Introduction
1 In April 644, the Manchurian military group entrenched in the northeast entered Shanhaiguan under the leadership of Wu Sangui, the rebel general of the Ming Dynasty, and became the main role in the Central Plains.
At this time, the Ming Dynasty, which ruled China for 276 years, had died, and was replaced by a split separatist situation.
Li Zicheng occupied Guanzhong , a large northern area of the Central Plains. Zhu Yousong established the Nanming in Nanjing, which was located in a corner of the south of the Yangtze River. Zhang Xianzhong established the Great Western Kingdom , and ruled Sichuan.
In the seemingly no chance of victory, the Manchu nobles galloped across the Central Plains with just 100,000 troops and defeated them one by one. In 18 years, they successively eliminated Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and the Southern Ming regime and established rule over the country.
Early Qing Dynasty map
From Later Jin to Manchu : Changes in ambitions before entering the pass
"Laozi" says: "The nine-story platform starts from the cumulative land." The Qing Dynasty went through many twists and turns from its establishment, development and growth to the competition for the Central Plains.
In 1583 AD, Nurhaci, the commander of the left guard of Jianzhou, raised his army with his grandfather and father's thirteenth deputy armor. In five years, the five Jianzhou divisions were unified and expanded northward.
For more than 20 years, he successively annexed the Haixi Jurchens and the savage Jurchens, unifying the Jurchen tribes of the northeastern region of . In 1616, Nurhaci established the Later Jin Dynasty and used the Eight Banners as the foundation of the founding of the country.
The so-called Eight Banners are the ones who serve the people in normal times and soldiers in wartime. The Jurchens made a living by fishing and hunting, were good at bows and horses, had a strong personality, and their property was robbed and their status was linked to military merits, so they had extremely strong combat power.
It can be said that the early Later Jin Dynasty was a slave military organization, an army disguised as a state.
1 In 618, Nurhaci used the " Seven Hate " to report to heaven and earth, and raised an army to rebel against the Ming Dynasty. The next year, the Ming Dynasty sent 200,000 troops to conquer the Later Jin Dynasty in four directions. Nurhaci used the 70,000 Eight Banners Army to face the enemy in Sarhu, and the famous Battle of Sarhu broke out.
Nurhaci relied on his super high military talent to concentrate his superior forces and defeated them one by one, defeating the more with less, and winning the Battle of Sarhu. From then on, the Jin Dynasty became a regime outside the pass along with the Ming Dynasty.
However, there was no evidence at this time that the Later Jin Dynasty had the ambition to replace the Ming Dynasty. The "Seven Hate" was just announcing the disagreement with the Ming Dynasty.
Perhaps Nurhaci just regarded himself as the second Xiongnu , sucking the wealth of the Ming Dynasty. After all, the Northeast was not effectively developed at that time and its productivity was limited. If it were not robbed, it would not be able to maintain the operation of the Later Jin Dynasty.
However, with Huang Taiji succeeding to the throne in 1626, the strategy of the Later Jin began to change. Because of the improvement of the Later Jin state system, population growth and the improvement of the level of Chineseization, Huang Taiji was not satisfied with being a barbarian king outside the Frontier, and he coveted the land of the Ming Dynasty even more.
Huang Taiji controlled all tribes in the southern desert through wars, marriages and other means for more than ten years, and expeditioned North Korea, a dependent state of the Ming Dynasty in the east, with the purpose of resolving the worries of attacking the Ming Dynasty.
1636 Huang Taiji was appointed emperor in Shengjing, changed the country's name to Qing , and decided to enter the Central Plains and destroy the Ming Dynasty. Just as Huang Taiji defeated North Korea in 1637, he said:
"Be blessed by heaven, North Korea has been pacified, Mongolia and Valkha are all attached, and now they are alive, It was just a matter of stopping the Ming Dynasty. "
set up the dominant rule in Beijing, and won over the Han nationality and landlord class
Manqing lies outside the pass. In 1643, Huang Taiji died of illness. At the age of six, Fulin succeeded to the throne, and Dorgon became the regent, in charge of real power.
At this time, the Ming Dynasty was already shaking, with party struggles within the court and peasant uprisings surging, especially Li Zicheng from northern Shaanxi, whose momentum was unstoppable and almost swept half of China.
1644, Li Zicheng conquered Beijing, Zhu Youjian hanged himself in Coal Mountain, and the Ming Dynasty declared its demise.
The Manchu rulers believed that the opportunity to enter the Central Plains had finally come. Dorgon gathered his troops within a few days, and all the males under seventy were joined in the army. The number of troops was mobilized by the Qing court himself, "There is no major move ahead and behind, as it is today.""
It can be said that Manchuria was almost fully dispatched and was determined to win. Soon, Dorgon successfully won over the general Wu Sangui in Shanhaiguan, and defeated Li Zicheng's Dashun army in the Shanhaiguan battle and successfully entered the pass.
