Text: Xiao Jiantao (Columnist for Reading History)
When it comes to Li Dingguo, many people may not have heard of this name. But more than three hundred years ago, Li Dingguo's three characters were like thunder and resounded all over the land of China.
Zhang Binglin once said when Cai Yi raised an army to beg Yuan: "May the people of Dian, never forget Li Dingguo!" ”
To this day, there are still many ancestral halls and legends related to Li Dingguo in Dian, Qian, Gui and other places.
So, who is Li Dingguo?
(Yunnan Mengla Li Dingguo Ancestral Hall)
Li Dingguo was born in Yulin, Shaanxi Province, his family was poor, and at the right time coincided with the great drought in the northwest at the end of the Ming Dynasty, coupled with the tight border defense of the imperial court, the horizontal levy of taxes, and hunger and death. Under such circumstances, Li Dingguo joined Zhang Xianzhong's rebel army, and was adopted by Zhang Xianzhong as an adopted son, and was also one of Zhang Xianzhong's four adopted sons (Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu, and Ai Nengqi), and accompanied Zhang Xianzhong in his conquests of the north and south, and made many military achievements.
Li Dingguo fought bravely, looked handsome, treated soldiers with generosity and benevolence, and was deeply loved by his righteous father Zhang Xianzhong. After Zhang Xianzhong established the Daxi regime, Li Dingguo was given the title of General of Zhenxi. The good times did not last long, Zhang Xianzhong was killed by an arrow in the battle with the Qing army, and the Daxi regime immediately disintegrated.
When Zhang Xianzhong was dying, he instructed his four adopted sons: "The three hundred years of orthodoxy of the Ming Dynasty may not be extinguished, and it is also providence." When I die, I am anxious to return to the light, and I am not unrighteous. Li Dingguo and his righteous brothers decided to unite with the Ming Dynasty to resist the Qing Dynasty, and from Sichuan to the south, they captured Dianqian as a base for the uprising.
However, Sun Kewang was proud of his merits and planned to take Dian Qian to stand on his own, which was strongly opposed by Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu. Sun Kewang was photographed by Li and Liu's prestige in the army, and he gave up with hatred. Since then, Li Dingguo and Sun Kewang, the former brothers in the same robe, have a rift in their feelings.
At the same time, Zhu Youluo was proclaimed emperor in Zhaoqing, which was the last emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty, the Yongli Emperor.
In the fifth year of the Yong Calendar, under the threat of Force of Sun Kewang and the gradual pursuit of the Qing army, Zhu Youluo moved to Anlong and was tightly controlled by Sun Kewang, which was like house arrest. Since then, Sun Ke is expected to become the de facto ruler of the Yongli Southern Ming court. Sun Kewang wantonly built palaces, privately created currency, and became more and more unintended.
At this time, Li Dingguo was training troops in Yunnan, and he had already pulled up a team of more than 30,000 people as a fresh force for his future resistance to the Qing. Among them, Li Dingguo was equipped with Yunnan's unique military branch, the Elephant Soldier, which played an important role in the subsequent battles.
After more than two years of governance, Yunnan's economy has been restored to a certain extent, and in the sixth year of the Yong calendar, Li Dingguo decided to lead his troops and horses from Guizhou straight into Hunan to recover Huguang.
Li Dingguo's command was effective, the soldiers bravely killed the enemy, and the Qing army's Hunan garrison Shen Yongzhong and the Pingnan king Kong Youde had always been at odds, Li Dingguo took the opportunity to show his might and almost recovered all of Hunan. After that, Li Dingguo's bingfeng turned directly to Guangxi and surrounded Kong Youde's garrison, Guilin.
Li Dingguo skillfully used the elephant army to storm the city gate and quickly broke through the guilin city wall. Kong Youde set himself on fire in despair at home, and the criminal career of a generation of traitors came to an end.
