At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Li Zicheng also became an extremely famous figure in this period of history, and the peasant uprising he led was also a revolutionary war in which the peasant class overthrew the landlord class regime.
However, Li Zicheng's ranks were also mixed with people such as Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance, and their existence also caused some harm to the final outcome of this peasant revolution.
The mystery of Ox Venus and Song Xiance
The last years of the Ming Dynasty were an extremely tragic era, and it would be a period of increasing decline and collapse of feudal society on the mainland.
The brutal economic exploitation of the lower classes by the rulers also led to the intensification of the class contradictions inherent in feudal society itself, and eventually formed an extremely surging wave of peasant uprisings.
Starting from the peasant Wang Er in Baishui County, Shaanxi Province, the great peasant uprising at the end of the Ming Dynasty was also rapidly promoted, the fire of the rebel army quickly showed a burning trend, and hundreds of rebel armies everywhere were full of momentum, and this torrent quickly swept through all sides and converged into an irresistible revolutionary torrent.
It can be said that at that time, Li Zicheng himself had a good opportunity, and they did beat the Ming Dynasty all over the body in fact.
At that time, the feudal system of the Ming Dynasty was already deteriorating, and in order to maintain their rule, they adopted two methods of "military suppression" and "political deception" to frantically suppress the rebel army.
However, from the end of 1640, Li Zicheng's peasant army broke through the enemy's siege and launched an attack on the place where the Ming Dynasty's defenses were weakest.
In particular, in the Henan region, the peasant revolutionary army also put forward the goal of "taking the whole world according to the Central Plains."
In terms of specific operations, policies such as "equalizing the fields and exempting grain," "buying and selling flat," and "killing the rich and helping the poor" have also been implemented, which has greatly touched the vast number of peasants, and many people have penetrated into Li Zicheng's ranks without turning back under such a call, and have shouted out the slogan of "breaking into the king and not paying grain."
Li Zicheng's peasant army stirred up the land of China and pushed the Ming Dynasty to the brink of destruction.
Many social strata were caught up in the wave, including the craftsmen, petty traders, the urban poor, and so on, in addition to the suffering peasant class.
This also includes Venus the Bull.
Niu Jinxing was originally a man who adhered to the creed of Kong Meng, learned a set of clever things from the official field at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and would also see the wind and make the rudder unscrupulous, and his duplicitous power technique was also used quite well, from his body, he could still find an insatiable ambition.
These are fundamentally incompatible with the peasant uprising, and there are many theories as to why Niu Venus joined the peasant uprising.
It is said that Venus Ox is a good alcoholic, and after a drunken drink, he shakes off some of the "black materials" of his own family.
The other party took advantage of niu Jinxing's drunkenness to beat the county official, and together with the county official, he woven a crime against Niu Jinxing, stripped him of his meritorious name, and also put him in prison, and then Li Zicheng rescued him after breaking the city, and finally Niu Jinxing joined the peasant rebel army.
There is also a saying that Niu Venus can divinate, he was thrown into prison because he offended the giant gentry, and later met Liu Zongmin, a general under Li Zicheng, and the two talked very speculatively.
Niu Jinxing used his divination technique to advise the other party, and later Liu Zongmin was also grateful to Niu Jinxing after his release, so he vigorously promoted Niu Jinxing in front of Li Zicheng in the future, which made Niu Jinxing get the opportunity to assist Li Zicheng.
There are many related theories, but it is difficult to verify, it is certain that Niu Venus only joined Li Zicheng's peasant army in 1641, because of his resourcefulness and was trusted by Li Zicheng, and Li Zicheng at that time did not seem to think that he would be an opportunistic person.
Song Xiance joined the rebel army when Li Zicheng attacked Henan, and his joining was also because of Niu Jinxing's recommendation.
Niu Venus was originally looking for a home in the "gambling" of the future, and the people he recommended were naturally the same as him.
Song Xiance's "life experience" is relatively rich, he is also a jianghu warlock, relying on divination and fortune telling for a living, and has traveled to many places, and his experience is very rich.
Because of Niu Jinxing, Li Zicheng simply worshipped Song Xiance as a military master to advise himself.
