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

Chapter 509 Yongping
Hei Yunlong was promoted, but he was not in a good mood. Perhaps it was because of the death of Man Gui and others in battle, or because of the harshness of the court on the soldiers and the attitude of Emperor Chongzhen towards his subjects, which made Hei Yunlong very angry. But what can he do? As a general of the Ming Dynasty, facing the current situation, he has no other choice.

After finishing a pot of wine, Hei Yunlong stood up and left. Having just experienced a great defeat, as the current commander-in-chief, he still had a lot of things to arrange, especially since Huang Taiji was still eyeing him covetously, so he had to be on guard.

After sending Hei Yunlong away, Zhu Shenzui sighed secretly in his heart, but now was not the time to think about other things. Facing a powerful enemy, the key was to solve the Jiannu problem. However, with the remnants of the Xuanda Army after the great defeat and the Guanning Army, the Ming army could only barely maintain a defensive position.

The news of Xuan's army's defeat soon reached Tongzhou. Sun Chengzong, who was reorganizing the army in Tongzhou, looked solemn when he heard the news. He did not expect that such a major event would happen just a few days after he left the capital. The death of Man Gui caused heavy losses to the Ming army in the capital, which could have been secured. If Huang Taiji continued to attack the capital, the danger of the capital would be self-evident. In particular, the attitude of Emperor Chongzhen would make the situation of the war change unpredictably.

At this time, Sun Chengzong no longer hesitated and decided to use his own method to rescue the capital. Sun Chengzong led his troops directly from Tongzhou to the north, then westward, and joined forces with Ma Shilong's troops. In addition, he ordered the Liaodong troops in Shanhaiguan to reinforce the interior of the pass to strengthen the military power in his hands.

When Sun Chengzong led his troops to the vicinity of Jizhou and joined forces with Ma Shilong, the total strength of both sides reached 15,000. In addition, the Liaodong Army also sent reinforcements to the west with about 17,000 troops. The two forces added up to 32,000 people, which was enough to fight against the Jiannu in terms of military strength.

After the reinforcements arrived, Sun Chengzong ordered the Ming troops to attack the Eight Banners near Jizhou, and the two sides fought over Jizhou.

In two consecutive battles, the Ming army was defeated by the Eight Banners. However, Sun Chengzong was worthy of being Sun Chengzong. Although he was defeated, he did not panic. In addition, he inflicted considerable casualties on the Eight Banners soldiers through these two battles. Among them, Chu Ying's son Du Shou was injured, and the horse that Ajige was riding was killed, and he himself was almost killed.

In addition, seven senior generals of the Eight Banners were killed in the battle, which dealt a severe blow to the arrogant Huang Taiji.

Because Sun Chengzong took the initiative to provoke a war in Jizhou, forcing Huang Taiji's main force to shift its target from the capital to Jizhou and Zunhua, and showing an attitude of cutting off Huang Taiji's retreat at all costs. Faced with such changes in the Ming army, Huang Taiji had to withdraw his troops to deal with Sun Chengzong in the north, because Huang Taiji knew very well that once the line from Jizhou to Zunhua was occupied by the Ming army, his retreat to the grassland would be cut off. Without a retreat, his army would be extremely dangerous in the heart of the Ming Dynasty. Huang Taiji, who had experienced many battles, would not fail to understand this truth, so he could only turn around and deal with Sun Chengzong first.

But Sun Chengzong was not so easy to deal with. He had expected these two defeats. Although the Ming army was defeated judging from the battle situation, the Eight Banners also suffered losses. In particular, by starting a war in Jizhou, Sun Chengzong directly attracted Huang Taiji's main force from the capital to Jizhou, which in disguise alleviated the capital's plight.

After the two battles, Sun Chengzong ordered Ma Shilong to lead his troops to garrison Jizhou City and closely monitor the movements of the Eight Banners, ready to cut off Huang Taiji's retreat at any time. At the same time, Sun Chengzong ordered Liu Xingzuo, who came to reinforce, to garrison Yongping and cooperate with Ma Shilong in Jizhou to attack from the east and west.

