Daming kill

When Li Ping was determined to wait and see what happened in Luzhou, great changes were taking place in the north of the Ming Empire.

It was on the sixth day of March, also on April 1644, 4, that Emperor Chongzhen officially issued an edict "ordering the world's soldiers to serve the king", and ordered the Governor of Jiliao Wang Yongji and the Liaodong General Wu Sangui to immediately abandon Ningyuan and lead all the troops into Guanqin. .

At the same time, Tang Tong, the commander-in-chief of the Western Association of Jizhen (stationed in Tangshan, Hebei), and Liu Zeqing, the commander-in-chief of Shandong Province who were in Linqing, Shandong, were also directly named and asked to lead troops to Qin Wang.

Even the Guanning line of defense is no longer needed, which shows that the situation in Beijing is already very critical, but the edict "Order the world's soldiers to serve the king" was issued at this time, which also shows that the situation changed very suddenly.

And just the day before yesterday, that is, the fourth day of March, Chongzhen generously conferred four uncles in succession.They are Wu Sangui as Pingxibo, Zuo Liangyu as Ningnanbo, Tang Tong as Dingxibo, and Huang Degong as Jingnanbo.

But at that time, there was no royal edict to dispatch troops, nor did they transfer troops.

Everything seems to be very contradictory, but also people can not understand.

The reason for this strange situation actually has a lot to do with the Ming court's major misjudgment and Chongzhen's own lack of heart.

Previously, Chongzhen and his ministers all judged that Li Zicheng would not go straight to Xuan and Dabian towns with heavy troops and strong city defenses, but would take a detour from Shanxi to southern Hebei. Therefore, they still have plenty of time and many choices .

At that time, it will not be too late to transfer the northern frontier army or Shandong troops to join in. Even the southern troops may have time to transfer.

The Qing army, recognized as the greatest enemy of the Ming Dynasty by the whole world, has been hustling several times and finally nothing happened. Everyone didn't take Li Zicheng and the peasant army seriously.

Therefore, the atmosphere in Beijing has not been so tense.

At the same time, Chongzhen himself has always focused on moving south.This has nothing to do with Li Zicheng, it is just to avoid the terrible natural disasters and the constant harassment of the Qing army.

Two months ago, in response to the southward relocation plan written by Zuo Zhongyun and Li Mingrui that scratched Chongzhen's heart, after Chongzhen sealed Li Pingzheng's general on the [-]th day of the first lunar month, he quickly announced a series of routes, logistics and escorts, etc. All issues have been considered.

This is the third time that Chongzhen has considered moving south, and it is also the most serious one.

On the nineteenth day of the first lunar month, Chongzhen went up to the six ministers of the cabinet crying bitterly to state the current difficulties, hoping that someone among the ministers would stand up and propose moving south, so that he could immediately respond to the situation and settle the matter.

But Chongzhen never dreamed that the ministers who had seen him through for a long time would come to pretend to be deaf and dumb collectively, that is, the ministers would not speak.

There is a living example of Chen Xinjia, Minister of the Ministry of War, who took the blame for Chongzhen's negotiations with the Manchu Qing Dynasty and was killed by Chongzhen, and the ministers are not stupid.

In the end, there was really no other way, and Li Mingrui, who had no chance to speak on such a major event, had to publicly write a letter to break the matter.

And the ministers also simply, either beat them to death without saying a word, or opposed it.

Everyone is afraid of being settled by Qiuhou, no one believes in Chongzhen, and dare not say anything if they want to.

However, Chongzhen did not give up.

On the one hand, he ordered people to go to Nanjing to check the arrangement of water, land, troops and horses along the way, and on the other hand, he ordered Feng Yuanbiao, the governor of Tianjin, to buy three hundred tank boats and stand by. Anyway, he was determined to run.

Beijing's defense issue will naturally stand aside in this case!It is even more impossible to issue the Qin Wang Zhao and the troop transfer order, because this involves the question of where the national army should go to Qin Wang.

