Chapter 576: People are quiet in Liaodong at night (Part 1)

It was late at night, but there was still a fire in Zhang Zhun's cabin.

Li Jicheng's fleet was speeding rapidly on the Bohai Bay and returned from Donghai Fort to Liujia Fort. Zhang Zhun's mind was also running quickly. Now he was not sleepy at all and was carefully reading a lot of information about the battle in Guangning City.

The battle at Donghai Fort stirred up many of Zhang Zhun's ideas and many of them about Liaodong. As a later generation, Zhang Zhun's understanding of Liaodong was more profound than that of the Ming people. In the eyes of the Ming people, Liaodong was only part of today's Liaoning Province. In the eyes of Zhang Zhun, Liaodong included today's three northeastern provinces, and even more distant black soil.

Some people say that it was the fission of Sarhu that led to the sinking of Liaodong. Some people say that it was the sinking of Shenyang and Liaoyang that led to the loss of Liaodong. Some people say that it was the loss of Guangning City that led to the complete decline of Liaodong. Every statement makes sense. Zhang Zhun prefers the latter one.

If Guangning City is still in the hands of the Ming Dynasty, the situation in Liaodong would not have been decayed so much. If Guangning City is still in the hands of the Ming Dynasty, the Tartars would not have crossed the Great Wall to the south twice, and would have crossed the Great Wall to the south for the third time. If Guangning City is still in the hands of the Ming Dynasty, the battle between the Tiger Ben Army just now would not have happened. Because, as long as Guangning City is not lost, the Donghai Fort will definitely be in the hands of the Ming Army.

So, how was Guangning City lost? Why did the situation in Liaodong become so bad again? All of this starts with the dusty history.

In the early years of the Apocalypse, Nurhaci occupied Liaoyang with lightning speed, moved the capital here, and began to rule Liaodong. After the conquest by force, the most important thing is to develop the economy, and the preface to the development of the economy must have a relatively stable political environment, that is, to implement strong rule over the conquered areas.

However, it is extremely difficult for a nation with relatively backward culture to rule the advanced cultural nation. This is a kind of integration: backward nations in the position of conquerors must absorb the advanced national culture in the position of conquerors to a certain extent, and the conquered nations have to accept some foreign cultures under high pressure. In other words, Jianlu must accept the Han culture.

Shortly after Nurhaci entered Liaoyang, he proposed the idea of ​​"suming the Han Dynasty and taking the gold" in building the regime. He copied some advanced systems of the Central Plains regime almost as they were, quickly achieving a leap-by-leap development, and a backward nation quickly joined the ranks of advanced nations. The Han people had to implement the shaving order under the threat of butcher knife.

In the process of human history development, this integration process is full of blood. Needless to say, the period of the Five Barbarians invasion of China was like this, and it was the case in the Liao, Jin, Yuan and other periods. A new regime often replaces the old regime through violence. In the early stages of the regime, the new regime always had to carry out the final encirclement and suppression of the remnants of the old power, which is the so-called eradication of the roots, which is the need to consolidate the regime.

The old forces will not easily withdraw from the historical stage, they must fight to the death. Some old regimes have revived, but in the end they cannot be covered. After all, they have flowed eastward, and the old forces can only be a reflection of the past death. For example, in modern history, Zhang Xun's restoration, Kang and Liang, the two of them have changed from reformists to royalists, etc.

After all, the Ming Dynasty had been in Liaoyang for more than 200 years, and orthodox ideas were deeply rooted here. It was harder to make the Han people accept the rule of the foreign race than to ascend to heaven. Ordinary people may not care much about who will rule, as long as we can make us survive. Scholars are not like that. They believe that having a king in the barbarians is worse than a fall of Xia. They despise the Jurchens with big braids from their bones.

Nurhaci encountered strong resistance from the Han people in Liaoyang. These resistances were mainly initiated by these scholars. Nurha resolutely suppressed this and really killed many scholars. Some historians now criticized this and believed that he had lost power in his later years. So what is going on in history?

In fact, objectively speaking, Nurhaci treated Han people very favorably at the beginning. It is even not ruled out that Nurhaci had a little inferiority in front of Han scholars. It was like a child who was not good at studying now, and in front of Tsinghua and Peking University students, they might feel inferior. It would be completely nonsense to say that Nurhaci at that time felt that he might be the world. Even Huang Taiji dared to have such exaggerated ideas.

