Video Clip: Opening Inventory of the Ten Emperors

Chapter 184 The Misuse of Sun Tzu's Art of War and the Desolation of the Three Great Battalions of the Ming Dynasty
What happened to the army of the Ming Dynasty?

Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang and Chengzu Zhu Di successively built three major battalions. The emperor directly controlled them. They could guard the country's gates externally and deter vassal princes internally.

In the early decades of the Ming Dynasty, it had always been the most powerful army.

When Zhang Fu was conquering Annan, he discovered the advantages of using Annan's firearms. Yong Jiang served in the Ministry of Industry and built a special firearms troop, the Shenji Battalion.

In addition to the heavy infantry of the fifth army battalion and the mobile cavalry unit of the three thousand battalions, in the early Ming Dynasty, the three major battalions relied on the three major battalions to drive the Mongolian and Yuan forces out of Mobei, which directly caused them to split into several tribes and weaken their power.

However, it was such a powerful unit that began to become disorganized during the Yingzong period.

First of all, the command power of the three battalions was controlled by the eunuch group, and the guarding ministers, that is, the eunuchs acted as supervisors and took charge of the daily affairs of the various ministries of the three battalions.

These people don't understand military affairs and don't know how to train soldiers, but they are good at sending the strong soldiers in the battalion to reclaim wasteland, or go to work in their own fields, work for themselves, and farm to earn money.

Money is divided according to relatives and distances.

Those who stayed in the camp were old and weak.

Just imagine, the army's ability to fight in wartime depends on daily training and skill formations. It takes repeated practice to be effective in wartime.

These eunuchs and supervisors hold the promotion power of grassroots officers, and often put their cronies into the army to be gilded, and the promotion is still very fast, while those who can really fight and train have neither the command nor the opportunity to be promoted.

Therefore, the grassroots officer control system of the three battalions is already on the verge of collapse.

The Mongolian and Yuan forces outside the Great Wall were attacked by Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang and Chengzu Zhu Di for decades, and the Mongolian Yuan was split into Tatar, Wala, and Wuliangha.

It took Chengzu Zhu Di 14 years to conquer Saibei five times, inflicting heavy losses on Tatar and Oala.

Both Tatar and Wala also ostensibly surrendered to the Ming Dynasty.

Later, Oala defeated the Tatars and annexed the troops of its various tribes. The Oirat Grand Master also unified the various tribes during the Yingzong period, and gradually became stronger.

In the 14th year of Yingzong's orthodoxy, Grand Master Wala also sent more than 2000 envoys to the Ming Dynasty to pay tribute and ask for rewards.

At that time, the tribute system of the Ming Dynasty was a form of trade. The border minorities came to the Central Plains to pay tribute to the Central Plains Dynasty, bringing various products. The name was to pay tribute to the emperor, but in fact they were waiting for the emperor’s reward. It will be far greater than the value of the tribute, so that the tribute will get benefits, and the rewarder will get the face of all nations coming to court, and everyone will be happy.

However, there were more people coming this time, and it is said that they lied about 1000 more people, and Wang Zhen, who was in power, was very stingy. The cheap master Wala was also very angry.

He began to mobilize troops, and the troops were divided into four groups to attack and plunder the border cities of the Ming Dynasty.

He also personally led troops to attack Datong, the defender of Datong, Wu Hao, died in battle, and the report of Datong's loss spread to BJ City.

Ming Yingzong was 23 years old at this time, and he was helpless in the face of the battle report, so he asked Wang Zhen what to do.

Wang Zhen said, isn't it just a few Oirat cavalry?

Yingzong saw how easy Wang Zhen said, so he felt that this matter should be settled easily.

Imagine that your father and grandparents had personally conquered beyond the Great Wall, thinking that your own conquest must be a must.

The emperor decided to drive himself to conquer, and set off in three days.

But the ministers of the Ming Dynasty didn't think so, and the chief officials of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Officials all persuaded them.

Just three days?
Three months of preparation may not be enough.

Fighting a war is not a child's play, it requires long-term planning.

As a result, Yingzong refused to listen and insisted on going his own way. Those who persuaded him were punished. As a result, there was no opposition from the court.

In July of this year, Yingzong and Wang Zhen set off with a mobilized army, leaving Juyongguan and marching west. They claimed to be 50, but the actual number was estimated to be 30 to 35.

Wang Zhen treated military affairs very triflingly, and the preparations for the expedition were not carefully planned at all, so he set off hastily.

After entering the mountains, the soldiers were cold and hungry. The guarantee of supplies and food was not advanced at all, and the soldiers did not prepare autumn clothes, which was miserable.

When Wala heard that the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was personally conscripting, they retreated first, observed the situation of the Ming army, and prepared to lure the enemy deep.

When Wang Zhen heard that Wala was showing signs of withdrawing his troops, he told the emperor that it was caused by Tianwei, and Wala had withdrawn his troops in fear.

