There was a solemn atmosphere in the Forbidden City. Emperor Chongzhen carefully looked at the two memorials in front of him. One was the verdict of the Sanfa Division against Yang He, the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi Province. The other was the memorial of Yang He's son Yang Sichang on behalf of his father.
In the second year of Chongzhen, after Yang He, the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi, took office, he discovered that peasant rebellions were surging throughout Shaanxi. Therefore, Yang He made a request for the court to provide money and food to provide relief to the people affected by the disaster in Shaanxi.
Yang He's reason was that Yang He regarded the peasant uprising as a very serious social problem, and he made suggestions for the court from a relatively long-term perspective. Yang He advocated spending money on recruitment and relief to help farmers resume their businesses.
.This can not only eliminate troubles, but also allow the government to continue to collect taxes after the farmers' arrangements are established, so it is said to be "a huge benefit."
If he blindly promotes suppression and spends money on military expenditures, not only will it be impossible to restore social production, but the money spent cannot be recovered through taxes. Moreover, his own experience has proved that if the living problems of farmers are not solved, those who participate in the uprising will inevitably become more miserable.
With more and more troops coming, it will be harder to suppress the situation, and the consequences will become more serious. This is the main reason why Yang He suggested to focus on pacification.
It should be said that Yang He's idea was very reasonable, and Emperor Chongzhen also allocated 100,000 taels of money for disaster relief to support Yang He's idea.
However, Yang He's idea of appeasement and relief soon went bankrupt. There are two main reasons: one is that because there is no follow-up financial and food support for disaster relief, many rebellious peasants who have been appeased rebelled;
Another reason is that because the Tatars entered the customs, Shaanxi sent King Qin's army to the capital. As a result, the Shaanxi government had only a few imperial troops to encircle and suppress the peasant rebel army. In addition, after the soldiers of King Qin fled, they were thrown into
The farmers joined the rebel army, making the power of the Shaanxi peasant rebel army even greater.
Of course, there are other reasons, such as the killing and surrender of officials from the main suppression faction. But no matter what, Yang He's idea was completely bankrupt. And the person who succeeded Yang He as governor of the three sides of Shaanxi was that when suppressing the peasant rebel army, he repeatedly
Hong Chengchou who made great contributions.
In addition, after Hong Chengchou took office as the trilateral governor of Shaanxi, he effectively calmed down the situation in Shaanxi through bloody suppression and preventing food from flowing into the areas where the peasant rebel armies were active.
However, those desperate peasant rebel armies crossed the Yellow River and basically entered Shanxi, leaving Shanxi in a mess. Moreover, they formed thirty-sixth battalions in Shanxi so that the actions of the peasant rebel armies could be echoed.
Got up.
I won’t talk about the right and wrong between Yang He and the officials of the main suppression faction here. Because as long as you are a modern person, you all know the principle of holding a carrot in one hand and a stick in the other. Their methods are actually flawed.
But no matter what, Yang He, as a loser, will always be punished. Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen sent Tiqi to capture Yang He and bring him to the capital to punish him. The Sanfa Division set the penalty of hanging for Yang He's crime.
After learning about the punishment of his father Yang He, Yang Sichang immediately submitted a memorial, asking his son to replace his father and accept the punishment of hanging. Emperor Chongzhen is currently looking at these two memorials.
After the Yuan Chonghuan incident, Emperor Chongzhen detested the behavior of civil servants who behaved like gentlemen behind their backs, so he also had a deep distrust of civil servants. However, due to Emperor Chongzhen's distrust of civil servants and his wariness of eunuchs, the current
Emperor Chongzhen deeply felt that he had no capable assistants around him.
We all know that in the Ming Dynasty, the status of Confucian moral principles was supreme, and Emperor Chongzhen, who received Confucian education, completely regarded Confucian principles as his own code of conduct.
When he saw that Yang Sichang was willing to take the blame for his father, he suddenly found that a piece of gold seemed to appear in front of him. If he is a filial son, he must be a loyal minister. In the mind of Emperor Chongzhen, Yang Sichang was deeply imprinted.
name.
Emperor Chongzhen put down the memorial in his hand and said to Wang Chengen: "Wang Banban, although Yang He's crime is unpardonable, his son has a pure and filial heart. That's all, let's change the hanging to exile."
Wang Chengen immediately bowed his head and accepted the order and said: "Your Majesty really has a benevolent heart!"
Wang Chengen's witticism made Emperor Chongzhen laugh. He couldn't help laughing and scolding: "You, an old slave, can make me happy. But now I just don't know what is going on with Grand Master Sun in Liaodong."
Wang Chengen saw that Emperor Chongzhen had just rejoiced and was worried about state affairs, so he quickly comforted him: "Grand Master Sun Wen Tao's military strategy, he proposed the idea of building Dalinghe City, and all the cabinet elders agreed. The old slave thought that it must be the same.
That’s right. Your Majesty, please feel at ease.”
"Yes!" Emperor Chongzhen nodded with a smile, and unknowingly, his thoughts flew to Liaodong.
After presiding over the recovery of the four cities of Yongping and the adjustment of the Ming army in the pass, Sun Chengzong officially went to Liaodong to take up the post of governor in the first month of the fourth year of Chongzhen. As soon as he took office, he began the third rush to build a large-scale construction project.
