The seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644) was undoubtedly a particularly torturous year for 32 Wu Sangui. He was faced with three choices, one was to be loyal to Chongzhen, one was to surrender to Li Zicheng, and the other was to surrender to Dolgon. At this time, Chongzhen was dead, it was unrealistic to let Wu Sangui be loyal to Chongzhen, the Manchu Dynasty in Beijing surrendered, it was impossible to let Wu Sangui be loyal to Daming, he Wu Sangui did not have such ethics, Wu Sangui did not have the possibility of resisting the Qing army to surrender to Li Zicheng, the Jingshi fell, the imperial court fell, and Wu Sangui, who lost both his family and country, fell into a situation of four cares. It can be said that Wu Sangui could only take the two paths of surrendering Li Zicheng or surrendering Dolgon, but in fact, there was no other way to go except surrender to Dolgon.
And Wu Sangui's ability to surrender Dolgon in a unique way when other Ming generals surrendered to Li Zicheng was not because he was far-sighted, but because he made a judgment based purely on the consideration of interests. Wu Sangui was very familiar with the Jurchens at that time, and before Wu Sangui surrendered, he saw that the Qing Dynasty treated the surrendered Han warlords favorably, such as Li Yongfang as a colt and Kong Youde, Shang Kexi, and Shen Zhixiang all crowned kings and dukes. A large number of surrendered Han generals, such as the Zu Dashou family, relatives of the Wu family, were reused by the Qing dynasty. In Wu Sangui's mind, if ethnic minorities wanted to rule the Han for a long time after occupying the areas inhabited by the Han, they had to rely on the Han people, with the exception of Northern Wei, Liao, Jin, and Western Xia Gaimo. It should be said that Wu Sangui's idea cannot be wrong. But no one expected that the Qing Dynasty would kill the Han people in the future.
As a promising young general, Wu Sangui longs for meritorious achievements, become a general, and seal his wife and son. Emotionally speaking, Wu Sangui never had any good feelings for the Manchus, so it was logical that Wu Sangui would return to Li Zicheng. At this time, Wu Sangui did intend to surrender to Li Zicheng and began to negotiate, but because he learned that his father Wu Xiang had been arrested by Li Zicheng, he forced him and his concubine Chen Yuanyuan to be abducted by Liu Zongmin. But this is just a rumor, in fact, Wu Sangui is out of the distrust of Li Zicheng's group, from Wu Sangui's point of view, he does not think that Li Zicheng can defeat Dodolgon, even if he wins by luck, Li Zicheng can only give Wu Sangui a marquis. If he chose to join the Manchu Qing dynasty, he could defeat Li Zicheng, and what Dolgon promised to Wu Sangui was to be crowned king. History is sometimes so paradoxical, not only in it, it is difficult to see the clues, the situation in 1644 AD is so strange, the Manchu Qing Dynasty that originally had no chance was originally entered here, Wu Sangui originally did not want to surrender the Qing, but finally descended.
In addition to their own reasons, the reason why the Manchus were able to quickly destroy Nanming and Li Zicheng after entering the customs was that the efforts of these generals, especially Hong Chengzhuo and Wu Sangui's hard fighting, were inseparable. It should be said that at the beginning of the Qing army's entry into customs, Dolgon's attitude was still quite cautious. Compared with the Daming Dynasty, who always had bad luck, Dolgon, who easily got Beijing, did not expect that Daming Jiangshan was so easy, and the goal they had dreamed of for generations could be achieved so easily, and the Manchu nobleman Dolgon also did not expect that after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Chengyu Wu Sangui actually worked so hard, and the remaining forces of the Daming Dynasty in the south were so vulnerable, and it only took a little effort to complete it. It can only be said that the luck of the Manchu Qing is too good.
In the end, Wu Sangui, who became famous, wanted to become the hereditary king in Yunnan and become the Mu family of the Qing Dynasty, but it is a pity that the Manchu Qing Dynasty must not allow Han people with different surnames to appear in the southwestern border lands. And Wu Sangui really does not want to rebel, Wu Sangui, who is already in his sixties, has been scolded as a traitor, and he really does not want to rebel a second time. It can be said that Wu Sangui's rebellion this time was completely forced to rebel by Kangxi. Wu Sangui surrendered to the Qing Dynasty in 1644, and in 1673, the 61-year-old Wu Sangui rebelled again, and in the name of "anti-Qing and restoration", it was really the most ridiculous political joke in the world. But I have to admit that if Li Zicheng wins, he will definitely kill Wu Sangui.
