The Chongzhen Emperor was a relatively diligent emperor, and when he succeeded to the throne, the entire Ming Dynasty could be described as internal and external troubles, and the wind and rain were turbulent. The Chongzhen Emperor was very active and wanted to save the declining Ming Dynasty as soon as possible, why did Chongzhen be diligent and diligent, conscientious, and paid all his energy or failed to save the Ming Dynasty?
Chongzhen Emperor
In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, there were three hidden dangers that needed to be solved urgently, but these three hidden dangers were involved in one shot and moved the whole body, which could not be easily touched, and needed to be solved slowly in the order of handling and solving.
First of all, the biggest problem was Wei Zhongxian's dictatorship
Wei Zhongxian's problem was the biggest problem of the Ming Dynasty, and it was also the most untouchable problem. However, the Chongzhen Emperor hoped for a result from the beginning, which not only brought down Wei Zhongxian, but also destroyed the future of the Ming Dynasty to a large extent.
Although Wei Zhongxian formed a party for personal gain, he was still loyal to the Ming Dynasty and the emperor, and his ability was great, and he did not take power and did not do anything wrong.
Wei Zhongxian had a very good set of rules in governing the country, and Wei Zhongxian implemented the imposition of industrial and commercial taxes, which reduced the peasants' servitude and was conducive to the stability of the Ming Dynasty. The use of Sun Chuanting, Sun Chengzong and other generals to resist the peasant army and the Northern Houjin had a good effect.
There were many corrupt officials in the imperial court, and ordinary people could not command them at all, only Wei Zhongxian could use his prestige to continue to work with them and maintain the Ming Dynasty.
The Chongzhen Emperor did not consider the pros and cons of the front and back and first brought Wei Zhongxian down, so the next two questions all jumped out.
The second issue was the issue of corruption in the imperial court
In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, official corruption was serious, and this problem was already very common, and it can be seen from the fact that Li Zicheng squeezed millions or tens of millions of silver from these officials later.
In addition to corruption, there is also a fatal phenomenon that these officials do not do their jobs, to what extent are these people slacking off? In the later period, the Chongzhen Emperor and Li Zicheng negotiated, and they wanted to find someone to help write letters and help deliver letters, and it turned out that these people did not care about the safety of the Ming Dynasty at all, and perhaps they could quickly welcome the new emperor and live a comfortable and good life. It is said that later the Chongzhen Emperor went to the court and found that none of the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu came to the dynasty, and it is conceivable how serious the problem of officials was.
The third problem is the revolt of the peasant army in the country and the problem of the southward march of the Jin Dynasty in the north
Lee Zi-cheng
At home, Li Zicheng's Dashun army was in full swing, gathering hundreds of thousands of peasant troops to attack the city and seize the village. The Northern Later Jin dynasty was fierce in battle, and Emperor Taiji, Dolgun and others were excellent military experts, and under their leadership, The Jin became stronger and stronger, and could almost compete with the Ming Dynasty.
In the later period of the Ming Dynasty, the quality of its own army was not too hard, and it was difficult to eliminate these two forces to preserve the country.
These three problems were very serious and needed to be solved slowly, and the Chongzhen Emperor had a premonition of a serious crisis, but he himself was very anxious, and he was eager to solve these problems within an hour, and then he sat back and relaxed. Therefore, the Chongzhen Emperor overthrew Wei Zhongxian as soon as he came up, and in the face of huge external troubles, perhaps Wei Zhongxian's problem should be finally solved.
When Wei Zhongxian was there, he could command the civil and military officials to do things, and send generals to resist the Houjin and peasant armies. However, once Wei Zhongxian fell, these two problems chongzhen were difficult to solve, and the monarchs and courtiers were not united, and could only watch the Ming Dynasty go to the abyss little by little.
In the end, the city of Beijing was breached, and the Chongzhen Emperor's hopes of saving the Ming Dynasty were dashed, and after letting his three sons escape, he ran to the coal mountain and hanged himself. In fact, the Chongzhen Emperor did not have to commit suicide at all, but a city was breached.
Chongzhen Emperor Si Mausoleum
At that time, the south was still relatively stable, and the city of Nanjing also had a complete set of institutions left by Zhu Yuanzhang, even if the city of Beijing was breached and the Qing army entered the customs, the Ming Dynasty could not be said to be extinct. There are still many people in China who support the Ming Dynasty and wait for others to lead them to fight back against the Qing Dynasty.
When the Qing Dynasty first entered the Central Plains, it was very unpopular, so the Southern Ming regime was able to exist. The leader Chongzhen Emperor was gone, and several emperors of the Southern Ming Dynasty opposed each other and did not obey anyone, and infighting consumed strength, giving the Qing army an opportunity to take advantage.
We can imagine that if the Chongzhen Emperor had not hanged himself, the Southern Ming would still respect him, and the Chongzhen Emperor would have learned his lessons and led the Southern Ming to defeat the Qing Dynasty and re-attack Beijing. Of course, these have become the passing clouds of history, and what we are left with is to slowly taste the stories in them.