History has proven that humans are the species that are best at learning, including all races!
Of course, this does not include those races that use a small number to dominate the many, because once they learn advanced civilization, they are digging a grave for their own race.
Therefore, they will inevitably try their best to suppress the main ethnic group and make the country more and more ignorant and dark. Only in this way can they maintain their rule and seek long-term peace and stability.
When the invading army first attacked Kaifeng, although there were many thieves under his command, they lacked enough elites and were severely defeated due to the cooperation of Zhang Cheng and the defenders in the city.
After that, Li Zicheng lay dormant in Funiu Mountain. In addition to aggressively expanding his army and training troops, he also deeply reflected on what had happened before and had in-depth discussions on how to go in the future.
Under the advice of Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance, Li Yan and others, Li Zicheng changed his previous behavior of destroying the city everywhere after fighting out of Funiu Mountain.
At the beginning, officers were dispatched to guard the captured cities. They also organized some hungry people into camps, distributed fields, and worked hard to restore production. There was a strong momentum to establish a foundation.
At the same time, in order to further encourage production and let people spread his reputation, King Chuang even shouted the slogan "No food for three years"!
"Kill the cattle and sheep, prepare wine, and open the city gate to welcome King Chuang. King Chuang comes and refuses to pay for food!"
"Eat his mother, eat his mother, if you don't eat enough, there will be a king. Don't do the work, don't pay the food, everyone has a happy time."
"The morning seeks promotion, the evening seeks harmony. It is difficult for poor people to survive these days. Open the door early to pay homage to King Chuang, and everyone will be happy when calling him."
No matter in the east of Henan or in the west of Henan, or in the south or north of Henan, such songs are circulated everywhere in Henan, encouraging the hungry people in Henan to look forward to the arrival of King Chuang day and night, destroying the city, killing officials, and opening granaries to release grain.
These ballads spread extremely quickly and were extremely lethal, even more lethal than hundreds of thousands of thieves. It was these ballads that made the reputation of "Chuang King" spread all over the world, and for a time there were so many followers. , also became the talisman for the destruction of the Ming Dynasty!
However, Yongning Bo Zhang Cheng sneered at this: "Li Thief has not paid food for three years? Does he want to starve himself to death!"
After "King Chuang" became famous, hungry people from all over the country came to join him one after another, and his army of thieves also expanded at an extremely rapid rate, with hundreds of thousands or millions of troops dispatched at every turn.
Not paying for food?
Such a huge team of people and horses, what do they eat?
King Chuang had dozens or millions of troops under his command. What did he use to reward the soldiers who had made meritorious service in battle?
In fact, the answer is very simple and straightforward - "grab the big ones"!
During this period of the late Ming Dynasty, although hungry people were everywhere, especially in Henan Province, and almost all of them were in dire straits of food, there was no shortage of wealthy and wealthy households.
It's just that most of these large households exist in the form of families. They often build strongholds in dangerous places with deep ditches and high fortifications. There are many warehouses built in them to store large amounts of grain, and there are hundreds or thousands of people. Strong guard.
Not to mention ordinary hungry people, even a slightly smaller number of bandits cannot break through. However, when encountering large groups of bandits crossing the border, they often donate some grain in order to lose money and avoid disasters.
And large groups of bandits rarely attack these villages with deep ditches and high fortifications, because they are protecting their own food rations, so they often risk their lives, and even if they attack, the gains are not worth the loss.
But now King Chuang pursues the policy of "no grain for three years". Every time he conquers a prefecture or county, he opens his official warehouse and releases grain to the hungry people in the city in order to expand his reputation.
Although this could win over the hearts of many hungry people at the bottom, it would be a problem to feed the army. Therefore, the rich and wealthy merchants in the city who had a surplus of food became the grain suppliers for Li Chuang's army, which was completely free of charge.
It can be said that those wealthy "big households" are the real source of Chuangwang's money and food!
Every time King Chuang's bandit army captured a city, the first thing they had to do was to immediately check the ill-gotten gains of the big families in the city. This approach was naturally a good thing for the hungry people.
Because all the so-called "big households" targeted by King Chuang have become rich by squeezing the common people. King Chuang's thief army confiscated the wealth they have accumulated for generations, so they can naturally do it without the hungry people " "Pay the food".
This style is of course very effective in the early stage, because there are many large households for them to rob, but the number of large households will become smaller and smaller. Until they finally take over the world, there are no large households to rob, so what?
However, the hungry people in the world have become accustomed to "not paying for food". If they are asked to collect food from them again, they will completely evolve from benefactors to venomous enemies in an instant.
