Chapter 23 Chapter Twenty-Two

After the three provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi changed from "liberated areas" to guerrilla areas, only the five provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan remained in the country of Nanming. All kinds of anti-Qing forces quickly gathered in these five provinces. Due to geographical reasons, Guangdong and Guangxi provinces took the lead in setting an example and bravely stood at the forefront of the fight against the Qing Dynasty. The two provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi (Guangdong and Guangxi) are two independent administrative units today, but in the Ming Dynasty, they were a unified administrative unit, all under the jurisdiction of the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi.

Of course, because the territory is too large, it is also a minority-inhabited area.Therefore, the central government of the Ming Dynasty set up two governors of Guangdong and Guangxi to manage separately. The most urgent task before these forces that came together to fight against the Qing Dynasty was to elect a supreme leader—“supervising the country or emperor” as the legal basis for the legal existence of their own regime. Now the most active person in this matter is the governor of Guangxi, Qu Shixu. This is not only because Mr. Qu, who has Confucian orthodoxy, has a strong "blood" plot in the election of the throne.

More importantly, he believes that the main reason for Emperor Longwu's "prosperity and defeat" is that his reputation was not correct because of his lack of close relationship; When Huang Daozhou and Zheng Zhilong supported Zhu Yujian on the basis of "virtuousness", he once supported King Gui Zhu Youchen on the basis of "blood relatives". Why support King Gui? This is because, in order of bloodlines, the only "kings" closest to Emperor Daxing Chongzhen's lineage are Fu, Rui, Hui, and Gui (the sons left behind by Emperor Wanli). But "the country is broken, the mountains and rivers are here, how many flowers will fall", among them, both father and son of Fu Wang are dead, Rui Wang's family is dead in Chongqing, and Hui Wang descends to the Qing Dynasty to shed blood on the capital.

Now Yingfeng Aoxue is driving alone, only Wang Gui's family is left. The "head of household" of King Gui's family is Zhu Changying, the old king of Gui. According to his seniority, he is the uncle of Chongzhen, and his land is in Hengzhou, Hunan. When Zhang Xianzhong took "anti-government armed forces" to Hunan to "flee and commit crimes", he was afraid of "martyrdom" and took his third son Anren Wang Zhu Youzhao to seek refuge in Wuzhou, Guangxi. The fourth son Yongming Wang Zhu Youlang, who was accidentally lost, became a "high-level meat ticket" for Zhang Xianzhong's kidnapping group in a daze.

But it is true that "the wicked will be punished by the wicked, and the nobles will be helped by the nobles". Just when Zhu Youlang's life was in danger, an official of the Ming Dynasty who "infiltrated the revolutionary ranks" secretly protected him, allowing him to brush shoulders with death! Soon, Zhang Xianzhong began to go to Sichuan to find a new crime location, and Zhu Youlang took the opportunity to escape from the tiger's mouth and "lurked" in Yongzhou, Hunan as a "refugee". When General Yang Guowei and his subordinate Jiao Lian led the army into this area, Zhu Youlang finally failed and was escorted back to Wuzhou, Guangxi to reunite with his father and brother.

It really fulfilled the old saying "If you survive a catastrophe, you will have a future blessing". Not long after Zhu Youlang returned, his weather-beaten old father Zhu Changying died. Later, his elder brother Zhu Youchu also changed from "King Anren" to "King Anxi". In this way, Zhu Youlang was automatically promoted from the two-character "Yongming King" to the one-character "Guiwang" by citing the Ming Dynasty's "father dies, son succeeds, brother ends up with brother" succession to the throne. Now, Qu Shiqi, who has a strong "supporting Gui" plot, directly suggested to his superior, Ding Kuichu, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, to support the new Gui Wang Comrade Zhu Youlang to inherit the great rule.

However, Governor Ding, an "old treacherous and cunning man", tried his best to take the lead before he got the news of Emperor Longwu's definite death, and did not immediately join the ranks of the Supporting Gui faction. It wasn't until He Wuzou, a scholar of the Longwu Dynasty, wrote to inform him of the "national funeral news", that he lost his illusions and hurriedly joined the "persuasion" team headed by Governor Qu. On the tenth day of October 1646, after the usual "three persuasions and three pushes", Comrade Zhu Youlang, who was only 23 years old, was supported by everyone as the supervisor of the country, and the capital of the country was tentatively set at Zhaoqing, Guangdong, where he ascended.

