The eighth year of Chongzhen (1635): In the first month, the peasant army conquered Fengyang and dug the emperor's tomb. The Ming court mobilized more than 70,000 elite soldiers from various provinces to carry out a meeting and suppression in the Central Plains. In August, with Lu Xiangsheng as prime minister, he and Hong Chengchou were responsible for the war to eradicate the peasant army in the southeast and northwest. In October, he issued an edict against himself.
Note: Under the encirclement and suppression of the official army, the peasant army is also looking for a way, and all the anti-kings gathered in Xingyang, held the famous Xingyang Conference, and at the meeting determined the policy of dividing troops into multiple routes...
This policy was put forward by Li Zicheng, who was not in a very high position at that time, and was unanimously approved by everyone. Li Zicheng was not considered to be an anti-king at that time, but only a part of Gao Yingxiang's command. His status in the rebel army is much worse than that of Luo Rucai, Zhang Xianzhong, Ma Shouying and other people...
Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng is all the way, and the direction of the march is Fengyang, Anhui. . .
Fengyang is the ancestral tomb of Emperor Zhu's family, although there is an army to defend the city and defend the tomb, but the combat effectiveness is not good, it was defeated by the peasant army, Fengyang City was occupied by the peasant army, and the ancestral tomb of the old Zhu family was also burned by a fire. . .
Chongzhen heard the news and mourned, suspended the feast, wore plain clothes to the temple to worship the spirit of the ancestors, issued an edict for his own crimes, ordered another hundred officials to repair the province, and executed Yang Yipeng, the governor of Fengyang, and others. . .
The ninth year of Chongzhen (1636): In July, Gao Yingxiang was defeated and was captured and died. In the autumn, Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai entered Sichuan and conquered a large number of prefectures and counties.
Note: In the face of the growing rebel army and the situation of wandering around, in August of the ninth year of Chongzhen, the Ming court set up a new post of prime minister of the five provinces, which was concurrently served by Lu Xiangsheng, who had been promoted to the governor of Huguang, and cooperated with Hong Chengchou, the governor of the five provinces, Hong Chengchou was responsible for the northwest direction, Lu Xiangsheng was responsible for the southeast direction, and then Sun Chuanting was used as the governor of Shaanxi.
10th year of Chongzhen (1637): Lee's Joseon surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. Wen Tiren Zhishi .
Note: According to the grand strategy discussed by Huang Taiji and the Manchu kings, the Ming Dynasty was their main enemy, and in order to deal with this huge enemy, the surrounding forces must be encircled to prevent them from becoming the help of the Ming Dynasty...
In the past ten years, Huang Taiji has been acting around this grand strategy, subduing the Mongolian tribes, and sending a large army to attack North Korea, the goal is not to destroy Korea, but to force it to surrender...
In the past ten years, Chongzhen has been like a firefighter, busy fighting fires, and nothing else has been done... The entire Ming Empire, either in the east or in the west, really made Chongzhen's head very big...
In the eleventh year of Chongzhen (1638): Zhang Xianzhong's troops accepted the surrender of the Ming army, and Li Zicheng's troops were surrounded and suppressed by the Ming army, with heavy losses, and only eighteen people remained. The power of the peasant army was low for a while. In the same year, the Qing army invaded the border. In November, the Qing army attacked Gaoyang, and Sun Chengzong and his son Sun Chengcheng committed suicide and died in battle. In December, Lu Xiangsheng died in the battle of Julu.
Note: In June of the 11th year of Chongzhen, Yang Sichang was worshiped as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites and a scholar of Dongge University, and he was still in charge of the military affairs, and Yang Sichang became Chongzhen's last hope to solve internal and external troubles and rejuvenate the Ming Dynasty. . .
The strategy proposed by Yang Sichang to deal with the rebel army was to "spread the net on all sides." The four squares refer to the four regions of Shaanxi, Henan, Huguang, and Jiangbei, which are the main forces for suppressing the thieves, and the governors of these four regions are the main responsible persons for encircling and suppressing the peasant army. Liuyu refers to the six places of Yansui, Shanxi, Shandong, Jiangnan, Jiangxi, and Sichuan, and these six provinces are defending themselves while assisting Sizheng in carrying out encirclement and suppression. The four positive plus the six corners are a total of ten forces, so it is called a ten-sided net.
