In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, why did he choose to hang himself and not move south?
On March 19 of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), Li Zicheng entered Beijing, and Emperor Zhu Youzhen hanged himself in the coal mountain, and the Ming Dynasty perished. Since then, judging from the development of Chongzhen's southward movement, the Ming Dynasty did not lack combat power. So, why did Emperor Chongzhen decide to hang himself and not go south?
The court suggested moving south, but Chongzhen hesitated.
On the first day of the first month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (the first year of Dashun Yongchang, 1644), Li Zicheng proclaimed himself emperor in Xi'an and named the country"Da Shun", changed the country name to"Yongchang"。At this time, the peasant army was leaderless, and there was a decade-long plague in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei and other places, and the capital was in danger of being besieged at any time, and the situation was extremely unfavorable to the Ming court.
Therefore, on the third day of the first month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), the minister Li Mingrui proposed to Chongzhen to abandon Beijing and move south as soon as possible. Li Mingrui's proposal obviously moved Chongzhen, but Chongzhen still felt that it was difficult to decide, so he said to Li Mingrui:"If you want to be of the same heart with me, and not from foreign ministers, why not? This shows that although I also have the intention of moving south, why don't the ministers agree? Li Mingrui continued to persuade"Be cautious, and when you hurt the sacred heart, it is better to swallow the worries of the stomach"。The meaning of this sentence is that when something goes wrong, we shouldn't hesitate.
In the absence of Chongzhen's decision, the time to go south was postponed to March, and Li Zicheng immediately entered Beijing. However, even at this critical juncture, Chongzhen was still unwilling to bear the curse of abandoning the capital, and even if the official proposal to move south was still in the name of Li Mingru, he still said to the ministers:"Li Mingru rarely persuaded me to move south. The monarch is dead, what will I do, and let him go, I teach the prince to go to Nanjing first, what do the secretaries think? "
Therefore, the ministers of the palace unanimously opposed Chen Yan's plan, and as soon as Chen Yan's move came out, Li Shiheng, the secretary of the military department, said:"What do you want to do with the prince to the south? Do you want to be the story of the Lingwu period of Tang Su Zong? "(During the Anshi Rebellion, the crown prince Li Heng was named Emperor Lingwu, and Li Longji was worshiped as the emperor).
Chen Yan even threatened:"If you don't kill Li Mingru, it's not enough to calm people's hearts. If you don't kill Li Mingru, how can you rule the world! "As a result, the matter reached the point where no one dared to mention the relocation of the capital, and Chongzhen finally gave up moving south because of the unanimous opposition of the ministers of the DPRK and China.
Under the circumstances, going south was too dangerous.
So, if Chongzhen decides to go south, is it possible to succeed? Even if Chongzhen did decide to go south, it would be difficult for him to succeed for the following reasons:
1. The north and south are separated by the rebel army, and the south is very dangerous. By the seventeenth year of Chongzhen's reign (1644), the northern peasant army had become a prairie fire, and the vast area from Beijing to Nanjing was the area of activity of the rebel army. But if there are too many people escorted, it will seriously affect the speed of the march, and if the target is too large, it will inevitably be hit hard by the rebel army.
2.The ministers discussed but failed to reach a consensus. For a major event like a move south, the discussion of the ministers could not be a reason, because it was always difficult to make a decision. In fact, there are no more than three reasons for the ministers' opposition: first, the danger of moving south and the danger of their lives; Second, the reasons that the ministers have accumulated over the years are also the property in the capital, and it is not easy for them to give up these southward moves; The third is the fall of Taiyuan, Li Jiantai was proposed to accompany the prince to move south, and he was prepared, but when the ministers who moved south to the north had the upper hand, how would they be left alone? Although the Ming Palace was in crisis, the ministers were fighting for their own interests, completely disregarding the survival of the country, as Chongzhen later said'I am not the king of the community, and all the ministers are the ministers of the society'。
3.The front collapsed too quickly, and the imperial court did not have time to react. The above are the reasons for the imperial court's consideration. In fact, it was the sharp deterioration of the situation at the front that caused the South to lose hope. In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), in the first month after Li Zicheng attacked Jingshi, the situation deteriorated further by February, and by March Chongzhen issued an edict"Zhao Tianxia soldiers are enthusiastic", Li Zicheng was attacked in Shanxi, and he quickly advanced to the Beijing Division, which was already in danger. As a result, the army led by Wu Sangui reached Shanhaiguan, and Beijing was surrounded.
To sum up, whether Chongzhen went south or the prince went south, on the one hand, because Chongzhen himself was indecisive, on the other hand, because of the court disputes, he missed the best reaction time, and the speed of the front line was too fast, and when the proposal to go south on the fourth day of the first month of March failed, it was too late to gather the world's soldiers and horses Qin Wang, or choose to move the capital.