In this battle, the soldiers and horses of the Dashun Army "stretched for more than three hundred miles" (Qianlong fifteen years of "Lizhou Zhilin" volume 19 "Soldier Difficulty"), the momentum was overwhelming, and the four sides were shocked.
However, because Tian Mixiu, Yuan Zongdi, and other troops moved north to discuss the matter of surrendering with Li Guo and others, the war ended hastily and could not be resolved.
Tuo Yinxi believes that if he attacks Jingzhou now, the chance of victory is extremely great.
However, Song Yizhen, the inspector of QinghuNan, had obviously sensed the danger of the arrival of the Dashun army in the joint camp with He Tengjiao and Tuoba Yinxi, and had already made an urgent request to the Qing court for reinforcements.
In early December of the first year of Longwu (Shunzhi II, 1645), the Zhongzhen battalion once again marched into the siege of Jingzhou.
The Qing shou general Zheng Siwei's soul flew away and repeatedly called for help from Tong Yang, the governor of Huguang.
Tong Yanghe considered that Jingzhou Jiancheng was in a hurry, and although he had no troops to dispatch, the provincial capital Wuchang could not be lost, so he joined forces with He Mingluan, the governor of Hunan, to ask for help from the Qing court's General Belle Leke dehun of Pingnan who had been stationed in Nanjing, in order to prevent He Tengjiao's troops from attacking Wuchang from yuezhou to the north.
When Le Ke dehun received Tong Yanghe's request for help, he felt that the situation was serious, that is, on December 18 of that year (longwu first year, shunzhi second year, 1645), he led his soldiers and horses to the west by boat, and arrived in Wuchang on the tenth day of the first month of the following year.
At Wuchang, Le Ke dehun listened carefully to the reports of the local civil and military officials, and divided the army into two routes, one led by the commander of the escort army, Bor hui, and went south to YueZhou to meet He Tengjiao and Zhang Kuangbu, who were Ma Jinzhong and Wang Yun as the forwards; he himself led the main force directly to Jingzhou to fight a decisive battle with the Zhongzhen camp.
This was a battle of crucial significance to the situation in Huguang, but the performance of He Tengjiao and the supervisor Dao Zhangkuang was a great disappointment.
He Tengjiao swore an oath in Changsha, and the soldiers would "cover the river". On the second day of the first lunar month, He Tengjiao and Zhang Kuang arrived in Xiangyin and "held a meeting in Yuezhou". Zhang Xianbi used the excuse that the horses he bought had not arrived, and he could not stay, and "the towns also looked back" (Wu Jinxi's "Half-Life Self-Chronicle", vol. 2).
Ma Jinzhong, who was stationed in Yuezhou, was the leader of the rebel army at the end of the Ming Dynasty, nicknamed Chao 100,000, surrendered to the Ming government during the Chongzhen period, and when the Qing Prince Azig pursued Li Zicheng, he had surrendered to the Qing in Yangluo Town, Hubei Province, and when the Azig army turned east, he abandoned all the cannon powder trucks that Azig had ordered him to carry in the Southern Expedition, and he led his troops to the west of Yue Prefecture, which was called a Hanzi. This time, however, he behaved rather subtly. Hearing that the Eight Banners of Qing Manchuria were attacking Yuezhou, he and Wang Yuncai, Lu Ding, and Wang Jincai actually ignored the flood and fled south by boat. Ma Jiaolin, the deputy general of Yue Prefecture, even fell to his knees in fright and surrendered to the Qing army.
He Tengjiao and Zhang Kuang suddenly encountered the soldiers of the four towns in the south on the way, and when they inquired, they said that the Leke Dehun army was pressing the border, and the two were frightened and stupid.
In fact, Borhui led only a small number of Manchu troops aided by Nanjing, but Ma Jinzhong and others mistakenly believed that they were the main army of the Qing Dynasty Baylor.
He Tengjiao listened to the report of the four generals, neither investigated nor made a corresponding battle plan, and was forced by the Manchurian soldiers to immediately think of withdrawing his troops.
