History has no ifs.
However, appropriate assumptions based on historical facts can provide a more in-depth analysis of the history of the time, and can provide readers with a different perspective.
How difficult was the death situation faced by Emperor Zhu Youzhen in the last years of the Ming Dynasty?
To put it simply, it is a two-front battle with internal and external troubles, including Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong and other peasant rebel armies from all walks of life, and the Qing regime headed by Emperor Taiji of the Qing Dynasty.
What's even worse is that what he inherited was still a mess, the treasury was empty, the finances collapsed, and the border army had no military pay for a long time, like the Northwest Frontier Army in the late Ming Dynasty for more than 30 months without pay.
The army has no salary, which has led to a sharp decline in the army's combat effectiveness, after all, the military salary is not paid, who is willing to work for you, and it has caused the army to mutiniate frequently, and even surrender without a fight in the face of the enemy.
The huge bureaucratic system is also rotten, the four words of "efficient and honest" are not touched, and instead of internal fighting, corruption is common, forming a private party is a common thing, and military affairs are not worth mentioning in the face of personal interests.
In this case, the army was repeatedly defeated, so that the Houjin (Qing Dynasty) conquered the city more and more than the Guanwai, and Huang Taiji unified the Guanwai, subdued the southern Mongolia, and finally became the emperor. Internally, Li Zicheng even smashed the Yellow Dragon, breaking through Beijing and forcing Emperor Chongzhen to death, and the official gentry class who abandoned Emperor Chongzhen did not become the "heroes of the dragon" of the new dynasty as imagined, but enjoyed the treatment of "recovering stolen goods and helping salaries", and was subjected to large-scale seizure of family property.
The situation faced by Emperor Chongzhen is an almost unsolvable deadlock, which can be called the level of hell difficulty.
The difficulty of his reversal can be said to be second only to Emperor Han Xian, after all, when Emperor Han Xian was in power, the Eastern Han Dynasty had already existed in name only, and he was set up since he ascended the throne, and he was facing Cao Cao, an unborn hero.
It can be said that no one sitting in his position can turn the tables, even if he uses a beheading operation, it is useless, because even if Cao Cao is killed, the interest groups behind him will not give up, and even the ministers can't solve it, let alone do anything else.
Of course, Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty still has an obvious advantage over Emperor Chongzhen, that is, although he did not succeed in turning the tables and became the king of the fallen country, the fall of the Han Dynasty only means that his political life is over, and he can still save his life and die a good death.
And Emperor Chongzhen is different, if he fails, he dies. Because in the era of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, everyone talked about etiquette, even if they took away your country, they would not kill you, they would give you a king, duke or something, and they would also give you a small fiefdom, so that you could live a life of fine clothes and food for the rest of your life.
Since the first emperor of the Southern Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Song Dynasty, killed the abdicated Emperor Sima De of Jin Gong, most of the kings of the past dynasties were not allowed to die well, and the new emperor often had to cut the grass and eradicate the roots, so if Emperor Chongzhen could not break the dead situation, even if he did not hang himself, there was no way to live.
However, although Emperor Chongzhen is facing a dead end, fortunately, it is less difficult than Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, because although the situation is extremely bad, Emperor Chongzhen still has a certain amount of real power and a certain degree of autonomy.
So on the whole, Emperor Chongzhen and Emperor Han Xian are facing a comparable situation, although Emperor Han Xian has no hope of turning the tables, but he can save his life. Although Emperor Chongzhen has a certain amount of real power, he has not turned the tide, as long as the country dies, then there must be a dead end, but the difference is that he can choose to die, so he chooses to hang himself and martyrdom.
So what can Emperor Chongzhen do to solve the deadlock?
Objectively speaking, Emperor Chongzhen is facing an unsolvable dead end, the reason why there is such a situation at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the key point is that after more than 200 years, various social contradictions have reached an irreconcilable situation, it can be said that it is difficult to return, it is difficult to recover, that kind of dead end is not so easy to solve, if it is really so easy to turn the tide, then there will not be so many changes in the dynasty.
However, Emperor Chongzhen can alleviate this situation through various means, so that the Ming Dynasty can continue for another few decades, which is still very possible.
In fact, there are three problems faced by Emperor Chongzhen: first, the treasury is empty, the finances are collapsing, and there is no money to pay military salaries, which makes the army's morale unstable, and the control of the army is also significantly weakened. Second, the huge bureaucratic system is extremely corrupt, forming parties for personal gain, and putting personal interests first, resulting in the failure to implement many government decrees, which on the contrary are counterproductive, often self-defeating, and the situation is getting worse and worse.
Some people may say that the natural disasters during the Xiaoice period were not a big problem?
It is true that the destructive power of the Xiaoice period is indeed not small, and it can even be said that the key to the uprisings of farmers everywhere is the key to this, but the natural disaster of drought locusts can occur for one year, two years, or three years, but it will not last for more than ten years, right?
