Chapter 24 Chapter 24 Nanming’s Road to Perdition

On March 19th, the seventeenth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1644), Li Zicheng, the emperor of the "Dashun" Dynasty, led his army to attack Beijing. Most of the civil and military officials surrendered.The Ming Dynasty, which ruled China for 266 years, has now perished.Then Wu Sangui, the commander-in-chief of Ningyuan, surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. On April 13, Wu Sangui and the Qing army allied forces defeated Li Zicheng's 200,000 troops in the Battle of Shanhaiguan, and the short-lived Dashun regime collapsed.Then Wu Sangui acted as the vanguard of the Qing Dynasty, first chasing and killing Li Zicheng, and then went south to attack the Nanming regime, and finally helped the Qing Dynasty to unify the world and establish a unified Qing Empire.

Later generations regard 1644 as a turning point in history, especially as the end of the Ming Dynasty.In fact, after Chongzhen committed suicide, the Ming Dynasty did not completely lose its vitality. The survivors who were loyal to the Ming Dynasty at that time did not realize that the Ming Dynasty was about to collapse that year. On the contrary, most of them believed that the Southern Ming Dynasty was about to begin.The Nanming Dynasty, which continued to establish political power after the Ming Dynasty fell, has every chance to avoid extinction and even unify the world.However, historical opportunities have been ruthlessly missed time and time again.

And let's take a look at the whole process. In 1644 A.D., Wu Sangui entered the customs with the help of Qing soldiers. Later generations thought he was a traitor, but at that time, many people didn't think so.For example, Shi Kefa, a famous minister of the Nanming Dynasty who later defended Yangzhou and died unyielding, had high hopes for Wu Sangui and even the Qing army.When Wu Sangui Shanguan defeated Li Zicheng and led his troops to the south, Shi Kefa was very excited. He praised his friend Liu Zongzhou and said: "General Wu (Wu Sangui) is loyal and wants to be loyal to Wu Ye." The behavior of the soldiers is seen as a replica of Guo Ziyi's use of Uighur soldiers to pacify Anlu Mountain.Within the Nanming regime at that time, "borrowing captivity to pacify the bandits" was the consensus of many ministers, including famous officials such as Shi Kefa and Qian Qianyi. The primary enemy in their eyes was still Li Zicheng, who forced Chongzhen to death.

When people today talk about the Qing Dynasty going south, they always say that it is a long-planned plan of great talents. In fact, after the occupation of Beijing, the Qing Dynasty also hesitated several times on the issue of what to do in the future.For example, Prince Zheng Jierhalang, who was also the auxiliary minister with Dorgon, once said to Dorgon: "Occupying the Central Plains is not long enough, it is better to return to the north as soon as possible." Many princes and relatives also worried that the Qing Dynasty would find it difficult to gain a foothold They all advocated looting and retreating northward.It was the Han officials such as Hong Chengchou who really advocated the establishment of the Qing Dynasty. After several hesitations, the "Regent" Dorgon, who was in charge of the Qing Dynasty at that time, finally decided to gain a foothold in the Central Plains.In order to win the support of the royal family and nobles, the Qing army issued the "Enclosure Order" shortly after occupying Beijing, allowing princes and nobles to enclose land in the Central Plains with tax exemption.With "vested interests", the Qing Dynasty united with one heart and one mind, and started the national unification war.

Judging from the distribution of power at that time, the situation may not be beneficial to the Qing Dynasty.After the Qing Dynasty expelled Li Zicheng, the controlled area was only the land north of the Huaihe River and east of Shaanxi.At that time, the land of Jiangnan was still in the hands of the Nanming regime.In May 1644, Zhu Yousong, King of Fu, ascended the throne in Nanjing and established the Nanming Hongguang regime.From the perspective of military power, the Nanming Hongguang regime has more than 1 million troops and a rich southeast land. Even if the Central Plains cannot be regained, there will be no problem in planning the river to protect itself.In addition, Zhang Xianzhong was still in Sichuan, and Li Zicheng's remaining troops were also active everywhere. The Qing Dynasty unified the whole country. In terms of the situation, it was far more difficult than the Jin Dynasty after the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty.

