The window of historical opportunity is always too short to grasp, and the difference between life and death hangs by a thread at a time, and there is no room for hesitation. Sticking to outdated concepts and narrow personal interests made Emperor Chongzhen and his courtiers stage a farce of extremely irresponsible decision-making, leaving behind eternal regrets. Obviously, rectifying the style of writing and meeting and eliminating the bad style behind it is of great importance to the rise and fall of the cause and the fate of the country, and this is an extremely important political issue that cannot be underestimated.
Looking back at the three emperors before Chongzhen mentioned in The Lessons of Chinese History, their behavior is simply unbelievable, and they can be called outliers among emperors: Shenzong did not go to court for 30 years, and many high-ranking officials did not meet the emperor until they retired; Guangzong was obsessed with lust and died in a hurry less than a month after his accession to the throne; and Xizong was obsessed with carpentry and bricklayering, and handed over the government to Wei Zhongxian.
However, Emperor Chongzhen was very different from his predecessors, he was a diligent and incorruptible monarch, who never took sick leave during his seventeen years of reign, and was strict with his family and staff, and even let the empress cook and weave cloth herself in order to reduce the financial burden.
However, such an outstanding emperor chose to hang himself in the middle of the night of March 18 in the year of Jiashen (1644 AD), on the coal mountain (now Jingshan), not far from the Forbidden City. In his suicide note, he pleaded with Li Zicheng not to hurt the people. Today, more than 300 years later, people stand in Jingshan Park where Chongzhen hanged himself, look at the deserted monument, and can't help but feel sorry for him: why didn't the sky let him take charge of the country for a few more years?
The fall of a dynasty has its inherent inevitability, like a mountain that is difficult to stop, but history is not static. In fact, God has given Chongzhen two turnarounds, as long as he catches one of them, maybe he doesn't need to go to a dead end, he doesn't have to become the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and he may even become a hero of the revival dynasty. However, stubborn thinking, lengthy meetings, and endless official documents eventually pushed him and his country to the coal mountain.
【The Death of the Southward Relocation Plan】
Emperor Chongzhen's first turning point appeared in the first month of the Jiashen year. At that time, Li Zicheng's army had already advanced into Shanxi, and within two months it could enter Beijing, and the situation was precarious. On the third day of the Lunar New Year, Emperor Chongzhen summoned Li Mingrui of the Prince's Mansion for a secret meeting to discuss emergency measures.
Li Mingrui advocated moving south, believing that as long as the strategic shift to the south was carried out, it would win a respite for the Ming Dynasty. He cites the precedent of the Song Dynasty's Zhao Gou's southern crossing, which established the Southern Song Dynasty in Hangzhou, which allowed the Zhao family to continue for more than 150 years. Li Mingrui believes that the conditions of the Ming Dynasty were more advantageous than those of the Song Dynasty, with a wider area and richer products, and Nanjing, as the accompanying capital, had a complete administrative system.
Li Mingrui's suggestion was reasonable and well-founded, Emperor Chongzhen listened very carefully, and the two talked all night. However, according to the Ming system, the emperor's major decisions needed the support of government departments, and Emperor Chongzhen feared that his proposal to abandon the capital and ancestral tombs would be criticized by later generations. Therefore, he hoped that the government departments would first put forward a proposal for moving south, and then pretend not to agree, and finally the government ministers would repeatedly advise and make a decision.
However, at the meeting, when Emperor Chongzhen hinted that the government ministers had proposed a move south, no one responded. Li Zicheng's army was getting closer and closer, and Emperor Chongzhen even suggested that Li Mingrui write a report to publicize the issue of southward migration in an attempt to force the government. However, Chief Minister Chen Yan was adamantly opposed to the move south and deliberately leaked the news, causing social unrest and panic. He also instructed a small official to submit materials to the authorities, attacking the southward migration as a "heresy" and demanding that Li Mingrui be severely punished.
It is no coincidence that the government is staunchly opposed to moving south. First, the scholarly class had long been educated in orthodoxy and believed that the retreat was shameful and politically wrong; second, in order to save their lives and shirk their responsibilities, the officials feared that they would be implicated if the southward migration failed; finally, from the perspective of practical interests, the officials feared that the merger of the northern and southern governments after the southward migration would lead to layoffs and insecure status. Therefore, everyone chooses to wait and see, and is not willing to bet easily.