As the main person in charge of the thieves, these 10 governors are led by the governors of the five provinces and the prime ministers of the five provinces, the governor of the five provinces is still Hong Chengchou, and the previous prime minister of the five provinces, Lu Xiangsheng, was transferred to the north after the change of Bingzi and served as the governor of Xuanda.
In the eleventh year of Chongzhen, this strategy achieved certain results, the peasant army in the northwest direction was wiped out under the joint suppression of Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting, Li Zicheng's troops were ambushed in Tongguan Nanyuan in October of the same year, almost the whole army was annihilated, Li Zicheng only took 18 cavalry and fled into Shangluo Mountain; Zhang Xianzhong, the most powerful of the peasant army in the southeast, accepted Xiong Wencan's recruitment in April and was placed in the Gucheng area; In November, another large peasant army in the southeast, Luo Rucai's division, also surrendered to the official army in Junzhou, and other smaller peasant army units surrendered or fled, and the whole peasant uprising fell into a trough...
There is no suspense, Huang Taiji is here again... Whenever the peasant army was in trouble, it was always Huang Taiji who pulled them out...
This raid was the largest in the past, with the largest number of troops, the widest area of scourge, the longest duration, and the greatest losses.
Lu Xiangsheng, the daring general of the Ming army, was killed, and the old Sun Chengzong of Zhishi Pavilion was martyred in his hometown in Gaoyang. . .
Lu Xiangsheng because Chongzhen did not trust, Yang Sichang made a stumbling block, Gao Qi did not send food, grief and indignation, and led his troops to fight a decisive battle with the Qing army. . .
Sun Chengzong was because when he was supervising the division in Liaodong, he caused huge pressure on Houjin, and the Manchu Qing wanted to retaliate against him, so he specially sent troops to attack the small city of Gaoyang, Sun Chengzong could have left in advance, but he chose to stay and organize the people to defend the city, and his family members did not leave, all stayed. In the end, after the city was broken, they were all martyred...
The fourteenth year of Chongzhen (1641): In the first month, Li Zicheng reinvigorated, conquered Luoyang, and killed Zhu Changxun, the king of fortune.
Note: The Qing army's entry into the fortress had a very significant impact on the strategic pattern of the Ming Dynasty, the three most powerful thieves and capable ministers, Lu Xiangsheng died in battle, Sun Chuanting was imprisoned, Hong Chengchou was transferred to the governor of Jiliao, and at the same time, the elite of the Shaanxi border army who originally undertook the main task in suppressing thieves was also taken to the front line of Songshan and Jinzhou by Hong Chengchou. It was the equivalent of the raging fire of the uprising, which was almost extinguished by the efforts of the firefighters, but the firefighters retreated, and the remaining small flames quickly rekindled and burned even more vigorously...
First of all, Zhang Xianzhong's troops raised the anti-flag again in May, and then Luo Rucai also immediately raised troops to rebel, Li Zicheng, who was dormant in Shangluo Mountain, was ecstatic, and immediately killed Shangluo Mountain, all the way to Huguang, Sichuan, and finally entered Henan through Shaanxi. . .
Henan was already starving everywhere at that time, and as soon as Li Zicheng arrived, the hungry people gathered, and soon it grew to hundreds of thousands of people...
In the first month of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, he captured Luoyang, the largest city in western Henan, and killed Zhu Changxun, the king of Fu;
In February, Zhang Xianzhong attacked Xiangyang and killed Zhu Yiming, the king of Xiang;
When Yang Sichang heard the news of the fall of Luoyang and Xiangyang and the killing of the two kings, he died of fear in March, and some say that he died by suicide.
Chongzhen's perception of Yang Sichang is quite complicated, at the beginning he was very appreciative, unconditional trust, and then began to have reservations, and then began to become more and more dissatisfied, this dissatisfaction is still because the results of the thief are far from meeting expectations...
In fact, it's not all Yang Sichang's fault, Yang's strategy has been proven to be effective before, but to complete this strategy, it takes cost and time, both of which are unacceptable to Chongzhen, he hopes to spend less money and solve it quickly...
