In 1644, Li Zicheng overthrew the Ming Dynasty by attacking Beijing, and the Ming Dynasty came to an end. After Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he confiscated the people's hearts and minds to consolidate the results of the war, but instead robbed money and grain and robbed women, so that the people's hearts were greatly lost, especially Li Zicheng did not care about Wu Sangui, who was guarding the mountain customs in the outer town, and still killed Wu Sangui's father Wu Zhi and occupied his beloved wife Chen Yuanyuan. After Wu Sangui led the Qing army into the pass, Li Zicheng's army was quickly defeated, and the Manchu Qing entered the Central Plains, after which Wu Sangui acted as a pawn of the Manchu Qing, sparing no effort to suppress the Southern Ming regime, and even strangled the Yongli Emperor with his own hands, and finally the Manchu Qing made Wu Sangui the King of Pingxi and guarded Yunnan.
After the Manchu Qing Entered the Customs, because of the shortage of troops in the Eight Banners, in order to deal with the resistance of the peasant rebel army and the small imperial court of the Southern Ming Dynasty, they had to rely on the Ming Dynasty's demotion of officials as a precursor, engaged in appeasement and military suppression. Among the generals of the Ming Dynasty, Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, Shang Kexi, and Wu Sangui contributed the most to the Qing Dynasty, so they were all crowned kings. The army they led became an important force outside the Eight Banners, serving them after the Manchu Qing Entering the Pass. After twenty years of struggle, the peasant army that resolutely resisted the Qing Dynasty failed, and the decadent regime of the Southern Ming also collapsed. At this time, the Qing court placed the basic forces of the Eight Banners in the north to defend the Beijing Division and garrison important cities, while the south was temporarily given to Wu Sangui and others to defend the town.
In view of the fact that the power of San Francisco is too large, especially Wu Sanguigong is highly skilled and strong, and the tail is too big to fall. However, at this time, although Kangxi had the idea of withdrawing his domain, he did not dare to act rashly. It was not until the spring of 1673 (the twelfth year of Kangxi) that the Kangxi Emperor made the decision to withdraw the domain. Wu Sangui essentially hoped that the imperial court would remain in comfort, like the precedent of the Ming Dynasty Mu Yingshi guarding Yunnan. Under the order of Kangxi to withdraw the domain, Wu Sangui was disillusioned, so he began to conspire with his henchmen, secretly deployed soldiers and horses, banned postal transmission, only allowed to enter and not leave, and colluded with the old department of his province, and also contacted Geng Jingzhong to prepare for rebellion. In August of the twelfth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the Qing court ordered the rebbe Attendant Zherken and others to go to Yunnan, the Hubu Shangshu Liang Qingbiao and others to Go to Guangdong, and the official Attendant Chen Yibing to go to Fujian, each holding an edict, and together with the clan and the governor to discuss the matter of moving the clan. In September, the Qing court ordered the governor of Shaanxi, Eshan, the governor of Yunnan, and the chief military officer of Ningxia, Sang Er, to supervise the military affairs of Yunnan. At this time, Wu Sangui and his party were working closely day and night. The attendants Zhelken and the scholar Fu Dali went to Yunnan and urged them to leave. Wu Sangui superficially worshiped the edict, but repeatedly moved the period, plotting against the interests of the urgent, and it was difficult to raise troops in the name of the army. He wanted to establish the descendants of the Ming Dynasty to call on the world, but the Battle of Burma and the killing of the Yongli Emperor could not help themselves; they wanted to go to the heart of the Central Plains to raise troops, and they were afraid of long-term plots. In November of that year, Wu Sanguiqi killed Zhu Guozhi, the governor of Yunnan, arrested the disobedient officials below the inspectors, and issued a text calling himself "the former chief officer of the Zhenshoushan Customs, the current president of the Tianxia Water and Land Grand Marshal, and the Xingming Emperor to seek revenge." Pretending to be the "Third Prince of the Former Emperor", Xingming discussed Qingqing, grew his hair, changed his clothes and crown, passed on the near and far, sent letters to the Pingnan and Jingnan Second Domains and the old generals in various places, and moved to Taiwan Zheng Jing, inviting him to respond. Zhang Guozhu, the viceroy of Yunnan, Cao Shenji, the inspector of Guizhou, and Li Benshen, the viceroy of Guizhou, followed Wu Sangui in rebellion. When the governor of Yungui, Gan Wenkun, heard of the change in Guizhou, Chi Shu told cai Yurong, the governor of Sichuan Lake, to rush to zhenyuan, and was surrounded by the deputy general Jiang Yi with troops, Gan Wenkun committed suicide, and the Rebellion of San Francisco began.