"When rice is promoted, kindness is lost, and rice is pitted against hatred." The ancient saying has its own truth.
Since ancient times, people all over the world have cultivated wasteland and paid taxes. This is a matter of course, and it is also one of the important functions of grassroots political power.
Although Li Zicheng was a veteran and was very clever in tactics, he was too short-sighted in strategic terms.
"With bitter hatred, I press the golden thread every year to make wedding clothes for others." Many people in later generations also jokingly called Li Zi, the King of Chuang, the king of wedding clothes. It is not unreasonable!
Of course, Li Zicheng's slogan of "no food" shouted at this moment was still extremely inflammatory. Countless hungry people rushed to tell each other and even flocked to join the rebel army.
In Henan Province, he continued to attack prefectures and occupy prefectures, expand his territory, and at the same time divide the fields to eat large households, which greatly won the hearts of the people. Even when the officers and soldiers came to counterattack again, the hungry people resisted desperately and defended their assigned fields and property with all their lives.
In fact, in the original history, King Chuang actually occupied half of the country by "not paying for food". However, in the end, because of the "robbing big households" food collection method, the morale of the army was disorganized, the soldiers had no fighting spirit, and they quickly fell. He was defeated and finally died in Jiugong Mountain.
However, even King Chuang and his counselors Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance, etc. could not predict these so-called "history" that have not yet happened in this world.
…………
The fifteenth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty was the seventh year of Chongde in the Qing Dynasty. In early February of this year, Shengjing was still very cold, but what was even colder was the people's hearts.
Huang Taiji planned the siege of Jinzhou for as long as a year, spending almost all the country's manpower and material resources on it. He also plundered North Korea in the south and Mongolia in the north, forcing them to provide both food and men. Out of great force.
But in the end, it was the Ming general Zhang Cheng who became the only Ming general to defeat Qing warriors on the battlefield in decades, and the Yongyi Army was the only Ming army that ever besieged and attacked the Qing emperor.
Zhang Cheng became the king of the two factions, attacked Huang Taiji secretly, and defeated the Qing warriors in consecutive battles, making him a legend in the Ming Dynasty!
However, Huang Taiji's reputation within the Qing Dynasty was greatly reduced. Fortunately, he left the Jinzhou battlefield early due to the critical illness of his beloved concubine Hai Lanzhu, and placed the responsibility for the final defeat on Prince Rui Dorgon, Prince Li Daishan, and Prince Li. Prince Zheng Jierhalang and three others.
Although this operation was too insidious, it invisibly protected the Qing emperor's supreme correctness, allowing the Manchu Tatars headed by Huang Taiji to continue to suppress the Mongolian tribes and the slightly disobedient Korean Kingdom.
But in this way, Dorgon, Daishan, and Jierhalang suffered. They suffered on behalf of the emperor. Not only were they fined a large amount of gold and silver, but they also had a certain amount of Niulu in the flag taken away. People's strength has been weakened to varying degrees.
Although Dorgon was the one who was punished the most, he was secretly happy in his heart!
He has never slept peacefully since he withdrew his troops from Jinzhou City. As wise as he is, he naturally knows where the danger is at this time.
The Qing army was defeated at the gate of Jinzhou City, which severely damaged its dominance over the Mongolian tribes and the Korean Kingdom. This was the first problem Huang Taiji faced and his top priority.
In this battle, Huang Taiji almost exhausted all his energy, but at the critical moment, his beloved concubine Hai Lanzhu was critically ill. Under the double blow, his health was also deteriorating.
In the early days, when going to court, a big bowl had to be prepared by his side to catch his nosebleeds at any time. Although it is not necessary now, in Dorgon's view, Huang Taiji's nosebleeds seemed to have run out, and he had reached the point where there was no more bleeding. situation.
Just like a waning old man, although Huang Taiji no longer has nosebleeds, his energy and energy are not as good as the day before. Sometimes the court meeting is only halfway through, and has to be interrupted. After Huang Taiji goes in to rest and regain some strength, he can continue again. continue.
In Dorgon's view, Huang Taiji's time is running out and he has almost stepped into the gate of hell. Maybe within this year, he will travel westward.
And since he could see this, how could Huang Taiji, the person involved, not know about it?
Dorgon knew clearly that Huang Taiji would only be thinking about one thing at this time, and that was how to ensure that his son could take over smoothly!