Comrade Zhu Youlang's succession to the great unification has two major advantages and two major disadvantages. Two major advantages, one is that he has a kind heart. Kindness does not seem to be the "excellent character" needed by politicians, especially politicians in troubled times, because generally speaking, politicians with this kind of character usually end up becoming "food on the plate" on the table of the strong. But Comrade Zhu Youlang is different. Although this character in him did not bring him ultimate success in his career.But the brightest shining point in his human nature has won him the wholehearted support of Qu Shiqi, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu and others, and finally enabled him to fight Nanming's people in the harsher environment and more complicated enemy situations. Jiangshan continued for another fifteen years, accounting for 90% of the entire history of Nanming.

A kind person may not be favored by history, but he can win the sincere care and help of countless people! The second is his appearance advantage. Comrade Zhu Youlang has a majestic appearance, long beard hanging down his chest, and a face like a bright moon. He is very similar to his grandfather Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun. He has the appearance of an emperor and is respected by people. But at the same time, he also has two shortcomings: One is that he is a "juvenile out of school". Although he is a prince, due to years of wars, when he was supposed to carry his schoolbag and go to school, he packed up his bag and fled.As a result, he ran away and missed the golden age of learning.So much so that at the beginning of his ascension to the throne, his cultural level was still at the level of a "primary school student".

Second, he is cowardly. A cowardly person will often evade his responsibilities at critical moments, and a cowardly emperor, when he evades responsibility, will lose his precious land and life together. It is precisely because of the latter two shortcomings that when Comrade Zhu Youlang took office as the supervisor of the country, there was a disharmonious atmosphere in the court! This trend is the struggle between the eunuch's monopoly and the chief assistant. This authoritative eunuch is called Wang Kun (also known as Wang Hongzu). He used to hang out with Emperor Chongzhen and was proficient in "court etiquette". .

