Chapter 21 Chapter 21 Three capable ministers who were killed by Chongzhen

If you want to ask who is the most sympathetic "king of subjugation" in Chinese history, the answer is probably none other than Chongzhen. Compared with the subjugation kings of the past dynasties who ignored state affairs and abandoned government affairs, Emperor Chongzhen was 100% diligent in governing.During his 18 years in office, he first killed the "Nine Thousand Years Old" Wei Zhongxian, then rectified the unjust case, and used Yuan Chonghuan to save the crisis.Unexpectedly, internal and external troubles continued, the Qing army continued to attack outside, broke through many times and went south, peasant uprisings broke out inside, the world was in chaos, and luck was too bad. Natural disasters continued in the Northwest and Central Plains for years, and his reign has not stopped.After struggling for 18 years, the country was ruined and died in the end, and the fate of hanging himself in Meishan, no matter how you look at it, is the poor man who is number one in Tianzi.

There is a saying that poor people must have something to hate, what about Chongzhen? As the saying goes, when a person is about to die, his words are also good. There are two last words in Chongzhen's last words when he was about to hang himself.Generally speaking, the country is subjugated, but one's own fault is secondary, and the minister's fault is primary.Is this sentence obsessive?Or truth? From the perspective of future generations, Chongzhen used at least three people wrongly. Coincidentally, they were all civil servants. The first person Chongzhen misused was Sun Chengzong.

Sun Chengzong, courtesy name Zhizhisheng, was born in Gaoyang, Hebei Province. He was the teacher of Zhu Youxiao, the emperor of Tianqi, and he was an official to a bachelor during the reign of Tianqi.For this person, there is a supreme comment in the "History of Ming Dynasty" compiled by the people of the Qing Dynasty: It is enough to be cautious and guard him if he is appointed full-time.It means that if the Ming Dynasty gives him 100% trust, it is completely possible to defend the existing country. Looking at Sun Chengzong's resume, this sentence is not too much. Before Sun Chengzong took the imperial examination, he had been working as a study tour teacher, especially tutoring border generals' families all the year round at the border. The situation at the border had already been checked.In the thirty-second year of Wanli (AD 1604), he took part in the imperial examination at the age of 42. Unexpectedly, he became a blockbuster and won the second place. It can be described as "two generations of emperors".What is especially rare is that Ming Xizong Zhu Youxiao, who was obsessed with carpentry all his life, respected Sun Chengzong and called him Mr. from beginning to end.After Zhu Youxiao ascended the throne, as a member of the Donglin Party, Sun Chengzong joined the cabinet to pay homage to the prime minister, and was officially a cabinet scholar.

At this time, the battle situation in Liaodong had already bottomed out. Xiong Tingbi was imprisoned, and almost the entire territory of Liaodong fell. Wang Zaijin, the minister, even suggested that the Ming army retreat to Shanhaiguan in an all-round way and strengthen the defense of Shanhaiguan.Sun Chengzong vetoed Wang Zaijin's absurd suggestion after a field survey, and took the initiative to ask his supervisor Ji Liao. After arriving in Jiliao, Sun Chengzong adopted a steady and steady strategy. Taking advantage of Nurhachi's slack, he first built a city in Ningyuan and then advanced to Jinzhou. After three years of steady and steady development, he finally built a three-dimensional defense in the fifth year of Tianqi (1625 AD). System - Guan Ning line of defense.This defense system with Ningyuan, Jinzhou, and Shanhaiguan as the core successfully blocked the Hou Jin army from going south.At the same time, Sun Chengzong boldly promoted Yuan Chonghuan and created a strong army that could compete with the Jurchen Eight Banners-Guan Ning Iron Cavalry.After the collapse of the Donglin Party, Sun Chengzong was also implicated and was forced to retire and return to his hometown.After he left, Yuan Chonghuan defeated Houjin in the Battle of Ningyuan and defeated Nurhachi, causing Nurhachi to die of hatred.After Huang Taiji came to the throne, he defeated Huang Taiji in the Battle of Ningjin.This victory made Emperor Tianqi, who was hiding in the deep palace as a carpenter, very excited. He issued an edict to commend him: "Ten years of weakness will be defeated today."

