Sun Chuanting, the governor of the Ming Dynasty, repeatedly won against the peasant army. Why did he finally lose to Li Zicheng?

Indeed, Sun Chuanting was an extremely outstanding civil and military talent in the late Ming Dynasty. He led the Ming Dynasty official army to defeat Li Zicheng and other peasant rebels, but as the saying goes: "Don't be afraid of gods." The same opponents, but afraid of teammates who are like pigs? No matter how talented Sun Chuanting is in both civil and military skills, he can't hold back or even stab him with the pig teammates of the Ming Dynasty behind him!

Sun Chuanting

Sun Chuanting, also named Boya and Baigu, was born in Daizhou and was a Jinshi in the 47th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty. In the ninth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, Sun Chuanting was appointed governor of Shaanxi and was responsible for annihilating Li Zicheng and other peasant rebels. It was also at this time that Sun Chuanting began to show his outstanding strategic vision and military talent. That same year, Sun Chuanting set up an ambush in Ziwu Valley, defeated and captured Gao Yingxiang, who was then king of Chuang.

Portrait of Sun Chuanting painted in the Qing Dynasty

In the tenth year of Chongzhen, Sun Chuanting continued his efforts, defeated and annihilated many peasant armies, and brought peace to Shaanxi, where the uprising was the largest. In the 11th year of Chongzhen's reign, Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou jointly set up an ambush and defeated Li Zicheng's army, which was the most prestigious and largest among the peasant armies. Li Zicheng escaped with only 18 cavalry. Sun Chuanting was about to continue his efforts to completely eliminate Li Zicheng, but he received an imperial edict from Emperor Chongzhen, asking him to lead his Qin army and Hong Chengchou back to Beijing for rescue. Because the Eight Banners of Manchuria were entering the invasion pass at this time, Sun Chuanting had no choice but to lead his troops back to the capital to aid. This gave Li Zicheng a chance to breathe.

After arriving in the capital, Sun Chuanting, despite his great military exploits, was unable to meet Emperor Chongzhen for a long time due to conflicts with senior officials Yang Sichang and eunuch Gao Qiqian. Even due to Yang Sichang's slander, Emperor Chongzhen, who did not know right from wrong, imprisoned Sun Chuanting, who had resigned due to illness. In the 15th year of Chongzhen's reign, Li Zicheng entered Henan and quickly brought hundreds of thousands of troops to his side. The situation became extremely difficult to control. Emperor Chongzhen had no choice but to appoint Sun Chuanting again.

Li Zicheng

But at this time, the Ming Dynasty's rule in the north was close to collapse, and the Ming army, such as Zuo Liangyu and others, had become warlords, each relying on its own troops, making it difficult for the court to command Gotta move. Under this situation, Chongzhen and the court still did not give Sun Chuanting a chance to breathe. Regardless of the battlefield situation, they continued to severely urge Sun Chuanting to send troops to encircle and suppress Li Zicheng. Sun Chuanting had no choice but to lead his troops to fight with Li Zicheng. In the 16th year of Chongzhen, Sun Chuanting was defeated and died in the battle. However, the mean and unkind Emperor Chongzhen actually thought that Sun Chuanting was cheating his death and absconded and refused to give him a gift.

Peasant War in the Late Ming Dynasty

Sun Chuanting was defeated not so much by Li Zicheng, but by the corrupt court of the Ming Dynasty and Emperor Chongzhen who did not distinguish right from wrong. Even the "History of the Ming Dynasty" compiled by the Qing Dynasty contains the lament that Sun Chuanting died and the Ming Dynasty was about to fall. Emperor Chongzhen had loyal ministers and generals who were both civil and military, such as Sun Chuanting, Hong Chengchou, Lu Xiangsheng, etc., but he did not know how to use them well. Instead, he either forced them to death or to rebel. The demise of the Ming Dynasty was not only due to the peasant uprising and the attack of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty. The most fundamental reason was the internal problems of the Ming Dynasty.