Chapter 24 6. Avoid the strong and chop the weak, the great victory of pine brocade

After more than ten years of governance by Huang Taiji, social conflicts have basically eased.After he ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, the regime was further consolidated and developed.However, to the east of Shanhaiguan, there are still important towns such as Jinzhou, Ningyuan, Songshan, and Xingshan that the Ming court refused to give up.If the Qing army wanted to open the Shanhai Pass and attack Beijing, they had to pull out these strongholds of the Ming army outside the pass and acquire the whole of Liao in order to push the Qing forces across the country. On April 29th of the fifth year of Chongde, Huang Taiji personally led an army to attack Jinzhou, and the defender of Jinzhou was Zu Dashou.Huang Taiji quickly organized troops to surround Jinzhou. The news of Jinzhou's trap soon spread to the capital, and Chongzhen was very panicked.In order to prevent the Jinning defense line from collapsing due to the loss of Jinzhou, Chongzhen hastily transferred Hong Chengchou, who was fighting against the peasant army in the west, to Liaodong to serve as the governor of Jiliao.Hong Chengchou has been on the battlefield for a long time. He knows that the Qing army has strong combat capabilities, so he must be cautious when fighting against the Qing.At this time, the main purpose of the Qing army was to capture Jinzhou, and the troops should have placed a heavy weight on besieging Jinzhou. In this way, it must be very weak in defending against foreign enemies.Hong Chengchou decided to take advantage of this loophole and completely wiped out the Qing army in Jinzhou.

Dorgon, the commander-in-chief of the Qing frontline defense, was stationed at Rufeng Mountain.Hong Chengchou concentrated all his troops on Rufeng Mountain, and Dorgon went out to fight in a hurry.The two armies fought a battle, and the Qing army was defeated.Huang Taiji ordered the troops to retreat and camp sixty miles away from Jinzhou.This defeat hit Huang Taiji very hard, and he fell ill immediately.While recuperating from his illness, he had been thinking about capturing Jinzhou. He felt that he could no longer compete with the Ming army with his current strength, so he ordered reinforcements to be brought in, and he would lead the army out when he recovered from his illness.

On August 19th, Huang Taiji had just recovered from his illness, so he led the army to Songshan. Huang Taiji placed the troops at the foot of Songshan Mountain, and personally sent a group of people to conduct a detailed inspection of Songshan Mountain.He felt that the strategic location of Songshan City was very important. It was located between Jinzhou, Xingshan, and Ningyuan, as if it was the throat of Ningyuan and Jinzhou.After observing the terrain and the defense of the Ming army in detail, he found that most of the Ming army was concentrated in the front, and the defense of the troops behind was very weak.So he suddenly realized a strategy and thought: Although the formation of the Ming army is powerful, there are still some loopholes. The strength of this formation is all concentrated in the front, while the troops behind are simply too weak.Taking advantage of this point and concentrating the entire army to attack the tail of the Ming army, the Ming army will definitely be defeated.

So he deployed the army between Songshan and Xingshan, and then from the west of Jinzhou to the south, crossing between Songshan and Xingshan, until Haikou, dug three big trenches in a row, each eight feet deep and more than ten feet wide, making the People and horses could not pass through, forming a state of siege to Songshan, and at the same time cut off the connection between Songshan and Xingshan in the rear, and then carried out reinforcements from Tashan and Ningyuan, and ambushed the Ming army who broke out from Songshan.This arrangement made the Qing army gradually change from passive to active.

When Hong Chengchou got the news, the Qing army's combat deployment was already perfect, and he was only waiting for the Ming army to respond.Hong Chengchou became flustered, he didn't expect that his previously carefully arranged strategic policy would be completely disrupted by the Qing army's style of play.He originally wanted to have a decisive battle with the Qing army, but he didn't expect the Qing army to go behind him.The back road was cut off, and a series of unfavorable situations for the Ming army ensued. In the tent, Hong Chengchou looked sad, and he said to the generals: "Since our army is here, we should deploy according to the original plan. No matter what happens in the rear, just lead the troops to attack the front and break the siege of Jinzhou. Success or failure depends on this."

As soon as Hong Chengchou said his words, he was immediately opposed by the generals. They pointed out: "The Qing army can't take Jinzhou in a short time. Before we reach Jinzhou, our army will not be able to support us. Besides, we don’t know what traps the Qing army has set up in front. If we send troops blindly, if we encounter problems, it will be even more difficult to get back. At present Our only way out is to break out of the siege and return to Ningyuan, and then make a long-term plan." After Hong Chengchou thought about it, he felt that he was indeed a little too impulsive just now, so he accepted the opinions of the generals.

The next day, at dawn, Hong Chengchou led the Ming army to attack the Qing army's defense line, preparing to break through, because they had set up many traps in the rear, but now they have restricted themselves, and have not yet advanced to the place under the siege of the Qing army. Some people were injured by the traps set by the Ming army.Hong Chengchou sent people to the front to inquire about the situation of the Qing army, and the spies reported that the Qing army had surrounded Songshan to an impenetrable extent, and the troops were concentrated on all the roads going down the mountain. It would be difficult to break through the encirclement and rush out.

