Once I went through the historical materials in the library for half a month and asked about Mr. Zhang's surrender. I know that he often surrenders, but I don't know that he can always do this.
Simply put, the number of times he surrendered with one hand is countless, not necessarily with both hands, and the frequency of his surrender is also very high. On one occasion, it took only ten days from surrender to rebellion.
This is commendable. Generally speaking, after surrender, you have to go through a procedure, eat, take a bath and find a place to settle down. All the above work will take at least one month. But teacher Zhang's efficiency and speed are really amazing. -The Bright Moon "Those Things in the Ming Dynasty"
Isn't it interesting? Such repeated surrenders must be false surrenders, but Zhang has repeatedly played false surrenders, but he has repeatedly succeeded. Why?
However, what the brain says is: Because Zhang Taicong is clear, or too cunning, the officers and men in the late Ming Dynasty have no brains, so they are easy to cheat!
But is this really the case? As long as we open our eyes and look at the reality carefully, we will understand that things are not that simple.
Zhang can maintain a complete compilation every time he forges the surrender, which shows that Zhang is not at an absolute disadvantage when he forges the surrender. This is easy to understand: if the Ming army is in an advantage, it is natural to deal with Zhang according to its own wishes. But every time the Ming army accepted Zhang's surrender, it failed to incorporate his troops, which is very telling.
Supposedly, Zhang is only an anti-thief, but the Ming army is the central army and its strength should be much stronger. Why don't they "chase the poor bandits with the only brave left", create a defeat for Zhang, and then completely incorporate them?
The reason is also very simple. Although the Ming army is the central army, its advantages are not obvious or even dominant. There is no direct evidence for this, but we can draw this conclusion from what happened.
In various reports in the late Ming Dynasty, Zhang's many false surrenders were mentioned, and bureaucrats always stressed that they had been cheated, thus missing the opportunity to hit Zhang hard.
If it is only once or twice, then I think this statement still has some credibility. You can be cheated for more than ten times, and you are a little hero in the world.
In November of the sixth year of Chongzhen (A.D. 1633), Ming officials believed it, and hooligans and bandits surrendered on a large scale. At that time, the sixty-one leader of the * * * rogue surrendered to the Ming officials, and the scale of this fake surrender was probably larger than that of Machexia.
The consequences of this fraudulent surrender are also very amazing, and it is called "Mianchidu". Through this false surrender, bandits began to cross the Yellow River on a large scale and enter Henan, Shanxi, Sichuan, Huguang, Anhui and other places. The scourge of bandits has changed from a local problem in the northwest to a confidant of Daming.
If viewed in isolation, Sleeping in the Pool is certainly credible. But the problem is that similar situations happen again and again. When we look back at Mianchi Ferry in Chen Qiyu, its credibility is greatly reduced.
In the seventh year of Chongzhen (A.D. 1634), Chen Qiyu, the governor of five provinces, entered the Red River and surrounded many bandits such as Li Zicheng and Zhang in Xiangbi Gorge, which was about to wipe out them. But it's a pity that Chen Qiyu trusted these surrendered hooligans, so he missed the chance to catch them all.
The central government of Daming has just been cheated by bandits, which has also caused disastrous consequences. Only in the past few months, Chen Qiyu once again believed in the mass surrender of hooligans. Is this possible? Chen Qiyu doesn't have a brain?
To say the least, even if Chen Qiyu really didn't have a brain, the central government of Daming actually agreed with Chen Qiyu after seeing his report. Does Daming's entire top decision-maker have no brains?
A few months after accepting the fake surrender, Zhang invaded Fengyang and dug up the ancestral grave of the royal family. The whole Daming was crying.
On the surface, Daming really said that he had good intentions and was infatuated with Zhang: when Mianchidu surrendered, there was Zhang, when Che Xiangxiang surrendered, there was Zhang, when digging the royal ancestral grave, there was an ambush on all sides, and there was Zhang shouting "I want to surrender". Daming accepted Zhang's surrender and allowed him to keep his own independent armed forces and establishment.
