In 1646 AD, the iron horse of the Qing army drove straight into the Yangtze River, drinking horses on the Yangtze River, and Ma Shiying, the first assistant of the Southern Ming Hongguang regime, refused to surrender to the Qing, and the soldiers were defeated and killed, and the country was martyred.
Almost at the same time as Ma Shiying's bravery and righteousness, countless Qingliu yashi in Nanjing, in order to survive, rushed to shave their hair and change their clothes, and the second dynasty was a subject, among which Qian Qianyi, a representative figure of the Donglin Party who was worried that "the water was too cold" and refused to throw water.
What is confusing is that a large number of literati bent their knees and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and the great festival was lost, but the person who was said in the history books was Ma Shiying, who died in the national disaster. So, why did Ma Shiying die for the country, but he was saddled with the name of eternity?
01 Ma Shiying, is he a traitor?
Ma Shiying's "black cauldron" should start from the Donglin Party members who surrendered the Qing army.
After the destruction of the city of Nanjing, the Donglin Party members collectively knelt. This group of Qingliu, who flaunted the "bones of the literati" in su ri, turned into a glorious "leading party". In order to please the new owner, the Donglin Party members also used their writing expertise to compile a century-old "History of Ming".
Perhaps in order to cover up the stain of their own surrender, the Donglin Party members vaguely said in the "History of Ming" that Ruan Dacheng and Fang Guoan father and son surrendered, and then the Qing army searched for the enemy documents on the captured Ma Shiying, and executed Ma Shiying in a rage.
As we all know, Ruan Dacheng and Ma Shiying have no opposite, Fang Guoan's father and son are comrades-in-arms in the same trench as Ma Shiying, and the Donglin Party said that Ruan Dacheng and Fang Guoan's father and son surrendered, which undoubtedly implies that Ma Shiying also surrendered at the same time.
What is even more ingenious is that the Donglin Party did not directly write "Ma Shiying surrendered", but only crossed Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng who surrendered to the Qing in the "History of Ming", incidentally mentioning that Ma Shiying was executed by the Qing army, and also unceremoniously compiled Ma Shiying into the "Biography of the Traitor", which made many unidentified melon-eating masses, once thought that Ma Shiying surrendered to the Qing army first, and then was killed because he was not loyal to the new master.
However, the word games of the Donglin Party have been hidden from the world for a while, and they cannot be concealed for thousands of generations. So, why did the Donglin Party do everything possible to smear Ma Shiying? What is the historical truth of Ma Shiying's murder?
02 Ma Shiying, loyal minister also
The contradiction between Ma Shiying and the Donglin Party members was hidden as early as the Chongzhen era.
In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, Zhou Yanru made a comeback and instantly became the first assistant of the cabinet under ten thousand people under the Ming Dynasty. At this time, Ruan Dacheng happened to be seeking career development, and after he heard that Zhou Yanru could influence the promotion of officials, he brought heavy money to bribe Zhou Yanru and wanted to seek a future for himself.
Unfortunately, although Zhou Yanru accepted bribes, he did not dare to use Ruan Dacheng for fear of offending the Donglin Party. As a result, Ruan Dacheng retreated to the second place and asked Zhou Yanru to appoint his good friend Ma Shiying as the governor of Fengyang.
Ma Shiying inexplicably "picked up" a bargain. Afterwards, Ma Shiying was very grateful to Ruan Dacheng, and once he had great power in his hands, he tried to eliminate public opinion and help Ruan Dacheng to come out again, just to repay Ruan Dacheng's past kindness.
Unexpectedly, Ruan Dacheng became an official and immediately set out to take revenge on the members of the Fu Society who persecuted him. It should be known that the Fu Society at that time was also called "Xiao Donglin", and the core figures in it were all Jiangnan Shi Dafu, which undoubtedly completely offended the Donglin Party.
The Donglin party members were furious and couldn't help but put a pot on Ma Shiying's head that "promoting Ruan Dacheng is to overturn the case for the castration party." Some literati even classified Ma Shiying into the castration party faction, and some literati simply turned out that when the southern Ming court had just opened, Ma Shiying and the Donglin party members discussed the past of supporting the new monarch, which once again ignited the anger of the Donglin party.
Originally, after the martyrdom of Chongzhen, the Ming royal family left four royal bloodlines: Zhu Yousong the Prince of Fu, Zhu Changrun the Prince of Hui, Zhu Changying the Prince of Gui, and Zhu Changshu the Prince of Lu. Among them, Zhu Changxun, the Prince of Fu, was the eldest son of Zhu Changxun, the Prince of Songfuzhong, and was a cousin of emperor Chongzhen; Zhu Changrun, the prince of Hui, was the sixth son of Emperor Mingshenzong Zhu Yijun and was the uncle of Emperor Chongzhen; Zhu Changying, the king of Gui, was the seventh son of Emperor Mingshenzong Zhu Yijun and the uncle of Emperor Chongzhen; Zhu Changshu, the king of Lu, was the nephew of Emperor Mingshenzong Zhu Yijun, that is, the cousin of Emperor Chongzhen.
