Late Ming Dynasty: So what if Emperor Chongzhen was inactive?!

Chapter 277 A Review of the Current Situation of the Jurchens
Daišan made concessions, but emphasized that such an important matter as appointing a banner chief could not be decided by the Khan alone, but should be decided by the Eight Beile Council in accordance with the rules of their Great Jin Dynasty.

With the absence of the Fourth Prince Huang Taiji, leaving only seven votes and with abstentions not allowed, the meeting proceeded quickly.

The meeting approved the proposal for Songgotu to become the banner chief of the Plain Yellow Banner, making him the only banner chief who was not of Beile birth, and who was in charge of the Plain Yellow Banner, which had such strong political implications.

Ajige, following Huang Taiji's example, proposed on the spot to change the flag color with Songgotu, turning Songgotu's Plain Yellow Banner into a Bordered White Banner. However, his reasonable proposal was rejected by four votes, causing Ajige, the Great Khan, to lose face.

Songgotu was indeed capable, but there were many talented people within the Jurchens. With his qualifications, he was somewhat unworthy of leading a banner, and it was hard to say whether he could hold onto the position.

The Plain Yellow Banner has lost all its elite troops and is now defunct. Although it still has the organization of 28 Niru, each Niru has less than 200 men. Even if you include all the young men under the age of sixteen, the number of soldiers that can be mobilized is only a little over 4,000.

Other banners were in a similar situation to varying degrees. According to the Jurchen custom, each Niru (unit of rank) should be able to produce 300 able-bodied men, and Nurhaci's main force could produce 450 men per Niru. However, now none of the banners' Niru could muster 300 able-bodied men. After a period of friendly negotiations, a redistribution of power was completed within the Jurchen ranks:

The Plain Yellow Banner was led by Suo'etu, with 28 Niru (military units), 3200 able-bodied men, and 800 children aged 14 to 16, for a total force of 4000.

The Bordered Yellow Banner was led by Fei Yangguo, with 15 Niru (military units), 3000 able-bodied men, and 750 young men, for a total force of 3750.

Hauge, the chief of the Plain White Banner, led 30 Niru (military units), with 6000 able-bodied men and 1000 young men, for a total force of 7000.

The Bordered White Banner, led by Ajige, had 35 Niru (military units), 7000 able-bodied men, and 2000 young men, totaling 9000 troops.

The Plain Red Banner was led by Daishan, with 29 Niru (military units), 6500 able-bodied men, and 1500 young men, totaling 8000 troops.

The Bordered Red Banner Commander Shuo Tuo, with 26 Niru, 4000 able-bodied men and 800 young men, totaling 4800 troops;

Mangultai, the leader of the Plain Blue Banner, led 27 Niru (military units), with 7000 able-bodied men and 2500 young men, for a total force of 9500.

Jirhalang, the chief of the Bordered Blue Banner, led 23 Niru (military units), with 4500 able-bodied men and 1500 young men, for a total force of 6000.

Today, the total strength of the Jurchen Eight Banners is 52050 people, including 41200 able-bodied men and 10850 children.

Huang Taiji dispatched 13 troops to attack the Ming Dynasty, but the Jurchen population was less than half of them. The Jurchens may seem to be doing well now, but in reality, they are on the verge of collapse at any moment.

Wanyan Aguda was just a dog of the Liao people back then. Huang Taiji's southern expedition was not only to train the new recruits of his Jurchen tribe quickly, but also to deplete the huge auxiliary army under his control, especially the Mongol soldiers under his command.

When the two sides were allies, this 50/50 split was fine. Now that they have forcefully annexed the Khorchin and other tribes, if they cannot achieve absolute suppression, they will suffer the strongest backlash!
Unfortunately, Huang Taiji had considered all aspects, but he never expected that he would suddenly die, and his plans could no longer be implemented.

The distribution of troops clearly shows that the Jurchens have now re-established a narrow triangular and broad dual-headed structure. The triangle consists of Ajige, Daišan, and Mangultai;
The two-headed group consists of the old and young combination of Daishan, Mangultai, Jirhalang, and Feiyangguo, as well as the young combination of Ajige, Shuoto, Hauge, and Suo'etu.

However, this bilateral team is exceptionally fragile, riddled with internal conflicts. While they may share a common stance, their personal relationships are far from harmonious.

Feiyangguo is only 12 years old now, raised by the women in the palace. If Nurhaci were still alive, he might have been taught how to lead troops into battle, but which of his older brothers cared about his life or death?
Therefore, the Bordered Yellow Banner was essentially divided up by Daišan and Mangultai. As for Jirhalang, he did not regret killing Amin, but he now understood Amin's thoughts. Compared to the other seven banners, the Bordered Blue Banner was definitely an outsider.

