The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 404 Overturned
Summer, the fourteenth year of Chongzhen.

August th, Mid-Autumn Festival.

Henan, Kaifeng Prefecture.

Outside Xiangcheng City, the fields are filled with lights.

It was the Mid-Autumn Festival, but there was no festive atmosphere at all in the Hanzhong army camp.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival in previous years, the camp would distribute moon cakes and wine so that everyone could have a day off.

There are also parties in the evening, and delicious food that is rarely seen in normal times will appear in the military camp.

But today the camp was eerily quiet, not even a human voice could be heard.

No one has any opinions, no one has any complaints.

There was even a party, but no one showed up.

The Battle of Songjin has come to an end.

Some time ago, there was news about Liaodong.

But the news is true and false, making it difficult to distinguish.

Until noon today.

After being verified several times by the court, the news finally came.

In the Battle of Songjin, the flames of war spread from Jinzhou all the way to Xingshan in the south.

It lasts from nightfall until dusk of the next day.

Northern Line, Jinzhou.

When the troops from Liaodong and Xuanfu took the oath of allegiance at Ningjin, there were a total of more than 14,000 soldiers.

After the war, there were only more than 2,000 soldiers left, who were able to enter the city thanks to the desperate rescue of the Jinzhou defenders.

In the Battle of Jinzhou, the army formation of Xuanda Town collapsed first, and Liaodong Town also collapsed after holding out for another half a quarter of an hour.

General Yang Guozhu died in the chaos. When the Qing army was cleaning up the battlefield, his body was protected by his dead servants and thus preserved in the chaos.

The bodies of several servants who were protecting him were trampled by the horses, making it difficult to identify them.

Yang Guozhu, the general of Xuanfu, was hit by seven arrows and suffered three wounds in total. One wound on the shoulder was caused by a knife or an axe, and two wounds on the waist and abdomen were caused by spears. He died from the gunshot wounds in the waist and abdomen.

After the defeat of his troops, Liu Zhaoji, the general of Liaodong, led his servants in a retreat, fighting all the way, trying to regroup the defeated troops, but all ended in failure.

At dawn in the morning, the Qing army surrounded Liu Zhaoji on a high hill on the north side of Rufeng Mountain.

Liu Zhaoji led more than 300 family servants and remaining soldiers to hold the high ground. The Qing army failed to capture the hill after a long siege and suffered heavy losses.

At noon, the Qing army attacked and surrounded the army several times, so they sent people to persuade them to surrender.

Liu Zhaoji sent people to cut off the ears and nose of the Qing army envoy, and then sent him back to show his determination to die.

After the Qing army envoys returned to the camp, the Qing army mobilized artillery to bombard the high hill, and then dispatched guards to attack the mountain.

After a series of fierce battles and artillery bombardment, only more than 30 Ming soldiers survived on the high hill.

Half a quarter of an hour later, Gaogang fell.

Liu Zhaoji was surrounded on the top of the hill and died in battle with other soldiers.

There were three battlefields on the southern front, from north to south, namely Changling Mountain, Shihuiyao, and Xiangyintun.

The Battle of Lime Kiln and Xiangyintun.

The three towns of Datong, Shanhai and Miyun attacked Lime Kiln as the main attack.

Ningyuan Town attacked Xiangyintun as a support.

In the middle of the night, Ningyuan Town also rushed to the lime kiln and joined the main battlefield.

The four towns joined forces and broke several Qing army formations in succession. The Qing army suffered heavy casualties and was forced to retreat again and again.

When the news of the attack on the imperial camp came, problems arose in the Qing army's deployment.

The troops from the four towns were then able to cross three trenches and break out of the encirclement.

However, when they were crossing the encirclement, they encountered artillery bombardment that had been arranged in advance by the Qing army.

As a result, the troops of the four towns were thrown into chaos, and the Qing army gathered its troops and took advantage of the chaos to attack.

A melee broke out between tens of thousands of soldiers from both sides in the mountains south of Lime Kiln.

The battlefield was cut into pieces, the command systems of both sides had already been in chaos, and the news from above was difficult to convey to the grassroots.

The moonlight is dim, the night is getting darker, and everyone is fighting for their own survival everywhere.

The situation was in chaos. Hong Chengchou was leading the Du Biao Battalion in the center of the four towns to issue orders and command the battle.

However, as the war situation evolved and the front line advanced, the central area became unsafe.

Even Hong Chengchou didn't know the situation of each tribe.

The situation was complicated. When the command system had not yet completely failed, Hong Chengchou ordered the troops in the four towns to fight on their own and allow a breakout.

This was a good plan originally planned.

If the attacks on Jinzhou and Changlingshan are thwarted, we should preserve as much manpower as possible to ensure that the situation does not get completely out of control.

After observing the stars and determining the direction, Hong Chengchou led the Du Biao Camp to the south to prepare for a breakout.

But Hong Chengchou had very bad luck. When he was leading his troops southward, he happened to run into a group of Qing troops that were also heading south.

