Chapter 985 Zhezhe's Concerns
"This bastard!" Dorgon cursed in his heart when he saw this, and was extremely angry with his brother.

Although Dorgon had made plans at the court meeting today and had no intention of dealing with Hauge, the reason was very simple. Given the current situation in Korea, it was not a good time to deal with Hauge. Hauge could be dealt with at any time, and it would be better to keep him now. Korea still needed someone to take charge. It would be simple to bring Hauge back, and there would be no problem dealing with him at this point. But the problem was who to send to Korea?
It is not so easy to completely suppress the chaos in Korea, and if it is not done well, it will only get worse. So Dorgon thought it would be better to let Hauge stay in Korea. After all, the trouble was caused by Hauge, so let Hauge find a way to solve it himself. No matter what means he uses, he can suppress the rebellion and recall Hauge when the situation in Korea stabilizes. By then, it will be easy for Dorgon to deal with Hauge in any way he wants.

But even so, Dorgon only intended to have the final say on the matter as the regent prince at the last minute, rather than letting others find various reasons to exonerate Hauge.

In his opinion, Hauge's crime was real and he could not get away with it. The reason why he was not punished was because Hauge was still useful. As for Yuetuo speaking for Hauge, Dorgon had expected this, but he never expected that his brother Duoduo would also come out to exonerate Hauge.

And looking at his expression, it was obvious that he did it on purpose, and his purpose was to irritate Dorgon.

As a biological brother, Dorgon knew his younger brother too well. Duoduo had strong military talent, which was not inferior to Dorgon at all. At the same time, he was also a real powerful figure among the Eight Banners, and the power he controlled ranked among the top few.

No matter from which perspective, Duoduo should be Dorgon's die-hard supporter, but the reality is not so. Because Duoduo was young before, he relied on Dorgon a lot. The relationship between the two brothers was indeed good, but when Huang Taiji ascended the throne and executed the Queen Abahai, Dorgon tried to please Huang Taiji everywhere in order to protect himself, and was even humble to the point of begging for mercy in front of Huang Taiji. This made the arrogant Duoduo dissatisfied with his brother.

In Duoduo's view, Huang Taiji was their enemy who killed their mother. Huang Taiji had executed their biological mother, but you, Dorgon, took the initiative to surrender to your enemy and acted so humbly. How could this be the behavior of a real man? Although for a long time afterwards, Dorgon privately told Duoduo many times that what he did was just a helpless move to save their brothers, and persuaded Duoduo to be patient and wait for the opportunity, and never offend Huang Taiji in person to bring about the disaster of death.

Under such circumstances, Duoduo listened to Dorgon's advice and endured it for several years. Finally, Huang Taiji passed away. As soon as Huang Taiji died, Duoduo danced with excitement. In his opinion, the huge rock pressing on their heads was finally gone. After Huang Taiji's death, they, the brothers, should have the final say in the Qing Dynasty.

When Hauge and Dorgon were fighting for the throne, Duoduo was the most enthusiastic person. He constantly connected with and won over various people, intending to support Dorgon to the throne. In his view, after the death of Huang Taiji, the throne should be sat by Dorgon. Looking within the Eight Banners, who was more qualified than Dorgon?

But the situation changed afterwards. The fight for the throne between Dorgon and Hauge had been in a stalemate. This situation caused Dorgon to recognize the facts and realize that the possibility of seizing the throne by his own strength was too low. If he continued like this, neither he nor Hauge would be the winner. Moreover, at this time, there were signs of division within the Eight Banners because of the fight for the throne. Taking into account the rule of the Qing Dynasty, Dorgon could only retreat to the second best and join forces with Zhezhe in private. At the cost of giving up the fight for the throne, he instead supported Huang Taiji's youngest son Fulin as emperor, thus ending the fight.

From a practical point of view, Dorgon's choice was very wise and it was also his best choice at that time. But Duoduo didn't think so. Duoduo wanted Dorgon to ascend the throne wholeheartedly. When he was working hard for it, Dorgon gave up on his own initiative, which made Duoduo very angry.

