Chapter 23 Chapter Five: The Legendary Story of Wu Sangui

When talking about Li Zicheng earlier, he said that he has a destructive personality, and his personality traits are most obvious in his treatment of Wu Sangui-taking his wife and killing his father.So what kind of personality traits does Wu Sangui have?In our modern terms, Wu Sangui has the spirit of chivalry. Wu Sangui's ancestors were originally from Gaoyou, but for unknown reasons, they immigrated to Kanto.Judging from this situation, their family should be criminals with previous convictions, because there were only two kinds of people who went to Liaodong at that time, one was exiled there after committing a crime, and the other was running out without being caught after committing a crime No one knows why Wu Sangui and his family used to go there.

Wu Sangui's father, Wu Xiang, was a very shrewd military general. His most famous tactic was to have long legs and run away quickly. In countless battles with the Qing soldiers, he rarely won, but the Qing soldiers never caught him. —He runs super fast.When Wu Xiang was fighting the Qing soldiers, his second son Wu Sangui was born.When Wu Sangui was born, he was very different from others. He was born crying non-stop, just like a dead father, crying so much that Wu Xiang was very troubled, and wanted to kill the child with a knife.But as soon as the knife was pulled out, the child was very happy. When he put the knife back, the child started crying again.Wu Xiang suddenly understood: this child likes to hear the sound of a knife.So he took Wu Sangui to the teaching field and let him watch those soldiers training, and little Wu Sangui was really happy.When Wu Sangui was nine years old, he disappeared suddenly. Wu Xiang was very confused and couldn't find him for a long time. That's all. It was normal to lose a child at that time.A year later, one day when Wu Xiang came home, he suddenly found a light in his son's room. When he went in, he found a tall boy, holding two strange things in his arms, meditating there.Wu Xiang took a look: Isn't this my missing son?Just ask him: Son, where have you been this year?Wu Sangui said: I went to the mountains with my master to learn art.Wu Xiang scolded: You little bastard, after running for a year, you go to the mountains to learn art?Who are you fooling?Wu Sangui said impatiently: Get out, stop bothering me, if you bother me again I will beat you.As soon as Wu Xiang heard that it was okay, she dragged Wu Sangui out and wanted to beat Wu Sangui severely.As a result, when Wu Sangui fought back, Wu Xiang was stupid at the time. Although Wu Sangui was only ten years old, his martial arts was learned from an unknown master in the middle of the mountains, and he was many times better than his father when he made a move.

Soon Wu Sangui went to Beijing to participate in the martial arts examination. His performance was very good and he easily won the first place.After winning the martial arts exam, you will have fame and fame, and you can be regarded as an officer.So the court sent him to the front to fight alongside his father.During this period, an incident happened. One day his father Wu Xiang led hundreds of people out of the city to investigate the situation. Not long after he left the city, he heard the sound of hooves in all directions. Four Qing cavalry surrounded Wu Xiang from four directions. in the middle.

At that time, Wu Xiang was terrified and launched a suicidal attack on the Qing soldiers.But the Qing soldiers did not fight, Wu Xiang and the others rushed forward, and the Qing soldiers retreated, but wherever Wu Xiang and the others rushed, the Qing soldiers surrounded him and followed him.It was only at this time that Wu Xiang realized that the Qing soldiers wanted to encircle and fight for aid.The Qing soldiers didn't kill him, but wanted to lure the city people out to save him. Once the city gates were opened, the Qing soldiers would rush into the city.In other words, Wu Xiang will not be rescued from the city, he is doomed.At this critical time, Wu Sangui rushed out of the city alone with twenty people, but he did so against the general's order.The general does not allow anyone to save him, because once he goes out, he will never return.With 20 people as helpers, Wu Sangui rushed directly into the Qing army's brigade, rescued his father, and stunned the tens of thousands of Qing cavalry.This matter has been reported to Emperor Chongzhen, who admired Wu Sangui very much.The act of riding alone to save his father spread throughout the government and the public, and became famous all over the world, but Wu Sangui was only in his teens that year.From then on, Wu Sangui guarded the border, and Wu Sangui also participated in the Battle of Songshan. In the Battle of Songshan, almost all the troops were basically wiped out by the Qing army, and only Wu Sangui brought all the people back.After escaping back, Wu Sangui became the only defender of Liaodong, and he became the mainstay and Dinghaishenzhen for the Ming Empire to resist the Qing army's dive against the Ming Dynasty.During this long offensive and defensive conflict, Li Zicheng invaded Beijing and killed Emperor Chongzhen, although before that, Emperor Chongzhen had ordered Wu Sangui to abandon Liaodong and move his troops to face Li Zicheng.

