When the Qing army invaded Shandong at the end of 1642, killed King Zhu Yipai of Lu, and plundered 2.2 million taels of silver and 360,000 Han people who were sent as slaves, Emperor Chongzhen, who had no available soldiers, could only watch helplessly. Qing troops came and went freely within the territory.
In the pass, in order to deal with the peasant army that continued to attack the city and plunder the land, Chongzhen first ordered the release of the famous general Sun Chuanting, who had previously defeated Li Zicheng and was imprisoned for more than three years. However, the growing peasant army of Li Zicheng had already Today is different from what it used to be, and Sun Chuanting, who no longer had any elite soldiers under his command, was defeated by Li Zicheng in Henan in the second month after the city of Kaifeng was broken (the tenth month of the lunar calendar in 1642). Subsequently, "all the generals in the Ming Dynasty looked to the wind to lead." "No one dares to take the lead." Many officials even abandoned the city and fled, "Yi Fu hid in the grass."
After defeating Sun Chuanting in Henan, Li Zicheng sent troops to attack Xiangyang, an important town in Huguang. At that time, Xiangyang was guarded by Zuo Liangyu, who had 200,000 troops. This was also the only one or two armies left by Chongzhen in the pass that could still be relied upon as pillars. , As a result, Zuo Liangyu not only failed to defend the city against the enemy, but before Li Zicheng's troops came to the city, he first sent troops to plunder the people of Xiangyang and Fancheng, and then abandoned the city and fled, allowing Li Zicheng to easily occupy Xiangyang.
Once Xiangyang was lost, Li Zicheng's army quickly entered the middle reaches of the Yangtze River along the Han River, and successively captured Zaoyang, Jingmen, Jingzhou and other important towns in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.
After entering the 16th year of Chongzhen (1643), in the fifth month of the lunar calendar that year, another major refugee army, Zhang Xianzhong's troops, captured Wuchang, an important town in central China, and executed Chu King Zhu Huakui. Zhang Xianzhong also learned from Li Zicheng to eat Fuwang meat, and Chu King Zhu Huakui chopped it into pieces and ate it. Not only that, Zhang Xianzhong also used more than six million taels of silver plundered from Wuchang and other places to recruit refugees and expand the army.
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In Wuchang, Zhang Xianzhong claimed to be the "King of Daxi" and established the Daxi regime. At the same time, Li Zicheng also proclaimed himself king in Xiangyang. Li Zicheng was quite dissatisfied with Zhang Xianzhong's act of proclaiming himself king. At that time, Zuo Liangyu of the Ming Army began to counterattack Zhang Xianzhong. In order to avoid fighting on both sides with Li Zicheng's troops and Zuo Liangyu's troops of the Ming Army, Zhang Xianzhong led his troops south to attack Hunan and Jiangxi. In the first month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), Zhang Xianzhong led his troops to Sichuan. , began the massacre of Shu Shu.
At the same time, Li Zicheng, who had previously been content with conquering cities and territories, killing people and stealing goods, also began to have the idea of fighting against the Ming Dynasty and competing for the world. After capturing Huangzhou (today's Huanggang, Hubei Province), Li Zicheng issued a proclamation to denounce Emperor Chongzhen and the Ming Dynasty. Officially said:
"The emperor of the Ming Dynasty was unkind, pampering eunuchs, focusing on academic qualifications, being greedy with taxes and extorting heavy punishments. He was unable to save the people from misery and disaster. He depleted his troops and troops every day, plundered people's wealth, raped wives and daughters, and sucked the marrow and peeled off the skin."
As for the people in the conquered areas, Li Zicheng issued a message to comfort: "The tenth generation of this camp has been a good farmer, and is eager to recruit benevolent and righteous teachers to save the people from misery. Now we have decided to visit Chengtian and De'an. I will visit Huangzhou in person and send a card to inform you. , Sirs and people, do not be alarmed, and please take care of your health."
Not only that, Li Zicheng also preached everywhere that "three years of exemption from taxation and no killing of a citizen" had a huge impact on the northern disaster victims who were close to the limit of survival due to the severe drought and the heavy pressure of the three official salaries of the Ming Dynasty. As a result, Li Zicheng's army became "popular" wherever it went.
Regarding this shift in the hearts of the peasant army and the Ming Dynasty officials, Ma Shiqi, editor of the Imperial Academy of the Ming Dynasty, pointed out in a dialogue with Chongzhen that among the peasant army, Li Zicheng was more terrifying than Zhang Xianzhong. The reason was that Zhang Xianzhong slaughtered everywhere, but Li Zicheng They win people's hearts everywhere: "Today Chuang and Xian (Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong) bear the monstrous rebelliousness, and manage Xian's ease and Chuang's difficulties. They are feared by others and attached to Chuang."
Ma Shiqi analyzed Li Zicheng's measures to win over people's hearts by distributing wealth after he attacked the city: "The thieves knew the suffering of people's hearts and used the excuse of suppressing troops to pacify the people. For a moment, the ignorant people were deceived and surrendered. The thieves also wanted to disperse wealth to help the poor and became rich. Feeding people with millet to feed the hungry is a way to fulfill their ambitions, and then they treat thieves as if they were home, and people forget their loyalty."
Talking about how to reverse the predicament, Ma Shiqi said: "In fact, how can thieves defeat the states and counties? The states and counties are willing to obey the thieves. Therefore, the current victory must start from controlling the people's hearts. To control the people's hearts, we must control the troops by the governors and generals. The army must not abuse the people, and the people must not suffer hardship.”
However, the Ming Dynasty officials, who had already fallen into the "dead situation of Chongzhen", were obviously powerless to change people's hearts. On the contrary, all realities were constantly aggravating the vicious cycle of "dead situation of Chongzhen". In this regard, Baoding Governor Xu Biao was in a dialogue with Emperor Chongzhen , stated angrily:
"I came from the Jianghuai River, and for thousands of miles I saw that the city had been completely destroyed. Even if the city was completed, only the four walls of the city were left. The material resources were exhausted. There was nothing left, the road was covered with basil, and there was no sound from the chickens and dogs. I never saw a plow. What kind of world will this be? The emperor has so few people and so little land, how can he manage it?"