After pacifying Guilin, Li Dingguo quickly recovered all of Guangxi, and then continued to move north to capture Hengzhou, Changsha and other important towns in Hunan.
Li Dingguo was not only brave in battle, but also had strict military law, and he had five treaty laws with his non-commissioned officers: no killing, no adultery, no robbery, no slaughter of cattle, and no arson.
Li Ji, the widow of the Ming Dynasty, described: "The law of the dingguo soldiers is extremely strict, the division has been stationed for half a year (referring to Changsha), and the residents do not know that there are soldiers, and they enter the market to buy and buy. The Dingguo Institute will be half of the Luo Wei Guy, although its non-commissioned officers are extremely difficult to restrain, He Dingguo has the law. ”
It can be seen from this that Li Dingguo not only had strict military law, but also knew how to handle the relationship with the various ethnic minorities in Yunnan.
Li Dingguo regained more than 3,000 miles of territory, and the Qing court was greatly shocked, and hurriedly dispatched the well-known traitor Hong Chengyu to pass through The Lake and Guangzhou, and Nurhaci's eldest grandson Jingjin The Prince Nikan went south to engage Li Dingguo.
Li Dingguo originally wanted to take advantage of the victory to advance into Guangdong and join Zheng Chenggong with the resistance forces on the southeast coast, but was vetoed by Sun Kewang, who was jealous of Li Dingguo's military achievements. Li Dingguo had to continue north to Hunan.
In the face of a strong enemy, Li Dingguo set up an ambush combat plan and ordered his troops to temporarily withdraw from Changsha and lead the enemy through xiangshui. However, Sun Kewang was afraid that the expansion of Li Dingguo's battle results would not be easy to control, so he secretly ordered Li Dingguo's troops to withdraw Feng Shuangli and Ma Jinzhong from the ambush circle.
Nikan was arrogant and conceited, and there was no one in sight, and under the lure of Li Dingguo's vanguard troops, he entered the ambush circle of the Ming army, and the Ming army came out in all directions, the Qing army was caught off guard, the position was chaotic, and Nikan was beheaded in the rebel army.
However, because the feng and Ma armies did not reach the plan, Li Dingguo was unable to further expand the results. However, this battle has broken the legend of the invincibility of the Manchurian soldiers, beheading the Manchu Qing prince Nikan, and Li Dingguo has since "two famous kings, and the world is shaken." Huang Zongxi commented: "This cannot be had in the world since the noon of the Wanli Dynasty."
After this battle, the Qing court was greatly frightened, and even wanted to cede the seven provinces of Jiangnan and rule with the Southern Ming Dynasty.
Li Dingguo was full of vigor and was waiting to clean up the old mountains and rivers, restore Daming, and return to the old capital. However, Sun Kewang, who was afraid that Li Dingguo's prestige would surpass his own, secretly made a big fuss, and not only withheld Li Dingguo's salary, but also pressed the edict of the Yongli Emperor preparing to crown Li Dingguo as the King of Xining, and even secretly prepared to harm him.
Sun Kewang entered Yuanzhou and invited Li Dingguo to the army to discuss matters, preparing to kill him. Li Dingguo did not know it, but Thanks to Liu Wenxiu's son intercepting Li Dingguo on the road and telling the truth, Dingguo Fang escaped the disaster.
Li Dingguo took into account the overall situation and did not want to make an enemy of Sun Kewang, but Sun Kewang pressed forward step by step and led troops to attack Dingguo's troops, and Dingguo had no choice but to leave Hunan.
After the Qing court detected the discord between Sun and Li, it once again sent troops into Hunan. Sun Kewang, where he was the opponent of the Qing army, was killed in a big defeat and fled Hunan. The whole territory of Hunan was once again occupied by Qing forces, and Shang Kexi also sent troops to capture Guilin and Wuzhou at this time.
The results of Li Dingguo's bloody struggle with his soldiers were completely lost under the destruction of Sun Kewang's selfish desires.