Li Zicheng knew that he could not gain a foothold in the capital, so he had to retreat to Shanxi and Shaanxi. In May 1644, Dorgon took the lead in entering Beijing. In September, Shunzhi arrived in Beijing from Shengjing and issued an edict to the whole country to ascend the throne. At this point, Qing Dynasty officially established its capital in Beijing.
However, the test of the Qing Dynasty rulers has just begun. Although the Qing Dynasty has established Beijing, it is still questionable whether it can rule the world in the end and rule for a long time.
Although the Eight Banners Army is well-trained, skilled in cavalry and shooting, and powerful, its weakness is that it has too few people. The Eight Banners Army has only 100,000 troops. In addition, the Mongolian Eight Banners, Wu Sangui and other Han people surrendered, the total is only 150,000.
The three opponents faced by the Qing army, the Ming army, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, are far more powerful than the Qing Dynasty. Although the Ming Dynasty has perished, it is in the whole country. There are still millions of troops in various places, King Fu Zhu Yousong has established the Southern Ming regime in Nanjing and its strength has been gathered again.
Although the Dashun army led by Li Zicheng suffered heavy damage in Shanhaiguan, it still has 200,000 people. Zhang Xianzhong occupied Sichuan to establish the Daxi Kingdom, with a force of 200,000 to 300,000, which is very powerful.
The population occupies an absolute minority. If the Qing Dynasty wants to gain a foothold, it must lower its attitude and strive for the support of Han landlords and scholars.
Therefore, after the Qing army occupied Beijing, Dorgon strictly Constrain military discipline, do not slaughter the people, do not burn houses, do not plunder property, and the military and civilians have no crimes, but those who resist will kill them, and they also mourn for Chongzhen , winning the favor of Han intellectuals, so the situation in the capital settled in a short time.
At the same time, the Qing Dynasty adopted a policy of surrendering and bribery, promoted a large number of surrendered generals of the Ming Dynasty, and won the title of kings and marquis. They were favored and honored. For example, Wu Sangui, Shangkexi , Geng Zhongming , Hong Chengchou , Zu Dashou were all highly valued by the Qing court, Aisin Jueluo The royal family completely gained a foothold in Beijing.
Two routes of the west expedition, and the force of extermination of Li Zicheng
Facing the major powerful enemies who were separating one side, the Qing Dynasty adopted the strategy of concentrating superior forces and defeating each.
Dorgon expressed his idea of resolutely exterminating the peasant army to the Southern Ming Dynasty, and greatly appeased and paralyzed the officials of the Southern Ming Dynasty, giving the illusion of allowing them to remain calm in the south of the Yangtze River. The other side of the army headed west and attacked the peasant army.
The first one to eliminate was Li Zicheng. In October 1644, the Qing army divided into two north and south routes to attack the Dashun Army: the north route was Prince Ying Aji Ge, Wu Sangui, Shang Kexi traveled south through Datong , Yulin , Yan'an, south route, Prince Yu Duoduo, Kong Youde attacked by Henan Tongguan .
Although the Dashun Army is very large, its military composition is basically a refugee, its combat effectiveness is too poor, and it has experienced setbacks such as Shanhaiguan defeat and Beijing fleeing west. Its fighting will is sluggish, and it is not an opponent of the Eight Banners at all.
In December of that year, Duoduo scored 20,000 The cavalry and Li Zicheng fought a decisive battle at Tongguan. The Qing army first used red cannons to bombard the Dashun Army's positions, and then the cavalry rushed forward. The main force attacked the front, and another force surrounded the flanks.
Although Li Zicheng personally supervised the battle, he still retreated step by step. At this time, the 30,000 cavalry of the Qing army on the northern route had captured northern Shaanxi and headed south to Xi'an. Li Zicheng fell into the north and south attack, retreated to Xi'an overnight. Tongguan was trapped in the hands of the Qing army and opened the door to Shaanxi.
Later, under the joint attack of the Qing army, Li Zicheng had to give up Xi'an and turn east to Xiangyang, Hubei.
1 In May 1645, when Li Zicheng retreated to Jiugongshan, Tongshan County, Hubei, he was attacked by local landlords and unfortunately died. The Dashun regime was destroyed. The northwest, Henan, Hubei and other provinces were owned by the Qing army.
The Southern Ming united the enemy to attack the enemy and tied himself up in a cocoon. In May 1644, the grandson of the Emperor 4 Wanli, Zhu Yousong, succeeded to the throne in Nanjing, with the reign of Hongguang.
When the Dashun army and the Qing army both went south, the Southern Ming did not understand the war situation in the north at all, nor could he see that it was not the peasant army that threatened the survival of the Southern Ming Dynasty, but the Qing regime.
Therefore, the Hongguang regime still regarded the Dashun Army as the primary enemy and established the general policy of "union of enemy forces to attack the enemy". Shi Kefa even emphasized in "The Commentary on the Destruction of the Bandits of Qing Dynasty":
"The most urgent thing at present is nothing to do with the enemy."
When Li Zicheng was defeated by the Qing army, the Southern Ming still did not care, and regarded the Qing army's behavior as a friendly act to help the Ming Dynasty revenge, and even demanded peace with the Qing Dynasty to maintain peace in the south of the Yangtze River.
