Synopsis:
That night, Xu Dingguo arranged two prostitutes for Gao Jie and his bodyguards to sleep with each other, and then sent people to rush into Gao Jie's residence in the middle of the night and kill him. Gao Jie heard the noise and got up to run, but two prostitutes held him down to prevent him from running, and Gao Jie was hacked to death.
Xu Dingguo immediately led his army to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, and Gao Jie's army heard that Gao Jie had been killed, and ran from Guide to Suizhou, slaughtering the whole city, leaving no widows in the old and weak, affecting Suizhou for a radius of 200 miles.
The consequences of Gao Jie's death are quite serious.
Although Gao Jie was a man who had always been flying high and low, and did not listen to dispatches, the military discipline of the troops was also poor. However, he had two advantages that were quite prominent relative to other Southern Ming generals at this time.
First, his troops have strong combat effectiveness and are relatively capable of fighting; second, he was born in the civil army, that is, a rogue Kou, with a relatively simple mind, and did not have the problems of the traditional Ming army officers at both ends of the rat, that is, relative loyalty. This time, Gao Jie's willingness to obey Shi Kefa's dispatch and go north to resist the Qing also reflected this.
However, now that Gao Jie is dead, Shi Kefa's carefully organized plan to push the Ming military forces into Henan and defend the Yellow River defense line has failed. Shi Kefa sighed when he heard the news of Gao Jie's death:
"The affairs of the Central Plains cannot be done, and the affairs of the state are all damaged by the thieves."
As I said before, Gao Jie's army is the most effective in the four towns of Jiangbei, but the source of his troops is also the most complicated. Armies led by his nephews Li Benshen and Hu Maozhen were brought out of Li Zicheng; Guo Hu was a general of Sun Chuanting's Qin army; and Yang Chengzu was an old subordinate of Luo Rucai, the leader of the Nationalist army. With such a complex personnel composition, only Gao Jie can hold the field.
After Gao Jie's death, his army lacked the backbone of the main heart, and when his army slaughtered the city in Suizhou, Shi Kefa came forward to dissuade him, but no one listened.
In order to prevent the Suizhou incident from happening again, Shi Kefa divided Gao Jie's soldiers and horses into seven, Li Benshen stationed in Guide, Yang Chengzu stationed in Xiayi, Tang Yinghu stationed in Yucheng, Miao Shunfu stationed in Zhongshan, Li Xiangyun stationed in Shuanggou, Hu Maozhen and Guo Hu stationed in Sizhou, and Li Chengdong stationed in Xuzhou.
Well, a later more important supporting actor appeared, he is Li Chengdong stationed in Xuzhou.
Among these ministers and generals who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, no one can stand out from Li Chengdong in terms of the bad character, the shamelessness of being a person, and the seriousness of the harm to the people. In the several controversial slaughters of the Qing army, Li Chengdong was an important accomplice.
Li Chengdong (李成東), courtesy name Tingzhen (字廷桢), was a native of Ningxia, Shaanxi, nicknamed "Li Haozi", and followed Li Zicheng's general Gao Jie into the Nationalist Army, nicknamed "Tumbling Mountain Harrier", who later followed Gao Jie to surrender to the Southern Ming.
Regarding Gao Jie's experience in joining the Civilian Army, I have seen two theories.
The first theory says that when he was a teenager, he followed Gao Jie as a thief, later became a bandit, then later defected to the peasant army, and then after Gao Jie seduced Li Zicheng's wife, he defected to the Ming army with Gao Jie.
The second theory is that although Li Chengdong was a subordinate of Gao Jie, he was not from the peasant army, but was a Border Army of the Ming Dynasty in Ningxia, and worked with He Huchen, the general of Ningxia. Later, he was transferred to Henan Zhenbiao guerrilla for meritorious service, and also participated in the Battle of Kaifeng. Because of his meritorious service in the Battle of Kaifeng, he was promoted to deputy commander-in-chief and transferred to Nanzhili. After Chongzhen hanged himself, the north fell, and Gao Jie's troops ran from Shanxi to Nanzhili, and Li Chengdong defected to him.
