Chapter 15 Chapter 14 Why the Hongguang Dynasty died so quickly

Before I bid farewell to the Hongguang Dynasty, I will make a brief summary of it and analyze why it died only one year after its founding. Since the day when the Hongguang Dynasty was established, its monarchs and ministers have had a complex of "the song in the south of the Yangtze River is not over, and the dream of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and Southern Song Dynasty has not yet awakened". Enjoy the country for a hundred years. However, this complex, like a weak flower, was blown away by the mighty cold wind from Saibei before it could bear fruit. How could the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty be able to establish a country for a hundred years again, while the Nanming Dynasty controlled a wider territory, had a larger population, and had a larger economic scale than these two dynasties, but it died quickly.For more than four hundred years, this question has been deeply torturing the hearts of the entire Han nation with lingering sorrow.

Today, I also join in the discussion of this issue, hoping that my personal insights can shine a little light in the study of the history of Nanming. Materialist dialectics holds that external causes are the conditions for the development and change of things, and internal causes are the basis for the development and changes of things.Next, I will analyze the reasons for the rapid demise of the Hongguang Dynasty from the two aspects of external factors and internal factors! External cause: the times are different, and the opponents are different. The opponents of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, for a considerable period of time, were the sixteen northern states that were doing their own thing.In 316 A.D., the Han Kingdom established by the Xiongnu Liu Yuan destroyed the Western Jin Dynasty. However, Liu Yuan did not have the ability and interest to replace the Western Jin Dynasty and unify the north and the south. Back to the loess high slope where he was born and raised.Afterwards, the north fell into a state of chaos in the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms, and that regime was unable to send troops south.

The Eastern Jin Dynasty was established in 317 A.D. and until 383 A.D., during the 66 years when the former Qin unified the north and went south, there was no substantial threat from the north.This gave the Eastern Jin Dynasty time to calmly build a country and develop calmly. The opponent of the Southern Song Dynasty was the Kingdom of Jin, which had just transitioned from a primitive society to a slave society. After the Kingdom of Jin perished in the Northern Song Dynasty in 1127, like Liu Yuan, it captured the two emperors of Huiqin and returned to their hometown to Beijing happily with their children. Enjoy it.In the original northern region of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Kingdom of Jin successively established two puppet regimes, Chu and Qi, to govern and manage them in the first few years, and was only satisfied with extracting "protection fees".

Later, in the second year after Zhao Jian established the Southern Song Dynasty, Jin Guo, who felt very uncomfortable, launched a war under the leadership of Jin Wushu aimed at "searching the mountains and seas to capture Zhao Gou". The 100,000 victorious divisions in China were besieged for more than 40 days in a small Huangtiandang, and since then they have lost their belief in going south. The two sides fought on and off for ten years. For the Jin Dynasty, these ten years were "the lost ten years"; for the Southern Song Dynasty, it was the "harvested ten years". , but did not dare to go south to graze horses. The Southern Song Dynasty stabilized the regime in the south, but it was also unable to march north to the Central Plains.In the end, the two parties can only sign a non-aggression treaty and recognize each other's right to exist.

However, the small court of Hongguang in the Southern Ming Dynasty was not facing such an opponent. The economic development of Liaodong in the late Ming Dynasty was on par with that of the mainland. A strong small river flows into the embrace of a large lake, and it has rapidly become Sinicized economically, culturally, and politically. It is no longer a rich man who is content with only a corner of Liaodong. "As far as your heart goes, you can go as far as you want." From Hou Jin to Qing Dynasty, this is not only a change of the country name; from Beijing, Shengjing to Beijing, this is not only a change of an administrative center, all of these, Both contain the political ideal of a new nation to conquer the Central Plains and unify Huayi, and the administrative forging of Liaodong for more than 20 years has given birth to the political ability of this new nation.

