Late Ming history

There is no way to let nature take its course, and troubled times are threatening.

From the first year of Chongzhen in Ming Dynasty (1628), there was a drought in the north of China, and nothing grew on the bare land. According to "Annals of Continued Counties in Hannan", "In the first year of Chongzhen, the whole Shaanxi was red. Five years of famine, six years of floods, seven years of autumn locust famine, eight years of drought in Xixiang and flood in Lueyang in September, all the houses were gone. Nine years of drought, ten years of autumn harvest, eleven years of summer locusts covering the sky ... thirteen years of drought ... fourteen years of drought. "

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, all kinds of shallow rules and bright rules were rampant in the officialdom, and corruption became common.

In the late Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng, a representative figure, grew from thousands to hundreds of thousands. Although it was surrounded several times, the most serious one escaped alone and became a one-man army. Taking advantage of the drought in Henan, we pulled up the army as easy as blowing off dust.

"Slaughter cattle and sheep, prepare wine pulp, open the city gate to meet the king, and when the king comes, he will not accept food." This is a folk song in the late Ming Dynasty. Li Zicheng rose up with one voice and swept the country. The Ming government was simply unable to cope. Due to the decay in the late Ming Dynasty, Zhuang Wang Li Zicheng led the peasant army. 1644 (the seventeenth year of Chongzhen), Li Zicheng captured Xi 'an and established Dashun regime. In March of the same year, when he occupied Beijing, Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself in Jingshan, ending the Ming Dynasty that ruled China.

The Qing Dynasty, which rose in the northeast, took the opportunity to send troops south, and Ming, who was stationed in Shanhaiguan, surrendered to Wu Sangui. Chu Zhuangwang led his troops to war with Wu Sangui in Shanhaiguan, and the Qing army suddenly came out, and the peasant army was defeated, and was forced to withdraw from Beijing and move to various places, and finally failed. The Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains.