1March 64415th, the peasant army arrived at Juyongguan, and eunuch DUZH and army company commander Tang Tong surrendered without a fight. At the same time, after leading the South Road Army eastward to Guguan, Qiu Heyou attacked Xie Sufu and Li Jiantai, a university student, really surrendered in Baoding. On March 16, Li Zicheng crossed Changping and reached Shahe. /kloc-entered Gaobeidian and Xizhimen on 0/7, bombed indiscriminately, and attacked Pingzemen, Zhangyimen and Xizhimen at noon.
In the middle of March 17th, Cao Huachun, the eunuch guarding the city, took the lead in opening the Guangning Gate on the west side of the outer city, and the peasant army entered the southern suburb of Fuxingmen. On March 18, Li Zicheng sent Du Xun, the eunuch who surrendered in Changping, into the city to commune with Emperor Chongzhen. According to the four-year volume "Examination of Filial Piety", Li Zicheng put forward the following conditions: "invade the northwest to strengthen the masses, discuss the king's reward of one million troops, and retreat to Henan ... Since I invaded the imperial court, I am willing to curb the bandits, especially to help suppress the Liao princes with my strength. But I don't serve you. " After that, negotiations between the two sides broke down.
Since then, the "Dashun Army" has arrived in Beijing, and the Daming court, which is in danger, is in chaos. Seeing that the world was about to change hands, cowardly ministers began to think about their future. 1March 644 19, a minister knelt down for honor and took the initiative to welcome the invading army into the city. The peasant army rushed into the 49 th city with great fanfare and took over the old nest of Emperor Zhu as a winner. Although the invading army is an army, in the eyes of ordinary people, these people have no military discipline at all, just like a group of hooligans. After the invasion of the capital, it immediately brought various disasters to the city.
Although Li Zicheng was the leader of the uprising, he was short-sighted at the grassroots level. In order to show off his achievements, he insulted Zhu Youjian, who had been martyred, and broke the idea that everyone should join Dashun. Li Zicheng sent someone to burn the Zhujiajian ancestral temple and smashed the memorial tablet of Zhu Ming's ancestors. Li Zicheng solemnly said that he would give the former emperor a "ceremonial burial", but what happened? His "courtesy" to the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty was entirely to disgust Zhu Youjian. Although "Ming Shi" said a lot of bad things about Li Zicheng, there must be reasons to belittle Li Zicheng.
As can be seen from the details in the literature, Li Zicheng's level of life is very low, and he is a typical villain. You see, the process of Li Zicheng's "ritual burial" for Chongzhen is like this: "Li Zicheng asked his minions to carry Zhu Youjian's body with a door panel, put it in a wicker coffin, and stopped outside Donghua Gate. Within three days, Zhu Youjian's body was rotten, and everyone passing by was clutching his nose ... "Where can this process reflect the" ritual burial "? Only a wicker coffin is more than dumping a body in the wilderness.
Let's take a look at what the Manchu people did after they entered Beijing: "Immediately after they entered Beijing, they mourned for Zhu Youjian and added posthumous title to him ..." Although the original intention of the Manchu Dynasty was to win the hearts of the people, this practice was much more civilized than that of Li Zicheng. Immediately after cleaning up Zhu Youjian, Li Zicheng launched a "white terror" in Beijing, persecuting former ministers and killing innocent people. In fact, some reasonable people broke into the army, but they couldn't dissuade Li Zicheng from going his own way. At that time, Li Zicheng's famous soldier Yan Li earnestly suggested that Wang Chuang try to buy people's hearts and stop killing.
But this sentence Li Zicheng went in one ear and out the other, and he didn't take it seriously. At Li Zicheng's behest, the invading army immediately began to persecute the old ministers of the Ming Dynasty after entering Beijing, and countless old ministers were robbed, blackmailed and robbed by proletarians. Once a high-ranking official, he has now become the "Tang monk meat" in the mouth of the peasant army. Do you want to live? Simple, pay! In Wang Chuang's words, this is "helping the salary": "There are 100,000 in the main hall, 750,000 in the royal robes of the Ministry, 50,000 in the Taoist temple, 321,000 in the Hanlin, and thousands of subordinates."
If you can afford this "living money", the old minister may be able to change it in another way; If you can't afford the money, you will be tortured by the peasant army. How to make the former ministers of the former dynasty willingly pay for it? Clamp the stick! Li Zicheng asked Liu Zongmin to make 5,000 sets of sticks overnight and put them in front of the old minister: there are two ways in front of you, either paying money or sticking out your finger and being caught: "Anyone who sticks a hundred officials ... catches them and burns them, is extremely vicious and can't die."
It is said that the officialdom was corrupt in the late Ming dynasty, and there were few good birds among the old ministers of the Ming dynasty. Li Zicheng vented his personal anger under the banner of "doing harm for the people", which is also a courageous act. However, Li Zicheng's attitude towards Beijing people has completely exposed the fact that the invaders are bandits. The grassroots proletarians who broke into the army have never seen the world of flowers and flowers in Beijing. In their eyes, Beijingers live too well, which runs counter to the concept of the peasant army. So Li Zicheng turned a blind eye and let his soldiers plunder unarmed people.
As the saying goes, "killing people is not empty, and soldiers generally rob people of money." Robbery alone can no longer satisfy these bandits and hooligans. Therefore, Li Zicheng issued a policy: "Let five families have a thief, rape and plunder, and the people are invincible." In contrast, although Zhu Youjian was not a qualified emperor, compared with these bandits who regarded the people as lambs, Chongzhen was like an angel.
On April 29th, Li Zicheng sat in Wuying Hall, enjoying the worship of officials. Li Zicheng's dream of the emperor didn't last long, but he sat in the dragon chair for a few days like a real emperor. Seeing the Qing army Enemy at the Gates, the future is uncertain. Li Zicheng, with a "death-obsessed" mentality, has carried out devastating damage to the capital. "It's evening, burning the nine towers of the palace".
This mentality is very similar to the rogue thinking of the bandit leader "I can't get it, and you can't get it". Many history lovers believe that if Li Zicheng can stay firmly in the country, it may help the working people live a better life. It's a pity that there are indications that Li Zicheng is not a good king at all. Even if such a man sits in the emperor's chair, he is a heartless and bad king like Shang Zhouwang and Zhou Youwang.