Little people, though most of the time are supporting characters in history. However, their stories are equally brilliant, often playing an indispensable role at turning points in history. Small people, big history - here refers to moving history, telling the historical story of small people.
The Son of Heaven guards the gates of the kingdom, and the King dies. The former refers specifically to Zhu Di, and the latter refers specifically to Zhu Youjian.
However, Chongzhen did not have to die, and when the Daming River was at its most dangerous, Zhu Youjian and Emperor Taiji basically reached a settlement and withdrawal agreement, and there was no need to fight on two fronts, and they could free up their hands to deal with Li Zicheng.
However, the appearance of a small person frustrated Chongzhen's plan. Two years later, he was hanged to death in coal mountain accompanied by the eunuch Wang Cheng'en.
1. Yang Sichang first realized that he could not fight on two fronts
Outside Guanwai, Dolgun and Yue Tuobing broke into the Great Wall from Qiangziling and Qingshan Pass in two ways; inside Guannei, Li Zicheng suffered the biggest defeat in the incident, and hid in the Shangluo Mountains with Liu Zongmin and 18 others.
This is 1638. The Ming Dynasty came to a crossroads. History proves that at this crossroads, only one person's choice is correct - Yang Sichang.
He creatively proposed the strategy of "Ann Nei can only take the outside", with the intention of concentrating all his efforts on eliminating Li Zicheng and reaching a peace agreement with Huang Taiji. Perhaps he has realized that whether Daming Jiangshan can be saved depends on whether the next step can avoid the situation of "pressing the gourd to float up the scoop".
Therefore, Yang Sichang continued to release goodwill to the Qing army, and received a response from the Emperor Taiji. With Chongzhen's acquiescence, he and Fang Yizao, Gao Qiqian, Zhou Yuanzhong, and others became the main force of the Ming Dynasty's peace faction, and the contradictions with the Ming Dynasty's main war faction became public, and a court debate was also conducted.
The two factions competed, and Chongzhen's attitude was not to oppose, not to support, at least superficially neutral. The peace talks also came to a complete standstill, and before the good news came, the Emperor Taiji was furious, and only then did Dolgun and Yue Tuo break through the pass and loot in retaliation.
This retaliation also changed the situation again. The main warrior Lu Xiangsheng died in battle as Yang Sichang wished. But at the same time, despite Yang Sichang's repeated objections, Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengzu were transferred away from the front line of encircling and suppressing Li Zicheng and rushed to Liaodong to resist the Qing.
Another year later, Zhang Xianzhong surrendered at Gucheng and rebelled, and Li Zicheng, who was resurrected with blood, led thousands of men and horses to kill Shangluoshan. This means that two-front combat will become the norm in the future. Chongzhen also finally made up his mind about the two factions of the main peace and the main war: "The major events are almost complete, and they have been mistaken by a few Huangkou scholars, so that this is the case." The Huangkou Shusheng here refers to the main battle faction headed by the Zodiac Zhou.
2, "gourd, scoop" are floating
In 1641, the Ming Dynasty ushered in the worst situation since the two-front war: after the comeback, Li Zicheng opened all the way, conquered Luoyang, and boiled The Fu King into a "Fu? Feast"; Zhang Xianzhong attacked Xiangyang and killed the King of Xiang... Yang Sichang, who was already seriously ill, was terrified and cried out for his life.
At the same time, Zilharang and Duoduo built the Yizhou city of Tuntian, successively pulled out the outer strongholds of Jinzhou City, and tied up hong chengyu, the governor of Jiliao. Subsequently, the Battle of Songjin broke out, ending with the fall of Songshan, Jinzhou, and Xingshan and the capture and surrender of Hong Chengyu.
The "gourd and scoop" were not held down, and they all floated up, and the Ming Dynasty, which was fighting on two fronts, could not hold on. ''Annei can only be outside' "once again put on the agenda."
Chongzhen chose to let the bingbu Shangshu Chen Xinjia take over Yang Sichang's main peace and send the banner. In 1642, Jinzhou Castle after the End of the Battle of Songjin. Azig played the Emperor Taiji and called Ma Shaoyu, a special envoy of the Ming Dynasty, to negotiate peace and submit a letter from Chen Xinjia.