As Wei Zhongxian became more and more authoritarian, Yuan Chonghuan, who also belonged to the Donglin Party, was also pushed out of his post.After Chongzhen ascended the throne, he executed Wei Zhongxian and rehabilitated the wronged Donglin Party members. A large number of Donglin Party members who were persecuted in the past were activated one after another.In the post of Jiliao Supervisor, who was responsible for the important task of defending Liaodong, Chongzhen abandoned Sun Chengzong, and instead used Sun Chengzong's favorite general Yuan Chonghuan.The reason why "the old ginger lost to the new green onion" is probably because Sun Chengzong was the teacher of Emperor Tianqi, and the young Chongzhen was worried that it would be difficult to control.Compared with Sun Chengzong, Yuan Chonghuan's biggest deficiency is strategic vision. After he took office, he first boasted of Haikou, which was "five years to flatten Liao".Before Yuan Chonghuan went to "Ping Liao", in the second year of Chongzhen (1629 A.D.), Huang Taiji bypassed the Guanning line of defense, entered Hebei via Mongolia, and came to pacify Daming with murderous intent.The Ming Army, the army around Beijing, was no match for the Eight Banners Iron Cavalry, and was defeated.Although Yuan Chonghuan, who led the army back to aid, severely injured Huang Taiji under the city of Beijing, he ended up being imprisoned and executed by Chongzhen. To this day, the topic of whether Yuan Chonghuan is a traitor is still talked about with great interest.

After Yuan Chonghuan was imprisoned, Chongzhen didn't even care about whether he was a traitor or not, because although the Hou Jin army temporarily withdrew, the four cities of Zunhua, Luancheng, Yongping, and Qian'an in the north of Beijing were occupied by Huang Taiji, and the city of Beijing was still in jeopardy. .In a critical situation, Sun Chengzong was pulled by Chongzhen to fight the fire, and Chongzhen ordered him to return to the post of minister of the Ministry of War and be responsible for the defense of the capital.The situation at this time was extremely bad. Because Yuan Chonghuan was imprisoned, the Liaodong Army that originally rescued Beijing mutinied and ran back to Liaodong.Although there were more than 200,000 Ming troops in the surrounding area, they were frightened by the might of the Eight Banners Army and did not dare to attack.Sun Chengzong responded calmly, first persuaded the generals of the Liaodong Army, and then carefully formulated a battle plan.In February of the following year, Sun Chengzong launched a counterattack, regaining the four fallen cities in just 4 days, severely injuring nearly 10,000 Jin troops left behind, and driving the Hou Jin troops out of the Great Wall.This turn-around victory is known as Zunyong Victory in history.

After a lapse of 6 years, Sun Chengzong, the envoy of the Zunyong Great Victory, once again got the opportunity to manage Liaodong.And ambitious, he also hopes to complete the unfinished business during the Tianqi period (1621-1627 AD).Two months after the Zunyong victory, Sun Chengzong reported to Chongzhen, requesting that the city be built on the Daling River east of Jinzhou.Daling River is a strategically important place in Liaodong. Once the Ming army gains a foothold here, it can threaten Shenyang, the capital of the Empress Jin Dynasty.If it succeeds, even if Houjin cannot be pacified quickly, at least there will be no more incidents where Jin bypassed the Guanning line of defense and went south after the second year of Chongzhen.But Hou Jin is not a fool. Sun Chengzong sent Zu Dashou to cast the city. Just halfway through the repair, the Hou Jin army came.When the war broke out, Sun Chengzong hurriedly organized reinforcements, but he never thought that he would suffer the same fate as Xiong Tingbi back then—Jingfu discord.At this time, most of the remaining troops in Liaodong were in the hands of Qiu Hejia, the governor of Liaodong. Qiu Hejia opposed the construction of the Daling River. When the war started, a "non-violent non-cooperation" came. The reinforcements that should have been sent immediately, he actually delayed for several months.In desperation, Sun Chengzong had no choice but to move troops around, and it was not until the beginning of the second year that he finally got together a reinforcement army of 40,000.On the outskirts of the Daling River, the 80,000-year-old Jin army is already in full swing.With a handful of people, the Ming army finally failed, and the 40,000 reinforcements were wiped out. Zu Dashou, who was stationed at the Daling River, abandoned the Daling River by means of "fake surrender".The battle of Dalinghe became the only defeat of Sun Chengzong in his life as a soldier, but it was the deadliest defeat.

