In the middle of the eleventh year of Chongzhen, after Huang Taiji conquered Korea, Azig led his troops to conquer Phi Dao, beheaded Shen Shikui and others, and completely relieved the Qing Dynasty's worries about attacking Guannei.

He judged the situation and took advantage of Li Zicheng's attack on Shanxi, and sent Dolgon Aobai and others to lead an army of 50,000 to attack, causing Lu Xiangsheng to be attacked on both sides, and he lost ground again and again, and finally could only retreat in some major cities to resist steadily, and on the one hand, Huang Taiji saw that the Ming Dynasty was empty in the north and could not be mobilized and wanted to take the opportunity to attack the pass.

This time, he learned the lessons of the previous strong attack on Ningyuan and the setback of Jinzhou, formulated a battle plan for a long siege and forced it to surrender, and ordered Prince Zheng Jierharang, Dorobelle Duoduo and others to lead the troops to build Yizhou City (Yizhou Town, Yixian County, Jinzhou) Yizhou is located on the bank of the Daling River between Guangning and Jinzhou, the terrain is open, the land is fertile, and the city is built here, in fact, it is an outpost position to attack Jinjin, and at the same time, once Jinjin is attacked, this place is an excellent logistics supply base.

After a year-long and meticulous preparation, Huang Taiji commanded the Qing army to come to Jinzhou and began a protracted siege of the city. At the same time, the Qing army harvested the crops outside Jinzhou City, and swept away the strongholds of the Ming army on the periphery of Jinzhou, completely cutting off the connection between the Ming army stationed in Jinzhou and the outside.

After three months, Huang Taiji took further measures to build a camp outside Jinzhou City, surrounded the city, dug a deep trench outside the camp, set up a fence wood, and there were deep moats between the camps, and Jinzhou was surrounded by "impassable water".

The lord of the Ming army defending the city will be the former general under Yuan Chonghuan's account and the general of the vanguard of the Liao expedition, Zu Dashou, a considerable part of the army led by him are Mongols, the city was besieged, so he rebelled and secretly contacted Jierharang.

This matter was detected by Zu Dashou, who wanted to capture the leader of the rebels, but had no choice but to act secretly, but was peeped through by the rebels, and preemptively engaged the Ming army.

The Jinzhou Dongguan guard Wu Bashi surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing army captured the outer city of Jinzhou. So far, the Qing army has completed the encirclement of Jinzhou City, "filling in trenches and destroying trenches, and cutting off solidarity"

Jinzhou Shou Zu Dashou reported to the Ming court: "Jincheng rice is only for more than a month, and the bean is less than a month, if the cunning voice is more Yin, Ning Jin's qi pulse is interrupted, then the pine, apricot, Jin three cities have been precarious, the day is not over. ”

Under such circumstances, Chongzhen had no choice but to order Hong Chengchou to lead Wang Pu, Yang Guozhu, Tang Tong, Bai Guangen, Cao Bianjiao, Ma Ke, Wang Tingchen, and Wu Sangui to march 130,000 troops to Ningyuan to relieve the siege of Jinzhou.

Between Hong Chengchou's department and Songshan and Xingshan, the armies of the two sides fought in Rufeng Mountain, and fought several times, so that Hong Chengchou asked for credit. "The Qing soldiers and horses, there were many casualties", the Qing army was defeated, almost defeated, and Wu Sangui was listed as the first merit, saying: "Wu Sangui is a little good at it, and in the past few months, he has been incorruptible and brave to rejuvenate the Liao soldiers, and the war spirit has been doubled, and this time he has won a lot of merit."

Hong Chengchou did not dare to venture forward and stationed in Ningyuan to spy on the situation in Jinzhou. And said to the imperial court: "The enemy is in front, the soldiers are in danger, the siege is relieved and the brocade is rescued, the moment is difficult to slow, the dead are buried, and the wounded are not raised." Within half a month, the decisive battle will be supervised again, and the urgency of Jinzhou will be relieved. Chongzhen, a military idiot, once again ordered Hong Chengchou to "march into the army immediately", and appointed Ma Shaoyu and Zhang Ruoqi as the head of the military department, and Langzhong to supervise the decisive battle.

On July 26, the helpless Hong Chengchou swore in Ningyuan, led eight general soldiers, 130,000 people, arrived in the area of Rufeng Mountain in the south of Jinzhou City on the 28th, and on the 29th, ordered the general soldier Yang Guozhu to lead the troops to attack Xishimen, Yang Guozhu was killed by an arrow, and the original Shanxi general soldier Li Fuming was born. At this time, the morale of the Ming army was sharp, and Huang Taiji was anxious about the defeat of the Qing army.

Huang Taiji rushed to help with illness, so that there were nosebleeds on the road, and he traveled more than 500 miles day and night, and arrived at Qijiabao (Qijiabao in Jinxian County, Liaoning) in the north of Jinzhou on July 29.

