莽古爾泰 Mǎnggǔ'ěrtài

Manggu'ertai

Manggu'ertai was the fifth son of Taizu. In the renzi year he went with Taizu against the Wula and took six cities. Manggu'ertai asked to cross the water and attack them, but Taizu said: "Stop! Without servants, how can one be a master? Without people, how can one be a ruler? I shall only pare them down." So he destroyed the six cities and moved the army to the Fuleha River. The next day he built a wooden fort on the Wula River and left a thousand men to hold it. In the first year of Tianming Manggu'ertai was made a Heshuo Beile, and by order of age was called the Third Beile. Edit

In the fourth year the Ming Commissioner of Military Affairs Yang Hao sent the Brigade General Du Song out through Fushun Pass with sixty thousand men, and Liu Ting out through Kuandian with forty thousand. Manggu'ertai went with Taizu to resist Song at Jiefan; they set troops in ambush at the mouth of the Sa'erhu valley and waited until about half the Ming troops had passed before striking. Our army held Jilin Cliff and the Ming troops camped on Sa'erhu Hill; he and the Beile Daishan and others then took a thousand men to reinforce Jilin Cliff, and the combined army attacked Sa'erhu and crushed the Ming, and Song died in battle. He then went with Taizu when the army turned back to attack and kill Ting. In the eighth month he took part in the campaign against Yehe. In the fifth year Taizu attacked the Ming and raided Yilu and Pucheng, and ordered Manggu'ertai to drive off the enemy with his troops; he led a hundred picked men in pursuit of the Ming troops, turning back only at the Hun River. In the sixth year, when the commander of Zhenjiang, Chen Liangce, rebelled and went over to Mao Wenlong, Manggu'ertai and Daishan moved the people of Jinzhou to Fuzhou. In the tenth year he took Lushunkou. Edit

When Lindan Khan of the Chaha'er invaded the Ke'erqin and besieged the city of Kelezhu'ergen, Manggu'ertai went to the rescue; when he reached Nong'anta, Lindan Khan fled. In the eleventh year Taizu attacked the Balin tribe of the Ka'erka, and first ordered the Beile to raid along the Xilamuleng, but they all said their horses were too worn out to go on; Manggu'ertai alone led his troops across by night and attacked, capturing people and goods beyond counting. Edit

In the first year of Tiancong he attacked the Ming at Youtun Guard, and with a detached force also protected the grain transport at Tashan. In the third year he went with Taizong against the Ming; Abatai went in through Longjing Pass and attacked Han'erzhuang. Manggu'ertai, with Duo'ergun and Duoduo, followed up and won the surrender of the town, and soon talked the commander of Panjiakou into surrendering. The emperor took Hongshan Pass and pressed on Zunhua. Manggu'ertai came from Han'erzhuang to join the army, defeated the Ming Brigade General Zhao Shuaijiao, and captured his Assistant General Zang Diaoyuan. The army advanced to Tongzhou and pressed up to the Ming capital, and Ming troops from every circuit came in to relieve it. Manggu'ertai sent the bayara troops ahead and formed the rear guard with Duoduo; when defeated Ming soldiers came against them, he wiped them out. He went with the emperor to inspect Jizhou and defeated the relief troops from Shanhai Pass. In the second month of the fourth year they took Yongping and Zunhua. On the way back they met Ming troops and defeated them. Edit

In the fifth year he took part in the siege of Dalinghe; the Plain Blue Banner surrounded its south side, and Manggu'ertai and Degelei led the bayara troops in support. The Ming Brigade General Wu Xiang and the army-supervising circuit intendant Zhang Chun came to the rescue and camped fifteen li from the city. Manggu'ertai went with the emperor to attack them and captured Chun and others. During the siege of Dalinghe, Manggu'ertai told the emperor that troops of his command had been wounded. The emperor happened to question him: "I hear that the troops under you are often at fault in carrying out orders." Manggu'ertai said angrily: "How could that be?" The emperor said: "If the accuser is lying, the accuser should be punished; if it is true, how can the troops under you be without guilt?" When he had said this, the emperor was about to rise and mount his horse, and Manggu'ertai said: "Why does Your Majesty make trouble for me alone? I have always been obedient, and still you want to kill me?" He fingered the knife at his belt and kept glaring at the emperor. The Beile Degelei, his younger brother by the same mother, rebuked him for his insolence and struck him with his fist; Manggu'ertai grew angrier still and drew his blade from its sheath. Those around pushed him out, and the emperor said in anger: "This is the man who once killed his own mother to win favour!" The Beile judged Manggu'ertai guilty of gross disrespect; he was stripped of the rank of Heshuo Beile and reduced to Duoluo Beile, deprived of five niru, and fined ten thousand taels of silver as well as armour, ten horses with carved saddles and two horses with plain saddles. Edit

In the sixth year he went on the campaign against the Chaha'er, and Lindan Khan fled. The army turned against the Ming and raided Datong and Xuanfu. In the twelfth month he died. The emperor came to the mourning and did not go back until the water clock had run through the third watch; he also set up a tent at the middle gate to sacrifice to him, and wept bitterly before he went into the palace. Edit

In the ninth year, Lengsengji, a dependant of Manggu'ertai's younger sister the Gege Mangguji, accused Manggu'ertai, Degelei and the Gege Mangguji of having sworn an oath together in resentment and of planning to endanger the emperor, and named the Gege Mangguji's husband Suonuomu as witness. A search turned up sixteen seals inscribed "Seal of the Emperor of the Great Jin State". Manggu'ertai's rank was taken away after his death. The Gege Mangguji and Manggu'ertai's son Ebilun were put to death, and his other sons were all struck from the imperial clan. Edit