Zhang Zhun believed that Nurhaci actually envied scholars. He lived in the mountains and forests all his life, not even counting a few horses, and could not even explain how many women he had. Of course, he envied the talented Han people who could recite poems and write correctly. Unfortunately, he was not a girl, otherwise it would be impossible to marry a talented Han people.

Why do the descendants of wild boar skin have to study Han culture desperately? That is the inferiority complex that has been passed down since the age of our ancestors!

Although the Han people had a low status in the Great Jin Kingdom and were still holding a pig tail that was ugly, they were definitely better in economic terms than in the Ming Dynasty. It was precisely because of Nurhaci's preferential treatment that the Han people who surrendered could produce relatively safely, and the economy of the Later Jin Dynasty was able to grow rapidly, thus providing strong economic support for their march into Liaoshen.

Even the strongest nationalists had to admit that Nurhaci was not only a military strategist, but also a politician. He raised his army with Hetuala, a radius of less than five miles. After more than thirty years of struggle, he achieved the glorious cause of unifying the Jurchens and establishing the Later Jin Dynasty and walking out of the mountains. It not only relied on military strength, but more importantly his political strategy.

According to historical records, Nurhaci is proficient in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and he will not fail to understand the principle that if he wants to win over the land, he must first win over the heart. Furthermore, he has tasted the sweetness of the policy of preferential treatment of the Han people. Therefore, after entering southern Liaoning, he continued to firmly implement this established policy. After the Jin, Fu, Hai, and Gai, the most important wards in southern Liaoning, he surrendered, like in Fushun, he used all the officials who surrendered Ming Dynasty on the spot, restored his posts, and used Han officials to manage the Han people. For example, if the surrendered general Yang Yuwei was appointed to guard Gaizhou, he would be loyal to Fuzhou, and Liu Aita guarded Jinzhou.

However, in line with the old saying of "one time and another time", in southern Liaoning, his preferential treatment policy not only failed, but was strongly resisted by the Han people. Most of the scholars who took the lead in resisting or actively participated in the resistance were scholars. Under their instigation, the people who were abused or bullied by the Manchus were attacked, poisoned, gathered in the mountains and forests, or fled collectively. The fire of resistance burned everywhere for a while.

Nurhaci turned to kill people when the pacification policy failed. He focused his finger on scholars, and found that one of them would kill the other without mercy. According to historical records, most of the scholars in southern Liao were killed by Nurhaci, while the rest were hidden in their names and lurked. Throughout history, this may be an insurmountable stage in the process of the regime's inception from its inception to its development. It was just that Nurhaci's suppression was a strong national color.

Well, if you are the boss of a company, you have a large group of Tsinghua and Peking University students, but you are born in a rash family and even turn on the computer to directly unplug the power supply. As a result, the group of students below want to oppose you and encourage employees to rebel. What would you do? Of course, it was a big killing... These words were suspected of washing the wild boar's skin. However, the situation was indeed like this. As a result, when you cleaned up all these students, the company became quiet again and moved forward again.

It was against this background that Nurhaci launched an attack on western Liaoning.

Why did Nurhaci attack western Liaoning? The reason is actually very simple.

First, consolidate the need for the regime.

Although the cruel suppression can have some deterrent effect in a certain period of time, consolidating the regime should not be achieved by relying solely on butcher knives. If Nurhaci wants to gain a foothold in Liaodong, he must let the Han people in southern Liao eliminate the fantasy of restoration. However, the world of the Ming Dynasty was still the west of the Liaohe River. The Ming regime in Hexi had an endless longing for the Han people in Hedong. Many Han people fled to Hexi with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands, and fled to Hexi, and fled to the embrace of the orthodox regime in their hearts.

If Nurhaci wants to achieve permanent rule in Liaodong, he must cut off the Han people in southern Liaoning for the Ming regime in western Liaoning. This is one of the important reasons why Nurhaci wants to use troops to Guangning. In today's terms, it is to remove the firewood from the cauldron and confiscate your home first, leaving you homeless.

Secondly, strive for the needs of Mongolian tribes.

