Chapter 68 249 Wu Sangui Borrows Qing Soldiers

In 1644 AD, Li Zicheng formally established a political power in Xi'an, with the country name Dashun.Then, Li Zicheng led one million uprising soldiers, crossed the Yellow River, and attacked Beijing in two ways.The two armies were so powerful that they joined forces at the foot of Beijing in March of this year.The three most elite battalions of the Ming army stationed outside the city all surrendered. The insurgents stormed the city of Beijing.On the second night, Emperor Chongzhen boarded Meishan (behind the imperial palace, now Jingshan in Beijing) and looked around. He saw the flames shining in the sky. Knowing that the situation was critical, he ran back to the palace and rang the bell desperately, trying to summon the officials to come. protect him.

After waiting for a long time, there was no sign of anyone.Only then did he know that the end was coming, and he returned to Meishan, where he hanged himself under a locust tree beside the Shouhuang Pavilion.The Ming Dynasty, which ruled China for 277 years, declared its demise. When the Dashun uprising army broke through Beijing, the general Liu Zongmin first led the team into the city, and then Li Zicheng, the king of Dashun, wearing a hat and blue cloth clothes, straddled a horse and slowly entered the Forbidden City.The people of Beijing put up lanterns and festoons to welcome the rebels as if they were celebrating a festival.

On the one hand, the Dashun regime issued a list to comfort the people, telling everyone to live and work in peace and contentment; on the other hand, it severely punished the imperial relatives and corrupt officials of the Ming Dynasty.Li Zicheng sent Liu Zongmin and Li Guo to order those dignitaries to hand over the stolen money they usually plundered from the people to serve as the rebel army's salary, and those who refused to pay were severely punished.A few royal relatives who were outraged by the people were arrested and beheaded by the rebel army. There was a great bureaucrat named Wu Xiang, whose family property was confiscated by Liu Zongmin, and he was arrested to recover the stolen goods.Someone told Li Zicheng that Wu Xiang's son, Wu Sangua, was the commander-in-chief of Shanhaiguan in the Ming Dynasty, and he had hundreds of thousands of troops under his command.If Wu Sangui was recruited to surrender, wouldn't it be a threat to the Dashun regime?

Li Zicheng felt that this idea was very reasonable, so he asked Wu Xiang to write a letter to his son, persuading him to surrender to the rebel army. Wu Sangui was originally sent by the Ming Dynasty to fight against the Qing Dynasty outside the pass, and was stationed in the Ningyuan area for defense.When the rebel army approached Beijing, Emperor Chongzhen successively ordered Wu Sangui to lead troops into the pass to deal with the rebel army.Wu Sangui rushed to Shanhaiguan, and Beijing had been captured by the rebels.A few days later, Wu Sangui received Wu Xiang's letter of persuasion, and hesitated.Surrender to the rebel army, of course he is unwilling; or else surrender, the rebel army is brave and good at fighting, with powerful troops, and I am not their opponent.Besides, Beijing still has his family's property, and he is reluctant to throw it away.Since Li Zicheng came to surrender, it is better to go to Beijing to see the situation.

Wu Sangui led his troops to Luanzhou, getting closer and closer to Beijing, and met some people who had escaped from Beijing.Wu Sangui came to ask. At first, he heard that his father Wu Xiang was arrested and his family property was confiscated, and he was already gnashing his teeth with hatred; then, he heard that his favorite singer Chen Yuanyuan was also captured by the rebel army, and he was even more angry. Immediately ordered to return to Shanhaiguan, and all the soldiers were asked to put on white helmets and white armor, saying that they wanted to avenge the dead Emperor Chongzhen. Li Zicheng learned that Wu Sangui refused to surrender, and decided to personally lead an army of more than 200,000 to attack Shanhaiguan.Wu Sangui was already afraid of the Peasant Army, and when he heard the news, he was so frightened that his soul was out of his body.Regardless of national integrity, he wrote a letter and sent people flying out of the customs, asking the Qing Dynasty to help him suppress the rebel army.