After experiencing a severe drought, the peasant army and the Qing army alternately attacked and raided, causing damage from Hebei and Shandong in the North China Plain, to Henan and Hubei in Central China, Anhui in East China, Hunan and Jiangxi in South China, and Shaanxi in the northwest. Xu Biao used his personal experience to tell Chongzhen about the major turmoil that the country suffered successively: "The emperor does not have many people, and he does not have much land."
After hearing Xu Biao's statement, Chongzhen couldn't help crying and said: "It's all my fault."
Regarding the official defeat of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Dai (1597-1689), a scholar in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, later analyzed that in the late Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty’s official and military disciplines were loose and they frequently robbed the people. In addition, the three major salaries and other exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes made the people miserable. :
"Since the Ming Dynasty, the division has been undisciplined. In the towns and villages it passes, troops are looting and calling it 'grain harvesting', and the wells are ruins. However, there is a department that supplies military supplies, and the superintendent is in a hurry to pay taxes. The people are beaten and tortured, and the people are dying."
Zhang Dai pointed out from the perspective of those at the time and those who had personal experience that, contrary to the official practices of the late Ming Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng’s peasant army later changed the practice of burning, killing and looting in the early stage. “Zicheng issued an order: Anyone who kills one person is like killing my father. Those who commit adultery with a woman are like those who commit adultery with my mother. If they find good officials, they will use them with courtesy. Corrupt officials and powerful and wealthy people will use their homes to reward the army. People's hearts are very happy, and the people have no solid ambitions. Therefore, within one year More than 40 prefectures and counties in Nanyang and Runing, Henan were briefly identified. There were no troops left, and the sea was shaken. In addition to the chaos and chaos, the fields were covered with bones and wild hazelnuts were everywhere. The seeds are used to pay the army. The thieves have strict orders, and no generals dare to invade."
Apart from being sad, Zhang Dai also objectively pointed out that the reason why Li Zicheng's peasant army was invincible at that time had a lot to do with the people's support: "Even if they were trapped by thieves, they would feel comfortable and they would sing for them: 'Kill the cattle and sheep and prepare wine pulp. , opened the city gate to welcome King Chuang, but King Chuang did not accept food when he came. 'So people from far and near are so happy that they no longer think of them as thieves."
Under this reverse trend of people's hearts and minds of "killing cattle and sheep, preparing wine, opening the city gates to welcome King Chuang, but not accepting food when King Chuang comes", the death of Chongzhen and the Ming Empire is getting closer.
Li Zicheng's repeated comebacks and resurgences were caused by the fierce social conflicts in the late Ming Dynasty. Source: Film and TV stills
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Facing the sweeping momentum of Li Zicheng's army, Chongzhen became increasingly panicked. Despite all his efforts, wars were still raging inside and outside the Ming Empire. Regarding this, he once reluctantly expressed his feelings to his ministers and said: "I am not the king of subjugation. It is a sign of national subjugation.”
On the eve of Li Zicheng's attack on Beijing in 1644, he even sighed: "I will be the leader of the country's subjugation!"
In order to protect the Ming Empire, the famous general Sun Chuanting was released after being imprisoned for three years. He led the new army to fight Li Zicheng in Henan in 1642. However, due to multiple reasons such as the lack of soldiers and lack of pay, Sun Chuanting's army was quickly defeated. As a last resort, Sun Chuanting He had no choice but to lead his troops into Shaanxi for rest and recuperation.
So far, in the 16th year of Chongzhen (1643), the only armies still capable of fighting in the Ming Empire were the border troops in Liaodong, Zuo Liangyu's tribe who fled to Huguang and other places, and Sun Chuanting's tribe who retreated to Shaanxi. .
Sun Chuanting, who was a veteran and was familiar with the enemy's military situation, actively expanded his army and prepared for war after retreating to Shaanxi. In order to avoid increasing the burden on the people, he deliberately focused on local landlords and wealthy gentry and merchants in Shaanxi, forcing them to donate money to support the army. He posted a notice, The powerful and powerful were required to hand over their over-occupied farmland, and "not one acre of land should be lost, and not a single grain of grain should be left behind." Those who refused to do so would have their heads shown to the public.
The rich and powerful people in Shaanxi hated Sun Chuanting for not playing with the hidden rules, and in the name of the people, they forced Sun Chuanting to leave the country. They even created public opinion, falsely accusing Sun Chuanting of not obeying the imperial government's restraints, accusing Sun Chuanting of "playing with banditry" by raising troops to prepare for war and recuperate in Shaanxi, and wanted to separate Guanzhong, so that "the people of Qin were in trouble every day."
Chongzhen, who was eager for success and did not clearly judge the balance of power between the enemy and ourselves, also eagerly expected Sun Chuanting to go to war as soon as possible and wipe out the bandits. In May of the 16th year of Chongzhen (1643), Zhu Youjian appointed Sun Chuanting as the Minister of the Ministry of War and the governor of Qin and Shu. , Jin, Henan, Chu, Jiang, and Anhui provinces, with full authority to direct the war in the Central Plains.
Regarding Chongzhen's urgent urging of Sun Chuanting to lead the new army into battle, Zhang Fengxiang, the Minister of War, repeatedly advised Chongzhen: "Sun Chuanting has all the best soldiers and generals in the world. The emperor only has this property, so don't touch it lightly."
Faced with the dilemma that Zuo Liangyu's troops were timid and fearful of fighting, and that the Liaodong frontier army was unable to move south in order to fight against the Manchus, Zhang Fengxiang started from the situation at that time and advised Chongzhen to cherish Sun Chuanting's newly trained army, the last of the Ming Empire. However, Chongzhen, who was eager for success, was unmoved and forced Sun Chuanting to fight with strict orders. Sun Chuanting said helplessly: "I am loyal because of my ignorance, and there are many people who take taboos." "You don't want to fight quickly, see what you say above. When it comes to discussing the interests of the court, I have no choice but to swear an oath."
When he came out of the customs, he paused and sighed: "What's wrong! I know that I will never come back."
