Liao Daheng, Liu Zhibo, and Chen Qichi rushed to the Shu Wang's Mansion on the same day, reported to Zhu Pingjin the solution they had discussed, and borrowed silver and grain by the way. Unfortunately, many of the general affairs stumbled them and made it difficult for them to make the trip. Liao Daheng had no choice but to send Master Zhao to the Governor of Shu Mansion Shi Si to report and explain that the main officials of the Second Taiwan and Third Divisions would collectively meet the prince early tomorrow morning.

Early the next morning, when Liao Daheng and Liu Zhibo led the main officials of the three divisions to the Duanli Gate of the palace, Shi Zheng Anmin, who had already been waiting outside, and Hong Qihui, the copywriter, told Liao Daheng and others with a smile that the prince went to the left guard to inspect the personal soldiers. If they are anxious to get the will of the Son, they may as well kneel for a quarter of an hour before the gate of Duanli.

This bastard! Liao Daheng scolded in his heart, and really put on a posture that we begged him to take over! But he caught a glimpse of Liu Zhibo having already taken off the black veil and the official robe, and slammed it on the ground, so he had to reluctantly do a slow motion of one frame per second, without a crown, and kneeling for a long time.

Sichuan Ertai led dozens of red-robed and green-robed officials to kneel under the statue of Taizu of Duanlimen in the Shu Palace, begging Zhu Pingjian, the son of Shu, to borrow food and pay the army. This sensational political anecdote spread throughout Chengdu officialdom within half an hour and all Chengdu citizens within half a day. In the middle of the night, it finally passed through the red lips of a kiln sister into the ears of Li Cunliang, the deputy of the Jinyi Guard, who spent all the time and wine with Zhu Pingjian's silver.

……

Zhu Pingjin slipped to the secret military base of the caravan guarding the tomb of the king of Shu, and participated in the review meeting of the Battle of Changping Mountain.

In addition to the members of the staff, supervision, and rear teams, and officers at and above the company level of the first and second regiments, there were also cadres of the Huzhuang Brigade and the backbone squadron of more than a dozen counties near Chengdu. It can be seen that Zhu Pingjian attaches great importance to summing up battlefield experience.

According to the agenda of the meeting, Wang Xingwu, the former commander of the third company of the third battalion of the caravan and the current captain of the Yilong County Huzhuang Brigade, will take the lead in accepting the pennant and title of "Changpingshan Hero Battalion" given to the third battalion by the prince on behalf of the third battalion of the caravan. Then Wang Xingwu will make a report to the prince and the participants, summarizing the experience and lessons of the Battle of Changping Mountain in detail. However, because he received the latest report of the Battle of Songjin, Zhu Pingjin temporarily decided to make full use of this rare opportunity for collective learning. Therefore, after the flag was awarded, Wu Tai, the first deputy director of the General Logistics Department, would explain several rumors about the Battle of Songjin before Wang Xingwu.

As early as the beginning of July, at Songlin Mountain, Wu Tai was invited by Zhu Pingjin to make a special deduction of the process of the Battle of Songjin, and focused on demonstrating Hong Chengchou's strategy of "establishing a salary road, marching step by step, advancing while fighting, and relieving the siege of Jinzhou" from the perspective of logistics. Zhu Pingjin knows the end of history, but he can't guess the process of history, so he will create conditions for everyone to help him guess. Unfortunately, Wu Tai guessed accurately. The final outcome of the Battle of Songjin is strikingly similar to his speculation.

On the map of China, there are two famous corridors. One is the Hexi Corridor, which connects Shaanxi, Gansu and the Western Regions, and the other is the Liaoning West Corridor, which connects North China and Northeast China. Because these two corridors have an irreplaceable and important role in military geography, they have become a battleground for soldiers in troubled times. For the ownership of a walled city that can control the corridor, countless soldiers fought to the death, and the number of dead people is uncountable. The corridor, like a meat grinder that lives forever in history, starts every now and then, mercilessly devouring tens of thousands of lives.

The West Liaoning Corridor, also known as the Yuguan Corridor, is an important passage connecting North China and Northeast China.

