Battle of Songjin The Battle of Songjin ( Chinese : 松錦之戰 ) was fought in 1641 and 1642 at Songshan ( Chinese : 松山 ) and Jinzhou ( Chinese : 锦州 ) , hence the name " Song - Jin " . It spelled the end of the Ming Dynasty . Hong Chengchou ' s 130 , 000 elite troops , sent to break the siege of Jinzhou , were crushed by the Eight banner armies of the Qing Dynasty at Songshan . Hong Chengchou and a small number of the remaining troops were besieged at Songshan and defeated a few months later . The Jinzhou garrison and the general Zu Dashou surrendered to the Qing army shortly after the defeat of Ming armies at Songshan . The siege of Jinzhou . Since the time of Yuan Chonghuan , the Ming dynasty had rarely changed its Liaodong defensive strategy . Ming leaders largely spent their energies building fortresses , relying on artillery and cannons as defensive measures rather than going on the offensive . For a time this defensive strategy frustrated the Qing army , but eventually Huangtaiji was able to develop a solution for the Qing by reforming their logistical operations , creating supply lines that allowed them to prosecute long - term siege warfare . Zu Dashou was by then in charge of defense in Jinzhou . Zu at first surrendered to Qing and offered to take Jinzhou . When he succeeded taking Jinzhou , he re - changed his side again to Ming and took control of Jinzhou . In the 6th year of Chongde ( 1641 ) Jirgalang ordered his troops to retake Jinzhou and lay siege to the city . Zu then sent a letter seeking reinforcement from Beijing . At the forth lunar month , Huangtaiji decided to maintain the siege upon Jinzhou . Hong Chengshou ' s reinforcements . Marshal Hong Chengchou was ordered by the Chongzhen Emperor to rescue Zu Dashou and his army . Under his command , there were 8 area commander in chiefs ( Zongbing ) and 130 , 000 troops , which includes Wu Sangui and Cao Bianjiao ' s troops . At the tenth lunar month , Hong left Shanhai Pass and summoned eight generals : Cao Bianjiao , Wang Yanchen , Bai Guang ' en , Ma Ke , Wu Sangui , Yang Guozhu , Wang Pu and Tang Tong . The Ming troops under their control were numbered up to 130 , 000 infantry heavily armed with matchlock muskets and 40 , 000 cavalry and were ordered to liberate Jinzhou . Meanwhile , Zu Dashou still maintained the defence of Jinzhou and used Songshan , Xishan and Tashan as defensive wings . At the Qing side , generals Kong Youde , Geng Zhongming and Shang Kexi were ordered to reinforce the troops laying siege over Jinzhou . Hong positioned his troops on Mt . Rufeng which stands between Songshan and Jinzhou . First battle erupted and Qing forces were suffering a terrible defeat . When the news approached Huangtaiji , he decided to drown into the battlefield . Though numbered heavily , Hong decided to remain defensive and conducted small scale attack on the enemy front line . When the enemy became exhausted , he then released full - scale attack to achieve victory . Yet , the impatient Chongzhen emperor ordered his general to be more offensive . Upon seeing enemy ' s rushing movement , Huangtaiji ordered his troops to set an ambush along enemy ' s retreat , while also seizing enemy ' s logistic supply . His troops then slaughtered every single retreating enemy , forcing Hong to conduct desperate attack . His sub - ordinates were in debate upon his plan , some argued that they should retreat to Ningyuan and resupply the troops . Without any official order , Wang Pu and some generals decided to retreat upon hearing that Huangtaiji himself is leading the army , and were horribly slaughtered by Huangtaiji . Only 50 , 000 survived the massacre . At Hong ' s camp , there were only 10 , 000 soldiers left , and were forced to retreat into Songshan . Cao Bianjiao and Wang Yanchen managed to escape the encirclement and united with Hong . The siege of Songshan thus began . The siege of Songshan . Songshan then suffered the same fate with Jinzhou , running out of food supply and reinforcement . Hong Chengchou tried to break the encirclement for many times , yet always failed . His desperate sub - ordinate , Xia Chengde then secretly surrendered to Qing and promised to open the city gate . At the 18th day of the second lunar month at the following year , Qing troops succeeded to rush in , and captured Hong Chengchou along with " xunfu " Qiu Minyang and some other generals . Qiu was then executed by Huangtaiji , along with Cao Bianjiao and Wang Yanchen , while Hong was taken alive to Shengjing . Hopeless , Zu Dashou was forced to surrender at the 3rd day of the following month . The defense lines in Tashan and Xingshan were crushed at the 4th month , and the battle of Songjin ended . Aftermath . Huangtaiji regarded Hong Chengchou as an excellent and brilliant general , and offered him to surrender . Hong refused , but Fan Wencheng managed to persuade him to do so . Hong was then put into the Yellow Banner and appointed to be the military governor of Nanjing during the reign of Shunzhi . He also succeeded to persuade numerous Southern Ming generals to surrender to the Qing government , and paved the way for the conquest of Southern China . Hong ' s surrender was a huge blow to the Ming dynasty after the execution of Yuan Chonghuan . There were no other competent generals left to protect the Ming empire . With the surrender of Wu Sangui , there was no obstacle left for the Manchus to conquer China proper .