This Qing army unit was the guard of the Bordered Yellow Banner, and their commander was named Guwalja Oboi.

During the Battle of Lime Kiln, Hong Chengchou sent his Du Biao Battalion to assist the front line many times, so when the encounter occurred, Hong Chengchou had only more than 700 people under his command.

The result is self-evident. Hong Chengchou's troops were defeated by the guards led by Oboi, and Hong Chengchou himself was captured by Oboi and taken prisoner.

Hong Chengchou was ultimately unable to escape from the prison of Songjin.

He also did not have the courage to draw the sword at his waist and preserve his reputation when his army was defeated.

Not long after, the two towns of Zhongxie and Dongxie, which had originally attacked Changling Mountain, also joined the battlefield.

The plan to raid the Qing army's imperial camp had failed, and there was no need for them to fight a meaningless battle at the foot of Changling Mountain.

This further exacerbated the chaos at the limekiln.

The Qing army began to continuously send reinforcements to the lime kiln and rebuild the defense line.

The melee at the lime kiln lasted until early morning, when it gradually died down.

The Ming troops from the Six Garrisons met up fifteen miles south of Lime Kiln, and then learned that Hong Chengchou was missing.

The battlefield was in chaos and the news was inconsistent.

At that time, some said that Hong Chengchou was killed in the chaos, some said he fled elsewhere, and some said he was captured by the Qing army.

However, no matter what the statement is, it cannot change the situation where the head coach is absent.

Finally, the six Ming armies jointly elected Wu Sangui as their commander-in-chief.

Wu Sangui accepted the order and decided to continue breaking out to the south. After a simple military reorganization, he led his troops to Xingshan in the southwest.

Wu Sangui personally led the Ningyuan Town Cavalry as the rear guard, with Datong Town as the vanguard, and the remaining four towns in the middle.

They were intercepted several times by the Qing army along the way, and many fierce battles broke out between the two sides.

Two days later, after a bloody battle, the troops from the Six Garrisons finally returned to Xingshan.

When the troops of the Six Garrisons took the oath of allegiance in Ningyuan, there were a total of more than 60,000 men.

After breaking through the encirclement and returning to Xingshan, another inventory was found to have only about 32,000 people left, with nearly half of them killed.

If the Battle of Jinzhou was brutal.

Then the Battle of Lime Kiln was chaos.

However, the most eye-catching and important battle in Songjin was not between these two.

The impact was most significant in the Battle of Songjin.

It was the Battle of Changling Mountain.

To be precise, it was the surprise attack on the Changling Mountain Imperial Camp.

The Ming army used troops from the Dongxie and Zhongxie towns to launch a fierce attack on the Qing army's two main camps in the east and west at the foot of Changling Mountain.

In fact, it was just to cover up the truth. The real purpose was to attack the Qing army's imperial camp.

But finally, when they were approaching the Qing army's imperial camp, they were discovered by the Qing army.

At the beginning, under the leadership of Cao Wenzhao, the Ming army was unstoppable and defeated the Qing army's imperial camp guards.

All the Qing troops of the Two Yellow Flags who tried to stop the attack were killed by the Ming army.

The first to react was the son-in-law Dorji, who led his troops to block the attack, but was killed by Cao Wenzhao, and his army was defeated. The ministers Buyan and Tazhan successively led their troops to fight, but were also defeated.

Under the leadership of Cao Wenzhao, the Ming army attacked the center of the imperial camp and almost killed all the guards guarding Huang Taiji.

However, due to the delay in taking down the camp gate of the Qing army's imperial camp, they were always under adverse conditions.

The guards who were protecting Huang Taiji saw that Gushan Ezhen Turge of the Bordered White Banner was also beheaded by Cao Wenzhao and the army was defeated.

Grand Secretaries Xihan and Ebilun led the personal guards to occupy the gate of the imperial camp. They shot arrows desperately at both friend and foe, and stopped the frantic attack of the Ming army.

The situation thus reached a stalemate.

The stalemate was beneficial to the Qing army.

The Qing army reacted from the chaos and began to gather towards the center of the imperial camp from all directions.

Cao Wenzhao, who was surrounded, finally tried his best to draw his bow and shoot three arrows at Huang Taiji.

Two of the arrows were blocked by Huang Taiji's personal guards, but the last arrow actually hit Huang Taiji.

The guards who swarmed into the imperial camp were all filled with fear when they saw Huang Taiji fall down.

Once Huang Taiji died, how could they, the imperial guards, save their lives?

At that moment, all the imperial guards went completely crazy and swarmed towards Cao Wenzhao.

But even though the Qing army was so crazy, it still found it difficult to resist Cao Wenzhao.

Cao Wenzhao wielded the tiger spear and fought back and forth, invincible.

No less than ten brave generals of the Qing army were killed by Cao Wenzhao in this battle, including several who were given the title of Baturu.

Although the Qing army was already going crazy, no one dared to step forward to fight Cao Wenzhao, and they only dared to shoot arrows from a distance.

