In other words, after Chongzhen came to power, he wanted to do things very much, but he did some things in vain. Some things were better than to do not do them. The court was just like this, and the ministers were just these ministers and they could not do them.

So he was very disappointed and sad, but something even more sad was still coming.

Because the above things cannot be done at most, but the following things cannot be done.

In the fourth year of Chongzhen (1631), the general of Liaodong Zu Dashou reported urgently that he was surrounded.

The place where he was surrounded was called Dalinghe.

A year ago, Sun Chengzong replaced Yuan Chonghuan as the governor of Ji Liao.

Although the old man was over seventy years old, he was really reliable. Shortly after taking office, he visited Liaodong again, walked around, and came back to report to Chongzhen.

The main content of the report is that the defense line of Guanjin is very stable, but Jinzhou is deeply in front of the enemy and it is difficult to defend the lonely city. It is recommended to build a city in Daling River near Jinzhou, expand the territory, and stabilize Jinzhou.

This report reflects Comrade Sun Chengzong's outstanding strategic thinking. Seven years ago, he stabilized Shanhaiguan, restored Ningyuan, stabilized Ningyuan, and restored Jinzhou. Now, he stabilized Jinzhou and planned to restore Guangning. According to this approach, it is probably To stabilize Shenyang and restore Hetuala, drive Huang Taiji into the river.

He had a good idea and did a good job. The one who was sent to build the city was General Zu Dashou and Deputy General He Kegang.

Before Yuan Chonghuan's death, he recommended three people to the court, namely Zhao Shujiao, Zu Dashou and He Kegang.

When he recommended three people, he said:

"I chose these three people and would like to share the same relationship with these three people. If it is due, I am willing to kill these three people and then ask for death automatically."

Yuan Chonghuan meant that if I chose these people, if I couldn’t complete the work tasks, I would kill each other first and then commit suicide.

This sentence is more accurate, but not very accurate.

Because Yuan Chonghuan was not dead, Zhao Rujiao died first. When Yuan Chonghuan died, Zu Dashou was not dead and fled.

Now, only Zu Dashou and He Kegang are left. They will not commit suicide, but will fulfill the last part of this promise - killing each other.

surrender

After bringing more than 10,000 people, Zu Dashou and He Kegang went to build bricks. Halfway through the building, Huang Taiji came.

The reason why Huang Taiji came was that he had to come because when he found out that the Ming army was building a city in Daling River, he understood that Old Man Sun had done something bad again.

If the Ming army was allowed to gain a foothold in Dalinghe River and Jinzhou was stable, according to Sun Chengzong's style, the next step would be to erode and slowly grind it. Today, you will occupy ten acres of land and stand there. If you come again tomorrow, you will still be ten acres, which will kill you.

So, he personally led a large army to Daling River to prepare for demolition.

However, Zu Dashou worked hard for more than half a year, so he naturally refused to demolish it. He finished work early and removed everyone and prepared to be a nail household.

However, when Huang Taiji rushed to the city of Dalinghe panting, he stopped taking action.

He just camped from afar and started digging under the city.

Huang Taiji worked very hard and stayed under the city for more than a month, but did not start fighting. He just siege the city and dig trenches and siege the city. After unremitting efforts, he actually dug a circle along Dalinghe City. In addition, he was also very sincere. I found wood and built a fence in the city.

I worked so hard just because I was afraid.

Given that he had suffered a great loss in Ningyuan and Jinzhou before, he shivered when he saw the cannons on the top of the city, so he decided not to attack the city, but to only siege the city, and to attack again after the encirclement was almost done.

Zu Dashou sneered at this move and was not afraid. In fact, after learning about the siege of the city, he sent someone to shout at the top of the city:

"Our army has sufficient food and supplies, enough to support it for two years. What can you do to me?"

Huang Taiji was not angry when he heard this. He thought of a very good answer and sent someone to reply:

"Then I'll be trapped in you for three years!"

The so-called two-year grain support is naturally a brag, but it will be successful in a few days. Moreover, Zu Dashou had more than 10,000 troops at that time. Although Huang Taiji had more than 20,000 troops, at his level, he guarded half of them.

No problem with the moon.

More importantly, he still has a hope - reinforcements.

After the news of Daling River being surrounded, Sun Chengzong immediately began to organize reinforcements and sent several small troops first, led by Wu Xiang to run to Daling River. It is said that later famous figure Wu Sangui was also in the army.

Unfortunately, the troops were beaten back as soon as they arrived in Songshan.

Huang Taiji was prepared for a long time because his troops were not good at siegeing the city, so there was no problem in fighting in the field. Anyway, the broken building was demolished, so how many units were called!

Sun Chengzong was also very tough. After the city tower was repaired, even if it was squeezed with people, it would have to squeeze in!

In the fourth year of Chongzhen (1631), the largest reinforcements set out.

The reinforcement army was led by General Zhang Chun, with a total of more than 40,000 people rushing to Daling River and lined up to meet the enemy.

When a big customer came to the door, Huang Taiji naturally greeted him in person. When he saw him in front of the formation, he was stunned.

Commander Zhang Chun is a not-so-famous but a little-skilled person. He traveled all the way to Daling River, but set up a defensive formation, shrinks his troops, builds camps, and then sets up cannons and waits for Huang Taiji to fight.

Because in terms of the military strength of both sides, playing cavalry slashing with Huang Taiji is basically equivalent to suicide. Setting up a formation and preparing cannons cannons cannons, and how many days can you fight.

This is an extremely wise choice, but unfortunately it is not enough.

At the beginning of the battle, Huang Taiji sent elite cavalry to attack Zhang Chunjun's wings with left-right tactics.

But Comrade Zhang Chun was very skilled, his formation was well arranged, and his cannons were shot very accurately. After several rounds, the Later Jin army suffered heavy losses.

