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

Chapter 333 Dai Shan: Let's have a farewell dinner and run away!
The fifth year of the Chongzhen reign of the Ming Dynasty, which was also the third year of the Tianci reign of the Later Jin Dynasty, was an extremely difficult year for the Jurchens. The Mandate of Heaven for the Jurchens had fallen along with their Mandate Khan Nurhaci, and the process of nationalizing the tribal alliance that Nurhaci and Huang Taiji had worked to promote for two generations was also ruthlessly interrupted.

When Huang Taiji died suddenly, Ajige was secretly happy, thinking that he would become a true Khan. But reality was cruel. Not to mention restoring the prestige of the Later Jin, the integrity of the Later Jin could not even be maintained.

Of the eight ministers left behind by Huang Taiji to manage the affairs of the various banners, some bowed their heads and became the banner lords' dogs, while others died violently on the spot; when he sent new ones, more people died. People might give Huang Taiji face, but that doesn't mean they'll give Ajige face.

Huang Taiji's original plan to adopt the Six Ministries system established by the Ming Dynasty also collapsed amidst rounds of internal purges. Nurhaci's massacres of Han Chinese in his later years are difficult to quantify; it's hard to say whether the defeats in war amplified his inner tyranny.

Huang Taiji happened to step forward to protect the Han people at this time, which made them gravitate towards him. But after Huang Taiji was also defeated, the killing of Han people could no longer be stopped.

The so-called wars waged by the Jurchens were nothing more than raids by bandit groups. When they could no longer gain anything from raiding outside, they had to extract from within, and the Han Chinese within their own ranks became easy targets. Without a state apparatus like that of the Ming Dynasty, the Later Jin Dynasty once again degenerated into a tribal form.

Ajige and his Bordered White Banner occupied Shenyang; Hauge, having benefited from his father, seized Liaoyang, the largest city in Liaodong and one of the five capitals of the Jin Dynasty; Daishan returned to his old stronghold, Hetu Ala; Mangultai went to Jiefan; Jirhalang, who originally occupied a large territory in Korea, was now exiled by the Ming army and the Korean rebels and was crouched in Dingliao, suffering attacks from both sides.

The organizational and local troop strength advantages that the Jurchens once had inflicted heavy losses on the Ming Dynasty are now unsustainable. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence within the Jurchen ranks understands that the Later Jin is no longer viable and is no match for the Ming Dynasty.

They desperately wanted to make peace with the Ming Dynasty, even if it meant bowing down to the Ming and becoming its henchmen. But the young emperor of the Ming Dynasty was just too stubborn. If only Emperor Chongzhen had suddenly died!

If they still wanted to fight against the Ming Dynasty, then they hoped to have a genius capable of shouldering the responsibility. Clearly, Ajige was not that kind of person.

The Old Mandate Khan was a figure feared by both sides. He didn't employ many fancy schemes; he was simply daring, reckless, and willing to fight at any cost. Under his leadership, the Later Jin achieved great victories, but also suffered enormous losses.

Huang Taiji was undoubtedly a better strategist. Under his leadership, the Later Jin should have proceeded step by step, constantly accumulating advantages, but all of this depended on military victories.

Sometimes the gap between the two sides is not that big. The people the Ming Dynasty used to manage Liaodong were not mediocre. Whether it was Xiong Tingbi's strict defense or Sun Chengzong's fortified advance, they were both effective plans.

But military defeats, even minor ones, could prevent them from continuing their plans and even put their own lives at risk.

The newly appointed Liaodong military commissioner, Lu Xiang-sheng, had a completely different understanding of Liaodong affairs from Yuan Keli. Yuan Keli favored a three-pronged approach, gradually recovering lost territory and squeezing the living space of the Jurchens; what he was fighting for was territory.