However, whether it is a bandit or a border army, the nature is similar, the quality will not be too high, and what loyalty and filial piety have nothing to do with him. Now that the old boss Gao Jie is dead, he has taken thousands of troops and horses to guard Xuzhou, which is the strategic point of the north and south, and the fool knows that he cannot hold it. Then he heard that Xu Dingguo had been treated favorably after surrendering to the Qing army, so he also started the idea of surrendering to the Qing.
At this time, not only Li Chengdong had this idea, but the other two towns in the four towns of Jiangbei, namely Liu Liangzuo and Liu Zeqing, also calculated in this way. He had expected Gao Jie's army to resist the Qing army for a while, he looked at the wind direction twice, and now that Gao Jie's army was completely scattered, leaving him two in the front line to resist the Qing, he naturally did not have the courage and ability, and it was better to surrender early.
Although Jiangbei is already a mess, compared to the bustle of Nanjing City, it is simply a small witch.
On February 30 of the second year of Shunzhi, a monk from Southern Ming made a confession of great compassion, knocked on the Hongwu Gate on the night of December last year, claimed to be the Chongzhen Emperor, was captured, and called himself the King of Qi. Ruan Dacheng wanted to use this case to kill all the members of Donglin and Fushe. Ma Shiying did not obey, but sat on great compassion and cut it off with a demon.
What's going on? Next, let me introduce the "Great Compassion Monk Case" of the three major cases of the Southern Ming Dynasty.
In December of the first year of Shunzhi, a monk named Great Compassion knocked on the south gate of the Forbidden City in Nanjing in the middle of the night, that is, the Hongwu Gate. The gatekeeper asked him who he was, and he opened his mouth to say that he was Chongzhen, and the guards were horrified, and immediately reported it to the Southern Ming court.
Hongguang was also shocked to hear this, and sent Zhao Zhilong, the admiral of the Capital Division, to see this person. Because Zhao Zhilong had seen Chongzhen before, he knew that it was a fake when he saw it, and ordered the guards to arrest him and send him to the Punishment Department.
When I arrived at the Punishment Department, I saw a variety of torture instruments, and Great Compassion began to tremble. Zhao Zhilong asked him who he was again, and he changed his name to the King of Qi. So Zhao Zhilong quickly went back to check to see which Zhu wang was the king of Qi. However, after going through the genealogy of the Zhu surname, it was found that the Chongzhen Dynasty did not have the king of Qi at all. Looking further ahead, it was found that the Ming Dynasty did indeed have a King of Qi, that is, Zhu Rong, the seventh son of Zhu Yuanzhang, who was crowned king of Qi during the Hongwu period. However, in the fourth year of Yongle, he was deposed by Zhu Di for his arrogance and illegality, and qi guo was removed.
Seeing this, the officials of the Punishment Department unanimously agreed that it was time to say hello to the unfortunate monk by conventional means and prepare to execute. At this moment, Great Compassion once again exposed the fierce material, saying that he was the younger brother of King Lu, and Chongzhen named him the King of Qi, but he did not accept it, and changed his title to King Wu. It also broke out that the Chongzhen Emperor had long anticipated the future crisis, and in the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, he ordered him to go south to avoid disasters and inherit the unification in the future. He also said that even if he did not establish himself, he should also establish Zhu Changshu, the king of Lu, that is:
"King Xianming of Jinlu should be the Son of Heaven and want to give way to Hongguang."
Seeing that the Great Compassion had a board and an eye, Zhao Zhilong did not dare to be sloppy and immediately reported to Hongguang.
You probably remember, I said before that Hongguang's competitor to the throne was King Lu. Now, when Hongguang heard that Da Compassion wanted to establish the King of Lu, he was immediately furious and sent an edict to Zhao Zhilong, Feng Kezong of the Jinyi Palm Hall, and Cai Zhongsantang to try, that is, the punishment equipment of the Punishment Department and the Jinyi Guard were all used, and see if you dared to ask for the King of Lilu.
After the first round of torture, great compassion was recruited. It is said that his original surname was Zhu, a native of Huizhou, Anhui, and that he had become a monk at the age of fifteen in a monastery in Suzhou. He heard that Hongguang's reputation was very bad in the folk, and Chongzhen's life and death were unknown, so he wanted to come out and pretend to be Chongzhen.
