The Ming Dynasty lasted a total of 276 years and produced a total of sixteen emperors.
During Zhu Youguan's succession, at a time of turmoil and chaos in the world, Li Zicheng, the leader of the peasant revolt, led a large army into Beijing, and in order to confront Li Zicheng, the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian repeatedly asked Zuo Liangyu, who had 800,000 heavy troops, for help, but Zuo Liangyu did not obey Zhu Youjian's orders.
In 1644, Li Zicheng broke into the city, and the desperate Zhu Youjian came to Coal Mountain, and finally chose to end his life in this place.
Zhu Youjian's death represented the collapse of the Ming Dynasty, and Zuo Liangyu, who learned of this news, cried out in pain, and even wept and vomited blood.
In the late Ming Dynasty, the wind and rain were fluctuating
In 1611, Emperor Mingguangzong's fifth child was born, and when he reached the age of eleven, Emperor Mingxi made him the King of Letters, and he was Zhu Youjian.
In 1625, the then emperor Ming Xizong accidentally fell into the water while swimming in the lake, and almost died, although after the rescue of the doctors, Ming XiZong recovered a life, but the fall into the water brought a great psychological shadow to Ming XiZong.
Ming XiZong could not afford to be ill, the hospital was helpless, and later a person named Huo Weihua presented Ming Xi Zong with a kind of "immortal medicine", Ming Xi Zong felt that it was delicious and sweet and very delicious, so he drank it every day, but this so-called "immortal medicine" was just a scam, and Ming Xi Zong also deepened the root of the disease, and finally could only lie in bed, almost incapacitated.
By 1627, Emperor Mingxi felt that his time was running out, and he had to hurry up and solve the problem of candidates for succession.
However, Emperor Mingxi was childless, so the succession could only be placed among his brothers.
Among all the younger brothers of Emperor Mingxi, he liked and trusted Zhu Youjian the most, so he summoned Zhu Youjian and told him about his decision to pass the throne to Zhu Youjian.
After Zhu Youjian listened, he was deeply moved and prostrated to Ming Xizong on the spot.
The next day, Zhu Youjian summoned his cabinet ministers and others and said, "It has been decided to pass the throne to Zhu Youjian, the Prince of Letters. ”
The ministers quickly knelt down and echoed, "This is a very good move. ”
On September 19 of the same year, Emperor Mingxi died of illness, and on October 2, at the age of seventeen, Zhu Youjian ascended the throne as emperor and changed his era name to "Chongzhen".
When Zhu Youjian succeeded to the throne, the Ming Dynasty was already in a precarious situation, because several previous emperors favored eunuchs, causing eunuchs to only cover the sky with their powers, so the first thing that Zhu Youjian did after he ascended the throne was to clean up these castrated parties that were causing chaos in the government.
The leader of these castrated parties was undoubtedly Wei Zhongxian, who at that time had enough power in his hands to call him "Emperor Li".
The meaning of emperor is that Ming Xizong, who favored Wei Zhongxian at that time, was a "sitting emperor", and Wei Zhongxian was a "standing emperor", in addition, Wei Zhongxian was also called "nine thousand years old", and it is conceivable how wide the scope of his power was.
According to historical records, Wei Zhongxian was not only the viceroy of Dongchang, but also the eunuch of Si Li, but Emperor Mingxi felt that these honors were not enough, so he also gave Wei Zhongxian the seal of "Gu Ming Yuanchen".
At that time, in addition to giving the emperor five worships and three audit heads, even in front of the statue of Wei Zhongxian, the civil and military officials also had to perform five prayers and three heads.
Zhu Youjian hated the eunuch's behavior, but after the death of Emperor Mingxizong, Wei Zhongxian also lost his greatest patron.
Wei Zhongxian's forces were entangled in the imperial court, and it was not an easy and simple thing to uproot in one breath, so Zhu Youjian first started with Wei Zhongxian's left and right arms, and he used thunderous means to eliminate Wei Zhongxian's wings, thus leaving Wei Zhongxian in a situation of being alone.
