Before The Coal Mountain hanged itself, Chongzhen issued a lament that "a king is not a king of a subjugated country, and all his subjects are subjects of a subjugated country.". Just reading this sentence, you will be very sympathetic to him. But if you take a closer look at that history, will you find that this is really the case? At least Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng are not, not only is it not, if these two can meet the Lord, people will be able to achieve great things with all their talents. So why was Sun Chuanting finally destroyed by Li Zicheng's entire army? In fact, to put it bluntly, sun Chuanting in the end was not defeated by Li Zicheng, but by Chongzhen, Yang Sichang, and the local gentry. A previous article has introduced Lu Xiangsheng in detail, and the following is another of the double walls of the late empire, Sun Chuanting.
Sun Chuanting (1593-1643), also spelled Boya, also spelled Baigu, was a native of Wuwei,Dai Prefecture (present-day Dai County, Shanxi), and was awarded Yongcheng Zhi County in the middle of the 47th year of the Wanli Calendar. At the beginning of the Apocalypse, the promotion of officials was sealed as the chief, and later resigned from the government because he did not want to be with the castration party. In the eighth year of Chongzhen' reign, seeing that the rebellious army was strong and the officers and troops were difficult to reach, he asked himself to succeed Gan Xuekuo, the incompetent inspector of Shaanxi, and began his military career in quelling the domestic rebellion. Only two months after his arrival, he completely annihilated Wang Gao Yingxiang's troops at Heishuiyu, Shaanxi, captured him, and sacrificed him to the Beijing Division. Later, he actively reorganized the armament war, clarified the military tun, verified the false nationality, and was disgusted by the local gentry.
When we look at the situation in the Chongzhen period, what we need most is a powerful figure like Sun Chuanting who dared to rectify the place with an iron fist. 'The Four Guards of Xi'an, the old Tun army of 24,000, Tian more than 20,000 acres, and then Tian Returned to the Right, and the army was exhausted. Chuan Ting Li dejun 11,000 odd, the annual collection of more than 145,000 silver more than 2, rice wheat 13,500 stones. Like Chongzhen, like a poor worm, he begged for the donation of the senior members of the DPRK, but there were very few people who responded, and they could only be reduced to a laughingstock and did not help. Instead of killing those responsible ministers, Chongzhen should be a little iron-fisted and do extraordinary things at an extraordinary time. Aren't you all crying and poor, then from time to time to chase after the stolen goods and help; don't you want to move south, well, I admire your courage, do not agree to the southward migration to stay behind to guard the Beijing Division, I hurry to the Southern Zhili Taizu Xiaoling tomb to pray for you. This is also better than temporarily tiring our people under the edict year after year! To take a step back, you want to preserve your reputation and don't want to easily offend those people. Now there is a figure like Sun Chuanting doing it for you, you are not behind the back to support well, the local gentry in the imperial court frying pan, you can't stand it.
Due to the inability of the former inspector Gan Xuekuo to deal with it, Shaanxi had become a paradise for rebels when Sun Chuanting arrived. In the face of rumors among the various rebel armies that Lu Xiangsheng had been beaten and fled from the east to the west, the Shaanxi Inspector was incompetent, so hurry up and go to Shaanxi. Just this time, it never came out again. Sun Chuanting, who had just arrived, did not have any habit of being polite, and after completing the rectification, he immediately left the division, and the good days of the leaders were considered to be over. First in Heshui to break the Great Heavenly King's Department, and then at Yangjialing, Huanglongshan broke the Heavenly Star, mixed heavenly stars, etc., then the Great Heavenly King descended, and then defeated the Heavenly Stars three times, the Mixed Heavenly Stars, the Heavenly Stars, the Mixed Heavenly Stars, yu Chongzhen at the end of the tenth year and Hong Chengyu cooperated to annihilate Li Zicheng's troops, Li Zicheng only escaped with eighteen horses, it was the time 'Guanzhong group thieves Xi Ping, it was for the spring of the eleventh year of Chongzhen.' "It is very rare to say that at the end of such a dynasty, it is really rare to have such an unworldly talent loyal to the imperial court. The earliest Yang He took Chongzhen 100,000 taels of silver, but only held a half-year party with the rebels, and then how to do it. Before Sun Chuanting arrived, Chongzhen also gave 100,000 taels of silver. However, in just two years, Guanzhong Qun stole Xi Ping and sent tens of thousands of strong Qin troops in vain. Moreover, this unit did not spend chongzhen one or two pieces of silver, but completely relied on Sun Chuanting's own collection of Tunjiao silver and Tuntian grain, and this was the difference! Like Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting, if Chongzhen could use them well, his Jiangshan would definitely not last only seventeen years.