Cao Wenzhao led the remaining troops to fight and retreat, and finally retreated to the tower in the southeast corner of the camp.

At this time, Cao Wenzhao was already at the end of his rope.

Although some soldiers risked their lives to block arrows for Cao Wenzhao, Cao Wenzhao was still hit by multiple arrows and his injuries were even more serious.

In the southeast corner tower of the camp, Cao Wenzhao led the remaining soldiers to continue fighting with the Qing army.

By the early morning, all the soldiers who followed Cao Wenzhao to attack the camp were killed, leaving only Cao Wenzhao.

The Qing army launched another attack.

Cao Wenzhao leaned against the wall of the tower to support his body, and took advantage of the narrow terrain to kill two more people.

The Qing army was so frightened that they dared not attack and could only surround the southeast corner.

It was not until noon that the Qing army officers mustered up the courage to enter the tower.

The Qing army officers who entered the building to investigate found that Cao Wenzhao was already dead.

At the last moment, Cao Wenzhao leaned against the wall, holding his tiger spear in his hand, and remained standing.

He didn't know that he still failed to shoot Huang Taiji.

The last arrow hit the target, but failed to penetrate the armor.

Huang Taiji quickly stood up again.

However, the attack on the Imperial Camp at Changling Mountain forced the Qing troops to rush to the camp to support it, so that the six Ming army garrisons were able to break out of the siege in an organized manner.

Battle of Songjin.

Although the Ming army was defeated, it did not turn into a rout.

Although the Qing army won the battle, it suffered heavy casualties and failed to achieve complete success.

However, the situation in Liaodong is still favorable to the Qing Dynasty.

The eight Ming army regiments swore an oath in Ningyuan, and 90,000 troops came to the rescue, with a total of more than 50,000 casualties.

Only 30,000 remnants returned to Xingshan, and more than 10,000 were still trapped in Songshan.

The crisis in Songjin has not yet been resolved.

The food and grass in Songshan and Jinzhou are almost exhausted, and they can't hold out for much longer.

And the biggest change in history.

It was Zu Dashou’s idea.

After the Battle of Songjin, Zu Dashou summoned his generals in the city, swore an oath of blood, vowing to die with the city.

……

The Hanzhong army, inside the sleeping tent.

Chen Wang sat on the bed, reading the document sent from the capital word by word.

He had already anticipated this outcome.

But when this ending really comes.

Chen Wang found that he was unable to remain calm after all.

If he could be in Songjin, he might be able to change the situation in Songjin.

Chen Wang closed his eyes.

His thoughts brought him back to Qingshan Pass.

On the mountain road, the Qing army was slaughtering the people on the road.

It was only to delay the subsequent attack speed of the Ming army so that they could safely leave the pass.

Those miserable howls and desperate pleas for mercy have always lingered in Chen Wang's mind.

In the capital city.

The people on both sides of the street cheered.

All the way south, he was supported by villagers from all over the country.

All of them appeared in front of Chen Wang.

Chen Wang opened his eyes.

Everything shattered like a mirror.

In this world, there are only cold lights.

Outside the tent was endless darkness, terrifying darkness.

The sun had already set and the moonlight was dim.

Sun and moon.

It is no longer able to illuminate this vast mountain and river.

Sometimes, there are no right answers to some questions.

Maybe another option would be better.

But now that he has embarked on this path, he must keep going and keep moving forward.

The wheel of history is rolling forward.

The tide of the times is flowing eastward.

The torrent of the times carries the fate of individuals.

The fate of being trapped by the times can only rise and fall with the times.

But now, Chen Wang is no longer just a servant.

A servant who cannot even control his own destiny.

He now has a hundred thousand soldiers under his command, is well-known in the world, and has control over various states and prefectures.

Chen Wang put down the letter in his hand and turned to look towards the tent door.

The lights flickered and the shadows were dim.

The Battle of Songjin sounded the first death knell for the Ming Empire.

The storms that will follow in the southeast and northwest will completely bury the already corrupt Ming Empire.

Outside the tent, the wind howled sharply.

A howling gale blew in from outside the tent, causing the lights in the tent to sway and blowing the document in Chen Wang's hand to the ground, revealing another letter that was originally pressed underneath.

"The bandit chieftain Li Zicheng contacted the chieftains and the Qinghai Mongols, led 30,000 elite soldiers out of the pass, and defeated the Qin army. His prestige was restored, and the Hexi Corridor was under his control. Lintao Prefecture and Taozhou Guard were already in his hands."

"The governor of Sanbian, Zheng Chongjian, was killed by the bandits. He Renlong and Li Guoqi are missing. The army of Sanbian has collapsed, many have fled, and the situation is very bad."

"Li the thief entered Gongchang via Lintao and marched to Longxi, gathering more than 50,000 soldiers, including Qiang, Mongolian, and Han soldiers. He intends to spy on Xijing and annex the Three Qins of Shaanxi!"