Chen Shengxi: Li Yan, a general of the rebel army at the end of the Ming Dynasty, did have his own person

The late Ming historian Gu Cheng's article "Questioning Li Yan" held that there was no Li Yan in Qixian County, and that the accounts of Li Yan's activities were all made up by the literati of the landlord class. However, according to various records of li zicheng's people at that time after he entered Beijing, there was indeed Li Yanqi. From the time Li Zicheng entered Beijing to the time he fled, Li Yan was in Beijing. Li Yan advised Li Zicheng to rescue Empress Zhang of the Apocalypse, all of which had their roots and were not fictional. Regarding Li Yan's place of origin, the "Li Family Tree" was recently found in Bo'ai County, Henan Province, and it is recorded that Li Xinziyan, the fourth son of Li Maochun, a native of Tang Village, Bo'ai County, was born in the thirty-fourth year of the Wanli Calendar (1606) and was a scientific student. His uncle Li Chunyu was white in character and took Li Xin as his heir. In the thirteenth year of Chongzhen (1640), Li Yan and his cousin Li Mu joined the peasant army, and Chongzhen was wrongfully killed by Li Zicheng in the seventeenth year, and Chinese New Year's Eve nine. Because Li Yan was engaged in business in the grain bank of Qixian County, his father Li Chunyu was white in characters, so he was misrepresented as Li Jingbai of the Ming Dynasty. Gu Cheng believed that Li Jingbai, the Shangshu of the Ming Dynasty, did not have Li Yan and his son, thus denying that there was Li Yan and his people, resulting in a misjudgment of historical facts.

Mr. Zheng Tianting once said in the article "Long Talk on Governing History" that "historical research and the study of natural science and technological science are the same as the study of scientific methods", and Einstein once told his students three sentences: First, the law of cause and effect cannot be reversed; second, time cannot be reversed; third, the future cannot affect the present. All those who engage in scientific research must firmly grasp these three points. I think the same is true of the study of history: first, the causal relationship cannot be reversed; second, the chronological order cannot be confused; third, history is forward, and it cannot be attached to the time with later developments." That is to say, when we study history, we often think about results as a premise, reversing causality. Any historical event has a cause and then a result, and we cannot attach some of the things we need in the result as a cause, reverse the causal relationship, and lead to the fatalism of the ancient law.

The question of Li Yan is one example. In March of the seventeenth year of Ming Chongzhen (1644), Li Zicheng entered Beijing, and there was a famous general Li Yan in Li Zicheng's army, and various historical records have different records, saying that he was a native of Qixian County, Henan, and that he was of a personal or ancestral background. The late Mr. Gu Cheng, according to the article "Qixian Zhi Li Gongzi Discernment" in the thirty-second year of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty (1693), said that there was no Li Yanqi in Qixian County. Zheng Lian, the author of the "Chronicle of Yu Change", written thirty-three years after Kangxi, said that his home was Shangqiu, only more than a hundred miles away from Qixian County, and he knew a lot of friends, and when he was a teenager, he once fell into the "thief" (that is, when he was 15 years old, Chongzhen was captured in The Luo camp when Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai attacked Guide in March), and had never heard of "among the thieves was the general Li Qixian". From this conclusion, Gu Cheng's article "Questioning Li Yan" concluded that after Li Zicheng entered Beijing, all the records about Li Yan were untrue, and that the literati of the landlord class fabricated them out of hatred for the peasant army, and used false rumors to carry out appendages, the purpose of which was to elevate the status of intellectuals from the landlord class and to belittle Li Zicheng, the leader of the peasant rebel army. As soon as this theory came out, it had a great influence in the field of historiography, and it was considered to be a subversive exposition of the history of the late Ming Dynasty, and it could observe and analyze problems from the class point of view, and there were many people who agreed. For example, Mr. Yao Xueyu was originally in the novel "Li Zicheng", there must be Li Yanqi, but later he gave up the old theory and wrote that there was no Li Yanqi. Mr. Luan Xing of Henan province wrote a long article "The Mystery of Li Yan" to discuss how the story of Li Yan was made up, and so on. However, many other scholars, such as Zhang Guoguang, Wang Xingya, and Jiang Zuyuan, have put forward different opinions. We also wrote an article entitled "Li Yan's New Examination of History in Beijing", and based on Li Yan's activities in Beijing, we believe that Li Yan really has his own person. However, the recent compilation of the "History of the Qing Dynasty" still deals with certain important historical events in the name of Li Yanqi, so it is necessary to discuss this issue again. Here, we must first set aside the premise that Kangxi's "Zhi of Qixian Zhi Li Gongzi Discernment" and Zheng Lian's "Chronicle of Yu Change" say that there is no Li Yan in Qixian County, and start from the source of historical events, that is, the records of Li Yan after Li Zicheng entered Beijing, to see what the conclusion is.

First, the emergence of Li Yan's record

According to what we have seen so far, there are few records of Li Yan before Li Zicheng entered Beijing. At dawn on March 19, 1777, the Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself on the coal mountain, and in the afternoon Li Zicheng, Together with Liu Zongmin, Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance, and a group of Wenwu were greeted by three hundred surrendered eunuchs, entered Beijing from DeshengMen, and entered the Forbidden City from Daming Gate. According to Zhao Shijin, who was in charge of the Ming Officials' Work Department in Beijing at that time, and Yang Shicong, the head of the Ming Dynasty, when Li Jun entered Beijing, he ordered the people to use a yellow paper letter "Shunmin" in front of their doors, and wrote "Long live the Emperor Dashun." The soldiers shouted, "Those who have mules and horses sacrifice, and those who dare to hide are beheaded." Then he entered the mansion and the small mansion, and inserted the arrow, indicating that it would be occupied. A small number of Ming officials heard of Chongzhen's death and martyrdom, and most of the Ming officials fled into hiding at home. Li Zicheng immediately ordered that all officials of the Ming Dynasty must submit their posts (names and official positions) on the 20th, and all of them should meet on the 21st, "Willing to be promoted to the level of the officials, those who do not want to listen to their return to their hometowns, if there are those who are hidden, they will be punished together with their neighbors." Since the officials are often the first to be the first." According to Zhao Shijin's Chronicle of Jiashen:

On the twentieth day, all the officials went to their posts and were driven by the long class of the Family Servants. Liu Zongmin (Zhutian Hongyu House), Li Daliang (Living in Xicheng Mansion), Li Yan, and Guo Mou (whose names are unknown, living in Zhou Kui's mansion) were punished by four punishments. The administration of treasury affairs was obtained by Chen Kui and Wang Xin, the servants of the treasury. Shi Yu was at the head of the Tian Qi Qi Gate, Lin Zengzhi, Yang Changzuo, Song Zhisheng, fangshi Yang Shicong, Zhu Fa, hundreds of officials and green clothes and small hats, and submitted their names. ...... The names of the officers who were submitted and the officials were mentioned were sent to the battalions to guard, and the majority were in Zongmin's office. Chen Biqian, a shangshu of the Ministry of Works, and Zhang Fengxiang, a servant of the Military Department, were detained at Li Daliang's place and detained at Liu Zongmin's place.

This is the first time that Li Yan's name appears in historical materials. After Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he lived in the Forbidden City (i.e., the Imperial Palace), Liu Zongmin lived in the residence of Chongzhen Tian's father Tian Hongyu (in Xicheng), Li Daliang (i.e. Li You) lived in the Xicheng Mansion (Qiuzi Hutong Xu Jinyi Mansion), and Li Yan and Guo lived in the residence of Zhou Kui( the father of Empress Zhou of the Chongzhen Emperor Zhou (Dongcheng Baijia Fence). After these officials surrendered their posts in the West Chang'an Gate, they were sent to each battalion to guard. There were those who were in Li You's place, there were those who met in Tian Hong, Zhao Shijin was taken to Liu Zongmin's place, and who was detained to Zhou Kui's place is not said here, but he clearly said that Li Yan and Guo Mou "lived in Zhou Kui's house", which should be true. According to Xu Yingfen's "Chronicle of Encounters" yun, who was in the Beijing Like at the time to Shen Zhifang:

On the twenty-third day, about 3,000 or 4,000 people of Wenwu were all blasphemously dressed and held, waiting to see the false chancellor Niu Venus, creeping in the middle way, and the cattle sat on the ground, reading one by one, and the talents of the rich and well-known were selected and more than seventy people were selected, and the officials were hired. ...... Without using them, each of the two soldiers with bows and knives was escorted out and rushed to the barracks of the puppet duke Liu Fu. Da Dan, the prisoners gathered a roll call, and then dispersed the generals Ge and Li Er to severely torture and interrogate, chasing after the stolen goods, tens of thousands, and thousands of less, Tu Gong lai Xiong officials pushed and used, but still detained the barracks for two days and nights, to the townships such as Liu Guanglu, Li Chunfang, Zhu Xinke, Luo Shuchang, all with the intention of cutting hair and thieves, so they were not exempted from the Three Wood Capsules. ...... At one time, several people died, and several people did not die and completed the booty. Although Tu Gong was exempted from being caught, he was also paid 300 gold. Li Guangfu of the Water Department of my hometown was killed that day. Yushi Feng Yuandeng, subordinates Zou Fengji, and Zhang Shirong died after being wounded. Liu Guanglu, Zhu Xinke, Luo Shuchang, etc., all prepared for extreme pain, and were released after the booty was finished.

It is clearly pointed out here that on the 23rd, three or four thousand people were cast outside the noon gate, and more than 70 people (96 selected by Zhao Shijinyun) were selected from the post, and the rest were sent to Liu Zongmin, who in turn "dispersed the torture of General Ge and Li Er and recovered the stolen money." Ge and Guo are homophonous, and this Ge and Li Er should be Li Yan and Guo mou in Zhou Kui Province. The above-mentioned torturers and those who have been tortured and killed must be tortured at Guo and Li. Chen Jisheng's "Chronicle of Regeneration" in Beijing at the time also said: "Twenty-two days early, the officials were still imprisoned in front of the palace, the abdomen was unbearable, the japanese and Chinese pseudo-generals began to come out, the roll call sat on the booty, tens of thousands of heavy, light and thousands, Fa Li and Ge Er will be severely tortured and chased, there are cannons, brain hoops, sticks and other tools, flesh and blood, with laughter and fun... Jiading Bo Zhou Kui, the family is rich, all thieves have, still suspect that the sons are privately breeding, inevitably knocking, regret not to use Xu Jian's words, Oh! It's also too late. This also shows that the Ming officials were first detained at Liu Zongmin's place, and then distributed "Li and Ge Er will be severely punished", and the "Li and Ge" here should also refer to Li Yan and Guo. From this, it can be proved that Li Yan and Guo Mou are in charge of the Zhou Mansion and pursue Zhou Kui's stolen goods, and there is no doubt.

