Chibun Emperor

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The Chibun Emperor (1698-1757), also known by his temple name Emperor Hancang was the Emperor of the Great Qing from 1739 to 1757. He was the 4th son of his father. His reign is known as one of disaster and as a laughingstock. He is considered to be one of the worst leaders if not the worst leader in history. However, upon modern inspection, Chibun was revealed to be very smart, with his abilities to make up elaborate lies simply for the sake of not wanting to put in effort.

## Political Information

### Positions

* Emperor of the Great Qing 1739-1757
* Second Marquis of Wancheng 1720-1739
* Governor of Cangzhou 1739-1757
* Imperial Relative 1698-1739
* Emperor of all under Heaven 1739-1757

## Military Information

### Rank

* Corporal 1714-1716
* Sergeant 1716-1717
* Lieutenant 1717-1720
* Captain 1720-1727
* Major 1727-1730
* Colonel 1730-1737
* Grand Commander 1737-1739
* Grand Commander who will Save the Emperor 1739
* Emperor of the Great Qing 1739-1757

## Early Life

Hancang was raised in the capital as an Aisin Gioro Noble. He was spoiled as a child and wasn't given an education because he said didn't want to be educated. However, he kept spending the family's budget on random things, including peasant clothing, common food, training weapons, etc. He also didn't do any work, and often ran away when told to do something.

### Inheritance

Hancang was at first, supposed to inherit one eighth of his father's estates. However, at the age of 7, he was disinherited completely after spending approximately 6 years of savings on a piece of paper with a smashed piece of cow liver on it. He would rely on his brothers to make ends meet.

### Road to Obesity

When he was 13, he stopped even walking out of the residence and just kept eating and drinking. His parents, were, relieved rather than saddened, because he stopped spending their money and going missing. By the age of 15, he was morbidly obese, with a recorded body fat percentage of 45%.

### General

#### Becoming a General

As soon as Hancang turned 16, his parents forced him to apply to become a general, as they were tired of him. However, his application was so terrible that the Emperor himself had to hide the fact it was made by an Aisin Gioro. The Emperor had a court official secretly remake the application and make it much better, then claim it was made by Chibun. Chibun was made a general after that. Instead of thanking the Emperor as per protocol, he just walked out of the court, saying "This is what you are supposed to do". When Yongzheng was asked why Hancang was not executed, he replied, saying "If I execute a member of my own dynasty, I will lose prestige and legitimacy."

#### First Assignments

Hancang was ordered to personally handpick 10,000 conscripts and train them for mountainous warfare. Chibun chose the poorest-looking ones, and paid them out of his own salary to train themselves instead. When the deadline was up, the Emperor realized what happened but didn't point it out and congratulated Chibun. Hancang thought he outsmarted the court, but in reality this prevented him from getting assigned to wars for a long time.

#### The Dzungar-Qing War of Tibet

The Emperor decided to grant Hancang a second chance to prove himself, believing Chibun only bothered to do real tasks. After Tibet has fallen, he was assigned to protect North Tibet. To ensure nothing went wrong, his subordinates were trusted generals. When the Dzungars attacked a rear camp, Hancang had his subordinates do all the work for him while he indulged in wine. This surprisingly worked out and a perfect opportunity to invade Xinjiang arrived. Early into the expedition, Chibun ran out of wine and ordered a retreat so he could buy his favorite Beijing wine.

##### Consequences

Chibun's decision to call off the campaign against Dzungars to buy wine was taboo in his army. Nobody was allowed to speak of it. When ordered to present a memorial of his campaign to the Emperor, Hancang had his generals make up a story about lacking enough supplies to continue advancing or stay in Xinjiang. The Emperor believed this and promoted Chibun 2 ranks and granted him 50 taxable households. Hancang was now a Second Marquis.

##### Modern Knowledge in Retrospect

The true story about the retreat was only revealed after Hancang's death, when the surviving generals told the court what really happened. It is widely believed by historians that China could have conquered Xinjiang in that war had it not been for Chibun.

#### Negligence of Duties

After his "brilliant and outstanding victory in Xinjiang", Chibun refused to comply with orders to recruit, train, recommend, promote or demote any troops. Hancang claimed he would only respond to war calls. The Emperor eventually gave up on him, hoping Chibun would just hang out in the capital and not do any serious damage.

#### Yue Shu Rebellion

##### Relief of Wenzhou

Chibun was ordered to reinforce the city of Wenzhou as it was besieged by the forces of Yue Shu's rebels. He accepted the task immediately and rushed to Wenzhou. The military staff was worried his skills worsened after years of inaction as general, so they sent another army, from the south, to reinforce Hancang's reinforcements.  As Chibun arrived near Wenzhou, seeing the rebel's navy, he didn't bother to cross the river and encamped north of it. He later tried to justify this by claiming he was waiting for the Second reinforcements. As the Second Army arrived and defeated the rebels, Chibun was quick to intercept the other general's scout with his memorial of the battle, killed the rider, had his men edit it to make it seem as if Hancang was crucial in the battle, and sent one of his own scouts to present the modified version. The Emperor rewarded Chibun with 5000 taels of gold and another 25 taxable households.