Huang Taiji climbed the hill to watch the Ming army formation, "Seeing that the flood formation was strictly organized, he sighed and said: People say that they are good at using soldiers, and they believe it, and it is appropriate for my generals to be afraid of it." He watched it for a long time, thought hard, and saw that the Ming army was "in front of the mass gathering, and the rear team was quite sparse", so he came up with a way to break the enemy, and said to the generals: "This formation has the right to the front but not the rear, but it can be broken."

According to the weakness of the Ming army, he set the method of digging trenches to besiege and cut off the enemy's grain route, the trench is eight feet deep, the upper width is one zhang and two feet, and the lower is extremely narrow, only the toes can be accommodated, "horses cannot cross, people cannot climb, there are fallen, there is no foot, no jumping."

On the day of the 30th, the Qing army desperately dug trenches, from the west of Jinzhou to the south, through the passage between Songshan and Xingshan, until Haikou, dug three large trenches in a row, surrounded the Ming army, cut off all contact with the rear and food supply, Hong Chengchou commanded the army to attack, the two sides fought fiercely, and the Ming army failed to break through the trench.

Hong Chengchou fought a decisive battle with the Qing army in the Songshan and Jinzhou areas, and Huang Taiji secretly ordered Azig to raid Tashan and seize the twelve piles of grain and grass that the Ming army had accumulated in Bijia Mountain when the tide fell.

At this time, in terms of troops, the number of both sides is equal, the Ming army's firearms far exceeded the Qing army, and it could have been cut off, especially if the Qing army had cut off the back road, only by fighting to the death, in order to survive in death, it was in the situation of putting the place of death and then living, according to the eight chief military officers should supervise the soldiers to fight. However, after more than ten years of successive defeats, the imperial court was corrupt and incompetent, there was no way to dispatch, meritorious service was not rewarded, and there was no punishment for mistakes, and generals at all levels had long lost their fighting spirit and only knew how to save their lives and fled.

Because Chongzhen blindly urged regardless of the facts, Hong Chengchou was forced to give up the "protracted war" of "fighting and defending", and led the troops to hurry over.

At this critical moment, Hong Chengchou, who had been fighting for a long time, convened a meeting of the generals and put forward the policy of breaking through the siege in a decisive battle, saying: "(The generals) should fight with all their headquarters and carry out the drums to relieve the siege in one fell swoop." ”

However, there are policies and countermeasures, and the generals of various departments, who have long been frightened by the Qing army, are unwilling to fight to the death and advocate fleeing back to Ningyuan. Zhang Ruoqi, a close confidant of Chen Xinjia, the secretary of the military department, who advocated a quick battle, also opposed the decisive battle and hoped to withdraw to Ningyuan, which further weakened the morale of the soldiers.

Hong Chengchou had no choice but to order a breakthrough tomorrow, saying: "In the past, all the monarchs were ready to serve, and now they will do it." Although the food is exhausted and surrounded, the officials should be clearly informed: defend and die, and die in battle, and if you fight or die, you may survive in death. I am determined to make a desperate bet, and I hope that you will do your best tomorrow. He dispatched eight general troops to the left and right roads, preparing to break through tomorrow in a desperate battle. After the battle, Huang Taiji expected that the Ming soldiers were short of food, and "the enemy army will flee tonight", so he sent the princely generals into the flood land to intercept the Ming soldiers.

As soon as Wang Pu, the commander-in-chief of Shandong, returned to the camp and ignored the military order, he led the men and horses of his headquarters to break through the siege and flee first, and as a result, "the commanders competed for gallops, and the horses trampled on each other", and in the dark night, the Ming soldiers "fought and broke through, the soldiers were scattered, and it was difficult to recognize in the night." General soldiers Wu Sangui and Wang Pu fled into Xingshan, and Ma Ke, Li Fuming, and others rushed into Tashan.

Hong Chengchou and others failed to break through, trapped in Songshan City (Songshan Town, Songshan District, Jinzhou), several times to organize a breakthrough, all failed, and soon "the road to pay is exhausted, and the city is exhausted", Songshan deputy general Xia Chengde sent people to secretly surrender to Qing, thinking that it should be internal.

Three days later, the city fell, the general soldiers Qiu Minyang, Wang Tingchen, Cao Bianjiao were killed, Hong Chengchou, Zu Dale was defeated and captured to Shenyang, on March 8, Zu Dashou led the troops to surrender the city, and the Qing army occupied Jinzhou.

On April 22, the Qing army had destroyed the Xingshan city wall with the captured red-coated cannons supported by Shen Xing's modified Frankie cannon, and the adjutant general Lu Pinqi led his troops to surrender without a fight, and the three cities of Songshan, Jinzhou, and Xingshan were completely destroyed, so that the Songjin War ended.

In order to show his loyalty to the Ming family, Hong Chengchou announced a hunger strike, and only shaved his hair in May. After Hong Chengchou surrendered, the Ming Dynasty did not know that he had defected, Chongzhen heard that Hong Chengchou was martyred, grief-stricken, dropped out of the dynasty to give nine altars, sacrificed to the ninth altar, and got the military report, saying that Hong Chengchou surrendered, and the capital was in an uproar.