Dashun Dynasty

 

Dashun Dynasty

 

When Fang Shidi, the leader of the horse-trafficking team, was chatting with Agudengba and the coachman Azhuo, Fang Shidi said: Throughout the past five thousand years, Chinese historians like to talk about "Qin, Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing". Why have they abandoned the "Qin, Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing"? "Dashun Dynasty"? Without the "Da Shun Dynasty", how could the Ming and Qing Dynasties change? The "Dashun Dynasty" not only changed Chinese history, but also affected the direction of future history.

Fang Shi said:

Three generations of my family experienced the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and were also the witnesses of the "Dashun Dynasty". My grandfather Fangyuanli was the general manager of the blood horse breeding farm of Dawan Kingdom in the Western Regions. He was responsible for escorting tribute horses to the Ming Dynasty court, and had a close relationship with Xia Xiong, the court horse official. My grandfather and the court horse officer Xia Xiong were both Tocharians. My grandfather served the Ming Dynasty throughout his life, but was framed and killed. Even so, under the persuasion of Xia Xiong, the imperial horse officer, Chongzhen agreed to let my father continue to transport sweat-blooded horses to the imperial court. But at this time, the Ming Dynasty was declining, and Li Zicheng's uprising was raging. He dug up the tomb of the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, cut off the Ming Dynasty's dragon veins, and approached the capital. The incompetent Emperor Chongzhen was forced to commit suicide. The Ming Dynasty was thus divided into two, with the north controlled by the Dashun regime and the south transforming into the Nanming Dynasty.

In order to support the family, my father took refuge with the Jurchens Feng Tiansheng. Feng Tiansheng was a friend of my grandfather and Xia Xiong. Later, the Kingdom of Jin became the Kingdom of Qing, and Chinese history was slowly changing.

When I talk about these past events, I always feel angry. He said angrily:

On March 19, the Dashun Army occupied Beijing, and Li Zicheng had just sat in the Jinluan Palace. What he did was basically the same as before, which was nothing more than to appease people's hearts, stabilize order, collect stolen goods, provide aid to the hungry, draft an official system, and prepare for Ascension ceremony.

At that time, Ming Dynasty officials from all over the country were also waiting and watching. Li Zicheng's words and deeds in Beijing directly affected whether they decided to submit to the new Dashun regime. ​

After Li Zicheng broke into the capital, Liu Zongmin was the head of the military generals and Niu Jinxing was the head of the civil servants. Once Li Zicheng's generals reached high positions, they no longer recognized who they were.

When Niu Jinxing, the head of the civil service, was in Beijing, he regarded himself as the prime minister of the new dynasty and recruited old bureaucrats from the former Ming Dynasty, called "disciples". To join the sect of Niu Jinxing, money is indispensable to clear the way. This is China’s unchanging tradition: promotion and wealth.

Liu Zongmin, the leader of the military generals, and others rushed to live in the mansion of the former Ming officials, and also robbed the property in the house.

Li Zicheng also ordered that the two to three thousand officials in Beijing during the Ming Dynasty be promoted by name, and those who did not want to be officials were released to their hometowns. However, in principle, the Dashun Dynasty did not recruit officials above the third rank. Officials below the fourth rank were inspected for their words and deeds, and those with corruption, party disputes, etc. would not be hired. After two days of inspection, only ninety-two people were hired. In order to fill the official vacancies, the Dashun regime also held imperial examinations, and the appointed officials were sent to various places to serve as local officials. This means that maintaining stability must start from the grassroots level and strengthen the construction of local political power at the grassroots level.

Fang Shidi said to Agudengba and the carriage driver Azhuo:

When the new Dashun Dynasty was established, finance was the first priority. However, because the finances of the previous Ming Dynasty had long been paralyzed, the relationship between local and central governments was also in a state of disorganization, and the richest southeastern coastal areas of the Ming Empire were not in the hands of Li Zicheng's Dashun regime. Li Zicheng's Dashun court was unable to receive taxes at all.

At this time, the offensive and defensive momentum was reversed, and Li Zicheng went from conquering the world to sitting on it. Those brothers who followed him through life and death were just seeking wealth and honor. If after the uprising is successful, they still clamor for a hard life, hard work, and self-reliance, I am afraid they will They will immediately change from being a rebel who created the Ming Dynasty to being a rebel who created the Dashun. The Dashun regime urgently needed money to reward meritorious officials and soldiers, and faced severe pressure on financial expenditures to maintain stability.

Li Zicheng saw that the soldiers' morale was wavering, so he gave a large reward first. The generals each received a hundred taels, and the soldiers received ten taels each. The result was that they were all disappointed. Money can make people go around, but without money there is no loyalty and courage.

In order to solve the financial and military salary difficulties, Li Zicheng's army continued to carry out crazy plundering of the government and the rich, continued their operation of "chasing stolen goods to assist with salaries", and transformed "assisted salaries" into "assisted rewards". The world belongs to Li Zicheng, and Li Zicheng's anti-corruption policies were mostly based on financial considerations, not on the gain or loss of one silver or one copper. But the subordinates' pursuit of stolen goods must be based on personal greed far greater than financial needs. They rob, take bribes, and kill the rich.

