The Ming Dynasty, as the last dynasty ruled by the Han people, finally ended in 1644 with Chongzhen's hanging of Coal Mountain, and the state reigned for 276 years.
Later, many people analyzed that if political strongmen such as Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Di or Li Shimin, or even Kangxi were replaced as "Chongzhen", would they be able to escape the fate of destruction? There are many things that have been analyzed and hypothesized from politics, economics, military, trade, etc., and many of the views are indeed refreshing and feel quite reasonable.
In fact, in the author's opinion, who is the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty cannot change the fate of the country. Because although Chongzhen has been diligent in his seventeen years of reign, the four main factors of internal worry, external trouble, natural disaster, and man-made disaster have already taken shape, and they are intertwined, as if they have become a dead chess game, and it is difficult for anyone to break the game.
And listen to it, right to throw bricks and jade!
01
Internal worries: The 2 million peasant uprising army fought in the vast areas north and south of the Yellow River and more than a dozen provinces above and below the Yangtze River.
In 1628, Emperor Ming Sizong, Zhu Youzhen, took over the throne from his elder brother Zhu Youxiao as the Chongzhen Emperor. Chongzhen was very dedicated and often dealt with imperial affairs in a supper and a meal.
However, in his first year on the throne, he caught up with the great peasant uprising in northern Shaanxi. In the seven years of the apocalypse, natural disasters continued, the land in northern Shaanxi was extremely barren, and almost no grain was collected for several years, while the imperial court collected taxes and conscription.
Therefore, in 1627, starting from the Second Uprising of Wang Er in Shaanxi, Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and other peasant armies intensified from small to large, from scattered to concentrated, from guerrilla warfare to mobile warfare, and waged a seventeen-year struggle north and south of the Yellow River and up and down the Yangtze River. The Ming court sent famous generals such as Sun Chuanting, Lu Xiangsheng, and Hong Chengzhuo to conquest, always "pressing down the gourd and scooping", and it was always impossible to completely eliminate the peasant rebel army. Of course, there are also personal reasons for Chongzhen's blind command, which will not be repeated here.
At the same time, uprisings surged throughout the country such as Zhejiang, Fujian, and Shandong, and Shaanxi became the center of peasant uprisings. During the Chongzhen dynasty, the rebel army was in chaos, which seriously affected the development of politics, economy, military and commerce.
02
External troubles: Later Jin (Manchu) has shifted from defense to attack on the Ming Dynasty after the battles of Salhu and Songjin.
Nur Hachi, who had been the first general Li Chengliang's family slave in the late Ming Dynasty, established Houjin in 1618 after Li Chengliang's death in 1615, and held up the "seven great hatreds" of the Ming Dynasty, openly opposing the Ming Dynasty.
In March 1619, Nurhachi defeated several Ming troops who came to fight at Salhu within a few days, and the Ming army suffered 45,000 casualties, captured tens of thousands of firearms, and greatly increased its military strength. After the battle, control of Liaodong was lost, and the Ming army switched from offensive to defensive.
From 1640 to 1642, Emperor Taiji led the Qing army to begin the siege of Jinzhou, and the Battle of Songjin began, which ended with the fall of Songshan Castle by Qing troops, and the Ming commander Hong Chengzhuo was captured and defected. The war lasted for two years, ending in a crushing defeat for the Ming army, and the elite of the Ming Dynasty's Jiubian (nine military towns successively set up along the Great Wall defense line in the north) were completely lost, and only 30,000 remnants of troops followed Wu Sangui to retreat to Ningyuan, after which all the cities of the Ming Dynasty outside the Guan fell, and the famous Iron Horse outside the Guanwai was annihilated. The Qing army threatened the capital at any time, and the Ming Dynasty was in danger.
From the end of the Wanli Dynasty to the end of Chongzhen (1619-1642), after the Battle of Salhu, the Battle of Kaitie, the Battle of Guangning, and the Battle of Songjin, the Ming Dynasty no longer had the ability to launch an attack on the Manchu Emperor Taiji, and watched it grow.
03
Natural disasters: The extreme weather in the Xiaoice River in the late Ming Dynasty affected the Ming Dynasty for nearly 50 years, and the decade-long plague in northern China made the overall damage unparalleled.
