Chapter 19 Chapter 19 How Liaodong was Lost

Speaking of the whole process of "the fall of the Ming Dynasty and the prosperity of the Qing Dynasty", we have to mention the Battle of Saerhu that took place in the forty-sixth year of Wanli (1618 AD).In this battle, the newly-emerged Jurchen Nurhachi tribe defeated the Ming Dynasty's 100,000 army with a 60,000-strong inferior force. Since then, it has dominated Liaodong and become a major border problem for the Ming Dynasty.Many modern scholars believe that this battle of winning more with less was not only the starting point of the founding of the Qing Dynasty, but also sounded the death knell of the Ming Dynasty's 300-year demise.

Looking closely at the ins and outs of this war, I have to feel: not only the fate of this tragic failure can be avoided, even the rise of the Qing Dynasty in Liaodong is also an avoidable thing.On the issue of Liaodong, the Ming Dynasty, from the earliest Emperor Yongle, to the later Emperor Wanli, to the last Emperor Chongzhen, has always been confused and made many mistakes.Just like a football team, when facing the opponent, not only the tactical layout is seriously wrong, but the back line keeps giving big gifts to the opponent's forwards, and finally ends in a disgraceful defeat. Let's go and see what great gifts the Ming Dynasty gave.

The first person to give a big gift to Nurhachi may be traced back to a "Ming Jun" in the Ming Dynasty-the Yongle Emperor Zhu Di. The Ming Dynasty gained sovereignty over Liaodong because of the reign of Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang.After the Yuan Dynasty was defeated and retreated to Mobei, Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of the victory to pursue and defeated the Yuan Dynasty's Naha Chubu, which was entrenched in Liaodong, in one fell swoop, and surrendered North Korea, which had previously surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty.The early Ming Dynasty attached great importance to this new land.For example, Lan Yu, the famous founder of the country, once reported: "Although Liaodong is vast and sparsely populated, it is connected to the Great Wall in the south and North Korea in the east. Don't talk nonsense because of people.In the 28th year of Hongwu (AD 1395) and the 31st year (AD 1398), Zhu Yuanzhang immigrated to Liaodong on a large scale twice and stationed there.At the same time, when Zhu Yuanzhang sealed off the vassal king, he even sealed his three sons in Kaiyuan, Shenyang, and Guangning, namely King Han, King Liao, and King Shen.If this policy can continue, it may be much more difficult for Nurhachi to unify Liaodong later.

Things changed after Zhu Yuanzhang's death. After Zhu Di succeeded in seizing power by virtue of the "Battle of Jingnan", he was afraid that other feudal lords would follow suit, and began to move inland the border feudal lords on a large scale.Especially the Northeast Three Kings were moved to the mainland together with their families.The land of Liaodong suddenly formed a vacuum zone.Of course, since then, the Ming Dynasty has also continued to send troops to colonize and guard the border, but it is really different from the large-scale migration of canonized vassal kings. From the perspective of the strategic focus of the Ming Dynasty after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the border defense of the Ming Dynasty first targeted the Mongolian tribes in the north. Although Liaodong also stationed heavy troops, the main opponents were also the Mongols.For most of the time when the Ming Dynasty was founded, they did not pay enough attention to the local aboriginal Jurchens.The tight frontier defense in Liaodong in the Ming Dynasty was a matter of the Jiajing period. At that time, the Mongolian "Golden Family" Tuman tribe who moved eastward, and the Duoyan tribe that existed as the "Duoyan Sanwei" all regarded Liaodong as the target of harassment.At this time, most of the troops of the Ming Dynasty were targeting the Mongolian tribes to the west, rather than the Jurchen tribes north of Kaiyuan.During the Longqing (AD 1567-1573) and Wanli (AD 1573-1620) years of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty guarded Jizhou with Qi Jiguang, and Li Chengliang guarded Liaodong. The Mongolian tribe adopted the policy of "building virtue in the west and showing power in the east". The policy of using tribute and trading to win over the Mongolian tribes such as Altan in the west, and resolutely attacking the barbarians in the east. This policy guaranteed the safety of the Ming Dynasty's border defense.The Barbarian tribe, once the Golden Family, declined day by day under the continuous attack of the Ming Dynasty.Especially after Li Chengliang took office as the General Army of Liaodong, he adopted active tactics against the local barbarians, attacking them almost every year. From the fourth year of Longqing (AD 1570) to the eighth year of Wanli (AD 1580), Li Chengliang's Liaodong army accumulated beheadings of the local barbarians. The barbarian army amounted to 50,000, and the powerful native barbarians were almost beaten to death.Another Mongolian tribe, Taining, was also devastated, and its leader Subahai was killed by Li Chengliang.By the end of Zhang Juzheng's reform, both Tuman and Duoyan Sanwei were greatly weakened, and they were no longer the main threat of the Ming Dynasty in Liaodong.The Jurchen tribe, which did not show the mountains and rivers before, surfaced like this.