##### Defeat at Yeduan

As the Qing kept chasing the retreating rebels, the river ended. So, Yue Shu's forces blockaded the view from the north with their navy and engaged the Second Army. Chibun did not do anything about this and the Second Army was soon crushed as it was encircled. Then, Yue Shu's forces were transported to the northern side of the river and engaged Hancang's army. Hancang's army still had a major advantage, but he unwisely waited for the rebels to cross the river first, and Hancang was pursued for around a kilometer, before midnight struck and both armies made camp. Hancang drilled his army during the nighttime, and then made them sleep during the day. This is when the Colonel fled to Peking, and his army was crushed. Chibun submitted a memorial to the Emperor, falsely claiming the enemy had 200,000 elite troops accompanied by 100 large, technologically advanced warships. In reality, Yue Shu had less than 20,000 troops and their navy was no more than 10 standard issue Korean Mercenary warships.

##### Assassination of General Zhuangdi

Grand Commander Zhuangdi was one of the best generals in the war up to that point, the only real contender to Yue Shu's military prowess. However, Hancang was becoming jealous of Zhuangdi's fame, and had spent two ducats on Captain Angdao, a corrupt Qing officer, to assassinate him at the Battle of Ningbo. This is highly regarded by historians as the sole reason that the Qing Dynasty had lost the Battle of Ningbo. Just as Zhuangdi was preparing for his men to launch a devastating charge on the rebellious troops, the Captain went up to the Grand Commander and stabbed him in the throat, instantly killing him. Angdao then announced to the entire army that Zhuangdi was dead, and that he would be taking charge of the armies from that point onwards. The charge lacked any sort of cohesion whatsoever, and the Qing troops were fleeing as soon as they met any sort of resistance from Yue Shu's army, resulting in a major defeat for the Qing forces, and Yue Shu's forces entered Shanghai. After this, Colonel Hancang had sent a telegram to the Emperor stating that Shanghai had been successfully defended by his 10,000 troops against 60,000 rebels. Believing in the deception of Hancang, the Emperor awarded Hancang 2000 taels of gold and 75 taxable households also promoted him to Grand Commander. The Emperor also ordered Chibun to rest from military duties.

#### Governance of Cangzhou

In September of 1739, the governor of Cangzhou had passed away from old age. The Yongzheng Emperor sent Hancang to govern Cangzhou. Chibun spent most of his days drinking and blackmailed and threatened his subordinates into doing all the work and crediting Chibun. The Emperor was unaware of Hancang's corruption so the Emperor was pleased.

##### Surrender to Rebels

When Yue Shu had arrived at Cangzhou a few weeks later, Chibun demanded the rebels hand over 8000 taels for the city to be opened. The enemy commander agreed, and sent Hancang the money, in turn the city was opened. Hancang fled north and received 50,000 reinforcements to recapture the city, after making up a story about a stealth attack at night.

#### Complete Disaster at Machang

After staying in Tianjin for 3 days, Chibun marched back south and met the rebel army at the plains of Machang. Hancang demanded 3000 taels to let them pass, but the rebel army in Northern China was out of funds from raids at the time, so they were forced to decline. Chibun, furious, ordered a column charge against them. This turned out a horrible decision, as the terrain on the battlefield was entirely flat with lots of space to maneuver. Thus, the attack was unsurprisingly poorly done and Hancang's army was encircled and nearly destroyed, with Hancang only barely escaping the battle on a horse lended to him by a soldier, losing 45,000 men out of his 50,000 and only killing two thousand rebels out of Liu Shao's ten thousand. Hancang and his remnants fled disorderly to the city of Peking, with much of his army dying of wounds or disease along the route. By the time they had reached Beijing, Hancang had only 600 men at his disposal, mostly his senior officers.

#### Last Post at Peking

As soon as Chibun arrived in Peking, he was surprised to discover the palace had no Imperial Qing Guard and the Emperor wasn't there. The court officials informed Hancang that the Emperor went to Tianjin personally with the Imperial Guard, and that Chibun should use his 5,000 remnant troops as the temporary garrison. Hancang agreed, little did he know at the time, this decision would pave the way for him to become Emperor of China.

