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.
The last plan to move the capital was shelved, and Chongzhen had no way out. Source: Film and TV stills
05
With the termination of the last capital relocation plan, Chongzhen had no choice but to decide to treat the dead horse as a living horse doctor, and ordered Wu Sangui, the commander-in-chief of Ningyuan, to lead the last tens of thousands of Guan Ning cavalry into the Wei capital. Even so, it was equivalent to destroying the Ming Dynasty. Ningyuan, the last important town in Liaodong, was surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. However, Chongzhen was desperate at this time and had no choice but to order Wu Sangui to abandon the city and enter the pass.
But in a hurry, Wu Sangui and his party, who led tens of thousands of Guan Ning's cavalry and 500,000 soldiers and civilians to the south, could not arrive quickly. Therefore, when Li Zicheng's peasant army broke through Beijing on March 19, the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), , the Guan Ning cavalry that entered Beijing and Qinwang had just arrived at Fengrun, Zhili (now Tangshan, Hebei), and were still hundreds of miles away from Beijing.
When he encountered obstacles in moving south, there was no hope for help, and he was desperate, on March 16 of that year (1644), Chongzhen summoned all the civil and military officials to discuss countermeasures. In front of all the ministers, Chongzhen burst into tears, and all the civil and military officials also burst into tears. group. At this time, there were still three days left before the city of Beijing was destroyed and Chongzhen committed suicide.
But Chongzhen was still making the final breakout plan. On March 17 of that year (1644), Li Zicheng's peasant army came to Beijing. The helpless Chongzhen had to walk around the main hall in the Forbidden City, shouting: "Inside and outside The ministers mistook me! Misled me!"
In order to preserve the fire, Chongzhen decided to send the prince out of the palace and go southward only at this time. Then he summoned his brother-in-law and prince-in-law Gong Yonggu, and asked him to use his servants to protect the prince Zhu Cihong as he went south. According to historical records, Gong Yonggu, who had a forthright personality and was "generous and generous", won the trust of Chongzhen. He had previously suggested that Chongzhen move south. At the last moment, Chongzhen, who had no choice but to think of his brother-in-law, hoped that he could save the last chance for the Ming Empire. Fire, but Gong Yonggu kowtowed and knelt down and said, "My relatives are not allowed to hide their armor. How dare I keep a family member privately?"
The monarch and his ministers then cried to each other, and Gong Yonggu went on to say: "I have accumulated salary and should be burned to death in order to repay the emperor!" Chongzhen was also moved and said: "I can't guard the country, but I can Die Sheji!"
Princess Le'an, the eighth sister of Chongzhen, died of illness in 1643, the year before the fall of the Ming Dynasty. Due to the turmoil in the country, she was still not buried in her home. Just two days after the conversation between Gong Yonggu and Chongzhen, the three On the 19th of the month, the city of Beijing was destroyed. Gong Yonggu fulfilled his promise and gathered himself and his children in front of Princess Le'an's coffin. Before he died, he said to his children: "You are all the emperor's nephews and cannot fall into this trap." Humiliated at the hands of the enemy", he then set fire to his whole family and committed suicide in front of Princess Le'an's body, fulfilling his promise to live and die with Chongzhen's emperor and ministers.
The night after Chongzhen talked with his brother-in-law Gong Yonggu, it was the night of March 18th in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644). This was also the last night before the demise of the Ming Dynasty, and it was also the last night in the life of Emperor Chongzhen.
That night, Li Zicheng's peasant army set up ladders and began to attack the city of Beijing. Seeing that the city was about to be destroyed, at about nine o'clock that night, Chongzhen sent his three children: the 16-year-old Prince Zhu Cizhong, the 13-year-old Yong Wang Zhu Cizhao, and the 9-year-old Ding. Wang Zhu Cijiong called to him, thinking about seeing the children one last time.
But when he saw the three princes, still wearing Qi Chu's bright crowns and robes, appearing in front of him, Chongzhen was shocked, because that night, Li Zicheng's peasant army had broken through the outer city of Beijing and was heading towards The inner city of Beijing and the Forbidden City advanced rapidly.
