At the end of the Ming Dynasty, that is, during the reign of Chongzhen, there were peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng rebelling in various places, and the Qing dynasty led by Emperor Taiji was looking at the tiger. There are really quite a few generals who have thrown pens from Rong, and the Hong Chengzuo we are going to talk about today can be said to be one of the outstanding ones. How did he go from being a civilian official to a general who led troops to fight, and how did he have a relationship with Emperor Taiji? Let's talk about this one by one.
Lead the soldier experience
From the year chongzhen first ascended the throne, internal peasant uprisings rose and fell one after another, and they never stopped. In the second year of Chongzhen, the peasant revolt in Shaanxi had a certain scale, the leaders of the peasant rebel army Wang Zuozhao and Miao Mei were no longer satisfied with wandering in the countryside, and began to attack the county seat, they aimed at Hancheng in Shaanxi Province and began to attack, Yang He, who was then the governor of Shaanxi Province on the three sides, had no choice but to do anything, and in a hurry, he could only order Hong Chengzuo, who was still the governor of Shaanxi at the time to participate in the government, to lead the troops to fight, and the dead horse was used as a live horse doctor. Miaomei's peasant rebel army killed more than 300 people and won a great victory, avoiding the capture of Hancheng and becoming famous in the First World War. From then on, he changed from a civilian minister to a general who led troops to fight, but although this battle was won, the policy of the Ming Dynasty to the rebel army at that time was to appease the rebel army and did not advocate annihilation, which also laid the groundwork for Wang Zuohang to rebel again.
Sure enough, only one year later, three years after Chongzhen, Wang Zuohang rebelled again and was once again annihilated by Hong Chengyu. From the bottom of his heart, Hong Chengzu opposed the policy of appeasing the peasant rebel army, advocating vigorous suppression of bandits, and not surrendering troops, killing them all, and it was not uncommon for the Ming rebels to repeatedly surrender at that time, which shows that Hong Chengzu was still relatively prescient in this regard.
After this, Hong Chengzuo, all the way to the rank of knight, first became the governor of Yansui, and then replaced the position of the old boss Yang He to succeed him as the governor of Shaanxi Trilateral, in the process of quelling the rebellion of the peasant army, he still adhered to his policy of all-out suppression, and was very effective.
During this period, Hong Chengzu successively defeated the rebellion of Zhang Xianzhong, Ke Tianfei, Gao Yingxiang and other peasant rebels, and later the military affairs of the five provinces, becoming the main military general of the counterinsurgency peasant rebel army at the end of the Ming Dynasty, especially in the twelfth year of Chongzhen, which defeated Li Zicheng's peasant army, which caused the wave of peasant uprising to fall into a downturn.
Defeated and captured
However, with the continuous deterioration of the situation at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Hong Chengzu alone did not return to heaven and lacked skill, and luck would not take care of a person forever. In the eleventh year of Chongzhen, the Qing army began to move south, and the panicked Chongzhen quickly ordered Hong Chengzu and Sun Chuanting to resist the attack of the Qing army, and the next year Hong Chengzu was appointed as the governor of Jiliao, at this time Emperor Taiji had already captured Yizhou and was ready to capture Jinzhou, so Hong Chengzu joined forces with Ma Ke and Wu Sangui to prepare to defend Jinzhou.
In the 14th year of Chongzhen, the situation in Liaodong had become more and more serious, and the Ming Dynasty had realized the seriousness of the situation, and urgently dispatched troops, ordering Hong Chengzu to lead eight total troops totaling 130,000 elites to assemble in Ningyuan and prepare to repel the long siege of Jinzhou by Emperor Taiji.
It was a taboo for soldiers not to be able to do so, but this was the case in this campaign. Hong Chengzu believed that the siege of Jinzhou should not be easily solved, so it should be a protracted battle with Huang Taiji step by step. However, Chen Xinjia, who was then the head of the military department, did not think so, believing that in the case of a large army gathering, it should be won a battle with the Qing army. In the end, the method of fighting with a quick battle and a quick decision was adopted, such a hasty way of fighting, which was really not a wise choice in the case of the Qing army was already strong, and in the end, the Ming army was defeated without accident, when the grain and grass had been cut off, Hong Chengyu advocated a decisive battle, but other generals no longer had the will to fight and advocated retreat, and then fled to Songshan in a hurry, during which hundreds of thousands of troops fled with dead and wounded, countless of them.
