The twelfth, the Manchu general Zu Dashou, 94 in force, 92 in command, 78 in intelligence, and 76 in politics;

In 1430 (the fifth year of Xuande), Ningyuan City (now Xingcheng, Liaoning) was built, and the military officer Zu Qing, who was originally from Anhui, led his family to move here, multiplying from generation to generation, hereditary Ming Dynasty Ningyuan Guard military position and continued to improve, becoming Ningyuan Wang.

Zu Dashou's father, Zu Chengxun, called Shuangquan, was the second son of Zu Ren, the chief military officer who guarded Ningyuan during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. With the commander-in-chief of Liaodong (present-day eastern and southern Liaoning and the southeastern region of Jilin Province), Li Chengliang, the chief military officer of Ningyuanbo, went on an expedition to the east and west, and was constantly promoted for his meritorious service in resisting the Mongol cavalry, and served as the deputy commander-in-chief of Liaodong.

Zu Dashou was an official in 1620 (the first year of Taichang), and was appointed as a guerrilla in Jingdongying, and was commended by Xiong Tingbi in Jingluo. In 1621 (the first year of the Apocalypse), 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 the Apocalypse), the Battle of Guangning occurred between the Later Jin and the Ming Dynasty, the Ming army was defeated, and the Later Jin Nurhachi occupied Guangning, and Zu Dashou led the troops to avoid Juehua Island. Sun Chengzong, a university scholar, supervised the teacher, and assisted the general Jinguan to guard Juehua Island with his great longevity.

In 1623 (the third year of the Apocalypse), Sun Chengzong and Yuan Chonghuan built the Ningyuan city wall, and Zu Dashou was responsible for the Ningyuan city project, which made the city wall taller and thicker and strengthened the defensive function.

In the first month of 1626 (the sixth year of the Apocalypse), Nurhachi attacked Ningyuan, and was wounded by the soldiers of Zu Dashou who defended the city with cannons. After the defeat of the Houjin army, Zu Dashou was promoted to deputy commander-in-chief with military merits.

In 1627 (the seventh year of the Apocalypse) in the fifth lunar month, the Later Jin Emperor Taiji led the army to attack Ningyuan again. Yuan Chonghuan ordered Zu Dashou to lead 4,000 elite soldiers to go around behind the enemy, and the general soldiers Man Gui and You Shiwei led the army to the front of the enemy to form a horn trend, and the Qing soldiers fought fiercely under the city of Ningyuan. In the sixth lunar month of the same year, the Qing army was defeated and left, which was the famous "Ningjin Victory".

In 1628 (the first year of Chongzhen), the Ming Dynasty appointed Yuan Chonghuan to supervise Liaodong. In June of the lunar calendar of the same year, Zu Dashou was promoted to the commander-in-chief of the Liaodong Forward, and the seal of the Liaodong Striker General was stationed in Jinzhou.

Later Jin Emperor Taiji once wrote a letter to Zu Dashou, discussing sending an envoy to mourn the funeral of Ming Xizong, and congratulated the new monarch Chongzhen on his accession to the throne, but Zu Dashou replied to the request of Huang Taiji.

With the rapid rise of Zu Dashou's status, the Zu family was awarded official positions. Zu Dashou's brothers Zu Dale, Zu Dacheng, Zu Dabi, and his nephews Zu Zeyuan, Zu Zepei, Zu Zesheng, Zu Zefa, Zu Zerun, Zu Kefa, etc., are all officers at all levels, from the general army to the deputy generals, staff generals, and guerrillas, and are stationed in Ningyuan, Dalinghe (now Linghai City, Liaoning), and Zhucheng in Jinzhou. In order to commend the merits of the ancestral generation of Zhenliao, after Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty ascended the throne, he specially ordered to build the merit archway of the fourth Zhenliao of the ancestral family in Ningyuan City.

Huang Taiji defeated Jinzhou and Ningyuan, so he changed his strategy and led an army of 100,000 troops from the direction of Mongolia to attack the Great Wall in the tenth lunar month of 1629 (the second year of Chongzhen), and fought until the city of Beijing. At that time, the main forces of the Ming Dynasty army were stationed outside the Shanhai Pass, and Yuan Chonghuan hurriedly led Zu Dashou to aid the city of Beijing, and fought with the Houjin army led by Mang Gurtai and others outside the Guangqu Gate.

Huang Taiji withdrew his troops after the Battle of Deshengmen, and the Qing people destroyed a large number of original records of the Ming Dynasty, and fabricated rumors to deify themselves and laid out the so-called anti-plot before leaving. Emperor Chongzhen sent Yuan Chonghuan to prison for questioning, Zu Dashou was both cold and angry, and led his troops to go east, Emperor Chongzhen had no choice but to let Yuan Chonghuan write a letter to recruit Zu Dashou, Sun Chengzong also sent an envoy to comfort, and asked Zu Dashou to make meritorious atonement for Yuan Chonghuan's crimes, and Zu Dashou returned to the pass.