He simply has nowhere to go and no power to turn against them right now, but that doesn't mean he doesn't want to. Right now, he's the one who most wants Suo'etu to gain a foothold, so that he can at least have a reliable ally.

As for Ajige's side, the conflict was even more intense. Hauge wished he could kill Ajige with a single blow, while Ajige was also plotting how to eliminate him completely.

After the banner chiefs of the Eight Banners were determined, the Eight Beile were also re-elected. Soetu was excluded, and Jirgalang succeeded Amin.

The eight princes today are: Ajige, Daishan, Mangultai, Jirhalang, Feiyangguo, Dodo, Shuoto, and Dudu.

Dudu was the eldest son of Chuying and the eldest grandson of Nurhaci. He was once the banner lord of the Bordered White Banner. After Huang Taiji seized his Bordered White Banner, he tacitly allowed the core members of the imperial clan to keep their distance from Dudu. Dudu was gradually marginalized in the imperial clan. Historical records state that Dudu "although he had military achievements, he was rarely invited to banquets of the imperial clan."

Now that Huang Taiji is dead, Dudu has returned to the core, but he still has no troops under his command, and everyone still rejects and is wary of him.

Since Nurhaci had no more legitimate sons, he had no choice but to bring him back to sit in a seat of power. However, the mismatch between the banner chief and the beile meant that this so-called council of eight beiles was not very reliable.

Daishan was exhausted. He didn't know how to fight against the Ming Dynasty anymore, and he didn't know where the Jurchens' way out lay, so he became indifferent to the Khanate.

Mangultai did have his own ideas, and he had the largest number of troops on the surface. This was because he had fought on the flanks during the Jisi Incident, and his losses were relatively small. However, his numerical advantage did not have an overwhelming effect, and Daishan did not support him.

Daišan only hoped to maintain the stability of their Great Jin Kingdom as much as possible, so he did not pressure Ajige too much. The redistribution of power he led followed a principle of balance.

But Ajige was not content with maintaining the status quo. He longed to be as autocratic as Huang Taiji. He felt that since he had killed Huang Taiji, he should inherit Huang Taiji's power and his women. However, all of this was ruined by his two older brothers.

Therefore, he planned to reintroduce a third-party force, proposing to restore kinship and alliance relations with the Mongol tribes. However, some paths can only move forward, not backward, and his proposal was opposed by all the beile except for Fiyango.

Nowadays, which household doesn't have a few hundred or even a thousand Mongol slaves? Even Dudu, who doesn't command banners, has been assigned dozens of Mongols as his subordinates. This is his only asset for turning his life around; how could he possibly be willing to give it up? As the Great Khan, he can't just express opinions recklessly. His proposal was rejected again, and Ajige's reputation suffered another blow, exposing his extremely low political acumen. He might be qualified as a fierce general, and he might be so-so as a banner leader, but he's hardly qualified to be the Great Khan.

Ajige always thought that he could not become a true Khan because of Huang Taiji's obstruction, but even after Huang Taiji died, he still could not become one!

However, the current situation of the Jurchens is exactly what Nurhaci wanted. Wasn't this exactly the scene he hoped to see when he established the system of council of the Eight Beile?
On the eleventh day of the seventh month of the fourth year of the Chongzhen reign, Huang Taiji had been dead for three days, and in such hot weather, his body was already rotting. The Jurchens, following the old customs of the Jurchens, cremated Huang Taiji and his leaders, who were of all ranks. Let's call them leaders for now, since they were headless and it would be difficult to identify them without the presence of relatives.

Ajige had a wooden head carved for Huang Taiji, but due to fuel shortages, most of the Jurchen corpses still could not be disposed of. Those who died were all from the Plain Yellow Banner; Songgotu had already sent people to allocate coal.

Liaodong has no shortage of coal or iron, and even fertile land. It has a well-developed water system, is located near the sea, and is not very affected by drought.

Logically, they should have dug a pit and buried the body, but according to shamanic legend, only fire can purify the spirits of the dead. If they were buried on the spot, the souls of the dead would be trapped on the battlefield forever and unable to return home.

The Mongols, who practiced shamanism, were different. They believed that the body of a fellow human must be brought back intact, buried, and then a grave mounded with stones to allow the deceased to rest in peace. Burning the body was considered a desecration of the dead and absolutely unacceptable! Therefore, it seems possible that the Mongol Khan's surname was Liu!

Ninety percent of Huang Taiji's body was engulfed by the firewood, sizzling and oozing oil, and it burned for a full two hours before it finally stopped. Ajige and others broke the charred bones into small pieces and put them into an urn.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Ajige acted up again, saying with teary eyes, "Brother, don't worry, after you leave, I will take good care of your wives and my young nephews."

