At the special moment when the mountains and rivers changed color at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Zuo Liangyu, who also bore the aura of "famous general", played an incomparably comical role: when Li Zicheng was approaching Beijing, Zuo Liangyu in Wuchang held an army of 800,000 in his hands, known as a million to the outside world, like the Optimus Prime of the Ming Dynasty. However, he was bent on raping and plundering in the Wuchang area, and sat and watched the Chongzhen Emperor hang himself.
When the Southern Ming Hongguang regime was established, the Ming Dynasty was left with half of the country, and Zuo Liangyu, who had the responsibility of guarding the land, staged a scene of thunder and thunder. First of all, in spite of the imminent national disaster, he and Ma Shiying, a heavy minister of the Southern Ming Dynasty, strangled you to death. Even more, when the Qing army went south, there was a "god cooperation", leading the army to march east into Nanjing under the banner of "Qing Jun's side", and there was a big scuffle under the eyes of the Qing army. After the defeat of the soldiers, his son Zuo Menggeng even lowered the oil on the soles of his feet and took the "800,000 troops" as a greeting gift. On the road of no return to the demise of the Ming Dynasty, the behavior of this "famous general" can be called a pit all the way to the end.
Seeking truth from facts, in the historical changes of the "Ming Dynasty and QingXing", Zuo Liangyu's "contribution" was enough to be comparable to those "Batulu", "Ping X King", "Jing X King", and "Third Class Light Vehicle Lieutenant" in the early Qing Dynasty.
But what is strange is that as a "terminator" of the Ming Dynasty, Zuo Liangyu's "wind evaluation" in the late next year is quite good. Even those "Qingliu" and "celebrities" who despise military generals in ordinary days often praise him. As for the Chongzhen Emperor who was eager to look at people with a magnifying glass and put people to death with a small mistake, he was even more spoiled for Zuo Liangyu: In the peasant war at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Zuo Liangyu lost a basket in battle, and did a basket of adultery and plunder, and Chongzhen always downplayed a few words of "cutting responsibility" and then asked for money to give grain. Even at the moment when the city of Beijing was about to be broken and hanged, Chongzhen was still giving Zuo Liangyu the title of official and ordering the Zuo Liangyu family to "succeed in the world and guard Wuchang". This treatment, placed in the martial generals of the late Ming Dynasty, is simply unique.
Probably the Chongzhen Emperor would not have thought that after he hanged himself for more than a year, the Zuo Liangyu family that he gave high hopes of "Shishou Wuchang" would be a betrayal of the dead rebels, and finally in the form of collective surrender, he would sacrifice the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty.
So the question is, how can such a military general with various pits be so good at "word of mouth"? The first reason is that Zuo Liangyu "has someone above."
Zuo Liangyu's discovery process, the end of the Ming Dynasty is simply rocket speed. In the first year of Chongzhen, he was still just an unlucky officer who "sat on the post and returned to the guard", and he was almost beheaded because of the roadblock and robbery. In order to make a living, he did a miscellaneous job under hou Ke, a big man of the Donglin Party. However, he was blessed by misfortune from then on, completely hugged Hou Ke's big thick legs, and four years later he was appointed deputy general of Changping under Hou Ke's strong recommendation. With the care of Hou Ke,this big tree, Zuo Liangyu was naturally regarded as "his own person" by the Donglin Party in the late Ming Dynasty, and even if he did some bad things of "killing liang and risking merit" and "adultery and plundering", there were people who helped to "suppress" it every day. In addition, he was indeed able to fight, and fought a bunch of victorious battles in the battles against Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, so his official position rose steadily, and his command of 2,000 or so people developed into 800,000 "Zuo Jia Army".
Of course, it is not enough to have the appreciation of nobles, and the more important reason is that Zuo Liangyu "will come to things.".
When the literati of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties talked about Zuo Liangyu, in addition to relishing his "battle achievements", they often talked about his "beautiful talk". This person was not only able to fight, but also very capable of holding back, and when he was under Hou Ke's door, he coaxed Hou Ke to be overjoyed, and took advantage of the opportunity to use people urgently in the war to directly give Zuo Liangyu a "surprise promotion." What about Zuo Liangyu, who was hit in the head by a pie? The reaction at that time was also very interesting, and he slammed his head at Hou Ke on the spot, and swore that if he did not play the results, he would "kill himself". Later, he made some merits and asked Hou Ke to give him a word. "Sensible" to this point, naturally by Hou Ke and other Donglin gangsters as treasures.
In the next Career of Zuo Liangyu, he also played this "will come" style to a new height - he will make a show. As far as his infamous "military discipline" is concerned, Zuo Liangyu, who has raped and plundered a lot of cadres, has "shown off" in key links. For example, although he often kills innocents, he is quite a courteous corporal and is particularly good to readers.
In the "Ming Dynasty Northern Sketch", zuo Liangyu's similar "beautiful talk" is recorded: there was a reader's wife who was abducted by Zuo Liangyu's subordinates, and the reader came to Zuo Liangyu's military camp to seek justice, but unexpectedly, the reader's wife coveted the luxurious life of the military camp, and even turned her face and did not recognize the "hair-knotted husband". Zuo Liangyu knew that and then dealt with it like this--first let the reader choose a beautiful woman from the military camp as his wife, which was equivalent to "compensating" the hatred of taking his wife. Then he beheaded the "original wife" who "did not recognize her husband" and asked someone to send it to the reader quickly. This operation of "first compensating for losses and then giving gas" makes this reader "thank you" and "good name" go out.
