As the saying goes: "The general trend of the world will be united for a long time, and it will be divided for a long time."
Throughout the history of our country, it seems that each dynasty will go through four stages of budding, development, heyday, and final decline. When a country prospers, nature surrenders and all people return to their hearts. However, from prosperity to decline is both the law of nature and the law of nature that no one thing can escape.
When a country gradually declines, the situation that was once thriving will naturally overturn. If you know a little bit about history, you will find that when a dynasty reaches the end of its life, it is often the ordinary people who live the most. Today, we will talk with you about those things at the end of the Ming Dynasty.
According to legend, some emperors in the last years of the Ming Dynasty fainted and incompetent, and only knew how to indulge in indulgence. We all know that once the supreme head of a country loses the ability to rule under his own rule, then the officials under him naturally come to be reckless. And those officials, in order to protect themselves and the power of the families behind them, will naturally vigorously exclude dissidents.
If their minds are all focused on the partisan struggle, then naturally they will not be able to spare any effort to seek the wrongs and blessings of the people. In addition, there is another problem that cannot be ignored, that is, the corruption of imperial court officials. Where does the money they embezzle come from? Nature is the blood and sweat of the people. From the central to the local level, layer by layer, the people's lives are of course miserable.
However, as the saying goes: "Where there is oppression, there is resistance." Since we have talked about this, we naturally have to talk about the peasant revolt at the end of the Ming Dynasty. In the history of our country, although, from time to time, there will be several uprisings triggered by the peasants in order to resist the oppression of the government. However, most of them were small fights, which were not enough to cause any serious impact on the country, let alone let the imperial court hurt their bones.
After all, if you are not really forced to go nowhere, who does not want to live a peaceful and stable life. Probably no one naturally likes war, and not many people are willing to take their own and their families' lives to obtain an unknown result.
However, the peasant uprising that took place at the end of the Ming Dynasty was very different from what had happened in the past. For this huge peasant uprising movement, I think everyone has heard about it.
According to legend, in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court was incompetent, official corruption was rife, and the people's lives were miserable. Nurhaci established the Later Jin Dynasty, and then occupied the northeast to look at the Ming Dynasty. Under such a severe situation, the collapse of the Ming Dynasty seems to have already become a foregone conclusion, but it is only a matter of time before it is a matter of time.
Born in a troubled world, it is naturally a disaster for those who only want to live a comfortable life. And such a chaotic situation, for those who have ambitions and ambitions, is just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Some people are born with a spirit of adventure, they can in order to achieve their dreams, throw their heads, spill blood, not afraid of sacrifice.
In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, there were many such figures, and they always firmly believed: "The prince will have a kind of hu? In their hearts, there has always been a belief that since the imperial court cannot give the people a stable and prosperous life, why don't we overthrow it and re-establish a better dynasty?
Perhaps, in the eyes of today's people, such an idea is too naïve, too naïve, too idealistic, after all, whether it is to overthrow a dynasty or to re-establish a dynasty, it is not a simple thing. However, things are man-made, and there are always some people who not only dare to think, but also dare to put into practical action.
Those peasant revolt generals at the end of the Ming Dynasty were exactly such a group of people. Perhaps their motivation for overthrowing Ming rule was not purely to make the people live a better life. What's more, they are more people who want to satisfy their ambitions and let themselves gain glory and wealth. More perhaps in a strict sense, they are not even good people, after all, it is not uncommon for "a Jiang to achieve a thousand bones".
However, personally, I still admire their courage and courage. After all, the ambition of changing dynasties is not something that everyone has. Because even if some people have such determination, they do not dare to pay their own practical actions. Therefore, in any way, the courage of these rebel generals is worthy of admiration by the world.
Today, let's talk about the views of two of the more famous peasant revolt generals of the Ming Dynasty.
They are: Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng.
As a creature with social attributes, we live in this society, always inseparable from the word "cooperation", often a lot of cooperation, can make what we do, do more with less. And, if you look closely, you'll find that people with a collaborative spirit are usually more likely to succeed when doing something. Even in many of our famous maxims of antiquity, the importance of cooperation is mentioned.
From ancient times to the present, there are countless examples of people succeeding through cooperation, and I will not list them here. To say that this Shaanxi is really a place for talents. Today, the two generals we are talking about are both Shaanxi people, one of whom is from Dingbian, Shaanxi, and the other is born in Mizhi, Shaanxi. It is also fate, the two are not only fellow countrymen, but also similar in age.