After the defeat of Dalinghe, the officials of the Ming Dynasty exploded. Qiu Hejia, who was originally responsible for the defeat, blamed Sun Chengzong for the defeat.Under the raging public opinion, Sun Chengzong resigned sadly.Looking at the whole process of the Battle of Dalinghe, it is not that Sun Chengzong is incompetent, it is that he no longer has the environment to perform in the early years of the Tianqi Dynasty.After this battle, the inland peasant army was full of wars, and the Ming Dynasty simply withdrew the post of Jiliao Supervisor and passively defended on the Guanning line of defense.In the eleventh year of Chongzhen (1638 A.D.), the Qing army broke through Sun Chengzong's hometown Gaoyang. Sun Chengzong led his whole family to resist in the city. After being captured, he died heroically. All 6 sons and 12 grandsons of his family were martyred.Zhonglie is like this, but Chongzhen just ordered "reinstatement, allow sacrifice and burial", not even a posthumous title.

From the beginning to the end, he did not gain the complete trust of Chongzhen. In the second year of Chongzhen (1629 A.D.), Huang Taiji broke through and went south, and Yuan Chonghuan's "traitored" ending dealt a huge blow to Emperor Chongzhen himself.Not only because Yuan Chonghuan, whom he had always believed in, disappointed him in the end, not only because the Ming army was disarmed and disarmed most of the time, and was defeated in a miserable state, but also because throughout the battle, the Ming army who came to the rescue from the periphery Most of the army dared not take the initiative to attack Huang Taiji.As the supreme ruler of the Ming Empire, this situation is undoubtedly heart-wrenching.There is such a person who brought him the warmth of spring in this painful time: a magistrate of a famous prefecture who was less than 30 years old actually recruited more than 10,000 militia groups in the local area, and traveled thousands of miles to the capital to come to the king. Lu Jun was timid, he took the initiative to ask for battle many times, and his enthusiasm was quite high.

Of course, because Guan Ning's iron cavalry repelled Huang Taiji outside Beijing soon after, and the enemy retreated across the board, this highly motivated militia was ultimately useless.But honest people don't suffer, so Chongzhen remembered this person's name and his generosity and loyalty - Lu Xiangsheng. Lu Xiangsheng, another person who was finally misused by Chongzhen. Lu Xiangsheng, courtesy name Jiandou, was born in Yixing, Jiangsu Province, and was a Jinshi in the second year of Tianqi (1622 A.D.).After that, I will be the head of the household department first, and then the magistrate of the daimyo. I will do things in a down-to-earth manner and be a clean person.Before the military disaster in the second year of Chongzhen, his life was very ordinary, and of course there were some unusual things from time to time.For example, when the Donglin Party was in full bloom, everyone was busy flattering the Donglin Party, but he didn't.Later Wei Zhongxian came to power, and everyone was busy currying favor with the eunuchs, but he still didn't curry favor.Others are busy flattering horses and dawdling around, but he is busy with his work; when others are free, he likes to read books, play chess and listen to operas, and he likes to ride horses and practice martial arts when he is free; most of the books other people read are Four Books and Five Classics, and he prefers Reading military books, one of my favorite books, which I take with me wherever I go over the years, is Qi Jiguang's "Ji Xiao New Book".Then in the second year of Chongzhen, he was completely extraordinary. After the Jin army came, others either shrank their heads or ran for their lives. He recruited 10,000 people, and he was about to go to the battlefield with great arrogance.

