In the twelfth year of Chongzhen, after three years of preparation and recovery, Li Zicheng once again sent troops to capture the Ming Dynasty. But so do dungans, henan area, Li Zicheng in henan, slay wang an of the Ming dynasty. Successfully joined forces with the local peasant army leaders, and the number grew to several hundred thousand. After that, Li Zicheng led the troops to Lien Chan and Lien Jie, conquered Yiyang and gained Lushi. During the battle in Li Zicheng, many people of insight joined in. For example, Niu Jinxing and Yan Li, who had an important influence on Li Zicheng, joined the insurgents in Li Zicheng during this period and soon became confidants. Later, Li Zicheng adopted Yan Li's suggestion and put forward the slogans of "No food for every field" and "No food for the king". Li Zicheng's rebels won the unanimous support of the working people. In the spring of the 14th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng, with the cooperation of the defenders in the city, captured Luoyang and killed Zhu. He was furious. Soon, Li Zicheng led an army to surround Kaifeng House. After several attacks, he moved to Dengzhou and killed Fu, the governor of the Ming Dynasty. In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai besieged Kaifeng with 200,000 troops. After more than 20 days of fierce fighting, they failed to conquer it, but they broke through Xiangcheng, Henan Province and captured Wang Qiaonian, governor of the Ming Dynasty, and Li Wanqing, leader of the peasant army of the Ming Dynasty. Then he conquered Chen Zhou, joined the local peasant army and returned to Kaifeng for the third time. First annihilate the Ming army of the 3rd Battalion that raided the city, then smash Zhengzhou, Xingyang and Shangcai, and clear the Ming army strongholds around Kaifeng. Ming Dynasty generals Ding and Zuo Liangyu led more than 100,000 troops into Zhuxian Town. Li Zicheng continued to attack the city with some troops, led the main force to occupy the favorable terrain of Zhuxian Town to meet the Ming army, and won a total victory, capturing tens of thousands of Ming troops. In the first month of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng conquered Xiangyang and put forward the slogan of "No levy for three years, no killing for one person". Li Zicheng is known as a civil and military marshal dedicated to heaven and advocating righteousness. Subsequently, Li Zicheng adopted the counsel of Gu Junen, a counselor, and formulated the operational strategy of taking Guanzhong first, then attacking Shanxi, and then taking Beijing. He personally led the army north to Henan, annihilated more than 40,000 Ming troops in the battle of Ruzhou, and forced Sun Chuanting to flee Shaanxi. Take the opportunity to pursue, annihilate the Ming army guarding Tongguan, kill Sun Chuanting, and occupy Tongguan, Xi 'an and other places. Immediately, he divided his forces and pursued the remnants of the Ming army, connecting Yan' an, Hanzhong and Yulin.
In the first month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng established Dashun regime with the title of Yongchang, and Li Zicheng called Dashun King, changing Xi 'an to Xijing. Then Li Zicheng led the army across the Yellow River, invaded Shanxi and conquered Taiyuan. Then, Li Zicheng was divided into two roads, one led by General Liu Fangliang to attack Hebei, and he and General Liu Zongmin led the main force to go north to Ning Wuguan, and laid siege to Beijing from the north. Li Zicheng successfully captured Datong, Fu Xuan and Changping with a great army. On March 17, attack the gate of Beijing. At this time, Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty had no army to adjust, and the soldiers guarding the city were old, weak and sick. Chongzhen dispatched Wu Sangui, the general commander of Shanhaiguan, and the Ming army in Jiangnan. But it's too late. On March 19, Li Zicheng led an army to Beijing, and Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian, desperate, hanged himself in Jingshan Park.
After the capture of Beijing, Li Zicheng began to be carried away by victory. These peasant-born rebel generals thought that if they captured Beijing and got rid of the Ming emperor, they would be done and enjoy the world. Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin and others also began to be busy building palaces, collecting beautiful women and chasing officials of the Ming Dynasty. They failed to pursue hundreds of thousands of Ming troops still in the south of the Yangtze River in time, and ignored Wu Sangui, the company commander of Shanhaiguan, who was heavily armed. At first, Li Zicheng wanted to surrender to Wu Sangui. However, due to the pursuit of rebel generals, Wu Sangui's father Wu Xiang committed suicide, and what he couldn't bear was that his beloved concubine Chen Yuanyuan was taken away by rebel generals Liu Zongmin. In a rage, Wu Sangui surrendered to Dourgen in Qing Dynasty, and opened the gate to lead soldiers into the customs.
Under the joint attack of the Qing and Ming armies, Li Zicheng's Dashun army was losing ground. Has been retreated to Tongguan, Shaanxi, Tongguan war, Dashun army lost again, forced to withdraw from Shaanxi, moved to Henan and Hubei. Prepare to seize the southeast as an anti-Qing base, but the Qing army is pressing the Dashun army. Sending heavy troops to stop the attack, the Ming army of Nanming regime also attacked Dashun army conveniently. As a result, Li Zicheng successively fell to Wuchang, Yangxin, Hubei and Jiujiang, Jiangxi, and the road to the east was cut off.