On the 21st, Zhao Shijin was taken to Liu Zongmin's camp, and later sent to Chen Zongbing for internment, and in the small nunnery of Pingzimen (i.e., Fucheng Gate), along with the executed, there was Pan Tongchun (Yuyao, Zhejiang, Ding Ugly Jinshi), a member of the Ministry of Works of the same year, and the guards were extremely strict. Twenty-three days after being escorted to the front of the Wufeng Tower at the Noon gate, Niu Jinxing and Liu Zongmin held the book to use, all 96 people, the user stood on the south side, the user stood on the north side, Zhao Shijin was in the point, he told him that he was willing to return to the mother of mercy to the end, did not want to be used, Niu Venus nodded, still issued a forbidden place. On the twenty-sixth day, he was escorted to the front of the Wufeng Tower, and after the revival of the point, Shi Jin resigned, and the pedestrians Liu Zhongzao and Cheng Yuchengfu were escorted back to the forbidden place, and the next day Liu Zongmin issued an order, repeatedly using the disobedient Zhao Shijin to punish 3,000 silver and Liu Zhongxing to punish 1,000 silver, and sent to the camp of the thief Yao Qiying, until April 13, Li Zicheng's eastern expedition against Wu Sangui, April 14, the plane began to escape, and the prisoners were imprisoned for more than 20 days. According to Zhao Shijin:

The thief Yao Qiying has not yet set up an official in the Great Shun Dynasty, but in the name of the head of the family, the head of a hundred people is the small palm family, the length of a thousand people is the big palm family, and the chief of ten thousand people is the old master, that is, Liu and Li Zhu, but the old master is only the old master.

In order to give a word, on the eighth day of the first month of the first month, Xi'an Province raised an army, and it was only seventy days before the destruction of the capital, and all the more than seventy prefectures and counties they passed through opened the door to greet them, but the Yulin War, Yulin was slaughtered several times, and our soldiers killed a lot. Asked about the deceased officials, Thief Yun only inspected Cai Maode in Shanxi, Wei Jingyi in Beizhi, and Zhu Yifeng, the inspector of Xuanfu.

Niu Jinxing, a native of Baoji (Feng) County, Henan, was a member of the Ding Dynasty, whose people made the wine negative, and married Wang Shijun as a child of Xiangfu Jinshi, and was the most kind. Huishijun has the ugliness of the boudoir, Venus drunkenly praises its ugliness, Shijun titles, after Venus is drunk and flogging county official, Yi Ling is also titled, Shijun sui and Ling Luo weave their affairs, shangzhi patrol, patrol party impeachment, remove people, imprisoned in prison, self-made city out of the city, thinking that zuo chengxiang, this captain Yao Qiying is also to give words.

The thief Yao Qiying attacked Kaifeng Province for a year without breaking it, and the capital city was broken in one day. There is an internal response to the question, and if there is no one, my generation will enter the city. Every time he attacks the city, he will scramble to pick up the wall first, and now his right hand has gone to four fingers, and he cannot do anything. Qi Ying also said that when kaifeng was attacked, he personally picked up the city, the city would be destroyed, and those in the city would be afraid of breaking the city and flooding the city with river water, but they had escaped from it, and if they did not have the true river water, they would be crowned as Wang Xie.

From the above, it can be seen that this Yao Qiying, who imprisoned Zhao Shijin, joined the peasant army at least before Li Zicheng encircled Kaifeng for the second time in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, and when he besieged Kaifeng, he personally picked up the city, and he did not even have four fingers, and he knew a lot about the situation inside Li Jun, such as the big and small leaders of Li Jun, commonly known as the zhangjia, the big bosses called the big bosses, and the small leaders called the small bosses. More importantly, the reason and process for Niu Jinxing to join Li Jun is roughly the same as that stated in Zheng Lian's "Chronicle of Yu Change". When Li Jun attacked Kaifeng, the city was about to be destroyed, and the Ming officials were afraid of crimes and privately decided to irrigate the city of the Yellow River, exposing the major fact that the Ming court had slandered Li Zicheng for irrigating the city of the river. From this, it can be proved that Zhao Shijin's information about the internal situation of Li Jun after Li Zicheng entered Beijing was obtained from Yao Qiying, and the record of Li Yan is reliable, and Li Yan's name appeared at the same time as Liu Zongmin, Li Daliang, Guo Mou, and others.

Second, Li Zicheng's stolen goods recovery activities in Beijing

After Li Zicheng entered Beijing, the first thing he did was to hunt down officials at all levels of the Ming Dynasty, recruit some low-level officials from them, and serve the new Dynasty Dashun. The second thing was to pursue the stolen goods of the Ming Dynasty's xunqi and the unselected bureaucrats at all levels, because the pursuit of stolen goods was Li Zicheng's consistent policy, and every time he took a place, he would recover silver and two pieces of money from the rich bureaucrats in that area, which was called "helper". Now enter Beijing, Beijing is the center of the world's wealth, will be able to chase down a large amount of property. The third thing was to prepare for the ascension ceremony, because in the first month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, he was only called the King of Dashun in Xi'an, and now that he had taken Beijing, Chongzhen was dead, and he was officially proclaimed emperor in Beijing, so that he could order the world and establish his own new dynasty of the Li clan. After entering Beijing on March 19, officials at all levels of the Ming Dynasty were ordered to register in front of the Wufeng Tower outside the noon gate from the twenty-first day, and on the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth days, a small number of officials were appointed by Niu Jinxing and Song Qijiao, and all those who were not ordered were separately detained to each general and recover the stolen goods, and Liu Zongmin was responsible for the investigation, and the "Ming Dynasty Northern Sketch" quoted the "History of Jia Yi" Yun: "All those who pursue stolen goods are Liu Minzheng (Zong Min) and Li Mu Er pseudo-governors. "Secondly, there are countless leaders of all sizes such as Li You, Li Yan, and Li Guo. According to Zhao Shijin's account, Liu Zongmin made a kind of clamping stick, the wood is edged, and the middle is connected with iron nails to clamp people, all of which are broken. In order to experiment with the stick, on the twenty-fourth day, two scribes were clipped on the street, brought from Shaanxi, and they were clipped because of the wrong writing of the two characters, and they died the next day. Therefore, he ordered the manufacture of five thousand pairs of sticks, "to the camps of Li and Guo." The "Li and Guo" mentioned here should refer to Li Yan and Guo Mou who lived in Zhou Kui Province. According to Yang Shicong's "Jiashen Nuclear True Strategy":

On the twenty-seventh day, the salaries were distributed to all the officials in Beijing, whether they were used or not. The user sends less, so that it is self-consuming; the user sends more, and the word is not discerned. There are those who are sandwiched between Zong Min's office, those who are sandwiched between the officers of the various battalions, those who are sandwiched between the detainees, those who are sandwiched between the houses of the officials of the Xunqi, and those who are caught in the road, and everyone can be tortured, and the punishment can be carried out everywhere. The number of its salaries was 100,000 in the Middle Hall, 70,000 or 50,000 or 30,000 in the Ministry of Jingtang Jinyi; 50,000 and 30,000 in the Department of Science and Road; 30,000, 30,000, 20,000, and 10,000 in Hanlin; and each of the subordinates was counted in thousands. There is no definite number of Xunqi's houses, and the people and wealth have been exhausted.

It can be seen that this time the recovery of stolen goods is inevitable for all officials, no matter how big or small, and the larger the officials, the greater the number of salaries to be recovered. The middle hall is the cabinet university scholar, the first and second high-ranking officials; the ministry jingtang is the head of the six shangshu and the inspectorate, the Dali Temple, and the General Administration Department, and the third and fourth high-ranking officials. Jinyi Wei was the head of the imperial palace guards, the Section Dao Officials, that is, the Six Branches to the Matter, the Thirteen Dao Inspectors, and the Hanlin Academy. Especially for the relatives of the emperor and the state, there is no quota until the end of the pursuit, so there are many people who have been tortured. For example, Marquis Xue Lian of Yangwu, whose ancestor Xue Lu helped Ming Chengzu Jing to make meritorious contributions, the hereditary marquis, who had been trapped in his pocket for several days, said that the family had cellar gold, please go home to get it, stay in the East City, so that Li Bing and the two of them were going to go, so that the home was already the possession of Li Jun's general, and asked where it was hidden? Lian can't be right, he is reincarnated, and he dies in two days. The university scholar Chen Yan lost 50,000 silver, and the Jinyi Guards all commanded Luo Yang to lose 30,000 silver, and was detained without clipping. The university scholar Wei Zaode lost 30,000 silver, still caught, five days and died, recaptured his son to chase silver, his son said that there is no silver, if the father sees it, he can still borrow it from the old place where the protégé died, and now that his father is dead, there is nowhere to borrow, that is, he is hacked to death with a sword. Like Yang Shicong, the official Zuo Zhide, who only had six pins of qing, was imprisoned at the place of Wang Dunwu, the small leader of the Li Army, and also sent 20,000 silver, Lai Wang Dunwu eased his cheeks, so as to avoid being caught. Zhao Shijin, the chief of the Ministry of Works, was detained by Yao Qiying and also sent three thousand silver. Whoever is unable to pay the money shall be ordered to borrow it from relatives, friends or merchants. According to Zhao Shijin's account, from March 27 onwards, a large-scale pursuit of stolen goods began, and on the seventh day of the first month of April, Li Zicheng went to Liu Zongmin's office to discuss matters, and saw liu Zongmin's three courtyards, each of which still detained hundreds of people, tortured and interrogated, and there were those who cried out, and those who could not cry and died, and the miserable situation could not bear to hear, "Every morning, the deceased were carried out in bamboo baskets, and each basket was three or two people, bound by ropes, until it was five or six days, and there were still many undead." In Li Daliang's office, there is a difference, Zhao Shijin said: "In Zong Min's office, the number of people sent by each person has not increased, and although the number of people sent in the great liang is small, it has increased after the completion of the payment, and the escort to the captain Yao Qiying is a word, and the military officers are big, but they can be hated, and my generation has sent people to buy ming military attaches to do it, and it is necessary to have thousands of gold, so now the military department has a lot of salary." According to the Records of Gao Hong, who was imprisoned at the Guanglu Temple, who was imprisoned by Li Daliang, Li Daliang, that is, Li You, moved the coffin of the Chongzhen Emperor to the Donghua Gate On March 21, Liu Yangzhen, the head of the Military Selection Department, was weeping and was taken to Li You's house. ...... Liu Zongmin's family discussed the size of the officials and the limit, and after the stolen day was released, Li You, Zhang □, Ge □, and so on were mixed and not limited. Twenty-three members of Li You's family, twenty-nine people, listened to their self-donation, and wounded four out of ten. Liu Yangzhen called 'Emperor Taizu Gao' again, chasing forty-three gold and two silver cups. He also signed it, should not, said, 'I'd rather die than I do'. □□□□The king is waiting for the staff to die."

