Although winter has just begun, in this era of the Little Ice Age, the border is already extremely cold. Although it is not bone-chilling, it is not far away. Especially when the north wind blows by, it is so cold that people can't help but feel it. The neck shrinks.
Ma Ke was riding on the horse with his neck hunched and his hands clasped, his eyes serious. Behind him were twenty soldiers. In front of him, Ji Jike and Lu Dacheng were walking side by side and talking about something.
Is it true that I came out to collect the corpses for my men on this cold day?
It is true, but it is not the complete purpose of their sending troops.
That's right, cover Chang Yu.
Chang Yu likes to play and make trouble, so cooperate with him to attract Tatar's attention.
But this is one of them. The other purpose is to raise suspicions so that the Tatars can't figure out what they want to do.
It snowed all night yesterday, and the temperature has dropped sharply today. The weather is so cold that dripping water turns to ice. There are almost no people or horses in the vast wilderness, because marching in this kind of weather can easily cause snow blindness for people and horses. There were also a lot fewer scouts on both sides.
As for how to prevent snow blindness in humans and horses, there were no sunglasses in ancient times, but there was wisdom. For example, soldiers would look into the distance every once in a while to see the black mountains and black waters. If not, they would wear a black gauze to cover their eyes. This is true for people, and it is also true for horses.
Although there were few reconnaissance cavalry, there were still some. The information of more than a thousand Ming troops coming from the direction of Tashan Fort was quickly sent to Obai. This made him puzzled for a moment. He just left last night and came back today. What did he want to do? Why are you so bold? It’s fine if you sneak up and ambush me at night, but when you come to look for trouble during the day, don’t you underestimate me, and there are only a thousand people!
If something went wrong, there must be a monster. Oboi didn't dare to be careless or act rashly. He just let the scouts keep an eye on them to see what they were going to do!
Went to Xingshan Fort.
There was a fight yesterday, Wu Bashi led the remnants back to Songshan. At this time, there was no one in Xingshan Fort, and even the dead were buried by the snow last night. Ma Ke and Ji Jike led more than a hundred people to the fort, and visited Walking around and looking due north, Lu Dacheng was collecting corpses on the battlefield below. Yesterday, Ma Ke and Tu Yuan's men fought two fierce battles with the Tatars at the foot of the mountain. More than thirty people were lost. The corpses were mixed with those of the Qing army. It is covered with snow and needs to be searched one by one.
Looking at Songshan Fort in the northwest, we can see that there are scouts coming and running around in the wilderness.
"Master General, do you think the Tatars will send troops?"
Marco shook his head: "If it hadn't happened yesterday, he would most likely have done it, but today he doesn't dare!"
Ji Jike smiled calmly: "This trick of falsehood and reality has been thoroughly played by the Governor, and it has also made the Tatars suspicious and afraid to do anything without permission."
"It's true that they are suspicious, but they may not dare to move. Maybe they are waiting for a big move."
Ji Jike knew the meaning of his words. She turned around and looked around. Xingshan Fort was still in ruins. The Qing army had been repairing it for several months, and it was demolished several times by the Ming army. It was still an unfinished project.
The two forts are only tens of miles apart. If we take this place to advance and retreat, it will be of great benefit to us. Ji Jike sighed: "This Xingshan Fort is much bigger than Tashan." Ma Ke hummed: "Xingshan can garrison tens of thousands of troops, but because it is too close to Songshan, the Tatars will not allow us to occupy this place. , even if we occupy this place, they will not give you the opportunity to build fortifications, but if there are no fortifications on this hilltop, it is useless to occupy it. We cannot hold it for an hour or three, otherwise why would General Zu have to repel it every time? There is actually no way to withdraw the troops. At present, it is our best effort to prevent the Tatars from taking over."
"So, why not just take over Songshan City?" Ji Jike raised his hand and pointed in the distance: "That's what the Commander-in-Chief thinks so."
Chief Ma took a breath and said, "I am not the only one who thinks so. The Governor and General Zu also think so. However, tens of thousands of troops can be stationed here to strengthen the city. It is not easy to defeat it. But if you want to capture Jinzhou, you must first capture it." Songshan, and Dorgon also knew this, so he rebuilt Songshan and rushed to repair Xingshan at the same time. He wanted to build an extra barrier for Songshan so that he could besiege the city and call for reinforcements if a war broke out."
Ji Jike looked at Songshan City in the distance and was silent for a long time, then suddenly asked: "Is Songshan really difficult to fight?"
Marco smiled bitterly because he really didn't know how to answer.
Three years ago, that is, the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, the Songjin War, which caused the Ming Dynasty to lose hundreds of miles of territory outside the pass, directly changed the situation, took place in this area. The reason why it was called the Songjin War was because the war zone was between Songshan and Songshan. Within Jinzhou, Songshan City is the real main battlefield.
Jinzhou is not an isolated city. There is Songshan City eighteen miles to the southeast, Xingshan Fort thirty miles southwest of Songshan, Tashan twenty miles southwest of Xingshan, and Ningyuan City one hundred and twenty miles south!
This is a complete defensive front, called the Ningjin Defense Line, and Tashan, Xingshan, Songshan and Jinzhou are integrated defense fortifications. If you want to attack Jinzhou, you must first solve the three outer fortresses of this defense system.