Since then, the extraordinary Lu Xiangsheng has embarked on an extraordinary life path.First, in the third year of Chongzhen (1630 A.D.), he was promoted to an official, and was promoted to participate in politics in Changping, Daming, and Xingtai, who were in charge of military training.Coincidentally, these three areas were exactly the places where Qi Jiguang recruited troops in Jizhou.Holding Qi Jiguang's book in his hand, Lu Xiangsheng groped and worked like a model, taking out some inventions of his own.After three years of hard work, in the sixth year of Chongzhen (AD 1633), they really trained an elite team.At this time, the peasant uprising in the northwest of the Ming Dynasty had already started, and Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, and Gao Yingxiang were tossing endlessly in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and other places.Lu Xiangsheng was ordered in danger, and led his army to Shanxi, where he defeated tens of thousands of peasants in Lengshui Village, Shanxi.This battle was extremely dangerous. Lu Xiangsheng took the lead to defeat the enemy and forced the peasant army to the cliff. The opponent shot Lu Xiangsheng on the forehead with a cold arrow.After winning this battle, Lu Xiangsheng was nicknamed "Lu Yanwang".This powerful army was named "Tianxiong Army". The reason why the Tianxiong Army has strong combat effectiveness is not unrelated to Lu Xiangsheng's study of Qi Jiguang's military thought, but he also has his own inventions.Most of the soldiers of the Tianxiong Army come from the same place, and most of them are related to each other, so they have a strong cohesion.At the same time, many of the mid-level officers of the Tianxiong Army were civil servants with rich combat experience. These people had no bandits and blood, but they were braver and more disciplined in battle.Of course, such cohesion is also due to Lu Xiangsheng's "leading role of cadres". Every time he fights, he rushes to the forefront. In addition, the army has military regulations: when charging, officers must rush in front of soldiers, and officers should fall behind soldiers. The latter, after the war, will not be spared. It is really a matter of suffering first and enjoying later.From the sixth year of Chongzhen, Lu Xiangsheng led his Tianxiong army to fight against the six counties of Xunyang, Hubei, and led a lone army deep into the valley. He won nine battles and wiped out tens of thousands of peasant troops and horse Huihui. 1635) was promoted to "Prime Minister of Five Provinces", controlled the military affairs of Jiangbei, Henan, Shandong, Huguang, and Sichuan, and was awarded the sword of Shangfang. Six months later, Lu Xiangsheng defeated Li Zicheng in Luoyang, chased him all the way to Chuzhou, and fought a bloody battle with 300,000 peasant troops. After fighting all day and night, he defeated Li Zicheng again and forced Li Zicheng to flee to Shaanxi.In just three years, Lu Xiangsheng fought more than a hundred battles, and successively defeated Li Zicheng, Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong and other minions. He can be called the Optimus Prime of the Ming Dynasty. At this time, the Ming Empire was already suffering from internal and external troubles, so it was natural for such an Optimus Prime to be pushed up wherever there were cracks.No sooner had the cracks of the civil war been bridled than the foreign war resumed.In January of the ninth year of Chongzhen (1636 A.D.), the Qing army (at this time Jin had changed its name to Qing) aggressively attacked Xuanfu and Datong areas. I don't know how to fight at a young age", so it is naturally not the opponent of the Eight Banners Army.The local guards didn't dare to fight, but just retreated passively. When the Qing army retreated, they even wrote the words "Hundred officials don't send them away" on the trees along the way to show their humiliation.In February, the Ming Dynasty transferred Lu Xiangsheng, who was in a bloody battle with the peasant army, to the governor of Xuanda.In the next two years, Lu Xiangsheng reorganized the army in the local area and built border fortifications, "declaring that the army is powerful and shocking".He even brought the "Tianxiong Army" who had been following him in the southern and northern wars, recruited strong locals, expanded the army and prepared for war. By the eleventh year of Chongzhen (AD 1638), it had a scale of 20,000 people.He firmly believed that this most elite army on the Central Plains battlefield at that time would be his sharp weapon to help the world. During this period, Chongzhen maintained his heart-to-heart trust in Lu Xiangsheng. During this period, officials in the court continued to impeach him.Especially in the tenth year of Chongzhen (1637 A.D.), Lu Xiangsheng's good friend Hou Xun (the father of the dramatist Hou Fangyu) was convicted. Lu