In the spring of 1630 (the third year of Chongzhen), the Houjin army conquered the four cities of Yongping in the Ming Dynasty, and Huang Taiji heard that Zu Dashou's clansmen lived in Yongping Thirty Miles Village, so he ordered the army to arrest people, and got a nephew of Zu Dashou and his relatives. Huang Taiji gave Zu Dashou's nephew a residence and sent troops to monitor it.

Soon, Emperor Chongzhen ordered Zu Dashou to join forces with Ma Shilong, the general soldier of Shanxi, and Yang Shaoji, the general of Shandong, and led the deputy generals Zu Dale, Zu Kefa, Zhang Hongmo, Liu Tianlu, Cao Gongcheng, etc. to attack Luanzhou. So, Zu Dashou returned to the front line of Jinzhou to defend. But Zu Dashou never left the barracks alone, for fear that the spies of Dongchang would be arrested.

In 1631 (Chongzhen four years) in the seventh lunar month, Zu Dashou was ordered to build a city in the Daling River to defend Jinzhou, in less than half a month after he repaired, the city wall pheasant moat was not completed, the Huang Taiji army came to the city, surrounded the Dalinghe City. Zu Dashou had no choice but to close the city gate and rush to the battle.

The grain and grass in the city were only enough for a few days, and after a few days of siege, the city ran out of food. The soldiers in the city were all terrified, and Zu Dashou made several tentative breakthroughs, but they were all killed by the Jin soldiers. In desperation, he had to sit in the city of sorrow, looking forward to reinforcements.

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

In order to further consume the living forces in the city, Huang Taiji made a fake reinforcement, Zu Dashou looked forward to the reinforcements, and hurriedly led the army out of the city to meet each other, wanting to attack before and after, to achieve a breakthrough, but the result was a big mistake, was killed and defeated, the loss was very heavy, Zu Dashou no longer dared to go out of the city to fight.

In 1631 (the fourth year of Chongzhen), on the seventh day of October and the ninth day of October in the lunar calendar, Huang Taiji successively sent a letter to Shuzu Dashou, He Kegang, and deputy general Zhang Cunren, persuading him to descend quickly. But he was still rejected by Zu Dashou.

So Huang Taiji personally wrote to Zu Dashou, he explained: "In the past, it was true that I killed the Liao people, and I deeply regretted it, and we didn't do that for a long time." As for Yongping's massacre of the city, it was done by Erbel Amin, and he was also severely punished for this, I hope you will not have this prejudice. But Zu Dashou and others still didn't believe it.

The Ming army rescued several rescuers four times, but they were all defeated by the Houjin army. Zu Dashou's multiple breakthroughs were also unsuccessful. The city of Dalinghe was besieged for three months, and when the food in the city was finished, the horses were killed and eaten, and when the horses were gone, they killed people and cannibalized each other. The people of Dalinghe City were killed as military rations.

In 1631 (the fourth year of Chongzhen), on the seventh day of the tenth lunar month, Huang Taiji once again sent Shuzu to his birthday, and sent Jiang Xin to the city for an interview. Zu Dashou sent a general named Han Dong to negotiate in the Jin camp. On the 25th day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar, Zu Dashou finally made up his mind, he invited Shi Tingzhu, the general of the Houjin Dynasty, to enter the city to discuss the matter of reducing the gold, and that night Zu Kefa, Zu Zerun, Liu Tianlu, Zhang Cunren and other four people accompanied Shi Tingzhu to the Jin Bing camp, Huang Taiji personally greeted, and the four knelt down and bowed. Huang Taiji hurriedly stepped forward to support him, and hugged his waist with the most noble etiquette of the Jurchens. Then a feast was set up, and the four were invited to their seats.

On the 28th day of the tenth lunar month in 1631 (the fourth year of Chongzhen), Zu Dashou killed He Kegang, who would rather die than surrender, open the city gate, and lead the crowd to Jinying. Huang Taiji and Dai Shan, Mang Gurtai and all the ministers of Beile solemnly welcomed Zu Dashou and his party together. After the two sides ascended the altar and swore to sacrifice to the sky, the oath to sacrifice to the heavens, and the emperor Taiji entered the big tent with the ancestral birthday hand to set up a banquet to celebrate the ancestral birthday.

After surrendering, Zu Dashou suggested to Huang Taiji: his wife and children are in Jinzhou City, and while Jinzhou does not know that he has surrendered, he is willing to take a group of soldiers and horses to Jinzhou, and take Jinzhou City as an internal response in the 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, the governor of Liaodong, led a team to surrender to the imperial court, and Emperor Chongzhen not only did not surrender, but promoted Zu Dashou to the governor of the left capital and led Jinzhou.

Emperor Chongzhen issued an edict three times, ordering Zu Dashou to enter Beijing to meet him, and Zu Dashou excused himself and always stuck to Jinzhou City.

In terms of Houjin, Huang Taiji sent secret envoys to remind Zu Dashou not to forget the previous agreement and immediately take Jinzhou City. Zu Dashou prevaricated for various reasons, and fought fiercely with the Qing soldiers many times. Huang Taiji has always treated Zu Kefa, the son of Zu Dashou, who stayed in the Houjin military camp, and frequently wrote letters to Zu Dashou.

