In the historical picture scroll of the late Ming Dynasty, the imprint of "party struggle" is particularly profound. Whether it is Xiong Tingbi's "Nine Sides of the Head", or Sun Chengzong's downfield, or even Yuan Chonghuan's death, the shadow of "party struggle" can be faintly seen behind it. After Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself in the coal mountain, the confusion within the Nanming regime over the succession to the unification pushed this dispute to a climax. It can be said that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, almost all events could be related to "party struggle", which seemed to be a unique label of that era, known as "the peak of 5,000 years of internal struggle".
However, if we only blame everything on "partisan disputes," we will inevitably be suspected of generalizing from a point to a point and generalizing from the whole. For example, when the Qing army had already entered the customs and even invaded Henan, the Southern Ming court was still engaged in party disputes and lawsuits in the court. Let's ask, these people have no feud with each other, why can they really fight in such a difficult situation regardless of life and death? Aren't they afraid that they will all become slaves and prisoners?
In fact, the reason for this confusion may be the problem of perspective.
(1) The strategic policy of "Lianyu Pingkou".
After the establishment of the Hongguang Imperial Court of the Southern Ming Dynasty, in the face of the situation of internal and external troubles (Dashun and Qing), with the guiding principle of "the outside must first be at ease", the strategic policy of "uniting the capture and leveling the Kou" was quickly formulated. In short, this policy was aimed at uniting the forces of the Qing Dynasty to jointly eliminate the rebel forces led by Li Zicheng.
However, this strategy was criticized in later generations. Many believe that it was this policy of passive war avoidance, described as "unattainable", that led to the downfall of the Hongguang court. So, what is the background of this "foolish" strategic approach?
When the Hongguang Imperial Court was established, it was when Wu Sangui surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and the two joined forces to defeat the Dashun army and occupy Beijing. Due to the lack of information, the Hongguang court was not clear about the relationship between Wu Sangui and the Qing Dynasty, thinking that Wu Sangui had defeated the "thieves" with the help of Qing soldiers and recovered Shenjing.
Soon after, the imperial court decided to cite the example of the Tang Dynasty borrowing troops from the Uighurs,"Ping Xibo Wu Sangui, the chief soldier of the closed gate, was the Duke of Jiguo, and gave coupons and rice, 50,000 taels of silver, 100,000 stones of rice, and sent them to the officials”。Shi Kefa even dredged up in Jiashen in June: ".Apply the edict, write quickly, apply the silver coin, and purchase it quickly. and a certain number of accompanying officials, a certain amount of money should be given, and the food should be completed together. It is scheduled to start within the month, and the concubine is not nameless, and the exterminator is in one fell swoop. From this, it can be seen that due to the blockage of information, Hongguang Junchen did not know that Wu Sangui had surrendered to the Qing Dynasty as early as late April and was named the king of Pingxi.
Wu Sangui descended to the Qing map.
After the Qing soldiers defeated Li Zicheng, they drank the Yellow River and intended to go south. However, the Southern Ming court still wanted to negotiate peace with the Qing army at this time, and sent Zuo Maodi to the north. From the departure of the mission to Chen Hongfan's return to Nanjing, it lasted more than three months. During these three months, the Hongguang court had always held the illusion of cooperating with the Qing court, so it did not dare to enter Xiangyang and Jingzhou. However, in fact, not long after Zuo Maodi's departure, Chen Hongfan in the mission defected to the Qing court, and the reality and movements of the Southern Ming court were all known to the Qing side.
(2) Engage in party strife
Due to the discrepancy of this information, most of the bureaucrats in the Hongguang court still believed that "state affairs still have something to do" at that time. In the north, there are "four towns in Jiangbei" to defend the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and in the west, there are 300,000 people in Zuo Liangyu to guard Wuchang.
So, what's the biggest problem right now?
