The Battle of Salhu was a major battle in the forty-seventh year of the Ming Dynasty, after which Hou Daming turned to a defensive position in the northeast and Hou Jin turned to an offensive. Since then, Daming has lost the initiative in the northeast, and then Jin has fought as much as he wants, completely grasping the initiative.
First, the causes of the Great War
In the 46th year of the Ming Dynasty, Nurhaci officially swore an oath of "Seven Great Hates" on the thirteenth day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar. At this time, Houjin had been established for three years and had completed the unification of the Haixi Jurchen and the Donghai Jurchen, and Nurhaci was really ambitious at this time. After counting the seven major crimes of the Ming Dynasty, he led a 20,000-strong horse to attack Daming.
At this time, the Court of the Ming Dynasty was fighting with each other over the enduring expansion of the Imperial Reserve. It has consumed a lot of financial resources because of the three major levies, and now it is necessary to eliminate houjin, which is really unable to do so.
Second, the Great War broke out
After capturing Fushun and Qinghe, Nurhaci looted and destroyed various fortresses and returned to his division. The Ming Dynasty was greatly shaken, and the Wanli Emperor felt that Hou Jin was a serious threat to Daming, so he made Yang Hao the left attendant of the military department and the right capital of the Imperial History, jingluo Liaodong.
Yang Hao was twice an official in Liaodi, and Emperor Shenzong's records evaluated him with eight words: "Patrol his land and be familiar with his feelings", which can be regarded as a person who knows soldiers among the civilian officials at that time. Another important reason was that he had a good relationship with the Liaodong Li clan generals, and Li Chengliang had been in operation in Liaodi for many years, and although he had passed away at this time, his sons were all generals in the army and had a high prestige in Liaodi.
In order to gain superiority in troop strength and to solve the big problem of Nurhaci once and for all, Daming mobilized about 90,000 elite troops from all over the country, plus a total of about 110,000 troops assisted by Jurchen Yehebu and Korea.
Originally, according to the previous policy of Daming encircling and suppressing the jurchens, it was foolproof not to seek a dangerous victory, and to fight steadily and steadily. However, due to the financial constraints of the imperial court, the cabinet repeatedly urged Yang Ho to step up his troops.
In February 1619, Yang Ho organized a large army to attack the city of Hetuala, the base camp of Houjin, in four ways.
Yang Ho sat in Shenyang, took a split attack, and attacked Houjin in four ways. These four Ming armies attacked from four directions, southeast, and northwest. The Middle East Route Army was led by the general Liu Ling, who, in addition to the Ming army, also had the vast majority of the Korean army that came to the aid, advancing north from Kuandian; the South Route Army, led by the general Li Rubak, marched east from the Crow Pass; the Western Route Army, led by the general Du Song, marched east from Fushun; the Northern Route Army, led by general Ma Lin, marched south from Sanchaerbao and prepared to meet Ye He's reinforcements on the way.
Yang Hao's strategy was no problem, the local terrain could only divide the army into four roads, and only in this way could it completely destroy Houjin.
The problem was that Yang Ho overestimated the execution of the generals and the combat effectiveness of the Ming army. If the crowd can follow the previous deployment, fight steadily and steadily, and do not be greedy and adventurous, it will not be a problem after the elimination of jin.
The Western Route Army was destroyed
After Nurhaci discovered the ming army's actions, he believed that the ming army's north-south two roads were dangerous and obstructive, the road was far away, and there was a high probability that it would not be able to arrive on time, so he decided to adopt the "depending on how many roads you come, I will only go all the way" to concentrate troops and break down the road by road, gathering 60,000 troops near the capital and preparing to meet the Juniper Department first.
In 1619 (the forty-seventh year of the Ming Dynasty), at the beginning of March, Du Song led an army ahead of schedule, and then divided his troops again after capturing Salhu, and it was unwise to divide his own troops with only 20,000 or 30,000 people. And the other three armies were still on the road, and juniper was already at a disadvantage at this time. In the end, the entire army was destroyed under the siege of Nurhaci, and Juniper was killed.
The other three were defeated
After learning of the defeat of Juniper, the general of the Northern Route Army, Ma Lin, immediately stopped and formed a camp, and on the morning of the second day of March, he wanted to lead his army to retreat, Nurhaci led the army to arrive, divided his troops to prepare for the attack, Malin mistakenly thought that the Houjin army was small, so he went out of the camp to fight a decisive battle, and was defeated by Nurhaci. Marin himself led a few people to escape.
Liu Ling of the Eastern Route Army was unable to enter Hetuala as scheduled due to the rugged mountain road and difficulty in moving. However, because the intelligence was unknown, it was not known that the two armies of the North Road and the West Road had been defeated and still marched north.
The other three roads finally fought a battle with the Houjin Army, and the defeat of Li Rubai of the Southern Route Army can be said to be humiliating, and it was only frightened and defeated by the Shock Signal of the Houjin Sentry on the mountain, with countless deaths and injuries. Li Rubai later committed suicide because of this matter.
Third, the consequences of the Great War
In this battle, Daming suffered heavy losses, and the remaining elite soldiers of the three major conquests would be lost in this battle, and they would no longer be able to launch a large-scale attack in Liaodi. In the following years, Liaoyang, Shenyang, Guangning and other important towns were lost one after another, and Daming completely lost Liaodong and could only retreat to liaoxi.
More importantly, salhu's defeat caused great panic to Daming. The Ming Dynasty, whether from the central or the local level, was demoralized.
After that, HouJin became a serious problem, and Daming's military strength, financial resources and energy were all involved in the northeast, which also caused the subsequent uprisings to break out, which eventually led to the demise of Daming.