In 1638 (the eleventh year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty and the third year of Chongde of the Qing Dynasty) in the tenth lunar month, Huang Taiji personally led the troops to attack the Ming Dynasty, and led the Prince of Zheng Jierharang and the Prince of Yu Duoduo out of Ningyuan and Jinzhou Avenue; Dolgon, Prince Rui, was the left flank and entered from the Castle Mountains; Belle Yue is the right flank, and enters from the wall ridge.

Zu Dashou stationed troops in Zhonghou (now Suizhong County, Liaoning), and led the troops to attack Duoduo, and Duoduo was defeated. The next day, Duoduo and Zilharang joined forces to fight, and Zu Dashou collected his troops and returned to Zhonghou. Soon, Huang Taiji personally came to the Zhonghou Institute and sent a messenger to Zu Dashou with a message: "Several years have passed since the farewell of Da Linghe. I came here without fear of hardship, just hoping to meet the general. As for whether the general will surrender to my Daqing or remain in Daming, he will not be reluctant, and the general himself will decide to stay. Last time, I released the general, if I used the pretext of meeting to trap the general, how can I still trust the people of the world? Although the general has repeatedly led his troops into conflicts with our army over the years, I know that you are carrying out orders and doing your duty, and 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 prisoners and asked him to bring a letter to Zu Dashou. The letter said: "I released you in Dalinghe, and my ministers said that I could not see people clearly. Now, the general should go out of the city to meet me, and prove that I am not wrong. If the general is not at ease, we will each take one or two of our cronies and meet 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 Da Linghe know that the general is the one who fulfills his promise. Zu Dashou never showed up.

In 1639 (the twelfth year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty and the fourth year of Chongde of the Qing Dynasty), in the second lunar month, Huang Taiji attacked the Ming Dynasty again, with Azige, the king of Wuying County, as the vanguard, and personally supervised the siege of Songshan. Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty summoned and ordered Zu Dashou to go to support Songshan, Zu Dashou had just marched, and 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 and ask her to induce Zu Dashou to surrender with her interests. Zu Dashou selected 300 Mongolian and Han soldiers each, and ordered Zu Keyong and his deputy generals Yang Zhen and Xu Changyong to enter Jinzhou by way of the border and go to the mouth of the Wuxin River; The Qing army generals Arsalan fought with the Ming army with 160 Manchurian and Mongolian soldiers, and the Qing army won, beheading 84 Ming troops and 150 horses.

Huang Taiji ordered the attack on Songshan to be halted, and the Jin army returned to Shengjing (present-day Shenyang, Liaoning). So Zu Dashou entered Jinzhou again.

In 1640 (the thirteenth year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty and the fifth year of Chongde of the Qing Dynasty) in the fifth month of the lunar calendar, Huang Taiji went to Yizhou to inspect, and the Mongolian Subandai and others asked to surrender, and Huang Taiji ordered Jierharang and others to lead an army of 1,500 people to meet them. Zu Dashou learned that the Qing army was small, and ordered the guerrilla Dai Ming to join forces with 7,000 troops with Wu Sangui, the general soldier of Songshan, and Liu Zhouzhi, the general soldier of Xingshan, but was defeated by Jierharang.

So Huang Taiji ordered Dolgon, Zierharang and others to lead troops to attack Jinzhou in turn. In 1641 (the fourteenth year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty and the sixth year of Chongde of the Qing Dynasty), in the third month of the lunar calendar, Huang Taiji once again sent troops to besiege Jinzhou. Hong Chengchou, the governor of Ming Jiliao, led Wu Sangui and other eight general soldiers to lead 130,000 troops to come to the aid and stationed in Songshan. Huang Taiji personally led the army to cut off the grain route of the Ming army, and the Ming army was in chaos. The Qing army took advantage of the situation to cover up and kill, and the governor Hong Chengchou and others were besieged in Songshan.

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

In 1642 (the fifteenth year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty and the seventh year of Chongde of the Qing Dynasty), at the beginning of the third lunar month, Jinzhou, which had been besieged for a whole year, ran out of food, and the tragic situation of killing people and cannibalism in the city was repeated again. So Zu Dashou led his troops to open the city and surrender in the first month of March.

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

Zu Dashou was awarded the position of the chief soldier of the Yellow 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 a lonely city in Ningyuan. Zu Dashou's nephew Wu Sangui was not only the general soldier of Ningyuan, an important military town of the Ming Dynasty, but also the governor of Liaodong, commanding the Ming army outside the Guanwai. Huang Taiji asked Zu Dashou to write a letter to recruit Wu Sangui, but Wu Sangui replied and refused.

In 1644 (the first year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty), in the ninth lunar month, Aixin Jueluo Fulin, escorted by the auxiliary minister Jierharang, arrived in Beijing from Shengjing (now Shenyang, Liaoning), and Zu Dashou followed him into the customs.

In 1656 (the thirteenth year of Shunzhi), Zu Dashou died of illness in the mansion of Zujia Street in Beijing.