Before the Ming Dynasty, the main land route from the northeast to North China was the ancient road along the Daling River Valley to Chengde (Note 1) via Chaoyang County. During the Hongwu period, because all the northern lands except for the western Liaoning corridor were occupied by the remnants of the Mongol forces, Xu Da, the king of Zhongshan, set up Shanhaiwei at the junction of Hebei and Liaodong to create Shanhaiguan. The Liaoning West Corridor flourished from this. Since then, due to the construction of the side wall, the ancient road in the Daling River Valley can no longer be passed at will, and the role of the Liaoning West Corridor has become increasingly prominent.

After 300 years of construction, the Liaoning West Corridor has become a fortress corridor with a depth of more than 400 miles.

From the southwest end of the Liaoning West Corridor - Shanhaiguan to the northeast, the sea on the right, the Songling Mountain on the left, the front of the road is full of continuous tunbao and beacons. Nearly 400 miles from Shanhaiguan to Jinzhou, there are ten large fortresses such as Guangning Zhongqiansuo (now Suizhong Qiansuo), Guangning Qiantunwei (now Suizhong Qianwei), Guangning Zhonghou (now Suizhong), Ningyuan Zhongyou (now Xingcheng Shahousuo), Ningyuanwei (now Xingcheng), Lianshanyi (now Lianshan), Ningyuan Zhongzuo (now Lianshan Tashan), Xingshanyi (now Lingyuan Xingshan), Guangning Zhongtun (now Lingyuan Songshan), Guangning Zhongzuo Tunwei (Jinzhou) and so on, with an average of 40 li.

The closest fortress to Jinzhou City, the northeastern end of the Liaoning West Corridor, is Songshan Fort. Although Matsuyama is a mountain, it is not a mountain, but a tall mound that stands on a small plain. It is only eighteen miles from Songshan Fort to Jinzhou City, and there is a Daling Mountain between the two places. After crossing the Daling Mountain, there are two rivers at the foot of the mountain: the Xiaoling River and the Daughter River. The two rivers converge under the southern city of Jinzhou, flow ten miles to the east, and then turn a bend to the south and flow into the vast Liaodong Bay.

Standing on the top of Daling Mountain and looking north, you can clearly see Jinzhou City. Therefore, Daling Mountain has naturally become an important place for the Ming and Qing dynasties.

From February of the twelfth year of Chongzhen to the end of July of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, Zu Dashou has been besieged in Jinzhou for two and a half years. This once-famous Guanning Iron Cavalry has long since lost its former charm and has become a group of remnants, tired and hungry soldiers.

In the early years of Chongzhen, the Guanning Iron Cavalry was supported by the two pillars of the Liao people's great blood feud and the huge military expenditure of the imperial court, and was once evenly matched with the Houjin army. But with the corruption of the generals in western Liaoxi and the killing of Mao Wenlong in Liaodong, the Guanning army soon fell into decline. As early as ten years ago, in the battle of the Daling River in the fourth year of Chongzhen, Zu Dashou's 14,000 troops, plus about 50,000 troops reinforced repeatedly, were all annihilated by the Qing army, losing a total of about 70,000 people before and after, and also losing a large number of military firearms. Although Zu Dashou escaped back to Jinzhou by fraud, he was only alone.

At the beginning of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, Zu Dashou, who had made a comeback, ventured into Jinzhou again to build a city. But before he could accumulate enough food and grass, he was surrounded by the Qing army that reacted quickly.

The Qing army dealt with Zu Dashou, first attacked and suffered heavy losses, and then re-enshrined the method of siege, from long-distance siege to close-range siege, "building an earthen city outside, and digging pits and trenches", and the noose became tighter and tighter. In this way, Zu Dashou in Jinzhou City had to sit and wait for death, the grain was eaten and the horses were eaten, the horses were eaten and the people were eaten, the people who died in battle were eaten and the people who had just starved to death, and finally the people who were not dead were eaten. In particular, Huang Taiji decided to reclaim Yizhou (now Yixian County) in the north of Jinzhou, and in just one month, he completed the reclamation of 40 miles from east to west of Yizhou, which not only showed the strong and efficient mobilization ability of the Qing army, but also put on a posture of being determined to win Jinzhou, which made the Jinzhou defenders frightened.

Zu Dashou finally understood that the same ending of the fiasco in the Battle of Dalinghe awaited him. So he put down all his shelves and sent people to break through the siege and ask for help from Jingshi.

