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Meanwhile, the Ming court in the capital was unaware of the dimension of the Shun threat. Only after Datong capitulated to the Shun did the emperor and his ministers began to realize the danger that they faced. The eunuchs and court ministers proposed many suggestions to the Chongzhen Emperor, such as ordering the Great Wall garrison commanders Wu Sangui (of the Ningyuan garrison) and Tang Tong (of the Miyun garrison) to defend the capital, as well as moving the government to safer Nanjing. In the end, the Chongzhen Emperor did nothing. He opposed the move to Nanjing, considering it cowardice. At first, he opposed moving the northeast frontier armies because that would leave the Great Wall vulnerable to the Manchus, but in the end Wu Sangui and Tang Tong were ordered to the capital. Tang Tong arrived to defend the Juyong Pass, but his army, which numbered between ten to twenty men, was overwhelmed by Li Zicheng. Tang Tong's surrender to Li Zicheng left the capital city naked to the Shun forces.

When Li Zicheng's main force enters Changping, a garrison town between the Great Wall and Beijing, the secondary Shun force also threaten the capital city from Baoding. At that point, some historians wrote that Li Zicheng sent a proposal to the Chongzhen Emperor, that if the emperor grants him the title of general and if he recognizes the existence of the Shun state (or rather a fiefdom within the Great Ming State), Li Zicheng would serve (or rather, to be its guardian) the Ming court and recapture Liaodong from the Manchus. Whether that proposal reached the Ming court, or even if Li Zicheng did send this proposal remains unclear, but perhaps there are enough evidence to suggest that Li Zicheng did not plan to eliminate the Ming Dynasty but rather to take control of it. Just as importantly, it suggests that Li Zicheng has nation-wide ambitions and that he was wary of the Manchu threat. In any case, neither did the emperor became Li's puppet nor did Li Zicheng became the ultimate warlord of the Ming state, for when the eunuch garrison commanders betrayed the capital city to the Shun forces, the Chongzhen Emperor hang himself in Meishan (Coal Hill) on April 25, 1644. Most historians agree that the death of the Chongzhen Emperor marked the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Once Li Zicheng established himself in the capital, he imprisoned and tortured many Ming government officials for money. One motivation for this act was to solidify his power within the Shun Army, for the western peasants that made up the Shun Army marched a very long way away from home and expect to enjoy the supposed treasures of the capital city. Therefore, when Li Zicheng discovered that the imperial coffer was in fact empty, he milked the government officials for money. However, there might be another more personal, more emotional motivation in this. At that period, it is said that Li Zicheng (and some Ming officials) held the notion that the fall of the Ming Dynasty was not due to the emperor's shortcomings but rather due to the corrupt characters of the court eunuchs and ministers. Therefore, it is also possible that Li Zicheng oppresses the Ming officials in order to win more support from the peasantry and commoners for his new order by using the Ming officials and gentry, with or without justification, as the scapegoats. Whatever Li's reasons and motivations are, he and his lieutenants tortured the Ming officials, one of which was a former Ming officer named Wu Xiang, father of the Ningyuan garrison commander Wu Sangui.