At this point in the case, it is said that it should be over. But it was not a coincidence that this matter was known to Ruan Dacheng.
From the point of view of the development of connections in materialist dialectics, Ruan Dacheng keenly linked the Great Compassion support for King Lu with Shi Kefa's previous support for King Lu, and drafted a list of mafia behind the scenes overnight. This list includes: Qian Qianyi, the leader of the Donglin Party, Shi Kefa, the governor of the capital, Gao Hongtu of the cabinet, Gu Xiyu of the Rebbe Shangshu, Yi Yingchang of the Du yushi, and Xie Xuelong of the Punishment Department. He then goes to the prison to find Great Compassion, asks him to memorize the lines, and prepares to make up a story of a black hand behind the scenes instigating the monk to petition, support king Lu, and attempt to overthrow Hongguang.
In addition, he also went to Ma Shiying for consultation. When Ma Shiying heard this, he felt that Ruan Dacheng was crazy and rejected Ruan Dacheng's proposal.
Ma Shiying had a brain, and there were two reasons for his refusal. First, because Ruan Dacheng is an eunuch party and has a vendetta against the Donglin Party, but Ma Shi is not a castrated party, he does not have a deep hatred with the Donglin Party, there is no need to exterminate them all; second, Ma Shiying understands that the purpose of political struggle is to become a captain, not to sink the ship. Now Ruan Dacheng's first shot is to impeach one hundred and forty-three people, the scale is comparable to the Wei Zhongxian reverse case, is there anyone in Nanming who is still working?
Therefore, Ma Shiying did not agree, and the case ended with the beheading of Great Compassion.
Do you think that's the end of the hustle and bustle? It's early!
Now please listen to my introduction to the second of the three major cases of the Southern Ming Dynasty, the "Case of the Prince of the North".
In the middle of February of the second year of Shunzhi, Gao Mengji, the young secretary of the Southern Ming Hongxu Temple, played a secret song, and a young man claimed to be the Prince of Chongzhen, Zhu Cixiu, who came north. The Hongguang Emperor ordered the eunuchs to welcome him to Nanjing and send him to prison for interrogation. It is said that this person's name is Wang Zhiming, a Gaoyang person, the nephew of Wang Fu, the late Ming Dynasty Ma Duwei Wang Fu, who ran south in Beijing, met Gao Mengji's family Mu Yao, and deceived the Eastern Palace. Nanming immediately published the world with the censorship of the word. However, the people of the world are all more suspicious, that is, the small people in the countryside and alleys, and they also weep, wanting to eat the flesh of Wang Duo and Fang Gongqian.
The Hongguang court was jealous and had a purpose: "Protect Wang Zhiming well, and do not suddenly increase the punishment, so as to attract the people's slander." Tell the world that the fool and the fool have understood, and then apply for the Fa.
The facts of this case are relatively simple, and I will briefly talk about it.
Gao Mengji, the young secretary of the Southern Ming Hongxu Temple, reported that a man who claimed to be The Prince of Chongzhen, Zhu Ciji, was found. After Hongguang got the report, he first sent two eunuchs from Beijing to identify them, but they did not expect that the eunuchs would come forward to hug and cry as soon as they saw this person. The officials who came with the eunuch reported the matter, and Hongguang immediately killed the two eunuchs.
On the second day of the first month of March, Hongguang Mian said:
"There is a childish saying that it is the Eastern Palace of the First Emperor, and if it is the son of the True Emperor, that is, the son of the Emperor Yuan, he should raise a favor and not lose his place."
This is the words of Hiromitsu's face.
On the ninth day of March, Hongguang Secret Summoning Scholar Wang Duo said:
"If the prince is true, how will he be allowed to die?"
As soon as Wang Duo heard it, he understood Hongguang's meaning, and immediately took the initiative to ask Miao to distinguish the true and false of the prince, and came back to report it, insisting that it was false.
Hongguang praised him:
"See the Great Festival of Loyalty!"
Then someone identified this false prince as the nephew of Wang Fu, a lieutenant of TuomaDu, who, at the instigation of Mu Yao, Gao Mengji's family, falsely claimed to be the Chongzhen Emperor. Hongguang immediately printed the confession and published it in Nanjing.
