Li Zicheng, as the leader of the peasant rebellion at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the gravedigger of the Ming Dynasty, can be described as a great name in history. However, Li Zifu could build a new dynasty like Zhu Yuanzhang. However, due to his short-sightedness, lack of foresight and pattern, a riot of operations caused the meat in hand to fly away. Eventually, under the pressure of the Qing army, he had to withdraw from Beijing.
Dorgon led the Qing army into Beijing, but in fact only achieved a stage victory.
At that time, the peasant army led by Zhang Xianzhong unified Sichuan and established the Daxi regime. The remnants of the Ming Dynasty established the Hongguang Small Imperial Court in Nanjing, and also ruled the richest region of Jiangnan. There were also many smaller peasant rebels operating around. For Dorgon, the situation is not optimistic.
For Mr. Li, quitting Beijing is not a failure. If you can reorganize the team, make full use of the strength of the rebel armies everywhere, and unite against the Qing army, not to mention the victory in hand, the chance of victory is also very large.
However, after Li Zicheng withdrew from Beijing, in front of the Qing army, he was defeated again and again, and never rose again.
On the side of the Qing army, after Dorgon entered Beijing, he sent a funeral for the Ming Chongzhen Emperor Zhu You, in order to win the favor of the Han gentry and reduce resistance. Then he took the young Shunzhi Emperor to Beijing to ascend the throne, declared his rule, and quickly stabilized the situation in Beijing.
Dorgon regarded Li Zicheng as the greatest threat and decided to concentrate his superior forces to eliminate Li Zicheng.
Dorgon, a man, was a rare military man and politician. Seeing that the peasant army lacked a strong unified command, he adopted the strategy of "suppressing and using it at the same time." For some small forces, they first appeased the leaders of the peasant army and made a wish to the leaders of the peasant army. This trick was very clever, and many small forces surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. In order to stabilize the small court of Hongguang, Dorgon sent a large number of Ming officials who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty to the Southern Ming to solicit and persuade them to surrender. He also personally wrote to Shi Kefa of the Southern Ming Dynasty, saying that as long as the Southern Ming returned to the Qing Dynasty and removed the title of emperor, the Great Qing could guarantee you "Yong Sui Fulu".
The small court of Hongguang thought that Dolgun was sincere in negotiating, so he sent a negotiating team led by Zuo Maodi to Beijing to carry out negotiations. As a result, as soon as he arrived in Beijing, he was ordered to be placed under house arrest by Dolgun, and he did not talk about it or give a clear answer.
On the other side, Dorgon sent a large army to vigorously pursue Li Zicheng. Dorgon successively sent Ye Chen, Shi Tingzhu, Bahana, Ma Guozhu, Wu Weihua and other generals to attack Shanxi, and in October captured Taiyuan and then besieged Shaanxi. Dorgon ordered Azig to pursue Li Zicheng's army, while Dorg went south to contain Nanming. Under the pursuit of the Qing army, Li Zicheng had no power to fight back and fled all the way. In December of the first year of Shunzhi (1644), Azig led the Qing army to attack Tongguan. Li Zicheng led the remnants to meet the enemy, and the two sides engaged in a fierce battle. By the end of December, Li Zicheng was out of strength, avoided battle and moved to Hubei, and Tongguan was breached by the Qing army. Li Zicheng announced that he would attack Nanjing.
In April of the second year of Shunzhi, Li Zicheng entered Wuchang, and the Qing army pursued it relentlessly, and the two sides fought fiercely in Wuchang. Li Zicheng's army was defeated, and Li Zicheng was forced to move into Jiangxi. In May, the Qing army pursued Jiangxi and besieged the remnants of Li Zicheng's army. Li Zicheng was at the end of his rope, defeated and killed.
Although Li Zicheng led a large-scale peasant uprising, he eventually invaded Beijing and destroyed the Ming Dynasty. However, Li Zicheng was short-sighted, there were not many readers in his ranks, and the think tanks were all peasants and low-level officials who were similar to him. This doomed this peasant uprising to no greater victory. If Li Zicheng could stabilize the people's hearts and unite all forces after entering Beijing, then the Qing army would not have entered the customs so easily. Even if, after his defeat and retreat, he could resolve his pain and unite with other peasant rebel armies to form a superior force, he would not be so defeated.
Unfortunately, Li Zicheng is only a wave in the long river of history and has not changed the direction of history.
How did Li Zicheng die? There are many sayings.
In his report to Dorgon, Azig said that Li Zicheng was cornered and carried twenty foot soldiers with him, and during the escape, the villagers thought they were mountain thieves and surrounded them, and Li Zicheng could not escape, "so he hanged himself." This is the official authoritative statement, which has been adopted by many history books. This is the most credible one.
In addition to the suicide theory, there are many theories about Li Zicheng's death, such as the theory of death in battle, the theory of manslaughter, etc., and there are some secret stories of wild history that Li Zicheng actually did not die, but secretly escaped, shaved his hair and became a monk, and lived in seclusion in the Jiashan Temple in Shimen, Hunan. However, this claim is not credible. Because Li Zicheng was a big problem for Dorgon's confidant, if he didn't die, how could Dolgun be willing? Dorgon read Azig's report and believed that Li Zicheng was dead, so he stopped pursuing it. As for how he died, it didn't matter to Dolgun.
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