Let me tell you a story from the wild history:
At that time, when Emperor Taiji ascended the throne, someone once offered him a national jade seal.
This jade seal is not ordinary, he passed from the Han Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty, until the Yuan Dynasty Shun Emperor fled north, and also took this piece of the heirloom jade seal with him, until the death of the Shun Emperor, this piece of jade seal has since gone into exile and lost the news, until a shepherd found a sheep that did not eat grass for three days when he was grazing, and every day he kept digging in the same place with his hooves, and the shepherd felt very curious, is there any treasure?
So he used a shovel to dig up the place where the sheep's hooves were planed, and the result was that he dug up the jade seal, and later this piece of jade seal was taken into the hands of Lin Dan Khan, and then passed on to his son Erzhe, when emperor Taiji ordered Dolgun to march on the Chahar department, Erzhe paid tribute to Emperor Taiji, who thought that this was a unified ten thousand years of Rui, and was overjoyed, feeling that he was the son of heavenly destiny, which was the heavenly son of heaven, so he ascended the throne on April 11 of chongzhen and changed the name of the country to Qing and changed the year name to Chongde.
Since the Emperor Taiji got the Heavenly Time, then he needed geographical advantages and people, when the Qing Dynasty ruled the Liaodong Peninsula and other regions, constantly clashed with the Ming Dynasty, the original Jurchen Kingdom also became the current Great Qing Kingdom, forming a Great Qing State with the Manchus as the core, the Han Mongols and other ethnic minorities in the Northeast Desert South, but the Ambition of the Emperor Taiji was not so satisfied, he also wanted to enter the Central Plains, so he took care of everything in the country, It was decided to continue to compete with the Ming Dynasty for the world, and at this time the Songjin War broke out.
In 1640, the Battle of Songjin broke out, this battle, Emperor Taiji had already decided that it was necessary to eliminate the Ming Dynasty, after all, the Ming Dynasty's troops at that time were few left, if this battle was successful, it would be possible to break through the Ningjin Defense Line, which was a necessary route for the Qing Dynasty to enter the Central Plains, so the outbreak of this war was also very necessary.
At that time, it was Zu Dashou who was stationed in Jinzhou, and this Zu Dashou did have a little meaning, at that time he promised The Emperor Taiji that he was willing to give him an internal response in the Battle of the Daling River, and in Jinzhou, he personally presented Jinzhou to the Emperor Taiji, and the Emperor Taiji did not ask him to let him go after hearing it, but he did not expect that after Zu Dashou returned to Jinzhou, not only did not take the initiative to sacrifice Jinzhou, but also insisted on Jinzhou and stubbornly resisted the Qing army to the end, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty felt that they were deceived, and they were very angry in their hearts, so they secretly swore in their hearts that they must seize Jinzhou. Capturing Zu Dashou alive, capturing Ningyuan City, and finally entering the Central Plains from Shanhaiguan to unify the world, Emperor Taiji, after preparing everything, began to attack Jinzhou.
We also mentioned earlier the Battle of Salhu, the Ming Dynasty after the Battle of Salhu basically lost the ability to compete with the Qing Dynasty, especially at this time, the Ming Dynasty was rotten and the army was weakened, and Zhang Wenheng, the deputy director of the Qing Dynasty's Internal Secretariat, talked to the Emperor Taiji about the current situation of the Ming Dynasty.
"Pi Wenwu is a big and small official, and the furniture is bought with money." Wen's unscrupulousness, Wu's unmeritoriousness. Those who manage military horses, the money of the Kwa army; those who make instruments, reduce the money of officials. The sergeant's day is not boring, the equipment is not practical, why should the soldiers use their lives? Whenever he went out on a campaign, he took advantage of the King of Qin and blindly plundered. As the saying goes, Chang Yun: "Tartars and rogue thieves are combs, and their own soldiers and horses are like grates." "Soldiers and horses are like this, although there are many benefits!" In the case of eunuchs, the eunuchs have monopoly power, good money and joy, and rewards and punishments have lost people's hearts. A good official who is in charge of things cannot do anything; a good person who is not in charge of things refuses to come forward. Up and down, inside and out, all the same lies, everything is very bad. ”。
This passage very realistically explains the situation of the Ming Dynasty at that time, in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, buying and selling officials has become a common phenomenon, and even said to be a phenomenon tacitly acknowledged by the superiors, civilian officials have no talent and no strategy, the upper levels are corrupt, the lower levels are deducting grain, the soldiers in the army are not enough to eat, they are not warm to wear, and they have no intention of fighting at all.
In time with many talented old ministers in the DPRK, such as Sun Chengzong, Yuan Chonghuan, Man Gui, and others, their withdrawal made the Guanningjin defense line more like an open door, welcoming the Qing Dynasty to enter, and after the Discussion between Emperor Taiji and Zhang Wenheng, they formulated a combat policy, saying that we must first break the Guanningjin defense line, then occupy the Western Liaoning Corridor, and then enter the Central Plains from Shanhaiguan and take the Guanningjin Defense Line, and the first step must be to break through Jinzhou.
Therefore, in the 13th year of Ming Chongzhen, in 1640, Emperor Taiji began to send troops to besiege Jinzhou, and he sent Zilharang, the Prince of Heshuo Zheng, to build a long siege, planning to besiege Jinzhou for a long time.
