Seventeen years is not long, not long, not short, in the entire history of the Ming Dynasty is only a flash in the pan, but seventeen years for Chongzhen, it is quite difficult and long seventeen years, he even paid for it.
Chongzhen took over a mess from his brother, although the situation was grim, but Chongzhen reigned for seventeen years after all, so why did Chongzhen not prevent the ming dynasty from falling?
Some people say that this is no wonder of Chongzhen, after all, it has encountered natural disasters and plagues that have not been encountered in a hundred years, both of which were very deadly in ancient times. Indeed, in the face of such a thing, there must be displacement. The common people have no food to eat, and it is not unusual to embark on the road of rebellion. Coupled with the fact that Hou Jin was pressing forward step by step, Chongzhen lost sight of one or the other, and eventually lost Jiangshan.
However, there are not many natural disasters in history, and it should be known that the ancient society was a small peasant economy, and the people relied on the sky to eat, and encountering such things will definitely affect their livelihood. However, if it is necessary to change the dynasty because of this, I am afraid it is a bit unreasonable.
Of course, after all, the Later Jin Dynasty is also rising, and all the factors added together, and the situation in the Ming Dynasty is not too worrying. However, Chongzhen reigned for seventeen years after all, among which the Ming Dynasty did not make any progress, but accelerated its demise step by step, so it was impossible not to consider the role of Chongzhen.
You know, Chongzhen is not the same as the last emperor of the general dynasty. Generally speaking, when the dynasty reaches the end of the dynasty, the control of the imperial court over the local area is weakened, the local army is self-respecting, and the emperor has almost no power, just a puppet, which may be because the power has long been abandoned, or it may be that the emperor is young. However, in the Ming Dynasty under the chongzhen emperor, the imperial court still had absolute control over the localities, and although there were eunuchs like Wei Zhongxian who were in trouble, Chongzhen took care of him in a short time. Moreover, Chongzhen was ambitious and personal, and was a very diligent emperor. This has to make people doubt Chongzhen's ability to do things.
During chongzhen's reign of seventeen years, fifty first assistants were changed, an average of three first assistants in one year, and the following civilian generals were not killed less. Therefore, the ministers were careful in doing things, and did not dare to let go of their hands to do it, while Chongzhen was suspicious and did not trust anyone, which fell into a strange circle.
Before chongzhen died, he lamented that "all the ministers are mistaken", of course, this sentence is a bit of a sense of shirking responsibility, but it can also be seen from the side that the responsibility of the Manchu Dynasty's minister of culture and military affairs is not small.
After Wei Zhongxian's death, the clique of civilian officials led by the Donglin Party no longer had any opponents. Therefore, they formed a very strong group of representatives, so that Chongzhen often chose to compromise, whether it was taxation, or peace, etc., these ministers, especially the Donglin Party, had a great influence on Chongzhen.
Originally, Chongzhen had a flawed personality, and if there really was a cabinet chief assistant like Zhang Juzheng, it might be better, but Chongzhen was unlucky and encountered empty talk with a mouth full of benevolence and righteousness. On the surface, Chongzhen continued to control the situation, but in fact, the Donglin Party members either directly denied his words, or just listened to him and echoed it.
Therefore, in seventeen years, don't look at Chongzhen is very busy, but in fact, he is blindly busy. I'm afraid that if you give him the same amount of time, the result will be the same.