Some people say that he is a big traitor and traitor, and some people say that he is a historical hero who conforms to the trend of history, reduces the scourge of war and chaos, and benefits the community. His life can be simply divided into two stages, from his birth in 1593 to the defeat of Matsuyama in 1642, the first 50 years of which he was a famous courtier and counter-rebel hero of the Ming Court. From his annexation to the Qing court in 1642 to his death in 1665, he was also the right-hand man of the Qing court to unify the world and govern the country for more than 20 years. His life experience is complex, and he is in the great historical changes of the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, and it is not surprising that there are differences in his evaluation from different positions and angles.
Hong Chengzu is a native of Quanzhou, Fujian Province, who grew up poor and helped his mother sell dried beans for a living. He was very intelligent and ambitious, and in his spare time he studied hard, and later passed the examination for the jinshi, successively served in the Yamen of the Punishment Department and the Zhejiang education system, and in 1627 he was promoted to the governor of Shaanxi to participate in politics. Only a year later, a great peasant revolt broke out in northern Shaanxi, and Hong Chengzu, a scholar of Yijie, participated in the encirclement and suppression and began to use the blood of the rebels to stain his official top red. He was very strategic, but also vicious, advocating killing and surrendering in response to the repeated defeats and repeated rebellions of the peasant army, which is very similar to zeng guofan, the "former razor" who later suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. With the cooperation of him, Sun Chuanting, Lu Xiangsheng and others, many rebel armies were suppressed, the first generation of the king Gao Yingxiang was captured, and the successor King Li Zicheng was later surrounded and suppressed by only 18 horsemen, escaping into the Shangluo Mountains, and the peasant uprising fell into a low ebb. During the more than 10 years that Hong Chengzu participated in the suppression of the peasant army, he had outstanding achievements, and was promoted by the imperial court to the governor of the three sides, and was awarded the title of Shangshu of the Military Department, commanding the military affairs of the five provinces, and became the main military commander of the Ming Court to suppress the peasant uprising.
Hong Chengyu stills
Just as Hong Chengzu was intensifying its encirclement and suppression and preparing to completely eliminate the remnants of Li Zicheng, the Qing army, which did not want to sit idly by while the peasant army was annihilated, went south in two ways in 1638, and the Ming court had to transfer Hong Chengzu and Sun Chuanting from the western front to resist the Qing invasion. In 1639, Hong Chengzu was appointed governor of Jiliao and engaged in an all-out confrontation with the Qing army in Liaodong. In 1640, the Emperor Taiji sent a large army to besiege Jinzhou, and the Battle of Songjin began. Huang Taiji's strategy was to besiege the city, set up ambushes, fight reinforcements, and attack strongholds, while Hong Chengzu learned the lesson of the disastrous defeat of the Ming army in the Battle of Salhu, insisting on concentrating troops, step by step, and advancing while fighting. Six months after the imperial court's marching order was issued, he led 8 general troops and 130,000 troops from Ningyuan at the repeated urging of the imperial court, and slowly marched, and it took another 4 months to reach Songshan, south of Jinzhou.
Although Hong Chengzuo was the best military commander of the Ming Dynasty at that time, the tragic fate of Yang Hao, Yuan Yingtai, Xiong Tingbi and others on the battlefield of Liaodong gave him a lot of psychological pressure, and he became a little hesitant and hesitant, and also lacked the confidence to win. When he arrived at Songshan, he let the army camp around the mountain and thought hard about how to relieve the siege of Jinzhou, but he did not expect that this had already won the Emperor Taiji's plan to besiege the city and help him. Emperor Taiji transferred the military strength besieging Jinzhou to attack and aid the Jinming army, cut off the communication between the Ming army Songshan and Xingxingshan, formed a counter-encirclement of the Ming army, and took the opportunity to cut off the Ming army's grain route and return route, forming a strong deterrent to the Ming army. At this critical juncture, if Hong Chengzu can strengthen his confidence and lead his army to fight the Qing army to the death, there may be a chance to turn around. However, after consulting the opinions of the 8 general soldiers, he made a wrong decision to divide the troops into two roads and break through in the middle of the night. As a result, during the breakthrough, the various units rushed to escape, resulting in a complete rout of the Ming army, and more than 53,000 people were killed. Hong Chengzu led the remnants of more than 10,000 people to retreat to Songshan, which lasted for half a year, and the Ming court sent reinforcements several times to break the siege, but they were all repelled by the Qing army. Finally, the grain in the city ran out, and the general Xia Chengde and others surrendered to the city, and Hong Chengyu was captured by the Qing army. However, the Ming Dynasty believed that Hong Chengzu had already sacrificed his life for the country, and specially commended him below, making a "big oolong".
