Hong Chengchou, courtesy name Yanyan, was a native of Quanzhou, Fujian Province. He became a Jinshi in the 44th year of the Wanli reign.

After entering the officialdom, he was highly appreciated by the court and the emperor, and was promoted repeatedly.

In the third year of Chongzhen, Hong Chengchou served as the governor of Yansui and began to encircle and suppress the bandits.

He did not agree with the court's strategy of combining suppression and appeasement at the time, with appeasement as the main approach. He advocated full-scale suppression, using suppression as a reinforcement and appeasement as a measure, and suppressing first and then appeasing.

In the following years, he was either suppressing bandits or on his way to suppress bandits.

The eleventh year of Chongzhen.

Hong Chengchou first defeated Li Zicheng in Guanzhong, and then ordered Cao Bianjiao and Sun Chuanting to set up an ambush at Tongguan and defeat Li Zicheng again.

Li Zicheng led 18 riders to hide in the mountains of Shangluo.

In the 12th year of Chongzhen, Hong Chengchou was the governor of the military affairs of Ji and Liao.

In the 14th year of Chongzhen, Hong Chengchou was defeated in Songjin and fled to Songshan City. In February of the following year, Songshan City was captured and Hong Chengchou surrendered.

The Battle of Songjin in history can be said to be the last straw that broke the camel's back for the Ming Dynasty.

After this battle, only one in ten elite troops of the Ming border troops remained. Not only were they unable to confront the Jiannu head-on, even suppressing the bandits became a problem.

In the Battle of Songjin, was there anything wrong with Hong Chengchou's strategy of advancing step by step, fighting and defending, and slowly approaching Jinzhou?

The strategy is fine, but the tactics are problematic.

Whether Chongzhen urged for war or not, Hong Chengchou would sooner or later find a way to break the siege of Jinzhou.

In other words, sooner or later he would have a decisive battle with Huang Taiji.

And the decisive battle was fought with 130,000 soldiers and horses at hand!

Don’t fantasize about the court sending more troops. The court has no troops to send!

After Chongzhen urged the war, he concentrated all his main forces in the front, leaving the rear empty.

As the saying goes, food must be sent before troops move forward. By doing this, he exposed his food supply route to Huang Taiji.

It would have been fine if he had just exposed the grain route, but he actually didn't deploy heavy troops to defend the Bijiashan granary.

Bijia Mountain is an island in the sea. Although the Ming navy was in decline at that time, it was still able to defeat the Jiannu navy, so there was no problem in locating the granary here.

but...

This island in the sea is close to the coast and the ground will be exposed when the tide recedes. Ajige took advantage of this rule and led his troops to launch a successful surprise attack.

From then on, the granaries and food routes of the 130,000 Ming troops were lost.

In fact, someone had noticed the problem before the war. Zhang Dou, the then military supervisor of Datong, saw that the main force of the Ming army was concentrated in Songshan, and there was no deep defense behind them, resulting in a top-heavy problem. So he suggested that Hong Chengchou divide his troops to garrison Changling Mountain behind him to prevent the retreat from being attacked.

Hong Chengchou laughed contemptuously: "I have been a military commander for twelve years, how can a scholar know anything about me?"

What this sentence means is that I have been a military commander for twelve years, how could I not know this truth? What are you, a stinky scholar, talking nonsense about!

This incident was recorded in both "Guoqie" and "Chongzhen Shilu", and it is not fictional.

As a result, the 130,000 Ming troops were defeated.

In history, Hong Chengchou was idle for a while after surrendering, but Dorgon's shaving order caused great trouble in Jiangnan.

War broke out everywhere and resistance continued.

Hong Chengchou volunteered to go south and use the same methods he used to deal with bandits to deal with the people in the south of the Yangtze River, becoming a loyal servant of the Qing Dynasty.

......

In Chongzheng Hall, Fulin frowned: "Hong Chengchou? He... knows about the navy?"

Aobai smiled and said, "Your Majesty, how could the commander of the Ming court not understand the principles of the navy?"

"That's right," Fulin nodded, "Summon him to discuss this matter."

Soon, Hong Chengchou, a bondservant of the Bordered Yellow Banner, entered the palace to offer advice.