When Wu Sangui received the order to move his troops back to the customs, and just arrived at Shanhaiguan, the city of Beijing had been captured by Li Zicheng, and Emperor Chongzhen had hanged Meishan.The Ming Empire fell, and Wu Sangui became a lone army without a country or a rear.Wu Sangui has been fighting on the front line before, and the countries in the rear have been providing him with supplies, such as lost weapons and horses, but now no one provides him with these. The so-called alone is hard to stand.At this moment, Li Zicheng wrote a surrender letter to Wu Sangui, asking Wu Sangui to surrender.

After Wu Sangui received this letter, he held a meeting, recruited all his generals, and said to them: The current situation is like this. Our emperor is dead. As a subject, I should commit suicide and die for the country, but you follow I have been here for so many years, what will you do if I die?Now Li Zicheng's envoy to surrender has arrived, should we kill him and then everyone commit suicide, or accept the envoy's request and surrender Li Zicheng?I can't make up my mind on such a big matter, let's discuss it.The generals under Wu Sangui discussed for a long time, and finally agreed: Since Daming has perished, it is useless to struggle, then let us surrender too.

In this way, Wu Sangui thought for a while, then left the troops in Shanhaiguan, and led some cronies to go to Beijing to meet Li Zicheng. Destruction, and this letter is just the work of Li Zicheng's advisers.It was right to recruit Wu Sangui, but Li Zicheng had no idea of ​​the meaning of doing so. When Wu Sangui was halfway, he suddenly met one of his retainers. The retainer burst into tears when he saw him, and told Wu Sangui, "Your father, Wu Xiang, has been arrested by Li Zicheng. He was tortured every day and was forced to hand over all the family property. Wu Sangui laughed and said, Li Zicheng should be testing me, and when I surrender, my father will be fine.Then he asked again: how is Chen Yuanyuan doing?

This question is on the point, who is Chen Yuanyuan?Chen Yuanyuan was originally an actress in Yangzhou, who sang ditty songs. She was bought and sent to the palace, and wanted to give it to Chongzhen. .In this case, Chen Yuanyuan met Wu Sangui.At that time, Wu Sangui and Chen Yuanyuan had a marriage contract, and when Wu Sangui came back from Shanhaiguan, he was going to marry Chen Yuanyuan, and Chen Yuanyuan lived in Wu Sangui's mansion in Beijing. But after the fall of Beijing, Li Zicheng's general Liu Zongmin took Chen Yuanyuan away. When Wu Sangui heard the news, he had to reconsider his choice.

He analyzed it like this: My father was arrested because Li Zicheng carried out a large-scale robbery in Beijing, and all the officials were arrested. This may be reasonable; however, he also captured my woman, which is clearly true. My insult.He doesn't respect me to such an extent, and I still send him to my door, can he treat me as a human being?It must have killed me too.In this case, it is pointless for me to surrender any longer, I cannot die. So Wu Sangui returned to Shanhaiguan, called up the soldiers again, and explained the situation in detail.As a result, the Liao soldiers agreed that they must never surrender to Li Zicheng.Because Li Zicheng went against the grain and plundered the capital, this is not the attitude of governing the country, but destroying everything. Even if he surrenders, he will only be killed by him.Therefore, we must raise the flag and restore Daming again.

So Wu Sangui raised the flag to rebel in Shanhaiguan—he betrayed Li Zicheng.After receiving the news, Li Zicheng actually personally led all 300,000 people to attack Shanhaiguan.This is an unprecedented trick.How do you call it faint?Think about what Shanhaiguan is for, it was built to resist enemies outside the pass, but Li Zicheng, as Emperor Dashun, led his troops to fight from the inside.So Li Zicheng didn't think about anything before doing things. His creed of action is: If you don't make me happy, I won't make you happy. Wu Sangui's Liao soldiers had only 70,000 soldiers at the time, and it was difficult to defend the isolated city. When the two sides were fighting bloody, Wu Sangui had to make a decision: go to the Qing people to borrow troops.