Summoning of the Great General of the Great Qin Empire

Chapter 195

No. 12 people, Manchu Qing general Zu Dashou, armed force 94, commander 92, intelligence 78, politics 76;

In 1430 (the fifth year of Xuande), when Ningyuan City (today's Xingcheng, Liaoning) was built, Zu Qing, an officer originally from Anhui, moved his family here. They multiplied for generations, inherited the Ming Dynasty Ningyuan Guards' military positions and continued to rise, becoming a prominent Ningyuan family. .

Zu Dashou's father, Zu Chengxun, named Shuangquan, was the second son of Zu Ren, the commander-in-chief who guarded Ningyuan during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty.Li Chengliang, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong (now the eastern and southern part of Liaoning and the southeastern part of Jilin Province), led the expedition to the west with Ning Yuanbo Li Chengliang. Because of his meritorious service in resisting the Mongolian cavalry, he was continuously promoted and served as the deputy commander-in-chief of Liaodong.

Zu Dashou became an official in 1620 (the first year of Taichang), and was appointed as a guerrilla in Jingdongying. In 1621 (the first year of Tianqi), he was a subordinate of Wang Huazhen, the governor of Guangning (Beizhen, Liaoning), and served as a guerrilla in the Chinese army.

In 1622 (the second year of Apocalypse), there was a battle of Guangning between the Later Jin Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty.Sun Chengzong, a university scholar, supervised and assisted the general Jinguan to guard Juehua Island with his birthday.

In 1623 (the third year of the Apocalypse), Sun Chengzong and Yuan Chonghuan built the Ningyuan city wall, and Zu Dashou was in charge of the Ningyuan city project, heightening and thickening the city wall to strengthen its defensive function.

In the first month of 1626 (the sixth year of the Apocalypse), Nurhaci attacked Ningyuan, and was wounded by a cannon by Zu Dashou's soldiers who were defending the city. Nurhaci, who retreated in defeat, died of his injuries soon after, and Huang Taiji succeeded to the throne.After the Jin army was defeated, Zu Dashou was promoted to deputy general soldier with military merit.

In the fifth month of the lunar calendar in 1627 (the seventh year of the Apocalypse), Hou Jinhuang Taiji led the army to attack Ningyuan again.Yuan Chonghuan ordered Zu Dashou to lead 4000 elite soldiers to the enemy's rear, and the commander-in-chief Man Gui and You Shiwei led the army to the front of the enemy to form horns, and fought fiercely with the Qing soldiers under the city of Ningyuan.In the sixth month of the lunar calendar of the same year, the Qing army was defeated, which was the famous "Ningjin Great Victory".

In 1628 (the first year of Chongzhen), the Ming Dynasty appointed Yuan Chonghuan as the supervisor of Liaodong.In the sixth month of the lunar calendar in the same year, Zu Dashou was promoted to the commander-in-chief of the Liaodong forward, and was enlisted as a general of the Liao forward, and stationed in Jinzhou.

Later Jin Huang Taiji once wrote a letter to Zu Dashou, discussing sending envoys to mourn the funeral of Emperor Xizong of the Ming Dynasty, and congratulated the new emperor Chongzhen on his enthronement. Zu Dashou wrote back and rejected Huang Taiji's request.

With the rapid rise of Zu Dashou's status, the entire family of Zu's clan was granted official positions.Zu Dashou’s brothers Zu Dalue, Zu Dacheng, and Zu Dabi, and his nephews Zu Zeyuan, Zu Zepei, Zu Zesheng, Zu Zefa, Zu Zerun, Zu Kefa, etc., all descended from Zong Bing to Zong Bing. Deputy generals, staff generals, and guerrilla officers at all levels were stationed in Ningyuan, Dalinghe (today's Linghai City, Liaoning), and Jinzhou cities.In order to commend the meritorious service of the ancestral family for generations to town Liao, after Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty ascended the throne, he specially ordered to build the meritorious archway for the fourth generation of the ancestral family to town Liao in Ningyuan City.

