杜度 Dùdù

Son: Dudu, the Anping Beile

Dudu, the Anping Beile, was the first son of Chuying. He was first made a taiji. In the ninth year of Tianming, Engede'er, a taiji of the Bayuete tribe of the Ka'erka, asked to come under Qing rule, and Dudu followed the Beile Daishan to meet him and bring him back; he was made a Beile. In the first year of Tiancong he followed the Beile Amin, Yuetuo and others in the campaign against Korea. Li Zong, King of Korea, asked for peace, and the Beile agreed. Amin wanted to go on to attack the royal capital, but Yuetuo held that they must not; Amin tried to draw Dudu into staying behind with him to occupy the country, but Dudu too refused, and in the end they concluded a covenant and returned. In the eleventh month of the third year he followed the emperor against the Ming, pressed close to the Ming capital and defeated the Ming relieving troops. With the Beile Abatai and others he also raided Tongzhou, burned its boats and reached Zhangjiawan. In the twelfth month, as the army was returning, at Ji Department five thousand Ming troops came from the Shanhai Pass to the rescue. He and Daishan broke into their lines in person; wounded in the foot, he still fought hard, and they wiped out the enemy and camped at Zunhua. In the first month of the fourth year Ming troops came to attack; he defeated them, beheaded their Deputy General, and captured camels and horses by the thousand. Edit

In the seventh year, when the Ming generals Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming surrendered, he went with the Beile Ji'erhalang and Ajige to Zhenjiang to meet them and bring them back. The emperor asked by edict which of the three should come first, the Ming, Korea or the Chaha'er. Dudu said, "Korea is in our grasp and can wait; if the Chaha'er come close, attack them; if they are still far off, we should take the border lands of Datong, feed our horses well, and strike deep when the chance comes." In the eighth year he was stationed at Haizhou. In the first year of Chongde he was raised to Anping Beile. Yileshen, the garrison commander at the river mouth of Haizhou, reported that the Ming generals had built more than a hundred great warships to cut off the Liao River; Dudu was ordered to reinforce him, and when the Ming troops withdrew he returned. That winter the emperor attacked Korea; Dudu escorted the baggage train behind and raided Pi Island, Yuncong Island, Dahua Island and Tieshan. In the second month of the second year the army camped at the Linjin River. The day before, the ice had broken up; in the evening there was heavy rain and snow, the ice froze over again, and the whole army crossed. When the emperor heard he said, "It is Heaven's will!" Dudu followed Duo'ergun, Prince Rui of the First Rank, in taking Jianghua Island; they defeated its navy and then took the island. Edit

In the third year Duo'ergun commanded the left wing and Yuetuo the right wing against the Ming, with Dudu as Yuetuo's deputy. The army advanced over the Qiangzi Ridge east of Miyun; Ming troops came out to fight and were defeated. They attacked the fort of Qiangzi Ridge and, dividing the army, broke through at Heiyu, Gubeikou, Huangyakou and Malanyu. Yuetuo died in the field, and Dudu took overall command. He joined Duo'ergun's army west of the river at Tongzhou; they passed the Ming capital to Zhuo Department, reached Shanxi in the west and Jinan in the south, took twenty cities and accepted the surrender of two. In sixteen battles in all they were victorious every time, killed more than a hundred officials from Governor-General down, and took more than two hundred thousand captives. On the way back they went out by Qingshankou, forcing the pass from Taiping stockade. In the fourth month of the fourth year the army returned; he was given a camel, two horses and five thousand taels of silver, and put in charge of the Ministry of Rites. He raided Jinzhou and Ningyuan. In the fifth year he took over from Ji'erhalang the military farms at Yi Department; while reaping the grain of Jinzhou he met Ming troops and defeated them, and took nine watchtowers of Jinzhou and two towers west of the Xiaoling River. The Ming Governor-General Hong Chengchou camped outside the city of Xingshan with forty thousand troops; Dudu and Haoge defeated him, pursued him to the edge of his trenches and returned, and also wiped out three hundred troops carrying grain. He went to Jinzhou to lure the Ming troops out to fight, and again defeated them, captured boats at the mouth of the Daling River, and pursued and beheaded the enemy who had raided Yi Department. In winter he again besieged Jinzhou. In the sixth year he attacked Guangning and defeated relieving troops from Songshan and Jinzhou. Because he had followed Duo'ergun in camping far from the city and had sent troops home without leave, it was proposed that his rank be taken away; by edict he was fined two thousand taels of silver instead. He again besieged Jinzhou and defeated Ming troops at Songshan. That autumn he again followed the emperor against the Ming and was left to attack Jinzhou. In the sixth month of the seventh year he died. When his illness became grave, the princes and Beile were gathered in the Hall of Dugong to deliberate on merit and fault in the campaign; when the emperor heard, he cancelled the court for him. When his coffin came home, ministers were sent to meet it and make offerings. In the second year of Yongzheng a stele was set up to honour his merit. Edit

Dudu had seven sons, five of whom held ranks: Du'erhu, Mu'erhu, Te'erhu, Dunuwen and Sabi. Edit