Li Zicheng revolted against the tyranny of the Ming rulers. He led a peasant revolt at the end of the Ming Dynasty, established his own Dashun regime, named yongchang, and overthrew the Ming regime, but he was expelled from the imperial city in just 42 days. What is the reason?
Chongzhen, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was actually a good emperor. During his reign, he straightened out the imperial program and cracked down on corrupt officials, but the end of the Ming Dynasty was a mess. Natural disasters, man-made disasters and natural disasters occur together. Finally, the Chongzhen Emperor felt that he did not have the face to see his ancestors, so he covered his face with a handkerchief and hung.
At this time, king Chuang, who led the peasant revolt, led his army into Beijing. After King Chuang ascended the throne in Beijing, his life was very luxurious. He was a farmer and didn't have a long-term plan. After he became emperor, he ate a lot of delicious food every day. Li Zicheng is said to have 130,000 elite soldiers, but when he became emperor, he indulged them in burning, killing and looting, beating and torturing officials left over from the Ming Dynasty, and unexpectedly took more than 70 million taels of silver from these former officials.
Li Zicheng's actions after becoming emperor were no different from those of a murderous tyrant, and soon caused public outrage. Initially, Li Zicheng and Wu Sangui reached a consensus to fight the Qing army, but they robbed Wu Sangui's concubine Chen Yuanyuan and tied up his old father, which made Wu Sangui very angry. In the end, they became angry with the Qing army and defeated the famous king Li Zicheng. Li Zicheng eventually died at Jiugong Mountain in Hubei Province.
His tragedy shows that the character and vision of the peasant class itself have certain limitations that cannot be matched by those who look at the world. When he became emperor, Li Zicheng forgot his roots, forgot why he led the people's uprising, forgot that he was a man who was very concerned about the people's lives and frugality before he became emperor, forgot that people described themselves as a king who did not like to be cool, became a person he once hated, and after only 42 days in power, finally became a ghost under the sword of the enemy, which was sad and hateful.
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