At the end of the Ming Dynasty, social contradictions intensified, causing the entire social order to fall into chaos. The Ming Dynasty was unable to rule effectively, especially the growth of eunuch dictatorship, and the upper-class people indulged in luxury and pleasure, and had no understanding of the suffering of the lower-class people. The policies they adopt have often only exacerbated the situation. Although some important generals such as Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting, Hong Chengchou, Yuan Chonghuan, and Sun Chengzong fought bravely on the battlefield, they could not help themselves in the face of internal and external difficulties.
It became their fate to die on the battlefield or to die in the upper echelons of infighting. It is worth analyzing that although the heroic performance of these generals on the battlefield was admirable, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, under the double attack of the peasant uprising and the Manchu Qing in the northeast, even the outstanding generals were difficult to resist, which explains the behavior of some opportunists.
Hong Chengchou was appointed governor of Jiliao in the twelfth year of Chongzhen, in charge of the northeastern frontier defense against Manchu forces. His brilliant performance pinned down the Manchus in the northeast, giving the Ming more time to deal with the country's large peasant rebels, but it backfired. In the Battle of Songjin, Yang Guozhu, the general soldier of the Ming army, was killed, and although the Ming army won a temporary victory, it was extremely heavy. After Hong Chengchou surrendered to the Manchu Qing as a prisoner, although he was reused to a certain extent and provided some strategic advice for the Qing Dynasty, this undoubtedly made the Ming Dynasty worse and the trend of demise became more obvious.
The Ming Dynasty's nine-sided elite, which was lost in this battle, weakened sharply, and only 30,000 remnants of the army were left to hold on to Ningyuan. The continuous attacks of the Manchus caused the Ming Dynasty to lose control of the cities outside the Guan, and the Ming army was unable to effectively attack the Manchus, and eventually Ningyuan City became the last stronghold of the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty had a grim situation outside, the outer cities of Shanhaiguan fell one after another, and Ningyuan City insisted on it alone, and it was impossible to last long in the face of the Manchu Qing Dynasty's containment. After Hong Chengchou surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, although he received certain treatment, his contribution could not cover up the general trend of the fall of the Ming Dynasty. Perhaps it can be described by an old saying: "The upper class is out of shape, the middle class is out of morality, the lower class is out of character, and the world is out of qualification."
The Ming Dynasty, the once prosperous Ming Dynasty, eventually became a ruin and became a historical past. If Zhu Yuanzhang saw that the Ming Dynasty he had worked so hard to establish was finally destroyed by Li Zicheng, who was from the same source as himself, I am afraid how he would feel. Let's dive into the depths of history.