Wei Zhongxian knew that Zhu Youjian's attitude towards himself was not as amiable as that of Emperor Mingxizong, and he felt afraid for the first time in his life.
In order to survive, Wei Zhongxian bought another eunuch, Xu Yingyuan, who was Zhu Youjian's personal eunuch, and he hoped that Xu Yingyuan would be able to say a few kind words for him in front of Zhu Youjian.
Xu Yingyuan went to persuade Zhu Youjian to let Wei Zhongxian go.
However, Zhu Youjian was not at all moved, and eradicating the castration party was his lifelong wish, and naturally it was impossible to easily shake it because others said a word or two.
Zhu Youjian scolded Xu Yingyuan, who helped Wei Zhongxian speak, and in a fit of rage, he ordered people to demolish all the ancestral halls that had been built for Wei Zhongxian before, and to fill the money sold after demolition into Liao.
In November, Zhu Youjian, who had been secretive, finally ordered Wei Zhongxian to be expelled from Fengyang, but before Wei Zhongxian and his party could reach Fengyang, Zhu Youjian's second order followed.
Wei Zhongxian knew that Zhu Youjian was going to attack him, and he did not want to fall into the hands of Jinyiwei, so he simply drank until the middle of the night, and then hanged himself, ending his life as a eunuch.
When Zhu Youjian learned of Wei Zhongxian's death, he was not moved, but continued to eliminate the remaining forces of Wei Zhongxian.
Then the officials who were deposed because of Wei Zhongxian's rumors were also reactivated by Zhu Youjian, including Yuan Chonghuan.
In addition to Yuan Chonghuan, during the Chongzhen years of Zhu Youjian's reign, there were actually many famous generals, and Zuo Liangyu was one of them.
Grand Admiral Zuo Liangyu
Zuo Liangyu was born in 1599, that is, the year, his father died, so Zuo Liangyu was raised by his uncle.
Although he had not read a few years of books, and he did not recognize many large characters, he was very good at riding and shooting, and he was proficient in military strategy, and he was very sympathetic to his subordinates, so Zuo Liangyu was quite popular with the military.
In the first year of Zhu Youjian's ascension to the throne, that is, in the first year of Chongzhen, Ningyuanwei, located in Liaoning Province, suddenly had a big mutiny, and the inspector at that time was named Bi Zisu, who was a man with a strong personality, because he could not curb the mutiny, which caused Bi Zisu to be angry and eventually died of hunger strike.
Bi Zisu's death caused Zuo Liangyu to lose his official position, and he did not reinstate him until Chongzhen was three years old.
During Zhu Youjian's reign, there were constant disasters and minor disasters, first a major drought in the north, and the people were not happy; then there was a famine and locust plague, and many people starved to death because they did not have enough to eat.
Most importantly, the Ming Dynasty at that time, not only natural disasters, but also man-made disasters, in 1631, the Qing army suddenly broke into the Daling River and other places, but the chief soldier You Shiwei was unable to send troops to meet the enemy because of the reason of guarding the imperial tomb, he thought about it, and suddenly felt that there was a candidate who was very reliable, he was Zuo Liangyu.
So Yu Shiwei found Zuo Liangyu and said to him, "You take the place of me and lead the troops to attack the Qing army." ”
Zuo Liangyu did not say a word and immediately set off, Zuo Liangyu played an outstanding performance in this contest with the Qing army, and the merit ranked first.
In addition to fighting against the Qing army, the Ming Dynasty also had to quell the peasant uprisings that occurred throughout the country, starting from the first year of Chongzhen to the third year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong and others formed peasant rebel armies.
In 1632, when the peasant rebel army in Shaanxi invaded Henan, Zuo Liangyu received an order from the imperial court to go to Henan to quell the uprising.