Yang Sichang's biggest expectation is to complete the important task of suppressing thieves and go back to serve as the first assistant, Chongzhen also used this to hang Yang Sichang's appetite and let him go to the front line to supervise his life...
When Yang Sichang died, Chongzhen felt very sorry, and he did not hold Yang Sichang responsible, but killed Zheng Chongjian, the former governor of Shaanxi who was considered to be ineffective in cooperating with Yang Sichang...
The fifteenth year of Chongzhen (1642): New Year, bow to the cabinet ministers, and then try to revitalize. In February, Li Zicheng's troops defeated the Ming army at Xiangcheng and killed Wang Qiaonian, the governor of Shaanxi. In March and April, Songshan and other cities were broken one after another, and Hong Chengchou was captured and surrendered. In May, Li Zicheng was Kaifeng. In July, the imperial concubine Tian died of illness.
Note: After killing Zheng Chongjian, Ding Qirui was appointed as the governor and supervisor of the Shaanxi Trilateral Governor, responsible for encircling and suppressing Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. Ding Qirui and Sun Chuanting are Jinshi of the same department, a native of Henan, and his ability is much worse than that of Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting...
On the one hand, the famine in Henan became more serious, and a large number of hungry people joined the camp, which made Li Zicheng's team bigger and bigger, and Niu Jinxing and other high-level intellectuals also began to defect to King Chuangwang one after another; On the other hand, the Ming court's capable ministers and strong armies are becoming fewer and fewer, and morale is also declining day by day...
In Henan, the official army changed from chasing the peasant army to hiding from the peasant army, and began to avoid the war and fear the war. . .
In February of the 14th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng attacked Kaifeng, the provincial capital of Henan, Ding Qirui used the excuse of fighting Zhang Xianzhong and did not save Kaifeng, Chongzhen then enabled Fu Zonglong, who was still in prison, as the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi, and led 20,000 soldiers from Sichuan and Shaanxi to aid Kaifeng, Li Zicheng gave up attacking Kaifeng, and instead attacked Fu Zonglong, and captured Fu Zonglong in Xiangcheng in September.
In December, Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai attacked Kaifeng again, the former governor of Shaanxi Wang Qiaonian was ordered to be in danger, was promoted to the governor of Shaanxi trilateral, rushed to Kaifeng, Chongzhen fifteen years in February, Li Zicheng captured and killed Wang Qiaonian in Xiangcheng.
Two successive governors were clicked by Li Zicheng, and Ming court officials began to see this position as a daunting path...
In the end, there was no way, Chongzhen had to appoint Sun Chuanting, who was imprisoned again, as the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi.
In the summer of that year, Li Zicheng besieged Kaifeng for the third time, and annihilated the governor Ding Qirui and Baoding governor Yang Wenyue in the battle of Zhuxian Town. In November, Li Zicheng captured Runing, killed Yang Wenyue, and took control of most of Henan, and then moved to Huguang.
Zhang Xianzhong's troops were also active in the Nanzhili region again, capturing Luzhou in May, breaking Huang Degong in July, Liu Liangzuo's troops in Lu'an, and then also transferred to Huguang.
The internal war can be said to be a complete defeat, and the war situation against the Manchus is also a mess...
In the expectation and urging of the emperor and the court, Hong Chengchou led the last elite of the Ming Dynasty, a total of eight general soldiers and 130,000 troops, to march to the front line of Songshan, and launched a decisive battle with Huang Taiji. . .
Hong Chengchou hesitated for more than a year, he really didn't want to fight this battle, but Chongzhen chased tightly, and Hong Chengchou was that kind of very mellow character, so he pressed all the last hole cards on the table...
If it was Sun Chuanting or Lu Xiangsheng who led the troops, for this kind of battle with no chance of winning, he would definitely not fight hard, but Hong Chengchou would not go to the hard top...
There is no suspense in the final ending, except for Wang Pu, Wu Sangui, Li Fuming and other six general soldiers who led the army to break through and were annihilated by most of the Qing army, others such as Hong Chengchou, Cao Bianjiao, Wang Tingchen and Liaodong Governor Qiu Minyang were all besieged in Songshan City.
