Chapter 982: What? There's an Eastern Qing State Too! (Please Subscribe)

On the shores of Lake Xingkai stood Jianzhou City.

This large bastion fort, still under construction and named after Jianzhou, had been designed by engineers from Spain after studying the battle examples of the attack and defense of Beijing. The raw materials used were the most common timber, earth, and locally fired red bricks from the plains on the southern shore of Lake Xingkai.

Construction of the fortress officially began in the spring of the ninth year of Hongxing. Tens of thousands of Joseon laborers, directed by Spanish engineers and urged on by Manchu soldiers, toiled bitterly for more than half a year, and by winter they had finally completed the hexagonal outer wall, the twelve solid bastions had also been heaped into outline, and the moat outside the fortress had been dug nearly to completion. Inside the fortress, against a high wall on its northern side, a three-story Western-style building of brick and timber had also been put up at the fastest possible speed, and interior decoration was now underway.

Around the fortress, large tracts of forest had also been felled, more than one hundred thousand mu of fertile black soil had been leveled, and digging of irrigation channels had already begun.

To complete so much work in just a few months was, of course, the result of the diligent urging of Dodo's filial son Doni. And the reason Doni was in such a hurry was one alone: his father Dodo had fallen ill in the winter of the eighth year of Hongxing, and the illness had progressed extremely fast, until by the summer of this year it had reached the point of no return.

To fulfill his father's final wish — to return to the land where their ancestors had risen and rebuild Jianzhou City — and also to possess a base for resisting the Great Ming Celestial Dynasty after his father's death, Doni, who actually held power over the Andong Protectorate, had thrown in vast manpower and resources, working day and night, and by the shore of Lake Xingkai, near the site of the first guard city of the old Jianzhou Guard, had built a brand-new Jianzhou City.

And the plain around Lake Xingkai, bounded on the north by the Wanda Mountains, on the south by Shuangcheng Guard, on the east by the Sikhote-Alin Mountains, and on the west by the outliers of the Changbai Mountains, had been chosen by Doni as the dragon-rising, tiger-resting land of the Manchu tributary state of his dreams.

Although Doni wanted to found a state and declare himself king beyond the passes, he was not entirely without self-awareness, truly believing he could hold the Liao River plain, the Liaoxi Corridor, and the Liaodong Peninsula against the Great Ming Celestial Dynasty — in fact, if the Great Ming Celestial Dynasty really allowed the Andong Protectorate to occupy the aforementioned territory, why would he make all this fuss about a Manchu state? Wouldn't it be fine to be a steady, secure Protectorate Prince?

But as Huang Degong's Daning Army advanced into the pastures northeast of the Yan Mountains and the Josotu League, beginning to bring the various Kharchin Mongol tribes under his command, and as Yongping Prefecture and Jizhou Prefecture under Hebei Province were successively established, Doni and the entire Andong Manchu bloc felt the pressure.

Moreover, after Dodo fell gravely ill, the envoy sent by the Ming court to Hanyang to inquire after his health had also revealed the court's intention to partition the Andong Protectorate after Dodo's death, establishing Liaoyang Province and the Heilongjiang Protectorate — Liaoyang would be a directly administered province, under the court's direct control. Dodo's heirs could only hold the Andong Protectorate and the Heilongjiang Protectorate, but the two Grand Protectorships could not be held concurrently by one person.

Doni and the Andong Manchu bloc were mentally prepared to hand over the Liao River basin, the Liaoxi Corridor, and the Liaodong Peninsula. For as early as the late years of Nurhaci's reign and the early years of Hong Taiji's reign, the Ming and Qing sides had conducted secret peace negotiations many times, and in those negotiations the Ming side had always insisted on restoring the full jurisdiction of the Liaodong Regional Military Commission.

At that time, the situation was clearly one of a weak Ming and a strong Jin (Qing), and beyond the jurisdiction of the Liaodong Regional Commander there had been little development, so there was no foundation for founding a state at all. Thus Nurhaci and Hong Taiji could not possibly have agreed.

But the strength of the present Ming court had long since become something the Qing remnant forces, reduced to the Andong Protectorate, could not resist. And with the development of the Pacific fur and pearl trade and the opening up of the Heilongjiang River basin, by the time of Dodo's grave illness, the Andong Manchu bloc had gained the possibility of abandoning the Liaodong Regional Military Commission and founding a state on the territory of the old Nurgan Regional Military Commission.