When Emperor Taiji besieged Jinzhou, he was very desperate, first he built a fortress outside Jinzhou City, and then dug trenches, erected fences, and cut the grain outside the city clean, and surrounded Jinzhou City with water, and even birds could not fly in.
These Mongols saw that jinzhou city was besieged and hopeless, so they rebelled and secretly contacted the Qing army, and after this matter was finally learned by Zu Dashou, they made up their minds to catch these traitors, but they were spied on by the traitors, and the battle broke out, and the Qing army quickly attacked the city after hearing the news, Zu Dashou was difficult to support, and once retreated to the city to hold on, so it was a stalemate for a long time, the Qing army filled the moat, destroyed the city wall, and cut off all foreign aid in Jinzhou City, Zu Dashou wrote like a report from the imperial court, " Jincheng's grain and rice are only available for more than a month, while the beans fed to the horses cannot support January, if the Qing army attacks again, the two cities of Ningjin will be breached, then the three cities of Song, Xingxing, and Jin will be in danger and precarious. ”?
After jinzhou was besieged, the Chongzhen Emperor also made a statement, and he ordered the governor of Jiliao, Hong Chengzuo, to lead Wang Pu, Yang Guozhu, Tang Tong, Bai Guang'en, Cao Changjiao, Ma Ke, Wang Tingchen, Wu Sangui, and more than 200 officials below the deputy general, 130,000 on foot and horseback, and rushed to the aid of Jinzhou.
All the elite soldiers who can recruit good battles have been sent to Jinzhou, these 8 general soldiers, which means similar to the commanders of the military regions throughout the country, until now there are no more than 20 military region commanders in China, the Chongzhen Emperor is definitely a desperate bet on these 8 military region commanders, quickly came to Jinzhou, but after coming to Jinzhou, Hong Chengyu did not dare to rush to attack, so he stationed in Ningyuan to cope with the changes.
After everything was in order, he played to the imperial court, "The great enemy is in front, the war is very dangerous, and if you want to rush to relieve the siege of Jinzhou, the situation of soldiers and horses is really difficult to calm down." The soldiers who died in battle had just been buried, and the wounded soldiers had not recovered. Within half a month, please order a decisive battle again to alleviate Jinzhou's urgency. ”
However, at that time, many generals persuaded Hong Chengzu not to make a quick decision, after all, now the grain is very difficult, the time has dragged on for a long time but it is not worth the loss, in the 14th year of Chongzhen, Hong Chengzu led a large army in Ningyuan to swear an oath, a total of 130,000 people arrived in the area of Rufeng Mountain in the south of Jinzhou City, when the battle began, the Army of Emperor Taiji, after suffering a lot, had already collapsed, and Hong Chengzu also listed Wu Sangui as the first merit, and the evaluation of Wu Sangui was also very good. With honesty and bravery, the courage of the soldiers and horses of Liaodong was greatly enhanced, and the momentum of the battle was even stronger, especially in this battle. ”
At the beginning, the Qing army suffered heavy casualties, Dolgun saw that the Qing army was suffering from the enemy in the abdomen, very anxious, and quickly asked the Emperor Taiji of Shenyang for help, more coincidentally, when Dolgun's recital was reported to the imperial court, the Emperor Taiji was bleeding from the nose because of his physical discomfort, so after hearing this news, he knew that the Ming Dynasty, the Chongzhen Emperor this time was a bloody money, so he immediately issued a general mobilization order, passing on all the soldiers and horses, the Star Collection Division.
But at that time, the number of Qing troops was not very large, there was no way but to urgently recruit troops, men over the age of 15 were forced to enter the army, Huang Taiji personally led 3,000 soldiers, day and night, more than 500 miles arrived at the Jinzhou front, on the road Huang Taiji's nosebleeds are always repeated, think about the picture is very witty.
This time Huang Taiji also brought dogs and horses, reinforcements of more than 80,000 troops, plus more than 40,000 people in the hands of Dolgun at that time, the strength of the two sides of the Ming and Qing dynasties was finally almost the same, Huang Taiji came to the Jinzhou front line position after there was no time to rest, immediately began to deploy disease, he observed in the highlands for a long time, found that Although Hong Chengzu's platoon deployment was very reasonable, it had a fatal weakness, that is, top-heavy.
His rear was very empty, so the Emperor Taiji advocated starting from the rear, ordered his men to start digging trenches, and soon blocked the connection between Songshan and Xingshan, the qing army's technique of digging trenches was really very clever, the deepest place was very narrow, and there was about a good ditch of one foot and two feet above, because the top was too wide, the horse could not jump, and the bottom was too narrow to form a very steep slope, it was difficult for people to climb up, the effect was very good, and it also saved time and effort, and the excavation work was carried out very quickly.
At this time, Jinzhou was besieged, Songshan Xingshan was divided into contact, the crown prince saw that Jinzhou was besieged, did not take the usual normal path, but instead surrounded the Ming army in Songshan, Hong Chengyu saw this situation, quickly shrunk the strength of the troops to break through, the two armies fought for a long time, and the two sides suffered heavy losses. Against the wind, from passive to active, from here on, Ming Jun will never mention it again, was defeated by the Qing Dynasty army, and finally the 130,000 troops were almost completely destroyed, and it was precisely because of this battle that Wu Sangui was upgraded from an ordinary general to a front-line gangster, becoming a chair on the border line, and then there was the Shanhaiguan Rebellion, the Qing army entered the Central Plains, and the Ming Dynasty ended here.