In February of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen (1642), under the internal response of Xia Chengde, the deputy general of Songshan, the Qing army captured Songshan, Qiu Minyang, Cao Bianjiao, and Wang Tingchen were martyred, and Hong Chengchou was captured and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. In March, Zu Dashou, who held on to Jinzhou, surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and then the two cities of Xingshan and Tashan were also captured by the Qing army.
This last strategic-level battle between the Ming and Qing dynasties ended in the complete defeat of the Ming army...
After the Battle of Songjin, Chongzhen finally no longer had illusions about comprehensively solving the dilemma of the internal and external fronts, and he agreed with the suggestion of Chen Xinjia, the secretary of the military department, and considered negotiating peace with the Qing Dynasty. Unexpectedly, Chen Xinjia was not secret, and the news leaked, causing a commotion in the court... After all, peace talks with such a barbarian feud as the Manchu Qing Dynasty also involved land reparations, which was completely unacceptable in the context of Confucian scholars... According to the critics, those who advocate such peace talks are big traitors and should be condemned by the whole people and the whole country...
I'll go, wouldn't it be that Emperor Chongzhen is going to wear the hat of a big traitor...
Chen Xinjia refuses to completely take the blame for Chongzhen, and the employee who can't take the blame for the boss is by no means a good employee... Chongzhen then killed Chen Xinjia to vent his anger...
With Chongzhen's character, even if Chen Xinjia completely carries this pot, it's hard to say whether he can survive or not, but even if he doesn't die by luck, since you, a good employee, are good at carrying the pot, then there will inevitably be an endless pot... Sooner or later, it's a dead end...
The sixteenth year of Chongzhen (1643): Sun Chuanting died in Tongguan, Shaanxi.
Note: In the Guannei battlefield, the only troops that the Ming Dynasty could rely on at this time were Sun Chuanting in Shaanxi and Liangyu in Huguang Zuo. . .
Although Zuo Liangyu has a large number of people, only about one-tenth of them can fight, and the others are full, this structure is similar to that of thieves, but Li Zicheng's camp has gone through these rounds of evolution, and it is no longer what it used to be, so Zuo Liangyu could still break hands with Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng before, everyone is each other, and now they can't beat each other at all... And Zuo Liangyu is unruly, and the military discipline of his subordinates is extremely poor, counting on such a warlord army to save the Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen also understands that it is nonsense...
Sun Chuanting's soldiers are newly trained by him, although the Qin soldiers are good soldiers, but the training time is too short, but at this time Sun has become the last straw of the Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen pinned all his hopes on Sun Ministry, fantasizing that Sun Chuanting could go out of Tongguan to eliminate Li Zicheng...
In May, Zhang Xianzhong captured Wuchang, and Zhu Huakui, the king of Shenchu, was in the Yangtze River and established the Daxi regime;
In June, Li Zicheng also established power in Xiangyang, proclaimed himself the king of Xinshun, and put forward the slogan of "three years of exemption from taxation, no one is killed";
In September, Sun Chuanting left Tongguan and marched into Henan, with acceptable results at first, but was defeated in several small-scale battles;
In the same month, news of Huang Taiji's death reached Jingshi;
In October, Sun Chuanting was first defeated in Ruzhou, and then died in Tongguan;
In October, Li Zichang drove straight into Xi'an and took control of all of Shaanxi.
After Chongzhen, he successively sent Yu Yinggui and Li Huaxi to replace Sun Chuanting, but these two had neither Sun Chuanting's talent nor Sun's determination, so they couldn't suppress the gentry, couldn't get military salaries, and naturally couldn't recruit soldiers, so they couldn't do anything...
In the court, a group of high-ranking officials are still talking freely, saying that "when a thief enters the customs, he will love his children and silk, and he will fall into a trap" and "he wants to make his home accordingly", and he was ignorant of the imminent crisis. . .
March 19, 17th year of Chongzhen (April 25, 1644): Li Zicheng captured Beijing. Emperor Chongzhen ordered all the concubines in the harem to commit suicide, and Empress Yi'an Zhang and Empress Xiaojie Zhou committed suicide. Later, Emperor Chongzhen personally hacked and killed his two daughters, and Princess Zhaoren was killed. The eldest daughter, Princess Changping, survived by cutting off her arm to block a sword with her hand, and died two years later. He also ordered his personal eunuch to flee with the three princes. Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself in the coal mountain, and the eunuch Wang Chengen, the scholar Fan Jingwen, the imperial historian Li Banghua, and the household secretary Ni Yuanlu died, and the Ming Dynasty perished. In April, the Qing army entered Shanhaiguan.