Go back to the source! In Nanjing at that time, the Nandu three cases—the Great Compassion Case, the Tong Concubine Case, and the Pseudo-Prince Case—spread like wildfire, pushing the controversy over Emperor Hongguang's succession to the throne to every corner of Jiangnan again. The deep-seated reason behind this actually lies in the troubles left over from the three major cases that could not be completely resolved during the Wanli period.
When Emperor Hongguang had just established his position, the intervention of the Donglin Party caused great dissatisfaction among Ma Shiying and the Eunuch Party. As the Dashun regime established by Li Zicheng was defeated by the Qing army in Beijing, some former Ming ** who chose to surrender to Dashun went south to join the Hongguang regime. Among them, there are many members of Donglin and Fushe. This provides an opportunity for those opposition parties who are intent on cracking down on the Donglin faction. As a result, Ruan Dacheng and others concocted "Locust Record", and with the help of "Staying in the Capital to Prevent Chaos and Public Exposure", they retaliated against Donglin and Fushe people, and revitalized the party prison.
Statue of the traitor Ruan Dacheng.
In order to bring down Ruan Dacheng, the Donglin people used the turmoil of the three major cases to challenge the legitimacy of Emperor Hongguang. In the period of relative tranquility for nearly a year, the ** people of the Southern Ming Dynasty fought endlessly, the purpose of which was to defeat the other party and trace the source. During this period, the ** people in the court have their own thoughts, you come and go, and they fight endlessly.
(3) Zuohou goes east
When everyone learned that the defeated Li Zicheng was fleeing eastward, the first reaction of the court was not a sense of crisis, nor did they take active measures to resist the invasion of the Qing army. On the contrary, they heavily fortified their troops, fearing that Li Zicheng would go down the river and cause intrusion on the Jiangnan region.
However, to everyone's surprise, Zuo Liangyu, who was pinned on by the imperial court, quickly returned to Nanjing in the name of "Qingjun's side" after learning the news of Li Zicheng.
At the end of the spring of the year of Yiyou (1645), an event that shocked the entire imperial court occurred: Zuo Liangyu actually mutinied!
From the perspective of later generations, in the late spring of that year, the most pressing problem faced by the Southern Ming monarchs should be the southward movement of the Qing army. But in fact, the city was full of commotion, people were panicked, and the focus of people's discussions was not "Duoduo", the commander of the Qing army. The name is unfamiliar to many people and even meaningless. And the name "Zuo Liangyu" has become the focus of people's discussion, like thunder.
This is not a rash conclusion made by the author, but can be found in the personal records and other works written by people at the time. On the eve of the fall of Nanjing, from March to April, Zuo Liangyu's mutiny was the unchanging ** center.
Since the outbreak of the mutiny in late March, those in power in Nanjing have regarded it as a catastrophe and have withdrawn their northern defenses to meet the enemy. The four-town defense system set up by Emperor Hongguang at the beginning came to naught in an instant, and several main forces of the Ming Dynasty fell into flames with each other, and civil strife continued.
At this time, Duoduo's army successfully crossed the Yellow River, and except for the resistance of hundreds of people led by Shi Kefa in Yangzhou, which caused the process to be slightly slowed, the rest of the place was almost unstoppable. They marched forward until the mouth of the river. In a sense, the process of Duoduo's march to the south even seemed lonely and lonely, and received little attention and discussion.
It wasn't until Zuo Liangyu's soldiers changed into a shadow that people's eyes retracted from the southwest and turned to the north. But by this time, the Manchurian soldiers were already approaching. A vigorous change of dynasty happened suddenly and insipidly. Dordor, who had traveled all the way south, might have felt a little tedious or not exciting enough about such an easy victory.
There is no doubt that the Southern Ming Dynasty did not die in military disasters, but in party struggles. But in the eyes of people at the time, they may not have realized that the Qing army was the ultimate disaster for them. Putting aside the historical background at that time, blindly criticizing the "Lianju Pingkou" will inevitably be suspected of being a leopard in the tube.
The party fought for the destruction of the country, and this is the bloody lesson we have drawn from history. However, to look at history more objectively, we also need to have a deep understanding of the real thoughts and mentality of the people at that time.