Yongli Ming Dynasty

Chapter 308 Shun Wang
In May, when Zhu Lang led his army into Guizhou Province, Kong Youde and other three Shun kings also set out from Nanjing and went up the river to Wuchang.
Kong Youde and his men only rested briefly in Wuchang before they immediately began to mobilize troops and supplies to station in Yuezhou.
Although He Tengjiao and others had received news from the court and knew in advance that the Qing army was very likely to launch a large-scale attack on Huguang, the people of Huguang were still skeptical about the news from the court.
After the imperial army entered Huguang, they directly beheaded Liu Chengyin, and then threatened the generals of Huguang at every turn, with an extremely cold attitude.
After Huang Chaoxuan, Wang Jincai and other generals discussed privately, they all believed that this was the imperial court killing a chicken to scare the monkeys, and that the so-called Qing army was about to launch a large-scale attack on Huguang, which was most likely a false news released by the imperial court in order to force everyone to submit.

When Liu Xiangke arrived at the Huguang Governor's Office to report the news of the Qing army, he also ordered the Huguang generals to go to the court to pay their respects. However, Liu Chengyin had just been killed by the court at that time. Who dared to pay their respects to His Royal Highness the Regent at that time?

In the end, except for Lu Ding, no other general from Huguang followed Liu Xiangke back to the court to attend the meeting.
Although no one went to Wugang to participate, they sent scouts to Wugang. After Huang Chaoxuan and others found that the imperial army had broken camp and was heading to Gui Province, the generals confirmed their judgment.
If the Qing army really wanted to attack Huguang, how could the imperial army abandon Huguang at this time? Could it be that the imperial court really did not intend to take Huguang? How could this be possible?
Huang Chaoxuan and other generals believed that the so-called massive Qing army attack was false news, or at least not that massive, so they simply ignored He Tengjiao's frequent orders to gather troops.

After the imperial army left Wugang, the towns in Huguang continued to do as they pleased, each staying in their own garrisons and acting tyrannically.

In May, it was not until the Qing army transported soldiers and supplies to Yuezhou that the generals began to panic. The court did not lie. The Qing army actually entered Huguang!

After the towns of Huguang found out about the Qing army, they hurriedly gathered in Changsha Prefecture again. He Tengjiao once again asked everyone to gather their troops immediately.

This time, no one objected, but the towns started arguing about how many troops to send. They took the opportunity to ask He Tengjiao for all kinds of supplies.
The generals of Huguang gathered in Changsha and argued for several days, but could not come up with a conclusion. Seeing that the generals were arguing endlessly, He Tengjiao had no choice but to send his own Du Biao Battalion to Xiangyin to guard it.
Yuezhou is the gateway from Hubei to Hunan. After the loss of Yuezhou, the Ming army could only defend Xiangyin, south of Yuezhou. If Xiangyin fell, the Qing army could drive directly to Changsha.
He Tengjiao, with Zhang Kuang and Fu Shangrui as the commanders, led 15,000 soldiers from the Dubiao Battalion, including General Man Dazhuang, and marched to Xiangyin.

Huang Chaoxuan, Cao Zhijian and others in the city were relieved when they saw that He Tengjiao had sent out soldiers, and they began to ask for supplies and money with greater ease.
He Tengjiao's remaining battalion had already been dispatched, and he had no more troops available. If he didn't ask for supplies now, when would he wait?

But it was too late. While the towns of Huguang were arguing over their salaries in Changsha, the Qing army's food and supplies had already been quickly gathered in Yuezhou.
Kong Youde and his men were still transporting supplies to Yuezhou on the surface, but secretly they were gathering boats and soldiers, and quietly transporting 3,000 elite troops to the north of Xiangyin City via the Dongting Lake.

When Zhang Kuang and his men arrived at Xiangyin, Xiangyin had already fallen into the hands of the Qing army.
Xian Guoan, the chief general of the Qing army in the city, discovered the whereabouts of the Ming army in advance. He took the opportunity to lead his troops out of the city to attack the Ming army while they were still unstable. In one battle, he directly defeated the Du Biao Camp led by Zhang Kuang.

Zhang Kuang and his companions were rescued by Man Dazhuang in the chaos, and the so-called Du Biao personal army built by He Tengjiao with all the taxes from Huguang for several years was completely wiped out.