In the seventh year of the Yong calendar, Li Dingguo sent an army from Guangxi to Guangdong, preparing to continue to implement his strategic concept, so that the Southern Ming Court was connected with zheng chenggong resistance forces and Zhang Huangyan resistance forces along the coast of Zhejiang, and Guangdong's economy was developed, which could support the huge expenses of the Southern Ming court.
After Li Dingguo contacted Zheng Chenggong to send troops at the same time, he raised troops and went straight into Guangdong. Just like in Guangxi, Hunan, Li Dingguo was unstoppable and fought all the way to Zhaoqing City. However, Zhaoqing City was highly armed and the siege progressed slowly.
At the same time, Zheng Chenggong's troops engaged the Qing army in Haicheng, Fujian Province, but failed to fight with Li Ding's division.
In the end, the Ming army was defeated and once again retreated into Guangxi. Li Dingguo knew that it would be difficult to conquer Guangdong on his own, so he sent people to Fujian again, contacted Zheng Chenggong, and asked him to send troops to attack Guangdong together. However, at this time, Zheng Chenggong was negotiating with the Qing Dynasty, which allowed him to control Xinghua, Chaozhou, Zhangzhou, and Quanzhou.
Zheng Chenggong wrote in a letter to his father: "If the Qing Dynasty can believe in the words of its children, it will be a Qing courtier, and if it is subservient to my father as filial piety; if it cannot believe the words of its children, it will be a courtier, and if it is loyal to our king." ”
It can be seen that at this time, Zheng Chenggong had no intention of fighting for the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, let alone during the critical period of negotiations between him and the Qing court. Zheng Chenggong ostensibly agreed to Li Dingguo's request, and did not move according to the soldiers. And all this, Li Dingguo did not know.
Li Dingguo re-entered Guangdong and hit Xinhui in the south of Guangzhou, and he assumed that Zheng Chenggong's reinforcements would come from the sea, so he prepared to take Xinhui and meet Zheng Jun here. Thus, the key battle that determined the life and death of Nanming was launched- the Battle of Xinhui.
The Ming army's artillery fire was fierce, and the Qing army let the people go to the city wall to block it with flesh and blood; the Ming army attacked the city with a ladder, and the Qing army coerced the people to stand on the city wall to block the Ming army.
Li Dingguo was originally from the rebel army, and when he saw this situation, he hurriedly ordered the siege to stop, not knowing that he had committed a major taboo in the military family- Ci bu to control the army.
Sun Kewang cut off the supply of materials to Dianqian, the siege battle turned into a siege war, the plague spread in the Ming army, and Li Dingguo fell ill, but he insisted on commanding the battle and waited for the arrival of the Zheng army.
Li Dingguo did not expect that before Zheng Jun came more than 100,000 Qing court reinforcements brought by Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao.
The Ming army was defeated and fled all the way to Nanning. Under the falsehood and treachery of his allies Zheng Chenggong, Li Dingguo suffered heavy losses, and after this battle, Li Dingguo was only left with more than 6,000 people, and the Ming army was no longer able to launch a large-scale attack.
Wave after wave, wave after wave. While Li Dingguo was bloody killing the enemy at the front, Sun Kewang stepped up the pace of usurping the throne in the rear. He was even ready to hold a Zen enthronement ceremony, only to give up for the time being because of the heavy rain that meant ominous.
The Yongli emperor stepped up his plot to eliminate Sun Kewang, but was detected by Sun Kewang. Sun Kewang was furious and executed eighteen loyal ministers around the Yongli Emperor on trumped-up charges, which is the famous "Mr. Eighteen Case" in history.
Sun Kewang's perverse behavior made Zhu Youluo extremely frightened, and he was busy sending people to secretly order Li Dingguo to return to Anlong to save him.
