A peasant uprising: Li Zicheng captures the Forbidden City in Beijing April 25, 1644,
Li Zicheng, a peasant revolt leader who was a pawn, led his Dashun army to capture the Forbidden City in Beijing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty. however
He soon realized that it would not be easy to keep the rebel regime on its feet for long. This article will review Li Zicheng's capture of Beijing and explore the mistakes he made during his rule.
When Li Zicheng's army arrived outside Deshengmen, the city of Beijing was already in ruins. Before the repair of the city wall was completed, Li Zicheng's army had already attacked the city.
The blood of the Shunjun soldiers is boiling, and they are finally entering the Forbidden City in search of gold and silver jewelry and fine wine. The people of the city panicked and fled the capital.
Li Zicheng's army quickly captured the entire city of Beijing, and the Ming army defending the city was unable to organize effective resistance. Li Zicheng led a part of the dead soldiers to rush directly into the Taihe Hall,
He finally stood before the throne of the Son of Heaven. However, Li soon discovered that establishing a stable regime was much more than just storming cities. To appease the people,
Li Zicheng issued an order strictly forbidding his subordinates to harm the people and loot property. However, his two henchmen, Liu Zongmin and Li Guo, disobeyed the military order and did whatever they wanted. Li Zicheng was powerless to restrain them,
This caused factional contradictions within the Dashun army. Liu Zongmin and others even openly ridiculed Li Zicheng and no longer regarded him as an emperor.
Another question was how Li Zicheng handled the funeral of the Chongzhen Emperor. Li Zicheng did not want to spend too much time and resources on a dead monarch,
But he also knew that he had to pay some respect to the Chongzhen Emperor. In the end, at the request of the government and the public, Li Zicheng repurchased a coffin and funeral supplies for the Chongzhen Emperor to be buried. however
Because Li Zicheng was reluctant to spend money to build a mausoleum, Chongzhen eventually buried him next to the vegetable field with his wife. This treatment caused the anger of the government and the public,
This further weakened Li Zicheng's popular base. Li Zi became a collection of military supplies and forcibly collected huge amounts of money from civil and military officials. He even used torture against officials who refused to pay.
This practice caused misery for the bureaucrats, the people were looted to the end of the road, and the capital was in chaos. And Li Zicheng was immersed in the sound and began to drink and gamble,
Connivance with generals playing with women. These behaviors caused Li Zicheng to lose popular support, loosen discipline within the army, and the soldiers indulged in alcohol.
Li Zicheng's defeat has taught us an important lesson: it is easy to seize power, but to stabilize the rule, we need to rule the country according to law and convince people with morality. Li Zicheng did not see this clearly,
He indulged his army to plunder the people and greed for pleasure, which eventually left the foundation of his rule in jeopardy. For those who want to be in power, they should always remember that only the heart of the world,
Only by acting legally can we gain a foothold in the new regime. In today's world, we see a lot of regime changes and the rise of states. however
Have we learned from history? Can we avoid repeating Li Zicheng's mistakes? Please leave your comments to share your views with us.