How did Li Zicheng die?

Where is Li Zicheng finally? For more than 300 years, there have been disputes about martyrdom and Zen seclusion in historians. However, Li Zicheng was martyred in Jiugongshan, Tongcheng, according to the Ming History and most historical materials in the early Qing Dynasty. 1955, Tongcheng County People's Committee, according to the instructions of the State Council and the provincial government, excavated Li Zicheng's tomb on the site of Li Zicheng's tomb in Jiugongshan, one kilometer away from the county seat. After the completion of the tomb, a private primary school teacher in Gaohu Township, Tongshan County questioned the editorial department of history teaching. When the magazine asked experts to answer questions, it thought that Li Yan, who was killed by Cheng Jiubo in Niujiling, Gaohu, Tongshan County, was Li Zicheng. At that time, these invited experts had very limited contact with historical materials, did not go to Tongcheng and Tongshan for on-the-spot investigation and study, and hastily replied to the editorial department of History Teaching for textual research. Comrade Guo Moruo believed it after reading the arguments of the editorial department of History Teaching and a few experts, so he issued a statement in Guangming Daily, announcing the revocation of his inscription for Li Zicheng's tomb in Tongcheng, and changed "Tongcheng" to "Tongshan" in "The Three Hundred Years Festival of Shen Jia". Since then, in China, Li Zicheng's "On Martyrdom in Tongshan" has replaced Tongcheng's theory and been incorporated into textbooks. 1979, in order to develop tourism resources, Tongshan County built a new Wang Chuang mausoleum under Dayue Mountain in Gaohu Township, and sent people to pick up Li Zicheng's epitaph and the "Li Zicheng Tomb" monument proposed by Comrade Guo Moruo in Tongcheng County, changing Tongcheng County's "city" into Tongshan County's "mountain" and re-carving the monument, which was set in the newly-built Wang Chuang mausoleum and the first one respectively. 1988, the newly-built Wang Chuang Mausoleum was reported from National Cultural Heritage Administration to the State Council and approved as a national key cultural relics protection unit. However, the tomb of Li Zicheng in Tongcheng County was destroyed by mountain torrents on 1992 because it was not effectively protected. The mystery of Li Zicheng's fate aroused the author's great interest. In order to clarify the historical facts, the author has investigated and studied this subject at his own expense in recent ten years. While further exploring historical materials, he paid attention to the discovery and collection of Dashun cultural relics. Through unremitting efforts, breakthroughs have been made in textual research in recent years. In the investigation, it was found that after Li Zicheng's martyrdom, his wife Gao, Prime Minister Niu Jinxing and many family members of Dashun Army's old camp lived in seclusion in the deep forests around the Shogun Mountain. The author found more than 300 Dashun cultural relics in his descendants, including Li Zicheng seal 13, 8 high seals, more than 40 seals of more than 30 Dashun army officials at all levels, and 65,438 high "Tongcheng County Symbol" for county officials. In particular, the discovery of two groups of inscriptions on Dashunjun provides strong evidence for solving this mystery. Combined with historical data, this paper discusses two viewpoints: First, Li Yan killed by Cheng Jiubo in Tongshan County was not Li Zicheng. According to the genealogy of Cheng's family in Gaohu, Tongshan, Cheng was a "ninth uncle" ... In the first year of Shunzhi, Shen Jia suppressed the thief Li Yan at the foot of Niuji Mountain; In the poem "Li Yan's thief is suppressed by heaven, and the fierce soul emperor urges him" in the high lake of Tongshan, Kangxi, Qing Dynasty; "Preface to the Genealogy of the Jin Family in Pengchengtang, Tongcheng County, Shen Bing, Kangxi" records that "... Li Yan (a rogue in Li Zicheng) is rampant, and it is not unusual for him to burn residents." According to these historical records, Li Yan did live in Tongcheng and Tongshan, but is Li Yanli Zicheng? At present, there is no historical record of Li Yan in Li Zicheng. See if Li Yan is Li Zicheng from the newly discovered cultural relics. According to the Records of Jiugong Mountain in Tongshan, Renwu, Guangxu, "Today, there are still thieves hiding knives in the mountains, and people's homes are also". This sword was once collected by Mr. Zhu Xingmiao in Zhujiadawu, Gaohu, Tongshan (see photo 1). This sword is 75cm long, its scabbard is made of ordinary wood, and it is wrapped with iron rings. The manufacturing process is simple and clear. Although the body of the sword is seriously corroded, the inscription "Mizhi Liyan" in seal script is still faintly visible. This ordinary low-grade sabre can't be from Li Zicheng, which is far from the luxurious sabre found in Li Zicheng, Chongyang County. The length of the sword is 1 m, the handle of antelope horn, the mahogany scabbard, and the copper-clad part of the sword body are all engraved with exquisite five-claw dragon patterns and branch patterns, and the words "eliminate violence and be good" are embedded in the sword lattice. The descendants of Niu Jinxing in Yang Gang, Yangxin County, Jiangxi Province, and Dadong, Wuning County, which are adjacent to Tongshan County, have a yin and yang engraving of "Li Yanji" in the first year of Yongchang (see Figure 2): one is Tian Huangshi, 5.6 cm high and 3.8 cm wide; The other is Shoushan stone, which is 6.8 cm high and 2.8 cm wide. According to the historical records such as Ming Bei lue and the official seal of Dashun in the collection, Dashun officials use the words "fu" and "seal" for seals with three or more products; From the words "letter", "deed" and "record", it can be seen that these two seals of "Li Yanji" are obviously not Li Zicheng's. Besides, the time and place when Cheng Jiubo killed Li Yan obviously did not match the time and place of Li Zicheng's martyrdom. The place where Cheng Jiubo killed Li Yan belongs to Niujiling in the Dayang Mountain System of Tongshan, which is more than 20 kilometers away from Jiugong Mountain of Tongshan, and there is a Sun Mountain higher than Jiugong Mountain in the middle. On July 15th, the second year of Shunzhi, after Toarey Yang, the governor of Wuchang in Qing Dynasty, took office, Cheng Jiubo killed Li Yan. According to historical records in the early Qing Dynasty, Li Zicheng was martyred in Jiugong Mountain in the middle and early May of the second year of Shunzhi. Historical materials and cultural relics found in Dashun strongly prove that Li Yan killed by Cheng Jiubo was not Li Zicheng.