Encountering such an opponent externally will force Hong Guangchao to run on two roads, either to rise rapidly on the road to revival, or to die quickly on the road to decline. There is no third road to go! After talking about external causes, we talk about internal causes. After all, among the factors that promote the development and change of things, internal factors play a decisive role.The internal reasons for the demise of the Hongguang Dynasty are as follows: 1. The main contradiction in society - land annexation, still has not been resolved. The south where the Hongguang Dynasty was located was the most serious area of ​​land annexation in the Ming Dynasty.The reason why there was no large-scale peasant uprising broke out here.One is that the natural conditions in the south are relatively better, and the living conditions of the tenant farmers who lease the land and the landlords hand over a large amount of rent and tax are still slightly better than those in the north; The third is that the flames of the peasant revolutionary war have not yet reached the south, and the revolution lacks leaders who will rise up.

But stability does not mean stability. The result of a large number of land mergers is that the gap between the rich and the poor is too large and there are too many poor people.Especially after the Ma cabinet announced the land tax increase, the life of the lower class people became more impoverished. They were disappointed X disappointed = despaired of the new government, and the ruling foundation of the Nanming government had seriously collapsed.When the Qing army went south for the first time, most of the lower class people adopted a wait-and-see attitude, and there were very few spontaneous resistances.

At this time, in the northern region under the rule of the Qing Dynasty, years of war damage caused a large number of "unowned wasteland" in Hebei, Henan, Shandong and other places, creating good conditions for the society to move to the next round of reconstruction work.On this basis, the Qing government timely promulgated the policy of reducing taxes and adopting unclaimed land, which made most of the northern areas under its control begin to settle down. The lower classes began to focus on stability and wealth, and the social economy began to slowly recover As a result, the social resources that the Qing government could control gradually increased, laying a material foundation for the large-scale unification war.

Second, the succession and training system of the national leader-the emperor has serious "security risks". When Zhu Yuanzhang founded the country, he formulated the four basic principles of "if there is a heir, if there is no heir, if there is no heir, if there is no heir, if there is no heir, the brother will succeed, and the closest branch is the first". This is actually a principle that determines the throne. Under these four principles, the emperor's The number of successors is guaranteed, but the quality is not.People with different personalities, such as psychopaths, idlers, lazy writers, greedy and miserly people, etc., may ascend to the throne of the emperor due to their status.

In terms of the emperor's pre-job training, although there is a strict system for the training of the prince, it is not scientific and cannot keep pace with the times. In a special period, if the prince's line is suddenly interrupted, the near-branch vassal will become the most direct backup candidate for the future emperor. But in the early training of these vassal kings' administrative ability, starting from the generation of "successful rebels"-Zhu Di, for the sake of the country's long governance and the long-term stability of the dynasty, Zhu Di quietly drove out his vassal king brothers one by one. out of the political and military arena.

