Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Before Li Zicheng's camp crossed the Yellow River, his propaganda work had already reached Shanxi.There are rumors among the people: if you enter the camp, you will not kill or prostitute, and you will not be taxed if you pass by.The people in Shanxi are looking forward to the arrival of Chuangying.

In order to fight against this offensive of public opinion, Cai Maode, the governor of Shanxi, concocted a post under the name "Qin Min Guotai and Li Da'an", "Speaking of the misfortune of thieves who are tormented and tortured", and posted them everywhere inside and outside the city of Taiyuan Province.He also privately fabricated the nursery rhyme: "It is difficult for a horse to walk inside the door, and this year is Bi Mawen again" to deceive the masses.

But no matter how well the propaganda war is carried out, it ultimately depends on the strength of the army.

When Chuangying drove to Henan Prefecture and Shanzhou, in order to prevent Chuangying from crossing the river, Cai Maode, as a provincial official, went to Pingyang to deploy river defense affairs in person, in an attempt to guard the Yellow River ferry.Since there was no food and salary, he asked the two county kings of the Jin Dynasty, King Xihe and King Jiaocheng, who were sealed in Pingyang, to take the lead in persuading the gentlemen and people to donate, but no one agreed to donate money.So the river defense plan fell through completely.

At this time, the King of Jin in Taiyuan sent someone to urge Cai Maode to return to Taiyuan to defend the city.But Cai Maode could only return without success, and watched helplessly as he broke into the camp and entered Shanxi.Then, Cai Maode was stabbed in the back by one of his own people.

As soon as Cai Maode returned to Taiyuan, the censor Wang Zongyou impeached him for abandoning Pingyang without authorization.Emperor Chongzhen had to play, and immediately ordered him to be dismissed for inspection regardless of the circumstances, and Guo Jingchang was appointed as the governor of Shanxi.

In order to keep the line of defense of the Yellow River, this Cai Maode had no credit but hard work, and this official was indeed wronged for losing.But looking at it from another angle, how can we know that it is not a blessing if it is a blessing in disguise?Cai Maode finally stopped being roasted in the stove-like position of governor of Shanxi. It is better to lose an official position than to lose his life!So Cai Maode still did not end up in the worst end.

Unexpectedly, Cai Maode is really unlucky, and his bad luck has not passed yet.

As soon as Guo Jingchang arrived in Guguan, he got the news that he had broken into the camp and occupied Fenzhou, so he dared not go to Taiyuan to take up his post.Although Cai Maode has been dismissed, his replacement has not yet arrived.Had no choice but to bite the bullet and planned to defend Taiyuan with Zhao Jianji, the chief minister of the left, Bi Gongchen and others.

At this time, Fu Shan and Han Lin, well-known literati in Shanxi, were hired as the pre-military eulogy paintings of Li Jiantai, the commander-in-chief's cabinet.Focusing on protecting his hometown from being invaded and occupied, Fu Shan personally rushed to Hebei to ask Li Jiantai to rescue Taiyuan.It is said: only by keeping Taiyuan, can the southern Shanxi area hope to recover, and Jifu can have a barrier, which is exactly the responsibility of the supervisor.

However, Li Jiantai had his own considerations. He was ordered to supervise the division and originally planned to use the property of Quwo's ​​hometown to recruit soldiers and piece together a local armed force to stop the peasant army in Shanxi.But now that Quwo has been occupied by the camp, the plan cannot be realized at all.

However, the [-] banned brigade from Beijing saw that the situation was not good, and the whole army had already fled.Rescuing Taiyuan under such circumstances is really easier said than done.therefore.He flatly rejected Fu Shan's request and returned to Baoding.

Under such circumstances, Taiyuan became an isolated city.

On the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month, they broke into the camp and entered the city of Taiyuan.Jin Wang Zhu Qiugui took out 3000 taels of silver and sent them to the head of the city to "recruit dead soldiers and kill thieves".However, Li Zhisheng, who was a student in Shanxi Province, withdrew from it and replaced the cash with Jigong paper notes.The morale of the officers and soldiers was even lower.In the early morning of the twelfth.Zhang Xiong, general of the governor Biaoying, surrendered at the Xinnan Gate, and the Dashun Army occupied Taiyuan.Taiyuan, a strong city in the northwest, has held on to it for less than two days from beginning to end.