When everyone couldn't say anything about how to ascend the throne, how to accept the worship of ministers, how to reward ministers and other formal issues, Comrade Wang Kun came on stage. He used his professional expertise to solve the problems he encountered one by one. While gaining everyone's admiration, he also won the sincere trust of Zhu Youlang, the supervisor of the country. Since then, Zhu Youlang's every word and deed in supervising the country must be carried out under the guidance of the eunuch Wang Kun, and the eunuch Wang actually seized the final decision-making power of the Nanming government. Once he has power, someone will come to curry favor with him, and the first person to get close to him is Ding Kuichu, Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. Governor Ding was a little slower than his subordinate Governor Qu in the support activities, fearing that this subordinate would catch up from behind and become the chief assistant.So he hurriedly followed the path of the authoritarian eunuch so that he could successfully become the first chief assistant of Zhu Youlang's government. After Wang Daeun's "secret operation", Governor Ding entered the cabinet as he wished, and served as the chief assistant and secretary of the Ministry of War. Governor Qu, who won the "first-class meritorious service", only got the position of Dongge University Bachelor and Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Officials. Ding Shoufu, who became the first assistant, has the name of a prime minister, but he has no talent as a prime minister. First, he implemented a strict "closed door doctrine" in the personnel arrangement of senior state cadres, and excluded "celebrities in society" such as He Wuzhen, Su Guansheng, and Chen Zizhuang, who were academicians of the Longwu Dynasty, from the current government. The second is that after learning that Ganzhou in Jiangxi was lost, he led Zhu Youlang and the newly formed government team to flee to Wuzhou, Guangxi in a hurry, preparing to hand over the great rivers and mountains of Guangdong to others. His "low-energy" move directly caused a serious consequence-the establishment of the Nanming Shaowu regime in Guangzhou. Emperor Shaowu in the Shaowu regime was Zhu Yukai, the younger brother of Emperor Longwu. When Emperor Longwu chose to escape on land, he, as the king of Tang (inherited his elder brother Zhu Yujian's feudal title), chose to escape by sea with the other four kings, including King Yiyi and King Liao. Practice has proved that this is a very safe escape route when the number of the navy in the Qing Dynasty is basically zero. Zhu Yukai followed the sea escape route and "advanceed" into Guangzhou City calmly. When he marched into Guangzhou, his original ideal was only to "Gou Quan's life in troubled times, and he did not seek to be famous to the princes". He never even thought about the great ambition of becoming the supreme leader of Ming Dynasty. Although he is not calmly thinking about the future for himself, someone is enthusiastically planning his life for him. Now in the city of Guangzhou, it is the officials at all levels in Guangzhou represented by Comrade Su Guansheng, a scholar of the Longwu Dynasty, who want Comrade Zhu Yukai to "progress" from the Tang Dynasty to the emperor. Why is this? This is the evil result of Ding Shoufu's implementation of the "closed door doctrine". He gave all the senior officials of the Guijian government to the "Zhaoqing Gang", which really made the lost "Guangzhou Gang" extremely depressed. Just at this time, there was another "embarrassing incident" that the central government of Zhaoqing in the Southern Ming Dynasty fled upon hearing of the enemy, which escalated the feelings of the "Guangzhou Gang" towards the "Zhaoqing Gang" from depression to contempt. Despising the later "Guangzhou Gang", a strong desire rose in his heart-why not invoke the legal provisions of brotherhood and brotherhood, start a new stove, and support Comrade Zhu Yukai, the king of the Tang Dynasty, as emperor, so that everyone can "progress together" because of this. On the second day of November, 1646, at the strong request of the civil and military officials of the "Guangzhou Gang" such as Su Guansheng, a scholar of the University, Lin Cha (a general under Zheng Zhilong), the chief soldier of Guangdong, Gu Yuanjing, the chief envoy of Guangdong, and Wang Yinghua, the minister, Comrade Zhu Yukai " Reluctantly", he served as the supervisor of the country. In order to get ahead of Gui Jianguo, he was recognized by the Nanming local government.Three days later, Su Guansheng and others simply struck while the iron was hot, and promoted Zhu Yukai from Jianguo to emperor, changed his reign name to Shaowu (officially used from January 1 next year), and established his capital in Guangzhou. Then, Emperor Shaowu issued a "Happy Edict" to the local governments of the Southern Ming Dynasty, requesting that the local governments recognize that the Shaowu government was the only legal central government representing the Ming Empire. But the business rule of "not afraid of not knowing the goods, but afraid of comparing goods" is also applicable in politics. Emperor Shaowu's title of emperor seems pale in front of Gui Jianguo, who has a purer blood. Local governments at all levels in Nanming made it clear: "It is better to recognize the grass of Gui Jianguo than the seedlings of Emperor Shaowu." In this way, Emperor Shaowu, who was tortured by the superiority of Gui Jian's blood, effectively ruled only the city of Guangzhou, and his national government = city government. However, "If the mountain is not high, it will be famous if there are immortals; if the country is not small, it is enough to have power." Under his manipulation, his "hardcore