After ten years of scuffle, as long as we work hard, we can completely solve domestic problems. However, the appearance of the three people will give Chongzhen the last chance given by heaven and miss it again.
The first one was Yang Sichang, alas, this man again, who seemed to be unable to get along with a minister who was loyal to Chongzhen and had outstanding ability. Except for a strategy of four positive and six corners, he had not done a single thing that was beneficial to Chongzhen. Dissatisfied with Yang Sichang's policy of increasing troops and increasing his endowment, Sun Chuanting repeatedly wrote to refute it, pointing out that Yang Sichang's method of engaging in the law was "exhausted by the people's strength and feared that they would be exhausted." He will do what he wants, and the thief will not have to exhaust it, but harm the country. Thus he offended Yang Sichang. I think Yang Sichang is completely a traitor, Lu Xiangsheng's southern conquest of the northern war was not easy to defeat the main force of Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng, transferred to the Beijing Division to supervise the Qin Wang army, actively planned the battle, almost about to defeat that powerful enemy, the result was that he was killed; Sun Chuanting captured Wang Gao Yingxiang in one battle, forced the Great Heavenly King to surrender again, defeated the Heavenly Star three times, surrendered, and fought again li Zicheng fled on eighteen horses, and the whole domestic situation was very good, because the situation was worried and deafened. Being framed by Yang Sichang and imprisoned caused the domestic situation to deteriorate suddenly and could no longer be cleaned up. If I hadn't died of exhaustion on the front line of counterinsurgency later, I had good reason to suspect that Yang Sichang was an undercover agent installed by the enemy next to Chongzhen.
The third is the local gentry. In their eyes, there was only the obligation of the imperial court to protect them, and there was no obligation for them to give back to the court. Officials appointed by the imperial court could not quell the chaos, and it was even more difficult to accept that they could quell the chaos but on the basis of harming their interests. Therefore, they would rather take the silver and let the spokesman of the DPRK and China slander Sun Chuanting than give it to Sun Chuanting.
We all know that different generals have different rhythmic controls for war. If the emperor interferes too much and disrupts the established rhythm of the general, then there is a high probability that he will face a defeat. In the continuous remarks of the local gentry in Shaanxi, Chongzhen finally could not sit still, and the records of 'interesting rumors out of the court, interesting battles and urgent needs' in the historical materials continued to appear. Reluctantly, Sun Chuanting had to hurriedly lead the troops out of the customs to fight with Li Zicheng. Sun Chuanting is Sun Chuanting in the end, and under all kinds of unfavorable conditions, he has won even battles. No way, Li Zicheng took advantage of the embarrassment of the official army's hunger, "the thief abandons the armor and the army to the Road, and the Qin soldiers seek profits." Thieves covet our army, and the anti-army takes advantage of it, and all the armies collapse. This is to say that before the dispatch of the army, Sun Chuanting vigorously said that "the new recruitment of soldiers is useless", that is, soldiers still need to be trained and strengthen military discipline, otherwise it is likely to have unpredictable results. In this way, Sun Chuanting lost to Li Zicheng for the first time, but fortunately, the main force was less damaged.
After this battle, Sun Chuanting re-examined Li Zicheng, a former enemy. Realizing that Li Zicheng had long been reborn from the fire, he had become more powerful, so strong that he was no longer sure of defeating Li Zicheng. Therefore, Sun Chuanting adjusted his strategy in a timely manner and changed from the original offensive operation to a defensive one. It was planned to use Tongguan to ensure the upstream of the Jingshi. At this time, if Chongzhen was wise, in the face of the only remaining elite field force that could be controlled, it should be carefully protected. If Sun Chuanting were to be defeated again, Chongzhen would no longer have any soldiers to fight and generals to use. Without this force, the imperial court will also have difficulty mobilizing other wait-and-see troops. But, Chongzhen, alas! Let's talk about the result directly, Sun Chuanting was killed in the Battle of Tongguan Guard, at the age of fifty-one.
As we all encountered when we were students, students who showed that they worked hard but did not achieve results. If you look closely, you will definitely find the reason: either the method is not right, or it is a face work, or the comprehension ability is a little poor and cannot be learned at all. I think Chongzhen is a similar situation, you just look at the surface, this is a Ming Jun, how The Jiangshan died in his hands, the heavens are unfair! But if you look at his attitude toward Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting, you will find that his final result is inevitable. 'Or the emperor is suspicious of the undead in the court, so he will not give it to him' Alas...