Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1112: The same old trick?

In the following days, daily military reports continued to arrive, and with the arrival of these reports, the situation on the Liaodong battlefield gradually became clear.

On the front battlefield, Wang Jinwu led the main force to capture Haicheng and continued to advance to the northeast. The vanguard had approached Liaozhong, which is Liaodong Town where the Liaodong Regional Military Commission was previously located.

This place was not far from Shengjing, or Shenyang, the capital of the Jiannu. If one rode a fast horse, they could arrive there in less than two days. When the news reached Shengjing, Bumbutai and other nobles of the Eight Banners were horrified and at a loss what to do.

Although Jian Nu sent several cavalry units to block the Ming army's continuous approach, and used cavalry tactics to try to cut off the Ming army's retreat and make the Ming army lose their composure, Jian Nu was very good at this tactic, and had always used this method in fighting against the Ming army, but this time the tried and tested tactic did not work. The Ming army they were facing now was not the weak Ming army before. The Ming army led by Wang Jinwu was not only the elite among the Ming army, but also had the most capable new army troops in the Ming Dynasty. How could it be possible that these eight banners could defeat it?
Apart from this reason, the troops led by Sun Chuanting were also unstoppable after crossing the sea and landing. They pushed northward from the landing in Dalan, and took advantage of the fact that the Eight Banners troops were attracted by Wang Jinwu's main force to defeat the Eight Banners garrisons in Fuzhou and Gaizhou one after another. At the same time, they made a detour and marched from southwest to northeast, with the main force heading straight to Benxi.

That's not all. Li Xin and Li You's troops attacked from Pi Island to block Dorgon's return. Although they failed to intercept Dorgon's main force because Dorgon changed his itinerary temporarily, they also swallowed up a detachment of troops released by Dorgon. After realizing that Dorgon had changed the direction of retreat, this troop decisively went north and finally arrived at the battlefield when Dorgon was entangled by the Solon tribe heading south. The two tribes had several small-scale battles, and both sides suffered losses. Dorgon saw that the situation was not right and did not want to fight. He hurriedly led his troops to retreat towards Shenyang. This troop took advantage of the situation and joined forces with the Solon tribe heading south. They did not advance rashly and kept a distance from Dorgon's troops and harassed them continuously, which gave Dorgon a headache.

After about ten days, the Ming army finally captured two important places, Liaozhong and Benxi. At this time, most of the Liaodong hinterland had fallen into the hands of the Ming army. With these two places as the base, the Ming army has formed a pincer attack on Shenyang. In the northeast, although Dorgon finally returned to Shengjing, his troops also suffered a lot of losses. What's more fatal is that another Ming army following Dorgon's army has arrived at Fushun. Although Fushun is still in the hands of Jiannu, judging from the situation, it is only a matter of time before the Ming army captures Fushun.

The Jiannu were completely at a disadvantage in the entire Liaodong war, not to mention the bad news coming from Khorchin.

Agudamu and the main force of the Ming army finally seized the opportunity and defeated the main cavalry of Khorchin in one battle. Khorchin Prince Qitat was defeated and even ignored his wife and children. He rushed out of the siege with hundreds of people and fled to the north. Agudamu sent a cavalry of 1,000 people to chase him, but failed. Now no one knows where Qitat has gone and whether he is dead or alive. But no matter what, it is a real fact that Khorchin is finished.

The loss of Khorchin was a huge blow to Jiannu. Not only did Jiannu lose a reliable ally, but because of Khorchin's defeat, Agudamu's Mongolian cavalry and the Ming army in Mongolia could directly advance eastward along Khorchin's territory and fight to Liaodong.

Once this happened, the Jiannu in Shenyang would be surrounded on all sides and their defeat would be inevitable.

At this time, the nobles of the Eight Banners in Shenyang were arguing non-stop. Many people criticized Dorgon for leading the main force to conquer Korea and Hauge, and why he could not tolerate Hauge. If Dorgon could live in peace with Hauge, then the Qing Dynasty would never have fallen into the previous civil war, and would not have given the Ming Dynasty the opportunity it has now.

Now, the civil war not only failed to defeat Hauge, but also caused the Qing army to suffer losses because of the expedition. What's more fatal is that the Ming Dynasty took this opportunity to launch a full-scale attack on Liaodong, not only taking over the Liaoxi Corridor, but also occupying the southern part of the Liaohe Plain. The current situation is even worse, half of Liaodong has fallen into the hands of the Ming army, and Shengjing is already in danger.

Faced with these accusations, Dorgon's face turned pale and he was extremely angry. These were all easy words to say, why didn't anyone oppose them in the first place? They were all wagging their tails in front of him like dogs, but now they jumped out to accuse him when they saw that the situation was not right?

What is Hauge? Don't you know? If it weren't for Hauge, how could Korea escape from the control of the Qing Dynasty? And Hauge has already rebelled, shouldn't he, as the regent, put down the rebellion? As for the sudden situation in the Ming Dynasty, who could have predicted it? And when I went to Korea, nearly half of the troops were left in Shengjing. Are you all useless?