Some historians have always had a very low evaluation of Song Xiance, and everyone thinks that he is a typical jianghu warlock, who has engaged in some deceptive tricks and brought many negative effects to the peasant rebel army.
However, some people believe that Song Xiance was a resourceful figure in Li Zicheng's peasant rebel army, and he also made great achievements in overthrowing the Ming Dynasty.
As for his final evaluation, this is also a matter of benevolence and wisdom in itself.
Since Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance joined the rebel army, Li Zicheng's ranks have gradually become two types in their thinking, one is "respecting Confucianism" and the other is "anti-Confucianism", and the struggle between the two sides is also constantly going on and becoming more and more acute.
It can also be said that these two men are representatives of the landlord class, and they will play cunning tricks, which Li Zicheng cannot see at all.
They were very good at observing the color, and on the surface they praised the uprising movement in every way, and after Song Xiance saw Li Zicheng, he would say: "The eighteen-child master artifact should win the world from Shaanxi." ”
In the process of the slow growth of Li Zicheng's power, he also showed an extremely inflated side, and he also liked to hear these supporting voices, Niu Jinxing became his "mastermind", song Xiance was a "military master", and the two sang a harmony around Li Zicheng and played Li Zicheng around him.
After the peasant army conquered Xiangyang, it had begun to discuss what kind of political power it should establish, at which point Niu Venus's ambition to restore the old regime was exposed, and he put forward the idea of "dividing the authority and applying for duty" to reintegrate the peasant regime into the orbit of the feudal regime.
In the complicated struggle, the peasant army itself was "dancing on the tip of the sword", but the proposal put forward by Niu Jinxing and others was: first occupy Hebei and attack Beijing.
However, Li Zicheng was able to get to this position, and he was not stupid militarily, he felt that if he ran directly to attack Beijing, in case of failure, he would not even have a place to retreat.
Therefore, according to the situation of the struggle at that time, a new plan was also formulated: first go to Guanzhong, establish political power based on Shaanxi, and replenish some troops before attacking Beijing.
Fortunately, at that time, Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance and others did not have direct military power, and the relevant power was still concentrated in the hands of Li Zicheng, who still had the right to speak on the line formulated by Li Zicheng, and according to his arrangement, this peasant uprising movement continued to flourish.
In 1644, Li Zicheng's peasant army triumphantly captured Beijing and overthrew the Ming Dynasty, which had ruled for more than two hundred years, and the name of the "Dashun" state he established officially appeared in history.
At this time, the pride and contempt of some soldiers rose again, and after they had a position, they were not willing to live a hard life of running from place to place.
As the leader of the change of dynasty, Li Zicheng should have been able to find a little experience from the fall of the Ming Dynasty, but he was also carried away by the pride, feeling that he had stood on the peak of power, and thus forgot about it.
People like Niu Venus are also destined to drag "Da Shun" into the abyss.
At that time, Niu Jinxing, dressed in jade belts and python robes, rode in a large sedan and paraded through the market, soliciting protégés everywhere, and he also excluded those peasants who participated in the uprising to participate in the regime, but instead reinstalled his "relatives" and "old good" into the Dashun regime.
They saw that Li Zicheng was unusual after entering The Capital, and he was nostalgic for the various treasures left by the Ming Dynasty, and also suggested that Li Zicheng reward several people to the civil and military officials Gong'e Ande.
In the process of "chasing after the stolen goods", Li Zicheng's fierceness even made those Ming Officials who had surrendered regret it, because people surrendered originally to save their lives, and now they still have to chase them for money, and whether their lives can stay is a problem.
Soldiers who have been fighting for many years want to go home, high-level generals are greedy for pleasure, and the Manchus outside the guanxi are looking at the tiger and ignoring these "Da Shun".
Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance these people had a hard time looking forward to the opportunity to make a fortune, and they naturally wanted to have fun.
When Li Zicheng went to Shanhaiguan to meet Wu Sangui, Niu Jinxing was still sitting in an eight-wheeled sedan in the Beijing Division, feeling like the old prime minister in the Taiping Dynasty.
The Battle of Shanhaiguan was also the beginning of Li Zicheng's total defeat, and his "Da Shun" was only a flash in the pan.
