In the last year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng's peasant rebel army surrounded the Daming Jing Division, the city was destroyed, and the emperor's personal guard, the Jinyi Guards, hundreds of thousands of people, under the leadership of the commander Luo Yangsheng, collectively hung a white flag and surrendered to Li Zicheng. In this way, the Jinyi guard at the end of the Ming Dynasty was nailed to the shame rack of history.
After he killed his wife and concubine, he took a three-eyed rifle and personally led the eunuchs to charge, but in the end they were outnumbered, and finally accompanied by the eunuch Wang Cheng'en, the two monarchs martyred themselves at Coal Mountain, Li Zicheng's army completely occupied Beijing, and the Ming Dynasty was destroyed.
At this time, the divisions of the Various Qinwang of the Ming Dynasty were rushing to the Beijing City of Qinwang to save the car. The nearest was Wu Sangui, the commander-in-chief of Ningyuan, who had led tens of thousands of Guanning iron horses to the Yutian area of Hebei Province, only two or three hundred miles away from Daming's capital Beijing. There was also Huang Degong, one of the iron whip generals in the four towns of Jiangbei, who also took tens of thousands of horses north to qin wang. When the Chongzhen Emperor was hanged on the coal hill, the group was said to have crossed the Yellow River.
According to this, it is said that if a large number of Jinyi guards fight and defend the city, coexist and die with the Capital city of Daming, live and die with the Chongzhen Emperor, stick to the fortified city, and fight to the end. It would not be a problem to hold out for three or five days, and by then, the nearest and most effective men and horses of Wu Sangui and Huang Degong should be able to rush to the capital, and Li Zicheng would be attacked on his back. The Ming Dynasty was saved, and history was rewritten.
There is some truth to this view. After all, at that time, there were said to be as many as 160,000 Jinyi guards in Beijing, except for those who ate empty salaries, and then excluded the old, weak, sick and disabled, and the lean and strong who could fight were said to be less than 50,000. If these tens of thousands of people and horses insist on defending the city, if they all swear to die to protect the Chongzhen Emperor like Li Ruolian, even if they can't defend the outer city, they can still retreat to the inner city, they can also retreat to the imperial city, and finally they can retreat to the Forbidden City, and they can also protect the emperor's strength to break through. Even if it doesn't work, it is entirely possible to retreat to coal mountain and insist on waiting for reinforcements for just a few days.
In addition, there was a set of teams in the Ming Dynasty in Nanjing, millions of people and horses south of Jianghuai, 800,000 troops of Zuo Liangyu who dominated Wuchang, and a large number of territories were under the control of the Ming Army. If a protracted war is fought, Li Zicheng's men and horses will certainly return to no avail.
In this way, Chongzhen was saved, even if Chongzhen was martyred, there was also the crown prince Zhu Cixi who could succeed to the throne, so as long as the Jinyi guards in the city did not surrender, insisted until reinforcements arrived, and the Ming army outside should kill Li Zicheng's men and horses, as long as the Beijing division of the Ming Dynasty was there, the Ming Dynasty could still get rid of the fate of the fall of the country.
But that's not really the case.
First of all, the Ming Dynasty perished from within, and the root cause was the corruption of the imperial court. The treasury was already poor, and even Chongzhen's inner treasury (the emperor's private treasury) was empty. How can an army fight without food? Soldiers have no fighting spirit, the hearts of the army are shaken, many soldiers mutiny, and the number of soldiers who flee will be countless.
In this case, no matter how loyal jinyiwei is, it is difficult to continue. The building will fall, and a pillar will be difficult to support.
Secondly, the opening of the door of the Ming army generals was the direct cause of the Ming's death. When Li Zicheng's army approached the city, the city of Beijing was ostensibly impregnable, just as the ruler boasted, counting the Jinyi guards and hundreds of thousands of horses and horses to defend the city.
However, Chongzhen's most favored eunuch Cao Huachun took the lead in opening the door to meet the intruder, although this is controversial, they all believe that Lao Cao carried the pot for people, but it is an ironclad fact that someone inside the Ming army opened the door to meet the intruder, and Li Zicheng's men and horses entered the Zhangyi Gate without a knife and a shot.
Then Chongzhen Chongxin's eunuch Wang Dehua opened the door to meet the breakthrough, the bingbu Shangshu Zhang Jinyan opened the door to meet the breakthrough, the Zhangyi Gate, the Desheng Gate, and the Zhengyang Gate were all opened by Chongzhen's men and horses, Li Zicheng's men and horses drove straight into the occupation of Beijing, the Chongzhen Emperor was hanged in a desperate way, and the Ming Prince was also captured by Li Zicheng, and the Ming Dynasty perished.
This is in line with the fact that fortified fortresses are often breached from within.
In the end, the Ming army's combat effectiveness was inferior to that of the peasant army.
Even if none of the above happened, Jin Yiwei and other Ming forces fought to defend the city, and Chongzhen Junchen finally persisted to Wu Sangui, Huang Degong and other Qin Wang's divisions outside beijing, and opened the battlefield with Li Zicheng's men and horses, forming a situation in which Li Zicheng's peasant army was attacked on its back.
But even so, the Ming army still had no chance of winning.
Because the combat effectiveness of the Ming army at this time had been greatly reduced, the glory of the three major armies at the end of the Ming Dynasty had already been yesterday's yellow flower, and at this time, the Guanning Iron Horse led by Wu Sangui had shrunk significantly compared with Yuan Chonghuan's period, and there was no real name.
In addition, at this time, Li Zicheng's peasant army was at its peak, as evidenced by the Battle of a Stone. Wu Sangui's centaurs and Li Zicheng's centaurs fought, and Wu Sangui's centaurs could not support them at all. If it were not for Dorgon's Manchu Qing Iron Horse, when the two sides were fighting for a long time, they suddenly helped Wu Sangui, which caught Li Zicheng's men and horses by surprise, and the Shanhaiguan War Wu Sangui was definitely a loser.
As for the corruption and degeneration of Li Zicheng's peasant army, it was after he occupied the city of Beijing, military discipline was scattered, and the officials began to enjoy themselves with Li Zicheng as the head, Li Zicheng accepted Chongzhen's palace maid Dou Meiyi as a concubine, Liu Zongmin only cared about roasting silver with sticks, the peasant army's first and second leaders were like this, other generals and ordinary generals can imagine, it is no wonder that they could not withstand the attack of the Qing army later.
But before Li Zicheng's men entered Beijing, this army was invincible and invincible.
Looking at the Ming army at this time, the warlords were divided and the situation of their own government was basically formed. First of all, the four towns in Jiangbei are fighting with each other, and in fact, they have not listened to the imperial court anymore. The city of Beijing was in a hurry, Chongzhen asked for help everywhere, Liu Zeqing, who had a heavy army, dared to pretend to be ill, and his name ultimately determined that he was bound to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, and sure enough, after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Liu Zeqing betrayed the Southern Ming court and chose the Qing Dynasty. There are also Huama Liu and Gao Jie who are also fighting for territory, plundering everywhere.
There is also Zuo Liangyu, who is dominating Wuchang, who also does not give benefits and does not contribute, and Ma Yaocao in Nanjing is unique.
In this case, no matter how many Ming troops are also a ragtag bunch, or they are full of hunger, they are not opponents of the rebels at all, they can support for a while at most, but in the end, they will not escape the fate of the city and the destruction of the country.
Therefore, the author believes that even if a large number of Jinyi guards do not surrender to Li Zicheng, it will still be difficult for the Ming Dynasty to recover the situation, but it will be difficult to change the fate of the final overthrow of the country.
What do you think?