"We have to rush out even if it is difficult. Now we have changed from being active to being passive. Not to mention helping Jinzhou, even we are in danger. Although the reckless approach is a taboo for military strategists, from our point of view, This is the only way to go, at least there is still a glimmer of hope.” Hong Chengchou first sent some troops to clear the traps set up earlier, and prepared to mobilize all troops to break through when it was dark. As night fell, the mountains and forests looked very depressed and lifeless. The full moon was half covered by a cloud of black clouds, and only half of it was exposed, but it also shed a little moonlight.Just as Hong Chengchou led the troops to the halfway up the mountain, he heard a few horse whistles, which was the way the Qing army communicated with each other.Sure enough, after the whistle sounded, a group of Qing troops came out from the back of the mountain halfway up the mountain. Among them, the iron cavalry was the vanguard, and Dorgon galloped towards the Ming army with a long knife on his horse.The formation of the Ming army suddenly became chaotic, and it was cut into several parts at once.

Other generals led their troops to flee in the direction of Xingshan, causing chaos among the Ming soldiers.At this time, Huang Taiji led the troops of the Eight Banners to rush over, and ordered part of the troops to pursue and suppress the Ming army who fled to Xingshan, and the rest still surrounded and suppressed the Ming army who were trapped in Songshan and did not escape.The general soldiers Wu Sangui, Bai Guangen and other soldiers and horses strayed into the area where the Qing army set a trap when they fled to break through.They felt that they had chosen the right path, and there was almost no shadow of the Qing army in the vast night, thinking that they had broken through the siege of the Qing army.Unexpectedly, not long after the troops had gone, they entered the "dangerous zone" set up by the Qing army, triggered the mechanism, and shot and killed countless Ming soldiers.A layer of soil was spread on the trench trap, and some weeds were removed, as if it were flat ground, but countless sharp knives were inserted vertically underneath.How did the Ming army know that when they encountered a random arrow just now, they were already in a mess and began to collapse, running in all directions in the dark. Who would have thought that most of them stepped into a trap again and were pierced by sharp blades.

Seeing this situation, Wu Sangui and Bai Guangen lost their minds. They thought that there were many traps like this ahead, so they led the remnants back to Songshan and joined Hong Chengchou who was trying to break through.After the calculation by the three of them, the Ming army lost more than 50,000 troops, and the remaining troops were less than 10,000.Seeing that Hong Chengchou could not break out of the siege, he, Cao Bianjiao, Wu Sangui and others withdrew back to Songshan City to hold on. Huang Taiji achieved a great victory in Songshan and eliminated the main force of the Ming army to aid Jinzhou, but the three cities of Songshan, Jinzhou, and Xingshan were still occupied by the Ming army.After some comparisons, Huang Taiji decided to take Hong Chengchou's troops on Songshan as the main target, and then defeated the remaining two cities one by one.The tactics adopted by Huang Taiji remained unchanged, instead of attacking fortifications, they besieged.

Since Songshan, Xingshan and other cities were besieged in September of the sixth year of Chongde, most of the Ming soldiers panicked in the city and guarded the city helplessly, neither food nor rest.The Qing army sent troops to harass from time to time to wear down the fighting spirit of the Ming army, and the Ming army soon couldn't resist it. Until February 21st of the following year, new information came from Hauge and Duoduo who besieged Songshan.Xia Chengde, deputy general of Songshan of the Ming army, surrendered and took his son Xia Shu as a hostage, agreeing to dedicate the city to the Qing army on February 28 as the internal response.At this time, there were too many people and little food in Songshan City, and there was no hope of reinforcements. The people in the city were in a state of extreme despair, and there was even a tragic incident of cannibalism.On the evening of the 28th, the Qing army led the army to attack the city as agreed, captured Songshan City in one fell swoop, and captured Hong Chengchou and other generals alive. Once Songshan was broken, the situation in Jinzhou City became even more tragic. The food in the city had long been eaten up, and incidents of cannibalism often occurred.Zu Dashou had nothing to do, seeing the reinforcements approaching but being defeated one by one by the Qing army, the luck in his heart disappeared, and he led his men to open the city gate and surrender.It took the Qing army more than a year to besiege Jinzhou, and it was finally overcome without a fight. On April 21, Huang Taiji ordered Jierhalang to lead troops to attack Xingshan City.In less than a day, Xingshan City fell, and the Qing army occupied Xingshan.So far, the Battle of Songjin ended with the victory of the Qing army and the defeat of the Ming army.This battle was a major breakthrough in the battle of the Qing Dynasty. After this battle, the strategic stalemate between the Ming and Qing Dynasties ended, and the Qing court turned to a strategic offensive, opening the way for the entry. Sometimes failure is not a bad thing. The Qing army's defeat at Rufeng Mountain dispelled Huang Taiji's thought of underestimating the Ming army, and on the contrary became cautious again.No one is perfect, even a strong army has a weak side, this is like hitting a snake to avoid the snake's head and attacking the snake's tail, even the most ferocious snake can't resist it.Huang Taiji took advantage of this, and turned the situation around in a situation where the enemy was strong and we were weak.