HIST 4618 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Wu Sangui, Nurhaci
Document Summary
Manchus decided to hire chinese gunmen who knew how to use portuguese cannons. Nurhaci died in battle and never got to see his plan of conquering china come full circle. He was replaced by hong taiji and he made the empire very strong but was a very violent man. His policy was to continue nurhaci"s style of rule but on steroids. He centralized power and used china to strengthen the civil and military branches of the manchu government. Hong taiji used surrendered chinese military officials to control military affairs within the banner system. Hong taiji did this to increase his power within the military because he wanted to control everything. Then, hong taiji converted chinese soldiers to the manchu way of life and added a chinese banner to the system (there was also a mongol banner). In 1627, hong taiji invaded korea and destroyed korea completely in 1636.