Regarding the tragic situation of Wang Du's staff death, Yang Shicong's "Jiashen Nuclear True Strategy" recorded: "On the eighth day of the first month of (April), those who released all the clans, no matter how much silver they lost, were all released, but one or two of the hundred and ten people were left, and they did not know what it was. ...... Taichang Temple Qing Wang Du, Shi Jia Zhi to his home, is the day to die. Both belong to the Western Lee pseudo-governor also. This camp chased silver quite differently from other places, gathering fifty or sixty gentlemen in three rooms, and there was no food, and they were sporadically chased after them, but they were still returned to the rooms. Du Chu only chased three hundred, and they all said that they had no money, and they got three hundred silver. After more than two days, he chased five hundred, and all of them were cloudless, and they got five hundred silver. After chasing four hundred for several days, all of them were cloudless, and they got four hundred silver. For it is the day that all are released, and they are to be returned, and when they return, they are killed. Yushi Feng Yuandeng and Jinyi The two, angered by the thieves, were caught in the middle of the road and died in three days. "Because Li You was in Xicheng according to Qiu Zi Hutong, he was called the Pseudo-Governor of Xi Li. Li You, Li Zicheng was a general of Zuo Weiwu when he was in Xiangyang, and Da Liang may have been his nickname. Gao Hongshang detained Li You's family and was strangled with four hundred gold, and when he saw Li Youri drunk and embracing women, he cried out at all costs. Zhan Weiji, Zhang Weiji, and Xiao Hongji, the chief of the group. Zhang Shangshu Feng Xiangqian was released from prison, detained, and was not sandwiched. ”

In the activities of recovering stolen goods, there was Dong Li (Li You), who tortured the stolen goods in an extremely cruel way, and chased after the forbidden Officials until Li Zicheng fled Beijing in a failed eastern expedition against Wu Sangui, and only released the last batch of Ming officials, and when they were released, they either gave a rope order to hang themselves, or beat them with five sticks to suffocate them. According to Liu Shangyou's Dingsi Xiaoji Yun, Shen Zhifang, the head of the Ministry of Works, was arrested and "detained in the residence of the thief general Li surnamed Li." Dozens of people gathered in one room, filthy and hungry, indescribable. Daily escort to the gate. The thieves rode on horseback, and the men walked on foot, and Chi was chased away with the back of the horse's whip, and his relatives, friends, and child servants stood by and watched, unable to say a word. ...... (April) Twenty-four or five days, thieves for the sake of action... More than half of his detainees were sentenced to death, and they were hanged by order, and the voice of injustice reached Qulu, but the Shen Gongbu died and revived, and it was covered with heavenly luck." Liu Shangyou, a native of Nanzhi Jiading, was a relative of Shen Zhifang in the matter, and the change of Jia Shen was suitable for Shen Yu in Beijing. Regarding the tragic situation of Shen Jifang, the chief of the Ministry of Works, who came back from the dead, Yang Shicong's "True Strategy of Jiashen Nuclear Strategy" Yun: "Shen Jifang, in the East City Thief General. Thieves and recluses, there are still a few people left after release, Ji Fang and Yan. Each gave a rope, so that the self-hanging, and Zong Min's place is different, the so-called funeral chaos and death of many doors. Ji Fang was hanged with the crowd, and the thief promised to be a han. When the corpse is put into the lamina, five sticks are added to each of the corpses. After returning, the family was reformed and Ji fang recovered. Hou Jifang went south with the crowd and said so. "Shen Jifang nanzhi Changzhou people, Guozi supervisor student, the head of the Ministry of Works, not to surrender the name of the executive, Li Zicheng after the defeat of the south returned." Peng Sunyi's Pingkou Zhi vol. 10: "Li Guoquan strangled and tortured all the officials peng zhen, Li Fengshen, Shen Jifang, and fifty-three other officials... Ji Fang recovered from the funeral and returned to the south. From this, it can be seen that the person who detained Shen Zhifang and Shen Jifang was Li Guo. Pingkou Zhi vol. IX: "Thieves are divided into hundreds of officials: Liu Zongmin according to the governor Tian Hongyudi, Li Guo according to the governor Yuan Youdi, Gu Kecheng according to the Wantuo Mafu, Tian Mixiu according to the Cao Gongmafu, Li Yan according to the Jiading Bodi, the rebel general Fumin according to the Xunwei Changshou Jingdi, Li Zhisheng according to the Chang'an Street eunuch residence, occupying his wife, and the rest according to the Rich People's Huge Chamber." According to this, it can be seen that Li Guo was the governor of Yuan Youzhai, and Yuan You was the father of Yuan Guifei of Chongzhen. Wang Yuchang's "Notes on the Words of Chongzhen Palace": "Yuan Guifei's father, Yuan Guifei, who was first awarded the Golden Dress Thousand Households, and later enfeoffed as Chongxin Bo ... Shangte gave Tian Baiqing, and his ancestors were in the blacksmith camp outside the Yong'an Gate, and they gave five thousand gold to build. "The blacksmith camp was northeast of the imperial city of Beijing, so Li Guo was known as the Eastern Li Dudu according to Yuan Youdi.

According to Zhao Shijin's records, "Li Yanguo lived in the residence of Zhou Kui", and Zhou Kui was the father of Empress Chongzhen Zhou, and the official Jia Dingbo. Liu Chenggan's "Jingshifang Lane Zhi Kao Zheng": "Jiading Bo Zhou Kuidi, who entered the country and was inhabited by the Mongolian Borjigit clan, was commonly known as the Gate of the White Family, also known as the White Family Fence." "The Baijia Fence is east of the Imperial City and west of Chongwenmen Avenue, which belongs to the Middle City. Regarding Li Yan's stay in Zhou Kui's house to recover stolen goods, according to The Gentleman Zhiluo engraved by Feng Menglong in the first year of Hongguang (1645): "Zhou Kui, a native of Southern Zhiren, was enfeoffed as a state abbot and was very stingy... The city was destroyed, and a few soldiers came to the palace, and Kui Hou treated it, and when he went, there were thieves who took the surname Of Zhang to his room. Lady Kui's aunt and daughter-in-law of the Bu clan all hanged themselves, and Bu was born successively. All the sons were bound and gone, and the soldiers humiliated Quit. After the powerful general Li Zhi, Zhang avoided it. Li Saw Kui was extremely humble and quite pitiful, but he used several rooms in the hut to make peace, and survived the torture. Zi Hyun, clip is not dead. ...... It is rumored that Kui xian prince was spared, but there was no such word in all. From the mouth of his relatives, most of them are miserly. "The section of Ji Liuqi's Ming Ji Beiluo, Volume 22, "Spared The Ministers, Zhou Kui", is roughly the same as this, and may be from the same source. However, two more articles were added, saying that the general Li who went to the Zhou mansion was Li Mou: "Yiyun: Li Moushukui is stingy on weekdays, and the governor orders him to bear the burden of salary and water to humiliate him." "Martyrdom Record" Yun: When Zhou Kui was begging for death, he was captured by thieves, sent to a pseudo-criminal officer, three clips, not dead, sitting on 700,000 stolen goods, and the fudi Treasure Kushi was destroyed. The pseudo-general Li Mou held his residence, Youjia Dingbo. Both of these articles say that first a general surnamed Zhang went to Zhou Kui's house and tied up his sons, and then another general surnamed Li Quan came, who was more lenient with Zhou Kui, and Zhou Cai was spared from execution. At that time, Li Mu and Li Yan were rumored to be brothers. Zhou Kui was an imperial relative and the main object of the pursuit of stolen goods, and his son Zhou Duo was tied up to Liu Zongmin, and Yang Shicong remembered: "Zhou Jiadingzi is named Duo, nineteen years old, alone fat, and alone. Yu saw that he was discharged from Zong Min's place, his half foot was swollen and collapsed, and his wailing was gentle, while the car was golden and had to be at the door. Famous critics, smell also clamped to death. ”

It can be seen from the above that after Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he carried out large-scale stolen goods recovery activities, and the means were extremely cruel, and many Ming officials were caught to death, tortured to death, and beaten to death, with Liu Zongmin, Li Guo, and Li You as the most important, while Li Yan, who lived in the Zhou Prefecture, was relatively lenient, so that Zhou Kui was spared death. This also shows that Li Yan is indeed in the Zhou Mansion, but Mr. Gu Cheng, who denies Li Yan and his people, said that Zhao Shijin said that "Li Yan and Guo did not know their names to live in Zhou Kui's house" This statement is very vague, which can be interpreted as Li Yan and Guo living in Zhou Kui's house, or it can be explained that he is not clear about Li Yan's residence. He quoted Yang Shicong's "Jiashen Shen Nuclear Zhenluo Appendix XII": "Zong Min was based in TianFu and tried to move to ZhouFu on the ninth day of the first month of April, but failed. Fang carved that the pseudo-Li Du Governor was not. Also known as a small number of rooms and weeks is not. Judging from this, Li Yan did not live in the Zhou Mansion at all, and there was no room for zhou to live in a small room. However, the fact is that Li Yan's entry into the city on March 19 was the result of Li Yan's entry into the city on March 19, and on March 29, Li Zicheng knew that Wu Sangui had defected to Shanhaiguan, and on the seventh day of April, he ordered a halt to the pursuit of stolen goods and prepared to march east against Wu Sangui, and it had been nearly twenty days by the ninth day of April, at which time Li Yan might not be in Zhou. At the time of military turmoil, it was inevitable that general Li Yan would move his residence, and at this time Li Yan was not in the Zhou Mansion, and it was not that Li Yan was without him.

On the eighth day of the first month of April, all the generals who were recovering stolen money and aided the salary were to hand over the specific number they had recovered, the records and registers, and the gold and silver treasures they had copied to Liu Zongmin, and they were ready to be melted down and transported to Xi'an. Yang Shicong's "Jiashen Nuclear True Strategy" said: "On the seventh day of the first month of (April), Li Thief discussed the matter with Zong Minyu. Because of the three courtyards in the court, there are more than a hundred people in each courtyard, there are those who mourn, there are those who cannot cry, and the tragic situation cannot bear to see and hear. Will go, ask Zong Min to get some silver, Zong Min to count pairs. ...... On that day, Liu Zongminjin chased tens of thousands of silver. Those who have the Western Pseudo-Li Du Governor are less than half of Zong Min's by their own pursuit. Fearing that he would be offended, li knew that there would be no one, so he sent his camp to put two hundred gold into half. This is also one of the few thieves. "Who is this Western Pseudo-Governor?" Zhao Shijin's "Chronicle of Jiashen": "At that time, Zong Min chased a lot of silver, and Da Liang could not chase half of it, and Da Liang was afraid of being guilty, so he sent the generals of the base camp to pay two hundred gold and put it in half, so the people complained that Liu was twice as good as Li Yan." According to this, the Western Li Pseudo-Governor who chases the silver here should be Li You. In Liu Zongmin's camp, there were as many as 800 to 1,000 officials who were detained and tortured, and the number of silver chasers was naturally very large; it was rumored that there were 73 people in Li You's camp, which was naturally less than liu camp in number, and each general assigned two hundred before he made up half of them. How much silver did Li Guo and Li Yan chase, Zhao Shijin and Yang Shicong did not mention, in fact, this is only a rumor, as for who chased how much silver inside Li Jun, how can outsiders know? But for the officials who are being tortured, who is the most cruel, who is more relaxed, and who retains a little humanity, there will be word-of-mouth rumors.

According to Zhang Yi, who was in Beijing at the time, in the "Continuation of the Rumors":

The two pseudo-generals of the thief, the East and the West, all of whom are surnamed Li, are kind and kind in the west, and those who are bound to the officials are not bitterly punished, and the silver they ask for is either complete or incomplete, and they are all good to send them away. Before taking the bed and sitting on the road, sending all the soldiers, and after the palace, he said: The disturbance here has been extreme, why bear to burn and plunder? Legend has it that Li GongziYan also. In the east, it was the most vicious, and there were five forbidden gentry in one hundred, on the verge of walking, and the sealing knife was not used, and all of them were beaten to death with a huge stone and a strong wood, which was unspeakably tragic. However, Anqing Liu Junyu took off his ears for his long class.

