"Ha, two brothers each guard a gate?" Cao Yu laughed loudly when he heard this: "What kind of clever plan is this?"
Qi Jin also found it unbelievable and frowned: "General Rong's words are reasonable. What kind of strategy is this? In my opinion, it can't even be considered a normal response."
Although Ma Chengxun was born in the Xuanda generals, he actually trained under Ma Fang when he was young. He was good at cavalry rather than infantry combat. He was a relatively rare offensive general in the Ming Dynasty, but he was not so good at defending cities. Therefore, he couldn't help but be a little surprised after hearing these words, and asked: "Why is this? Oh, I mean why is it not even a normal response?"
Qi Jin also knew that Ma Chengxun was a cavalry commander, so he replied: "Ma Canrong, since Nurhachi is already quite suspicious of Shuerhaqi, but now he has to rely on his troops to defend the city, then generally speaking , it is even more inappropriate to use Shulhaqi alone for one party.
If I were Nurhachi, there are two things that I should do most at this moment. One is to disperse Shuerhaqi's troops as much as possible and never let them gather together; the other is to firmly tie Shuerhaqi himself. Be by your side and don't let him have the chance to act alone.
So when it comes to the specific defense of the city this time, Shuerhaqi and I must join forces to sit in the center of Hetuala, and the east and south gates will be left to our generals Eyidu and Anfeyangu to guard respectively. Shuerhaqi also had four generals under his command, namely Urkun, Naqib, and brothers Changshu and Yangshu. These four were appointed as the deputies of Eyidu and Anfeiyanggu respectively.
In this way, although Shuerhaqi has three thousand soldiers and horses, they are stationed in two gates, and Eyidu and Anfeiyangu are commanded to sit in command. Although the force is large, it is not difficult to control it.
As for me, I only need to keep an eye on Shuerhaqi so that he cannot give orders to the soldiers of the two sects. Then Wuerkun and others have no reason to cause rebellion and are worried about the safety of their master, so naturally they dare not act rashly. If this is the case, then the three thousand troops of Shuerhaqi will be as if I were in my own hands. How good is that? "
Ma Chengxun suddenly said: "So that's it. I understand. Qi Shenrong's words make sense." This is the difference in thinking between offensive cavalry generals and defensive infantry generals.
According to Ma Chengxun's habitual thinking, if everyone has cavalry under their command and they are fighting in the wild, Eyidu and Anfeiyangu will definitely not be able to look down on Urkun and others.
The reason is simple: if Wuerkun and others are determined to escape with their men, Eyidu and Anfeyangu will not dare to pursue them deeply. This is the characteristic of Mangu's evil tactics. The person in front shoots arrows in the back. , those who chase after him will only be shot. Fighting back is purely wishful thinking, because there is no way to shoot anyone. This is a question of relative speed.
Qi Jin's thinking is very consistent with the situation of defending the city, so there is no need to explain this.
Now that Qi Jin had explained the truth clearly, Cao Yu made a summary and said: "So in short, Nurhaci is either stupid or has ulterior motives for doing this."
Ma Chengxun thought about it. Nurhachi had successfully ambushed him and defeated Li Chengliang through deception. Such a person could not be stupid or unwise. In other words, he had no ulterior motive for doing so.
"But this news was sent by Shuerhaqi." Ma Chengxun frowned and thought: "The situation of the war is clear now. Nurhaci is already a turtle in the urn. It's hard to believe that at this moment, Shuerhaqi is planning to fight for Nurhachi. Bury with all your loyalty."
Qi Jin pondered and said, "Is there a possibility that Nurhaci temporarily promised Shuerhaqi a huge benefit, and Shuerhaqi saw the benefit and sided with Nurhaci again?"
This time Cao Yan did not answer immediately, but showed a thoughtful expression on his face.
In fact, Cao Yu himself had this suspicion. However, the meaning expressed in several confidential letters given to him by Gao Jingshi was very clear. Gao Jingshi believed that Shuerhaqi and Nurhachi would not be of the same mind for a long time. Sooner or later, There was going to be a falling out, and as long as Daming used more force on Shuerhaqi, the time for the falling out would definitely come earlier.
Gao Pragmatic has always not relied on intuition to control his actions, and he may not even rely entirely on "historical proof". His decision must be arrived at through detailed inference. The same is true for the conclusion that "Shurhaqi will fall out with Nurhachi sooner or later" Again, mainly from his own reasoning.
Shuerhaqi was imprisoned and killed by Nurhachi. This is a fact basically recognized by later generations of Chinese and foreign historians. For a long time, most historians believed that Shuerhaqi died in a power struggle with his brother Nurhaci.