When it comes to the growth of the Jurchen tribe, I have to talk about Li Chengliang's merits and demerits. In the Longqing and Wanli dynasties, Li Chengliang, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, was recognized as "the number one general in the world". According to the history of the Ming Dynasty, his military exploits were "unmatched in two hundred years."Li Chengliang, whose ancestors were from Shaanxi, later migrated to North Korea, and returned to China during the Ming Dynasty. Before the age of 40, he was just a poor scholar who borrowed money and bribed to inherit the official position of his ancestors and became the commander of Tieling. After that, he was very prosperous and won consecutive battles.In the fourth year of Longqing (1570 A.D.), Wang Shoudao, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, was killed. Li Chengliang filled the vacancy.Since then, Li Chengliang's "Li Family Army" has occupied Liaodong for 50 years, just like a prince.

The reason why Li Chengliang was able to fight was that he was good at using tricks, often winning more with less, but the most important one was that he was good at making personal favors.Compared with Qi Jiguang, Li Chengliang's army was regarded as a private army. He used generous rewards to recruit strong men, and even gave the soldiers privately divided the land of the army station in Liaodong.Establishing his own absolute authority in the army, his troops are not commanded by the "insiders" of the Li family.On the other hand, Li Chengliang is very good at "raising bandits" and "playing bandits". After eliminating a force, he always has to make room for the enemy to ensure that there will be battles in Liaodong every year. The year will be rewarded.Therefore, for decades, he has made outstanding military exploits, unmatched among the generals of the Ming Dynasty.

The Liaodong Jurchen have been canonized since the time of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang. All tribes are "court officials" of the Ming Dynasty. For example, Nurhaci's sixth ancestor, Mengge Timur, was canonized after Ming Chengzu Zhu Di moved away from the three queens of Liaodong. He is the commander of Jianzhou Guard.Liaodong Jurchen began to become border troubles from the last years of Jiajing. Previously, they stood on the side of the Ming Dynasty for most of the time, and often attacked the Mongolian tribes with the Ming Dynasty. They were also coerced by the Mongolian tribes in certain periods, and they fought together with Mongolia. In the Ming Dynasty, for example, during the Tumu Fortress Change, there were Jurchen tribes participating in the war against the Ming Dynasty.But for a long time, the Ming Dynasty regarded the Jurchen as a "small role".In the 45th year of Jiajing (AD 1566), 5,000 Haixi Jurchen invaded Fushun, an important place in Liaodong in the Ming Dynasty. This was the first large-scale invasion recorded by the Jurchen tribe in history.In the following four or five years, the Jianzhou Jurchen and Hada Jurchen had conflicts with the Liaodong Ming Army.At this time, the Ming Dynasty’s finances were tight, and the Ming army in Liaodong was mostly infantry, with very few cavalry. Therefore, most of the intrusions of the Jurchen tribe were passive defenses, and they stood by the city until the arrival of Li Chengliang.

Li Chengliang is a general who is good at cavalry warfare, but the shortage of war horses in the Ming Dynasty made it difficult for him to cook without rice. In order to have a strong cavalry, Li Chengliang made a decision: rebuild the six forts of Kuandian.The six forts of Kuandian, namely Gushan New Fort, Xindian Fort, Kuandian Fort, Dayian Fort, Yongdian Fort, and Changdian Fort, start from the Yalu River in the east and stretch for more than 200 miles. ) was built by the famous general Dong E, but it was abandoned in the late Ming Dynasty.After Li Chengliang rebuilt the Six Forts, he not only expanded the land for 700 miles, but also turned the Six Forts into a trade fair and a war horse production area.The local water and grass are rich and suitable for grazing, and it is close to the Jurchen-controlled area, which is convenient for trade. More importantly, it is a barrier against the Jurchen cavalry entering Liaodong.The prosperity of the six castles in Kuandian not only allowed Li Chengliang to quickly obtain a huge amount of wealth, but also obtained a sufficient source of war horses.Since then, Li Chengliang's direct line Liaodong cavalry began to grow and eventually became a powerful force.

