Wu Sangui (1612-1678), the character Changbo. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, he was a native of Liaodong, his ancestral home was Gaoyou, Jiangsu, and his height was about 1.73 meters today. In the last year of the Ming Dynasty, he took more than 20 family members to save his father among the 40,000 Manchurians, and his filial piety and courage were heard all over the world, and he had the reputation of "bravely crowning the three armies and filial piety on the nine sides". He once stayed in Beijing for a short time, and became acquainted with famous princes and scholars, and Wu Weiye called him "the youngest year of waiting for the fair-skinned people". In August of the fourth year of Chongzhen (1631), Huang Taiji launched the "Battle of Daling River", Wu Xiang fled when he went to help, resulting in the destruction of the whole army, Zu Dashou surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, Sun Chengzong resigned, Wu Xiang was imprisoned, and Wu Sangui was promoted to the chief military officer of Liaodong and guarded the Shanhaiguan. In history, Wu Sangui's department was "brave and courageous, and morale was boosted", and it was the last iron cavalry unit with combat power in the late Ming Dynasty.

At the beginning of March of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), Li Zicheng broke Datong and Zhending, approaching Beijing, and Emperor Chongzhen Feiyu crowned him as Pingxibo, and ordered him to give up Ningyuan (now Xingcheng, Liaoning) to enter the Weijing Division, and use Wu Xiang to supervise the Beijing camp. Wu Sangui was ordered to enter the aid of the Beijing Division, arrived at Shanhaiguan on the 16th, along the way "the delay is not in a hurry, the brief reading of the foot ride", arrived in Fengrun, Hebei on the 20th, the peasant rebel army led by Li Zicheng has entered Beijing, Emperor Chongzhen from the Jingshan (coal mountain), Beijing fell, Wu Sangui withdrew his troops to retreat to the Shanhaiguan. After Li Zicheng, he repeatedly recruited him to surrender, and Wu Sangui hesitated again and again, because his concubine Chen Yuanyuan was plundered by Li Zicheng's generals, and his father was also detained "torture and plundering is very cool", and he was furious. Then he wrote to Dolgon, the prince of Qingrui, and asked the Qing soldiers to enter the customs to destroy the thieves. When Li Zicheng heard the news, on April 13, he personally led an army of 100,000 and claimed to be 200,000, and rushed to Shanhaiguan to attack Wu Sangui. In the battle of Shanhaiguan on the 22nd, the Wu army was defeated, and Wu Sangui asked for help from the Qing regent Dolgon, and the Qing troops entered the customs. Wu Sangui and the Qing army jointly defeated Li Zicheng in the Battle of One Stone, and was crowned King of Pingxi by the Qing Dynasty.

Life Experience

Folding the general army of the Ming Dynasty

Wu Sangui was born in the Jiangmen Wang clan in Liaodong, Wu Xiang learned martial arts since he was a child, and was good at riding and shooting. Wu Xiang heard and witnessed how the Ming Dynasty lost Guangning in the second year of the Apocalypse (1622), how Xiong Yanbi was rumored to be the head of the Nine Sides of Liaodong, and how Wang Huazhen, the governor of Liaodong, was imprisoned and died. In the first month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), Wu Xiang was transferred to Beijing by order and married Zu Dashou's sister. Zu Dashou is a prominent family living in Liaodong, Wu Xiang became Zu Dashou's brother-in-law, and Wu Sangui became Zu Dashou's nephew. The marriage of the Zu and Wu families made Wu Xiang and Wu Sangui father and son find a strong backer, and also made the power of the Zu family stronger.

Under the teachings and influence of his father Wu Xiang and his uncle Zu Dashou, Wu Sangui studied both literature and martial arts, and was admitted to the martial arts examination before the age of 20.

In the battle of Dalinghe in the fourth year of Chongzhen (1631), Wu Xiang, the chief soldier of the regimental training, led more than 40,000 horses to aid the ancestor of Dalinghe, but Wu Xiang escaped from the battle and was cut down. In June of the second year, in order to quell the rebellion of Shandong Dengzhou General Kong Youde and other mutinies, Wu Xiang went out to Shandong with the deputy general Zu Dabi, and finally Kong Youde crossed the sea by boat from Dengzhou, defected to Houjin, and became the "King of Sanshun" in the first year of Chongde (1636) in the early Qing Dynasty: Kong Youde was the king of Gongshun, Geng Zhongming was the king of Huaishun, Shang Kexi was the king of Zhishun, and Wu Xiang resumed the position of general soldier.

With the reinstatement of Wu Xiangguan, Wu Sangui also served as a guerrilla at the age of 20. In the eighth year of Chongzhen (1635), Wu Sangui was promoted to the general of the right battalion of the forward, at the age of 23. In September of the eleventh year of Chongzhen (1638), he served as the deputy general of the right battalion of the forward, equivalent to the deputy general soldier, at the age of 26. In the twelfth year of Chongzhen (1639), Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, Fang Yizao, the governor of Liaodong, and the eunuch Gao Qiqian, the imperial horse supervisor of the two towns of Guanning, reported to the imperial court for approval, and Wu Sangui was promoted to the general soldier of the Ningyuan regiment at the age of 27. Wu Sangui went from guerrilla, staff general to deputy general, and then to the general soldier, and his promotion was beyond the norm. First, it is related to his knowledge of literature and martial arts, and his ability to speak and speak, and it is also related to his father Wu Xiang and his uncle Zu Dashou is the chief soldier, and the other key is that Wu Sangui worships the imperial horse eunuch Gao Qiqian as his father-in-law. Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, was transferred to Liaodong at the beginning of the year, and found that the Liao army lacked training, which affected its combat effectiveness, so he appointed Wu Sangui as the chief officer of military training and was responsible for military training. Later, Wu Sangui participated in several battles: the Battle of Xingshan, the Battle of Songshan, and the Battle of Songjin. Although Wu Sangui had a record in the above battles, he not only showed his wisdom and brave character, but also exposed his fear of death and speculation, and the two-sided nature of this character later determined Wu Sangui's fate.

In the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, four things happened that changed Wu Sangui.

1. In the first month, Zu Dashou, who had surrendered, received a letter from Wu Sangui in Shenyang, and Zu Dashou was about to forward the letter to Huang Taiji, who replied: I have already understood the letter of the general soldier of your uncle. The heart of the general, hesitating. I'm afraid that the general will miss a chance, but it's a pity. Wu Sangui was shaking, although he did not clear the clear, but he had already left himself a way back.

2. In the spring, Wu Sangui was ordered to enter the customs and gallop to the aid of the Beijing division to resist the Qing army that entered the fortress for the fifth time. The march was slow, and the Qing army had retreated when he arrived, but Chongzhen still valued him very much and thanked him for coming to Beijing to serve as king. On May 15, Emperor Chongzhen invited Wu Sangui and others who came to King Qin to a banquet in the Wuying Palace, and gave Wu Sangui a sword.

3. Soon after meeting Chongzhen, Wu Sangui was invited to the house of Guozhang Tian Hongyu as a guest. Tian Hongyu has an adopted daughter, who is Chongzhen's Tian Guifei, who is very favored. At this time, Tian Guifei had died of illness, Tian Hongyu felt helpless, he saw that Wu Sangui was reused by the emperor, so he wanted to befriend Wu Sangui and invite him to come to his house as a guest, and it was here that Wu Sangui met Chen Yuanyuan. In April and September, the Qing army bypassed Ningyuan, and laid down the back station, the front guard, and the middle front station, seven or eight days before and after, and the three cities all fell, so that Wu Sangui's Ningyuan became a lonely city outside Shanhaiguan, and Ningyuan at this time had lost its strategic significance. By the second year, in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the Ming Dynasty was in ruin, making Wu Sangui deeply caught in the cracks of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, and the Great Shun, and he was uncertain.

At the beginning of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), the Dashun army pointed directly at the Beijing division, and Chongzhen edicted the king of the world's soldiers and Qin, and ordered Wu Sangui to quickly lead the troops into Beijing. Wu Sangui entered Shanhaiguan from Ningyuan, a journey of 200 miles, and walked for eleven days. At the same time, Li Zicheng sent Tang Tong with 40,000 taels of silver to appease Wu Sangui, but Wu Sangui did not answer. When Li Zicheng broke through Beijing and Chongzhen hanged himself, Wu Sangui arrived in the Fengrun area, hesitated and waited, and stopped.

Li Zicheng ordered the generals to send a letter to recruit Wu Sangui, ordered Wu Xiang to write a letter to persuade his son to surrender, and sent someone to bring 40,000 silver to reward Wu officers and soldiers. Wu Sangui and the generals discussed and decided to return to Dashun. On the fifth day of the first month of April, Wu Sangui traveled to Xishaheyi in Yongping, saw his family who had escaped from Beijing, and learned that his father Wu Xiang plundered for the subordinates of the king, Wu Sangui was furious, considering that he had a deep enmity with the Qing army, and it was difficult to return to the north. Then he heard that the capital was plundered by Li Zicheng's subordinates, and his concubine Chen Yuanyuan was seized by Liu Zongmin, and found that he could not surrender Li Zicheng, so he changed his original intention of surrendering Li Zicheng and looked for a new master.