This trick is very stupid, which is called three hundred and two silver here. Because this confession is so ridiculous, a descendant of a small nobleman in the capital, at the instigation of a small official of the Southern Ming Dynasty, dares to pretend to be the Prince of Chongzhen? Moreover, Hongguang is still in such a hurry to close the case, and after the case is concluded, he must also publish the case to the public, is this not nothing to find?
So there was a lot of folk discussion, and finally it reached the ears of the four town chief soldiers and Zuo Liangyu.
On March 23, Guangchang Bo Liu Liangzuo said:
The two cases did not cooperate with public opinion, and pleaded with Qu Quan and the two dynasties yi lun, so as not to insult the world and future generations.
On March 28, Zuo Liangyu, the Marquis of Ningnan, said:
Please preserve the Eastern Palace, with the heart of the people, and blame the courtiers, but knowing the king, at all costs, the emperor alone and the two or three traitors to protect the world, there is no reason.
After that, Huang Degong, the Marquis of Jingnan, He Tengjiao, the Governor of Huguang, and Yuan Jixian, the Governor of Jiujiang, all fought hard, saying:
The Eastern Palace may not be fake; this matter concerns the right and wrong of the world, and it must not be careless.
The Hongguang Emperor was furious:
"The ministers have no reason to be suspicious, and he is too thin."
Regardless of whether the prince is true or not, seeing that you have a question at this time, when Li Zicheng hit Beijing, Chongzhen adjusted Zuo Liang Yuqin King, Zuo Liang Yu li ignored it, why is he so concerned about Chongzhen's prince now?
Liu Liangzuojun had always disobeyed the dispatches, plundered the place, and opened up the perspective of God, he would join the Qing army in two months to hunt down and kill Hongguang, how could he start to argue and protect Prince Chongzhen again?
To sum up, why are these military and town officers who usually lead the side outside so concerned about this matter?
The answer is simple, make excuses.
On Zuo Liangyu's side, the Qing army drove Li Zicheng to Hubei, Hubei is Zuo Liangyu's territory, seeing that Li Zicheng wants to grab territory with himself, Zuo Liangyu does not want to, and is likely to be unable to defeat Li Zicheng. To his west was Zhang Xianzhong, who could not go, but could only run east. To the east is Nanming, and if he fights without any excuse, it is called a rebellion, so he must find an excuse. As long as he insisted that the prince was real, and Hongguang and a group of traitors killed the real prince, he had a good excuse to go on a crusade.
On the side of the four towns in Jiangbei, the Duoduo army was about to go south, and they didn't want to fight, they all wanted to surrender. However, he surrendered like this, and he still had to bear the insult of a traitor seeking glory and a traitor. As long as they insist that the prince is real, and Hongguang and a group of traitors kill the real prince, they have a good excuse to surrender.
As for the other case, "The TongFei Case", the plot is basically the same, so I will not introduce it more.
The fundamental reason why the Hongguang Dynasty was able to mess up to this position in less than a year was that Hongguang was faint, the traitors were in charge, and the people were not happy. The common people don't care who becomes the emperor, they only care about whether their little life is good or not, if they can eat enough, who will have nothing to do to pretend to be the prince and pretend to be the emperor?
At this time, in addition to the threat of the Qing Dynasty in the north, there is also the threat of Zuo Liangyu in the west, and I will first talk about Zuo Liangyu.
From the moment nanming was first established, Zuo Liangyu's subordinates had been urging Zuo Liangyu to establish a base near Nanjing, for no other reason than jiangnan.
Like Zuo Liangyu's Huguang Patrol according to Yushi HuangShu, he gave Zuo Liangyu an idea, asking him to ask Nanjing for 200,000 military salaries, Nanjing of course would not give, even if he wanted to give, there was not so much money, at this time Zuo Liangyu used the name of "Qing Jun's side" to fight over.
This offer was rejected by Zuo Liangyu.
Of course, Zuo Liangyu refused not because of how noble and loyal he was, but because the reality did not allow it. Zuo Liangyu's troops came from a complex source, ranging from the old base he had brought out of Liaodong, the surrender of the peasant army, the local recruits in Hubei, and the Ming army that had fled from the north. Everyone defected to General Zuo, just to save their lives and make a living, and there was no lofty ideal.