Zuo Liangyu was indeed very talented in leading his troops to fight, and he quickly completed his mission and captured many peasant rebels.
Zuo Liangyu's excellent performance allowed him to be recommended by many people, including a Henan inspector named Fan Shangxuan, who admired Zuo Liangyu very much, and wrote to Zhu Youjian for Zuo Liangyu: "There is a candidate for the minister, who can let him garrison Zezhou. ”
When Zhu Yujian heard this, he was immediately interested and asked, "Oh? Who is this man? ”
The Inspector of Henan said, "Zuo Liangyu." ”
Zhu Youjian also felt that Zuo Liangyu was indeed a usable talent, so he agreed to come down.
In the winter of 1633, the peasant rebel army happened to be in its heyday, and the army led by Zuo Liangyu and others and the peasant army clashed many times, and the two sides had several victories and defeats.
In the battle against the peasant army, Zuo Liangyu made many meritorious achievements, but his official position was not high, at this time Li Jizhen was afraid that these soldiers who were working for the country would be dissatisfied, so he said to Zhu Youjian: "Zuo Liangyu and others are fighting to the death on the front line, but their official positions are below the general soldiers, so I am afraid that this will hurt their hearts." ”
Zhu Youjian felt that it was very reasonable, so he promoted Zuo Liangyu to be the governor of the capital.
However, Zhu Youjian appointed a eunuch overseer at this time, and he was Yang Jinchao.
A eunuch became an overseer, which made Zuo Liangyu feel unhappy, and this unhappiness directly affected Zuo Liangyu's mentality of facing the enemy.
In 1634, Zuo Liangyu had a dispute with the then Governor of Huaiqing, who wanted to continue to lead his troops to kill the enemy, but Zuo Liangyu had a negative mentality, and he took in many surrendered peasant army generals, and did not continue to hunt down the peasant army, which also gave the peasant army a long rest time.
Zuo Liangyu continued to expand his power and troops, and as time went on, he became more and more proud and complacent, and showed an attitude of self-respect for the soldiers, and several times the overseer wanted to recruit his army, but Zuo Liangyu never applied for the army on time, and he always dragged on for several days before lazily leaving.
By 1636, the Ming Dynasty was already in a situation of internal and external troubles, Zuo Liangyu and Tang Jiuzhou joined forces to encircle and suppress the peasant army, but Zuo Liangyu escaped halfway, resulting in Tang Jiuzhou, although he took advantage of the victory to pursue, but because there was no reinforcement forced into a situation of isolation and helplessness, and was finally defeated by the peasant army.
Tang Jiuzhou was killed, but Zuo Liangyu reported this news to the imperial court as a good news, and at this time, Zuo Liangyu became increasingly arrogant and gradually stopped obeying the orders of the imperial court.
His self-respecting behavior of supporting soldiers also caused dissatisfaction among many people, and Yang Shengwu took the opportunity to impeach Zuo Liangyu on the grounds that he "avoided the enemy and passively responded to the battle.", Zhu Youjian also deeply believed it, and ordered Zuo Liangyu to make meritorious atonement.
However, after receiving the order, Zuo Liangyu was greatly disdainful.
Zhang Guowei, the head of the army, gave Zuo Liangyu three orders to go into the mountains to encircle and suppress him, but Zuo Liangyu took it all as the wind in his ears, and he not only did not obey the orders, but also connived with his men to do a lot of bad things in the local area.
The peasant army attacked several times, zuo Liangyu all sat idly by, and when the peasant army wanted to attack Liuhe and other places, Zuo Liangyu said: "If you want me to go to the rescue, the gentry of your central state need to write a joint letter, and I will consider it." ”
After Zhu Youjian learned of Zuo Liangyu's behavior, he could do nothing about him.
In 1638, Zuo Liangyu met Zhang Xianzhong, one of the leaders of the peasant army, and when Zhang Xianzhong saw Zuo Liangyu, he cried out in his heart: "Things are not good! ”
Immediately, he quickly got on his horse and fled, Zuo Liangyu reacted quickly, and also rode to catch up.
