Ao Bai was captured, why didn t he die? What is Kangxi afraid of?

Mondo History Updated on 2024-02-02

As the terminator of the feudal dynasty, the Qing Dynasty was relatively convenient for historical research because of its relatively recent date. Therefore, he has been used as the subject of literary works or film and television drama scripts, and many works have been created and put on the screen.

Although most of the works are mainly dramatic and some of the plot design is exaggerated, many of the historical figures in them do exist in real history.

The worship of the powerful ministers in the Qing Dynasty TV series is not fiction, it is real. He monopolized power during the Kangxi period, so how did he become such a minister? After Ao Bai's death, what was the fate of his descendants and clansmen, and what was Kangxi's attitude towards them?

Aobai, a Manchu with a yellow flag, a member of the Guarjia family, is one of the eight surnames of the Manchus. Unlike the other flags, the Yellow Banner and the Positive Yellow Banner were the emperor's own personal troops, and the guards were also selected from among the Manchu nobles.

Let's move on to the story of Aobai. He was born in Jiangmen, good at riding and archery, and his uncle was the founding father Fei Yingdong. During the period of Emperor Taiji of the Qing Dynasty, Ao Bai followed Huang Taiji to fight everywhere, repeatedly performed miraculous feats, and became the most trusted military general of Huang Taiji, and was given the name Baturu.

However, Huang Taiji died suddenly, leaving behind an unresolved issue: the heir. The yellow and yellow flags supported Haoge, the eldest son of Emperor Taiji, while the white and white flags supported Dorgon, Prince Rui.

Ao Bai and the generals loyal to Huang Taiji used force to force Dolgon to make concessions. Eventually, Dolgon saw that most of the elite soldiers around the Chongzheng Hall came from the Yellow Banner and the Zhenghuang Banner, so he agreed to appoint Huang Taiji's ninth son, Fu Lin, as the heir, and he and Zilharang assisted him.

This decision was accepted by both parties.

At the age of six, Fulin ascended the throne as Emperor Shunzhi, but because of his young age, power fell into the hands of the regent Dorgon. Dolgon's strong repression of opponents during his regency, including Aobai, was in a difficult situation.

It was not until the death of Dolgon in 1650 and the pro-government of Shunzhi that the predicament of Aobai improved. After Shunzhi became pro-government, he gave important responsibilities to Aobai, Sony and others, and Aobai often accompanied Shunzhi to deal with national affairs.

At this stage, the image of Ao Bai is still positive.

Although Emperor Shunzhi died after only eighteen years of reign, and there are many theories about his whereabouts, the fact that he designated Xuan Ye as his successor, the later Emperor Kangxi, before his death is indisputable.

Xuan Ye ascended to the throne at the age of 8, still young, and was assisted by four auxiliary ministers: Sony, Aobai, Kupilon, and Sukh Saha. Among them, Sony is old, in poor health, and has little interest in government affairs.

However, Sukh Saha and Kupilon had lower military merits and were far inferior to Aobai, so Aobai gradually grasped real power by virtue of their high military merits. Although the Kangxi Emperor began to govern himself at the age of 14, the power was still in the hands of Aobai.

Sukh Saha's request to step down as Auxiliary Minister was intended in the hope that Aobai and Suppilon would also relinquish power. However, Ao Bai understood Sukh Saha's intentions, and in order to retain his power, he accused Sukh Sahaan of being executed and asked the Kangxi Emperor to execute him.

Although the Kangxi Emperor knew that Sukh Saha was innocent, he was unable to prevent Sukh Saha from being killed, which made his contradictions with Ao Bai even more acute. As a result, Emperor Kangxi decided to eradicate the Aobai group.

However, by this time, Aobai's henchmen had spread all over the court and the people, so the Kangxi Emperor had to be cautious to avoid the failure of his plan.

Emperor Kangxi came up with a clever plan: he selected some young people who were good at wrestling among his relatives, summoned them into the palace, and practiced wrestling with them frequently, so as to make Aobai relax his vigilance.

Ao Bai didn't care about this, he only thought that the emperor was young and active. Later, Emperor Kangxi took advantage of the unpreparedness and announced his entry into the palace. And those wrestling teenagers took advantage of Aobai's defenselessness to knock him down, and Aobai was thus **.

Then, Kangxi ordered someone to interrogate Aobai, and the interrogation results showed that Aobai had a total of 30 charges and should be dismissed and beheaded. However, Kangxi considered that he had made great achievements in war, and that he had no intention of usurping power because of his dictatorship, so he treated him leniently, only imprisoned him, and all his henchmen were executed.

Although he died in prison, he was posthumously made a baron of the first class. His son, Namufu, was implicated and imprisoned for the Aobai incident, but the rest of the tribe was not affected.

Namouf was released after Aobai's death, leaving no other clan members or children implicated. Although Ao Bai is authoritarian, he is not a traitor in the traditional sense, he is just a powerful minister.

His title was still inherited, and for the Qing Dynasty, Aobai's contribution was enormous. Although the Kangxi Emperor was dissatisfied with Aobai's autocratic power, after all, it prevented him from truly taking power as an adult.

But for various reasons, Emperor Kangxi still chose to be lenient and let Ao Bai spend the rest of his life in prison, and his descendants and clansmen were able to die a good death.

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