Changes

Li declared himself to be of imperial status on June 3, 1644, but abandoned the city the following day, taking most if not all of his men, and a vast wealth of loot, off to the west. The Manchus entered the city two days later, and placed the young son of [[Hong Taiji]] on the throne, naming him the [[Shunzhi Emperor]], and in so doing claiming themselves the legitimate ruling imperial dynasty of China.

Li declared himself to be of imperial status on June 3, 1644, but abandoned the city the following day, taking most if not all of his men, and a vast wealth of loot, off to the west. The Manchus entered the city two days later, and placed the young son of [[Hong Taiji]] on the throne, naming him the [[Shunzhi Emperor]], and in so doing claiming themselves the legitimate ruling imperial dynasty of China.

Following the Qing conquest of Beijing, Wu continued to lead armies in support of their conquest of the remainder of China. In [[1662]], he pursued the last claimant to the Ming throne, the Prince of Gui, into Burma; after the Prince was taken hostage by the Burmese king, he was turned over to Wu, who brought the Prince into [[Yunnan province]], where he executed the Prince and his son, bringing an end to any potential restoration of the Ming Dynasty. Once the Qing subjugated the southeast, Wu was given a significant swath of land - all of [[Yunnan province|Yunnan]] and [[Guizhou province]]s, as well as parts of [[Hunan province|Hunan]] and [[Sichuan province|Sichuan]] - to hold as his personal fiefdom, while two other prominent pro-Manchu former-Ming generals, [[Shang Kexi]] and [[Geng Jimao]], were given similar fiefs in [[Guangdong province|Guangdong]] and [[Fujian province]s.<ref>Spence, 42.</ref>

Following the Qing conquest of Beijing, Wu continued to lead armies in support of their conquest of the remainder of China. In [[1662]], he pursued the last claimant to the Ming throne, the Prince of Gui, into Burma; after the Prince was taken hostage by the Burmese king, he was turned over to Wu, who brought the Prince into [[Yunnan province]], where he executed the Prince and his son, bringing an end to any potential restoration of the Ming Dynasty. Once the Qing subjugated the southeast, Wu was given a significant swath of land - all of [[Yunnan province|Yunnan]] and [[Guizhou province]]s, as well as parts of [[Hunan province|Hunan]] and [[Sichuan province|Sichuan]] - to hold as his personal fiefdom, while two other prominent pro-Manchu former-Ming generals, [[Shang Kexi]] and [[Geng Jimao]], were given similar fiefs in [[Guangdong province|Guangdong]] and [[Fujian province]]s.<ref>Spence, 42.</ref>

Wu, Shang, and Geng enjoyed considerable autonomy in their fiefdoms, keeping tax revenue for themselves, controlling trade, and so forth. They began to think about pushing for truer independence, even as the Qing Court began to worry about that eventuality, and began to consider trying to bring these provinces back under more direct central control. In [[1671]], Geng Jimao died and Shang Kexi fell ill, and both passed on their fiefs to their sons; whether the Qing originally intended these fiefs to be hereditary is unclear, but this development certainly worried them. Wu and the other two generals tested the waters of the Qing position in [[1673]] by petitioning to be permitted to give up their fiefs and to retire to [[Manchuria]]; they took the Court's enthusiastic response as an indication that the Court wanted to take away their lands, and so all three declared their independence and rose in revolt. Wu moved deeper into Hunan province, where he declared a new state, [[Wu Zhou|the Great Zhou]], though he did not name himself emperor initially, earning much popular support among southern Chinese by leaving that space open for any surviving Ming Imperial Prince to claim.<ref name=spence49>Spence, 49-53.</ref>

Wu, Shang, and Geng enjoyed considerable autonomy in their fiefdoms, keeping tax revenue for themselves, controlling trade, and so forth. They began to think about pushing for truer independence, even as the Qing Court began to worry about that eventuality, and began to consider trying to bring these provinces back under more direct central control. In [[1671]], Geng Jimao died and Shang Kexi fell ill, and both passed on their fiefs to their sons; whether the Qing originally intended these fiefs to be hereditary is unclear, but this development certainly worried them. Wu and the other two generals tested the waters of the Qing position in [[1673]] by petitioning to be permitted to give up their fiefs and to retire to [[Manchuria]]; they took the Court's enthusiastic response as an indication that the Court wanted to take away their lands, and so all three declared their independence and rose in revolt. Wu moved deeper into Hunan province, where he declared a new state, [[Wu Zhou|the Great Zhou]], though he did not name himself emperor initially, earning much popular support among southern Chinese by leaving that space open for any surviving Ming Imperial Prince to claim.<ref name=spence49>Spence, 49-53.</ref>