Small holes can sink large ships, and small gaps can penetrate strong winds.

- Manchu proverb

The pace of time raced to the winter of 1643.

The descendants of Gong Huaizhou and the descendants of Wang Chen lived endlessly in Qinghai, passed down from generation to generation, and gradually multiplied into two big families.

There was a young man named Wang Zixi in the Wang family. He did not inherit the tradition of the Wang family being good at doing business, but chose to lease other people's land to make a living from farming.

Wang Zixi saw that the big families were wearing silk and satin, eating and drinking spicy, carved beams in the Zhumen, and commanding the spirit, and he was very unconvinced. He fantasized that one day he would rob the rich and help the poor and live a prosperous and comfortable life.

On this day, Wang Zixi carried a wicker basket on his back and a wooden fork in his hand, picking up cow dung and horse feces on the side of the road outside the city, preparing to take it back to dry it and use it to burn the kang.

Suddenly, he saw a group of men and horses holding a large banner walking towards the city. The hula-la-fluttering banner is embroidered with the golden characters "Chuang Wang".

Wang Zixi heard not long ago that King Li Chuang's rebel army specialized in killing officials of the Ming Dynasty and opening the granaries of the rich to relieve the poor people. They were still in Qilian Mountain two days ago, why did they arrive at Nian Bowei so quickly?

He couldn't help but wonder.

Wang Zixi excitedly stepped forward to meet the rebels.

A black-faced man at the head of the rebel army asked, "Who are you?" Get out of the way. ”

Wang Zixi boldly asked, "Are you King Li Chuang's troops?" ”

The black-faced man replied, "Yes." Let me ask you, do you know the situation of the military defense in the city of Nianbo? ”

Wang Zixi replied, "Sir, Nau (I) know. Nau knows it all. Can Nau join your team? ”

The black-faced man looked Wang Zixi up and down with stern eyes, and then said, "Yes." If you take us to conquer the city, I will definitely promote you to a higher position and make you rich. ”

Wang Zixi threw away the dung fork in his hand and the back basket on his back, and said happily: "Okay." Okay. ”

The story has to start from the beginning.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, politics became increasingly corrupt, social contradictions became more acute, natural and man-made disasters continued to occur, and millions of peasants had no clothes and no food in their mouths, and lived in dire straits.

Li Zicheng, a farmer in northern Shaanxi, was forced to herd sheep for the landlord because of his family's debts, and he had a strong sense of rebellion in his heart.

At the age of 21, the strong-blooded Li Zicheng wounded the landlord who oppressed him and fled to Yinchuan, Ningxia, to become a post soldier.

At that time, six peasant uprisings broke out all over the country. Zhang Xianzhong led the common people to revolt in the eighteen villages of Mizhi in Shaanxi, claiming to be the eight kings.

Li Zicheng actively responded to the call in Yinchuan, angrily killed corrupt officials and rebelled, and served as a general in the rebel army led by his uncle Gao Yingxiang.

Gao Yingxiang was defeated and died at Xucuo (today's Zhou Zhi) in Shaanxi. Li Zicheng continued to use the name of King Chuang and heroically eliminated the main force of the Ming army that came to suppress the bandits, and his troops expanded to nearly one million.

Li Zicheng led the rebel army to the north and south, occupied a large area of land, changed Xiangyang (now Xiangfan, Hubei Province) to Xiangjing, and established the Dashun regime, which covered more than 70 prefectures and counties from Tongguan in the west, Henan in the east, the Yellow River in the north, and Li County in Hunan in the south.

After Li Zicheng occupied Xi'an, he officially named the country Dashun, changed Xi'an to Chang'an, changed Li Zicheng to Li Zisheng, and began to claim the king.

In 1643, Li Zicheng decided to lead the main force of the rebel army to attack Beijing, and ordered his subordinates to capture Shaanxi and Gansu by He Jin and others, and contain the border guards of the Ming Dynasty to aid Beijing.

In December, He Jin sent his lieutenant general Lu Wenbin south to the Huangshui coast of Qinghai in Ganzhou to prepare for an attack on Xining.

The commander of the Xining Turen Tusi made Qi Tingji, Qi Xingzhou and his son, and Li Tianyu, the Turen Tusi, and other entangled local forces stubbornly resisted. Qi Tingzhi and others made an alliance with Gansu Zhuanglang Tusi Lu Yuanchang and others, preparing to flank the rebel army from two directions at the same time.

In January of the following year, Lu Wenbin led an uprising team to attack the city of Xining.

