On March 19, the seventeenth year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty (1644), a peasant rebel army led by Li Zicheng captured the city of Beijing, and the Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself on coal mountain and martyred himself.
When the news of the fall of the Ming Dynasty reached Shenyang, the Manchu capital outside Guanwai, the regent Dolgun immediately convened a meeting of princes and ministers to discuss whether to send troops to compete with Li Zicheng for the world.
Since Dorgon had never fought against the Dashun army led by Li Zicheng, and did not know how effective these peasant rebel armies were, he consulted the Ming general Hong Chengyu.
Hong Chengyu was defeated by Emperor Taiji in the Battle of Jinzhou four years earlier in the Manchu Qing Dynasty.
Hong Chengzuo was arguably the nemesis of the rebels such as Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, who had fought against these peasant rebels for a long time and was familiar with the military combat effectiveness of the rebels. He also had several opportunities to kill Li Zicheng and others, but all of them were lost due to the Manchu Emperor Taiji's entry into trouble.
In Hong Chengzuo's view, Li Zicheng's peasant rebel army was just a group of rabble-rousers, and it is not an exaggeration to think of how well he and Cao Wenzhao, Lu Xiangsheng, and other Ming generals fought the rebel army that day.
However, these elite generals of the Ming Dynasty, once they fought against the Manchu Qing outside Guanwai, they were repeatedly frustrated, and even killed in an instant.
Therefore, after hearing Dorgon's inquiry, Hong Chengzuo replied directly: "Li Zicheng Liukou is just a ragtag bunch, how can he be compared with my Great Qing Eight Banners Strong Brigade?" ”
When Dorgon heard this, he had no scruples anymore, and he personally led the soldiers and horses of Manchuria, the Eight Banners of Mongolia, and the Ming Dynasty generals Kong Youde and Shang Kexi.
It is no exaggeration to say that it is Heavenly Help Later Jin (changed to Great Qing after Emperor Taiji), thinking that at the beginning, the Ming Dynasty and Later Jin fought in Liaodong and repeatedly launched life-and-death battles, while Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others repeatedly tossed and turned in the rear of the Ming Dynasty, so that the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen, lost sight of one another, and lamented: "The emperor of the fallen country is not the king of the country, everything is the image of the fall of the country!" ”
Li Zicheng killed all the way from Shaanxi to Beijing, claiming a million troops, and the momentum was huge, and the officials of the prefectures and counties along the Ming Dynasty fell without a fight.
The only resistance Li Zicheng encountered on his way to Beijing was Zhou Yuji, the commander of the Ming Dynasty's Ningwuguan Army.
Zhou Yuji led four thousand Ning Wu troops to engage in a fierce battle with Li Zicheng, and finally died only because of the exhaustion of gunpowder and the opening of the door. Li Zicheng's "million army" killed more than 70,000 soldiers before and after the battle, which can be described as heavy casualties.
The initial route of the Manchu Qing army led by Dorgon was to bypass Shanhaiguan, because Shanhaiguan was guarded by Wu Sangui, and they could not attack it repeatedly.
Dorgon's initial route into customs was to bypass Shanhaiguan and go west through Jizhou, Miyun and other places to Beijing.
Unexpectedly, the Manchu Qing dynasty was really very lucky, at this critical moment in history, they encountered a fierce fight between Li Zicheng and Wu Sangui, Wu Sangui sent people to beg, and Dolgun immediately changed his route and changed his route to Shanhaiguan.
Therefore, after Wu Sangui led the Qing troops into the pass, the elite Eight Banners of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and Li Zicheng's million peasant rebel army directly faced each other and engaged in fierce battles.
The reality is harsh: the Manchu Qing Eight Banner Army is super combat effective, the Ming army under Wu Sangui is also very brave, and Li Zicheng's peasant rebel army is really vulnerable.
Later, Li Zicheng was defeated and retreated all the way, and finally died at Jiugong Mountain in Tongcheng, Hubei Province. Chinese history entered the reign of the Qing Dynasty.
This article refers to: "The History of the Great Qing Dynasty that I Have to Read All Night"