After Zhang Kuang and his men fled back to Changsha, the towns of Huguang in the city finally panicked. After hasty discussions, the towns finally reached a consensus to gather troops to resist the enemy.
At this time, no one asked for silver or anything like that. They just ordered the Huguang Governor's Office to provide the rice and grain that the troops needed after arriving in Changsha. Then they returned to their garrisons and hurried to Changsha.
In mid-May, Kong Youde and the other three kings finally led their troops to the city after reorganizing the surrendered troops from Xiangyin. At this time, Changsha City was already crowded with troops.
Huang Chaoxuan led 20,000 troops, Cao Zhijian led 5,000, Zhang Xianbi led 5,000, Ma Jinzhong and Wang Yuncheng abandoned their garrison at Yuanjiang, close to Yuezhou, and led their entire army of more than 10,000 elite troops.
Hao Yongzhong also led 5,000 veterans from Chenzhou to Changsha. Together with Wang Jincai's 15,000 troops who were already near Changsha, Changsha had a total of 60,000 troops.

Kong Youde and others led 30,000 Qing troops to Changsha, while the Ming troops in the city were twice as many as the Qing troops.

He Tengjiao saw that the Ming army had an absolute advantage in terms of manpower, so he immediately decided to take advantage of the long journey of Kong Youde and others to engage in a decisive battle with the Qing army.
In fact, He Tengjiao had no choice but to fight a decisive battle. The Huguang Governor's Office suddenly gathered 60,000 troops. It seemed very powerful, but it also brought with it extremely heavy logistical pressure.
Sixty thousand soldiers and horses would consume nearly a thousand stones of food and grass every day even if they did nothing.
The monthly grain supply from the imperial court to the Huguang Governor's Office was only 2,000 dan, which was not enough for the consumption of 60,000 people for 3 to 5 days.

In the face of a shortage of food and grass, the Huguang Governor's Office had no choice but to fight the Qing army quickly, hoping to force the Qing army back in one battle, and then divert the army to the prefectures and counties near Changsha to get food and ease the pressure on food and wages.

The Ming army wanted to fight a decisive battle, and Kong Youde and others also wanted to fight a decisive battle. The Ming army was short of food and wages, and the Qing army was also under great logistical pressure.
More importantly, after the defeat in Zhejiang and Fujian, the people in the Qing court were in turmoil, and they also needed a big victory to stabilize their hearts.
After being assigned to the Jiangsu-Zhejiang front, Xushun Gong Shen Zhixiang and Jin Li and others also tried to counterattack Fujian and Zhejiang, but they could not make any progress under the defense of Li Mingzhong's 20,000 Wuxiang troops.

Shen Zhixiang and his men tried to forcefully attack Quzhou, but were defeated by the red barbarian heavy artillery brought from Fujian Province by the Ming army. Li Mingzhong led his men out of the city to pursue them, chasing them for dozens of miles and beheading more than 2,000 Han army flags. Finally, they fled to Jinhua, and then relied on the city wall to block the pursuit of the Ming army.
The Qing army was almost defeated in Zhejiang Province. From then on, the Qing army on the Jiangsu and Zhejiang fronts never dared to take the initiative to attack again.

Seeing that the Zhejiang-Fujian front was unable to be attacked, Dorgon could only urge Kong Youde and other three kings to win another victory in Huguang.

Both sides were ready for a decisive battle, and both sides lined up outside Changsha City.
On the Ming side, He Tengjiao used Wang Jincai and Hao Yongzhong's troops as the center, Huang Chaoxuan's troops as the right wing, Cao Zhijian, Zhang Xianbi, Ma Jinzhong and others as the left wing, and Kong Youde and other three kings' troops also lined up opposite each other.
After the two sides lined up, Kong Youde and other Qing troops, who were obviously smaller in number, took the initiative to attack.
Kong Youde and his men advanced gradually with shield carts in front. When they approached the Ming army, the three kings' army fired artillery at the same time. More than 200 large general cannons roared out almost at the same time, immediately disrupting the front line of the Ming army.
The Huguang Ming army was in a state of panic, arrows flew everywhere, and the tiger squat cannon and bowl mouth cannon placed in front of the formation also made loud noises.

The Ming army fought fiercely, but they failed to hurt even a single Qing soldier. The artillery they used were almost all tiger squat cannons and bowl-mouth cannons.

