The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 643 The Collapse of the Great Western Kingdom
Xi'an Prefecture City, the Imperial Palace of the Great Western Emperor (formerly the Palace of the Prince of Qin in the Ming Dynasty), Chengyun Hall.

This palace was built in the third year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty and was specially renovated for Zhu Yuanzhang's second son Zhu Chong. During the transition from Ming to Qi, it witnessed the rise and fall of many heroes.

In the third year of the Tianqi reign of the Ming Dynasty before Heaven, Li Xianzhong, who was born as a postman, proclaimed himself king in Xi'an, established the Tang Dynasty, changed the era name to Yongchang, changed Xi'an to Chang'an, called Xijing, and was known in history as Western Tang.

Although King Chuang recognized Li Yuanhao, the ruler of Western Xia, as his ancestor, the Western Tang Dynasty modeled its system on that of Li Yuan's Tang Dynasty.

After the founding of the country, Western Tang began a series of regime construction.

City walls were built in Xi'an, roads were opened, and south and north training grounds were set up northwest of the Drum Tower. Li Xianzhong himself went to the training grounds every three days to practice archery.

At his peak, Li Xianzhong had 20 infantry and 5 cavalry under his command. Historical records record that "the flags were circling continuously and the drums were shaking the earth."

In the first year of Wuding, the Tang Emperor personally led the army from Xi'an, and was invincible all the way, starting his great journey to destroy the rebellious Qi.

Huang He is gone forever, and Bai Yun is full of leisure.

Unfortunately, Li Xianzhong never came back after this trip.

Not only that, the founding emperor of the Western Tang Dynasty was completely destroyed in the Wanggongchang explosion and turned directly into water vapor.

In the first year of Wuding, after the Qi army recaptured Xi'an, before they started to fight against the local tyrants and divide the land, they were soon expelled by the blacksmith emperor Zhang Zicheng.

After Zhang Zicheng entered Guanzhong, he directly copied the entire system established by Li Xianzhong, but changed the country's name from Datang to Daxi.

In this way, Daxi Kingdom opened again in Xi'an.

It is said that a fortune teller once advised the emperor to establish the capital in Xi'an:

Zhuque Street ends at the north and south ends of the city, with six high slopes, which resemble the Qian hexagram. Therefore, a palace is placed at the ninth and second position to serve as the emperor's residence, and hundreds of departments are established at the ninth and third position to correspond to the number of gentlemen. The ninth and fifth position is noble, and its nobility is beyond words.

I don't want to be rejected by Zhang Zicheng.

In his opinion, Suide Prefecture was the only place in the world suitable for the capital.

The saying that the women of Mizhi are married to the men of Suide is not nonsense.

Although Lao Zhang was from Dingbian, Yan'an Prefecture, it was a woman from Mizhi who gave him the motivation to continue living during the most difficult years of his life.

You can't forget your roots as a human being.

More importantly, most of the generals who followed Lao Zhang to conquer the world were old brothers from northern Shaanxi.

These fellow villagers are inherently repulsed by places like Xi'an and Weinan.

Under the game of various forces, the Great Western Kingdom, which had only two provinces, actually built two capitals.

The southern capital is Xi'an, and the northern capital is Suide.

The emperor was reluctant to move south, and did not want his subordinates to flee to Xi'an.

However, the civil servants all yearned for the prosperity of the ancient capital.

This is the starting point of the Daxi conflict.

Zhang Zicheng's early career as a blacksmith made him resolute and fearless of any difficulties, but it also cultivated his shortcoming of being overly paranoid.

Before the establishment of the Dashi Kingdom, many former Ming officials and generals came to surrender to it. These people came to Dashi not to compete with Zhang Zicheng.

Suide is a place with nothing but sand. It's really a waste of time when you go there.

It happened that the major corps of the Qi army were engaged in rotational battles in Shaanxi all year round, causing great suffering to the Great Western Kingdom.

The combination of these factors exacerbated the existing contradictions within Zhang Zicheng's group.

During the Taichu period, when Qi was on the verge of collapse due to internal and external troubles, the Daxi Kingdom was busy fighting among itself.

The civil officials of the Southern Capital and the military generals of the Northern Capital fought for power and refused to give in. The two sides impeached each other at the beginning and then fought each other, and almost went to war.

The Blacksmith Emperor killed many people but still could not quell the internal disputes.

