When Chuang Wang led the peasant uprising, he shouted the slogan "Welcome Chuang Wang, don't accept food", which gave the bottom people a shot in the arm. All the people in the world are waiting for him, eager for a piece of the action when he comes. Energy is conserved, so is matter. They don't work, rob other people's property and are finally left behind.
China has been a big agricultural country since ancient times. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, farming was the lifeblood of the whole country. After hundreds of years of development, only the grain grown from the ground is the income being created. Every dynasty is indispensable for taxation, which supports the operation of a country.
People are in poverty, and what tax Li Zicheng eats supports the national expenditure. For farmers everywhere, it is also a mountain on their shoulders. At that time, they lived mainly on the weather. If the harvest is not good, taxes will be the last straw to crush them. Since ancient times, ordinary people will not choose to rise up as long as they can eat their stomachs and are forced to do nothing. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, natural and man-made disasters continued inside and outside the imperial court. All the money comes from farmers' taxes, and there is no food to pay taxes. The rebellion developed rapidly.
Li Zicheng is also one of the insurgents. He was not the leader of the rebel army at first, but a soldier under Gao Yingxiang, the king of Zhuang. He was brave and good at fighting, and soon became Zhuang's right-hand man. After Zhuang's unfortunate sacrifice, Li Zicheng won the support of other generals and became the new Zhuang, continuing to lead them forward.
In the early days of the Li Zicheng Uprising, food must have been distributed to the common people. At that time, many people did not have enough to eat When they heard that they could have dinner with Li Zicheng, they swarmed in. Ordinary people can't eat at home by themselves, but they can eat with Chuang Wang, so more and more people join Li Zicheng's team and follow Chuang Wang to attack the city and pull out the village.
The early insurgents relied on this policy, which made the insurgents expand rapidly. They kept attacking the new county town, and when they were finished, they opened the warehouse to release grain. Apart from meeting the basic expenses of the team, all the food is distributed to the local people free of charge. So people continued to join the insurgents and continue to attack new cities.
The advantage of this is that the team can be quickly pulled up by the government's grain reserves, but the limitations are also obvious, and it is necessary to constantly move and attack the city. The insurgents can't stop, and if they stop, they will starve, which is fatal to an army. It is a very serious matter that the soldiers and horses have not moved their food and grass first. Without a stable rear, an army cannot guarantee a sustained and stable supply in the later period.
However, a sustained and stable rear area cannot be built on its own. In the early days of Li Zicheng, the army's food and drink expenses remained basically stable by capturing the city, robbing officials of money and storing food.
Li Zicheng's policy of refusing to accept food was not implemented in the end, because he didn't know how to be flexible in time. If he doesn't accept food, he can only last for a while. To overthrow the former rule and establish a new regime, we must let the people have food, water and self-sufficiency, and then support the whole country. It is still possible to recruit soldiers in the short term only by relying on the resources left by the previous dynasty, but it cannot solve the long-term problem.
After Li Zicheng invaded the capital of Ming Dynasty, he continued to plunder the former officials and rich families. Eventually, he was unable to gain a foothold in the ruling class, but Guan Waiqing took the opportunity to enter the Central Plains. We can't govern the world at once, and we have to adopt different policies at different stages. Li Zicheng's failure lies in his flexibility, which is also the limitation of several peasant uprisings.
Postscript: People don't eat is a slogan in the early days of the uprising, in order to recruit soldiers and gather people's hearts. If it can really continue to develop, taxation is essential, but only if the people can meet their own food and clothing problems.
Li Zicheng's early process of winning the world proved that his policy was correct, but he didn't have the idea and law of governing the country. The core of the operation of a political power still depends on the effective governance of the people. After he came to power, he didn't make good use of the country's elite, but pushed them to the opposite side, doomed to ultimate failure.