As the last large-scale field battle between the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Battle of Songjin has entered the annals of history. The strength of Daming in this battle was 130,000, and the Strength of Daqing was 110,000. It can be said that the two sides have sent almost all the elite here, which is a big war that is enough to determine the fate of the two countries.
At that time, Daming had been facing the Qing Dynasty for more than ten years relying on the Guanningjin Defense Line.
The construction task of the GuanningJin Defense Line was mainly led by Yuan Chonghuan, the defensive line was divided into two sections, the southern section was the Guanning Defense Line, about 100 kilometers long, from Shanhaiguan to Ningyuan, and the northern section was the Ningjin Defense Line, which was also about 100 kilometers long, from Ningyuan through Lianshan, Tashan, Songshan, Jinzhou, to the Daling River, forming a situation backed by Shanhaiguan, Ningyuan as the backbone, and Jinzhou as the vanguard.
On February 22, 1626 (the sixth year of the Ming Dynasty, the eleventh year of the Later Jin Mandate), in the eighth year of the battle against the Later Jin, the Ming Dynasty finally ushered in a great victory, Ning Yuan's great victory. In this battle, Yuan Chonghuan led a defender of less than 20,000 troops, relying on a perfect defense system and artillery power to fight against Nurhaci's 60,000 Banner Army in Ningyuan City, and after a deadly battle, Houjin was forced to retreat, and Nurhaci died of illness not long after his return. Then in 1627 (the seventh year of the Apocalypse), he won the Ningjin Victory, so that the Emperor Taiji, who had just ascended to the Khan's throne, and the Emperor Taiji, who was preparing to show his grand plans, touched a nose of ash.
After that, until the Battle of Songjin, there was no great war in the Ming and Qing dynasties outside Guanxi. Emperor Taiji was well aware of the solidity of guanningjin's defensive line, and could only detour through Mongolia several times and directly enter Guannei. However, it was impossible to break through the Guanningjin defense line, and the Qing army's operation in Guannei could only be a quick battle and a quick decision and then retreat to Guanwai.
In 1638 AD, Emperor Taiji set out again with a whole army. If you want to defeat Daming, you must first take Shanhaiguan, and to take Shanhaiguan, you must first take the four cities outside the customs (Songshan, Xingshan, Jinzhou, and Ningyuan), and Jinzhou is the first to bear the brunt. Therefore, the Guanningjin defense line must be opened.
Phase I
After besieging Zu Dashou in Jinzhou and learning the bitter lessons of the failure of the previous strong offensive policy, Emperor Taiji formulated a battle plan for a long siege and forced him to surrender.
He ordered the Prince of Zheng, Zilharang, Dorobel Dodo, and others to lead troops to build the city of Yizhou (義州镇, Ini County, Jinzhou), where he built a city and established an outpost position for the attack on Jin. At the same time, the Qing soldiers harvested the crops outside Jinzhou City, and swept away the Ming army's strongholds on the outskirts of Jinzhou, completely cutting off the connection between the Jinming army and the outside world.
In March 1641, Emperor Taiji took further measures to build a fort outside Jinzhou City, lining up the city, digging deep trenches outside the camps, erecting fences, and connecting the camps with deep trenches, encircling Jinzhou with "water leakage".
I have to say that Huang Taiji's move to besiege the city is indeed useful, and the Ming army in Jinzhou City has been besieged for a period of time, and some people have begun to want to defect and secretly contact the Qing army.
The Jinzhou Dongguan defender Wu Bashi surrendered to Qing, and the Qing army captured the outer city of Jinzhou. At this point, the Qing army completed the siege of Jinzhou City.
At this time, the Chongzhen Emperor, who realized the grim situation, decided to send a large army to relieve the siege.
Phase II
In 1641, Hong Chengzu led eight general soldiers and 130,000 infantry and horses to meet in Ningyuan. Hong Chengzuo's strategy was to fight steadily and steadily, and he also knew that the Qing army was to encircle the points to provide assistance, and if he rushed to march, he would be caught in the Qing army's plan.
