On March 19, 1644, Li Zicheng invaded Beijing.
At this time, Li Zicheng's Dashun army was nearly one million, while the Qing army outside guanwai, the Manchu, Mongolian, and Han Eight Banners, had a total of only 200,000 troops.
However, only 1 year later, Li Zicheng was defeated and killed.
Li Zicheng, why did he lose so quickly?
After invading Beijing, the Dashun army controlled Henan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and most of Qinghai, Shaanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Hubei, with a total strength of nearly one million people and strong strength.
Li Zicheng made Zhang Xianzhong in the Sichuan region and the remnants of the Ming Dynasty in the south (the Southern Ming had not yet been established) their main competitors.
Li Zicheng targeted Zuo Liangyu in Wuchang and Zhang Xianzhong in Sichuan, and mobilized troops to fight.
For the north, Li Zicheng's plan was: to recruit Wu Sangui, and to order Wu Sangui to enter the capital, meet Li Tianyu and other troops, attack Zhang Xianzhong, and only let Tang Tong, who was obedient to Juyongguan, lead an army of 8,000 to take over Shanhaiguan!
It can be said that Li Zicheng almost completely ignored the Manchu Qing in the north.
The terrible thing is: the Manchu Qing, for this moment, waited for decades!
Previously, the Manchu Qing strategy was to "cut down large trees". Several times they entered the customs, they were mainly plundered, and the purpose was precisely to weaken Daming and shake and disintegrate its foundation.
Now that the big wood has fallen, the Manchu Qing has fulfilled his wishes, and naturally he must attack with heavy troops!
On the ninth day of April, Dorgon led more than 100,000 troops of Manchu, Mongolian, and Han to begin to march.
At that time, the Manchu Qing dynasty was unaware of Wu Sangui's position and attempted to bypass Shanhaiguan and enter the border from Jizhou and Miyun and take Beijing directly.
In the era of Emperor Taiji, the Qing army took this route to enter the customs "cutting big wood", which can be described as a light and familiar road.
On April 13, Hong Chengyu proposed: We should seize advantage of Li Zicheng's unstable foothold in Beijing, seize the time, put the weight in the rear, the elite troops in the front, "count the road, time limit days", quickly step up the whip, and attack Li Zicheng.
At the same time, the Manchu Qing successively issued orders to strictly enforce military discipline: Before, we went to the enemy country to plunder, and now, we are going to conquer! The people of the Ming Dynasty, in the future, "own it for me" and must not be harmed!
It can be said that no matter what Wu Sangui's position is, the Manchu Qing has already concentrated the main force and is ready to enter the customs!
Shanhaiguan Decisive Battle: On the same day that Hong Chengzu proposed to quickly increase the whip and attack Beijing, Li Zicheng, who had failed to appease Wu Sangui, sent troops to Shanhaiguan!
On the fifteenth day, after Receiving Wu Sangui's letter of request for soldiers, Dorgon immediately changed direction and rushed to Shanhaiguan!
At the Battle of Shanhaiguan, the strength of the troops brought by Li Zicheng is controversial in the history books, one says more than 100,000, one says 60,000, but no matter how many people, it is obvious that Li Zicheng did not realize: This is a decisive battle!
This is the common reason for Li Zicheng's successive defeats since then: although the total strength of the troops is absolutely superior, in the decisive battlefield, his troops are always not dominant!
On April 21, the Qing army defeated Tang Tong at a stone, and the army advanced to Shanhaiguan.
Li Zicheng's army, because of its "normal" operation, arrived at Shanhaiguan on the same day and prepared to attack the city.
At this time, the strength of the Dashun army was not superior, and there was a strong city in front of it, and the battlefield situation was already unfavorable!
This is another manifestation of the successive failures of the Da Shun Army since then: the machine power is not as good as that of the people, and it is often the first to arrive later.
Li Zicheng attacked Shanhaiguan for a day, but when he saw the Arrival of the Qing Army, he hastily switched to field battles.
The next day, Li Zicheng lined up a long line of snakes to protect against the Qing army attacking his flank.