Baoyi Niulu, also known as Baoyi Zuoling, was a hereditary servant of the Manchu imperial family and was affiliated with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. His official rank was the fourth rank, which was lower than the Zuoling of the Bordered Yellow Banner, but higher than that of ordinary bannermen.

Hong Chengchou was wearing a loose long gown, which made his originally thin body look even weaker.

He has a thin face, deep and bright eyes, and exudes a scholarly air.

"Your servant pays homage to His Majesty." Hong Chengchou knelt down and saluted.

Fulin stood up pretentiously and walked in front of Hong Chengchou: "Mr. Hong, please stand up!"

Hong Chengchou stood up, thanked them, and bowed to the other people present.

It gives people a humble and happy feeling.

Oboi handed Kong Youde's document to Hong Chengchou, and after he read it, he asked, "What do you think, Mr. Hong?"

Hong Chengchou lowered his head and thought for a while. Under the gaze of everyone, he bowed deeply to Fulin and said, "Your Majesty, I thought the Ming court's move was to test the strength of our navy. Unfortunately, they have found out. If nothing unexpected happens, the Ming army will soon launch an offensive from the sea!"

“This…” Fulin’s expression, which had finally eased, turned ugly again.

Hong Chengchou continued, "Back then, Yuan Keli used his navy to attack southern Liaoning from the sea, which led to the loss of all of our southern Liaoning territory. If the Ming court had not disabled itself, southern Liaoning would definitely still be in the hands of the Ming court."

Jirgalang didn't like what he heard. He coughed heavily and said, "Hong Chengchou, the emperor summoned you to solve the problem, not to recall the past and make assumptions."

Hong Chengchou continued calmly, "In fact, the emperor and the princes already have a solution to the problem in their minds, but they are still hesitating."

Fulin blinked his eyes and said, "Mr. Hong, please speak."

"As the saying goes, if an enemy comes, we must stop him with a general, and if a flood comes, we must block it with earth. The only solution is to build ships, cast cannons, and train the navy!"

"Then what do you think I am hesitating about, Mr. Hong?"

"Money and food!"

Seeing Fulin remained silent, Hong Chengchou explained: "Shipbuilding requires suitable wood and craftsmen, and the Qing Dynasty has wood but lacks craftsmen; casting cannons requires copper, iron and craftsmen, and the Qing Dynasty lacks copper; training the navy requires soldiers and generals, and the Qing Dynasty lacks soldiers."

"These people need to eat and spend money, and the Qing Dynasty is short of money and food."

It was eerily quiet inside the Chongzheng Hall.

All the problems pointed out by Hong Chengchou were true and they had no way of defending themselves.

After a while, Aobai asked first: "Hong Chengchou, I called you here to solve the problem, not to raise the problem. Do you have a solution?"

"Yes," Hong Chengchou answered neatly.

"Mr. Hong, please speak!" Fulin stood up while speaking.

Looking at Fulin's appearance, Hong Chengchou knew that he had achieved his goal.

He didn't want to be a Baoyi Niulu for his whole life. Although the Baoyi Niulu of the Bordered Yellow Banner were the emperor's confidants, in the eyes of outsiders, they were still slaves and could not be presentable.

There are two ways to get rid of the status of a bondservant: one is through military merits; the other is through special imperial decree.

Either way, he needs to perform.

Now is the chance.

Hong Chengchou coughed lightly, looked around and said, "Shipbuilders can be recruited from Korea. They have many people who are good at shipbuilding, and we can even recruit their navy. Copper for casting cannons can be purchased from Japan or the south of the Ming Dynasty. As long as you are willing to spend money, you can buy it. As for the navy officers and soldiers, they can be recruited from the Eight Banners for training."

"Where are the money and food?" Oboi asked loudly.

This is the crux of the problem. Everything will be easy if you have money and food. Without money and food, everything will be in vain.

"What I mean is that after forming a navy, we should use offense instead of defense." Hong Chengchou deliberately left the sentence half-finished.

"Explain your words clearly!" Aobai rolled up his sleeves and acted as if he was about to hit someone.

"Imitate the Japanese pirates of the Jiajing period and go to the coast of the Ming Dynasty to rob money and food!"