In Chinese history, Wu Sangui is a very unique existence, he has been loyal to many regimes, the Ming Dynasty left the old and the young hate him to the bone, some anti-Qing organizations in the folk also want to get rid of him quickly, especially after Wu Sangui strangled the Yongli Emperor, his reputation was extremely poor;
The Qianlong Emperor compiled a copy of the Biography of the Second Minister, which is very famous, and it is full of some courtiers who rebelled against the Ming Dynasty and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and Qianlong despised them extremely.
After the Biography of the Second Minister, Qianlong drew a gourd and had people compile a copy of the "Biography of the Contrarian". What is a rebellious subject, Qianlong said: either first through the thief, return to the dynasty, or have already submitted, returned to rebellion, such a person is like a dog, a shameless person, and cannot be called a second minister.
Even the second minister is not worthy, at the lowest end of the chain of contempt, Wu Sangui is the first person in the "Biography of the Contrarian Minister".
From the perspective of future generations, it is really difficult to understand Wu Sangui's choice, so what does Wu Sangui himself think?
Wu Sangui was originally a major minister of Liaodong in the Ming Dynasty, chongzhen was still loyal when he was there, and his uncle Zu Dashou wrote a letter to persuade him to surrender, but he did not pay attention to it, and wanted to return to Beijing to save the car.
However, Dashun Li Zicheng attacked Beijing too quickly, and before Wu Sangui arrived, Chongzhen hanged himself, and more than eighty members of the Wu family were taken hostage by Li Zicheng.
During this period, Wu Sangui was very hesitant, and Li Zicheng sent his good friend Zhang Ruoqi to lobby, and Emperor Taiji personally wrote a letter to persuade him to surrender. Both sides drew in, and Wu Sangui was initially inclined to the Han Chinese, according to the Liu Kou Zhi:
Sangui summoned the soldiers and told them: "If the capital is lost, the first emperor will be buried in heaven, and the three Gui will be blessed by the country, it is advisable to repay the country with death, but if it is not a soldier's strength, it is impossible to break the enemy, so what will we do?" ”。 The soldiers were silent, and there was no answer. Sangui also said: "The king is powerful, Tang Tong and others have surrendered, and my lone army cannot stand on its own." Now that the king's messenger arrives, is it a beheading, or a greeting? The generals replied: Only the general obeys his orders. Sangui was reported to Yu Zicheng and rolled into the Dynasty.
"Sangui received the favor of the country, it is advisable to repay the country with death", Wu Sangui still has Daming in his heart, but the current situation makes him forced to choose Dashun.
He summoned soldiers and horses to return to Beijing, and on the way met the Wu family who had escaped from Beijing, and received news that the Wu family had been severely tortured and that Chen Yuanyuan had been snatched away by Liu Zongmin.
Does this have to be done? Wu Sangui immediately returned to Shanhaiguan, executed Li Zicheng's emissaries and attacked the Tang Tongbu of Dashun.
Such an act was tantamount to Li Zicheng's rupture, and Liu Minzong, an important general of Dashun, led his troops to approach Shanhaiguan. Wu Sangui knew that he could not be an enemy, so he secretly contacted Dolgun: Beg for the words of loyalty and righteousness of the lone minister of the fallen country, join forces with the low capital gate, destroy the exile in the court, and show great righteousness to China, then I will repay the Northern Dynasty, will I only have money? Will split the land in return, do not dare to renege on their word.
At this time, Wu Sangui was still a self-proclaimed "lone minister of the subjugated country", hoping that he would also borrow the Qing soldiers to "destroy the exiles in the palace", and I was very separated from the Northern Dynasty, promising that after the Qing soldiers helped, they could give money to the land. Obviously, this is not a surrender letter, more like a call for help.
Dorgon was also a wise man, and did not mention borrowing or borrowing soldiers at all, but only said that Wu Sangui had surrendered to Qing, his ruling position would not change, and he could still be crowned king.
Wu Sangui was reluctant at this time, but after the first confrontation between a piece of stone and Dashun, one of his troops surrendered to Dashun. Li Zicheng was able to continue to transfuse blood for the Da Shun army, but Wu Sangui's people were walking one less and could not afford to consume, so he finally chose Dolgun.
When Wu Sangui descended to the Qing Dynasty, he and Dolgun ti's conditions were bounded by the Yellow River, the north to the Manchu Qing, the south to the Ming, and the two sides exchanged good relations.
With the qing army joining, the Dashun army was defeated like a mountain, but Wu Sangui, who had entered the pass, was like a changed person, and the original final condition was that a dynasty should be established in the north and south of Middle-earth, and it was reasonable to say that after destroying Li Zicheng, he should support Nanming.
However, after attacking the Southern Ming, Wu Sangui was the main force, and the Yongli Emperor had fled to Burma, and he still did not let go, and finally strangled the last Han emperor with a bow. The greater his contribution to the Manchu Qing, the more it was spurned by the Han chinese.
After the capture of the Yongli Emperor, the situation in the Manchu Qing became more and more stable, and Wu Sangui's use value became smaller and smaller. In the twelfth year of Kangxi, Shang Kexi, the king of Pingnan, asked to return to his hometown for the elderly, which was exactly in line with Kangxi's wishes. Kangxi not only approved The Favorable Request, but also urged the cutting of the domain.
Wu Sangui saw that the situation was not good, and decided to rebel, he called himself "the King of Zhou all over the world to recruit soldiers and horses marshals", so that his subordinates could restore the Han clothes and re-grow their hair.