Zhang Yi (張怡), nanzhi yingtianren (南直應天人), died in the rebellion of Kong Youde (孔有德), the chief soldier of Deng Lai (張可大), died in the rebellion of Kong Youde, and was stationed in the Jinling Guild Hall in Beijing at the time, where he was detained in Liu Zongmin's camp because he was hanged from the Chongzhen coffin at Donghua Gate, and was chased by Zhang's surname after the camp. When he said that Dong Li was "the most vicious in sex", he meant Li Guo; "not bitterly punishing" referred to Li Yan, the prince of Li who lived in Zhou Kui Province, rather than Li You. Although the Zhou Mansion was in the east of the imperial city, it was also called Western Li in the west of Li Guoju's residence, so the Pingkou Zhi and the Guoyu said that li yan and Li Mu were less than half of the silver chasers. Pingkou Zhi vol. 10: "(April) Yi Ugly (Chu VIII) Liu Zongmin entered the Kao Suo Silver 10 million, Li Yan and Li Mu were sentenced to a lenient sentence, and the advance was not more than half, and all the people who had been added to it were called Yan." "Guo Yu" volume 101: "(April) Jiazi, Zong Minjin paid ten million, the governor Li Yan, Li Mou, and Li Youzheng were less than half, and the people who sent the composers were each two hundred gold, enough for their amount." "Peng Sunyi (1615-1673), the authors of the Pingkou Zhi and the Guoyu, and Tan Qian (1594-1657), were contemporaries of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and their memories must have been based on their memories, and could not be deliberately fabricated.

After Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he lived in the Forbidden City. He originally thought that the Ming court must have a large amount of gold and silver, but after searching the harem, he found that there was not much, so he ordered Liu Zongmin and others to pursue the stolen goods. In the spring of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Wu Luzhong, a servant of the household department, once played Chongzhen in person, "Please send the inner chamber, and the secret edict of the upper order is nearly the front: There is no inner library." And she fell into tears.". In February, Wu Xiang was summoned to abandon Ning Yuan to transfer Wu Sangui to aid Beijing, and Wu Xiang said that he needed to pay a million, "Shang: Qing Yan is, but the inner treasury has seventy thousand gold, and the search for all gold, silver, and other things to make up for 200,000 or 300,000 ears." Therefore, the order to donate money was issued, and the bureaucrats were asked to donate money and subsidies, and they only received 200,000 taels in succession, which shows the financial difficulties at the end of the Ming Dynasty. In the process of recovering the stolen goods, Liu Zongmin made an inadvertent big mistake. He lived in Tian Hongyu's mansion, and when he heard that there were singing prostitutes Chen Yuan (Chen Yuanyuan) and Gu Shou in the Tian Mansion, and that Chen Yuanyuan had been bought by Wu Xiang for his son Wu Sangui, Liu Zongmin tortured Wu Xiang to help him and pursued Chen Yuanyuan, which angered Wu Sangui, who had already accepted Li Zicheng's surrender. Wu Sangui's Guanning Jin brigade was recognized by the Ming court at that time as an army with strong combat effectiveness, and the garrison guarded Ningyuan in order to resist the Qing army. Li Zicheng marched into Shanxi, and in order to defend Beijing, the Ming court ordered Wu Sangui to abandon Ning Yuan and lead his army into the pass in early March to defend the Beijing Division, but unfortunately, the Ming court's transfer order was late, and on March 20, Wu Sangui marched to Fengrun, and Li Zicheng had entered Beijing on the nineteenth, and Wu Sangui stopped the march and observed the situation when he heard the news. When Li Zicheng sent someone to surrender Wu Sangui, Wu Sangui saw that Chongzhen was dead and that the Ming Dynasty had no hope of reviving, so he accepted Li Zicheng's surrender, but when he learned that his father had been tortured and his concubine Chen Yuanyuan had been robbed, he angrily changed his plan, rebelled against Shanhaiguan, and published a letter denouncing Li Zicheng. At this moment, Li Zicheng's original plan was disrupted, suspending his ascension to the pole and leading an army to march east against Wu Sangui. On April 13, Li Zicheng led Liu Zongmin, Li Guo, and 60,000 other people, known as 200,000, to march east against Wu Sangui, and accompanied him with emperor Ming Chongzhen's crown prince (Zhu Cixi) and the second king (Yong wang, Ding wang), as well as Wu Sangui's father Wu Xiang. Li Zicheng thought that with Emperor Chongzhen's crown prince Erwang and Wu Xiang, Wu Sangui would surrender. According to Zhao Shijin's account: "On the thirteenth day, Li Zicheng came out of the Zhengyang Gate with the second king of the Eastern Palace, and looked at himself with a white hat and green cloth and an arrow coat and a yellow cover; the Eastern Palace was green, with a green cover, before becoming a self-made." Yu Shi stayed at the front door, gave the servants to witness it, Liu Zongmin and others all went, but Li Yan lived in the east city, and Niu Jinxing lived in the middle of the court, thinking that it was a garrison. "Here it is clearly stated that Li Zicheng went on a crusade, leaving Li Yanju in the eastern city and Niu Venus to guard the capital. Yang Shicong's "Jiashen Nuclear True Strategy" also records: "On the thirteenth day, Li Thief came out of the Zhengyang Gate with the second king of the Eastern Palace. Li Thief rides on a mule, and Gai takes a mule also. The Eastern Palace is dressed green, and after Li Thief, the ponytail is tied together, and it does not lose an inch. There are overseers who follow him also. Liu Zongmin and others all went along, leaving only one surname, Li Pseudodu, to oversee Judong, and to serve as a garrison with Niu Jinxing. According to legend, the governor Wu Xiang also acted in a way that threatened the sun. It is also clearly stated that only the pseudo-governor of Li surname Judong and Niu Jinxing jushou are left, and this pseudo-governor of Li surname is Li Yan as Zhao Shijin said, because he lives in Dongcheng. Youyun: "On the fourteenth day, on the west Chang'an Avenue, there was a demonstration of the fu sticky thief Zong Min, saying that the ming dynasty had not exhausted the number of days, and people thought of allegiance, and on the twentieth day of this month, the Eastern Palace was established as emperor, and the first year of Yuan Yixing was changed. Inspector Li Pseudodu visited, and there was no trace. This shows that after Li Zicheng's Eastern Crusade, Beijing was already confused, and the notice of the restoration of Ming rule was posted on the notice of the former Liu Zongmin, and the visitor was Li Yan, the puppet governor who stayed behind.

From the above points, it can be seen that after Li Zicheng entered Beijing: (1) Li Yan did have his own person, living in Zhou Kui Province; (2) in the process of recovering the stolen goods, Li Yan also participated in his affairs, and there were Li Muqi people, and Li Yan and Li Mu were punished; (3) Li Zicheng left Li Yan and Niu Jinxing to guard during the Eastern Expedition. Its narrator was Zhao Shijin, Nanzhi Changshuren, Chongzhen Ding Ugly (1637) Jinshi, and Wailang, a member of the Gongbu Camp. From March 20, he was first detained to Liu Zongmin's place, and then distributed and imprisoned at Li Jun Yao Qiying at Pingzemen, until April 13, when Li Zicheng went on an eastern expedition, on the fourteenth day he took the opportunity to leave the city and go south, and arrived home on May 16. The manuscript of the Chronicle of Jiashen is signed from the prologue "Jiashen Xia Wu (月) 缮部郎赵□□". Yang Shicong, a native of Jining, Shandong, Chongzhen Xinwei (1631), and the official Zuo Zhide, were detained at Li Jun's wang dunwu place from March 20 until Li Zicheng escaped from Beijing on April 30, and the Qing army left Beijing on May 15 and arrived home on August 12. The preface to the book "Koshin Nuclear True Strategy" is self-signed "Hongguang Ace Unitary (1645) May 5, inscribed on the Danghu Boat Ci". The authors of both books have been personally seen and heard in Beijing. However, those who deny that there is Li Yan and his people, they either distort or deny the accounts related to Li Yan. For example, regarding a key material of Li Yan recorded by Zhao Shijin, on March 20, the various officials submitted a joint text entitled "Li Yan and Guo Mou do not know their names and live in Zhou Kui's house", and Mr. Luan Xing, in order to echo Mr. Gu Cheng's point of view, said: "Whether the text here has been disturbed and how to break sentences is still a matter of consideration, and the legend of Li Yanju's Zhou Kui house was actually fabricated and disseminated by the "New Compilation and Suppression of Small History", and gradually it was picked up in the historical books." Another example is the situation of Li Guo's torture of stolen goods, Liu Shangyou's "Dingsi Xiaoji" and Yang Shicong's "Jiashen Nuclear True Strategy" have clear records, and Shen Jifang, the chief of the Ministry of Works, and fifty-three other people are "at the place of thieves in Dongcheng." Thieves and recluses, there are still a few people left after release, Ji Fang and Yan. Each gave a rope, and ordered himself to hang himself, which was different from Zong Min's place...". Mr. Luan Xing, on the other hand, attributed this ironclad fact to the "novelist's words" made up by Lu Yingyang's "History of The Tree". For example, when Li Zicheng invaded Wu Sangui in the east, Zhao Shijin's "Chronicle of Jiashen" clearly said: "On the thirteenth day, Li Zicheng went out of the Zhengyang Gate with the second king of the Eastern Palace... Liu Zongmin and others were all in the line, but Li Yan lived in the east city, and Niu Jinxing lived in the middle of the dynasty, thinking that it was a garrison. Yang Shicong's "Jiashen Nuclear True Strategy" also clearly said: "On the thirteenth day, Li Zicheng came out of the Zhengyang Gate with the second king of the Eastern Palace... Liu Zongmin and others all went along, leaving only the surname Li Pseudodu to oversee Judong and Niu Jinxing as a garrison. In order to deny that Li Yan stayed in Beijing, Mr. Luan Xing changed the original text in the "Jiashen Nuclear True Strategy" that "only the surname Li Pseudo-Du du and Niu Jinxing are jointly garrisoned" to "The Jiashen Nuclear True Strategy says that the Western Li DuDu is guarded with Niu Jinxing." Gu Cheng's "Li Yan Question" also says this: "The Jiashen Nuclear True Strategy says that the Western Li Du Governor and the Bull Venus live in the guard. The key word in the sentence "A surname of Li Pseudodu governor ju dong" was changed to "east" to "west". In addition, Gu Cheng also said that on April 13, Zhao Shijin left the city from Haidai Gate (present-day Chongwen Gate) and went south, so he heard about this account and "inevitably misrepresented it." This shows that there was indeed Li Yanqi in Beijing at that time. If there is no Li Yan and his people, why not misrepresent "Zhang Yan" and "Wang Yan"?