In 1629 (the second year of Chongzhen), in October of the lunar calendar, Huang Taiji led an army of [-] troops to attack the Great Wall from the direction of Mongolia, all the way to Beijing.At that time, the main force of the Ming army was stationed outside Shanhaiguan. Yuan Chonghuan rushed to help Beijing with his ancestor Dashou, and fought against the Houjin army led by Mang Gurtai and others outside Guangqumen.

After the battle of Deshengmen, Huang Taiji withdrew his troops and left. The Qing people destroyed a large number of original records of the Ming Dynasty, and fabricated rumors to deify themselves, saying that they had planned so-called countermeasures before leaving.Emperor Chongzhen imprisoned Yuan Chonghuan for questioning. Zu Dashou was both chilled and angry, and led his troops to go east. Emperor Chongzhen had no choice but to ask Yuan Chonghuan to write a letter to recall Zu Dashou. Then he returned to the pass.

In the spring of 1630 (the third year of Chongzhen), the Later Jin Army conquered the four cities of Yongping in the Ming Dynasty. Huang Taiji heard that Zu Dashou's clan lived in Yongping Sanli Village, so he ordered the army to arrest them and got a nephew of Zu Dashou and his relatives. dependents.Huang Taiji gave Zu Dashou's nephew a house and sent troops to monitor him.

Soon, Emperor Chongzhen ordered Zu Dashou to join forces with Ma Shilong, the general soldier of Shanxi, and Yang Shaoji, the general soldier of Shandong, and led his deputy generals Zu Dale, Zu Kefa, Zhang Hongmo, Liu Tianlu, Cao Gongcheng, etc. to attack Luanzhou. Min and others abandoned the four cities and led the troops back to Houjin.So Zu Dashou returned to Jinzhou's front line defense.But Zu Dashou never left the military camp alone, for fear of being arrested by Dongchang's spies.

In the seventh month of the lunar calendar in 1631 (the fourth year of Chongzhen), Zu Dashou was ordered to build a city on the Daling River to defend Jinzhou. Less than half a month after he built the city wall and the battlements were not completed, Huang Taiji's army came to the city and took the city of Daling River. surrounded.Zu Dashou had no choice but to close the city gate and hastily challenged.

The food and grass in the city are only enough for a few days, and the food in the city will run out after a few days of siege.The soldiers in the city were all terrified. Zu Dashou tried to break through several times, but was killed by the Jin soldiers.In desperation, he had no choice but to sit in the city of sorrow and look forward to reinforcements.

After Huang Taiji besieged Dalinghe City for ten days, he began to persuade Zu Dashou to surrender.But Zu Dashou was unmoved and ignored Huang Taiji at all.

In order to further consume the effective forces in the city, Huang Taiji organized a fake reinforcement. Zu Dashou was eager for reinforcements and hurriedly led his troops out of the city to meet him. He wanted to attack from both front and back and achieve a breakout. However, he was fooled and was defeated and suffered heavy losses. , Zu Dashou no longer dared to go out of the city to fight.

Huang Taiji sent letters to Zu Dashou, He Kegang, and Deputy General Zhang Cunren successively on October 1631 and October [-] of the lunar calendar in [-] (the fourth year of Chongzhen), urging them to descend quickly.But it was still rejected by Zu Dashou.

So Huang Taiji wrote a letter to Zu Dashou himself, explaining: "It was indeed true to kill Liao people in the past. I deeply regret it. We have stopped doing that a long time ago. As for the massacre of Yongping City, it was Erbeile Amin who did it. , and he was severely punished for this. I hope you won’t have this prejudice. But Zu Dashou and others still don’t believe it.

The Ming army sent reinforcements four times to rescue them, but they were all defeated by the Hou Jin army.Zu Dashou's many attempts to break through were unsuccessful.Dalinghe City was besieged for three months. When the food in the city ran out, the horses were killed to eat. When the horses ran out of food, they killed and ate each other.The people of Dalinghe City were used as military rations and killed.

