Liu Zongmin seized Chen Yuanyuan and forced Wu Sangui to rebel, but Li Zicheng did not dispose of him, why?
We all know that before Li Zicheng captured the city of Beijing, he actually did not have the idea of replacing the Ming Dynasty as the emperor, he just hoped to get a title from Emperor Chongzhen, but Emperor Chongzhen's refusal made him have to make the decision to capture the city of Beijing.
But when Emperor Chongzhen committed suicide in the coal mountain, Li Zicheng became the new master of the city of Beijing, and even the entire Central Plains Dynasty. At this critical moment, what he needed to do most was to appease the people and win the support of the Ming Dynasty elders.
After all, they were able to help him recruit the remnants of the Ming Dynasty, as well as other local forces.
In short, Li Zicheng does need to be strictly dealt with for some of Liu Zongmin's behaviors. After the capture of the city of Beijing, Li Zicheng showed great preferential treatment to the imperial relatives of the Ming Dynasty, and some were even crowned kings, and held a grand funeral for Chongzhen's body.
These measures made the imperial relatives and ministers of the Ming Dynasty very satisfied, and they had a positive view of the peasant rebel army led by Li Zicheng. As a result of these measures, the capital has begun to stabilize.
However, Li Zicheng's subordinate Liu Zongmin carried out a large-scale plunder of the capital due to personal desires, and inflicted cruel punishments on the widows of the Ming Dynasty. As a result, Li Zicheng's newly established authority was exhausted by Liu Zongmin, causing him to lose popular support in the capital, and finally fell into a situation of isolation and helplessness after the Qing army entered the customs.
Although Li Zicheng faced a food shortage after capturing the capital, his peasant army did not choose the optimal solution. One might question that Emperor Chongzhen had also asked these ministers for help before, but the result was a failure.
If Liu Zongmin does the same, will he really get the support he needs? The reality is that the situation has changed now. At that time, Emperor Chongzhen did not have the ability to threaten the ministers, but now it is different, because Li Zicheng's rebel army has just captured the capital, and the ministers may face danger to their lives if they do not cooperate.
Therefore, rejecting Li Zicheng's request may be considered an act of "bandits", which is obviously unwise for those who are not willing to take risks.
New Copywriting: Li Zicheng is well aware of the importance of Wu Sangui, and as a key figure in guarding Shanhaiguan, his attitude is crucial to the direction of the war. Therefore, before recruiting Wu Sangui, Li Zicheng gave Wu Sangui many gifts, hoping to use these gifts to win him over and fight against the Qing army together.
However, a series of misdeeds by Liu Zongmin have brought all these efforts to naught. Just as Li Zicheng was trying to stabilize Wu Sangui's relationship, Liu Zongmin forcibly occupied Wu Sangui's concubine Chen Yuanyuan, which was a big taboo.
Li Ziwei wanted to get closer to Wu Sangui by giving gifts, but he didn't expect Liu Zongmin's reckless behavior to wipe out all his previous efforts. This is like Li Zicheng gave Wu Sangui a candy, but Liu Zongmin gave Wu Sangui a backhand slap, which made Wu Sangui fall to the Qing army.
In the face of such serious consequences, shouldn't Li Zicheng severely punish Liu Zongmin?
Why did Li Zicheng retain Liu Zongmin, who had no leader? First, because Liu Zongmin was loyal to him and never gave up, even when Li Zicheng was in trouble, he accompanied him and assisted him in strengthening the army.
The second is because Liu Zongmin expressed loyalty to Li Zicheng and killed his wives and concubines. Although Liu Zongmin is somewhat leaderless and has repeatedly done bad things, Li Zicheng still values his loyalty and practical actions.
1.Li Zicheng knew Liu Zongmin's loyalty, so when Li Zicheng fled from Beijing, he did not kill Li Yan, who was suspected of defecting, but chose to believe that Liu Zongmin would not betray him.
2.On the battlefield, changing generals before the battle is taboo, and Liu Zongmin not only ruined Li Zicheng's good deeds, but also contradicted him. Although Li Zicheng was dissatisfied and even had murderous intent, he knew that in the struggle against the Manchus and Wu Sangui, Liu Zongmin was an indispensable general in his hands, and no one could replace him.
Therefore, even at the risk of being taboo in the military, Li Zicheng did not easily change the generals.
Lee's limitations lie in his strategic thinking and self-perception. Although he initially showed a gesture of preferential treatment to the Ming royal family and ministers, he did not fully recognize the situation at that time.
After capturing the capital of the Ming Dynasty, he began to become conceited, ignoring the strategic direction, and not being sufficiently vigilant and restrained by Liu Zongmin's wrong actions. He even allowed Liu Zongmin to seize Chen Yuanyuan, unimpressed by his behavior.
Due to the lack of clear strategic vision and self-reflection, Li Zicheng was unable to see Liu Zongmin's mistakes and potential dangers, and thus could not effectively stop and correct his actions.