Note: On the first day of the first month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), Chongzhen went to the Huangji Palace to receive congratulations from the ministers as usual, and found that only Luo Yangxing, the commander of the Jinyi Guard, was present. After a long time, hundreds of civil and military officials came one after another, and they were in a mess, and they no longer talked about court etiquette. . .
On the same day, Li Zicheng founded the country in Xi'an, with the country name Dashun and the year name Yongchang.
At this time, the situation is already precarious, and the Ming Dynasty is really in danger of losing the country, and even the most dull officials have realized this...
So there was a discussion of moving the capital to Nanjing, in fact, this kind of proposal has been put forward a long time ago, but just like peace talks with the Manchus, this is a politically incorrect option, and those who dare to put it forward will inevitably be sprayed all over their heads...
At this time, even if you are sprayed, you have to talk about it, but when Chongzhen is full of expectations, all the important ministers are very tacitly silent, just waiting for the emperor to say it himself...
This kind of thing, whoever says it is the man who carries the pot, it is better for the emperor to carry this pot yourself...
Of course, there is another reason why the important ministers are reluctant to move the capital, the Ming Dynasty has a set of alternative government mechanisms in Nanjing, that is, as long as the emperor arrives in Nanjing, the state apparatus can be turned normally without a day of delay...
The question is, what about these officials in Beijing now? Could it be like the officials in Nanjing before to be an idle official who didn't do anything?
The group of alternative officials in Nanjing have been idle for more than 200 years, and the old rice is about to chew out the calluses on the cheeks...
When you think about that kind of scene, you can't bear it...
But the king of Chuang came in, and we couldn't get any good results...
Who said that King Chuang doesn't need scholars to help him govern the world? He doesn't have a lot of talented people under his banner, but it's a good opportunity for my generation...
That's pretty much the mentality of the officials in Beijing...
Where would they know that Liu Zongmin would be tortured on a large scale when he entered the city, and where would they know that Dolgon would keep his hair and not his head when he came over...
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, these civil officials lived a good life for too long, thinking that everything in the world was transferred by their will...
Every day he talks about righteousness, in fact, Bala comes and goes, or he is playing his own little calculations, the greed and stupidity of interest groups have always been like this, and they have evolved for thousands of years, and they are still this kind of virtue, and there is no progress at all...
Some people will inevitably ask, didn't some ministers suggest that the prince be sent to Nanjing first? Why didn't Chongzhen express his position?
Yes, this practice seems to be buying a double insurance, which has a hundred benefits and no harm... But it depends on who it is, for the Ming Dynasty, it is indeed beneficial and harmless, and it is a little harmful to officials, especially officials in Beijing, and it is very harmful to Chongzhen himself...
There is no doubt that when he heard this suggestion, Chongzhen's mind immediately remembered Tang Xuanzong and Tang Suzong, or Li Yuan and Li Shimin...
Therefore, Chongzhen did not express his position, not because he was stupid, but because he was very shrewd and calculated very clearly...
On the 9th day of the first lunar month, the military department received a war letter from Li Zicheng, agreeing that a decisive battle would be fought in Beijing on the 10th of March. Chongzhen summoned the ministers, burst into tears, and said: "I am not the king of the dead country, everything is the image of the dead country." The ancestors were in the wind and rain in the world, once lost, what face can be seen underground? I wish to oversee the master, in order to fight a battle, that is, I will die on the battlefield, and I will not care, but I will not be blind to death. ”
Of course, Chongzhen is just talking, and later he still chose the cabinet minister Li Jiantai to supervise the teacher, the fifteenth day of the first month to tell the temple ceremony, the first month on the 26th day of the Zhengyang Gate held a ceremony, Chongzhen personally for Li Jiantai to perform.
Before Li Jiantai arrived in Shanxi, Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province, fell on the eighth day of the first month of February. The ministers do their best for personal gain, and they are less loyal to the party than the party", and asked the Ming Dynasty monarchs and ministers to surrender immediately, which can ensure glory and wealth.