Sun Chuanting, who had no choice but to lead the new army from Shaanxi, met Li Zicheng's army in September of the 16th year of Chongzhen (1643) in Jiaxian County, Henan Province. Due to heavy rains, grain transportation was not continued, and the grain road was blocked, During the retreat, Sun Chuanting's troops were pursued and defeated by Li Zicheng. Sun Chuanting had no choice but to lead his troops to retreat to Tongguan, Shaanxi Province. At that time, the general advised Sun Chuanting to abandon Tongguan and retreat to Xi'an, but Sun Chuanting, who insisted on refusing to retreat, was determined to defend the pass to the death. When Li Zicheng attacked Tongguan, , Sun Chuanting led thousands of remnant soldiers, brandishing swords and leaping on their horses, charging bravely, and finally died in the chaos. Even his body could not be found after his death.
Since Sun Chuanting's body could not be found, Chongzhen even suspected that Sun Chuanchuan had escaped. Therefore, he was unwilling to issue an order to commend Sun Chuanting. As a result, Sun Chuanting, who served the country loyally and bravely throughout his life, was not given a fair evaluation until his death.
Five days after Sun Chuanting died in battle, in October of the 16th year of Chongzhen (1643), Li Zicheng's army occupied the northwest important town of Xi'an. At this time, there was still half a year before the fall of Beijing and Chongzhen's hanging.
Chongzhen, who was suspicious by nature and eager for success, single-handedly ruined Yuan Chonghuan's life in 1630 after Huang Taiji counterintuitively planned to execute him, and in 1641 he rashly urged Hong Chengchou to rush into battle, resulting in the Ming Dynasty's border troops being defeated in the Battle of Songjin. It was the last main force of the Ming army in the northwest, but Chongzhen never reflected on his mistakes. Instead, he shifted all the responsibilities to Sun Chuanting: "Sun Chuanting advanced lightly and had few plans. His supervisors were repeatedly defeated, but he was responsible for his envoys!"
Regarding this, the elders of the late Ming Dynasty later commented in the "History of the Ming Dynasty": "When the Chuan Dynasty died, the Ming Dynasty died."
Many people saw the symbolic meaning of Sun Chuanting's death, but Chongzhen, who was in the midst of it, still hated Sun Chuanting, who died loyally in the line of duty, for failing to turn the tide for him and the Ming Empire.
Until his death, he still could not see clearly.
Once Sun Chuanting died, the Ming Dynasty no longer had a large army in the pass to quell the chaos. Source: Film and TV stills
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Despite his limited talents, Chongzhen was considered a very diligent emperor among the last four emperors of the late Ming Dynasty.
Compared with Chongzhen's great-grandfather Emperor Jiajing, who had not been in court for 24 years, and his grandfather Emperor Wanli, who had not been in court for 28 years, and his brother Mingxi Zong Zhu Youxiao, who had been playing and playing for a long time, the last generation of the Ming Dynasty Emperor Chongzhen was simply a model worker - after he ascended the throne in 1627 at the age of only 17, facing the increasingly chaotic state affairs since the late Ming Dynasty, he first vigorously and resolutely eradicated the powerful eunuch Wei Zhongxian. After that, he worked hard, getting up early to go to court every day, and going to court at night. He often reviewed memorials until late at night. Therefore, during the Chongzhen period, many cabinet ministers often stayed in Wenyuan Pavilion in the Forbidden City at night in case the emperor summoned him from time to time.
Feeling that the Ming Dynasty had internal and external troubles and insufficient finances, Chongzhen also practiced frugality compared with his extravagant ancestors, the Jiajing Emperor and the Wanli Emperor. After he ascended the throne, he first ordered the suspension of weaving in Suhang. Before that, the weaving in Suhang was done by the palace eunuchs. In charge, he specially purchased satins, silks and silks for the palace, which caused serious harassment to the people. In this regard, Chongzhen issued an edict:
"However, the frontiers are troubled, with heavy conquests and losses. Not to mention Su Huo, we still have money and grain for weaving. Although it is needed to meet the urgent needs, I am saddened by the increasing number of dispatches year after year. Frequent floods and droughts in the east and west, merchants are troubled and troubled, and the people are in dire straits. I am very sad. I'm sorry... I can't bear to embarrass the people of this area with the work of embroidering clothes and quilts."
Chongzhen was so frugal that he continued to wear his clothes even when they were torn. Once he attended a lecture on the Jingyan Festival. Because the sleeves of his underwear were damaged, it was unsightly to be exposed to the court. Chongzhen felt uncomfortable, so he stuffed the sleeves of his underwear back with his hands from time to time. After discovering this detail, the lecturer of the Jingyan Banquet said: He said: "The emperor's clothes are in tatters. Although he is too frugal, this is a virtue. Why should he be taboo?" Chongzhen stopped covering his sleeves.
In order to commemorate the prince and save money in the palace, after the fifth emperor Zhu Cihuan died of illness in 1640, Chongzhen even turned to vegetarianism for a time. Chongzhen's grandmother was very distressed when she heard about it, and later reported that she dreamed of Chongzhen's mother who died young. He asked his grandson Chongzhen to remain vegetarian and advised him that "medicine is not as good as meat." Chongzhen resumed eating meat. However, he and Empress Zhou continued to eat vegetarian for ten days a month for the last four years of their lives to save money. Meal expenses.
In addition to cutting costs, in order to increase revenue, he even ordered the wild ginseng that had been collected for many years by his grandfather, Emperor Wanli, to be sold off in exchange for tens of thousands of taels of silver to subsidize the state.
But these are not even a drop in the bucket to alleviate the empire's financial dilemma.
Therefore, at the beginning of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), Emperor Chongzhen, who had been desperate due to the depletion of the treasury due to years of war, had no choice but to issue an appeal to the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty and the emperor's relatives, hoping that everyone would donate money. Raise military pay to fight against Li Zicheng's peasant army.
After the fundraising call was issued, although Zhang Guoji, the father of the empress of Mingxizong and Taikang Bo, took the lead in donating 20,000 taels of silver, almost no one responded except Wei Zaode, the chief minister of the cabinet, who donated 500 taels. Only a few ministers responded, and the anxious Chongzhen urgently sent many eunuchs to the homes of ministers and relatives of the emperor to lobby for donations.
Eunuch Xu Gao was then ordered to go to the home of Chongzhen's old father-in-law and Empress Zhou's father, Jiading Bo Zhou Kui, and asked him to take the lead and donate 100,000 taels of silver.