After growing stronger, Li Chengliang launched a comprehensive campaign against the Mongolian and Jurchen tribes. After severely injuring the Mongolian tribes, Li Chengliang turned his spearhead on the Jurchen tribes.In the first year of Wanli (1573 A.D.), Li Chengliang re-created Jurchen by luring the enemy into depth.Jianzhou Jurchen leader Wang Gao was captured and sent to the capital to be executed.In the eleventh year of Wanli (AD 1583), Li Chengliang pretended to be doing business with Yehe Jurchen, and lured Hai Qingnu, the leader of Yehe Jurchen, to Kaiyuan City to attack and kill him.In the same year, Li Chengliang launched a general attack on the Hada tribe and wiped out the Jurchen Hada tribe.In the 19th year of Wanli (AD 1591), the once mighty Jurchen tribe was hit hard by Li Chengliang one after another, almost dying.

However, Li Chengliang missed only one person-Nurhachi. Nurhachi is a hereditary nobleman of Jianzhou Jurchen. Wang Gao, who was killed by Li Chengliang earlier, is Nurhachi's grandfather.In the eleventh year of Wanli (AD 1583), Li Chengliang launched an attack on the Jurchen Atai tribe in Jianzhou and wiped out the Atai tribe. Nurhachi's father and grandfather were also killed by the Ming army in this battle.Afterwards, Nurhachi swallowed his anger and took refuge in Li Chengliang.After that, there is the "Nurhachi Thirteen Armored Armored Army" that is talked about in the Qing history manuscript.After Nurhachi returned home, he used 13 sets of armor as the capital and raised troops to attack other tribes. Li Chengliang was also happy to see the Jurchen tribe killing each other, and he wanted to win over Nurhachi.Beginning in the eleventh year of Wanli (AD 1583), Nurhaci successively destroyed Haixi Jurchen and Yehe Jurchen, and unified Jianzhou Jurchen.In the 21st year of Wanli (1593 A.D.), Nurhachi defeated the Haixi Jurchen, Yehe Jurchen, and Mongolia Horqin allied forces in the battle of Gule Mountain, officially establishing him as the strongest among the tribes in eastern Liaodong. status.

