In 1644, Li Zicheng led a large army into the Forbidden City, and the Ming Dynasty fell. After the Chongzhen Emperor personally killed his wife and woman, he went to coal mountain and hanged himself. At that time, the Forbidden City was already in flames, just like the Ming Dynasty had entered the end of the world.
But in fact, just before Li Zicheng attacked the city of Beijing, the Ming Dynasty had not yet reached the point of exhaustion. At that time, there was also a general in the imperial court, whose name was Zuo Liangyu, who had 800,000 troops at that time, and was not weaker than Li Zicheng's army in terms of military strength and combat strength, but why did Zuo Liangyu not support the Chongzhen Emperor, so that the Ming Dynasty eventually collapsed?
>> Grand General Zuo Liangyu
Let's briefly introduce the life of Zuo Liangyu. Zuo Liangyu was born in 1599, his parents died when he was young, he was raised by his uncle, and his life was very difficult. After Zuo Liangyu grew up, in order to make a meritorious career, he joined the army and was initially responsible for garrisoning the border of Liaodong to resist the invasion of Later Jin soldiers and horses.
On the battlefield, Zuo Liangyu's performance was quite good, and he had killed a lot of enemies in the battles of Hongqiao and Dawushan, so he was promoted by Hou Yushi of Henan Province, became a deputy general of the border army, and later made many military achievements in succession, which won the attention of the imperial court.
Later, after the peasant revolt began, Zuo Liangyu was transferred by the imperial court to the Central Plains to suppress the rebel army, and in the face of the army of Li Zicheng, the king of the Chuang Dynasty, he repeatedly won battles and made great achievements, and in the process of continuous conquest, he annexed the enemy army, and by the time of the fall of the Ming Dynasty in 1644, Zuo Liangyu had more than 800,000 troops, becoming a super general of the Ming Dynasty after Yuan Chonghuan.
But why did Zuo Liangyu, who had an army of 800,000, not come to the rescue of the Chongzhen Emperor? It is reasonable to say that at that time, although Li Zicheng had millions of troops, most of them were peasant armies, and their combat strength was not strong. Moreover, Zuo Liangyu's previous battle with Li Zicheng was also more than more defeated, if coupled with the Beijing garrison, there should be a good chance to defeat Li Zicheng, but why did he not rush to the aid of the Chongzhen Emperor?
(1) The strength of Zuo Liangyu's army is not strong
Although Zuo Liangyu had 800,000 troops at that time, and even claimed to have 1 million troops, in fact, more than half of these 800,000 were peasant armies that Zuo Liangyu had surrendered during his conquests, and their combat effectiveness was not strong, and if they directly fought against Li Zicheng's rebel army, some of them might also defect to the enemy.
The regular army under Zuo Liangyu's command, who was really loyal to him, actually only had 5 battalions, with a total strength of only about 200,000 troops, which could not be compared with Li Zicheng's army. Moreover, the corruption of officials at the end of the Ming Dynasty meant that Zuo Liangyu's army would be far less replenished than Li Zicheng's rebel army, which won the hearts and minds of the people, which also increased the risk of defeat in the face of Li Zicheng's army.
(2) Zuo Liangyu himself has some scruples
Although Zuo Liangyu was the first general of the Ming Dynasty after Yuan Chonghuan, his own quality and courage were not as good as Yuan Chonghuan.com. In 1637, Zuo Liangyu at that time gained military power by suppressing the uprising, and when he had only more than 100,000 troops, he began to support the army and respect himself.
At that time, Zhang Guowei, the Inspector of YingTian, issued three consecutive letters asking Zuo Liangyu to go and suppress the bandits, but Zuo Liangyu did not pay any attention to them, but indulged his soldiers to rob the women of the people in Henan to rob the people's fat and people's ointment, and only after enjoying the blessing of more than 1 month did he reluctantly go north to suppress the bandits.
Therefore, Zuo Liangyu's body was actually more of a bandit qi than a general's wind. The first thing he thought of when he came from a humble background was how to make himself live a stable and comfortable life, and what country's survival and national crisis must be ranked behind Zuo Liangyu himself, and he naturally did not want to gnaw on Li Zicheng's hard bone.
(3) The mountain high road is far from convenient for rushing to help
In 1642, Zuo Liangyu fought a major battle in Zhuxian Town during his crusade against Li Zicheng, but suffered a crushing defeat, so he could only retreat south to Jiujiang, and since then Zuo Liangyu's main place of activity has been in the Jiangxi area, far from the city of Beijing, and his connection with the imperial court has been severely blocked or even cut off.
In 1644, Zuo Liangyu actually wrote a plan to send troops to the imperial court, hoping to enter the army after the imperial court replied, but because it was thousands of miles apart, it was necessary to cross the difficulties where Li Zicheng's army was located, and when this plan was sent to the imperial court, Li Zicheng's army had already besieged the city of Beijing, and when Zuo Liangyu had not yet received a reply from the imperial court, Li Zicheng had already captured the Forbidden City. Therefore, Zuo Liangyu simply did not have the time or conditions to rush to the aid of the Chongzhen Emperor, and the demise of the Ming Dynasty was already a foregone conclusion.
>> Conclusion
All in all, the collapse of the Ming Dynasty was not an overnight affair, nor was it the fault of one man and one army, but because the entire Ming Dynasty had decayed to the point that the building collapsed. Moreover, Zuo Liangyu himself was not a complete loyal general, and the death of the Chongzhen Emperor and the death of the Ming Dynasty were naturally a foregone conclusion.