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

Chapter 666 The First Battle

Zhu Shenzui attached great importance to this war because it was the first foreign war since he took office as regent.

The Liaodong issue has been going on for more than 20 years since the Battle of Sarhu in the Wanli period. During this period, the war between the Ming Dynasty and the Jiannu has never stopped. From Nurhaci to the current Huang Taiji, the Ming Dynasty only maintained a strategic advantage for a short period of time, and that was during the period of Sun Chengzong. It was at a disadvantage for most of the other periods.

There were countless battles of varying sizes, and the Ming army always suffered more defeats than victories. Nearly ten important officials in charge of Liaodong alone were replaced one after another, and many generals died in the battles, not to mention the losses of the Liaodong military and civilians.

The amount of military expenditure spent by the imperial court on Liaodong every year was frightening, but the problem of Liaodong could never be solved, let alone destroying the Jiannu and recovering Liaodong. In the previous two years, the Jisi Incident occurred, and Huang Taiji even led his troops to bypass Shanhaiguan and fight to the capital area, which shocked the world.

This time, Huang Taiji suddenly sent out troops again, and also raised the banner of saving Emperor Chongzhen from danger and quelling the civil strife for the Ming Dynasty. Although this banner is a bit ridiculous, the political situation of the Ming Dynasty is very delicate. Although Zhu Shenzhu has controlled Emperor Chongzhen and sat on the position of regent, the entire Ming Dynasty does not have a high degree of recognition of Zhu Shenzhu as regent. Even if the officials in the court expressed their opinions under the pressure of the situation, what exactly are they thinking in their hearts? Zhu Shenzhu is very clear.

Many people are just trying to protect themselves temporarily. They can recognize Zhu Shenzhu as the regent today, but if his position becomes unstable in the future, they will definitely be the first to turn against him. This is the case in the capital, not to mention the local areas. In addition, the civil unrest is not over yet, so the difficulties Zhu Shenzhu has to face are not just a few small things.

Zhu Shenzui took Huang Taiji's sudden declaration of war very seriously. If he had not been unable to leave the capital for the time being and had needed to stay in the capital, Zhu Shenzui would have even planned to lead his troops personally to fight against Huang Taiji.

For this purpose, Zhu Shenzui sent Wang Jinwu as the general, assisted by Li You, Hu Lin, Wang Gui and others. In addition, Wang Hai was also sent out by Zhu Shenzui, and most of the troops were taken away. This shows the importance of this battle.

Everyone is watching this battle. If Wang Jinwu is defeated and Huang Taiji attacks the Great Wall and plunders the capital again as he did during the Ji Si Rebellion, then Zhu Shenzhui's position as regent will inevitably be shaky and he will never be able to hold on to it again.

But if Huang Taiji can be repelled this time and the enemy can be kept outside the Great Wall, those who are ready to make trouble will never dare to do so. Zhu Shenzhu will also be able to consolidate his position and truly establish his authority as regent.

Therefore, this battle was not that simple. It could be said to be a key battle to determine whether Zhu Shenzhu could truly control the Ming Dynasty. If he won, his position would be secure. If he lost, the Ming Dynasty would inevitably be in turmoil. At that time, let alone being the regent, he might not even be able to save his life.

Therefore, Zhu Shencui had no time to care about other things these days, and put all his energy into this battle. He sent military information from Zunhua and Jizhou back and forth to the capital every day to keep an eye on the changes.

Wang Jinwu traveled day and night and arrived in Zunhua before Huang Taiji arrived. After arriving in Zunhua, Wang Jinwu did not rest for a moment and immediately began to set up a defense line.

The Zunhua and Jizhou line was the area where Huang Taiji broke through and attacked the Great Wall last time, and it was also the top priority of this battle.

