The Battle of Ruzhou was a decisive battle between the peasant rebel army led by Li Zicheng and the main force of the Ming army in the area of Ruzhou (in present-day Ruzhou and Yuxian, Henan) in the sixteenth year of Ming Chongzhen (1643). In this battle, Li Zicheng took a step back, lured the enemy to go deeper, and cleverly chose a fighter, thus defeating Sun Chuanting and annihilating the main force of the Ming army in one fell swoop, laying the foundation for the subsequent overthrow of the Ming Dynasty.
In 1643, the main force of the Ming Dynasty outside Guanwai had been wiped out by the Later Jin (Qing Dynasty). For the Qing Dynasty army at that time, it only needed to conquer the Shanhaiguan gate guarded by Wu Sangui Town to enter the Central Plains. Of course, for the Ming Dynasty, which was worried about internal and external troubles, it was also necessary to deal with the rebel army led by Li Zicheng at this time. Therefore, the large army controlled by Sun Chuanting can be said to be the last powerful force of the Ming Dynasty. Based on this, the Battle of Ruzhou was destroyed by the last powerful force of the Ming Dynasty, which can be said to have directly sounded the death knell of the ming Dynasty's demise.
One
First, in July of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen (1642 AD), after the great victory of Zhuxian Town, Li Zicheng led a peasant army to intensify the siege of Kaifeng. Sun Chuanting, the governor of Shaanxi, was unable to raise reinforcements due to the long drought in Guanzhong, and it was difficult to raise troops and salaries. The Ming court had no choice but to quell the rebel army, untie the siege of Feng, and excavated the Yellow River from the mouth of Zhujiazhai in the northwest of Kaifeng City in an attempt to flood the rebel army. After Li Zicheng found out, he moved to the western part of Henan, and then took the opportunity of Kaifeng being flooded and empty, and took a boat to capture Kaifeng. Therefore, for the Ming Dynasty, this move can be said to have lost the wife and folded the soldiers.
Subsequently, Li Zicheng confronted Sun Chuanting in Ruzhou County, Henan. Li Zicheng was unfavorable in the initial battle, took the initiative to retreat, and deliberately abandoned his armor and belongings on the way, the Ming army fought for profits, the position was chaotic, Li Zicheng returned to counterattack, and Luo Rucai also led follow-up troops to attack the Ming army, annihilating tens of thousands of enemies. After the defeat of this battle, Sun Chuanting retreated to Shaanxi. In November of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen (1642 AD), Li Zicheng joined the rebel army of Zhulu, camped for 500 miles, summoned the generals to discuss, and decided to take Runing first and then return to Xiangyang. On November 13, the peasant army marched on Runing. Yang Wenyue personally led the Baoding troops to the west of the city, and the overseer Kong Zhenhui led the Sichuan army to deploy the east of the city. The peasant army first attacked the east of the city, then the west of the city, and then went down, killing the Ming Dynasty general Hu Dawei, capturing Wen Yue, Zhenhui, etc., and completely annihilating the defenders.
After capturing Runing, the peasant army turned south to attack Xiangyang. Zuo Liangyu was discouraged and plundered Xiangyang, and fled to Jiujiang via Wuchang. The peasant army descended xiangyang without a fight, and in the first month of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen (1643), he set up an office in Xiangyang (present-day Xiangfan, Hubei), and established Li Zi as the Grand Marshal of Fengtian Advocate Yiwenwu. In May of the same year, Li Zi became the King of Xinshun, changed Xiangyang to Xiangjing, set up officials and divided posts, reorganized the army, and reorganized the whole army into five battalions in the center, left, right, front, and rear, with 5 battalions of soldiers and horses of the governor and vice generals, and each battalion set up a general to command one person. Li Zicheng summoned the generals, adopted the opinions of Gu Jun'en and others, and agreed on a battle strategy to first take Guanzhong, then attack Shanxi, and then take the Beijing Division, and overthrow the Ming Dynasty.
Thus, it is very obvious that before the official outbreak of the Battle of Ruzhou, Li Zicheng not only had a huge momentum, but even made clear plans to replace the Ming Dynasty. From this point of view, the outcome of the Battle of Ruzhou is naturally of great significance and far-reaching influence.
Two
In the face of the huge Li Zicheng army, the Chongzhen Emperor naturally attached great importance to it. Compared with the Qing Dynasty army outside Guanwai, solving Li Zicheng was the top priority of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the Chongzhen Emperor ordered Sun Chuanting, the governor of Shaanxi, to be the shangshu of the army and mobilize more than 100,000 Ming troops from seven provinces, including Shaanxi, Henan, Huguang, and Sichuan, into Henan. In this regard, in the author's opinion, these more than 100,000 troops can be said to be the last main force of the Ming Dynasty. If Li Zicheng could be successfully eliminated, then Chongzhen could also use this large army to resist the Qing Dynasty outside Guanwai, thus prolonging the existence of the Ming Dynasty. On the other hand, if the Battle of Ruzhou is lost, the Ming Dynasty will be attacked internally and externally by Li Zicheng and the Qing Dynasty, and it will soon be rapidly destroyed.
