In 1627, emperor Zhu Youjian of the Apocalypse died, and his brother Zhu Youjian the Prince of Xin succeeded him as Emperor Chongzhen of Mingsizong.
At the beginning of Chongzhen's tenure, he made a bold move and wanted to revitalize the great ming.
Lu Chengyuan, chief of the Ministry of Works, and Qian Yuan, chief of the Military Department, played the impeachment of the eunuch Wei Zhongxian, and the content of the impeachment was to refer to Wei Zhongxian's treason and rebellion, and he discussed it on a par with Wang Mang and Dong Zhuo, and then told wei Zhongxian and the crimes of castration.
After all, Chongzhen was only seventeen years old, and he knew the sinister intentions of the Donglin Party civil officials, and during the reign of the Emperor Tianqi, he used the eunuch Wei Zhongxian clique to restrain the Donglin Party civilian officials group in order to achieve balances on power. However, Chongzhen did not know how to control the art, and even ordered the military department to demote Wei Zhongxian to the tomb of the Fengyang Shouxian Emperor.
Rebelling against Wei Zhongxian, stealing the state's handle, framing Zhongliang, and dying for his sins, Gu Congzhong lowered Fengyang lightly, did not think of punishing himself, and ordered Jinyi Wei to go and punish him. History of the Ming Dynasty: The Biography of Wei Zhongxian
Wei Zhongxian also received the news that Chongzhen wanted to get rid of himself, and if he fell into the hands of the Donglin Party, he would not die even worse, and simply hang himself.
After Wei Zhongxian's death, due to the dominance of the donglin party civil officials, chongzhen was obstructed from levying commercial taxes in the Jiangnan region, so that Chongzhen could not collect the commercial tax in the Jiangnan region, there was no way, the army had to have military salaries, but also had administrative funds, and in desperation, it planted unnecessary administrative institutions and levied agricultural taxes on the peasants.
Qi Zhen ordered the northwestern post political situation to be planted, and Li Zicheng was originally a pawn, and his monthly salary was only a few silver. Ben lived on a meager salary, lost his source of livelihood without a job, and was forced by life to pull up the banner of anti-Ming.
Coinciding with the great drought in the northwest, and the Xiaoice River period, it was cold and dry, the crops were not harvested, the land was dry and cracked and weathered, and the people were hungry and cold, they went out to dig up wild grass, tore wood bark to fill their hunger, and even ate dirt (Guanyin soil) and excreted badly, and they did not witness life and death. Local officials failed to provide disaster relief and relief to the victims without opening granaries, leaving them to fend for themselves, causing the northwestern land to be starved and devastated, followed by an outbreak of plague. Most of the people were infected with the plague, could not be cured, contracted and died of disease, there was no smell of chickens and dogs, and there was no one to live.
Gao Yingxiang pulled up the banner of anti-Ming, countless disaster victims joined the rebel army and strengthened the momentum of the team, and Li Zicheng also joined Gao Yingxiang's rebel army to resist the corrupt rule of Daming.
Yuan Chonghuan was a native of Dongguan, Guangdong, who was highly valued by the Emperor of the Apocalypse and led troops to guard Ningyuan. In the Battle of Ningyuan, a cannon wounded the Jin chief Nurhaci, who died. His son Emperor Taiji was bound to get rid of Yuan Chonghuan and avenge his father.
Mao Wenlong was the defender of Phi Dao and led the army to contain the Manchu Emperor Taiji in guerrilla warfare, which caused a headache for emperor Taiji.
In 1628, hou jin bell amin led an army of 80,000 to attack Korea, and Mao Wenlong led a large army to cut off the back road of Amin's army, leaving it with an enemy on its belly and back, giving it a heavy military blow. Mao Wenlong's series of military victories pinned down Houjin's forces and curbed Houjin's encroachment on the liaodong land.
However, Mao Wenlong smuggled and trafficked grain and materials, embezzled military salaries, opened horse markets without authorization, plundered merchant ships, and robbed people's women. The above crimes were enough to put Mao Wenlong to death, but Yuan Chonghuan, the governor of Jiliao, was angry and directly killed Mao Wenlong with the Shang Fang sword on Pi Dao without interrogation.
The consequences of Yuan Chonghuan's beheading of Mao Wenlong were very serious, which caused Mao Wenlong's subordinates to be disturbed, resulting in Kong Youde, Shang Kexi, and Geng Zhongming's mutiny rebellion in Dengzhou, and later defected to the Manchu Qing Emperor Taiju, making him like a tiger.
