Since Dorgon defeated Prince Su Hauge with his political intrigues, in order to balance the power structure of the Eight Banners, he naturally began to reuse Han warlords headed by Wu Sangui, Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, Shang Kexi and others.
Dorgon, who grew up next to Huang Taiji and was taught by words and deeds, deeply understood how to use Han officials to achieve his political goals.
Among Han warlords such as Wu Sangui, Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, and Shang Kexi, Wu Sangui was the strongest because he had recruited most of the elites from Guan Ning's army and Sun Chuanting's remaining troops, and had the closest relationship with Dorgon. Therefore, he was favored by Dorgon.
preference.
Although the Qing government sent Prince Duduo of Yu to Chang'an to supervise the army, Dorgon was wary of the ambitious Duduo, and he was deeply afraid that Duduo would affect his ability to monopolize the power of the Eight Banners. Therefore, on the surface, it was
Duduo was ordered to supervise the division in Chang'an and control Wu Sangui, but in fact he did not give Duduo many elite soldiers of the Eight Banners. He also secretly instructed Wu Sangui to exclude Duduo from military affairs and restrict Duduo from developing his own power in the northwest region.
Since the Ji-Yang Rebellion, Li Laiheng has moved away millions of civilians from Shaanxi. When Wu Sangui led his army into Shaanxi, he strictly implemented the hair-cutting order promulgated by Dorgon.
The officials and gentry of the court raised their butcher knives high and slaughtered them wantonly. After about half a year of burning, looting and destruction, the land of Guanzhong, which had finally experienced a little peace since Li Zicheng entered the Pass, has once again become a land of thorns, thieves and merchants.
, the scene of troubled times when farming is lost.
The customs in the northwest region are strong. In order to resist the hair-cutting order and the Qing court's excessive taxation, the people who stayed in the areas controlled by the Qing army formed strongholds and formed a large number of local separatist armed forces: when the troops arrived, they would flee east and west;
Resurrection.
It was not until the first year of Dashun Guangzhong that Wu Sangui reluctantly pacified the various anti-Qing armed groups east of Lanzhou. However, the Gansu area west of Lanzhou was still under separatist rule by a large number of local armed forces, and the Taozhou area was also controlled by Shunjun general Mi
Seal control threatened Wu Sangui's rear.
In addition, with the successful peace talks between Dashun and the Western Ming regime, the Western Ming court has ordered famous generals such as Sun Kewang, the Eastern King, and Li Dingguo, the Western King, to lead tens of thousands of troops out of Hanzhong to prepare for a further northern expedition to Shaanxi.
With limited troops, Wu Sangui needed to cooperate with Dorgon's main army to the east to contain Tongguan; to the west, he needed to quell a large number of local armed forces resisting the Qing Dynasty; and to the south, he needed to deal with the pressing steps of the Western Ming Dynasty's Northern Expeditionary Army.
He was very anxious and spent a lot of effort. He used the vassal soldiers who suppressed the Western Fan as the main force, cooperated with some of the Eight Banners in Manchuria, attacked from all sides, ran back and forth, and quickly quelled the anti-Qing uprising in Gongchang and Lanzhou, and drove Mi Laoyin to Taozhou to commit suicide.
After protecting the enemy, they drove the army to Tongguan and began a day and night siege.
If it weren't for Sun Kewang, who was watching eagerly in Hanzhong, on the one hand he had not yet completed the preparations for the Northern Expedition, and on the other hand he had the intention of sitting back and watching the decisive battle between Qingshun and Wu Sangui, Wu Sangui would have lost sight of the other and was completely confused.
Dorgon did not hesitate to reward Wu Sangui for his achievements in restricting Duduo's activities and active activities in the northwest during this period, and frequently extended favors. This was the implementation of Huang Taiji's policy of treating Han officials with courtesy and "nurturing" the Han people.
Dorgon was still in a military trance, and he did not forget to ask Fan Wencheng to write an edict, issue regulations on hats and clothing to Wu Sangui, and re-establish the scale of "rites and obedience".
The style of the top of the hat is: the lower seat is inlaid with four East beads, the upper seat is inlaid with three East beads, and the upper and lower sections are each inlaid with one East bead. The golden Buddha is inlaid with five East beads; the back gold flower is inlaid with four East beads.
.
Gold and jade belt, each plate is inlaid with one cat's eye stone and three East beads.
The mattress is made of lynx and mink fur in winter; in summer it is made of python satin, all covered with red felt and lined with white felt.
The crown of the hat, the belt, and the beads, cat's eye stone, lynx, mink, and python satin used for the mattress are all exclusive items of the royal family that are not allowed to be used by civilians, ordinary officials, or even members of the imperial court, and are regarded as worldly objects.