But the Nanming regime itself helped the Qing Dynasty.People today say that Emperor Hongguang of Nanming was licentious, but the biggest problem in Nanming is "party struggle".Before Zhu Yousong ascended the throne, there were conflicts among the forces surrounding who would inherit the empire. Shi Kefa, Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, advocated the establishment of Zhu Changying, the king of Gui, while the Donglin Party members headed by Qian Qianyi wanted to establish Zhu Changfang, the king of the road. The result of the conflict was a compromise. ——Fu Wang Zhu Yousong ascended the throne as emperor, and changed his reign name to Hongguang.The forces of the Hongguang regime are mainly the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party.The Donglin Party is headed by Qian Qianyi, Minister of Rites, and the Eunuch Party is dominated by Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng.Here I want to talk about Ma Shiying. In many historical books and operas, Ma Shiying is classified as a "treacherous minister" because he recommended Wei Zhongxian's party member Ruan Dacheng to come back. , made a lot of achievements.In the early years, he was the governor of the Xuanfu. In the 15th year of Chongzhen, he was also the governor of Luzhou and Fengyang. credit.In the early days of the founding of the Southern Ming Dynasty, compared with many scholars who had no practical ability in government affairs, he was a talented person.

Nanming's internal friction started from Lichu.In the end, Zhu Yousong became the throne because Ma Shiying, the governor of Fengyang Military Affairs, led an army of 50,000 troops to Nanjing with Zhu Yousong, creating an "established fact".Then the Donglin party members lost their power, and the eunuch Ruan Dacheng was recommended by Ma Shiying to come out again.After being excluded, the members of the Donglin Party followed suit. Gao Hongtu confided in colluding with Zuo Liangyu, Marquis of Ningnan, who was holding a heavy army at this time, and asked him to come forward "on the side of the Qing emperor", that is, to help the Donglin Party seize power.In March of the first year of Hongguang (AD 1645), Zuo Liangyu officially sent troops to force Jiujiang.In order to guard against Zuo Liangyu, Ma Shiying urgently ordered Shi Kefa, the supervisor of Yangzhou at this time, to resist, and the defense line in Jiangbei was completely withdrawn.At this time, the Qing army, led by Azig and Duoduo, went south in a large scale. Taking advantage of the internal friction of the Nanming regime, the soldiers crossed the Yangtze River without bloodshed.Zuo Liangyu died of illness on the "Qingjun side" road, and the whole army surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. Shi Kefa's "Four Towns in the North of the Yangtze River" deployed in the north of Yangzhou also fell, and the overall situation of the Hongguang regime was irreparable.On May 13, the Qing army captured Yangzhou, and Shi Kefa was killed unyieldingly.On May 14th, the Qing army occupied Nanjing, and most of the officials in the Southern Ming Dynasty were captured. Ruan Dacheng, Qian Qianyi and others surrendered.After Ma Shiying escaped, he took the queen mother and retreated to Zhejiang, and was captured and killed by the Qing army.The Nanming Hongguang regime existed for only one year before it came to an end.Looking at the entire demise process, the real disaster lies in party struggle.The Donglin Party, which has always been considered "justice", first colluded with Zuo Liangyu to raise troops, and Qian Qianyi and his like voluntarily surrendered later. It can be said that it was the "pushing hand" for the Qing army to go south.