In the early days of the San Francisco Rebellion. The situation was favorable to them, Wu Sangui once again carried the banner of "anti-Qing and restoration of the Ming Dynasty", and the remnants of the Ming Dynasty gathered under his banner. Originally this move was very good, the rebellion and uprising must have a banner, at that time the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, but also brutally suppressed and slaughtered the Han people, aroused a great resistance of the Han people, Wu Sangui anti-Qing restoration naturally got the support of many people, the Ming royal family and the Zheng Jing clique, some Han palaces, Han soldiers and ethnic minority elites, peasants and slaves in some areas reacted quickly. In addition, after San Francisco raised the anti-Qing banner, several ethnic minorities in Sichuan, such as Tusi, Miaomin, Chahar Mongolian Burni, and Qinghai Morgen Taiji, also responded one after another.
Dayi had already been occupied, but Wu Sangui was proclaimed emperor in Hengzhou in 1679 (the seventeenth year of Kangxi), and the state name was Great Zhou, so naturally those Han people saw the true face of Wu Sangui, and then remembered that Wu Sangui killed the Yongli Emperor, so they no longer supported him, and their subordinates left Germany. This move made Wu Sangui lose the hearts of the people, you will not regain your sight, and not many people will follow the simple anti-Qing.
Wu Sangui and the Manchu Qing fought six deadly battles, and the result was that Wu Sangui won more than he lost, and Wu Sangui's military strength at its peak reached twice that of the Manchu Qing, which was superior in both quality and quantity. At the beginning of the rebellion, it can be said that most of China was occupied, and the forces suddenly advanced to the Yangtze River. The situation was very good, but under such an advantage, Wu Sangui actually stood still and wanted to rule with the Manchu Qing. Wu Sangui's army went to Songzi and actually camped for more than three months, instead of recovering the Central Plains with a single blow and serving the two capitals, so that the Manchu Qing had a chance to breathe, dispatch troops, and calmly prepare for battle. Then the Manchu Qing gradually took control of the situation and broke through them one by one. In the fifteenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Wang Fuchen in the northwest was defeated first, and the situation in the northwest was stabilized. Kangxi concentrated his main force on Wu Sangui in the south, and at the same time stopped withdrawing the Pingnan and Jingnan erfang. From the fifteenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1676), the battlefield situation began to favor the Qing army, Geng Jing's loyalty was poor and begging, and Shang Zhixin was also surrendered. In this way, only Wu Sangui was still insisting on the resistance forces. In August of the seventeenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Wu Sangui died of a violent illness in Hengzhou. His grandson Wu Shiyao, who ascended the throne of The Great Zhou, changed his name to Yuan Honghua. He saw that the situation was not good and retreated to Guiyang. After the Qing army solved the two wings, it began a strategic counter-offensive and entered Hunan. In the first month of the eighteenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the Qing army conquered Yuezhou. Then the momentum broke through the bamboo, and all the way to recover Changsha, Changde, and Hengzhou. At this point, Hunan, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Guangxi were recovered. Kangxi also ordered his troops to divide into three routes and march into Yunnan, and in November of the twentieth year of Kangxi, the city of Kunming was destroyed, and the eight-year civil war ended with the overthrow of Wu Sangui.
The possibility of Wu Sangui's success in opposing the Qing Dynasty is very large. If it were not for Wu Sangui's two major mistakes, he would first hesitate, vainly want to negotiate peace with the Qing army, and rule the river, giving the Qing Dynasty a buffer time, without a single blow directly crossing the Yangtze River, and at the same time establishing contacts with the rebel forces throughout the country, forming a joint force, and giving the Qing Dynasty a fatal blow. Second, in the middle and late period, Wu Sangui actually gave up the banner of anti-Qing and restoration of the Ming Dynasty and established himself as emperor. At once, the hearts of those who followed his resistance were broken and they left. You can't set up a puppet as a model, you have to be yourself a traitor who has surrendered to the Qing Dynasty to become the emperor yourself.