In 1644, Wu Sangui, who was the commander-in-chief of the Ningyuan regiment, took the lead in surrendering to the Qing army heading south, opening the door for the Qing army to enter the customs. It was also from this year that the last feudal dynasty in China's ancient history began its history of ruling the Central Plains.
However, the Nanming Emperor, who is known as the Hongguang Emperor in the history books, still enjoyed a life of poverty and luxury on the land of Jiangnan. The reason why the Southern Ming Emperor dared to be so debauched under the eyes of the Qing army was because in the west of them, there was Zuo Liangyu, who was in charge of 800,000 soldiers and horses, who was "escorting" them.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > Daming's last "conscience"</h1>
In fact, the evaluation of Zuo Liangyu in the history books has never been unified, but if you judge only from the life of Zuo Liangyu, Zuo Liangyu can already be regarded as the last "conscience" of the Ming Dynasty.
Zuo Liangyu's origin was not very good, in the early years he was only the Capital Division of the Right Camp of Liaodong, and later when the "Ningyuan Wei" mutinied, he killed Inspector Bi Zisu, and Zuo Liangyu also lost his official position. Think about it, the inspectors are dead, Zuo Liangyu's small car right camp Dusi survived, and the "castration party" who could not find the "culprit" naturally wanted to take Zuo Liangyu out to say something.
At this time, although Zuo Liangyu felt unlucky, he did not have any intention of opposing the "castration party", but felt some joy because he saved his life. Two years after the Ningyuan Mutiny, Ma Shilong, who was the premier of the Qinwang army, felt that Zuo Liangyu had activated him again, and asked him to lead the fight against the Qing army with Cao Wenzhao and other generals.
This moment opened Zuo Liangyu's horizons, looking at the villages and towns that had been ravaged by the Qing army, the heart in Zuo Liangyu's heart that was almost going to die under the emasculation of the party came back to life. Beginning in 1630, in just one year, Zuo Liangyu became the first person to resist the Qing in the ming dynasty's western army as a small general.
And Zuo Liangyu's deeds were also seen by his immediate superior Hou Ke bit by bit, and Hou Ke, who was a member of the "Donglin Party", naturally wanted to promote Zuo Liangyu. In this way, Zuo Liangyu slowly became the Ping Thief General of the late Ming Dynasty with an irreparable momentum under the gaze of the "castration party".
Later, when the wars in the territory of the Ming Dynasty were repeatedly prohibited, the "castration party" had to temporarily put aside their ideas about Zuo Liangyu and let him lead the military and political affairs in Henan to fight against the peasant army.
In just a few years, it had developed to this point, and Zuo Liangyu no longer paid attention to the dirty in the imperial court and concentrated on dealing with the rebellion. The reason why Zuo Liangyu was called Daming's "conscience" was that it gradually became a reality during his years of resisting Jin and countering rebellion.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="36" > "conscience" has gradually deteriorated</h1>
But what is the truth of the human heart that remains unchanged for a thousand days? After Zuo Liangyu became the chief soldier in Henan, although there were constantly soldiers and horses in the process of counterinsurgency, the speed of damage was definitely not as fast as the speed of recruitment.
That is to say, in this seemingly unbalanced state, Zuo Liangyu, who could bring up to a few thousand soldiers and horses before, gradually had tens of thousands of soldiers and horses and hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses under his hands. At its peak, Zuo Liangyu even once claimed to have "a million male soldiers".
At the end of 1633 AD, the arrival of a cold winter deprived the peasant army wandering in Henan of its best natural barrier. The peasant army, which had suffered several defeats on the way to escape, realized that sooner or later it would have to be finished, so it asked Chang Daoli, the envoy of the inspector at the time, to ask the imperial court to recruit security.
This operation of the peasant army caught the Ming generals, including Zuo Liangyu, by some surprise, but Zuo Liangyu did not think that the imperial court, which was controlled by the "castration party", could see the request for Zhao'an. Yuan Mo, who also had a deep understanding of the "castration party", naturally understood the thoughts that Zuo Liangyu wanted to express, and personally took Zuo Liangyu and other generals to the other side of the Yellow River and stationed himself.