On the seventh day of the tenth lunar month in 1631 (the fourth year of Chongzhen), Huang Taiji once again sent a message to his ancestors for his birthday, and sent Jiang Xin, the surrendered general, to the city for an interview.Zu Dashou sent a general named Han Dong to the Jin camp to negotiate.On October 25th of the lunar calendar, Zu Dashou finally made up his mind. He invited General Shi Tingzhu of the Later Jin Dynasty to the city to discuss the matter of paying gold. Four people including Zu Kefa, Zu Zerun, Liu Tianlu and Zhang Cunren followed Shi Tingzhu to the Jin Bing Camp that night. Huang Taiji personally greeted them, and the four of them knelt down and worshiped.Huang Taiji hurriedly stepped forward to help her, and hugged her waist with the most noble Jurchen etiquette.Then a banquet was held and four people were invited to the table.

In 1631 (the fourth year of Chongzhen), on October 28th of the lunar calendar, Zu Dashou killed He Kegang who would rather die than surrender, opened the gate of the city, and led the crowd to Jinying.Huang Taiji, Dai Shan, Mang Gurtai, and all the ministers of Baylor grandly welcomed Zu Dashou and his party together.Afterwards, the two parties ascended the altar and made an oath to sacrifice to the heavens. After the oath was completed, Huang Taiji and Zu Dashou entered the big tent and held a banquet to celebrate the ancestors' birthday.

After the surrender, Zu Dashou suggested to Huang Taiji: His wife and children were all in Jinzhou City, and while Jinzhou didn't know that he had surrendered, he was willing to take a force to Jinzhou and respond in the city to seize Jinzhou City.Huang Taiji agreed to let Zu Dashou go to Jinzhou City.

As soon as Zu Dashou returned to Jinzhou City, he organized a defense against the Qing army.Qiu Hejia, Governor of Eastern Liaodong, surrendered to the imperial court and surrendered to Zu Dashou. The Emperor Chongzhen not only did not commit the crime, but promoted Zu Dashou as the left governor to lead Jinzhou.

Emperor Chongzhen issued an imperial edict three times, ordering Zu Dashou to go to Beijing to have an audience, but Zu Dashou declined with excuses and stayed in Jinzhou City all the time.

In terms of Houjin, Huang Taiji sent secret envoys over and over again to remind Zu Dashou not to forget the previous agreement and immediately seize Jinzhou City.Zu Dashou prevaricated with various reasons, and fought fiercely with the Qing soldiers many times.Huang Taiji always treated Zu Dashou's son Zu Kefa and others with courtesy and wrote letters to Zu Dashou frequently.

In the tenth month of the lunar calendar in 1638 (the 11th year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty and the third year of Chongde in the Qing Dynasty), Huang Taiji personally led his troops to attack the Ming Dynasty. He led Prince Zheng Jierhalang and Prince Yu Duoduo out of Ningyuan and Jinzhou Avenue; Prince Rui Dorgon led the troops to attack the Ming Dynasty. The left wing is from Qingshan Pass; the right wing is from Beileyue Tuo, which is from Qiangzi Ridge.

Zu Dashou garrisoned troops at Zhonghousuo (now Suizhong County, Liaoning Province) and led troops to sneak attack on Duduo. Duduo was defeated.The next day, Duoduo and Jierhalang joined forces to fight, and Zu Dashou withdrew his troops and returned to Zhonghousuo.Soon, Huang Taiji came to Zhonghousuo in person and sent an envoy to tell Zu Dashou: "It has been several years since we parted ways in Dalinghe. I came here despite the hardships, just hoping to meet the general. As for the general, Even if I surrender to the Qing Dynasty, I will still stay in the Ming Dynasty. I will not force it. The general decides whether to stay or go. Last time, I released the general. If I trap the general in the name of a meeting, why should I win the trust of the people in the world? Although the general has been in the past few years, I have You have repeatedly led your troops into conflicts with our army, but I know that you are executing orders and fulfilling your duties. I will not take it to heart. Please don't doubt it, general."

The next day, Huang Taiji ordered the release of the captured Ming army prisoners and asked him to bring a letter to Zu Dashou.The letter said: "I released you at the Daling River, and my ministers said that I couldn't see people clearly. Now, the general should go out of the city to meet me to prove that I have not misread you. If the general is worried, we will take you with you. One or two trusted followers met in the middle of the two battalions. I did this just to laugh at myself, and at the same time let the general's nephews and the generals of Dalinghe know that the general is the one who fulfills his promise." Zu Dashou always Didn't show up.

