Chapter 26 8. Immediately after entering the customs, recruit Wu Sangui

Dorgon led the army out of Shenyang to the west.Because of the Shanhaiguan barrier, he chose Huang Taiji's old road to march, and planned to detour through the Inner Mongolia area, and broke into the pass from the Great Wall near Funing, Qian'an, Zunhua and other places.On the morning of the 15th, the army had only set out for five miles, and suddenly stopped advancing, and all the soldiers were surprised.It turned out that Wu Sangui, who was guarding Shanhaiguan, sent two envoys, Guo Yunlong and Yang Kun, to ask for help from the Qing Dynasty to resist the attack of Li Zicheng's peasant army.

When Dorgon received this letter, he was both happy and confused.Fortunately, Wu Sangui had failed to recruit Wu Sangui many times before, but this time he came to ask for cooperation; what puzzled him was that the Ming Dynasty had perished and Wu Sangui was in a difficult situation, but he had no intention of surrendering.The language used was to ask for help by borrowing troops, which made Dorgon suspect whether Wu Sangui's letter was fraudulent, because he still knew nothing about the situation in Shanhaiguan, and he could not determine Wu Sangui's true intentions.Wu Sangui had been at war with the Qing army for a long time. This request for help came too suddenly. He was not prepared mentally. How could he believe it easily with just a letter?However, Dorgon still saw some kind of hope from the letter, and he did not give up.

The information provided by Wu Sangui in the letter gave Dorgon a better understanding of the situation after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, and he was more eager to enter the customs, so he decided to take a risk.Wu Sangui pointed out a route to Dorgon in the letter, which was to bypass Shanhaiguan.Dorgon did not follow the route agreed by Wu Sangui, nor did he follow the Inner Mongolia route he had originally arranged. Instead, he boldly changed his marching route and went straight to Shanhaiguan. On the way to Shanhaiguan, Dorgon was not in a hurry to speed up the march, but marched at a speed of 30 miles per day.Wu Sangui's urgency to ask for help in the letter was beyond words, but he let himself walk around Shanhaiguan.From this point, Dorgon has always been suspicious.Could it be that Wu Sangui expected that the peasant army would attack Shanhaiguan, so he asked the Qing Dynasty for help in advance in order to prepare for the battle?Or, has something else unforeseen happened?This is a contradiction, but also a key point.Dorgon felt that he seemed to have seen a clue on this point, but he couldn't figure it out for a while.So he made a decision that he was not in a hurry to go to Shanhaiguan, and waited for further news from Wu Sangui from Shanhaiguan.

Now the problem of the peasant army no longer occupies the top position in Dorgon's mind. The most practical problem at present is how to recruit Wu Sangui, rather than "borrowing troops for help" as he said in his letter.At this time, Dorgon had already figured out the previous unpredictable thing. The reason why Wu Sangui borrowed troops from the Qing Dynasty was nothing more than being attacked by the peasant army. The strength of the two armies was very different. Although Wu Sangui had a geographical advantage, But it may not be the opponent of the peasant army, so he asked himself for support.Then it was right for me to choose this path. Don’t rush to enter the army, wait for the development of the situation, let Wu Sangui surrender to the Qing Dynasty when he is desperate, and after confirming this point, it will not be too late to go to the rescue.When Dorgon thought of this, his heart suddenly became clearer. After thinking about it again and again, he wrote a reply letter to Wu Sangui on the way.

Regardless of the specific conditions mentioned in Wu Sangui's letter, Dorgon briefly summarized the basic ideas elaborated by Fan Wencheng's several suggestions, declared to Wu Sangui the original intention of the Qing Dynasty to send troops, and played the slogan of "destroying the peasant army and saving the people from fire and water". He also spoke highly of Wu Sangui's righteous deeds, which had exactly the same effect as his call to "revenge" the emperor's father and fight the "rogue bandits".But the main purpose of this letter is the last few words, to persuade Wu Sangui to "come and return", which is actually to surrender and give the highest reward to the king.Recruiting Wu Sangui to surrender was a policy that Huang Taiji had set long ago, and he had repeatedly recruited and surrendered to no avail.But with Wu Sangui's current situation, it is an excellent opportunity to persuade him to surrender.Dorgon seized on this and was determined to turn the possibility into reality.

Dorgon sent a flying horse to deliver the letter first, and led the army to move forward at the original marching speed. At this moment, Wu Sangui was regretting the first letter he sent. He didn't expect the peasant army to come so quickly, and he secretly sighed for his mistake.Originally, he thought that the Peasant Army had just captured the capital, and they would not rush to send troops to fight until they had a firm foothold and stabilized the court, but he did not expect that just a few days later, the Peasant Army sent troops to attack Shanhaiguan.It may be caused by the fact that he left angrily after defecting to the peasant army last time.But I can't blame myself, the peasant army was unrighteous first, and I sincerely wanted to join them, but they did such "dirty" things.Not only did he punish his relatives, but he even usurped his wife.Thinking of this, Wu Sangui couldn't hold back his anger.He couldn't even keep his own wife, that's not what a man did.The actions of the peasant army made Wu Sangui die of defection, and finally put the chips on the Qing army again, hoping that the Qing army could borrow troops to help him.