Li Chengliang has always condoned Nurhachi's actions.The reason is that Li Chengliang's way of governing Liaodong is to profit from it by provoking the tribes to fight, and he is happy to see the Jurchen tribes attack and kill each other.Li Chengliang of the two always regarded Haixi and Yehe Nuzhen as the strongest opponents. Nurhachi was weak in the early days, so naturally he was not regarded as an enemy by Li Chengliang.The most important thing is that Nurhachi has always been obedient to Li Chengliang, and he does not hesitate to bribe Li Chengliang every year. According to Meng Sen, a scholar of Ming Dynasty, he "does everything he can" to please Li Chengliang.After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese Aid Korea in 1592, a large number of Ming troops stationed in Liaodong entered Korea to fight, and Liaodong became a vacuum, which gave Nurhachi the opportunity to expand his territory.In the twenty-eighth year of Wanli (AD 1600) after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and Aid Korea, Nurhachi founded Manchu, and the scattered Jurchen tribe had been integrated into a united force by him and became the enemy of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty was still unaware of the imminent danger. Li Chengliang retired in the 19th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1591). His eldest son Li Rusong succeeded him, but was ambushed and killed by the Mongolian Taining tribe in 1597.At this time, Nurhachi was still relatively honest. Apart from continuing to attack the Jurchen tribes who did not listen to his restraint, he was still respectful to the Ming Dynasty.At this time, he was still bearing the title of "General Dragon and Tiger" conferred on him by the Ming Dynasty. In the last ten years of the 16th century, the most rampant harassment of Liaodong was the short-lived recovery of the Mongolian Taining and Tuman tribes. The strategic focus of the Ming army stationed in Liaodong has always been concentrated in the western part of Liaoning.In the past ten years, the post of Liaodong General Soldier in the Ming Dynasty has changed 8 people. Except for Li Rusong who died in battle, the remaining 7 people resigned because they could not command the Liaodong Army.The disadvantages of Li Chengliang leading troops with personal favors were fully exposed at this time: most of the fierce generals who followed Li Chengliang in the war in the early years were corrupt and lost their courage in the past, even Li Chengliang's sons Li Rumei and Li Rubai were no exception.In the twenty-eighth year of Wanli (AD 1600), a rare conflict occurred between the Ming army in Liaodong and the Jurchen tribe. Ma Lin, the general soldier of Liaodong, was defeated by the Jurchen Hada tribe.Ma Lin was demoted, and Li Chengliang was reactivated in the Ming Dynasty and returned to the Liaodong General Army.Soon after Li Chengliang took office, Nurhachi sent troops to completely wipe out the Hada tribe. He not only expressed his loyalty to Li Chengliang, but also took the opportunity to expand his strength.Li Chengliang praised Nurhachi for his "loyalty and bravery" in his memorial.Even so, Li Chengliang has to admit that the Liaodong Army he worked so hard to build is no longer what it used to be.At the age of 80, he is already unable to control the situation in Liaodong. After returning to office, Li Chengliang chose to continue to trust Nurhachi unreservedly in the face of the increasingly corrupt old subordinates, the death of his eldest son in battle, and the disappointment of his other sons.The Liaodong garrison of the Ming Dynasty continued to lean westward, and the Ming army in the Fushun and Qinghe areas in the east were transferred in large numbers to defend against Mongolia, and they did not defend Nurhachi in the north of Liubao.The Ming army defeated the Taining and Tuman tribes of Mongolia one after another, and the situation in Liaodong became stable again.From Li Chengliang's reinstatement in 1599 to Li Chengliang's death in 1616, these 17 years were the most "peaceful" 17 years in Liaodong.The arrogance of the Mongolian tribe was suppressed again, and Nurhachi was still superficially obedient. Therefore, the history books commented that during this period in Liaodong, "the beacon smoke gradually decreased, and the people lived in peace." Therefore, the Ming Dynasty canonized Li Chengliang as "Prince and Taifu". However, the Ming Dynasty did not expect that, These 17 years of peace are the last calm on the eve of the storm. In fact, even though Nurhachi was already full-fledged at this time, the Ming Dynasty was still able to contain him. The pawn of containment was the Six Forts of Kuandian, which served as a barrier in Liaodong.Six Forts is the masterpiece of Li Chengliang guarding Liaodong in the early days, and it is the capital of Liaodong cavalry's fortune.As long as the six castles are in the hands of the Ming Dynasty, the land of Liaodong will be protected by barriers, and Nurhachi will not be able to break through the white mountains and black waters. At most, he can only be like Yang Yinglong and be the emperor of the land for a few years.However, Li Chengliang made a jaw-dropping decision in the thirty-fourth year of Wanli (AD 1606)—abandoning Liubao.Decades of hard work were destroyed, hundreds of thousands of border residents were displaced, 700 miles of fertile land, and nearly 10,000 excellent war horses fell into the hands of Nurhachi.Li Chengliang also used this to show his merits to the Ming Dynasty, saying that he "recruited hundreds of thousands of refugees".The direct consequence of this move is that Nurhachi obtained sufficient horses and established his trump card army, the Eight Banners Iron Cavalry.The long-term consequence is that Liaodong is no longer in danger, and Nurhachi has seized Liaodong, and it has already been flattened. Of course, Nurhachi would not miss this opportunity. Li Chengliang passed away in the 43rd year of Wanli (1615 A.D.). sweat".The reason why he didn't launch an attack on the Ming Dynasty immediately was because he was doing another important thing-creating the Eight Banners system.After two years of construction, the Eight Banners military system was finally finalized.In the first month of the forty-sixth year of Wanli (AD 1618), Nurhachi showed his long-hidden fangs to the Ming Dynasty: this year, he must conquer the Ming Dynasty.At the same time, he also threw out his world-famous reason for war: the seven hatreds. In April, Nurhachi successively broke through Fushun and Qinghe, plundered countless property, and formally wrote to the Ming Dynasty, requesting that the Ming Dynasty grant him canonization.The war between the Ming Dynasty and Nurhachi began.In the first month of the forty-seventh year of Wanli (AD 1619), the Ming Dynasty, angered by Nurhachi's provocation, blew the rallying call again nearly 20 years after the end of the "Three Great Marches".Taking Yang Gao, the minister of the Ministry of War, as the strategy of Liaodong, he dispatched 120,000 elite soldiers from seven provinces across the country, and divided them into four groups to destroy Nurhachi.On February 11th, Yang Gao swore an oath in Liaoyang, and the four armies led by Juniper, Liu Ting, Ma Lin, and Li Rubai launched attacks from North Korea, Fushun, Kaiyuan, and Qinghe respectively, with the intention of attacking Hetu directly. Allah, destroy Nurhachi.Nurhachi defeated the crowd with a small number of 60,000 people, adopted the tactic of "come a few ways, I will go all the way", concentrated superior forces to defeat each one, and completely defeated the Ming army in only 5 days.In the four-way army of the Ming Dynasty, the Juniper and Liu Ting troops were wiped out. The Marin Department was severely injured and only escaped. Li Rubai's Department fled back in a hurry. The Ming Army lost more than 45,800 soldiers and 312 generals.This almost humiliating failure is the famous "Battle of Salhu" in history.The chief of the Jurchen tribe who was respectful to the Ming Dynasty in those days, and the pony boy who flattered Li Chengliang with "everything", finally became a hero in Liaodong.The Ming Dynasty once again tasted the bitter fruit of the legacy of raising tigers. The land of Liaodong, which has been in peace for 17 years, will usher in 25 years of military disasters.