Inspired by the rebels' slogan "Welcome the king, no food", some of the defenders of Xining plotted to revolt, and prepared to join the army of the king.

Seeing that Xining City was in danger, Qi Tingji and others took the initiative to lead officers and soldiers out of the city to attack the rebels.

Lu Wenbin unfortunately died in the battle.

The rebels' plans to capture Tay Ninh were temporarily thwarted.

When He Jin heard the news of the death of his protégé Lu Wenbin, he personally led the rebel army from Ganzhou, crossed the Qilian Mountains, and encountered Lu Yuanchang of Zhuanglang Tusi in Gansu at Beidatong (in present-day Menyuan, Qinghai Province).

Lu Yuanchang's soldiers were vulnerable and did not resist long before surrendering to the rebels.

Lu Yuanchang had no choice but to retreat to Liancheng in Yongdeng, Gansu.

He Jin quickly pursued the enemy, conquered Liancheng, killed Lu Yuanchang, played a triumphant song all the way, and went west to Nian Bo in Qinghai.

The black-faced man in front of him who was talking to Wang Zixi was He Jin.

He Jin's rebel army, under the leadership of Wang Zixi, avoided the main frontal force of the Ming army, attacked the Ming army barracks from Xiaolu, and quickly took down Nian Bo.

Wang Zixi was promoted to the vice-captain of the stormtrooper by He Jin, and also received a considerable amount of gold and silver treasures. The relatives of the Wang family ascended to heaven in the blink of an eye, and since then they have taken off their poor hats and become a local family that shows off their might.

In 1644, the main force of the rebel army led by Li Zicheng attacked Beijing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

Ming Sizong Zhu Youzhen saw that the general trend had gone, and the country would not be a country, so he chose to hang himself on a big tree on the coal mountain (today's Jingshan) in desperation.

The Ming Dynasty finally came to the end of history, and withdrew from the stage of history under the joint attack of the peasant rebel army of Li Zicheng, a Han Chinese in the west, and the army of the Jurchens in the north.

At the same time, He Jin conquered the ancient plateau city of Xining on the western border.

The Ming generals Qi Tingji, Li Tianyu and others who were entrenched in Xining retreated to Nanchuan (that is, the area of today's Huangzhong County) in Xining, and set up tripwires and traps near Fuqiang Fort (in today's Xujiazhai, Huangzhong County, Qinghai Province), and then feigned defeat to lure He Jin's light cavalry troops deep into the ambush circle.

He Jin, who was determined to win, did not know what to do, and led the rebel army to rush forward.

Wang Zixi knew the terrain of Nanchuan better, and was worried that the rebel army's rash attack would lead to failure, so he suggested to He Jin: "Sir, the Nanchuan Gorge is slender and has high mountains on both sides, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack. We rushed in like this, and once we encountered an ambush in front and a blockade in the back, there was no way to escape. ”

He Jin laughed and said, "They are just a flock of frightened birds now, where do they still have the courage to calculate us!" Let's go! Destroy all enemies completely and cleanly. ”

Wang Zixi became a prophecy.

Sure enough, the rebel army was desperately surrounded by the enemy in the valley, unable to advance or retreat. He Jin was unfortunately shot and died.

He Jin's subordinate Xin Enzhong resolutely took up the burden of commanding the rebel army, and with the assistance of the common people, he quickly crushed the army of Qi Tingji and Li Tianyu on the outskirts of Xining, captured Qi Tingji and Li Tianyu alive, and Wang Zixi escorted them to Chang'an Zhengfa.

The rebel army under the command of Xin Enzhong controlled the city of Xining for a year. During this period, the Wang family also happily spent a year of raising their eyebrows.

After Wang Zixi arrived in Chang'an to complete his mission, he did not return to Qinghai, but went to Beijing.

In Beijing, Wang Zixi went to the ancient city in his spare time. Turning around, he turned to Niujie, where the Hui people lived, and saw that there were many Hui people here, and there was a grand worship temple, and he didn't feel a little different in his heart: Nao only knew that there were many Hui people in Qinghai, Gansu and Shaanxi, and he didn't want to have so many Hui people in the capital thousands of miles away? It's really a return to businessmen all over the world!

Just when the rebel army led by Li Zicheng overthrew the Ming Dynasty, Wu Sangui, the Ming guard general stationed at Shanhaiguan, surrendered to the Qing army in the north.

