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

Chapter 738: Siege of Jinzhou
In Wenhua Hall, Zhu Shenzui was listening to Zhou Anmin's report.

A few days ago, Ningqian Military Governor Gong Dingzi had an accident in Jinzhou City. He accidentally slipped and fell from the top of the city wall and died on the spot.

This incident happened so suddenly that Zu Dashou, who was leading troops outside the city, decisively withdrew his troops back to the city after hearing the news. He canceled his original plan to fight out of the city and once again changed to the tactic of defending Jinzhou.

It was speechless that a dignified Ning Qian Bingbei Dao died just like that. However, this incident happened in public, and Gong Dingzi was surrounded by his subordinates and personal soldiers at the time, Zu Dashou was outside the city, and Gong Dingzi had insisted on going to the top of the city to beat the drum for the three armies, which made him exhausted, and then he had to go to the parapet to watch the battle, and finally he accidentally fell down. Everyone was present to witness the whole process.

According to rumors, Gong Dingzi was too weak to see Zu Dashou out of the city. He not only drank but also beat drums with all his strength to cheer him on, which caused him to feel unwell. After this incident, the Jinzhou defenders, under the command of Zu Dashou, canceled their preparations to leave the city and changed to defending the city. They also wrote a memorial to the capital to report the incident.

On the surface, this is what happened, but in reality, Gong Dingzi’s death was not as simple as it seemed. It was a secret operation by the Embroidered Uniform Guards.

The Jinyiwei had already made arrangements around Gong Dingzi, and they took this opportunity to do some tricks secretly. Among them, the Jinyiwei put drugs in the bowl of wine that Gong Dingzi drank. The drug was not fatal, but it had hallucinogenic and excitatory effects. It was precisely because of drinking this drug that Gong Dingzi was in high spirits and beat the drum to cheer. Under the effect of the drug, Gong Dingzi's emotions reached its peak, and his physical fitness could not withstand the effects of the drug and he had hallucinations.

In this situation, he was simply seeking death by running to the parapet. Moreover, one of the two personal soldiers who helped him to the parapet was a member of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Taking advantage of the opportunity when no one was paying attention, he quietly hit Gong Dingzi under his feet and secretly pushed him with the force. Gong Dingzi, who was already slow to react due to the effects of the drugs, had no chance of dodge. He just fell headfirst and died on the city wall.

After listening to Zhou Anmin's report, Zhu Shenzhui was very satisfied. He did not expect that Gong Dingzi would lose his life in this way, and the Jinyiwei did it perfectly.

"Well done. The person who did it should be rewarded handsomely. You can arrange this matter." Zhu Shenzhui said.

"Don't worry, Regent. I will certainly not treat them unfairly." Zhou Anmin replied with a smile, looking very relaxed. This matter was done very well. Even he was quite surprised to hear the news. The Jinyi Captain who planned this and arranged the action was a talent!
"How is Zu Dashou doing?"

"To the regent, after this incident, Zu Dashou will naturally obey the regent's orders. Moreover, I have the power over him. It is impossible for him to be indecisive as before."

"Haha, this is good news." Zhu Shenzhui nodded slightly. He had been trying to win over Zu Dashou and Wu Xiang, even giving them titles. But these two guys were old foxes, and they were simply slippery and ruthless. Before, he asked Zhou Anmin to pass a message to Zu Dashou through the Jinyiwei, hoping to use the Gong Dingzi incident to make Zu Dashou stand on his side completely. But Zu Dashou thought he was a general of Liaodong, and wanted to play both sides without offending anyone, and refused to take action against Gong Dingzi.

This time, Gong Dingzi was courting death by using Huang Taiji's letter to force Zu Dashou, which offended Zu Dashou to death. With no way out, Zu Dashou completely gave up his fantasy of the civil service group and teamed up with the Jinyiwei to kill Gong Dingzi.

Now that Gong Dingzi is dead, there is no longer any constraint on Zu Dashou in Jinzhou. The hidden dangers and pressure brought by Gong Dingzi are completely eliminated. The next battle can be fought according to Zu Dashou's ideas, and Jinzhou will be safe for a short time.

