In everyone's impression, there are many reasons for the destruction of a dynasty, but the most direct reason is that the officials force the people to rebel. The peasant revolt was the most important force for overthrowing tyranny, such as Liu Bang, who overthrew the Qin Dynasty, and Zhu Yuanzhang, who overthrew the Yuan Dynasty, all of whom were from poor backgrounds. In the Ming Dynasty, there was an uprising leader from a poor background who overthrew Daming, and the leader of this uprising was the famous Li Zicheng, who had many experiences similar to those of Ming Taizu, the founding emperor of the previous dynasty, for example, Zhu Yuanzhang herded cattle for landlords when he was a child, and Li Zicheng also herded sheep for landlords when he was a child.
Li Zicheng liked to dance swords and guns when he was a child, so he had a little martial arts in his body, and when he grew up, Li Zicheng went to the station as an errand boy. In ancient times, there was no such developed transportation as modern times, so there was such a thing as a post station, which was a place for officials to pass on the road or to send messages, and the officers and men of the post had two major duties: one was to provide food and accommodation for officials passing by, and the other was to do the task of relaying official documents, and Li Zicheng was a small soldier in charge of the task of receiving official documents. The cost of the post was also the larger among the Officials of the Ming Dynasty, so the imperial court wanted to reduce the expenditure, so it laid off the officers and men of the post.
At this time, Li Zicheng lost the official documents in the process of receiving them, so Li Zicheng was laid off. Li Zicheng was idle all day after not working, and eventually owed a lot of debts, in order to avoid debts, Li Zicheng joined the army again. However, he was a soldier in Yuzhong, so the military camp could not pay grain, which eventually led to Li Zicheng and their rebellion, they killed the leader of the military camp and killed the local county order, so Li Zicheng led the rebellious army to defect to Wang Zuohang. However, soon after, the Later Jin army invaded the Ming frontier, and Yuan Chonghuan was beheaded by the Chongzhen Emperor because of his defeat, and Wang Zuohang also accepted the court's offer at this time.
Li Zicheng refused to recruit An, so he led the army that refused to recruit An to Zhang Cunmeng, and later Li Zicheng became acquainted with Zhang Xianzhong, who was also a peasant rebel, but soon after Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were surrounded and suppressed by the imperial army. Li Zicheng was eventually forced to accept the court's offer, but Li Zicheng adopted a strategy of slowing down the army, and after he was out of the siege, they killed Fuguan and continued to rebel. The last years of the Ming Dynasty can be described as full of crises, with external enemies such as Qing soldiers and Later Jin troops crusading in the north, internal natural disasters, serious corruption in the imperial court, eunuchs in power, peasant uprisings, and so on.
Li Zicheng took advantage of the imperial court to encircle and suppress Zhang Xianzhong to rapidly develop his own strength, because natural disasters were continuous and there were many victims, so Li Zicheng's "Juntian Exemption" was welcomed by the disaster victims. Li Zicheng quickly let the victims join his army, and soon his army became a powerful army, Li Zicheng led this army to fight everywhere, he successively took Luoyang, Xiangyang and other places, and the invasion of the Qing army also won Li Zicheng a lot of time. The Ming Dynasty army had few left, and the main army was gradually transferred from the capital to The Tongguan and other frontier areas, and the commander of the frontier garrison at that time was Wu Sangui. Li Zicheng ordered the army to forge warships, and soon pushed the battle line to the capital.
Zhu Youjian knew that the situation was serious, and he ordered the general soldiers of all roads to lead the troops to support, but Wu Sangui did not set off, and the other general soldiers also surrendered to Li Zicheng, and the Wanli Emperor had no choice but to give up the Forbidden City, and later he hanged himself on Jingshan Mountain. After Li Zicheng entered the capital, the first thing he did was not to stabilize the people's hearts, but to make beautiful officials and women concubines, and his army also burned and robbed the people. Li Zicheng blackmailed Wu Sangui's family and ordered Wu Sangui to surrender to him, but Li Zicheng's officers and soldiers collected Wu Sangui's wife Chen Yuanyuan, causing Wu Sangui to choose to unite with the Qing army, and later Li Zicheng was defeated by the Qing army, fled Hubei, and was eventually killed by the villagers in the temple.