Lu Xiang-sheng, however, preferred to eliminate the Jurchen's fighting force. Before taking office in Liaodong, he had actually planned to continue Yuan Keli's strategy of rebuilding Xipingbao, but after on-site inspection, he abandoned it. Xipingbao had been almost completely destroyed by the Jurchens, and the Jurchens had not chosen to station troops there. Rebuilding it would be no different from building a city from scratch.

The Ming Dynasty originally stationed troops at Xipingbao with the intention of making it the first line of defense along the Liao River. It was part of the defensive line. However, now the Ming Dynasty and the Jurchens have reversed their roles. The Ming Dynasty should be thinking about how to advance, instead of being like the Ming Dynasty, which suffered defeat after defeat and was only thinking about how to resist the Jurchens' attacks.

Another point is the location of Xipingbao. It is situated at the southern end of the Liaoze Lake, within the vast Liaoze Lake, which stretches for eight hundred li. To the north lies the expansive Liaoze Lake, sparsely populated, while to the east and west it is more than a hundred li away from Guangning and Haizhou.

Therefore, it was quite difficult to transport supplies to Xipingbao by land, so only 3,000 troops were stationed there back then.

As it turned out, stationing troops at Xipingbao was a failure. When the Jurchens besieged Xipingbao, Guangning was unable to provide timely relief and was instead besieged and attacked.

Fortresses are used to deal with small groups of enemy troops, but they are difficult to defend against large forces like the Jurchens who can easily muster tens of thousands of soldiers.

Moreover, that old servant was truly ruthless. Even with corpses piled up on the city walls, he refused to retreat and managed to keep his men from rebelling. Such a spirit is difficult for ordinary people to imitate. And since he had his men fight so desperately, it would be quite normal for him to massacre the city after the victory to let his men vent their anger.

When Lu Xiang-sheng first arrived in Liaonan, he was somewhat distraught. The situation in Liaonan was not yet stable, and Huang Taiji's actions brought it to the brink of collapse. The self-sustaining model was completely shattered, and the collapse of the cycle could not be reversed.

In fact, Huang Taiji was a truly formidable opponent. If he continued with his haphazard approach to warfare, Liaonan and even the Ming Dynasty could be dragged down by him. Zhu Youjian was so irritable back then because he saw the situation deteriorating and the court had no way to break the deadlock.

The Jurchens had extremely low moral standards. As long as they could keep their tens of thousands of Jurchens alive, they wouldn't care if their auxiliary troops and slaves all died. But the Ming Dynasty couldn't be so shameless and was completely controlled by the Jurchens' low human rights advantage.

The Tang Dynasty was also brutally beaten by the Tibetans in the past, a brutal beating of civilization by barbarity, a beating of feudalism by slavery—it was simply unsolvable! Fortunately, Huang Taiji died, and we should really thank Ajige; his contribution was no less than that of Zhao Shuaijiao!
Even if Huang Taiji were dead, the Ming Dynasty would still suffer greatly if the Jurchens continued their ways, but Ajige lacked the ability. Daishan might have had the ability, but he was never willing to step forward and take the lead. Perhaps the fate of his elder brother Chuying frightened him, or perhaps it was simply because he was old.

People change. Heroes can turn into cowards or even traitors. Li Chengliang was once a true hero of the Ming Dynasty, but when he returned to Liaodong in his later years after achieving fame and success, he was described as having a deep-seated sense of weariness and could no longer reverse the decline of Liaodong.

People can become jaded, and so can armies. After acquiring vast wealth, the Eight Banner soldiers became afraid of death and could no longer fight as fiercely as they once did. They wore the finest armor, wielded the best weapons, and commanded Han and Mongol Eight Banner soldiers to fight for them, but what happened when all the slaves ran away or died? Their true capabilities were then exposed.

Huang Taiji's marriage alliance with the Mongols, his efforts to create a unified Manchu-Mongol alliance, and his attempts to win over the Han army were actually a last resort. During the Liaojin and Ningyuan battles, his soldiers and generals showed obvious signs of cowardice, besieging Jinzhou and Ningyuan without attacking. If he did not personally supervise the battles and forcefully suppress the other princes, they would engage in large and small-scale riots wherever they pleased.

