Solon tribe, which was beaten like a stray dog ​​by the Qing Dynasty, actually turned the tide and had the ability to protect itself, and even won a small victory in the battle last year.

It was precisely because of this change that Huang Taiji's plan to annex the Solon tribe was temporarily thwarted. Coupled with the changes in the Ming Dynasty, Huang Taiji was unable to pay more attention to the Solon tribe. At that time, the Solon tribe sent people to ask for peace and expressed their attitude of continuing to respect the Qing Dynasty and pay tribute every year.

For the sake of the overall situation, Huang Taiji swallowed his anger and temporarily let the Solon tribe go. However, he did not expect that the Solon tribe would make a fuss about the tribute. How could he tolerate this?
"How did the other party explain it?" Huang Taiji asked Hauge, suppressing his anger.

Hauge was also very angry, and he immediately used this incident to provoke the Soron tribe, saying that the Soron tribe nominally found a natural disaster as the reason, saying that the bitter cold conditions in the north have been very bad in recent years, not only are there few prey, but people have also found it difficult to survive. It was not that they did not want to pay enough tribute, but that they really could not make up the tribute. The Soron tribe could only give a part of it first, and the remaining part would be given a few more days, and then sent as soon as possible after the Soron tribe found a way to make up the whole tribute.

"Father, these Sauron barbarians are clearly doing this on purpose, and they may be trying to test your bottom line. They think that with the support of the Ming Dynasty, they can compete with the Qing Dynasty. This move must not be allowed. Once we agree to their demands, these barbarians will definitely despise the Qing Dynasty even more, and even find various excuses to shirk responsibility and get out of control."

(End of this chapter)