After hearing this, Li Dingguo hurriedly led his army back to Guizhou from Guangxi to save the car. Sun Kewang hurriedly sent people to intercept, and was preemptively returned to Anlong by Li Dingguo's clever tricks.
When the monarchs saw each other, they hugged each other and wept bitterly. Yong Li was touched and said to Li Dingguo: "Jiu Zhiqing is loyal and righteous, and hates to see each other late." ”
Li Dingguo took off his clothes on the spot, revealing the four big characters on his back: "Serve the country with all your loyalty." All the monarchs present were moved.
Chung-hoo! General Lee!
However, after Li Dingguo withdrew his army and returned to Guizhou to rescue the car, Guangxi's defense became empty, causing the Qing army to take advantage of the void and the whole territory of Guangxi to fall into the hands of the Qing army again.
Guizhou was Sun Kewang's sphere of influence, and with Guangxi already lost, it was too dangerous to stay in Anlong. The Yongli monarchs and courtiers agreed twice to move the imperial court to Kunming and change Kunming to the "Capital of Dian". Li Dingguo was made the King of Jin, and Liu Wenxiu was made the King of Shu. Since then, the military and state affairs of the Yongli Imperial Court have all been returned to Li Dingguo.
Of course, Sun Kewang could not tolerate Li Dingguo snatching the emperor from his hands, and repeatedly provoked border frictions, and Li Dingguo repeatedly tolerated concessions considering the anti-Qing plan. Sun Kewang, however, did not repent, contacted his cronies in Yunnan, and launched a civil war.
Sun Kewang led a large-scale invasion of Yunnan with 140,000 troops, and Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu had only 30,000 soldiers and horses under their command, and the strength was very different. The two armies confronted each other at Jiaoshui, and Sun Kewang's subordinates Bai Wenxuan and others admired Li Dingguo, coupled with their dislike of Sun Kewang's perverse behavior, and rebelled before the battle. Sun Kewang was defeated and fled all the way back to Guizhou.
Ironically, Sun Kewang's defenders in Guizhou saw that his general situation had gone and closed their doors. Sun Kewang was overwhelmed and had to take the most evil step of his life and surrender to the Qing court.
Since then, the virtual reality of Guizhou Yunnan has been detected by Hong Chengzu.
After receiving a lot of intelligence from the Ming army, the old thief Hong Chengyu promptly requested the Qing court to send troops immediately and attack Yunnan with a single blow.
In the thirteenth year of the Yong Calendar, the Qing court sent three large armies, led by Wu Sangui, Hong Chengzu, and Zhuo Butai, respectively, to prepare to destroy the small court of the Southern Ming Dynasty in one fell swoop.
After the Sun Kewang incident, Li Dingguo was deeply jealous of Sun Kewang's army and divided them into "Qin army" and his own army into "Jin army", which caused deep dissatisfaction among the generals of the Qin army.
At this time, Liu Wenxiu fell ill and died, and the situation in the Yongli Imperial Court was already duckweed in the rain. In the face of a strong enemy attack, Li Dingguo made a strategic plan, but contrary to his wishes, Sun Kewang wang ziqi and others raised troops in the rear of Yongchang to rebel, and Li Dingguo had to lead the troops to quell the rebellion first, and had no time to command the campaign against the Qing army.
The Qing army was like a bamboo, effortlessly conquering Guiyang, and Guizhou immediately fell into the hands of the Qing army. Since then, the Yongli Imperial Court has only existed in a corner of Yunnan.
By the time Li Dingguo pulled out to face the Qing army, Zhuo Butai's troops had advanced to the Qujing area, Li Dingguo led his army to engage Zhuo Butai at Panjiang, the initial Ming army fought bravely, but the north wind suddenly blew, the Ming firearms caused a fire in their own barracks, the Qing army took advantage of the situation to cover up, and the Ming army was defeated. Li Dingguo's wife's family was also killed by the Qing army during this battle.
