Title/ "Daming Style": The general supports the army and respects himself, which became the last straw that crushed the Ming Dynasty
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In the last year of the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng attacked Beijing, and the Chongzhen Emperor ordered the troops from all over the country to go north to serve the king, but they did not see reinforcements for a long time, and finally the Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide in isolation.
In fact, before Li Zicheng attacked the city of Beijing, the Ming Dynasty army still had at least one million. According to historical records, after the suicide of the Chongzhen Emperor, the Ming Army also had "more than 50,000 Soldiers in Chu Town", "30,000 soldiers in the four towns", "60,000 soldiers in the Beijing Camp", and "120,000 soldiers in Total", including Jiang Dou, Fu Fu, Wu Fu, Wen Wu Cao Jiang, Zheng Hongkui, Zheng Cai, Huang Binqing, Huang Wei, and Bu Congshan.
At the same time, Wu Sangui of Shanhaiguan had 40,000 Guanning iron horses, Zuo Liangyu had nearly 800,000 Ming troops, and Shandong general Liu Zeqing and general Gao Jie each had no less than 50,000 troops. Why didn't this Ming army, which added up to nearly one million people, go to Qinwang?
Today I will give you an analysis.
I. When the Chongzhen Emperor ordered The King to serve the King, what were the Ming armies doing everywhere?
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, chongzhen was able to mobilize only Sun Chuanting's troops, but this army had been wiped out a year ago. Most of the remaining scattered armies did not carry out the orders of the Chongzhen Emperor after receiving the orders of The Chongzhen Emperor.
When Liu Zeqing received the order from the Chongzhen Emperor's Qin King, he lied that he had fallen off his horse and was injured, and refused to obey the edict. Gao Jie took a wait-and-see attitude and waited for the development of the situation. Zuo Liangyu had the most troops, and his movements were the slowest, and when Li Zicheng's army attacked the city of Beijing, he submitted his military plan to the imperial court.
Instead, Wu Sangui immediately sent troops after receiving the order, but before he could go, the Chongzhen Emperor died.
Second, what was the reason why the generals in various places did not march into the Qin King?
1. Perennial arrears in military salaries
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen's poverty was known to everyone, and he owed soldiers salaries for many years. In those years, "there was no rice in my hand, and the chickens couldn't be coaxed", not to mention that Zuo Liangyu and Liu Zeqing were such people. The soldiers in the hands of these generals all have to eat, and it is impossible to let others sell your life hungry. For example, Zuo Liangyu, who had an army of 800,000 under his command, because the imperial court did not pay military salaries for many years, he began to let soldiers rob by the river, and the soldiers were completely like robbers, making the surrounding people miserable.
2. Distrust of the Chongzhen Emperor
The Chongzhen Emperor was suspicious by nature, and during his reign as emperor, more than eighty ministers were changed in six ministries alone. The last time the Qing army attacked Beijing, Yuan Chonghuan led Guan Ning iron to ride thousands of miles to rescue, and the result was that the city of Beijing was saved, but Yuan Chonghuan was convicted by Chongzhen. In the end, he was executed for treason. As far as Chong Chongzhen's personality was concerned, most of the generals in various places were reluctant to go to Qin Wang, afraid of taking Yuan Chonghuan's old path.
3. The Chongzhen Emperor hesitated to do things
Chongzhen seventeen years
On March 19, Li Zicheng attacked the city of Beijing, but the edict of King Qin was sent out on the sixth day of March, and it was too late. According to the literature, it was not until the first day of April that The Nanjing Bingbu Shangshu Shi Kefa received the Holy Decree and led the release of the Nandu Gonggong that "called on the subjects of the world to revolt and the King of Qin to donate money and urgent matters".
On the seventh day of the first month of April, after Shi Kefa completed the preparations, he personally led his troops to cross the river to prepare for the northward "King Qin". However, the next day, he received the news that the Chongzhen Emperor had committed suicide on The Coal Mountain on March 19. At that time, the communication information was backward, the transmission of information was slow, and Chongzhen was too hesitant to do things, and he had to consult with the ministers for several days to issue an edict, so he delayed himself.
4. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the private army system created the monopoly of military generals
In the last year of the Ming Dynasty, after the Battle of Salhu, Sun Chengzong's army was vulnerable due to the decline of the Ming Dynasty Weishou military household system. The strategy of "Liao people guarding the Liao soil and raising the Liao soil" was proposed. Since the recruitment of natives in the Liaodong region to form the "Guanning Iron Horse", although the Ming Dynasty once had the momentum of delaying the Eight Banners of Manchuria, it also opened the spell of "privatization of the army".
As the situation deteriorated, the ming court's ability to control local military and government became weaker and weaker. Military generals who grew up barbarically in the chaotic world of war have soldiers and guns in their hands, and they use the army in their hands to bargain with the imperial court and fight for their own interests. Today they want grain, tomorrow they want military salaries, and the day after tomorrow they want official positions, but as soon as the war starts, they think about preserving their own strength and running faster than anyone. Such people include He Renlong, Zuo Liangyu, Wu Sangui and so on.
3. Summary
Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, it has been guarding against the dictatorship of military generals and implementing the policy of "separating soldiers and supervising the army by eunuchs". But sometimes you are often afraid of what you want. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the military generals divided the territory and did not listen to the tune, which eventually became the last straw that crushed the Ming Dynasty.