April 14, 1619 · Manchuria (modern Liaoning) Theater
April 14, 1619
The Ming court sent a massive four-pronged army of nearly 90,000 troops to crush Nurhaci's fledgling Manchu state. Nurhaci, commanding roughly 60,000 bannermen, exploited the poor coordination between the four Ming columns by concentrating his entire force against each one in turn. In three days of fighting in the forested hills near Sarhu, the Manchus destroyed three of the four Ming armies in detail, killing an estimated 45,000 soldiers including several commanding generals. The fourth column retreated without engaging.
Commanders