But unexpectedly, when Liu Xingzuo led his troops to Yongping, the officials of Yongping City refused to allow Liu Xingzuo's army to enter the city, on the grounds that there was insufficient food and grass in the city to supply the army.

Liu Xingzuo knew that this was done intentionally by the officials of Yongping, but he could do nothing about it.

Liu Xingzuo was originally a surrendered general and one of the first Ming people in Liaodong to follow Nurhaci in his uprising. He was once highly valued by Nurhaci.

However, because Nurhaci looked down on the Ming people and was very wary of Liu Xingzuo, Liu Xingzuo was very dissatisfied with Nurhaci. Since the second year of the Tianqi reign, Liu Xingzuo had been secretly communicating with the Ming Dynasty, privately defected to Mao Wenlong, and continuously supplied intelligence to the Ming Dynasty.

Later, because of the incident, Liu Xingzuo was almost beheaded by Nurhaci. Considering his previous contributions, he was spared, but most of his rights were deprived. After Nurhaci's death, Huang Taiji succeeded to the throne. In order to consolidate his power, Huang Taiji cleaned up the Eight Banners, eliminated dissidents and suppressed opponents, and Liu Xingzuo's life there became even more difficult.

Liu Xingzuo decided to go all out. At this time, he knew that if he continued to stay with Huang Taiji, Huang Taiji would eventually take his life. For this reason, he faked his death to escape and directly surrendered to Mao Wenlong in Pi Island.

After Liu Xingzuo surrendered to Mao Wenlong, Mao Wenlong valued him very much and gave him important positions, but no one expected that Yuan Chonghuan would kill Mao Wenlong just one year later. After Mao Wenlong's death, in order to appease Dongjiang Town and divide the people, Yuan Chonghuan specially petitioned the court to promote Liu Xingzuo to the rank of lieutenant general and actually take charge of the affairs of deputy general, and let him lead one of the four associations of Dongjiang Town.

From this point of view, Liu Xingzuo was not a legitimate general of the Ming army. His previous experience was complicated and he was an outlier in the Ming army. Mao Wenlong trusted Liu Xingzuo, but Mao Wenlong is now dead. Yuan Chonghuan also used him, but the purpose of using him was to divide the military power of Mao Wenlong's original subordinates and use Liu Xingzuo as a pawn to control the military force of Dongjiang Town in disguise.

As for other Ming army generals, only a few of them had a good relationship with Liu Xingzuo, not to mention the civil officials who originally looked down on military generals.

This time, Sun Chengzong transferred Liu Xingzuo to reinforce the interior of the country, and he still trusted Liu Xingzuo very much. Unfortunately, although Sun Chengzong had the right to restrain Liu Xingzuo, he did not have the authority to directly command the officials of Yongping. Moreover, Sun Chengzong was not in Yongping at the moment, so he could not support Liu Xingzuo. After the officials of Yongping City refused Liu Xingzuo to enter the city, Liu Xingzuo had no choice but to take his troops to fight on the outskirts of Yongping, and at the same time sent someone to report the matter to Sun Chengzong.

Liu Xingzuo gathered the remnants of the Ming army outside Yongping City and led his army to fight against the Eight Banners. When he found that a part of the Jiannu was escorting the materials and people looted from the capital and preparing to return to the grassland from Zunhua, Liu Xingzuo decisively sensed the opportunity to attack the Jiannu. He quickly gathered his troops and prepared to take this opportunity to sneak attack the Jiannu and give them a hard blow.

Because Liu Xingzuo was well prepared and the Jiannu who were escorting supplies and people were not the real elite of the Eight Banners, Liu Xingzuo's sneak attack was very successful. Late at night, Liu Xingzuo led his troops to sneak near the Jiannu camp and launched a sudden attack when the Jiannu were unprepared. When attacking the camp, Liu Xingzuo also took advantage of the fact that he and his subordinates were originally under Nurhaci. While setting fire and killing people, he shouted in Manchu "We are defeated! Run for your life!" In the dark, the Jiannu had no idea how many people the Ming army had, and they heard the familiar Manchu language one after another. For a time, they were all panicked and scrambled to escape, and were defeated by Liu Xingzuo.