On February 21, Li Zicheng encountered the stubborn resistance of Zhou Yuji at Ningwu Pass, and it took a lot of effort to defeat it.
On February 28, Chongzhen made it clear that he refused to move south, declaring: "The monarch is dead, and righteousness is righteous." I'm determined! ”
On the fourth day of the first month of March, Chongzhen began to seal the generals who had soldiers in their hands, and the earl was a very scarce honor after the middle of the Ming Dynasty.
Liaodong General Wu Sangui was named Pingxibo, Pingthief General Zuo Liangyu was named Ningnanbo, Jizhen General Tang Tongfeng was named Dingxibo, Fenglu General Huang Degong was named Jingnanbo, and the rest of the general soldiers were also promoted. . .
At the same time, Chongzhen finally decided to abandon Ningyuan, and summoned Wu Sangui, the general soldier of Liaodong, Wang Yongji, the governor of Jiliao, as well as Tang Tong and Liu Zeqing, to lead troops into Weiqin Wang, but Liu Zeqing refused to obey the edict and fled south after plundering Linqing; Wu Sangui did not dare to refuse explicitly, procrastination and marching, only one-tenth of the normal marching speed; Only a few thousand of Tang Tong's soldiers and horses arrived in time and were sent to defend Juyong Pass.
On March 15, the Dashun army broke through the Juyong Pass, and Tangtong surrendered.
On March 16, the vanguard of the Dashun army arrived at the outskirts of Beijing, broke through Changping, and burned the emperor's mausoleum.
On March 17, Chongzhen asked the ministers about the strategy of defending the city, the monarchs and ministers wept and were helpless, Zhu Youzhen waved his tears and wrote a line of words on the table with his fingers, so that the heart of the eunuch Wang of Dongchang would be erased after reading it. It is said that it is written that "all civil and military officials can be killed, but the people cannot be killed". It can be seen how deep Chongzhen's resentment against civil officials is in Chongzhen's heart...
On the same day, Li Zicheng's Dashun army began to attack the city, and most of the soldiers of the three major battalions defending the city were old, weak, sick and disabled, with no combat effectiveness, and they were about to collapse at the first touch. Chongzhen's emotions were out of control, he "looked up to the sky trombone, walked around the hall, stretched his chest, sighed all night", and shouted: "The civil and military ministers inside and outside misunderstood me!" Mistake me! ”
On the morning of March 18, Chongzhen summoned the ministers for the last time and suggested that everyone should commit suicide together in the Fengxian Palace.
On the same day, Li Zicheng sent Du Xun, a eunuch who had surrendered, to Beijing to negotiate with the Ming monarchs, and the conditions offered were "to cut the land and make peace", so that Li Zicheng would cut off the alleged king in the northwest and pay one million taels of silver, and Li Zicheng could assist Chongzhen to pacify other rebel armies and the Qing army in Liaodong, but not the Hajj; The other is to Chongzhen's "abdication". In short, Chongzhen didn't agree...
Why did Li Zicheng propose peace talks with Chongzhen when the army was approaching the city, which is a bit puzzling...
But if you think about it carefully, it seems that this is also in line with Li Zicheng's style of acting...
Li Ziben himself, in the final analysis, is still a mountain king, gathered a group of brothers, couldn't eat and rebelled, at first just to survive, and then the team got bigger and bigger, and his expectations were gradually rising...
But no matter how much it is raised, it is nothing more than that, recognized by the imperial court, and the king is torn apart...
He himself, including most of the soldiers of the Dashun Army, never thought that Li Zicheng would overthrow the Ming Dynasty and be the only emperor himself...
Until it is so easy to break into Beijing, the ease is far beyond the estimation of the Dashun army, and their thoughts and expectations will definitely change greatly...
At this time, there must be someone who strongly suggested that King Chuang enter Beijing and complete the change of dynasty, and there must be someone who strongly recommended to negotiate with the Ming Dynasty, and still regard the Ming Dynasty as the right one. . .
This may have been Chongzhen's last chance, but he refused...
At the end of the day, a group of Hui people opened the Guangning Gate, and the outer city fell. A large number of articles in later generations said that it was the great eunuch Cao Huachun who opened this door, this is a rumor, Cao Huachun was no longer in Beijing a few years ago, and put this pot on his head, it is estimated that he once provoked a certain literati...
