Hong Taiji

Hong Taiji took the reins of the Later Jin in 1626 after his father Nurhaci's death and spent seventeen years sharpening what he'd been handed. He conquered the rest of Manchuria, brought Inner Mongolia under his control, and forced Korea into tributary status. In 1635 he renamed the Jurchens "Manchu" - a deliberate break from their past. A year later he declared a new dynasty altogether, the Qing, signaling ambitions beyond the steppe. He spent his final years positioning his forces for the assault on Ming China, the prize that justified everything. He died in September 1643, months before his armies would breach the Great Wall and claim the throne he never sat on.