A Journey Through the Worlds of Film and Television

The battle of Sarhu was an extremely important turning point in the history of wars between the Ming and Qing dynasties. The failure of this battle directly accelerated the demise of the Ming Dynasty. It also allowed the Later Jin Dynasty to take the initiative in the war.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty at this time had already been rotten to the core from top to bottom.

At this time, Emperor Wanli had been in power for 47 years, and he was also the longest-serving emperor in the Ming Dynasty. In his early years, because of Zhang Juzheng's management, the Wanli Dynasty once entered a period of rejuvenation.

But after Zhang Juzheng died, Emperor Wanli lost control and completely let himself go. He indulged himself to excess, was lazy and lazy, and even didn't bother to go to court.

Even the imperial examinations and official appointments of the Ming Dynasty were put on hold, which directly led to a long period of time when no new officials were integrated into the court.

According to statistics, in the late years of the Wanli Dynasty, many places had no prefects and county magistrates, and the operation of the entire country became a problem.

In addition, Emperor Wanli liked to indulge in wine and pleasure since he was a child, and favored palace maids. Every year, he spent 1.2 million taels of silver on cosmetics for the harem.

Under such circumstances, the Ming court was naturally short of money to the extreme. The local army lacked food and wages, and could not organize decent training at all. It has become a rule for generals at all levels to eat empty salaries, and they cannot support themselves without eating empty salaries.

Even the border troops have not been able to pay their salaries for a long time, so how can the soldiers have combat effectiveness?

In the 46th year of Wanli, Nurhaci complained to the heaven about his seven major grievances and went south to attack Liaodong. Li Yongfang, the defender of Fushun in Liaodong, surrendered without a fight. The entire border defense system of Liaodong was in danger of collapse. Emperor Wanli had to summon troops from all over the country and appointed Yang Hao as the main general to fight against Nurhaci.

Due to the lack of money in the court, there was no way to support the Ming army for a long time. Emperor Wanli could only urge the front-line generals to launch a decisive battle as soon as possible.

The Ming army assembled troops from all over the country, and the troops on paper reached 200,000, claiming to be 470,000. The actual strength was only more than 80,000.

Even these more than 80,000 Ming troops were gathered from all over the country, and there were many old, weak, sick and disabled among them.

Moreover, due to the lack of money and food, these Ming troops had not replaced their weapons and armor for a long time, and many of the various swords and muskets were even rusted. On average, only one of the three muskets could be used.

These armies mobilized from all over the country were not familiar with each other, and it was difficult to coordinate well because they were in a hurry to fight.

The commander Yang Hao had no military command ability. Although he formulated a four-way siege strategy before the war, Yang Hao told the enemy his route of advance in order to deter the enemy.

Faced with various suggestions from his generals, Yang Hao also insisted on his own way, which directly led to the Ming army being unable to take care of each other in the north and south, and the armies were disconnected.

Nurhaci sent a large number of scouts to find out the situation of the Ming army, and then directly formulated a strategic policy of "no matter how many routes he came, I will only go one way."

The general Du mentioned by Lu Wenzhao was the general officer of the West Route Army among the four armies of the Ming army, Du Song.

Du Song was brave but not wise, greedy for merit and reckless, and did not listen to his subordinates' dissuasion. He marched forward all the way. When crossing the river, many Ming soldiers were drowned by the Later Jin army.

After crossing the river, they fought two battles and burned down two Houjin camps, but only captured 14 Houjin Tartars.

Afterwards, because they lost contact with the other parties, the Western Army was besieged by the Houjin troops. It was a pity that the tens of thousands of troops of the Western Army were slaughtered by the Houjin army.

After the defeat of the Western Army, the other armies were also defeated by the Houjin army one by one.

At this time, everything was powerless, and the Battle of Sarhu had entered its final stage.

In the five days before and after, the Ming army lost more than 50,000 soldiers and a large amount of military supplies.

Lu Cheng, Lu Wenzhao, Shen Lian, and Guo Zhen finally escaped from death, headed south, avoided the Houjin army, and finally caught up with a group of Ming army's defeated troops, mixed in the defeated troops, and fled south.