After Chongzhen learned the news of the fall of the outer city, he arranged for the eunuchs Wang Zhixin, Li Zongzhou, and Wang Zhijun to take the three princes of the prince, Dingwang, and Yongwang out of the palace, and first sent them to Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Chengguo, but was rejected, and then went to Zhou Kui, the father of Queen Zhou, and couldn't open the door. . . After the invading army entered the city, the three panicked princes were betrayed by the eunuchs Li Zongzhou and Wang Zhijun and became prisoners of the invading army. . .
After sending off the three princes, Chongzhen and Queen Zhou and other concubines held a final banquet, you can imagine how bad the atmosphere of this last dinner was... After the banquet, Chongzhen asked the concubines to commit suicide, and Queen Zhou returned to Kunning Palace to hang herself, and Yuan Guifei was cut by Chongzhen. Subsequently, Chongzhen roared angrily, "Why was he born in my family", and successively slashed at his two daughters, Princess Changping and Princess Zhaoren, the former was cut off and fainted, the latter died on the spot, Chongzhen sent people to the palaces to urge the Empress Dowager Yi'an of the Apocalypse and the concubine Xi Li of Wanli to commit suicide...
After cooking these, Chongzhen summoned the eunuch Wang Chengen inside and outside the capital to discuss the matter, it is said that Chongzhen had changed into a big hat and eunuch clothes, holding a three-eyed gun, and took dozens of eunuchs to Chaoyangmen, Chongwenmen, and Zhengyangmen to try to break through, but they were unsuccessful. . .
Chongzhen can only return to the palace, at this time it is the fifth watch on March 19, he personally struck the bell to convene hundreds of civil and military officials, but no one has entered the court...
In the end, Chongzhen and Wang Chengen climbed the coal mountain and hanged themselves on a crooked-necked tree, and Wang Chengen also hanged himself relatively by himself. On the morning of Zhu Youzhen's hanging, the whole city of Beijing surrendered, and Li Zicheng entered the imperial city.
After Li Zicheng entered the city, he offered a reward of 10,000 taels of gold to search for Chongzhen's whereabouts, and it was not until noon on March 20 that Chongzhen's body was found. He was wearing a blue robe, his hair was scattered, covering his face, his right foot was wearing socks and a red square ska, his left foot was barefoot, and there was a bloody edict on his chest, which expressed his self-blame for the lack of success in the past 17 years, emphasizing that "the ministers were mistakenly destroyed", and finally said, "Let the thief divide the corpse, and do not hurt the people."
Chongzhen's body was transported outside the Donghua Gate and placed together with the body of Empress Zhou, "30 ministers cried and worshipped, 60 worshippers did not cry, and the rest were ignored." After Li Zicheng, at the request of the eunuch Wang Dehua and others, he used a better coffin to re-bury the remains of Chongzhen and his wife, and buried them in the tomb of Tian Guifei on the third day of the first month of April.
During this period, a considerable number of Ming Dynasty courtiers committed suicide and martyrdom, such as Liu Wenbing, Marquis of Xinle and his younger brother Liu Wenyao, Marquis Yang Chongshan of Zhangwu, Zhang Qingzhen, Marquis of Hui'an, Zhou Jing, guard of the East Palace, Gong Yonggu, Commander of the Horse, seven relatives of Xuancheng Bowei Shichun, and more than 20 Wenchen such as Fan Jingwen, Ni Yuanlu, and Li Banghua.
But there were also more relatives and civil and military officials who surrendered to Li Zicheng, Chen Yan and Zhu Chunchen also took the lead in persuading Li Zicheng, but these demoted officials did not get anything good, and it didn't take long for them to be chased and tortured by Liu Zongmin, and many people died tragically in the process...
In May, the Qing army entered the customs and occupied Beijing. Qing regent Dolgon announced a three-day mourning for Emperor Chongzhen, and entrusted Li Mingrui to Chongzhen to draw up the temple number and nickname, Li Mingrui proposed the temple number as "Huaizong", the nickname "Qin Tianshou Dao Min Yi Dun Jian Hongwen Xiang Wu Ti Ren Zhi Xiao Zhuang Lieduan Emperor", the mausoleum name "Siling".