It is rumored on the Internet that in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the Chongzhen Emperor and Li Zicheng once had the possibility of peaceful coexistence, but the Chongzhen Emperor died to face and missed the opportunity. On this issue, we explain it in two points: First: whether it is possible for the Chongzhen Emperor to crown Li Zicheng as king; second: whether Li Zicheng will help Chongzhen put down the rebellion even if he becomes the king of the northwest.
First of all, let's talk about the first point: is it possible for the Chongzhen Emperor to crown Li Zi as king?
First of all, the conclusion: three words, impossible. According to some accounts on the Internet today, it is said that Li Zicheng sent a letter to the Chongzhen Emperor, hoping to get a title of "King of the Northwest" and then retire. However, the Chongzhen Emperor was stingy with the title, and did not agree with it, which eventually led to the destruction of the country. This is clearly perverse. According to the "History of Ming", when Li Zicheng's soldiers besieged the city of Beijing, the last few soldiers of the Ming Dynasty who could be mobilized had already followed Lu Xiangsheng and were wiped out by the peasant army. The remaining Ming forces, such as Zuo Liangyu's Chu army and Wu Sangui's Guan Ning army, did not come to the rescue, and the Ming soldiers stationed in Beijing had long been left. But even these soldiers gave up their resistance because they did not have food. At this time, Li Zicheng's advantage was already extremely obvious, and it was effortless to rush into the city of Beijing to change the dynasty. In this case, why did he have to retire just because of the title of a northwestern king and be willing to be a vassal? Aren't you afraid that the Chongzhen Emperor will slow down and continue to give him a "ten-sided net"? Therefore, Li Zicheng's claim that he was willing to retire is not credible at all.
Moreover, Li Zicheng had already seized the land of the northwest at that time, so what was the use of wanting a false name as a northwest king? Wouldn't it be superfluous for the Chongzhen Emperor to give him the Northwest Region?
The antique architecture tour area named "Li Zicheng Palace"
So, when Li Zicheng arrived in Beijing, was it possible that he had some negotiations? This is possible, but the condition is definitely not as simple as sealing the Northwest King, but it is more likely to ask the Chongzhen Emperor to abdicate! This detail is not recorded in the "History of Ming", let's take a look at the record in Tan Qian's "Guoyu": "The eunuch Wang Cheng'en was above the eunuch Wang Cheng'en, and he entered the Great Interior, and was called a thief, and the emperor could calculate himself." Shen Zhixiu, the Grand Superintendent of shouling, descended from Changping, and also entered the meeting, describing the thief language, please abdicate. On the fury. Please note the word "abdication", because these two words clearly show that Li Zicheng's negotiations are aimed at the throne, and of course the Chongzhen Emperor could not agree. And the status of the "Guo Yu" in the field of historiography is lofty, and this record should also be considered reliable.
In line with the principle of rigorous governance, the author looked for relevant historical materials and found that in a book called "Regeneration Chronicle", there is a similar record, but it is only: "Want to divide the world in the middle, and seek the great staff." That is to say, Li Zicheng was like a feudal official who controlled the land, nor was he a northwestern king. Although the author Chen Jisheng personally experienced the "Jiashen Revolution" of the Ming Dynasty, most of his records were hearsay, so that some people commented that "Gu Cangpao's rumors are not true." It can be seen that the account of this book is not credible.
From the above analysis, we can prove the conclusion just now: Li Zicheng did not ask the Chongzhen Emperor for the title of King of the Northwest, so it is not to mention that the Chongzhen Emperor did not give it.
The second point: Even if Li Zicheng became the king of the northwest, would he help the Chongzhen Emperor put down the rebellion?
The same conclusion is: impossible. The main rebel forces in the last years of the Ming Dynasty were two forces: Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. The foreign enemies were also two forces: the Mongols and the Houjin. If Li Zicheng really turned against him because he was crowned king, his target would definitely be the remaining three. With Li Zicheng's achievements as a peasant army, he basically did not have to think about fighting Mongolia and Houjin, and the only thing he could fight was Zhang Xianzhong. But beware, fighting a war costs money. Li Zicheng came all the way, the supply was basically by robbing the treasury and the rich households, if the Chongzhen Emperor really surrendered, it means that he became an official army, and it is impossible to continue to rob the treasury and the rich households. So what about military pay? Of course, it can only be withdrawn from the Chongzhen Emperor. But the problem is that Chongzhen has no money, and if he has money, he will not allow Li Zicheng to develop into a climate. Therefore, even if Li Zicheng was really willing to fight Zhang Xianzhong for the Chongzhen Emperor, the Chongzhen Emperor could not pay the military salary.
In fact, the Ming Dynasty tried to recruit Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong more than once, and zhang Xianzhong even more often than Li Zicheng. However, these security operations were carried out vigorously and ended sloppily. In fact, does the peasant army really love to fight? Everyone is not just filling their stomachs! If the imperial court can really solve their problem of food and clothing, they will naturally not rebel. Unfortunately, the imperial court had no money, neither silver nor grain, and in the end Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong could only continue to pull up the anti-flag.
In fact, in view of the comparison of the number of people at that time, the Chongzhen Emperor really wanted to make peace with one side, and the best target was Houjin, after all, the population of Houjin at that time was much smaller than that of the peasant army, and the cost of pacification was far less than that of Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others. In fact, the Chongzhen Emperor also chose this way, but unfortunately he did not do things secretly, let a group of angry Qingyan officials know, after some spit, the Chongzhen Emperor was afraid of leaving a curse, and shrank back. Otherwise, as long as he made peace with Hou Jin and then transferred the border troops who could fight back to suppress the rebellion, Daming's Guozuo should be able to continue to extend.