Third, about the suicide of Yi An after the apocalypse and the protection of Liu Lishun

According to the accounts of all parties after Li Zicheng entered Beijing, it is indeed an objective fact that Li Yan and his person cannot be denied. As a major general under Li Zicheng's subordinates, Li Yan was bound to have many important activities after entering Beijing, such as detaining Ming officials, recovering stolen goods, and cleaning up the Ming Palace. It is only natural that these activities are described by certain parties (such as those who are tortured) and by the outside world. For example, regarding the matter of the Apocalypse Yi'an and the escort Liu Lishun, it is said that when Li Zicheng entered the Great Interior, Li Yanyan found that a noble lady had not died after hanging herself, and asked the palace maid, knowing that it was the Apocalypse Yi'an, immediately carried out rescue and sent someone back to the mother's family, Taikang Bo Zhang Guoji's family, and it was the sunset that calmly went through the scriptures. Mingguan Right Counselor De Liu Lishun, a native of Qixian County, Henan. In the Ming Dynasty, Liu Lishun participated in the scientific examination ten times in a row, and finally won the first grade, so he was quite well-known in his hometown, and the official Right Counselor was also the lecturer of the Eastern Palace. Li Zicheng entered Beijing and the Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself, some Ming officials also died of martyrdom after learning of this, and Liu Lishun did his whole family. Earlier, there were Henan soldiers in the peasant army, saying that they were ordered by General Li to go to Liu Zhao's guard, but after arriving at Liu Zhao, the door was dead, and Liu Lishun's wife and concubines and four servants all died, and those who came were shocked and wept and prayed.

After the Apocalypse Yi'an, see Gong Dingxiao's "Records of the Difficulty of the Holy Queen", and Liu Lishun's "Biography of Tianwen Ge Ji Jia Shen Tingchen", both of which are recorded in the "History of Ming". The original story of this matter was identified in detail by our people in "Li Yan's New Examination of Beijing History", which will not be repeated here. However, Mr. Gu Cheng said that Li Yan's so-called "righteous deeds" were nothing but a matter of fact, and that the literati of the landlord class had fabricated it in order to elevate the intellectuals from the landlord class and to vilify the peasants' army, and that it was untenable to sneak into the historical records from the "Suppression of a Small History." In the feudal era, people were very nostalgic. After the Apocalypse, she was a Xiangfu of Henan, the Emperor of the Apocalypse was dead, and although she was an empress, she was actually a widow. Liu Lishun became a champion after ten meetings, which was a great honor in his hometown, and the official Zhide was a clean post, Li Yan was born an intellectual, received a traditional Confucian education, knew how to respect knowledge, and loved the importance of the township, and it was natural to use his status in Li Jun to take care of these people.

Mr. Gu Cheng also said that in these records at that time, no one had personally seen Li Yan, nor had anyone else come into contact with Li Yan, so these records about Li Yan were unreliable, and this judgment was also wrong. After Li Zicheng entered Beijing on March 19, on the 21st, he released the criminal ministers who were imprisoned by the Ming Dynasty, including The former Shangshu Hou Ke of the Bingbu Department, Zhang Ruoqi of the Bingbu Langzhong, Yang Zhiqi of the Bing Ke, Dong Xinkui of the Dusi Wujin, and Wang Chengzeng, the former prefect of Xiangyang. Regarding the situation of Liu Zongmin, Li Yan, Li Guo, and others when Li Zicheng was in Beijing, There is an important record in Wang Chengzeng's "Record of the Survival of the Bitter Sea" recorded by Gu Danwu:

Wang Cheng of Xiayi, Henan, once guarded Xiangyang with a jinshi, and the city was imprisoned. Jia Shen returned to his hometown in June, and the people who tasted the language said: Reading for half a lifetime, wandering here, shy and live, failing to live up to seven feet, and insulting the ear of reading. How dare you repeat the world's affairs? Thinking back to the past in Chang'an, when I first got out of prison, I couldn't die and couldn't escape, and I bowed my head and knelt outside the Heavenly Gate every day. Officials are small and weak, and they cannot be persuaded to advance first. The name cannot be called, the salary cannot be tortured, and even the self-reliance is also self-sufficient. Stumbling back, who knows a nightmare? It is good to be careful, because the witnesses of the incident are recounted in order to pass on the letter. Koshin's diary of July 7.

At the beginning of Li Zicheng's usurpation of Xi'an, according to the Qin Dynasty, a bureaucrat was set up, and he called himself the Grand Marshal of Fengtian Initiative. General of the sub-power, general of the sub-system, general of the sub-Guoyi, general of the sub-mighty. The lieutenant was in charge of the brigade headquarters. The generals Tian Jianxiu and Liu Zongmin, the generals Li Yan, He Jin, Yuan Zongdi, Li Guo, Liu Fangliang, Liu Xiyao... Jia Shen Zhengyue falsely called Da Shun, and the usurpation of Yongchang... On March 19, the capital city was destroyed, and on the twenty-second day, the false TianyouGe Niu Venus was presented, ordered hundreds of officials to register, and delivered the next day, a total of more than 800 people. Li Thief sits, and the thieves are seated left and right. ...... The bull Venus was examined, and the user sent it to the government. The next day, the test will be re-examined, and the list will be released in the afternoon. There are ninety-two in total, more than 100 in the second list, and more than 100 in the third list. The fourth list of fifty places, supplementing the pastors of various provinces and states. ...... Those who fail to pass the examination of more than three products shall be severely punished to recover the stolen goods and pay them. On the twenty-fourth day, he beheaded more than 200 members of Wenwu. Secondly, Liu Zongmin and Li Guo were sent to Ban Zhongji Camp and wait for punishment. Liu Zongmin's jurisdiction was released privately or released at a bribe. Fifty-two people in Li Guo's custody, day by day, plundering, asking for bribes, or clamping the abdomen or the brain or the knee, are miserable and cruel. Over the left eye, young and murderous. Liu Zongmin, Song Xiance, and Li □ persuaded them to release them, but they did not follow... And when the thieves were defeated, Li Guo used his feet to beat each member of the abdomen three times and put him to death. There were the principals Peng Zhen and Shen Jifang, and the Governor of Changping, Jin Zhijun, who died and recovered. Woohoo! Dead, wait for the ear. The victims are honored, and the dead thieves are humiliated. Yu is not born or die, and there is no honor or disgrace. However, death is more than ashamed, and the eyes cannot be blinded. What else is there to say?

Wang Chengzeng, a native of Xiayi, Henan, chongzhen seven years of jinshi, successive officials Nanjing household department chief, Shuntianfu Zhaomo, household staff outside, Huguang Xiangyang prefect. His man, The Young Boy QiYi, indulged in wine and fishing, Chongzhen thirteen years zuo Liangyu Agate Mountain, captured Zhang Xianzhong's wife concubineSao Shi, Gao Shi and his military master Pan Duao, imprisoned in Xiangyang Prison, Wang Xianxian wife Beauty deliberately relaxed his defenses, Chongzhen fourteen years in February, Zhang Xianzhong attacked Xiangyang, sacrificed his wife and Pan Duao and other broken weapons, Wang Cheng once broke through the siege and fled, was questioned by the Ming court, sent to prison, Li Zicheng was released after entering Beijing, he claimed to be "bowing his head every day to the outside of the Heavenly Gate", hoping to be chosen by Li Zicheng. Therefore, his knowledge was naturally much more extensive than that of the Ming officials who were detained in Liu and Li's camps, and he clearly recorded that Among Li Zicheng's generals were "the generals Tian Mixiu and Liu Zongmin, and the generals Li Yan and He Jin" and so on. Li Guo was extremely cruel to the Ming officials for torturing the stolen goods, "Liu Zongmin, Song Xiance, and Li □ persuaded him to release him, but did not follow." This "Li □" is a word off, according to the previous text should also be Li Yan. This is the self-report of a "witness" of Li Zicheng's situation in Beijing, written on July 7 in Jiashen. Regarding This confessional account of Wang Chengzeng, Zheng Lian also mentioned it in the "Chronicle of Yu Change", when he criticized some people for stealing their own lives, making a hundred plans, and cheating the world and stealing names: "It is good to be good to the self-dao of Wang Jie'an of XiaYi. Wang Jie'an was named Chengzeng, and he guarded Xiangyang with a jinshi, and the city was broken into a prison, and after Jia Shen returned to the house, he tasted the closed house and could not get to the guests. ...... If the criminal officer is allowed to be convicted of a reverse conviction, he may be exempted from discussion. "Wang Cheng had been stranded in Beijing for more than thirty days, kneeling outside the Chengtian Gate every day, looking up at Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance, etc., hoping to be selected, it is difficult to say that he did not see Li Yan, in June he returned to Xiayi, Henan, at least he was sure that Li Zicheng had a Li Yan in the army, and came to Beijing, which should be no doubt. I'm afraid it has nothing to do with "A Short History of Breaking In".

IV. About the "Little History of Breaking In"

Adhering to the logic of argumentation without Li Yan and his people, first, the "Chronicle of Qixian County" that we said at the beginning did not have Li Yan and his people, so whenever we encountered accounts about Li Yan, we tried our best to distort them so as to facilitate the conclusion that there was no Li Yan and his people; second, what could not be distorted was predetermined to be created from "the reactionary novel "A Small History of Cracking Down", and sneaked into various historical books. First of all, the "Small History of Cracking Down" was characterized as "reactionary", it was a "novel" that was a story, not a fact, so all the charges were imposed on the head of "Small History of Breaking In". So let's look at the situation of "A Short History of Breaking In".

The book "A Short History of Cracking Down" begins with Li Yan's participation in Li Zicheng's rebellion, then recounts Li Zicheng's entry into Beijing to torture and pursue stolen goods, and Wu Sangui's xingbing defeat of Li Zicheng, and finally to the court of Nanming Hongguang in September of Jiashen and the regulations for the punishment of The Ming officials in Beijing to demote Li Liu and other punishments. According to the "Holy Ann BenJi", in September, "the three Dharma Divisions were determined to be from the sixth and sixth regulations". September is September 14. The last page of the tenth volume of the book is attached to the "Chen Qian of the Punishment Department Agreed to Be from the Sixth Grade of The Contrarian Affair", the author of the book was a southerner, written in September, and spread to the north at least after October or the following year, before Yang Shicong, Zhao Shijin, Chen Jisheng, Xu Yingfen and others were quoted to describe the current affairs in Beijing, all in Jiashen May, and how could the stories made up in October sneak into the events recorded in May? In order to cover up this hypothesis of their own, the commentators generally said that "the "Small History of Cracking Down" came out earlier... The book was written no later than the Qing army occupied Nanjing in May of the second year of Shunzhi (1645), less than a year after Li Zicheng's rebel army retreated from Beijing" and "Soon after the "Little History" came out, the plot about Li Yan began to infiltrate historical works through various channels." Based on this, we cannot conclude that the facts about Li Yan and his people were fabricated and infiltrated into the historical records after being fabricated by the "Little History of Cracking Down." On the contrary, we can see from the facts that the account of Li Yan in the "Little History of Breaking Into The Invasion" was written by Li Zicheng from March to the end of April, and the rumors about Li Yan's historical events were slightly exaggerated and deduced. "The Small History of Cracking Down" is also known as "The Small History of The Breaking of the Dragon", with six volumes, and there is a "Xuan lan tang series" book. In the present print of Yang Shicong's "Jiashen Nuclear True Strategy (Outer Two Kinds)", the "Small History of Li Chuang" consists of 10 volumes, the first 5 volumes are signed "Western Wu Lazy Dao Population Teaching", and the last 5 volumes are signed "Runzhou Hulu Daoist Avoidance Pen". The author prefaces the book: "Yu Jiexia Half Moon Spring Jingshe, when the lazy Daoist came down from Wu, dictated this matter in great detail, because of the incident of the Pingxi suppression of thieves, it was very pleasant, and the boy was ordered to give a record." "The last signature" Western Wu Ninety Weng Wu Jing Clan Inscription in the Half Moon Spring of Yunxi". It is said that he recorded this book by listening to the lazy people's accounts. Regarding the lazy man, the fourth volume of this book briefly describes his affairs, saying that there is a person in the Guanwang Temple in Dongzhimen, Beijing, who does not say his name, but this person is good at seeing people's popularity, and can predict auspiciousness, and everything is tested. Jinyi Wei Zhang, a native of Chengdu, Sichuan, invited Daoists to drink alcohol and talk about self-cultivation and cultivation. In the middle of February, the capital was not yet under martial law, the Daoists advised Zhang to abandon the officials and return home, Zhang did not listen, and Wen Changping mutinied, the Daoists advised him to move south to his family, Zhang hesitated, and the city was broken, Zhang Shiyi asked questions, the Daoist people knew, did not listen to the preface, and now can not do anything. Zhang Returned urgently, Li Bing had already taken his residence, and a few days later, Tongzhu Wu was beheaded in the city. "Ming Ji Beiluo" Volume 22 "Lazy Daoist Good Look at Temperament", the text is slightly the same, and the Zhishu Jinyi Wei Zhang command is Zhang Tongfang, which shows that lazy Daoist people do have their own people. He saw that the Ming Dynasty had run out of qi and was bound to perish, so he predicted it. It can be seen from this that the "Small History of Cracking Down" was written based on the people in Beijing at that time, such as the lazy people, who told their own observations to the "Western Wu Ninety Weng Wu Jing Clan" after returning to the south. In addition to the situation after the self-made entry into Beijing at that time, this book also describes the situation in Nandu at that time.

