Liu Bang, Zhu Yuanzhang, and Li Zicheng are all heroes from the grass, but the first two can achieve hegemony, and the last one can only write his own tragedy. What makes such a big difference? In fact, if we look back carefully, we can see that in fact, although Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang were from relatively low origins, their ranks had long since left the category of the so-called "peasant army" and become a very regular armed force in the process of development. And only Li Zicheng has been unable to climb out of the peasant army's mortar, which is probably the fundamental difference between the three people. So how did the three of them embark on different paths of development?
Liu Bang's team: named Cao Mang, is actually a prince
When Liu Bang raised an army, he was just a criminal pavilion chief in Pei County. After the army was raised, he also made a small fight in the Fengyi area, and even his subordinates Yongya betrayed him, and he was powerless to suppress it. Later, Liu Bang defected to the rebel army led by Xiang Liang, and only then did he open another window and begin to communicate with the nobles of the Six Kingdoms. Later, he founded the most important "Three Masters of the Early Han Dynasty", Zhang Liang and Han Xin were both Korean nobles. It can be said that through the packaging of Xiang Liang, Liu Bang is no longer a pure reckless hero, but has become a prince of the party. It was by relying on the accumulation of fame at this time that Liu Bang was able to develop continuously and have his own basic disk.
By the time of the Chu-Han rivalry, Liu Bang's ranks had become de facto overlords of the princes. After he was out of Hanzhong, he was soon able to form a coalition of princes to fight against Xiang Yu. Although under the strong military pressure of Xiang Yu, Liu Bang was repeatedly defeated, and the princes were also carrying out their own survival of the fittest, from the earliest Wei Guobao, Han Wangxin, Zhao Wang Xie, Qi Wang Tian Rong, etc., to the later Qi Wang Han Xin, Jiujiang Wang Yingbu and so on. However, Liu Bang's prestige and means of envelopment have always worked, so he can continue to lead the old and new princes again and again, giving saturated attacks to opponents. In the end, he was able to defeat Xiang Yu and seize the world, which had a lot to do with his already princely identity and method of rule.
Moreover, Liu Bang had already acquired the land of Hanzhong when Xiang Yu first divided the princes. Although Hanzhong was still in the wilderness at that time, the good villains had their own base area. The biggest difference between Cao Mang and the princes is that they do not have their own base areas. Without the arming of the base areas, even if it is really prosperous, this momentum is difficult to sustain. The Chimei Army in the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Huangchao in the last years of the Tang Dynasty are all negative teaching materials for this view. Therefore, Liu Bang, who had mastered the base area, was actually no longer reckless, and his rule had become formalized. The rest is to see if you can catch the ship of the world's great power.
Zhu Yuanzhang's team: a regular local force produced by the survival of the fittest in the south
Zhu Yuanzhang's starting point was even lower than Liu Bang's, and he had all done poor peasants, monks, and beggars, and only later found a place in Guo Zixing's Red Turban Army. From the beginning of his start, the grassroots atmosphere of the team was very strong, and Xu Da, Tang He, and other people who led the troops were his playmates from childhood, and it was no problem to fight and fight hard, but if you want to talk about governance, the level of these people is not enough. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang has always paid great attention to attracting readers and local rich families, because only by relying on the management and planning ability of these people can he provide strategic support for himself, and can also provide himself with a stable rear.
Zhu Yuanzhang's entrapment was very successful, and Li Shanchang of Chuzhou and Liu Bowen of eastern Zhejiang, who later became Xiao He and Zhang Liang under Zhu Yuanzhang, contributed a lot in the process of his conquest of the world. Relying on the cooperation of these civilian ministers and military generals, Zhu Yuanzhang's territory became larger and larger, and he established his own administrative system and tax system. Compared with Zhu Yuanzhang's opponents Zhang Shicheng, Chen Youyu, Fang Guozhen and others, Zhu Yuanzhang's organizational structure is the most complete. Therefore, his combat effectiveness and economic strength are also the strongest in terms of combined. This was his later guarantee that he could carry out partial unification in the south.
In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the emperor's throne before the Northern Expedition and the Yuan Dynasty, and was enfeoffed as a meritorious person, thus ensuring his orthodox position. Although the Yuan Dynasty was also a "saint" recognized by Zhu Yuanzhang, after all, it was a nomadic origin, and its national feelings were much worse than Zhu Yuanzhang's Ming Dynasty, so people's hearts were easily condensed into Zhu Yuanzhang. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty during the Northern Expedition was not actually a grassroots regime for a long time, but a truly independent and powerful formal regime. Therefore, in the face of the attack of the Ming army, Meng Yuan almost fled in the wind.
Li Zicheng's team: Scattered soldiers who refuse to change their identity
In fact, from beginning to end, Li Zicheng's peasant army was only a group of grassroots strata that "officials forced the people to rebel." Due to the successive years of disasters and famines in the country, coupled with the continuous use of troops in Liaodong, the treasury of the Ming Dynasty was empty. In order to squeeze money from the people, the emperor kept increasing taxes and saving the use of the state, and as a result, he forced the border army (Zhang Xianzhong), the pawn (Li Zicheng), and the people.
This forced armed force has two characteristics, the first is the large number of people, and the second is poor quality. Therefore, looking at the "History of Ming", it is said that the peasant army is a number of hundreds of thousands, but when it encounters tens of thousands or thousands of officers and troops, they are not opponents. At this time, the peasant army should establish a relatively stable base area, and then carry out a certain period of rectification and training of its combat strength to enhance its combat effectiveness. Only in this way can we ensure the smoothness of the world in the future. But unfortunately, Li Zicheng did not do this. On the one hand, it is true that the Ming Army did not give him this opportunity, and on the other hand, he himself did not realize this problem.
The problem of individual combat effectiveness later became a stubborn disease of Li Zicheng's army. For a long time, the peasant army was suppressed and beaten by the Ming Dynasty officials, and it was crushed and had no ability to fight back. At the worst time, Li Zicheng only had 17 people left around him. If it were not for the disturbances in Manchukuo outside the Guanxi, the peasant army would have been wiped out long ago. Later, Li Zicheng defeated Sun Chuanting, but it was also because of the Ming army's mutual disarmament and bad weather, and the peasant army was somewhat invincible. Later, when he really went to fight Wu Sangui's Guanning Army, Li Zicheng sat on the superior strength but was always unable to win, and finally as soon as the Manchurian Eight Banners Army came up, the peasant army immediately collapsed.
Moreover, Li Zicheng's attitude toward local officials, hao clans, and celebrities was hateful and tough. As a grassroots at the bottom, his attitude is beyond reproach, after all, these rich people and celebrities have not done anything to the poor people, but on the contrary, they continue to bully and squeeze them. But if you are a ruler, you must think of uniting all the forces that can be united. Because the Hao and the Celebrities represent a bureaucracy that has been running for thousands of years, if you don't have a new system to replace it, you have to maintain it.
As far as Li Zicheng is concerned, you can drive out Ming officials and kill Ming princes, but you must find someone to take up the local affairs he is responsible for. At this point, Li Zicheng's approach is to "manage to kill and not to bury", kill first and then say, and then find someone to replace, regardless of whether this person is competent or not. Especially after entering Beijing, Li Zi became a seeker for money, wantonly "tortured", and almost all those who had experience in state governance were punished. From his practice of only knowing destruction and not understanding management, it can be seen that after Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he did not regard himself as a new ruler at all, but continued to play the role of a rogue, seemingly happy, but in fact irresponsible. The final result was that the original mercenary self-respecting warlords all defected to the Manchu Qing, and Li Zicheng could only sadly swallow the bitter fruit he had planted.