Southern Ming: A boy soldier at the beginning, supporting the world

Chapter 367: Sun Kewang's Defeat in Baoqing

After placing Liu Wenxiu under house arrest and driving Li Dingguo away, Sun Kewang's power reached its peak. In order to consolidate his power in the Dashi Army, Sun Kewang decided to attack Baoqing.

This man had a careful mind and made proper arrangements, making him a great hero. In order to defeat the Qing army in Tunqi, Sun Kewang dispatched three generals, Feng Shuangli, Bai Wenxuan, and Ma Jinzhong, and personally led the vanguard army, gathering 100,000 troops and horses to the Baoqing area.

Tunqi had just experienced the defeat at Hengzhou and was afraid of being punished by the Qing court. He was the great-nephew of Nurhaci and the grandson of Shuerhaci. He was not a prominent member of the royal family, but he was appointed as the General of Dingyuan.

In his early years, Shuerhaci tried to establish himself, but his relationship with Nurhaci became strained, and he was imprisoned and died. Huang Taiji, who had obtained the throne by chance, was far less prestigious than Nurhaci and was often suppressed by the banner owners. For this reason, he tried his best to win over the lower-ranking clans, including Tunqi.

Tunqi was a brave warrior who had been on the battlefield since he was twelve years old. Sun Kewang was coming with great force, and Tunqi was not willing to be outdone. However, he had learned from the defeat in Hengzhou and went south to Yongzhou to test the waters first.

The great traitor Hong Chengchou had moved to Changsha and learned that there was a rift between Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo. He was cunning and treacherous, and advocated that "it is better to attack the enemy with the enemy than to attack the enemy with the army; it is better to attack the enemy with the Han army than to attack the enemy with the royal army." He spread rumors and sent spies to further alienate the relationship between Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo.

Li Dingguo became even more suspicious and led his troops away from Yongzhou to avoid the Qing army.

Tunqi "recaptured" Yongzhou and stayed there for several days. Seeing that Li Dingguo continued to advance eastward to Chenzhou, he was convinced that the relationship between Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo had broken down, so he decided to go north to Baoqing for a decisive battle with Sun Wang.

It was less than 200 li from Yongzhou to Baoqing, and Tunqi moved out on April 8 and arrived in Baoqing on the 17th, which shows his caution. In comparison, Nikan led the vanguard to gallop more than 200 li in one day and night in pursuit of Li Dingguo during the Battle of Hengzhou.

At 3 p.m., the Qing army set up camp and stationed at the fork in the road, approaching the Baoqing city.

The Dashi Army took advantage of their rest to seize the advantageous terrain. Generals Feng Shuangli, Bai Wenxuan and Ma Jinzhong stationed in the Zhoujiapu area and set up fortifications on the hillside.

Sun Kewang was originally stationed in Baoqing Prefecture with the emperor's vanguard army. In order to boost morale, he personally led the vanguard army to fight against the Qing army.

The Dashi Army occupied the mountains on all sides of Zhoujiapu, commanding a commanding position, which was quite advantageous. Feng Shuangli's army was stationed on the left mountain, Bai Wenxuan's army was stationed on the right mountain, and Ma Jinbao, Yang Wu, and Feng Wanbao were the rear troops to ensure Sun Kewang's retreat.

Li Dingguo's retreat to Chenzhou in the east not only freed Tunqi from any worries, but also caused Sun Kewang to lose an experienced fresh force.

What's worse, Sun Kewang was suspicious of many of the generals on the front line.

Feng Shuangli had a long career and was one of the five commanders-in-chief of the Dashi Army. He was originally a general under the command of Ai Nengqi of the Northern Palace.

Bai Wenxuan was also one of the five military governors. He had a good relationship with Feng Shuangli and was originally a general under Liu Wenxiu of the Southern Palace. When Liu Wenxiu went to Sichuan, Bai Wenxuan served as Liu Wenxiu's deputy general and shared life and death with him. When Sun Kewang placed Liu Wenxiu under house arrest, Bai Wenxuan was also unhappy.

Ma Jinzhong was older than Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, and had a more distant relationship with Sun Kewang. The Red Army was committed to managing Lingnan, and Ma Jinzhong had nowhere to turn to in Xiangxi, so he was forced to submit to Sun Kewang.

As for Sun Kewang's trusted generals, many of them remained in Yunnan and Guizhou, such as Wang Shangli, He Jiuyi, Di Sanpin, Zhang Sheng, etc.

Throughout the history of the Southern Ming Dynasty, the commanders at the front always made inexplicable mistakes and issued inexplicable orders. The root cause was the lack of an absolute authority, which led to suspicion among the generals at the front.