cronies" Guan Jieguang, Zeng Daowei, and Wang Yinghua all entered the cabinet with "support and meritorious service" and served as ministers of various ministries. "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun, and political power needs the barrel of a gun." Su Shoufu, who knew that his position was wrong, paid special attention to the construction of national defense forces. In addition to appointing the most powerful Comrade Lin Cha as the "Commander-in-Chief of the National Armed Forces", he also "turned waste into treasure, repaired and utilized", and recruited the four major pirate groups of Shibi, Ma Xuansheng, Xu Guixiang, and Zheng Tingqiu into the Shaowu regime "New Navy". The Shaowu regime's "high-profile founding of the nation and the army" immediately put the Guijian regime, who had fled to Wuzhou, into an extremely embarrassing situation. In order to restore the bad political influence, Gui Jianguo and Ding Shoufu led the government team to "return to Luan" on November 12, the capital of Zhaoqing. On November 18, Guijian Kingdom officially became the emperor, and the year name was changed to Yongli, and the capital of the country was still Zhaoqing. After Emperor Yongli ascended the throne, the first major event was to send Peng Yao of the military department and Chen Jiamo, the official secretary of the Ministry of War, as special diplomatic envoys to Guangzhou to persuade Emperor Shaowu to abolish the "Second Central Committee" and belong to the "First Central Committee". Comrade Peng Yao put the focus of this diplomatic work on Su Guansheng, hoping to use the abnormal means of "persuading, crying, and making trouble" to force the chief minister to respect the objective reality, abide by the laws of the Ming Dynasty, and serve as the leader of the country. He was a hero and not a sinner of the nation, so he came to his senses, changed his past, and supported the central government of Ming Dynasty headed by Emperor Yongli. After doing a lot of profound and meticulous ideological and political work, Comrades Peng Yao and Chen Jiamo both "carried the hand of the son and died with the son"! After killing the diplomatic envoy of Emperor Yongli, Comrade Su Guansheng put on a heroic stance of "I am the central government and who am I afraid of", appointed Chen Jitai as the "commander-in-chief of the crusade army", and formed a "crusade army" to launch an attack on Zhaoqing, Guangdong. Seeing that the Shaowu regime violated diplomatic etiquette and destroyed the glorious image of Lao Zhu's family in front of the people of the whole country.The always gentle Emperor Yongli also became "angry and impulsive". He transferred more than 12,000 elite troops from the front line of Shaoguan, and asked "Vice Minister of Defense Lin Jiading" to lead them to go to Emperor Shaowu's "crusade army" to fight desperately. On November 29, the two Nanming regimes who established their country in Guangdong fired the first shot of the civil war in Sanshui County, Guangdong. In the first battle, the Yongli government army won. The "Deputy Minister Lin" who won the first battle fully carried forward the spirit of "it is better to drive the remaining brave to chase the poor", and led the victorious troops to Guangzhou, trying to wipe out the Shaowu regime in a "germination state". Lin Cha, the "Commander-in-Chief of the National Armed Forces" of the Shaowu regime, was ordered to undertake the task of defending Greater Guangzhou when he was in danger. He used his relationship with "Vice Minister Lin" to write a false surrender. Vice Minister Lin, who relaxed his vigilance, was elated, and sent his troops straight to Lincha in the Sanshan area, for the "sweet net" he had set up. In this "big net", Commander-in-Chief Lin Cha not only prepared an army, but also a navy (composed of recruited pirates) for this colleague of the same family. Under the joint attack of the army and navy of the Lin Cha Commander-in-Chief, almost the entire Yongli government army was wiped out, and "Vice Minister Lin" fell into the water and died! The only mobile force of the Yongli government was wiped out in this civil war between you and me. After the news of "parallel imports defeating licensed imports" reached Zhaoqing, the Yongli government immediately fell into a "military panic". Government officials quietly packed their bags and prepared to run away again. At a critical moment, Qu Shixu, a bachelor of the university, volunteered to form a "militia" to defend the Central Committee. While the Yongli government was still discussing whether this plan was feasible, a message came from Guangzhou that made them both happy and sad. The Qing army occupied Guangzhou, and the Shaowu regime was completely over. Why did the Shaowu regime "come to an end so quickly?" It turned out that when they heard that Emperor Shaowu had won a great victory in the civil war, they immediately became "joyful" one by one. In order to vent this kind of self-satisfied emotion, their monarchs and ministers are both doing sacrifices to heaven and Confucius, and they are extremely busy! In order to continue to suppress Emperor Yongli, Emperor Shaowu continued to spread his troops on the frontier, putting on a heroic posture of "not to break Loulan and never return". At this moment, under the leadership of the "Army Commander" Li Chengdong and "Political Commissar" Tong Yangjia in Fujian, the "puppet troops of the Qing Dynasty who made a lot of trouble" rushed towards Guangzhou via Chaozhou and Huizhou. Because the two regimes of Shaowu and Yongli are "eating for free", the land of Guangdong has fallen into a state of "three noes" of "anarchy, no officials, and no army". Wherever the Qing army went, it was like entering no one's land. The only people who could pose a threat to their