Zuo Liangyu, character Kunshan, Shandong Linqing people, the late Ming Dynasty famous general, historically known as brave and strategic.
"Ming Shi" (left) has a long body, a brave, and good at shooting left and right. He did not know the books, but he was wise and resourceful, and he was happy with his soldiers, so that he could fight and make meritorious achievements.
Zuo Liangyu once appeared on the stage of history as the savior of Daming.
His military career began in Liaodong, and from the first year of Chongzhen, he moved to Hongqiao, Dayanshan, Zunhua, Songshan, and Xingxingshan, and was promoted from a low-level officer to a senior officer and deputy general.
From chongzhen five years onwards, Zuo Liangyu was transferred back to the peasant army in Guannei to suppress the uprising. Although it cannot be said that he has won a hundred battles, Zuo Liangyu in this period has become a famous general in the Ming army, repeatedly defeating the peasant army, beating Zhang Xianzhong only hating his father and mother to escape with two feet, and in the Battle of Nanyang, Zhang Xianzhong was almost beheaded by Zuo Liangyu.
Dedication to the faithful to go. Chased, fired two shots, hit him in the shoulder, and repeatedly swung the knife to hit him, bleeding in the face. His men rescued him and fled to the valley city.
By the late Chongzhen period, with the deaths of the famous generals Cao Wenzhao, Tang Jiuzhou, Deng Xuan, Zu Kuan, and You Shiwei of the same period, Zuo Liangyu's seniority had become a leader in the military.
In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, although Zuo Liangyu was defeated by Li Zicheng at the Battle of Zhuxian Town, he then sent troops to defeat Zhang Xianzhong and retake Wuchang, and since then he has sat in the three towns of Wuhan with hundreds of thousands of troops.
By the time Zhu Yousong ascended the throne in Nanjing, Zuo Liangyu's military strength had grown to 800,000, known as millions of people, even if there were many troops and a lot of water, the strength was still placed there, ranking first in the army of Hongguang towns.
At this time, Zuo Liangyu, who was holding Wuchang, defended Nanjing from the threat of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong in the west, and at the same time could send troops to support Nanjing at any time, which was both a barrier to the Hongguang regime and a strong backing.
The Hongguang Emperor Zhu Yousong ordered that Zuo Liangyu, the bo of Ningnan, be promoted to Zuo Liangyu the Marquis of Ningnan, and it seems that Zuo Liangyu has become a pillar of the country.
Who knows, less than a year after the marquis, Zuo Liangyu made an unbelievable move.
With all the troops of Wuchang, he poured out of the nest and went down the river to the east, but the goal was not to engage the Qing army, but to go straight to Nanjing under the banner of "Qing Jun's side".
That is to say, Zuo Liangyu, the Marquis of Ningnan, rebelled.
Zuo Liangyu's reputation was reversed, and although he also had a reputation for arrogance and unruliness, there were also acts of disobedience. But on the whole, Zuo Liangyu was still loyal to Daming and was not too out of line.
After the uprising, Zuo Liangyu's reputation collapsed, and he changed from a Ming general to a Ming Dynasty sinner.
In a short period of time, why did Zuo Liangyu's body undergo such earth-shaking changes.
In fact, a closer look at Zuo Liangyu's actions has long been traceable, and since Chongzhen's eleventh year, Zuo Liangyu has revealed signs of self-respect for the soldiers.
When he was stationed in Anhui, he repeatedly refused to respond to the request of the Heavenly Inspector and the eunuchs of the Supervising Army to send troops, and even ignored the orders of The Premier's military department Shangshu Xiong Wencan.
In October, Premier Xiong Wencan went to Anqing, and the ministry was subordinate to the Liangyu Army, and liangyu light Wencan was not used.
After that, he repeatedly refused to be dispatched by the overseer Yang Sichang, even if the imperial court cut him from his post to no avail.
Behind all this is actually the trend of warlordization of military generals at the end of the Ming Dynasty. The military generals of the Ming Dynasty originally did not have their own army, and the tradition of the Ming Military System was to use civilian weapons, even if they were as strong as Qi Jiguang, they had to bow their heads in front of civilian officials.
However, with the frequent wars, the military generals who had been leading troops for many years gradually cultivated their own forces, and the military power of the imperial court was weakened, and in the end, the army only had the generals and horses in the lead, and the eunuchs and overseers sent by the imperial court were gradually unable to command the generals of various systems.
