Late Ming Dynasty: So what if Emperor Chongzhen was inactive?!

Chapter 259 Encirclement and Reinforcements from Each Other
The reason why the Ming court was at a loss in its strategy in Liaodong and suffered repeated defeats was because it failed to correctly understand the balance of power between the two sides.

Many people do not have a clear understanding of the size of the Later Jin territory. In fact, at the peak of Nurhaci's rule, the Later Jin territory reached 250 million square kilometers, which is equivalent to the area of ​​21 North Koreas.

Under Huang Taiji, this number expanded further, reaching a terrifying 400 million square kilometers.

The traditional Han Chinese region of the Ming Dynasty only covered 350 million square kilometers. After losing places like Daning, Wanquan, Liaodong Commandery, Nurgan Commandery, Ü-Tsang, and the Seven Northwest Guards, the Ming Dynasty's territory had shrunk by nearly half when the throne passed to Zhu Youjian, leaving only a little over 600 million square kilometers.

Even with Zhu Youjian's efforts to maintain his integrity, he was still unable to curb the further expansion of the Jurchen's sphere of influence. Now, the Jurchen's sphere of influence was very close to its historical peak, encompassing the entire Nurgan Regional Military Commission, most of the Liaodong Regional Military Commission except for the two smaller Liaoxi and Liaonan regions, half of southern Mongolia, and more than half of Korea.

Its northernmost point reached south of the Outer Khingan Mountains, including Sakhalin Island. This was not a war between an empire and a small tribe, but a life-or-death struggle between two great powers.

If it weren't for the successive moves by Sun Chengzong and Yuan Keli, which led to the recovery of western and southern Liaoning, and the accidental loss of a section of Korea by a certain stray fleet, the Later Jin's territory would have been completely crushed by Huang Taiji.

These three locations combined only cover a little over 100,000 square kilometers. Compared to the behemoth that was the Later Jin, they are just a tiny speck. Although these three places are small, their strategic value is very high.

The Ming army's massacre of Liaodong in 1899 had already proven that as long as the Jurchens dared to redeploy their forces and ignore these few thorns in their side, the Ming army would indeed dare to charge in and strike them in the back. Although it would be mutually destructive, for the Ming Dynasty, a lose-lose situation was better than letting the Jurchens win alone.

Liaodong is a very tricky place: on land, the continuous Yanshan Mountains act as a topographical barrier; the Bohai Sea also cuts off a large section of it. The weather in the Bohai Sea is complex and changeable, and it can suddenly become turbulent, giving fleets sailing in the Bohai Sea a surprise.

The Dengliao Sea Route is the shortest route from Shandong to Liaodong. It is located at the narrowest point of the bay. Although it can be faster, it will also form a strong tidal zone due to the "narrowing effect".
Meanwhile, waves from the open sea can directly enter the strait, and when combined with the tide, they can easily form turbulence, increasing the risk of ships veering off course and losing control. This is how Zheng Cai and his grain transport fleet were "lost" by hurricanes, sea fog, and turbulence.

The reconquest of Liaodong was a long and arduous journey. Even for Zhu Yuanzhang, the "heaven-sent hero," it took him twenty years, spanning almost his entire reign, from establishing the Liaodong Regional Military Commission to recovering the entire region. Compared to Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Youjian was far inferior in both personal ability and the resources he had.

The Battle of Beijing was merely the later stage of the war between the Ming and Jin dynasties in 1899. The success of the Battle of Beijing did not mean that the Jurchens had been defeated. If they couldn't afford to provoke Beijing, they could plunder other places; if the defenses of Jizhou were strengthened, then Xuanfu and Datong could also be targeted.

Without the deterrent force from beyond the Great Wall, let alone recovering Liaodong, we should be thinking about how to defend against the Jurchens entering the pass.

In reality, the situation in Liaodong inevitably deteriorated. During Sun Chengzong's administration of Liaodong, he pushed the Jurchens to the brink of despair.
With an alliance with the Chahar tribe in the west and Korea acting as a check in the east, the Jurchens advanced step by step using fortified positions. Unfortunately, the Jurchens failed to achieve a breakthrough at Guan Jinning, but instead managed to defeat two of the Ming Dynasty's allies.

In conclusion, since Zhu Youjian came to power, the confrontation between the Ming Dynasty and the Later Jin Dynasty has been a mixed bag, and the situation has not yet become clear. The recovery of the entire Liaodong region, or even reaching the Heilongjiang River, is still a long way off.

However, at least the battle line has been successfully pushed back beyond the Great Wall. With the troops and resources that the Ming Dynasty has deployed in the Liaodong region, if another "mutual destruction" occurs, the Jurchens will still not be able to break through Beijing, and the Ming army will likely leave them homeless.

Before the Ming army outside the Great Wall, especially in southern Liaoning, was dealt with, it was almost impossible for the Jurchens to enter the Great Wall again.