Previously, at the beginning of his accession to the throne, Chongzhen once rewarded his old father-in-law Zhou Kui with a mansion in Suzhou. He also gave him 700 hectares of land and 30 followers at one time. As the head of state of the dynasty, Zhou Kui was usually very stingy. He often gave usury loans to the common people in Beijing at that time. "The money in his dormitory was always full." When his son-in-law Chongzhen and the country were in danger, he pretended to be poor and acted like a fool. Although Chongzhen's envoy and eunuch Xu Gao cried and begged several times, it was in vain. Before leaving, Xu Gao said to Zhou Kui, "Old Emperor, you are so stingy. Now the country In times of crisis, even if you save money in the future, what's the use?"
In desperation, Zhou Kui reluctantly agreed to donate 10,000 taels of silver.
But Emperor Chongzhen thought that his old father-in-law Zhou Kui was too shameless, and he had to spend at least 20,000 taels of silver to set an example for the civil and military officials of the Manchu dynasty, just like his predecessor Zhang Guoji, the emperor's uncle and Taikang Bo. So Zhou Kui went to the harem to beg. Her daughter, Queen Zhou, helped. For the sake of face, Queen Zhou had to scrape together 5,000 taels of silver from the palace and give it to Zhou Kui. However, Zhou Kui secretly embezzled and hid 3,000 taels.
Therefore, under the "demonstration" of Zhang Guoji, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty and the emperor of the reign of Emperor Jiading, Wang Zhixin, the eunuch who was known as the richest man in the capital at the time, donated 10,000 taels, together with other relatives of the emperor and the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty. , this fundraising event on the eve of the fall of the country, Chongzhen only raised a total of 200,000 taels of silver.
Although it is only a drop in the bucket, for Chongzhen who is desperate, this little money is better than nothing.
Of course, there is a sequel to this. Later, after Chongzhen hanged himself, Li Zicheng led his army into Beijing and inspected the Ming Dynasty's treasury. He found that there were only "more than two thousand three hundred taels of silver, and money for Eight hundred, the country is so poor that it is worth laughing at."
Li Zicheng, who needed money, asked his men to torture the relatives of the former Ming Dynasty emperor and civil and military officials in the city to extract confessions. Zhou Kui, who was crying for a while, finally handed over 520,000 taels of silver to Li Zicheng, while the eunuch Wang Zhixin paid 150,000 taels. Li Zicheng spent several months in Beijing and extorted more than 70 million taels of silver from these people. Compared with the result of Chongzhen's "civilized donation", which only obtained 200,000 taels of silver, Li Zicheng lost official support, but gained In fact, it has to be said that this is a kind of irony in contrast. It can be seen that on the eve of the fall of the Ming Dynasty, many officials and officials in the Ming Dynasty had the idea of "waiting for the company to close down, change bosses, and change jobs." psychology.
In this regard, scholar Liu Shougang pointed out, "It can be seen from the donation solicitation incident that when the monarch may lose his country, the bureaucrats with their own independent status and source of power are resolute and ruthless when they betray the monarch. Even the relatives and eunuchs who are consciously controlled by the monarch The people who were supported by the land did not become the force to protect the political power of one family and one family.
The words of Huang Zongxi, a thinker in the late Ming Dynasty, expressed the thoughts of these bureaucrats more clearly, that is, 'the world is the master and the king is the guest'; the king is not the master of the world, but only a guest who can be replaced, and anyone's throne is not the master of the world. They are revocable objects, and bureaucrats can also serve different monarchs. "
To put it simply, the building is about to collapse, and many people are ready to change companies and bosses.
In the late Ming Dynasty, the bureaucrats were waiting to see how the situation would develop, and many people were preparing to change jobs and change bosses. Source: Film and TV stills
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Just as Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and other refugee armies were raiding everywhere, Chongzhen, which was in internal and external troubles, unexpectedly received news that the Qing Emperor Huang Taiji had committed suicide on the ninth day of the eighth lunar month in the sixteenth year of Chongzhen (September 21, 1643). Death - According to records, Huang Taiji, who may have died of a stroke, was still dealing with government affairs during the day and died suddenly of illness at night. This caused Dorgon, Hauge and others within the Qing court to temporarily fall into chaos in order to seize power.
Although there was a temporary break in the Liaodong battlefield, Li Zicheng did not stop. In October of the 16th year of Chongzhen (1643), after capturing Xi'an and then the entire province of Shaanxi, Li Zicheng decided to officially proclaim himself emperor.
Previously, in the third month of the lunar calendar in 1643, Li Zicheng claimed to be the "King of Xinshun" after capturing Xiangyang, but he was obviously not satisfied with this. In the first month of the lunar calendar in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), Li Zicheng officially proclaimed himself emperor in Xi'an. And announced that Xi'an would be the capital, the founding name of the country was "Dashun", and the name of the country was changed to "Yongchang". At this point, in 1644, three era names appeared on the land of China at the same time, which are: the 17th year of Chongzhen in the Ming Empire, and In the first year of Shunzhi in the Manchu and Qing Dynasties in Liaodong (Dorgon and Hauge finally made the ninth son of Huang Taiji, the 6-year-old Fulin, the emperor after a compromise, he was the Shunzhi Emperor, and changed the name to Shunzhi in 1644), and Li Zicheng The first year of Yongchang in the founding of Dashun Kingdom.
After officially proclaiming himself emperor, Li Zicheng began to send troops, planning to attack Beijing via Shanxi. In the second month of the lunar calendar, Li Zicheng successively sent troops to conquer Shanxi Fenzhou (today's Fenyang), Yangcheng, Puzhou and Taiyuan. Xinzhou) and Ningwuguan (now Ningwu, Shanxi) encountered tenacious resistance from the commander-in-chief Zhou Yuji. Except for the peasant army's casualties of more than 70,000, they did not encounter decent resistance elsewhere.
Ningwuguan fell on the first day of March in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644). At this time, there were still 18 days before Li Zicheng's peasant army conquered Beijing and Chongzhen hanged himself.