So the leaders of the Andong Manchu bloc, headed by Doni, conceived the idea of abandoning the jurisdiction of the Liaodong Regional Commander and then turning the remaining part of the Andong Protectorate into a Manchu tributary state.

In their view, this conception was the complete realization of the Ming's goals in the earlier Ming-Qing peace negotiations.

Moreover, the Manchu tributary state would still be an outer vassal of the Celestial Dynasty, not an independent country.

But to their surprise, the Great Ming court's asking price was far harsher than they had imagined.

Not only did it demand the recovery of the Liaodong Regional Military Commission's jurisdiction, it also wanted to divide the remaining territory of the Andong Protectorate into two protectorates, Andong and Heilongjiang. Was this not the method of dividing strong garrisons used by the Tang dynasty in history to weaken powerful military governors?

If the Andong Protectorate accepted partition, then in a few more years, would Andong Province and Heilongjiang Province both appear?

And to resist the Ming court's partition demands, Doni accelerated the pace of establishing the Manchu tributary state. To bolster his own prestige, the new state's name certainly could not be "Manchu Tributary State" — that sounded weak-spirited at first hearing.

So after much deliberation, Doni prepared to use "Eastern Qing" to name the state he would create, to show that the state was the successor of the Great Qing.

Doni had prepared no small banner for himself, looking as though he meant to contend with the Great Ming for supremacy, but the root territory he chose for himself rather suggested a desire to keep out of the Great Ming's way. He not only abandoned Shenyang City, but did not even choose Hetu Ala, the capital where Nurhaci had founded the state, instead retreating to the shores of Lake Xingkai, where the Jianzhou Guard had first been established in the Yongle era, and moreover treating the Lake Xingkai plain as his great rear area for construction.

From the spring of the ninth year of Hongxing, they had begun felling trees to open fields and building waterworks. And even before the fall of the Qing dynasty, Dodo, who ruled beyond the passes, had managed to buy rye suited to cold climates from the Russians at Nerchinsk, and had begun trial planting in the Heilongjiang River basin, around Lake Xingkai, and near Vladivostok, with quite good results.

Though these lands were cold in climate, the soil was extraordinarily fertile — all rich, oily black earth — and once cold-resistant crops were found, they could yield quite satisfactory harvests.

So Doni, having retreated to Jianzhou City, need not worry about lacking black bread — no, rather, black dough lumps to eat.

Having just finished inspecting outside the city several farms opened by migrants from within the passes for growing rye, examined dozens of grain stacks filled to bursting, and eaten a meal of black dough lump soup (the broth was mutton soup), Doni, escorted by a group of Manchu riders, galloped into Jianzhou City and rode all the way to that red brick-and-timber building. Looking at the building's red outer walls, Doni felt a touch of desolation. For his father Dodo had dragged his sick body from Joseon to Jianzhou City in the autumn — in Dodo's words, if he was to die, he would die on the land of his ancestors.

Doni knew in his heart that his father was doing this to lend momentum to his "Jianzhou as capital" plan — however fine the shores of Lake Xingkai might be, they could not compare with the cultivated lands of Liaodong and Liaoxi. How many people would be willing to abandon their homes and follow him here?

The building where Dodo was recuperating was very quiet, almost like a mourning hall. Joseon maidservants wearing only stockings moved back and forth soundlessly, adding further to the heavy atmosphere. Doni walked quickly toward his father's bedchamber on the second floor, and just as he reached the second floor, he saw Oboi standing there sighing.

Oboi had originally been playing "Oboiski" among the Khalkha Mongols, but after Dodo fell gravely ill, he had sent for Oboi to return — Dodo now urgently wanted to know how much longer the war among the Khalkha Mongols could be sustained.

In addition, Dodo hoped that Oboi could take charge of the situation in the Heilongjiang River basin after his death.

One Lake Xingkai, one Heilongjiang — these would be the root lands of the future Eastern Qing state.

"This slave Oboi greets the Young Prince." Seeing Doni come upstairs, Oboi hastily saluted.

Doni hurriedly raised him up, then asked, "Have you seen the old master?"

"I have," Oboi said. "His Highness's complexion is quite good today."

A good complexion was impossible. Dodo had contracted some vicious disease, and in a few months had wasted away beyond recognition, aching here and there, finding no pleasure in any food. In Hanyang, physicians of the Great Ming court, the Joseon kingdom, and the Spaniards had all examined him, and all said he would not last long — surviving past the ninth year of Hongxing would be fortunate.

Dodo's not dying was one thing, but the moment he breathed his last, the brief peace between the Great Ming and the Manchus would come to an end.

(End of Chapter)