Realistically speaking, Wu Sangui has been the king of Pingxi for more than ten years, which is a real splitting of the land and sealing the territory. Wu Sangui is already the de facto emperor of the soil, receiving millions of salaries and silver from the imperial court every year, and throughout the dynasties, there are several meritorious figures who can get Wu Sangui's level of treatment, so that people in the imperial court say that Wu Sangui's family has more silver than the silver of the Great Qing Hubu, and we give Wu Sangui one or two silver today, and tomorrow we have to take two taels of silver to prevent Wu Sangui from rebelling. And all of Wu Sangui's actions in Yunnan seemed to be rebellion in anyone's eyes. The Manchus were still relatively lenient in their treatment of meritorious figures, and did not say anything about killing meritorious heroes. At this point, the founding heroes of the Manchu and Han dynasties are basically the same. Wu Sangui will be purged, and it can be said that he is not a Manchu, and it has nothing to do with it. The fatal factor lies on the side of the troops.
No matter how great Wu Sangui's merit is, he can't compare with the Manchu Qing Sect and Fan Wencheng Hong Chengcheng and this group of people? Not to mention that he is still a notorious courtier, a cheap prince who can be stable for more than ten years, and he is already an ancestral tomb in the Manchu Qing Dynasty. If he stayed in the previous dynasty, even if he Wu Sangui had grown a hundred layers of skin, it would not be enough for the emperor to pick up. The Manchu Qing dynasty has not yet been crowned king by anyone, so why should you want a place to be a general. Kangxi's condition for Wu Sangui to cut the domain was to retain the treatment of a prince, move his family to Beijing to be prosperous and wealthy, and his son Wu Yingxiong married a princess of the Qing Dynasty, and San Francisco was hereditary like the iron hat king, even if it was not hereditary, other treatment should be possible, and Wu Sangui's want was to be crowned king of the land and hereditary. There is no solution to the conditions between the two sides, and a military solution is the only way.
In the chaotic times, only by living first, can you do more things, at first Wu Sangui just wanted to live, and then at any time the status improved, ambition gradually expanded, and finally wanted to be crowned king, Kangxi withdrawal of the domain in Wu Sangui's view is ungratitude, unloading the grind and killing donkeys, so in the twelfth year of the Kangxi Reign (1673), Wu Sangui disobeyed and called himself "the president of the world, the general", Xingming wooed the general, and opened the "San Francisco Rebellion". It must be noted that among all the martial generals at that time, in terms of command ability, none of them could be on par with Wu Sangui. Political views aside, Wu Sangui is definitely a master of the art of war. During the destruction of the Southern Ming Dynasty, Wu Sangui definitely commanded many classic battles, which were later definitely erased by the Manchu Qing.
Personally, I believe that the most fundamental reason for Wu Sangui's failure is political defects, without any political and moral appeal, (non-military or even material defects), killing the Yongli Emperor made Wu Sangui completely lose all the appeal to support the Ming Dynasty, whoever reverted to the Qing and restored the Ming can be, but he Wu Sangui cannot. In military operations, Wu Sangui made mistakes of principle. Wu Sangui should have adopted a resolute strategy of a quick victory with Kangxi (or at least to capture Nanjing and cut off the Caojiang) in order to succeed. However, Wu Sangui himself has always "seen small profits and forget righteousness, and did big things and spared his life." To put it bluntly, I am old. Strategic thinking is muddled, things are shrunk, hesitation when it is time to be decisive, greed for small and big things, and ruin the overall situation.
If you turn back and look at Wu Sangui's choice in 1644, whether he surrenders to the Manchu Qing Dynasty or surrenders to Dashun, for Wu Sangui, going down is a dead end. For such people with their own system, there has been no good end since ancient times. Wu Sangui was obviously naïve to fantasize that through his own efforts, he could earn a good end for himself. Since they all rebelled, they must have the courage and overall situation to fight to the end, and this kind of thing cannot be reconciled.