Xiangsheng, who was far away in Xuanda, took the initiative to intercede for the two, and Chongzhen immediately agreed and released the two.During this period, Chongzhen had great trust in Lu Xiangsheng. However, in August of the eleventh year of Chongzhen (AD 1638), Lu Xiangsheng encountered the biggest crisis of trust in Chongzhen. In August of this year, the Qing army once again assembled an army of 80,000, led by Dorgon, detoured south through the Mongolian grassland, and attacked the periphery of Beijing.On September 22, the Qing army broke through Miyun, killed Wu Aheng, governor of Jiliao, and sent troops to Tongzhou, seeing that Beijing was in danger.Lu Xiangsheng rushed to help, and was appointed "Governor of the World Soldier" by Chongzhen when he was in danger, and Shang Fang was bestowed with a sword.Compared with the situation in the second year of Chongzhen (1629 A.D.) when he led a 10,000 militia group to rescue the capital, at that time Lu Xiangsheng, holding Xuanda Jingqi, Guanning Iron Cavalry and other powerful troops, waving banners and stalemate with the Eight Banners of the Qing army. Knowing the heavy responsibility, Lu Xiangsheng decided to take the initiative to attack. On September 30, Lu Xiangsheng marched into Baoding and decided to attack the Qing army in Baoding first.In the middle of the night, Lu Xiangsheng launched a night attack and sent 3,000 elites to make a surprise attack. Before the battle, he gave a death order: "The sword must see blood, the horse must pant and sweat, and the person must be injured, and those who violate it will be beheaded."After the war broke out, Lu Xiang was promoted to lead the way, and the Ming army charged bravely, but the Qing army was unable to react in time and was once defeated.When Lu Xiangsheng wanted to take the initiative to attack, he was surprised to find that his follow-up troops suddenly disappeared.It turned out that Gao Qiqian, the eunuch sent by Chongzhen to oversee the army, retreated without authorization, and promoted Lu Xiang, who was the first to rush into the battle, to "Sun".Fortunately, the Ming army fought to the death and finally broke out from the Qing camp, but more than half of them suffered casualties.After this battle, the Qing army in Baoding retreated slightly.However, Yang Sichang, Minister of the Ministry of War, made a big fuss, accusing Lu Xiangsheng of going to war without authorization, which led to his defeat.The next day, Lu Xiangsheng was reprimanded by Chongzhen's edict, full of killing the enemy, and repeatedly suffered cold water. Gao Qiqian made trouble for Lu Xiangsheng because of his character.Gao Qiqian was a greedy man, and he was the "supervisor of the imperial horse" trusted by Chongzhen. When he went out to supervise the army, he often asked for bribes. For example, Hong Chengchou, Qiu Hejia and others all paid large sums of bribes.Yang Sichang's rectification of Lu Xiangsheng was due to the "route problem". At that time, the Ming Dynasty was troubled by internal and external troubles. Yang Sichang firmly believed that "to fight against the outside world, we must first settle down at home" and advocated peace with the Qing army. Lu Xiangsheng firmly opposed it. The sentence "I only know how to lead troops to fight" satirized Yang Sichang's policy of seeking peace, and the two became enmity.And Chongzhen himself hesitated between war and peace.Involved in this vortex, Lu Xiangsheng naturally held back everywhere.After the Battle of Baoding, Chongzhen's desire to seek peace became stronger, and Yang Sichang added fuel, saying that Lu Xiangsheng was a "bad thing". point.In November, Lu Xiangsheng went to Julu to fight against the enemy. As the "governor of the world's soldiers and horses", he had only 10,000 soldiers and horses left in his hands. Most of his elite Tianxiong army and Guan Ning, who was supposed to be under his command The cavalry were all held up high and submerged.Julu is located at an important point, and it is a place that the Qing army must fight for. Seeing that Lu Xiangsheng had few troops, the Qing army initially looked down upon it and launched many attacks, but Lu Xiangsheng fought back. For a whole month, the Qing army actually attacked Julu several times. Deer can't.At this time, Yang Sichang added to the chaos, and he transferred another 5,000 soldiers from Lu Xiangsheng to return to Gao Qiqian. In December, Dorgon concentrated 80,000 main forces to besiege Julu. He said: "I will die sooner or later, and I don't want to involve the people in the army." In order to save the lives of the local people, they decided to take the initiative to attack and launch a "suicide attack" against the main force of the Qing army.The people were all moved and donated their only rations.On December 15th, Lu Xiangsheng led his troops to meet the Qing army at Haoshui Bridge. 