Documents such as "Ming History Five Elements" and "Qing History Manuscripts" all mention the peculiar weather of the Xiaoice River. The Xiaoice period refers to the decades-long period of extremely cold winters in China in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and the summer cold and flood followed, and even heavy snowfall in Fujian, Guangdong, seriously affecting the development of politics, economy, commerce and so on.
To add insult to injury, the weather anomalies led to a plague epidemic. From 1633 (the sixth year of Chongzhen) to 1644 (the seventeenth year of Chongzhen), a plague that lasted for more than ten years broke out in the north of the Ming Dynasty, and the plague first broke out in Shanxi, spread to Yulin Province and Yan'an Province in 1637, spread to Daming Province and Zhending Province in Hebei in 1640, and finally spread to the capital in 1641.
The affected land was empty of ten rooms and nine rooms, the people were displaced, and the defense of the capital was empty. Later, King Li Chuang led his troops into the capital, and almost no defense was the main factor in this possession.
No matter how worried about internal and external troubles in the Ming Dynasty, and after decades of natural disasters, the Ming Dynasty was in a storm.
04
Human calamity: The Chongzhen Emperor came to power pretentiously, rigidly and self-sufficient, and did not listen to the advice of the Emperor of the Apocalypse to directly eradicate Wei Zhongxian, causing the civilian clique to lose its checks and balances and not lose its tail, sitting and watching the demise of the Ming Dynasty.
1644 AD, the 19th day of the third month of the lunar calendar. Li Zicheng broke through the city gate, Chongzhen hanged the coal mountain, leaving behind an edict: Wen Chen misled the country, all can be killed!
When Chongzhen first ascended the throne, he directly killed the leader of the gelding party "nine-thousand-year-old" Wei Zhongxian despite the instructions of his brother Emperor Tianqi, which attracted a series of cadres of the Donglin Party and other civil servants to applaud one after another, but they did not know that as soon as Wei Zhongxian died, the civilian clique lost its checks and balances, and its ugly face appeared.
Li Zicheng commented: "These people usually have the highest moral articles in the world, and talk about the great righteousness of the family and the country. When life and death are at stake, they bow their heads one by one and do not speak, only caring about their own life and death. "Chongzhen once couldn't sleep for the renovation of 200,000 taels of soldiers, and these civil servants only symbolically pooled 120,000 taels of silver.
When Li Zicheng attacked the city of Beijing, Shoufu Wei Dezao not only contributed a huge amount of silver, but even his daughter, just to continue to seek an official job, and other civil servants were even more so. He was smashed to death by the rebels with an iron cable, and Chongzhen's thirteen-year-old Daming first champion finally died of his own shamelessness.
Wei Dezao was just a representative and epitome, and later more than 1,200 civil officials enthusiastically surrendered to Li Zicheng, and contributed astronomical amounts of gold and silver, and they just wanted to be a petty official, or even save a life.
Conclusion:
Chongzhen was a conscientious and diligent emperor, and since he ascended the throne in 1628, he has been lamenting all nights. Helpless, but a most tragic emperor, as soon as he came to power, internal worries, external troubles, natural disasters, and man-made disasters followed at the same time, and finally became the last straw that crushed Chongzhen.
In March 1644, Chongzhen hanged Coal Mountain, fulfilling his last wish of "dying a king", becoming one of the few emperors in history to commit suicide (the other being the late Tang Emperor who set himself on fire in Luoyang). History has a relatively high evaluation of Chongzhen, and the "History of Ming" edited by Zhang Tingyu commented on the Chongzhen Emperor: "He reigned for seven out of ten years, did not make a sound, worked hard and diligently, and governed with dedication."
Taking history as a guide, in real life, what are the development prospects of a company or individual? It may also be possible to examine and examine from the four aspects of "internal worries, external troubles, natural disasters and man-made disasters". Whoever possesses one is normal, and people who are not far away must have near worries? Those who possess two articles should pay due attention; Those who possess the three must be vigilant; Those who possess the four rules, regardless of the company or individual, even if they try, they can only tear it down and start over.
That's the beauty of our history study!
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