From an unemployed civil servant, Li Zicheng spent more than ten years building the country and establishing the Dashun regime, and he himself changed from a diaosi to a king. Especially after he captured Beijing, he reached the peak of his life, supported millions of soldiers and occupied half of the country. But he only stayed in Beijing for 42 days, and was driven out of Beijing by the Qing army. In the face of the Qing army, he had no strength to fight back and soon died. So, why did he die so quickly?

Many people think that the reason for Li Zicheng's rapid downfall is the loss of popular support, which certainly exists, but this is not the main reason, but the main reason is a fatal factor that we have neglected. First, let's look at people's hearts. Before Li Zicheng overthrew the Ming dynasty, Li Zicheng put forward the idea of conforming to the people's hearts? Tian Jun is tax-free? This slogan won the hearts of the people, and a large number of farmers joined Li Zicheng's team, which was the fundamental reason for its success.

But after Li Zicheng went to Beijing, Li Zicheng turned over as a serf, sang songs and began the rhythm of death. First, they searched Ming officials in Beijing, searched everywhere for property, and stipulated that officials of different ranks had different reimbursement standards, and then extended to all areas occupied by Dashun Army. They chased Daming's corrupt officials to help them pay their salaries, but in the end they connived at the soldiers to rob the people. This is nonsense, which has lost people's hearts to a certain extent and accelerated his demise. But this is not fatal, because Li Zicheng is always more popular than the Qing army!

In fact, the most fatal factor of Li Zicheng's rapid downfall was the plague. When Li Zicheng's army first entered Beijing, there was a plague, but the plague spread slowly because of the low temperature at that time. But in April, spring blossoms, fleas and mice began to be active, and a large-scale plague broke out. Li Zicheng's army suffered greatly from the plague. Although there are quantitative advantages in the face of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty, they are unable to fight back. Subsequently, Li Zicheng's army withdrew southward with the plague. Although there were recruits, the recruits were infected with the plague as soon as they joined. In the end, Li Zicheng had no soldiers available, so it quickly perished in less than two years.

You may ask, why is the Qing army not afraid of the plague? When Europeans studied the European plague in the14th century, they found from murals and texts that only cavalry survived the plague. So it is concluded that plague is spread by fleas, and fleas hate the smell of horses, so cavalry is not easy to get infected with plague. The Eight Banners in Qing Dynasty were mainly cavalry, so there was no plague.

To sum up, the most fatal cause of Li Zicheng's rapid downfall was the plague. What do you think, gentlemen?