On the battlefield, wisdom is not enough. What determines the outcome of a war is strength.

After the attack failed, Huang Taiji showed his strength - cannon.

Because he was beaten too badly by cannons before, Huang Taiji decided to develop new technologies and build cannons.

After hard study, the Later Jin army built their own cannons, with a total of thirty. Although the quality cannot be guaranteed, it can at least sound.

So when a huge roar came from the Later Jin army, Zhang Chun had the illusion that his cannon was blown up and sent someone to investigate, but the cruel facts told him that the enemy had already changed the cannon.

But Zhang Chun believed that he would withstand no matter what. He personally went to supervise the battle, hoping to stabilize his position.

This wish has failed.

In order to ensure that he will win this battle, Zhang Chun came with a powerful general - Wu Xiang. According to his original idea, General Wu was a local and fought many battles with Huang Taiji, and was familiar with the situation.

It should be said that this statement is very correct. Wu Xiang knew the situation and immediately ran away when he saw that the war was so fierce.

This approach is extremely disgusting and directly led to Zhang Chun's defeat.

Forty thousand reinforcements in the Ming Dynasty were destroyed, and Zu Dashou in the city could basically be despaired.

But the desperate Zu Dashou did not intend to give up, so he decided to break through.

The location for breaking through was chosen in Nancheng. According to his observation, Nancheng's enemies were the weakest.

According to Zu Dashou's idea, it is best to be able to highlight it. If you can't make it happen, come back if you can't, that is, try it. But he never expected that this trial would actually solve a Beile.

A few days later, Zu Dashou launched a breakthrough and fought fiercely with the Later Jin army.

The one who besieged the Nancheng was Huang Taiji's brother Manguertai. This person is of a type with scarce brain and developed limbs, so he is called the No. 1 strong general of the Later Jin Dynasty (single man synonym), but this time, he met even more.

The fierce Zu Daqing.

The battle was very fierce. Zu Dashou deserved to be a famous general. He led the soldiers in the city (not the Guanning Army) to the death, severely damaging the army in the south of the city.

Manguertai felt something was wrong, so he asked Huang Taiji for reinforcements. But unexpectedly, the reinforcements were delayed. Manguertai could only supervise the formation himself and use all the troops in his troops to block Zu Dashou.

The breakthrough resulted in a heavy loss.

Mangourtai ranked third in the four major belles (the fourth place in Huang Taiji). He was fooled by his younger brother. He was so angry that he immediately found Huang Taiji and said that he had suffered too much loss and asked for a replacement.

But Huang Taiji ignored him at all. Mangguertai was so angry that he pulled out his knife and wanted to cut Huang Taiji. Fortunately, he was stopped and nothing happened.

What’s funny is that after Comrade Manguertai returned, he actually got angry. The more he thought about it, the more he became, the more he became, and he ran to Huang Taiji overnight to admit his mistake.

Huang Taiji simply tied up and locked him up in a prison cell. Soon, Mangourtai died, and the cause of his death was unknown.

This is not the first time Huang Taiji has cheated. Although he relies on his brothers to come to power, he cannot trust his brothers. According to his ideas, there is no need for the four major belles, just one is enough.

In order to achieve this goal, he deliberately arranged his brothers to fight every time he fought a tough battle, saying that "kill the enemy to death and eliminate external troubles, and kill himself to eliminate civil strife."

For example, in the third year of Chongzhen, he heard that Sun Chengzong sent troops to four cities within the pass. Knowing that the enemy was very strong, he sent the second Bele Amin to fight. He was beaten back and took the opportunity to remove his brother from his post.

This time it was almost the same. In this case, he probably missed Zu Dashou's personal favor.

But Zu Dashou's situation has not changed. He still can't get out, reinforcements still cannot come, and he still does not surrender.

Huang Taiji wanted to surrender Zu Dashou, but he wanted to do so, so he tried his best to shoot arrows into the city and carry letters, but Zu Dashou's habits were very bad and he never replied.

I've been calling for a few months and replied.

This was also a forced one. When he was surrounded, it was too sudden. According to the Ming Dynasty regulations, when military troops carried out their missions, they only brought dry food for three days. Now it has been thirty days, what should they eat?

Eat people.

In Dalinghe City, in addition to more than 10,000 troops, there are more than 20,000 migrant workers and thousands of horses.

Fortunately, without food, you can live even if you eat a horse. After dozens of days, the horse was finished.

There is no way, I can only eat people.

The soldiers started to eat migrant workers, and they were very organized. Today, they would kill a few people, pick good people, organize them to kill them, and eat them separately.

Except for the meat that was eaten, there was no bone left. Put it away and it was burned as firewood. Use human bones to roast human flesh, which was really the best use.

That's it, and there was no surrender.

But Zu Dashou had reached its limit. If this continues, he was not killed by the Later Jin army, and was eaten by the soldiers in the city. So he began to contact Huang Taiji.

The topic of contact is very simple, two words - surrender.

Huang Taiji knew that the city was in difficulty and was short of food, but he didn't know that Zu Dashou was very stoic.

Zu Dashou did not want to surrender at all. He just delayed the time and waited for reinforcements, but the time was getting longer and longer, but the reinforcements were getting fewer and fewer. So, after careful thinking, Zu Dashou made a choice to escape from the sea of ​​suffering.

He held talks with Huang Taiji's envoy and expressed his willingness to surrender.

Chongzhen IV

In 1631, Zu Dashou summoned all the generals, announced his decision and surrendered.

Everyone agreed, but only one person opposed it - He Kegang.

Yuan Chonghuan did not misunderstand that He Kegang was a reliable person. He sternly rejected Zu Dashou's proposal and would never surrender even if he starved to death!
To be continued...