Like all loving fathers in the world, Chongzhen said to his children in surprise and reproach:
"How long has it been and you are still dressed like this? Change your clothes quickly!"
After saying that, the 34-year-old father and the emperor of the Ming Empire personally helped the three children change into ordinary people's clothes, and then tied their belts one by one. He said with a sad voice:
"Today you are still the sons of the emperor, but tomorrow you will be ordinary people... In this troubled world, you must remain anonymous. When you see an old man, you must call him an old man; when you see a younger elder, you must call him uncle or uncle!"
He then ordered:
"The overthrow of the country and the anger of heaven, earth and ancestors are all the fault of your father and me. But I have tried my best, but the civil and military ministers have their own selfish motives and are unwilling to put the country before the family, which has led to the country's ruin. Now, there is no need to ask whether it is a blessing or a blessing, just do it reasonably. I have nothing to worry about."
The 33-year-old Queen Zhou decided to fulfill her final duty as a mother to the world. That night, Empress Zhou "upholds integrity" and walked around the entire Forbidden City. While shedding tears, she went from palace to palace to persuade, and said to the palaces and eunuchs who were in panic and did not know what to do:
"A natural disaster has struck and a catastrophe is imminent. Those of you who have the means, please escape as soon as possible!"
Worried that some palace residents were still hesitant to leave, the conscientious Empress Zhou walked around the Forbidden City twice, advising the palace residents to escape quickly. Perhaps in her view, as a queen, she had to use her life to stand upright. Ok this last shift.
After returning to the palace to say goodbye to Chongzhen, before she died, Queen Zhou said to Chongzhen with tears in her eyes: "I have served the emperor for 18 years, and you have never been willing to listen to a word from others, and that's why we are here today."
After saying these words, Queen Zhou hanged herself from the beam.
The dejected Chongzhen didn't have time to feel too sad. He picked up his sword and came to Yuan Guifei's residence.
After drinking several glasses of fatal wine with Concubine Yuan, Chongzhen ordered Concubine Yuan to hang herself. Concubine Yuan had no choice but to hang herself. Unexpectedly, the rope broke and Concubine Yuan fell to the ground. After she stood up, she began to run away. Chongzhen chased her. He went up and stabbed Yuan Guifei on the shoulder with a sword.
Later, Chongzhen swung his sword again and stabbed several concubines.
In his opinion, the empire is going to fall. As his woman, in order to preserve her reputation, she cannot fall into the hands of the traitors.
Immediately afterwards, he came to Shouning Palace, where he met his 15-year-old eldest daughter Princess Changping. At that time, Princess Changping held Chongzhen's clothes and cried bitterly. Chongzhen shed tears and said: "My child, why were you born in our emperor's family!"
Then, Chongzhen covered his face with his left sleeve and swung the sword with his right hand to kill his daughter, but he missed the target. He only cut off Princess Changping's left arm. Looking at his daughter lying in a pool of blood, Chongzhen trembled violently. He couldn't do it anymore.
He turned around and left. In Zhaoren Hall, he personally killed his 6-year-old daughter, Princess Zhaoren.
Although his life has reached his final moments, he still has the desire to survive.
After killing his daughter Princess Zhaoren, Chongzhen asked the eunuch Wang Chengen to sit in front of him and drink a few glasses of wine with him.
At three o'clock in the middle of the night, he had someone change him into civilian clothes, and then led dozens of eunuchs out of the Forbidden City in an attempt to break out. As a result, they ran through several city gates and were either bombarded by the defenders or beaten back. Without opening the gate, he kept struggling until dawn. Then Chongzhen gave up completely and retreated to the Forbidden City.
At this time, it was already the early morning of the 19th day of the third lunar month in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), the day when the Ming Dynasty was about to fall.
In the Forbidden City, Chongzhen ordered the internal officials to ring the bell to summon the officials. The bell rang over and over again, but the front hall was always empty:
None of the ministers came.
At this time, Li Zicheng's peasant army also broke through the inner city of Beijing, and began to advance rapidly towards the Forbidden City in the clear light of dawn.