However, the Chongzhen Emperor and the Bingbu Shangshu Chen Xinjia in the rear advocated a quick battle and a quick decision on the grounds that the soldiers were too many to pay and the hardships, urging Hong Chengzu to march, and the Chongzhen Emperor ordered Hong Chengzu to "enter the army at the right time" and sent people from the capital to supervise the battle.
On July 28 of the same year, Hong Chengyu arrived at the area of Rufeng Mountain in the south of Jinzhou City and engaged the Qing soldiers.
Phase III
In the early days, the Qing army lost, almost to the point of rout, and the Ming army was very brave and won successive victories.
Hong Cheng domain
At the beginning of August, Emperor Taiji heard that the Qing army had routed, and he was anxious, traveling more than 500 miles day and night, rushing to the jinzhou battlefield with illness.
Emperor Taiji climbed the hill to observe the situation of the Ming army, found that the main force of the Ming army was on the front line, and the rear air defense was weak, and besieged the Ming army in Songshan City by digging trenches to besiege and cut off the enemy's grain road, cutting off the rear road of the Ming army. Hong Chengyu sent an army to attack, but did not succeed.
Then the Emperor Taiji secretly ordered Azig to raid Tashan and seize the grain and grass that the Ming army had accumulated on Beacon Mountain when the tide fell, and the Ming army was in a desperate situation.
Due to the chongzhen emperor and the bingbu Shangshu Chen Xinjia blindly urging him to ignore the facts, Hong Chengzu was forced to abandon the "lasting strategy" of "fighting and defending" and led his troops to rush to come, at this time there were only three days of military food, seeing that the grain road was cut off, the generals were greatly panicked, and many had the intention of fleeing.
Hong Chengzu advocated a decisive battle to break through, but all the generals were unwilling to fight to the death, and Hong Chengzu could only order the armies to break through according to the agreed time.
However, as soon as Wang Pu, the commander-in-chief of Datong, returned to the battalion, he led his men and horses to escape by breaking through the siege at night, and the various units panicked, made a mess, trampled on each other, and suffered countless casualties. Hong Chengzuo and others failed to break through, trapped Songshan City, and organized several breakthroughs, but failed. Matsuyama's deputy general Xia Chengde sent people to secretly surrender to Qing, thinking that it was an internal response. On February 18, 1642, the city fell, and Hong Chengyu and Zu Dale were defeated and captured. With apricot mountain being qi in April this ended at the Battle of Songjin.
The defeat at the Battle of Songjin was for many reasons.
First, the remote control command of the Chongzhen Emperor and the soldier Shangshu Chen Xinjia, especially Chen Xinjia, who was not a person who did not know the soldiers, but his performance in this great war was really surprising, constantly urging Hong Chengzu to send troops, so that Hong Chengzuo, who had originally planned to fight with the Qing army to consume and fight for time, rushed out of the army, and finally the whole army was destroyed.
Second, As the supreme commander of the front, Hong Chengzu also made mistakes in the deployment of troops, allowing Emperor Taiji to easily seize the weakness of the emptiness in the rear, cut off the grain route, and had to break through as soon as possible. Another is that you can't stick to your opinion, it has been delayed for a year, and it is feasible to delay it for a while. In the end, Hong Chengzuo also had a fluke mentality.
The third is the fearful battle of the various armies of the Ming Dynasty, and after being besieged, the commanders vigorously advocate the decisive battle, but the generals do not respond. It reflects that at this time, the Ming army has become the private soldiers of various generals, all regard the troops as their own family property, and all want to keep some of them, especially when breaking through, disregarding the agreement and acting early.
After this battle, Daming's field army was left with only Sun Chuanting's Qin army, and from then on it could only hold Shanhaiguan and could no longer fight with the Qing army. Moreover, the elite of the nine sides was lost, and Li Zicheng went north into Beijing without any obstacles. It can be said that the defeat of the Songjin War sounded the death knell for Daming!