Qi zhen was very dissatisfied with Yuan Chonghuan's unauthorized execution of Mao Wenlong, but there was nothing he could do. Although Yuan Chonghuan was angry and angry, he overstepped his authority to kill Mao Wenlong, causing dissatisfaction among the civil and military officials, but he was loyal to Daming, but he lacked political wisdom and laid the groundwork for his subsequent death.
Emperor Taiji hated Yuan Chonghuan to the bone and wanted to remove the nail in his eye, so he decided to implement the strategy of moving the tiger away from the mountain and killing people with a knife to avoid future troubles.
In 1629, Emperor Taiji led a 100,000-strong army to detour through Inner Mongolia, crossed the Xifeng Pass to attack the Great Wall, and the rear troops divided into three roads, entered the Hebei region, besieged Zunhua, and the unguarded city of Beijing was directly exposed to the Houjin cavalry, Yuan Qihuan got the news, and led Guanning Iron horseback back to Beijing to save the car, but Huang Taiji was a false soldier and led the Houjin army to attack the city of Beijing.
Chongzhen was stunned and hurriedly dispatched soldiers and horses into Beijing to escort the driver, but Yuan Chonghuan could not imagine that the Emperor Taihui was in danger, and the escort was earnest, and he personally led nine thousand Guanning cavalry to the Beijing Division to rescue the driver, but Yuan Chonghuan actually forgot that the Ming Dynasty ancestor system "non-Janissaries are not allowed to enter Beijing."
Yuan Chonghuan fought fiercely with the Houjin soldiers at the Guangqu Gate of the Beijing city, repelling the Jin soldiers after the siege, and The Emperor Taiji led the army and retreated, retreating to the outskirts of Beijing to burn and loot, but Yuan Chonghuan did not lead the army to pursue, and most of the officials of the imperial court had pastoral industries on the outskirts of Beijing, and let the Houjin soldiers plunder and suffer heavy losses. The officials in the court were furious and put the blame on Yuan Chonghuan.
Seeing that the time had come, Emperor Taiji implemented the so-called counter-plan:
"I will set up an intermediary in the Great Qing Dynasty, saying that Chonghuan has made a covenant, so that the eunuchs who have been received know about it, and the yin will go away, and his people will rush to the emperor, and the emperor will believe it, and in December Shuo will summon the right one again, and he will be imprisoned one by one." History of the Ming Dynasty: The Biography of Yuan Chonghuan
Emperor Taiji put the captured eunuch's secret secret letter back in the palace, and Zhen zhen was greatly annoyed by this letter, and Yuan Chonghuan fornicated with Hou Jin, collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country, which was actually a traitor.
The Ming general Man Gui was injured by a random arrow from Hou Jinbing at Guangqu Gate, and the arrow pulled out turned out to be the feather arrow of Yuan Chonghuan's Ming army, which made Chongzhen even more convinced that Yuan Chonghuan was in cahoots with the Later Jin Emperor Taiji.
The first assistant Wen Tiren fanned the flames in front of Chongzhen, and Chongzhen counted Yuan Chonghuan's guilt:
Conspiracy to rebel, use the city to steal money, use the money to behead the marshal, let the enemy drive for a long time, the army does not fight, and when they go to the city, the reinforcements are dispersed, and they insist on entering the city. History of the Ming Dynasty: The Biography of Yuan Chonghuan
At this time, Yuan Qihuan did not know it, and everything was in the dark. Chongzhen summoned Yuan Chonghuan to enter the palace on the pretext of discussing military salaries, and as soon as Yuan Chonghuan entered the palace, he was captured by Jinyi Wei. Chongzhen counted Yuan Chonghuan's crimes and threw him into prison, with Man Gui holding the post.
Yuan Chonghuan's Guanning army was hungry outside the capital, the commander was arrested and imprisoned, the army rescued, and could not get the treaty army, and the general Zu Dashou led the Guanning army to withdraw from Shanhaiguan.
Emperor Taiji saw that the plan had succeeded, and once again led his army to attack the capital, and fought with the Ming army at Yongding Gate, without Yuan Chonghuan's command, the Ming army was defeated, the Emperor Taiji army once again approached the city, Chongzhen was very flustered, and once again begged Yuan Chonghuan to send a letter, and when Daming was in the midst of life and death, Yuan Chonghuan put his personal grievances aside, and sent a letter to his subordinate Zu Dashou, asking him to give up his children's affection, put state affairs first, and send an army to fight against the Houjin soldiers.
Zu Taishou was deeply moved after reading the letter, and sent troops to rescue the car, at this time, the army of the King of Qin in various places had arrived, and the hero Qin Liangyu and Zu Dashou fought jointly, leading the Ming army to kill the Jin soldiers on horseback, and suffered heavy casualties. Emperor Taiji hurriedly withdrew his army back to the division, Zu Dashou and Qin Liangyu took advantage of the victory to pursue, killing countless Jin soldiers, and the defense of the capital ended with the victory of the Ming army.