The range of these small cannons weighing dozens of kilograms is only one or two hundred meters. The Three Kings' Army is still three hundred meters away, and there are tall shield carts blocking the way in front. No matter how hard the Ming army fights, it is useless.
After several rounds of artillery fire from the Qing army, the front of the Ming army was in chaos. At this time, the cavalry in the rear of the Three Kings Army also began to charge. Thousands of Qing soldiers in cloth armor galloped at the same time and rushed to the side of the Ming army. The first to collapse among the Ming army was the right wing. Huang Chaoxuan saw the Qing cavalry rushing towards the right wing, but without saying a word, he fled backwards with 3,000 elite soldiers in the rear of the right wing.
As soon as Huang Chao's flag was withdrawn, the right wing of the Ming army was in chaos. The Qing cavalry rushed into the right wing of the Ming army and hacked and killed them. The right wing of the Ming army immediately collapsed. The battlefield was full of panicked Ming soldiers.

In fact, even if Huang Chaoxuan did not flee, he could not stop the Qing cavalry. The so-called 20,000 elite troops Huang Chaoxuan sent to support this time, except for the 3,000 people under his central army, most of the others were civilians who worked in the fields half a year ago.

After these people were captured by the army, they basically had to eat a bowl of porridge every day to survive. Sometimes they didn't even have a bowl of porridge. They could only rely on the so-called military commanders appointed by Huang Chaoxuan, such as the guards and generals, to find ways to occupy land and plunder.
Huang Chaoxuan relied on these recruited people and claimed to have 100,000 soldiers, becoming the largest town in Hunan Province.
Huang Chaoxuan relied on the so-called 100,000 troops under his command to plunder at will on the border of Hunan and Jiangxi, and demanded official positions and salaries from the Ming court. Finally, during the Longwu Dynasty, he was granted the title of Pingxiang Earl, a fifth-rank nobility.
The Huguang Governor's Office wanted to rely on these so-called large troops who were half-dressed and could not even hold a sword to resist the Liaodong soldiers under the command of Kong Youde and others. It was simply a pipe dream.
Huang Chaoxuan led his troops to flee, and the right wing of the Ming army was greatly defeated. Kong Youde and others immediately saw the opportunity. Thousands of cavalrymen hacked and killed in the right wing of the Ming army, and then drove the right wing's defeated soldiers to rush towards Wang Jincai's troops in the center.
Wang Jincai's troops were under artillery fire from Kong Youde's troops in front, and were attacked by the fleeing soldiers on the right, and they were instantly in chaos.
Once Wang Jincai's troops were defeated, the chaos in the Ming army could no longer be stopped. Thousands of Liaodong cavalry drove tens of thousands of Ming troops from east to west, as if they were in an empty land.

After Wang Jincai's troops were defeated, Ma Jinzhong and others on the left wing were also in chaos. Before the two armies engaged in battle, the 60,000 troops assembled by the Ming court had already been routed.
In the mountains and plains, there were panic-stricken Ming army soldiers everywhere, and some of them even fought each other in order to fight for a way to escape.
After Wang Jincai's troops in the central army were defeated, the other Ming troops fled without saying a word. Cao Zhijian, Zhang Xianbi, Ma Jinzhong and others withdrew from the battlefield with some of their elite troops before the chaotic army arrived.

After Cao Zhijian and his men withdrew, only a group of weak soldiers without command were left on the left wing. More than 10,000 defeated soldiers from the Ming army's center rushed over, and the Ming army on the left wing was completely defeated. At this point, there was no organized Ming army on the battlefield.

Seeing the Ming army in front of him being defeated, Hao Yongzhong, who was in the rear of the central army, did not hesitate at all. He ignored He Tengjiao who was struggling in the rear and directly led his elite troops, including He Tengjiao, Zhang Kuang and other senior officials of the Huguang Governor's Office, to flee to the rear.
Although the Qing army broke through the Ming army, the tens of thousands of Ming soldiers who fled in panic on the battlefield also blocked the Qing army's pursuit.
Hao Yongzhong led He Tengjiao out of the battlefield, but did not even enter Changsha. Instead, they bypassed Changsha and fled southward.
All the armies on the battlefield are fleeing for their lives. After the great victory, the Qing army will certainly besiege Changsha with all their strength.
Huang Chaoxuan and his men each had their own garrisons. Now that the city was defeated, except for Ma Jinzhong's troops who had already abandoned their garrisons, the others would definitely flee back to their own bases and would never return to Changsha to defend the city.
Hao Yongzhong fled with He Tengjiao in a hurry. At this time, there were only more than 2,000 elite soldiers left. If they returned to Changsha to defend the city, they would be courting death.
As the Ming army fled in panic, the Battle of Changsha officially ended. In just half a day, the 60,000 troops gathered by the Ming court were completely defeated by Kong Youde and others.

