The second year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty was a year of nightmares for the people around Ming Gyeonggi. The Ningjin defensive line, which the Ming Dynasty spent millions of taels of silver every year, failed to resist Houjin's iron horse, and after the Emperor Taiji conquered Chahar, he led 100,000 soldiers and horses to detour from Mongolia, burst into Guannei, and directly attacked the city of Beijing.
The speed of Zunhua's loss surprised the Ming court, and the imperial court had to rectify the garrison in the Beijing division on the one hand, and at the same time urgently order the soldiers and horses everywhere to rush to the rescue. Later Jin's army was able to invade the Gyeonggi area, and Yuan Chonghuan had an unshirkable responsibility, so he supported the Beijing Division the most vigorously, and quickly led the Guanning army to stop the Later Jin army.
After that, Emperor Taiji used a counter-plot, yuan Chonghuan was executed by Ling Chi, and the situation was out of control in an instant. There are many opinions about Yuan Chonghuan's death, but it is certain that his death made the already dangerous Ming Dynasty worse. Zu Dashou led his army to flee to Ningyuan, and Emperor Taiji defeated the Ming reinforcements, and the famous general Man Gui was killed.
The Ming Dynasty was a vast territory, claiming to have a million soldiers, but now it was surrounded by less than 100,000 Houjin soldiers, and no army could be rescued. Emperor Taiji could not defeat the fortified capital, but the purpose of his move was not to conquer the Capital Division, and his initial idea was only to plunder the people and wealth of the Ming Dynasty. As a result, Hou Jin's army raged in the Gyeonggi region of the Ming Dynasty, taking all the people captive to Jianzhou.
Although the Ming army had been suppressed and beaten by Hou Jin before, it was outside the Guan after all, but now the Emperor Taiji led the Hou Jin army like a back garden, and engaged in a "three lights" at the foot of the Ming Dynasty's world, which could be imagined as a blow to the Ming Dynasty. Emperor Taiji did not care about the anger of the Ming Dynasty, and before this war he still had some concerns about the Ming Dynasty, but this time he saw the weakness of the Ming Dynasty and did not regard the Ming Army as a person in his heart, which could be seen from his deployment to return to the division.
At the beginning of 1630 (the third year of Ming Chongzhen and the fourth year of Later Jin Tiancong), after the Later Jin army had plundered enough, Emperor Taiji led the main force back to the capital city of Shenyang, but he did not abandon the city he had previously captured, and ordered Abate to stay behind to guard the four cities of Zunhua, Luanzhou, Yongping and Qian'an, and looked at the capital division.
The four cities of Zunhua were originally important towns for defending against Hou Jin, but now they have become the forefront of Hou Jin's coercion of the Jing Division, and the Ming Court could not bear that Hou Jin occupied the four cities, and could enter the capital at any time, so it was imminent to recover the four cities.
However, how to recover and who to recover has become a big problem. The change of self shattered the backbone of the Ming army, and hundreds of thousands of Ming troops were surrounded and beaten by tens of thousands of Houjin troops, which was a blow to the morale of the Ming army. After the Jin army left Gyeonggi, it was not possible to call the withdrawal of the army at all, but should be called back to the division, after all, they returned with a full load, while the Ming army suffered heavy losses. In the Ming Dynasty, there was a right attendant of the army who was not afraid of death named Liu Zhilun, and he led tens of thousands of people to try to strike at the Houjin army that returned to the division, and as a result, Houjin effortlessly defeated Liu Zhilun.
Liu Zhilun's death in battle made the Ming army dare not attack again, but Chongzhen was not willing to let the four cities fall, and when he was in danger, he could only let the old minister Sun Chengzong out of the mountain again. Sun Chengzong was an old minister who had done a little bit of liaoshi, and his talent was still above Yuan Chonghuan, and at this moment, there was no one else but him.
Sun Chengzong immediately saw the opportunity, and the Jin army was changing its defenses, and it was Abatai who was originally stationed in the four cities, but soon after, Emperor Taiji ordered Erbel Amin to lead the banner to replace Abatai. The two armies changed defenses, and there was bound to be a vacuum period, and Sun Chengzong seized this opportunity to let Zu Dashou and Shanxi General Ma Shilong attack Luanzhou.
The Ming army attacked the city with red-clad cannons, but the Jin army could not resist, abandoned the city and fled, and was intercepted by the Ming army, suffering heavy casualties. Soon after, Amin ordered the General Zunhua to abandon the city and slaughter the people in the city before leaving. The four cities were successfully recaptured, which was a long-lost victory for the Ming army, and the Chongzhen Emperor in the capital was overjoyed, and the Ming court called it the "Great Victory of Zunhua".
There is no doubt that the Battle of the Four Cities was won by the Ming army, but from the perspective of the overall situation, the Zunhua Victory was by no means a real "Great Victory". In terms of the ratio of battle losses, in the Battle of Houjin against Ming Gyeonggi, the Ming army lost tens of thousands, the number of people who were taken away and killed was 100,000 million, cattle, horses and other livestock were invincible, and the price paid by Houjin was not even one-tenth of that of the Ming army. Even from the perspective of the Battle of the Four Cities, the casualties of the Houjin army were only a few hundred, and they did not hurt the root. After besieging thousands of soldiers and horses with tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, the Jin army finally achieved hundreds of first-class results, which can only be said to provide a reason for the Ming Dynasty to save its respect.
For Huang Taiji, the loss of these hundreds of people is insignificant, but the defeat in this battle can be used as a reason to attack Amin. Amin is one of the four Baylors, the second oldest by age, and has a high status. Amin was also the lord of the Blue Banner, he participated in most of the battles of Houjin, repeatedly made military achievements, had a high prestige, often did not listen to the Emperor Taiji's dispatches, and fought against him.
Amin was a huge obstacle to Emperor Taiji's unification of Houjin and his transformation from a nomadic tribe into a unified regime, and Emperor Taiji had always wanted to get rid of him, but for no reason. Now the Battle of the Four Cities has become the best reason, Amin as the Great Belle, the banner owner of the blue flag, gave up the Four Cities without a fierce battle, and humiliated Hou Jin Guowei, once this crime was settled, Amin wanted to take it out. Other people who looked at Emperor Taiji unfavorably could not speak for Amin, after all, when Emperor Taiji led his army to attack Gyeonggi, the defeat of Amin's four cities was the only defeat this time.
In addition to the Battle of the Four Cities, Emperor Taiji gave Amin a charge of intending to stand on his own in Korea and put him under house arrest until his death. As soon as Amin came out, the prestige of the Emperor Taiji in Houjin rose rapidly, accelerating the regimeization of Houjin.
In addition, the red-clad cannon used by Houjin in the Battle of the Four Cities played a significant role, attracting the attention of Emperor Taiji and accelerating Houjin's research and development of firearms. And this is a devastating blow to the Ming army, which only has one way to defend the city. Therefore, the Great Victory of Zunhua was a victory in a small battle, but for the overall situation, it was worse, and the price it paid for the results it obtained was unbearable for the Ming Dynasty.
Resources:
History of the Ming Dynasty