Sure enough, the peasant army, which claimed to surrender, took advantage of the ice on the surface of the Yellow River and wanted to cross the Yellow River to escape. Zuo Liangyu, who had already been waiting for rabbits on the banks of the Yellow River, was willing to let them go, and naturally ordered an attack on the peasant army before the peasant army crossed the river.
The irresistible peasant army began to run again, and Zuo Liangyu led the army to chase again. However, in fact, the peasant army at that time was only able to command battles, but the armament such as combat equipment was much better than that of the ordinary Ming army. Not to mention that most of the peasant army has horses, running hundreds of miles a day, even the food on weekdays, the peasant army is much better than the Ming army's food.
This is also the reason why Zuo Liangyu has won many battles and victories, but he cannot annihilate the peasant army. Before catching up for a few days, Zuo Liangyu was attacked by the "castration party", and this time, the "Donglin Party" who did not want to continue to watch Zuo Liangyu sit on the big one also entered silence. Zuo Liangyu, who was not good at courting, was suddenly attacked from both sides, and simply gave up the action of pursuing the peasant army, and directly turned back with his soldiers and horses.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="37" > prince Shaobao who "raises soldiers and fattens himself"</h1>
In 1637, Zuo Liangyu, who had already defeated the peasant army many times in Tongcheng, Luzhou and other places, temporarily put aside his military affairs and let Zhang Guowei, the governor of Ying Tianfu, "jump up and down" and ignore it. Not only did he allow the peasant army to continue northward, but he also allowed his own army to abduct women in Shucheng. It wasn't until a month later that Zuo Liangyu slowly chased after the peasant army.
To this extent, no matter how slow the imperial court was, it knew that Zuo Liangyu had a bad heart in his heart. So in order to appease Zuo Liangyu's thoughts, he directly raised Zuo Liangyu from the position of General Ping Thief, and all the way to the point where Prince Shaobao, the "Quasi-Nine Qing", was raised.
However, at this time, Zuo Liangyu had already been disappointed in the imperial court, and coupled with Hou Ke's death, the remaining "Donglin Party" people also began to be wary of Zuo Liangyu. Not only did they build fortifications on the grounds of preventing the Qing army from advancing westward, but they also joined forces with the "castration party" to attack Zuo Liangyu. Moreover, he was also older, and he was powerless to rectify the court.
Fortunately, at this time, Zuo Liangyu already had enough ability, with an army of 800,000, he was not afraid of the attacks of those civilian officials at all, and he would still live his own life, so he would sit idly by. When the mood is good, it will fight the peasant army, and if it is in a bad mood, it will indulge in pleasure, and in just a few years, the Ming Dynasty has lost a large area of the country.
Of course, the reason for the gradual encroachment of the Ming Dynasty's Jiangshan certainly could not be blamed on Zuo Liangyu. While other officials and generals were busy fighting the eunuchs at the imperial court, Li Zicheng, who called himself the "King of Chuang," had already encroached on large tracts of land with the Qing army. No matter how powerful Zuo Liangyu was, it only delayed the demise of the Ming Dynasty.
What's more, after the Qing army entered the customs, the Southern Ming Hongguang Emperor who reorganized the Ming Dynasty not only did not exert great efforts to govern, but intensified, and the Southern Ming, which lasted only one year, was overthrown by the Qing army.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="38" > conclusion</h1>
Zuo Liangyu only lived in his forties in his lifetime, and although his early conquest experience made his power expand rapidly in a very short period of time, his body had already been destroyed among the military. Most importantly, the wanton "castration party" in the court once again destroyed Zuo Liangyu's confidence in the imperial court, so that shortly after Zuo Liangyu's death, his son Zuo Menggeng surrendered to the Qing court with an army of 200,000. The reason why Zuo Liangyu is called "loyal minister" by some people is because of his son's measures, and Zuo Liangyu's previous affairs have been turned over by people who "oppose the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty" and praise Zuo Liangyu as a hero.
Just as the so-called ancient and modern things are all laughed at, everything in that year has long become an unforgettable dust, and Zuo Liangyu's life can only wander in loyalty and treachery.
Zuo Liangyu, is it a loyal subject? Why did the 800,000-strong army sit back and watch Daming being destroyed?
Zuo Liangyu held an army of 800,000 in his hands, but sat back and watched the Ming Dynasty be buried?
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