One after another, isn't it strange? There is only one reasonable explanation: the central government of Daming has inevitable difficulties, so they have to believe Zhang, even though they know it is not credible.
The so-called saying that officers and men only accept false surrender after believing the enemy in absolute superiority is purely a statement that bureaucratic groups deceive the emperor. Emperor Chongzhen listened to a lot and naturally understood what was going on.
Understand to understand, emperor chongzhen still has no solution to the problem. If Emperor Chongzhen issued a strict order: If there is any mistake, no one will be spared. Then if something goes wrong, bureaucrats will naturally put the blame on Emperor Chongzhen.
A docile rabbit knows how to bite when he is in a hurry, let alone a rogue with his head tied to a belt. I think if the rebels fight the Ming army to the death, the Ming army will not be easy to get along with, because this bureaucratic army simply does not have the quality to fight hard.
By that time, the work of eliminating bandits will only become more and more passive. Later scholars will definitely say an empty word: "It is because Emperor Chongzhen is too cruel and doesn't understand the way of saints that the bandits' chaos is caused."
Moreover, bandits are rampant, just to make a living; In fact, officers and men also make a living. If Emperor Chongzhen gave the order, it would be great for Emperor Chongzhen to let both sides drop their jobs and start fighting. If he had this ability, why did the dilemma in the late Ming Dynasty get out of hand?
When officers and soldiers and bandits began to play hidden rules and infernal affairs, it was not a question of who gave orders at all. People who pretend to sleep can't wake up, and it's easy for both sides who play tacit understanding wholeheartedly to know people.
At that time, the folk saying was: "Soldiers pass like combs, and soldiers pass like combs." From this point of view, there is not much difference between officers and soldiers and bandits, and the reasons for carrying weapons to the battlefield are similar.
If the central government of Daming can really expand the government forces by tens of millions, the hooligans will definitely disappear immediately and sign up for the government.
Unfortunately, the central government of Daming is too poor to support the existing army. Not only do you often deduct money, but you often default on your salary. Gradually, there are fewer and fewer channels for conscription, and many young men who don't have enough to eat can only wander.
The reason why officers and men often fight bandits is that every once in a while, officers and men must kill or surrender a group of bandits, otherwise they will not be able to make friends with the Daming Central Government and Emperor Chongzhen.
This is the whole motive force for officers and soldiers to fight against bandits. This motive force is really not enough to promote officers and soldiers to fight against bandits. In other words, officers and men just want to fight with bandits to keep their jobs, not tie their heads to their belts.
It is also for this reason that bandits in the late Ming Dynasty could not be suppressed.
Judging from his political achievements, Hong Chengchou's anti-bandits work is the best, and he has achieved great success in Shaanxi. However, behind Hong Chengchou's success in fighting bandits, there are bandits all over Shanxi, Huguang, Henan and Hebei. Because bandits are not to be taunted by Hong Chengchou, they have to move to other places.
Therefore, Hong Chengchou is known as a famous soldier, and his official position has been rising again and again, but Daming's rogue crisis is getting worse.
Hong Chengchou doesn't know the consequences of this? Does the central government of Daming not know the consequences of this? Yes, but what can I do if I know?
I don't want to berate Hong Chengchou, nor any official or general who is determined to fight bandits, because this is rotten at the root, and treating the symptoms instead of treating the symptoms can't solve the problem. These so-called "famous officials" or "famous ministers" are just doing nothing.
The most fundamental problem is to solve the problem of food and clothing for ordinary people. If this problem cannot be solved, no matter whether it is suppressed or appeased, bandits and hungry people will only be driven everywhere, and the situation will not be reversed at all.
Whenever great progress is made in the suppression of bandits, it is often a precursor to the increasingly rampant bandits.
The commander-in-chief succeeded in suppressing bandits, but the officers and men acquiesced in the robbery of bandits from other provinces; The commander-in-chief succeeded in suppressing bandits only because the officers and men accepted the rogue's false surrender; The commander-in-chief succeeded in suppressing bandits only by cutting off hundreds of heads from hundreds of thousands of rogue bandits.
The success of this kind of lifting soup to stop boiling can only stay on the surface forever.