As the gateway to defend the important military town of Datong, Ningwuguan fell and Datong was also in danger. Due to the stubborn resistance and heavy casualties at Ningwuguan, Li Zicheng ordered a massacre of Ningwuguan - "the infants and young ones were not left behind". This kind of cruelty Datong's massacre policy shocked Datong's general Jiang Quan. Seeing that the situation was over, Jiang Quan immediately surrendered. Later, Xuanfu's general Wang Chengyin also submitted a surrender order to Li Zicheng. On March 11 of that year, Li Zicheng's Dashun When the army marched into Xuanfu Town, "the whole city was in an uproar and welcomed it with colorful decorations and incense burning." The soldiers and people in the city were thankful that they had not suffered the disaster of war and were spared the disaster of massacre.
Just when Li Zicheng was passing through Shanxi and was about to approach the city of Beijing, Chongzhen once again thought of the plan to move the capital to Nanjing. To this end, he and Zuo Zhongyun and Li Mingrui secretly discussed moving south many times. However, Chongzhen was worried about encountering the officials like his previous plan to move the capital. He was opposed to it, so he never dared to make the matter public until the fall of Ningwuguan and Datong on the same day on March 1 of the lunar calendar. Chongzhen, who was almost desperate, decided to publicly summon hundreds of officials to discuss the plan to move south.
Unexpectedly, Guang Shiheng was the first to stand up against the incident. Guang Shiheng said excitedly that if Li Mingrui, who advocated moving south, was not killed, "it would not be enough to reassure people!" Therefore, other ministers did not dare to discuss the matter publicly anymore. , Chongzhen, who wanted to save face, had no choice but to pretend: "The king dies in the country, where will I go?"
Seeing that none of the ministers dared to agree to move south, Chongzhen had no choice but to say that he would stick to the capital and coexist with it: "If the situation is unknown, the monarch will die in the country, and the justice is right. I am determined!"
Interestingly, Guang Shiheng, who fiercely opposed the move to the south, was the first to surrender to the peasant army after Li Zicheng entered Beijing. At the last moment of life and death for the empire, Guang Shiheng acted fiercely and generously, but when the city of Beijing was destroyed, he But he surrendered without any spine.
Faced with such ministers who dare not take on the responsibility and are even hypocritical and shameless, to a certain extent, it is no wonder that Chongzhen lamented, "I am not the king of the subjugation of the country, and all the ministers are the ministers of the subjugation of the country."
Because in the final analysis, Beijing officials have their own little calculations.
They are unwilling to give up their immediate interests, and they cannot take away the fertile land and beautiful houses. However, when a new dynasty is established, it will be easier for them to move to a new company than to move southward.
In addition, the ministers were also somewhat afraid of Chongzhen. Emperor Chongzhen has been in power for 17 years. Although he is very busy, this emperor seems to have a paranoid personality disorder. He does not trust others easily and likes to kill ministers.
For such an emperor, it is difficult for the ministers to agree with him.
Historian Wei Feide believes that Chongzhen finally decided to give up moving the capital before the fall of the country. His indecisiveness allowed the Qing Dynasty to enter the pass and inherit the complete central institutions of the Ming Dynasty after defeating Li Zicheng, and took over almost all the high-ranking Han officials in the Ming Dynasty capital. And relied on this system to further unify the South.
The failure of the capital relocation plan and the death of Chongzhen also weakened the cohesion of the royal clan of the Ming Dynasty in the south.
Later, the Nanming regime was established in the south, including the Hongguang court established by King Fu Zhu Yousong in Nanjing, and later small courts such as Longwu in Fujian and Yongli in Guangdong. Due to the lack of the status of the common leader of the world, factions and internal strife broke out. Seriously, the anti-clearance failed in the end.
If Chongzhen had successfully moved south, even if the north was captured by the Chuang army or the Qing Dynasty, at least unified military and political orders could be implemented in the south. Such a Nanming regime may still have the possibility of ZTE.
Of course, there are no ifs in history. When the Qing army invaded Shandong at the end of 1642, killed King Zhu Yipai of Lu, and plundered 2.2 million taels of silver and 360,000 Han people who were sent as slaves, Emperor Chongzhen, who had no available soldiers, could only watch helplessly. The Qing army came and went freely within the territory.
In the pass, in order to deal with the peasant army that continued to attack the city and plunder the land, Chongzhen first ordered the release of the famous general Sun Chuanting, who had previously defeated Li Zicheng and was imprisoned for more than three years. However, the growing peasant army of Li Zicheng had already Today is different from what it used to be, and Sun Chuanting, who no longer had any elite soldiers under his command, was defeated by Li Zicheng in Henan in the second month after the city of Kaifeng was broken (the tenth month of the lunar calendar in 1642). Subsequently, "all the generals in the Ming Dynasty looked to the wind to lead." "No one dares to take the lead." Many officials even abandoned the city and fled, "Yi Fu hid in the grass."
After defeating Sun Chuanting in Henan, Li Zicheng sent troops to attack Xiangyang, an important town in Huguang. At that time, Xiangyang was guarded by Zuo Liangyu, who had 200,000 troops. This was also the only one or two armies left by Chongzhen in the pass that could still be relied upon as pillars. , As a result, Zuo Liangyu not only failed to defend the city against the enemy, but before Li Zicheng's troops came to the city, he first sent troops to plunder the people of Xiangyang and Fancheng, and then abandoned the city and fled, allowing Li Zicheng to easily occupy Xiangyang.
Once Xiangyang was lost, Li Zicheng's army quickly entered the middle reaches of the Yangtze River along the Han River, and successively captured Zaoyang, Jingmen, Jingzhou and other important towns in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.
After entering the 16th year of Chongzhen (1643), in the fifth month of the lunar calendar that year, another major refugee army, Zhang Xianzhong's troops, captured Wuchang, an important town in central China, and executed Chu King Zhu Huakui. Zhang Xianzhong also learned from Li Zicheng to eat Fuwang meat, and Chu King Zhu Huakui chopped it into pieces and ate it. Not only that, Zhang Xianzhong also used more than six million taels of silver plundered from Wuchang and other places to recruit refugees and expand the army.