Gao pragmatic originally agreed with this point of view, but after he had been in the Ming Dynasty for so many years and served as the governor of Liao for a period of time, he had a different view on this. He now believes that the dispute between the Shuerhaqi brothers is not just about dominance. The regular tragedy within the class is a re-enactment of the struggle for power and the struggle for power between the same people in the same room, but it is a political struggle arising from the collision of two ideas of "supporting the Ming" and "rebeling the Ming".
Since Nurhachi himself had created the "Seven Hatreds", there is no need to elaborate on his thoughts of rebelling against the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the first point of Gao's pragmatic inference is the social foundation of the Ming-supporting faction and the formation of the "Shurhaqi Ming-supporting faction".
For this reason, Gao pragmatic carefully recalled the history books he had read, and found that there was a very noteworthy issue in the early records of Nurhachi's military rise, that is, the compilers of Nurhachi's various records all painted a picture with heavy colors. The thrilling scene in which "Taizu" was repeatedly assassinated by his tribesmen and enemies.
From the second month after he raised his army to May of the following year, there were as many as five assassinations recorded. Later historians generally believe that this is an inherent phenomenon of the Jurchen people's transition to a class society. However, Gao Pragmatic believes that this theory only pays attention to the internal development of things and ignores the external connections of things. The compilers of the Records of the Emperor Taizu of the Qing Dynasty labeled this as "the most heroic thing to avoid" and avoided an important historical premise, that is, why did the assassination activities of the Sixth Patriarch's descendants and enemies happen just after Nurhachi raised his army? Is this a coincidence, or does it have a profound historical background?
There are records in "Records of Manchuria" that are more consistent with historical reality. In the eleventh year of Wanli, when Nurhachi asked the Ming Dynasty border minister for Nikan Wailan, "The death of the Ming Dynasty border minister Ri'erzu and his father was due to the accidental killing of our soldiers... and he was given a letter from the governor, and the matter was completed. From now on. In this case, I will help Nikan Wailan to build a city and make it the Lord of Manchuria. Therefore, the people of the country will believe in it and return to Nikan Wailan."
This record seems ordinary at first glance, but if you look closely, you will find that it shows that "the people of the country believe in it" is the order of the Ming Dynasty, and what the people of the country support is the leader designated by the Ming Dynasty. Because of this, "the descendants of his fifth ancestor, who swore an oath to the gods, also wanted to kill Taizu in order to return to Nikanwailan." In other words, they all made the same political choices as the “countrymen”.
It can be seen that the Ming Emperor's concept of "the common master of the world" has indeed been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. This traditional concept, inherited from generation to generation, has become a barrier that is difficult to overcome in people's minds. It has strong appeal and authority. Even Nurhachi himself did not dare to openly raise the banner of anti-Ming for a long time. .
Forty years later, in July of the eighth year of Tiancong's reign, his son Huang Taiji still admitted in a letter to Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty that "Manchuria was originally a vassal state. This was not only what the emperor said, but he would not have considered it wrong even if he accepted it." In fact, it was the strength of the Ming Dynasty to maintain the unity of the country, and it was also the ideological basis for the Jurchen tribe to support the Ming sect after Nurhachi raised his army.
Therefore, when Nurhachi raised his army in the 11th year of Wanli, it was difficult to find close friends. Once his political allies were enlightened by the rights and wrongs of the Ming court, they immediately "reneged on the promise and refused to go."
What is particularly "unfortunate" is that Nurhaci's only major early supporter, brother-in-law Gahashan, was also killed by his tribe. When Nurhaci wanted to gather a crowd to collect his bones, "no one came" from all the clans, and Nurhaci became a lonely man who "all the clans are enemies of" and everyone betrayed his relatives. This situation of being beleaguered on all sides truly reflects the support of the people. This is the first aspect of the problem.
In the second aspect, after the Ming Dynasty inherited the rule of the Yuan Dynasty in the Northeast, in terms of the subordinate relationship between the central government and local people, it adopted the principle of "giving seals, subordinates to each other, surrounding and grazing, each living in peace, doing business, and facilitating communication." " policy.
This measure of letting the chiefs of each tribe control their tribes can, on the one hand, make the tribes subordinate to each other, preside over their own affairs, develop their own economy, and achieve the effective effect of "grazing around each other, and everyone can make a living"; on the other hand, it has formed the "everyone's livelihood" There are countless local power groups, large and small, scattered in various places, each village is the leader and each clan is the leader.
By obtaining the Ming court's edict, these groups enjoyed their own independent political and economic rights, and their special political and economic interests closely linked them to the rule of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, any efforts to change this status quo are bound to be met with fierce opposition. of resistance.
In the original history, historians generally believed that Nurhachi had completed the unification of the Jurchen tribe in Jianzhou in the 16th year of Wanli. However, judging from the records of the tribute paid by Jianzhou Jurchen guards in the Ming Dynasty, the internal struggle against Nurhachi was not over yet.