Among Huang Taiji's brothers, Prince Li Daishan was already in his old age, and there were no outstanding figures in the clan. Prince Zheng Jierhalang was the most trusted by Huang Taiji, and his prestige was not enough to pose any threat to the heir.
On the contrary, only Dorgon was in his prime, not only energetic, but also smart and wise. He had a group of followers both in politics and military.
Moreover, he and his brother Azig are in charge of the powerful Two White Flags. Even though Azig is very close to Haug now, if there is a battle for the throne, Azig will turn to Haug. Not sure which side it will be?
Therefore, what Dorgon is most afraid and worried about at the moment is that Huang Taiji will find any excuse to deprive him of his position as the flag leader. What can he do!
Fortunately, Huang Taiji did not take action against him for the time being. Instead, in order to maintain internal stability, he only imposed a slight punishment and let the Jinzhou defeat go away.
In fact, in Dorgon's heart, it was not that he had no idea about the throne of the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, but he was very tolerant, and even the cunning and intelligent Huang Taiji was deceived by him.
Dorgon and the other three brothers always thought that the position of emperor of the Qing Dynasty should belong to Dorgon!
When Emperor Taizu Nurhaci died of illness, he had already intended to pass the throne to Dorgon. How could he have thought that Huang Taiji would create the four great Baylors to govern the country and take it away from him?
Although the three Dorgon brothers were dissatisfied, they had no choice but to endure it silently due to their lack of strength.
After the defeat of Jinzhou, people were frightened, especially the Mongolian tribes in the outer vassals, which had a strong tendency to break away. Even the Korean Kingdom, which was completely conquered by the Qing Dynasty, also had some disobedience. This was Huang Taiji's biggest headache at the moment.
More than 10,000 soldiers and horses of the Eight Banners of Manchuria died in the battle. Today, in Shengjing City, almost every household wears linen and pays filial piety. This is a tragic situation unprecedented in ancient times.
Because of this, there were also some complaints among the Eight Banners of Manchuria. Most of the grains in each banner were forcibly requisitioned. Now many warriors died on the Jinzhou battlefield. It is normal for some complaints to occur under the multiple blows.
But in this battle, the Mongolian tribes in the outer vassal suffered heavy losses, unlike in the past when they followed the Qing warriors. Whether it was conquering the Ming Dynasty or attacking North Korea, they earned a lot of money.
And this time in the Battle of Jinzhou, they sent both troops and food. Not only did they not earn any benefits, they also left many tribal warriors in the cold and cold land of Liaodong forever.
You must know that these are warriors in their tribe. The harvest on the grassland was not good, and they wanted to come to Liaodong to plunder, but they lost their lives here.
I am afraid that without the support of the Qing Dynasty, the lives of many Mongolian tribes in outer vassals would be much more difficult this year. Some people have already started to think about it. Didn’t the Ming general who killed Prince Duduo of Yu say that he would go there if he could not afford food? Looking for him?
Not to mention these outer Mongolian vassals that were already separated from the Qing Dynasty, even the inner Mongolian tribes that were incorporated into the Eight Banners of Mongolia also had some complaints.
Although they were conquered as early as the Later Jin Dynasty and successively submitted to Nurhaci and Huang Taiji, in the final analysis they were still Mongolian tribes and were still not really of the same heart as the Manchus.
The defeat in the Battle of Jinzhou reduced the Qing Dynasty's deterrent power against the Mongolian tribes. Even Huang Taiji's own prestige was not as good as before, so they also had some dissent.
However, although they had some different ideas in their hearts, they were still very afraid of the Qing Dynasty. Because the early binding was too deep and too tight, they were afraid that after untying the Qing Dynasty, they would be annexed by other foreign Mongolian vassals, and they were also afraid of being annexed by the Ming Dynasty. country's revenge.
Not only that, North Korea had been subdued by the Qing Dynasty by force. In the Battle of Jinzhou, they were forced to donate a large amount of food and grass, and even sent more than 10,000 troops to assist in the battle, but more than half of them suffered casualties.
After the news of Jinzhou's defeat spread back to North Korea, there was an uproar between the government and the public. The pro-Ming faction, which had been suppressed to the point where they had almost no say, actually rushed to the forefront and was ready to take action, with the potential to make a comeback.
At this time, due to the defeat of Jinzhou, the Qing Dynasty did not take advantage of the Ming Dynasty. Instead, it almost ran out of domestic grain and rice. At the same time, in order to appease the Mongolian ministries, it increased its pressure on North Korea.
As a result, it further aroused dissatisfaction among North Koreans and gave the pro-Ming faction an excuse. (End of chapter)