The time reached the 15th year of Chongzhen, at this time Songshan City had been besieged by the Ming army for half a year, the city had run out of food, during which Hong Chengyu tried to break through and failed, the imperial reinforcements did not dare to come, the generals in the city lost all hope, the city began to kill war horses to fill the hunger due to lack of food, and finally even the phenomenon of cannibalism.
At this time, Songshan's deputy general Xia Chengde really could not stand this torture, but he was not the supreme commander who could not decide whether to surrender, he could only secretly contact the Qing army and promise to be the internal response of the Qing army to attack Songshan, on the night of February 28, the Qing army began to attack the city, and with the help of Xia Chengde, Songcheng was captured, Xia Chengde, in order to show his sincerity to the Qing army, personally led his subordinates to capture Hong Chengzu and the inspector general and others, after Songshan was breached, Jinzhou was also lost, and Zu Dashou also surrendered to Emperor Taiji. After this battle, Shanhaiguan can be said to have fallen into the hands of the Qing army, and Hong Chengzu and Zu Dashou were taken prisoner to Shenyang.
Eventually surrendered to the Qing Dynasty
Hong Chengzuo was sent to Shenyang to be imprisoned in prison, during which he went on hunger strike for several days, resolutely refusing to surrender to Emperor Taiji, who knew that Hong Chengzuo was a talent, so he tried his best to persuade Hong Chengzuo to surrender, but Hong Chengzuo did not give up and shouted at those who came to persuade him to surrender.
Emperor Taiji also sent the famous traitor Fan Wencheng to persuade him to surrender, Fan Wencheng arrived in prison, Hong Chengcheng still did not lie to him, but also as a literati, there was always a topic to talk about between the two, and Fan Wencheng decided not to mention the matter of surrender, so the two began to talk about the past and the present, Fan Wencheng secretly observed Hong Chengcheng's words and deeds during this period. During this period, he found that Hong Chengyu was very concerned about the dust that fell on him, and had been wiping the dust on his body, Fan Wencheng saw that behind the scenes, his heart was determined, and after he came out, he reported to the Emperor Taiji that he even cherished his robe so much, how could he not cherish his own life?
Empress Xiaozhuang heard about this incident and took the initiative to ask Miao to tell Emperor Taiji to persuade Hong Chengzuo to surrender, Xiaozhuang went to prison, first chatted with Hong Chengzuo about his family's affairs, which made Hong Chengzuo's heart loosen, and when he mentioned the family matter, Hong Chengzuo couldn't help but think of the old mother in the family, and also let down his guard against Empress Xiaozhuang, Empress Xiaozhuang then greeted Hong Chengzuo with a warm greeting, and offered hot soup, so that Hong Chengzuo could warm his body, who knew that what he took was not an ordinary hot soup, but a bowl of ginseng soup, and Hong Chengzuo drank it and was hot and dry, which was convenient for Xiaozhuang to do his good Hong Chengyu then surrendered to Emperor Taiji.
Help the Qing Dynasty to seize Jiangshan
With the help of Hong Chengcheng, the Qing army entered the customs more and more logically, especially when Beijing was captured by Li Zicheng, and under the persuasion of Hong Chengcheng, Dorgon decided to send troops to fight with Li Zicheng. Subsequently, the Qing army defeated Li Zicheng and occupied Beijing, and during the period when the Qing army entered the Central Plains, Hong Chengzu fully exerted his influence, helping the Qing Dynasty to persuade various generals along the way, and In the process of the crusade against the Southern Ming, Hong Chengzu also made great contributions.
However, although it is said that Hong Chengzu had such merits after surrendering to the Qing army, after all, he was a minister who surrendered, and was not used by the Qing Dynasty, and even in the Qianlong period, he was included in the "Biography of the Second Minister", which can be said that neither before his death nor after his death, he did not have a good reputation.
Throughout Hong Chengzu's life, he first served as an important general in the late Ming Dynasty and had many meritorious achievements in suppressing peasant uprisings. However, due to the terminal illness of the imperial court at the end of the Ming Dynasty, he was unable to return to heaven, and was eventually defeated, and finally surrendered to Emperor Taiji. In my opinion, he did make his own efforts to save the situation at the end of the Ming Dynasty, but he should not be blamed too much for surrendering to the Qing Dynasty after the fact, it is true that there are many benevolent people who are indifferent to life and death, but in the face of the big issue of life and death, I believe that many people cannot go to death calmly! I'm not whitewashing or making excuses for Hong, I can only say that he made a choice that most people would make.