In 1639 (the 12th year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty and the fourth year of Chongde in the Qing Dynasty), in the second month of the lunar calendar, Huang Taiji attacked the Ming Dynasty again. With King Azig of Wuying County as the vanguard, he personally supervised the army to surround Songshan.Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty ordered Zu Dashou to go to support Songshan. As soon as Zu Dashou marched, the Qing army arrived, so Zu Dashou went to Ningyuan to garrison.

Huang Taiji sent an envoy to Jinzhou to tell Zu Dashou's wife, asking her to use her interests to induce Zu Dashou to surrender.Zu Dashou selected 160 Mongolian soldiers and 84 Han soldiers each, and ordered Zu Keyong and his lieutenants Yang Zhen and Xu Changyong to enter Jinzhou through the border and reach the mouth of Wuxin River; In the battle, the Qing army won, beheading 150 Ming soldiers and winning [-] horses.

Huang Taiji ordered to stop attacking Songshan, and then the Jin army returned to Shengjing (today's Shenyang, Liaoning).So Zu Dashou entered Jinzhou to garrison again.

In 1640 (the 13th year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty and the fifth year of Chongde in the Qing Dynasty), in the fifth month of the lunar calendar, Huang Taiji went to Yizhou to inspect.When Zu Dashou learned that there were few soldiers in the Qing Dynasty, he ordered the guerrilla Dai Ming, Songshan general Wu Sangui, and Xingshan general Liu Zhouzhi to attack with 500 troops, but they were defeated by Jierhalang.

So Huang Taiji ordered Dorgon, Jierhalang and others to lead troops to attack Jinzhou in turn. In the third month of the lunar calendar in 1641 (the 14th year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty and the sixth year of Chongde in the Qing Dynasty), Huang Taiji once again sent troops to besiege Jinzhou.Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao in the Ming Dynasty, led Wu Sangui and other eight generals to come for reinforcements with 13 troops and stationed them in Songshan.Huang Taiji personally led the army to cut off the Ming army's food routes, and the Ming army was in chaos.The Qing army took advantage of the situation to cover up the killing, and Governor Hong Chengchou and others were surrounded in Songshan.

In the second lunar month of 1642 (the 15th year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty and the seventh year of Chongde in the Qing Dynasty), Songshan City was destroyed. Hong Chengchou was captured and sent to Shengjing (now Shenyang, Liaoning). Hong Chengchou surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.

In the early third month of the lunar calendar in 1642 (the 15th year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty and the seventh year of Chongde in the Qing Dynasty), Jinzhou, which had been besieged for a whole year, ran out of food and supplies, and the tragic scene of murder and cannibalism in the city once again happened.So Zu Dashou personally led his troops to open the city and surrender on the eighth day of March.

When the good news spread to Shengjing, Huang Tai was overjoyed and ordered people to send Zu Dashou to Shengjing immediately.When Zu Dashou knelt down in Chongzheng Hall, Huang Taiji stepped down from the throne, helped him up personally, and comforted him with kind words: "The last time you betrayed me was for your master, for your wife, children and clan. The ministers have said that Zu Dashou must not die, and if he surrenders again in the future, I will never kill him. The matter is over and it is over, as long as you can serve me with all your heart in the future. "

Zu Dashou was awarded the post of Chief Soldier of the Zhenghuang Banner of the Han Army.Tashan and Xingshan also fell into the hands of the Qing army one after another.Outside Shanhaiguan, there is only an isolated city of Ningyuan left.Zu Dashou's nephew Wu Sangui was not only the commander-in-chief of Ningyuan, an important military town in the Ming Dynasty, but also the admiral of Liaodong, commanding the Ming army outside Guanwai.Huang Taiji asked Zu Dashou to write a letter to surrender Wu Sangui, but Wu Sangui wrote back and refused.

In the ninth month of the lunar calendar in 1644 (the first year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty), Aixinjueluo Fulin arrived in Beijing from Shengjing (now Shenyang, Liaoning) under the escort of the assistant minister Jierhalang, and Zu Dashou followed him into the customs.

In 1656 (the 13th year of Shunzhi), Zu Dashou died of illness in his residence on Zujia Street in Beijing.

(End of this chapter)