To say that there are backbone emperors, from Qin Shi Huang to Puyi for more than two thousand years of imperial history, Chongzhen is one of the few.
The question here is, why did such an emperor, who had backbone and responsibility, end up in such a fate, while Zuo Liangyu, who had a large number of troops under his command, did not come to the rescue?
In January 1944, Li Zicheng claimed the title of emperor from Xi'an, and then killed from Xi'an to Beijing, because the march was too smooth, less than three months, the peasant army hit the outskirts of Beijing, Chongzhen commanded the world's soldiers and horses Qin wang, before Li Zicheng arrived in Beijing, only Changping general Tang Tong came to Beijing to garrison because he was closer to Beijing, but the result was that he fell before the battle, the city of Beijing was finally destroyed without attack, as the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen did not choose to surrender, nor did he choose to negotiate peace with Li Zicheng. Instead, he chose a more dignified way to die and hanged himself in The Coal Mountain in Beijing.
It is reasonable to say that Chongzhen was not related to the imperial throne, but his elder brother who inherited the throne, that is, the Emperor of Tianqi, was childless when he died, and Chongzhen picked up an emperor as a pawn, becoming the second emperor of the Ming Dynasty to ascend to the throne as a prince after Zhu Di, Zhu Qiyu, and Zhu Houxi. Unlike Zhu Di, who was decisive in killing, Zhu Qiyu, who was in danger, and even Zhu Houxi, who had a way of being a royal, Chongzhen, who was not highly qualified and had a strong personality, because he was not the crown prince nor was he taught the way of governing the country by famous teachers, and when he was in power, he did not encounter the assistance of yu Qian and Zhang Juzheng, who could support the road and save the building, and these defects were insufficient, which led to the sadness of Chongzhen's rule.
Chongzhen's self-hanging is only a result, but the process of causing this result has been ignored, and everyone has seen the result very strongly, but they do not know that this fruit was planted by himself long ago.
Chongzhen's way of employing people is: if you have merit, you will find someone to carry the pot. In fact, he has a lot of opportunities to turn over, but he gives it all to people, let's talk about a typical example.
In 1644, Chongzhen wanted to move south of Kyoto, in fact, at that time, the southward migration was very beneficial to Daming, there are many examples of southward migration in history, the Ming Dynasty implemented the double Beijing system, Nanjing was originally the birthplace of the Ming Dynasty, from Beijing to Nanjing, although there is a little negative evasion, but it is also a strategic transfer.
From the escape route, the threat of the Ming Dynasty at that time was in the northwest and northeast, if it went down to the southeast, with the Yangtze River Graben, the southeast, the continuation of the state is not a kind of humiliation and burden, lying down and tasting courage. However, the process of moving south has not been able to go forward, saying that Chongzhen is not afraid of death, that is nonsense, Chongzhen also wants to move south, the problem lies in the cabinet system formed since the late Ming Dynasty, the imperial power has been invisibly divided a lot, if at this time the cabinet proposed to move south, Chongzhen nodded, then it can be carried out smoothly.
At that time, Chongzhen found Chen Yan, the first assistant of the cabinet, and wanted him to propose to move the capital at the meeting, but Chen Yan made his own small calculations, and at the meeting the next day, when Chongzhen asked the group of ministers about the proposal, Chen Yan did not mention anything about moving the capital. The ministers are not stupid, they know what mantra Chongzhen is chanting in his heart, whoever proposes this escape plan is equivalent to carrying the insult of escaping, and when he arrives in Nanjing, Chongzhen is bound to throw the pot, then there is no place to die, such a lesson is a car and a car.
Chongzhen is really not a qualified leader, and he suffers from gains and losses, and his suspicions are very serious. Although he is very diligent, it is a pity that he used the wrong place, and no matter how hard he tried, it was in vain, and sometimes it would be counterproductive.
It can be said that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Zuo Liangyu's army shouldered a corner of the Daming River, and Zuo Liangyu played a pivotal role.
Zuo Liangyu had a miserable childhood, his parents died early, he grew up with his uncle, and he did not have the opportunity to study, and when he grew up, he joined the army to fight, because his mind was flexible, his strategy was promoted, and because he was born at the bottom, he was good at dealing with people and buying people's hearts, and he was supported by soldiers.
