Chapter 60 2. Sunset of the Ming Empire

In the forty-seventh year of Wanli, that is, the year Li Zicheng was thirteen years old, the Ming Dynasty fought a decisive battle with the Jianzhou Jurchen who rose from the white mountains and black waters in Sarhu.The Ming army was defeated, and the fierce generals and soldiers outside the pass were all lost. In a few years, the situation in Liaodong was out of control.Since then, "Liao Incident" has become a chronic disease of the Ming Dynasty. So a few years later, Gu Yanwu sang: "Our country is intact, and the chaos is born from the barbarians. Conscripts are used to build the state, and wages are increased to build the state. The chieftains turned against the worries of Western Shu, and the demons sang the sorrows of Shandong, and even half of China Rogue, whose target is the barbarian chieftain..." It is precisely the role of the rise of the Jianzhou Jurchen in promoting the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

Due to successive defeats in the war with Jianzhou Jurchen, the finances of the Ming Dynasty almost collapsed, so they had to kill chickens and take eggs, and adopted the method of "additional distribution" to raise food and salaries.The decadent bureaucratic system took the opportunity to enrich private pockets and plundered endlessly, which further led to the destitution of the people.In northern Shaanxi, the geographical conditions are poor, the industrial and commercial economy is not developed, and the land is relatively open, so the burden of additional assignments is quite heavy.The house leak happened to rain all night, and in the early years of Chongzhen, northern Shaanxi encountered a severe drought.

Let's take a look at the dire situation at that time.Ma Maocai, an official from Shaanxi, wrote a letter to the emperor saying: "The township of Yan'an has not rained since last year, and the vegetation has withered. In August and September, the people competed to pick grass from the mountains and eat it. Its grains are like chaff, and its taste is bitter. But astringent. Eating it can only prolong life. After ten months, when the fluff is exhausted, the bark is peeled and eaten. Among all trees, elm bark is not good, and the bark of other trees is mixed for food, and its death can be delayed a little bit. At the end of the year and the bark is exhausted, they dig up stones from the mountains and eat them. The stones are cold and smelly, and if you eat less, you will be full. After a few days, you will have abdominal distension and fall to death. People who are unwilling to eat stones and die, they begin to gather together Robbers, and one or two people who have a little savings are robbed, and nothing is left behind... The most pitiful person is like the city of Jicheng in the west of Ansai City, where one or two babies will be abandoned every day. There are people who cry , Some call their parents, some eat their dung. By the next morning, the abandoned son has no life, and there are some abandoned children. What's more, the children and the lone traveler, no trace once they leave the city Later, when I saw the people outside the door cooking human bones for salary and boiling human flesh for food, I realized that all the people in front of me were eaten by them. And the cannibals will inevitably have red eyes and swollen eyes after a few days, and die from internal heat. As a result, the deceased was covered with pillows, and the stench was suffocating. Several pits were dug outside the county seat, each pit could accommodate hundreds of people, to cover his remains. When the minister came, there were more than three pits full, and those who could not cover them a few miles away did not know It's just a little bit.... There are officials who are bound by the strictness of the law, and have to be strict in urging the department. The only remaining leftovers are only one escaped ear. This place escapes there, and there escapes here. Turn around and escape Then the phase turns into a thief, and the reason why this thief is all over the Qin Dynasty is also." This is a very important historical document, which explains in detail the reason why the "traitors" in northern Shaanxi have sprung up.

Wu Weiye, a great poet between the Ming and Qing Dynasties, also recorded some tragedies of cannibalism in his "Sui Kou Jilue": "Yongning Min Su Yige eats parents", Nanyang woman Huo's "mother eats daughter" , Wen Ximin and Yang Lei "eat the son with the father", Zhang Hetu and others "killed the mother and the child and ate both"... Mencius said two thousand years ago, "There are fat meat in the kitchen, fat horses in the stables, hungry people in the people, and hungry scorpions in the wild. They lead beasts and eat people."This is indeed an era of "beasts cannibalize people".

However, this account cannot be entirely blamed on Emperor Chongzhen. "History of the Ming Dynasty" said it well: "The commentators say that the death of the Ming Dynasty is actually the death of Shenzong." Compared with his grandfather Shenzong, father Guangzong, and elder brother Xizong, Chongzhen is still a relatively hardworking person.If there is anything wrong with him, at best it can be said that he lacks political experience, is too impatient and suspicious in his work, and at best is not satisfactory in his work ability.Chongzhen worked very seriously and worked very hard as emperor. He ascended the throne at the age of seventeen and worked in this position for seventeen years. During these seventeen years, he did not have a few days of comfortable life.This is also something that can't be helped. Who told him that his grandfather was absent from work, his father was short-lived, and his brother was playful?There are so many parents in any family, and there will be a lot of troubles, let alone the emperor's family?Therefore, the child emperor of the Liu Song Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty would pitifully say to the usurpers: "May the world not be born into the emperor's family!"