On the other hand, the reason is that Li Zicheng's Dashun Dynasty severely tortured the surrendered landlord class, although it had occupied most of China, it completely opposed the landlord class and resolutely eliminated the landlord class, which conflicted with Wu Sangui's existing interests, Wu Sangui's family's conflict, and Wu Sangui's source of support. At this time, Wu Sangui already knew clearly that he and his class could not coexist with Li Zicheng's Dashun Dynasty.

Dedicated to the Qing Dynasty and the King of Pingxi

During the confrontation between the Ming and Qing dynasties, Wu Sangui, as a general of the Ming Dynasty, participated in some battles, but he lost more than he won, and he was more than successful. However, what is surprising is that at the moment when the political situation changed drastically in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, he repeatedly speculated among various political forces, left and right, and became a "new star" in the political arena.

First of all, the Ming government showed special importance to Wu Sangui. By the beginning of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), after a long battle with Li Zicheng's rebel army, the main force of the Ming army was lost. At this time, Li Zicheng's rebel army went out of Xi'an, crossed the Yellow River in the north, and in a short period of time, successively went down to Linfen, Taiyuan, Zhending, Xuanfu, and Datong, and pointed directly at Beijing. The Ming Dynasty, which was facing the fate of its demise, bet on Wu Sangui, who had heavy troops outside the Guan. Many courtiers, such as Wang Yongji and Wu Linzheng, successively went up and demanded that Ning Yuan's division be withdrawn to defend the capital. Driven by this public opinion, Emperor Chongzhen first summoned Wu Sangui's father, Wu Xiang, in February to inquire about Wu Sangui's military strength and promoted Wu Xiang to the governor of the Central Military Prefecture. For a while, the government and the opposition almost unanimously regarded Wu Sangui as the only savior to save the Ming Dynasty.

Before Wu Sangui received the edict to evacuate Ningyuan, due to the loss of the three cities of the Housuo, Qiantunwei, and Zhongqiansuo, Ningyuan was already an isolated city surrounded by the Qing army. In order to save his net worth and life, Wu Sangui already had the intention of abandoning Ning Yuan. Therefore, after Beijing issued a notice to withdraw troops, Wu Sangui had withdrawn 500,000 soldiers and civilians from Ningyuan to Shanhaiguan in just ten days. Then, he led his division from Shanhaiguan into Beijing and arrived in Yongping on the 20th. However, at this time, the situation in Beijing changed dramatically, and the Ming Dynasty was overthrown by Li Zicheng's rebel army on March 19 before Wu Sangui could lead his army to Beijing. The fall of the Ming Dynasty made Wu Sangui lose his trust, and in order to find a new master, Wu Sangui engaged in speculation among various political forces for more than a month.

The distance between Yongping and Beijing was hundreds of miles, and Wu Sangui arrived in Jizhou on March 23 to learn that Li Zicheng had entered Beijing and that Emperor Chongzhen had hanged himself. Soon, the news that the vast majority of Ming officials in Beijing had surrendered to Li Zicheng also came. In the face of the military and political situation of the great disparity between the enemy and us, in order to maintain his privileged position, Wu Sangui initially decided to surrender to Li Zicheng, and at this time, Li Jia and Chen Yi, who had surrendered personnel sent by Li Zicheng, also arrived in Wu Sangui's army. A few days later, Li Zicheng also claimed in an article to Zuo Liangyu and others: "Tang Tong, Wu Sangui, Zuo Guangxian and others knew that the destiny of heaven existed, and they turned back to change their hearts." It can be seen that at the beginning of Li Zicheng's entry into Beijing, Wu Sangui did surrender to Li Zicheng.

Wu Sangui's "determination to surrender to Li" was not a change in his stance, but a speculative move in the face of the huge disparity between the enemy and us. He hoped that his surrender would at least guarantee the security of his existing privileges and small possessions in Beijing, and perhaps he also harbored the illusion of serving as a hero for the new dynasty. However, the revolutionary measures taken by the peasant army after entering Beijing made these illusions of Wu Sangui come to naught. Shortly after Wu Sangui had decided to surrender to Li Zicheng and sent an envoy to Beijing, starting on 25 March, the leaders of the peasant army, Liu Zongmin and Li Guo, began to torture and recover the captured Ming officials in Beijing, and Wu Sangui's father, Wu Xiang, was also among those who were tortured. Wu Xiang also wrote to Wu Sangui in private, asking him to "come urgently to save his father". Two or three days later, these messages arrived with Wu Xiang's private letter to Wu Sangui's army, which was advancing westward. This is nothing less than a slap in the face for Wu Sangui's plum lowering activities. Dramatically, at the same time that Wu Sangui learned of his father's torture, or earlier, Li Zicheng also noticed Wu Sangui's importance in consolidating his own power, instructed Liu Zongmin to release Wu Xiang and ordered Wu Xiang to write a letter advising Wu Sangui to surrender. At the same time, he sent the generals Tang Tong, the generals Wang Zeyao, Zhang Ruoqi, Zuo Maotai and others to carry Wu Xiang's handwritten letter and a large number of silver taels to Wu Sangui's army to further persuade him to surrender. In terms of time, the arrival of these surrenderers in Wu Sangui's army was only one or two days later than Wu Xiang's private letter to Wu Sangui (about 29 March), and the contents of the two letters were diametrically opposed, which could not help but make Wu Sangui think that Li Zicheng's surrender was nothing more than a deception, an attempt to lure himself into Beijing and then eliminate him. Therefore, he immediately stopped his westward advance and led his troops back to Shanhaiguan. In a reply letter to his father Wu Xiang, he expressed his break with Li Zicheng. What prompted Wu Sangui to surrender and rebel was also the issue of Chen Yuanyuan's exile. Many historical books in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties record that during the Jiashen Change, Chen Yuanyuan was occupied by Liu Zongmin, an important general of Li Zicheng, in Beijing. These records, taking the competition for a woman as the main reason for Wu Sangui's rebellion against Li and the Qing Dynasty, are obviously one-sided. However, this incident did trigger Wu Sangui's feelings. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, it had become a custom for feudal scholars to purchase beautiful concubines at any cost. Chen Yuanyuan was purchased by Wu Sangui for a thousand gold, and he himself was a feudal official with tens of thousands of soldiers, and when his special property was violated, he could not cooperate with him emotionally in any case. Therefore, it would be one-sided to deny or ignore the role of Chen Yuanyuan's abduction by Liu Zongmin on Wu Sangui's rebellion against Li.

Politically, he broke with Li Zicheng, which put Wu Sangui in a situation where he was attacked from the back. To the west of Shanhaiguan, Li Zicheng's heavy troops were close at hand, and a fierce battle was imminent. To the east of Shanhaiguan, there are powerful Qing troops of the approaching old enemy. The road to Li was blocked, and in order to survive, Wu Sangui was forced to turn his attention to the Qing regime in the northeast.

In March of the first year of Shunzhi, there was no Qing army attacking Shanhaiguan. From this, it can be seen that this is a fake military situation created by Wu Sangui and Li Zicheng after their break.

After he knew that the former did not arouse the bad feelings of people from all walks of life, while the latter had the sympathy or support of most of the dead Ming bureaucrats and gentry, and even some Confucian scholars, Wu Sangui began the implementation of his plan to attack Li in the United Qing Dynasty around the tenth day of April.