Li Mingrui was very angry about this and fought back. There was a bitter debate and debate between the supporters and the opposition, but no agreement was reached. Emperor Chongzhen was so anxious that he even made it clear before a meeting: "Old Chen, you have to take care of this matter for me!" But Chen Yan always smiled and did not speak, which made Emperor Chongzhen angry.
After more than a month of tossing and turning, the situation became even more critical. At the meeting on February 27, Emperor Chongzhen called on everyone to speak freely and bluntly. However, the results have not changed. Immediately afterwards, Li Zicheng's army captured Juyong Pass and Changping, and Beijing was in danger.
In the end, Emperor Chongzhen couldn't bear it anymore and decided to have a showdown with Li Mingrui and others: "No matter what happens to them, I have the final say, let's move south immediately!" However, Li Mingrui sighed helplessly: "It's too late, our army has been scattered along the way, and even a fly can't fly out of Beijing City." ”
[Why did the Ming Dynasty reject Li Zicheng's peace talks]
It is unbelievable that there is still a glimmer of life when the Ming Dynasty is about to collapse. Li Zicheng was originally just an ordinary person working in a government guest house, and he did not possess the vision and mind of a politician, so he was unprepared for a quick victory, and he did not know the significance of the occupation of Beijing, and on 17 March, he had already reached the area of today's Fuxingmen, but the next morning he wrote to Emperor Chongzhen asking for peace talks, and the conditions put forward were not harsh: he only asked for the cession of the northwest, gave him a high degree of autonomy, and did not report his work to the central authorities; at the same time, the central government allocated 1 million taels of silver as a condolence money, and he fought for the government against hostile forces, including the Manchu clique in the northeast, which was eyeing the enemy。
Obviously, the deal was an obvious advantage for anyone with insight, and there was no choice, but the crowd was silent. If the issue of southward migration can be discussed for a while, the political weight of land reparations is undoubtedly too heavy and daunting.
Silence, however, was not a long-term solution, so ministers rose to the occasion and passionately denounced the ambitions of their enemies, vowing to fight until the last minute to join Beijing in the national crisis. The "big gift" that Li Zicheng sent unexpectedly was not on the agenda of the last high-level state council of the Ming Dynasty.
Chongzhen wanted to escape quietly at night, but from Andingmen, Chaoyang Gate to Qianmen, no one dared to open the city gate for him. Seeing that the sky was about to dawn, he had to walk lonely towards the coal mountain......
Soon after his death, Li Zicheng rode his horse straight into the Jinluan Palace. Did the ministers, who had previously vowed to fight to the end and had been steadfast in their words, really kept their promises? The next day, they were queuing outside Li Zicheng's mansion, waiting for a new work arrangement.
The stone tablet in Jingshan Park is engraved with "Ming Sizong martyrdom", and "Sizong" is the temple number of Chongzhen. Indeed, the tragedy of Chongzhen and the Ming Dynasty left a deep reflection for later generations.
[Chongzhen's political drama, leaving regrets for the ages]
After the death of Emperor Chongzhen, the regent of the Qing Dynasty, Dolgon, pointed out sharply in a letter to Shi Kefa of the Southern Ming Dynasty:
You officials of the Ming Dynasty, who only cared about personal reputation and status, liked to talk rhetoric and nonsense, even in the face of national crises, they still talked leisurely and contentedly, and a decision was more time-consuming than building a tall building. I think that when the Northern Song Dynasty was discussing countermeasures, the Jin army had already crossed the Yellow River, why can't you take this as a warning?!
The opportunities of history are always fleeting, and the difference between one step and life and death cannot be tolerated. Rigid thinking and narrow self-interest caused the extremely irresponsible political drama of Emperor Chongzhen's ministers and ministers, leaving regrets for the ages. It can be seen that improving the style of writing and meeting and eliminating the malaise behind the style of work are all political topics of vital importance to the rise and fall of the country and the success or failure of the cause, and they are by no means trivial matters.