In this battle, Liu Xingzuo used 800 elite cavalrymen and more than 1,000 infantrymen to directly defeat 3,000 Jiannu troops and killed more than 500 of them. The remaining Jiannu troops fled in panic.

This battle not only demonstrated the power of the Ming army, but also saved thousands of civilians who were abducted by the Jiannu and seized countless supplies, making Liu Xingzuo proud.

After the war, Liu Xingzuo sent the victory report to Sun Chengzong, who was extremely happy. At the same time, he sent someone to remind Liu Xingzuo not to take the victory too lightly, and asked Liu Xingzuo to be cautious and not to attack without authorization. His main task was to guard Yongping. As long as Yongping was in his hands, the Jian Nu would have no way to do anything to him.

Unfortunately, Liu Xingzuo did not take Sun Chengzong's reminder to heart. In order to prove that he did not follow Sun Chengzong's instructions and defend Yongping, Liu Xingzuo, who won the battle, planned to continue looking for opportunities to fight and use the heads of the Jiannu to wash away his previous shame.

Two days later, another opportunity came. When Liu Xingzuo learned that a small group of Eight Banners and Mongolian troops were heading north, also carrying supplies and looted people, Liu Xingzuo quickly made the decision to attack again. This battle was as smooth as the previous one. Liu Xingzuo personally led the troops to charge into the battle. In a few rounds, he killed dozens of Eight Banners and Mongolian soldiers, dispersed the rest of the Jiannu, and seized supplies and people.

After the war, Liu Xingzuo once again asked the court for credit and asked his subordinates to escort the supplies and people back to Yongping, while he still led the main force to search for the escaped Eight Banners and Mongolian soldiers nearby. However, he never expected that it was this action that made Liu Xingzuo regret it, because he had no idea that the defeated Jiannu and Mongolians he killed were actually a trap set for him by Huang Taiji.

After the previous sneak attack, Huang Taiji soon learned that Liu Xingzuo was in Yongping again. Huang Taiji hated Liu Xingzuo to the core and wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible. In order to get rid of Liu Xingzuo and secure his retreat, Huang Taiji decided to let the Ming army in Jizhou go first and turn around to kill Liu Xingzuo first.

In this way, Huang Taiji sent Abatai and Jirgalang to lead their subordinates, leading 500 elite Eight Banners White Armor soldiers plus ordinary Eight Banners and Mongolian vassal soldiers, totaling about 4,000 people, to rush to the vicinity of Yongping at night, intending to encircle and annihilate Liu Xingzuo.

When they arrived near Yongping, Abatai received a report from his subordinates that a Ming soldier had been captured. He asked his subordinates to bring the man to him and after questioning he learned that the Ming soldier was actually a garrison in Yongping City. This Ming soldier had escaped from Yongping City and voluntarily surrendered to the Jiannu.

After asking the other party, they learned that Yongping City rejected Liu Xingzuo's request to garrison in the city, so Liu Xingzuo and his troops were not in Yongping City, but outside Yongping City. After knowing this information, Abatai and Jirgalang were overjoyed at the same time. They both thought that this was very important information for them and a good opportunity to kill Liu Xingzuo.

Yongping City is nothing compared to Liu Xingzuo, and the latter poses a far greater threat to Jiannu. As long as Liu Xingzuo is gone, Yongping City is nothing to worry about. The key now lies in Liu Xingzuo. In order to lure Liu Xingzuo into the trap, Abatai and Jirgalang discussed and decided to lure Liu Xingzuo to attack by escorting supplies and people with a small force, and let the Yongping City garrison soldiers who surrendered to them send false information to Liu Xingzuo. They believed that with Liu Xingzuo's character, once he learned of the news, he would definitely be eager to send troops. As long as he sent troops and stayed away from Yongping City, the opportunity would come.

(End of this chapter)