Chapter 1042: Duoni's Seven Great Grievances (Please Subscribe)

"Second Brother, our brothers have been badly screwed over by that bitch Dong'e! Who knows what sorcery that slut used to turn all four regents — Heluohui, Bo'erhui, Wubai, and Subai — against us. They mutinied at Incheon, seized Third Brother and Fifth Brother. Luckily I was quick-witted; I grabbed Fifth Brother's personal guards and fought my way out, fled all the way to Wonsan, and even brought out Fifth Brother's son E'erbo. Right now Wonsan, Hamhung Prefecture, and the Kyongsong Commissioner-in-Chief's headquarters are all in our hands! Second Brother, send troops at once to put down the rebellion!"

The man pouring out his grievances against Princess Dong'e to Duoni, the Andong Protector-General's deputy, in the side courtyard of the Prince Jin mansion at Vladivostok, was Chani, just returned from Joseon's Hamgyong Province.

He was far more troublesome than Liu Hao had expected — not only did he flee himself, he also took Duo'erbo's son E'erbo with him. That spared Dong'e the headache of figuring out how to strip E'erbo of his inheritance. What a fine cousin to the Great Ming!

Moreover, he had stirred up serious trouble in northeastern Joseon, seizing not only Wonsan but also Hamhung and Kyongsong, essentially bringing all of Hamgyong Province under his control.

The reason Chani was able to cause such an uproar in Hamgyong Province actually had to do with the local customs and character of the region.

Hamgyong Province in Joseon — especially the Kyongsong area known as the "Northern Circuit" — was in fact old Jurchen territory, later conquered by Joseon and gradually assimilated into Joseon land. The common people living around Kyongsong mostly had Jurchen blood, and their customs were fierce. They had always been a source of elite troops for the Joseon kingdom, known as the "Northern Circuit crack troops."

But these Northern Circuit crack troops did not identify strongly with the Joseon kingdom — because in Joseon, ruled by the yangban aristocracy, the people of Jurchen descent around Kyongsong held low status and had little chance to rise. Moreover, Joseon particularly despised illegitimate children, treating them as outcasts. The customs around Kyongsong were also rather barbarized; men and women alike paid little heed to rites and propriety, so the number of illegitimate outcasts was high.

As a result, the conflict between the people of Kyongsong and the Joseon authorities was extremely sharp. During the Imjin War, when Kato Kiyomasa led his troops into Hamgyong Province, the people there eagerly seized their local officials and rushed to join Kiyomasa, so much so that among Joseon officials in Hamgyong Province, "not one or two in ten escaped."

Later, when the Ming sent troops to aid Joseon, and the people of Kyongsong had long known that the Ming army's Liaodong garrison was strong, they figured their Japanese masters would not last, so they turned coat again, formed anti-Japanese volunteer armies, and betrayed Kato Kiyomasa — leaving Kato in a miserable predicament.

But after Kato fled, the very first thing Zheng Wenfu, the official the Joseon Yi dynasty sent to govern Hamgyong Province, did was disband the volunteer armies. From this one can see plainly what the relationship between the people of Kyongsong and the Joseon state was like.

And after the Manchus — blood relatives of Kyongsong's "Northern Circuit crack troops" — took control of Joseon, the situation of the Kyongsong people changed overnight. They became a key group the Manchus sought to win over. Not only did all the outcasts (not just the illegitimate children of yangban origin — Kyongsong had few yangban) gain commoner status, they also received a small plot of land and could enlist in the Andong Army.

Furthermore, the officials the Joseon court sent to Kyongsong were basically all "New Joseon people" — ostensibly obedient to the Joseon king's orders, but in reality following the directives of the Jianzhou side.

Therefore, as soon as Chani arrived in Hamgyong Province and raised his banner, he immediately won countless supporters and firmly seized control of the entire province.

But when Duoni heard Chani's report, he was not the least bit pleased.

Because Chani was a Regional Commander of the Andong Army, and now he had led troops on his own authority to occupy the territory of Joseon, a vassal state of the Great Ming — and this at a time when the Andong Army and the Ming court were at daggers drawn over the division of garrisons and the succession. No matter who judged the matter, this was rebellion by the Andong Army!

"Deputy Protector, we might as well rebel! The Ming has pushed us to this point — if we don't rebel now, we'll be failing our ancestors!"

"Second Brother, let's rebel!"

"Right, we have no choice but to rebel."

"The Ming is truly hateful — they've bullied us beyond endurance!"

"Exactly! Our Ama clearly passed away, but the Ming refuses to acknowledge it, so Ama's body can't even be laid to rest!"