But it is a pity that Chongzhen tossed for more than a month, but it was still fruitless.

After that, Chongzhen took advantage of other opportunities to move south twice, including the last time when Datong was surprised to surrender suddenly on the fourth day of March, but they all failed.

On the sixth day of March, Chongzhen, who knew that moving south was completely hopeless, had no choice but to concentrate on Beijing's defense.

That's why it was only at this time that "order the world's soldiers to serve the king" and give up Ningyuan.

At this time, Chongzhen actually didn't expect his doomsday to come, and it was not even half a month away.

For him, the conferment of the fourth uncle on the fourth day of March was just a commanding preventive action. The main reason was that he did not expect that the Xuanfu would also surrender at that time. fall alone.

On Li Zicheng's side, everything at the beginning was basically as expected by the Ming court, and it was also inferred by Li Ping based on common sense. Li Zicheng was not only facing many difficulties, but his progress was not smooth.

Since he has been playing the game of exempting taxation for three years to gather people's hearts, and the whole north has been completely ruined by wars and natural disasters, Li Zicheng, who has no financial revenue and has not established any tax system, seems to be prosperous, but in fact it is extremely difficult.

If you want to escape the laws of economics, no one can do it.

And Li Zicheng's solution is also very simple and rude. He clearly proposed and implemented a policy of "recovering stolen goods and subsidizing wages" that is generally little known but has a huge impact after he invaded Xi'an last October.

Of course, this is also a political move to deter the enemy and calm the people.

But mostly economic measures.

"Jiuqing 40, Zhongcheng [-], supervisors [-] liang, prefectures and county magistrates half of them", and among the people, "ask the squires for help, as many as three or [-] liang, or three or five liang, but the only one is not to lose. "

The Ming people also called it "Gold Grabbing Order".

Just reading between the lines, this policy is easy to push the entire intellectual class and landlord class representing the powerful class to the opposite of the Dashun regime.

In particular, it completely disregarded the integrity of those Ming Dynasty officials, and condoned and unrestrained use of punishment.

That is to say, as long as you can't get the money, you will be punished until you get it.

This is obviously very easy to go bad in execution.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with it if it is only used as a short-term emergency measure, and it can also win more enthusiastic support from ordinary people, but it must not be implemented for a long time and widely.

However, Li Zicheng, who was short of food and silver, had no way to stop.

Economically difficult, politically immature, and of course not getting better on the battlefield.

Li Zicheng claimed to have 150 million troops when he went east to Beijing, but in fact his strength was very limited, not even 20.He wanted to but couldn't afford it.And just like this, the supply of troops is still full of difficulties, and the combat effectiveness will inevitably be directly affected.

After the smooth initial period, Li Zicheng was soon beaten in Shanxi, especially in Ningwuguan, almost doubting his life, and even thought of quitting several times.

It was not until the first day of March that Li Zicheng broke through the Ningwu Pass, which was guarded by Zhou Yuji from Jinzhou, Liaoning, with only more than 4000 troops, after suffering tens of thousands of heavy casualties (some say [-]), and especially the loss of a large number of valuable elites. And express emotion:
"Although Ningwu was destroyed, our soldiers suffered many casualties. Since then, when we arrived in the capital, we have experienced Datong, Yanghe, Xuanfu, and Juyong. They all have heavy troops. If it is like Ningwu, my subordinates would rather have leftovers! It is better to return to Qin to rest, Move the picture back."

But then, no one expected that there would be a dramatic turning point, and it was the kind of turning point that no drama would dare to shoot.

Just when Li Zicheng and his generals had no idea in the face of heavy casualties and gloomy prospects, the surrender of Datong General Soldier Jiang Yu unexpectedly arrived. The table also arrived.