Wu Sangui's first letter to Dolgon asking for help showed his initial basic stance on the major issue of the Qing Dynasty's attack on Lee. In this letter, Wu Sangui repeatedly referred to the Ming Dynasty as "our country" and "our dynasty", and the Qing Dynasty as the "Northern Dynasty". In other words, Wu Sangui asked the Qing Dynasty for help as a courtier of the Ming Dynasty, and the purpose of inviting troops was to "exterminate the Liukou" and enable the Ming Dynasty to "prosper", rather than allowing the Qing to enter the Central Plains. After the elimination of the peasant rebel army, the "children's jade silk" and part of the land will be used as a reward and reward for the Qing Dynasty's troops. On the issue of the Qing army's entry route, Wu Sangui demanded that the Qing troops "go straight to the Central Association and the Western Association", but he himself "led his own troops and joined forces to reach the capital." That is to say, only Qing soldiers were allowed to enter the Ming Realm from Xifengkou, Longjing Pass, Qiangziling, Miyun and other places. These places are not only the old roads for Qing troops to enter the interior in the past, but also the places where Li Zicheng's army is currently stationed. According to this regulation, not only can he protect his own safety and prevent the Qing army from taking advantage of the opportunity to carry out his false plan to destroy the enemy, but also can prompt the Qing army to engage in a war with Li Zicheng's main force, and he can reap the benefits of the fisherman. This was Wu Sangui's initial policy of attacking Li from the Qing Dynasty. Because although the situation in Shanhaiguan was tense at that time, Li Zicheng's army had not yet marched eastward, and Wu Sangui had not yet reached the point of exhaustion, so he was still suspicious of the Qing Dynasty. Soon, just as the envoy sent by Wu Sangui had just set off with a letter, the military confrontation between Li and Wu had a new development. After Wu Sangui's successive defeats to generals Tang Tong and Bai Guangen in early April, Li Zicheng began to notice the seriousness of the situation at Shanhaiguan and exerted greater military pressure on Wu Sangui. On the 6th day of the first month of April, Li Zicheng sent an additional 10,000 people to the east to aid and transport artillery out of the city, and two days later, he "sent tens of thousands of horsemen to the east." These news should be transmitted to Shanhaiguan around the 10th. Li Zicheng's army came east, and Shanhaiguan would be the main battlefield. In this way, even if the Qing army entered the China Association and the Western Association, it would not be able to save Wu Sangui from the fate of his imminent demise. Under the pressure of the situation, Wu Sangui was forced to change his original intention, from not allowing the Qing soldiers to enter the customs from Shanhaiguan to urgently asking them to enter the troops from Shanhaiguan, so as to confront the coming peasant army head-on. According to the seventh volume of "Shen Guanlu": Wu Sangui's envoy conveyed his urgent request: "The thief is pointing eastward, the county is disintegrated, only Shanhaiguan remains, and the soldiers are weak and weak, and it is difficult to resist." Now I heard that the king has sent troops, if at this time to urge troops to rescue, when the gate of Shanhaiguan to welcome the king. As soon as the king enters the gate, Beijing will be able to move forward quickly." The commander of the Qing army, Dolgon, accepted his invitation and "immediately sent the scholar Zhan Ba and Laigon to Jinzhou, and ordered the Han army to send red-coated cannons to Shanhaiguan." The next day, the entire army led by Dolgon also turned to Shanhaiguan. This shows that on the issue of the route of the Qing troops entering the customs, due to changes in the situation of the military confrontation between Li and Wu, Wu Sangui temporarily changed his decision, and this new decision was made orally by the envoy on his behalf.

For a long time, Shanhaiguan has been an important obstacle for the Qing army to enter the customs operation, this time Dolgon led the division into the country, initially, its marching route was still Miyun, Jizhou. At this time, Wu Sangui asked to take the initiative to surrender the pass, which provided great convenience for the Qing army. Therefore, as soon as he received Wu Sangui's letter, Dolgon immediately decided to turn his entire army south. The next day, he quickly replied to Wu Sangui, telling him to donate his previous suspicions, promising to "seal his homeland and become the king of the domain", and "the descendants of the world will enjoy wealth and prosperity for a long time". In order to jointly suppress the peasant rebels, a united front between Qing and Wu was initially formed.

Shortly after Wu Sangui sent a messenger for help, on April 13, Li Zicheng led an army of 60,000 to Shanhaiguan. At this time, Li Zicheng, who had been carried away by a series of victories since the beginning of the year, underestimated the seriousness of the military confrontation at that time. In his opinion, not only his military strength far surpassed that of Wu Sangui, but Wu Sangui's father Wu Xiang and his family were also controlled by himself. Wu Sangui had not surrendered on the way east, and he would have been easily wiped out in the war. As for the realistic possibility of Wu Sangui colluding with the Qing troops to enter the customs, he never even thought about it. Therefore, when the army set out, he also brought the two sons of Emperor Chongzhen and Wu Xiang with him, and took the political surrender of Wu Sangui as the main purpose of the trip. Li Zicheng's illusion of paralyzing the ideology and political solution of the enemy was precisely exploited by Wu Sangui. After he learned the news that Li Zicheng personally led his army to the east, he immediately sent six "light thieves" including the Shanhaiguan gentry, Confucian scholars Li Yousong, Tan Dihuan, Liu Tailin, Liu Taishan, Huang Zhen'an, and Gao Xuan, to greet Li Zicheng's army in Sanhe County, not far east of Beijing, and express their intention to surrender, so as to delay time and wait for the Qing troops. After the envoy sent to the Qing army for help returned to Shanhaiguan with Dolgon's reply, Wu Sangui immediately sent a letter to Dolgon, begging him to "quickly organize the tiger brigade and go straight into the mountains and seas". It was not until Li Zicheng arrived at the gate that Wu Sangui sent representatives to contact the surrender in a vain attempt to escape, and only then did he discover Wu Sangui's true intention of making a false surrender, but he had already missed the favorable opportunity for the light troops to quickly advance and seize the gate. However, after receiving Wu Sangui's second letter for help, Dolgon arrived at Guanmen fifteen miles away on the 21st after a day and night of forced marching. By this time, the Wu army had been fighting with the peasant army at Shihe for a day. Li Zicheng's failure to capture Shanhaiguan before the arrival of the Qing army had put himself in a passive position, and the arrival of the Qing army made the Qing and Wu combined forces surpass Li in numbers. In this way, although the two armies have not yet clashed, the outcome of the war has been roughly decided.

On 21 April, on the night when the Qing army arrived near the gate, they began to make intense combat arrangements, and "the sound of Khotan in the middle of the night was heard in all directions." The commander of the Qing army, Dorgon, took advantage of the critical situation in which Wu Sangui found himself to force Wu Sangui to abandon the policy of attacking Li with the Qing Dynasty and completely surrender to the Qing Dynasty. For this purpose, the next day, the Qing army entered five miles before the gate, "that is, the troops did not advance." "The garrison rejoices in the ridge, and the banner is held high." At this time, due to the powerful offensive launched by the peasant army in the past few days, Shanhaiguan was in danger, and there were signs of disintegration within the Wu army. At this extremely urgent moment, Wu Sangui learned the news of the arrival of the Qing army, and immediately "sent an envoy to ask, the nine kings still did not believe, and those who asked again and again, the nine kings began to believe, but they still did not have time to do it." Wu Sangui sent an envoy for the first time, but Dolgon's troops did not advance, although it was because he did not know Wu Sangui's true intentions and the reality of the city, which was a kind of military weight. However, after understanding the above situation, he still waited and watched, which was obviously an opportunity to force Wu Sangui to make greater concessions. Sure enough, at the critical moment of life and death, after "eight round-trips" between Qing and Wu, Wu Sangui made a new concession to the Qing army, that is, shaving his hair and returning to the Qing dynasty and ceding a large area of territory north of the Yellow River, including Beijing. At the same time, Wu Sangui also proposed "do not hurt the people, do not violate the mausoleum, visit the East Palace and the place where the two kings are, and establish Nanjing" as a condition for allowing the Qing troops to enter the customs, and obtained the consent of the Qing army commander Dolgon. In this way, on the one hand, Wu Sangui was politically demoted to the Qing Dynasty, and on the other hand, the Qing Dynasty allowed him to support the late crown prince of the Ming Dynasty. Although the two aspects of this agreement were directly contradictory, it was a new breakthrough in the alliance between Qing and Wu, and played an important role in guaranteeing the defeat of Li Zicheng's peasant army.

On the afternoon of the day after the Qing army entered the city, the Qing, Wu and Li Zicheng were among the few peasant armies engaged in a stone outside the Shanhai Pass. The next day, on April 22, the fateful Battle of Stone River broke out. According to the agreement between the Qing and Wu sides, Wu Sangui first led the troops and Li Zicheng's army to fight head-to-head. At the most tense moment of the battle, the Qing army suddenly came out of the rear and launched a fierce attack on the Li army. Li Zicheng knew nothing about the Qing army's entry into the customs in advance, and after fighting for days, the morale of the Li army was also in a state of further decline, although he fought hard, he could not withstand the fierce attacks of the Qing and Wu armies, and suffered serious losses. The peasant army was defeated, and Li Zicheng was forced to lead the rest of the people west. The Battle of Shanhaiguan, which decided the fate of the three sides, ended with the victory of the joint operation of Qing and Wu and the defeat of Li Zicheng's peasant army.

Since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Shanhaiguan has been the gateway and barrier to Beijing. Since the gate was already owned by the Qing and Wu armies, Beijing was in danger. Under the situation of being extremely passive militarily, Li Zicheng was forced to retreat westward, and on the way, he killed Wu Sangui's father, Wu Xiang, and more than 30 family members. On the 26th, he returned to Beijing, and on the 29th, he hastily located in the Wuying Palace, and on the morning of the 30th, he evacuated Beijing in a hurry and led the army westward to Shaanxi. At the same time, the combined forces of Qing and Wu pursued closely and drove straight in. On May 2, he entered Beijing and soon announced that he would move the capital here. In this way, with Wu Sangui's dedication to the Qing Dynasty as a turning point, Chinese society began to enter a new period. Wu Sangui's dedication to the Qing Dynasty provided great convenience for the Qing Dynasty to enter the Central Plains, and Wu Sangui also received the highest reward from the new master: the battle of Shanhaiguan had just ended, and the regent Dolgon was in the army and gave Wu Sangui the title of King of Pingxi. He invited troops to defeat Li Zicheng, realized the common wish of the dead Ming scholars, and won the appreciation of the Nanming regime: at the beginning of the establishment of the Fuwang regime in Nanjing, he was named the Duke of Jiguo, and also sent a special envoy to the north with the silver army. All of a sudden, Wu Sangui, a person who struggled to survive in the political whirlpool and repeatedly speculated, was unexpectedly put on the laurel of "a great man in the world" of "pure loyalty and filial piety, revenge for the country, and division of the land", and became a popular figure in the Ming and Qing dynasties!