Military operations in Linghe City.
Building Daling River City was an important step in Sun Chengzong's original fortress tactics. After Sun Chengzong resigned, Yuan Chonghuan, who took over, also tried to build Daling River City twice, but was destroyed both times by the Jin army.
Hecheng was also demolished by the Jin army, leaving only the foundation of the city wall.
Why did Sun Chengzong want to build Daling River City? It must be because the geographical location of Daling River City is too important. Its importance is reflected in the following two points: First, it can become a fortress at the front of Ningjin's defense line and can increase the number of Ningjin's defense lines.
The defense thickness of the defense line; second, Daling River City can effectively drive a nail between the Hou Jin and the Mongolian tribes who took refuge in the Hou Jin, so that the Hou Jin army and the Mongolian army cannot join together at will and act in unison.
But looking at it on the other hand, the Later Jin Army, who knew the actions of the Ming Army in Liaodong, would never allow the construction of Daling River City to be completed. Therefore, in Daling River City, a fierce battle between the Ming Army and the Later Jin Army would definitely break out.
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This battle actually lasted until October of the fifth year of Chongzhen. Because many historical materials and works have introduced this battle that had a profound impact on both the Later Jin Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, the author will only briefly introduce it here.
In the spring of the fourth year of Chongzhen's reign, Sun Chengzong asked Zu Dashou and He Kegang to lead more than 10,000 Ming troops and more than 10,000 civilians to repair Daling River City. This repair operation was very successful, and Daling River City was basically in three.
It was repaired within four months.
Then, Huang Taiji led the Jin army and the Mongolian army to join forces and attack Dalinghe City in August of the fourth year of Chongzhen. However, Huang Taiji changed his previous tactics of hard attack to siege. He ordered the soldiers of the Eight Banners to dig around the city.
Four trenches were built and a wall more than one foot high was built, surrounding the small Dalinghe City like an iron barrel.
Then came the support of the Ming army and the performance of the Jin army encircling the point for reinforcements. But at this time, Sun Chengzong was surprised to find that he could not find the general who led the rescue of Daling River City. Because the generals of the Liaodong Iron Cavalry
Among them, Man Gui and Zhao Lijiao, who had the most active offensive capabilities, both died in the battle of King Qin, while the other two military generals Zu Dashou and He Kegang were now besieged in Dalinghe City.
There was no way, there was no general in Shu, so Liao Hua became the vanguard. The Ming army conducted a total of four rescue operations, and three of them were led by Wu Sangui's father Wu Xiang. However, Wu Xiang did not have the military strength of his son Wu Sangui later.
However, every rescue operation was severely defeated. The Ming army's military operations also failed.
The operation to mobilize reinforcements from within the pass also failed due to the Denglai Incident that later occurred. As for the Denglai Incident, it will be described in detail later.
Seeing that there was no hope of the arrival of reinforcements, and the lack of food in the city, it had reached the point of cannibalism. Under Huang Taiji's persuasion, Zu Dashou led the remaining troops in Dalinghe City in October of the fifth year of Chongzhen.
More than 10,000 Ming troops surrendered to Hou Jin. He Kegang, who was unwilling to surrender, was killed. Daling River City was lost.
Next, it was time to perform in a Hollywood blockbuster. After Zu Dashou surrendered, he actually escaped through his sweet words. Later, the debate about whether Zu Dashou really surrendered or faked it has continued to this day. However, in the author's opinion, in
Judging from how Zu Dashou defended Jinzhou afterwards, he should have faked surrender.
The defeat in the Battle of Daling River caused the Ming Dynasty to completely lose the ability to fight the Jin Army in Liaodong. The main reason for its defeat was that after Sun Chengzong took office again, he still overestimated the combat effectiveness of the Ming Army in Liaodong.
It became the same level as when he resigned. Because during the reign of King Qin, the Liaodong cavalry not only lost Mangui and Zhao Lijiao, but also lost 4,000 cavalry led by Zhao Lijiao under Zunhua City. And this defeat,
It also led to Sun Chengzong's resignation again.
What is even more sad is that the main force of the Liaodong cavalry that was besieged in Dalinghe City was completely annihilated by the Hou Jin army. After they surrendered to the Hou Jin Dynasty, many soldiers were incorporated into the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty and became one of the main forces in the hands of the Hou Jin Dynasty.
The sharp knife that slaughtered the Han people.
Careful readers may have noticed that in the previous article, the author has always used the Liaodong cavalry instead of the Guanning cavalry that is familiar to later generations.
The main reason for this is that although the Hou Jin Dynasty had completely controlled Liaodong at this time, the Ming army outside the pass was only passively defending at the Ningjin defense line in western Liaoning. However, the author still believes that as long as the Ming army's command at that time was accurate, the soldiers would use their lives to the best of their ability.
, with the combat effectiveness of the Liaodong cavalry, the Ming army was not without hope of attacking Liaodong.
However, with the defeat in the Battle of Daling River, the Liaodong Iron Cavalry has become a historical term. In the following article, the author will also change the name to the Guanning Iron Cavalry.
And just when Zu Dashou was proudly leading the Liaodong cavalry and civilians to rush to repair the Daling River City, Wu Shigong in Runing Mansion was gathering his personal guards and preparing to leave for Yangzhou.