When Chongzhen just ascended the throne, he eradicated Wei Zhongxian's influence and gave everyone hope for him. But slowly, his shortcomings such as incompetence, violence and paranoia gradually emerged. He used a series of tricks and often made mistakes.
Among these mistakes, in terms of trying to save the Ming Dynasty, his biggest mistake was to kill Chen Xinjia. This move not only cut off the life of the Ming Dynasty, but also completely made him lose the hearts of ministers and become a real thief.
Chen Xinjia was a rare talent who could do things at that time. He is aggressive and a hundred times better than those vegetarian ministers. At that time, the Ministry of War was regarded as a dangerous road by everyone, but Chen Xinjia dared to shoulder the heavy burden and shoulder the heavy responsibility of the Ministry of War.
In the Ming dynasty at that time, the biggest strategic problem was being forced to fight on both sides. The Ming dynasty had to face the Manchu externally and suppress the peasant army internally. But the Ming dynasty was not strong enough to deal with two fronts at the same time.
Therefore, when the peasant army gained the upper hand, the Manchu offensive could not be resisted. During the rebellion against the Manchu Dynasty, the peasant army revived and crossed the Central Plains. This made the small troops of the Ming Dynasty hug left and right, exhausted.
In this case, it is the best policy to concentrate superior forces to solve one side and then the other. There is no room for discussion about the peasant army in the Ming Dynasty, and we can only talk about it from the side of Huang Taiji in the Qing Dynasty.
Huang taiji did not intend to enter the Central Plains at that time. He adopted a step-by-step approach to strengthen his strength step by step. At the same time, the pressure of war also caused great harm to Manchu.
Due to the economic blockade of the Ming Dynasty, the living standards of Manchu people were low and social contradictions were difficult to reconcile. In order to solve this problem, Huang Taiji invaded North Korea. However, despite the surrender to North Korea, the available materials were a drop in the bucket, which could not solve the needs of the Manchu dynasty at all. Therefore, in order to stabilize the rule of the Qing Dynasty, Huang Taiji had the will to make peace with Chongzhen.
Chongzhen handed the task of making peace to Chen Xinjia. After consultations between the two sides, Huang Taiji made great concessions, and both sides had the hope of peace. However, God did not bless the Ming Dynasty. At the last minute, something went wrong.
Chen Xinjia's "Nunnery" gave the documents negotiated and exchanged between the two sides to outsiders as a pond newspaper, making it famous all over the world. As a result, public opinion exploded. In the Ming Dynasty, those officials handed over Zhang Fei and compared this peace with the peace in Qin Gui in the Southern Song Dynasty.
At this time, Chongzhen dared not take responsibility and admitted that he knew about Taiping. He took it out on Chen Xinjia and killed Chen Xinjia on the charge of making peace without authorization. Of course, it is impossible to make peace with Manchu. Finally, the Ming Dynasty perished under the attack of Manchu and peasant army.
In this case, Chongzhen announced the death penalty for himself and the Ming Dynasty. First of all, if the peace talks fail, the Ming Dynasty will lose its last chance to get rid of fighting on both sides and be unable to save the situation.
What is more harmful is to kill Chen Xinjia. At that time, everyone knew that Chongzhen was behind this incident. After learning the news of the peace talks, it is his responsibility to impeach officials, beyond reproach. However, Chongzhen did not dare to take responsibility, and in turn shirked responsibility and even killed Chen Xinjia who worked for him. In this way, Chongzhen lost the trust of all courtiers.
Can we think about it, if the peace talks are successful, the news will not be leaked? By that time, Chongzhen will not be impeached, will he? If Chongzhen was impeached at that time, what kind of attitude would it be and wouldn't it kill Chen Xinjia?
Everyone is not a fool. From this incident, everyone saw through the ugly face of Chongzhen. He just asked someone to do the dirty work for him, and after reaching the established facts, he moved with the wind. If there is no one to talk to, if there is trouble, let the person who works for him take the responsibility and kill the donkey. The ministers of the Ming Dynasty were not fools. They could sacrifice themselves for the sake of the Ming Dynasty, but no one was willing to make such a sacrifice. Why do you have to ruin your reputation for Chongzhen? This is totally selfish.
There is a saying that is good. You treat me like dirt and I treat you like an enemy. ? Since then, everyone has never cooperated with Chongzhen. The whole imperial court regards the affairs of the world as a child's play, waiting for the change of dynasty. Chongzhen jumped up and down again, and no one took him seriously In the end, no one even went to be an official, so Chongzhen had to draw lots to decide.
When Li Zicheng's soldiers all pointed to Beijing, Chongzhen wanted to flee south to Nanjing. But everyone took Chen Xinjia's fate as a warning, ignoring the hint of Chongzhen. Chongzhen wanted his ministers to come forward to persuade him to move the capital, but they all pretended not to understand what he meant, and no one came forward.
Because people don't want Chongzhen to escape and get his own life like Chen Xinjia, but in the future Chongzhen will blame himself for losing the northern country and ending up in ruin. It's not worth dying for Chongzhen. This is a common understanding.
In the end, Chongzhen failed and hanged Jingshan Park. He hates everyone in the world, so he simply destroys this country. He left all the central institutions and princes, so that the Qing Dynasty could use government institutions to govern, and the Nanming Dynasty was leaderless. In this way, the Ming Dynasty completely perished.
Before he died, Chongzhen said that he was not the king of national subjugation, which was all made by ministers. However, what he has done shows that he is the king of national subjugation. If he had been a weak-willed king, the Ming Dynasty would not have perished so soon.