In the chaotic world, military generals and local officials with military power in their hands will most likely become warlords, which has almost become a historical law. It wasn't just Zuo Liangyu alone, but the four towns of Hongguang Chaojiangbei: Gao Jie, Liu Liangzuo, Huang Degong, Liu Zeqing, and the subsequent Zheng Zhilong and He Tengjiao were also the same.
Although the warlords were warlordized, although they sometimes disobeyed, on the whole, they had not completely lost control, so why did Zuo Liangyu dare to brazenly attack Nanjing?
Although this sentence is exaggerated, the fact that "Ming Shi died in party struggle" is also an indisputable fact that the party struggle of the Ming Dynasty was so harmful.
In the early years of the Apocalypse, the Dominant Donglin Party, in fact, by the middle and late period of the Apocalypse had been completely suppressed by Wei Zhongxian, losing the right to speak, although there was some improvement in the early days of Chongzhen, but did not grasp the actual power, and soon was squeezed out of power, and finally Chongzhen Dynasty, the Donglin Party did not have the opportunity to make a comeback.
However, in the Hongguang Dynasty, party struggle resumed again, caused by the contradiction between Ma Shiying and the Donglin Party over the selection of supporters. The original favorite candidate of the Donglin Party was Zhu Changying, the King of Gui, but the powerful minister Ma Shiying conspired with the four towns in Jiangbei to establish Zhu Yousong, the Prince of Fu, and the hidden danger was buried.
After Ma Shiying took power, he also used his good friend Ruan Dacheng, who was originally attached to Wei Zhongxian and was even more intolerable to the Donglin Party, and the contradictions between the two sides intensified, and the three major cases of the Hongguang Dynasty: the "Great Compassion Monk Case", the "Tong Concubine Case", and the "Beilai Prince Case" were all caused by party strife and consumed a lot of energy of the monarchs.
In the face of party strife, the military attaches also inevitably needed to take sides, and the four towns in Jiangbei gained benefits from supporting King Lifu, of course, on the side of Ma Shiying. Zuo Liangyu, who was far away in Wuchang, did not have time to participate, and watched the four towns in Jiangbei, whose seniority and strength were far inferior to his, and gained great merit, greatly expanded his strength, and gained a lot of benefits. However, he only received such a symbolic reward as a promotion to a first-class knighthood, and he was naturally indignant.
Coupled with the fact that Hou Ke, who initially appreciated and used him, was originally the elder of the Donglin Party, and the overseer around him, Yushi Huang Shu, was also a strong general of Donglin, and his emotions and reality made him side with the Donglin Party, and regarded Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng as enemies who did not share the heavens.
Ming Dynasty Zhou Ding's "Zuo Liangyu Out of the Master Picture Scroll"
Militarily, Zuo Liangyu was faced with the following situation: After Li Zicheng was defeated by Duoduo at Tongguan, in the face of the pursuit of the Qing army, he voluntarily abandoned Xi'an, withdrew from Shaanxi with the main force, and marched east to Hubei, where he met with the Baiwangbu of the Dashun army stationed here.
Therefore, Li Zicheng decided to abandon the well-run four provinces of Xiangyang, Chengtian, Jingzhou, and De'an in Hubei, and the whole army marched into Wuchang. From a military point of view, Li Zicheng's decision was obviously very short-sighted, but it posed a great threat to Zuo Liangyu's forces in Wuchang.
If it was only a few tens of thousands of people in baiwangbu, Zuo Liangyu had nothing to fear, but now the two roads of the Dashun army had converged, and the strength of the army had reached more than 200,000 again, becoming a large army.
And Li Zicheng was zuo Liangyu's bitter lord, Zuo Liangyu could defeat Zhang Xianzhong many times, forcing him to surrender, facing Li Zicheng but winning less and losing more, especially in the battle of Zhuxian Town, Zuo Liangyu was defeated by Li Zicheng, most of his elite lost, and he gradually grew old and sick, and he no longer had the courage to compete with Li Zicheng.
However, most of the pro-army love will die, and the descendants will not be restrained, and the good jade will gradually decline and become sick, and it will no longer be able to become an angle with itself.