During the six months that Yuan Chonghuan was imprisoned, guanwai generals and ordinary people all went to patrol Sun Chengzong's official Ya to beat drums for Yuan Chonghuan, but Sun Chengzong was powerless. In front of Chongzhen, the first assistant Wen Tiren counted Yuan Chonghuan's guilt of collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country, endangering the stability of the Daming Society. Ling Zhi Chongzhen made up his mind to kill Yuan Chonghuan.
Chongzhen decided to put Yuan Chonghuan in his favor! He was appointed to the Punishment Department to wait for Lang Tu Guoding to go to the capital City to supervise the beheading.
On August 5 of chongzhen's third year, Yuan Chonghuan was escorted to Xishi, Beijing, and executed at the age of 46 for the inhumane "punishment" of Ling Chi.
The people of the capital do not know the truth, and they all think that Yuan Chonghuan is conspiring against him, and they hate him to the bone, and they compete to buy a piece of his flesh with a pair of silver, eat it, and scold him.
After Yuan Chonghuan was killed, he was abandoned in the city, and his subordinate She Yishi buried him in the Guangdong Yiyuan Garden inside the Guangqu Gate, and firmly believed that Yuan's overseers were innocent, and let his descendants guard the tomb for Yuan's tomb, so as to show the snow.
In 1644, in the first month of the year of Jiashen, Li Zicheng invaded Xi'an, renamed it Xijing, and established the Dashun regime. He then led a million-strong army to the east, with the goal of overthrowing the Ming Dynasty.
Since Li Chengxingbing, under the slogan of "building a high wall, accumulating grain in large quantities, slowly claiming the title of king, welcoming the king, and not paying grain," Li Zicheng has won the support of the broad masses of poor people, and the ranks have expanded rapidly.
In March of the year of Jiashen, Li Zicheng's army had reached the outskirts of Beijing, Chongzhen had already issued a holy decree to rescue the generals in the capital Qinwang, and Wu Sangui, the general of Shanhaiguan, and Zuo Liangyu in the south, were afraid of repeating Yuan Chonghuan's fate, and they did not move.
On the eve of Li Zicheng's attack on the capital, he sent Ming officials into the city to negotiate with Chongzhen, demanding that Chongzhen cut off the territory and reward him with a million taels of silver, and crown him the king of the northwest, according to historical records:
Li Zicheng demanded: "Divide the northwestern region and reward the army with millions, retreat to Henan, and be enfeoffed, willing to suppress the Qunkou within the Xiang court, especially to help suppress the Liao domain with strong troops, but not to obey the edict and the ear."
Chongzhen summoned all the ministers of civil and military affairs to discuss strategies against the enemy. But the Treasury of Daming was empty, and Chongzhen could not come up with so much money at once. Chongzhen asked the first assistant Wei Zaode, who was silent. He also asked his father-in-law Zhou Kui again, and Zhou Kui said that there was no money, and the whole court was dead and silent. Chongzhen saw that the ministers of culture and military affairs were speechless, so he had to retreat from the dynasty and make other plans. However, Chongzhen was a proud son of heaven, and would rather die than bow to Li Zicheng's great Shun army.
Li Zicheng could not wait for Chongzhen's information, so he ordered a large army to attack the capital, the two sides fought fiercely, the Dashun army attacked the gap in the city wall, the eunuch Cao Huachun opened the city gate, the Dashun army invaded the capital, Chongzhen heard that the army invaded the city, and urgently summoned the generals to rescue the car, but the news was like a mud cow into the sea, and the crowd did not see the future escort. Chongzhen realized that he had rebelled against his relatives and had become a lonely man.
In order to prevent her family from being humiliated, Chongzhen ordered Empress Zhou to hang herself, slashed the arm of Princess Taiping with her sword, causing her to faint on the ground, and ordered her to commit suicide by attaching a horse, Chongzhen also wielded a sword to hack several palace women to death, and ordered her sons Zhu Ciju and Zhu Cixiu to change into civilian clothes and be escorted out of the palace by eunuchs.
Chongzhen sighed and said, "All the ministers are mistakenly degenerate!"! In a panic, he and the eunuch Wang Cheng'en fled to Jingshan. Chongzhen had no face to see the face of his ancestors, and only thanked the world with one death. Before dying, he wrote a suicide note and hanged himself from a locust tree in the Jingshan Shouhuang Pavilion.
