Li Zicheng was the leader of the peasant rebellion in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, an important figure who overthrew the Ming Empire and established the Dashun regime, and played an important role in the ming dynasty and the Qing Dynasty.
However, Li Zicheng, who had been infinitely close to unifying the world, was defeated and killed in just one year after the invasion of Beijing.
Some people say that Li Zicheng failed because he decayed and deteriorated after entering Beijing, some people said that Li Zicheng failed because the Qing army was too strong, some people said that Li Zicheng failed because of accidental factors, and some people said that Li Zicheng's failure was providential.
So, did Li Zicheng really not have a chance to win the final victory at that time? If he wants to extinguish the Ming Dynasty and resist the Qing Dynasty, what should he do? We're going to talk about that today.
At the beginning of the seventeenth year of Ming Chongzhen, Li Zicheng established the Dashun regime in Xi'an, and he declared to the outside world that he had 600,000 cavalry and 400,000 infantry under his command, and he wanted to launch a general offensive against the Ming Dynasty, and he wanted to unify the country.
Although there must have been a lot of moisture in the 600,000 cavalry and 400,000 infantry, Li Zicheng's strength was still very strong at that time, and he already had 70,000 or 80,000 field troops when he was in Xiangyang, organized into five armies, and the three armies of infantry, cavalry, and water were complete. Later, he also absorbed a large number of displaced people and The Ming Dynasty army, and his strength was further enhanced.
The process of Li Zicheng's attack on Beijing was relatively smooth, except for fierce resistance in Ningwu and other places, the Ming Dynasty border army was almost invincible, Li Zicheng did not have any major losses in attacking Beijing, but instead incorporated the Ming Border Army such as Tang Tong, and its strength was once again enhanced.
In April of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, when Li Zicheng occupied Beijing, this was the time when the Dashun army was at its most powerful. At this time, Li Zicheng not only integrated the essence of the rebel army in Guannei except for the Great Western Army, but also incorporated almost all the Ming Border Troops except the Guanning Army.
At this time, Li Zicheng's troops should be in the number of 200,000 or 300,000, but these people were not concentrated together, but scattered in Guanzhong, The Central Plains, Shanxi, along the Great Wall, and Xiangyang, and there were about 78 people who really followed Li Zicheng in Beijing.
Later, in the Battle of Yishi, Li Zicheng led these 70,000 or 80,000 people to a decisive battle with Wu Sangui's Guanning army and the Qing army, but he was defeated and seriously injured.
Subsequently, a large number of Ming troops defected, the rebel army was constantly pursued and killed, and only a year later Li Zicheng was defeated and killed in Hunan.
We see now that if we were Li Zicheng, there did not seem to be a big problem in choosing a general attack on Beijing in early 1644, and without considering the Manchu Qing joining the war, even if Wu Sangui did not surrender, Li Zicheng would be sure to unify China.
But the problem was that the Manchu Qing were actually the most dangerous enemies of the Dashun regime at that time, and it was not right to ignore this force.
From the perspective of our "opening the eyes of the sky", at that time, Li Zicheng had no other choice.
In fact, as early as the time when Li Zicheng was established in Xiangyang, there were three schools of view, pointing to three different strategic directions.
The first view advocated a direct attack on Beijing from Xiangyang to the Central Plains and the destruction of the Ming Dynasty.
The second view was that Guanzhong should be taken first, and then attacked Beijing to the east.
The third view is that it should develop from Xiangyang to the east to the south, first attacking the Jiangnan tax base, and then northern expedition to the Central Plains.
In the end, Li Zicheng chose the second proposition, first taking Guanzhong, because it was Li Zicheng's hometown, and then sweeping eastward through the Ming Border Army, attacking Beijing, and unifying the north.
We look at these three propositions, in fact, the last proposition is the most secure, Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, China has been maintained in the way of "the south pays taxes to raise the northern soldiers", the Yellow River Valley and the Guanzhong region can no longer support so many troops, without canals to transport money and grain from the south, the northern army will collapse.
Li Zicheng's rebel army fought for many years, but it never had a solid base area, even if Li Zicheng occupied Guanzhong and the Central Plains, it could not solve the grain problem, at that time the north was destroyed by war, it had long been in ruins, without the support of money and grain in the south, Li Zicheng was a wood without roots and water without a source.
If Li Zicheng can first attack Jiangnan and stabilize the south, there will be plenty of grain, grass, gold and silver, and then he will swing the Northern Expedition, and the ideal result can be a complete victory, even if the battle is unfavorable for a while, he can also retreat to Jiangnan, and the worst result can also play a southern and northern dynasty, and he will not be defeated again and again, and finally die and the army will be broken.
At that time, Liu Bang was able to defeat Xiang Yu by relying on Xiao He to run Guanzhong, relying on the steady stream of money and grain soldiers and horses in Guanzhong, and crushing the invincible Western Chu overlord. Without a stable and wealthy base, Liu Bang could not defeat Xiang Yu.
Zhu Yuanzhang was able to succeed in the Northern Expedition and unify the world, also because he had been operating in Jiangnan for many years, "building walls high, accumulating grain, and slowly becoming king", Taoguang yang obscure accumulated strength, and finally won victory.
Unfortunately, history cannot be reproduced, we cannot force the ancients, under the situation at that time, Li Zicheng did not choose to go south, but chose to go directly north, lacking a stable and rich base area, a failure is difficult to recover, and the success is imminent.