The fundamental reason lies in the fact that the natural disasters at the beginning were not curbed in a timely and effective manner under the situation of bureaucratic corruption and political darkness in the late Ming Dynasty, so that they were out of control and intensified.
Therefore, in the final analysis, the natural disasters of the Xiaoice period have a lot to do with the corruption of the huge bureaucratic system, and it is a bad situation derived from the extreme corruption of the bureaucratic system.
This is also why "natural disasters and man-made disasters" will be linked together, because often natural disasters are only one cause, and man-made factors will worsen the situation and evolve into disasters.
Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen actually has 3 ways to try, which can solve the urgent need to a certain extent.
The first is to refresh the rule of officials and strengthen the control of the imperial court. The second is to make peace with the outside world. The third is to give up the extremely bad situation, move south ahead of schedule, and start anew.
In this way, the problem of the emptiness of the treasury can be dealt with by confiscating the family property of the corrupt officials, so that the people will not be levied one after another, so that the people have no way to live, so they have risen up one after another.
At the same time, it can also enable the bureaucracy to self-regulate itself through this vigorous anti-corruption method, make politics clearer, and reduce the scope of natural disasters.
It will not appear in the absurd thing that the famous general Lu Xiangsheng, who has no background, was killed by his own minister Yang Sichang and the eunuch Gao Qiqian.
And Emperor Taiji of the Qing Dynasty outside the pass, although the army is flourishing, he has always advocated peace, but many people have preconceived ideas that the Ming Dynasty is followed by the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty seized the world in the Ming Dynasty, thinking that the Qing Dynasty is very strong and will not take the initiative to negotiate peace.
In fact, when Huang Taiji first took over the Houjin regime, the Houjin did not even unify outside the Guan, and there was no idea of snakes swallowing elephants, even if he unified the Guanwai and called the emperor, but in the face of the huge Ming Empire, he still had the idea of peace, and wanted to slowly improve his own strength through peace.
If Emperor Chongzhen was pragmatic first, did not pay attention to face, agreed to make peace, stabilized the Qing regime outside the Guanwai, and then concentrated on refreshing the rule of officials internally, and suppressed Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, it would still be possible to make the Ming Dynasty continue for several more decades.
Even if you can't do the above, you can also move south in advance, it is to start anew, and re-cultivate an army loyal to yourself, like Emperor Chongzhen was finally forced to hang himself, because he had little control over the army, and the result was to call on the world's soldiers and horses to work on the king, and the result was only 8,000 people in Tangtong, if Emperor Chongzhen has an army that is loyal to himself, he can defend the capital to the death, not to collapse at the touch of a button, not to fall from the wind, then maybe it is another ending.
Of course, the above is just a view on paper, just a hypothesis, and it is intended to provide you with a different perspective.
After all, anyone can be in hindsight, but in actual operation it is not like that, Emperor Chongzhen is not a fool, refresh the rule of officials, and replenish the treasury by confiscating the family property of **, how could he not think of it?
But the problem is that he doesn't have that kind of control over the imperial court at all, if he really refreshes the rule of officials, it is estimated that he doesn't have to wait for Li Zicheng to enter Beijing, and he will die inexplicably, so even if Li Zicheng later hit Beijing and burned his eyebrows, the army could not pay the military salary, and Emperor Chongzhen did not raid the home of **, but asked the hundred officials to donate, and the hundred officials only donated a mere 200,000 taels.
As for moving south, it is not so easy, the army has begun to become warlords at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and Emperor Chongzhen can't control the situation in the capital, is it so easy to get better when he goes to Nanjing, not necessarily, but it is likely that the situation will be worse.
Moreover, even if Emperor Chongzhen went to Nanjing, the problems he faced before would not be fundamentally solved, and the various contradictions and problems in the last years of the dynasty would still follow him and continue to affect him.
That is, in terms of peace with Huang Taiji, Emperor Chongzhen died to save face and suffer crimes, and the result was to eat the consequences.
But no matter how you say it, it is very good that Emperor Chongzhen can do this, and it is almost impossible to change to another seventeen-year-old person who has not received training in imperial mental arts, and take over a mess of decaying empires, not to mention facing all kinds of internal and external troubles, I am afraid that even a Wei Zhongxian will not be able to handle it, and as for being able to do better than Emperor Chongzhen, it is almost impossible.
After all, if you want to turn the tide in the last years of the dynasty and bring a dynasty back to life, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is even more difficult than the founding of the country and the world.
Because the founding of the country and the world is to form its own forces, and it leads the emerging group to fight the world and govern the world, and there is sufficient benefit distribution.
And in the last years of the dynasty, the power to turn the tide was not to distribute profits, but to grab food, to clean up the situation in a huge bureaucratic system that was rotten from top to bottom, to lead an internally degenerate, problematic, and lifeless group to quell all kinds of chaos, and you just can't jump out, you can't just go to start anew, this situation is really not as good as the situation of starting the world from scratch.
Therefore, the assumptions and analysis of the article, everyone can just take a look and smile.
Thank you**, my name is Song Anzhi, look at history from a different angle, and pay attention to it if you like
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