But at the same time, Zu Dashou also stood on Zhu Shenzhui's side after this incident, and there was no way back. If Zu Dashou still wanted to continue to live in the Ming Dynasty, he could only rely on Zhu Shenzhui. Otherwise, based on the charge of secretly plotting against Gong Dingzi, Zu Dashou would definitely not be able to escape the death penalty. Not to mention Zhu Shenzhui, even all the members of the civil service group would not let Zu Dashou go.

Zhu Shenzhui learned about the situation in Jinzhou earlier than the imperial court. The news about Gong Dingzi's accident would reach the capital in two days at most.

Jinzhou City is now besieged by the Jiannu. Although Gong Dingzi's troubles have been resolved, how to fight the war next is a problem.

When Zhu Shenzhui first took office as regent, he sent letters to the generals in Liaodong, informing them of his plans for the war in Liaodong. He specifically pointed out that his bottom line was Shanhaiguan. As for other defense lines outside Shanhaiguan, they should be defended if possible, and abandoned if not.

Zhu Shenzhui was not Emperor Chongzhen. He did not expect to completely solve the Liaodong issue in a short period of time. If the Liaodong issue could be solved so easily, it would not have taken so many years to fight. Moreover, since the Battle of Sarhu, the Ming army has been defeated more than won in the Liaodong battlefield for decades. Huge military expenditures have been invested every year, but there has been no progress. In this case, it is meaningless to continue to maintain an offensive posture in the Liaodong battlefield. Moreover, Liaodong is not inside the Great Wall. The Ming army's defense line is under the eyes of Huang Taiji. Huang Taiji's elite Eight Banners can launch an attack at any time, but the Ming army can only passively fight back. In this case, the Ming army has suffered many losses. Isn't this loss enough?
The Jian Nu problem must be solved, but not now. Zhu Shenzhui was very clear-headed. Although the Ming Dynasty was changing for the better, it still had many internal problems. Even though Gao Yingxiang had been executed, the local bandits were still there, especially Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng, and Luo Rucai. Zhu Shenzhui could not rest easy until the three most threatening bandits were eliminated.

In addition, there are financial problems, factional struggles in the court, conflicts between the central and local governments, etc.

In order to resist foreign aggression, we must first stabilize the internal situation. As long as the internal problems are not solved, the external threat can never be completely eliminated. Now Zhu Shenzhu is most concerned about the internal affairs of the Ming Dynasty rather than external enemies. As for the Jiannu in Liaodong, as long as they can hold the Shanhaiguan line and do not give Huang Taiji the possibility of a breakthrough, the Ming Dynasty will be safe.

Although Zhu Shenzui thought so, Zu Dashou and others had their own plans. Just like in the matter of Gong Dingzi, Zu Dashou, as the leader of the Liaodong generals, did not follow Zhu Shenzui's advice. When Huang Taiji sent troops and it was obvious that he was heading for Jinzhou City, Zu Dashou did not react quickly, and did not even guard against the Subandai Mongolian tribe in Xingshan, which led to Subandai directly surrendering to Huang Taiji, putting Jinzhou into an embarrassing situation of being attacked from both sides.

In fact, at this time Zu Dashou should have known that Jinzhou was about to be surrounded by Huang Taiji. At that time, Zu Dashou still had the opportunity to withdraw the military and civilians of Jinzhou directly to Ningyuan. As long as the entire army quickly withdrew to Ningyuan and abandoned Jinzhou, even if Huang Taiji took Jinzhou, it would only be an additional stronghold. Instead, Zu Dashou's troops jumped out of Huang Taiji's encirclement, making Huang Taiji's plan to besiege the city and attack the reinforcements completely fail.

But Zu Dashou did not do so. On the one hand, it was because of Gong Dingzi. With Gong Dingzi around, how could Zu Dashou give up Jinzhou? I am afraid that Gong Dingzi would come out to stop him as soon as he had this idea, forcing Zu Dashou to defend Ningyuan to the death.