The decisive battle began, and the Qing army fought a decisive battle with Wu Sangui first, in order to fatigue the Dashun army. The main force is second to the rear and will not be launched for the time being.
When the two sides were exhausted, the strong wind suddenly broke out, and the Qing army took advantage of the situation to kill from the right side of the Wu army and attack the main force of the Dashun army.
The Da Shun army suffered heavy damage, 15 generals were killed in battle, and they returned with a big defeat!
After losing his organization and defeating the Qing army for thousands of miles, Dorgon supplemented Wu Sangui with 10,000 and eight banners, making Wu Sangui the vanguard, continuing to pursue Li Zicheng, and leading his army into Beijing.
After Li Zicheng was defeated and retreated, the company of 18 battalions fought against Wu Sangui and was again defeated.
In desperation, Li Zicheng hastily declared himself emperor and withdrew from Beijing.
Dorgon strictly ordered Wu Sangui not to enter Beijing and continued to pursue.
Li Zicheng left Beijing on April 30, lost to Baoding on the second day of May, lost to Dingzhou on the third day, lost to Zhending on the fourth day of the first month, and died in the fifth day of the first month, Li Zicheng was killed in a joint camp and lost again, and Li Zicheng fell off his horse and left, extremely embarrassed.
Successive fiascos show that Wu Sangui's fierce blows and fierce pursuits have left Li Zicheng with no chance to breathe at all, and he has no time to rectify his strength and cannot make a strong move.
Wu Sangui chased continuously, until Guguan stopped.
Despite successive military setbacks, the Qing dynasty still controlled only the northeast and The Beijing area, and Dashun's territory seemed to be much larger than that of the Manchus.
Soon, however, the Dashun regime ushered in a political collapse.
Since the Dashun military regime did not establish a strong rule over the occupied areas, soon, there were successive rebellions in Shandong, Hebei, Shaanxi, Henan and other places!
Li Yan asked himself to pacify Henan with 20,000 soldiers, but the strategist Niu Jinxing thought that Li Yan "had great ambitions" and instigated Li Zicheng to kill Li Yan.
In this way, the Dashun army "discord between culture and war, the disintegration of the non-commissioned officers", Shandong, Zhili, most of Henan and parts of Shanxi were all easily "taken over" by the Qing.
A thousand miles away!
In July, Li Zicheng returned to Xi'an, and the situation was temporarily stabilized.
At this time, there were Tongguan and Yellow River natural dangers in the east of Dashun, and there were large armies in Taiyuan and northern Shaanxi, and there was still the strength to persist.
Li Zicheng's plan was: to take Hanzhong in the south and Gansu in the west, to ensure Guanzhong, and to wait for the opportunity of the Northern Expedition.
This strategy, based on a solid pass, seems beyond reproach.
However, at this time, Zhang Xianzhong had entered Sichuan and taken Hanzhong in the south, which was bound to clash with the Great Western Army; and Gansu was a Ming-ruled region. This is undoubtedly making enemies everywhere!
At the same time, because Li Zicheng's army was in fact "recovering the lost land" in Hebei, Shaanxi, Henan, and other places at the same time, the forces were scattered, and the battles to take Hanzhong and Gansu were also protracted for a long time.
As a result, until the defeat of the Dashun army in Shaanxi, they were still fighting Zhang Xianzhong in the northern Sichuan area, and fighting with local armed forces in Gansu, and their forces were scattered!
At the same time, Daqing clearly listed Da shun as the primary target.
In today's situation, if you are anxious to be a thief in the West, and if you want to be a thief in the West, you must transfer Mongolia to the three sides... - "Records of the Ancestors of the Qing Dynasty"
Dorgon said that he would "talk about peace" and "share good neighborly friendship" with Nanming, appease Nanming, concentrate his forces, and prepare to strike a decisive blow to the Dashun army again.
Battle of Tongguan: Once again in a hasty decisive battle between the Dashun army and the Qing army, Dashun once again "rushed to meet the battle".
The Qing army divided into two routes and attacked Dashun: North Road, Azig led Wu Sangui and Shang Kexi's troops, starting from Datong, taking a detour through Inner Mongolia, marching to northern Shaanxi, bypassing Tongguan, directly threatening Xi'an; on the southern road, with Duoduo leading Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming's troops, from Huaiqing to Tongguan.
