Sun Chuanting (21 May 1593 – 16 November 1643), courtesy name Boya, was the Governor of Daming.
In the "History of Ming", it is commented: "Chuan Ting died, and Ming died!" "As the last available general of the Ming Dynasty, he was highly evaluated by future generations.
So what was Sun Chuanting's last battle? Sun Chuanting had entered high school as early as the Wanli Dynasty, but he was dissatisfied with Wei Zhongxian's castration of party power and opposition, so he abandoned his official position and returned home.
After the Chongzhen Emperor ascended the throne, he swept away the castration party led by Wei Zhongxian, commended and promoted the previous ministers, and reused the civilian official clique, which allowed Sun Chuanting to enter the career again, and also began his life of a horse.
Chongzhen Emperor
In 1636, the peasant revolt of Li Zicheng and others and the border troubles outside Guanwai had already caused the Ming Dynasty to be overwhelmed, and soldiers were used everywhere to use grain, but at that time, the Ming Dynasty had no one to use, and the imperial court had no grain and no money to allocate. At a critical juncture, Sun Chuanting volunteered himself and became the Governor of Shaanxi.
In the face of the peasant army's battle, Sun Chuanting encountered the first generation of the king Gao Yingxiang, Sun Chuanting led the Ming army and the king Gao Yingxiang to fight a war of division in Shaanxi, and finally defeated the peasant army and captured Gao Yingxiang. This battle allowed Sun Chuanting to gain a foothold in the party-ridden imperial court.
After Li Zicheng came to power, he also did not take advantage of Sun Chuanting. However, soon after, Sun Chuanting was imprisoned by Chongzhen because of his disagreement with the main and faction Yang Sichang's political views, that is, for the Donglin party.
In just a few years, the excellent situation was poorly commanded by Chongzhen, and at this time he remembered Sun Chuanting again, but the war situation at this time was very different from three years ago, and it would be useless for Sun Chuanting, who had been in prison for three years, to come out again.
Sun Chuanting returned to his original post, and soon after, Li Zicheng besieged Kaifeng for the third time, and Sun Chuanting, who had received Chongzhen's orders, had no choice but to raise troops to help, and was defeated in Shaanxi.
When Sun Chuanting arrived in Shaanxi, he once again recruited troops everywhere, developed production, and purchased weapons, so that the Ming army, which was originally short of soldiers and food, gradually gained combat effectiveness, but Chongzhen listened to the rumors and believed that Sun Chuanting supported the army and respected himself, and once again ordered the east to go out of Tongguan and attack Li Zicheng.
This trade advance became sun Chuanting's last battle. Sun Chuanting led the main force out of Tongguan and toward Luoyang, where he joined chen Yongfu and Bu Congshanbu of the Ming army in Henan and attacked Runing; ordered Zuo Liangyu to lead his troops from Jiujiang to Runing and attack the peasant army; and ordered the Sichuan general Qin Yiming to lead troops to shang and Luo (in present-day Shangluo, Shaanxi) to make a response. Attempting to strike in three ways will attack Ru and Xiang and annihilate the main force of the peasant army.
But what Sun Chuanting did not expect was that the Ming army was defeated in Ruzhou and Tongguan was lost! The reason for this was the Battle of Ruzhou, where Zuo Liangyu and Qin Yiming feared the peasant army and did not move, resulting in the siege of Ruzhou.
Sun Chuanting stayed away from the logistics supply Tong pass, so that the Ming army, which was already short of food and money, lost its due combat effectiveness. After the defeat, Sun Chuanting led the remnants to retreat to Weinan, Li Zicheng pursued and killed all the way, facing the tide of enemies, Sun Chuanting "held a spear and blinded the mad thief", heroically died, Chongzhen's last available general was killed.
Half a year after Sun Chuanting's death, there was no longer any way to stop the peasant army in the Central Plains, and soon Li Zicheng attacked Beijing and Chongzhen hanged himself.