Wu Sangui's ancestral home is Gaoyou, Nanzhili (today's Jiangsu), born in a family of generals in western Liaoning, and has been practicing martial arts since childhood and is good at riding and shooting. Under the teachings and influence of his father Wu Xiang and his uncle Zu Dashou, he studied both literature and martial arts, and was admitted to the martial arts examination before the age of 20, becoming a generation of young talents, and began his military career with his father and uncle.

In February 1643, Zu Dashou, who had surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, received an ambiguously worded letter from his nephew Wu Sangui in Shengjing (present-day Shenyang, Liaoning Province) and forwarded the letter to Huang Taiji.

Huang Taiji happily replied: "You sent an envoy to send a letter to your uncle, and I have already read it. You've been hesitant to settle down. I am really worried that the general will lose this precious opportunity. That would be a shame. ”

Wu Sangui's mind is still wavering. Although he did not surrender to the Qing Dynasty, he had already left himself a way back to surrender to the Qing Dynasty.

Li Zicheng attached great importance to Wu Sangui's military talents, and sent Wang Zixi many times to persuade Wu Sangui to surrender.

The demise of the Ming Dynasty made Wu Sangui completely lose his spiritual support. In order to find a new master, he bargained and speculated among various political forces.

Wu Sangui once had the idea of surrendering Li Zicheng. Later, he heard that his concubine Chen Yuanyuan was taken captive by Li Zicheng, and angrily dispelled the idea of joining the rebel army.

At this time, Wu Sangui was attacked on both sides. He was invincible to Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, internally, and difficult to stop Dolgon, the fierce general of the Qing Dynasty, externally. Chen Yuanyuan and the relatives of the Wu family also became hostages in the hands of Li Zicheng.

In order to save the lives of his family, Wu Sangui promised Wang Zixi that he would negotiate peace with Li Zicheng. In order to guard against Li Zicheng, he conspired with Dolgon in private, and asked him to "quickly organize the tiger brigade and go straight to Shanhaiguan" on the condition that the Yellow River was the boundary and the north and south were divided.

In May, Li Zicheng was carried away by a series of victories, underestimating the gravity of the military confrontation, and personally led an army of 60,000 to Shanhaiguan.

When Wu Sangui learned that Li Zicheng personally led his army to the east, he immediately ordered his troops to meet him at Sanhe (today's Sanhe City, Hebei Province), east of Beijing, and said that he would surrender to Li Zicheng, but in fact he wanted to delay time and wait for the arrival of the Qing army.

Li Zicheng knew that Wu Sangui had surrendered to the Qing Dynasty through Wang Zixi, and he was so angry that he immediately sent Tang Tong, a general of the Ming Dynasty, to lead 20,000 cavalry to cut off Wu Sangui's retreat, and he prepared to snipe the attack of the Manchurian army head-on.

The Manchurians who founded the Qing Dynasty were the descendants of the Jurchens who had established the powerful Jin State.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the Jurchen tribes were under the jurisdiction of the Liaodong Metropolitan Division and the Nuer Gandu Division established by the Ming Dynasty in the northeast. At that time, the Jurchens were divided into three major divisions: the Jianzhou Jurchens, the Haixi Jurchens, and the East China Sea Jurchens. Later, it was divided into four parts: Jianzhou, Changbai, Donghai and Hulun according to the distribution area.

The leader of the Jianzhou Jurchens was named the governor of Jianzhou Weizuo by the Ming Dynasty. In 1440, the Jianzhou tribe migrated south, eventually settling in Hetuara (present-day Xinbin, Liaoning Province).

After the Jianzhou Jurchen moved south, it directly bordered the territory of the Ming Dynasty, so the exchanges were close, the level of social productivity increased rapidly, and the economy became more and more prosperous.

In 1583, Nurhachi was appointed as the commander of the left guard of Jianzhou, and led the troops left by his grandfather and father to conquer the Jurchens of Haixi and the Jurchens of the East China Sea one after another, and unified the Jurchen tribes. He also built cities, set up ministers, enacted laws, accepted lawsuits, and established the Eight Banners system.

The Eight Banners system was a kind of social organization in which the Jurchens were organized in the form of military organization, and war and production activities were carried out under the control of the aristocracy. The Eight Banners system promoted the development of Jurchen society and the expansion of the territory, consolidating Nurhachi's dominance.

In 1616, Nurhachi founded the country in Hetuara and was called Khan, the country was called Jin, and the history was called Houjin. In 1618, he published the famous "Seven Hatreds" inscription, bitterly complaining about the guilt of the Ming Dynasty for oppressing the Jurchens, provoking hatred of the Jurchens within the Jurchens, so as to achieve the political goal of raising troops against the Ming regime. The following year, the Jin army defeated the Ming army at Salhu (present-day Fushun, Liaoning Province), and in the following years, it occupied more than 70 cities in eastern Liaodong.