Chongzhen is self-absorbed, mean and unkind, and has a suspicious personality. After forcing Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting to die, He sent Hong Chengzuo to serve as the overseer of Jiliao to fight against the Manchu Emperor Taiji, and the blind commander of Qizhen, who did not understand military combat, ordered Hong Chengzu to go out of the city to fight against the Manchu Emperor Taiji, and was besieged and captured by the Manchu Qing army, so that Hong Chengzu rebelled against the enemy and plotted against the Manchu Qing.
After Li Zicheng entered the city of Beijing and buried Chongzhen in the grass, he should exempt the former civil and military officials, not disturb the people, and implement benevolent government. However, the actual responsibility is the opposite, Li Zicheng has been fighting for many years, the military salary is short, and in order to solve the military expenditure, he even took money on the spot.
Li Zicheng plundered the Treasury of Daming and obtained 170,000 taels of gold and 130,000 taels of silver. With so little money, how to solve the problem of military pay?
Li Zicheng's subordinates Niu Jinxing, Liu Zongmin, and Li Guo offered a plan: Those civil and military officials should have a family wealth, so why not implement the strategy of recovering stolen goods.
Early the next morning, the eunuch Cao Huachun offered 50,000 taels of silver. But none of the civil and military officials even offered silver or two. Liu Zongmin beat all these civil and military officials to prison and waited for them to fall.
Liu Zongmin put down his harsh words: "According to the size of the official position, donate silver to the Dashun imperial court, and those who hide the silver and do not hand it over will be punished with a big punishment." "
In order to amass wealth, Liu Zongmin did not hesitate to kill the Rich Daming officials, and the torture of digging out the eyes and cutting the intestines was all used; the Daming officials Li Guozhen, Chen Yan, Wei Zaode, and other officials were tortured to death because they had no money to donate; the poor students of the Daming Hanlin Academy were also tortured to death by Liu Zongmin because they had no money to donate. The soldiers of the DaShun Army ransacked the street shops, robbed the houses and robbed the women, and in an instant, the flesh and blood flew everywhere, and the city of Beijing had become a hell on earth.
If Li Zicheng had a trace of conscience, he should order liu Zongmin's illegal behavior to be stopped, so as not to lose the hearts of the people. The bad deeds of Li Zicheng's Dashun army have been regarded as bandits by the common people around the capital.
Liu Zongmin led an army to search and rob the private property of Daming officials, including the property of Chongzhen's father-in-law Zhou Kui of three million taels of silver, and also mocked Zhou Kui: "If you take out this money, your son-in-law Chongzhen will not die."
How many people's fat and people's cream did Li Zicheng loot in the capital, according to historical records:
A total of 70 million were plundered and lost, about three tenths of the ten xunqi, the eunuch temple, and two of the hundred officials and merchants. The first emperor reduced the food and withdrew, cloth and vegetables, copper and tin ware were all returned to the army and lost, and on the day of the destruction of the city, countless millions of gold were lost. Thieves who commit adultery and plunder are rich, and those who claim to gain it all have it, and those who know it hate it. History of the Ming Dynasty: A Biography of Li Zicheng
Li Zicheng squeezed 70 million taels of silver in the capital in just over 40 days, and it is no wonder that the officials and ordinary people in the capital hate Li Zicheng's Dashun army to the bone.
Liu Zongmin, who was disgusted with the beauty of Wu Sangui's concubine Chen Yuanyuan, personally led his troops into the Wu mansion, detained Wu Sangui's father Wu Xiang, robbed his beloved concubine Chen Yuanyuan, and beat all the wu family members into prison.
Wu Sangui originally wanted to lead Guan Ning's iron horse to return to Li Zicheng, but when he heard that his father's entire family had been captured, his concubines had been taken captive, and the country hated the family vendetta, Chong Guan became angry and became red. Wu Sangui never attached himself to Li Zicheng, regarding him as an enemy who did not share the heavens.
Li Zicheng decided to lead an army of 50,000 to conquer Wu Sangui, but in the Battle of Shanhaiguan Yishi, he was defeated by the combined forces of Manchu Dolgun and Wu Sangui, and fled into the wilderness.
Li Zicheng declared himself empress dowager in the capital and withdrew from the capital.
On May 2, 1644, the Manchu regent Dorgon led a large army into the capital and entered the Central Plains.
Li Zicheng's Dashun army was defeated by the Manchu Qing army and suffered a crushing defeat along the way, and eventually Li Zicheng was killed by local farmers at Jiugong Mountain.
The Manchu Qing fishermen gained profits, and the Daming Rivers and Mountains effortlessly picked up the world with their bare hands.