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In Wuchang, Zhang Xianzhong claimed to be the "King of Daxi" and established the Daxi regime. At the same time, Li Zicheng also proclaimed himself king in Xiangyang. Li Zicheng was quite dissatisfied with Zhang Xianzhong's act of proclaiming himself king. At that time, Zuo Liangyu of the Ming Army began to counterattack Zhang Xianzhong. In order to avoid fighting on both sides with Li Zicheng's troops and Zuo Liangyu's troops of the Ming Army, Zhang Xianzhong led his troops south to attack Hunan and Jiangxi. In the first month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), Zhang Xianzhong led his troops to Sichuan. , began the massacre of Shu Shu.
At the same time, Li Zicheng, who had previously been content with conquering cities and territories, killing people and stealing goods, also began to have the idea of fighting against the Ming Dynasty and competing for the world. After capturing Huangzhou (today's Huanggang, Hubei Province), Li Zicheng issued a proclamation to denounce Emperor Chongzhen and the Ming Dynasty. Officially said:
"The emperor of the Ming Dynasty was unkind, pampering eunuchs, focusing on academic qualifications, being greedy with taxes and extorting heavy punishments. He was unable to save the people from misery and disaster. He depleted his troops and troops every day, plundered people's wealth, raped wives and daughters, and sucked the marrow and peeled off the skin."
As for the people in the conquered areas, Li Zicheng issued a message to comfort: "The tenth generation of this camp has been a good farmer, and is eager to recruit benevolent and righteous teachers to save the people from misery. Now we have decided to visit Chengtian and De'an. I will visit Huangzhou in person and send a card to inform you. , Sirs and people, do not be alarmed, and please take care of your health."
Not only that, Li Zicheng also preached everywhere that "three years of exemption from taxation and no killing of a citizen" had a huge impact on the northern disaster victims who were close to the limit of survival due to the severe drought and the heavy pressure of the three official salaries of the Ming Dynasty. As a result, Li Zicheng's army became "popular" wherever it went.
Regarding this shift in the hearts of the peasant army and the Ming Dynasty officials, Ma Shiqi, editor of the Imperial Academy of the Ming Dynasty, pointed out in a dialogue with Chongzhen that among the peasant army, Li Zicheng was more terrifying than Zhang Xianzhong. The reason was that Zhang Xianzhong slaughtered everywhere, but Li Zicheng They win people's hearts everywhere: "Today Chuang and Xian (Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong) bear the monstrous rebelliousness, and manage Xian's ease and Chuang's difficulties. They are feared by others and attached to Chuang."
Ma Shiqi analyzed Li Zicheng's measures to win over people's hearts by distributing wealth after he attacked the city: "The thieves knew the suffering of people's hearts and used the excuse of suppressing troops to pacify the people. For a moment, the ignorant people were deceived and surrendered. The thieves also wanted to disperse wealth to help the poor and became rich. Feeding people with millet to feed the hungry is a way to fulfill their ambitions, and then they treat thieves as if they were home, and people forget their loyalty."
Talking about how to reverse the predicament, Ma Shiqi said: "In fact, how can thieves defeat the states and counties? The states and counties are willing to obey the thieves. Therefore, the current victory must start from controlling the people's hearts. To control the people's hearts, we must control the troops by the governors and generals. The army must not abuse the people, and the people must not suffer hardship.”
However, the Ming Dynasty officials, who had already fallen into the "dead situation of Chongzhen", were obviously powerless to change people's hearts. On the contrary, all realities were constantly aggravating the vicious cycle of "dead situation of Chongzhen". In this regard, Baoding Governor Xu Biao was in a dialogue with Emperor Chongzhen , stated angrily:
"I came from the Jianghuai River, and for thousands of miles I saw that the city had been completely destroyed. Even if the city was completed, only the four walls of the city were left. The material resources were exhausted. There was nothing left, the road was covered with basil, and there was no sound from the chickens and dogs. I never saw a plow. What kind of world will this be? The emperor has so few people and so little land, how can he manage it?"
After experiencing a severe drought, the peasant army and the Qing army alternately attacked and raided, causing damage from Hebei and Shandong in the North China Plain, to Henan and Hubei in Central China, Anhui in East China, Hunan and Jiangxi in South China, and Shaanxi in the northwest. Xu Biao used his personal experience to tell Chongzhen about the major turmoil that the country suffered successively: "The emperor does not have many people, and he does not have much land."
After hearing Xu Biao's statement, Chongzhen couldn't help crying and said: "It's all my fault."
Regarding the official defeat of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Dai (1597-1689), a scholar in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, later analyzed that in the late Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty’s official and military disciplines were loose and they frequently robbed the people. In addition, the three major salaries and other exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes made the people miserable. :
"Since the Ming Dynasty, the division has been undisciplined. In the towns and villages it passes, troops are looting and calling it 'grain harvesting', and the wells are ruins. However, there is a department that supplies military supplies, and the superintendent is in a hurry to pay taxes. The people are beaten and tortured, and the people are dying."
Zhang Dai pointed out from the perspective of those at the time and those who had personal experience that, contrary to the official practices of the late Ming Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng’s peasant army later changed the practice of burning, killing and looting in the early stage. “Zicheng issued an order: Anyone who kills one person is like killing my father. Those who commit adultery with a woman are like those who commit adultery with my mother. If they find good officials, they will use them with courtesy. Corrupt officials and powerful and wealthy people will use their homes to reward the army. People's hearts are very happy, and the people have no solid ambitions. Therefore, within one year More than 40 prefectures and counties in Nanyang and Runing, Henan were briefly identified. There were no troops left, and the sea was shaken. In addition to the chaos and chaos, the fields were covered with bones and wild hazelnuts were everywhere. The seeds are used to pay the army. The thieves have strict orders, and no generals dare to invade."
Apart from being sad, Zhang Dai also objectively pointed out that the reason why Li Zicheng's peasant army was invincible at that time had a lot to do with the people's support: "Even if they were trapped by thieves, they would feel comfortable and they would sing for them: 'Kill the cattle and sheep and prepare wine pulp. , opened the city gate to welcome King Chuang, but King Chuang did not accept food when he came. 'So people from far and near are so happy that they no longer think of them as thieves."
Under this reverse trend of people's hearts and minds of "killing cattle and sheep, preparing wine, opening the city gates to welcome King Chuang, but not accepting food when King Chuang comes", the death of Chongzhen and the Ming Empire is getting closer.