Zuo Liangyu was good at riding and shooting, he shot two arrows at Zhang Xianzhong, hitting him in the shoulder, Zhang Xianzhong roared in pain, but he did not have time to react, Zuo Liangyu made up a knife fiercely, if it were not for Zhang Xianzhong's subordinates coming to the rescue in time, he was afraid that Zhang Xianzhong would die on the spot.
In 1640, because of this outstanding campaign, Zhu Youjian sent Zuo Liangyu to the general Bai Ping Thief, and later because of the defeat of Zhang Xianzhong, Zuo Liangyu was given the title of Prince Shaobao.
Li Zicheng's army approached the city, Zuo Liangyu refused to send troops, and the Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself
Because of Zuo Liangyu's self-respecting behavior, an overseer named Yang Sichang had a lot of dissatisfaction with Zuo Liangyu, and he said to He Renlong: "Maybe one day, you can replace Zuo Liangyu and become a general of the Ping Thief." ”
Unexpectedly, before He Renlong replaced Zuo Liangyu, Zuo Liangyu, who was fighting on the front line, sent news of the great victory, so Yang Sichang suddenly changed his face and said to He Renlong: "Don't mention this matter again in the future." ”
He Renlong felt that he was being teased by Yang Sichang, and he was immediately indignant, in order to retaliate against Yang Sichang, he simply found Zuo Liangyu and said to Zuo Liangyu: "Yang Sichang has long been unaccustomed to you, and he has long wanted me to take your place." ”
After listening to He Renlong's provocation, Zuo Liangyu was extremely angry, and in the later battle with the peasant army in Sichuan and Shaanxi, Zuo Liangyu ignored Yang Sichang's orders, and he gave Zuo Liangyu nine edicts, and Zuo Liangyu sat idly by.
Zuo Liangyu's arrogant attitude naturally attracted the attention of Zhu Youjian, in the army at that time, Zuo Liangyu's strength was the strongest, and he was very brave and strategic, and his merits were very high, if Zuo Liangyu did not listen to the call, it would cause the Ming Dynasty to fall into a deeper crisis.
Zhu Youjian was furious and ordered Zuo Liangyu's official position to be stripped, and Zuo Liangyu was even more indignant in his heart, and he also ignored Zhu Youjian's orders.
In 1642, Li Zicheng, the leader of another peasant rebel army, was in a menacing manner, but at this time, there were not many generals that Zhu Youjian could use, and in order to appease Zuo Liangyu and reward the soldiers who worked for the country, Zhu Youjian specially allocated 150,000 taels to boost morale.
However, Zuo Liangyu had fought with Li Zicheng several times, and knew that Li Zicheng was a brave and strategic person, but he was a very difficult opponent.
The two generals met at Zhu Xian Town, and Li Zicheng defeated Zuo Liangyu with a broken bamboo, and Zuo Liangyu had no choice but to retreat to Xiangyang.
Zuo Liangyu retreated to Xiangyang, Li Zicheng chased after Xiangyang, and zuo Liangyu retreated to Wuchang in desperation.
Zhu Youjian knew that Zuo Liangyu had hidden in Xiangyang and ordered him to lead his troops to meet with Hou Gong, but no matter what Zhu Youjian ordered him, Zuo Liangyu refused to send troops.
This incident greatly angered Zhu Youjian, and he directly dismissed Hou Ke from his official position in a fit of anger, but Zuo Liangyu had hundreds of thousands of soldiers in his hands, and Zhu Youjian still had to rely on him to fight, and he could only endure Zuo Liangyu's behavior.
After Zuo Liangyu came to Wuchang, he asked the King of Wuchang chu for 200,000 yuan in military pay, but the king of Chu did not give Zuo Liangyu anything, and Zuo Liangyu was indignant and simply started a bandit business, burning and looting without evil.