It was a treasure, and Wu Sangui allowed it to be used to show their dignity.
The newly updated ceremonial guard also has higher standards than the original one.
The specific regulations are: one red Luo crank handle embroidered umbrella, two red Luo pin gold embroidered umbrellas, one red Luo embroidered round umbrella, two red Luo embroidered round fans, two Qingluo embroidered peacock round fans, and two pairs of standing claws
, one pair of lying claws, one pair of bone bones, two pairs of my swords, one large banner, two banners, eight small flags, two broadswords, six horses; each has one third-rank chief officer and six first-class guards.
, one member of the fourth-class ceremony, five members of the second-class guard, two members of the fifth-class guard, six members of the third-class guard, and two members of the sixth-class guard.
The luxurious ceremonial guards and grand pomp doubled Wu Sangui's worth! Whenever he went out, he arranged this set of ceremonial guards, how majestic it was! It can't help but awe people.
Probably when Wu Sangui set up camp in Huayin and stepped up his attack on Tongguan, the Qing government announced the above-mentioned new regulations, and a messenger rushed to deliver the emperor's reward to the army. Wu Sangui could not help but feel the "magnificent emperor's favor" again, and his heart felt a little more
Gratitude to Dorgon.
Wu Sangui is now in his thirties, but he was completely won over by Dorgon. In the battle to attack Tongguan, he always took the lead and led his men to charge into battle.
At this time, Wu Sangui's vassal soldiers had already imitated the Eight Banners Army's military system and had been completely reorganized. These vassal soldiers and cavalry were all aiming to invade the Central Plains and plunder the legendary 70 million taels of Tibetan silver that Dashun had looted. Therefore,
The attack was particularly violent.
In the past few days, Tongguan Guancheng and the nearby Huashan defense line have been violently attacked by the Qing army. At this time, it was still snowing near Tongguan, and the snow on the ground was often thick enough to cover the knees. The weather was severely cold, and it was difficult for the Dashun defenders and the measures taken to
Wu Jun's offensive posture had a great impact.
Many soldiers on both sides of the offensive and defensive sides were not killed or wounded because of the war, but suffered frostbite due to bad weather.
But relatively speaking, the material supply in Dashun is more sufficient. The cotton-padded clothes produced by various public-private joint ventures in Huguang are being continuously transferred from Wuchang and Xiangyang to Henan, and then the Henan side sends caravans to the Tongguan front line.
At this time, the main generals stationed at Tongguan had been changed from Cao Ying's old generals Luo Dai'en and Zhao Yingyuan, who lacked sufficient authority, to General Quan Gao Yigong, who led the rear army to rush for reinforcements.
Gao Yigong had been guarding Huguang for a long time and was the brother-in-law of the late emperor Li Zicheng. He had deep prestige and was particularly familiar with the farming laws and the new public-private partnership policies implemented in Huguang. He was good at mobilizing the power of grassroots and private gentry and businessmen for his own use.
Therefore, the Dashun Army had a steady supply of supplies, the defenders had deep ditches and high fortifications, and they had a sufficient supply of cotton-padded clothes, shoes and socks, and they were able to withstand Wu Sangui's fierce attacks again and again with only a relatively small number of troops.
The Tongguan defense line was like a solid rock wall. Facing the Qing army's strong winds and waves, it remained unbreakable and showed no signs of wavering.
In comparison, Wu Sangui's own territory in Shaanxi soon encountered a big logistical supply problem due to the destruction caused by the Ji-Yang Rebellion, Li Laiheng's relocation of millions of people, and the many massacres Wu Sangui carried out after entering Shaanxi.
The Wu army's frontline siege soldiers were already fighting under conditions of lack of food and clothing. The price of rice in Guanzhong was seven times higher than before, and the people were in dire straits.
Twenty-three out of ten soldiers died, the survivors lost all their energy, and the situation was extremely embarrassing.
Wu Sangui himself was ill because of the unfavorable situation in attacking the city and the occasional cold. He had a lot of nosebleeds every day and needed to eat them in rice bowls.
He was in an extremely anxious mood. That day he climbed up to observe the battle at Tongguan in person. He saw that the Dashun Army was heavily defended. Although the Wu Army's soldiers were the best of the Ming Army's remnants, after more than ten days of meaningless attacks, the morale of the soldiers had deteriorated.
The situation was so low that many troops no longer dared to attack out of fear.
Some Manchu generals sent by Duduo around Wu Sangui had already begun to persuade King Pingxi:
"Why don't you, Your Majesty, return to Chang'an first and have a long-term discussion with Prince Yu before considering tackling the problem?"