There was a solemnity in the Forbidden City, and Emperor Chongzhen carefully looked at the two pieces in front of him. One is the verdict of the Three Law Divisions against Yang He, the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi. The other is Yang He's son Yang Sichang's substitution for his father.

In the second year of Chongzhen, after Yang He, the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi, took office, he found that the peasant rebellion was surging throughout Shaanxi. Therefore, Yang He put forward a request for the imperial court to provide money and grain and provide disaster relief to the affected people in Shaanxi.

Yang He's reason was that Yang He regarded the peasant uprising as a very serious social problem, and he gave advice to the imperial court from a longer-term perspective. Yang He advocated that the money should be spent on helping the peasants resume their businesses. This can not only eliminate the trouble, but also after the peasant arrangement is established, the government can continue to collect taxes, so it is said that "Li Mo Dayan".

If he blindly focuses on the crackdown and spends the money on military spending, not only will he not be able to restore social production, but he will not be able to recover the money spent in the form of taxes, but his own experience has also proved that if the problems of the peasants' livelihood are not solved, more and more people will inevitably take part in the uprising, and the situation will not be easy to conclude, and the future troubles will be more serious. This is the main reason why Yang He suggested that Fu should be the mainstay.

It should be said that Yang He's proposition is very reasonable, and Emperor Chongzhen also allocated 100,000 taels of money for disaster relief to support Yang He's proposition.

However, Yang He's claim for relief soon went bankrupt. There are two main reasons: one is that because there is no follow-up disaster relief money and food support, many rebellious farmers who have been appeased have rebelled;

The other is that because of the entry of the Tartars, Shaanxi sent the army of King Qin to the capital, resulting in the hands of the Shaanxi government, only a small number of imperial troops encircled and suppressed the peasant rebel army. In addition, after the escape of those soldiers of King Qin, they were thrown into the peasant rebel army, which made the shili of the peasant rebel army in Shaanxi even larger.

Of course, there are other reasons, such as the killing and surrendering behavior of the officials of the main suppression faction. But no matter what, Yang He's claim is completely bankrupt. The successor to Yang He as the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi was Hong Chengchou, who had made many meritorious contributions in the suppression of the peasant rebel army.

In addition, after Hong Chengchou took office as the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi, he effectively calmed down the situation in Shaanxi by means of bloody means to suppress and prevent grain from flowing into the areas where the peasant rebel army was active.

However, the desperate peasant rebel army crossed the Yellow River and basically entered Shanxi, making Shanxi a mess. And in Shanxi, they also formed 36 battalions, so that the actions of the peasant rebel army could be echoed.

Who is who is Yang He and the main suppression faction officials will not be discussed here. Because as long as you are a modern person, you know the truth of a carrot in one hand and a stick in the other. Their approach is flawed.

But in any case, Yang He, as a loser, always has to be punished. Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen sent Tiqi to arrest Yang He to the capital to punish the crime. The Three Law Divisions set the sentence of hanging for Yang He's crime.

And when he learned of his father Yang He's punishment, Yang Sichang immediately put on a recital, and he wanted to replace his father with his son and accept the punishment of hanging. Emperor Chongzhen is now looking at these two pieces.

After the Yuan Chonghuan incident, Emperor Chongzhen hated the civil officials' practice of being a villain behind the gentleman in front of him, so he also had a deep sense of distrust of the civil officials. However, due to Emperor Chongzhen's distrust of civil officials and his wariness of eunuchs, the current Emperor Chongzhen deeply felt that there was no effective assistant around him.

We all know that in the Ming Dynasty, the status of Confucian moral standards was supreme, and Emperor Chongzhen, who was educated by Confucianism, also completely took Confucian standards as his own code of conduct.

When he saw that Yang Sichang was willing to substitute for his father, he suddenly found that a piece of gold seemed to appear in front of him. If you are a filial son, you must be a loyal minister. In the mind of Emperor Chongzhen, Yang Sichang's name was deeply imprinted.

Emperor Chongzhen put down the piece in his hand and said to Wang Chengen: "Wang Companion, although Yang He's crime is unforgivable, his son has a pure filial piety. Let's change the hanging to exile. ”

Wang Chengen immediately bowed his head and said, "Bixia really has a heart of benevolence!" ”

Wang Chengen's witty remarks attracted Emperor Chongzhen Hahadaxiao, and he couldn't help but laugh and scolded: "You old slave, you will make me happy." But now I just don't know how Taishi Sun is in Liaodong. ”

Wang Chengen saw that Emperor Chongzhen had just been happy, and he was worried about state affairs, so he hurriedly comforted: "Sun Taishi Wen Taowuluo, his proposal to build a large Linghe City, all the elders have agreed. The old slave pondered that it must be bad. Your Majesty, you can rest assured. ”

"Hmm!" Emperor Chongzhen smiled and nodded, and before he knew it, his thoughts flew to Liaodong.

After presiding over the recovery of the four cities of Yongping and adjusting the Ming army in the pass, Sun Chengzong officially went to Liaodong in the first month of the fourth year of Chongzhen to take up the post of supervisor. As soon as he took office, he began the third military operation to seize the city of Dalinghe.