In panic, Chongzhen took the eunuch Wang Chengen and ran to the Longevity Mountain (Meishan) Shouhuang Pavilion behind the Forbidden City. He ran too fast and lost his left shoe.
Under a tree, he finally chose to hang himself, bidding farewell to his 17-year imperial career and his 34-year-old life.
Accompanying him was the eunuch Wang Chengen.
After Chongzhen's death, Wang Chengen also committed suicide and chose to die for Chongzhen.
The last victim of the empire was a eunuch who was loved and hated by the emperors of the Ming Empire.
After his death, people found his last edict on Chongzhen:
"My cold virtue and humble bow, I have done something to blame for the heavenly fault, which caused the traitors to attack the capital, and all the ministers mistook me. When I died, I could not see my ancestors with my face. I took off my crown, covered my face with my hair, and allowed the thieves to divide me, without harming any of the people. "
Until his death, he never forgot to complain about his ministers for harming the country. Previously, he was headstrong and said to the eunuch: "All ministers are responsible for the ruin of the country... All civil servants can be killed."
However, he expressed deep sympathy for the common people in Beijing, and begged Li Zicheng in his suicide note not to massacre the city in revenge, hoping that Li Zicheng could give the people a way to survive.
He had worked hard and struggled, but there was nothing he could do except die.
Chongzhen committed suicide and his children were separated, which prevented Nanming from forming a strong resistance center. Source: Film and TV stills
06
Although Chongzhen hanged himself, due to the chaos in Beijing at that time, the peasant army did not discover his body until two days after Chongzhen hanged himself. Afterwards, Li Zicheng ordered Chongzhen's body to be taken out of the Longevity Mountain and parked in the east of Beijing. Next to Huamen; under Li Zicheng's instructions, the bodies of Chongzhen and Queen Zhou were encased and placed in willow coffins.
The Ming Emperor died. In addition to the eunuch Wang Chengen, more than 40 people including Fan Jingwen, the Minister of Industry of the Ming Dynasty, and Ni Yuanlu, the Minister of Household Affairs of the Ming Dynasty, also followed Emperor Chongzhen to commit suicide; but for these veterans who were "ignorant of current affairs", they were anxious to join Li Zicheng and Most of the relatives and civil and military officials of the Dashun regime had no time to pay attention to it.
During the period when Emperor Chongzhen and Empress Zhou were in mourning, Zhou Zhong, a concubine of the Hanlin Academy, rode past the coffin and did not even want to pay homage to the coffin; those who had been promoted by Chongzhen were The ministers also knelt outside the gate of the Forbidden City, waiting to be received by the new master, Emperor Li Zicheng of Dashun.
Almost no one went to express condolences to Emperor Chongzhen. Instead, some passers-by stopped to sigh.
Later, Zhao Yigui, an official in Changping Prefecture, recounted his participation in the burial of Emperor Chongzhen and Empress Zhou in "Zhuang Zhong Prefecture".
Zhao Yigui said that although Li Zicheng ordered Chongzhen to be buried, no funds were allocated at all.
Since there was no mausoleum during Chongzhen's lifetime, Zhao Yigui, together with the scholars and villagers, managed to collect "three hundred and forty thousand coins" and finally "supervised the work for four days and nights" until the fourth day of the fourth lunar month in 1644. Half a month after Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself, they finally buried the bones of Emperor Chongzhen and Queen Zhou in the tomb of Chongzhen's beloved concubine and Concubine Tian, who had already passed away at that time.
Chongzhen, Empress Zhou, and Concubine Tian Guifei were scrawled and buried together in one place. This is the last tomb among the Thirteen Tombs of the Ming Dynasty: Siling.
Portrait of Emperor Chongzhen. Source: Internet
After Chongzhen committed suicide, his children also experienced displacement and suffering.
