(Daming Forbidden City)
Forty-sixth year of the Wanli Calendar, 1618 AD.
Beijing, Forbidden City.
Zhu Yijun, the Wanli Emperor who had been slacking off for many years, received a letter from the Liaodong region.
According to the nature of the emperor in peacetime, no matter what kind of fold, it is all withheld and returned to the cabinet, and it will not be looked at.
However, the minister who sent the folded son warned that this seal was sparse, extremely urgent, very important, and must be read by the emperor himself.
Wan Li was impatient.
What can be a hundred thousand urgent events?
Either the chancellor sued his favorite concubine Zheng Guifei for black, or the cabinet made a fuss about making Zhu Changluo crown prince.
But the minister knelt on the ground with a fold and did not spare, and there was a great posture of the emperor kneeling here without looking at me.
The emperor had no choice but to pick up the fold and glance at it.
Without looking at it, I was shocked to see it, and the Wanli Emperor picked up the fold and swept it up and down, and suddenly he didn't get angry.
It turned out that Nurhaci, the leader of the Jurchen tribe in the Liaodong region, had gathered heavy troops to fight all the way to the Liaodong and completely break with the Ming Dynasty.
If you want to do it with the Ming Dynasty, nurhaci also wrote an uprising document (seven hatreds), sprinkled thousands of words, and scolded the Ming Dynasty and the Wanli Emperor himself.
I will not dwell on the full text of this document, but it can basically be summarized as Nurhaci said that neither the Ming Dynasty nor the Ming Emperor was a good thing, and that his own military uprising was not an invasion, but for the Sake of Skywalker.
The Wanli Emperor frowned, his expression complex, and he changed his lazy and tired demeanor in the past.
Mountain rain is about to blow all over the building.
He knew that something big was about to happen.
- Caption
(Portrait of Li Chengliang)
At that time, the most prestigious official in the Liaodong region was called Li Chengliang, and this person was very interesting.
As a frontier land in the northeast of the Ming Dynasty, the Liaodong region has always been turbulent, and this land is sparsely inhabited by Han Chinese, especially mostly nomadic tribes.
The Mongols, Jurchens, and Orunchun were originally at peace, but Li Chengliang, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, could not let them sit idle.
As a general soldier, his greatest duty is to guard the peace of one side, and the most important premise for guarding the peace of the Liaodong region is not to let these tribes develop and grow, so Comrade Li Chengliang has nothing to do to provoke these tribes to fight, one after another, the tribes attack each other, contradictions are continuous, fighting around, the tribes are seriously injured, they have to honestly nest in Liaodong, and they can no longer find trouble with the Ming Dynasty.
This was a common means used by the ming dynasty frontier administrators, taking advantage of the contradictions between the enemy, consuming the enemy, and disintegrating the enemy, and taking advantage of the internal strife of these tribes, the Ming army was angry and unexpectedly engaged in sneak attacks, often beating these tribes into the wilderness and fleeing.
As a member of the Jurchen clan, Nurhaci's grandfather and father died in the war between the Ming Dynasty and the Jurchen tribe.
Grandfather, father and father were both killed in the battle with the Ming army, Nurhaci can be said to hate the Ming Dynasty, of course, he wanted to raise troops to avenge his relatives, but Nurhaci was really not very good at that time, twenty-five years old, no car and no house, no savings, although he was very courageous, carrying a watermelon knife and ran to the Ming Dynasty, but just arrived at the battlefield, found that the Ming Dynasty had millions of troops, the king's division, everyone had a three-eyed god gun (musket), he couldn't fight at all, he had to sneak back halfway.
He understood that if he wanted revenge, he could only endure it at the moment.
If you want to completely defeat the Ming Dynasty, you can't do it alone, you must develop your own forces, so Nurhaci opened his own way.