At this time, Li Dingguo already had the determination to die: "If this is the case, the husband will not say anything, but he is lonely and loyal, and after death, he has already died." ”
After the Battle of Panjiang, Kunming was in a hurry, and the Yongli imperial court discussed where to move. Some people have suggestions that if they go to Yongchang, they can take a step back and enter Burma; some suggest that they go to the thirteen houses in Sichuan to unite in the east. In the end, the Yongli Emperor made a decision and moved to Sichuan.
However, at this time, the people of Kunming were already panicked, and when they heard that the emperor was leaving, there were hundreds of thousands of people who went out of the city with them.
The difficulty of the Shu Dao is difficult to go to the qingtian. Leading such a huge team over the Shu Dao was tantamount to seeking his own death, and the Yongli Emperor was helpless and moved to Yongchang with his next will.
Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan intercepted the others behind the palace. After entering Kunming, Wu Sangui pursued him endlessly, marched all the way west, successively captured Chuxiong and Dali, and entered the Mopan Mountain, which was 20 miles away from the Nu River.
The mopan mountainous terrain is steep, located on the east side of Gaoligong Mountain, is an excellent place for ambush warfare, Li Dingguo judged the situation, took advantage of the arrogant mentality of the Qing army to drive straight in, set up three ambush lines on Mopan mountain, as long as Wu Sangui completely entered the ambush circle, he was sure to completely annihilate it; as long as wu Sangui could be completely annihilated, the territory of western Yunnan could be stabilized; then he could find an opportunity to recover Yunnan and continue to negotiate with the Qing Dynasty.
Wu Sangui was indeed successful in the plan, and unknowingly entered the first ambush line. The great cause can be achieved, and the Han room can be prosperous!
how! how! how! Suddenly out of the grass came a Ming Dynasty official, Lu Guisheng, the secretary of the Dali Temple, who became a traitor at the most critical time and betrayed Li Dingguo's battle plan.
Wu Sangui was horrified and hurriedly ordered muskets and artillery to fire in four directions, and the Southern Ming officers and men of the first ambush line immediately suffered more than half of the casualties, and they had no choice but to launch an attack.
A good ambush battle turned into a fierce white-knife battle. The Qing army was numerous, but the Ming generals were invincible, and Wu Sangui almost escaped with his own body.
In this battle, the Qing army was almost completely destroyed, but the Ming army's losses were also very heavy, and Li Dingguo only had 2,000 soldiers and horses left around him and withdrew from the battlefield.
The Battle of Mopanshan was the last large-scale battle commanded by Li Dingguo, the Ming army severely damaged the Qing army under extremely unfavorable conditions, shocking the whole country, and the Qing court punished Doni, ZhuoButai and other generals after the war.
Liu Bin, a remnant of the Southern Ming Dynasty, said: "Rin Rin is lonely and loyal, holding a wood to support the sky, the millstone battlefield people are still aware, and the phosphorus fire is often the same as the sun." ”
Li Dingguo's Battle of Mopanshan delayed the Qing army's pursuit of the Yongli Emperor, but then the Yongli Emperor made an incredibly stupid decision to flee into Burma and become an exiled monarch.
Perhaps he was tired of the boat and the car; perhaps, he gave up the quest to restore the emperor. But in any case, this move of his is tantamount to betrayal to the soldiers who are still fighting in Yunnan. Hearing that the emperor ran to Burma, thousands of Ming troops laid down their weapons and surrendered to the Qing army.
Oh, yes! The emperor has given up resistance, but why should those of us who are soldiers fight for him? Since ancient times, there has been no exiled Heavenly Son, this is a truth that even Liu Chan knows. Poor Eternal Calendar, at this time, is like a dog that has lost its family, and it is impossible to live in fear, and I only wish to escape into Burma and enjoy the rest of my life in peace.
