In March of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), the Governor of Tianjin sent his son to Jingshi to meet the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian. The purpose of this trip was to persuade Zhu Youjian to move from Tianjin to Nanjing by sea boat, which was the only way for Zhu Youjian to survive at that time. However, for this suggestion, Zhu Youjian, who had wanted to move south many times, refused at all.
Obviously, there is still a way to live, and after Ming ming arrives in Nanjing, he can still think about it in the long run, but why did the Chongzhen Emperor choose to give up? Do you feel the hope of persevering, or are you completely desperate? Hope and despair seem contradictory, and it seems difficult to appear in a person at the same time, but due to the occurrence of two things, the two constantly collide in Chongzhen.
The Battle of Ningwu pass made Chongzhen feel that he had the hope of persevering
After defeating Sun Chuanting twice, Li Zicheng took advantage of the situation to attack Tongguan and completely destroyed the last elite field force in Chongzhen's hands. Li Zicheng then launched a large army to sweep up Daming's military forces in the northwest region, and the Ming army along the way either surrendered or was eliminated due to resistance, and soon he controlled the northwest region of the Ming Empire.
At this time, Li Zicheng believed that the time was ripe to replace Daming, so in the first month of 1644, he announced the founding of the state of Dashun, the capital of Xi'an, and the change of Yuan Yongchang. On the second day of the first month of February, Li Zicheng led a large army to attack the Ming Dynasty's Beijing Division. Three days later, the army captured the important town of Taiyuan. The start was so smooth that Lee zicheng couldn't help but be a little complacent, but soon he would encounter a real challenge.
In mid-February of the same year, Li Zicheng's army marched to Dai Prefecture, where The Shanxi general Zhou Yuji held out. After a fierce battle, Zhou Yuji gradually became weak, and he realized that only by relying on the dangerous terrain of Guan Pass could it be possible to block Li Zicheng's army, so he led his troops to retreat to Ningwu Pass. On February 16, the Battle of Ningwuguan officially began. Li Zicheng led his army to attack for ten consecutive days, but still failed to break through it. At this time, Li Zicheng was still a rogue, and in his opinion, since he could not fight, he could only return to Xi'an to make plans. However, this idea of his was always opposed by his subordinates, and Li Zicheng decided to continue to attack Ningwuguan.
Li Zicheng, who relaunched the attack, can be said to have exhausted all his strength, not only sending out his most elite troops, but also forcing 'one pawn to escape, the whole team to be beheaded'. However, at this time, in Ningwu Pass, there was no grain and grass inside, no rescue troops outside, and more seriously, gunpowder and bows and arrows had been exhausted, and Zhou Yuji could only helplessly choose to fight with the enemy. After holding out for more than ten days, Zhou Yuji's entire army was destroyed, and he himself was shot by Li Zichengjun hanging on a high pole and shot with a random arrow.
The Battle of Ningwuguan undoubtedly gave Chongzhen the hope of persevering, because to the east of Ningwuguan there were also important towns such as Datong, Xuanfu, and Juyongguan that had been in operation for a longer period of time, had more garrisons, and had stronger cities. If the defenders in these places could be like Zhou Yuji of Ningwuguan, then Li Zicheng's army would probably not be able to reach the Beijing Division. So the Chongzhen Emperor, who saw hope, decided to wait and see.
The proposal to move south was repeatedly blocked and Chongzhen despaired
After Sun Chuanting's death, in the face of the increasingly collapsing situation, the Chongzhen Emperor repeatedly instructed others or personally proposed the "proposal to move south", but without exception met with strong opposition. At first, Chongzhen still felt that the ministers who opposed him did not want to see half of the country fall, but it was not until he heard the suggestion of letting the prince go to Nanjing to supervise the country, he understood that he was left by those ministers to take all the responsibility!
Seventeen years of conscientious work, seventeen years of sleep and sleep still failed to save the decline of the imperial dynasty, he believed that this was all the fault of those ministers, all the fault of those officers and soldiers, so he felt that he should naturally go to Nanjing to lead Daming to seek ZTE again. But what he did not expect was that the ministers and officers and soldiers wanted to let themselves stay and bear the responsibility for half of the country's loss. Knowing this, the Chongzhen Emperor was completely desperate, without the support of these ministers and troops, even if he forcibly arrived in Nanjing, what could he do?
Because he saw the hope of persevering, he decided to stay in the Beijing Division; and because of his complete despair of moving south, he could only stay in the Beijing Division. Although hope and despair may seem contradictory, in the extremely complex context of the late Ming Dynasty, the two constantly collided with the Chongzhen Emperor, and the result was that Chongzhen abandoned the proposal to move south in Tianjin.