One of the characteristics of this book, on the one hand, is that it narrates the facts, on the other hand, it is sandwiched between the narratives, and it records many historical materials on the tang newspaper, the case and the literary transfer, which cannot be completely regarded as the novel's intentional fabrication of the story. For example, in the second volume, "Redefining the Surname of the Deceased Subjects", the third volume is a record of the martyrdom of the deceased Mingchen, the fourth volume is a record of the surrender of Li Zichengmingguan, and the sixth volume records wu Sangui's earliest publication of a message to li Zicheng before asking the Qing soldiers: "Pingxi Bowu, the chief military officer of the local regiment training in Qincha Town, Shou liaodong and other places, seeks thieves for the rejuvenation of the army, and overcomes shenjing for the affairs of Emperor Anzong." The fifth volume, about the torture of Ming officials by Li Zicheng, and the seventh volume, "The Golden Altar heyi Zhusheng Gong Gong Surrendered to the Thieves", are all real events that happened at that time, and were not made up by the author. For example, in the second volume, it is recorded that when Li Zicheng entered Beijing on March 19: "The thief Leader Li Zicheng, who was seven years old Chinese New Year's Eve, shot blind in his left eye, entered the Forbidden City from daming gate, and his party consisted of dozens of people, all of whom were in a state of disapproval, such as the quan generals Liu Zongmin, Ma Dai, Gu Dacheng, Li Yan, Li Mu, Niu Jinxing, Bai Guang'en, Zu Guangxian, Guan Fumin, Liang Fu, Jiang Ou, Yu Li, He, Tian, Guo, Ge, and Wang Zhu, all of whom recruited children and prostitutes in the city and cheered wildly. The fourth volume records: "Tianfu is the residence of the former yingquan general Liu Zongmin, the Zhou mansion is the residence of the general Li Yan of the middle camp system, and there are also generals Hong and Yi, all of whom are honored with honor." "The thieves and generals, all of whom led their troops to run amok in Beijing, were brutally abused, but the two brothers, Li Yan and Li Mu, the general of Hong, were not happy, and there were three thousand soldiers and horses under them, and they only took thirty or forty of their families to follow, and they did not cause trouble outside." This adds to the lack of other records that Li Yan entered Beijing with Liu Zongmin, Gu Dacheng, Li Mou, Niu Jinxing, Zu Guangxian, and other cadres. Liu Zongmin lived in Tianfu, Li Yanju in Zhoufu, and Li Mou did have his own people, and he was also an important general in Li's army (General Hong).

Secondly, in the fifth volume, there are four things about Li Yan's advice to Li Zicheng. On the ninth day of the first month of April, the general Li Yan wrote four things: First, to sweep away the six officials, ask the lord to retire to the public factory, and then discuss the enthronement ceremony; second, the civilian officials should pursue the stolen goods, except for those who are dead and surrendered, it is advisable to divide them into three grades: those who are greedy and famous, the criminal officers are strictly chased, and they are all engaged in official production; they are honest and exempted from punishment, and they are allowed to pay their own salaries; third, the soldiers and horses of each battalion are still ordered to retire to the outside of the city to guard the village and listen to the dispatch of the expedition; fourth, for Wu Sangui, the lord does not have to build a division, but he sends officials to appease them, allows them to be crowned marquises, and still appoints the prince as a big country. Li Zicheng unexpectedly and triumphantly entered Beijing, the Chongzhen Emperor was dead, and the Ming officials surrendered one after another, thinking that the general situation in the world had been decided, and they very much wanted to claim the emperor's throne in the scenery and scenery of Beijing, in order to order the world, but Wu Sangui had already expressed his surrender, suddenly changed his mind, rebelled against Shanhaiguan, issued a letter of condemnation, and disrupted his plan, which was very disappointing. Li Yan's four suggestions were to the point at that time, and those who were not in the situation could not put forward them. "Thieves see evil and stop criticizing the three words 'knowing', but the pawn can't do it." As a result, on April 22, Shanhaiguan was defeated, he fled from Beijing on April 30, and then lost to the lower bank of the Qingshui River in Dingzhou on May 3, Gu Dacheng was killed, Zu Guang was wounded first, and he was defeated by Zhending on May 5. Li Zicheng suddenly fell from the peak of victory, which laid the foundation for Li Yan's killing, because Li Yan had pointed out his wrong behavior beforehand. According to Bian Dashou's "Records of the Rest of the Life of Hukou", which described the situation after the defeat of Li Zicheng Zhending: "On the fifth day of the next day... Out of the city, I saw the thieves from north to south, covered in dust, but all the old and young were jagged, and they were all in a mess. Among the ten thieves, there are three or four generations of women, and there is no discipline at all... The next day, when the pass was fixed, the thief was killed, and the deceased was entrusted, and the people under the cloud passed to plug the well, and the thief who did not carry a bow and arrow cut off his left hand, and the blood and flesh dripped, and the misery was unspeakable. Soon Li Yan and Li Mu were killed by Li Zicheng, and since then, in Li Jun's activities, there has been no Li Yan or his people.

The tenth volume of the book recounts the reasons why Li Yan was killed, saying that after the defeat of Chengcheng Dingzhou, he escaped from Guguan, and when he heard that there had been a rebellion in Guide, Henan, Li Yan asked 20,000 troops to go forward to recover it, and Niu Jinxing took the opportunity to enter the rumor, saying that this was Li Yan taking the opportunity to "get out of the cage and go away for the cause of the lord of the struggle for hegemony." Li Zicheng believed his words, pretended to be a promise, and ordered the bull Venus to set up a feast for him, and killed him in the middle of the moment. As for how Li Yan was killed, this was a matter of internal conflict within the peasant army, and outsiders did not know more about it. This shows that before July and August of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the news of Li Yan's murder had spread to the south, and if there was really no Li Yan and his people, who could make up such a major event! Gu Cheng defended this in many ways, saying that after Li Zicheng withdrew from the defeat of Dingzhou in Beijing, there was still Yuan Zong's 100,000th army in Henan, and he used Li Yan to ask the army of 20,000 to go to quell the chaos, even if Niu Jinxing took the opportunity to enter the rebellion, "Spreading right and wrong, Li Zicheng could not believe it" and so on. Let's see how Li Zicheng was angry with Yuan Shizhong and Luo Rucai. In March of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, Yuan Shizhong and Luo Rucai jointly camped Li Zicheng, and Yuan was the vanguard everywhere, and when Li Zicheng attacked Kaifeng, he ordered Yuan to be the vanguard. Yuan discovered that Li had a plan and took the opportunity to lead his troops to escape, and in September Li Zicheng sent Bai Wang to pursue and kill Yuan Yu at the city of Qixian and his people. Li Zichengyuan and Luo Rucai became brothers, and Chongzhen was proclaimed the Grand Marshal of Fengtian In Xiangyang in the first month of the sixteenth year, he called himself the King of Fengtian, fearing that Luo Rucai would not obey the order, and in April he falsely called Luo Rucai Tongzuo (Liangyu), set up a banquet and business, took advantage of his drunkenness, killed Luo, and afterwards he mourned and mourned for it. Volume 10 of the "Little History of Cracking Down" describes that Li Zicheng killed Li Yan in the same way as luo Rucai, and that he must try to eliminate all those who have two suspicions of disloyalty. We need not think that he is the so-called leader of the peasant army, but must be a hero with a broad heart and sincerity. Most of the peasant uprisings in the past were oppressed by the government because of hunger and cold at the beginning, and they took risks to gather the masses to revolt, but when their forces developed strongly, in order to compete for the boss, they would fire each other and kill each other, and the same was true of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, and we do not have to hide it.

5. Li Gongzi is Li Yan, not Li Zicheng

The third line of defense set by those who deny that Li Yan has his own people is: All the legends about Li Gongzi, Li Gongzi is not Li Yan but Li Zicheng. So let's look at the specific accounts of each side. Zhao Shijin's "Jiashen Chronicle, Appendix, Tang Bao":

Zhang Shiheng, a hygienist in Liaodong Haizhou, reported that... On the nineteenth day, the thieves and soldiers went to the mountains and seas, ten miles away from the city, and also set up camp at the Red Flower Shop. The chief soldier Wu Sangui went out of the city to lure the thief into disguise, ordered the ambush soldiers to be in the red flower shop ten miles outside the city, and fought a big battle with the thieves, Wu Sangui won the victory, the thieves were defeated, and the general Wu Jun was beheaded. Wu Sangui led his men and horses to chase after the thieves... The thieves were defeated and still returned to Beijing. The thieves set fire to all the boxes outside Beijing and brought in the military and civilians outside the city. The chief soldier Wu Sangui divided his troops into three routes and chased the thieves to Camp at Gaobeidian in Tongzhou. Shi Heng was desolate because of his soldiers and horses, and he was anxious to go south... Copying from the seaside to the south, stopping at the town of Li Cun in Tianjin's Nanda Nigu, he temporarily stayed in the town of Li Cun, so that he could travel south, and on April 28, when he encountered Li Gongzi, the general soldier under the thief, led the thieves to drive the General Jin army to the north of Li Village, because the officers and men of the Jin General Army returned to the south, Li Gongzi chased more than ten miles, killed the officers and soldiers, and Li Gongzi collected the troops and went to Li Village to camp for one night. On the twenty-ninth day, Li Gongzi led his troops back to Tianjin, and the gates of Tianjin were closed, and Li Gongzi was not allowed to enter the city, and the people inside shot Li Gongzi with cannons, and Li Gongzi led the soldiers and horses to Beijing at night.