Who said that the son of the emperor's family is easy to be? After Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, faced with this riddled empire, he could only mend the holes everywhere.In order to save money for this impoverished empire, he cut down on food and clothing, worked overtime every day, and thought of many ways with the ministers, one of which was called "rectifying the station".The imperial court plans to reduce the government's financial burden by reducing post stations and postmen.This has indeed achieved some results: 600,000 taels of silver can be saved every year.As a result of the cuts, many postmen were laid off—the reason why we still bring this up seriously today is because one of the laid-off postmen is a bit special, and he is called "Li Zicheng".

Li Zicheng and Li Guo's uncle and nephew went to private schools for five years when they were young. When they grew up, they liked to dance with guns and clubs, and they ran away from home because of this. Li Zicheng worked as a wine servant, as a blacksmith, as a hired hand, and as a sheep herder for wealthy local households.But they didn't do very well: being a wine servant, "intoxicated every day"; learning to forge iron, "but not successful"; plowing the fields for others, sleeping on the handle of a hoe; herding sheep, stealing the owner's sheep to eat... 21 When he was a postman, he often had accidents, killed several posthorses and lost official documents.The money he borrowed from Ai's family was not paid, he was whipped, and he was put on a shackle and exposed to the sun in the scorching sun... There are many things about his youth recorded in history books, and it seems that they are not worth showing off.In the words of Mencius, this is called "Heaven will send a great task to the people, and they must first suffer from their minds."

Li Zicheng married a beautiful daughter-in-law when he was eighteen years old, but she was married for the third time, and she was not very conservative.Once he caught the adulterer in bed, he didn't catch the adulterer, he just killed the adulterer, which was called "catching the adulterer Xu Shuang, now stop killing the wife, because it is inconsistent with the law", so he suffered an injustice lawsuit.Seeing if he could win the lawsuit, he escaped from prison angrily, and together with Li Guo killed Ai Tongzhi, a muddled and corrupt official who was trying the case, and then the two fled to Gansu to join the army.By the beginning of the third year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng was already a small leader in the Gansu Army, and his position was equivalent to the platoon leader in today's army.

In October of the second year of Chongzhen, Huang Taiji bypassed Yuan Chonghuan's Guan and Ning lines of defense, and led the Houjin soldiers into Da'ankou, threatening Beijing.Yuan Chonghuan rushed to help the capital at starry night, and the two sides fought fiercely under the city.Li Zicheng's army was also ordered to go northward, and went to Jin County to find a place for supplies. The county magistrate really had no money and food to deal with the passing troops, so he avoided seeing them.General Wang Shen, who led the troops, went to talk to the county magistrate himself, but he didn't see anyone after waiting for a long time.The impatient soldiers were yelling and building momentum in the courtyard of the yamen. General Wang Shen felt that his soldiers were a bit too much, so he arrested six people and beat them up—three of them were Li Zicheng's subordinates.

Li Zicheng was very angry when he heard that his soldiers had been spanked by the leader. He thought that General Wang Shen was indecisive and had no ability to ask for money and food, so he would only beat his own men.He took a few people, rushed into the county government office, arrested the county magistrate, and prepared to send them to General Yang Zhaoji to "reason".On the way, they met General Wang Cang, and the two sides quarreled again.Li Zicheng believed that the county magistrate was dereliction of duty from the perspective of feeding the soldiers if the troops were to bleed; while General Wang Shen believed that there were also local difficulties, and everyone should understand each other and not use violence.In fact, everyone's argument is reasonable, but the angle of argument is different.The two sides could not settle down, and Li Zicheng, who was angry, pulled out a knife and killed General Wang Shen, and then led some people to mutiny and join the team of the peasant uprising army Wang Zuogua.

During that time, the army had many conflicts with the local government because of the inability to distribute food and salaries in time, and many troops mutinied because of this.These mutinous soldiers had no choice but to join themselves as "bandits".It was their military skills that greatly improved the combat effectiveness of the peasant army and made the officers and soldiers pay a heavier price in future battles. At that time, a county magistrate complained: "I suddenly issued an official document to you, ordering to send thousands of shi of beans and wheat, and several thousand bundles of grass to a certain army; another official document ordered to buy several strong donkeys and several cloth bags. According to the article, it will be delivered to a certain army; another official document will ask how many copper pots to make, how many horses to buy, and to deliver to a certain army... But should the expenses be reimbursed to the Ministry of Defense or the Ministry of Finance? No one cares about you, anyway. Even if it is delayed, military law will follow." Tell me, does the county magistrate of Jin County, who was terrified by the passing troops, dare to come out to meet these angry soldiers?From this we can see that the demise of the Ming Dynasty was truly economic bankruptcy.