At that time, the war was in turmoil. In order to protect the bloodline of Emperor Chongzhen, the eunuchs hurriedly sent the 16-year-old Crown Prince Zhu Cihong and the 9-year-old Prince Ding Zhu Cijiong to the residence of Queen Zhou's father, Jiading Marquis Zhou Kui. However, because they were worried about causing trouble, Zhou Kui Shutting out his two biological grandchildren.
Chongzhen's three desperate sons were eventually sacrificed by the eunuchs and fell into the hands of Li Zicheng.
Li Zicheng personally interrogated the prince Zhu Cihong and ordered him to kneel down. Unexpectedly, the 16-year-old prince who had subjugated his country said stubbornly:
"I will never give in to you!"
Li Zicheng then severely scolded Zhu Cihong and said, "Do you know why your family lost the world?"
Zhu Cixiang replied: "How do I know? Of course the officials know it very well."
He then asked Li Zicheng in turn:
"Why don't you kill me?"
Regarding this question, Li Zicheng showed his magnanimity. He replied: You are a sinless person, I will not kill you!
Therefore, Prince Zhu Cihong immediately made three suggestions to Li Zicheng:
"The first is not to disturb the tombs of my ancestors; the second is to bury my parents; and the third is not to kill my people."
Li Zicheng agreed one by one, and subsequently, Chongzhen's three sons were taken into custody.
However, after the failure of the Shanhaiguan Battle at the end of the fourth lunar month in 1644, Chongzhen's three sons: Prince Zhu Cihong, Yong Wang Zhu Cizhao, and Ding Wang Zhu Cijiong all disappeared in the revolt. It has since completely disappeared into the clouds of history.
Two years later, Princess Changping, who narrowly escaped after having her arm cut off, died of illness in the melancholy of missing her parents and her motherland. After her death, in the martial arts novels written by later generations, she transformed into a powerful one-armed nun, who worked tirelessly throughout her life to fight against the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty.
But in real history, she was just the last princess who died at the age of 17. The romantic legend of high-powered martial arts in the novel has faded away. In real history, she is accompanied by bloody and eternal nightmares.
In the forty-seventh year of Kangxi's reign (1708), Chongzhen's son and Yongwang Zhu Cizhao, who disappeared after the Shanhaiguan War, was finally arrested at the age of 76 after being discovered and reported. Kangxi then issued an edict to execute Zhu Cizhao in Lingchi. Cizhao's sons were all sentenced to execution.
At this point, the family of Chongzhen, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, completely disappeared into the smoke of history.
Li Zicheng, who failed in the battle of Shanhaiguan, had no choice but to withdraw from Beijing in a hurry. A year later (1645), Li Zicheng was killed in Jiugong Mountain, Tongshan, Hubei. Dorgon led the Qing army to follow him into the Pass. After occupying Beijing, the Qing army successively defeated various armies and refugee armies of the Southern Ming Dynasty, and finally unified the country.
Looking back at the people and events of the last three years of the Ming Empire from 1642 to 1644, people can find that when the empire suffered from serious shortcomings, all efforts seemed to be in vain. Although some details are accidental, the wheel of history still remains. Moving forward zigzag on an inevitable track will only lead to the rise and fall of the world, which will inevitably lead to suffering for the common people.
At that time, history would stumble forward in the dark night for nearly forty years, until the 22nd year of Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1683), when Shi Lang led the Qing navy to regain Taiwan. This historical storm was derived from the late Ming Empire. The drama finally comes to an end.
An empire collapses, and another empire is reborn. However, after changing its skin, does the empire transform into a butterfly? Chongzhen didn't know the answer, Li Zicheng didn't know the answer, and Kangxi didn't know the answer either.
references:
Liu Shougang: "Why Empire: Revisiting Chinese History from a Financial Perspective", Zhejiang People's Publishing House, 2022
Fang Zhiyuan: "Why the Ming Dynasty perished when it said it would perish", Shanxi People's Publishing House, 2023
Zhang Deer: "Research on the Recovery of Historical Extreme Climate Events in China", Commercial Printing House, 2023
Wang Xingya: "Jiashen Incident", China Social Sciences Press, 2011
Sun Wenliang, Zhang Jie: "Jiashen Fengyunlu", Palace Museum Publishing House, 2013
Wang Tianyou: "Sixteen Emperors of the Ming Dynasty", Forbidden City Publishing House, 2010. Just when Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong and other refugee armies were raiding everywhere, Chongzhen, which was in internal and external difficulties, unexpectedly received news that the Qing emperor Huang Taiji had died in Chongzhen. Died suddenly on the ninth day of the eighth lunar month in the sixteenth year of the lunar calendar (September 21, 1643) - 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 many people in the Qing court to Ergon, Hauge and others temporarily fell 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.