As compensation, he gave these vassals "high salaries and generous support" financially, allowing them to spend their entire lives in their small fief, full of food and doing nothing.These vassals who have lost their personal freedom can engage in some activities that are beneficial to their physical and mental health, such as those who have lost their personal freedom, such as developing in the art world (such as King Lu); those who have a low ideological level can only waste their lives in eating, drinking and having fun. (such as Fu Wang). The result of this is that once something happens to the country, these vassal kings, large and small, will not only be unable to bear the responsibility for the rise and fall of the country, but will instead become a burden on the country.The vassal king with a special status in the middle suddenly ascended to the throne.Although he has the ambition to revitalize the country, he lacks the ability to revitalize the country. The national leader of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Hongguang, was such a vassal.I spent the first half of my life sometimes in debauchery, sometimes in exile, but after being proclaimed emperor, I found myself ignorant and ignorant. To the previous life state of eating, drinking and having fun. This is not only the personal sorrow of Emperor Hongguang, but also the sorrow of the entire "vassal king clan" in the late Ming Dynasty.After Emperor Hongguang, Lu Jianguo, Emperor Longwu, and Emperor Yongli all faced such embarrassment.It's not that you don't work hard, but that ability, an invisible and intangible thing, really doesn't come with your identity, and needs to be cultivated and sharpened slowly the day after tomorrow.However, the acquired environment did not give them such an opportunity. In the Qing Dynasty, the opponent of the same period, the succession system of the country's top leaders was a democratic election system on a local scale, and the election standard was that the most capable person would win.Under such a system, the two political strongmen, Huang Taiji and Dorgon, calmly climbed to the high position of the actual supreme leader of the Qing Dynasty despite their small experiences. In addition, these two leaders did not lock themselves in a deep house and compound before taking up their duties. Opponents Chongzhen and Hongguang are not at the same level at all. 3. Financial and military "double bankruptcy" In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, 70% of the country's fiscal revenue came from the southern region.After the establishment of Nanming, the administrative regions that "burned money" in the north, such as Liaodong, Shaanxi, and Henan, either became "occupied areas" or became "regardless areas". Nanming's current fiscal revenue is "taken from the south and used in the south". Finances should be abundant and chic. But the actual situation is that from 1644 to 1645, Nanming’s financial revenue was about 4.6 million taels of silver, but its expenditure was as high as 7 million taels, with a loss of 2.4 million taels, which was even worse than that of the Chongzhen Dynasty. This predicament is caused by the corruption of officials and the high consumption of Emperor Hongguang (the big wedding, the reconstruction of the Ming Palace, and the development of the Liyuan business consumed about one million taels of silver).However, a large amount of money was used to raise soldiers, especially the "five towns" soldiers who were on the front line of national defense. These soldiers spent 4.2 million taels of silver in Nanming every year. But what annoyed Hongguang Chaotang the most was that he spent money to raise soldiers, but they were useless at critical moments. As soon as the Qing soldiers went south, under their leadership, these high-priced soldiers either engaged in "fighting in the nest" or came "A counterattack", the two combined with the Qing soldiers and became the direct gravediggers of the Hongguang small court in Nanming. I have always had a doubt about this period of history. Nanming, which was in an economically developed area, dragged down the economy and destroyed people's livelihood because of raising soldiers, which led to the "double bankruptcy" of Hongguang Dynasty's finances and military.So didn't the Qing Dynasty, which was in an economically underdeveloped area and an underdeveloped area, also raise a lot of soldiers, why didn't it delay the economy?What about economic and political crises? Later, I studied several types of "military raising" systems in ancient China, and found that the following three "military raising" systems in history were very economical, and the Eight Banners system in the early Qing Dynasty was one of them. A: The Fubing system in the early Tang Dynasty; B: The Weisuo system in the early Ming Dynasty; C: The Eight Banners system in the early Qing Dynasty. Why do these three military maintenance systems save money?It is because under these three military systems, the country does not pay soldiers.Not only are they not paid, but soldiers have to bring their own horses and weapons when they start a war (soldiers who usually don’t maintain their horses and weapons well will die when they start a war!).In peacetime, these soldiers still go back to work as farmers, herdsmen or hunters, engaged in the production of social wealth, and are self-sufficient. Calculated in this way, the country not only saves the salaries of soldiers, but also saves various expenses such as clothing, weapons, and raising horses. The only thing the country has to pay directly is the food and grass expenses during the expedition. Of course, there is no free lunch in the world, and the country cannot use these soldiers "for free". In exchange, the country has to take out a piece of land and distribute it to the soldiers as a "subsidy", so that the soldiers can benefit from the income from the land , to support themselves and their families. There is another great advantage of these three kinds of military maintenance systems, that is, soldiers have a strong sense of belonging and high loyalty. It is also easy to understand that these soldiers are no more than soldiers hired with money under the recruitment system. The latter’s bond with the country is only a word of “money”, while the former’s bond with the country is much more. Land, houses, life and death, sickness, death, All kinds of benefits have to be resolved by the state, and disloyalty to the organization will not work. Another question is, since the guards established in the early Ming Dynasty were very economical, why did they not continue to be established later? The answer to this question is precisely the unified fate of these three military raising systems—the rise in the early days of the dynasty and the end in the middle of the dynasty. This is because, in the early days of the dynasty, the country, through the political power, could control a large amount of "unowned wasteland" after the war and distribute it to soldiers who fought bloody for the country. But then the war ended and peacebuilding began.With the development of the economy, the land obtained by the soldiers entered the field of circulation as commodities, and was "exchanged", "merged" or "corrupted" by the superiors. At this time, the country could no longer provide new land to continue to maintain this This is a special money-saving military maintenance system. But the army is the pillar of the country, and the soldiers have to be supported. There is no way, the country can only use fiscal revenue to spend money to support the soldiers. In the last years of a dynasty, various social contradictions were prominent, thieves and wars required the state to raise a large number of soldiers to "press the situation."As a result, the financial expenditure is getting higher and higher, but the loyalty of the soldiers raised is not high, and the combat effectiveness is not good.So raise more soldiers.Unlimited military expenditure and limited fiscal revenue became two runaway horses that pulled the dynasty to the abyss of death (of course there are other reasons). This is not only an established track walked by the Ming Dynasty, but also an established track walked by the Tang Dynasty and Qing Dynasty!Hong Guangchao of the Nanming Dynasty just traveled another section of the track that the Ming Dynasty had traveled. On this section of the track that has been laid, her demise is only a matter of time! 4. Another fatal factor in the Hongguang Dynasty—the three major disputes, namely the disputes between factions, warlords, and civil servants and warlords. As the successor of the Ming Dynasty, Nanming not only inherited her traditional project - party struggle.But also carry on the past and open up the future, and bring forth the new through the old. In addition to party struggles, warlords fought warlords, and civil servants fought warlords.Push the "competition" project to a new height and breadth. Let’s talk about the worst partisan struggle first. The partisan struggle in Nanming is different from the partisan struggle in modern society.Political party disputes in modern society are competitions under the vain monarchy, with open and fair rules and transparent and strict social supervision.Under the promotion of benign competition among modern political parties, the society is moving towards a fairer and more reasonable order. However, the party struggles in the Ming Dynasty and the Southern Ming Dynasty were completely disputes between sects under the monopoly monarchy. There were no open and fair rules, and there was no transparent and strict social supervision. its greatest feature.Under this vicious cycle of party struggle, society is moving towards a more chaotic and corrupt order. The party struggle in the Hongguang Dynasty of the Southern Ming Dynasty was mainly a competition between the "eunuch party" headed by Ruan Dacheng (mainly composed of the Xungui Group and the remnants of the eunuch party) and the headless Donglin Fushe (mainly the civil official group). "Reverse case", "successful case" and "Hongguang three major cases" launched a series of struggles.The result of the scramble was that there were neither winners nor winners, both sides were losers, and the winner was the Qing Dynasty, which stood aside and watched jokes. After the Qing Dynasty settled in Beijing, "party struggles" also appeared. Gong Dingzi, one of the former leaders of the Fushe Society, and Feng Quan, one of the former leaders of the Eunuch Party, once again passionately staged the traditional drama of party struggles, but Dorgon, who has an extremely keen political sense, did not Taking this blame, he decisively wiped out the seedlings of party struggles in the bud with his own "wiseness and martial arts". Not only that, Dorgon also strictly prohibited Gaodang of the Qing Dynasty from using the convenience of the imperial examination to take a ride to recruit students, which suddenly blocked an important source of party struggle. At this time, Nanming was not only engaged in party struggles, but also outside the court, warlords were not united with each other. Because of the interests of the defense zone, all parties were fighting for each other, and their guns were turned inward.Staged a "foreign war layman, civil war insider" fighting, which weakened Nanming's already limited national defense force. While the warlords were fighting each other, the Donglin party members participated in the verbal and written criticism of the warlords because they could not understand the "behavior" of the warlords, and the warlords returned their color.And between the Ma cabinet and Nanming's biggest warlord leader - Zuo Liangyu, because of sects and tax benefits, the struggle has reached a state of life and death. In the three great struggles of Hongguang, there are so many threads and tangled threads, how can one word "chaos" be enough to write it all down! The above external and internal factors are added up, and it is logical that Hongguang Dynasty "his death was sudden". The Hongguang Dynasty died quickly, but the Southern Ming Dynasty did not end.With the implementation of a series of ethnic oppression policies of the Qing court headed by Dorgon.The Han nationality began to truly feel the pain of "perishing culture and destroying the world". The national consciousness of saving the nation and surviving opened a gap for the continued survival of the Southern Ming Dynasty. In this gap, the Southern Ming Dynasty began its legendary and difficult seventeen years. struggle!