On the other hand, Zu Dashou himself was lucky. He was the commander of Jinzhou, which was an important stronghold of the Liaoxi Corridor. There were soldiers and food in Jinzhou. Even if he defended it to death, he would definitely have no problem defending it for half a year. What if he could hold it? Not only would he have military merit, but he would also be able to keep his territory. If he withdrew to Ningyuan directly, losing Jinzhou would not only be a waste of merit, but also a sin. Moreover, as the leader of the Liaodong generals, Zu Dashou would also be criticized by his soldiers and the people.

Due to these reasons and Zu Dashou's cautious mentality, the current situation has been created. Now that Huang Taiji's deployment to encircle Jinzhou has basically been in place, it is impossible for Zu Dashou to abandon Jinzhou and withdraw all his troops and civilians to Ningyuan.

Even if Huang Taiji's encirclement was not extremely tight, it was okay for small troops to move in, but it was absolutely impossible to transfer large-scale troops or even civilians. Huang Taiji was not stupid. As long as Zu Dashou in the city moved, he would immediately send heavy troops to intercept him. The Ming army was not as good as the Eight Banners in the field, not to mention that they brought so many civilians with them. Isn't this courting death?
Zhu Shenzhui knew what Zu Dashou was thinking and could understand what he did, but this would make the battle situation in Jinzhou very troublesome.

Jinzhou was under siege, and the imperial court could not fail to rescue it, let alone Zhu Shenzhui could not make such a decision. Once Zhu Shenzhui watched Zu Dashou's troops in Jinzhou being finally annihilated, his prestige as regent would inevitably plummet, and those generals who had already defected to him, including many officials who were still waiting and trying to please both sides, would certainly be greatly disappointed with Zhu Shenzhui, causing his newly consolidated position to collapse.

But it is not so easy to rescue. Huang Taiji has obviously adopted the tactic of besieging the city and attacking the reinforcements. Once we send troops directly there and run into the pocket formation set up by Huang Taiji, we will not only fail to rescue Jinzhou, but all the reinforcements will be lost.

The same was true in history. When Huang Taiji besieged Jinzhou, Emperor Chongzhen directly transferred Hong Chengchou's troops, who were suppressing bandits in Shaanxi, to Liaodong, and appointed him as the commander-in-chief of Ji-Liao. At the same time, he led 150,000 troops out of Shanhaiguan and headed straight to Jinzhou to rescue Zu Dashou.

At that time, Hong Chengchou was very clear about Huang Taiji's arrangement, and he was even more aware of the great risks of relieving the siege. For this reason, Hong Chengchou adopted a steady and cautious tactic, arranging his troops in a turtle shell posture, defending instead of attacking, advancing only a dozen miles a day, and being extremely cautious to avoid falling into Huang Taiji's trap.

Although Hong Chengchou's tactics were slow, they were very effective. In the process of advancing, he fought with the Jiannu many times, and both sides won and lost. Although he failed to lift the siege of Jinzhou, he greatly reduced the pressure on Jinzhou.

However, because Hong Chengchou's progress was too slow, the war could not be ended after several months. The impatient Emperor Chongzhen directly issued an edict to reprimand Hong Chengchou and ordered his troops to advance quickly to lift the siege of Jinzhou. After receiving the imperial edict, Hong Chengchou had no choice but to bite the bullet and change his tactics. He led his troops to advance quickly, but he did not expect that this move would lead to the final defeat. In the Battle of Songshan, Hong Chengchou's entire army was annihilated, and he himself was eventually captured. The 150,000 troops he commanded were wiped out.

After Hong Chengchou's defeat, Zu Dashou of Jinzhou was completely disappointed. He realized that it was impossible for anyone to rescue him, so he opened the city and surrendered in despair. As a result, not only was the Ningjin defense line of the Ming Dynasty in Liaodong lost, but even the most elite army of Hong Chengchou's 150,000 plus Zu Dashou's Jinzhou garrison were lost.

(End of this chapter)