The last plan to move the capital was shelved, and Chongzhen had no way out. Source: Film and TV stills
05
With the termination of the last capital relocation plan, Chongzhen had no choice but to decide to treat the dead horse as a living horse doctor, and ordered Wu Sangui, the commander-in-chief of Ningyuan, to lead the last tens of thousands of Guan Ning cavalry into the Wei capital. Even so, it was equivalent to destroying the Ming Dynasty. Ningyuan, the last important town in Liaodong, was surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. However, Chongzhen was desperate at this time and had no choice but to order Wu Sangui to abandon the city and enter the pass.
But in a hurry, Wu Sangui and his party, who led tens of thousands of Guan Ning's cavalry and 500,000 soldiers and civilians to the south, could not arrive quickly. Therefore, when Li Zicheng's peasant army broke through Beijing on March 19, the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), , the Guan Ning cavalry that entered Beijing and Qinwang had just arrived at Fengrun, Zhili (now Tangshan, Hebei), and were still hundreds of miles away from Beijing.
When he encountered obstacles in moving south, there was no hope for help, and he was desperate, on March 16 of that year (1644), Chongzhen summoned all the civil and military officials to discuss countermeasures. In front of all the ministers, Chongzhen burst into tears, and all the civil and military officials also burst into tears. group. At this time, there were still three days left before the city of Beijing was destroyed and Chongzhen committed suicide.
But Chongzhen was still making the final breakout plan. On March 17 of that year (1644), Li Zicheng's peasant army came to Beijing. The helpless Chongzhen had to walk around the main hall in the Forbidden City, shouting: "Inside and outside The ministers mistook me! Misled me!"
In order to preserve the fire, Chongzhen decided to send the prince out of the palace and go southward only at this time. Then he summoned his brother-in-law and prince-in-law Gong Yonggu, and asked him to use his servants to protect the prince Zhu Cihong as he went south. According to historical records, Gong Yonggu, who had a forthright personality and was "generous and generous", won the trust of Chongzhen. He had previously suggested that Chongzhen move south. At the last moment, Chongzhen, who had no choice but to think of his brother-in-law, hoped that he could save the last chance for the Ming Empire. Fire, but Gong Yonggu kowtowed and knelt down and said, "My relatives are not allowed to hide their armor. How dare I keep a family member privately?"
The monarch and his ministers then cried to each other, and Gong Yonggu went on to say: "I have accumulated salary and should be burned to death in order to repay the emperor!" Chongzhen was also moved and said: "I can't guard the country, but I can Die Sheji!"
Princess Le'an, the eighth sister of Chongzhen, died of illness in 1643, the year before the fall of the Ming Dynasty. Due to the turmoil in the country, she was still not buried in her home. Just two days after the conversation between Gong Yonggu and Chongzhen, the three On the 19th of the month, the city of Beijing was destroyed. Gong Yonggu fulfilled his promise and gathered himself and his children in front of Princess Le'an's coffin. Before he died, he said to his children: "You are all the emperor's nephews and cannot fall into this trap." Humiliated at the hands of the enemy", he then set fire to his whole family and committed suicide in front of Princess Le'an's body, fulfilling his promise to live and die with Chongzhen's emperor and ministers.
The night after Chongzhen talked with his brother-in-law Gong Yonggu, it was the night of March 18th in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644). This was also the last night before the demise of the Ming Dynasty, and it was also the last night in the life of Emperor Chongzhen.