In the sixteenth year of Chongzhen (1643), at the beginning of August, the Liuming army left Tongguan, and the specific deployment was as follows:
1. Sun Chuanting led the main force on his own, with the chief soldier Niu Chenghu as the forward, Gao Jie as the central army, Wang Ding and Guan Fumin as the successors, and Bai Guang'en commanded the "train" battalion, out of Tongguan, toward Luoyang, and joined Chen Yongfu and Bu Congshanbu of the Henan Ming army to attack Runing;
2. Order Zuo Liangyu to lead his troops from Jiujiang to Runing and attack the peasant army;
3. Ordered Qin Yiming, the commander-in-chief of Sichuan, to lead troops to the merchants and Luo (in present-day Shangluo, Shaanxi) to make arrangements. Attempting to strike in three ways will attack Ru and Xiang and annihilate the main force of the peasant army.
After learning the news of the Ming Dynasty's large army, Li Zicheng decided to adopt the operational policy of luring the enemy away from Guanzhong, trapping the enemy in an isolated and helpless situation, and then gathering and annihilating him. It has to be said that in the long-term confrontation with Sun Chuanting, a famous general, Li Zicheng's command ability is also constantly improving. And this, obviously, is the meaning of passing tricks with the master.
Three
In the sixteenth year of Chongzhen (1643), on the tenth day of the first month of August, Sun Chuanting led his division out of Tongguan at the urging of the imperial court to arrive in Fuxiang. The peasant army under Li Zicheng's command was weak and deceitful, and retreated, first taking Shaanzhou (陕州, northwest of present-day Sanmenxia City) and Shichi, and then moving through Luoyang to Yu County and Xiangcheng. Sun Chuanting thought he had a plan, ventured forward, and arrived in Ruzhou on the eighth day of September. In this regard, in the author's opinion, it is precisely because of the repeated victories against the peasant army before that Sun Chuanting also has the idea of light enemy carelessness.
Soon after, the Ming army concentrated all its strength on attacking Baofeng, and did not conquer for several days. Sun Chuanting, fearing that he had mistaken the fighter plane, personally supervised the various armies to break the city and killed chen Kexin, the peasant army state mu, and so on. He also attacked Tang County (present-day Tang River). Li Zicheng created the conditions for annihilating the enemy, and Yu Xiangcheng relied on the deep ditch and high fortress to organize and hold firm, and did not fight for the time being to exhaust the Ming army; and with a light cavalry unit, he detoured behind the enemy's rear and attacked the white sand northwest of Ruzhou, cutting off the Ming army's grain route, causing the Ming army to run out of grain. In this regard, in the author's opinion, the shortage of grain and grass undoubtedly laid the groundwork for the collapse of the Ming Dynasty army.
Beginning on August 14 of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen (1643), it rained heavily for 7 consecutive days, and the Ming army was hungry and tired. On August 21, due to the lack of grain, the Ming Army mutinied in Ruzhou. And this, naturally, gave Li Zicheng the opportunity to counterattack the Ming army. After suffering setbacks, Sun Chuanting was still not willing to accept defeat, and tried to move to Nanyang to raise grain, find an opportunity to fight again, and leave the general Chen Yongfu to defend the city. As soon as Sun Chuanting left, Chen Yongfu's department also hurriedly withdrew. Li Zicheng personally led the main force to pursue and kill, and to Nanyang, Sun Chuanting and the Ming army that captured the Tang River returned to fight. The two sides launched a fierce battle, the Ming army collapsed, and the cavalry of the peasant army took advantage of the victory and chased it to Mengjin, annihilating more than 40,000 Ming troops. Sun Chuanting fled the Yellow River with only a few of his entourage and returned to Shoutong Pass. Chen Yongfu, the commander-in-chief of the Ming Dynasty, was defeated and captured and surrendered to the rebel army. From this, it is very obvious that in the Battle of Ruzhou, Li Zicheng's side won a major victory.
Four
Finally, after the Battle of Ruzhou, the ming dynasty's most elite northwest army was lost, and this prompted the Ming dynasty to no longer have a strong force in the central plains that could confront Li Zicheng. After that, Li Zicheng led his army to pursue, Sun Chuanting had no troops to guard Tongguan, and he himself was killed in the battle of Weinan, which made posterity sigh. In the view of many historians, the Battle of Ruzhou was the deadliest defeat of the Ming Dynasty, and later generations commented that if there was no Battle of Ruzhou, "the death of Ming might not be as fast as possible", and some people said that "if the court dies, then the Ming will die". All these show that the victory in the Battle of Ruzhou directly led to the demise of the Ming Dynasty.
In 1644, Li Zicheng led a large army to overthrow the Ming Dynasty, causing Emperor Mingsizong Zhu to hang himself on Coal Mountain. It was for the change of Jiashen, and thus the Ming Dynasty fell. After the Battle of Yishi, Li Zicheng retreated to the Jing Division and declared himself emperor. The Qing Dynasty army united with Wu Sangui to attack the peasant army, and Li Zicheng suffered defeat and could only withdraw from the Beijing Division and lead his army to fight in Henan and Shaanxi. On May 17, 1645, Li Zicheng was mistakenly killed by local township heroes in Tongcheng County, Hubei Province. After Li Zicheng was killed, the rest of the army continued the struggle against the Qing.