Jin Wang Zhu Qiugui was captured alive, Cai Maode committed suicide, and the chief minister Zhao Jianji, Xunning Dao Bi Gongchen, Shouning Dao Mao Bingyi, Liang Dao Lin Gangzhong, Taiyuan prefect Sun Kangzhou, etc. were all executed.What is more funny is the fate of the best pig teammate-Shanxi Tixuedao Li Zhisheng.After he was captured, he knelt in front of the general who broke into the camp and said: "This Dao has been in office for three months. He has not yet entered the examination shed", trying his best to clean himself up.The literati Han Lin who surrendered and broke into the camp also boasted about it, saying, "This world is also a scholar of literature."So Chuangying hired him immediately and asked him to preside over the exam.Select civil servants.

Then, Chuangying rested in Taiyuan for eight days.In the short period of eight days, Chuangying felt that the time was ripe to completely overthrow the Ming Dynasty.In order to effectively promote the change of dynasty and expand political influence, Li Zicheng and others decided to formally establish the country and change the Yuan, and further formalized the central government that broke into the camp.

Li Zicheng and others decided: On the first day of the first month in 16 AD (the [-]th year of Ming Chongzhen), the country was officially established, the country was named Dashun, and the Yuan was changed to Yongchang.The measures taken at that time can roughly be summarized in the following points:

First of all, Taiyuan is tentatively designated as Xijing; the Ming and Jin palaces are used as palaces.His great-grandfather was followed up as the emperor, his mother Lu was the queen mother, the Gao family was canonized as the queen, and the Chen family was concubine.Promulgated regulations such as avoiding taboos for Li Zicheng and his father and ancestors, and formulated almanacs.

All this shows that Li Zicheng began to formally proclaim himself emperor.

Secondly, the meritorious officials were awarded fifth-class titles.General Quan and General Zhi are named Marquis; General Guoyi and General Mighty are named uncle, son, and male.This also gave the civil and military officials who followed Li Zicheng a formal official title award.

Third, a more official system.The cabinet was changed to the Tianyou Hall, and the state affairs of the University Pingzhang Army were set up, with Niu Jinxing as the leader.Song Xiance was a military adviser.The central administrative organization is the six governments, with Shangshu and Shilang as the heads of the government;The Imperial Academy is the Hongwen Museum, the Sixth Division is the Adviser Doctor, the Yushi is the Zhizhishi, the Shangbao Temple is the Shangqisi, the Taipu Temple is the Yanma Temple, and the Tongzheng Division is the Zhizhengshi.While appointing officials, the Dashun regime also confiscated the seals of the Ming Dynasty in various places and issued new seals separately.

The local officials increased the provincial level and set up Jiedushi, which is equivalent to the governor of the Ming Dynasty.Soon, imitating the system of inspectors and censors in the Ming Dynasty, additional inspectors were sent to each province to instruct and supervise on behalf of the central department.Other roads, prefectures, prefectures, and counties set up defense envoys, governors, state herdsmen, county magistrates and other officials.

And this kind of official position formulation is actually the same as the Ming Dynasty. At most, one official name was changed, and the content and authority of the official position were also changed. Therefore, the political outcome of the entire society was not changed at all.

Fourth, in terms of the military system, the names of the five battalions are Zhongji, Zuofu (auxiliary), Right Wing, Front, and Stamina; the flags are black for the front battalion, yellow for the rear battalion, white for the left battalion, red for the right battalion, and red for the middle battalion. blue.The military positions are General Quan, General Zhi, General Guoyi, General Mighty, Captain, Commander of the Brigade, General of the Department, and General of the Post.

The army also strengthened military training and discipline.It is stipulated that horsemen who are more chaotic in the ranks will be executed."Those who ride into the field seedlings will be chopped off" and so on.The latter discipline is clearly intended to protect agricultural production.

Fifth, in terms of economy, in addition to continuing to adhere to the "three-year tax exemption" policy, the Ming Dynasty officials and gentry were also implemented to recover stolen goods and subsidize payment, that is, confiscate the money obtained by bureaucrats from corruption and use it as government funds and military rations.