In the spring of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, the imperial court sent Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, to lead Wang Pu, the chief soldier of Datong, Yang Guozhu, the chief soldier of Xuanfu, Tang Tong, the chief soldier of Miyun, Bai Guangen, the chief soldier of Jizhen, Cao Bianjiao, the chief soldier of the Oriental Association, the general soldier Ma Ke of Shanhaiguan, Wang Tingchen, the chief soldier of Qiantun Guard, and Wu Sangui, the general soldier of Ningyuan, a total of more than 200 officers below the eight general soldiers and deputy generals, and an army of 130,000 cavalry and 40,000 horses, gathered in Ningyuan City and prepared to aid Jinzhou.

In May, in order to find out the reality of the Qing army, Hong Chengchou ordered the general soldier Yang Guozhu to lead an elite army and go deep into the territory of Songshan. Although Yang Guozhu failed to break through the Qing army's siege of Jinzhou, he still achieved some victories in the engagement, and the Qing army's right flank "two red flags, three blue flags and three flags were captured by the enemy". So Dolgon replaced Zilharang again and became the commander of the Qing army's Jinzhou front.

After Dolgon took office, he once again adopted the tactics of the Battle of the Great Ling River, that is, the method of digging dense trenches. The multi-ditch and ditch walls form an inner front, forming a tight encirclement for Jinzhou. At the key points on the external front, the Qing army also built fortifications to prevent Hong Chengchou's reinforcements from breaking through to relieve the siege of Jinzhou.

When the Qing army was digging trenches and building fortifications, Hong Chengchou of the garrison Ningyuan was very strangely unmoving. When Hong Chengchou couldn't stop the urging of the holy decree, he finally dispatched the whole army at the end of July. By the time Hong Chengchou arrived at Songshan Fort, the defenders in Jinzhou City had completely lost the ability to break through. What Hong Chengchou was waiting for was not a joint attack inside and outside the city, but the main force of the Qing army led by Huang Taiji himself. Hong Chengchou couldn't attack the Qing army camp, so he had to retreat to Songshan Fort. And with Songshan Fort as the core, build a camp to confront the Qing army.

However, Hong Chengchou did not wait for the confrontation, but waited for the Qing army to counterattack on all fronts.

It is said that the one-year-old Huang Taiji used a large bowl to catch a nosebleed, personally climbed the commanding heights between Songshan and Xingshan, and condescendingly inspected the camp of the Ming army. When Huang Taiji saw the seven camps deployed by the Ming army at the foot of the mountain, as well as the camps around Xiaoxiao Songshan City, this battle-hardened veteran immediately discovered a major mistake in the Ming army's battle layout. Huang Taiji pointed with a whip: "This formation has the right to the front but not the back, but it can be broken!"

Huang Taiji means that the Ming army focuses on the front, and the defense behind is weak, so it is easy to defeat!

Hong Chengchou was a Jinshi in the 44th year of Wanli (1616). The year when he was a jinshi happened to coincide with Nurhachicha's proclamation as emperor and the establishment of Houjin. He went through the three dynasties of Wanli, Taichang, and Tianqi, and was not reused, just a small prefect. However, in the early years of Chongzhen, the people in northern Shaanxi rose up, and Hong Chengchou was immediately promoted to the governor of Yansui and the governor of Shaanxi with his outstanding military talent. In the war against the peasant army, he won many victories. Captured Gao Yingxiang, defeated Li Zicheng, and became the best military commander of the Ming Dynasty with an undisputed record. Even though he later became a famous traitor, when he commanded the Qing army to clear the resistance forces in Kuidong, Xiangxi, and southern Sichuan, his political vision and command ability were still not weaker than any famous general at that time.

It can be seen that Emperor Chongzhen handed over the 130,000 soldiers and horses of the eight general soldiers who gathered the military essence of the Ming Dynasty to Hong Chengchou, and asked him to command a decisive battle that decided the national fortunes of the Ming Dynasty. However, such an excellent military commander, despite the fact that his advisers repeatedly reminded him of the emptiness in the rear, still insisted on going his own way, concentrating almost all the main forces near Matsuyama Castle, why is this?

Is the truth of history really wrapped in a thick veil and never answered?

Note 1: Chengde was founded in the Qing Dynasty, and there was no such city in the Ming Dynasty.