In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, the gradual rise of the Later Jin Dynasty in the north and the frequent peasant uprisings that broke out across the country brought the already decaying dynasty to the abyss of collapse. However, just as the so-called "heroes of the chaotic world" were, there were indeed many famous generals emerging at that time, including Zuo Liangyu, whom we are going to talk about today. As a famous general who once defeated Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, he made great achievements in battle, but he supported the army and respected himself, sat back and watched the fall of the Ming Dynasty, and later even raised troops to "Qing Jun's side", which is difficult to evaluate.
In the twenty-seventh year of the Ming Dynasty (1599), Zuo Liangyu was born in Linqing Prefecture, Dongchang Province, which is now Linqing City, Shandong Province. Regarding his early experience, there is no record in the History of Ming, only that he lost his father at an early age and was raised by his uncle. When he grew up, Zuo Liangyu was tall and had a red face, and although he was illiterate, he was brave and good at fighting, could open his bow left and right, and had outstanding wisdom and pacifying soldiers, so he gradually became the right camp of Liaodong Che.
However, due to the involvement of the Ningyuan Guard Rebellion that broke out in the first year of Chongzhen (1628), Zuo Liangyu was tragically removed from his post. Two years later, Zuo Liangyu was reinstated and sent by Ma Shilong of the "Prime Minister Zhulu Qinwang Army" to accompany the guerrilla general Cao Wenzhao to engage the Qing army. In the fourth year of Chongzhen (1631), the Qing army attacked the Daling River, and you Shiwei, the commander-in-chief of shanhai, could not send troops because he wanted to guard the imperial tomb, so he sent Zuo Liangyu to lead the army to support.
In the ensuing battle, Zuo Liangyu played well, and the merit ranked first. The following year, when the peasant rebel army invaded Henan with the intention of occupying Huaiqing, Zuo Liangyu went to Pingding on the orders of the imperial court and was stationed at the junction of Henan and Shanxi under the arrangement of Fan Shangxuan, the governor of Henan, so that he could support everywhere at any time. In the following years, Zuo Liangyu had been fighting against the peasant army in the Central Plains, and while quelling the chaos everywhere, he had also been waiting for an opportunity to recruit troops and develop his own forces.
After accumulating a certain amount of strength, the self-satisfied Zuo Liangyu even began to despise the dispatches from his superiors, often deliberately obeying orders on time. In the eighth year of Chongzhen (1635), the rebel army attacked Yingzhou and other places, destroying the Ming Ancestral Mausoleum in Fengyang, when Zuo Liangyu was stationed in Xuzhou, not far away, but did not come to the rescue. Later, Zhang Guowei, the Inspector of YingTian, ordered Zuo Liangyu to go to Chuzhou and hezhou three times to quell the rebellion in the mountains around Chuzhou and Hezhou, but Zuo Liangyu not only did not obey the order, but also connived with his soldiers to rob women.
#Zhang Xianzhong #In the first month of the eleventh year of Chongzhen (1638), Zuo Liangyu encountered Zhang Xianzhong, the leader of the peasant army, in battle. During the battle, he shot two arrows in a row, hitting Zhang Xianzhong in the shoulder, and then wielding a knife to attack, almost killing him on the spot. Soon after, Zhang Xianzhong wrote a letter asking for surrender, and Xiong Wencan, who was then the prime minister of henan, Shanxi, and other places, insisted on accepting it despite Zuo Liangyu's objections. More than a year later, Zhang Xianzhong did betray, and Zuo Liangyu went to pursue, but he encountered an ambush and lost his troops.
In the thirteenth year of Chongzhen (1640), the overseer Yang Sichang recommended to the imperial court: "Although Liangyu is defeated, there are great generals and talents, and soldiers can also be used." Therefore, the imperial court made him a general of the Ping Thief. After receiving the imperial court's canonization, Zuo Liangyu was even more blind, and even unwilling to obey Yang Sichang, who had the grace of recommendation. On the other hand, at that time, He Renlong had made many military achievements, so Yang Sichang privately promised He Renlong to replace Zuo Liangyu as the new Ping Thief General.
However, with Zuo Liangyu's great achievements in the ensuing Battle of Agate Mountain, Yang Sichang had to inform He Renlong to plan for a long time. He Renlong was very dissatisfied with Yang Sichang's words and did not believe it, so he directly informed Zuo Liangyu of the matter as it was. Since then, Zuo Liangyu has also been very dissatisfied with Yang Sichang. As a result, in the subsequent battles, Yang Sichang sent nine requests for Zuo Liangyu to join forces with him to attack the peasant army, but Zuo Liangyu did not react at all; three times He Renlong asked He Renlong to meet his division, and He Renlong always remained still.
In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen (1641), Yang Sichang, who was difficult to support alone, died of panic after hearing that Zhang Xianzhongshun had successfully captured Xiangyang. The following year, Zuo Liangyu was defeated by Li Zicheng at Zhuxian Town, and since then he has continued to retreat to avoid battle, and even once waited for the situation at Jiujiang Tun 200,000 troops. In March of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), the imperial court crowned Zuo Liangyu as Ning Nanbo, and also gave the great seal of the general Ping Thief to his son Zuo Menggeng. Also in March, Li Zicheng led an army into Beijing, and the Ming Dynasty was declared extinct.
Soon, Zhu Yousong, the Prince of Fu, took the throne in Nanjing with the support of his courtiers and established the Hongguang regime, while Zuo Liangyu, who had watched the ming dynasty perish, blockaded the Yangtze River with ships and did not allow the generals to propose to annex it. Zhu Yousong was well aware of Zuo Liangyu's strength, so he first promoted him to hou, and then crowned one of his sons as Jinyi Weizheng Qianhu, and entrusted him with full authority over the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Soon after, Zuo Liangyu took advantage of Li Zicheng's defeat at Shanhaiguan to retake Jingzhou, De'an and other places, with 800,000 troops, and had friendly relations with He Tengjiao, the governor of Huguang, and the governor Yuan Jixian, and his power was quite stable.
However, at this time, Zuo Liangyu's elite on the one hand lost all of his elite to several fierce battles with Li Zicheng, on the other hand, he was gradually getting old and weak, and in fact he could already be called a "paper tiger" in the middle of the external strength. Previously, Zuo Liangyu had been recommended by Hou Ke, a member of the Donglin Party, and Ma Shiying, Ruan Dacheng, and others in power in the Hongguang regime vigorously rejected the Donglin Party, fearing that the Donglin Party would unite with Zuo Liangyu to be unfavorable to them, so they had always been very wary of him.
In the second year of Shunzhi (1645), Zuo Liangyu went down the Yangtze River under the banner of "Qing Jun's Side", intending to get rid of Ma Shiying and others who had squeezed him, but not long after he set out, he died on the way. After Zuo Liangyu's death, his subordinates jointly elected his son Zuo Menggeng as the main force, and Zuo Menggeng surrendered to the Qing Dynasty in line with the general trend shortly after.
Objectively speaking, Zuo Liangyu has the ability and merit, but also has a conceited personality and no small ambition. As a general, he repeatedly made military achievements, indicating that his strength was not bad, but at the same time he did not obey the imperial court, and did not go to assist the Hongguang regime after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, which showed that he was not loyal. After the defeat of Zhu Xianzhen, he did not dare to fight Li Zicheng again, which showed that he was not brave. In that turbulent era, Zuo Liangyu had neither the ambition of KuangFu Sheji nor the ambition to dominate the world, but in the final analysis, he was actually just a selfish and proud mortal.