In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, in the battle against the Manchu Qing outside Guanwai, there were few victories and many defeats, repeatedly losing the city and losing land, and gradually losing the entire Liaodong, and the situation in western Liaoning was also precarious around the thirteenth year of Chongzhen.
However, the worm of a hundred years is dead but not stiff, and the three-hundred-year great empire of the Ming Dynasty, on the eve of its imminent collapse, is still fighting to the death, trying to turn things around, but ultimately failing.
In this battle, the Ming Dynasty invested almost all of its elite troops, but it was destroyed by the Eight Banner Army, and the main general surrendered, and the Guanwai Ningjin Defense Line, which the Ming Dynasty spent a lot of money to build for decades, completely collapsed.
After this war, the demise of the Ming Dynasty entered the countdown, and this battle was the Battle of Songjin in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
So, did the Ming Dynasty really have no chance of victory in this battle?
In the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, Emperor Taiji besieged Jinzhou, which was the forefront of the Ming Dynasty's Liaodong defensive line, and once the entire Ningjin defense line collapsed, it was difficult for Guanwai to gain a foothold.
The Jinzhou defender Zu Dashou had been trapped for a long time and asked for help from the Ming Dynasty, and the Chongzhen Emperor made a desperate bet and ordered Hong Chengzuo to lead the "Eight General Soldiers and 130,000 Troops" to set out to rescue the siege of Jinzhou and fight a decisive battle with the Eight Banner Army.
From the post of General Soldier of the Eight
From the point of view: Wang Pu, the commander-in-chief of Datong, Yang Guozhu, the commander-in-chief of Xuanfu, Tang Tong, the general of Miyun, Bai Guangen, the general of Jizhou, Cao Changjiao, the general of the Eastern Association, the general of The Mountains and Seas, Wu Sangui, the general of Ningyuan, and Wang Tingchen, the general of Liaodong.
These eight men included the Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei and Liao soldiers, which was almost the last essence of the Ming Dynasty's border army.
They concentrated 130,000 field troops, including 40,000 warhorses, and began a rescue operation in Jinzhou.
The commander of the Ming army, Hong Chengzuo, originally wanted to fight steadily and steadily, and not to rush to attack, but Chongzhen was impatient and urged Hong Chengzu to fight quickly, and Hong Chengzu had no choice but to go out of the pass with a hard scalp.
The Eight Banner Army, with about 100,000 people, surrounded Jinzhou, and in the face of the menacing Ming Dynasty army, they fought very passively, several camps were breached, and the siege of Jinzhou was about to be lifted.
Huang Taiji was ill, and when he heard the news, he disregarded his own body and forcibly rushed to the front line.
He discovered the weakness of Hong Chengzu's army of "heavy in front and light in the back", so he ordered people to dig trenches to divide the Ming army, and on the other hand, he ordered Azig and others to lead elite cavalry to raid the grain and grass placed by the Ming army on Beacon Mountain.
The army was cut off from the back road, grain and grass were gone, and although the Ming Army was large and powerful, it had long been defeated at the hands of the Qing Army, and now the situation was critical, and immediately the people's hearts were shaken, and even several general officers had no confidence.
According to Hong Chengzu's opinion, at this time, we should attack the Eight Banner Army with all our strength, and perhaps we can win the victory by virtue of our numerical superiority, and if we break through, it will inevitably be unpredictable.
As a result, no one obeyed his orders, and Hong Chengyu had to order a breakthrough.
The army collapsed, was pursued and killed by the Eight Banner Army, the Ming Dynasty's 130,000 troops were killed by more than 50,000 people, and tens of thousands of people were forced to the seashore, sighing and sighing, and died in the sea.
The Ming dynasty generals Yang Guozhu, Cao Changjiao, Wang Tingchen and others were killed, and Hong Chengyu was trapped in an isolated city and later surrendered to the Manchu Qing.
Jinzhou City saw that the rescue failed, Zu Dashou also opened the door to offer the city, and Jinzhou was lost.
The Ming army, led only by Wu Sangui and others, led less than 30,000 remnants of the army, would return to Shanhaiguan.
The Battle of Songjin was the last return to the Ming Dynasty, and after this battle,"
The elite of the Nine Plugs, the grain of China, all of them are thrown
The last trace of qi and blood of the Ming Dynasty was also exhausted.
The Battle of Songjin was the pinnacle of Emperor Taiji, but after this battle, he suddenly died violently, and did not live to the moment when the Manchu Qing entered the Guanguan to unify the world.
So, did the Ming Dynasty really have no chance of winning the Battle of Songjin?
No, in fact, according to Hong Chengzuo's plan, fight steadily and steadily, do not rush to success, wait for the veterans of the Qing army division to be tired, and then fight a war of attrition with them head-on, the Ming army still has a certain chance of winning, even if it cannot annihilate the Qing army, at least it can make the Qing army hurt its bones and lose its strategic initiative.
However, the Ming Dynasty had two problems that could not be solved, one was that the grain and grass were not good, and the late Ming Dynasty had no money, and the army lacking logistics supply could only make a quick decision.
On the other hand, the "traditional craftsmanship" of the Internal Party Struggle of the Ming Dynasty and bureaucratic restraint was staged again at this time, and some people in the DPRK were jealous of Hong Chengzu and picked their noses and eyes on his strategy, and Chongzhen was also a monarch with great ambitions and talents, which led to the passivity of the campaign.
If Chongzhen could kill a group of Beijing officials with all his heart, get some grain and pay, and then vigorously defy the public opinion and allow Hong Chengzu to fight steadily according to the plan, Songjin would be unpredictable, and even if the Ming army failed to aid Jin, it would not be completely destroyed later.