The Great Wall defense line from Shanhaiguan to Juyongguan is more than 1,000 kilometers long, with more than 100 passes, which are basically set up along the dangerous places of the mountains. Jizhou is close to the capital, and the importance of strategic defense is self-evident. Therefore, the construction standard of the city wall in Jizhou section is very high, which is far stronger than that of the Great Wall in other sections. Among the nine border towns that constructed the northern Great Wall defense line of the Ming Dynasty, the defense index of Jizhou Town is undoubtedly the strongest, and the strength of the walls has always been known as "the best among all towns."

It would not be easy for Huang Taiji to break into such a dangerous place and such a strong town, but the fact was not so. Due to the outbreak of the Liaodong War during the Wanli period, in order to solve the Liaodong issue, the Ming Dynasty adjusted the nine borders and transferred a large number of troops stationed in Jizhou Town to Shanhaiguan to support the Liaodong battlefield.

During the Tianqi period, internal strife between Xiong Tingbi and Wang Huazhen, and the dispute over Jing and Fu led to a great defeat in Liaodong, resulting in heavy losses of Liaodong's elite troops. Especially in the previous Battle of Hunhe, the White Rod Army and the Zhejiang Army were completely wiped out, which dealt a heavy blow to the Ming Dynasty.

Under such circumstances, in order to ensure that Liaodong would not be lost, the Ming Dynasty almost emptied the Jizhou Town, and all the troops in the entire Jizhou Town were transferred to the Liaodong battlefield to supplement the shortage of troops in Liaodong.

The Ming Dynasty did not ignore the defense of Jizhou Town, but because of the need for war. There was nothing wrong with withdrawing Jizhou Town to support Liaodong, at least at that time. First, Liaodong was short of troops after the disastrous defeat. If there were not enough troops to garrison, once Shanhaiguan was breached by the Later Jin at that time, not only would the entire Liaodong be lost, but the Later Jin would also occupy Shanhaiguan and could attack directly into the pass at any time.

In this case, the Ming Dynasty would completely lose the initiative on the battlefield. The consequences of losing Shanhaiguan would be extremely serious. A smart man like Emperor Tianqi would of course ensure the survival of Shanhaiguan. If Shanhaiguan was gone, there would be no need for Jizhou Town to exist at all, so it was inevitable to transfer Jizhou Town out of the pass.

As for the second reason, it was also very simple. It was because of Ligdan Khan. At that time, Ligdan Khan and the Ming Dynasty were allies. For their own purposes, the Ming Dynasty and Ligdan Khan joined forces to fight against Nurhaci. Even though Ligdan Khan always went back on his word, he always had the intention of taking advantage of others every time he sent troops after the alliance, which made the Ming Dynasty's monarchs and ministers extremely dissatisfied.

But then again, since Lindan Khan controlled Chahar at the time and was in direct confrontation with Nurhaci, there was no doubt that the two were mortal enemies. The area outside the Great Wall north of Jizhou Town was Lindan Khan's territory. As long as Lindan Khan was there, Nurhaci had no choice but to fight all the way from the Liaoxi Corridor to Shanhaiguan. Therefore, in this situation, there was no problem for the Ming Dynasty to withdraw troops from Jizhou Town to support the Liaodong battlefield.

But the situation was different at that time. Especially after Huang Taiji succeeded to the throne, he did not focus on Shanhaiguan like Nurhaci did, but considered the problem from other angles. Huang Taiji's strategic vision was not worse than Nurhaci's, and even better. He knew clearly that although the Eight Banners could fight, the Ming Dynasty was not bad either. Even if he had always suppressed the Ming Dynasty on the battlefield, the Ming Dynasty only relied on cities and natural passes to fight, and with sophisticated firearms, it would be difficult for him to break through the Liaoxi Corridor and take Shanhaiguan.

The Later Jin Dynasty had few people to begin with, and Huang Taiji did not have a rich financial foundation like the Ming Dynasty. The entire Later Jin Dynasty had only a few hundred thousand people in total. Even if the Han and Mongolian people who were plundered were included, the number was no more than a million at most.

If one wants to take over the Liaoxi Corridor and capture Shanhaiguan, the Eight Banners' cavalry and archery will not be of much use in the siege. The only thing they can do is to sacrifice human lives.

