Be the emperor from the postman

The good news came from Huguang, which made Chongzhen extremely excited.

In order to avenge the shame of the bandits, Chongzhen set his sights on Jinzhou, hoping that Hong Chengchou could make persistent efforts and deliver good news like Wu Guojun.

Not long ago, Hong Chengchou led Bai Guangen, the chief soldier of Jizhou, Wu Sangui, the chief soldier of Ningyuan, and Wang Tingchen, the former chief of the Guangning guards, to Ningyuan and inspected Songshan and other fortresses.

Since the number of troops is too small to defend against the enemy, the imperial court is requested to transfer Yang Guozhu, the general of the Xuanfu, Wang Pu, the general of Datong, Tang Tong, the general of Miyun, and Ma Ke, the general of Shanhaiguan, to gather at the front line of Ningyuan, with a total force of 13.

The Ming army set up a decisive battle posture on the front lines of Jinzhou, Songshan, Tashan, and Xingshan.

Of course, the Qing Dynasty did not show weakness and was aggressive.

According to Qiu Minyang, the governor of Liaodong, reported to the imperial court that the Qing army continued to transport troops, food, and weapons to Yizhou.

Among them, there are thirty Hongyi cannons, and there are too many small cannons to count.

Although in terms of artillery, the Ming army has a lot of artillery in various strongholds, but in terms of overall quality, it is not as good as the Qing army.

Generals Shi Tingzhu, Geng Zhongming, Kong Youde, Shang Kexi, etc. of the Ming Dynasty, under the command of Prince Zheng Jierhalang, Azige, Duoduo, Adali, etc., rushed towards the outskirts of Jinzhou.

The two sides fought one after another, and the situation became increasingly tense.

But our Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers are united and have a slight advantage!
Although Chongzhen knew that the Qing soldiers were difficult to deal with, he was very relieved that Governor Hong Chengchou had 10,000+ troops to take action.

But in fact, the reports of Jinzhou and Songshan requesting rescue are quite different from those reported to the emperor.

"The slaves (referring to the Qing army) have been all over their nests this time, beating fences inside and digging moats outside, the water is blocked, and the shadows of people are cut off.

Songcheng is eighteen miles away from Jinzhou, and the slaves set up camp five or six miles away from Jinzhou, that is, they are close to Songcheng.

Today the moat fence in Jinzhou has been completed, and all the slaves have ridden around Songcheng. Although the situation is poor, they are actually waiting for Song. "

The defenders of Jinzhou and Songshan were correct in their judgment of the situation.

The purpose of the Qing army's siege of Jinzhou was to attract reinforcements from the main force of the Ming army, forming a siege around Songshan to fight for reinforcements.

Hong Chengchou, who has been on the battlefield for a long time, is of course well aware of this tactical intention.

Therefore, we are cautious about strategic decisive battles, and tend to fight a protracted war, not to compete for gains or losses at any time.

When he reported the military deployment to Chongzhen, on the one hand, he expressed his determination to solve the siege of Jinzhou.

"The enemy is in front, the soldiers are fierce and the battle is in danger, and it is difficult to save the siege and save Jinzhou. The dead will be buried, and the wounded will not recover. The battle will be supervised within half a month, and Jinzhou will be relieved."

On the other hand, he stated his strategy of "fighting and defending".

"For a long time, hold pine and apricot to transfer luck, and the brocade guard is quite firm, not easy to shake.

If the enemy goes further this autumn, not only will the enemy be poor, but North Korea will also be poor.

This is a strategy that can be defended and then fought. "

Hong Chengchou's strategic policy of "defending and then fighting" was realistic and the only feasible solution at that time.

If Huang Taiji wanted a long-term siege, he had to continue to transport food from North Korea to support him.

These days, food is very precious, and it is not so easy to get it anywhere.

Besides, Zu Dashou, the commander-in-chief who stood firm in Jinzhou City, was still full of confidence after being trapped by the Qing army for five months.

He specially sent soldiers out of the city to tell Hong Chengchou that there was still enough food in the city for half a year. He suggested that Hong Chengchou should use the car battalion to press forward step by step and not to fight lightly.

But Hong Chengchou didn't think so. Zu Dashou was besieged, and as long as there was food, he could hold on.

But once the food is exhausted, the generals in Jinzhou, Songshan and other places will be finished.

What's more, the Qing soldiers stepped up their attacks on all sides, harassing the Ming soldiers, and they urgently needed to reinforce Mi Dou.

Hong Chengchou discussed with Qiu Minyang and Wu Sangui again and again, eager to transport more grain and brocade to prevent accidents.

They decided to "take the New Year's holiday and surprise them" to transport the grain.

On the second and third days of the first lunar month, grain was loaded onto carts, with a total of [-] shi. Wu Sangui personally led troops to protect them and rushed to transport them as soon as possible.

Sure enough, this plan escaped the surveillance of the Qing soldiers.

The Ming army entered Jinzhou City on the seventh day, unloaded all the grain, and returned empty on the eighth day.

It was not until the ninth day of the lunar new year that the Qing soldiers heard the news and dispatched [-] cavalry to pursue them in an attempt to seize food.

When they arrived at Shahebao, the Qing army divided into four groups to pursue them, but they were attacked by artillery fire from the Ming army.

The Qing soldiers got nothing and were ambushed because of the pursuit, so they had to retreat from the original road.

The Ming army escorted hundreds of carts carrying [-] shi of grain into Jinzhou safely, which shows that the Qing army did not surround Jinzhou, nor blocked the communication line between Ningjin and Jinzhou.

In other words, they have repeatedly won small-scale conflicts against the Ming army, and they didn't take the Ming army to heart at all, thinking that they dare not leave the city.

And the news from those spies was that many Ming soldiers did not dare to transport food to Jinzhou and other places, so the Qing army became more and more arrogant.

During the so-called siege of the city for half a year, people in Jinzhou went out to hunt in the fields, and carts and oxen were used to transport the army rations, and they came and went at will.

This proves that the Qing army's encirclement of brocade was unsuccessful.

Or it is intentional indulgence, so that they can contact the inner circle in the city to obtain information sources, maybe it is also to confuse Zu Dashou and others.

In short, the Ming army succeeded in transporting grain this time, mainly because the Qing army made a huge mistake.

Huang Taiji once clearly stipulated the siege policy of "from far to near", but the kings Baylor did not seriously implement it, and even violated it and acted on their own.

Dorgon, Haoge, Abatai, Dudu, Luotuo, Shuotuo, Ashan, Tan Tai, etc., when they were carrying out the task of besieging the city, moved their troops without authorization and retreated to the area near the King's Monument (place name, located in the east of Jinzhou). East, camped thirty miles away from Jinzhou.

Not only that, they decided privately that three of Niulu Jiabing would go home once, and then they would go home in turn with five Jiabing each time and one member of Banner Zhangjing.

The wrong decision of Dorgon and others led to serious consequences.

The Qing army that besieged Jinzhou had a large number of downsizing, their morale was lax, and they had no intention of besieging the city.

Ming soldiers and common people in the city could come and go freely, and food and grass were continuously transported into the city.

The horses of the Ming soldiers in Jinzhou City are herded elsewhere.

The soldiers and horses who went out to aid Jin also retreated to rest and raise horses.

It can be said that Dorgon and others sometimes fight wars, but most of the time they are fools.

They are used to looting, so they don't care about such a labor-intensive thing that is not beneficial!
When Huang Taiji learned of this situation, he was furious: "If this stalemate continues, when will we be able to win Jinzhou!"

He was still angry for a day, and the special envoy went to the camp to investigate the matter and ordered them to be given the punishment they deserved.

Zhang Cunren promptly analyzed the reasons why the siege did not work.

He wrote in the memorandum: "My Qing soldiers began to besiege Yizhou, and then besieged Jinzhou, like a tiger besieging pigs and dogs, and the Ming pigs and dogs dare not confront our tigers.

So far they are still fighting like a car, but they really don't know how powerful our army is.