To put it bluntly, Li Zicheng felt that he was very difficult, but the Ming army didn't know it!
Many people were frightened by the 150 million claimed by Li Zicheng in the request for payment!Especially since Li Zicheng had just proclaimed himself emperor, the sense of oppression brought by the new regime was even stronger.

After Li Zicheng broke through Ningwu, he was so anxious that he not only "slaughtered Ningwu, leaving all the babies and children" uncharacteristically, but also burned Ningwuguan to rubble, which was even more frightening.

Seeing the price of resistance, the Ming army was even more unwilling to block the car with its arms.

In addition, at this time, the entire north is lingering and weak in the face of years of natural disasters and military chaos, and Chongzhen's current thoughts are all running and doing almost nothing.

Of course, it cannot be said that Chongzhen did nothing at all.

On January 26, Chongzhen once sent the cabinet minister Li Jiantai to "conquer on behalf of the emperor himself" to Shanxi to oversee the army and meet Li Zicheng, but he only gave this buddy 3000 soldiers, and then they were still transferred everywhere.

Li Jiantai did not disappoint. When he arrived in Handan, he heard that Li Zicheng's army had come east, so he turned back and ran to Baoding to hide.

It is better not to do this kind of almost child's play, and the effect is naturally the opposite.

Under this series of circumstances, the surrender of Datong and Xuanfu was neither unexpected nor unexpected.

Whether it was Chongzhen, the Ming court, or Li Ping, they all ignored the most important factor affecting war, that is, human psychology.

Especially the mentality of many courtiers and generals in the north of Ming Dynasty has collapsed under the long-term military failure and no dawn at all.

Although Wang Chengyin, the commander-in-chief of the Xuanfu, surrendered secretly, when Li Zicheng's army arrived in Xuanhua (now Zhangjiakou) on the sixth day of March, Wang Chengyin's subordinates and local officials didn't know about it and were dumbfounded. probably know.

But Datong fell, and the whole of Shanxi was suddenly lost. Beijing already knew about it on the fourth day of March.

On the seventh day of March, Feng Kaizhang, the son of Tianjin Governor Feng Yuanbiao, entered Beijing. Since Li Zicheng marched in two directions, the Beijing-Hangzhou Water Transport, which was the best route to the south, had been cut off at this time. He came to suggest that Chongzhen move south from Tianjin by sea.

But at this time, Chongzhen had completely despaired of moving south, and it was even more impossible to move by sea.

However, Chongzhen wanted to concentrate on Beijing's defense, but it was too late at this time.

Xuanhua is too close to Beijing!

Not to mention that the troops from other places can't reach Beijing in time at all now, and he, who is not good at military affairs, continues to make foolish tricks one after another.

Liu Zeqing, the general soldier of Shandong in Linqing, was afraid of Li Zicheng and lied that he was injured when he fell from a horse and refused to obey the order. Wu Sangui received the order to bring all the troops into the customs.

There are many later generations who say that Wu Sangui dawdled on purpose. It cannot be said that it is definitely wrong, but it is definitely biased.

At that time, there were [-] soldiers and [-] people in Ningyuan.

Wu Sangui had to withdraw [-] people into the customs to give up Ningyuan. It was impossible for him to leave with only the army.On the one hand, if he didn't take the people with him, it would mean that the people were sent to the Qing Dynasty to be slaughtered or robbed.

On the other hand, Ningyuan was a fortress combining soldiers and civilians at that time, especially under the policy of Liao people guarding Liao soil, many civilians were actually military members.If Wu Sangui dared to abandon his military family, he would have become a polished commander before reaching Shanhaiguan.

But walking with the common people, and returning 12 people, Wu Sangui couldn't get up faster even if he wanted to. He didn't even think about the speed of one hundred miles a day, and walking fifty miles is not bad.

And it also depends on when Wu Sangui, who is nearly [-] miles away from Beijing, will receive the order.

Anyway, Wang Yongji, who was in Zunhua by the government, arrived in Ningyuan on the ninth day of March without any delay.