Kill the late lord Prince Jinjue

After Wu Sangui, who was angry at the crown and was red-faced, descended to the Qing Dynasty, he acted as an eagle dog of the Manchu court, fought the vanguard, and killed directly from Shanhaiguan to Yunnan, and opened a domain in Yunnan in the seventeenth year of Shunzhi (1661 AD), which was the king of Pingxi. Then he suppressed the anti-Qing struggle of Emperor Yongli and Li Dingguo of the Southern Ming Dynasty, and hanged Emperor Yongli. Since then, he has ruled Yunnan for 23 years, bringing incomparably grave disasters to the people of Yunnan -- first, increasing troops to demand salaries and plotting against them. He raised an army of about 70,000 people, and demanded 9 million taels a year from the Qing government, and the taxes in the whole province were not enough for his army to be transferred, and the grain in the whole province was not enough to meet the needs of his army, but it was the people of Yunnan who suffered, and the price of rice rose to more than 20 taels per stone at that time. The second is to occupy land. It was not enough for him to take all the estates of the original Yunnan Emperor Mu as owned, and plundered the land of many peasants, and as a provincial capital, Kunming, almost most of the land has been turned into a pasture for him to raise military horses. The third is to occupy mining and metallurgy and monopolize commercial trade. He increased taxes, minted Western money and later Honghua money, etc., and controlled the entire Yunnan economy. The fourth is to build a luxurious palace and villa Anfu Garden. [3]

After the Qing soldiers entered the customs, due to the sharp changes in the contrast of various political forces, the Qing government implemented the policy of bribery by high-ranking officials, and the bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty surrendered to the Qing Dynasty one after another. Wu Sangui also gave up his claim to support Prince Ming. Nevertheless, as a representative of the Han landlord class that descended to the Qing Dynasty, there was still a considerable distance between Wu Sangui and the Qing government. First of all, Wu Sangui's beggar attacked Li, under the banner of "revenge for the monarch's father". At the beginning of the entry of the Qing army, this banner was also allowed by the Qing rulers because it was conducive to the Qing government and the Han landlord class to jointly suppress Li Zicheng's rebel army. In the long run, however, this banner contradicted the Qing government's overall goal of replacing the Ming dynasty and establishing its rule over the entire country. Secondly, at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Wu Sangui still maintained certain contacts with the remnants of the Ming Dynasty. Regarding the Nanjing Fuwang regime, he even said: "I can't bear to add one arrow to the other." Thirdly, unlike other degraded officers, Wu Sangui also had a force under his own independent command. Therefore, at the beginning of entering the customs, the Qing Dynasty government showed favor to the outside world, and was suspicious of it, and did not grant it the right to do things. In addition to taking strict precautions against him politically, militarily, he only took advantage of his hatred for Li Zicheng's rebel army to lead his troops to attack Li. According to the instructions of the Qing government, in June of the first year of Shunzhi (1644), Wu Sangui's division went out of Shandong to pacify the rest of Li Zicheng, and in September, he conquered Li Zicheng from King Azigesi. After Li Zicheng's main force was basically wiped out, in August of the second year of Shunzhi, the Qing government transferred him back from the front line and "left Jinzhou". Wu Sangui knew this arrangement of the Qing government. From then on, he never mentioned anything "revenge on the monarch's father", but turned the rudder, called Emperor Chongzhen "the old master", and repeatedly confessed that he was "loyal to the new dynasty". Three years later, the Qing Dynasty government transferred Wu Sangui to the customs, and together with Li Guohan, the general of the Eight Banners, he was in Hanzhong to kill the remnants of the anti-Qing rebels in the northwest. During this period, in order to show his loyalty to the "New Dynasty", Wu Sangui not only brutally suppressed the remnants of the peasant army and slaughtered the city at every turn, but also spared no effort to kill some of the descendants of Zhu Ming who rose up to resist the Qing Dynasty. After the remnants of the anti-Qing rebel army in the northwest region were wiped out, in the eighth year of Shunzhi, the Qing government ordered Sangui and Li Guohan to lead the army into Sichuan to attack the remnants of Zhang Xianzhong's rebel army. In the past few years, it has successively pacified Chongqing, Chengdu and other important towns in Sichuan. In the fourteenth year of Shunzhi, he took the post of general of Pingxi, conquered Yungui in the south, and attacked the last regime of the Southern Ming Dynasty - the Yongli regime of King Gui. In the sixteenth year of Shunzhi, he went down to Yunnan. In the eighteenth year, the division went out of Burma and captured King Gui. For more than ten years, Wu Sangui led his troops from the northwest to the southwest border, and established special merits for the Qing Dynasty to establish its rule over the whole country. Therefore, the Qing Dynasty also changed from the original control to free use. Not only after Li Guohan's death, he was allowed to take over the responsibility alone, but also in all military activities, "under the pretense of cheapness, the Chinese system will not be restored, and the employment of personnel, officials and soldiers shall not be hindered, and the use of money shall not be delayed." At the same time, in terms of position, he has also been repeatedly promoted. After Shunzhi 16 years captured Yunnan, it was entrusted to open a feudal mansion, guard Yunnan, and manage military and civilian affairs, in November of the first year of Kangxi (1662), and to capture Gui Wang Gong, Prince Jinjue, and govern Guizhou. His son Wu Yingxiong also chose Princess Shang, known as "Heshuo Forehead", plus Shaobao and Prince Taibao. In this way, Wu Sangui won the trust of the Qing government with the heads of millions of anti-Qing rebels, and climbed himself to the peak of power in his life.

Collapse Qing Dynasty rebellion

However, just when Wu Sangui opened a feudal domain and set up a government in Yunnan, and his power and momentum reached its peak, the contradictions between him and the central government of the Qing Dynasty began to intensify. As far as the Qing government was concerned, Wu Sangui was used to attack the Southern Ming regime in order to establish its rule over the whole country. For this purpose, it took more than ten years to eliminate the Nanming regimes in various places one by one. After the pacification of the whole country, the Qing government urgently needed to achieve political domination over the newly occupied areas and reduce the military military to alleviate the financial pressure. Therefore, as early as the beginning of the occupation of Yunnan and Guizhou, administrative officials were sent to these areas, and soon after, plans were made to withdraw and reduce the Manchurian and Green Battalion armies. These measures of the Qing Dynasty were undoubtedly in line with the requirements of the entire society at that time for rest and recuperation. However, due to the rapid growth of Wu Sangui's political and military power over the past decade or so, these measures of the Qing Dynasty violated Wu Sangui's own interests. As far as Wu Sangui is concerned, before the Nanming regime was eliminated, he was linked to the fate of the Qing government and had to fight to the death. But after Yunnan and Guizhou were settled, he dreamed of "Shizhen Yunnan", and deliberately turned Yunnan into his own territory. Politically, in order to consolidate his position, he "chose his own choice" for officials at all levels under his jurisdiction, and "when there was a shortage of members in each province, he also undertook to remove the award, which was called the Western Election". At the same time, he also bribed the officials of the Beijing Dynasty and the generals of various provinces with a large amount of money to serve him. Economically, in addition to taking advantage of his political privileges to confiscate "700 hectares of land in the Ming Dynasty, Mu Tianbo Zhuangtian was turned into a feudal village", Wu Sangui also wantonly annexed land and "Xunzhuang chess" to brutally exploit and oppress the people. At the same time, he also "benefited from salt wells and gold and copper mines", sold all kinds of local products, lent usury, and relied on his huge wealth to support guests and buy scholars. Militarily, he recruited Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong and organized them into the Fifth Battalion of Loyalty and Bravery, and stepped up training. In addition, Wu Sangui also connived at his subordinate generals to do evil, preying on the common people, "killing people and goods, without fear, lawsuits and murder and theft, and soldiers accounted for the majority of them." Facts have proved that Wu Sangui has become the general representative of the separatist forces.

For these activities of Wu Sangui, the Qing Dynasty was like watching the fire. Therefore, at the beginning of the pacification of Yungui, he began to reduce the power of Wu Sangui. In the second year of Kangxi (1663), on the grounds that the Yunnan-Guizhou military campaign had stopped, he confiscated his seal letter from the general of Pingxi, and then "intercepted his right to use people to make up for the problem, and removed the selection of the ministry". In the sixth year, he took the opportunity of his resignation from the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces to order the governors of the two provinces to obey the orders of the central government. At the same time, he was also deprived of judicial privileges, "the fugitives under the Pingxi Domain will all be tried by the Division, and Zhang Jing shall not interfere." Wu Sangui retaliated by "provoking Miao Barbarian and using troops under the pretext of things" to expand the army and ask for salaries. The contradictions between Wu Sangui and the central government of the Qing Dynasty became even more acute.