Li Zicheng's repeated comebacks and resurgences were caused by the fierce social conflicts in the late Ming Dynasty. Source: Film and TV stills
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Facing the sweeping momentum of Li Zicheng's army, Chongzhen became increasingly panicked. Despite all his efforts, wars were still raging inside and outside the Ming Empire. Regarding this, he once reluctantly expressed his feelings to his ministers and said: "I am not the king of subjugation. It is a sign of national subjugation.”
On the eve of Li Zicheng's attack on Beijing in 1644, he even sighed: "I will be the leader of the country's subjugation!"
In order to protect the Ming Empire, the famous general Sun Chuanting was released after being imprisoned for three years. He led the new army to fight Li Zicheng in Henan in 1642. However, due to multiple reasons such as the lack of soldiers and lack of pay, Sun Chuanting's army was quickly defeated. As a last resort, Sun Chuanting He had no choice but to lead his troops into Shaanxi for rest and recuperation.
So far, in the 16th year of Chongzhen (1643), the only armies still capable of fighting in the Ming Empire were the border troops in Liaodong, Zuo Liangyu's tribe who fled to Huguang and other places, and Sun Chuanting's tribe who retreated to Shaanxi. .
Sun Chuanting, who was a veteran and was familiar with the enemy's military situation, actively expanded his army and prepared for war after retreating to Shaanxi. In order to avoid increasing the burden on the people, he deliberately focused on local landlords and wealthy gentry and merchants in Shaanxi, forcing them to donate money to support the army. He posted a notice, The powerful and powerful were required to hand over their over-occupied farmland, and "not one acre of land should be lost, and not a single grain of grain should be left behind." Those who refused to do so would have their heads shown to the public.
The rich and powerful people in Shaanxi hated Sun Chuanting for not playing with the hidden rules, and in the name of the people, they forced Sun Chuanting to leave the country. They even created public opinion, falsely accusing Sun Chuanting of not obeying the imperial restraints, accusing Sun Chuanting of "playing with banditry" by raising troops in Shaanxi to prepare for war and recuperate, and wanted to separate Guanzhong, so that "the people of Qin were in trouble every day."
Chongzhen, who was eager for success and did not clearly judge the balance of power between the enemy and ourselves, also eagerly expected Sun Chuanting to go to war as soon as possible and wipe out the bandits. In May of the 16th year of Chongzhen (1643), Zhu Youjian appointed Sun Chuanting as the Minister of the Ministry of War and the governor of Qin and Shu. , Jin, Henan, Chu, Jiang, and Anhui provinces, with full authority to direct the war in the Central Plains.
Regarding Chongzhen's urgent urging of Sun Chuanting to lead the new army to fight, Zhang Fengxiang, the Minister of War, repeatedly advised Chongzhen: "Sun Chuanting is the best soldier and general in the world. The emperor only has this property, so don't touch it lightly."
Faced with the dilemma that Zuo Liangyu's troops were timid and fearful of fighting, and that the Liaodong frontier army was unable to go south in order to fight against the Manchus, Zhang Fengxiang started from the situation at that time and advised Chongzhen to cherish Sun Chuanting's newly trained troops, the last of the Ming Empire. However, Chongzhen, who was eager for success, was unmoved and forced Sun Chuanting to fight with strict orders. Sun Chuanting said helplessly: "I am so loyal that I will take taboos." "You don't want to fight quickly, see what you say above. When it comes to discussing the interests of the court, I have no choice but to swear an oath."
When he came out of the customs, he paused and sighed: "What's wrong! I know that I will never come back."
Sun Chuanting, who had no choice but to lead the new army from Shaanxi, met Li Zicheng's army in September of the 16th year of Chongzhen (1643) in Jiaxian County, Henan Province. Due to heavy rain, grain transportation was not continued, and the grain road was blocked, In the process of retracement, Sun Chuanting was chased by Li Zicheng. Sun Chuanting reluctantly led the army to retreat into Tongguan, Shaanxi. At that time, the Ministry would persuade Sun Chuanting to abandon Tongguan to retreat from Xi'an, but Sun Chuanting, who insisted on refusing to retreat, determined to defend the Guan by death. Sun Chuanting led thousands of residue soldiers and jumped his horses and rushed bravely. He died in the chaos, and he couldn't even find the body after his death.
Because he couldn't find Sun Chuanting's body, Chongzhen even suspected that Sun Tradition had escaped, so he was unwilling to recognize Sun Chuanting, so that Sun Chuanting, who was loyal to the country, failed to get a fair evaluation.
Five days after Sun Chuanting died, in October of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen (1643), Li Zicheng's army occupied Xi'an, Northwest Town. At this time, it was half a year before the fall of Beijing and Chongzhen.
Chongzhen, who is suspicious and eager to find success, was killed Yuan Chonghuan after the Emperor Tai Chi in 1630, and in 1641, he urged Hong Chengchou to rush to fight. As a result, the Ming Dynasty troops defeated in the battle of Songjin. The Ming Army's last main force in the northwest, but Chongzhen did not reflect on his fault. Instead, he shirk all responsibility to Sun Chuanting: "Sun Chuanting has gone into the widow, and the soldiers have repeatedly collapsed.
In this regard, the old mans from the late Ming Dynasty commented in "History of the Ming Dynasty": "The passing court dies, and the Ming died."
Many people see the symbolic meaning of Sun Chuanting's death, but Chongzhen, who is in it, is still hating that Sun Chuanting, who is hating and loyal, failed to turn the tide for him and the Daming Empire.
He still couldn't see clearly.
As soon as Sun Chuanting died, the Ming Dynasty could not be chaotic in the Guan. Source: Film and TV stills
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Despite the limited wisdom, Chongzhen was a very diligent emperor among the last four emperors in the late Ming Dynasty.
Compared to Chongzhen's great -grandfather Jiajing Emperor Jiajing, who had not been in the dynasty for 24 years, and the grandfather Wanli Emperor who was not as high as 28 years, and his elder brother Ming Zongzong Zhu You School, the elder brother of his long -term play, the sound of the dogs and horses, The emperor Chongzhen is simply a model of labor -since he was in 1627, after being ascended to the throne in 17 years, he faced the increasingly chaotic state politics since the late Ming Dynasty. Frequent reading chapters until late at night. Therefore, during the Chongzhen period, many court ministers often stayed in Wenyuan Pavilion in the Forbidden City at night to prepare the emperor from time to time.