"And the Ming wants to break up our Andong garrison and seize the Liaodong and Liaoxi lands that our Ten Banners' sons have been clearing and farming for so many years!"

"The Ming Emperor has also ignored the propriety between suzerain and vassal and seized Fifth Brother's Joseon fief — utterly hateful in the extreme!"

"Khorchin and our Jianzhou have intermarried for generations and have long been one body, yet the Ming ignored our pleas and sent troops year after year to attack them, slaughtering the Khorchin until the dead and wounded lay in heaps — truly hateful!"

"The Ming has also blockaded our Pacific trade, slashing the Andong Army's revenues and cutting off our financial lifeline — hateful to the extreme!"

"The Ming has also tried to sow discord among the Great Prince's brothers, hoping to make us Manchus fight among ourselves and slaughter each other — that is another great grievance!"

"The Ming has also arbitrarily changed our Manchu surname, altering Aisin Gioro to Jin — that is yet another great grievance!"

"That makes seven great grievances already! Didn't our Imperial Grandfather rise up against the Ming back then precisely because of the Seven Great Grievances? Are we, his unworthy descendants, too cowardly to follow our ancestor's example and take up arms against the Ming?"

"Right! Back then Imperial Grandfather had only thirteen suits of inherited armor, yet he still accomplished a great enterprise. Now we have fertile lands beyond the passes, millions of soldiers and civilians, the four Mongol tribes as allies, and the friendly nation of Hispania to aid us — why should we fear that the great cause cannot succeed?"

By this point in Duoni's palace at Vladivostok, the crowd was seething with righteous indignation — some were already shouting about seven or eight great grievances!

To be honest, Duoni himself was full of resentment too. If one really counted them up, never mind seven or eight great grievances — double that would not be enough!

But the problem was that the Hongxing Emperor was no Wanli Emperor. The Hongxing Emperor had sent out a Princess Dong'e with a hundred musketeers and taken away a Joseon vassal state that had tens of thousands of troops!

That kind of skill alone was who knows how many times greater than the Wanli Emperor's!

After turning it over and over in his mind without finding any confidence, Duoni could only cast his gaze toward Yuele and Nikan, the two "false princes" (everyone in the Andong Army called them "Your Highness," but the Ming had never enfeoffed them) whom his late father had relied on as his right-hand men.

Nikan snorted and said, "We should just rebel! The Ming is pressing us step by step. If we don't rebel now, I fear we'll be squeezed to death!"

Yuele said, "Whether to rebel or not can be discussed later, but Shanhai Pass, Jinzhou Pass, and Jiuliancheng Pass must be sealed as soon as possible. Otherwise, with Ming spies and secret envoys coming and going, I fear disasters like the one in Joseon will happen again and again!"

Nikan said angrily, "Sealing the passes is rebellion anyway! Might as well be straightforward about it — damn it, let's rebel!"

Duoni then looked at his eldest brother Zhulan. "Eldest Brother, what do you think?"

Over in Joseon, those were all Dorgon's old subordinates, so it was understandable that Princess Dong'e had won them over — those men had spent their whole lives fighting and killing, and now they wanted to preserve the fruits of victory. And Princess Dong'e could give them that guarantee, and there was also a graceful way down, since Princess Dong'e was, after all, Dorgon's own flesh and blood!

But here in Jianzhou... there was no Princess Dong'e, only Elder Brother Zhulan!

"Second Brother, I..." Zhulan's heart seized up the moment his brother's gaze swept over him.

He was no Dong'e. Dong'e had inherited Dorgon's brains — very sharp. Zhulan, on the other hand, looked like Dodo, but his courage was not even a tenth of Dodo's. He simply did not dare oppose his brother.

Here in Jianzhou, Duoni had already achieved centralized power — Dodo had been ill for over a year before dying, so he had made arrangements. And Zhu Cilang had given Duoni more than a year's reprieve, so whatever power needed to be concentrated had long since been concentrated.

Therefore, any attempt by Zhu Cilang to sow discord between Duoni and Zhulan would not succeed.

"I... I'll go to Burma!" Zhulan held it in for a long while and finally blurted out those words.

"To Burma?" Duoni was taken aback.

"Yes, yes — while the sea route is still open," Zhulan said. "I'll go to Burma, then enter Yunnan from Burma, and on Second Brother's behalf pledge allegiance to the Shun Emperor. As long as north and south can join hands, the Ming is not necessarily invincible!"

"Excellent idea!" Duoni slapped his thigh. "Then it's settled. Seal all the passes and cut off traffic. Also arrange a fast ship flying Dutch colors to send Eldest Brother to Burma to contact the Shun! North and south will join hands to destroy the tyrannical Ming together!"

(End of Chapter)