When modern people talk about the demise of the Hongguang regime, they always describe the Donglin Party, which was excluded at that time, as "justice", and Ma Shiying, Ruan Dacheng and others as "evil".But neither side had "justice" at all. Speaking of the "practical facts" of resisting the Qing Dynasty, it was the "treacherous official" Ma Shiying who contributed more.If the Southern Dynasty had no party struggles and internal friction, it would have been almost impossible for the Qing Dynasty to quickly pacify Jiangnan. After the demise of the Hongguang regime, many small courts of the Southern Ming Dynasty appeared in southern China, but they all fought on their own and were short-lived.Moreover, there were more mutual killings between the small courts than the battles against the Qing Dynasty.In the next ten years, the Qing army went all the way south, conquered the city, and issued a hair-shaving order, forcing the people to shave their hair and make clothes easier, which caused countless resistance.The Nanming court that really caused huge troubles for the Qing Dynasty was the last Nanming Dynasty, the Yongli Dynasty.

The Yongli regime was established on December 22, 1646. Yongli Emperor Zhu Youlang was the direct grandson of Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun.After the fall of the Longwu regime in the Southern Ming Dynasty, he ascended the throne in Zhaoqing, Guangdong under the support of Qu Shixu, governor of Guangxi.Compared with other emperors of the Southern Ming Dynasty, Emperor Yongli was a hard-working man. Only 7 days after he ascended the throne, the Qing army rushed quickly and Ganzhou fell.The Yongli court had to move to Guangxi and set its capital in Guilin.Under the hardships and hardships, Emperor Yongli made a decisive decision and decided to unite with the rest of the former peasant army scattered in various places to fight against the Qing Dynasty together. This decision ushered in the dawn of the Nanming regime.The Yongli regime successively accepted the Hao Yaoqi Department and Li Guo Department of the Dashun Army, and joined forces with Huguang Governor He Tengjiao to defeat the enemy.In April of the same year, the Southern Ming army achieved the "Great Victory in Hunan". He Tengjiao won nine battles in Hunan and almost recovered the entire territory of Hunan.At the same time, Han generals such as Li Chengdong and Jin Shengheng in the Qing army also revolted one after another, rebelling against the Qing and descending to the Ming Dynasty. The area controlled by the Yongli regime had expanded to Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Jiangxi, and Guizhou by 1649 AD. , Guangdong seven provinces, almost sitting on southern China.

"Party struggle", the curse of the Ming Dynasty, followed one after another again. Like the Hongguang regime, the Yongli regime was also a mixed bag of fish and dragons. There were not only the remnants of the Dashun Army, but also Donglin Qingliu, as well as members of the Eunuch Party. In a crisis, you may be able to be united. Once the situation improves, internal problems will surface.In the party struggle within the Yongli regime, the protagonists were the "Wu Party" and the "Chu Party". In the uprising army, there were constant conflicts between the "regular army" and the surrendered peasant army. The regular army generally discriminated against the peasant army and often provoked mutiny.In 1649 AD, when the Qing army attacked Hunan, He Tengjiao, the governor stationed there, made a mistake in his command and was attacked by the Qing army Kong Youde's department, and was captured and killed.In April of the same year, Li Chengdong, the general of Yongli who had just "revolted", was annihilated in Xinfeng, Jiangxi, and the situation of the Yongli Dynasty took a turn for the worse.At the end of 1650 A.D., Qu Shixu, a minister of the auxiliary state of Emperor Yongli, defeated Quanzhou and became benevolent.These failures, apparently due to military reasons, were actually internal contradictions.For example, in the Battle of Hunan, when the Qing army suppressed the border, a mutiny civil war occurred between the regular army of the Southern Ming Dynasty and the peasant army.Li Chengdong's defeat was also due to the interference of Yongli's favorite minister Ma Jixiang, who cut off the supply of Li's army and fought alone, and the entire army was wiped out.In 1651 AD, Li Laiheng, the general of the Peasant Army, announced that he would break away from the Yongli regime and fight against the Qing Dynasty independently.The great situation has been completely ruined so far.Although Emperor Yongli joined forces with the Great Western Army and once Li Dingguo launched the Northern Expedition and defeated the Qing army, he was unable to turn the tide at this time.In 1662 AD, Emperor Yongli, who fled to Burma, was repatriated by Burma, and was hanged in Kunming by Wu Sangui, king of Pingxi in the Qing Dynasty.