In the early morning of the nineteenth day of the third month of the lunar calendar in 1644, the Chongzhen Emperor came to the Fengtian Gate and ordered people to ring the bell of the upper court, but no one came. The Chongzhen Emperor, who was full of grief, left the Forbidden City and hanged himself near the Shou Emperor's Pavilion on Banzai Mountain, at which point the Ming Dynasty was declared dead. Later generations miss the Ming Dynasty very much and are eager to travel through the past. However, what was the actual situation, how many of the civil and military officials who remained in the capital at that time were willing to be martyred for the Ming Dynasty?
Beijing was the capital of the Ming Dynasty at that time, and there were not thousands of large and small civil and military officials, but there were hundreds of people, but few martyrs were martyred for the Ming Dynasty! Most officials, like the common people, wrote the words "Shunmin" on their doorsteps, and then rushed to meet Li Zicheng, intending to gain an official position for themselves in the new dynasty. Only twenty-eight people chose to commit suicide and martyrdom, including twenty-one Wenchen and seven Xunqi.
The most important official and highest ranking among the civil servants was Fan Jingwen. According to records, Fan Jingwen was a native of Wuqiao, Hebei Province, who was admitted to the Jinshi examination in the forty-first year of the Wanli Calendar, and because he was a clean and honest official, he was not straight, so his career was not very smooth, and he was once cut down by the Chongzhen Emperor. It was not until 1643 that Fan Jingwen was appointed Shangshu of the Ministry of Works and a scholar of Dongge University. When Li Zicheng led his troops north, Fan Jingwen already realized that the general trend had gone, and he sighed: "As a minister, you can't cut down less trees from the battlefield, although death is beneficial!" ”
After the peasant army entered the city of Beijing, Fan Jingwen hurried to the palace gate, and he got the news that the emperor had gone out and wanted to go to the imperial house, "the thief has been plugged." The attendants around him persuaded Fan Jingwen to change his clothes, and then sneaked back to the palace, but Fan Jingwen refused, and he wrote a suicide note in the broken temple, "go to the ancient well next to the Twin Pagoda Temple to die", at the age of 58. Fan Jingwen was the only one in the cabinet who committed suicide and was martyred, and no one else was martyred, such as Wei Zaode, Chen Yan, and Li Jiantai.
In addition to Fan Jingwen, there were Hubu Shangshu Ni Yuanlu, Zuo Du Yushi Li Banghua, Left Vice Capital Yu Shi Bangyao, Dali Temple Qing Ling Yiqu, Bingbu Right Attendant Wang Jiayan, Punishment Department Right Attendant Meng Zhaoxiang (and his son Jin Shi Meng Zhangming), Zuo Zhi De Ma Shiqi, Zuo Zhongyun Liu Lishun, Taichang Shaoqing Wu Linzheng, Right Shuzi Zhou Fengxiang, Review Wang Wei, Huke To Zhongzhong Wu Ganlai, Inspector Yushi Wang Zhang, Inspector Yushi Chen Liangmo, Inspector Yushi Chen Chunde, Bingbu Lang Zhongchengde, Bingbu Renwai Lang Jin Xuan, Taibu Temple Servant Temple Cheng Shen Jiayun, Soldier Wailang Xu Zhi.
Among these people, Li Banghua once persuaded the Chongzhen Emperor to move south, but was opposed by Shi Heng in the court. Guang Shiheng also asked in a sharp voice, "Feng Taiyu is going south, what do the ministers want?" Will you want to be tang su zong lingwu story? "It's righteous words. However, after Li Zicheng entered the city, Guang Shiheng was the first to run to surrender, without shame, while Li Banghua walked into Wen Tianxiang's ancestral temple and calmly hanged himself.
Speaking of Xun Qi, they are the founding heroes of the Ming Dynasty and the relatives of the emperor and empress, and they are in solidarity with the Ming Dynasty. However, when the great disaster came, many people were reluctant to help, such as Zhou Kui, the father-in-law of the Chongzhen Emperor. After the death of the Chongzhen Emperor, only seven of his relatives were martyred, namely Li Guozhen of Xiangcheng, Liu Wenbing the Marquis of Xinle, Gong Yonggu of the Horse Capital, Zhang Qingzhen of Hui'an Bo, Shi Chun of Xuancheng Bowei, Xue Lian the Marquis of Yangwu, and Zhou Jing.
Among them is Liu Wenbing, the Marquis of Xinle, who was a cousin of the Chongzhen Emperor. In a critical moment, the Chongzhen Emperor summoned Liu Wenbing and asked him to lead his family to break through the Chongwen Gate, but this did not happen. Back at home, Liu Wenbing cried: "As a courtier, righteousness is not humiliated, and it is necessary not to share difficulties with the country." After the fall of the city, all sixteen of Liu Wenbing's family, old and young, threw themselves into the well and died, and he himself climbed and lit the mansion, and then threw himself into the fire.
Many Ming dynasty history enthusiasts did not like the book "History of Ming", but the official compilation of the "History of Ming" of the Qing Dynasty made a high evaluation of these people's behavior: "Jing Wen and other trees are righteous in the thousand autumns, lotus praise in the Xing Dynasty, and fame competes with the sun and moon for glory."