In the spring of the twelfth year of Kangxi, the king of Pingnan, who was guarding Guangdong, was invited to return to the old Liaodong, and the Kangxi Emperor took advantage of the situation to make a decision to move his domain. Later, the request for the withdrawal of the vassal of Geng Jingzhong, the king of Jingnan who guarded Fujian, was also complied with as usual. Under the persecution of the situation, Wu Sangui also pretended to be suspicious of the imperial court and asked for the withdrawal of the feudal domain, but in fact hoped that the imperial court would comfort him. Regarding Wu Sangui's true intentions, Emperor Kangxi was very clear. He believes that Wu Sangui and the imperial court have been in opposition for a long time, "withdrawing is also opposed, and if not withdrawn, it is opposed." If you don't start now, you can still make it." Therefore, he resolutely decided to allow him to withdraw the domain, and also sent a special envoy to Yunnan to manage the withdrawal of the domain with vigor and resoluteness.

The Qing Dynasty's decision to withdraw the three feudatories shattered Wu Sangui's dream of "the town of Yunnan". Wu Sangui was so angry that he secretly instructed his dead party to petition the emissary of the withdrawal of the feudal domain, demanding that the withdrawal of the feudal domain be stopped, and then delayed for time and conspired with his confidant generals to launch a rebellion. He also instructed his henchmen to tout themselves as "Allah of China" in the name of "Liu Zhenren of the Nine Heavens Purple Mansion" to create public opinion for the rebellion. After a short period of preparation, at the end of November of the same year, Wu Sangui took a risk, killed the governor Zhu Guozhi, and called himself "the generalissimo of the soldiers and horses of the king of Zhou", and ordered his subordinates to "grow their hair and change their clothes", and called the soldiers to rebel in Yunnan. In order to put on a justifiable cloak for his rebellion, Wu Sangui raised the banner of "restoring sight" 30 years after the "Yazhong New Dynasty". Before the rebellion, he pretended to lead his subordinates to sweep the tomb of King Gui, "weeping, lying on the ground and not getting up", and inciting his subordinates. After the rebellion, he issued a document accusing the Qing Dynasty of "stealing the artifact of my first dynasty and changing my Chinese crown", and claimed to "jointly raise the cultural relics of the Ming Dynasty and return the Qiankun of Zhongxia". Thus began a large-scale insurgency.

Because Wu Sangui ruled central Yunnan for 14 years, this rebellion has been planned for a long time, therefore, at the beginning of the rebellion, Wu Jun took Rui to Guizhou, Hunan, Fujian Jingnan, Guangdong Pingnan and Wu Sangui's henchmen in various places, such as Zheng Jiaolin, Tan Hong, Wu Zhimao in Sichuan, Luo Sen and Sun Yanling in Guangxi, *** in Shaanxi, Cai Lu in Hebei, etc., also raised the flag of rebellion and responded one after another. For a while, the situation seemed very favorable to Wu Sangui. In his opinion, the combat effectiveness of his army was far superior to that of the Eight Banners, and raising the banner of anti-Manchu could win the support of the vast number of Han people, and in terms of command ability, the young Kangxi Emperor was by no means his opponent. He thought he could win again. However, the actual situation is exactly the opposite of Wu Sangui's wishes. First, although Wu Sangui's military forces were strong, he did not have strategic vision. After the army was raised, it did not "cross the river at a rapid pace and move the whole division northward" and try to promote political success with military victories; nor did it "go down to Jinling, choke the Yangtze River, and cut off the north-south passage" or "go out of Bashu and take advantage of Hanzhong, and consolidate itself by the letter of confusion" in order to establish a consolidated rear, but divided troops into Hunan, Jiangxi, and Hubei to fight for some cities and towns of low strategic value from place to place. This delayed the fighter plane and gave the Qing government time to calmly arrange a counterattack. Second, since it had been 30 years since the Qing troops entered the customs at this time, the national contradiction had long since been reduced to a secondary contradiction. Wu Sangui's anti-Manchurian appeal is nothing more than a carving boat for a sword, detached from reality. Moreover, Wu Sangui's self-performance since the Qing Dynasty is too sufficient. At the moment when the national contradictions were the most acute and the national struggle was the most intense, he vowed to "be loyal to the new dynasty" and do his best to suppress the anti-Qing rebels in various places. Wu Sangui's self-performance made people see through him that he was a careerist who forgot his righteousness, was duplicitous, and capricious, and some virtuous Han intellectuals sneered at him and were ashamed to be with him. Therefore, Wu Sangui's call for "opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty" did not have any important impact among the vast number of Han people.

Moreover, contrary to Wu Sangui's estimate, although the Kangxi Emperor was young, he had outstanding political talents. As early as the beginning of the withdrawal of the feudal domain, he had been prepared for the possible consequences of the withdrawal of the feudal domain, so after he learned the news of Wu Sangui's rebellion, he was calm and took appropriate measures. He first stopped the withdrawal of the two feudal domains of Pingnan and Jingnan in order to isolate Wu Sangui politically, and then executed Wu Yingxiong, the son of Wu Sangui, and his comrades in Beijing to deal a blow to Wu Sangui's arrogance and consolidate the rear. At the same time, in order to divide and disintegrate Wu Sangui's subordinates, the Kangxi Emperor also announced that the relatives of Wu Sangui's subordinates who served in the provinces would not be connected and would have their own occupations. Militarily, Emperor Kangxi also made careful arrangements. He appointed Leerjin, the king of Shuncheng County, as the general of Jingkou in Ningnan, led his division to conquer Wu Sangui, and also sent capable generals Shuodai, Heye, Mahada, and Kelkun to Jingzhou, Yanzhou, Taiyuan, Sichuan and other important military places. Although at the beginning of the rebellion, the Qing army suffered some defeats, but because politically it was a rebellion and a corner of the national system economically, it did not take long to reverse the military defeat, so that the Wu army, which was attacking head-on, could not cross the Yangtze River, and the two sides temporarily held each other on the battlefield.

The 15th year of Kangxi was a year of important turning points in the military situation between the two sides. Due to the three years of military prosperity, Wu Sangui deeply felt that his military and financial resources were seriously insufficient, and Wu's henchmen in various places also deviated from morality one after another, each with its own plans. On the contrary, the Qing government, backed by the country's military and financial resources, sent troops from several directions to carry out counteroffensives, and forced the Wu army in various places to be on the defensive. On the Huguang front, the Qing army general Prince An Yue Le went out of Hunan, Liankeping Township and other towns, and the spearhead was directed at Tanzhou. On the northwest battlefield, since Tuhai became the commander at the beginning of the year, everything has been successful. In June, the destitute *** was forced to surrender. On the eastern battlefield, Prince Kang Jieshu also led his division from Zhejiang to Fujian, and Lianke was an important town. In October, Geng Jingzhong was forced to surrender, and the Qing division entered Fuzhou. Affected by this, Sun Yanling, who was entrenched in Guangxi, and Shang Zhixin, who was entrenched in Guangdong, also expressed their intention to rebel against Wu and surrender to the Qing Dynasty. In December, Sun Yanling was killed due to an incident, and Shang Zhixin sent an envoy to surrender in front of the army of Prince Yi Jian.

Fold Hengzhou as the emperor

The thirteenth year of Kangxi was the first year of the "King of Zhou", and united Geng Jingzhong, the king of Jingnan in Fujian, Shang Zhixin, the son of Shang Kexi, the king of Pingnan in Guangdong, and anti-Qing forces in various places.

On the fifth day of November in the fifteenth year of Kangxi (1676), Wu Sangui led his troops to Hengyang through Tanzhou, and took the Yamen of Hengzhou, the prefect of Hengzhou (the seat of the old Hengnan County Government of Hengyang City) as the "palace" to command all kinds of military.

In order to boost morale, save the crisis, and stabilize the morale of the army and the people, Wu Sangui built an altar in Hengzhou Mansion on the first day of March in the 17th year of Kangxi (March 23, 1678), and held the coronation ceremony of the emperor, called "Emperor Zhaowu of the Great Zhou", set the country name as "Zhou", changed the Yuan "Zhaowu", changed the Hengzhou Mansion to "Yingtianfu", changed the bell and drum tower to "Wufeng Tower", returned to Yanmen as "Zhengyang Gate", and the street name was "Qipan Street" etc., all use the name of the capital, the wife Zhang is the queen, Sun Wu Shifan is the emperor's grandson, the civil and military are sealed, and the new calendar is issued by the hundred officials. The Great Zhou Empire governed the provinces of Hengzhou, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu. In August, 60 students were admitted. 95 emperor's palaces were built, symbolizing the dignity of the Ninety-Five.