From these defeated troops, Lu Cheng and others also got some news.

After the Western Army and the Northern Army were defeated, the commander Yang Hao saw that the situation was hopeless and immediately ordered the other two armies to withdraw in time.

However, the Eastern Army had already penetrated deep into the enemy's hinterland and lost contact with the commander, so they did not receive the news of retreat in time.

Not only that, Nurhaci also sent people to pretend to be Ming troops and ordered the Eastern Army to continue to advance until they fell into Nurhaci's trap.

In the end, the Eastern Army was defeated and the commander died on the battlefield.

Only the Southern Army,

Originally, because of the slow march, I never kept up with the pace. After receiving the order to retreat, they immediately became confused. At this time, Hou Jin's sentry sent out an attack signal on the mountain. Li Rubai, the commander-in-chief of the South Route Army, thought that Hou Jin's army was about to launch a general offensive and immediately fled in panic.

The entire southern army was in complete chaos, trampling on each other and killing more than a thousand people.

After hearing the news, Lu Wenzhao couldn't help but cursed in a low voice: "You trash, you killed and injured more than 1,000 people before you even saw the enemy. They are worse than us!"

Shen Lian also frowned: "This time, the whole front was defeated. It will probably be even harder to win the battle again in the future."

Lu Cheng looked at the defeated troops around him and couldn't help but shake his head.

Such a Ming Dynasty is completely hopeless.

Going all the way south, broken soldiers could be seen everywhere. Some were walking indifferently, some couldn't walk and just found a place to lie down, and some were gathered together in small groups.

Lu Cheng and others were tired from walking, so they found a place to sit down and rest.

Before leaving the battlefield, Lu Cheng found some water and dry food from several Ming army soldiers and took them with him. At this moment, everyone was sitting together and eating.

Among them, Lu Wenzhao is a fifth-grade garrison military officer, and he is already considered a middle-level military commander in the Ming Dynasty.

Lu Cheng's identity is the commander-in-chief and a seventh-grade military attaché.

Among the military systems of the Ming Dynasty, the smallest one was the Xiaoqi, who was in the seventh rank and was in charge of ten soldiers, equivalent to the squad leader in later generations.

The general flag is the seventh rank, with five small flags and fifty people in charge.

Further up are the trial 100 households from the sixth grade, the regular 100 households from the sixth grade, the deputy 1000 households from the fifth grade, and so on.

Of course, by now, whether it is Lu Cheng's general banner, Shen Lian's small banner, or Lu Wenzhao's garrison, they have all become mere commanders, with no soldiers under their command.

Now that Du Zongbing was defeated and killed, the future of those subordinates is still bleak.

Lu Wenzhao glanced at a few people: "Brothers, we are all close friends now. After we arrive in the capital, as long as I, Lu, have something to eat, everyone will never go hungry."

The eunuch Guo Zhen on the side also said: "Sir, after entering the palace, our family will do its best to find a good job for us all."

"Thank you, Eunuch Guo."

Among the four, Lu Cheng and Shen Lian had the lowest official positions and had no connection.

Lu Wenzhao and eunuch Guo Zhen at least still have some relationship, which can be operated.

In the original play, Lu Wenzhao became one of the thousand households of the Jin Yiwei eight years later, Shen Lian also became one of the one hundred households of the Jin Yiwei, and Guo Zhen became a eunuch who was ordered to build a treasure ship. His position was not low at all.

At this moment, Lu Wenzhao looked at Lu Cheng: "Brother Lu Cheng, I never had time to ask you, which branch of your family is your ancestor from?"

"Great-grandfather..."

Lu Cheng's identity information also contains a true and verifiable genealogy.

After hearing this, Lu Wenzhao recalled briefly, then nodded and said: "Your great-grandfather and my great-grandfather should be cousins. After all, you and I are still the same generation. How old are brothers Lu Cheng this year?"

"Twenty-one this year."

"Then you and I are truly brothers of the same race. According to the seniority of our generation, your name should have one more word, Lu Wencheng. From now on, you and I will become brothers, okay?"