Considering that Wu Sangui, who is not prepared at all, suddenly wants to withdraw all the soldiers and civilians, it will take time to prepare!Impossible to just walk away.It would not be too much to delay Wu Sangui's departure for another day or two or even two or three days.In the end, he only arrived at Shanhaiguan on March [-], and there was no major problem.

So Chongzhen's order itself had a big problem, the most important thing was that it was very late.

What's even more outrageous is that Tang Tong, who only brought 40 soldiers, was very obedient and quick, but Chongzhen was very ungenerous and only gave Tang Zongbing [-] taels of silver for himself, and five coins for each of his soldiers, and then asked him to guard Juyongguan.

That's right, it's only 40 taels.

However, considering that Chongzhen had just granted Tang Tong the title of uncle and the situation was urgent, it could be considered passable.

But Chongzhen was worried, and sent Tang Tong an eunuch Du Zhizhi to supervise the army.

As a result, this Du Zhizhi, when Tang Tong led the troops out of the customs to meet Li Zicheng, he switched behind and surrendered, causing Tang Tong, who was still brave enough to fight, to surrender.

Once Juyongguan was broken, there was no other reinforcements to arrive, and Beijing had already been turned into a dead city by the plague. Beijing was quickly captured on March 1644th, also on April 4th, 25, as we know later.

Even at this time, Chongzhen still wanted to run away, and did not intend to die directly as many people imagined.It's just that I tossed and tossed a few times without success, and finally committed suicide when I had no other choice.

Chongzhen's death can be said to be entirely his own doing.

Of course, many people later said that this had a lot to do with Zuo Liangyu. Zuo Liangyu, who had the largest military power in the Ming Dynasty at that time, refused to save him, and fabricated countless stories with nose and eyes.

But this matter, I really don't blame Zuo Liangyu.

First of all, Chongzhen had always wanted to move south, so it was impossible for him to have a plan to move Zuo Liangyu north.

Even Chongzhen didn't mention Zuo Liangyu when he called people to lead troops to help on the sixth day of March.No matter how bad Chongzhen was in military affairs, he knew that Zuo Liangyu, who was far away in Huguang, would not be able to make it in time.

And not only Zuo Liangyu, Chongzhen did not give orders to Huang Degong, his direct descendant in Fengyang, because it was too late to know.

For the same reason, although Li Ping is a rising star in the military, it is even more impossible to receive orders.

And at that time, Chongzhen was not completely dizzy.He didn't mention Li Ping again when he granted Zuo Liangyu the uncle on the fourth day of March, and he had already considered the delicate relationship between Zuo Liangyu and Li Ping.

As for someone who would say why Zuo Liangyu didn't take the initiative to lead troops in advance to bypass Li Zicheng's control area and go north to Beijing?

No matter which dynasty or generation, if a general dares to lead troops into Beijing without an edict, what is the nature of it?Are you kidding me!
Moreover, Zuo Liangyu, who was in the south, could not grasp the battle situation in the north in time.

Furthermore, Beijing was not in a hurry at first, so why was he in a hurry?
Even the imperial edict "Order the world to serve the king" did not receive it until Chongzhen's death.

According to literature records, due to the lack of notification from King Qin from Beijing for a long time, and the lack of understanding of the war situation in the north, officials in the Jiangnan area at that time became more and more uneasy, especially since everyone knew that it would take some time to prepare for sending troops.

It was not until the first day of April that the Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, Shi Kefa, led the announcement of the Nandu Public Call for "calling on the people of the world to revolt and fight for the urgent matter of donating money to the king".

Everyone knows Shi Kefa, he will definitely not delay the matter.

But it was not until April [-]th that Shi Kefa completed the preparations and personally led his troops across the river to prepare for the northward campaign.

And a few days later, Shi Kefa heard the news that Emperor Chongzhen might have died.It's heard and possible, but I can't be sure.Finally, on April [-]th, everything was confirmed by Wei Zongcheng, a former university scholar who escaped from Beijing.

