Battle of Shanhai Pass - Timeline

Timeline

The battle of Shanhai Pass took place on May 27, 1644, but it was preceded and followed by a series of events that gave the battle a special historical significance. This timeline presents these events. All the dates are for 1644.

• February 8: on New Year's Day, Li Zicheng founds the "Great Shun" dynasty in Xi'an and proclaims himself King (wang 王).
• February 17: Jirgalang willingly yields control of all official matters to his co-regent Dorgon.
• March 5: Dorgon sends an amicable letter to Li Zicheng proposing that they "devise a plan in common to unite their forces" against the Ming.
• March 17: personally led by Li Zicheng, the Shun army captures Taiyuan (Shanxi) and executes high officials and members of the imperial family.
• April 5: seeing the progress of rebel armies in north China, the Chongzhen Emperor issues a call for the immediate help of any military commandant in the empire.
• April 6: Wu Sangui, a powerful Ming general, is ordered to move his forces from the fortified city of Ningyuan to Shanhai Pass (at the eastern end of the Great Wall), where it could better protect the capital. The transfer of troops, done by boat from a port in Liaoxi (遼西), would take ten days to complete. Wu's departure from Ningyuan, where Ming armies had defeated Qing founder Nurhaci in 1626, leaves all territory outside the Great Wall under Qing control.
• April 11: desperate to secure proper military support, the Chongzhen emperor names Wu Sangui, Tang Tong (唐通), and two other generals earls (bo 伯). Wu thus becomes "Earl who Pacified the West" (pingxi bo 平西伯). Tang Tong, the only earl who was then in Beijing, reorganizes the capital's defenses and goes to post himself at the Juyong Pass, the last fortification defending the northern approach to Beijing.
• April 21: Li Zicheng's northern army reaches Juyong Pass: Tang Tong surrenders without a fight.
• April 22: Li Zicheng captures Changping on the northern outskirts of Beijing; he burns some of Ming imperial tombs. The Chongzhen court hears that Tang Tong surrendered the day before.
• April 23: Li Zicheng's army reaches the western suburbs of Beijing and starts attacking the city walls. Li does not order a full-scale assault because he hopes the emperor will surrender.
• April 24: a eunuch opens one of the city gates to Li Zicheng's troops. Li's men quickly overrun the southern city.
• April 25: the Chongzhen Emperor commits suicide on a hill behind the Forbidden City.
• April 26: having reached Fengrun (豐潤) halfway to the capital from Shanhai Pass, Wu Sangui hears that the capital has fallen; he returns to fortify Shanhai Pass.
• May 3: Li Zicheng sends the recently surrendered general Tang Tong to attack Wu Sangui at Shanhai Pass.
• May 5: Wu Sangui routs Tang Tong's army.
• May 10: Tang Tong's defeated army returns toward Shanhai Pass with reinforcements led by Bai Guang'en (白廣恩), but their joint army is again defeated by Wu Sangui.
• May 13: words reach the Qing capital of Mukden that Li Zicheng has been brutalizing former Ming officials and the population of Beijing. Grand Secretary Fan Wencheng (范文程) uses these news to argue for a Qing intervention in China. Dorgon agrees to mount a military expedition to punish the rebels and occupy the Central Plains.
• May 14: Dorgon leads the Qing "Grand Army" out of Mukden and starts marching south toward the Great Wall.
• May 18: after the defeat of two of his armies a few days earlier, Li Zicheng leaves Beijing with a large army to take Shanhai Pass himself.
• May 20: two of Wu Sangui's lieutenants arrive at Dorgon's camp at the Liao River carrying a message asking the Manchus to help Wu defeat Li Zicheng's bandits and restore the Ming dynasty in return for "great profits" (大利). Later that day the Manchus hear for the first time that the Chongzhen emperor was dead. Dorgon sends a letter back to Wu Sangui asking Wu to surrender to the Qing in exchange for help in destroying the Shun rebels. Still on that day, but as a result of earlier plans, small groups of Qing troops start to cross the Great Wall to distribute written proclamations announcing that the Qing will not harm the population and will only kill Li Zicheng's bandits.
• May 25: Dorgon receives a letter confirming that Wu Sangui has accepted to work for the Qing: he takes his army on a forced march toward Shanhai Pass. By the same date, Li Zicheng's army is already camping in the outskirts of Shanhai Pass, near the Sha River a few kilometers west of the Shanhai Pass garrison; Wu Sangui sends his troops to confront him there.
• May 26: having covered more than 150 kilometers in 24 hours, Dorgon's troops settle eight kilometers away from the Pass to rest for a few hours. They are awoken at midnight to continue marching.
• May 27: Battle of Shanhai Pass.
• May 28: Li Zicheng retreats from Yongping toward Beijing. Dorgon raises Wu Sangui from Earl to Prince; Wu's remaining troops shave their heads and join the Qing forces.
• May 31: Li Zicheng reenters Beijing with his troops, which proceed to loot the capital.
• June 3: Li Zicheng officially declares himself Emperor of the Great Shun.
• June 4: after six weeks in Beijing, Li Zicheng sets the imperial palaces on fire and abandons the capital to flee toward the west. The Beijing population massacres Shun stragglers.
• June 5: led by Dorgon, Qing troops are welcomed into the capital; the Beijing population is shocked because it was expecting Wu Sangui to bring back the Ming heir apparent.
• October 19: the Shunzhi Emperor arrives in Beijing through the Zhengyang Gate, where he is welcomed by Dorgon.
• November 8: a formal ritual of enthronement is held for the six-year-old Emperor: he is now Emperor of China.