That night, Li Zicheng's peasant army set up ladders and began to attack the city of Beijing. Seeing that the city was about to be destroyed, at about nine o'clock that night, Chongzhen sent his three children: the 16-year-old Prince Zhu Cizhong, the 13-year-old Yong Wang Zhu Cizhao, and the 9-year-old Ding. Wang Zhu Cijiong called to him, thinking about seeing the children one last time.
But when he saw the three princes, still wearing Qi Chu's bright crowns and robes, appearing in front of him, Chongzhen was shocked, because that night, Li Zicheng's peasant army had broken through the outer city of Beijing and was heading towards The inner city of Beijing and the Forbidden City advanced rapidly.
Like all loving fathers in the world, Chongzhen said to his children in surprise and reproach:
"How long has it been and you are still dressed like this? Change your clothes quickly!"
After saying that, the 34-year-old father and the emperor of the Ming Empire personally helped the three children change into ordinary people's clothes, and then tied their belts one by one. He said with a sad voice:
"Today you are still the sons of the emperor, but tomorrow you will be ordinary people... In this troubled world, you must remain anonymous. When you see an old man, you must call him an old man; when you see a younger elder, you must call him uncle or uncle!"
He then ordered:
"The overthrow of the country and the anger of heaven, earth and ancestors are all the fault of your father and me. But I have tried my best, but the civil and military ministers have their own selfish motives and are unwilling to put the country before the family, which has led to the country's ruin. Now, there is no need to ask whether it is a blessing or a blessing, just do it reasonably. I have nothing to worry about."
The 33-year-old Queen Zhou decided to fulfill her final duty as a mother to the world. That night, Empress Zhou "upholds integrity" and walked around the entire Forbidden City. While shedding tears, she went from palace to palace to persuade, and said to the palaces and eunuchs who were in panic and did not know what to do:
"A natural disaster has struck and a catastrophe is imminent. Those of you who have the means, please escape as soon as possible!"
Worried that some palace residents were still hesitant to leave, the conscientious Empress Zhou walked around the Forbidden City twice, advising the palace residents to escape quickly. Perhaps in her view, as a queen, she had to use her life to stand upright. Ok this last shift.
After returning to the palace to say goodbye to Chongzhen, before she died, Queen Zhou said to Chongzhen with tears in her eyes: "I have served the emperor for 18 years, and you have never been willing to listen to a word from others, and that's why we are here today."
After saying these words, Queen Zhou hanged herself from the beam.
The dejected Chongzhen didn't have time to feel too sad. He picked up his sword and came to Yuan Guifei's residence.
After drinking several glasses of fatal wine with Concubine Yuan, Chongzhen ordered Concubine Yuan to hang herself. Concubine Yuan had no choice but to hang herself. Unexpectedly, the rope broke and Concubine Yuan fell to the ground. After she stood up, she began to run away. Chongzhen chased her. He went up and stabbed Yuan Guifei on the shoulder with a sword.
Later, Chongzhen swung his sword again and stabbed several concubines.
In his opinion, the empire is going to fall. As his woman, in order to preserve her reputation, she cannot fall into the hands of the traitors.
Immediately afterwards, he came to Shouning Palace, where he met his 15-year-old eldest daughter Princess Changping. At that time, Princess Changping held Chongzhen's clothes and cried bitterly. Chongzhen shed tears and said: "My child, why were you born in our emperor's family!"
Then, Chongzhen covered his face with his left sleeve and swung the sword with his right hand to kill his daughter, but he missed the target. He only cut off Princess Changping's left arm. Looking at his daughter lying in a pool of blood, Chongzhen trembled violently. He couldn't do it anymore.
He turned around and left. In Zhaoren Hall, he personally killed his 6-year-old daughter, Princess Zhaoren.
Although his life has reached his final moments, he still has the desire to survive.
After killing his daughter Princess Zhaoren, Chongzhen asked the eunuch Wang Chengen to sit in front of him and drink a few glasses of wine with him.