In this battle, the Qing army suffered less than 300 casualties, but nearly 10,000 were beheaded and more than 30,000 Ming soldiers were captured.

When Kong Youde and his men arrived at Changsha City, the city was already in chaos.

The commanders of the armies fled, and He Tengjiao was taken away by Hao Yongzhong. At this time, only some middle and low-ranking officials and some minor officers were left in Changsha.

After learning that the 60,000-strong Ming army had been defeated, the people in the city were completely desperate and opened the city to surrender.

After the Ming army fled, just as Hao Yongzhong had expected, Huang Chaoxuan fled back to You County to defend himself.
Zhang Xianbi fled back to Xiangxiang. After discovering the traces of the Qing army, he did not dare to defend his old nest Xiangxiang anymore. Zhang Xianbi directly abandoned the so-called 20,000 troops in the city and led his 5,000 elite soldiers to flee to Hengshan in a hurry.
Hengshan was previously the garrison of Cao Zhijian. Seeing that the Qing army was about to sweep across Hunan Province, Cao Zhijian was also timid, so he also welcomed Zhang Xianbi into Hengshan, preparing to rely on the strength of the two families to defend the city.

Hao Yongzhong took He Tengjiao, Zhang Kuang and other officials from the Huguang Governor's Office and fled southwards, passing through Hengshan County and fleeing southwards to Hengzhou.

The supply area of ​​Ma Jinzhong and Wang Yuncheng's troops was originally in the Yuan River west of Yuezhou. Long before Kong Youde and others attacked Changsha, Ma Jinzhong and others had already abandoned the Yuan River and retreated to Changsha.
If Ma Jinzhong had not withdrawn at that time, the Qing army would have attacked Ma Jinzhong and others in Yuanjiang first after capturing Xiangyin, clearing away the threat of retreat.
Ma Jinzhong and his men had already lost their base. Wang Jincai's base was near Changsha. When the Qing army captured Changsha, Wang Jincai also lost his base. After the two armies fled the battlefield, they had no idea where to go.
Ma Jinzhong, Wang Jincai and others fled southwards, first to Hengshan, but at that time Hengshan had already accommodated the troops of Cao Zhijian and Zhang Xianbi, and could not afford to support more soldiers.

For Cao Zhijian, Zhang Xianbi, who had been in Huguang for many years, was obviously more trustworthy than Ma Jinzhong and Wang Jincai, who were both bandit generals.
When Ma Jinzhong and his companions arrived at the foot of Hengshan City, Cao Zhijian and his companions closed the city gates tightly and refused to let Ma Jinzhong and his companions enter the city.
However, considering that if the Qing army came after them, they might ask Ma Jinzhong and others for help in the future, Cao Zhijian did not take action against Ma Jinzhong and others.

Cao Zhijian symbolically gave Ma Jinzhong and his men 100 dan of rice, and then told them to find another place to live on the grounds that the city was too small. Ma Jinzhong and Wang Jincai had no choice but to continue fleeing south.

Ma Jinzhong and his men had nowhere to go at this time. Along the way, the army's food and wages were almost all obtained by looting. After escaping Hengshan and learning that He Tengjiao had fled to Hengzhou, Ma Jinzhong and Wang Jincai also immediately rushed to Hengzhou.
Changsha had already fallen. Although He Tengjiao was furious, he could do nothing about it and had to reorganize the governor's office in Hengzhou.

When He Tengjiao saw that Ma Jinzhong and Wang Jincai had surrendered, he accepted them directly and placed Ma Jinzhong and others near Hengzhou. At the same time, he contacted Cao Zhijian and other defeated generals, hoping to gather troops again and stop the Qing army at Hengshan.

(End of this chapter)