Just when Wu Sangui was anxious, Dorgon's letter happened to pass over.After reading the contents of the letter, Wu Sangui heaved a sigh of relief and thought to himself: Heaven really knows how to prevent Dorgon from accepting the route he arranged for him. Hope is finally rekindled.Wu Sangui also understood Dorgon's intentions in the letter. If he followed this path, according to common sense, he should have arrived long ago.Now it seems that it is nothing more than setting a hurdle for myself and forcing myself to surrender.As long as he agreed to his request, the reinforcements might have arrived long ago.Due to the urgency of the situation and no further delay, Wu Sangui immediately wrote back to Dorgon.

Dorgon received Wu Sangui's reply and learned that Peasant Junguo was really approaching Shanhaiguan, which coincided with his previous guess.Wu Sangui is in a dangerous situation, and his anxiety to rescue soldiers is like putting out a fire.In the letter, he first praised the Qing army, and then attached a strategy to resist the peasant army, let Dorgon go straight into Shanhaiguan, attack from head to tail, wipe out the peasant army, and then go straight to the capital.It seems that there is no falsehood, so Dorgon dispelled the last doubt.However, what still puzzled him was why Wu Sangui didn't mention anything about his submission to the Qing Dynasty?He weighed the interests in his heart, and felt that he had considered too much, and the letter was apparently unintentional, but Wu Sangui had already acquiesced in the Qing Dynasty in his heart, and it would be a matter of time before he surrendered.Thinking of this, he immediately felt relieved.The most important thing at present is to completely defeat the peasant army, Shanhaiguan must not fall into the hands of the peasant army.

Dorgon no longer hesitated, and ordered the troops to rush forward. Starting from Lianshan, they really advanced rapidly. The weather in Guanbei is unpredictable, the temperature difference between day and night is huge, the sun is hot during the day, and the night is extremely cold, like two worlds.Although Dorgon also took this into consideration, compared with the situation, Dorgon chose the latter.Therefore, the horses were non-stop, day and night, and the people and horses were hungry and thirsty. Against the loess blown up by the strong wind, they walked on the pitch-black potholes and uneven roads, desperately rushing towards their destination. By the time they reached Ningyuan City, it was already late at night Third watch.I couldn't find out the distance between the cities, but I could only see a small amount of fire in the city, so I looked for the light and walked over.Some soldiers suggested that Dorgon rest in Ningyuan City for a night before going.Dorgon refused: "There is no time to delay. Wu Sangui estimated in the letter that we have already arrived in Ningyuan, but we have just arrived in Ningyuan. If we stop in Ningyuan for another night, the peasant army will definitely go to Shanhaiguan first. We must hurry Their head reaches Shanhaiguan."

The Qing army passed Ningyuan but did not enter. The soldiers were exhausted. When they saw the resting place, they went around. .It was just dawn on the 21st day, and there were only about a hundred miles away from Shanhaiguan.The soldiers of the Qing army endured hunger and thirst, and did not take time to rest. By evening, they had reached a place fifteen miles outside Shanhaiguan, and Dorgon ordered them to stop advancing.So far, the Qing army has been running fast all day and night, covering two hundred miles. Guided by envoys sent by Wu Sangui twice, the Qing army finally arrived in front of Shanhaiguan in time.Because the Qing army arrived in time, Wu Sangui's urgent need was relieved.Judging from Wu Sangui's letter and the process of sending envoys to invite soldiers, Wu Sangui had already acquiesced in the idea of ​​surrendering to the Qing Dynasty.Both parties do not do "businesses" for nothing. Dorgon's intention is to recruit Wu Sangui and seize Shanhaiguan; and Wu Sangui, considering his own situation, has no other way out except surrendering to the Qing Dynasty, so after sending envoys for help, Wu Sangui immediately made a move to surrender the Qing Dynasty, and ordered his subordinates to shave their hair to show their determination to surrender the Qing Dynasty.

It is Huang Taiji's consistent idea to subdue Wu Sangui, and he has tried before, but they all failed.The fundamental reason was not that Wu Sangui was determined to coexist with the Ming Dynasty, but that the situation at the time gave him a choice.When Dorgon later received the "prayer" letter sent by Wu Sangui on his own initiative, he knew that the opportunity to recruit Wu Sangui had come.But the time is not ripe enough, because Wu Sangui "borrowed troops" instead of "submitted".Based on the analysis of the situation, Dorgon judged that the peasant army might launch an attack on Wu Sangui at any time, so he did not accept Wu Sangui's suggestion, but went straight to Shanhaiguan, in order to "help Wu Sangui when he was in a desperate situation." But he was not in a hurry to march, he just wanted to allow enough time for the peasant army to attack Wu Sangui so that he could come and join him in a difficult situation.Dorgon's ability to judge the situation and grasp the timing is a hundred times better than ordinary people.