At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were both political difficulties and continuous natural disasters. Peasant uprisings broke out in various places. One of the peasant armed forces led by Li Zicheng finally invaded Beijing in 1644, overthrew the Ming Dynasty and established the The Dashun regime, however, this new regime only existed for a short 42 days. Although there were factors that Wu Sangui and the Manchus jointly strangled, the "second in command" of the Dashun regime, Liu Zongmin, actually needs to bear a lot of responsibility. .
Who is also
It is generally believed that Liu Zongmin is from Lantian, Shaanxi. Lantian is hundreds of kilometers away from Li Zicheng's hometown Mizhi . The relationship between the two was introduced by Niu Jinxing . Liu Zongmin became a fierce general in Li Zicheng's account. It can be seen that Liu and Li did not know each other beforehand.
This does not seem to be enough to explain why Liu Zongmin never abandoned Li Zicheng and protected him to the death during the Ming army's encirclement and suppression. Also, after the establishment of the Dashun regime, Li Zicheng gave Liu Zongmin the important task of "pursuing stolen goods and providing salary".
A piece of material in "Jiashen Chronicle" provides another possibility:
Born in troubled times, Li Zicheng, who was eating "public food", was assigned to do hard work and made no progress for a long time. One day when he went to Liu Zongmin's blacksmith shop, he met Liu Zongmin again. The nephew Li Guo who went to the market to buy ingredients arrived. So Li Zicheng talked about the turmoil of the current situation, which resonated with the other two people. They immediately bought food to worship the gods and vowed to be thieves to jointly resist the oppression of the landlord class.
It can be seen from this that Liu Zongmin is also from Mizhi, Shaanxi. He has known Li Zicheng from his hometown for many years and has a close friendship. This friendship has withstood the test of many battles and been strengthened. From this, it is not difficult to understand Liu Zongmin’s persistence in leaving Li Zicheng. , and the important task Li Zicheng later assigned to Liu Zongmin.
Survive from desperation
1629, Liu Zongmin followed Li Zicheng and joined the team of Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang , and began the "Thief Horse" journey; with Gao Yingxiang's sacrifice, Li Zicheng became the "Chuang King" version 2.0, leading the team to continue with the war. The Ming army dealt with the situation, in which Liu Zongmin played a vital role: When he temporarily defeated the Hou Jin army in 11636, Chongzhen immediately took action and sent Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting to lead heavy troops to encircle and suppress Tongguan. Li Zicheng led his troops in order to solve the problem once and for all. According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty" records: Chengchou and Chuanting jointly attacked Tongguanyuan and destroyed it. In this battle, there was a huge disparity in strength between the two armies. Li Zicheng was defeated, and only 18 cavalry remained. However, these 18 cavalry, led by the seriously injured Liu Zongmin, fought desperately to prevent Li Zicheng from breaking through the encirclement and entering Shangluo Mountain.
- A single spark can start a prairie fire. While Liu Zongmin was learning the art of war, he was rigorously training new recruits. While his unit gradually improved, it also attracted another encirclement and suppression by the Ming army. As expected, the art of war came in handy. Liu Zongmin caught Li Zicheng by surprise and allowed Li Zicheng's troops to escape from the encirclement and avoid disaster.
- A few months later, the situation suddenly changed. Li Zicheng's troops were once again surrounded by the Ming army in Mianyang, Sichuan. The morale of the army was unstable for a while, and traitors appeared. Liu Zongmin made a "combination punch" in this regard: he publicly swore allegiance to Li Zicheng until death, and returned to camp to kill his wife so that she would not become a burden, so that he could protect Li Zicheng from breaking through and entering Yunjun Mountain.
Establishing the political power
Li Zicheng's troops then entered Henan, which suffered from locust plague , which caused "people to eat each other and all vegetation to be destroyed". The Ming Dynasty did not forget to impose exorbitant taxes. As a result, Li Zicheng put forward the slogan "Welcome to the King of Chuang, but don't pay for food", which quickly gained popularity and gave the people hope, and the rebel army grew rapidly.
Liu Zongmin, who had fought bravely and strictly in military management before, had experienced the baptism of war and grown a lot. He promptly proposed the operational policy of " first take Guanzhong , use it as a base, then move to Shanxi, and finally point directly to Beijing ", which Li Zicheng proposed The army finally captured Xi'an in 1643, established its capital here, and established the Dashun regime.
Immediately afterwards, the rebel troops were divided into two groups: one was led by Li Zicheng, passing through Datong and Juyongguan, and attacked Beijing from the north; the other was led by Liu Zongmin, passing through Baoding from Taiyuan, and attacking Beijing from the south. On the other hand, the Ming Dynasty was already riddled with holes, and it was at the end of its tether due to the "wheel war" between the rebel army and the Hou Jin army. It finally ended its 276-year rule in March 1644, and declared that The Dashun regime entered a new era.