Two people of similar age participated in the peasant uprising together, and both were quite powerful. Under normal circumstances, such two people should feel sorry for each other, but the truth is not as beautiful as we think.
Zhang Xianzhong's rebel army was organized by himself, in other words, he was self-made. Moreover, because this person has not only read books, but also served as a soldier for several years and received military training, he can also be regarded as capable of writing and martial arts. Under his leadership, his army soon grew to tens of thousands. The team of tens of thousands of people, at that time, was also a big force.
Moreover, under his careful training, the combat effectiveness of his team is also very strong. Such a capable team is naturally very appreciated by all parties and generals. And Zhang Xianzhong also knew very well in his heart that although the combat effectiveness of his own team was good, if he only relied on these tens of thousands of people on his hands, he would not be able to do anything big.
Therefore, in the end, he chose to join the rebel coalition under Gao Yingxiang.
Li Zicheng, on the other hand, happened to be Gao Yingxiang's nephew, and at this time, he had been serving under his uncle. Because of his outstanding ability, he was also appreciated by his uncle, and after the establishment of the coalition, the two became colleagues. People with little difference in ability work together, and friction is inevitable. However, under the leadership of Gao Yingxiang, although the two occasionally had friction, they have always cooperated quite well.
Along the way, their army was overwhelming, and soon attacked from Shaanxi and Shanxi to Henan. After that, they also put forward the operational policy of "dividing the troops and orienting themselves and attacking and occupying in four ways." Under the guidance of this operational strategy, they marched all the way to the east, defeating the Ming defenders and fleeing. In this way, their troops attacked all the way to Emperor Taizu's hometown of Anhui and dug up his ancestral grave.
Presumably, everyone knows that the ancients were very superstitious. The feng shui of the ancestral cemetery is related to the fate of future generations, and their action is equivalent to destroying the foundation and luck of the Ming Dynasty in one fell swoop. If they can maintain this posture and continue to do so, then it is not entirely impossible for them to re-establish a completely new regime.
However, things will never go in the same direction as we expected, and in fact, plans will never catch up with change. In one battle, Gao Yingxiang was accidentally captured by the Ming army. The Lord will be captured, and the cohesion and morale of the army will naturally be affected. In order to stabilize the military as soon as possible, Li Zicheng, as a nephew, was naturally pushed to the position of commander.
The original colleague suddenly became his superior, and his actions in the future will be subject to his elbow everywhere. Zhang Xianzhong, who was arrogant and arrogant, naturally could not accept such a result, so the two decided to part ways, and then the two of them each took their own army to attack the world. From this point of view, it has to be said that this is actually a very unwise decision.
After that, Li Zicheng put forward slogans such as "Juntian is exempt from endowment" and spread the song of "greeting the king and not paying grain", thus gaining the support of the vast number of peasants, and the team developed rapidly, and finally invaded Beijing to destroy the Ming Dynasty. In the 16th year of Chongzhen, Zhang Xianzhong, according to Wuchang and Keshasha, announced that he was exempt from the three-year money and grain tax, and also won the more subordinates of many peasants, and the development of the team was also great, and later invaded Sichuan to establish the Daxi regime.
Even with such achievements, the once powerful alliance was suddenly dismantled, is this not waiting for others to break it one by one?
Maybe they were too confident in their abilities and didn't expect such an outcome. Or maybe both of them have their own pride, even if they have long anticipated the results of the future, but they are reluctant to cooperate anymore.
The facts are also completely consistent with the speculation, and in the next two short years, the uprising actions of the two men have suffered great failures. Although, in the years that followed, they each turned the tide of decline with their own abilities. However, the two people after the breakup of the gang still failed to avoid the fate of being broken one by one.
The reason why the two men, who once held hundreds of thousands of troops, lost so badly was that they did not trust each other enough. If only they could let go of their preconceptions about each other and work together. When one party encounters difficulties and the other party provides timely assistance, then the two may not be able to sit together in the world. Even if they don't want to share the fruits of victory together, they can cooperate first, and when they are successful, the two will compete again. In this way, their results may also be much better, but unfortunately, these are just assumptions.
They all believe in themselves too much and ignore the importance of "cooperation".
Resources:
["Ming Shi, Volume 399, Biography of Li Zicheng", "Biography of Ming Shi Zhang Xianzhong", "History of peasant wars at the end of the Ming Dynasty"]