At three o'clock in the middle of the night, he had someone change him into civilian clothes, and then led dozens of eunuchs out of the Forbidden City in an attempt to break out. As a result, they ran through several city gates and were either bombarded by the defenders or beaten back. Without opening the gate, he kept struggling until dawn. Then Chongzhen gave up completely and retreated to the Forbidden City.
At this time, it was already the early morning of the 19th day of the third lunar month in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), the day when the Ming Dynasty was about to fall.
In the Forbidden City, Chongzhen ordered the internal officials to ring the bell to summon the officials. The bell rang over and over again, but the front hall was always empty:
None of the ministers came.
At this time, Li Zicheng's peasant army also broke through the inner city of Beijing, and began to advance rapidly towards the Forbidden City in the clear light of dawn.
In panic, Chongzhen took the eunuch Wang Chengen and ran to the Longevity Mountain (Meishan) Shouhuang Pavilion behind the Forbidden City. He ran too fast and lost his left shoe.
Under a tree, he finally chose to hang himself, bidding farewell to his 17-year imperial career and his 34-year-old life.
Accompanying him was the eunuch Wang Chengen.
After Chongzhen's death, Wang Chengen also committed suicide and chose to die for Chongzhen.
The last victim of the empire was a eunuch who was loved and hated by the emperors of the Ming Empire.
After his death, people found his last edict on Chongzhen:
"My cold virtue and humble bow, I have done something to blame for the heavenly fault, which caused the traitors to attack the capital, and all the ministers mistook me. When I died, I could not see my ancestors with my face. I took off my crown, covered my face with my hair, and allowed the thieves to divide me, without harming any of the people. "
Until his death, he never forgot to complain about his ministers for harming the country. Previously, he was headstrong and said to the eunuch: "All ministers are responsible for the destruction of the country... All civil servants can be killed."
However, he expressed deep sympathy for the common people in Beijing, and begged Li Zicheng in his suicide note not to massacre the city in revenge, hoping that Li Zicheng could give the people a way to survive.
He had worked hard and struggled, but there was nothing he could do except die.
Chongzhen committed suicide and his children were separated, which prevented Nanming from forming a strong resistance center. Source: Film and TV stills
06
Although Chongzhen hanged himself, due to the chaos in Beijing at that time, the peasant army did not discover his body until two days after Chongzhen hanged himself. Afterwards, Li Zicheng ordered Chongzhen's body to be taken out of the Longevity Mountain and parked in the east of Beijing. Next to Huamen; under Li Zicheng's instructions, the bodies of Chongzhen and Queen Zhou were encased and placed in willow coffins.
The Ming Emperor died. In addition to the eunuch Wang Chengen, more than 40 people including Fan Jingwen, the Minister of Industry of the Ming Dynasty, and Ni Yuanlu, the Minister of Household Affairs of the Ming Dynasty, also followed Emperor Chongzhen to commit suicide; but for these veterans who were "ignorant of current affairs", they were anxious to join Li Zicheng and Most of the relatives and civil and military officials of the Dashun regime had no time to pay attention to it.
During the period when Emperor Chongzhen and Empress Zhou were in mourning, Zhou Zhong, a concubine of the Hanlin Academy, rode past the coffin and did not even want to pay homage to the coffin; those who had been promoted by Chongzhen were The ministers also knelt outside the gate of the Forbidden City, waiting to be received by the new master, Emperor Li Zicheng of Dashun.
Almost no one went to express condolences to Emperor Chongzhen. Instead, some passers-by stopped to sigh.
Later, Zhao Yigui, an official in Changping Prefecture, recounted his participation in the burial of Emperor Chongzhen and Empress Zhou in "Zhuang Zhong Prefecture".
Zhao Yigui said that although Li Zicheng ordered Chongzhen to be buried, no funds were allocated at all.
Since there was no mausoleum during Chongzhen's lifetime, Zhao Yigui, together with the scholars and villagers, managed to collect "three hundred and forty thousand coins" and finally "supervised the work for four days and nights" until the fourth day of the fourth lunar month in 1644. Half a month after Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself, they finally buried the bones of Emperor Chongzhen and Queen Zhou in the tomb of Chongzhen's beloved concubine and Concubine Tian, who had already passed away at that time.