This situation had already begun to emerge during Nurhaci's reign. The old man moved the capital several times, from Hetu Ala to Jiefan City in Fushun, and then to Liaoyang, the capital. By this time, the Jurchens had occupied the entire Liaodong region, facing the Ming army across the Liaoze River. East of the Liaoze River was Liaodong, and west of the Liao River was the broader Liaoxi Corridor. Ultimately, the old man decided to leave Liaoyang and move the capital to Shenyang, which was then just a small city. At this point, there was widespread opposition within the Jurchen ranks. They had already achieved considerable success and were quite content; they couldn't understand why they would leave Liaoyang for the desolate Shenyang.

But even if they didn't want to leave, they had no choice. The old slave was a dictator with absolute power and prestige. He knew very well that they couldn't stop; with their absurd level of governance, they were utterly incapable of maintaining the prosperity of Liaodong.

Huang Taiji was clearly aware of this as well. It wasn't that he considered himself the chosen one and insisted on becoming emperor; it was that he couldn't stop himself. Now, the Jurchens had temporarily halted their expansion because they were no longer able to defeat them, and problems quickly surfaced!
When Lao Nu moved the capital to Shenyang, it was actually to take the Liaoze North Road, pass through the Xilamulun Valley, and connect with Mongolia, thus fulfilling his idea of ​​building a Manchu-Mongol alliance. This was because the Jianzhou Jurchen, as a fishing and hunting people, had a very small population; even after unifying the various Jurchen tribes, their total population was still pitifully small.

In fact, Zhao Da also wanted to move the capital to Luoyang, but Zhao Er was unwilling to leave, saying that "virtue is more important than strategic location." As a result, the Northern Song Dynasty perished, and Zhao Da's prediction that "with Kaifeng as the capital, the strength of the Song people will be exhausted in a hundred years" was also proven true.

The Ming Dynasty is in its current state not because of stubborn people who prevented the relocation of the capital. As the capital, Beijing, apart from not being flooded, puts almost as much pressure on the national economy as Kaifeng. It also requires a large number of troops to protect the capital and relies on the Grand Canal for its livelihood.

If Beijing had not been the capital, the Ming Dynasty would never have been so at a loss in the face of the chaos in Liaodong; if it hadn't been for the "Calabash Brothers saving their grandfather" style of fighting, the well-organized Ming army wouldn't have lost to the Jurchens time and time again.

Beijing was unable to provide Liaodong with money, food, and supplies. Its only value was its proximity, which made it convenient for micro-management to intervene in frontline command, resulting in a crushing defeat!

Liaodong was formerly under the jurisdiction of Shandong Provincial Administration Commission, and Shandong provided grain, cotton cloth and other supplies. Later, large-scale maritime transport was developed, with a fleet even larger than Zheng He's voyages to the Western Ocean, transporting grain from Jiangnan to Liaodong. Liaodong established military settlements, first military settlements, then civilian settlements and merchant settlements, and gradually achieved self-sufficiency, even able to support the interior.

The crisis in Liaonan has now been resolved, not because Lu Xiang-sheng was particularly capable of turning chaos into order, but because no matter how strong his agricultural land reclamation skills were, he couldn't conjure up grain out of thin air. In the end, he still had to rely on the imperial court for financial support and on his poor emperor to beg and plead for money and grain.

Having weathered the difficulties of the first half of the fourth year of the Chongzhen reign, the grain harvests in southern Liaoning were quite good in the second half of the fourth year and the fifth year, and were almost self-sufficient.

Lu Xiang-sheng would lead his troops to conduct armed parades in the Jurchen territory every few days, feigning defeats to set ambushes and launch counterattacks. Originally, Ajige and others wanted to capture and kill this new military commander in order to reverse their declining fortunes, but after being tricked several times, they became completely obedient.

