Excavate the lesser-known Humanities of Ningxia and tell the history of Ningxia that you are not familiar with, I am Ah Wei! Bring you a different Ningxia style!
The Legend of Great Yinchuan There are many stories in the small town, but listen to me singing and. Sighing in the past, the thousand autumns have fallen.
In the previous episode "Ningxia Humanities: Ming Dynasty's Little Things No. 40: How to equip the Yinchuan Border Army to Resist the Enemy", Ah Wei talked about the equipment of the Soldiers in Ningxia Town (Yinchuan). So what was their record in the battle against the Tatars?
This is to talk about the guarding situation of the Army of The Border army in Ningxia Town, which is recorded in the Zhishu: "At the beginning of the country, Ningxia Prefecture was established. Hongwu was abolished in five years and moved his people to Shaanxi. In the ninth year, Geng Zhong, the younger brother of Geng Bingwen of Changxing, was appointed as the commander of Li Ningxia Wei and was subordinate to the Capital Division of Shaanxi. After the five sides of the migration of the people of shizhi, the later increase of Ningxia forward guard, Ningxia left tun, right tun, middle tun for the five guards, and seek and merge the middle tun in the left and right two guards for the four guards.
In the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu's reign, Emperor Xin of the Qing Dynasty moved from Qingyang to Wei Prefecture to the thirty-fifth year of Xin Wei, and moved to Ningxia (Yinchuan) as a central guard. From Zhengde Five Years Gengwu to Zhonghu to Zhongtun, still five guards..."
How many guards are there in this "five guards"? From the border army to the military households (those who wrapped up the degraded and those who were assigned for crimes), when Hongwu migrated in the ninth year, there were more than 50,000 to less than 60,000.
In fact, there are less than 20,000 border troops (professional soldiers) who can fight in battle. "Transferring xi'an left, xi'an right, xi'an front, Xi'an right, Hutongguan, Ningqiang, Hanzhong Seven Guards and Fengxiang Shou Yu Qianhu's officers and troops totaled 11,760 (names); 5,457 horses, distributed in Ningxia...", from a message recorded by Yang Shouli in the jiajing year about shifts, it can be seen that the total number of troops of the "five guards" (the real border army) plus the native soldiers (the border army composed of local military households, belonging to the second sequence) is about 30,000 people!
These about 30,000 people were stationed in the Ten Cities and Hundred Forts (Tun) along the Helan Mountains and the Yellow River, and it didn't look like there were many people, but it was like scattering beans on the land of Ningxia. For example, like Pingyu City (now Pingluo), Yuquan Camp, Pingqiang Fort (now Pingji Fort), etc., the garrison is one to three thousand soldiers and horses; the fort is generally two hundred to one thousand soldiers and horses.
The Tatar tribes generally invaded the south, basically by thousands or tens of thousands of soldiers and horses. The Ningxia Border Army could not effectively concentrate on blocking the attack, and it is conceivable how much defensive pressure the Ningxia Border Army had!
Therefore, in many cases, the border army is blocked by the soldiers and horses of one city or several neighboring cities and forts. In this kind of less-to-more situation, it is already very fortunate to be able to kill fewer people, let alone win. The tatars, on the other hand, were numerically superior, coupled with their strong and athletic figure and first-class horse kung fu, they could be described as fearless.
Looking at the lives of the generals in the Ming Dynasty in Ningxia Shubian, you will find that these generals are really heroes, from hundreds of household chiefs, thousand household chiefs, to you commanders, guerrilla generals, all command, almost all of them are force battles, death battles, there is no fear of war and fear of death!
The border walls are dead, made of stone and sand, and they are the Great Wall of Steel made of living flesh and blood! They are the Great Wall of Iron Blood of Daming!