He himself is a Jurchen, the Jurchens are roughly divided into three factions, the Jianzhou Jurchens, the Haixi Jurchens and the Donghai Jurchens, the three tribes look down on each other, and often fight with each other, Nurhaci as a member of the Jianzhou Jurchens, soon united compatriots, so that the Jianzhou Jurchens developed and grow, after that, Nurhaci led the Jianzhou Jurchens, punched Haixi, kicked the East Sea, and in two days the entire Jurchen tribe was unified.
Time has passed, the white colt has passed, and the poor young people who were poor and destitute have now become the tyrants who dominate one side.
The story of Nurhaci during this period has always been talked about, the main reason is that his entrepreneurial nature is very inspiring, and the history books record that Nurhaci was a soldier who was left behind.
What is the name of "bereaved armor"?
That is to say, the twenty-five-year-old old young Man Nurhaci wanted to start a business, but found that he wanted money and no money, no one, not even a little start-up capital, looking for and finally took out a few pairs of tattered old armor from his home, but it was by relying on these pairs of armor, Nurhaci took one step at a time, and finally mixed his head in the Liaodong region.
(Nurhaci portrait)
The hegemonic side could no longer satisfy Nurhaci's ambitions, and soon he established the state of "Houjin" in Hetuala (Fushun, Liaoning) and became the Great Khan of the Later Jin State.
Nurhaci became the Great Khan, and within two days began to send text messages to the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, condemning how the Ming Dynasty was not a thing, how the Wanli Emperor was not a thing, how the Jurchen people were bullied by the Ming Dynasty, and so on.
Did the Ming Dynasty do these bad things?
The answer is that it was done.
But the degree is very average, not as serious as Nurhaci said.
Daming is a state of Confucianism and elegance, in the handling of border issues has always been gentle and tolerant, in the face of different tribes, the most important way adopted by the Ming Dynasty is to "destroy with yi", let the local people manage the locals, rather than bullying others madly with their own power.
Nurhaci so bitterly chened how the Ming Dynasty persecuted the Jurchen tribes, mainly to find a justification for his own invasion of the Ming Dynasty.
Because from the root point of view, Comrade Nurhaci is not a country, whether he is called a khan or not, in essence, he is actually a great ming courtier.
Scrolling up his family tree, his sixth ancestor Meng brother Timur, originally a wanhu (grassroots civil servant) of the Yuan Dynasty, was recruited by Chengzu Zhu Di during the Ming Dynasty, directly defected to the Ming Dynasty, was named "Jianzhou Wei Commandery", specifically responsible for the affairs of the Liaodong generation, and then passed down from generation to generation, basically in front of the Ming Dynasty officials, receiving the Ming Dynasty's salary, even Nurhaci himself, also once called a vassal to the Ming Dynasty, and also paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty.
The so-called "world food, the world receives the grace of the king", if you don't honestly work for the Ming Dynasty, you still want to raise an army to rebel, isn't this a big act of rebellion?
Since it is a rebellion, it is necessary to create a momentum of public opinion on the whole point before going out on the expedition, and beautify it for yourself by the way.
When Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty heard that Nurhaci had rebelled, he was very angry, so he gathered 200,000 heavy troops and set off in four ways to give Nurhaci a four-way package.
Today is different from the past, for Nurhaci, since he dares to tear his face with the Ming Dynasty, he must have done enough homework.
When he was young, he had the experience of conquering Jianzhou and unifying Jurchen, which made him a military wizard, and the past of his grandfather and father who died at the hands of the Ming Army many years ago firmly strengthened his mind.
Damien, I want your life today!
As an author, I have not quite understood why the Ming Dynasty divided its troops to clean up Nurhaci's behavior, and when I think about it, it seems that there is no more reasonable explanation than the straw bales of the Ming generals.
The loss is that there are only two hundred thousand people, and if there are two million people, I estimate that they would dare to divide the two million troops into two million roads.
When Nurhaci saw that the Ming army was divided and encircled, the situation was menacing, and he was not timid, and creatively put forward the military policy of "Gong'er comes a few ways, I only go all the way", and the large army merged into one place, and soon all the three Ming armies were destroyed.
Some readers may ask, how is it three ways? Isn't it four-way?