It was precisely for this reason that Huang Taiji was in a hurry to resolve the trouble in Liaonan. Before launching the campaign, they actually still had disagreements:
Before the invasion of the Ming Dynasty, they had a good opportunity to retake Liaonan, but Huang Taiji chose to ignore it and instead risked great danger by venturing deep into the Ming's territory. As it turned out, this decision was wrong, and he almost lost the entire Jin Dynasty in one fell swoop.

It's hard to understand why they don't fight when it's easy, but insist on fighting when it's tough, even dragging their entire clan into the gamble.

Huang Taiji explained that at that time, the Ming army had just arrived in Liaonan and was indeed easy to attack because they had not yet established a firm foothold. However, the Ming army could also choose to retreat without hesitation, and the two sides would then fall into a tug-of-war.

Even if they win, they won't gain land or enough spoils, which is completely contrary to the interests of their Great Jin. There must be a reason for sending troops.

Now things are different. The Ming Dynasty has spent millions of taels of silver to build up Liaonan, construct cities, stockpile grain, and restore farmland.

Huang Taiji has received reliable information that at least three million shi of grain are currently stockpiled in southern Liaoning, which is exactly what they urgently need.

The Ming Dynasty's fleet had limited transport capacity: it could only transport troops to fight them, or transport people, or transport grain; these things could not be done simultaneously. Whether what remained in Liaonan was people or grain, it was something they desperately needed.

In fact, regardless of whether the campaign to enter the pass was successful or not, Huang Taiji intended to attack Liaonan. This was his original plan, but the previous failures forced the war to be postponed for two years.

From the day it was established, the Later Jin dynasty waged war year after year. It was not because they were inherently fond of war, but because the internal affairs management of their two great khans was too incompetent. They had no choice but to fight, because if they did not fight, their own Jurchen people would starve to death; moreover, the tribes around them were not to be trifled with either.

When the Jurchens were powerful, they could bully the Mongols, the Jurchens, and the Koreans; but when the Jurchens were weak, these people would not hesitate to take a bite out of the Jurchen tribes.

While Nurhaci's "Seven Grievances" proclamation is complete nonsense, it is a fact that the Jurchens were frequently bullied before Nurhaci's time. Military leaders in Liaodong, such as Li Chengliang, often used Jurchen tribes to gain military merit. The adage "backwardness invites aggression" is an age-old truth.

It must be admitted that Huang Taiji was indeed a formidable opponent for the Ming Dynasty, even more troublesome than his father.

Although his military abilities were not particularly outstanding, his strategic vision and political skills were among the best of his time, and he always managed to do things that made the Ming Dynasty very uncomfortable.

Zhu Youjian had never tasted defeat, neither in military affairs nor in court. The successive victories had numbed his senses; he was almost forgetting he was living in the brutal late Ming Dynasty. He was having too much of a time; he only remembered how he had crippled the Jurchens, inflicting unprecedented casualties—the mountains of heads were undeniable evidence.

He thought the Jurchens would continue to decline, slowly crushed by him like slicing sausage with a knife; he thought the next war between the two sides would be started by him, and the Jurchens would do nothing but wait for the Ming Dynasty to prepare everything before the two sides went to war.

But this time, Huang Taiji's fierce attack caught him off guard. Zhu Youjian realized that the Ming Dynasty was not prepared to deal with the Jurchens' attack.

There are currently 30,000 registered soldiers in southern Liaoning, half of whom are veterans and half are new recruits: the veterans are former members of Mao Wenlong's Dongjiang Army, while the new recruits are mainly composed of local Han Chinese and Han Chinese who have surrendered to the Liaonan region.

Currently, there is about one million people in southern Liaoning, of whom there are more Koreans than Han Chinese. There are also a few small Mongol tribes that have submitted to the Ming Dynasty. Each tribe is not allowed to have more than 800 people, and in times of war, 200 men are conscripted to fight alongside the Ming army.

The consciousness of the dominant ethnic group was very important. Yuan Keli did not conscript Korean immigrants into the army: Han Chinese had to contribute able-bodied men to the army, so their tax rate was lower; Koreans were protected by the Han army, so their tax rate was higher. After including the poll tax, Liaodong military pay, and other taxes in the land tax, the tax rate for Koreans reached seven out of ten.

Yuan Keli doubted whether this was too harsh on them, but he underestimated the anthropomorphism of the Joseon Yangban nobles.

When taxes reached 70%, these North Korean immigrants not only did not resist, but were instead grateful. They spontaneously built a shrine for Old Yuan and worshipped him every day, which completely bewitched the old man.

Poor Yang Hao's position as "Emperor Emeritus of Korea" was in jeopardy, because Yang Hao was merely a benefactor of the Korean nobility, while Yuan Keli was a benefactor of the Korean people.

