Indeed, the death of Zhang made the Ming Dynasty, which had just flourished, decline rapidly, and the empire created by Zhu Yuanzhang stepped into the abyss of extinction.
This abyss was forged by many forces, two of which are very important: one requires us to look to the northeast of the Ming Dynasty, and the other nation rises in the white water of that black mountain.
Another force comes from a postman in Mizhi, Shaanxi Province more than 20 years after Zhang's death. The postman's name is Li Zicheng.
It was under the impetus of these two forces that the Ming Dynasty perished.
Let's talk about the power of Baishui in Montenegro-Jianzhou Jurchen.
Jianzhou Jurchen is the strongest of the three tribes of Jurchen nationality, and the other two are Hercynian Jurchen and Savage Jurchen. It was Aixinjueluo Nurhachi who led Jianzhou Jurchen to glory.
Nurhachi was born in a Nuzhen aristocratic family in Jianzhou, but his aristocratic status did not bring him more luck. He lost his mother when he was ten years old, and his stepmother was mean to him. Fortunately, his grandfather felt that Chang 'an and his father Tucker took good care of him.
They taught Nurhachi to ride a horse and shoot arrows, so that Nurhachi developed a good martial arts from an early age. Because of the hardships of life, Nurhachi dug ginseng, hunted and collected medicinal materials with his friends before he was twenty, and then took these goods to Fushun for sale.
There are many Han businessmen in Fushun market. Nurhachi learned Chinese here and likes reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin. These opened his eyes.
In this way, Nurhachi gradually grew up.
When Nurhachi was twenty-five, his grandfather and father were killed by the Ming army. After Li, the general of Liaodong in the Ming Dynasty, captured the village, he ordered the massacre, and Jue Chang 'an and Tucker, who had surrendered, were killed by mistake.
Nurhachi was very angry when he learned that. After crying bitterly, he angrily condemned the border officials of the Ming Dynasty and said, "Why were my grandfather and father killed?" ? You are my sworn enemy! "
The border official of the Ming Dynasty said: "It was not intentional, it was manslaughter."
How can this feeble excuse dispel Nurhachi's anger? Next, he embarked on the road of revenge.
Nuerhachi, with hatred, made expeditions to the east and sought advice from the west, unifying the ministries of Jurchen. How to manage such a huge tribe? Nurhachi founded the Eight Banners System.
He divided the Jurchen nationality into eight banners, which were independent and contained each other. They are farmers on weekdays and soldiers in wartime. They are self-sufficient and efficient. In A.D. 16 16, Nurhachi established his capital in Hetuala, called Khan, and named the country as Jin (known as "Later Jin" in history), with the title of Destiny.
Later, the powerful Nurhachi turned his attention to the Ming Dynasty, and he wanted to avenge his grandfather and father. Two years after the establishment of the late Jin Dynasty, that is, in A.D. 16 18, Nurhachi raised the anti-Ming banner and led the army all the way south to conquer Shenyang and Liaoyang.
In March of A.D. 1625, Houjin moved its capital to Shenyang and changed its name to Shengjing. The following year, Nurhachi died of illness and Huang Taiji acceded to the throne. It was not until A.D. 1636 that the title of the country was changed to Qing in the later Jin Dynasty. At this point, the Qing dynasty has become very powerful, and it is just around the corner to replace the decadent Ming dynasty.
However, at that time, the mainland of the Ming Dynasty also ignited the war.
Now, let's continue to talk about another force that pushed the Ming Dynasty into the abyss-Li Zicheng.
Liaodong border is uneven, and soldiers are used every year, so the military expenditure is naturally huge. And where does the military expenditure come from? It is nothing more than passing it on to the people. As a result, exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes rose, corrupt officials took the opportunity to extort money, and the people were helpless and took risks, and peasant uprisings broke out everywhere.
At that time, the rebel army was called the 1372 Battalion, among which the rebel army headed by He Zhang was the representative, echoing each other from a distance, which made the court in a hurry.
There is a young man named Li Zicheng in Mizhi. He comes from a poor family, but he is very talented and intelligent. He is good at sprinting and proficient in riding and shooting. He used to be a courier delivering official documents in Yinchuan Post, and he didn't want the court to withdraw the post, which broke his livelihood.
Later, Li Zicheng borrowed money to pay the rent. Because he couldn't pay his debts, he was tied up by the government and exposed to the hot sun. The postman who was later dismissed with him saved him.
Where should he escape after being rescued?
They decided to join the rebels. In this way, they came to the banner of Gao Yingxiang. Li Zicheng was brave, literate and resourceful, and was appointed as the pioneer of the Eighth Team. Gao Yingxiang led the insurgents to fight in five provinces, such as Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong and Henan, and the momentum was growing. This made the court very scared.
1634, the court sent Hong Chengchou to suppress the rebels.
The soldiers of the Ming army were divided and pressed step by step, which made the rebels have to disperse their operations and could not unite. Many rebels were defeated because they were weak. Gao Yingxiang, the king of Linwang, was also captured by Sun Chuanting's army in the fierce battle and sent back to Beijing for sacrifice.
The rebels are in trouble.
Lost the Lord, everyone unanimously elected Li Zicheng, trusted by Chu Zhuangwang, as commander in chief, calling him Li Chuangwang. In A.D. 1638, Li Zicheng moved from Gansu to Shaanxi. After learning the news, the Ming army laid a triple ambush on the rugged mountain road in Tongguan.
Li Zicheng entered the ambush of the Ming army.
The rebel army was marching on the mountain road, when suddenly the Ming army poured out of the mountains on both sides. The two sides fought fiercely for days and nights, and tens of thousands of nominal troops fell, with rivers of blood. Only Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin, Tian Jianxiu, etc. 18 people fought bloody battles and rushed out of the tight encirclement.
After bumping all the way, they went into Shangluo Mountain area in the southeast of Shaanxi to escape. The Ming army sent troops to search for Li Zicheng, but failed to catch him. Later, it was rumored that Li Zicheng had been injured and killed. The Ming army believed it and stopped searching. So, is Li Zicheng really injured and dead?
Of course not. He accumulated strength in Shangluo Mountain.
Li Zicheng hid at the foot of Shangluo Mountain and never forgot to raise the banner of righteousness. He secretly recruited and trained soldiers and soon gathered thousands of troops.
In A.D. 1639, there was a drought in Henan, and the locust plague broke out again. The government has increased several taxes regardless of the people's lives, and the people really can't live any longer. In May, Zhang raised the banner of righteousness again in Gucheng. Li Zicheng felt the time was ripe and responded immediately.
Subsequently, Li Zicheng put forward the idea of "tax exemption for farmland", so that people all over the world could divide their fields and be exempted from all exorbitant taxes.
For farmers who had no land at that time, this slogan was very attractive. People who hated the government and were forced to live came to Li Zicheng. Li Zicheng is becoming stronger and stronger. Soon, he led an army into Henan and killed He Zhu.
The next three attacks on Kaifeng almost occupied the whole province of Henan.
In A.D. 1643, Li Zicheng attacked Tongguan and then occupied Xi 'an. /kloc-in the first month of 0/644, Li Zicheng made Xi 'an its capital, with the title of Dashun and Yongchang, and changed Xi 'an to Xijing. Later, he led the army to cross the Yellow River eastward and attacked Beijing in two ways.
Along the way, the insurgents went straight to the gates of Beijing, and the two armies met outside the city and stormed together.