Yes, the last way to start was relatively late, and when I saw that the three brothers had stopped cooking, they fled and retreated directly, and lost without a fight.
This battle, in which fewer victories and more victories, was called the "Battle of Salhu", and after this battle, Nurhaci's reputation was greatly shocked, and the invasion of Liaodong was like entering no man's land.
(Battle of Salhu)
The emperor of Daming changed from Wanli to Taichang, from Taichang to Tianqi, and the Liaodong general of the Ming Dynasty changed stubble after stubble, and everyone worked together, but no one could clean up Nurhaci.
Most of Liaodong fell, and Comrade Xiaonu became more and more confused, as if he had become a sworn enemy of the Ming Dynasty.
At this point in the development of things, Nurhaci's ambitions have been incomparable, and he suddenly understood a truth, that is, the Ming Empire, which looks majestic and majestic and has been inherited for more than two hundred years, is actually strong in the outside world, vulnerable to attack, and no one can clean up after himself.
When people have the ambition, it is best not to set up a flag randomly, it is better to say that it is better to achieve it, and it is easy to be punched in the face if it is not realized.
Soon, Nurhaci met the man who punched him in the face.
This person's name was Yuan Chonghuan.
For Nurhaci, invading Liaodong was no longer his primary goal, and it was his ultimate dream to completely destroy Daming's military power, or even to overthrow the entire Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, he quickly gathered his army, wanting to borrow Ningyuan, cross Shanhaiguan, gallop on horseback, and directly attack the city of Beijing.
Ningyuan City's troops are weak, easy to attack and difficult to defend, but it is strange, Nurhaci has always pointed out where to fight, but in the face of small Ningyuan, he cannot attack for a long time.
The reason is very simple, the Ming army defender Yuan Chonghuan updated his weapons and equipment, poured a bunch of Hongyi cannons from abroad, and it was a bombardment against Nurhaci.
Thousands of troops and horses, artillery fire in unison, separated by thick crowds, Nurhaci looked at Yuan Chonghuan, and Yuan Chonghuan also looked at Nurhaci.
One is a tyrant of the world, the other is a general of the absolute generation, the two eyes are like electricity, briefly intersected, but created their own lifelong legends.
(Portrait of Yuan Chonghuan)
In 1626, due to the repeated obstructions in the attack on the Shanhaiguan area, Nurhaci had to retreat, but unfortunately contracted gangrene and died within two days.
With unfinished ambitions and uncompromising ideals, Nurhaci finally returned to heaven.
Comrade Nurhaci, a generation of tyrants, died.
Looking back on his life, he was nostalgic for the old hatred, left behind the armor to rise up, set foot on the jianzhou, unified the Jurchens, strategized Liaodong, and finally ended up with hatred.
Some people say that he is a politician who has no one in the world, who has crossed the border and looked at the wilderness, and he has used his ingenious political wisdom to reunite and develop and grow the chaotic Jurchen tribe.
Some people say that he is a military man who is astonished by the heavens, who has won a surprise victory, who has been the first to prepare the enemy plane, and has galloped on the battlefield for decades, except for being punched and exploded by Yuan Chonghuan once, and has not been defeated once.
Some people say that he was the forerunner of that era, using his courage and perseverance to impact the decadent rule of the Ming Dynasty, and it was he who made social progress and let the wheel of history move forward again.
But as an author, I have a different perspective.
Looking through the historical materials, you will find that everywhere this praised person has gone, all the places where people have been praised are burning and looting, the fields are deserted, the temples are destroyed, the people are displaced, and the people of Li are miserable.
Under the sabers of the Later Jin army, how many unarmed Central Plains people died tragically?
In his history, I have not seen progress, development, I have only seen destruction.
Slaughtering the city, killing people, shedding blood, pile by piece, are all his evil deeds.
To borrow a sentence from the Ming shi writer Mingyue that year:
All life is equal, and no one has the right to be deprived of it for no reason.
Yes, no one has that power, including Nurhaci.