During the Ming Dynasty, a battle that determined its survival was also the battle that laid the foundation for the founding of the Qing Dynasty, which was the Battle of Salhu. The Battle of Salhu was a battle in which the Qing Dynasty (then known as Houjin) switched from defensive to offensive. After Nurhaci won the war, he realized the weakness of the Ming Dynasty, and as a result, he strengthened his confidence in destroying the Ming Dynasty. This battle was equally important to the Ming Dynasty, and if this battle was lost, the Ming Dynasty basically lost the northeast, leaving the capital without more buffer zones and not far from extinction.
In the Battle of Salhu, the Ming Dynasty had the strongest military strength, with more than 100,000 troops, known as 470,000, a total of four large armies, but although the Ming army was superior in number, its strength was not superior, and there were not many troops that could really fight. In the face of the strong Eight Banner Army, it was finally defeated by each of them. About the Battle of Salhu, it will be introduced in a special article. Today, let's discuss why more than 10,000 of the Korean Lee Dynasty army that participated in the Battle of Salhun finally surrendered to Jin?
Why go to war?
Historically, Korea, as a vassal state of the Central Plains Dynasty, was mostly helped by the Central Plains Dynasty to quell civil strife and foreign enemies, and the Joseon Dynasty rarely helped the Central Plains Dynasty. So in the Battle of Salhu, why did the Joseon Dynasty send troops to the war?
The DPRK sent troops to participate at the request of the Ming Dynasty. In the late Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty was in constant strife, and the eunuchs and scholars were constantly fighting, and The Joseon Dynasty was unable to run the northeast region, which also led Nurhaci to gradually unify the Jurchen tribes, strengthen their power, and establish the Houjin. Although the Ming Dynasty set up military defenses in the northeast region, the Ming Dynasty could not even issue military salaries at that time, and the Ming army in the northeast was scattered and its combat effectiveness was very weak. Therefore, before the Battle of Salhu, the Ming Dynasty decided to use the Ming army in the southwestern provinces to participate in the war, as well as more than 10,000 people from Yehebu. In order to attack the Houjin army from the rear, the Ming Dynasty asked the Lee Dynasty of Korea to send troops to assist in the battle.
As a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, Korea naturally had to send troops to participate, and they were willing to send troops to help the Ming Dynasty. Because after the Jurchens established Houjin, their power continued to extend to the Korean Peninsula, and they often quarreled with North Korea. In the face of this strong Jurchen regime, North Korea was worried that it would be threatened by Houjin in the future, so it was better to send troops to join the Ming Dynasty coalition army, perhaps annihilating the Houjin regime in one fell swoop and relieving the Threat of North Korea. Therefore, whether it is from the subordination relationship or the north koreans themselves, it is natural for the DPRK to send troops to help the Ming Dynasty fight the Houjin.
Participation in the war
As a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, the Li Dynasty was of course oriented toward the Ming Dynasty emotionally and orthodoxly, and they hated houjin. Therefore, when the Ming Dynasty fought against the Later Jin, the Lee Dynasty responded to the Ming Dynasty and sent 13,000 troops to assist the Ming Army in fighting the Later Jin, and the leader of the Lee Dynasty army was the Marshal of the Joseon Dynasty, Jiang Hongli, and the deputy marshal was Jin Jingrui. Qiao Yiqi served as the Ming Supervisor. After this Korean army merged with the Ming army's Forces at Kuandian Road, the two armies marched together to advance to Houjin, but after the Eight Banners Army defeated Liu Ting's army at Abdaligang, Dai Shan and others moved to Fucha to attack the remnants of Liu Ting, commanded by Kang Yingqian, the supervisor, and the Korean army that assisted the Ming Dynasty in battle.