The ending of Niu Venus and Song Xiance
"Da Shun" began in 1644 and ended in 1645, it can be said that it was not smooth at all, and Li Zifei also died in 1645.
The Qing army, under the leadership of Wu Sangui, pressed forward step by step, and also accelerated the speed of Li Zicheng's defeat and retreat, and after Li Zicheng's death, the remnants of the army could not hold out for long.
By 1665, the last unit of the "Dashun" army had also been wiped out, and Li Zicheng's shadow had officially disappeared into history.
From opportunistic to the golden food of Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance, the ending is not particularly exciting, they "bet" for a while, but it did not last long.
First of all, Niu Venus, his ending is not too clearly recorded in the official history books of the Qing Dynasty, and it was not until the advent of the Later Qing History Manuscript that historians found the traces of Niu Venus.
According to the "Biography of Ji Kaisheng", Niu Jinxing continued to carry out his speculative behavior, and when the "Dashun" regime was on the verge of extinction, he simply turned around and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty and became a "second minister".
There is another thing that can be proved from the side, that is, the son of The Cow Venus, Niu Tong.
In some records, Niu Yu was highly valued by the Qing court, and his official position was promoted to the deputy envoy of Qinghu Guangdong, and Niu Jinxing himself later hid in Niu Yu's official office after "depressed", so he was given a chance to enjoy his old age.
According to the ruling thinking of the Qing Dynasty, if Niu Venus had not surrendered that year, then Niu Yu obviously could not be reused by the Qing Dynasty.
Song Xiance's contribution to "Da Shun" is at least a little better than that of Niu Venus, but the two are also a hill, and when Niu Jinxing is thinking about how to continue to enjoy himself, Song Xiance is fighting outside.
It is precisely because he ran outside to fight, so there are two theories about his fate.
The first is that Song Xiance retreated to Xi'an after the defeat of the Beijing army and fled, and then moved in the direction of Henan.
Then he and Liu Zongmin gathered together and continued to fight the Qing soldiers.
Therefore, there are historical records that he was captured and then killed by the Qing soldiers in the course of the battle, and Guo Moruo also said in the "Three Hundred Years of Sacrifice": Xian Ce and Zong Min, later captured by the Qing soldiers, were killed.
According to the content of the "Biography of Ming Shi Li Zicheng", a second theory has been formed.
This theory is that Song Xiance was captured and then successfully escaped, and then disappeared.
According to this theory, where Song Xiance went after escaping needs to continue to study downwards.
There are also records of this incident, saying that Song Xiance fled to the door of a certain general soldier in Quanzhou, and finally died in the general soldier's mansion.
However, as a prominent figure in Li Zicheng's rebel army, his ending is still controversial, and there is no more evidence to solve the mystery.
Their final outcome is actually bound to Li Zicheng, whether it is Niu Jinxing or Song Xiance, they have not completely completed their "goals", or it is precisely because of people like Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance that they ultimately led to Li Zicheng's failure.
Li Zicheng, a king who was famous for most of China, ended with a tragic ending, and when he died, he was only 39 years old, he began with great vigor, and then he was defeated at a very fast speed, and the lesson was tragic and profound.
He has never jumped out of the limitations of history, and people like Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance naturally can't stay around for a long time, their brains are very flexible, but in the final analysis, it is still for their own material life, which can be fully seen from the performance of Niu Jinxing after entering Beijing.
The opportunism of Niu Jinxing and others was manifested from the very beginning, and before Li Zicheng's ass was hot, he had already begun to install cronies, and in the end, "Da Shun" collapsed before it could be resisted by the people, and for them, li Zicheng, such an outstanding leader of the peasant revolution, could not avoid being deceived.
They took advantage of the mistakes made by the peasant army after the victory to make "Dashun" gain and lose, because they had already disintegrated the combat effectiveness of the peasant army in "Dashun", and together with various external factors, Li Zicheng was eliminated in a very short time.
This is not an accidental phenomenon, but an inevitable reflection of the contradictory struggle between the peasant class and the landlord class at that time.
reference
Li Zicheng's uprising was the culmination of the old-style peasant revolution Jian Xiuwei; Zhang Yi and Academic Monthly
The Mystery of the Collapse of the Dashun Regime by the Divine Man Song Xiance Ma Yan Layer.