Chongzhen, Empress Zhou, and Concubine Tian Guifei were scrawled and buried together in one place. This is the last tomb among the Thirteen Tombs of the Ming Dynasty: Siling.
Portrait of Emperor Chongzhen. Source: Internet
After Chongzhen committed suicide, his children also experienced displacement and suffering.
At that time, the war was in turmoil. In order to protect the bloodline of Emperor Chongzhen, the eunuchs hurriedly sent the 16-year-old Crown Prince Zhu Cihong and the 9-year-old Prince Ding Zhu Cijiong to the residence of Queen Zhou's father, Jiading Marquis Zhou Kui. However, because they were worried about causing trouble, Zhou Kui Shutting out his two biological grandchildren.
Chongzhen's three desperate sons were eventually sacrificed by the eunuchs and fell into the hands of Li Zicheng.
Li Zicheng personally interrogated the prince Zhu Cihong and ordered him to kneel down. Unexpectedly, the 16-year-old prince who had subjugated his country said stubbornly:
"I will never give in to you!"
Li Zicheng then severely scolded Zhu Cihong and said, "Do you know why your family lost the world?"
Zhu Cixiang replied: "How do I know? Of course the officials know it very well."
He then asked Li Zicheng in turn:
"Why don't you kill me?"
Regarding this question, Li Zicheng showed his magnanimity. He replied: You are a sinless person, I will not kill you!
Therefore, Prince Zhu Cihong immediately made three suggestions to Li Zicheng:
"The first is not to disturb the tombs of my ancestors; the second is to bury my parents; and the third is not to kill my people."
Li Zicheng agreed one by one, and subsequently, Chongzhen's three sons were taken into custody.
However, after the failure of the Shanhaiguan Battle at the end of the fourth lunar month in 1644, Chongzhen's three sons: Prince Zhu Cihong, Yong Wang Zhu Cizhao, and Ding Wang Zhu Cijiong all disappeared in the revolt. It has since completely disappeared into the clouds of history.
Two years later, Princess Changping, who narrowly escaped after having her arm cut off, died of illness in the melancholy of missing her parents and her motherland. After her death, in the martial arts novels written by later generations, she transformed into a powerful one-armed nun, who worked tirelessly throughout her life to fight against the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty.
But in real history, she was just the last princess who died at the age of 17. The romantic legend of powerful martial arts in the novel has faded away. In real history, she is accompanied by bloody and eternal nightmares.
In the forty-seventh year of Kangxi's reign (1708), Chongzhen's son and Yongwang Zhu Cizhao, who disappeared after the Battle of Shanhaiguan, was finally arrested at the age of 76 after being discovered and reported. Kangxi then issued an edict to execute Zhu Cizhao in Lingchi. Cizhao's sons were all sentenced to execution.
At this point, the family of Chongzhen, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, completely disappeared into the smoke of history.
Li Zicheng, who failed in the battle of Shanhaiguan, had no choice but to withdraw from Beijing in a hurry. A year later (1645), Li Zicheng was killed in Jiugong Mountain, Tongshan, Hubei. Dorgon led the Qing army to follow him into the Pass. After occupying Beijing, the Qing army successively defeated various armies and refugee armies of the Southern Ming Dynasty, and finally unified the country.
Looking back at the people and events of the last three years of the Ming Empire from 1642 to 1644, people can find that when the empire suffered from serious shortcomings, all efforts seemed to be in vain. Although some details are accidental, the wheel of history still remains. Moving forward zigzag on an inevitable track will only lead to the rise and fall of the world, which will inevitably lead to suffering for the common people.
At that time, history would stumble forward in the dark night for nearly forty years, until the 22nd year of Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1683), when Shi Lang led the Qing Navy to regain Taiwan. This historical storm was derived from the late Ming Empire. The drama finally comes to an end.
An empire collapses, and another empire is reborn. However, after changing its skin, does the empire transform into a butterfly? Chongzhen didn't know the answer, Li Zicheng didn't know the answer, and Kangxi didn't know the answer either.