The opponents used tribute as a link to continue to strengthen political ties with the Ming court, trying to rely on the power of the Ming court to persist in contending with Nurhaci. From the 17th year of Wanli to the 23rd year of Wanli, it is clearly recorded that there were as many as four cases of Jianzhou's left and right guard commanders and commanders coming to Beijing to pay tribute.
More importantly, there are records from North Korea. In the book of Shen Zhongyi in the first month of the 24th year of Wanli, when talking about the internal situation of the Jurchens in Jianzhou, he quoted Ma Chen as saying, "The mortal guards are thirty, and the surrenderers are two. More than ten guards." It can be seen that as of the end of the 23rd year of Wanli, Nurhaci had not yet fully controlled the Jurchen headquarters in Jianzhou.
This fully shows that the political influence of the Ming Dynasty on the Jurchens in Jianzhou was deep-rooted. The consistency of the fundamental interests of the leaders of the various guards and the rulers of the Ming Dynasty determined the protracted, intense, and complex nature of the anti-annexation war. This kind of tangible and intangible power dominates people's psychology and influences people's opinions. Even those who defected to Nurhachi had to pay a heavy price.
According to historical records, in the 16th year of Wanli, the minister of Yargu, Xilahu, did one thing first when he came back: "Kill the brothers and patriarchs." In the same year, when He Heli returned with his troops, his ex-wife also "swept out of the country and wanted to fight with him." The fierceness of the struggle is a concentrated expression of the conflict of interests and also reflects the fundamental opposition between right and wrong. This is the reason why Nurhachi was very isolated politically when he started his army. This is also the political basis of the Jurchen pro-Ming faction.
The third point is that due to the uneven economic development of various Jurchen tribes, any annexation by force will inevitably encounter armed resistance. At the end of the 16th century, the economic development of various Jurchen tribes was very uneven. In the advanced Liaodong region, some tribes had already established new production relations, but most tribes still stayed in the clan commune stage. Even the advanced tribes still stubbornly retained their There are remnants of the clan system.
What are the remnants of clan system? For example, in the twelfth year of Wanli, when Nurhachi wanted to seize the opportunity to annex the Dong'e tribe for the first time, the generals warned him that "soldiers should not enter other people's territory lightly." This was a typical residual thought of the Jurchen clan system at that time, that is, the existing social order cannot be Break easily.
Although due to economic development, there has been a trend of union among the Jianzhou Jurchens, and the people at the bottom began to have expectations for unification, the idea of "unification" was not generally accepted by everyone - especially the upper-class nobles. As the Jurchen ruling class, they will not allow such a change to occur.
Because of this, in June of the 21st year of Wanli, the four coalition forces of Yehe, Hada, Ula, and Huifa launched the first military attack on Nurhachi. After this attack failed to achieve its goal, in September of the same year, Yehe, Hada, Ula, and Huifa united with the Mongolian and other nine troops to take preemptive military action against Nurhachi.
These actions all show that maintaining the stability and legitimacy of the existing political and economic life is still a principle generally accepted by people at that time and a common goal for which they strive - at least the common goal of the nobles who control various political and military powers. . And this is the soil on which the Ming-supporting faction within the Jurchens relies for their survival and development.
The war drastically changed people’s political and economic status. “In the past, people were free to do whatever they wanted, and they were still hunting in the fields. Now, they are restrained, and they are also willing to accept what they hunt. Even though they are afraid of the enemy and do not say anything, is there no resentment in the heart? ” Moreover, when the heavy burden of corvee was mentioned, most of the Shen and Jurchen people “feel quite resentful”.
This even led to the situation that even after Nurhachi's victory in the Battle of Sarhu, the situation was still "all slaves, big and small, look forward to the success of peace, and only regard themselves as lucky to not fight for anything." This is the fundamental attitude of the Jurchen masses and middle- and lower-level leaders towards war.
What's the meaning? In short, the Ming Dynasty relied on its political, economic, and military power to influence and support a number of special power groups among the upper echelons of the Jurchen tribes. The special economic and political interests of these groups determined their relationship with Ming Ting maintains inextricable ties.
Coupled with the uneven political and economic development of various ministries, any attempt to disrupt the status quo is bound to be resisted and resisted by traditional forces. Since Nurhachi rebelled against the Ming Dynasty under such historical conditions, he naturally created his own opposition. As a result, Shulhaqi, as a representative figure of the opposition, gracefully stepped onto the stage of history.
Gao Pragmatic discovered that as a representative figure of the opposition, the conflict between Shuerhaqi and Nurhachi went through a complicated development process. Looking at the trajectory of his activities, it is not difficult to find that Shuerhaqi's thoughts have a dual nature, that is, the unity of progress and conservatism.