At the beginning of June of the 17th year of Kangxi, Wu Sangui personally ordered the general Ma Bao in the capital Hengzhou, and authorized the plan to lead the 50,000 troops to the south, attacking Yongxing, the place where the soldiers must fight, two battles and two victories, creating a large Qing army, killing the capital Yilib and the commander of the escort army Ha Kesan in a war, and seizing the camp outside the Qing army (Yongxing stands according to the Leishui River, this water connects Hengzhou and leads to Guangdong);

In mid-June of the 17th year of Kangxi, Empress Zhang died, and Wu Sangui's spirit was frustrated.

In July of the 17th year of Kangxi, Wu Sangui personally deployed a large-scale attack on Guangdong and Guangxi. In Hengzhou, the generals Hu Guozhu and Xia Guoxiang led 100,000 troops to break into Liangguang and succeed several times, especially in Guangxi, which made greater progress, except for Wuzhou, all of which were recovered by the Wu army.

The battle in Yuezhou in the north was presided over by Wu Sangui's nephew Wu Yingzhi, and the Qing army was outside the Huxiang Gate, and the Qing soldiers crossed the river several times, but they were unsuccessful.

In August of the seventeenth year of Kangxi (1678), Hengzhou was very hot, Wu Sangui was in an uncomfortable mood, too anxious, and his liver was too hot, so he suddenly got the disease of "stroke and hiccups", and then added the disease of "diarrhea". Wu Sangui instructed his confidant ministers to welcome the emperor's grandson Wu Shifan to Hengzhou to succeed to the throne and entrust the future. Late at night on August 18, Wu Sangui died in the imperial palace of Hengzhou, the capital, at the age of 67 and had only been emperor for more than five months.

On August 22, the seventeenth year of Kangxi (1678), Wu Sangui's nephew, son-in-law and confidant generals Ma Bao, Hu Guozhu, and Xia Guoxiang gathered in Hengzhou to publicly promote the military affairs of Prime Minister Wu Guogui, and sent Hu Guozhu back to Yunnan to welcome Wu Shifan to Hengzhou for funeral. Hu Guozhu arrived in Yunnan and conveyed the opinions of the generals to Guo Zhuangtu, who stayed behind, and prepared to escort Wu Shifan to Hengzhou to succeed him. Guo Zhuangtu had a daughter who married Wu Shifan, and in order to protect his power, he tried to prevent Wu Shifan from leaving Yunnan and going to Hengzhou to succeed him.

In September of the 17th year of Kangxi (1678), Wu Guogui convened and presided over a meeting of generals to discuss future policies and plans. The plan was to "abandon Yunnan and ignore it, and fight for the world in the north: take Jingzhou with one army, slightly Xiangyang, and go straight to Henan; one army will go down Wuchang, go down the river, and pass through Jiangbei." Don't be afraid of difficulties, don't spare your body, rather than die, don't retire, fight to the death, strip the heart of the Central Plains, cut off the southeast of the water, even if you can't mix one, south of the Yellow River, I should have it. Although Wu Guogui was a discerning, courageous and knowledgeable commander of the Zhou Empire, the generals wanted to protect the small property of the Yunnan family, and this proposal was rejected without careful discussion.

In November of the seventeenth year of Kangxi (1678), Hu Guozhu and others wrapped the body of Wu Sangui in cotton, secretly carried it into Guizhou through Baoqing, and entered Guizhou through Baoqing, and the general Ma Bao stayed in Hengzhou (Hengyang). Wu Shifan welcomed to Guiyang, and that is, the emperor, Kangxi 18 years changed the yuan to the first year of "Honghua", respected his grandfather Wu Sangui as "Emperor Taizu Gao", and his father Wu Yingxiong as "Emperor Xiaogong". The official system is determined according to Sangui, and Guo Zhuangtu's daughter is promoted to the queen.

On the seventh day of February in the eighteenth year of Kangxi (1678), the general Prince Jian Rabu restored Hengshan County, and in mid-May, Wu Guogui, Ma Bao, and Xia Guoxiang abandoned Hengzhou and fled, and went to Yongzhou and Chenzhou to enter Guizhou.

In September of the 18th year of Kangxi (1679), the Qing army reconquered Hengzhou (Hengyang), the capital of the Great Zhou Empire, ending the short history of Hengyang as the imperial capital.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Qing government intensified its political rebellion and military offensive. In the eighteenth year of Kangxi (1679), Hunan and Guangxi were restored. In the nineteenth year of Kangxi (1680), he went to Sichuan and Guizhou and marched into Yunnan. In the spring of the twentieth year of Kangxi (1681), the division besieged Kunming and divided troops to recover nearby prefectures and counties. In October, the city of Kunming ran out of food, Wu Shifan committed suicide, and the rest surrendered. A large-scale civil war that lasted for eight years set off by Wu Sangui was now completely quelled.

Drop the clear argument

"Lead" the Qing soldiers into the customs

On the first day of March in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), Jiang Pai, the general soldier of Datong, surrendered to the Dashun army. Kyoshi shook. Because Datong is the western gateway of Gyeonggi, Datong fell, and Beijing was in danger. At this time, Chongzhen could no longer care about the heavy responsibility of the northern defense of Wu Sangui's troops stationed in Guanning, and urgently ordered Wu Sangui to join the Weijing Division. In mid-March, Wu Sangui immediately moved hundreds of thousands of Liao people in the Ningyuan area to the interior, arrived at Shanhaiguan on March 19 (16th), and then led his troops west into Gyeonggi. On the 22nd, Wu Sangui's soldiers went to the area of Yutian, and at this time they suddenly received the news that the Beijing division had fallen and Chongzhen had hanged himself. At the same time, he also learned that Tang Tong, the general soldier of Ming Juyongguan, had surrendered to Dashun, and was ordered by Li Zicheng to occupy Shanhaiguan. Wu Sangui was worried about the loss of ground and retreat.

Just two or three days after Wu Sangui evacuated Ningyuan, the Qing court, which was located in Shenyang, had already found out. This is great news for them. The city of Ningyuan is undoubtedly a black hole in their brilliant career. There is a shame that they cannot erase. At the beginning of the eleventh year of the Mandate of Heaven (1626 AD), their invincible army of 60,000 led by the great Khan Nurhachi, who had fought and won many battles with the Ming court, was defeated under the city of Ningyuan. Nurhachi was also wounded. After the Qing army withdrew to Shenyang, Nurhachi was full of shame and anger all day long, and soon his injuries (one said carbuncle) worsened and he died. After some competition, Nurhachi's eighth son, Taiji, succeeded to the throne.

In the first year of Tiancong (1627 AD), after Huang Taiji won the victory in sending troops to Korea, he led the triumphant army to storm Jinzhou and Ningyuan, aiming to win to avenge his father and the shame of the Snow Country. Unexpectedly, Zhao led the sect to stick to Jinzhou, and Yuan Chonghuan desperately defended Ningyuan. After the Jin army was killed and wounded, Huang Taiji had to withdraw from the siege. Another fiasco defeat at Ningyuan City.

In August of the eighth year of Chongde (A.D. 1643), Huang Taiji died violently. The young lord was blessed, and Dolgon and Zilharan were regents. In order to establish his prestige, in September, Zilharang could not wait to lead his army to storm the last remaining military strongholds of the Ming court outside the pass. He quickly captured the Zhonghou Office, the Zhongqian Office, and the Qiantun Guard, but when he led his army to attack Ningyuan, he was resolutely resisted by Wu Sangui. Ningyuan, this city is simply a nightmare of Qing. From 1626 to 1643, the Qing army attacked it three times, but they all returned. However, I didn't expect it to be readily available today. The Qing court was overjoyed. Upon hearing the news, Dolgon and others, who were eager to make a meritorious service, immediately ordered "to repair the armament, store grain and horses, and make a big push in early April." ”

From late March to early April, Wu Sangui lingered in the area of Yongping and Yutian. Chongzhen died, Ming court died, he, like all the former ministers of the Ming court, was looking for a way out. And the easiest way out is to surrender Dashun. This is not contrary to etiquette. The change of dynasty has been the same since ancient times. Since Ming Taizu, a poor monk, is actually the true son of heaven, why can't Li Zicheng, a post pawn, be the emperor?

Dashun's policy towards Wu Sangui was also to surrender. Li Zicheng sent an envoy to Sangui, giving him four months' military rations and 40,000 taels of silver, and declared that he would be rewarded for his meritorious service. This is indeed a relief for Wu Jun, who has been short of pay for more than a year. Wu Sangui has already surrendered. At this critical moment, Wu Sangui received two kinds of documents one after another. The first is a letter from his father Wu Xiang who persuaded him to submit to Li Zicheng, and the second is a secret letter sent to Wu Sangui, telling in detail that his father was arrested and chased by Liu Zongmin and severely tortured. His father had scraped together 50,000 taels of silver, but he was far from the 200,000 taels that Liu Zongmin had demanded. In addition, Wu Sangui's concubine Chen Yuanyuan was also occupied by Liu Zongmin. Wu Sangui was furious when he heard the news. Then he drew his sword and beheaded the case, raised the tent to the military field, beheaded one of the envoys, cut off the ears of the other, and made him rumor Li Zicheng: "Li thief sent his head." At the same time, he raised his troops and returned to defeat Tang Tong and recaptured Shanhaiguan.

