Li Zicheng seized Beijing in 42 days, and the vicissitudes of the capital were a long song
Although the Ming Dynasty was replaced by the Qing Dynasty, the death of Chongqing, which invaded the Ming Dynasty, forced Li Zicheng to take power. However, Li Zicheng entered Beijing on March 19 in the 17th year of Chongzhen (1644), left Beijing on April 30, and occupied Beijing for 42 days. In these forty-two days, what kind of ups and downs has Li Zicheng experienced in his life?
From autumn to arson - the capital under Li Zicheng underwent shocking changes.
In January of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (the first year of Dashun Yongchang, 1644), Li Zicheng established the capital city of Xi'an"Da Shun"The country name was changed to Yongchang. Subsequently, Li Zicheng began to march eastward, arrived in the capital in mid-March, on the morning of March 19, at the initiative of Zhang Jinyan, the secretary of the military department, opened the Zhengyang Gate, the Dashun army began to enter Beijing, Emperor Chongzhen had to commit suicide, and the Ming Dynasty perished.
After Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he first gave an order"Funeral"Chongzhen, commemorating the martyred emperor, and replacing Chongzhen with Dashun, is equivalent to officially announcing the demise of the Ming Dynasty. In addition, in order to maintain order in the capital, Li Zicheng led his army into Beijing and gave an order"Women who dare to destroy the people's wealth will be killed"。
Li Zicheng's approach not only ensured the basic order of the capital, but also won the hearts and minds of the people to a certain extent. It can be said that Li Zicheng is still a qualified emperor for the time being, and like other new dynasties, the Dashun regime seems to be moving from destruction to rebirth. However, although it is easy to destroy, it is extremely difficult to rebuild, and it takes a lot of money first. Li Zicheng turned his attention to the Ming Dynasty, which was still in the capital, because as a former privileged class, these people naturally had money in their hands.
Therefore, since March 27, the Dashun regime has asked the former Ming ** to donate Yulu, according to the corresponding amount officially announced:'There are 100,000 in the middle hall, 70,000 or 53,000 in the Jingjin Division, 53,000 in the Taoist Department and the Ministry of Officials, 32,000 in the Hanlin Department, and 1,000 people in the Ministry of Officials'。
But Emperor Chongzhen didn't do it, because he wanted to know how easy it was to take money from these **. However, the peasant army also has a way, for this kind of ** who oppresses the people on weekdays and has no bad deeds, of course the peasant army will not be polite to them, Liu Zongmin directly got 5,000 shackles and sticks, tortured these **, and began to wander around the house.
Under the continuous torture and plagiarism, the Jingshi seized a large amount of gold and silver treasures, and some soldiers took the opportunity to plunder the people's property"Day by day, most of the soldiers also plundered the people's wealth"，"It is not easy for the Jingshi to be stable, but it is in chaos, and this chaos is still spreading to the center of the Jingshi, such as the Chenggu area"。The thief asks for money"；In Fenyang,"Wealth search room, cut buckle to help money"；In Jiangzhou,"Three woods were added to the scholarly world, and several people died due to punishment"；In Xuanhua,"The right general miraculously collects the people's wealth, too" ，"People's wealth"。In Xuanhua,"General Quan claimed to be a big nobleman, led through Wulin, was extremely cruel, and asked for money"。
In the end, due to Li Zicheng's parasitic behavior, Li Zicheng's people's hearts accumulated over the years began to drain rapidly until the 14th. On April 14, leaflets began to appear on West Chang'an Avenue, saying"The Ming Dynasty has not finished the number of days, and the people want to be loyal, and they want to establish the emperor in the East Palace on the 20th of this month, and change the name of the country to the first year of orthodoxy"。
From marching to Shanhaiguan to retreating to the capital, the Dashun regime quickly collapsed.