There was no news from Nanjing, so how could Zuo Liangyu get any news in time.

Therefore, Chongzhen was played to death by himself, and he couldn't blame others.

But Chongzhen died, and Li Zicheng was not strong enough. "Pursuing stolen goods and subsidizing payment" is becoming a huge pit for Li Zicheng to dig his own grave.

Human nature is inherently evil, and human beings are most afraid of giving birth to evil thoughts.

However, Li Zicheng's army has not been strictly controlled until the past two years. Before that, it was not a vegetarian at all, and the large number of gangsters inside were already exhausted.

At this time, everyone suddenly discovered that there is an evil thing that can be done, and it can be done openly. What will happen then?
Isn't it natural that all evil gathers here and explodes and then intensifies!

Everything has its roots. After Li Zicheng's army entered Beijing, it was impossible for Li Zicheng's army to corrupt quickly inexplicably or simply, and it was unreasonable to corrupt all together.

And Beijing, which gathers the world's dignitaries, has [-] Zhongtang, [-] or [-] Jinyi in the Jingtang of the Ministry, [-] in the Ministry of Science and Technology, [-] in the Hanlin, and thousands of subordinates each. "The standard of recovering stolen goods and subsidizing wages is like a gluttonous feast, so that the Dashun soldiers who have tasted the sweetness sharpen their knives one after another. Li Zicheng's top general Liu Zongmin even made [-] sticks at the beginning.

In such an atmosphere, the pursuit of stolen goods and payment of money also reached its peak and completely changed, and then completely lost control.

As a result, in the face of this madness, the Dashun Army began to degenerate at a speed never seen before or since.

The "pursuit of stolen goods" against Ming Dynasty officials quickly spread to innocent people, to the point that "scholars and bureaucrats were caught all over the street", and even judged people by their appearance: "When you meet a person who is fat and fat, you suspect that you have money, so you ask for bribes by tying your neck." It has developed to the point that "the people also send silver taels, each with their own differences."

The number of torturers who died of torture just because of "pursuing stolen goods" quickly exceeded a thousand.

Even until April [-]st, Li Zicheng's military adviser Song Xiance, who is not a good bird, said: "The sky is tragic, the sun is dark, and the sentence should be suspended."

In this case, not to mention those demoted officials and the landlord class, even the common people can figure out with their pig heads what their perception of the Dashun Army will be.

As for the murder of the Fujianese who had done great favor to Beijing in the fight against the plague, there was no mention of it.

As a result, a large number of demoted officers and soldiers regretted it after discovering that the Dashun regime had turned out to be like this. They quickly stood on the opposite side of the Dashun army again, and rebelled as soon as they found an opportunity.

Even the most typical and the one that caused the biggest consequences is Wu Sangui.

From Wu Sangui's surrender to rebellion later, it was entirely the abuse of stolen goods and nonsense that affected the fight for key figures.

And on the seventh day of April, Li Zicheng also realized the seriousness of the problem, and he ordered to stop Beijing's recovery of stolen goods and payment. At this time, he did not know that Wu Sangui would surrender and rebel (only found out on April [-]th).

But like Chongzhen at the beginning, it was too late.

Moreover, in areas other than Beijing, the recovery of stolen goods is still going on, and the influence is getting bigger and bigger. The new Dashun regime quickly fell into a crisis of trust and was shaken violently at an astonishing speed.

At the same time, once an army began to fall into serious corruption, everyone knew what would happen. Coupled with the impact of the plague, the combat effectiveness of the Dashun Army began to plummet.

The later results are well known.

The rapid turn of the Dashun regime from prosperity to decline directly created a record in ancient Chinese history.

So, in this world, there is no love for no reason, no hate for no reason, and what you plant will bear fruit.Good and evil will be rewarded in the end, and the way of heaven is like reincarnation. If you don’t believe me, look up, and the sky will forgive anyone.