This is a true report about Li Zicheng's great defeat at the Battle of Shanhaiguan. This Haizhou hygienist was supposed to have returned to Guannei with Wu Sangui when he withdrew his troops from Liaodong, so he knew very well about the Battle of Shanhaiguan. At this time, Li Zicheng fled back to Beijing, and the student traveled south to Tianjin Nanda Nigu, where he encountered Li Gongzi chasing after The Jin general soldiers in Tianjin. According to Tianjin Nanda Nigu in today's Jinnan more than twenty miles north of the small South River, this record can be proved to be true. This Jin commander-in-chief was Jin Bin, li Zicheng's deputy general who surrendered to Li Zicheng after entering Beijing, along with Yuan Yuzong, the former deputy envoy of Tianjin's military reserves. Yuan Yuzong, a native of Pucheng, Shaanxi, whose mother was obtained by Li Jun, as a hostage, had secretly surrendered, on March 19 Li Zicheng entered Beijing, and on the twentieth the news reached Tianjin, and yuan Yuzong sent people to Beijing to pay money, and the general cao Youyi did not comply, and led five hundred ya soldiers to cut out, Yuan Yuzong led the troops to intercept it, and Cao Youyi rode out alone. On the twenty-first day, Yuan Yuzong and his deputy commander Jin Bin and general Lou Guangxian surrendered the city. On April 22, in the Battle of Shanhaiguan, Li Zicheng was defeated and fled back to Beijing, and those who had originally surrendered rebelled against the water, and Tianjin was the first place to oppose the water, so when the Li Gongzi who chased Jin Bin back to the city on the twenty-eighth day, the tianjin city gates were closed and they were not allowed to enter the city, and on the twenty-ninth day they hurried back to Beijing. As for whether this Li Gongzi is Li Yan or not, let's not talk about it for the time being, but this Li Gongzi does have his own person, and it is definitely not Li Zicheng, because Li Zicheng was in Beijing at this time. In this regard, Mr. Gu Cheng said: "For example, the statement of Li Gongzi, the chief soldier under the thief, does not conform to Li Zicheng's military system, the Dashun Army does not have the post of chief soldier, and the popular Li Gongzi generally refers to Li Zicheng, and the statement of The Jin General Soldier in Tianjin is also wrong, and Li Gongzi's pursuit of the Tianjin Jin General Soldier is a misinformation that Yuan Yuzong invited him to join the army. This is a misinterpretation, this Tang Bao is according to the Ming Dynasty's custom to call the general who leads the army the general, where will he examine Li Zicheng's military system in detail? Cao Youyi led his troops out of the pass, yuan Yuzong invited him with soldiers, around March 20, while Li Gongzi chased after Jin Zongbing on April 28, a month apart, how could it be a misinformation? Long before Li Zicheng entered Beijing, due to the long distance between mountains and rivers, there were people who misrepresented Li Zicheng as Li Gongzi, but after Li Zicheng entered Beijing, it was no longer possible for anyone to mistake Li Zicheng for Li Gongzi. Liu Shangyou's "Dingsi Xiaoji" in Beijing at the time said that in January of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, there was indeed a rumor of Li Gongzi in the folk, "The foolish people rejoiced in the misfortune, and they all said that Li Gongzi was to the end, and the poor people gave silver five or two, often as they hoped for." Gaidu people are very mixed, Mo Ke audited, even the vegetable maid bartender, are all thieves, so it is particularly difficult to distinguish the clouds." It is said that this kind of rumor was spread by Li Jun secretly sending people to infiltrate Beijing, and the common people could not distinguish it.

The first volume of this book, "Li Gongzi's People Change Their Righteousness, Breaking Through the Heavenly Soldiers and Claiming the Title of King", clearly states that Li Gongzi is Li Yan, a native of Qixian County, Kaifeng Province, Henan Province; Li Zicheng is nicknamed Li Yan, a native of Mizhi County, Yan'an Province, Shaanxi Province, and Li Gongzi and Li Zicheng are two people with different names and places of origin. It is said that Li Yan was kind and righteous, and because he sacrificed his wealth to help the hungry people, he angered the county officials; after he was imprisoned, he was rescued by the people, had nowhere to hide, defected to Li Zicheng, taught Li Zicheng to respect the virtuous and ceremonial soldiers, forbade the mobs to sympathize with the people, needed to pretend to be benevolent and righteous, clean up the people's hearts, the soldiers went everywhere, opened the door to surrender, did not commit any crimes in autumn, and cut the money and grain in half. Those who used soldiers to send their confidants, disguised as merchants, spread the word everywhere: "Li Gongzi's benevolent and righteous teacher, who does not kill or plunder, also compiles slogans and teaches children to sing, and sings: 'Eat his mother, wear his mother, open the gate to welcome the king, and when the king comes, he will not pay grain.'" The foolish people believed that they were true, and every bitter person was harsh, and he longed for Li Gongzi to come early. Folk people think that Li Gongzi is the king of Chuang, but they do not know that he is also two. "This is attaching Li Yan's affairs to Li Zicheng's body, mistaking Li Gongzi for Li Chuangwang." Ji Liuqi, the editor of the Ming Dynasty Northern Sketch, is clear about this. He said: "When Yu was a child, he heard that the thief was anxious, and the Xianyun Li Gongzi was in chaos, but he did not know that Li Zicheng and Zicheng had entered the capital, and the world hesitated to be Li Gongzi, but did not know that Li Gongzi was Li Yanye. "The Ming Dynasty Northern Sketch was compiled in the tenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the editor was 50 years old, and his infancy should have been about 20 years old, that is, during the fourteenth and fifteenth years of Chongzhen, from which it can be proved that li Gongzi was Li Zicheng, who was li Zicheng's activities in Henan, Hubei, and shaanxi, far away from the capital and southern Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and after Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he knew that Li Gongzi was Li Yan and was the next general under Li Zicheng's subordinates.

Those who insist that Li Yan has no one, believe that the most authoritative proof is that after Li Zicheng withdrew from Beijing, the court of King Fu of Nanjing had been established, and the "Rumors of the Great Ming Army Rebellion" that was transmitted to Nagasaki in August said: "Li Zicheng, the great general of the peasant uprising, was originally from Yan'an Province, Shaanxi Province, and his grandfather had served as the shangshu of the military department." Li Li became a great general to attack most of shaanxi's cities, and then occupied all of Shaanxi and marched into Beijing." On June 3 of the following year, another "Rumors of the Great Ming Rebellion" from Nagasaki said: "According to the Tang people who came to the dynasty at that time... On March 19, the mutinous general Li Gongzi captured Beijing, and Chongzhen hanged himself. Based on this, Mr. Gu Cheng concluded that the article "all six references to Li Gongzi clearly and unmistakably refer to Li Zicheng, rather than to a member of Li Zicheng's generals", that is, Li Yan. In fact, the great general Li Zicheng mentioned here is to add the legendary Li Yan's deeds to Li Zicheng's body. At that time, the rumored "Li Gongzi", a native of Qixian County, Henan, was the son of Li Jingbai, the head of the Bing Headquarters, and Ding Jiao was a man. This also reflects another situation, after Li Yan joined the peasant army, because of his ideas and deeds, he had a great reputation in the outside world, and even overpowered Li Zicheng. Mr. Gu Cheng knew that at that time, it was well known that Li Zicheng was born as a pawn, worked in agriculture for generations, and after the uprising, he was first called a general and then a king, which was very clear in the ming dynasty officially and within the peasant army. Because the title of "Gongzi" generally refers to intellectuals from the families of officials and eunuchs or rich families, Li Zicheng, in the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, when he attacked Huangzhou, said that "the tenth generation of the base camp is a good farmer, a teacher of benevolence and righteousness, and a soldier who saves the people from water and fire", and it is impossible to be called "Gongzi". After Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he had contacts with junior officers of the peasant army, such as Zhao Shijin's "Chronicle of Jiashen", Yang Shicong's "Jiashen Nuclear True Strategy", and even Zheng Lian's "Chronicle of Yu Change" that denied li Yan in Qixian County, nor did there be any record of Li Zicheng being called Li Gongzi in the peasant army. Therefore, to say that Li Gongzi is Li Zicheng is only a misrepresentation of outsiders who do not know.

Mr. Gu Cheng also quoted Gu Yanwu's "Ming Ji Shi Ling" as quoting the "Miscellaneous Records of Youyang" Yun "the name of the thief zicheng, a Li Yan, a rice fat person", the late Ming Dynasty Cao Yingchang's "Mr. Shanggao Hui Xu Shuo" said of Li Zicheng when he said, "And heard his name changing Yan, in order to respond to the child's rhyme", and as in Peng Shiheng's "Zhongxing Kou Ce", "The so-called Li Gongzi, does he really have the degree of the ancient emperor's open-mindedness and heavenly teaching, and the divine martial general will be able to do it", believing that Li Gongzi refers to Li Zicheng, and Li Zicheng has changed his name to Li Yan, Li Yan, Yan, and Yan Tongyin, so Li Yan is Li Zicheng. The so-called "eighteen children are born with shangsheng" is a proverb made up by Song Xiance to flatter Li Zicheng, and "eighteen children" is the word "Li", predicting that those with the surname Li will win the world, and Li Zicheng will change his name to Yan, and adding a little bit and a horizontal line to "exchange" is a kind of rootless talk. Moreover, most of these accounts are misrepresentations of people who do not know the true feelings in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. It can be noted that Mr. Gu Cheng quoted That Li Zicheng was killed by the villager Cheng Jiubo in tongshan, Hubei Province, in the summer of the second year of Shunzhi, and the third record of the Cheng Family Genealogy was "To suppress the thief Li Yan niu under the ridge". Li Chuang is called Li Yan here, and Gu Cheng concludes that Li Yan, Li Yan, and Li Yan all refer to Li Zicheng, and that the real Henan man Li Yan does not exist. According to the common sense of pronunciation, Li Yan, Li Yan, Li Yan, Li Yan, Li Yan's yan belongs to the homophone mother, Li Zicheng's zicheng belongs to the vowel, no matter people speak, talk, listen, smell, write, the two are very different, it is impossible to confuse, misread Li Yan as Li Zicheng, Li Yan as Li Zicheng. The fundamental problem here is that the commentators have a fixed belief in advance that Li Yan has no one, so whenever they encounter accounts about Li Yan, they will use various confusing accounts from the outside world to explain them in order to conform to their own views. Why do people confuse Li Gongzi, Li Yan, and Li Zicheng in some places, because in the official areas of the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng's peasant army, whether it was Li Zicheng, Li Gongzi, or Li Yan, they were all regarded as the leaders of the rebellion of the "thieves" and would not strictly distinguish their names. Cheng Jiubo accidentally killed Li Zicheng (because he did not know that it was Li Zicheng in advance), and there are clear official records, but his family tree is still based on rumors at the time, recorded as Li Yan.

