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Chapter 592: The First Level in the World

After traveling for more than 5 miles in five days, the army command system headed by Hong Tao finally arrived at Shanhaiguan. A large number of logistical equipment also arrived at about the same time.

Soldiers and horses move forward before food and grass are used. The ancients were honest and never deceived. Looking at the string of carriages on the road, Hong Tao couldn't help but lament the hardships of marching and fighting in ancient times. Thirty thousand people go on an expedition, and almost 30,000 people are mobilized for logistical support.

This is still the result of mostly using sea transport and four-wheeled carriages. If the sea-going ships were removed and the four-wheeled carriages were replaced by two-wheeled ones, it is estimated that the number of logistics support personnel would triple.

The front line needs 10,000 catties of grain, and the rear has to collect 40,000 catties of grain, and three-quarters of it is consumed on the road. This is one of the reasons why farming peoples are always at a disadvantage when confronting nomadic peoples. The cost is too high and they cannot afford it.

In the 1381th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (), Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, ordered the construction of a city and a pass here, and it became an important military town that controlled the throat of Northeast and North China. Because it is surrounded by mountains and sea, it is named Shanhaiguan.

When the author was a child, textbooks described Shanhaiguan as the eastern starting point of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, it must have been either that the historical data were unclear or that he didn’t know why it was written this way. After the author started working, he traveled to Northeast China one year and accidentally discovered the Great Wall in Kuandian County under the jurisdiction of Dandong City.

I checked online and found out that this is the easternmost point of the Ming Great Wall. It starts from Wumingkoutai in the north of Shanhaiguan in the west and stretches for thousands of miles around Liaodong Town. It is called the Liaodong Border Wall.

However, Shanhaiguan, as the easternmost point of the Ming Great Wall, is not wrong at this moment, because Emperor Jingyang abandoned Liaodong Town after he ascended the throne. At this time, the instigator was standing in front of the majestic pass, surrounded by a group of officials and generals, looking left and right, and kept asking questions.

Shanhaiguan was a tourist attraction in later generations. It looked similar to Juyongguan. It was a large city gate building with an urn. In fact, Shanhaiguan in the Ming Dynasty was much more than that. It was a comprehensive defense system. The city gate tower that said it was the best in the world was only a small part of it, and the rest were demolished.

The overall Shanhaiguan resembles a human figure with its head facing east, feet facing west, arms outstretched, and holding a sledgehammer in its right hand. The westernmost leg is Xilao City, which is mainly used to store grain, grass and weapons.

There is a moat further east, and across the river is the Western Weng City. Only after entering the Weng City can you enter the Shanhaiguan Guancheng, which is the chest and abdomen of the human figure. The General Military Mansion, the governor's office, military families, some barracks, a small number of shops and residents all live in Guancheng.

The east wall of Guancheng is the wall of the Great Wall. Open a gate on the wall and build a watchtower, which is the first gate tower in the world.

But this tower is not the first line of defense against enemy attacks. To the east is the Wengcheng, with a moat outside the Wengcheng. To the east of the moat is the Dongluo City, which is a human-shaped head. There is a moat outside Dongluo City, and this is the front line.

Is it enough to have a defense-in-depth system? The designers of the Ming Dynasty felt that it was not rigorous enough, so they designed a north-south defense system as the right-hand man of the humanoid.

Two miles away from the north and south of Guancheng, there are North Wing City and South Wing City, and there are also garrisons in the city, echoing each other. Now there are strong cities echoing in the southeast, northwest, and you should be satisfied. The designer still felt that it was not strict enough, so he just tightened the fence on the land. What if the enemy came in a small boat and came along the shallow sea.

So we designed two more cities, Laolongtou, Ninghai and Weihai, and built the Great Wall directly into the shallow sea. It was also equipped with two fortified cities and garrisoned for close surveillance. Now there was no chance of sneaking over from the shallow sea. According to the military capabilities of the late Ming Dynasty, not to mention that the Jin army could not break through Shanhaiguan, it was also very, very difficult for the Ming army to attack the city. As long as there are no internal problems, even if one man cannot be a gatekeeper and ten thousand men cannot open it, ten men or fifty men should be enough. Without dozens of times more troops, it would be difficult to even get close to the walls of Guancheng.

So how many troops does Shanhaiguan Commander-in-Chief Du Song have? A total of seventy thousand! Less than half of them were Guan Ning's troops who had withdrawn from Liaodong Town, and their combat effectiveness was quite strong among the Ming Dynasty's border troops.

If we calculate it this way, Nurhaci would not be able to capture Shanhaiguan without 700,000 troops. Doesn't Nurhaci have 700,000 soldiers? Isn't this nonsense? The Ming Dynasty sold iron and steel to get all the old, weak and disabled soldiers in the guard, as well as soldiers who were on empty pay, so there are probably only so many soldiers.

According to the battle reports received on the road, the troops assembled by Hou Jin this time were roughly around 3 to 6. The number of troops attacking the city was smaller than that of the defenders, so it was obviously impossible to capture it. Why did Hong Tao use his army to conquer it himself?
Anyone who thinks so is just talking on paper. Jun Song's position is called Shanhaiguan Commander-in-Chief, and it is true that he has 70,000 troops, but his defense range is not just one Shanhaiguan, but all the passes from Gubeikou to Shanhaiguan.

This section of the Great Wall includes three major traffic arteries: Gubeikou, Xifengkou, and Shanhaiguan, all of which are the only way to enter Hebei from Liaodong. There are also valley trails such as Taolingkou and Jielingkou, which are also necessary. Arrange heavy military guard.

The reason why the capital was chosen as the capital by Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, was not only political but also geographical. For the early Ming Dynasty, the main threat came from the north, and the geographical characteristics of the capital were not only conducive to defense to the north, but also facilitated communication to the south.

The Taihang Mountains, Yanshan Mountains and Bohai Sea form natural barriers in the west, north and southeast directions of the capital, while to the south is a vast plain with convenient transportation and developed agriculture.

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty built the canal to Zhuo County, hoping to use it as a stronghold to control the north. The reason why the Song Dynasty has always been strategically passive is because it has lost the sixteen states of Yanyun and has no danger to defend against the nomads in the north.

There are only three ways to enter the North China Plain from Liaodong and eastern Mongolia. The first is called Lulong Road. It is named after Lulongsai, the northern pass in the Han and Wei Dynasties, which was also known as Xifengkou in later generations.

From Chuxifengkou, go north along the east bank of the Luan River, cross the Yanshan Mountains, pass through Pingquan, Pinggang, and Bailangcheng, and follow the Daling River to finally reach Liucheng (Chaoyang City). When Cao Cao conquered Wuhuan in the north, he took this route.

The second one is called Gubei Road, which was a new road developed after the Liao Kingdom occupied the Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun. Exit the Great Wall from the Gubeikou of Miyun, pass through Luanping, Chengde and Lulong Road, then arrive near Chifeng and follow the Laoha River all the way north to Dading Prefecture in the capital of Liaoning Province.

The third one is called Banghai Road. As the name suggests, it is a road along the seaside, which is the Liaoxi Corridor cut off by Shanhaiguan. When Qin Shihuang built the Chi Road, its easternmost point was at Jieshi (Jieshi Mountain in Changli).

Cao Cao wrote in "Guan Cang Hai" that he faced Jieshi to the east to view the Cang Sea, which may be the victory of the northern expedition to Wuhuan. He went to the beach to get some crabs, scallops, sea urchins, etc., and barbecued and drank on the top of the mountain while watching the sea view. , expressed with emotion.

(End of this chapter)