80,000 Qing troops surrounded Lu Xiangsheng's troops heavily. The fighting lasted from noon to late at night. After paying a huge price, the Qing army finally wiped out Lu Xiangsheng. There were 5,000 soldiers and horses in the army. After Lu Xiangsheng killed more than 20 Qing soldiers, he led only more than 20 people to rush to the Qing army formation, and died heroically in the chaos of arrows. The hateful thing is that during Lu Xiangsheng's bloody battle, tens of thousands of elite soldiers led by Gao Qiqian were 50 miles away from him, but they refused to save him.After Lu Xiangsheng died in the country, Yang Sichang was still trying his best to deal with his "black materials", and even forced the prefect of Julu to frame Lu Xiangsheng for "fearing the enemy and fighting bravely". Lu Xiangsheng's body was detained by Yang Sichang for 50 days without reporting.After Lu Xiangsheng's death, Chongzhen did not give a pension for more than two years, and did not give him a posthumous posthumous posthumous title until the fifteenth year of Chongzhen (1642 AD), which can be described as extremely mean.The main reason why Chongzhen is like this is that Lu Xiangsheng is determined to fight, which is not in his mind.Although an Optimus Prime was killed by the Qing army, it is better to say that it was killed by Chongzhen. The death of Lu Xiangsheng dealt a heavy blow to the Ming Dynasty. During the peasant uprising at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Lu Xiangsheng was the general with the highest victory rate against the peasant army. Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, etc. were all beaten to death by him at one time. Army, even against the Eight Banners of Manchuria, it is not inferior.In terms of character, Lu Xiangsheng is an absolute ascetic character. He is an honest official, takes the lead in battle, handles things fairly, and takes the lead in everything.Even many arrogant and domineering soldiers and bandits admire his charismatic personality. For example, Zu Kuan, the titan of Guanning Iron Cavalry, was a notoriously greedy and violent character in the early days of suppressing peasant uprisings. Neither Hong Chengchou nor Yang Sichang could control him. The only one who is obedient to Lu Xiangsheng.Such a character was unable to show his fists under the hands of Chongzhen. When Zuo Zongtang, a famous official in the late Qing Dynasty, read the biography of Lu Xiangsheng during his expedition to the west, he couldn't help sighing: "It's such an encounter, I sincerely hate it for all people with lofty ideals." The tragedies of Sun Chengzong and Lu Xiangsheng proved Chongzhen's poor employment level, but even after Chongzhen's eleven years of martyrdom, Chongzhen still had the opportunity to rebuild the country.Because after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, later generations had a common saying: "Chuan Ting dies, Ming Dynasty dies." The "Chuan Ting" here is another outstanding figure who was as famous as Lu Xiangsheng at that time: Sun Chuanting. Sun Chuanting, courtesy name Boya, was born in Daixian County, Shanxi Province. Similar to Lu Xiangsheng, history books say that he is "serious in nature and more strategic in nature", and he is an introverted and resourceful character.He also entered Beijing as an official during the reign of Tianqi and served as the head of the Ministry of Officials. When Wei Zhongxian was in power, Sun Chuanting simply resigned from office and returned home. Since then, he has been living at home for more than ten years.During the reign of Chongzhen, the peasant army rose up, and the Qing army continued to invade. Officials from Beijing, Shaanxi, and Shanxi who had made friends with Sun Chuanting kept recommending Sun Chuanting to go out of the mountain. What really moved Chongzhen was Wen Tiren, a cabinet scholar at that time (this person was later edited) into the evaluation of "Ming History Biography of Traitorous Officials").Wen Tiren, who once worked with Sun Chuanting in the Ministry of Officials, said that Sun Chuanting was "comparable to Guo Ziyi in Tang Dynasty".In the eighth year of Chongzhen (1635 A.D.), Sun Chuanting was called into office. He was first transferred to the prefect of Shuntian, and then promoted to the governor of Shaanxi in the following year. Liu Guoneng and other 17th Route Peasant Army wiped out all of them.Like Lu Xiangsheng, his method was to train soldiers. The difference is that Lu Xiangsheng's "Tianxiong Army" was drawn out to fight after several years of intensive training, while Sun Chuanting "trained in actual combat". His sources of troops mainly came from northern Shaanxi. Most of them are children of "military households" families, known as "Qin Bing".What is not easy is that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, most of the military pay was dispatched by superiors. After Sun Chuanting took office, he rectified