The Ming Dynasty, as the last feudal dynasty established by the Han people in Chinese history, was also very prosperous and powerful in its early days, but with the increasingly serious phenomenon of land annexation, as well as the deterioration of the political atmosphere, the national strength of the Ming Dynasty appeared flowers, and under the combined effect of natural disasters and man-made disasters in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, this huge dynasty is facing a variety of crises.
Within its borders, due to the continuous failure of the grain harvest, the people's lives were unsustainable, and large-scale peasant uprisings emerged in an endless stream in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, in order to suppress these uprisings to maintain domestic stability, the Ming Dynasty consumed a lot of manpower and material resources. At the same time, on the northeastern border of the Ming Dynasty, the Later Jin Dynasty was rising rapidly, and after the battles of Sarhu and Guangning, it occupied the entire Liaodong region and became a non-negligible enemy of the Ming Dynasty.
In the past Chinese history, once the Central Plains faced a similar situation of internal and external troubles, most of its leaders would take the form of peace with foreign ethnic groups to stabilize their external environment, so as to buy themselves time to calm down the civil strife. But the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Chongzhen, did not do so, and indirectly led to the final fall of the Ming Dynasty, what is the reason for this?
Portrait of Emperor Chongzhen.
In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty had two opportunities to negotiate peace with the Later Jin regime, the first of which was proposed by the Later Jin leader Huang Taiji, and it was also the best opportunity for the Ming Dynasty to stabilize the situation in the Northeast.
After the Battle of Guangning, the Ming Dynasty appointed Yuan Chonghuan to handle the defense of the northeast region after executing Xiong Tingbi and other generals. He adopted a different aggressive attitude from his predecessor, placing heavy troops in Ningyuan, north of Shanhaiguan, and using the sunset firearm Hongyi cannon, hoping to use the city as a springboard for the recovery of Liaodong. Later, when he faced Nurhachi's attack, this new firearm also caused great damage to the cavalry of Houjin, and led to Nurhachi's death.
Qing Taizu Nurhachi.
The Later Jin regime that lost in Ningyuan began to re-examine the strength comparison between itself and the Ming Dynasty, because after the death of Nurhachi, the internal regime of the Later Jin Dynasty was already in an unstable state, so the successor Huang Taiji took the initiative to negotiate peace with the Ming Dynasty. Although it still asked the Ming Dynasty for so-called gifts, this was far less than the military expenditure of the Ming Dynasty in Liaodong. Moreover, in the subsequent negotiations, Huang Taiji also reduced the amount of property demanded many times, but Yuan Chonghuan was still unmoved, insisting on starting a war with Houjin and recovering the Liaodong region.
In the author's opinion, there are two main reasons why Yuan Chonghuan rejected Huang Taiji's request for peace at that time. First of all, Yuan Chonghuan was supported by the Donglin Party in the DPRK at that time, and these Donglin Party ** advocated a positive attitude towards foreign invasion, so in order to continue to consolidate his position in the DPRK, Yuan Chonghuan must continue to cater to the psychology of these people, and could not adopt a peace policy that represented weakness and appeasement in the eyes of these people.
Mao Wenlong, a general at the end of the Ming Dynasty.
The second reason is the Mao Wenlong incident that occurred at that time, when Yuan Chonghuan arranged the defense line in the northeast region, Mao Wenlong, the defender of Phi Dao at that time, was a very special existence, because he was far away from the mainland, and made many meritorious contributions, so the generals under his command did not obey Yuan Chonghuan's orders very much. Therefore, Yuan Chonghuan made the decision to kill Mao Wenlong and incorporate his troops.
Before he killed Mao Wenlong, he had counted Mao Wenlong's crimes in front of his generals, and one of the most important points was that Mao Wenlong had privately negotiated with Hou Jin** and had a tendency to negotiate peace. Therefore, if Yuan Chonghuan also negotiated peace with Huang Taiji, then the legitimacy of his killing of Mao Wenlong no longer exists, which is also an important reason why he cannot accept Huang Taiji's proposal for peace.
After Huang Taiji saw Yuan Chonghuan carrying out military camps in the military town of western Liaoning, he knew that his proposal for peace was not successful, so he began to plan a plan to attack the Ming Dynasty. This time, he did not directly attack Ningyuan, but took advantage of Mongolia and directly attacked Jingshi in the south. Although the reinforcements sent by Yuan Chonghuan, Zu Dashou, defeated the Houjin army in the capital, the crisis under the city still made Emperor Chongzhen very nervous, and the battle also caused great damage to other towns in the Central Plains
Fifty or seventy counties were broken in the north, and I don't know how many people were killed. Yesterday, the family members of the city of Jinan, Shandong Province were killed, which is really pitiful. Seeing this, it can be seen that everything has a fate.
Ming General Zu Dashou statue.
Under such circumstances, Emperor Chongzhen thought of the matter proposed by Yang Sichang, the secretary of the military department, to negotiate peace with Houjin. But Emperor Chongzhen knew that the Donglin Party at that time would never allow him to do this. So he used the eunuch to contact Houjin **, hoping to reach an agreement with Huang Taiji.
However, in the process, there was a mistake, and the documents exchanged between him and Houjin were accidentally seen by the ministers of the DPRK and China, which immediately caused an uproar. Emperor Chongzhen, who paid attention to his own image, naturally did not dare to take this responsibility, so he killed the eunuch Chen Xinjia to appease the minister's anger. At that time, the Qing army had just captured Songshan, and they proposed to negotiate peace with the Ming **, but Chongzhen was afraid that the ministers would criticize him for being weak, so he sent Wu Sangui to lead the troops. Wu Sangui was soon defeated by the Qing army, and the Qing court also considered Emperor Chongzhen to be a treacherous man, so it no longer offered the Ming Dynasty a chance to negotiate peace.
Yang Sichang, who advocated peace.
It is not difficult for us to see how much pressure was caused by the so-called righteousness of the Donglin Party at that time to the political decisions of the Ming Dynasty, and Chongzhen was an emperor who paid attention to his image and was unwilling to take responsibility. He could only comply with the opinions of the courtiers and gave up the negotiation of peace, which also pushed the Ming Dynasty into the abyss of no return.
Today's Donglin Academy.
In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Chongzhen was faced with a mess. In terms of fiscal revenue, the prevalence of land annexation has led to a shortage of state finances. In terms of politics, although the eunuch party has been eliminated, the secret party struggle is still very fierce. The most important thing is that at that time, the Ming ** had to suppress the peasant uprising internally and resist the rising Houjin regime externally, which made the Ming Dynasty feel powerless.
Under such circumstances, it would have been a good choice to negotiate peace with the post-Kim regime. However, due to the enterprising attitude of the Donglin Party, neither Yuan Chonghuan nor Emperor Chongzhen dared to accept the Jurchens' proposal for peace, and Emperor Chongzhen was even more treacherous and took the initiative to launch an attack on the Qing army, which completely cut off the possibility of peace between the Ming Dynasty and the Jurchens.
Some people may say that there is no problem with the Donglin Party's decision, and that in the end, if it wants to solve the border issue, it will still have to rely on force to recover. However, these ministers in the capital lack understanding of the situation of the war and the expenditure of military spending, and their judgment of the situation has a lot of problems, and this kind of empty talk about pursuing the so-called righteousness is the deadly poison that killed the Ming Dynasty.