A more interesting point came, before the incident, he also specially led his troops down to cry to the Yongli Emperor's grave, which was really crying, crying so much that he lay on the ground and could not move, and moved everyone present to the point.
In ancient times, such a thing as starting an army had to have a reason, and Wu Sangui was no exception, he issued the "Anti-Qing Text" to describe the reasons for his military uprising. The original version of this side of the text cannot be seen in the Qing history manuscript, and the collection is also deleted and modified, and it has not escaped the large-scale text prison of the Qianlong period.
Here is the original version of Wu Sangui's anti-Qing Text, which is very long, and there are a few sentences that state the reason for his rebellion:
The town is deeply known as the Ming Dynasty Lord, Tongzhen Shanhaiguan. For a while, Li rebelled against the rebellion, gathered millions of people, ran amok in the world, swirled Kou Jingshi, and suffered the collapse of the Emperor Yi and the Emperor Lie, and it was tragic! ...... Under the whole world, there was no battle for the Righteous Xingshi Qin Wang to beg for thieves, and he was injured! Kokuto is there to speak of? The town lived alone outside the pass, exhausted the soldiers, the tears were dry and bloody, the heartache was silent, had no choice but to make an alliance with blood, Xu Yu was sealed, temporarily borrowed 100,000 Yi soldiers, as a precursor, beheaded into the pass, in order to thank the spirit of the former emperor.
Fortunately, the thief disappeared from the ice, and Qu Kui was given the title, and he was about to choose an heir, and even more inherited the clan and sealed the domain, and cut off the land to Xie Yiren. Unintentionally cunning, so I turned against the heavens and betrayed the alliance, took advantage of my inner weakness, and took advantage of Yan Du, stole my artifact first, and changed my Chinese crown...
The town was bloodied, remorseful, and wanted to rebel against the north, sweeping away the fishy qi, just in time for Zhou, The Second Emperor Tian, the secret eunuch Wang Fengbaoxian, the third prince, was three years old, the thorn stock was a record, the name was entrusted to the orphan, and the clan society was Lai. Gu drank and wept and endured, did not dare to act lightly, took refuge in the poor land for the sake of the reason, raised obscurity, selected generals to train troops, secret map restoration, pillow listened to leaks, bundled horses and stars, sharpened vigilants, and covered for thirty years...
Wu Sangui's meaning is that he originally just wanted to borrow Qingbing to avenge Chongzhen, but he did not expect that Qingbing treacherously stole power, he originally wanted to fight with Qingjun, fortunately found Chongzhen's young child. In order to restore Daming, he could only endure it, this patience was thirty years, and now the strength was enough to continue to fight for Daming.
Therefore, in Wu Sangui's heart, he has not surrendered to the Qing, just for the Sake of the Ming Dynasty and endured humiliation and burden, the reason why he will raise an army, not because he was withdrawn, but feel that after operating in Yunnan for more than ten years, the timing and strength are appropriate.
In early January 1674, Kangxi issued an edict refuting Wu Sangui, which contained many contents that corresponded to this text, so the authenticity was very high.
In addition to the Japanese, there were also many envoys in Korea in China, and their envoys would go back to the king what they had seen and heard in China, and then record it. They also included a letter from Shangshan to Wu Sangui, which was written by Belle Shangshan in order to persuade Wu Sangui to accept it after Wu Sangui raised an army.
There is a sentence in it: When the king was in the Ming Dynasty, he was only a general officer, and the country was not destroyed, but he could ask the soldiers to destroy the thieves in order to restore the enemy of the king, which can be said to be loyal to the Ming Dynasty.
The meaning of Shang Shan's words of appeasement and co-optation is obvious, first of all, the first sentence highlights the difference in identity, which means that you Wu Sangui was also the chief soldier in the Ming Dynasty, and was crowned king in the Qing Dynasty. Daming has been destroyed, you have not yet surrendered, join us Daqing to kill Li Zicheng, help Chongzhen avenge, you are loyal enough.
In terms of interests and morality, Shang Shandu was vaguely praising Wu Sangui, and at the same time, it also showed that Wu Sangui originally joined the Qing Dynasty only to "restore the revenge of the king". Combined with Wu Sangui's "Anti-Qing Texts", it seems that he is really a loyal servant of the Ming Dynasty, so it is no wonder that the Manchu Qing Emperor came to blackmail him like that.
Wu Sangui was really a good hand militarily, and soon after he started his army, he almost ruled with the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and at that time, there were many local power factions that responded to him, and there was really a trend of domination of the world.
However, he suddenly stagnated when the army was in full swing, and Wu Sangui was still proclaimed emperor in Hengzhou, so which Ming was restored? Really intriguing.
Wu Sangui claimed that the emperor died of illness after only five months, ending a highly controversial multi-month life. His successor was far from his ability, so in the end the world was taken by the Qing army that entered the customs.
Personally, I believe that Wu Sangui was not loyal to the Qing Dynasty, and his surrender to the Qing Dynasty may really be just for other purposes, he did things for the Manchu Qing on the one hand so that he would not be destroyed, on the other hand, he was waiting for the opportunity to accumulate strength;
But he was also not loyal to the Ming Dynasty, otherwise he would not have gone to Burma to kill the last Emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty, nor would he have claimed the title of emperor himself.
Wu Sangui's true loyalty was himself, but the price of this loyalty was too great.