In March of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644 AD), Li Zicheng entered the city of Beijing, and the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian hanged himself at Jingshan, and Daming perished.
The north collapsed, but the south still retained half of the country. After the Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself, the major factions of the Ming Dynasty began to act, preparing to establish a small southern imperial court.
At that time, there were only two kinds of people who were qualified to build a new small imperial court, the first was a warlord, represented by Zuo Liangyu, Gao Jie, zheng Zhilong, and others; the second was a wenchen, represented by Qian Qianyi, Shi Kefa and other Donglin party members, and non-Donglin party members such as Ma Shiying.
Initially, because the warlords were far away from the city of Nanjing, the civilian subjects in the city of Nanjing once had the upper hand. However, judging from the objective facts, the thinking of these courtiers does not seem to have changed, and they are still the kind of style that they used to do.
This is a typical "no tiger in the mountains, monkeys called the king", at that time, there was a phenomenon of soldiers and horses everywhere, and only those who were strong and strong had the right to speak.
Li Zicheng entered the city of Beijing, much like Dong Zhuo entered Luoyang City, and it was not long before both of them failed, and the world began to be chaotic. It is just that the time of turmoil in the Three Kingdoms is longer, and the time of chaos at the end of the Ming Dynasty is shorter.
There is also a difference between Li Zicheng and Dong Zhuo, that is, Li Zicheng directly destroyed the Ming Dynasty and did not play any trick of deposing the emperor. But Li Zicheng did not play, and the small southern court could not omit this step.
The Chongzhen Emperor is no longer there, so who will succeed to the throne and carry the banner?
The so-called carrying of the banner is not led by him to resist the Qing, but to elect the most suitable puppet, so that everyone's vested interests continue to be guaranteed.
The Donglin Party, led by Qian Qianyi and Shi Kefa, wanted to support Zhu Changshu, the King of Lu, while the non-Donglin Party, led by Ma Shiying, wanted to support Zhu Yousong, the King of Fu.
The reason for the Donglin Party was that Zhu Yousong, the Prince of Fu, was the grandson of Emperor Shenzong (the Wanli Emperor) and should be made king according to his rank and rank, but he had seven major shortcomings: greed, lust, alcoholism, filial piety, mistreatment of subordinates, lack of study, and interference with officials. Zhu Changshu, the King of Lu, was a nephew of Emperor Shenzong, virtuous and intelligent, and should have made him emperor.
Huinan Du Lijun, Zhang Shenyan, Lü Daqi, Jiang Yueguang, etc.: "The Fu King Is Song, the Divine Emperor Sun Ye, and the Lun Order are established, and there are seven must nots: greed, adultery, alcoholism, filial piety, abuse, non-reading, and intervention in Yousiye." King Lu Changshu, The Divine Emperor's nephew, was wise and wise. "Moving can be the law, but the law is also the same." ——History of the Ming Dynasty, vol. 274, Liechuan 162
But actually? The main reason was also that The Fu King Zhu Yousong had a disagreement with the Donglin Party, and they were worried that after the Fu King became emperor, he would be unfavorable to himself.
I think that in the beginning, in the later years of the Wanli Emperor, he had moved the mind of deposing the crown prince, and the one who competed with the crown prince Zhu Changluo for the throne was Zhu Changxun, the old Fu King. After that, the three major cases broke out separately, and the Donglin Party offended Lao Fu Wang and Zheng Guifei heavily.
As one of the contenders for the throne of the small southern imperial court, Zhu Yousong, the Prince of Fu, was the son of Zhu Changxun, the old Prince of Fu. Once King Fu succeeds to the throne, who can guarantee that he will not use the strength of Ma Shiying and others to ruthlessly clean up the Donglin Party?
For this reason, the Donglin Party has been shouting for Zhu Changshu, the king of Lu, to wave the flag. But non-Donglin Party members are not stupid, how can the merit of support be given to you Donglin Party? Don't you want to embrace the King of Fortune? We are to embrace the Blessed King.
The reason for the non-Donglin Party members is very simple: Zhu Yousong, the Fu King, is the closest royal family to the former emperor, and you have nothing to say that he is not good or bad, what do you want to do?
This reason is very grandiose, and if you want to deny it, you must argue around the so-called "seven deadly sins". One of the candidates for the throne was dragged into the public for discussion, what kind of system?