Later, Zhang Xianzhong caught the King of Chu and wanted to drown the King of Chu in the lake, Zuo Liangyu learned of this news, and did not go to the rescue, but looked at it coldly.
Zuo Liangyu's army had many surrendered soldiers, and this group of people did all kinds of bad things in Zuo Liangyu's name, and after this matter was returned to the imperial court, more and more people impeached Zuo Liangyu for Zhu Youjian, and Zhu Youjian said to Zuo Liangyu: "I want you to kill Wang Yuncheng." ”
Wang Yuncheng was the leader of the rebels at that time, but after listening to Zhu Youjian's orders, Zuo Liangyu was still unmoved, and he not only did not kill Wang Yuncheng, but also allowed Wang Yuncheng to stay in his troops.
Because of Hou Ke's dismissal from his official post, Zuo Liangyu was already dissatisfied with Zhu Youjian, and it happened that Zhu Youjian put Hou Youjian in a big prison, and after knowing this, Zuo Liangyu watched the thieves invade Jianchang, but did not rescue him.
By 1644, Zuo Liangyu had repeatedly disobeyed the orders of the imperial court to send troops to rescue, and the orders of the imperial court were naturally Zhu Youjian's orders.
In order to let Zuo Liangyu continue to serve the imperial court, Zhu Youjian made Zuo Liangyu the son of Ning Nanbo, and passed on his Seal of ping thief general to Zuo Liangyu's son Zuo Menggeng, and also promised: "When everything is over, I will let you father and son guard Wuchang for generations." ”
According to Zhu Youjian's orders, Zuo Liangyu submitted a plan to send troops, but before he could receive a reply, the city of Beijing, thousands of miles away, was attacked by Li Zicheng.
It is reported that when Zhu Youjian was facing the destruction of the country, he once said to his cabinet ministers: "I am not the king of the subjugated country, nor are you the ministers of the subjugated country, but at this juncture, no one has come out to help me." ”
Zhu Youjian desperately rang the bell in front of the palace, but no one came forward to help, Zhu Youguan saw the scene of the fire soaring into the sky, and then remembered the Ming Dynasty, which had run out of gas, and could not help but feel sad from it, hanging himself on a crooked neck tree, ending a short career of thirty-four years.
Zuo Liangyu heard the news of Zhu Youjian's death and fell to his knees and cried loudly, at this time, Zhu Yousong, the Prince of Fu, proclaimed himself emperor in Nanjing and established the Southern Ming regime.
After Zuo Liangyu's subordinates learned of the news that King Fu had been proclaimed emperor, they asked Zuo Liangyu to seize Jiangnan and establish himself as emperor, but Zuo Liangyu did not agree, and he separated all the gold and silver jewelry he had accumulated over the years, crying and saying: "These are all things that the Chongzhen Emperor has rewarded me, and now that the country is in trouble, how can I support the army and stand on my own!" ”
Although the Fu King Zhu Yousong established the Southern Ming regime, but the government at that time was controlled by Ma Shiying, so Zuo Liangyu used the name of "Qing Junfang" to lead his troops to the east, but when passing through jiujiang, he remembered the pain of the fall of the country, and for a time he attacked his heart and vomited blood to death.
In 1645, Zuo Liangyu died of an acute illness and died at the age of forty-six.
Looking back at Zuo Liangyu's life, he made meritorious achievements several times, supported the army and respected himself several times, and finally watched the Ming Dynasty fall into a desperate situation and did not act, I don't know if he regretted what he did before he vomited blood and died.
Source:
"The Biography of Ming Shi Zuo Liangyu"
Meng Qingdong, eds. Emperor of China 4[M]. 2015
(Qing) Zhang Tingyu et al. Vernacular Essence Twenty-Four Histories Ming Shi 6[M]. 2011
Edited by Sun Weiliang. Everyone Treasures the Essence of Chinese Culture Series The Essence of Chinese Biography[M]. 1995