Now that Li Zicheng's army was marching eastward, Zuo Liangyu was old and sick, and most of his men were newly surrendered generals, most of whom were rabble-rousers, and Zuo Liangyu was really not sure to stop Li Zicheng.
When we talk about a specific historical figure, we cannot depart from his era, let alone ignore the limitations of history. At that time, Zuo Liangyu represented the interests of the Nanming Lake Guangdong Military Group.
Zuo Liangyu was the leader of the Ming Dynasty's Huguang military clique, and although his prestige in the clique was high, he could not fail to consider the interests of the clique.
Zuo Liangyu himself was old and sick, and he did not have the body and the will to do another big cause.
Rather, when Liangyu was old and sick, he had no intention of doing so.
But his subordinates didn't think so, most of them were still young and strong, and they were trying to gain a name. Therefore, from the civilian official Huang Shu to many of his generals, he surrounded Zuo Liangyu like a fly all day long, "Shu and the generals took the Side of the Qing Emperor as an invitation" and persuaded him to raise an army on the Side of the Qing King.
Zuo Liangyu had two choices at this time: agree or disagree.
At this time, with his old illness, Zuo Liangyu's control of his opponents was not as effective as before.
After his march, he was stationed on the river outside Jiujiang City, and when he wanted to take the governor of Jiangxi, Yuan Jixian, to the east, the general Hao Xiaozhong dared to carry him to Jiujiang City and set fire, which showed that his subordinates had a second child.
The general Hao Zhongzhong entered the city and set fire to the city. Liang Yu looked at the fire in the city and said, "To Yuan Gong." ”
In this case, if he does not agree, he may be betrayed by his subordinates, or even do it, and at the light, he may be able to temporarily suppress his subordinates with prestige, but with his old and sick body, one day when he closes his eyes, his son Zuo Menggeng's ability may be difficult to convince the public, and his life may be in danger.
In fact, this is the unanimous choice of the Huguang military clique, which can not only retreat to avoid Li Zicheng's front, but also move east to strive for greater interests.
The existing stone stele of Zuo Liangyu's handwriting
Based on the above reasons, in the end, Zuo Liangyu took advantage of the case of "Prince from the North" to push the boat along the water and choose to evacuate Wuchang with the whole army and send the troops to Nanjing.
Zuo Liangyu's entire army marched eastward, and the consequences were disastrous. Zuo Liangyu himself died of illness outside Jiujiang City not long after, and the people supported his son Zuo Menggeng to continue to lead the army, which was also the new speaker elected by the group.
Vomiting blood for several liters, is night death. Shi Shunzhi 2nd year April also. The generals did not mourn, and jointly pushed their son Menggeng as a queen. On the seventh day, the army went east and ordered Huang Degong to cross the river to prevent suppression.
Ma Shiying of Nanjing dispatched the town garrison troops from Jiangbei to fight fiercely with the left army in Anhui, and Duo Duo took the opportunity to lead his army south, and the defensive line in Jiangbei, which was originally heavily fortified, was not attacked and destroyed, and the inspector Shi Kefa had no troops to adjust at all, and in more than two months Nanjing was declared lost and the Hongguang regime was destroyed.
Zuo Menggeng was defeated by Huang Degong and retreated to Jiujiang, and then surrendered to the Qing army with more than 200,000 defeated troops, and the Huguang heavy army group in Nanming disappeared.
Judging from the results, Zuo Liangyu's choice was actually equivalent to attacking Nanjing on both sides with Duoduo. Originally, the situation of the Hongguang regime was the best among the emperors of the Southern Ming Dynasty, because Zuo Liangyu's troops directly led to a rapid collapse, and the later emperors, who lost the rich troops of Jiangnan and Jiangbei and Wuchang, were no longer able to overturn, even if the Longwu Emperor Zhu Yujian had great ambitions, he was unable to return to heaven, and finally was squeezed and destroyed step by step.
Zuo Liangyu's father and son, if they were determined, were expected to become the saviors of Daming, but the difference between one thought and one thought eventually became the funeral of the Ming Dynasty, and the reputation of later generations was thus concluded by this, which is a pity.
The warlordization of the military generals at the end of the Ming Dynasty was actually another repetition of the late Tang Dynasty Fan Town, but many warlords had not yet had time to form the strong strength of the Tang Dynasty Fan Town and perished one after another. "Tang died in Fanzhen", the Ming Dynasty was actually similar.