3. The objective reasons that prompted Wu Sangui to transform into a traitor
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, a large number of former officials of the Ming court became traitors for various reasons. The most common ones are the survival type who fights against poverty and the type who surrenders to seek officialdom. Typical examples of the former are Hong Chengchou, Zu Dashou, etc., while typical examples of the latter are Zhang Cunren, Ma Guangyuan, Feng Quan, etc. Wu Sangui is different from them all. Wu Sangui did not suffer from poverty. Shanhaiguan and 50,000 soldiers are under his control. He became the chief military officer of the Ming Dynasty and Ping Xibo. If Ming Ting can live longer, his plans for promotion will not end. More importantly, since he was a teenager, he has been in an uncompromising battle with the Manchus. It can be said that there is no obvious traitor factor in him. In view of this, it is necessary to explore the reasons why he eventually became a traitor.
When exploring the facts, we should admit that objective factors were an important reason for Wu Sangui's transformation into a traitor. This objective factor is the series of wrong practices adopted by Li Zicheng after entering Beijing.
Based on the peasant rebel army’s hatred for the landlord class and the Ming Dynasty bureaucrats, it is understandable that many officers and soldiers of the Dashun Army tortured and looted the Ming Dynasty’s surrender. The problem is that Li Zicheng does not have the vision and mind of a feudal dynasty changer. The ancient peasant uprising was not a modern or modern democratic revolution. It can only replace the original dynasty with a new dynasty. In order for Dashun to gain a foothold, it must cooperate with the Ming bureaucracy. Moreover, these old Ming bureaucrats had abandoned the Zhu Ming regime and opened their arms to cooperate with the Dashun Dynasty. For example, Hui Shiyang knelt down to Li Zicheng in a very disgusting way and said: "I am born to be an old minister, and I will leave it to your majesty." However, Li Zicheng lacked insight into the mystery. He allowed Dashun soldiers to torture old Ming officials and even harass the people. As a result, Li Zicheng lost the support of the people of the capital. Many former officials of the Ming Dynasty reverted to rebellion after their surrender, and some fled in disguise.
On the whole, Dashun's approach was to abandon the cooperation of the old Ming bureaucracy, which was very important for the stability of his own regime. From a partial point of view, it forced Wu Sangui to rebel. This was not only the key to Wu Sangui's surrender to the Qing Dynasty, but also the key to the decline of the Dashun Dynasty from prosperity to decline. Regarding those ten days - a short moment in the long history - there are slightly different records in various historical books. In the face of drastic changes, Wu Sangui became emotional and confused. There are records saying that he accepted Li Zicheng's surrender. But before it was fully disclosed, news came one after another that his father had been imprisoned and tortured, and that Aiji had been occupied. It is said that he could barely accept his father's suffering, but he could never accept Aiji's humiliation. He understood that he was caught between the two major forces of the Qing Dynasty and Li Zicheng. Whether it was due to his father's stay in the capital or the hatred he had fought with the Manchus for more than ten years, it was only natural for him to surrender to Dashun. However, after the thirty-two-year-old vigorous young military general beheaded Li Zicheng's envoys and uttered the wild words "Li Zicheng will bring his own head," he cut off this path that he should take and had originally planned to take. But despite this, he still had concerns about surrendering to the Qing Dynasty, and even wanted to kill himself to end everything after learning that Li Zicheng had raised an army. However, when he faced the reality, he had no choice but to resort to moving troops to the Manchu Qing Dynasty. With this move, the capital of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was moved from Shenyang to Beijing. Wu Sangui had no regrets to take.
Imagine that if the Dashun Dynasty could win over the bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty, including Wu Sangui, the situation might be different. Li Zicheng not only did not use 100,000 troops to attack Wu Sangui, but used his military power to help him defend the Manchus in the north. After stabilizing the situation, he used his force to unify Jiangnan. Judging from the corruption of the Hongguang regime of the Southern Ming Dynasty, this should be reasonable.
Perhaps due to the tight situation in the northern frontier, the Dashun Dynasty was unable to advance southward for a considerable period of time. The combined strength of Li Zicheng, Wu Sangui, and a large number of Ming Dynasty surrendered generals such as Datong's general Jiang Xiang was enough to resist the Manchus' entry into the pass. In the past, the Ming Dynasty was so difficult because it had to fight the Manchu and Peasant armies on both sides. And if the situation is simplified to Dashun versus the Manchu Qing, then the Qing cavalry across North China and the Central Plains will no longer be seen. After a period of stable growth, the emerging Dashun will also unify South China. As for whether the unified Dashun has the strength to restore the Ming Dynasty's territory outside the pass, this is indeed doubtful. Will the unified Dashun be a replica of the weak Song Dynasty? Will it lead to the fact that the territory of China today is south of the Great Wall? These issues are beyond the scope of this article and will not be discussed in detail.