This year, Zhu Youjian felt he was facing immense difficulties, while his opponents were even more desperate, with discussions emerging within their ranks about withdrawing from Liaodong and returning to their former Jianzhou territory. This was because they truly had no way to deal with the Ming army: they could no longer wage war in western and southern Liaodong, and no one dared to make the decision to raid the pass; the break with their Mongol allies had rendered the "Manchu-Mongol unity" a joke.

The Jurchens' own governance remained abysmal, even worse than before. The surrounding Mongol tribes had also learned their lesson; if they couldn't fight them, they could at least run away! The remaining Mongol tribes had been driven westward by the Jurchens' torment, unless they launched a large-scale expedition, which was completely unwise.

The Mongols are now so poor they're urinating blood. To survive, they have to rely on the wealthy Ming Dynasty, but they can't defeat the Ming, so they've come back to the Ming!

The Ming court announced a major counter-offensive, which Ajige could not ignore. So, following precedent, he convened a council of the eight princes. But to his utter dismay, this time, all the princes found excuses not to attend, leaving Ajige in a panic.

Meanwhile, Hauge, stationed in Liaoyang, was also panicked and desperately sought help. Previously, people had looked down on Hauge, but Ajige's actions redeemed his reputation.

No matter what, Hauge lost his arm in battle, and he never betrayed his own people. So the princes and banner chiefs gathered in Liaoyang for a meeting. Ajige lost face, but he could only grit his teeth and attend.

At the meeting, Ajige still acted as the host and wanted to preside over the meeting. Jirgalang took the lead in challenging, saying that the Later Jin Dynasty was now at a critical juncture of life and death, and he hoped that Daišan could succeed him as Khan; if it was still Ajige, he would definitely not participate in the war, and everyone should just have a farewell dinner and disperse.

Ajige slammed his fist on the table and said, "What time is it now? The Ming army is about to attack. Changing generals on the eve of battle can cause problems, let alone changing the Khan on the eve of battle!" Jirhalang ignored him and looked at Daishan instead.

Daishan hadn't expected the situation to deteriorate so quickly. He had long since lost interest in the idea of ​​becoming Khan, hence his hesitation. Hauge had originally come to call for help, but unexpectedly, this had turned out to be the end of the story!

At the beginning of the year, the long-distance raid failed, and Shuo Tuo was killed in battle. Ajige, of course, did not hesitate to pin the blame for the defeat on Jirgalang. Why did Shuo Tuo die while Jirgalang alone survived? Did you deliberately cause Shuo Tuo's death, just like your brother Amin caused Yue Tuo's death?!

Jirgalang was already filled with resentment, and now Ajige was actually crying wolf and blaming the victim?! Ajige absolutely refused to admit that he had colluded with the Ming court, but Jirgalang felt that if the young Ming emperor hadn't known about it beforehand, he would be eating shit! If the Ming army hadn't been prepared, he wouldn't have lost at all. Even if he couldn't achieve his goal of capturing Zhu Youjian alive, he could at least bring his troops back!
Hauge said, "Stop arguing, let's vote according to the old rules!" He supported removing Ajige and making Daišan the Great Khan. Ajige opposed, Dodo opposed, and Fiyango abstained.

The Jurchens are unlucky and strange; they're always missing one of the Eight Princes! Mangultai was deeply obsessed. Seeing Daišan's hesitant expression, he said that if Daišan didn't want to be the Great Khan, he could be the one.

"Actually, I think having a farewell dinner is a good option," Dai Shan suddenly said, leaving everyone stunned!
"Second brother, please don't joke like that!" Mangultai's voice trembled slightly, and his lips turned white. "Fine, I won't compete with you for the Khanate!"

"Great Prince, it's just defending the city. We still have tens of thousands of elite troops. We can't just give up before the battle even starts!" Hauge said with a face full of resentment.

Daishan said, "If we continue to be wary of each other and no one is willing to contribute, we will lose the battle before it even starts. What difference does it make who becomes the Khan then?"

(End of this chapter)