Battle of Sarhu

The Battle of Sarhū refers to the series of conflicts between the Manchus and Ming Dynasty in winter 1619, which ended in the overwhelming victory of the former.

It is worth noting that the Manchu cavalry defeated matchlock and cannon forces, so the Battle of Sarhū is often compared to the Battle of Nagashino.

Background

Nurhaci unified all Jurchen tribes except the Yehe and took a hostile attitude towards the Ming. In 1618, he proclaimed seven grudges ("nadan amba koro" 七大恨) to Heaven and declared war on the Ming. He occupied Fushun (撫順), Qinghe (清河) and other cities, and then pulled out. The death of Ming Vice-General (副總兵/副將) Zhang Chengyin (張承蔭) stunned the Ming court. In 1619, he attacked Yehe (葉赫) in an attempt to provoke the Mings.

The Ming Dynasty eventually decided to dispatch massive expeditionary forces, led by Military Commissioner Yang Hao (楊鎬). The Mings planned to besiege Hetu Ala, Nurhaci's home, from four routes.

The Western Route

This route was under the overall command of Du Song. Du Song led his forces west from Shengyang (沈陽), and recaptured Fushun, which was undefended. He set off from Shengyang on the night of the 29th of the 2nd lunar month, under torchlight. He had orders to arrive at Yagu Gate on the 2nd of the 3rd lunar month, so he arrived the next day at Fushun, 100 li (里) away. He set off from Fushun on the 1st of the 3rd lunar month. Just beyond Fushun is the Sarhu Mountain Pass (薩爾滸山口) and Jilin Cliff (吉林崖). It is where the Suzi river and Hun River converge. Du Song was advised to camp for the night, but he refused, and so forded the river topless and clouded with liquor on horseback. He was then asked to wear armour, and he replied that being in the military for this many years he did not know how heavy armour was as he never wore it and crossed the river. When his forces were half way across, Nurhaci ordered his bannermen to break the dams they had prepared, and thus a portion of Du Song's men and equipment had to be left behind or were lost in the river.

That night, Du Song divided his forces in two camps, one at Sarhu Mountain Pass and he himself took one at Jilin Cliff. This was the 1st of the 3rd lunar month. Nurhaci had his Eight Banners. He sent two banners against Du Song to keep him in check at Jilin Cliff and himself took six banners and attacked the Sarhu camp. The fighting was fierce, both sides fought valiantly but the Ming forces were completely destroyed.

Du Song heard of the defeat at Sarhu and was now very wary. Nurhaci now concentrated his all his forces against Du Song's Jilin Cliff Camp. Du Song was a courageous warrior and led from the front. But Nurhaci had him besieged. Hilltop, hillfoot, forest and valley, he was totally surrounded, with Du Song's forces firing artillery outwards with lit torches, he was lighting his own forces up clearly for Nurhaci's forces to attack. The Western Route was totally destroyed. Du Song and the other two Generals, (總兵) Wang Xuan and Zhao Menglin, were also killed in combat. Du Song died from an arrow wound by 13th son of Nurhaci.

The Northern Route

Upon hearing of Du Song's destruction, Ma Lin grew more cautious. He divided his forces in two and together with Du Song's remnant forces, mainly supply units, formed three fortified camps protected by chariots, artillery and trenches. Nurhachi concentrated his Eight Banners on each camp consecutively, initially on Ma Lin's own camp. Ma Lin's artillery opened fire, but due to their slow rate of fire they were cut to pieces by the Jurchen cavalry. Ma Lin escaped as his camp was annihilated. The other two camps also fell after Nurhachi's assault.

The Eastern Route

On the 3rd, Nurhachi and Daisan rested and recuperated. Reports on Liu Ting and Li Rubai's routes arrived. Nurhaci decided to attack Liu Ting first, as Li Rubai's forces were mainly traversing mountain routes. Nurhaci ordered some of his troops to disguise themselves as Ming Troops and mix them into Liu Ting's forces. He also sent a message to Liu Ting with his messengers disguised as Du Song's messengers and they reported to Liu Ting that Du Song was already approaching their destination and asked him to speed up. Liu Ting took the bait and increased the pace of his advance.

He was then ambushed in a valley as his troops stretched themselves in a serpentine form to traverse the valley. His forces were completely annihilated.

The Korean commander, Gang Hong-Rip, surrendered with his 13,000 Korean troops and Liu Ting was killed in action.

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