Although the wisdom of the commander-in-chief of the Ming court could not resist our Qing Dynasty, the siege of our Qing soldiers was not strict, so that the Ming generals had to secretly transport food to help them, and they survived to this day. "

In short, Dorgon and the others found an excuse for not doing a good job. After analyzing the reasons for the failure of the previous siege, they proposed new measures for the siege.

In the spring of next year, the soldiers attacked Jinzhou, either digging trenches or bombarding them, and they could not stop.

The city must be won, and the Mongolian soldiers in the city will change and cause chaos in the city.

If it is not done in this way, there is no time limit for taking Jinzhou.

If you want to be trapped for a long time, you must build a platform around the city and surround the city several times before you can get it, just like the old thing of besieging the Daling River. "

He advocated encircling Jin and attacking the three cities of Song, Xing, and Tashan, but Jinzhou would be destroyed without attack.

"Songshan, Xingshan, and Tashan are the wings of Jinzhou and the throat of Ningyuan.

If these three cities are not destroyed, Ning Jin will not lose his courage.

Among the three cities, only Tashan is preferable.

The city is under the two mountains, if it is bombarded from the mountains, the houses will be destroyed by itself, and the city can be obtained without much effort.

Once the city is won, Jinzhou's wings are broken, and Ningyuan's throat is blocked.

The feather broke the throat, and Ning Jin lost his courage. "

The Qing army's "lax siege" and the lawlessness of the siege were the basic reasons for its failure.

Now Huang Taiji started to get angry. After all, he spent so much money and food, and received battle reports from time to time that Dorgon and others fought with the Ming army.

Everyone said that the army was cowardly and did not dare to go out of the city to fight. As a result, people went out of the city casually and smuggled food in. You didn't know the news until a few days later.

It's true that everyone didn't keep my order in mind, so that the cost was so great that they didn't get an inch of success.

Huang Taiji replaced Dorgon and others, and sent Jierharang, Azige, Duoduo, Adaza, and Luo Luohong to lead the army to Jinzhou.

They completely followed Zhang Cunren's suggestion and drove the soldiers of the Eight Banners to camp very close to the city and out of the range of open artillery fire.

Eight camps were erected on each side of the city. Deep trenches were dug around the camps, crenels were built along the trenches, and a long trench was dug between every two flags.

After these deployments, Jinzhou City was already under strict siege by the Qing army.

The [-] Qing soldiers who surrounded the brocade began to dig trenches on all sides of the city and set up [-] cannons.

From Wudaoling, ten miles north of Xingshan Mountain, to Zhaier Mountain, several miles north of Lingshan, there are sentinels from the Qing Dynasty contacting each other, and the mountains are endless.

According to reports from the front, the Qing soldiers dug trenches around the city of Jinzhou and set up sheds inside the trenches.

It was also reported that more than [-] Qing soldiers rode on four sides outside the city to set up Fangjian and Changying, and they dug trenches and besieged the city five or six miles away from the city. The roads have been blocked.

Under Huang Taiji's correction, the battle situation in Liaodong changed greatly, and the atmosphere suddenly became tense.

It has to be said that as soon as the Qing army dug trenches and trapped Jinzhou, they achieved major results.

The outer city of Jinzhou was defended by Mongolian soldiers. They were surprised to see that the Qing army's camp was well-organized and the siege was tight.

Of course, there were also nonchalant Mongols who shouted to the Qing army patrol soldiers: "What's the use of your siege?
The millet accumulated in my city can be enough to feed for two or three years, even if it is besieged, how can we win Jinzhou!"

The patrol soldiers of the Qing army replied: "It doesn't matter two or three years, let's count it as four years. What will you eat in the fifth year?"

It was originally the soldiers who defended the city who teased the Qing army, but they were choked back by the soldiers of the Qing army.

But the reaction in the city was different.

Knowing that the Qing army was determined to win, the Mongolian soldiers became more and more panicked.

Because Zu Dashou was besieged in the city of Dalinghe back then, he ran out of food and ate people, and finally surrendered to the Qing army and returned.

