Xie Ming

Chapter 585 The Trend of the World
The general trend of the world will be divided for a long time, and will be combined for a long time.

People also say that if we are in harmony, both sides will benefit, but if we are divided, both sides will suffer!

In May of the 17th year of Chongzhen, after Li Zicheng was defeated in the Battle of Shanhaiguan, he set fire to the capital and hurriedly evacuated Beijing with his troops.

Soon after, Dorgon brought the new Emperor Shunzhi into the capital, took over the court attendance of the remaining Ming officials, and formally announced his rule over the capital.

At the same time, Xiao and Crown Prince Zhu Cilang fled south. With the collective support of the Nanjing gentry group, he ascended the throne in June and established the Southern Hongguang Court.

For a time, the world was divided into three parts, and the three parties all wanted to complete the unification of the political regime and dynasty.

One was the Dashun that hurriedly left the capital, one was the Qing that had just entered the capital, and the other was the Southern Ming Dynasty that was in a corner.

At first, under Xiao Jingchuan's strong support for the Northern Expedition against the invaders, the Southern Court reluctantly defended half of Shandong as a buffer.

During this period, Ming and Shun attacked from the southwest. Li Zicheng counterattacked and even managed to fight back to the southwest of the capital in August, but then he escaped and returned.

However, the situation took a turn for the worse afterwards, as the southern gentry and the emperor's party members such as Ni Yuanlu who came to the southern court and went north all wanted to stop fighting and negotiate peace in the hope of driving the tiger away and devouring the wolf. As a result, the situation among the three parties changed suddenly at the end of August.

To the northwest, the bandits who had established their own great strait were eventually left alone and isolated.

Compared to this, why did such a change occur?
If we want to explain this situation, we must start with a series of important measures taken after the Jiannu established the Qing Dynasty.

At that time, this group of foreigners took advantage of the Qing army's entry into the pass. With the guidance of experts along the way, they raised the banner of "revenge for the emperor."

With this, he successfully entered the Beijing area.

It can be said that at that time they even called themselves the Army of Justice.

The benefits of raising such a banner are self-evident. It is to achieve twice the result with half the effort in incorporating the local forces of the prefectures and cities in the northern part of the Ming Dynasty.

However, on the other hand, this move also created a considerable and acute problem.

That was the question of how the Qing Dynasty should treat the Southern Ming court after its establishment.

You know, from a legal point of view, the Southern Ming Dynasty was considered a continuation of the Ming Dynasty, and was definitely more orthodox than the Qing Dynasty which succeeded the Northern Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, if the Qing Dynasty did not follow the Southern Court's legitimacy and directly tore off the fig leaf, it would definitely make the old Ming officials completely disappointed.

Those local officials of the Ming Dynasty who were originally hesitant and waiting to see whether to surrender to the Qing Dynasty would also choose to turn against the Qing Dynasty.

However, if we don’t talk about this, we must resolve the relationship with the Southern Ming as soon as possible.

Faced with this situation, Dorgon, the commander-in-chief of the coalition army and head of the government, was in a dilemma for a while.

In his view, the legal legitimacy of the Southern Ming Dynasty's Hongguang should never be lightly acknowledged.

If you want to care about it, you must find a clever way to avoid the problem.

Therefore, while Dorgon was stabilizing the north, he also spread out his spies and sent a message to the southern aristocratic group.

That is: "Rest in Yanjing and comfort the people."

The meaning is not complicated. It means that the Qing army will only fight to the northern border and occupy most of the north at most, but will not invade the south.

This sent an extremely wrong signal to the current Southern Ming court.

The Jiannu Tartars only wanted to divide the country by the river and rule over the south.

The newly established Hongguang court had no intention of launching a campaign of conquest.

Of course, such an argument is undoubtedly a great joyous event for the Southern Court at the moment.

After all, from the perspective of military equipment and military strength, the Hongguang regime of the Southern Ming Dynasty currently has only the remnants of Xiao's army, in addition to less than 100,000 troops in the four towns of Jianghuai.

If the northern barbarian soldiers made a desperate move and forced their way south, there would be no ready-made and reliable way to confront the brave Eight Banners of the Manchus in a short period of time. Therefore, at this time, Dorgon deliberately sent out a signal to resolve the past grievances and said that he wanted to restore the old friendship.

Such a move easily attracted the attention of Emperor Hongguang and the Southern Party gentry.

As for Duo Ergon, based on this strategic decision, he quickly made the following arrangements in late August.

1. The Qing court turned its attention back to Li Zicheng's Dashun Dynasty.

The Qing army used the banners of "suppressing bandits" and "restoring the Ming dynasty", emphasizing that the pseudo-Yangzi regime was the only enemy of the Qing dynasty.

They, the Eight Banners soldiers, were seeking revenge for the old Emperor Chongzhen.

Second, Dorgon secretly sent people to negotiate with the old Ming civil and military officials in Henan, Hebei, Jianghuai and other places.

We must show them that they should not forget the kindness of the old Ming Dynasty and should work together with the imperial court to fight against the Dashun bandits.

Anyone who is willing to surrender will be promised a generous reward.

Third, Dorgon did not want to give a clear attitude of acknowledging the Southern Court.

The Spring and Autumn style of writing only implies the friendship between the neighboring countries, and their concerted efforts to fight against the bandits.

In contrast, inside the Southern Court, under the leadership of Ni Yuanlu, the plan of driving the tiger to devour the wolf had already taken shape, and there was a consensus among the government and the public.

After all, compared to these northern barbarians whom they had never met before, in the eyes of the officials, gentry, and wealthy families in the world, Li Zicheng was the person who frightened them the most.

Whether it is clear or not, the worst that can happen is a change of dynasty. But once Li Zicheng comes to power, as a landlord, his huge wealth will be completely lost.

Therefore, under the private planning of such vested interest groups, subtle changes have occurred in various places.

In northern Zhili and the capital, the officials and gentry of the old Ming Dynasty quickly surrendered and attached themselves to the new Qing regime, and willingly became authentic subjects of the Qing Dynasty.

In the buffer zones such as Shandong and Henan, the gentry and officials began to waver.

He was envious of the huge sum of money that Qing offered him.

However, due to his ethnic relationship with the Southern Court and unwilling to remain unclear, he defected to a foreign country.

Most of the time, they have stepped on both boats, their official positions have been restored, they can make money as they should, and they can perform their local duties as they should, without neglecting them.

It's purely for the sake of price, treating justice as a business consideration.

As a result, the journey north to negotiate peace was successfully carried out under such a delicate situation.

All intentions to promote peace talks have begun to emerge.

What the Southern Court was thinking about was nothing more than to first stabilize the situation, establish a north-south division, and then plan for the next step.

Dorgon of the Qing Dynasty, on the other hand, took control of a large area of ​​territory north of the Yellow River without having to spend a single soldier.

Since they had an ambiguous relationship with each other, the Qing troops could also let go of their hands and feet in their subsequent strategic deployment and expand westward first. In his eyes, the Southern Court's self-protection in the southeast was a strategy similar to that of a turtle hiding in its shell.

Compared with such pedantry and cowardice, why wouldn't Dorgon do it?

PS: Another spring has come, and the book "Xie Ming" has been updated for many years.

Qingshan would like to thank all the viewers for their continued support!

Thank you!

This book is not even halfway through yet, Qingshan will continue to update it, and I look forward to making the subsequent stories even more exciting!
(End of this chapter)