In the first month of 1644, Li Zicheng declared himself emperor in Xi'an, established the Dashun regime, and then led the Northern Expedition and occupied Beijing in March to overthrow the Ming Dynasty. However, Li Zicheng did not establish rule throughout the country, but quickly perished, losing all his territory within a year, and died in May 1645 at Jiugong Mountain. "His rise is also bold, and his death is also sudden", how could Li Zicheng, the king of the Chuang Dynasty, have such an ending?
There are many reasons for Li Zicheng's rapid rise, and there are many reasons for his rapid failure, among which there is a very important factor, which is not only his trick to success, but also the root of his failure! That is, "seeking to rise, seeking harmony in the twilight, the poor have difficulty surviving recently." Open the door early to worship the king, and discipline the size of the joy. Slaughter cattle and sheep, prepare wine and pulp, open the city gate to meet the king, and the king will not pay for food. Eat his mother, her mother, eat not enough to have a king. Not bad, no food, everyone is happy. ”
This sentence was a popular slogan in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, of course, this was made by Li Zicheng to gather the support of the people. How did this sentence become the key to Li Zicheng's success or failure? At the beginning of Li Zicheng's uprising, the situation was not optimistic, especially in 1638, when he was surrounded and intercepted by the Ming army, and only eighteen people were left. After that, Li Zicheng's transfer to Hubei, Sichuan, and Shaanxi did not get rapid development.
Not long after, a serious flood and drought disaster broke out in Henan, and the vast number of peasants had no harvest. In this case, the Ming dynasty officials did not receive help from the people, but instead urged the tax. At this time, Li Zicheng entered Henan, with only more than a thousand people around him. At the right time, Li Zicheng put forward the slogan of "the king has come and will not pay grain", opened the granary of the official government, and helped the people, so he quickly won the support of the vast number of hungry people.
Li Zicheng's army soon grew into tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands, "a million, its momentum is invincible." In the course of his battles, Li Zicheng practiced the principle that the people would not pay grain, so where did his military salary come from? It turned out that every time the rebel army attacked a place, Li Zicheng would confiscate the property and grain of local noble officials and landlords and gentry. Relying on this slogan, Li Zicheng quickly expanded his strength and then overthrew the Ming Dynasty in one fell swoop.
But then the problem arises! After Li Zicheng conquered Beijing, he had already occupied most of the qinling mountains and north of the Huai River, but Li Zicheng did not realize the process of feudalization in this process, and did not establish a complete political and economic system, especially the tax system. At that time, Li Zicheng had millions of troops, and the salaries of so many people became a big problem, and he could only rely on the way of "torture" to maintain the livelihood of the army.
This brings up two very serious problems! First, torture deprived Li Zicheng of the support of Ming officials. In fact, since the defeat of Sun Chuanting, many Ming officials have clearly understood the situation and are ready to surrender to the Dashun army, so Li Zicheng has hardly encountered much resistance during the Eastern Crusade. However, due to the torture, these officials completely broke with the Da Shun army, and Wu Sangui was the most obvious example.
Second, Li Zicheng is still a "rogue" mentality. At that time, Li Zicheng already occupied a large territory, but he did not implement effective management of these areas, and what occupied Li Zicheng's mind was still the idea of "liukou", and he would be tortured and paid when he laid a new ground, and he would not collect taxes or carry out local construction. In other words, although Li Zicheng's territory is large, it is not his base. Therefore, after the defeat at the Battle of Shanhaiguan, Li Zicheng was defeated all the way and could not stop the Qing army at all.
References: 1. "History of Ming"; 2. "The End of the Chronicle of the Ming Dynasty"; 3. "History of the Peasants' War at the End of the Ming Dynasty"