In the forty-fourth year of the Ming Dynasty (1616), Hong Chengzu was promoted to the post of Governor of Shaanxi Province, and was promoted to the governor of Shaanxi Province. During the Chongzhen period, he was transferred to the governor of Jiliao, and in February of the seventh year of Chongde (1642), Songshan's deputy general Xia Chengde kaicheng surrendered, the city fell, and the commander Hong Chengyu was captured.
After being captured, Hong Chengyu went on hunger strike for several days and refused to surrender. The Emperor Taiji sent all those who could be used to persuade them to surrender, but they were scolded and returned. Emperor Taiji was reluctant to kill him, so he sent him to the Shengjing Sanguan Temple to raise him well. From time to time, Manchu ministers who could speak well were sent to lobby, but Hong Chengzu never let up.
However, later Hong Chengyu still descended to the Qing, and as for why it fell, there were two versions of the legend in history:
The first is "Three Officials Temple Zhuang Concubine Says Descending".
After Hong Chengyu was captured, he was placed under house arrest in the Shengjing Sanguan Temple, where he received preferential treatment, but he never changed his mind. This made Huang Taiji quite annoyed, and when he rested in the harem, he always sighed long and short, and there was nothing he could do. Therefore, the clever and astute Concubine Bumubutai of Xigongzhuang (later the famous Empress Xiaozhuang) volunteered to go to the Temple of the Three Officials alone to say that the flood was descended. Princess Zhuang Bumubutai spent a night of lips and tongues, and between laughter and laughter, she changed Hong Chengzu's thoughts of refusing to surrender and ask for death for more than seventy days, and the next day, she finally surrendered to the Great Qing Kingdom.
This legend originated very early, and in the early Qing Dynasty, there were more or less records in several barnyard official histories, which were widely circulated.
However, Princess Chuang Bumubutai was a Mongolian Horqin tribe who came to Manchuria to learn Manchurian dialect and did not speak Chinese at all; Hong Chengzu certainly never spoke Manchu and Mongolian language. Since the two cannot communicate in words, how can they say that the flood is falling? Moreover, at that time, Emperor Taiji had been on the throne of the Qing Dynasty for four years, his soldiers were strong and strong, there were many courtiers, and he was just around the corner to compete with Daming for the world, so how could he use his love concubine to lure the imprisoned enemy.
The second is "Fan Wencheng persuasion"
There is a passage mentioned in the biography of Hong Chengzu in volume 237 of the Draft History of the Qing Dynasty:
Shang (Emperor Taiji) wanted to accept the domain for use, and ordered Fan Wencheng to surrender. Chengzu Fangke insulted. Wencheng Xu and language, pan and ancient and modern affairs. The dust between the beams fell occasionally, and the domain was worn, and the domain was whisked away. Wen Cheng returned home and told him: "If you promise the domain, you will not die, but you will regret your clothes, but your body!" ”
Emperor Taiji ordered the most favored official, Shangshu Fan Wencheng, to persuade him to surrender, to see if he had the determination to die unyieldingly. Fan Wenchengzhi and Hong Chengzuo roared wildly, while Fan Wencheng was patient in every way, did not mention the matter of surrender, talked with him about the past and the present, and at the same time quietly observed the color. Between conversations, a piece of dust fell on the beam and fell on Hong Chengyu's clothes. Hong Chengzuo spoke while "repeatedly wiping it off." Fan Wencheng did not move, resigned, and played back the Emperor Taiji: "Chengzu is not dead." Chengzu still cherishes our robes, but how is his body? Emperor Taiji accepted the opinions of Fan Wencheng and others, and paid close attention to Hong Chengyu and was gracious. The next day (May 4), Emperor Taiji personally visited the Taimiao Temple, and Hong Chengzu stood without kneeling. Emperor Taiji asked for warmth, and seeing that Hong Chengzuo's clothes were thin, he immediately took off his mink fur and draped it on Hong Chengzuo's body. On the fifth day of the first month of May, Hong Chengzu, together with his ancestor Dashou and other generals, formally held a surrender ceremony and bowed down to the emperor Taiji.
Hong Chengzuo, who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, once suggested to Dorgon when the Qing army entered the customs in 1644: "Our army is so strong that the rogues can be eliminated in one battle, and now it is advisable for the advance officer to announce the king's order, showing that this is a special time to destroy thieves, not to slaughter the people, not to burn the house, and not to forgive the property." The provinces and counties were still announced, the doors were opened and surrendered, the officials were promoted, and the military and the people did not commit any crimes. If they resisted, the day they went down, the officials were reprimanded, and the people were still safe. Those who initiate internal responses will be rewarded out of the ordinary. This imperative also. Following his advice, Dorgon defeated Li Zicheng's peasant army at Shanhaiguan and issued a notice to the Ming officials and people, and as a result, the prefectures and counties where the army passed and the generals along the border were all opened and attached, receiving great political results and pacifying Jiangnan at a less cost.