In Duoduo's view, Dorgon is a hopeless person. He didn't know how to seize the great opportunity right in front of him, but instead gave up the throne on his own initiative? This behavior is really incomprehensible. Duoduo believes that he has a great chance of winning, so why should he be afraid of the Eight Banners splitting up? As long as he has the military power, what does it matter if there is a war? Brothers are united and their strength can break iron. How can a mere Hauge be their opponent? If he strikes first and takes decisive action to kill Hauge directly, wouldn't the throne be easily in his hands?
But now Dorgon gave up on his own, which made all the arrangements that Duoduo had planned for a long time come to nothing. Moreover, the emperor would continue to pass to Huang Taiji's son, which made Duoduo even more angry. He had a deep resentment towards Huang Taiji and always remembered the hatred of Huang Taiji for forcing his biological mother to death. In his opinion, even if the throne could not be in the hands of Dorgon, it must not fall into the hands of Huang Taiji's descendants, which Duoduo could not tolerate.

At this point, Duoduo proposed that Daishan should inherit the throne when Dorgon decided to give up the throne, and claimed that Daishan was the most suitable candidate in terms of age, prestige, identity and status within the Eight Banners. Since Huang Taiji was gone and Hauge and Dorgon had both withdrawn from the throne competition, Daishan should be the successor.

This statement may sound reasonable, but in fact, Daishan could not possibly become the emperor. If Daishan had this idea, he would have been qualified to compete for the position of Khan when Nurhaci died, but Daishan directly supported Huang Taiji as a great beile, which enabled Huang Taiji to ascend to the position of Khan.

Daishan didn't have this idea at the beginning, let alone now? Moreover, Daishan is not only old, but also in poor health. He doesn't have many years left to live, so it's naturally impossible for him to become the emperor. So Duoduo's remarks actually have no effect at all, and the reason he did so was just to express his dissatisfaction with Dorgon and deliberately make things difficult for his brother.

After this incident, the relationship between Duoduo and Dorgon became worse and worse. They were always at loggerheads with each other, including doing many small things to upset Dorgon in private. Just like today, Duoduo knew that the fundamental reason for the chaos in North Korea was because of Hauge, but he just found reasons to exonerate Hauge. This was not because he had a good relationship with Hauge, but he just used this incident to embarrass Dorgon.

After Duoduo finished giving his reasons, he noticed that Dorgon was looking at him, and he gave him a slightly smug look instead, as if to tell Dorgon that I will not let you do what you want, and even if I can't stop you, I will at least cause you some trouble.

When Dorgon saw this, he felt angry and amused at the same time. He turned his eyes away, pretending he knew nothing, and continued to listen to the argument of the crowd.

After Duoduo stood up and spoke for Haoge, more and more people intervened in the debate, including Zhenguogong Wakda, Aobai, Tan Tai, Gong Adai, Xihan and others. Some of them supported the severe punishment of Haoge, while others tried to exonerate Haoge. For a while, the court debated endlessly, but no matter what, all those who intervened in the matter were the nobles of the Eight Banners and the Manchu ministers. The Han ministers who participated in the court meeting said nothing and stood aside like decorations.

As everyone had their own reasons, no one could convince the other, and finally it was Prince Raoyu Abatai who came out to smooth things over. He said that since the ministers were deadlocked on the matter, it would be better to let the two regent princes and the empress dowager decide.

Raoyu Prince Abatai was the seventh son of Nurhaci. Although he was only average in ability and presence among Nurhaci's sons, he was noble after all, and he was also a prince. What's more, what he said was not wrong. After a long debate, Jirgalang, Dorgon and Empress Dowager Zhezhe did not express their opinions. How to deal with Hauge depends on the opinions of these three people.

"My two princes, since the seventh prince said so, what do you think about this matter?" Zhezhe nodded slightly and asked Jirgalang and Dorgon.

As the first regent prince, Jirgalang should still express his position according to the rules, even though his current title of first is just a decoration. But how could Jirgalang formally express his position? Since everyone started arguing, he has been sitting with his eyes closed, just like everyone else, until Zhezhe directly called his name, then he opened his confused eyes as if he had just woken up and looked around.