In order to stabilize prices and facilitate private trade, the minting of small and evil coins by officials and privates during the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty was abolished, and Yongchang Tongbao was cast in a furnace.

However, the policy of recovering stolen goods and subsidizing payment has completely pushed the bureaucracy class to the opposite of invading the camp.Although some insightful people in the camp also opposed this, but people like Li Zicheng had a particularly strong will to rebel, and their hatred for the Ming Dynasty was unforgettable.For example: King Chuang Li Zicheng refused to surrender to the imperial court no matter what, he would rather drill a ravine than surrender in a symbolic sense.And in order to rebel, he was willing to kill his wife and children.Although Song Xiance, the representative of civil servants, is a juren, he has also been oppressed by the Ming government, and he is incompatible with the Ming Dynasty.

So in this context, the civil and military who broke into the camp unanimously agreed to the policy of recovering stolen goods and subsidizing wages.Of course, this can also solve the current problem of the supply of military salaries and food for intruders.

But there is no doubt that breaking into the camp essentially established a feudal dynasty, but it also pushed the pillar of the feudal dynasty-the official, gentry and landlord class to the opposite, which doomed his policy to be unsustainable.

Although Chuangying was powerful at this time and controlled a large area, the landlord armed forces also took advantage of their local clan power to launch fierce guerrilla warfare against Chuangying in weak places such as remote mountainous areas.Although this kind of battle does not have a great impact on the current camp, as long as the camp fails, those landlords' armed forces will definitely make trouble.Therefore, this policy is just a policy, only to vent anger, but it brings many evil methods of the enemy to the camp.

Finally, it is to open a subject to obtain a scholar.In order to recruit talents to serve as officials at all levels, the Li government will formulate questions and select officials through imperial examinations.The Chinese style will be awarded to the government, state, and county officials.

And Li Zicheng's founding of Taiyuan marked the end of Ming Dynasty came to the "Three Kingdoms struggle for hegemony" period.This also means that the strength of the Shun Army at this time is no less than that of the Ming Dynasty.

At this time, in order to prevent the Qing soldiers from entering the customs, the Ming Dynasty set up four governors of Liaodong, Shanhai, Changping, and Baoding on the line from Shanhaiguan to Beijing, and six governors of Ningyuan, Yongping, Shuntian, Miyun, Tianjin, and Baoding. The eight commanders-in-chief, Shanhai, Zhongxie, Xixie, Changping, Tongzhou, Tianjin, and Baoding, can be said to be as handsome as clouds and as defensive as ants.

However, due to the different powers, cowardly generals, and low morale, these Ming troops who belonged to the supervision, bidding, and subduing bids could not effectively mobilize to deal with the Qing army.Soldiers and horses from all walks of life either fled before encountering the enemy; or deliberately avoided the enemy's frontal attack and stayed and watched from a distance;

But in this way, the Qing army was extremely relaxed after entering the customs, and almost never encountered any resistance.And the Ming army near Jifu is even less likely to go west to encircle and suppress the Shun army that has already established the country.

However, Jianguo, who broke into the camp, had already touched the bottom line of the Ming court. No matter how you say it, this peasant army, the most powerful, the closest to the capital, and the first to propose a change of dynasty must be encircled and suppressed.

However, it is impossible to mobilize the Ming army near Jifu, and the Runing army and Heiyun army in Henan obeyed the imperial court's orders in both ways, and they all stood still. Then the only hope of resisting the Shun army is the trilateral governor of Shaanxi, led by Sun Chuanting. the Qin army. (To be continued..)

ps: Since it is now the end of this book, several battlefields are fighting at the same time. In order to ensure that things can be explained clearly, there may be some intersections on the timeline, readers and friends, please pay attention.I've also tried to be as clear as possible.

Also: Regarding the reply to the "essence" of book reviews, I didn't really care about it at first. As long as there are book reviews, I will give the essence, but I find that this is very unfair to friends who subscribe.For this reason, I will not give "essence" to those who have not subscribed, and I will not reply.Please forgive me!