At first, the Burmese king looked at the face of Mu Tianbo, the Duke of Qianguo, and treated the Yongli monarch with courtesy, but under the constant pressure of Wu Sangui's soldiers, the Burmese also turned their faces to the emperor and created a bloody curse.
At this time, Li Dingguo had retreated to Mengla, heard the news of the emperor's suffering in Burma, and immediately invaded Burma with Bai Wenxuan. Where the Burmese army was the opponent of the Ming army, the Burmese king ordered Yongli to summon Li and Bai to retreat, and the cowardly Yongli had to comply.
Disaster finally struck Yong Li, and the King of Burma handed him over to Wu Sangui. Soon after, Wu Sangui killed the emperor in Kunming, and the Yongli imperial court declared its demise.
Poor Li Dingguo was still in the dark, and at this time he was in Mengla while rectifying his army and horses, while sending people to Siam for help, trying to fight again.
History and Li Dingguo made a big joke, and on his 42nd birthday, the news came that the Yongli Emperor had been killed in Kunming. Li Dingguo was devastated and fell ill in the army. A few days later, he braced himself against the sick body, got up and wrote a statement, and burned to the heavens: "If the number is exhausted, beg Dingguo to die early, and harm this army and people."
I don't know if it was providence, a few days later, Li Dingguo died of illness in the Mengla army, and before he died, he left his last words: "I'd rather die in the deserted countryside than surrender!" ”
Since then, the life of a generation of famous generals Li Dingguo has come to an end.
A generation of loyal souls, and the ambitions are martyred.
Mr. Gu Cheng, a famous historian, commented on Li Dingguo: "Li Dingguo was a hero who resisted feudal oppression at the end of the Ming Dynasty; in the early Qing Dynasty, he was an outstanding figure who resisted the military conquest and tyrannical rule of the Manchurian nobility. If we do not talk about heroes in terms of success or failure, among the characters of all aspects of the Ming and Qing dynasties, he is a brilliant superstar, and no one else can look up to him. ”
Li Dingguo's last move reminds me of Zhang Shijie, the last general of the Southern Song Dynasty. Zhang Shijie faced the monstrous waves at the last moment, and also prayed to the heavens like Li Dingguo, and if the Song Dynasty was exhausted, he would let his warship sink to the bottom. The book of Song records that "the boat was overturned, Shi Jie drowned, and the Song died."
Li Dingguo and Zhang Shijie are so similar to Nair. This loyal minister from an anti-thief background was undoubtedly the brightest star in the stormy Southern Ming court, and history was like this, full of irony.
How many literati doctors who are full of poetry books have descended, but Li Dingguo has not;
Daming's Optimus Prime, Hong Cheng, descended, but Li Dingguo did not;
Emperor Qinfeng's surname, Zheng Chenggong, had his own small calculations, but Li Dingguo did not, and he still had Jiangshan in his heart;
His righteous brother Sun Ke was expected to surrender, but Li Dingguo was still unmoved;
Even the emperor himself gave up resistance and hid in Burma, where Li Dingguo remained as determined as ever.
It is such an anti-thief who painstakingly supports the last bit of the Ming Dynasty;
It is such an anti-thief who is not a bright people in his heart all the time.
King Xue of Jin, Ming Sui died.
Sadya! Soya! Lavisha!
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Hu Feng crossed the grass in the south, and the righteous donated the king out of Dian.
A body turned to fight a thousand miles, and his hands were once half of the wall.
Zhuge Wuxian Yan Hanzuo, Wu Mu He Gan zhu xian.
Ban Dang is loyal and loyal, and jiangshan is praised by Yingxian from generation to generation.
Rin Rin is loyal and determined, holding a wooden stick to support the sky.
The millstone battlefield people are well aware, and the phosphorus fire is often as bright as the sun.
The old grass slope is preceded by the fragrance of grass and trees, and the tombs of the millstones will be buried.
The remnants of the stele read the ghost of Hu Xiong, and life and death are from Li Jin Wang!