Zhang Xianzhong is often compared with Li Zicheng, but unfortunately, Zhang Xianzhong never seems to be Li Zicheng's opponent. Li Zicheng entered the city of Beijing and forced Emperor Chongzhen to death, while Zhang Xianzhong was forced to Sichuan by Li Zicheng, far away from the traditional political center; Li Zicheng established the Dashun Dynasty and ruled Shaanxi, Shanxi, Beizhili, Shandong, and Shandong at his peak. Although Zhang Xianzhong also established the Daxi dynasty in Henan, Hubei, and the northwest, the territory is limited to a dozen counties around Chengdu in Sichuan, which is not the same as Li Zicheng’s Dashun dynasty; even in terms of reputation, Zhang Xianzhong is far behind. For Li Zicheng, Li Zicheng has a high prestige among the people, and there is a saying that "the king came and cannot pay for food", while Zhang Xianzhong is synonymous with the murderer, and the best term used by Sichuanese to scare children.
大顺朝
However, there is one point that Zhang Xianzhong is far better than Li Zicheng. This is probably something that Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng did not expect. After the death of the two of them, Zhang Xianzhong's remaining achievements were far higher than those of Li Zicheng's.
After the death of Li Zicheng, although the rest of the Dashun Army united with the Nanming Longwu dynasty to resist the Qing Dynasty, it was adapted as a "loyal camp", but it was not trusted by the Nanming rulers and the bureaucracy and ultimately failed to achieve great success. The Loyalty Camp was also gradually disintegrated. Although Li Laiheng and others persisted in resisting the Qing Dynasty for more than ten years in the Kuidong area, the symbolic significance of this struggle was greater than the practical significance, and it could not constitute a substantial threat to the rule of the Qing Dynasty.
李自成
On the other hand, Zhang Xianzhong's rest of the Great Western Army, after Zhang Xianzhong's death, the rest of the Great Western Army entered Yunnan and used it as a base to recuperate and live together several years later. The Yongli dynasty of the Nanming Dynasty went out of Yunnan to fight against the Qing Dynasty and once achieved good results. The rest of the Great Western Army, led by Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo, regained Guizhou, Hubei, Guangxi, and Guangdong for Nanming. Li Dingguo was the two famous kings and broke The myth of the invincibility of the Qing army, Sun Kewang was in power, and even Emperor Yongli was played by him. This shows the influence of Zhang Xianzhong's remaining part in the late Ming and early Qing periods.
Then why Zhang Xianzhong was not as good as Li Zicheng before his death, but after their death, Zhang Xianzhong's subordinates could come from behind? So what advantages does the rest of the Great Western Army have? What kind of policy helped the Great Western Army to "defeat" the Great Shun Army?
Compared with the rest of the Dashun Army, the rest of the Daxi Army has two incomparable advantages:
First of all, the Dashun Army lacked a unified leadership core after Li Zicheng’s death, Li Zicheng Although Li Guo, Gao Yigong and others under his command had certain prestige, they did not have absolute advantages. As a result, the strength of many of the Dashun Army's lower-level troops surpassed these high-ranking generals. The dislocation of status and strength led to the Dashun Army. It became a piece of loose sand, but Zhang Xianzhong’s remaining part of the Great Western Army was different. Zhang Xianzhong’s four adopted children, Kewang, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu and Ainengqi, had both status and strength, and they were well-deserved leaders. After that, the four elected Sun Kewang as the "Leader" and jointly led the rest of the Great Western Army. With unified leadership, the entire army has a clear direction for progress.
Sun Kewang stills
Secondly, the rest of the Dashun Army has no fixed base areas. After successive failures in Beijing and Xi’an, Li Zicheng led the Dashun Army to withdraw southward. The Shun Army gave up all the areas originally occupied and completely retreated to the original mobile combat state. Moreover, because there was no strong leadership core, the Dashun Army failed to obtain a large and stable base while cooperating with Nanming. The Dashun Army develops, so the army can only be continuously consumed and cannot grow. The rest of the Western Army was different. Under the leadership of core forces such as Sun Kewang, the rest of the Western Army entered Yunnan via Guizhou and spent several years in Yunnan. When it came out of the mountain, the Western Army was strong and strong, with sufficient food and grass, sophisticated equipment, and more combat power than Zhang Xianzhong. There have been pasts and no less, and all these are thanks to the great rear of Yunnan.
1647 Situation Chart
Of course, just having the above two measures may not be enough, and there must be adequate policies to support them. Sun Kewang and others have adopted a series of policies in Yunnan for more than three years, and achieved remarkable results in the governance of Yunnan.
First, Sun Kewang abolished the national title of Daxiguo and put forward the slogan of "Recovering the country after supporting the Ming together". This is undoubtedly a very far-sighted political opinion. Under the circumstances at the time, it was possible to abandon the previous suspicions and give up the name of the regime established by Zhang Xianzhong, hoping to unite with the Ming Dynasty. This requires a certain amount of foresight and courage, and all of this Sun Kewang did it. Although they gave up the national title, Sun Kewang and others did not give up the construction of local power in Yunnan. They have everything from the imperial court to local officials, performing their duties, and organizing Yunnan in an orderly manner.
Secondly, Sun Kewang adopts the policy of collecting taxes to replace the previous practice of pursuing payment to officials and chieftains. Although the rest of the Great Western Army has a large number of people, and a large amount of military pay is needed to feed this army, Sun Kewang knows that forcing the confiscation of the property of officials and gentry can only be a temporary solution, not a long-term solution. Only by adopting appropriate tax policies can we obtain Yunnan Province The unanimous support of the people. In addition, Sun Kewang and others also cast "Xingchao Tongbao". The unified currency in circulation promoted the development of trade and the economy gradually became prosperous.
Thirdly, in terms of military discipline, Sun Kewang and others changed the old style of the Daxi Army’s indiscriminate killing of innocents and corrupted military discipline. The military discipline was strictly prohibited. Conquer, the roads crossed, the chickens and dogs are not surprised, the people selling alcohol and meat are constantly on the roadside"; strengthen training, "practice day and night, three, six, and nine exercises", and trained a team of more than 300,000 capable soldiers army.
Fourth, improve social security, deal with the destruction of corrupt officials and chieftains, and impose strict access restrictions on key cities such as Kunming. , "If it is strict, the total number of chieftains will be feared. If there are unexpected events, beware of this." After the situation gradually stabilized, the people's social life became increasingly policy-oriented. Two years after the Great Western Army entered Yunnan, Yunnan had a long-lost scene of rising peace, which shows that Sun Kewang is indeed an able minister.
Qianguogongfu
Fifth, pay attention to the handling of ethnic minorities and religions in Yunnan . Yunnan is a place where ethnic minorities live in concentrated communities and there are many religions. If it is handled carelessly, it may cause serious consequences. Sun Kewang took advantage of the prestige of Qianguo Gongfu (commonly known as Muwangfu) in Yunnan for more than two hundred years, and used Mu Tianbo, the last Qianguo Gongfu, to win over ethnic minorities. In this way, the chieftains of these ethnic minorities not only stopped rebelling, but became the Western Army. To provide a part of the source of troops and salary, this is undoubtedly a win-win situation.
Looking at the several policies of the Western Army in Yunnan, it is not difficult to find that Zhang Xianzhong’s Sun is expected to have extraordinary talents in governing the world, and the rest Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu and others are excellent military generals with such a powerful force. It is naturally not difficult to understand that Zhang Xianzhong's remaining team surpasses Li Zicheng's remaining leadership team.
References: "History of the Southern Ming Dynasty", "Northern Strategy of Ming Dynasty"