Zhang Kuang was still a little bold, and said to He Tengjiao: "Originally prepared to drive for a long time to directly smash the enemy's heart socket, the filial tomb of Nanjing Taizu is already in sight, and now that he has not yet left the hunan territory, he has encountered such a big obstacle. Zhang Mou swore to die and did not return. ("Originally intended to drive straight to the ground, Xiaoling (referring to Nanjing) is in sight, and now it has not left the interior, scratching the depression, and returning the face of He to the stars and sands, and a certain vow not to return to death." "Meng Zhengfa "Three Xiang Engaged Records")
He Tengjiao had no intention of staying, and urged Zhang Kuang to return, and then he tried to move later.
In this way, He Tengjiao's army did not add a knife or a shot, and did not spare a single arrow, and all of them retreated back to Changsha.
The Zhongzhen battalion was still storming Jingzhou City.
Due to the Qing army's desperate efforts, all six days and nights did not resist.
Someone offered advice: "Jingzhou City is located between the two rivers of Shu and Han, the terrain is low-lying, the water level of some water sections is already several inches higher than that of the city, people build embankments to encircle the river, so that the river water flows peacefully to the sea, if these two long causeways are opened, the water of the two rivers will be built down, and the Jingxiang area is bound to look forward to the wind, and the opportunity for recovery is all in one fell swoop." ("Jingcheng sandwiched the gate of the two rivers of Shu and Han, the water was higher than the city, and the people of the past built an embankment for a long wall, so that the water people's river flowed to the sea, and if the two embankments were broken, the water of the two rivers was built down, and the Jingxiang area, looking at the wind, was attached, and the opportunity for recovery was in one fell swoop. "Ji Liuqi: Ming Ji Nanluo, vol. 14)
Tuoba Yinxi thought about it repeatedly, but finally did not adopt it, and said to the counselor: "I was originally restoring the territory for the imperial court, the first meaning is to put the people first, if there is a lack of embankment to release water, then the people will die in the flood, then, even if an empty city is recovered, what is the point?" ("I restore the territory of the imperial court, and the first is based on the people, if so, the people will drown, and I will have to empty the city." "Ji Liuqi: Ming Ji Nanluo, vol. 14)
It should be said that the idea of blocking Yin Xi is completely correct.
But he did not know that He Tengjiao, whom he believed in, had already released his pigeon.
The offensive and defensive attacks continued for several more days.
Just when the city of Jingzhou was in danger, the Borhui army and the Leke Dehun army that had originally attacked Yuezhou arrived at the city of Jingzhou at the same time, and the two armies divided the Li and Gao Lao battalions from the left and right flanks on the lawn (present-day Songzi County, Hubei), and the Loyal Battalion suffered serious losses and lost more than a thousand ships.
After a successful blow, Lekh dehun was unforgiving, and he divided his troops into two ways to pursue the loyal battalion in Anyuan, Nanzhang, Xiangyang and other areas.
Li Chixin and others were defeated, and the soldiers and heavy losses were serious, and they were forced to retreat into the Three Gorges natural danger area.
Wu Jinxi, a contemporary, lamented: "Li Chixin led a large army from Hubei to Yuezhou, and the soldiers and horses of He Tengjiao's towns actually did not cooperate with each other, and only when they saw the shadow of the Qing army did they flee in the wind, and the decline in the prestige of the Ming Dynasty began here." ("Chi Xin went to Yue from Hubei, and returned with none of the soldiers in the towns, and cut off the front line for the Northern Army.") The loss of prestige begins with the beginning. "Wu Jinxi's "Half-Life Self-Chronicle")
Blocking Yinxi's "fall from a horse and injured his arm" (Ji Liuqi: Ming Ji Nanluo, vol. 14) was almost killed, but fortunately the general Zhou Shiwen was saved and retreated to the area around Changde, Hunan.
Li Zicheng's third brother Li Zi, the former Dashun regime's Cihou Tian Mixiu, the Yihou Zhang Nai, the Wuyang Bo Li You, and the Taiping Bo Wu Ruyi led more than 5,000 people to surrender to the Qing army in the rout.
These people, even if they were shameful traitors, could not avoid death. When Dorgon received the good news from Lekh dehun, he ordered them all to be executed.
Blocking Yin Xi over Xinhua Yi, he was indignantly endowed with poetry clouds:
Sleepless lights dark isolated village, wind and rain Xiao Xiao mixed night souls.
The ghost must have the name Han Que, where to hang the wasteland.
Three more birds turn into a thousand years of blood, and the people of Wanli are sad and a bean.
Looking north at the Zhuling Tombs, Zhong Shan's intestines were broken and the poor soldiers were broken. ”