Human civilization is the best way to strengthen the efficiency of cooperation between people, the best way to strengthen the efficiency of cooperation is to establish a community, the community is too large, it is easy to produce internal friction, the community is too small, and can not gather enough strength.
On March 19, 1644, the peasant army led by Li Zicheng captured Beijing, and Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself in the coal mountain.
Today, we who already know the direction of history will not doubt that 1644 was the year of the fall of the Ming Dynasty and the rise of the Qing Dynasty, but if we return to the historical background of that time, if we agree that the occupation of Beijing by the Qing soldiers marked the Qing Dynasty becoming the legitimate power of the whole country, it will most likely be regarded as a joke. Because in any respect, the Qing regime, which had just entered the customs, was a weaker party than the Nanming regime in Nanjing.
Compared with the Southern Song Dynasty, the fame of the Southern Ming regime is undoubtedly much smaller, and people's impression of the Southern Ming is mainly two points: one is short, it is generally believed that the Southern Ming Yongli Emperor Zhu Youlang was killed by Wu Sangui in 1661 and marked the complete destruction of the Southern Ming regime, which is only 17 years after the destruction of Beijing in 1644, even if the "Zheng Ming" established by Zheng Chenggong is counted, it is only extended to 1683, and it is only 39 years, which is hardly worth mentioning. The second is miserable, although the war of the Qing army against the Southern Ming Dynasty can not be completely described as devastating, but the overall offensive of the Qing army is smooth, in addition, in the battle between the Qing army and the Southern Ming Dynasty, there was a "Yangzhou Ten Days", "Jiading Three Massacres" and the battle of Jiangyin where the whole city was killed, which have added a lot of tragic colors to the history of the Southern Ming Dynasty.
If we only focus on these isolated historical events, we will give people an intuitive feelingThe Southern Ming Dynasty resisted the Qing Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty resisted the Yuan Dynasty, both of which were the weak side of the weak side to resist the strong enemy with unyielding fighting spirit, although they failed in the end, but they were also singing and cryingBut in fact, the situation in the Southern Ming Dynasty (at least during the Hongguang regime) was much better than that of the Southern Song Dynasty, and this inevitably raises a question:The situation of the Southern Ming Dynasty is better than that of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the Qing army is far from being as invincible as the Mongolian army back then. Today, through a brief review of the history of Nanming, we try to find out the problem of Nanming.
In May 1644, after learning the news of the death of Emperor Chongzhen, the Ming Dynasty ministers in Jiangnan immediately supported the enthronement of Zhu Yousong, the king of Fu, in Nanjing, the capital of Liudu, with the year name "Hongguang".
Nanjing was the capital of the Ming Empire during the period of Zhu Yuanzhang, and later Zhu Di, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, moved the capital to BeijingHowever, Nanjing, as the capital of Liu, still retains its complete bureaucratic system, and now Zhu Yousong is enthroned as emperor, theoretically speaking, this ** can be started immediately.
At this time, the Southern Ming Hongguang regime looks very promising, on the one hand, because it has strong legitimacy, at this time the enthroned Fu Wang Zhu Yousong is the grandson of Mingshenzong Zhu Yijun, the nephew of Mingguangzong Zhu Changluo, his father Zhu Changxun is quite favored by the Wanli Emperor, this is a strong contender for the throne, but due to the failure in the "national dispute" and no throne, in short, the bloodline of the Fu King Zhu Yousong is relatively pure,Such a lineage gave the Hongguang regime a high degree of legitimacy.
In addition, the cards in the hands of the Nanming Hongguang regime are very good, which is embodied in the following aspects:
1.By this time, the southeastern coastal region had become the economic center of China, and the war in the north and southwest had relatively little impact on the region, so that its financial situation was better guaranteed.
2.Second, the geographical advantage, in addition to the Yangtze River natural hazards, there are also the soldiers and horses of the "four towns in Jiangbei", if these soldiers and horses are used properly, they can not only serve as the first line of defense against the Qing army, but can even effectively counterattack the Qing army.
Four towns in Jiangbei. 3.The Qing army had just occupied the north and could not quickly digest such a large territory.
4.At this time, the Qing army was only 7-80,000 Manchu Eight Banners, plus 5-60,000 of the Mongolian Eight Banners and Han Eight Banners, and the total strength was less than 150,000 anyway; And the strength of the four towns in Jiangbei alone has at least 120,000, and Wuchang also has a Zuo Liangyu who is known as 500,000 mercenaries.
These armies, although they were numerous, were put together on an improvised basis, and in order to make these armies actively fight, the Southern Ming court gave very good incentives:
1.Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo, Liu Zeqing, and Gao Jie, the guards of the four towns in Jiangbei, were knighted and allowed to be hereditary.
2.These people are allowed to raise money and food on their own, recruit troops.
3.Counterattacking the Reconquista can be included in your sphere of influence.
With people, money and policies, it stands to reason that what will happen next should be a scene of concerted efforts to resist the Qing army, but the real history is just the opposite.
