Battle of Sarhu The Battle of Sarhū ( 薩爾滸之戰 , " Sàěrhǔ zhī zhàn " ) refers to the series of conflicts between the Manchus and Ming Dynasty of China in the winter of year 1619 , which ended in the overwhelming victory for the former . The Manchu cavalry defeated forces equipped with matchlock s and cannon s , so the Battle of Sarhū is sometimes compared to the Battle of Nagashino in Japanese history . Background . Nurhaci unified all the Jurchen tribes except the Yehe and took a hostile attitude towards the Ming . In 1618 , he proclaimed Seven Grievances ( " nadan amba koro " 七大恨 ) against Ming government to Heaven and declared war on the Ming forces . 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 Shenyang ( 沈陽 ) , and recaptured Fushun , which was undefended . He set off from Shenyang 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 by Liambu , 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 , Nurhaci and Daišan 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 . This ruse induced Liu Ting ' s troop lose cohesion with other Ming forces and advanced into a deep valley and walked straight into an ambush . He was then ambushed in Abudali ( 阿布達里 ) Pass as his troops stretched themselves in a serpentine form to traverse the valley . His forces met Daišan ' s forces and were cut to pieces . He himself , wielding his glaive fought valiantly , but was cut to pieces . He also had around 15 , 000 Zhejiang contingent whose armour and protection was made of bamboo and were useless against the steel blades of the Jurchen warriors : they were completely slaughtered . The 13 , 000 strong Korean force , including at least 10 , 000 musketeers , were not effective due to direction of windage against them . Also they delivered volley withought arrowheads because they did not intend to fight with them in the first place . They wanted to maintain neutral policy between the Manchus and Ming Dynasty . Korean contingent commander Gang Hong - Rip then surrendered with the remaining troops . The Southern Route . When Yang Hao heard of the annihilation of the three routes , he ordered Li Rubai to return home . Li Rubai was mainly traversing mountain routes and also had weak resolve preferring to let the others do the fighting . Nurhaci had a small scouting contingent of roughly 20 man shadowing Li Rubai and when Li Rubai was seen to retreat , this contingent sounded the horn of attack from the mountains , pretending to be the prelude of a major attack . Panic set in amongst the Ming army , and thousands died of trampling and in the ensuing chaos . After this defeat , Li Rubai committed suicide .