Sun Kewang did the same in Baoqing. He ordered Bai Wenxuan, Feng Shuangli and Ma Jinzhong to set up fortifications in the mountains and not to go out to fight without orders, otherwise they would be executed.

This means that Sun Kewang only had to lead the vanguard army to fight against the Qing army.

The Jiaqian Army, also known as the "Palace Army", was Sun Kewang's personal army. It was composed of selected Yi and Han soldiers, with 60,000 soldiers and horses, and was the elite of the Dashi Army. Sun Kewang trained the Jiaqian Army for five years, using Qi Jiguang's military tactics to train the formation, which cost countless silver and money. It can be said that the Jiaqian Army was well-equipped and well-trained, and was definitely the elite of the Dashi Army, but it had a fatal flaw: lack of actual combat experience.

In the battles of Hengzhou and Yudu, Li Dingguo and Cen Danchu defeated the Qing army. The front army was also eager to try, thinking that the Qing army was vulnerable, and encouraged Sun Kewang to make great achievements in person to win over the people.

Another unspeakable reason is: rumors spread among the Dashi Army that Sun Kewang would proclaim himself emperor after recovering Hunan, and even the name of the country had already been chosen - "Later Ming".

On the 18th, Sun Kewang led the front army to attack the Qing army. It was rainy for three days, which was not conducive to fighting. The front army took the initiative to attack, which surprised the Qing army.

Tunqi sent the famous general Tong Tulai to fight against the front army. This Eight Banners army was mostly cavalry, and Tong Tulai led the Mongolian Bordered Yellow and Red Banners as the vanguard, trying to directly overwhelm the Dashi Army.

The front army followed the military manual left by Qi Jiguang when he was training in Jizhen and fought in a large square formation. The soldiers used rattan shields and spears to form a formation and fought against the Mongolian cavalry on foot.

Facts have long proved that as long as the infantry is well disciplined, they can form a tight battle formation and defeat the cavalry with infantry. The front army won the first battle, and the Mongolian Eight Banners suffered heavy casualties and fled in panic.

The Qing army's Green Camp soldiers were the rear guard, and seeing that the situation was not good, they also fled. Tunqi and Tongtulai killed several people in succession, but they could not stop the Qing army from fleeing.

A dramatic scene occurred: when the front army saw the Qing army was defeated, they were busy snatching horses and supplies, and their formation was in chaos.

Tong Tulai saw this and attacked with his army. The central army of the front army not only had the central army flag, but also had dragon flags, canopies, and drums. Tong Tulai knew that Sun Kewang must be here, so he took advantage of the chaos and attacked the central army flag of the front army.

The army in front of the emperor tried their best to stop the attack, but their formation was in disarray and they could not stop the offensive of the Eight Banners.

Tunqi was already afraid of being punished by Shunzhi, so he made a desperate move and sent all the Eight Banners soldiers into the battlefield to attack the front army from the left and right wings.

Sun Kewang urgently ordered Feng Shuangli, Bai Wenxuan and Ma Jinzhong to come to his aid. Perhaps the order was not delivered in time, perhaps the three generals were unwilling to help Sun Kewang, or perhaps the Qing army was too powerful, so Feng Shuangli and the other two did not send troops to rescue in time.

Continuing the fight would only increase the casualties of the Imperial Guards. Even if the Imperial Guards defeated the Qing army, Sun Kewang would not have his own army, and his own safety would not be guaranteed. Not to mention proclaiming himself emperor and founding a country, it was hard to say whether he could stop Li Dingguo.

Sun Kewang had no intention of fighting desperately with the Qing army, and left the battlefield under the escort of his personal soldiers. The dragon flag of the central army was then seized by the Qing army.

Once the dragon flag fell, the front army lost its will to fight. Feng Shuangli, Bai Wenxuan and Ma Jinzhong were not sure about the situation on the front line, and each of them was suspicious and led their troops to retreat westward.

A battle that should have been won ended in such a muddled way.

Even so, the front army fought bravely and still caused heavy casualties to the Qing army. Two Mongolian Melezhangjings of the Zhenghuang Banner, one named Wei Zheng and the other named Wu Jing, were killed in this battle.

The Dashi Army was just like the Ming Army. If they were defeated in one place, they would fight everywhere. The failure of one battle could easily lead to the failure of the entire campaign.

After the Battle of Zhoujiapu, Sun Kewang no longer had the ambition to establish an emperor, and fearing changes in the rear, he dared not fight with Tunqi again. Sun Kewang led the remnants of the front army back to Guizhou and sent generals to guard Fengmuling, Wugangzhou, Chenzhou and other places.

Tunqi occupied Baoqing and seized the initiative on the Huguang battlefield.

(End of this chapter)