In 1621, Nurhachi captured Liaoyang and Shenyang and moved the capital from Hetuara to Shenyang. From then on, Shenyang became the ruling center of the Jin State.

In 1626, Nurhachi was seriously wounded by the artillery of the Ming army during the Battle of Ningyuan (present-day Xingcheng, Liaoning Province) and died soon after. Huang Taiji succeeded to the throne and continued to launch a powerful offensive against the Ming Dynasty, and united the Mongolian tribes, and his power continued to expand.

In 1635, Huang Taiji abolished the old clan name Jurchen and decided on a new clan name Manchuria. The following year, Huang Taiji officially proclaimed himself emperor and changed the name of the country to the Great Qing Dynasty, establishing the Qing Dynasty, the last feudal dynasty in Chinese history.

After Huang Taiji established the Qing Dynasty, he was fierce and eyed the rich territory of the Ming Dynasty.

After receiving an urgent letter from Wu Sangui, Dolgon, an important minister of the Qing Dynasty, immediately commanded the Eight Banners army to gallop overnight, quickly rendezvous with Wu Sangui's army, and then marched day and night to break into Shanhaiguan, not only defeating Li Zicheng's Dashun army, but also occupying Beijing.

Emperor Taiji's son, Emperor Shunzhi, moved the capital of the Qing Dynasty from Shenyang to Beijing. He held a solemn memorial ceremony to comfort the ancestors of Manchuria and declare that the Qing Empire was the co-ruler of the world to replace the Ming Dynasty.

Emperor Shunzhi canonized the meritorious Wu Sangui as the king of Pingxi.

The army of the Qing Dynasty immediately moved south, exterminated the peasant rebel army, pursued and killed the remnants of the Ming Dynasty, and seized the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

The traitors and bureaucrats in the north colluded with the Qing army to suppress the peasant rebels everywhere.

On May 17, 1645, Wang Zixi and other remnants of the defeated army followed Li Zicheng and retreated to Jiugong Mountain in Tongcheng, Hubei Province (today's Tongshan County), where they were attacked by the local landlords. They finally got rid of the entanglement of the landlord's armed forces and hid in the mountains.

Li Zicheng, who was physically and mentally exhausted, lay down and fell asleep after worshipping God in the Xuandi Temple.

In order not to affect the rest of King Chuang, Wang Zixi and the others retreated to the side hall and lay on the ground, and quickly fell asleep.

Suddenly, a shouting and scolding woke Wang Zixi up.

Wang Zixi ran over following the shouting and scolding, only to see several mountain people dressed as hunters attacking Li Zicheng.

It turned out that these mountain people who went up the mountain to hunt mistakenly thought that Li Zicheng was a thief who stole things from the temple, and they picked up the sticks and beat them to death, beating the generation of heroes Li Chuang to death.

The regime of the Dashun Rebellion collapsed immediately.

Wang Zixi had no choice but to flee back to his hometown in Qinghai.

With the defeat of the peasant rebel army across the country, the Qing general Meng Qiaofang occupied Xining, massacred the rebels in the city, and attacked the nine tribes who participated in the uprising.

Wang Zixi found that the situation was not good, so he hurriedly ran home to pack up his clothes, quilts, pots and bowls, and in a hurry took a group of people from the Wang family, and fled into the Tiger and Wolf Valley in the south of Nianbo City in a panic, and since then he has been hiding in the depths of the mountains to survive, and never dare to enter the city again.

The Qing army's policy of ethnic assimilation during the conquest of Jiangnan forced the Han Chinese to shave their hair and change their clothes like the Manchurians, which provoked a strong resistance from the people of Jiangnan. They killed the disobedient Han people and severely suppressed the common people in various places, causing a sharp decline in the population of the whole country, resulting in a depression in the people's livelihood in the southwest region, and thousands of miles of desolation. It is known as the "Jiashen National Disaster" in history.

After the Qing Dynasty entered Shanhaiguan, it took more than 20 years to use severe and violent means to basically occupy the territory of the entire Ming Empire.

The British king of the Qing Dynasty, Azig, captured Xi'an, imprisoned the rebels, and Qi Tingzhi released his father and son, reappointed him as the hereditary commander of the Xining Guard, and sent them back to Xining to appease the Tibetan tribes throughout Qinghai.