But the two sides argued for half a day, but they found a sad fact: what they said did not carry much weight, and it was the warlords who really had the right to decide. Although they were not in the city of Nanjing for the time being, if they did not admit it, the emperor would have no value.
The first to see the situation was Ma Shiying, who found that not only the emperor was a puppet, but his own group of courtiers was probably also a puppet. So he took the lead in cooperating with the warlords and cooperating with the big guys, and the Donglin party members had no choice but to obediently listen to the instructions of the warlords.
Shi Ying, together with Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo, Liu Zeqing, and Gao Jie, sent troops to send Fu Wang Zhiyizhen, so Kefa waited to welcome the king. ——History of the Ming Dynasty, vol. 274, Liechuan 162
Ma Shiying was still a wise man, and because he took the lead in contacting the warlords, the warlords also hoped that there would be a person of their own in the court, so Ma Shiying immediately became the most powerful official in the small southern court.
In this context, the courtiers no longer debated the question of whether to be king of Lifu or King Lu, because it was meaningless. At this time, we should listen to the words of the warlords, otherwise we will seek to suffer. Therefore, because Ma Shiying was recognized by the warlords, he suggested that King Fu succeed to the throne, and the warlords nodded in agreement.
At this point, the Southern Ming regime was officially established, and Zhu Yousong, the Prince of Fu, became the first emperor, known as the Hongguang Emperor.
Initially, in the face of the pro-"Fu" faction, Shi Kefa and others all fought desperately against it with a look of great righteousness and generous statements. However, as soon as they heard that the warlords also decided to embrace "Fu", Shi Kefa and others immediately fell silent. Because they know that there is certainly no good fruit to eat if they continue to oppose.
If the warlords decide to support "Lu", will the pro-"Fu" faction led by Ma Shiying dare to oppose it? I can't be sure that they even dared to oppose the bear's heart and leopard's guts. Because in the face of the guns of the warlords, whoever dares to oppose will die ugly.
At that time, the protagonists of history had long been replaced by warlords headed by the four towns in Jiangbei, but under the pen of the Donglin Party, history was still the struggle between the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party. It seems that the reason why the Hongguang regime collapsed was because the eunuch party once again defeated the Donglin party.
Later generations of readers always like to say that the Hongguang Emperor fainted, so wouldn't it be absurd to reuse so-called eunuch party members such as Ma Shiying and exclude members of the Donglin Party such as Shi Kefa?
Because Shi Kefa's image in later generations was relatively positive, the images of the Hongguang Emperor and Ma Shiying, who rejected Shi Kefa, were very bad.
In the final analysis, it is still because Shi Kefa and other Donglin Party members habitually believe that civilian ministers are superior to military attaches, so they are always consciously or unconsciously vying for power and profit, and this kind of behavior certainly cannot win the support of the four towns in Jiangbei.
Since it was impossible to gain the support of the four towns in Jiangbei, how could it not be rejected by the Hongguang Emperor and Ma Shiying and others?
We can look at the suffering of Liu Zongzhou and others, who were immediately purged from the central government of the Southern Ming Dynasty after they showed their dissatisfaction with the four towns in Jiangbei.
Although Shi Kefa was also dissatisfied with the four towns in Jiangbei, on the whole, he was still willing to reach cooperation with the four towns in Jiangbei. But even so, Shi Kefa was finally kicked to the north to oversee the battle.
The people who called the wind and rain in the central government of the Southern Ming Dynasty were obedient people like Ma Shiying.
Many people talk about the Chongzhen Emperor, always saying that he is not willing to move south, resulting in a short life in Nanming.
According to the seventeen-year reign of the Chongzhen Emperor, when he was still a veritable emperor, he was already helpless against the bureaucracy. Frequent tax hikes for the sake of war eventually led to no soldiers available.
Judging from the chongzhen emperor's performance in the past seventeen years, even if he chose to move south, it would be just another puppet emperor. At least when I compare the Chongzhen Emperor and the Hongguang Emperor horizontally, I really don't find that the Chongzhen Emperor is more intelligent than the Hongguang Emperor.
What kind of country is Nanming? It was a country supported by many warlords, and this kind of country was destined to be a loose organization composed of multiple powerful factions, and it was destined to become a fragmented country.
The root cause of the demise of the Ming Dynasty was the bankruptcy of the government, and the direct cause was the loss of the army, these two problems could not be solved, and in the southern Ming Dynasty, it could only be used as a puppet, and no one was an exception.