The construction of Dalinghe City was an important step in Sun Chengzong's original fortress tactics. At that time, after Sun Chengzong left office, Yuan Chonghuan, who took over, also wanted to build Dalinghe City twice, but they were destroyed by the Houjin army, and the Dalinghe City built at that time was also demolished by the Houjin army, leaving only the foundation of the city wall.

Sun Chengzong Weishenme wants to build Dalinghe City, it must be because the geographical location of Dalinghe City is too important. Its importance is reflected in the following two points: first, it can become a fortress at the front of the Ningjin defense line, which can increase the defense thickness of the Ningjin defense line; The second is that Dalinghe City can effectively put a nail in the nail between the Later Jin and the Mongol tribes who have taken refuge in the Later Jin, so that the Later Jin army and the Mongolian army cannot converge at will and act in unison.

But on the other hand, the Houjin army, which knew about the actions of the Ming army in Liaodong, would never allow the construction of Dalinghe City to be completed. Therefore, in Dalinghe City, a fierce battle between the Ming army and the Later Jin army will definitely break out.

This battle actually lasted until October of the fifth year of Chongzhen. Because in many historical materials and works, this battle that had a profound impact on both the Later Jin and the Ming Dynasty is introduced, so the author will only briefly introduce it here.

In the spring of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Sun Chengzong asked Zu Dashou and He Kegang to lead more than 10,000 Ming troops and more than 10,000 people to repair Dalinghe City. The emergency repair operation was very successful, and Dalinghe City was basically repaired within three or four months.

Then, Huang Taiji led the Houjin army and the Mongol army to converge and attack Dalinghe City in August of the fourth year of Chongzhen. However, Huang Taiji changed the previous method of hard attack and changed it to encirclement. He ordered the soldiers of the Eight Banners to dig four trenches around the city, and built a wall more than one zhang high, surrounding the small Dalinghe City like an iron bucket.

Then, it was the support of the Ming army and the performance of the Houjin army to encircle the reinforcements. But at this time, Sun Chengzong was surprised to find that he couldn't find the generals who led the army to rescue Dalinghe City. Because among the generals of the Liaodong Iron Cavalry, Man Gui and Zhao Shujiao, who had the most active offensive ability, were sacrificed in the battle of King Qin, while the other two generals, Zu Dashou and He Kegang, were now surrounded in Dalinghe City.

There is no way, there is no general in Shu, and Liao has become a pioneer. The Ming army carried out 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 ability of his son Wu Sangui later, and every time he rescued, he was defeated. The military operations of the Ming army also failed.

The transfer of reinforcements from the Kannai also fell through because of the later Denglai Incident. As for the Denlai incident, it will be described in detail later.

Seeing that there was no hope for the arrival of reinforcements, coupled with the lack of food in the city, it had reached the point of cannibalism, under the persuasion of Huang Taiji, Zu Dashou led more than 10,000 Ming troops left in the city of Dalinghe in October of the fifth year of Chongzhen to surrender Houjin, and He Kegang, who was unwilling to surrender, was killed. The city of Dalinghe was lost.

Next, it's time to perform Hollywood blockbusters. After Zu Dashou surrendered, he escaped back through his rhetoric. Later, the debate over whether Zu Dashou surrendered genuinely or fakely has continued to this day. However, in the author's opinion, judging from Zu Dashou's performance in Jinzhou later, he should have faked surrender.

The defeat in the Battle of Daling River completely deprived the Ming Dynasty of the ability to fight with the Later Jin army in Liaodong. And the main reason for his defeat is that after Sun Chengzong took office again, he still overestimated the combat effectiveness of the Ming army in Liaodong to the level when he left his post at that time. Because during the time of King Qin, the Liaodong Iron Cavalry not only lost Man Gui and Zhao Shujiao, but also lost 4,000 Iron Cavalry led by Zhao Shujiao under Zunhua City. And this defeat also led to Sun Chengzong's re-entry into the wilderness.

What is even more sad is that the main force of the Liaodong Iron Cavalry, which was besieged in Dalinghe City, was completely annihilated by the Houjin army. After they surrendered to the Later Jin, many soldiers were incorporated into the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty and became a sharp blade in the hands of the Later Jin to slaughter the Han people.

Careful readers and friends may have discovered that in the previous article, the author has been using the Liaodong Iron Horse, and has not used the Guanning Iron Horse, which is familiar to later generations.

The main reason for this is that although the Houjin had completely controlled Liaodong at this time, the Ming army outside the pass was only passively defending the Ningjin defense line in western Liaoning. However, the author still believes that as long as the command of the Ming army at that time was accurate, the soldiers used their lives, and the combat effectiveness of the Liaodong Iron Cavalry, the Ming army was not without hope of attacking Liaodong.

However, with the defeat in the Battle of the Daling River, the Liaodong Iron Cavalry has become a historical term. In the following article, the author will also change the name to Guanning Iron Cavalry.

And just when Zu Dashou was full of ambition to lead the Liaodong Iron Cavalry and the people to repair Dalinghe City, Wu Shigong, who was in Runing Mansion, was also gathering his own soldiers to escort him, preparing to pack up, and set off for Yangzhou.