Another important reason Nurhaci had to march into western Liaoning was that he wanted to cut off the ties between the Ming and Mongolia and force Mongolia to submit to him to strengthen the strength of the Eight Banners of Manchuria. The relationship between the Ming and Mongolia was too close, which was very unfavorable to wild boar skin. If the idea was that if Mongolia could be pulled by the Eight Banners of Manchuria, the power of the Eight Banners of Manchuria would be greatly enhanced.

To explain this issue, we must clarify the important position of Guangning as a military center. In the late Ming Dynasty, Liaoyang was the political, economic, cultural and commercial center of Liaodong, but it was not said to be the military center. Logically speaking, the capital of a region is of course the military center of a region, but it is an exception in Liaodong. The military center of Liaodong is not in Liaoyang, but in Guangning. The Liaodong General Office is located in Guangning, while Liaoyang is only the Deputy General Office.

Why is this so?

Guangning has now been changed to Beining. It is located at the foot of Yiwulu Mountain in Liaoning. Its history is longer than that of Liaoyang. According to historical records, the territory of Yao in Tang Dynasty belonged to Jizhou, Yu Shun in Yu, Jizhou in Xia and Shang dynasties, it belonged to Jizhou in the Western Zhou Dynasty, it belonged to Yan State's fiefdom, it belonged to Liaodong County in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and the Qin Dynasty still belonged to Liaodong County.

Wuwu County was established here during the Western Han Dynasty, and the western Duwei Mansion of Liaodong County was established in the territory, which was above the governor of Youzhou. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wuwu County was originally under the Liaodong County, and was moved to the Liaodong State during the reign of Emperor An of Han. During the Three Kingdoms, it was under the Changli County of Youzhou in Wei, and the Western Jin Dynasty was under the Changli County of Pingzhou in Pingzhou. In the Sui Dynasty, it was originally under the Yanshao. In the eighth year of Daye, Yan County was changed to Liaoxi County. In the Tang Dynasty, it belonged to Yingzhou in Hebei Road. Wuyan guarded the city and set up local troops in the city.

Beining City occupies a very important position in the history of the Liao Dynasty. Three of the nine emperors of the Liao Dynasty were buried in Ganlu Mountain. In order to protect the tombs, Xianzhou was established. Three prefectures and three counties were established under the prefecture. After the Jin Dynasty destroyed the Liao Dynasty, it was established in four levels of power, prefecture, prefecture, and county. In the first year of Tianhui of Jin (1123 AD), Liao Xianzhou was promoted to Guangning Prefecture. The prefecture was located in the present Guangning Town, with four counties: Luyang, Wangping, Guangning and Zhongxiu.

In the Ming Dynasty, Guangning was the highest military headquarters in the Northeast of the Ming Dynasty, and it was a major military center to control Mongolia to suppress the Jurchens. In the Ming Dynasty, the troops stationed around Guangning City never had less than 50,000 people, and the number of cavalry was quite large. Guanning, Guanning, here is Shanhaiguan, and Ning, here is Guangning.

Guangning Horse City should be the largest trading market in western Liaoning. The Mongolian tribes living near Liaodong and western Liaoning, their daily necessities are mainly obtained from Guangning Horse City. Guangning is an important hub for the connection between Mongolia and Ming Dynasty. After controlling Guangning, he controlled Mongolia adjacent to western Liaoning. At that time, the Mongolian tribes at that time had lost their power to fight against the Ming Dynasty and could only become subordinates of the Ming Dynasty.

However, the Mongolian and Jurchen ethnic groups have the same clothes and believe in the same religion, and have the same name as the same writing. They have a very close connection in terms of lifestyle and culture. Nurhaci regards Mongolian tribes as their own races. There are a large number of Mongolians in the Jurchen tribes, and the ancestors of some tribes themselves were Mongolians, such as the Yehe tribe. Nurhaci once said without any concealment: I am a Mongolian remnant.

Conquering Mongolia was Nurhaci's established policy. Like the Jurchens, Mongolia is a nation with strong cavalry and shooting fighting ability. It is extremely important for Nurhaci to fight for Mongolia. From any perspective, the population of the Eight Banners of Manchuria is too small. Too small, it is naturally impossible to form more troops.

Again, seize food and grass and get rid of the need for crisis.

