Li Zicheng threw himself into the peasant uprising from the second year of Chongzhen, fought against the Ming Dynasty for sixteen years, and finally reached the peak of his life. On the first day of the first lunar month in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), Li Zicheng ascended the throne in Xi'an as emperor, with the name of Dashun and the era name of Yongchang, but this was not Li Zicheng's ultimate goal, his goal was to be an emperor in beijing, after all, the emperor had lived in the Forbidden City in Beijing for more than two hundred years.
More than two months later, Li Zicheng realized his wish, and in the early morning of March 19 of that year, the Dashun army broke through the city of Beijing and successfully entered the city, and zhu Youjian, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty and the Chongzhen Emperor, hanged himself in Beijing, and the Forbidden City, which had been built for more than two hundred years, finally no longer belonged to the Zhu family. At noon on this day, Li Zicheng, surrounded by Liu Zongmin, Niu Jinxing, and other ministers of culture and military affairs, rode a high-headed horse and entered the city from the Desheng Gate in Beijing and lived in the Forbidden City.
However, history made a big joke for Li Zicheng, the king Li Zicheng led his troops to fight for 18 years, and finally only became emperor for 42 days; after a long period of dealing with the Ming army for more than 10 years, it became a major event, but after entering Beijing, it quickly failed and had no ability to fight back. In the view of many historians, in the industry of emperors, Li Zicheng was a "temporary worker", not a formal employee with a "establishment".
Throughout Li Zicheng's life, from a sheep herding baby step by step to become a CEO, marry Bai Fumei, and finally ascend the throne as an emperor to the peak of life, full of legend. It is a pity that he did not complete the transformation of the peasant uprising like Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang, and finally performed a tragedy.
Today, we will analyze what are the important reasons for Li Zicheng's failure?
01, the people's hearts
The disasters caused by the thieves and the rogue proletarians are ravaging the imperial capital, and Li Zicheng is torturing the former courtiers, slaughtering and torturing the innocent, and engaging in white terror in Beijing.
After the bloody slaughter of the city, Li Zicheng only gasped in the capital for 42 days, and then he was defeated, and the first reason was that he was unpopular.
02. Strategist
Although there are many reasons for Li Zi's success or failure, the mistakes in the intellectual policy cannot but be said to be one of the important factors. Lower-level intellectuals, who have lived in the countryside or between rivers and lakes for a long time, not only lack the experience of leading troops to fight wars and from the political state, but also have a narrow field of vision and cannot accurately grasp the national situation and its trend.
If Li Zicheng can draw lessons from history and, after gaining a firm foothold, he will be able to make fewer or no mistakes by recruiting intellectuals like Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang, recruiting intellectuals who have true insights, who can accurately judge the situation in the whole country, and put forward corresponding countermeasures, and pay attention to listening to their opinions when formulating major strategic principles and policy measures.
03, plague
Plague was prevalent at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and before and after Li Zicheng entered Beijing, plague was prevalent in the surrounding areas of Beijing, and some literature has recorded this.
04. Internal instability and corruption
Li Zicheng's generals, such as Liu Zongmin, Li Guo, Gao Yigong, Tian Jianxiu, Liu Fangliang, Yuan Zongdi, Liu Tichun, Li Shuangxi, Zhang Nai, Gu Kecheng, Ma Shiyao, Wu Ruyi, Li You, and Li Qiang, were all old men of the Old Eighth Team. On the one hand, these people were able to fight in the war and made great contributions to the Dashun regime; on the other hand, objectively, "Li Zicheng only trusted his Fellow Shaanxi Compatriots", which was not conducive to the unity of the troops.
Hilltop doctrine eventually trapped Li Zicheng to death.
Moreover, after entering Beijing, Li Zicheng's team quickly became corrupt, ate, drank, and had fun, and lost its combat effectiveness! Li Zicheng's army was complex in composition, mostly peasants, mountain thieves, criminals, and bandits, and a ragtag group of people who lacked discipline. As soon as Li Zicheng's generals entered the city of Beijing, they began to burn and loot, occupying the high-gate mansions of Ming officials for themselves. The army that "the king came without paying for food" was gone, and the soldiers soon became addicted to wine and wealth. In fact, Li Zicheng was able to capture the city of Beijing, which did not mean that the combat power was very strong, at that time the Ming Dynasty was facing a two-front battle, and the Ming generals had not been able to receive the military salaries of the imperial court, seeing that Li Zicheng's army directly surrendered, resulting in Li Zicheng not spending much effort all the way to the ground, until he encountered the fierce team of Wu Sangui and the Eight Banners of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the shortcomings of Li Zicheng's team were exposed!
Looking back at the whole process, when Li Zicheng's Dashun regime was at the crossroads of history, it made a series of mistakes and finally lost the good opportunity of "great unification." However, the Great Qing clique, with Dolgun as its actual leader, was able to judge the hour and size up the situation and seized the historical opportunity well, and fulfilled the last wishes of Emperor Taizu and Emperor Taizong. In contrast, it is dwarfed, so history eventually achieved the Great Qing and abandoned the Great Shun.
Therefore, Li Zicheng's failure is inevitable!