Wu Sangui went from an ambiguous attitude to open confrontation, which caused an uproar in the Dashun dynasty. One faction of opinions was to be consulted immediately. Another school of thought is to place it temporarily. There are two reasons for the latter view. First, Liu Zongmin, Li Guo and others have been intoxicated with the joy of victory. It is really fun to torture the old dirty officials and sit on the beautiful women. I don't want to risk my life again. Second, Li Yan, Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance and other strategic considerations believe that it is not appropriate to conduct a large-scale expedition for the time being. Because "the new Beijing division is shocked", and the Wu army is famous for "excellent warfare", which cannot be underestimated. They believe that it is better to maintain the status quo for the time being, and continue to recruit for the top. However, Li Zicheng overrode public opinion and ordered a personal expedition. On 13 April, Li Zicheng led 100,000 troops, known as 200,000 troops who went east to Beijing.

When the Dashun Dynasty decided to conquer, Wu Sangui found out in advance and was shocked. He thought to himself that he could not resist the strength of the Great Shun army. In order to protect himself, he decided to borrow troops from Qing. The condition is not only to give the wealth and silk, but also to "divide the land in return". Qing did not know much about these changes in the customs. It only knew that Li Zicheng was trapped in Beijing and Chongzhen was killed, and he should take the opportunity of the Central Plains chaos to compete with Dashun for the world. On April 9, the Qing army set off for Shenyang. After arriving at Weng on the 15th, he met an envoy sent by Wu Sangui. Dolgon and the others were overjoyed and suspicious, and did not speed up their march. On the 20th, they arrived at Lianshan. Wu Sangui's second envoy arrived. Yan Li Zicheng's army has been Boshan Customs, and the situation is urgent. Upon hearing the news, the Qing army traveled 200 miles day and night, and arrived outside the gate on the evening of the 21st. During the day on the 21st, the Dashun army and the Wu army were already fighting. Wu Jun is almost outstanding. Wu Sangui sent an envoy to the Qing camp again and urgently urged the Qing army to join the battle. At this time, Dolgon, who understood the situation, was no longer satisfied with Wu Sangui's words, "not only wealth, but also the land with reward", his ambition was to enter the Central Plains, so he insisted that Wu Sangui must shave his hair to send troops to help. At this time, Wu Sangui had no choice. If you clash with the Dashun army alone tomorrow, you will definitely be defeated, and your life will be ruined. So he had to go to the camp in person, shave his hair and bow down, according to what Dolgon showed. The next day, the Battle of Shanhaiguan began. The cunning Dolgon ordered the Wu army to fight the Dashun army first. When both sides of the war were tired and the Wu army was already exhausted, Fang waved his division into the formation. The unprepared Dashun army was defeated. At this point, Wu Sangui's so-called idea of borrowing Qing soldiers to defeat Dashun and restore the vision room has come to naught. The Qing, who had fully seized the initiative militarily and politically, regarded Wu Sangui as only one of many officials who had surrendered to the Ming Dynasty and drove him like a lackey to serve his attempt to conquer all of China.

Folding the objective reasons for luring the Qing soldiers into the customs

Based on the peasant rebel army's hatred of the landlord and gentry class and the late Ming bureaucrats, it is understandable that many soldiers of the Dashun army tortured and plundered the Ming court's subordinates to recover the stolen goods. The problem is that Li Zicheng does not have the vision and mind of a feudal dynasty changer. The peasant uprisings of ancient times were not the democratic revolutions of modern times. It can only replace the original dynasty with a new one. If Dashun wants to gain a firm foothold, it must cooperate with the Ming bureaucracy. Moreover, these old Ming bureaucrats had abandoned the Zhu Ming regime and were ready to cooperate with the Great Shun Dynasty with open arms. For example, Hui Shiyang knelt down to Li Zicheng very sensibly and said: "Born an old minister, I will leave your majesty." But Li Zicheng lacked insight into the mystery. Allowing the Dashun soldiers to torture and plunder the officials of the Ming Dynasty, and even harass the people, Li Zicheng greatly lost the hearts of the people in Beijing. Many officials of the late Ming Dynasty reverted to rebellion, and some absconded in disguise.

On the whole, Dashun's approach was to discard the cooperation of the Ming bureaucracy, which was very important for the stability of his own regime, and partially, to force Wu Sangui to rebel. This is not only to promote Wu Sangui to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, but also to make the Great Shun Dynasty from prosperity to decline and finally collapse. There are slight discrepancies in the records of those ten days -- a short moment in the long river of history -- in various historical books. In the face of drastic changes, Wu Sangui was emotional and behaved at a loss. It is recorded that he had accepted Li Zicheng's offer. It's just that before it was fully made public, I got the news that my father was imprisoned and tortured and that Ai Ji was occupied. It is said that he can barely accept his father's suffering, but he can never accept Aiji's humiliation. He understood that he was caught between the two major forces of Qing and Li Zicheng. Whether it is out of consideration for his father's stay in the capital, or from the hatred he has fought with Qing for more than ten years, it is logical for him to surrender to Dashun. However, after the 32-year-old young military general beheaded Li Zicheng's envoy and uttered the wild words that "Li Zicheng sent his head to him", he cut off the road he should have taken and had planned to take. However, despite this, he still had concerns about surrendering to the Qing Dynasty, so much so that after learning that Li Zicheng had raised an army, he wanted to kill himself to cut off everything. However, when he faced the reality, he had to come out of the trick of moving troops to Qing.

Most folk historians believe that Wu Sangui was not a traitor to the Ming Dynasty from the beginning, but because the Qing Dynasty knocked on the gate in the name of "avenging the monarch's father", compared to Li Zicheng, who captured Beijing and forced Emperor Chongzhen to death, the Jianzhou Jurchen who was canonized by the Ming Dynasty was his own people. Uniting the Qing army to fight Li Zicheng's Dashun regime seemed very reasonable at the time.

However, the subsequent development was not as the loyal Ming Dynasty ministers thought. In the name of the Ming vassals, the Qing openly searched for Chongzhen's son, claiming that they would make Chongzhen's son orthodox and make him ascend to the throne. But he went back on his word and put to death the old ministers of the Ming Dynasty and the old eunuchs of the inner palace who were identified as Zhu Cijiong, the third son of Chongzhen, and said that this person was a fake descendant of Chongzhen. Since then, the Ming court has lost its orthodox heirs, and the princes of the Ming family lack legitimacy and appeal, and the small court of the Southern Ming Dynasty has to go to the road of decline. At this time, the three major generals Wu Sangui, Geng Jingzhong and Shang Kexi were already riding tigers: the Qing court was already sitting on a big seat, and only by assisting the Qing court to eliminate the Southern Ming could they ensure the safety of their families and eliminate the moral crisis of their surrender to the Qing Dynasty. Although the Ming family never treated Wu Sangui lightly, Wu Sangui, as a general, had to actively eliminate the Southern Ming, and finally slashed Emperor Yongli to show loyalty to the new master.

"Fortunately, God blessed him, the ancestors blessed him, and the rebel thief was peaceful. If it is postponed for a few more years, what will happen?" These are words from his heart, which shows that he has invited God, and the embarrassment of not being able to send God has made him have no master.

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Chen Yuanyuan (1624-1681 AD), the name Wanfen, the original surname Xing Mingyuan. A native of Wujin, Changzhou, China (in present-day Jiangsu). A famous prostitute in Gusu, she can sing and dance, and when she is the champion of color and art, she is one of the eight Yans in the south of the Yangtze River.

Chen Yuanyuan was already one of the "Eight Yan in the South of the Yangtze River" at that time, and he was famous all over the world. Wu Sangui, when I saw her by chance, I fell in love with her, but unfortunately I couldn't see her again. He searched everywhere and wanted to hire her with his daughter, but unfortunately she had been snatched away by Tian Wan, the father of Emperor Chongzhen's concubine, and they missed each other like this. However, Chen Yuanyuan doesn't love Tian Wan, she plays the piano and recites poetry, but Tian Wan doesn't know half a sentence. Although Tian Wan loved Yuanyuan in every way, Chen Yuanyuan was disheartened when he saw Tian Wan's white hair and rickets.

At that time, rogues were rampant, and Tian Wan entrusted Wu Sangui to protect the whole family and invited him to his home to enjoy singing and dancing. Wu Sangui thus saw the fairy's Chen Yuanyuan again, and she also recognized this heroic commander. The two hated goodbye and flirted with each other.

Wu Sangui took Chen Yuanyuan as an exchange condition, and finally hugged the beauty. The two are talented and beautiful, and they are equal, naturally like lacquer and glue, and they are full of affection.

It's a pity that Wu Sangui will soon go out of the customs to go to the battlefield, so he had to put Chen Yuanyuan at home and rush to Shanhaiguan. But before he arrived at the battlefield, news came that the Jingshi had fallen and Emperor Ming had been martyred.

Li Zicheng entered the Beijing Division and learned that Chen Yuanyuan was unparalleled in the world, so he took Chen Yuanyuan as his own. Chen Yuanyuan was only grief-stricken.