I feel that internal and external problems and inadequate use in the Ming Dynasty, and insufficient financial use. Compared with the extravagant ancestor Jiajing Emperor Jiajing and Emperor Wanli, Chongzhen was also thrifty. After he ascended the throne, he ordered Suzhou -Hangzhou weaving. Previously, the manufacturing of Suzhou and Hangzhou was manufactured by the eunuch in the palace in the palace. In charge, the purchase of satin silk silk in the palace is very heavy to folk harassment. In this regard, Chongzhen said:
"However, there are many affairs in Fengjiang, and the loss of losses, no abroad, but weaving money and food. Although it is tied to urgent needs, I have been in pain for the year after years. Mercy ... I can't bear to be embroidered by the group, and I am trapped in this party. "
Chongzhen frugal, and even the clothes were broken and continued to wear. Once he participated in the Scripture Day, due to the damage of the underwear sleeve, he was exposed to the court ministers that he saw that he was not very elegant. Said: "Tianzi's clothes are broken, although too frugal, but this is virtue, why bother!" Chongzhen no longer stuffed his hand sleeves.
In order to mourn the prince and save the expenses in the palace, after the death of the emperor Zhu Chan in 1640, Chongzhen even changed her vegetarian. Chongzhen's grandmother was very distressed after hearing about it. Later, she dreamed that she dreamed of Chongzhen's premature mother's dream.要外孙崇祯还是要吃素，并劝告说“药补不如肉补”，崇祯这才恢复吃荤，但他与周皇后在此后生命的最后四年里，仍然坚持每月吃素十天，以此节约Dietary expenses.
In addition to the throbbing, in order to open source, he even ordered the many years of wild ginseng left by his grandfather Wanli Emperor's period of time to sell, and changed tens of thousands of silver to subsidize the country.
But these are not even a cup of water for the financial dilemma of alleviating the empire.
Therefore, in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), in the face of the Chongzhen Emperor who had been in the same year of the war in the war, the Chongzhen Emperor had no choice but to make a call to the Manchu officials and the imperial relatives. I hope everyone can donate money. Raise the army to fight against Li Zicheng's peasant army.
After the call was issued, although the father of the Queen of the Ming Dynasty and Tai Kang Bo Zhang Guoji took the lead in donating 2,000 silver, but of the others, except for the cabinet, Wei Za De donated 500 two, almost no one responded. There are very few ministers, and Chongzhen, who is anxious, sent a number of eunuchs to the Minister and the relatives of the emperor and relatives.
The eunuch Xu Gao then was ordered to go to the old father -in -law of Chongzhen and the queen Zhou's father, Jiading Bo Zhou Kui's house, and let him take a lead and donate 100,000 silver.
Earlier, at the beginning of the throne, Chongzhen rewarded a luxury house in Suzhou to the old father -in -law Zhou Kui, and once gave him 700 hectares of land and 30 followers. As the state of the DPRK, Zhou Kui was usually very embarrassed, and often gave the civilians in Beijing at the time. "The bedroom accumulated money was always full", and the collection of usury was so rich -but it was such a rich man. The son -in -law Chongzhen and the country pretend to be poor when they were in crisis. It was useless to let the messenger of Chongzhen and eunuch Xu Gao cry several times. Before leaving, Xu Gao said to Zhou Kui, "The old emperor is so embarrassed, now the country is now the country. What is the use of crisis, even if you have a wide range of money? "
In desperation, Zhou Kui had to barely agree to donate 10,000 silver.
However, Emperor Chongzhen believed that the old father -in -law Zhou Kui was too bad. He had to take at least 20,000 silver, like his former Guozhang and Tai Kang Bo Zhang Guoji, and gave a demonstration for the Manchu and Martial Arts of the Manchu dynasty. Queen Zhou Queen helped. In order to face the face, Queen Zhou had to make 5,000 two silver from the east of the palace to Zhou Kui, and Zhou Kui actually hid 3,000 two in private.
Therefore, under the "demonstration" of the Lang Guoji of the state of the Ming Dynasty and the leader of the DPRK Guojia Jiading Bo Zhou Kui, he claimed to donate 10,000 to the Great Promote King of the Rician in Beijing at that time, together with other emperors, and the Manchu and the Manchu dynasty. On the eve of the funds on the eve of the death of the country, Chongzhen only raised a total of 200,000 silver.
Although it is just a lot of money, for Chongzhen, which burns her eyebrows, this money is better than nothing.
Of course, there is a post -word in it. After Chongzhen was hung and committed suicide, Li Zicheng led his army to enter the city of Beijing. Eight hundred, the country's poverty, can laugh at this point. "
Li Zicheng, who needed money to run, asked his men to torture the confession of the original Ming Dynasty emperor's relatives and cultural and military officials in the city. Zhou Kui, who was crying for a while, finally paid 520,000 Binsi to Li Zicheng, while the eunuch king's heart paid 150,000 Two, Li Zicheng has been in Beijing for a few months, from these people to more than 70 million silver. Compared with Chongzhen's "civilization persuasion donation", only the result of only 200,000 silver. Really benefits, this has to be said to be a comparative irony. From the eve of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty and the cultural and military officials, many people were "waiting for the company to fail, change the boss, change jobs". psychology.
In this regard, Liu Shougang pointed out, "From the persuasion, it can be seen that when the monarch may lose Jiangshan, bureaucrats with their own independent status and power sources are resolute and ruthless when they abandon the monarch. The people who supported the ground did not become the power of Weihu's family.
In the end of the Ming Dynasty thinker Huang Zongxi, the minds of these bureaucrats were expressed more clearly, that is, the "world -based, the monarch is a guest '; It is an object that can be revoked, and bureaucrats can also serve different monarchs. "
Simply put, the building will be leaning, and many people are ready to change the company and change the boss.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the bureaucratic groups were watching the situation, and many people were preparing to change jobs to change their bosses. Source: Film and TV stills
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