With 30,000 troops defending a nearly 200-mile-long defensive line against a Jurchen army of 130,000, the defensive pressure was immense. Therefore, before reinforcements arrived, Yuan Keli and Mao Wenlong chose to consolidate their forces, prioritizing the preservation of the core coastal area along the eastern coast of the four prefectures of Jin, Fu, Hai, and Gai.

It's too early to talk about running away now. Although Yuan Keli has already made the worst-case scenario plan, which is to retreat to Lushun and block the choke point, the Jurchens do not have a well-organized navy. Even if they had ten or a hundred times more troops, they would not be able to break into Lushun.

However, this would mean that the investment in Liaonan would be wasted. It would be no different from a defeat than a retreat. Yuan Keli could not bear the responsibility for the loss of several million taels of silver. Even if he survived, he would have to go back to farming. It was hard to say whether Mao Wenlong could even be saved.

If such a situation were to occur, Huang Taiji would have already succeeded: Mao Wenlong and Yuan Keli had been a nuisance to them for over a decade, and recently they had become even more so. If these two major threats could be eliminated, Huang Taiji felt that sacrificing the strength of two banners would be worthwhile.

For Huang Taiji, this time they were fighting on their own doorstep. Compared to the previous method of raiding the interior of China, where supply lines were cut off and supplies were basically looted, this time their supplies could be delivered to the front line in a steady stream.

He committed all his troops, but he wasn't gambling. He and his advisors had devised a very comprehensive and sound battle plan. He believed that even if he couldn't conquer Liaonan, he could definitely ensure his own safe retreat.

On March 3rd, Huang Taiji led an army of 30,000 into Liaoyang. Seven days later, reinforcements arrived from various regions, bringing the total number of troops in Liaoyang to over 100,000. Huang Taiji ordered his eldest son, Hauge, to leave 5,000 troops to garrison Liaoyang, while he led the main force to continue south.

Two days later, Huang Taiji arrived at Haizhou City and set up camp three miles outside the city. His army's camp stretched for ten miles, seemingly endless. Meanwhile, the Liaonan forces decisively abandoned their painstakingly constructed hundred-mile-long chevaux-de-frise, choosing instead to withdraw their precious troops back into Haizhou City. At this time, Haizhou City had over 40,000 soldiers and civilians, but only 8,000 regular troops.

Of the four garrisons in southern Liaoning, Haizhou, situated on a plain with no natural defenses, was the most strategically important location, while Gaizhou held the key geographical advantage. Haizhou's precarious position is comparable to that of Jinzhou.

From a defensive perspective, this "thing" forms a huge bulge and is utterly useless; but from an offensive perspective, it is also a bridgehead for advancing.

Since the location was not advantageous, the only option was to modify the environment artificially: the city walls of Haizhou were not high, but three layers of barricades were set up outside the city; the city itself consisted of a large city within a smaller city, and the city gates were enclosed by barbicans.

This design effectively extends the defensive depth, making it suitable for staggered attacks and protracted warfare. It can effectively limit the mobility of enemy cavalry and drag them into brutal urban warfare.

Faced with such a clearly troublesome city, Huang Taiji did not choose to launch a direct attack, but instead engaged in civil engineering: digging trenches, building fortifications, and gradually advancing the front line.

However, this approach is clearly a waste of time. The Ming army is currently at a great disadvantage in terms of troop strength. If this continues, Ming reinforcements will arrive soon, unless they originally intended to besiege the point and ambush the reinforcements.

Liaonan and Liaoxi form a strategic defensive line, and clearly, the most suitable force to support Liaonan at this time is the Guan Ning Army located along the coastal route in Liaoxi. Huang Taiji's strategy of encircling the enemy and attacking their reinforcements was etched into his very being.

At this point, the Guan Ning army's reinforcements would certainly be blocked, and they might even fall into an ambush and be wiped out; however, if they did nothing, Haizhou City could not be defended.

In the imperial court, the ministers could not reach a consensus on whether to send troops to Liaoxi: the lessons of the five-pronged attack on Liaoxi were still fresh in their minds, and many people were afraid that the same mistake would be repeated.

Some people directly questioned Yuan Keli's decision to build Haizhou City. The throat of southern Liaoning is Gaizhou City, and southern Liaoning has always focused on defending Gaizhou City. Haizhou Garrison only served as a bridgehead for early warning. They suspected that Yuan Keli had taken kickbacks to build a city in this godforsaken place.

Yuan Keli was the Liaodong Military Commissioner, theoretically governing all of Liaodong, including southern and western Liaoning. Zhu Youjian, however, intended to once again be a hands-off ruler.
Whether or not to advance, and how to advance, is up to Yuan Keli to decide. If needed, the court will find a way to provide support. However, he is somewhat worried about whether the old man's health can withstand this great battle.

(End of this chapter)