The officers of the four towns in Jiangbei did not actively collect grain and train troops as imagined by the Hongguang regime, and then waited for an opportunity to regain the lost territory, but were busy grabbing grain and land (of course, not from the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but from each other). Gao Jiejun was supposed to be outside the city of Yangzhou, and then went out of the Northern Expedition, but Gao Jiejun coveted the wealth of Yangzhou and asked to enter the city to station, but the phenomenon of Gao Jiejun's wanton robbery in the villages outside Yangzhou City has been known to the people of Yangzhou, so he refused to enter the cityGao Jie was so angry that he ordered the siege of the city.
Gao Jie and Huang Degong have always been at odds, Gao Jie actually staged a scene of ambushing Huang Degong on Huang Degong's way out, and Huang Degong is not a fuel-efficient lamp, after Gao Jie was accidentally stabbed to death, he immediately went to grab Gao Jie's territory; The four towns of Jiangbei were already in chaos, and Zuo Liangyu, who had the most soldiers in Hubei, was even happier, he was originally dissatisfied with Emperor Hongguang, and he was not in agreement with Ma Shiying, who was in power at the time, so he sent troops to Nanjing in the name of "Qingjun side".
In addition to Huang Degong's death in battle and Gao Jie's assassination before, Liu Liangzuo, Liu Zeqing and Zuo Liangyu's son Zuo Mengeng successively surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. The Qing army can be said to be fighting more and more.
And these generals who actively surrendered to the Qing Dynasty were not soft once they counterattacked Nanming, and the Ten Days of Yangzhou and the Three Massacres of Jiading all had Gao Jie and Li Chengdong.
In the end, the Hongguang regime of the Southern Ming Dynasty, which could have made great achievements, except for Shi Kefa's insistence on Yangzhou, Huang Degong and Wuhu's battle against the Qing army, almost all surrendered without a fight, and in the end, the Hongguang regime only lasted about eight months, the city of Nanjing was broken, the Hongguang Emperor was captured and killed, and the Hongguang regime perished.
After the fall of the Hongguang regime, the Qing army occupied most of the southeast region, in the battle between the Hongguang regime and the Qing army in the Southern Ming Dynasty, the most resolute resistance to the Yangzhou Shi Kefa Department, only more than 10,000 people, during which Shi Kefa had several times to the Hongguang Emperor for help were not waiting for reinforcements, and finally Shi Kefa was defeated and died, the people of Yangzhou were slaughtered, and the Southern Ming monarchs and ministers were busy with infighting, and the good situation was ruined in vainAfter the fall of the Hongguang regime, the strength of the two sides reversed in a real sense, and the Qing army became the stronger side.
In June 1645, Zhu Yujian, the king of the Tang Dynasty, with the support of Zheng Zhilong, a local force in Fujian, was proclaimed emperor with Fuzhou, and the year name was Longwu.
Longwu regime. Emperor Longwu also had a strong desire to regain the lost land, and as soon as he ascended the throne, he announced that he would "restore the imperial family, expel the Qing soldiers, and sustain the cause of my Taizu". Zhu Yujian not only had the determination to recover the lost territory, but also had a specific plan, he formulated the strategic policy of first Nanjing (half merit) and then Beijing (full merit), and in the recovery of Nanjing, he even put forward a specific plan to send troops to the fifth route, and in July the scholar Huang Daozhou set out on an expedition. From Fuzhou through Yanping, Jianning, Chong'an, out of the water pass, to Jiangxi Guangxin, to Zhejiang and Anhui region. In August, Huang Binqing, the crown prince and the prince of Sulubo, was ordered to lead the water division to "march from Funing, Shao, Jin, Qu and other places to join forces to suppress and restore the southern capital."
After the collapse of the Hongguang regime, the Qing court issued a shaving order, which caused fierce resistance from the people in the Jiangnan region, and the resistance of Jiading, Jiangyin and other places occurred at this time, and these resistances not only dealt a heavy blow to the Qing army's power, but also made the Qing army not able to move south quickly, and the Northern Expedition of Emperor Longwu also received the support of the local people at this time. Huang Binqing later stationed troops in Zhoushan, which greatly encouraged the anti-Qing forces in eastern Zhejiang and Jiangnan. Among them, there was also the cooperation between the King Ruichang of the Ming Dynasty and the Northern Expeditionary Army of Emperor Longwu near Nanjing, and the men and horses of the King of Ruichang who raised troops to attack Nanjing could reach 20,000 at most.
However, although Emperor Longwu had the intention of the Northern Expedition, after all, he had not been on the throne for a long time, his own forces were weak, and almost all the people and horses that could be mobilized were newly recruited and temporarily patchwork, and Zheng Zhilong, as a local tycoon in Fujian, was not very interested in recovering the lost territory, he was more concerned about his own power not being damaged, and the local forces in Fujian led by Zheng Zhilong dealt passively in the strategy of Emperor Longwu, which ultimately made the ** plan fail, and when the Qing army went south, Zheng Zhilong decisively surrendered to the Qing army.
In September 1646, the city of Fuzhou was broken, Zhu Yujian was captured, and then died of hunger strike, and the Longwu regime of the Southern Ming Dynasty was destroyed.