Dorgon, the prince of the Qing Dynasty, received Wu Sangui's distress letter and felt that the opportunity had come, so he immediately replied and agreed.Then, he personally led more than 100,000 Qing soldiers to advance to Shanhaiguan day and night. When the Qing army arrived at Shanhaiguan, Wu Sangui couldn't wait to take 500 soldiers out of the customs to meet Dorgon.He met Duo ErGun, humbly begged Duo ErGun to help him take revenge.Duo ErGun naturally agreed.Wu Sangui invited Dorgon into the pass, held a banquet, killed the white horse and black cow, worshiped the heaven and the earth, and established an alliance.

Li Zicheng's army marched from the south to the border of Shanhaiguan.More than 200,000 rebels, relying on the mountains and the sea, formed a mighty formation, which could not be seen at a glance.The treacherous and cunning Dorgon saw the strong lineup of the rebel army from the top of the city, and expected that it would not be easy to deal with, so he asked Wu Sangui to lead the vanguard and told the Qing army to lie in ambush, while he and several Qing generals hid on the hill behind to watch the battle. The battle began, and Li Zicheng rode his horse to the west to command the battle.As soon as Wu Sangui led his troops out of the city, the left and right wings of the rebel army encircled and surrounded Wu Sangui and his team.The Ming soldiers fled east and west, unable to break through the encirclement; the rebels all fought bloody battles, and the shouts of killing shook the sky and the earth.

When the two sides were fighting fiercely, unexpectedly, there was a gust of wind by the sea, and the dust and sand on the ground were blown up. For a moment, it was dark and no one could be seen on the other side.Dorgon saw the right moment and ordered tens of thousands of Qing soldiers ambushing behind the formation to dispatch together to attack the rebels suddenly.The rebel army was unprepared, and they couldn't figure out where the enemy came from. When they panicked, the formation fell into chaos.It wasn't until the wind calmed down and the sky cleared up that it was clear that the opponent was a Qing soldier with braids.

Li Zicheng found that the Qing soldiers had entered the pass on the west mountain. He wanted to stabilize his position and command resistance, but it was too late, so he had to send an order to retreat.Dorgon and Wu Sangui's troops attacked from inside and outside, and the rebel army suffered a disastrous defeat. Li Zicheng led the soldiers to retreat while fighting.Relying on the momentum of the Qing soldiers, Wu Sangui followed closely behind.When the rebel army returned to Beijing, its strength had been greatly weakened. After Li Zicheng returned to Beijing, he held an enthronement ceremony in the palace hall and accepted the audience of officials.Early the next morning, he led the rebel army, left Beijing, and retreated to Xi'an.

On the third day after Li Zicheng left Beijing, Dorgon led the Qing soldiers and marched into Beijing in a majestic manner.In October 1644 AD, Dorgon took Emperor Shunzhi from Shenyang to Beijing and made Beijing the capital of the Qing Dynasty.From then on, the Qing Dynasty began to establish its rule in China. In the second year, the Qing Dynasty divided its troops into two groups to attack Xi'an.One was led by Azige, Wu Sangui, and Shang Kexi, and the other was led by Duoduo (sound duo) and Kong Youde.Li Zicheng led the peasant army to fight against the Qing army in Tongguan. After fierce fighting, he was finally forced to abandon Xi'an and move to Xiangyang.A few months later, the peasant army was attacked by local landlords in Jiugong Mountain, Tongshan County, Hubei Province, and Li Zicheng was defeated and sacrificed.

After Li Zicheng withdrew from Beijing, Zhang Xianzhong proclaimed himself emperor in Sichuan, with the name Daxi, and continued to fight against the Qing army.In 1647 AD, when the Qing army entered Sichuan, Zhang Xianzhong was killed by an arrow in a battle at Fenghuang Mountain in Xichong, northern Sichuan.In this way, the two main rebel armies in the last years of the Ming Dynasty failed.