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the generals of the Ming army were full of talents, such as Mu Ying, Geng Zhong, etc., so at that time, they were basically crushing the Invading Tatar soldiers with overwhelming superiority; in the middle period, the steppe tribes became increasingly strong (in the early Ming Dynasty, they gave up the rich Hetao Plain, which was a big mistake, giving the Yukou a stable place to rest and recuperate), especially the rise of the Tatar prince of the Tatar tribe in the early years of Zhengde, who was more strategic, repeatedly invaded Ningxia and plundered, "returning with a generous profit", which made Ningxia suffer deeply.
Due to the decay of the military system, the Ming Dynasty's border army here was gradually decaying, and the stars were withered away, and under such a long period of time, the soldiers of the Ningxia Shubian army had some difficulty in fighting against the Tatars. Although many "great victories" were achieved in the battles against the Tatars, judging from the results, they were not ideal. Like what:
The Victory of the Salt Pond in the First Year of Chenghua: Capturing Thirty-Six People;
Chenghua's Eight-Year Victory in Seongnam: Decapitation Level 28;
The victory of the eleventh year of Hongzhi's pucaogou: killing more than forty people;
Zhengde's seven-year long-flowing water victory: decapitation of twenty-eight levels;
It was not until the Zhengde Emperor personally marched in the Great Victory of Yingzhou and defeated the little prince of Tatarstan that the main force of the Tatar tribe declined somewhat, giving Ningxia a chance to breathe, so the number of Tatar soldiers killed in the Great Victory of jiajing began to rise. Like what:
Jiajing's Twelve Years of Honeycomb Mountain Victory: Beheading more than 120 levels;
Jiajing's thirteen-year victory in Shahu: beheading more than 100 ranks;
......
Being able to behead dozens of levels without being superior in numbers can also be called a "great victory", but what is the battle loss ratio of the Ming army in Ningxia Shubian? 3:1 or 10+:1! It can really be said that "one general has achieved ten thousand bones", and in many battles that are not recorded in the chronicles, it is common for the whole army to be destroyed! Like what:
In the year of Yongle Xin (1411 AD), he led 700 cavalry to fight with 3,000 thieves who had attacked in Hexi, where he was seriously wounded and died on the battlefield, along with Shen Jie, who commanded Zhuding Qianhu (an official position);
Du commanded Xu Rong, garrisoned Lingzhou, led eight hundred cavalry during the Tianshun period, resisted the Kou, and then pursued the enemy to Hetao Luquan, and then fought according to the dangerous force, shot several chieftains, and killed three of the chieftain's sons, and finally tried his best to kill himself and swore not to surrender. The enemy hates it to the bone, scrapes its flesh and boils its bones, and then feeds it to the camels;
In the early years of Chenghua, Du commanded Liu Ying to die in battle with 600 non-commissioned officers and thieves in the Dingbian battalion; Wang Li led 200 men to fight and die in battle with the captives at Ya'er Lane; and during the Hongzhi period, Du commanded Wang Tai to die in battle with the thieves in Hedong with 700 soldiers.
Commanding Zhao Xi, Hongzhi led a cavalry patrol of 200 people to lingwukou temple hill for six years and was killed;
Cheng Xian was even more powerful, in the thirteenth year of Jiajing, there were more than 40,000 enemy cavalry invading Hetao, Cheng Xian was the forward, leading 800 cavalry to meet the enemy in Qin Dai, fighting for two days, the enemy was wounded, so he gathered more efforts to attack Cheng Xian. With less fighting and more, in the end Cheng Xian died of exhaustion, along with the commanders Lü Zhongliang, Liu Xun, and Wang Rui.
The commander Yang Xuan was known for his bravery and was killed in a bloody battle with thieves.
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So how difficult is it for the Ming army to kill a Tatar soldier? In the majestic Helan Mountains, how many bones of Ming Dynasty heroes are buried?
Helan Mountain is called "Ghost Mountain", and that makes sense!
The next episode is more exciting, please pay attention to the 42 of those things in Yinchuan in the Ming Dynasty!
This is Yinchuan! Discover the beauty of Yinchuan and feel the beauty of Yinchuan!
I am Ah Wei, with warm words, turning up dusty memories, recording the humanistic history of Yinchuan! Thanks for reading attention!