Hauge was disgusted and retorted, "I can take care of my mothers and younger siblings myself, so there's no need for you to worry about them, Great Khan."

Ajige calmly looked at Hauge and said, "I am not worried about anything else, but the unborn child in my elder brother's womb cannot help but concern us younger brothers."

"Wh-what?!" Ajige's words were like a thunderclap, surprising all the princes.

"Are you trying to make fun of me?!" Haug said with a grim expression.

He was Huang Taiji's eldest son, not his legitimate son. His stepmother, Zhe Zhe, had never had a son. Now that one had suddenly appeared, his legitimacy to inherit the Plain White Banner no longer existed. Moreover, both inside and outside the Plain White Banner, people had objections to him becoming the banner lord.

Daishan looked at Ajige with some suspicion, but no matter whose it was, since such a thing had happened, his sister-in-law could not stay with Hauge, otherwise she would surely die!
The others also quickly grasped the pros and cons, but the question was, following Hauge meant certain death, but would following Azig guarantee safety? Unless the child was his!
But Huang Taiji was dead, and there was no way to verify the story. Let's save him some face; sometimes it's better to play dumb. In the end, no matter how much Hauge struggled or objected, everyone chose to support Ajige's proposal to raise the child. However, not many people really cared about Huang Taiji or Ajige's youngest son.

What everyone was thinking was that once the child was born, they could use it to their advantage and separate the Plain White Banner from Hauge's control. There were many things they could do about it, and they didn't necessarily have to wait until the child grew up. Fei Yangguo was already a prince and a banner lord, so anything was possible!

……

As the autumn winds rose in August, Haizhou City remained unconquered, more than half a month after the brilliant raid. The Jurchen princes discussed destroying Haizhou City to save face before withdrawing their troops. In fact, they had discussed the question of whether to continue the war at Pingxi Fort that day.

The war was spearheaded by Huang Taiji, and only he had the absolute power to persuade others to join the war. But now that Huang Taiji is dead, the biggest driving force behind the war is gone. Since they've been fighting for almost half a year without any substantial progress, the majority opinion is that they should just retreat.

But Ajige said he wanted to avenge Huang Taiji. Even if they had to retreat, they couldn't just slink away like that. They had to at least give the Ming army a good beating.

It wasn't entirely about revenge; it was simply that if they couldn't intimidate the Ming army, they would become increasingly emboldened, encroaching on their Great Jin territory and abducting their people. This couldn't continue. Although Ajige didn't have a complete plan in mind, he still had a basic sense of direction.

However, the impact of Huang Taiji's death was far more serious than they had imagined. Half a month ago, they failed to take Haizhou City because Huang Taiji did not want to; now they could not take it because they truly could not.

The Jurchens were back to their "chicken dinner" mentality, where the so-called balance was just mutual checks and balances and mutual distrust. Everyone was clinging to their own power, afraid of being weakened, and no one was willing to put in any effort in battle.

Since the headquarters is unwilling to contribute, the only option is to force the slaves to do so even more.

On this day, under the coercion of the Jurchens, a large number of Mongol slaves under the walls of Haizhou City finally could not endure it any longer. They did not have the ability to turn against their own side, and thousands of Mongols surrendered directly to the Ming army in Haizhou City.

Originally, Haizhou City was ravaged by plague, and after months of losses in the siege, it had less than three thousand people left. After accepting the surrendered Mongol soldiers, their condition was immediately restored to full strength.

The surrendered Mongol soldiers helped defend the city, repairing the breaches in the city walls overnight. When the Jurchens drove slaves to attack the city, the soldiers would cover the slaves as they entered the city, taking as many slaves as they came.

Now Ajige and his men were completely dumbfounded. They could no longer take the city; in the end, they couldn't even save face.

In August of the fourth year of the Chongzhen reign, the Jurchens suffered a complete rout. On August 9th, Li Yongfang defected and surrendered Guangning City.

He put a yoke on himself, saying he was willing to accept his punishment and die, and begged the court to spare his descendants' lives and give his soldiers a chance to atone for their crimes. He claimed that all the crimes were his fault as the mastermind.

Zhu Youjian granted his request, ordered him to be strangled, allowed his family to collect his body, and permitted his descendants to farm, but not to take the imperial examinations or join the army.

In September, large-scale serf uprisings broke out in Uiju, Cheolsan, and Seonju in Korea, declaring independence and requesting the Ming Dynasty to send troops to take over. Jirhalang did not send troops to suppress them, but instead led his Bordered Blue Banner troops to seize the opportunity to exploit the land and prepare to withdraw from Korea. At the same time, Yuan Keli was preparing to recapture Xipingbao.

(End of this chapter)