Back then, the Khan and Huang Taiji were able to defeat the Ming army of hundreds of thousands with only tens of thousands of people, so that they dared not leave the city. How many people have come from the Ming Dynasty now? You fought the war like this? How dare you cause trouble for yourself?

In anger, Dorgon showed no mercy and dealt with several people harshly in his capacity as regent, which suppressed the unrest among the people.

After that, Dorgon considered it again and again and decided to use the tactics of the Battle of Sarhu to deal with this crisis. To put it bluntly, it was a tactic of "no matter how many routes you come, I will go all the way" to break through the surface and defeat part of the Ming army first to take the initiative. The current Ming army is actually four armies, which is similar to the Battle of Sarhu. Let's not worry about Khorchin for now. The battle of Khorchin has just ended. It will take time for Agudamu and the Ming army there to march eastward. They can't defeat them in a short time, so they can be left alone.

What he had to face now were three Ming armies in Liaozhong, Fushun and Benxi, or rather a joint attack by the Ming army and the Solon tribe. Of course, the strongest and most capable of these three armies was Wang Jinwu's main force in Liaozhong. This army brought great trouble to the Eight Banners. Even the battle-hardened Sony and Aobai were defeated by them. The Eight Banners tried many methods but could not find the weakness.

As for the Ming army in Fushun, Sun Chuanting was the main general, and his main force was part of the new army and Gao Jie's troops in Jizhou Town. This army had about 30,000 people, and its combat effectiveness was not bad. It had already occupied Fushun. From the current situation, Sun Chuanting had no intention of going north immediately. It seemed that he planned to use Fushun as a base to cooperate with the main force in Liaozhong. Therefore, even if the Ming army in Fushun had an advantage in manpower, it would be difficult to fight. Once Sun Chuanting held his ground and the Ming army in Liaozhong rushed from the west, Dorgon would be attacked from both sides.

So after thinking about it, Dorgon decided to deal with the Ming army and the Suolong tribe in Benxi first. Dorgon hated this army. The withdrawal of the Suolong tribe and the subsequent Ming army caused him great trouble. If it were not for the safety of Shengjing, Dorgon would have to teach them a lesson with his temper.

Now, the situation in Shengjing has been temporarily stabilized. After returning, Dorgon reorganized the army and launched a general mobilization to mobilize the Eight Banners. The troops in his hands are not only not a small number, but even more than when he withdrew.

With such an army, and Benxi still in the hands of the Qing Dynasty, it is more appropriate to attack this army. Once the Ming army and the Suolun tribe are dealt with, the Qing Dynasty will no longer have any worries in the east and northeast. At that time, Dorgon will continue to march down from the southwest and directly into Benxi. Even if Benxi cannot be taken, as long as the main force of the Ming army in Liaozhong can be mobilized to fight the opponent in the field, Dorgon will have some confidence in defeating the opponent with the Eight Banners.

One has to admit that Dorgon’s plan was good and his judgment was correct.

Indeed, the weakest among the Ming armies was the Benxi army, because this army was originally under the command of Sun Chuanting and Li Xin. Although this army joined forces with the Suolun army, the two sides had different combat coordination and combat methods, and the purpose of this army was not to destroy Dorgon's army, but just to cause some trouble for Dorgon's withdrawal, and was used as a detachment.

Once this unit was destroyed by Dorgon, a gap would be created in the Ming army's encirclement on all sides, which would be extremely unfavorable to the subsequent strategy of attacking Shenyang.

Dorgon quickly mobilized a large army and left 10,000 people to garrison outside Shengjing. He pulled out almost all the available troops and led them personally, rushing quickly from Shengjing to Benxi, intending to join forces with the Benxi garrison to annihilate the Ming army and the Solon tribe.

It was only a day's journey by horseback from Shengjing to Benxi. To be on the safe side, Dorgon divided his troops into two parts. He had one part pretend to be the main force and advance directly, while he personally led the other part, first heading north and then east, intending to outflank the enemy and, when the battle broke out, directly penetrate the enemy's rear and defeat the enemy in one fell swoop.

It must be said that Dorgon was a rough but meticulous person, and his plan was very good. And his arrangement did confuse the opponent. When they learned that the reinforcements from Shengjing were coming to Benxi, the Ming army and the cavalry of the Suolong tribe discussed and took the initiative to withdraw eastward, distance themselves from Benxi, and avoid direct fighting between the two sides.

Both the Ming army and the Solon tribe knew that their forces were much smaller than those of the other routes. The total number of the Ming army and the Solon cavalry was less than 20,000. These troops were simply no match for Dorgon's elite Eight Banners with more than 70,000 troops, not to mention that there were several thousand Eight Banners troops stationed in Benxi.

Once they were defeated, the consequences would be disastrous. Now it was the best option to keep a proper distance and see what was happening. But none of them expected that when they took the initiative to retreat and retreated to the deck east of Benxi, Dorgon's real main force had already detoured hundreds of miles under his leadership and quietly ran to Hui'an Fort in the northeast of Fushun, and turned around from Hui'an Fort to march southeast and directly into the deck.

(End of this chapter)