"I think what you said just now makes sense. It is true that Prince Su made mistakes, and he should be severely punished. However, Prince Su also had his reasons for the Korean incident, and if we really investigate, it cannot be said that he is solely responsible. Moreover, from the current point of view, all the news has only come from Korea, and coupled with the memorials from Prince Su and Prince Wuying, we are far away in Shengjing, and I am afraid it is difficult to know the truth. I think it is better to be cautious in this matter and send people to Korea to investigate the reasons and then deal with it..."

"Old fox!" As soon as Jirgalang said this, everyone cursed inwardly. This guy was talking nonsense. It seemed reasonable, but in fact he was trying to please everyone without offending anyone. It was really disappointing that a regent prince had such an attitude.

Jirgalang was unreliable and had no responsibility at all. He was afraid of offending Dorgon. Everyone looked at Dorgon, waiting for his statement.

Dorgon smiled faintly. He looked at Zhezhe who was sitting on the throne and said, "What does the Queen Mother think about this? Haoge is the eldest son of the late emperor, and he is different from others. I think the Queen Mother's opinion is more important."

Zhezhe didn't expect that Dorgon didn't express his opinion, but asked her opinion instead. She felt a little moved. Since Dorgon asked her first, maybe she could show her attitude first and test Dorgon?

To be honest, it was not important to Zhezhe whether Haoge dealt with her or not, because although Zhezhe and Haoge were mother and son, in fact, the so-called mother and son were only in name. Zhezhe, as the former empress of Huang Taiji and now the empress dowager, did not have a close relationship with Haoge. In fact, because Shunzhi was now the emperor, and Haoge, as the eldest son and former heir of Huang Taiji, Zhezhe was wary of Haoge.

But even if he was on guard, Zhezhe was even more wary of Dorgon. After selecting Fulin as the emperor, Zhezhe specially set up two regent princes to balance the internal situation of the Qing Dynasty and suppress Haoge, so as to check and balance each other and ensure the imperial power.

But she didn't expect that the person she chose, Jirgalang, was so incompetent that he was suppressed by Dorgon, who ranked second. Moreover, after losing the throne, Hauge did not have Dorgon's authority as regent prince, and was also suppressed by Dorgon. The balance she originally wanted was not achieved, and instead she watched Dorgon's power grow little by little.

In other words, Zhezhe had planned to use Jirgalang and Dorgon to suppress Hauge, and at the same time let the three of them check each other. But now the situation has deviated from his plan, Dorgon began to dominate, and became the person that Zhezhe feared the most.

In this situation, Jirgalang, who only knows how to protect himself, is useless, but Hauge is still there. From Zhezhe's point of view, Hauge must be protected. You know, Hauge and Dorgon have always been incompatible. Once Hauge is killed by Dorgon, there will be no one in his hands who can contain Dorgon, which is not a good thing.

Thinking of this, Zhezhe looked at Dorgon deeply, and then she spoke. She first said a few polite words, saying that Haoge was responsible for this matter, but from the facts, the responsibility could not be entirely blamed on Haoge. Moreover, Haoge's identity was different. He was the eldest son of the previous emperor and a prince of the Qing Dynasty. In addition, the incident happened suddenly, so Haoge's behavior was understandable.

In addition, now that Korea is in chaos, Ajige led his troops to retreat to the border between the two countries, but Seoul is still in Hauge's hands. Hauge's troops can also control the Korean capital. If Hauge is punished at this time and transferred back to Shengjing, what will happen to Korea?
Considering the actual situation, Zhezhe suggested that Hauge be given a lighter punishment, allowing him to make meritorious contributions while serving his sentence, and continue to stay in Korea to stabilize the political situation in Korea. If Hauge cannot do this, then if the Qing Dynasty loses Korea later, then Hauge will be punished again. At that time, both crimes will be punished together, and even if Hauge is the eldest son of the previous emperor, he cannot be blamed.

(End of this chapter)

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like