Introduction: "King Chuang came and did not pay grain", this is the consensus reached in the hearts of the people at the end of the Ming Dynasty, everyone believes that King Chuang is a prince of benevolence, righteousness and virtue, and also believes that if King Chuang gets the world, he will definitely be able to change their previous poor life.
But is this really the case? To find out, we might as well take a look at what Li Zicheng did in the 42 days since he entered Beijing. Perhaps in the end we will think that his demise is self-inflicted and deserved.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Peng Sunyi</h1>
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there was a scholar named Peng Sunyi, although he had no great ambitions and did not aim for ambitions, but like other literati, he liked to comment on the world's major events. So during the Kangxi Dynasty, he recorded his years of observations and wrote a book called "Liu Kou Zhi".
Listening to the name, you know that the main content of the book is Li Zicheng. What is particularly coincidental is that when Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he was in the capital, so he saw everything Li Zicheng did in the capital.
According to his records, when Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he issued an order strictly forbidding his subordinates to disturb and injure the people, especially robbing property and bullying women, and if caught, they would be executed by Ling Chi.
All the people in the capital, including Peng Sunyi, clapped their hands and applauded when they saw this military order. As the article said at the beginning, everyone feels that Li Zicheng is a benevolent and loving prince.
In fact, do not underestimate this military order, ancient wars, once the city is breached, then the people in the city are like lambs to be slaughtered, robbing property, bullying women are considered light, if you encounter a famous general like chang Yuchun in the early Ming Dynasty who loves to slaughter the city, the people in the city will be killed like cattle. The feeling that everyone is at risk and fearful is something that modern people cannot feel.
In contrast, Li Zicheng's order was welcomed by all the people, so another novelist recorded in his book "Chronicles of the States of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty" that when the king entered Beijing:
"All the way, the people, help the old and the young, compete to see the prestige, eat the pot pulp, and welcome the division and brigade together."
But after Li Zicheng really entered Beijing, everything changed.
From the first day, the capital was disturbed. Liu Zongmin, a famous general of Da Shun, not only killed people and robbed mansions, but also occupied wives and daughters. The generals were like this, and the soldiers under their hands were naturally not far behind, and they all forcibly entered the house and robbed the women.
Such lawlessness, the people naturally can not sit still, those who have the ability to fight with these soldiers, the incompetent can only hide, or sneak attack.
However, where ordinary people are the opponents of soldiers, the book records that in a few days, there were three or four hundred women killed for resisting, and countless men.
In Peng Sunyi's words, these soldiers of Da Shun were "also like bandits", so he would finally admit this piece of experience into the name "Liu Kou Zhi".
The so-called "rogues" refer to those bandits who are running around, the bandits are all fierce in nature, and they see the people who have opened their eyes to money, and where there is any concept of governing the country and loving the people.
However, Li Zicheng had become an emperor at this time, and the bandit spirit of this body naturally had to be changed. After a few days of looting, the soldiers finally stopped.
Just after the people thought it was all right, Li Zicheng played a new trick.
According to Li Zicheng's own account, Daming's officials are all bad people who exploit the people, and there must be a lot of people in the family. Therefore, he ordered the old officials of the former dynasty to be tortured one by one, and let them pay the amount corresponding to the grade of the previous official. If you don't pay the money, you will be punished.
In this way, the officials of the former dynasty paid money with money, and those who had no money were tortured. In the end, more than a thousand people died because they could not bear the punishment.
According to this record in the Liu Kou Zhi, Li Zicheng's approach was extremely absurd, and his final failure was also self-inflicted.
In fact, what Li Zicheng did when he entered Beijing was not only recorded in the Liukou Zhi, but also in many ancient books such as the Shenjia Transmission Letter Record, the Record of fire, the Guo Yu, and the Later Collection of Zhang Dai's Books.
However, there is one thing that many people can't understand, Li Zicheng has become emperor, the whole world is his, why should he do the thing of self-destruction?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > don't want to be emperor, they just want to be king</h1>
Many historians are also studying this matter, why Li Zicheng did this, so much so that the "Guoyu" describes Li Zicheng's entry into Beijing as "countless people".
It was not surprising that Li Zicheng did this, he had no intention of becoming the emperor of the whole world at all, what he wanted was to enjoy endless glory and wealth.
Why?
Let's see a peace letter that Li Zicheng wrote to Chongzhen before he entered Beijing.
When Li Zicheng attacked Juyongguan, the gateway to the capital, he wrote a letter to Chongzhen, in which Li Zicheng put forward three conditions.
First, Chongzhen should give him a high amount of military expenses. Second, give him a fief. Three shall make him king. If Chongzhen agreed to these conditions, then he would withdraw his army back to the fiefdom and could turn his head against Houjin in the north.
However, Chongzhen, who had a strong personality, did not agree to Li Zicheng's request.
After being rejected, Li Zicheng became angry and attacked the city, and the Ming Dynasty perished.
Although he perished and the Ming Dynasty, it can be seen from this letter of discussion and his performance after entering Beijing that Li Zicheng did not want to be an emperor, and he only wanted to be prosperous and rich, and only wanted to be a comfortable king.
It was with this idea that he would do these ridiculous things. And he lost the hearts of the people, and in the end, he was also beaten to death by a farmer, and he really deserved it.
References: History of the Ming Dynasty, Liu Kouzhi