Later, Li Zicheng led the troops to Jiugongshan area and lost contact from then on. Hundreds of thousands of Dashun troops also disappeared like evaporation, and later generations also put forward many different views on the final outcome of Li Zicheng:
The most representative statement is that Li Zicheng was attacked and killed by the landlord Ying Yong in Jiugong Mountain. The most important basis for putting forward this statement is the report of General Azig of Jingyuan in Qing Dynasty to the imperial court, and the report of General He Tengjiao of Hunan Ministry of War in Nanming Dynasty to the Tang King. Azig's report said: "Li Zicheng soldiers tried their best to escape into Jiugong Mountain with only 20 cronies. They were besieged by villagers, unable to escape, and hanged themselves. He sent an autopsy, but the body was decomposed and unrecognizable. He Tengjiao's report to the Tang King also said that his Ministry beheaded Li Zicheng at the foot of Jiugong Mountain, but he lost his head. But these two statements seem to have a lot of doubts, which is hard to believe. Because Li Zicheng is a "ten thousand gold rewards don't buy, ten divisions don't levy"? Military wizards are not only brave, but also resourceful. His life and death is a very important issue for the rulers of Qing Dynasty or Nanming Dynasty. However, the reports of Azig and He Tengjiao are ambiguous. Li Zicheng's body was described as "an undefined body" in Azig's report, while He Tengjiao's report called it headless. That is to say, the two generals did not see with their own eyes that the dead man was Li Zicheng. But according to other people's reports, I guess this is Li Zicheng, so I quickly went to the passbook to reward him. It is particularly worth mentioning that when Li Zicheng retreated to Huxiang, there were still more than 400,000 military forces under his command, and at least tens of thousands of people were stationed in Jiugong Mountain, which was by no means only 20 cronies as reported. Besides, if Li Zicheng was really killed, how could his hundreds of thousands of troops stop there? Can Jiugong Mountain be calm? However, in fact, Jiugong Mountain was very calm at that time, and so were the hundreds of thousands of troops. That is to say, the Jiugong Mountain where Li Zicheng was killed said that either two generals did it for the sake of taking credit, or a group of Li Zicheng deliberately cast a smoke bomb. Using Li Zicheng's death as a delaying tactic. On the one hand, it can dispel the hostility of Nanming to this army; On the other hand, it can also alleviate the blow of the Qing army to him. So you can wait for the opportunity to make a comeback.
There is also a popular saying that Li Zicheng did not die, but became a monk in Jiashan Temple. This statement was first recorded in Zhili. According to the book, Li Zicheng did not die after the defeat, but went to Jiashan Temple in Shimen, Hunan Province to become a monk, and his legal name was Feng Tianyu. Later, the man visited Jiashan Temple. An old monk in his seventies still remembers the past of Jiashan Temple and told him that a monk from Feng Tianyu had entered the temple in the early years of Shunzhi, and his voice sounded like that of a northwest person. He is still in the temple. He has seen the portrait of Li Zicheng with his own eyes. 198 1 year, the tomb of Fengtian Jade, a great monk, was discovered at Jiashan Temple in Shimen. According to the investigation, the remains in a porcelain altar are similar to those in Li Zicheng. The funerary objects in the tomb are the same as those in Mizhi County, Shaanxi Province, Li Zicheng's hometown. Since then, archaeologists have stamped the stone turtle and the bronze medal of "Tian Feng Zhao Yu" in Jiashan Temple. "Yu" and "Zhao" are both special terms of the emperor, so this danger is probably the emperor Li Zicheng. However, some people disagree with this statement. They believe that the discovery of cultural relics such as the tomb of the great monk Feng Tianyu can only show that the great monk Feng Tianyu really exists in Jiashan Temple in Shimen, but it cannot prove that the great monk Feng Tianyu is Li Zicheng. Li Zicheng was blinded by an arrow wound to his left eye before his death, but the portrait of Li Zicheng described in Zhi Lin, Richmond has bright eyes, which is inconsistent with the facts. Li Zicheng's becoming a monk in Jiashan Temple remains to be discussed.
Recently, some people have put forward an updated account of Li Zicheng's life and death. They think that Li Zicheng did not become a monk after the defeat, nor was he killed in Jiugong Mountain. Instead, he went to jincheng mountain in Lechang, northern Guangdong, where he continued to engage in the anti-Qing struggle. Later, he was wounded by a traitor and died on horseback.
Of course, the above three statements have their own reasons, but they are all the same, not conclusive. At present, the outcome of Li Zicheng's defeat is still an unsolved mystery.