In the long history of China for 5,000 years, changing dynasties is a very common thing. Even the richest and most powerful dynasty cannot escape the law that prosperity is bound to decline, and when it decays, the next dynasty will often replace it. We all know that the Ming Dynasty was followed by the Qing Dynasty established by the Manchus, but it was not the Manchus who destroyed the Ming Dynasty, but the Han "king" Li Zicheng.
Li Zicheng ended the already decadent Ming Dynasty and forced the Chongzhen Emperor to hang himself. He came to Xi'an on horseback and established his "Dashun Dynasty". At the same time, he made his wife Gao Guiying empress. Unfortunately, Li Zicheng's emperor lasted only 42 days before he was ousted by Wu Sangui and Dolgun.
After the defeat, Li Zicheng was forced to jiugong mountain, where he was killed by farmers by mistake. And where was his favorite Empress Gao at this time, and what was the final fate of this beautiful queen?
First, the peasant revolt became the king
Li Zicheng, whose original name was Li Hongji, was born on September 22, 1606, to a difficult peasant family in Shaanxi. When Li Zicheng was a child, he entered the temple as a monk and herded sheep for the landlord. For Li Zicheng, no matter how old he is, his life is not much better.
His mother left him as a teenager and his father died shortly after. Twenty-one-year-old Li Zicheng went to Yinchuan Station to become a pawn, but was unexpectedly imprisoned by a person because of a debt dispute. When his friend rescued him, Li Zicheng went to kill the man with full anger, went to the house to find his wife committing adultery, and killed his wife in a fit of rage.
Li Zicheng, who bore two lives, had no choice but to flee, and he fled to Gansu and became a soldier in the border plug. However, misfortune always pestered Li Zicheng, who at that time had long since declined, living in hardship in the military, and insufficient food. Officers and men not only embezzled money, but also arbitrarily withheld military salaries, and Li Zicheng could not bear it, so he simply rebelled against the soldiers.
This rebellion directly pushed Li Zicheng to the opposite side of the Ming Dynasty. Li Zicheng decided to become a peasant soldier to rebel against Ming rule, and successively defected to Wang Zuohang, Zhang Cunmeng, and Gao Yingxiang. Li Zicheng's military talents gradually appeared, and after Gao Yingxiang's death, Li Zicheng inherited his name as the "King of Chuang".
Under the leadership of Li Zicheng, the anti-Ming army became stronger and stronger, and the Ming army also became more and more decadent. Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, broke all the way to the capital and forced the Chongzhen Emperor to commit suicide, subverting the 276-year rule of the Ming Dynasty in one fell swoop.
Li Zicheng's success lies in the fact that he proceeded from the interests of the peasant class and launched a peasant uprising to seize power. But this was also the reason for his failure--After becoming emperor, Li Zicheng was unable to reconcile the contradictions of the various classes in China, and the limitations of the peasant class became the fundamental reason for his failure.
Soon, with the rise of Wu Sangui and Dolgun, Li Zicheng, who was not still sitting on the dragon chair, was driven off the stage and fled to Hubei. When he came to the Nine Palaces Mountain to look for food, he was killed by the local villagers as thieves. A generation of heroes finally walked off the stage of history in such a tragic way, the uprising was for the peasants, but the death was also because of the peasants, which is really lamentable!
Second, practice martial arts to become a family
After talking about Li Zicheng's life of struggle, let's change our perspective and look at the emotional life of this intruder. Li Zicheng had three wives in his life, and the first wife, Han Jin'er, as we have already said above, was killed by Li Zicheng for adultery.
His second wife, Lady Xing, was originally a woman of a wealthy family, but was forced to become Li Zicheng's daughter-in-law, and later eloped with Li Zicheng's generals. Li Zicheng's favorite is his third wife, known as "Gao Guiying".
In fact, the long scrolls of history are stingy in writing and ink to describe this high empress who is skilled in martial arts and beautiful in appearance, and even her name "Gao Guiying" is also invented by posterity. We all know that Mu Guiying is a generation of female haojie, Gao Guiying is also a woman who does not let her eyebrows, leading soldiers to fight is no worse than men, and is appended by posterity with Mu Guiying's name "Gao Guiying".
And her real name, we don't know. I only know that she is the sister of Li Zicheng's friend Gao Yigong, and when she met Li Zicheng, she had become a young widow. At that time, Li Zicheng was injured, and Gao Guiying took good care of him.
Gao Guiying is highly skilled in martial arts, and knows that Li Zicheng is a general, and when he is idle, he always likes to compare martial arts with him. The two of them developed feelings for each other, and slowly the two finally came together.
After becoming Li Zicheng's wife, Gao Guiying had a place to play, and leading the army to fight was a common thing. She was strong in martial arts, wearing armor and armor no worse than men, and Emperor Longwu of the Southern Ming Dynasty admired this woman very much and named her "Lady Zhenyi Yipin".
Li Zicheng was very fond of Gao Guiying, and after ascending the throne, he made her Empress Gao and gave her the title of mother yi tianxia.
Third, the invincible Qing soldiers will eventually set themselves on fire
Let's go back to the time when Li Zicheng was killed at the Time of Nine Palaces mountain and see the fate of his beloved Empress Gao.
After Li Zicheng's death, Gao Guiying took the crown of empress dowager and took over the remnants of Li Zicheng's forces together with Li Zicheng's nephew Li Guo. Li Guo changed his name to Li Jin and led Gao Guiying and his remnants to He Tengjiao. However, misfortune ensued, and Chen Bangfu, for his own selfish interests, involved the loyal camp led by Gao Guiying in the internal interest struggle of the rulers, and also killed Gao Guiying's younger brother Gao Yigong.
The husband died, the army was stirred up, and the brother eventually died. It may be that our history books also sympathize with the tragic fate of this woman and are no longer willing to record stories about her.
As a result, Gao Guiying's next fate is not officially recorded. It is said that the Qing army still pursued Gao Guiying fiercely, trapping her and the army firmly. Gao Guiying saw that the general trend had gone, and he could not escape the claws of the Qing army no matter what, so he burned himself to death.
summary
The flames filled the air, and the tongue of fire swayed tirelessly upwards, as if to recite the last hymn to the legendary woman's life; the crackling of firewood at the bottom of the fire kept sounding, as if no amount of crying could mourn the misery of her life's fate. It was in this fire that Gao Guiying looked at the country she once owned and bid farewell with tears.
After only 42 days as empress, Gao Guiying had the honor of being recorded in the history of empresses in ancient China, which was her luck. Loving martial arts, she met Li Zicheng, who was in a fit-and-shoot situation, and got the opportunity to fight on horseback, and finally ma ge shrouded the body on the battlefield all her life. She is a warrior, but also a hero, which is also her luck.
But her misfortune is also obvious to everyone, the young widow became a widow, and after Li Zicheng's death, she lost her biggest backer. Fate drifts like duckweed, and even if you send people to the fence, you can no longer live the so-called stable life.
Gao Guiying used her life to stage a good play of not letting her eyebrows be shaved, her bravery, her heroism, and her profound righteousness after being Li Zicheng's wife, all of which made us sigh!