The Qing army once again played a trick.
When Duo Duo went south, he threatened to attack Jiangnan and paralyzed Li Zicheng. After arriving in Hui County, Henan, they stopped moving.
At the same time, Tang Tong, who had just surrendered to the Qing army in September, led the Qing army in Shanxi to cross the river from Baode to pretend to attack and contain the Shun army in northern Shaanxi.
The Azig department, on the other hand, moved quickly and menacingly, encircling Yulin and entering Mizhi.
In this way, Li Zicheng judged the north road to be the main threat, so he concentrated the main force in the direction of northern Shaanxi.
At this time, Duo Duo suddenly exerted force and defeated the Da Shun army in Luoyang and Shaanzhou continuously, directly approaching Tongguan.
Customs clearance was urgent, and Li Zicheng had to hastily lead his army to aid Tongguan.
Li Zicheng and Duo Duo fought a bloody battle at Tongguan, and both sides suffered heavy losses.
Soon, the Red-clad cannons of the Qing Army arrived at the front line and opened fire to attack the city.
The DaShun army desperately resisted for three days and nights, suffered heavy losses, and Tongguan fell.
In this battle, the red-clad cannon did play a decisive role.
However, if Li Zicheng's army had already been heavily guarded at Tongguan, with Duoduo's troops, I am afraid that it would not be close to the city.
It was precisely because Duo Duo first approached Tongguan, desperately blocked the Dashun army inside the city, and established a favorable position outside the pass, that it was possible to give full play to the role of the red-clad cannon.
At the defeat of Tongguan, the Dashun army was not only defeated by the qing army's artillery, but also defeated by hasty defense.
The soldiers were defeated and died at Tongguan Pass, and Xi'an could no longer defend it.
The persistence of Li Guo and Hao Weiqi in northern Shaanxi also lost its significance.
Li Zicheng then abandoned Xi'an and led the main force of the Dashun army of 200,000 through Lantian, Shangzhou, and Wuguan to occupy Wuchang.
At this time, the Dashun Army still had 48 battalions and hundreds of thousands of troops!
Li Zicheng was determined to go down the east side of the river and capture Jiangnan.
However, Li Zicheng's preparations were undecided, and the Azig army arrived, and Li Zicheng did not dare to fight, abandoning Wuchang and continuing to go south.
Finally, Li Zicheng was killed at Jiugong Mountain in Hubei Province.
The Great Shun is gone!
In the competition, who can play to the advantages, avoid or make up for the disadvantages, who can grasp the initiative and win the victory.
The biggest disadvantage of the Dashun army is that its combat effectiveness is not as good as that of the Qing army.
As early as the anti-Ming war, some of the bitter lords who made Li Zicheng were annihilated by the Qing army in Liaodong.
However, the DaShun Army occupies an absolute advantage in terms of both military strength, territory and population.
However, after the battle began, Da Shun's superiority could not be brought into play at all, and he could only "attack the enemy's strength with his own shortness."
Dashun "broke into the king and did not pay grain", and could win support when opposing the Ming Dynasty, but the regime that lacked a foundation could not fully mobilize manpower and material resources, so that Dashun's territory and demographic advantages could not be brought into play.
Li Zicheng's policy of attacking multiple opponents at the same time made the Dashun army unable to exert its superiority in strength in the battle against the Qing, especially in the two decisive battles, which were carried out under the condition that the troop strength and firepower were inferior.
On the other hand, the Qing army, despite insufficient troops, appeased and paralyzed Nanming, was highly concentrated in strategy, and always insisted on Making Li Zi the main opponent.
In terms of specific operational policies, the Qing army gave full play to the superiority of machine power, detoured in multiple ways when attacking, sought out gaps in the enemy, created killing machines, and was decisive and courageous when pursuing, did not give the enemy a chance to breathe, and fully grasped the rhythm of the battlefield.
Therefore, in the whole war, although Li Zicheng had a large number of troops, he was always passive, subject to people everywhere, and eventually had to lose like a mountain.