Wang Zhen thought that the Oirat army was retreating, so he went down the donkey, declared victory, and returned to the court.

However, the problem lies in the way back.

The Ming army should go back the same way as planned, from Datong via Xuanhua, through Tumu Fort, via Huailai City, and enter Juyongguan on the Great Wall, and then return to BJ. This is the route that Chengzu Zhu Di set off to conquer beyond the Great Wall.

Somehow, after coming out of Datong, the emperor was ordered to pass through Yuzhou, and the army made a right turn and headed south to Yuxian County.

But just after walking for more than 40 miles, the military order changed again, ordering the army to go eastward and go in the direction of Xuanfu.

It turned out that the problem was Wang Zhen. He wanted the emperor to pass by his hometown and let the people in his hometown see his status and power.

But after walking for a while, he thought of the hundreds of thousands of troops going to his hometown, where he had a lot of fields, if people trampled on his farm, it would be bad.

He went to change the emperor's mind again, and the emperor obeyed Wang Zhenyan, and this happened that the military orders changed within a day.

In fact, someone suggested to the emperor that the Ming army should go to Yu County at this time, and then enter the Zijing Pass of the Great Wall, it will be safe.

And don't take a detour.

However, the young emperor might feel that it would be embarrassing not to return to Beijing according to Chengzu's victory route.

Or order the Ming army to detour back to Xuanfu and return to Beijing by the same route.

Military and national affairs, just toss for a few days, the progress is slow, the food and grass can't keep up, the soldiers are hungry and cold, and they complain.

However, Wala Khan was not idle. When he found that the Ming army had made a big circle, he would have time to pursue the Ming army directly.

He took his soldiers and horses and chased them non-stop.

The Ming army passed through the Xuanfu and was in the Tumu Fort, but the cavalry vanguard of Wala Yexian also caught up. The Ming army resisted desperately and stabilized the front line.

At this time, a minister took advantage of the darkness of the sky and suggested that the emperor could enter Huailai City by walking more than 20 miles immediately. Wang Zhen refused, because he had more than 1000 carts of property that had not arrived, and decided on the high ground of the civil fort without investigation. Camp and wait.

There were also ministers who tried to persuade the emperor that the enemy chieftains had not arrived yet, so the emperor immediately went to Juyongguan to ensure safety, but Wang Zhen still refused.

After spending two days in the Tumu Fort, the army arrived first, and the place where the Tumu Fort was camped had no water source.

After digging several feet of ground, there was no water. The whole army was hungry and thirsty for two days, and their combat effectiveness was almost lost.

Seeing that the Ming army had an advantage in numbers, the Yexian army pretended to send envoys to negotiate peace. The emperor and Wang Zhen believed it and ordered the camp to be moved to fetch water.

As a result, the whole army was slack, and they rushed to fetch water from the nearby river. They also saw the chaos of the Ming army camp and launched an attack. The poor Ming army's 10 people were divided into several sections and lost effective command. Some generals and soldiers fled, and some generals only Can fight on their own.

The guard general Fan Zhong saw that the entire Ming army was annihilated, he was furious, and shouted that I would punish this thief for the world, and killed Wang Zhen with a hammer, while the emperor just sat on the ground trembling, waiting to be captured.

In the battle of Tumubao, the military wealth accumulated by the founding of the Ming Dynasty for nearly a hundred years was wiped out.

The three major battalions were wiped out, and most of the civil and military officials who traveled with the emperor, honorable generals died. Zhang Fu mentioned above was already in his 70s, and the guard general Fan Zhong died in battle.

Moreover, the emperor was captured by the enemy country, which caused some series of internal political problems. From then on, the class of honorable generals had almost no power to influence the court, and could not balance the civil class and eunuchs. The emperor could only rely on eunuchs and slaves to balance the civil official group. The chaos sowed the seeds of disaster.

There were many factors for this fiasco, the main reason being that the emperor was young and had no experience in governing the country, and the eunuch Wang Zhen was also a young man who was good at monopolizing power and accumulating money.

The previous generations of emperors of the Ming Dynasty ruled martial arts and martial arts, and the national strength was completely above Oala.

Even if the Ming Dynasty is powerful, the enemy may not necessarily run away.

They are blindly optimistic about their own strength, their war preparations are hasty, their logistics supplies are not carefully arranged at all, their military orders are changed from day to day during the march like a child's play, and they have no detailed understanding of the enemy's changes at all.

Sun Tzu's Art of War said that knowing yourself and the enemy is invincible in a hundred battles.

The monarchs and ministers of the Ming Dynasty were overconfident in their own advantages, and they did not understand their own disadvantages at all, and they did not understand the changes of the enemy at all. This was a war with no chance of winning.

Knowing yourself and knowing the enemy is an important clue throughout Sun Tzu's Art of War, and it is also the essence of Sun Tzu's Art of War, and it is a basic law of universal significance.

Through the story of Ming Yingzong, it is enough to give military strategists a lot of inspiration.

