Chongzhen was a tragic emperor, because he had a heart to revive the country's might, but there was no way to give full play to it, the official environment of the Ming Dynasty completely shackled Chongzhen's ambitions, and in the end he could only hang himself on the coal mountain and die; Chongzhen was a conceited emperor, because whether it was Wei Zhongxian, yuan Chonghuan and others, he was killed by him, so that no one could use it; Chongzhen was still a lonely emperor, because when the Ming Dynasty was about to fall, no one was willing to fight for him.
Originally, when Li Zicheng had not yet completely invaded Beijing, the Chongzhen Emperor had entrusted Zuo Liangyu with the heavy responsibility, hoping that he could lead his 800,000 troops to assist Chongzhen, but after Zuo Liangyu received the order, he was always reluctant to support Chongzhen.
Death of Chongzhen
In March of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Chongzhen felt that the Ming Dynasty was almost out of the blue, and Li Zicheng's peasant army took advantage of the victory to pursue and had almost completely taken the capital, Chongzhen was almost unable to hold on, at this time he hoped that there would be a capable cadre to support himself in the future and protect the Ming Dynasty's Jiangshan Sheji.
When he looked around, he found that he had almost no one to use, and finally could only pin his hopes on Zuo Liangyu's father and son, so Chongzhen sealed Zuo Liangyu as Ning Nanbo, and also gave the Great Seal of ping thief to Zuo Liangyu's only son Zuo Menggeng, hoping that the father and son could enter the King of Jingqin, control Li Zicheng, and prevent the demise of Daming.
After receiving the order, Zuo Liangyu's father and son were reluctant to send troops, and later Chongzhen had no way, and specially arranged for Zuo Maodi to urge Zuo Liangyu's father and son to send troops to fight, but they still had no intention of sending troops. In this way, time flew by, and by March 19, Li Zicheng had already hit chongzhen's palace, and it was almost impossible to change anything at this time.
Chongzhen gave his daughter to death in despair, then killed his son, gave his wife Bai Aya to let him cut himself off, and finally he also desperately hung himself on the coal mountain, ending his short life, Chongzhen's death, which means that the Ming Dynasty was also completely destroyed, although there was still a small political power established by the Ming Dynasty, but it was basically impossible to revive the glory.
It is said that at that time, Zuo Liangyu had an army of 800,000 in his hands, and he was fully powerful and comparable to Li Zicheng, so why was Zuo Liangyu always reluctant to send troops and watch Chongzhen die like this?
Why was Zuo Liangyu reluctant to send troops
A person is unwilling to do a thing, no matter how complicated the reasons and historical background, in the end, can be simply summarized into two reasons, one is not able to do this thing, the other is not willing to do this thing, there is no doubt that Zuo Liangyu is not willing to send troops, and he cannot escape these two reasons.
Let's first analyze the first reason, although Zuo Liangyu had an army of 800,000 at that time, in fact, after the Battle of Zhuxian Town, the strength of Zuo Liangyu's army was greatly reduced, at least most of the elite in the army, in the Battle of Zhuxian Town, had already been sacrificed almost.
Later, although Zuo Liangyu's army also quickly recovered the number of soldiers in a short period of time, most of these soldiers were taken by force by them, and there was no combat effectiveness in terms of combat effectiveness, and there was no loyalty to Zuo Liangyu and the Ming Dynasty.
In such a situation of strength, Zuo Liangyu, as the head of the army, was not afraid of the sky on the surface, bluffing that he had an army of 800,000 people, but if the real gun came into real combat, Zuo Liangyu would be instigated in an instant, because he himself knew the strength of his army best, and wanted to resist Li Zicheng's million peasant army, the odds of victory were too small, instead of holding this hope of close to zero to fight for Chongzhen, Zuo Liangyu had better preserve his strength and seek a way to live for himself in the future.
Of course, the objective reason analyzed above is that Zuo Liangyu's army is insufficient, which is indeed an important reason, but it is not the main reason, because victory or not is a problem of strength, whether or not to send troops is a problem of attitude, Zuo Liangyu did not send troops, and more reasons are that he does not want to send troops.
Zuo Liangyu had already had a disagreement with Chongzhen and the Ming Dynasty before Li Zicheng invaded Beijing, he had long been disappointed in Chongzhen and did not want to make unnecessary sacrifices, and the reason why he would be disappointed in Chongzhen was that on the one hand, Zuo Liangyu had ambitions at this time, and on the other hand, Chongzhen's consistent style of doing things was indeed easier to offend others.
Zuo Liangyu had a Bole Yang Sichang, at first Zuo Liangyu was able to grow up rapidly, relying on Yang Sichang's promotion, but after Zuo Liangyu became bigger and stronger, his ambitions also increased, and later Chongzhen planned to let Yang Sichang take over his army in place of Zuo Liangyu, Zuo Liangyu therefore held a grudge against both Yang Sichang and Chongzhen, and finally watched Yang Sichang being defeated by Zhang Xianzhong and killed alive, zuo Liangyu was unwilling to help.
After Yang Sichang's death, Chongzhen of course also punished Zuo Liangyu, that is, this punishment deepened Zuo Liangyu's hatred for Chongzhen, and later when Chongzhen restarted Zuo Liangyu, he was already disappointed in Chongzhen, and only wanted to take the opportunity to develop his own power, and did not want to continue to fight for Chongzhen, so when Chongzhen ordered him to support himself, Zuo Liangyu turned a deaf ear and stood by.
Is Zuo Liangyu a loyal subject?
Through the above analysis of some of Zuo Liangyu's style of conduct, I think the answer to the question of whether Zuo Liangyu is a loyal subject is already very obvious, the so-called loyal subject, that is, always loyal to the emperor, without any reason or reason to obey the emperor's orders.
Zuo Liangyu was obviously not such a person, not only did he disobey Chongzhen's orders, but he was even less loyal to Chongzhen as a person, and in the midst of danger, he considered more about his own interests than Chongzhen's interests, and it was really a bit ridiculous to say that he was a loyal subject.
In fact, in the long river of history, there are many loyal subjects, such as Yue Fei in the Southern Song Dynasty, who knew that Emperor Gaozong of Song wanted to be unfavorable to himself, and he still insisted on obeying Zhao Shuo's orders and returning to the Southern Song Court to accept unfair treatment, which can be regarded as loyal subjects.
Such as Zuo Liangyu, who supported the army and respected himself, watched the emperor go desperate, but sat idly by the courtiers, no matter in what sense, they were not loyal subjects, of course, some people said that Zuo Liangyu was also forced at that time, I dare not comment too much on this.
epilogue
Chongzhen's final outcome, from an objective and rational point of view, in fact, can not all blame Zuo Liangyu for not supporting him, because according to the strength situation at that time, even if Zuo Liangyu supported Chongzhen, it would not necessarily have any effect, besides, with Chongzhen's level and personality, even if li Zicheng was defeated, the Ming Dynasty would be defeated by thousands of other Li Zicheng, all this is only a matter of time sooner or later!
Remarks: The picture comes from the Internet, infringement must be deleted, welcome to comment to leave interesting ideas.