In addition, Zuo Liangyu's army has always been known for its corrupt military discipline, many people have already grabbed houses and land in the local area, and some even have their wives robbed well, hoping to live their own small lives, and many people are not willing to follow Zuo Liangyu and then go east and west.
But now, if you don't want to leave, you have to leave, because Li Zicheng has called. It just so happened that there was a good excuse for the "case of the prince from the north", so on March 25 of the second year of Shunzhi, Zuo Liangyu publicly declared that he had been secretly edicted by Prince Chongzhen, raised an army to march east, cut down Nanjing, and killed the traitor Ma Shiying to the side of the Qing emperor.
Before leaving Wuchang, Zuo Liangyu ordered the burning of all the huts in Wuchang, and the city of Wuchang was a sea of fire, and countless people died.
Although Zuo Liangyu's army was mostly a ragtag crowd, it numbered more than 200,000 people, and the boats on the Yangtze River were connected end to end for more than 200 miles, Nanjing was shaken, and Ma Shiying quickly dispatched the Yellow Power Army to resist.
On the first day of April, Nan Ming secretly commanded Shi Kefa to supervise the troops to attack Zuo Liangyu on the river. Shi Kefa's omission:
"The northern situation is pressing, please leave the soldiers of zhuzhen to meet the enemy, (Shi Kefa wish) personally go to Liangyu, to cooperate with (resist) the west (Qing army), (Zuo Liangyu) has merit to cut off the king of the land, it is advisable to listen to it." That is, it is not too late to listen. ”
This means that the brothers are insulted by the wall and the four towns in Jiangbei should be kept to resist the Qing army, and I myself went to see Zuo Liangyu and talked to him about the conditions, he should be able to listen, even if he did not listen, it would not be too late to transfer the troops when the time came.
Ma Shiying did not listen, and in the name of Hongguang, he reprimanded Shi Kefa and asked him to quickly dispatch troops to resist Zuo Liangyu.
Shi Kefa had no choice but to gather the soldiers and horses of the four towns to prepare for the south, and before the expedition, he personally returned to Pukou and prepared to meet Hongguang Chen and say that he was critical. Ma Shiying told Hongguang that Shi Kefa was Zuo Liangyu's internal response, and Hongguang was afraid and would not let Shi Kefa enter the dynasty. At this time, the Qing army had already entered Xuzhou, and Hongguang ordered Ma Shiying to return to Sizhou, and Ma Shiying cried bitterly and returned.
On the fourth day of May, Zuo Liangyu's army captured Jiujiang, Zuo Liangyu died of illness, and his son Zuo Menggeng led his people. After that, they successively attacked Hukou, Jiande, and Pengze, and along the way, Zuo Liangyu's army burned and plundered, and did no evil.
In the first ten days of May, Huang Binqing, the commander-in-chief of the Southern Ming River and the North, set up an ambush in Tongling, defeated Zuo Menggeng, and the next day took advantage of the night to sneak into the camp of the left army's water camp and burn thirty large ships of the left army, effectively delaying the attack of the left army.
On May 19, Emperor Hongguang of the Southern Ming Dynasty summoned his subjects to discuss the war. At this time, the Qing army had captured Xuzhou and was besieging Yangzhou; Zuo Menggeng's army was in Tongling, and Nanjing was in danger.
Ma Shiying advocated the all-out annihilation of Zuo Menggeng's army, while the other ministers said that Yangzhou was in danger and that Yangzhou should be defended with all its might.
Hongguang said to Ma Shiying in a deliberative tone:
"Although Zuo Liangyu should not have forced Nanjing, he did not rebel in the past, and now he should still guard Huaiyang."
Ma Shiying was furious and rebuked Hongguang and said:
"This is all Liangyu's death party for lobbying, not to listen, rather than junchen died in the Qing Dynasty, not at the hands of Zuo Liangyu."
Then Ma Shiying shouted:
"There are those who agree to cut the Huai!"
The Hongguang Emperor was silent, and the courtiers were speechless.
Alas, how similar, the current "rather than die in the Qing Dynasty to die in Zuo Liangyu", the late Qing Dynasty's "Rather with foreigners, not with domestic slaves", history always seems to be carrying out some interesting cycles.
Editor's Note:
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