the local military settlements, developed production, especially cleared up the land occupied by wealthy and powerful families, and protected the interests of the soldiers. Serve him.The "Qin soldiers" in Xi'an alone can collect more than 100,000 tax silver every year by "self-reliance", and they basically don't spend money from the court when they march and fight.It is precisely because of this that Sun Chuanting was impeached, saying that he "supported the army and self-defeated, disregarding the state's laws and regulations."When employing people, Chongzhen did not pursue them. After that, Sun Chuanting showed his strength. In July of the ninth year of Chongzhen (1636 AD), Sun Chuanting defeated Gao Yingxiang's troops of the peasant army many times after several battles, and finally set up an ambush in Ziwu Valley to wipe out Gao Yingxiang's troops.Gao Yingxiang, the "King Chuang" who was once the strongest leader of the peasant uprising in the late Ming Dynasty, was captured without a fight.In January of the 11th year of Chongzhen (AD 1638), Sun Chuanting led his troops to defeat the peasant army in Baoji, Shaanxi, and severely injured Li Zicheng in Tongguan, Shaanxi with the tactic of "surrounding the spot to fight for aid". Li Zicheng fled in a panic with only 8 people.Sun Chuanting took advantage of the victory to pursue, and then went south to Henan, where he defeated the peasant army "Thirteen Allied Forces" in Lingbao, Henan.Seeing that a total victory was about to be won, it was Yang Sichang who had killed Lu Xiangsheng again, and proposed to Chongzhen to "recruit security". As a result, Zhang Xianzhong and other remnants of the peasant army were recruited. The reason why Yang Sichang had trouble with Sun Chuanting was also because of the "routing problem".As Minister of the Ministry of War, Yang Sichang proposed the plan of "four positives, six corners and ten sides net" to exterminate the peasant army. Sun Chuanting agreed with this strategy, but firmly opposed to using this strategy to increase troops and pay, thinking that it was "adding fuel to the fire".Sun Chuanting was even more worried about the "recruitment" of the peasant army, and suggested that the troops be kept in the local area to monitor them in case they rebelled.In the 11th year of Chongzhen (AD 1638), Sun Chuanting was also ordered to go to Beijing for rescue, but Yang Sichang was afraid that he would make meritorious service, so he strictly prohibited Sun Chuanting's troops from fighting. the capital.Such "going down the mountain to pick peaches" made Sun Chuanting so angry that he became deaf.While Sun Chuanting was in prison, as Sun Chuanting expected, the peasants rebelled and rebelled again. Zhang Xianzhong, who had escaped because of Yang Sichang's obstruction, rebelled again. The peasants who could not survive the rent and tax responded one after another, and Li Zicheng also came out again with great momentum.In May of the 15th year of Chongzhen (AD 1642), Li Zicheng swept Henan and surrounded Kaifeng. The Ming Dynasty was in danger. In desperation, Chongzhen had to use Sun Chuanting again.But at this time, most of the elite Qin soldiers that Sun Chuanting painstakingly built had been dismissed and disbanded. When he returned to Shaanxi, he only had more than 10,000 newly recruited soldiers in his hands, and he had no combat experience.Faced with such a mess, Sun Chuanting tried his best to defend Tongguan. He believed that as long as Tongguan was not lost and Shaanxi was preserved, the Ming Dynasty would have the opportunity to quell the peasant uprising.But Chongzhen commanded blindly. In May of that year, Chongzhen issued imperial edicts urging Sun Chuanting to enter the army.With this inexperienced army, Sun Chuanting was defeated in Henan and had to return to Shaanxi.He knew that Li Zicheng's next goal must be to enter Shaanxi, so he rectified the city defense in Tongguan, manufactured firearms, and intended to stick to it.However, in May of the 16th year of Chongzhen (AD 1643), the Ming Dynasty once again ordered Sun Chuanting to take the initiative to attack Li Zicheng. In the last battle of his life, on August 12, in the Battle of Xiangcheng, facing Li Zicheng's 500,000 army, Sun Chuanting was defeated again, and the whole army was wiped out. Sun Chuanting rushed into the enemy line alone and died heroically. Sun Chuanting's death in battle caused the Ming Dynasty to lose the last army that could save the crisis, and the last person who could save the crisis. Like Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting was not only killed by blind command, but also received cold treatment after death. Until the fall of the Ming Dynasty, he did not get the posthumous posthumous title of Chongzhen.After Sun Chuanting's defeat, Li Zicheng easily occupied Shaanxi, and then went east to capture Beijing, destroying the Ming Dynasty.