The Ming Dynasty was destroyed. Of course, the property of the Ming Dynasty's palace and treasury belonged to the Dashun regime. However, there was almost no property in these two places at this time. Li Zicheng had no choice but to nationalize the private property of officials and wealthy households. It can be said that robbing money is the most important thing Li Zicheng and Dashun did after entering Beijing.

Fang Shidi said again:

Li Zicheng copied 37 million carts of silver from Emperor Chongzhen's inner treasury, but the Ministry of Revenue only had less than 400,000 silver. This statement is half true and half false, because all historical materials before the fall of the Ming Dynasty unanimously record that Chongzhen repeatedly complained to his ministers that the internal treasury only had tens of thousands of taels of silver. Thirty-seven million taels of silver was almost twice the annual fiscal revenue in the late Ming Dynasty. If Chongzhen really had so much money, how could he not spend it.

The emperor's internal treasury income mainly came from the imperial estate and confiscated income, and the amount was not low; but the emperor also spent a lot of money. The salaries of the concubines, eunuchs, and daily rewards of the three palaces and six courtyards all came from the internal treasury. The emperor basically There's not much money left.

However, Li Zicheng may have indeed grabbed tens of millions of taels of silver, otherwise he would not be able to provide the rewards for his subordinates. However, most of the money was stolen from the homes of the emperor's relatives, eunuchs, maids, and ministers.

On March 27, Li Zicheng's army issued a notice apportioning money to the former Ming officials and asking them to hand it over voluntarily. The amount that was used was small, and the amount that was not used was large. It is said that each of the academicians is one hundred thousand taels, the officials such as the Ministry of Education (six ministers, ministers, etc.), Jingtang (the censor of the capital, etc.), the Jinyi Guard Commander and the envoys are 70,000 or 50,000, and the remaining 50,000, 30,000, and 10,000 at all levels No wait. There is no quota for the royal family and relatives, until all are confiscated and robbed.

Most of the officials obediently paid the money, but the few who refused to pay were taken to the Dashun military camp and tortured, especially relatives of the emperor, who were basically tortured to death.

Soon, the news of torture and money grabbing in Beijing spread. Officials and gentry from all over the country were preparing to welcome Dashun with lanterns. When they heard the true, false and embellished news, they immediately retreated and waited for Nan Ming to fight. Come back or the Qing Dynasty goes south to save them.

Later, the Qing troops entered the pass, and the old Ming Dynasty bureaucrats in the north defected to the Qing Dynasty one after another. This was directly related to Li Zicheng's bandit policy against the officials and gentry.

Fang Shidi said again:

Maybe Li Zicheng was not necessarily greedy for money, but it cannot be said that he was not lustful. When Li Zicheng entered the Forbidden City, he fell in love with a palace maid named Dou and made her his concubine. It can be said that the hero is in trouble with the beauty. Not to mention the generals of Dashun Army.

Liu Zongmin and other sensual men were surrounded by beauties and played and sang every night. Those old bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty who were eager to rely on them not only bribed money, but also bribed beautiful women.

These actions further aggravated the resentment of the bureaucrats outside Beijing against the Dashun regime. Except for the areas directly occupied by the Dashun army, the other officials and gentry no longer regarded the Dashun regime as a new dynasty. The typical representative among them is Wu Sangui, the general guard outside the pass.

Fang Shidi sang a "bandit song":

 

Understand the history of the development of rogue bandits in China,

Infinitely tragic and emotional, I cried in my heart.

The emperor's unprincipled and treacherous ministers take over the affairs of the state;

If the government forces the people to rebel, bandits will inevitably rise.

 

Fugitive soldiers, postmen and miners,

Thousands of hungry people gathered into bandits,

Everyone set up camp with their wives, children, relatives,

They robbed rich people and grabbed food everywhere to survive.

 

The Huangchao Rebellion in the late Tang Dynasty was the most violent.

It was difficult for the officers and soldiers to attack from east to west.

The Ming Dynasty formulated the terrifying fish scale book,

Strictly prevent population movement and prohibit public speech.

 

However, in the late Ming Dynasty, bandits were a spectacle;

The Eight Great Kings, the Sweeping King and the King of Troubled Times,

Crash down the sky and soar into the heavenly pillar, the monkey in the sky rises,

Nine dragons urge the mountain tiger and a gust of wind.

 

There are countless rogue pirates,

Shanxi soldiers and horses suddenly mutinied.

The dismissed post soldiers joined the bandits.

The hungry people fought for their attachments and bandits spread throughout the provinces.

 

At the Xingyang Assembly, cattle and horses were sacrificed to heaven.

The armed struggle tends towards a grand alliance,

Thousands of miles away from the red ground, hungry people are raising their heads.

King Chuang sent his army to destroy Emperor Ming.

 

Rogue bandits are not unique to the Ming Dynasty;

During the Qing Dynasty, the White Lotus Sect was even more disrupted.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom ravaged thousands of miles,

　　If the suppression of bandits fails, the rogue bandits will become kings.