In fact, when Hong Chengchou led his 130,000 troops to come to the rescue at the beginning, they fought fiercely at Rufeng Mountain (today's Hanwang Hall) between Jinzhou and Songshan, and defeated the Qing army. Huang Taiji, who was already ill and about to die, ran day and night despite his illness. After watching the battle for five hundred miles, they came up with a tactic, which was to cut the defense system apart and then defeat it one by one.
So he camped horizontally between Xingshan and Songshan, separating the two places, and began to dig trenches, starting from the west of Jinzhou to the south, and then digging all the way to the seaside. He dug three large trenches to divide and surround the Ming army. Get up, do you know how long it took to dig such a long trench?
one day!
Excavation was carried out on August 20th of that year. On the 21st, Hong Chengchou led the troops to fight fiercely and failed to break through the trench.
In other words, tens of thousands of troops could complete such a large project in one day! And right under the eyes of the Ming army, no one came out to stop him!
The disastrous defeat of the Songjin War was due to many reasons. Insufficient external food, grass and money, internal discord among the generals, and too many constraints from the court. In particular, Chongzhen and the Minister of War Chen Xinjia were unaware of the predicament on the front line and kept urging, causing Hong Chengchou to disrupt the original plan. Planning and rhythm, coupled with low morale and other reasons, Jinzhou's final collapse was due to the destruction of Songshan City and the capture of Hong Chengchou and other elders, leaving Zu Dashou without a glimmer of hope and had to surrender.
But how was Songshan City destroyed?
Just like Ji Jike asked, is it easy to fight?
It was not easy to fight. Even if it was besieged and isolated, even if Huang Taiji brought all the main forces besieging Jinzhou over and fought for ten days, it was not broken.
But you can't say it's hard to fight. He broke the city in an instant. When Songshan's deputy general Xia Chengde collaborated with the enemy and opened the city gate with a ladder to capture Hong Chengchou and others, Songshan City was broken in the blink of an eye!
By the way, let me talk about the geographical location of Songshan Fort. After the city was destroyed, Huang Taiji bombarded the city and razed it to the ground. Over the past hundreds of years, the sea has changed, and later generations have doubts about its original location. Although there are historical records, they are in a mess. , there are many records about Songshan Fort in the Ming Dynasty, both in Shanxi and Kaiyuan, Liaoning. There are also many records about Songshan Fort next to Jinzhou, but the location is very different, because many place names have been changed, such as Rufeng Mountain back then is now called Hanwang Palace.
However, most people believe that it is the Songshan Village of later generations. To the east of the village is Songshan, which makes people wonder. Songshan Fort was not built on the mountain, but a few miles away to the west of the mountain!
Why abandon the Songshan Mountain, which is easy to defend but difficult to attack, and build on the plain below the mountain? And since it's not on the mountain, why are there traces of city walls on the mountain?
I also missed a lot of information later. Guangning Zhongtun defended Yuan Jinzhou, which belonged to Daning Road. The prefecture was abolished in the early days of Hongwu. There is Xingshan Mountain, Rufeng Mountain to the southeast...and Songshan Fort to the south. In the west of Songshan, in the first month of the fifth year of Xuande's reign, the residence of Zhongzuo Qianhu was placed here, with jurisdiction from Xingshan Station to Xiaolinghe Station.
It can be seen that Songshan Fort is indeed in the west of Songshan Mountain, not on Songshan Mountain.
But why is it not built on a mountain like Xingshan and Tashan? The reason is very simple. Although this mountain is high, it is because of its height that water cannot be dug out. A military fort has no water, and no matter how good the terrain is, it cannot garrison troops. Don't worry about yourself dying of thirst during the war!
A few miles to the west of the mountain is indeed an excellent location for building a fort, because there is a river here that can not only protect the city, but also divert water into the city, and it is easy to dig wells on flat land.
So Songshan Fort was built at the bottom of the mountain, but why are there ruins of the city wall on the mountain? It is so close and it is a highland, so naturally it will be put to full use. The city can be built to garrison troops and store grain. Although it cannot last long due to lack of water. It is a garrison of troops and horses, but it is extremely useful in wartime!
For example, at this time, when the Qing army rebuilt Songshan Fort, Obai first built fortifications on the mountain and stationed troops on the mountain.
Because Songshan Fort is a big project and cannot be repaired in a while, in order to prevent the Ming army from attacking, soldiers and horses were stationed on the mountain to attack the Ming army at any time, and to prevent the Ming army from sneak attacks.
Later, after the Songshan Fort wall project was completed, troops were stationed inside, but Obai still divided his troops to garrison on the mountain, just because the terrain here is good, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and you can climb up to see far. As for the water problem, the Ming army would not have it anyway. If there is a siege, just let those Korean devils carry water on weekdays.
Another point is that they are both military forts, but most historical materials refer to them as Songshan City. This is because it is much larger than the other military forts and has a much larger troop capacity. At that time, 50,000 Ming troops died in the Songshan battlefield. Of course, not all of these troops were in Songshan City. However, after the unsuccessful breakout, Hong Chengchou, Qiu Minyang, Wang Tingchen, Cao Bianjiao and others fled into Songshan City. There were more than 20,000 troops in the city, which was much higher than that of Tashan. The one that can accommodate up to three or four thousand people is much larger. Of course, it cannot be ruled out that they are crowded.