After Li Zicheng captured the capital, Wu Sangui gave Shanhaiguan the elite, although he had a certain strength, but he had become a lone army, Li Zicheng was invincible internally, and it was difficult to stop Dolgon externally. In order to completely eliminate the remnants of the Ming Palace in the north, Li Zicheng sent envoys many times to summon Wu Sangui, the general soldier of Shanhaiguan, together with the Wu family army trapped in the capital, Wu Sangui once had the idea of surrendering.
But when Wu Sangui heard about the fate of his concubine Chen Yuanyuan and the Wu family in the capital, he began to hesitate again, so he asked Dolgon for special help on the condition that the Yellow River would divide the north and south.
13.On April 13, Li Zicheng led tens of thousands of troops to Shanhaiguan to recruit Wu Sangui, and after Wu Sangui learned the news, he immediately killed six people, including Shanhaiguan celebrities, Confucian scholars Li Yousong, Tan Shenhuan, Liu Taishan, Huang Zhenan, and Gao Chuang"Light thief"Li Zicheng was in Beijing, and on the one hand, he sent troops to a place not far from the meeting place east of the Sanhe area to express his intention of surrender, and on the other hand, he sent envoys to ask the Qing army for help and demand"The whole tiger brigade arrived at Shanhaiguan at a high speed"。On the other hand, he sent an envoy to ask the Qing army for help and demanded"The whole tiger brigade will enter the Shanhaiguan"。
When Li Zicheng saw the envoy sent by Wu Sangui, he thought that Wu Sangui had decided to surrender under military pressure, but he didn't expect that this was Wu Sangui's conspiracy. When Li Zicheng and his party arrived at the city gate, the envoy sent by Wu Sangui had already tried to escape. Li Zicheng later learned that he had fallen into a trap, but he missed the best opportunity to attack the city gate, and after a day and a night of forced march, Dorgon's army reached 15 miles from the city gate.
On April 21, the 17th year of Chongzhen (the first year of Dashun Yongchang, 1644), Li Zicheng issued an ultimatum to Wu Sangui, but Wu Sangui refused, so Tang Tong and Bai Guangen led a detachment of 20,000 men to camp on the edge of the cliff on the one hand to prevent Wu Sangui from retreating, and on the other hand, attacked the northern flank of Xiluocheng and Dongluocheng respectively with the main force. The two sides fought fiercely until dawn the next day, and some of the defenders had to surrender, and the Wu army gradually became exhausted.
In the early morning of April 22, the Qing army was only two miles away from Shanhaiguan. Seeing that the situation was critical, Wu Sangui led a small number of soldiers out of the city in a hurry, rushed into the Qing army camp, and completely surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.
On April 23, Dolgon observed the situation on the battlefield and ordered the Qing army to enter the pass from the South Water Gate, the North Water Gate, and the Guanzhong Gate. Li Zicheng did not guess that the Qing army entered the pass, still according to the original plan, he pressed the Wu army, the bloody battle until noon, the two sides were exhausted, Dolgon ordered the Qing army to attack, the Dashun army was taken aback, was pressed under the foot, and suddenly collapsed, and suffered heavy losses. At the beginning of Shen Shichu (15 o'clock), Li Zicheng's Dashun army was targeted, and Liu Zongmin was wounded by an arrow.
Seeing that the defeat was decided, Li Zicheng urgently ordered the remnants to retreat in the direction of Yongping, and Dolgon, with Wu Sangui as the vanguard, pursued all the way and went straight to the capital. When the Qing army chased all the way to Fanjiadian, Li Zicheng killed Wu Xiang in anger, hung his head on a pillar to show the public, and after returning to the capital, he killed 38 members of the Wu family.
Seeing that the tide was turning, Li Zicheng hurriedly proclaimed himself emperor in Beijing on April 29, fulfilling his dream of becoming emperor, and the next day he hurriedly fled the capital and retreated to Xi'an.
Li Zicheng's life can be described as ups and downs, from the rumors of the capture of the capital to the rapid escape after forty-two days.