During the battle, under the repeated supervision and urging of the supervisor Qiao Yiqi, the Korean army led by Jiang Hongli arrived at Fucha on the fourth day. The Marshal Kang Hong-ri of the Korean Army ordered the army to be divided into left, center, and right camps, and he himself was stationed in the middle camp. When Jiang Hongli had just set up camp, Dai Shan and others commanded tens of thousands of Golden Cavalry and rushed to Fucha on horseback. At this time, the Korean army was in chaos, and according to no pre-war preparations, it was confused by the sudden army of the Later Jin army. The army led by Kang Yingqian and Qiao Yiqi was also immediately defeated, and when Qiao Yiqi fled to the Korean barracks, the guns of the Left and Right Battalions of the DPRK began to be released, but to no avail, the Korean army had not yet had time to release the second round of artillery, and houjin's cavalry had already broken into the battalion. However, Qiao Yiqi, the overseer of the Ming Dynasty, saw that he could not break through, so he had to throw himself into the cliff and die.
Judging from the participation of the Lee Dynasty army in Korea, it did participate in the war, but it did not achieve results. However, the combat effectiveness of this Korean army is average, even weaker than that of the Ming army, and it is normal to fail.
The reason for the failure
The historical record of the defeat of the Lee Dynasty army in Korea is not the same in history, and the Qing people do not record much in this history, while Peng Sunyi's "Records of The Mountains" describes the Battle of Salhu in detail: "... The traitor is full of Liaoyang, Wen Song will be the vanguard, and the secret cloth traitor will be the guide for The Pine... The che camp firearms were burned by the traitors...". Peng Sunyi wrote in detail about the Houjin spy war in the Battle of Salhu, and it can also be seen that Nurhaci was very skilled in the use of spies in the campaign, and also played a great role, even if the Ming army could not resist, let alone the Korean army.
Some people say that the Korean army helped the Ming Dynasty not win the Battle of Salhun, in fact, it is a "pig teammate", in fact, it is biased to look at the Korean army in this way. A captured prisoner of war later wrote a detailed account of the entry of the Korean Lee army into the war in the book "Letter of Returning Love after the Establishment of the State": "... When the thieves in the deep river stop them, the heavens will come first, and our army will follow. The thief ran to defeat the mountain, and according to the danger, the governor ordered the artillery shooters of our army to fight, and won a lot...". It can be seen that after the Participation of the Korean Army, there were also certain achievements, but these achievements would not appear in the records of the Qing people, because books such as "Chen Love Letter after the Establishment of the State" would certainly not exist in the Qing Dynasty.
The prisoner also recorded some details of the defeat and surrender of the Korean soldiers: "... Shunchuan County's shou Li Yiyuan single riding away, walked into the middle camp, from the middle camp to the two battalions is not a thousand steps, witnessing the devastation, all lost their souls, and the thieves rode galloping, besieged the middle camp, subjected to the generals patrol the line, inspired the soldiers, and gave a decisive battle... Then there are those who have no response, who are lonely and narrow- and narrow-minded, who are separated by people and horses, who are hungry for many days... To those who abandon their instruments and sit still... Then Yu (Hou Jin) sent a message, "I have a grudge with the Tang people, and Ru Guo has no vendetta, so why should I come to kill me?" ’...... Gui Yingge said: 'The two countries have no complaints, and now they have made peace, and when each of them disarms'... Seven or eight Zhejiang soldiers came to the outside of the battlefield, and the soldiers were in a state of confusion and drove out...".
Judging from this record, at that time, the Korean army had no combat effectiveness in the subsequent battles, and had to surrender when there was no rescue army outside. If they did not surrender, these people would inevitably be completely annihilated, and after the Ming Dynasty was completely collected, the Later Jin dynasty would inevitably launch an attack on Korea. It can be seen that the generals of the Lee Dynasty of Korea, weighing the pros and cons, had to give up the next battle and surrender, which also saved the Lee Dynasty of Korea from the fate of being attacked by HouJin.
The generals of the Li Dynasty also saw that the Ming Dynasty had already set over the Western Mountains, so why should they sell their lives, but their lives were not saved.