Many good things
At the beginning of the Dashun regime's capital in Beijing, there were still three major forces in the land of China :
. The Nanming regime: Chongzhen hanged himself in Meishan, and a bunch of old and young people in Nanjing gathered to establish a new emperor to continue the "Thousand Years of the Ming Dynasty" "Wanshi" turned out to be a farce, and no one was convinced. Several Southern Ming regimes, including Hongguang, King Lu, Longwu, etc., appeared one after another. There was no sign of a comeback. On the contrary, it was the corruption, incompetence, and reciprocity of the late Ming Dynasty. The killings continued one after another, which led to the generals Zuo Liangyu, Gao Jie and others who were stationed in the south and had heavy troops in their hands to show the tendency to change their families; The Jurchens established their political power and gradually embarked on the road of outward expansion. They repeatedly invaded Liaodong and the Beijing-Tianjin area, committing many blood debts and triggering resolute resistance from the Han people. In addition, Manchuria's economy and culture lagged behind the Central Plains. The Jurchens regarded as an uncivilized nation;
. Daxi Regime: Another peasant uprising army, Zhang Xianzhong, established the Daxi Regime. It was relatively peaceful and nestled in the dangerous mountains and rivers of Sichuan, which somewhat made this regime lax, and the system The construction of the country lags behind the Dashun regime;
The Dashun regime occupies the national political, economic, and cultural center, and controls the five provinces of Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, and most of Gansu, Hubei, Jiangsu, and northern Anhui area.
More importantly, compared with the other three forces, all strata of society in the above-mentioned regions generally believe that the Dashun regime is the best substitute for the Daming Dynasty . This is reflected in the fact that wherever the Dashun army goes, the original In the Ming Dynasty, local officials led the people out of the city to welcome him, while senior officials from the central government rushed to recommend themselves, hoping to establish new achievements and occupy a place for the Dashun regime.
were defeated and killed
However, history has made a joke, and the Jurchens were finally chosen. The only blame is that the Dashun regime "sought death" and lost a good situation. Liu Zongmin must bear a large responsibility for this.
The first thing is to resist Li Zicheng's proclaimed emperor. If Li Zicheng proclaims himself emperor as soon as possible after entering Beijing, he will rectify the name of the Dashun regime and become Zhengshuo, and he can legitimately attack other forces. In this way, will firmly grasp the political initiative in his hands, and it will also be very helpful to win over Wu Sangui and Wu Sangui outside Shanhaiguan. Zuo Liangyu and other former Ming generals in the south of the Yangtze River also served as a deterrent to the Jurchens who were preparing to go south.
Such proposals, which could be said to be completely beneficial to the Dashun regime, caused Liu Zongmin to be seriously dissatisfied. He even said, " I was a bandit with him (Li Zicheng), why should I worship him? " Enthronement Ceremony On that day, all civil and military officials saluted, but Liu Zongmin was determined and undefeated. After repeated persuasion by Prime Minister Niu Jinxing, he bowed twice with great reluctance. After that, Liu Zongmin pretended to be crazy again, which made Li Zicheng unable to take up his position. It was not until the day before he left Beijing that he hastily completed the enthronement ceremony, and he also lost his political initiative.
The second is the treatment of officials at all levels of the original Ming Dynasty. The above mentioned social strata were eagerly looking forward to the Dashun regime. Facts have proved that this is just wishful thinking. In addition to hiring 90 officials below the third rank, the Dashun regime executed more than 500 former Ming nobles and military ministers and surrendered more than 3,000 officials.
The rest will be left to Liu Zongmin and Li Guo.Li Zicheng asked for differentiated treatment beforehand, but Liu Zongmin brutally tortured these people "one size fits all", and the proceeds were used as expenses for the government and the army, that is, "to recover stolen goods and provide salaries." Afterwards, Li Zicheng criticized, Liu Zongmin retorted, thinking that Li Zicheng had given power, Just don't worry about it so much.
The third is to fight for Wu Sangui. When the Eight Banners of Manchuria pressed on the border, Wu Sangui, who had tens of thousands of elite soldiers, became the key. Whichever side he fell to would increase the probability of victory for that side.
Liu Zongmin did not see it that way. He claimed that "a person as small as (Shanhaiguan) is not worth a cent of the capital." He believed that the millions of soldiers under his command did not take Wu Sangui seriously at all, which led to the torture and seizure of Wu Sangui's father. The incident of Wu Sangui's love for his concubine caused Li Zicheng's attempt to recruit an emperor to fall short, and Wu Sangui surrendered to Manchuria.
Due to the ebb and flow of the enemy, coupled with the underestimation of the enemy by senior generals led by Liu Zongmin, the Dashun Army passively responded to the battle without sufficient preparation and was defeated. The remaining troops hurriedly retreated to Beijing. Under the pursuit of the Eight Banners of Manchuria, Liu Zongmin and Li Zicheng were killed one after another.
Wu Sangui and Chen Yuanyuan
To sum up, Liu Zongmin’s career can be divided into two. After more than ten years of struggle in the early stage, he expanded his territory and reached the peak of his personal reputation, becoming second only to Li Zicheng. "Number Two"; in the later period, there were only 42 days. During this period, Liu Zongmin, who was the most important to the Dashun regime, behaved very immaturely, individualistically supreme, and indifferent to the overall situation due to conflicts of temperament. Regardless, the initiative was lost, life was not guaranteed, and the Dashun regime collapsed, which made people sigh with regret.