The establishment of the Longwu regime was inseparable from Zheng Zhilong and other local forcesHowever, Zheng Zhilong's primary purpose was to maintain his own power, and Emperor Longwu's active Northern Expedition might even affect his local powerTherefore, Zheng Zhilong was passive in the strategy of recovering Nanjing, while surrendering to the Qing army was very positive.
After the fall of the Longwu regime, the Qing army occupied the southeastern provinces, in November 1646, the governor of Guangxi in the Ming Dynasty Qu Shiyun supported the establishment of Guiwang Zhu Youlang in Zhaoqing as the emperor, the year name Yongli.
In fact, at this time, the Southern Ming Dynasty itself did not have much power, after a short battle with the Qing army, it was lost, and the key role in the subsequent battle with the Qing army was the remnants of the original Daxi regime: Zhang Xianzhong died in the battle with the Qing army, Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu, and Ai Nengqi four generals rectified the remnants of the Great Western Army, because people's recognition of the Great Western Army has always been not high, at the suggestion of Li Dingguo, the four decided to lead the people to join the Yongli regime of the Southern Ming Dynasty.
Yongli regime. After that, the Great Western Army began a more active military action, by Sun Kewang was responsible for guarding the base camp of Yunnan and Guizhou, and Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu attacked Hunan and Sichuan respectively, in the subsequent battle, Li Dingguo's military talent was fully exerted, in the battle of Guilin, Li Dingguo defeated Kong Youde, the king of the south of Qingding, Kong Youde died in a desperate situation. After the occupation of Guilin, Li Dingguo expanded his gains in Hunan, and in the battle of Hengzhou, Li Dingguo killed the prince Nikan of Qing Jingjin in front of the front. Li Dingguo killed two kings of the Qing court one after another, as the history says"Two Famous Kings". For a time, Li Dingguo's reputation was shocked, and the Qing court even had a plan to divide the river with Li Dingguo.
But Li Dingguo's victory is not something everyone wants to see, Sun Kewang, who stayed in the base camp, calculated Li Dingguo everywhere, and finally made the contradictions between Sun and Li directly develop into a fire merger, Sun Kewang was of course not Li Dingguo's opponent, so he turned around and defected to the Qing army.
There is a Sun Kewang that the Qing army of the "leading party" will no longer be beaten passively in the face of Li Dingguo, and the emperor of the Yongli regime, Zhu Youlang, is just the opposite of Zhu Yujian, the emperor of Longwu, he is afraid that the Qing army will fight, and he can only rest assured if he runs to Burma.
However, Zhu Youlang, who was bent on surviving, did not survive in the end, due to many constraints, Li Dingguo's battle for the Qing army gradually turned passive, in 1661, in the face of Wu Sangui's army, the king of Burma sent Yongli Emperor Zhu Youlang back to Yunnan, and Yongli Emperor was strangled by Wu Sangui with a bowstring in Kunming.
At this point, the Southern Ming regime can almost be considered to be over, of course, there is still "Zheng Ming" in Taiwan who still calls himself the Ming Dynasty, and Zheng Chenggong also carried out three Northern Expeditions in 1657-1659, and even almost occupied Nanjing for a time, but due to the internal strife of the Yongli regime at that time, Li Dingguo's military operations did not form a good coordination with Zheng Chenggong's Northern Expedition, and the three Northern Expeditions were all in vain.
Looking back at the struggles of the three main regimes of the Southern Ming against the Qing army, we will find:Every regime has a chance, but there is no chance except for the Hongguang regime. Because on the issue of legitimacy, only the Hongguang regime is generally accepted.
The Hongguang, Longwu and Yongli regimes belong to the southeast, due south and southwest respectively, and the three regimes succeeded in time, and their strength weakened in turn, but the weakest Yongli regime achieved the most military achievements, and the strongest Hongguang regime was the most completely defeated, in a sense, this is because the Hongguang regime has too much power and too much internal friction, while the Yongli regime is relatively simple, but it is easy to form a joint force.
The decline of the three regimes has a lot to do with internal friction, but the Yongli regime is less serious than the Hongguang regime.
Let's review the relatively successful resistance formed by the Southern Ming Dynasty, whether it is Shi Kefa's lone army in Yangzhou, or the Jiangyin military and civilian resistance to the Qing Dynasty for 81 days, whether it is the attack of King Ruichang on Nanjing, or Li Dingguo's two famous kings, their forces are relatively single, so there is not much internal friction.
Based on this, we can conclude that the demise of Nanming is due to the problems of the community, although the concept of the big community of the Ming Dynasty cannot be said to have completely disappeared, but the internal friction caused by the interest disputes between too many small communities is amazingWhat's even more terrifying is that these small communities seem to have an innate fear of other small communities getting bigger.
This fear of becoming weak or others becoming stronger made them choose to surrender in the face of the Qing army. The newly established Qing Empire was still very cohesive due to the founding of the country, which also made them fight bigger and bigger, and finally occupied all of China.
The demise of the Southern Ming Dynasty and even the entire Ming Dynasty stemmed from the loss of cohesion of the large community, and the lack of strength of the small community fighting for each other.