Chapter 62 4. Big Setback: The Battle of Tongguan Nanyuan

In the two years from the ninth to tenth years of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng led his officers and soldiers to go around in circles between Shaanxi and Sichuan to accumulate strength.In September of the tenth year of Chongzhen, he led more than ten peasant troops to besiege Hanzhong, was ambushed by Cao Bianjiao, and had to retreat to Sichuan, and once besieged Chengdu City. After learning that Hong Chengchou had entered Sichuan, he withdrew and entered Zitong and Jianzhou Mountain activities.After fighting in Sichuan for more than three months, at the beginning of the eleventh year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng broke through and returned to Shaanxi. He did not expect that the biggest setback for the peasant army in the late Ming Dynasty was coming.

In the previous year, the emperor appointed Yang Sichang as Minister of the Ministry of War, and formulated the encirclement and suppression plan of "four positives, six corners and ten sides to spread the net". The Four Positives refer to Shaanxi, Henan, Huguang, and Jiangbei as the main battlefields of encirclement and suppression, and four governors are set up to divide and suppress special defenses.Liuyu refers to the six auxiliary battlefields in Yansui, Shanxi, Shandong, Jiangnan, Jiangxi, and Sichuan. Six governors were set up to defend and suppress.In short, it is to implement the contract responsibility system according to the district division.There is also a governor and a prime minister, who "follow the thieves' direction and specialize in conquest."With Hong Chengchou as the governor and Xiong Wencan as the prime minister.In addition, Yang Sichang is also actively preparing for the strength of troops and food and pay. He plans to increase the number of troops by 120,000 and increase the salary by 2.8 million.

In all fairness, Yang Sichang's measures are quite effective from a military point of view-but economically, they are drinking poison to quench thirst.This is a strong medicine. If the peasant army cannot be completely wiped out in a short period of time, the huge economic pressure will first crush the Ming Dynasty itself.Yang Sichang understood this point. He planned to "slow three months of hard work to end the ten-year unresolved situation." The period of thieves". Historical facts have proved that Yang Sichang's plan is indeed a double-edged sword. Under the supervision of Yang Sichang's plan, various Ming armies strengthened the encirclement and suppression. Chuangtatian Liu Guoneng, Eight Great Kings Zhang Xianzhong, Cao Cao Luo Rucai and others who were active in the Huguang area were recruited.After Li Zicheng returned to Shaanxi, he divided the peasant armies around him into three groups, two of which were defeated by the army, and the leaders surrendered one after another.Cao Bianjiao and other main forces of the Ming army took Li Zi as the main target and pursued him relentlessly. Cao himself fought for thousands of miles and was indisarmed for 27 days and nights.Li Zicheng entered Sichuan again in May, was defeated by Ming generals He Renlong and Ma Ke in Guangyuan in July, and was defeated in Nanjiang in August and fled to the mountains of northern Sichuan.In mid-August, he broke through and returned to Shaanxi, and wandered southeast of Shaanxi for two months, preparing to leave Tongguan and go east.

Hong Chengchou had been prepared for this for a long time. He and Sun Chuanting analyzed that Li Zicheng was poor and must leave Tongguan and go east to Henan.He then ordered Sun Chuanting to set up a triple ambush in the southern plains of Tongguan, while Cao Bianjiao, his direct subordinate unit, drove Li Zicheng's troops to Tongguan in a planned way.The topography of Tongguan Nanyuan, according to Sun Chuanting, is: "To the south of Tongguan, there are plains forty miles, reaching the foot of Nanshan Mountain, which is called Nanyuan." Li Zicheng's army suffered considerable losses in the encirclement, and those who managed to escape into the Hannan Mountains were also intercepted by local villagers.Li Zicheng fled with only a few cronies.Some followers said seven cavalry, some said fourteen cavalry, some said seventeen cavalry, and some said eighteen cavalry, but one thing is clear, that is: Li Zicheng was almost wiped out in this battle. up.

Li Zicheng fled to Shangluo Mountain with his small army of ten or so people and hid himself.Since the incident, he has never lost so badly. But at the end of September of this year, Qingyue Tuo's army entered the border from Qiangziling, and Wu Aheng, the servant of the governor of Jiliao's military department, was defeated and killed.Qing soldiers crossed Hebei and approached the capital.Lu Xiangsheng, governor of Xuanda, joined the army and died in battle in mid-December.Sun Chengzong, a retired academician, organized an anti-Qing war in his hometown of Gaoyang. He was captured and died unyielding when the city fell. All his sons, grandsons and nephews were killed in battle.The Qing army successively captured more than 40 cities in North China, and even invaded Shandong, conquered Jinan, captured Chongzhen's uncle and brother De Wang Zhu Youshu, and did not return to Liaodong until March of the following year.

Chongzhen urgently summoned Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting to lead their subordinates to King Qin.After Hong and Sun arrived in Beijing, Hong was appointed governor of Jiliao, and Sun was appointed governor of Baoding, staying in the north to prevent the Qing army from entering the border again.Sun Chuanting was squeezed out by Yang Sichang, so he had to resign by pretending to be deaf. Chongzhen listened to Yang Sichang and arrested Sun Chuanting and sent him to prison.Hong Chengchou never returned to Shaanxi.He served as governor of Jiliao until the beginning of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen. He was defeated and captured in the Battle of Songshan.

After the two left, the Ming court also relaxed its search for Li Zicheng.