## Early Reign

### Rise to Power

After garrisoning in Peking for a few weeks, a crucial envoy arrived from Xiguandi, informing the court that the Emperor was killed in action at the Battle of Langfang. Chibun, hearing this, proclaimed himself 'Grand Commander who will Save the Emperor' and decided to go to Langfang and rescue the Emperor, but some loyal subordinates reminded him the Emperor was already dead and instead suggested Chibun usurp the throne. After much persuasion, Hancang agreed, sending his troops inside the palace and proclaiming himself "Emperor of All Under Heaven" and Emperor of the Great Qing. Chibun was crowned a day later after the coup. However, the exact date of the coup is unknown, as Hancang sabotaged any record-keeping attempts, because he claimed he was always Emperor ever since he was born.

### Consolidating Power

#### Massacres of Tiejiang

Chibun started by implementing the Massacres of Tiejiang, a system that either forced labour upon blacksmiths and stripped them of many of their rights or killed them in several military camps. Chibun's justification for this system was "A blacksmith killed me when I was a young boy." Powerful noble and Imperial Advisor Tang Jixie tried to protest against this, claiming Chibun is still alive, and that he shouldn't hold all blacksmiths at fault. In response, Chibun had him executed by lingchi, and seized Jixie's estates and wealth for his 12 year old son, Aisin Gioro Wang. These actions confirmed his rule would be based on terror.

#### Dealing with the Yue Shu Rebellion

After Chibun took the throne, the thing talked about the most in court was how to defeat the Yue Shu Rebellion, which by now occupied Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and most of Shandong, and was approaching Peking. Hancang ignored it and refused to speak of it. Guo Xia saw a golden opportunity in this, and told the court that this "rebellion" was really just a bunch of troublesome bandits running around the country and stealing from shops, arguing that Qing laws are so benevolent and the people prosperous, nobody would risk it all to revolt. Chibun promoted Xia to Chief Advisor and got angry at the rest of the court for "trying to defame and fool him". No troops were sent to deal with the rebels.

##### General's Plot

Angry and dissatisfied with the emperor's decisions, many Qing generals have devised a plan to save the dynasty while also killing Chibun. They nicknamed it 'Sacrifice the leech to save the body'. The plot consisted of secretly sending their troops south and retaking territories from there, while Yue Shu freely advances to Beijing, kills Chibun and is then defeated due to losing his southern power base.

###### Preparations

The plotters informed the imperial court that they would relocate some troops to train in the southern mountains, claiming they would learn just like Chibun taught his troops. Buying into their compliments, Hancang agreed, ignoring the approaching rebels completely.

###### Southern Campaign

The generals wasted no time in retaking territory from Fujian, which was largely undefended, as Yue Shu was focused on Beijing and convinced the Qing army was there. So far the plan has been going like a cake walk.

###### Defense of Peking

Once Yue Shu arrived at the gates of Peking, most of the court relocated, but the stubborn Chibun arrived and shown himself right at the gates without a single guard, demanding that they surrender at once. Rebel advisors were persuading Yue Shu to attack, but the rebel leader was convinced there was an ambush in the city, and that it was simply a random man dressed up as the Emperor, and thus left.

##### Later Rebellion

After retreating from Peking, Yue Shu finished off conquering Shandong, notably the eastern half. Then, he got news that Fujian and Zhejiang were largely reconquered. Therefore, Yue Shu adopted a defensive strategy in conquered territories, turning the campaigns in the south into primarily long, exhausting sieges for both sides.

###### Proclamation of the Great Liang

Having secured 2 provinces, and with the war becoming a stalemate, Yue Shu proclaimed the Liang Dynasty with it's capital in Shanghai. This attracted talented individuals into his forces and allowed him to administrate his lands properly.

###### Downfall & End

Qing generals found themselves in a pickle, as their morale was at an all time high, but they were unable to break the deadlock just because Chibun refused to send reinforcements and even kept withdrawing parts of the army. Luckily, Guo Xia, the emperor's only trusted advisor, sided with them, and, against orders, rallied 200,000 extra troops to aid on the front. Victory was swift, with the southern armies of Yue Shu completely destroyed at the three decisive battles at Yingtan, Pujiang, and Ruijin. Shanghai fell without a siege, as Xia promised to let the court relocate if they surrendered the city. From there, the Qing forces were advancing to Jiangsu. When Chibun heard about all of this, he was mad, and demanded Xia's head. However, Guo Xia cleverly manipulated Hancang, attributing all the tactics he used to him, claiming Hancang's spirit won the battles, and not Xia himself, and so on. Chibun spared his life, allowing the advance to continue. Yue Shu evacuated from China in the december of 1739, and fled to the Tokugawa Shogunate, where he lived for 7 years before being caught and executed for illegal immigration.

1. ↑ Japanese law at the time stated that no foreigner may step on Tokugawa soil, therefore Yue Shu had to bribe his way into the country. He couldn't evacuate to Joseon Korea, as it was a Qing tributary.