If the siege lasts for a long time, these Mongols will definitely be the first to be eaten.

It's not clear whether the Mongols couldn't help scaring them, or if they wanted to defect to the Qing army and stop being dogs to Ming Dynasty.

Their generals Nomqi and Wu Bashi conspired to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, sent people to the Qing camp with the letter of surrender, and got in touch with Jierhalang. The two sides made several contacts and agreed to take action on the night of March 27.

By the 24th, the incident was discovered by Zu Dashou.

He hurriedly called some of his confidants: "The Mongols are going to surrender the Tartars behind our backs."

Lieutenant General Yang Zhen stood up immediately: "Master, I'm going to kill those scumbags."

Xu Changyong, who is also the deputy general, also said with a gloomy face:
"There is enough food and grass in my city, and there is no shortage of food and drink for this group of Mongolians on weekdays. The imperial court gathered 10,000+ troops here, and they actually want to surrender. They really don't know what to do."

Zu Dashou handed over the outer city of Jinzhou to the Mongols to guard him, and he buried his nails, otherwise he would not have known about it so quickly.

Zu Dashou also thought about the surrender of the Mongols. He only thought that it would be the worst situation when Hong Chengchou and others were defeated and their own food was exhausted.

It is expected that there will be sufficient food and grass in the city, and Huang Taiji has just sent people to start digging trenches outside Jinzhou City for more than a month and so on.

"This is also good news for us." Zu Dashou looked around at several generals and said, "Using the letters from the Mongols, they tricked the Qing army into entering the city to die.

In this way, there will inevitably be a gap between the Qing army and the Mongols, and we can also take advantage of the victory to defend the city. "

"Master has a good idea!" Chen Zhen was the first to agree, "They want to be dogs for the Tartars, so let's kill the dog's owner."

Zu Dashou immediately took emergency measures and prepared his troops.

When it was late, he went to the outer city gate, trying to capture him by trick.

Before the Ming soldiers could make a move, Wu Bashi and others noticed that they led the Mongolian soldiers to fight with weapons.

After all, Zu Dashou didn't usually lead troops out of the inner city on a large scale.

The cries of the two sides fighting came out of the city.

When Jierhalang and Duoduo heard the fierce battle in the city, they quickly sent troops to the city to respond, and the Mongolian soldiers and civilians in the outer city went down to the city.

The Zhengbai Banner and Xiangbai Banner who camped very close to this camp took the lead to climb the city with ropes, and other bannermen nearby also boarded the city one after another, and flanked the Mongolian soldiers.

The outer city was seized by Qing soldiers.

But in this battle, Zu Dashou led the Ming army to kill several generals of the Qing army who led troops to support the Mongols, which can be considered to have achieved some results.

The two sides fought fiercely for a long time. As more and more Qing troops poured in, the Ming army retreated to the inner city and completely abandoned the outer city.

The Mongolian soldiers surrendered from the capital, garrison, and 86 general officials, 210 men, women and children.

They carried equipment and other items out of the city, and were temporarily arranged by Jierhalang to be resettled in Yizhou.

Due to the surrender of the Mongols, Zu Dashou's arrangement in the outer city of Jinzhou fell into the enemy's hands.

The Qing army stationed in the outer city of Jinzhou, further locking down the Ming army in Jinzhou city.

Now even if the Ming army wanted to transport grain into the city, it was impossible.

The only possibility is to attack and destroy the Qing army in the outer city of Jinzhou.

But the news of Jinzhou has not yet reached the ears of Hong Chengchou and the court.

But the news of the Qing army's success was sent to Shenyang.

Huang Taiji was so excited that he ordered the eight gates of the city to beat drums to tell the news of the victory to the soldiers and civilians in the city.

At the same time, he summoned all officials to gather in the Duzheng Hall, and publicly announced that the Qing soldiers had captured the outer city of Jinzhou.

The first results of the siege were seen, which was an important step towards capturing the entire city of Jinzhou.

Huang Taiji became more and more complacent. After all, after being under siege for such a long time, he finally saw hope.