After being captured, Hong Chengyu went on a hunger strike for several days and refused to surrender. However, under the persuasion of Fan Wencheng and other Qing court Ministers, under the repeated courtesies of the Emperor Taiji, he finally shaved his hair and lowered his hair. There are many versions of the story of his downgrading, the most legendary of which is the Chuang Fei seduction. The author believes that this is purely fabricated, at that time, the Qing army did not enter the customs, the Concubine Zhuang who was born in the Mongolian ethnic group did not necessarily speak Chinese, and Hong Chengzuo was estimated to not speak Mongolian. And Huang Taiji has many beautiful women in his hands, and will not take the child's as bait, and take the initiative to wear a green hat. Moreover, Concubine Zhuang was more than 30 years old at the time, not necessarily very beautiful. The most important thing is that Hong Chengzu is not a lustful person, he is a high-ranking official and famous in the world, but he only has one wife and one concubine. The seduction should not be established, or Fan Wencheng's persuasion played a big role. Fan Wencheng observed a detail in his persuasion, that is, the dust fell on Hong Chengzuo's clothes, he "repeatedly wiped it", so he valued clothes, how could he not value life! Fan Wencheng thus concluded that Hong Chengzu had no intention of dying, and persuaded the Qing court to increase its efforts to persuade him to surrender.
Princess Chuang stills
After Hong Chengyu surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, he played a crucial role in the great cause of the unification of the Qing Dynasty, because he knew the deployment of the Ming army very well, was very clear about the characteristics of Ming officials and generals, and could formulate offensive and defensive strategies in a targeted manner. Moreover, he was famous and had many subordinates, and helped the Qing court persuade many people to surrender. Both Dorgon and the Shunzhi Emperor valued him and obeyed him, including two crucial proposals for the Qing army to enter the pass to compete for the world and quickly capture the city of Beijing occupied by Li Zicheng, which was put forward by Hong Chengzu. After entering the customs, he was appointed by the Shunzhi Emperor as a university scholar, becoming the first Han prime minister of the Qing Dynasty, and responsible for the war in the south. He adopted the marching strategy of "taking care as the mainstay and suppressing as a supplement" and pacified Jiangnan at a relatively small cost. He advocated Confucianism, suggested that the Manchus "learn Chinese and know Chinese", diluted the differences between Manchu and Han, and promoted ethnic integration. In 1659, Hong Chengyu completed his controversial life at the age of 73.
For Hong Chengzuo's evaluation, the author feels that there are some points that can be said to be said, and it can also be regarded as a hole in the view. First, although Hong Chengzu was strategic, he still had the cowardice of a literati scholar and lacked the strong determination of Shi Kefa. He was deeply influenced by the great righteousness of Confucianism, and the emperor and the whole country placed great hopes on him, but he finally surrendered to the Qing court, which ultimately tarnished his own education and violated his faith. In the case of running out of ammunition, he can make the military and civilians abandon resistance and reduce unnecessary casualties, but he can martyr the country with death, then there is no loss in name. Second, after the surrender of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Chengzu could "not say a word" and not give a single plan like Xu Shu, who was forced into the Cao camp, but he showed too positively, with the body of the wind and candle, and went all out to help the Qing court to suppress the Southern Ming Dynasty, and his heart was not to want the former Ming Dynasty to resurrect, but hoped that the Manchu Qing would unify the world, so that his surrender was "in accordance with the Mandate of Heaven". Third, in the process of helping the Qing court unify the world, Hong Chengzu advocated "not slaughtering the people, not burning the house, and not forgiving money and property," and suggested that the Qing court exempt the qing court from taxes in difficult areas and reduce the damage caused by war, which is worthy of recognition. But he also slaughtered the anti-Qing rebels and righteous soldiers, and was unanimously scolded by the anti-Qing people. Fourth, he helped the Qing court improve the state system, build water conservancy projects, and recommend officials, which played a positive role in stabilizing the situation and promoting economic and cultural development.
In fact, if the Ming Dynasty is replaced by a culturally advanced Han regime, it is estimated that there may be fewer people who scold Hong Chengzu, after all, the dynasty is everywhere to represent the old ministers of the middle and former dynasties to be loyal to the new dynasty, and "good birds choose trees to live, and virtuous subjects choose the lord and do things" is what it says. Some people just think that Hong Chengzu surrendered to the foreign tribes and became a traitor, so that the crime was extremely evil and unforgivable. This involves the issue of the national historical view, and the author has not studied it in depth and does not dare to discuss it indiscriminately.