Due to its special military status, a large amount of food and grass was accumulated in the castle villages around Guangning City. Before Guangning fell, Guangning Youwei (now Youwei Township, Jinxi County), a 120-mile land area, had 500,000 stones of food and grass in Guangning City. What is the concept of 500,000 stones? One stone in the Ming Dynasty was equivalent to 188.8 jin of the current 500,000 stones, which is close to 100 million jin.

At that time, the Eight Banners of Manchuria may have about 100,000 people, and each person could get nearly 1,000 kilograms of food and grass. This is definitely a very large number. If the castles in Guangning City and surrounding areas were added, the number would be even more considerable. This is undoubtedly a life-saving food and grass for the Great Jin Kingdom, which had just entered southern Liaoning, was attacked everywhere, was turbulent, prices soared, and food shortage, it was undoubtedly a life-saving food and grass.

The Tartars were also humans and also needed to consume a lot of food. Even compared with the Han people, the Tartars needed more food. Because the Tartars' war horses needed a large amount of beans to feed them. The forage of the war horses had to be added to maintain the sufficient physical strength of the war horses. At that time, beans could only be snatched from the Han people.

Nurhaci was determined to attack western Liaoning.

So, what was the situation of the Ming army in western Liaoning?

The commander is the core of an army and the soul of an army. An army without a commander cannot be called an army, but can only be a mess. The Ming army in Liaodong has a commander. Let’s first look at the commanders of the Ming Dynasty in Liaodong. Note that it is everyone. In other words, there are more than one.

The first commander was of course the famous Xiong Tingbi.

The successive fall of Chenyang and Liaoyang led to the collapse of the Ming Dynasty's rule in the east of the Liaohe River. The rulers of the Ming Dynasty were extremely frightened. Learning from the pain, after reflection, they decided to re-appoint Xiong Tingbi as the Liaodong General and Right Minister of War, and grant Shang Fang sword, and the deputy general was below the deputy general and then report.

Perhaps it was to express a little apology for dismissing Xiong Tingbi, or perhaps to show his absolute trust in Xiong Tingbi, on the day when Xiong Tingbi left Beijing and took office, Emperor Tianqi held a banquet outside the city. All the important officials in the capital were given a banquet and were given a first-rank official uniform, which was extremely favored.

The second commander is the controversial Wang Huazhen.

Wang Huazhen, a native of Zhucheng, Shandong, was a Jinshi in the 41st year of Wanli. He served as the head of the Ministry of Revenue and was the sixth rank. Later, he was the right senator and was divided into Guangning. When he was divided into Guangning with the right senator, his greatest achievement was to appease Mongolia. Of course, his so-called appeasement was mainly achieved with the money of the court. At that time, the Mongolians at that time were easy to say as long as they had money. Even if they wanted to build a captive, they would not be difficult, as long as you exchange it for money.

After the Sarhu War, the weakness of the Ming Dynasty was exposed to the people of the world. At this time, Lin Dankhan of Mongolia rekindled Genghis Khan's dream. He also understood the importance of Guangning City. He could not tolerate Nurhaci dominating Liaodong, and he also wanted to get a share of the pie in Liaodong. Therefore, after the Sarhu War, Lin Dankhan set off troops on the border and stared at it.

If Mongolia starts to make trouble like Nurhaci, the situation of the Ming Dynasty will be even worse. Wang Huazhen actively carries out diplomacy, stabilizes Mongolia, relieves pressure from Mongolia, and plays an important role in stabilizing the border. Now, historians have blamed Wang Huazhen too much. He should indeed bear the main responsibility for the loss of Guangning, but his performance after the loss of Liaoyang is still very commendable.

When a large number of refugees flocked to Guangning, the people of Hexi were panicked, and many wealthy families began to flee to the pass with their soft and soft families. Guangning City felt like they were in danger. Wang Huazhen performed very well at this critical moment. He resettled refugees, raised food, collected residual soldiers, and arranged city defenses.

As a court minister, the courage and courage shown in the face of crisis was a great encouragement to the people. The emotions of the military and civilians in Guangning City gradually stabilized under his influence. It was precisely because of this that the court promoted a sixth-rank official to the fourth-rank official and the right assistant censor and governor Guangning.

It is said that the people have no two lords, and the army has no two commanders. The Ming court set up two commanders in Liaodong, which planted the root of disaster for Guangning's defeat. This root of disaster starts with two official positions. One is the governor and the other is the strategy.
Chapter completed!