When he was in a dominated position, his enterprising thoughts once drove him to "follow the expedition since childhood and go everywhere", becoming a fellow traveler of Nurhaci's "revenge of his grandfather", and laid the foundation for the unification of the Jurchens in Jianzhou. For his great achievements, Nurhachi was hailed as the "Darkhan Batulu" hero.
But Shulhaqi’s thoughts are not static. With the victory of the military campaign, Shulhaqi's political status and military strength are also growing. In June of the 15th year of Wanli in the original history, Nurhaci was crowned king in Feala, and Shuerhaqi was also called the captain of the ship at the same time - the so-called "ship commander" is also commonly known as "the helmsman". In other words, from this time on, Shuerhaqi has become the second-ranking figure in Nurhachi's political and military group.
In the 23rd year of Wanli, the number of elite soldiers under Shuerha Qimo has grown to more than 5,000, and there are as many as 40 civil servants and generals. At this time, Shuerhaqi was famous among various tribes for his "war exploits". Because he "won the hearts of the people", his reputation was higher than that of his disciples and nephews.
With the change of status, progressive thoughts and conservative thoughts will rise and fall, and one will wax and wane. In the 23rd year of Wanli and the 25th year of Wanli, Shuerhaqi paid tribute to Beijing twice and received special favors from the Ming court, giving him the same political treatment and courtesy as Nurhaci.
This made Shuerhaqi actually ascend to the political throne as the second leader of the Ming Dynasty Jianzhou Guard Jurchen, and unexpectedly opened the door to happiness. As a result, the high morale and enterprising spirit of his youth gradually faded away, and the influence of various inherited forces and traditional ideas took advantage of the situation.
Shuerhaqi began to wander and explore within the existing social order, which meant that his relationship with fellow travelers Nurhachi had come to an end. After bidding farewell to Nurhachi and his own progressive ideas, Shulhaqi continued to retreat under the dual pressure of traditional thinking and external pressure from real politics, becoming a conservative in real life.
In order to remain invincible, Shuerhaqi surrendered to the Ming court without hesitation. In December of the thirty-fourth year of Wanli, when Nurhaci "refused to pay tribute for two consecutive years", Shuerhaqi came to Beijing to pay tribute for the third time. The Ming court once again confirmed his political identity as governor and commander.
Under Ming's constant wooing, Shuerhaqi's thoughts were also undergoing drastic changes. His desire to support the Ming and be self-reliant was growing day by day, and his loyalty to the Ming court had reached the level of "all the people who declared their disobedience to China were obeyed."
At the same time, Shulhaqi also actively developed relations with Ulla. In the 24th, 26th and 31st years of Wanli, he married Buzhantai three times. His political influence has transcended the tribal barriers and his strength has been greatly strengthened. Within Jianzhou Jurchen, Shuerhaqi also finally became a major force to compete with Nurhaci because of his "popular support".
Due to ideological differences, the political relationship between Shuerhaqi and Nurhaci became increasingly tense. From time to time there were violent quarrels "in the affairs of the country."
Political opposition will inevitably lead to military non-cooperation and confrontation. According to historical records, in September of the 27th year of Wanli, Nurhaci led his troops to conquer Hada. In such a major battle, Shuerhaqi first "stopped fighting" and then "filled the front with troops", causing Nurhaci to fall into a passive position of being beaten. "Many sergeants were injured." This is not so much a negative thing as a negative one. Rather, it is an opposition.
Another example is that in March of the thirty-fifth year of Wanli, Nurhachi ordered Shuerhaqi and others to lead troops to capture the city of Feiyou, where Ula belonged. Shuerhaqi's attitude of favoring Ula and being passively confrontational was very obvious. He first wanted to withdraw his troops without fighting, and then he Stay and don’t pursue.
After the battle, the scheming Nurhaci used the crime of "disobedience" to kill Shuerhaci's two ministers and weaken their strength. Shuerhaqi immediately "showed off his cards" and forced Nurhaci to make concessions with a tough attitude of "killing two ministers is the same as my death". At this point, the relationship between their brothers finally reached the point where they were on the same level.
In today's world, it is only the beginning of the sixteenth year of Wanli, and because of the butterfly effect last year, Nurhaci was first warned by the Ming Dynasty for colluding with Tumen, and now he was punished for invading Dong'e tribe, so he did not have time to say King, so the two of them are still the "Ningguta Big Belle" and "Ningguta Second Belle" within the Jurchens.
However, this does not prevent Shulhaqi's thought from changing faster than in the original history.
Why is it so fast? Of course, it is because Ming Dynasty's support for him is far stronger than in the original history.
----------
Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "Cao Mianzi" and "Too Fat to Fly" for their monthly support, thank you!