Originally, Wu Sangui was already about to surrender to Li Zicheng, and he handed over all the border passes to Li Zicheng's army and prepared to return to Beijing. However, when he heard that Yuanyuan had been snatched away by Li Zicheng, he was immediately angry and fainted to the ground. After waking up, he pulled out his sword and cut the case into two pieces, vowing to make Li Zicheng like a case.

He killed the generals sent by Li Zicheng to the border pass, asked all the soldiers to put on mourning clothes for Emperor Chongzhen, and made a bloody alliance with the generals of the three armies to destroy Li Zicheng to the death.

Sure enough, the power of love is infinite, Wu Sangui bravely defeated Li Zicheng's 200,000 army, Li Zicheng wanted to ask for peace, but Wu Sangui would not give an inch. Finally, Li Zicheng was driven out of the capital, and Wu Sangui and Yuanyuan were able to meet. At that moment, Chen Yuanyuan's tears rained down, and she wanted to draw her sword to kill herself, because she was no longer the white Chen Yuanyuan who was as white as jade. And Wu Sangui said, I rushed back day and night, just for you. Now that I see you, but you want to die, then I will die with you.

Chen Yuanyuan burst into tears.

After Wu Sangui became the queen of Yunnan, he came to Yunnan with Yuanyuan, and finally lived a life of knowing each other. Later, Wu Sangui was killed by the invading Qing army. Chen Yuanyuan, who was lovesick, couldn't live on his own, jumped into the lotus pond that Wu Sangui built for himself, and Xiang Xiaoyu died.

But the story of Wu Sangui's anger and rushing to the crown as a red face has been left forever, engraved in the heart of every woman who longs for a tender iron man, and will never be erased.

Historical data: Caused by family feuds, led to the clearance

Now in the south of Yutian County, Woluogu Town, there is still a complete "Wu Family Tree", which records that the reason why Wu Sangui led the Qing into the customs is because Li Zicheng forced Wu Sangui to surrender, unsuccessfully, and in a fit of anger, he killed more than 100 Wu families in Beijing, the original text is as follows: "Li thief entered Beijing, outside the Xuanwu Gate, killed more than 100 Wu families", and did not hear the anger and rush to the crown for a red face. Caused by family feuds, this is the real reason why he led Qing into the customs.

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Later generations have different evaluations of Wu Sangui, and they are even polarized.

Most people believe that because he colluded with the Qing Dynasty as a Han Chinese, which led to the downfall of Han regimes such as the Dashun regime and the Nanming regime, and that he had killed Emperor Yongli, the Ming Dynasty's royal family, ministers, etc., his actions should be regarded as "traitors". Therefore, people often use the title of "modern Wu Sangui" to attack opponents.

Some people also believe that in the turbulent era of communication between the Ming and Qing dynasties, Wu Sangui was just loyal to him and his family's interests, and the so-called traitor's evaluation was too harsh. Some people even pointed out that Wu Meicun himself, who wrote "Yuanyuanqu" to ridicule Wu Sangui, finally went to the Qing court's Guozi Priest and Wine Waiter, and was really not qualified to write poems to insult Wu Sangui, who was also a Qing Dynasty.

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Fold Zhaowu Tongbao

Wu Sangui proclaimed himself emperor in Hengzhou (Hengyang), and the "Zhaowu Tongbao" coin minted was found in Zhao'an, Zhangzhou. This bronze coin has a diameter of 3.5 centimeters and a aperture of 0.8 centimeters, with seal characters on both sides and "Zhaowu Tongbao" on the front and "One Fen" on the back.

Wu Sangui called the "Great Zhou" regime after the emperor minted a batch of "Zhaowu Tongbao" and "use Tongbao" coins, the two coins in parallel, the handed down "Zhaowu Tongbao" has two kinds of flat money and one penny, and there are two kinds of seal Kai for flat money, which is called "Little Zhaowu". One penny is called "Jokhang Wu", and there is only one kind of seal book in existence. The circulation scope is Hunan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Fujian, Sichuan, Guangdong, Guangxi and other regions. After the Qing government put down the rebellion, it was strictly forbidden to order all "Zhaowu Tongbao" to be confiscated, so the vast majority of "Zhaowu Tongbao" were burned. According to local experts, the coin was first discovered in Zhao'an, and it has certain value for studying the weight, weight, and weight of the time.

Fold the seal of the Wenxian Imperial Palace

"Wenxian Shouyu Seal" seal, the printing surface is 7.6×7.6cm, and the height is 10cm. Printed bronze casting, column buttons. The printed surface is printed in the wide border of the yang line, and the seal is printed in the upper right. The printing pad has a regular script engraved paragraph "Wenxian Shouyu seal." Rite Cao made. Friday, February, Friday, year, day. Tianzi No. 4693".

In the seventeenth year of Kangxi (1678), Wu Sangui was proclaimed emperor in Hengzhou. It was not until the twentieth year of Kangxi (1681) that the rebellion of the three feudatories was completely put down. The seal of the Wenxian Imperial Palace is "February Day of the Fifth Year", which shows that this seal is the local official seal issued by Wu Sangui when he was called the king of Zhou, and the implementation of the year also shows that Wu Sangui had the heart of the emperor before Hengzhou became the emperor. The large number of the printing section shows that Wu Sangui's influence and appeal at that time were very prosperous. The overall casting form of this seal is basically the same as that of the official seal of the Qing government of the same kind.

Fold the Yongli Emperor's last letter

The general is the lord of the dynasty, and the hero of the new dynasty is also. The rank of a knight, the feudal frontier, the emperor of the martyr can be described as a very good general. The country of Yiyi was not created, rebelled and wantoned, broke through our capital, forced my first emperor to death, and plundered and killed my people. The general swore an oath and raised troops to ask for the guilt, but the original intention of the day was not fulfilled. However, the Qing soldiers entered Beijing, and the false name of revenge was exerted, and the actual plan of the Yin Xing won the championship. Hongyan was fortunate to have the old master, and suddenly forgot that after the rebel thief was beheaded, and the Tuyu in the Jiangbei area was not owned by this dynasty. The important ministers in the south can't bear to subvert our society, thinking that half of the south of the Yangtze River cannot be fully mapped at the beginning. The public opinion is not warm, and the horse is dead. Emperor Min (referring to Hongguang) had not been on the throne for a long time, and the car was covered with dust. Min Zhen Xingshi, reinvigorating the position, can not be the whole sect in the east of the soil, or can be in a corner. However, he did not get tired of his ambition and took Emperor Longwu and destroyed it. When it was, I traveled far away to the east of Guangdong, and I was heartbroken, and I almost never came back to life, so why did I have time to think about the sect's social plan? The ministers still couldn't bear the sacrifice of my two ancestors. Since I ascended to the pole, I lost in one battle, and died in Xiyue in another battle. I wear the stars and the moon, and I am innumerable. Fortunately, Li Dingguo welcomed me in Guizhou, and served me in Nan (Ning) and An (Long), claiming that he had no trouble with others and no dispute with the country. It is the great virtue of the general who forgets the monarch's father, and the Fengxun who wants to create, supervises the division into Yunnan, and commits my Tianque, so that an inch of land in southern Yunnan has been unavoidable. The general's heart is unbearable, and I can't bear it? I used it to abandon China, cross the Shahe River, and borrow Burma to consolidate our country. Out of danger and into the depths, not only lost the world, but also fortunate to extend the first Ze in the outer service. The general did not shy away from hardships and dangers, went to the desert in person, raised hundreds of thousands of people, and pursued the king of the cocoon and the brigade, how could he regard the world as too narrow! How could the world be overturned, and I could not tolerate a single person! After being crowned Wang Xijue, I would still invite merit by annihilating me! Emperor Di Sigao was in the wind and rain in the world, and I could not be exposed to a piece of land, thinking that the general had the ability to make meritorious contributions. The general has ruined the clan, and now he wants to break my father and son, can he not feel miserable? The general is still a Chinese man, and he is still a descendant of Shilu. That is, I don't think about the first emperor, that is, I don't think about the first emperor, I don't think about the two ancestors, that is, I don't think about the ancestors of the two ancestors, and I don't think about the ancestors of my own body, if my father? I don't know what kind of relatives the new king is to be better than the general, and what hatred and resentment are against the general? The general thought that he was thick in the Qing Dynasty, but he didn't know what was thick, and he went down with ten thousand worships, which was recorded in the history books, and said why the general was like a person. Today, my soldiers are weak, and although I am temporarily allowed to sleep on the side of the couch, it is clear that the fate of father and son hangs in the hands of the general. If you want to get the leader of me, blood will be spattered on the moon and the sun, and you will not dare to resign. If you can turn the disaster into a blessing, you will be safe when you are in danger, and you will be able to sit in the south and prepare the co-master, but the general's life. Although the general was subordinate to the Qing Dynasty, it can be said that he did not forget the blood of the old lord and lived up to the kindness of the previous emperor. But I want to make a choice.