We know that Li Zicheng was a native of Shaanxi, his family was an authentic peasant, and his father and grandfather had served as "servants" for the government to collect land. During the time of his father's 'Li Shouzhong', natural disasters lasted for many years, and the peasants had no food and clothing, and were forced to flee in large numbers. However, the government did not care about the cause of the natural disaster, but instead "urged the order to rush to the spark, and the punishment was stricter than the shock." In the end, because he could not collect taxes, Li Shouzhong was bankrupted by the government. As a result of this change, already poor families have made life even more difficult.
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Therefore, when he was a child, Li Zicheng was forced to become a monk in his family, and later he herded sheep for the landlord's family, and when he became an adult, he became a pawn in the caravanserai. In the third year of Chongzhen, the imperial court ordered the abolition of the post, Li Zicheng was unemployed, and he had no financial resources to borrow usurious loans to the landlords. Later, because he could not repay the debt of being forced by the landlord, Li Zicheng was not willing to be humiliated and revolted in anger.
At that time in his heyday there were many of its ranks and should have exceeded a million. Why do you say that. After his death at Mount Jiugong, the Dashun army that descended to qing has a history of more than 200,000. (This is also strong evidence to confirm li zicheng's death, and Li zicheng will not die without this many surrenders) plus non-surrender. Anti-Qing remnants 200,000. At the time of Lee's death there were at least four hundred thousand troops. Another fled from Shanhaiguan to Hubei, killed, surrendered, deserted, because Li was defeated and retreated all the way, and there were 400,000 troops to follow, which was the core force, the periphery and the wall followed at least two or three times larger than it, and the conservative estimate of the Dashun army was more than one million.
Why did Li Zicheng, who had an army of a million, lose so quickly?
On March 19, 1644, Li Zicheng invaded Beijing.
At this time, Li Zicheng's Dashun army was nearly one million, while the Qing army outside guanwai, the Manchu, Mongolian, and Han Eight Banners, had a total of only 200,000 troops.
However, only 1 year later, Li Zicheng was defeated and killed.
How could the king who led a million-strong army be beaten down by Dorgon?
Xiaobian feels that there are the following factors caused!
1, Li Zicheng and his generals, the command ability is not as good as Dorgon and his Qing generals
2, although the peasant army has a large number of troops, but the number of troops who can recruit habitual warfare is not as large as the Number of Qing soldiers, it can be said that the peasant army is a group of rabble-rousers
3, in the face of a strong enemy, at first it is not knowing the strength of the opponent, and then it is fear and escapism
4, losing the possibility of alliance with the Ming army to jointly resist the Qing army, even when fleeing to the southeast, still trying to occupy the area controlled by the Southern Ming, lacking the awareness of the overall situation
5, there is no support from the Southern Ming army, nor the support of local landlords, and even the peasants in Jiangnan do not support Liukou!
There is also a reason for Li Zicheng's decline
Li Zicheng's failure can be said to be caused by his "non-tax" thinking. Although this was also forced out by the heavy taxes of the late Ming Dynasty, it was also a reflection of the peasants' narrow-mindedness. As the supreme leader of the peasant rebel army, Li Zicheng not only did not realize this, but also harshly implemented the so-called "chasing after stolen goods and helping wages", which although it was able to unite the people and consolidate the people's hearts to a certain extent, it also lost the support of the bureaucrats and gentry of the former dynasty, resulting in internal instability and finally towards the road of destruction!
The above is the information collected by the editor, and all the officials have different opinions welcome to leave a message to discuss!