…………

Daming Palace.

Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang was going crazy with anger.

This is the second time the corpse has been whipped.

It made him very embarrassed.

"Bastard! The idiot!"

"Although our old Zhu doesn't like Sun Wu, we have nothing to say about his art of war."

"In a word, it is easy to use."

"And Zhu Qizhen, an idiot, doesn't even understand these principles, he is really like a pig."

"The three major battalions we created were destroyed by this bastard!"

"We really can't figure out how our old Zhu has such a stupid descendant."

Zhu Yuanzhang was about to explode with anger.

How much effort has been devoted to him by the three major battalions of Ming Dynasty.

Say no, it's gone.

The three major battalions of the Ming Dynasty were also known as the third battalion of the capital and the third battalion of the imperial court.

It mainly includes the Five Army Battalion, the Three Thousand Battalion and the Shenji Battalion.

The number of troops is not only three battalions. By the 14th year of Ming Dynasty Zhengtong, the total strength has reached 20.

As an important force for the Ming Dynasty to defend the capital, the Three Great Battalions were established when Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty.

In the 13th year of Hongwu, it was under the command of Wucheng Bingma Division.

After Ming Chengzu Zhu Di moved his capital to Beiping, the three camps were divided into the three camps of Yuqian and the three camps of Nanjing, and the regulations gradually reached perfection.

The real spring of the three camps was during the period of Ming Chengzu Zhu Di.

During the Yongle Dynasty, the three major battalions served as Zhu Di's imperial front three battalions. They followed Zhu Di's imperial drive several times, went deep into Mobei, and fought against Wala, Tatar, and Wuliangha for many years.

It effectively wiped out the vital forces of these Mongolian ministries, so that they did not dare to covet the Ming Dynasty in a short period of time.

And one year after Ming Chengzu Zhu Di died, his "good grandson" Ming Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji succeeded to the throne.

Under his leadership, the Third Imperial Battalion not only underwent adjustment and expansion, but also ushered in a second spring. Under the leadership of Zhu Zhanji, they continued to fight against Oala and played an important role.

However, with the sudden death of Zhu Zhanji, the three major battalions of Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen were no longer the three major battalions of the Yongle and Xuande periods.

One of the three major battalions of the capital of the Ming Dynasty, it is an elite unit in the Ming Dynasty army that specializes in fighting with firearms. It is the first unit in the world to be equipped with and use firearms.

The Shenji Battalion is mainly responsible for the important task of "guarding the capital inside and preparing for battle outside". It is in charge of training firearms and escorting cavalry officers and soldiers. It is a strategic mobile force under the direct command of the emperor. Add weapons such as matchlock guns.

During combat, it is mainly responsible for defending the safety of the central army camp where the emperor is located, performing tasks such as fire support for front-line combat troops and artillery strikes against the enemy.

The Three Thousand Battalions was one of the three major battalions of the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

It was originally composed of [-] Mongolian cavalry recruited outside the Great Wall.

During the Jiajing period, the Mongolian cavalry grew to about 7 people and then it was renamed Shenshuying.

The reason why it is called the Three Thousand Battalion is that when it was formed, the three thousand Mongolian cavalry were used as the backbone. Of course, with the development of the army later, the actual number has already exceeded 3000. All are cavalry, and these cavalry are Mongolian soldiers recruited from abroad.

The Ming army never gave up recruiting and using these Mongolian soldiers to fight for it from the beginning to the end.

Although the number of this cavalry unit is small, it is the most powerful cavalry force under Ming Chengzu Zhu Di. They mainly play the role of assault and disrupting the enemy's camp in the war.

The Fifth Army Battalion is one of the three major battalions of the capital of the Ming Dynasty, mainly composed of horse troops and infantry troops.

In addition to the standing guards in the capital, more than [-] troops are dispatched from the capitals of Zhongdu, Shandong, Henan, and Daning every year, and they take turns to enter the capital to change defenses and drills, maintaining sufficient combat effectiveness at all times.

During the subsequent Hongzhi Dynasty, Longqing Dynasty, Jiajing Dynasty and the early Wanli period when Zhang Juzheng was in power, the battalion affairs were rectified and the armaments were reorganized, so that the three major battalions of the capital also radiated a short ray of light several times.

Since then, due to the corruption of the government, corrupt and incompetent generals, empty pay, and privatization of soldiers abound, the combat effectiveness of the three major battalions of the capital has been deteriorating.

In the 17th year of Chongzhen, the peasant army led by Li Zicheng broke through Juyongguan. Emperor Chongzhen sent his three major battalions of the capital to fight. He thought that the Beijing army was the elite division of the imperial court. Frustrated.

But what Emperor Chongzhen didn't expect was that the three major battalions of the capital had just come into contact with the peasant army, and before the war started, they would collapse at the first touch.

At this point, the demise of the Ming Dynasty was a foregone conclusion, and the three major battalions of the capital also disappeared with the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)