The Rise of the Qing and the Trap at Songshan
While Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were carving out their domains, a pivotal shift occurred in the northeast. In 1636, Hong Taiji renamed the “Great Jin” to the “Great Qing” and changed the ethnic name from Jurchen to Manchu. This was a strategic move to distance his regime from the historical animosity associated with the Jin dynasty’s destruction of the Northern Song, and to align with the Five Elements theory – using “Water” (Qing/Manchu) to extinguish the “Fire” of the Ming. Declaring himself Emperor, Hong Taiji launched a massive assault on Jinzhou.
The Ming court dispatched Hong Chengchou, the Governor of Jizhou-Liaodong, to relieve the siege. Although Hong initially made progress, Emperor Ming Sizong, impatient for results, ordered a hasty advance. This played directly into Qing hands; Hong Chengchou’s forces were encircled at Songshan, and his supply lines were severed. Songshan fell, and Hong Chengchou was captured. Subsequently, Jinzhou fell, and its commander, Zu Dashou, surrendered. Although Hong Chengchou initially refused to yield, he eventually submitted to Hong Taiji’s persuasion. In a tragic irony, the Emperor in Beijing, believing Hong had died a martyr, posthumously honored him with high titles and a grand sacrifice, effectively creating a “living martyr.”
The Failed Secret Peace
With the loss of Jinzhou, the gateway at Shanhai Pass lay vulnerable. Emperor Sizong, fearing a pincer attack from both the rebels and the Manchus, secretly instructed the Minister of War, Chen Xinjia, to negotiate peace with Hong Taiji to buy time for suppressing the internal rebellion. Chen sent an envoy who successfully secured a draft treaty. However, the secret was leaked when Chen’s servant published the document, mistaking it for routine correspondence.
Outraged by the revelation, officials impeached Chen for treason. Attempting to save face, the Emperor demanded Chen confess that the peace initiative was his own unauthorized idea. When Chen refused to take the blame for following imperial orders, the Emperor, terrified of being exposed as the instigator, ordered Chen’s execution. The opportunity for peace vanished, and the Qing continued their raids, plundering Shandong with impunity while the Ming army watched helplessly.
The Death of Hong Taiji and the Regency
Just as the Qing prepared for a major invasion, Hong Taiji suddenly died of a stroke without naming a successor. His ninth son, Fulin (later the Shunzhi Emperor), ascended the throne at the age of six. Real power fell to his uncle, Prince Dorgon. With the Qing leadership preoccupied with internal succession issues, the immediate threat to the Ming capital was temporarily delayed, giving the crumbling dynasty a brief respite.
The Siege of Beijing
Meanwhile, Li Zicheng proclaimed the Great Shun state in Xi’an and marched on Beijing with a reported force of one million. The northern defenses collapsed rapidly; garrisons either fled or surrendered. Within three months, the Shun army reached Changping, just north of the capital.
Emperor Sizong, realizing the end was near, summoned his ministers, but few appeared. Those who did offered no solutions. In desperation, the Emperor wrote “Every civil and military official is killable” on his desk. As the Shun army besieged the city, the situation inside became dire. Commander Li Guozhen reported that the soldiers, starving and unpaid, refused to fight. The Emperor, weeping, ordered the palace eunuchs to defend the walls, but they too were terrified and unarmed.
The Suicide on Coal Hill
The defense crumbled completely when senior eunuchs Cao Huachun, Wang Xiangyao, and Wang Dehua betrayed the Emperor, opening the Guang’an, Pingle (Fucheng), and Desheng gates to the rebel army. As the Shun troops flooded the city, the remaining defenders scattered.
Isolated and abandoned, Emperor Sizong realized his fate. He ordered Empress Zhou and Concubine Tian to commit suicide and wounded his daughters with his sword to spare them from capture. Entrusting his sons to a relative, he attempted to flee through the Donghua Gate but found the roads blocked. Returning to the Forbidden City, he struck the Jingyang Bell to summon his officials, but no one came. Resigned to his doom, he walked to Wansui Mountain (Meishan/Coal Hill) behind the palace, accompanied only by the eunuch Wang Cheng’en. There, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty hanged himself from a locust tree. Wang Cheng’e followed suit. The 276-year reign of the Ming had come to a tragic end.
The Forty-Two Days in Beijing
At dawn, Li Zicheng entered Beijing in triumph. While the populace initially welcomed him, the Shun administration quickly descended into chaos. Prime Minister Niu Jinxing focused on planning the coronation, while General Liu Zongmin engaged in brutal extortion of officials and the wealthy to fund the army. Li Zicheng himself occupied the imperial palace and concubines. They failed to establish a stable governance structure, relying instead on looting, which turned the city’s elite against them.
Li Zicheng intended to plunder Beijing and return to Xi’an rather than establishing a permanent capital. This shortsightedness alienated the very class he needed to govern. The crucial variable became Wu Sangui, the Ming general guarding Shanhai Pass. Li sent envoys to recruit him, and Wu initially agreed to defect.
The Battle of Shanhai Pass
However, on his way to pay homage to Li, Wu Sangui learned that his father, Wu Xiang, had been tortured by Liu Zongmin for money and his beloved concubine, Chen Yuanyuan, had been seized. Enraged, Wu returned to Shanhai Pass and switched his allegiance to the Qing, appealing to Dorgon for help.
Li Zicheng, realizing Wu’s betrayal, led an expeditionary force to crush him. At Shanhai Pass, the Shun army initially overwhelmed Wu’s forces. Just as victory seemed imminent, the Qing Eight Banner armies, led by Ajige and Dodo, emerged from the rear and flanked the Shun troops. Caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the Manchu cavalry, the Shun army collapsed. Li Zicheng, seeing the “queue-wearing” soldiers, shouted in despair, “The Tartars have come!” and fled back to Beijing.
The Qing Ascendancy
Retreating to Beijing, Li Zicheng executed Wu Sangui’s family members who remained in the city. After staying in Beijing for exactly forty-two days, he hastily held his coronation in the Wuying Hall, burned parts of the imperial palace, and fled west with his loot.
Two days later, Dorgon led the Qing army through the Chaoyang Gate. The Ming officials, hoping for a restoration, knelt to greet them, only to realize they were now subjects of the Qing. Dorgon declared that the Qing had come to avenge the Ming Emperor against the rebels and announced the relocation of the capital to Beijing. That autumn, the young Emperor Fulin arrived, marking the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. In the span of a few months in 1644, Beijing had witnessed the fall of one dynasty and the rise of two would-be successors.
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