As a general at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Zuo Liangyu's combat ability is beyond doubt, but it is also very invincible, his most important nemesis is Li Zicheng, the king of the break, every time he encounters Li Zicheng, Zuo Liangyu will desperately escape, and he does not know which play he is singing.
When Li Zicheng was about to enter Beijing, Chongzhen ordered the soldiers and horses of the world to come to Qinwang, and the most eagerly awaited of them was Zuo Liangyu, but Zuo Liangyu was grinding and chirping, and he did not send troops for a long time.
Seeing this situation, Chongzhen was like an ant on a hot pot, anxious to turn around, in order to persuade Zuo Liangyu to send troops to serve the king, Chongzhen allowed him to be the uncle of Nanning, hereditary resignation, and the military power of Wuchang was delegated, from then on I Chongzhen was the emperor of Daming, and you Zuo Liangyu was the emperor of Wuchang. With this promise, Zuo Liangyu formulated a plan to send troops, but before this plan arrived in the capital, the capital was attacked by Li Zicheng, and the Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide.
From the above we can see that it seems that Zuo Liangyu wants the benefits of Chongzhen, to give him the rank of knight, there is no deal to negotiate, only the price that cannot be negotiated, in fact, it is really not, Zuo Liangyu does not want to save Chongzhen at all, and even, he hates this imperial court a little.
Zuo Liangyu's dissatisfaction with the central government of the Ming Dynasty was mainly reflected in two aspects, on the one hand, Zuo Liangyu, as a military general, had been suppressed by the civilian official clique in the Ming Dynasty. As mentioned above, Zuo Liangyu was not a civilian official, but was gradually promoted to a general through military merit, and one of the most popular things in the Ming Dynasty was the civilian official in charge of the army, and most of the Ming Generals we are familiar with now, such as Yuan Chonghuan, Sun Chuanting, Lu Xiangsheng, Yang Sichang and others, in the strict sense, are not generals, they are all literati who have entered the military, and those who are really military generals are suppressed.
It can be said that the civil official politics of the Ming Dynasty is even worse than that of the Song Dynasty, and zuo Liangyu naturally hates the civilian officials who command chaotically on the battlefield in such a political ecology. Of course, this also shows the rationality of the civil official politics of the Ming Dynasty, the civilian officials cultivated through orthodox education are loyal to the imperial court, they all hold the heart of sacrificing their lives for the country and will die, while the military generals have not received such education, so the idea of loyalty to the king is very thin, and naturally they are not willing to give up their lives.
On the other hand, for those who controlled the local military generals, Chongzhen always chose not to trust, which was also an important reason for Zuo Liangyu's dislike of Chongzhen, once Zuo Liangyu also repeatedly fought with the peasant army and gave his life for the imperial court, as a result, Chongzhen was also very suspicious of Zuo Liangyu, and after Zuo Liangyu won the battle, he actually did not go to praise, but sent eunuchs to supervise the army.
When the Qing soldiers approached the city, Zuo Liangyu went to qin wang, and as a result, Zuo Liangyu had not yet arrived in the capital, the Qing army retreated, Chongzhen did not even say it, let Zuo Liangyu go back and forth, at that time Zuo Liangyu jumped like thunder, since the ancient army moved, the imperial court would give funds, Chongzhen fell well, come to a dime.
Zuo Liangyu won the battle, Chongzhen did not give promotion, Zuo Liangyu at the peak, supported 300,000 troops, but the official position was only a general soldier, but when Zuo Liangyu ate the defeat, Chongzhen immediately degraded Zuo Liangyu three levels.
In the course of Zuo Liangyu's war with Li Zicheng, Zuo Liangyu also had the opportunity to suppress Li Zicheng, but he had a premonition that after the complete quelling of the chaos, he would also cook rabbits and dead dogs, so he did not work hard when suppressing bandits.
It can be said that Zuo Liangyu is not optimistic about the Ming Dynasty, believing that it is only a matter of time before the Ming Dynasty is overthrown, rather than tossing and turning blindly with the unreliable emperor, it is better to wait and see what happens, and when the world changes, be a warlord who divides one side.
Generally speaking, Chongzhen's harshness towards his ministers made most of the Ming generals choose to protect themselves when the country broke through the mountains and rivers, and those who really worked for him, such as Yuan Chonghuan, had already been cut by him.