After reading it, Huang Taiji said something like this--the Ming Dynasty's letters were untrue, exaggerated, and did not show the sincerity of peace. Although the truth is unknown, it is my long-cherished wish to negotiate peace. I am counting for millions of beings, and if the peace is successful, the two countries are fine, and the people live and work in peace and contentment, then the two countries can enjoy the blessings of peace. Pass on my message.
For the Emperor Taiji to come to the Lord, everything that was discussed could be announced and conveyed. But for the Ming Dynasty, it was a secret. Those in the know were limited to Yang Xinjia, Fu Zonglong, the governor of Shaanxi's trilateral military affairs, and Xie Sheng, a university scholar.
3. The little people stirred up the situation and discussed peace, and the Ming Dynasty embarked on the road of no return
Reality has long told us that when you say to others, "Keep this secret," no matter how much the other person guarantees, you have actually taken the lead in leaking secrets. The person who did not hold the door this time was Xie Sheng.
Xie Sheng privately revealed to a friend that "the emperor is negotiating peace with the Qing army", and perhaps finally gave a word of advice: keep it a secret. However, his good friend also has another identity: a speech official.
The Ming Dynasty's officials were "humble and powerful", and they were typical representatives of the "Wen Death Advice" for thousands of years. Such a big thing, they know it is equivalent to the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu know.
So doubts sprang up, and the Minister of Culture and Military Affairs wrote a letter to impeach Xie Sheng. This created a difficult problem for Chongzhen, and at his behest, Chen Xinjiazheng and Huang Taiji discussed peace, but all hand-to-hand exchanges were limited to the two of them. Now, Xie Sheng leaked out, is he admitting that there is such a thing or not admitting it?
In the end, Chongzhen calmed the anger of the ministers of culture and military affairs by deposing Xie Sheng. However, shortly after Xie Sheng stepped down, Manchu Wenwu once again found a target, and thus forced Chongzhen into a corner and forced Chen Xinjia to a dead end.
This time, the leaker is a small person. As small as the history books did not leave his name, the intermediary called him "domestic servant".
Here's how it went. After the special envoy Ma Shaoyu visited Azig, he returned Chen Xinjia with the emperor's attitude and next steps in the form of a secret letter. After looking at it in the study, Chen Xinjia put the secret document on the bookcase. In the study of Shoshu Bingbu, unless summoned, outsiders cannot enter.
There was only one exception— Chen Xinjia's servant.
This servant acted like a literary secretary, responsible for handling Chen Xinjia's daily affairs, such as handing over the documents approved by Chen Xinjia to the Beijing Division's station, and being replaced by Tang Bing and delivered to the provinces. According to the custom, the servant handed over a batch of tang newspapers to the station, and the secret letter was also among them.
The secret letter became a tang newspaper and was publicly copied to officials at all levels. In the hearts of the Qunchen, the negotiation of peace was equivalent to surrender, or surrender to "Jianyi", so the crowd was indignant, the whole world was in an uproar, and even copied the news of surrender to officials at all levels, and Chen Xinjia was thus caught in the eyes of the storm.
Chongzhen still wanted to save Chen Xinjia. He suppressed all the impeachment and issued a holy decree for Chen Xinjia to explain the matter. Chongzhen, who wanted to negotiate peace and did not want to be looked down upon by the Qunchen, did this move to find a step down for Chen Xinjia and himself.
Unfortunately, Chen Xinjia did not grasp Chongzhen's good intentions, "not to introduce guilt, but to praise himself for his merits." Is the pot of negotiation and surrender to be carried by the emperor? The gods can't save you!
On July 29, 1642, Chongzhen ordered Chen Xinjia to be imprisoned, less than 2 months later, and beheaded in the city.
Chen Xinjia's servant, an authentic little person, completely stirred up chongzhen and huang taiji's discussion and major affairs. After Chen Xinjia's death, the door to peace between the two countries was closed and never opened again, and the strategy advocated by Yang Sichang could never be landed, and the Ming Dynasty also embarked on the road of no return.
Two years after this peace conference, in April 1644, Chongzhen hanged himself on Coal Mountain. Before his death, his sentence "The ministers mistakenly degenerated also", I don't know if it also included Chen Xinjia.
References: "History of the Ming Dynasty", "Records of the Ancestors of the Qing Dynasty", "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty", "Chronicle of the Southeast", interested parties can read in detail