From the perspective of blood lineage, King Fu and Emperor Chongzhen were of the same generation, in line with the etiquette of "brother and brother", while the other three princes were all a generation behind Chongzhen, so Ma Shiying originally planned to support King Fu as emperor.
Unfortunately, Ma Shiying's idea was opposed by the Donglin Party. Who let the Wanli Emperor oscillate between the crown prince Zhu Changluo and the Fuzhong king Zhu Changxun, and made a series of unsolved cases of "contending for the country", so that the Donglin party members and the Fuwang Yimai formed a mortal vendetta.
Because of this, as soon as Ma Shiying mentioned the idea of supporting King Fu, the Donglin Party immediately said: "King Fu is absolutely unable to become emperor, except for King Fu, who is emperor, we have no opinion." ”
Due to the high reputation of the Donglin Party in the Jiangnan area, Ma Shiying, in order to unite the strength of the Donglin Party, sent Shi Kefa to consult with the Donglin Party repeatedly, and finally the two sides agreed to abandon The Fu King and instead support the Gui King Zhu Changying, and at the same time the Lu King imitated the ancient terracotta warrior marshal system to temporarily command the soldiers and horses.
At this point, the matter should have come to an end, who knew that Shi Kefa, who acted as an intermediary, himself was not optimistic about this plan, and privately complained that this version of the support plan was the beginning of the military disaster.
There is no impermeable wall in the world, and Shi Kefa's remarks were quickly spread out, and public opinion boiled over for a while. Realizing that Shi Kefa had said the wrong thing, he was frightened to "avoid words", and the pressure of public opinion suddenly fell on Ma Shiying.
According to later scholars, at that time, the Qing army was pressing forward step by step, and the King of Gui was far away in Guangxi, leaving Ma Shiying with little time. Thinking that Ma Shiying may also be out of the consideration that "the country cannot be without a monarch for a day", he immediately decided to decide to follow the original idea and support the Fu King who was near Huai'an as emperor, which was the later Hongguang Emperor.
Sure enough, the emperor's throne of the Hongguang Emperor was not yet hot, and the Qing army was already approaching Nanjing. Ma Shiying knew that the small court of the Southern Ming Dynasty was close to collapse, and still "served the queen mother's concubine, defended by 400 Qian soldiers, and went to Zhejiang."
Some people say that Ma Shiying took the empress dowager and stayed in the Jiangnan area to fight, while others said that the so-called empress dowager actually made Ma Shiying pretend to be his mother, in order to borrow the name of the empress dowager and call on the people to fight the Qing army to the end.
But no matter what, at that stormy moment, Ma Shiying, who was defined as a "traitor" in the history books, with a small number of remnants of soldiers, repeatedly launched attacks against the artillery fire of the Qing army, and even after leading the troops across the Qiantang River, he personally attacked Hangzhou with the respect of the first assistant of the cabinet, which was also unique among the high-ranking officials of the Ming Dynasty.
Unfortunately, due to the enemy's outnumbered and traitorous betrayal, Ma Shiying was eventually defeated and captured, but he still adhered to the loyalty in his heart, preferring to die rather than surrender, and martyred the country heroically.
After Ma Shiying's death, the Donglin Party members found various historical fragments to piece together, smeared Ma Shiying as a traitor who surrendered and then offended the new master after surrendering, and did not forget to flaunt the contents of the "History of Ming", which were "the history of the country".
Fortunately, there are many people who know about Ma Shiying's death, for example, after Huang Duanbo, the chief of the Hongguang Dynasty Ceremonial Department, was captured, when Duo Duo asked him who Ma Shiying was, he overturned the case for Ma Shiying on the spot and said: "Ma Shiying, loyal subjects also!" ”
After speaking, Huang Duanbo pointed to Zhao Zhilong, who had already shaved his hair and changed his clothes, and said: These talents are disloyal and filial piety!
The last fig leaf of the Donglin Party was torn to pieces by Huang Duanbo in an instant. Those Donglin Party members flaunted "loyalty to the king and patriotism" and "great righteousness of the thousand autumns", along with these questions and answers, turned into historical jokes full of irony, and wordlessly told the sad past behind the annals of history.
References: Biography of Ming Shi Ma Shiying, History of southern Ming, Ming Dynasty
Author: Our special guest author Zhu Yingyuejiang