How precious were the Eight Banners? Huang Taiji would never have done that. If the Eight Banners suffered heavy losses, or even if most of them died in the battles of attacking the Liaoxi Corridor and Shanhaiguan, would Huang Taiji still be able to hold on to the throne of the Khan? Would the Later Jin Dynasty, including the current Qing Dynasty, still exist?

Huang Taiji knew very well that this approach was not advisable at all. So he turned his attention to Mongolia and decided to solve the problem of Ligdan Khan first, and then turn around and go to war with the Ming Dynasty after recovering Mongolia.

It has to be admitted that Huang Taiji's approach was correct, and it was something that Nurhaci had not considered at the beginning. Sure enough, after adjusting the strategic goals, Huang Taiji soon reaped a lot. He not only won over the Mongolian tribes in Khorchin and Chahar, but also defeated Ligdan Khan directly in Chahar, forcing Ligdan Khan to abandon the land of Chahar and flee westward. After that, Ligdan Khan failed to seize Tumed, and had no choice but to continue westward. Finally, he died of smallpox in Qinghai. Ligdan Khan, a generation of heroes and the leader of the Mongols, ended his career, and the pattern of the grassland changed greatly.

After driving away Ligdan Khan, Chahar became the area controlled by Huang Taiji. As a result, the people in the area north of Jizhou Town turned from allies to enemies.

This is also the main reason why Huang Taiji was able to break through the Ming defense line and directly attack the capital of Ming Dynasty without taking Shanhaiguan without going through the Liaoxi Corridor. The culprit for all this was none other than Yuan Chonghuan, the former governor of Ji and Liao. If Yuan Chonghuan had not been ambitious and ambitious, and had not sold a large amount of food and military equipment to Huang Taiji privately, and had not ignored Huang Taiji's attack on Ligdan Khan, and watched Chahar fall into Huang Taiji's hands, how could there be such a bad consequence?
Therefore, the Jizhou Town now is no different from an empty shell. Even though there had been the Ji Si Rebellion before, Emperor Chongzhen did not rebuild the Jizhou Town, nor did he send heavy troops to garrison the area from Jizhou to Zunhua.

Emperor Chongzhen was helpless in this matter. He could not have been unaware of the importance of Jizhou Town, and he would have been aware of the serious consequences of the Ji Si Incident. It is never too late to mend the fence after the sheep have been lost. Since the Ji Si Incident had occurred, this loophole should have been plugged immediately to prevent this situation from happening again.

But the problem was that Emperor Chongzhen had no money and the troops he could mobilize were seriously insufficient. After all these years of his efforts, the tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty continued to decline. Coupled with the huge military expenditure in Liaodong and the additional levy of Liao salaries, rebellions broke out in various places, which had serious consequences.

The Ming Dynasty was now facing serious internal and external troubles, and had even entered a vicious cycle. In addition to the Guanning Army stationed in Liaodong, the border troops of the nine borders of the Ming Dynasty were also widely transferred to inland provinces to encircle and suppress the rebels such as Gao Yingxiang. Emperor Chongzhen was not unaware of the problem in Jizhou Town, but he was lucky and felt that the possibility of Huang Taiji's re-attack might not be great, or he thought that he should seize the time to quell the rebellion first, and then transfer the troops of the nine borders back to garrison after the civil unrest was resolved, so as to create a time difference and repair the wall in one place.

As an emperor, he placed his hopes on others and even made important decisions without considering the consequences. It must be said that Emperor Chongzhen was a "talent". As for the officials in the court, it was not that they did not see the problem, but that they saw the problem but did not dare to advise, because everyone knew what kind of person Emperor Chongzhen was. It was difficult to work under such an emperor. Once they took the initiative to raise questions, they would not only bring trouble to themselves, but also because if the situation changed, Emperor Chongzhen would bear a grudge against the adviser and eventually put the blame directly on the other party.

(End of this chapter)