When the Qing army was using troops in the northwest and Hubei, the power of Henan, Anhui and other places was vacant. Jiangbei Four Towns Supervisor Shi Fa was indifferent and ignored the Qing Dynasty.
1 In March 645, Li Zicheng's failure was a foregone conclusion. The Qing court moved the military focus eastward, but there was a fierce party struggle within the Southern Ming court, and no one was careful to manage defense. Although Shi Kefa is in the name of the commander in Yangzhou , he is unable to mobilize the troops from the four towns.
Only one month later, Duoduo led the Qing troops south to drive straight in, and the troops were approaching the city of Yangzhou. Soon, Yangzhou city was broken, Shi Kefa died for the country, the Qing army massacred the city, and 800,000 soldiers and civilians died tragically under the knife, which is known in history as " Yangzhou Ten Days ".
Subsequently, the Qing army crossed the Yangtze River and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. Emperor Hongguang, who had been reigned for only one year, was captured and sent to Beijing to execute him.
After the demise of the Hongguang regime, two Southern Ming regimes appeared in the southeast, namely the Tang king Zhu Youjian in Fuzhou, the year name Longwu , and the Shaoxing in Shuoxing Zhu Yihai.
However, the two major regimes are not only inconsistent with the outside world, but instead fight each other and keep internal friction. Since 1646, the Qing army has swept the eastern Zhejiang regime, and Shaoxing, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Yiwu, etc. have successively lost their power, and the eastern Zhejiang regime was ended in 1653.
After that, the Qing army rushed towards the Longwu regime in Fujian. Zheng Zhilong, who held military power, led 110,000 troops to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, "withdrawing all the water and land defenses in the passes", and the land of Fujian collapsed.
The Qing army quickly captured Zhangzhou , Quanzhou , Putian and other places. Emperor Longwu was taken back to Fuzhou by the Qing soldiers and executed. The Longwu regime was completely destroyed, and Fujian and Jiangxi were all occupied by the Qing army.
At the same time, King Gui Zhu Youlang proclaimed himself emperor in Zhaoqing, Guangdong in 1646. He was the Yongli regime and joined forces with Zhang Xianzhong and Zheng Chenggong to carry out the Northern Expedition.
However, with the stability of the Qing Dynasty's forces in the north and the elimination of the Southern Ming forces such as eastern Zhejiang and Fujian, the Yongli regime could no longer cause great waves.
1659 In 2016, the Qing army launched a large-scale attack on southwest . The Yongli army was defeated. Emperor Yongli saw that the situation was hopeless and fled to Myanmar. The Qing army pursued the fleeing Ming army in two groups. In December 1661, Emperor Yongli was handed over by the Burmese people. The following year, he was hanged by Wu Sangui in Kunming. The Southern Ming regime was completely destroyed.
It can be said that the main reason why the Qing Dynasty was able to deal with the Southern Ming was because the Nan Ming was self-defeating. From the alliance to the party struggles in the court, to the joint establishment of the three kings, fierce internal friction and wrong strategies were the main reasons for its demise. The Qing Dynasty took a big advantage at the right time.
marched into the southwest and pacified Zhang Xianzhong's separatist forces
1 In October 644, Zhang Xianzhong became the emperor in Chengdu and the country was named " Daxi ", becoming the second largest peasant separatist force after Dashun , and its territory covers the entire Sichuan and Chongqing region.
However, because Zhang Xianzhong's regime is located in a corner of Sichuan, it has no big impact on the overall situation and cannot challenge the authority of the Qing Dynasty. It was not until after destroying the Dashun regime and the Hongguang regime that the attention turned to the Daxi regime, which was separatist.
. Seeing the rapid expansion of the Qing court's power, Zhang Xianzhong began to implement the joint Ming Dynasty and anti-Qing, but it was too late.
1 In December 1646, Haoge led the Qing army from Shaanxi to Sichuan and launched a fierce offensive against Zhang Xianzhong's camp in Fenghuang Mountain in Xichong. The Daxi Army was defeated and fell. In early 1647, Zhang Xianzhong was shot and died, and the Daxi regime collapsed.
Later, the rest of the troops went south to Yunnan and surrendered to the Yongli regime until 1662, the general of the Western Conference, Li Dingguo, died of illness in Mengla, Myanmar.
short notes
The Qing Dynasty used 18 years to clear out all the separatist forces of China and ended the fragmentation of China at that time, although the centralized rule of the Qing Dynasty and the humiliating performance in modern times have caused many criticisms in later generations.
But from the perspective of that time, neither the Southern Ming Dynasty court, Li Zicheng nor Zhang Xianzhong were able to bear the historical responsibility of unifying China due to their own limitations and disadvantages.
The Qing Dynasty was struggling and rushing on the battlefield of competing for the Central Plains, and its political and military means were far stronger than those of the three opponents, and finally he was able to win the world and achieve the "great unification" of the country.