6. Li Yan's true place of origin and origin

From the above, there is no doubt that Li Yan really has someone. But what kind of local people he was, Wu Weiye's "Suikou Jiluo" and Ji Liuqi's "Ming Ji Beiluo" both said that he was a native of Qixian County, Henan, the son of Li Jingbai, the former Ming Bingbu Shangshu, and Ding Jiaoju. Gu Cheng and others have already discerned very clearly, Li Jingbai has no Li Yan and his son, and Li Jingbai is not a native of Qixian County. It is said that chongzhen was in a famine in Henan for thirteen years, and Li Yan was arrested and imprisoned by Song Zhi County for helping the poor, rescued by the red lady of the rope prostitute, and joined Li Zicheng's peasant army. In the thirteenth year of Cha Ka Chongzhen, there was no Song County Order in QiXian County, and there was no trace of the Red Lady Affair. These may have been mistaken by rumors and slipped into the history books.

Regarding Li Yan's specific origin and origin, two different theories have appeared in recent years, both of which are from genealogical searches. One is Li Xiaosheng's "Li Yanqiren from the Li Clan Genealogy of Qixian County", which says that there is a "Li Clan Genealogy" in Xizhai Township, Qixian County, Henan. The genealogy was first cultivated during the Ming Dynasty as Li Maochun, the eighth grandson of the Li clan, and continued in the fourteenth year of the Qianlong Dynasty as the thirteenth grandson li Weisan. Remembering that Li Zunshi, the ancestor of the Li clan, was originally from Laola Lane, Hongdong County, Xixi, Shanxi, and was ordered to move to Qi County, Henan Province, in the early Ming Dynasty, and lived in Qinglonggang, thirty miles north of the city. The eighth ancestor Li Jichun sent an envoy to Ryukyu in the forty-first year of Ming Jiajing, and successively served as an envoy to tongzheng. The ninth ancestor Li Laiqing was a guest of honor in the Ming Zhou Dynasty. In the fourteenth year of Qianlong, there were five gates. From the sixth to the twelfth, there were 11 jinshi, 5 taisheng, 5 juren, 48 Xiucai (i.e., itchy sheng, including zengsheng and miaosheng), and 2 wuju. Since the tenth, eleventh and twelfth dynasties, there have been more than thirty people who have "never", "fled" and "lost". Among them were Li Yan, whose father Li Dengyun, and Li Mu, whose father Li Yongjue. Is this Li Yan the same as Li Yan in the peasant rebel army at the end of the Ming Dynasty? Li Mu and Li Yan are cousins, is he Li Mu in the peasant army? No text description.

The other is the Tangcun "Li Family Tree" discovered by the County Zhi Office of Bo'ai County, Henan in 2004, which was revised by the 10th Li Yuanshan in the 55th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, and the preface states that the ancestor Li Qingjiang moved from Fenghuang Village, Hongdong County, Pingyang Province, Shanxi Province, to Tang Village in Huaiqing Province ,present-day Tang Village, Bo'ai County, Hanoi in the fourth year of Ming Hongwu (1371), and his brother Li Qinghe moved to LiWa Village. The fifth ancestor, Li Mingyuan, opened a feather arrow line in Huai Khanh Province (Hanoi) and engaged in the practice of martial arts. The sixth ancestor Li Congyu, Zhongzhi Gong, Huixian Teachings, Wen and Wu Gong. The seventh ancestor Li Zhengxiu (1616) entered the priesthood and held the posts of official to the rebbe of the ministry of foreign lang. Due to the large population, the Eighth Patriarch was divided into four courtyards: East, West, South and North. Li Chunmao of the Eighth Ancestral North Courtyard, born in the second year of Longqing (1568), read the "Four Books" and "Five Classics" in Jiyuan from his father Li Zhengde (庠生, in The Coal Mine in Jiyuan) in his early years, and after selecting Gongsheng, he entered the Taiji Palace of Qianzai Temple to practice the thirteen fists of Wuji Gong, engaged in boxing, and passed on his fists to Jin, Lu, Shaanxi, Zhejiang, and Huguang, with a great reputation. Maochun had four sons, Li Lun the Elder, Li Zhong, Third Li Jun, and Fourth Li Xin, or Li Yan. Li Lun, Zi Shan, Selected Gongsheng, Qinshui Teaching. Li Zhong, Zi Feng, pseudonym Da Liang, was born in the twenty-sixth year of the Wanli Calendar (1598), and was a student of Hanoi Province during the apocalypse. Li Xin (Chinese: 李信; pinyin: Lê hīn hīng ình, written in 34 years of the Wanli calendar, married chen and Kong, and studied with his father in Jiyuan in his early years. Later, he and his brother Li Zhong and Wenxian Chen Jiagou Cousin Chen Songting practiced boxing at the Three Holy Gates of Qianzai Temple, and created the "Thirteen Potentials of Taiji Health Preservation Gong". Helping his cousin Chen Shuting to pass the examination, the examiner was unfair, Li Zhong and Li Yan were uneven, resulting in the murder case to be stripped of their meritorious name, Li Yan took refuge in the family of his aunt in Qixian County, and in the third uncle Li Chunyuqi County, the grain and oil bank "main account silver" that is, managed the accounts, the grain bank went bankrupt, and then entered the Qianzai Temple to pass on the fist. The third uncle Chunyu Jingbai, the character Jingbai, married zhao and Tang, childless, with his cousin Chunmao's fourth son Li Xin as his heir, so Li Yan's heir father was called Li Jingbai. In the thirteenth year, Chongzhen and his brother Li Zhong were "lured into the thief camp" by his cousin Li Mu and joined Li Zicheng's army. His cousin Li Mu was a member of the Western Courtyard, a student of The Western Courtyard, who was both a scholar and a martial artist, and Chongzhen followed his father Li Ziqi to Shaanxi and Shanxi for seven years to pass on boxing and joinEd Li Zicheng's army. In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Li Xin and Li Mu were unjustly killed by thieves. Li Zhong immediately fled the camp and went to Zhejiang Li Junshu's Wutang to make a living by passing on his fists, and wrote "Thirteen Action Mind Methods" and "Action Heart Methods". Li Yansheng had a son, Yuan Bin, who died young. Li Yan was wrongfully killed by Li Zicheng and Chinese New Year's Eve jiu. His wife took Li Zhong's fourth son, Yuanshan, as his heir, and this family tree was cultivated by Yuanshan. Previously, in the 42nd year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Li Jiazhongjinshi was a jinshi. In the preface to the genealogy, Li Yuanshan specifically mentions that "the patriarch is strictly disciplined, that is, the ninth generation of the Ming Dynasty Wu Clan Gate Li Gong Zhen Zhong, Zhen Xin, Zhen Mou, Zhen Dong, and Zhen You, all lured into the thief, the number of conspirators, the ethnic sincere worship, avoid talking about the genealogy, do not spread the Yan", that is, to warn future generations, and to sacrifice to those who appear in their clan to join the "trespasser", but do not publicize it. From this we can see that Li Yan's family, the Ninth Dynasty produced two jinshi, and he was also a Gongsheng and a martial artist, not a weak scholar. In the war-torn years, people who practiced martial arts were the most likely to join the army because of their skills, so they were "lured" to join Li Chuang's army and become a general. If this material is reliable, then some of the accounts about Li Yan can be explained.

Li Yan's place of origin is a native of Bo'ai County, Huaiqing Province, Henan Province, but he also has a deep relationship with Qixian County; his heir, Li Chunyu, opened a grain and oil shop in Qixian County, and he was "the main account silver" in the grain and oil bank, which was actually the Shaodong family, because it was a grain bank, and it was a fierce year, so he made up disaster relief songs, so after he joined Li Zicheng's peasant army, he used the method of creating songs and ballads to carry out propaganda and played a great role. His father's name was Li Jingbai, and this information may have come from the peasant army, and the outside world did not know the bottom, so he zhang guan Li Dai and said that he was the son of Li Jingbai, the former military department Shangshu. Li Jingbai was originally an eunuch party, and when people despised hatred, li xin, who rebelled and joined the "thief", changed his name to Li Yan in order to conceal his identity. Originally it was a sentient being, but later it was misrepresented as a lifting person. The ones that can be noted are the fourth volume of the Liu Kou Zhi and the third volume of the Ping Kou Zhi: Chongzhen Thirteen Years "Ji Yan, son of Li Jingbai of the Bingbu Shangshu, formerly known as Li Xin, Zhu Shengye of Qixian County." ...... Yan ben hebei to break in, for the master, in order to plunder the starving people, Xian Haoyan for Li Gongzi, so that the thief is very beneficial. This record clearly states that Li Yan was a sentient being, not a person, and did not have the Red Lady incident described in the suikou jiluo books, and that he was from "Hebei to break in", which shows that the source of this record has another source. It is said that Li Yan defected to Li Zicheng from Huaiqing Province in Hebei Province, which is consistent with the records of the "Li Family Tree" of Bo'ai County. Huaiqing Province is in Hebei, while Qixian is in Henan, which is why both the Li Gongzi Discernment and Zheng Lian say that there is no Li Yanqi in Qixian County. This proves that Li Mou, who appears many times in the books of Ping Kou Zhi, Ming Ji BeiLuo, and Guo Yu, is indeed a person, and Li Yan is a cousin, and li Zicheng was killed by li Zicheng, which should be a fact. These relevant records all have certain sources, the specific circumstances are different, and there are misrepresentations, but it is by no means what Mr. Gu Cheng said that the landlord class deliberately fabricated an intellectual, Li Yan, who was born of the landlord class, out of hatred for the peasant army, in order to demean and vilify Li Zicheng, the leader of the peasant rebel army.

epilogue

To sum up, Li Yan does have his own person, and there is no problem. From the perspective of the history of peasant uprisings and peasant wars, Li Yan is only a case and has no special historical status. However, the article "Li Yan Questions" reflects an important tendency in the study of history in the 1950s and 1960s, that is, to take the class struggle as the program and divide right and wrong by class, and to elevate the peasant uprising and their leaders to an inappropriate position. They are rebels, and whatever they do or even certain atrocities are right and should be affirmed or even celebrated. Dynastic bureaucrats or intellectuals who are opposed to the rulers, whatever they do, are in the service of the rulers, are wrong and reactionary. According to this premise, all history is a fixed class contradiction, historical events that occur in different epochs and different objective circumstances have lost their personality and characteristics, we have learned nothing useful from history, correct behavior cannot be affirmed and carried forward, wrong behavior cannot be criticized and abandoned, and people seem to have to repeat the mistakes of their predecessors, even if they suffer major failures, there is no need to reflect. For example, Li Yan joined Li Zicheng's peasant army, and he put forward some very good propositions and played a very good role in the development of Li Zicheng's peasant army. However, after Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he did not obey Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin, Niu Jinxing, and others in their erroneous acts of brutally pursuing stolen goods, taking people's lives, and killing innocents indiscriminately. Just because he came from the so-called landlord class intellectuals, Mr. Gu Cheng asserted that all accounts of Li Yan were feudal literati of the landlord class, fabricated to belittle Li Zicheng, and put on a feudal reactionary literati hat for these narrators to negate Li Yan and justify Li Zicheng's erroneous behavior. This view and method of reversing right and wrong on the grounds of class origin is completely wrong, and it distorts the truth of history. On the basis of this lesson, we should also correct the chaos in historical research, return to the principle of upholding straight writing and seeking truth from facts, based on objective facts, and display both good and evil, and praise people without increasing their beauty, and destroying people without increasing their evil, so that we can learn real knowledge and wisdom from history.

Published in Wenshizhe, No. 5, 2020, the annotations, references, and English abstracts in the text can be found in Wenshizhe Magazine.