military operations were those Tang soldiers (military personnel responsible for investigation and transmission of information) who were still "sticking to their posts". Therefore, every time Li Chengdong's Qing army went to a place, they took the method of "touching the whistle and hitting the sap" to deal with these loyal soldiers. After disposing of the Tang soldiers, Li Chengdong asked people to use the seized Nanming local official seal to issue a Tang report saying "It's safe and well" to the Shaowu government. After receiving the Tang newspaper, the Shaowu regime steadily continued to promote the work of the current government's "whitewashing of peace". On December 14, 1646, Li Chengdong dispatched 300 "special forces" wearing Ming military uniforms.Starting from Huizhou, under the cover of night, we arrived at the northern suburbs of Guangzhou.At dawn the next day, when the city gate was wide open, he broke into the city by surprise. And on this day, it happened to be a good weather, the wind was sunny, and there was no cloud in the sky. With the pride of defeating the Yongli government army and the lofty ambition of restoring the country, the radiant Shaowu Emperor brought his civil and military officials to visit Wuxue, a specialized military talent training institution, to inspect and guide the work. When Emperor Shaowu and Su Shoufu were comforted by their "strong soldiers and strong horses", suddenly a "scout" reported to them the enemy's situation: the Tartars are coming! Su Shoufu, who heard about the enemy's situation, took the first measure-to behead the "investigator" who shouted "Wolf is coming" for the crime of "confusing the public". The Qing army who broke into Guangzhou City immediately took off the "sheep skin" of the Ming army and put on the "wolf skin" of the Qing army again. The Qing army dressed in "wolf skin" appeared on the streets of Guangzhou where "the white-haired old man does not know how to fight; the child hangs down and sees no weapons", which caused a huge blow to this city that has been soaked in peace for more than two hundred years. "panic effect". Panic triggered large-scale riots, and the number of Qing troops entering the city was magnified by "N" times (N>20). Only then did Emperor Shaowu be convinced: "The wolf has really come"! But a large number of soldiers were sent to frighten Emperor Yongli, and now Guangzhou City does not even have enough "police" to maintain law and order, let alone go into battle to defend against the enemy. The huge city of Guangzhou was occupied by 300 Qing troops in such a muddle. In desperation, Emperor Shaowu immediately thought of "fleeing in disguise". In his opinion, this is an effective method. He found a quilt and a rag, disguised himself as a poor beggar, and mixed in with the refugees who left the city in the chaos. But as soon as the "beggar Zhu" with a rosy complexion and a radiant face arrived at the gate of the city, he was recognized by the sharp eyes of the Qing army and captured on the spot, and was locked up in the Eastern Procuratorate. The failed escape experience of Emperor Shaowu made me understand: successful artistic creation is inseparable from real and concrete life practice. In order to protect Emperor Shaowu, the "man of the year in China", Li Chengdong, the "commander-in-chief of the group army", sent a special person to bring food and drink to "condolences". Emperor Shaowu flatly refused this kindness, saying: "After being the emperor Taizu, if you drink a sip of water and eat a spoonful of rice, what face will you have to see your ancestors in the ground?" In the dead of night, Emperor Shaowu took off his belt and threw himself into the trap while he was unprepared! The two brothers Longwu and Shaowu survived the country and died when the country died. They can be regarded as "great in life and glorious in death". Sixteen princes and county kings of the Ming Dynasty were captured along with Emperor Shaowu. Li Chengdong, who was born as a "poor peasant", has no enthusiasm or sympathy for these former "high-level exploiting classes". He didn't even submit the request report to Dorgon, so he killed all these princes. The first assistant Su Guansheng took advantage of the chaos to escape, but this "extremely stubborn" comrade neither chose to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, nor did he think about going out of the city to make a comeback and make a comeback, but ran to his home and hanged himself. When he died, the comrade left his short last words on the wall - "Loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty, Yigu should die!", completing his life track of "rejuvenating the country with no achievements on weekdays, and repaying the king with his death in times of difficulty". But what makes this Chief Assistant die is that after his death, his "hard-core cronies" Gu Yuanjing, Zeng Daowei and others did not follow the path opened by him, but instead bowed their knees and surrendered, doing shameful things. traitor. After such a "flash in the pan", the Shaowu regime disappeared forever into the depths of the tunnel of history. She is the most useless regime in Nanming. From its establishment to its demise, it only existed for forty days. It didn't even have time to use the "Shaowu" reign name that it racked its brains to come up with. The only "shining point" she can be proud of in history is winning a civil war. But it was this civil war that depleted the power of himself and the Yongli regime, and accelerated the fall of Guangdong. After the Qing army occupied Guangzhou, in order to prevent itself from becoming the next target of the Qing army's suppression and killing, the Yongli central government quietly packed up, bid farewell to the capital Zhaoqing, and fled to Hunan via Guangxi.