In the end, Zhang Zicheng listened to the advice of some adviser and simply stopped interfering, letting them fight among themselves.

~~~~
In terms of governing ability, there was a lack of the Tianqi Emperor Zhu Youjian between the Blacksmith Emperor Zhang Zicheng and the Postman Emperor Li Xianzhong.

Various inappropriate policies were frequently introduced. Although a political regime had been established, Zhang Zicheng and his core team still regarded themselves as bandits for a long time.

They attached great importance to northern Shaanxi and despised southern Shaanxi, and the policies they promulgated were almost naked robbery.

The tax rate in southern Shaanxi is 15 times that in northern Shaanxi.

Prohibiting scholars from Weinan and other places from taking the imperial examinations
·····
All kinds of bizarre policies caused a large number of people to flee the country, and the country's strength gradually weakened.

The Dashi Army was defeated repeatedly by the Qi Army on the Shanxi-Shaanxi border. In the end, they could not even defeat Qi's weakest 11th Corps (Bumbutai Khorchin Cavalry).

The blacksmith emperor was extremely upset and gradually began to drink. One day, Zhang Zicheng issued an order to ban alcohol and those who violated it would be executed.

As a result, not long after, he started drinking it himself.

After a series of crazy operations, Da Xi made one mistake after another and missed many opportunities to break the deadlock.

Finally it reached the brink of collapse.

~~~~
When the Second Corps crossed the Yellow River and pursued the Qi army from northern Shaanxi all the way to Xi'an, Zhang Zicheng realized the seriousness of the situation and quickly called everyone together to discuss countermeasures.

In the main hall of Chengyun Palace, dozens of civil officials and military generals were standing sparsely.

Zhang Zicheng was lying on the dragon throne, holding a carved wine pot.

His huge head drooped weakly, and half of his body was hidden under the dirty dragon robe.

After more than a decade of indulging in alcohol and sex, the sturdy muscles of his blacksmith days had turned into a chubby body with a bulging belly. Clinging to the throne, he looked like an old dragon.

"The Tartars are here again. Let's talk about it. How do we fight them?"

The emperor gulped down a mouthful of wine and cast his cloudy eyes at the civil and military officials in the hall.

"Damn it, why are there only so few people left?"

Zhang Zicheng was half sober and looked up, surprised to find that many of his old brothers were gone.

Only a few dozen people were left, still arguing.

Zhang Zicheng's adopted son, Northern King Ai Nengqi, started cursing.

Ai Nengqi was known for his bravery and was historically known as one of the "Four Generals" along with Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo, and Liu Wenxiu.

"The hungry people are in the northwest, and the Tatars are in the northeast. They have nothing to do with each other! Why did Liu Zhaosun come to attack the hungry people and kill them all? He occupied Yan'an Prefecture and now comes to attack Xi'an!"

In the third year of Shunzhi (1646), Ai Nengqi shot and killed the Qing army lieutenant Gebuku, and then attacked Dongchuan (now Huili, Yunnan). He was ambushed by a local chieftain and died of poisoning.

After Ai Nengqi finished speaking, a general beside him said angrily:

"I heard that this donkey-ball guy Liu Zhaosun was originally the illegitimate son of the Tartars. This idiot is a fool. You try to reason with him? He insists that the whole world belongs to him. The Tartars have occupied dozens of provinces, and he still doesn't think it's enough!"

The speaker was King Liu Wenxiu of Shu. Like Ai Nengqi, he was also Zhang Zicheng's adopted son.

In the original history, Liu Wenxiu fought throughout his life, against the Qing Dynasty, the Ming army, and Wu Sangui. He was later dismissed from his military power by Li Dingguo and died of illness in the 12th year of the Yongli reign. He was posthumously named "Zhong". He is considered one of the few bandits who had a good end.

The generals all clamored.

"Donkey ball, fight the Tartars!"

"Fight!"

Zhang Zicheng put down the wine pot, waved his hands, and shouted:

"Fight!"

But how do you spell it?

We were defeated all the way from the Yellow River to northern Shaanxi, and even the capital Suide was occupied by the enemy.

At this time, the civil officials finally began to speak, and the first one to speak was the Left Prime Minister Xu Yixian.

In his early years, Xu Yixian followed Zhang Zicheng in his uprising. Although he was a scholar, he boasted of his erudition and wisdom, often comparing himself to Zhuge Liang and was very ambitious.

He was determined to assist Zhang Zicheng in conquering the world and also wanted to carry out some reforms, but unfortunately the Emperor of Dashi was in a hopeless situation.

After hanging out with warriors for a long time, Prime Minister Xu became tainted with banditry, began to swear, and became less and less like a civil servant.

"What's in your heads? All you do is sleep with your wives. Why is Liu Zhaosun attacking us now? Why not attack us earlier or later?"

Ai Nengqi said nonchalantly:

"How should I know? Why?"

Xu Yixian looked disdainful:
"This idiot son of a bitch killed Li Zicheng and Zhu Youjian. After he hit Liaodong, he hit Shandong. After he hit Jiangnan, he hit Sichuan. Now that he can't hit Sichuan anymore, he's going to hit us first."

It is indeed easier to attack Sichuan from the direction of Shaanxi.

It turned out that the Qi army, which was in a state of panic in the Great Western Kingdom, was only planning to attack Sichuan and Shaanxi at the same time.

After knowing the truth, Ai Nengqi collapsed on the spot.

"Oh my god, this is totally unfair! The Tartars attacked us so they could attack the Sichuanese! I beat the Tartars so hard back then that I forced Deng Changxiong's army of tens of thousands to graze in Shanxi. How did we end up like this now?"

(End of this chapter)