This battle also took place in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, but before the Battle of Luoshan, and has many similarities with the Battle of Luoshan. For example, it is also the only way for the Qing troops to retreat; the same is an ambush battle prepared by taking advantage of the terrain; and it is also a loyal and responsible person as the commander. The difference is that in the Battle of Luoshan, Zhao Guangjian had eight towns under his command, and only Zhou Yuji was a town in this battle; compared with the commander of the Battle of Luoshan, Zhao Guangji, who was born in the ranks, and the position of chief soldier was fought with real swords and real guns; the most different thing was that the Ming Dynasty's eight town soldiers in the Luoshan Campaign were broken by each one, and under the leadership of Zhou Yuji, the Ming army fought fiercely with the retreating Qing troops for three days and three nights, and gave heavy casualties, which became a rare example of the Ming army winning more than a few battles in the Ming and Qing wars.
First of all, let's talk about Zhou Yuji. Zhou Yuji, a defender of Jinzhou in Eastern Liaoning, was a brave warrior and a good shooter. Zhou Yuji is best known for the fierce battle with Li Zicheng's army at Ningwu Pass, which almost prematurely interrupted Li Zicheng's idea of marching into the Ming Dynasty's beijing division. Zhou Yujichu joined the army in Liaodong, fought extremely bravely, and every battle must be the first of the armies, and his meritorious service was promoted to the Beijing camp guerrilla. When he was in the Beijing camp, Zhou Yuji often said to the people around him, "Everyone should train hard to serve Daming with the grain of the imperial court." However, Zhou Yuji's loyalty and courage obviously did not touch the people around him, and they laughed at Zhou Yuji one after another, thinking that this person had a brain disease.
It is gold that will glow sooner or later, and Chongzhen's nine-year Qing army has entered the jam. Zhou Yuji followed Zhang Fengyi, then the head of the army, and made several bloody battles with the enemy and was promoted to deputy general of the Jingying camp. At the time when Chongzhen began to participate in the counterinsurgency war in the tenth decade, first from Sun Yingyuan and then from Yang Sichang, at a time when the situation was gradually collapsing, Zhou Yuji led his troops to make many military achievements, and repeatedly added the crown prince Taibao and Zuo Dudu, and stationed near Yang Liuqing in Shandong. To interject here, since after the Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, there were many prohibitions on the destruction of the historical materials of the Ming Dynasty, especially the records that their defeat was equal to their own disadvantage, it is difficult for us to compare with the current geographical location when we look at some records at that time. For example, the Carriage Gorge where the Ming army almost wiped out the rebel army; for example, luoshan in the battle of Luoshan mentioned above; for example, the Liuyeqing area that this article will talk about... The clues we can see about this battle in the historical materials are even less detailed than the lyrics in the classical Dianqu "Ningwuguan" and the Peking Opera "Ningwuguan".
In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, Zhou Yuji was already the commander-in-chief of Shandong, stationed near Liu Yeqing. Because Xu Dingguo, the former commander-in-chief of Shanxi, was deposed from his post, the imperial court transferred Zhou Yuji to take over as the chief soldier of Shanxi. Originally, Zhou Yuji had already commanded the army to pull out, but suddenly received news that the Qing soldiers were retreating with a large amount of booty and wanted to pass through Yang Liuqing. Zhou Yuji, who had been stationed in Yang Liuqing for many years, knew very well that the terrain there was particularly favorable for ambush warfare, and after receiving the report, Zhou Yuji immediately decided to return to the army and teach the enemy a lesson. At this time, the Qing soldiers had become extremely arrogant, and for many years they seemed to have become accustomed to this kind of tourist-style marching operation. Moreover, such a combat operation is obviously to bully the Ming Dynasty and no one, otherwise, if the Ming Dynasty chooses a good general, leads a crack army, and chooses favorable terrain, it will be able to inflict heavy casualties or total annihilation on the enemy. Unfortunately, with the successive deaths of Sun Chengzong, Yuan Chonghuan, and Lu Xiangsheng, the later Ming dynasty armies often dared to follow from a distance in the face of enemies full of booty and slow action. Looking at the wooden sign set up by the enemy, 'all officials are exempt from giving', I have gained shame again and again.
But this time, they thought wrong, when they swung into Yang Liuqing, in their eyes, the Ming Army, which was either fleeing or only daring to follow far behind, suddenly appeared. Under the leadership of Zhou Yuji, the Ming army fought a bloody battle with the enemy for three days and three nights, and finally due to insufficient troops, the enemy escaped from the ambush circle. Although the history books do not indicate the achievements of Zhou Yuji, we can also see some from the records of some Korean personnel in Shenyang at that time. For example, a book called "Shen Guanlu" records that "the harvest of the large army sent by the Emperor Taiji this time is far less than half of the previous one." There are also many cries that can often be heard inside and outside Shenyang City, and from this point of view, the Ming army did indeed inflict certain casualties on the enemy.
Through the victory of this battle, we can see that the Ming army did not lack loyal and brave soldiers. The reason for the consecutive defeats, I think compared to their enemies, the Ming army lacks the right strategy; the courage to dare to fight; the determination to fight to the end; and the loyalty that has long been frozen in the hearts of many people...
A small number of loyal and brave people; some local victories, in the end, can not recover the overall river decline. Under the leadership of Chongzhen, Daming still had difficulty escaping the fateful end...