Even in Zuo Liangyu's ugly behavior of raping and plundering for many years, Zuo Liangyu, who "made enough money", never forgot to show off. For example, although he walked all the way to grab the road, when he led his troops to pass by the "Engong" Hou Gong's hometown of Shangqiu, he deliberately issued a strict order to "dare to disturb the grass and trees to behead", just like a "good general" as a faction. Later, he became a long-legged general, let the peasant army not fight, ran to the Wuchang area to burn and loot, and caused disasters to the vast area of the lake. However, when Li Banghua, an official attendant, indignantly went to the door to seek justice, Zuo Liangyu, who had made a fortune in the country, changed his face, respectfully listened to Li Banghua's reprimand, and wiped a lot of tears in front of Li Banghua's face -- anyway, the money was enough, and he would receive it when he saw it.
After several such operations, Zuo Liangyu had the "elite" of the imperial court as a patron, and his own work was not leaky, so although most of what he did was evil and dirty, he also caused the Chongzhen monarchs to have illusions, believing that this General Zuo Liangyu was still a loyal subject with a "conscience". For example, zuo Liangyu's ugly deed of "plundering the lake and guangzhou", after being scolded by Li Banghua at the door, not only was he not dealt with by the Ming Dynasty according to law, but he was also re-issued with 150,000 taels of silver. Such a "strange treatment result" can be said to be Zuo Liangyu's "show".
For the imperial court, they were so "able to do things", Zuo Liangyu brought up soldiers, and he was also skilled. Although his troops are not good at fighting hard battles, the speed of the kela team is extremely fast. According to the "Ming Dynasty Northern Sketch", Zuo Liangyu's method of "pulling the team" is one move: "The military law is quite broad." As long as you can serve me, when you fight a war, you should grab it, and if you rob it, it will belong to you, don't care if you win or lose the battle, let's get rich together. Such a good leader on the stall, the shrimp soldiers and crab generals in the chaotic world at the end of the Ming Dynasty, which one is not fascinated? So the cats and dogs all came to vote, and the two thousand people and horses in the early years unconsciously expanded to eight hundred thousand.
Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why in the miserable and chaotic world at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Zuo Liangyu was able to defeat the battle more and more developed, but the evil deeds were always tolerated, and even in the southern next year, he was instigated by the "Elite of the Eastern Forest Restoration Society" to "the side of the Qing Emperor", and finally dragged the small court of the Southern Ming to die together. Comparing the encounters of other loyal and good generals at the end of the Ming Dynasty, this thing can really be said: those who can work are not as good as those who can show.
However, one of the reasons on the roots is still shocking: Zuo Liangyu's scenery and absurdity are all freaks that appeared under the "reverse elimination" atmosphere of the late Ming dynasty.
Why is it that Zuo Liangyu, who has a bad deed, can quickly transfer it with only a few words of "Donglin Gangster", and eventually change from "Daming Pillar Stone" to "Daming Tumor"? If we look at the atmosphere of the late Ming dynasty officialdom at that time, we can see that on the one hand, the party struggle among the civilian-official clique intensified, and the high-level members pulled together gangs one after another, and the previously low-status group of military generals naturally became the focus of "contention." As a military general in the late Ming Dynasty, don't care if you can fight, loyal or unfaithful, first of all, "stand in line" to be reliable, this is the reason why Zuo Liangyu, who "follows the right person", can develop rapidly.
Then, in Zuo Liangyu's military career, the morbid officialdom of the late Ming Dynasty, plus a dim-witted Chongzhen, became Zuo Liangyu's "help". Look at Zuo Liangyu's contemporaries of "famous generals", known as "good generals in the world", Cao Wenzhao, who repeatedly inflicted heavy blows on the peasant army, because of his integrity, as a result, he was repeatedly "suppressed by soldiers for his merits", and also offended the careful-eyed official Liu Lingyu, and as a result, the more he won the battle, the more he was treated, and finally he was killed alive in the ambush circle of the peasant army. As for Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng, the exemplary figures of "civilian officials leading soldiers," they died not so much on the battlefield as they died under Chongzhen's "blind command" and colleagues "digging pits."
But only like Zuo Liangyu, although the war is not powerful, but can send can fish can hold thick legs, famous eight-sided exquisite role, in order to live more and more strong, even if to the moment of beijing city break, but also by the Chongzhen before hanging as hope. Even on the eve of the Qing army's southward march, it was still regarded by the "elites" of the Southern Ming Dynasty as the power of the "Qing Jun's side". This scene is incomparably absurd.
This absurd scene also precisely explains the important reason for the fall of the Ming Dynasty: The shocking reverse elimination of the late Ming Dynasty is to eliminate countless loyal and good generals in this "dyeing vat", and then cultivate one by one "Zuo Liangyu" who can make a show, so that they can make up for the last knife on the body of the Ming Dynasty.
Looking back at the past, and looking at zuo Liangyu, who left countless evil deeds but also wrote countless "beautiful talks", in fact, it is also like the "backbone" in various industries in different eras, those "backbones" who "hold thick legs", "secretly make bad" and "dig the foot of the wall" in ordinary days take advantage of the benefits, but at the critical moment, they are rare. In this sense, the process of the demise of the Ming Dynasty is really a profound textbook, and a single Zuo Liangyu is worthy of my generation three hundred years later to continue to study it repeatedly.