In China, there are two provinces with very special relations, that is, Liaoning Province and Shandong Province, which are separated by the Bohai Strait. Liaoning Province is bordered by Inner Mongolia to the northwest, Jilin Province to the northeast, Hebei Province to the southwest, peninsula to the east, bohai Sea to the southwest, and the Yellow Sea to the southeast, with an area of about 150,000 square kilometers. Shandong Province is bordered by Hebei Province in the northwest, Henan Province and Anhui Province in the southwest, Jiangsu Province in the south, bohai sea and Yellow Sea in the north, and yellow sea in the east, with an area of about 160,000 square kilometers.
▲Shandong-Liaoning location relationship map
It is often complained that from Dalian City in southern Liaoning to Yantai City in north-central Shandong, it is necessary to run around the Bohai Sea from Dalian from north to south, through Liaoning Yingkou, Panjin, Jinzhou, Huludao, Hebei Qinhuangdao, Tangshan, Tianjin, Hebei Cangzhou, Shandong Binzhou, Zibo (or Dongying), Weifang, Qingdao to reach Yantai, a journey of thousands of kilometers. In fact, from the old Tieshan Mountain at the southernmost tip of Dalian to Beihuangcheng Island in the northern tip of Yantai Changdao County, the straight-line distance is only tens of kilometers. Some people once said that the distance between Liaoning and Shandong is far away when it looks close, and it is close when it looks far away.
Shandong and Liaoning do not have a land connection, but the straight-line distance is so close that the construction of the Bohai Sea Cross-Sea Bridge (Dalian Yantai Submarine Tunnel) is possible. The economic revitalization of the three eastern provinces requires the support of large economic provinces like Shandong, and the construction of the Bohai Sea Bridge (Dalian Yantai Submarine Tunnel) will allow the three eastern provinces to seamlessly connect with Shandong and Jiangsu (Yangtze River Delta Economic Belt), another large economic province south of Shandong. From Liaoning on the north side of the Bohai Strait to Shandong on the south side, the straight-line distance is only 106 kilometers.
▲Shandong Peninsula - Liaodong Peninsula
The special relationship between Liaoning and Shandong provinces is not limited to geography. During the Ming Dynasty, Liaoning was once subordinate to Shandong. In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang, the King of Wu, established the Ming Dynasty and set its capital at Nanjing. Subsequently, the Ming army northern expedition, the Yuan Shun Emperor Bo'er only Jin - Tuo Huan Timur did not want to be a prisoner, canghuang fled north from the capital, known as the Northern Yuan (including the Mongol departments). Although the Ming Dynasty was powerful, it had no way to take the Northern Yuan all the time, and could only confront it.
At that time, the situation in the north was more complicated, and the Northern Yuan occupied the desert, that is, the north-central part of Outer Mongolia and Inner Mongolia. Although the Ming Dynasty controlled the northeast and the outer northeast, from the north of Liaoning, there lived jurchen ministries, and the Ming Dynasty only practiced feudal administration here. Emperor Ming Chengzu set up the Nurgandu Division to administer the area north of Liaoning. In other words, the Northern Yuan, Ming Dynasty, and Jurchen ministries formed a three-legged momentum, which highlighted the important strategic position of Liaoning.
▲The Shandong jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty included parts of Liaoning north of the Bohai Strait
In the fourth year of Hongwu (1371), Zhu Yuanzhang established the Liaodu Wei in Liaodong. In the eighth year of Hongwu (1375), the Liaodong Capital Command Division (Dusi for short) was formally established, which was a military unit. How big is the Liaodong Dusi? Just look at the current map of Liaoning Province, which basically overlaps. However, there are still some differences between the two, the capital of Liaodong is located in Liaoyang, and now the provincial capital of Liaoning is Shenyang. The population of Liaoning Province is about 43.6 million, but the people of The Capital Division of Liaodong in the early Ming Dynasty were only 100,000 people. Although after hundreds of years of development, the current population is more than in ancient times, the gap of more than four hundred times is still very amazing. You know, the current population of Shandong Province is about 100 million, and the population of Shandong Province in the early Ming Dynasty was more than 6.7 million, and the gap is only more than ten times.
▲Ming Dynasty Liaodong Dusi
The population of Liaodong was still more than 500,000 during the Yuan Dynasty, and the population of Liaodong declined very rapidly due to years of war. This raises a question: The population of 100,000 in Eastern Liaoning does not seem to be enough to set up a political envoy department, but if there is no political envoy department, what will happen to the civil affairs of these 100,000 people? Zhu Yuanzhang thought of a good way to let Shandong Buzheng envoy Si Cross the Sea to take charge of the civil affairs of Liaodong. Shandong and Liaodong do not have a land border, but they are only separated by the Bohai Strait, and the travel between the two places is more convenient. Another point is that the land connection between Liaodong and the northern Part of the Ming Dynasty generally had to go to Shanhaiguan, where the terrain was relatively narrow and could be easily cut off by the Northern Yuan. Let Shandong manage Liaodong, Shandong's materials can be sent to Liaodong through the Bohai Strait, and it is still very safe. The Shandong Provincial Envoy Department can only manage the civil affairs of Liaodong, and the military affairs of Liaodong are not under the control of Shandong.
▲Three battalions in Shandong in the Ming Dynasty
After the capital of the Ming Dynasty was moved from Nanjing north to Beijing, a new situation appeared in the cooperation between Liaodong and Shandong, that is, the peninsula was integrated and the Beijing division was defended. As we all know, to the north of the Bohai Strait is the Liaodong Peninsula, to the south of the Bohai Strait is the Shandong Peninsula, and between the two peninsulas is the Long Island Archipelago, which belongs to Shandong. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the Northern Yuan was not as great a threat to the Ming Dynasty as the Wukou, who often invaded the Shandong Peninsula and the Liaodong Peninsula. If the Wokou were allowed to sneak into the Bohai Strait, it would pose a great threat to the Beijing Division, so the Ming Dynasty attached great importance to the military defense of the Liaodong Peninsula and the Shandong Peninsula. In the second year of Ming Yongle (1404), the imperial court set up a water division camp in Jimo County (present-day Jimo District, Qingdao) in the southwest of the Shandong Peninsula, under which zhuwei were set up to prevent the Wokou from landing in the southeast direction of the Shandong Peninsula. In the seventh year of Yongle (1409), the imperial court set up a water division camp in Dengzhou (Penglai City, which yantai administered). In the fourth year of Xuanzong Xuande (1429), the imperial court set up a water division battalion in Wenden (Wenden District, Weihai City), and the first two battalions were collectively known as the three major battalions in Shandong.
▲ Wokou
On the Liaodong Peninsula, in the fourteenth year of Yongle (1416, actually the beginning of 1417), the Liaodong Capital Division set up seven enemy platforms in Jinzhou to prevent the Wokou from invading the Liaodong Peninsula. Where is the Golden State? It is now the Jinzhou District of Dalian City. The Ming Dynasty built an iron wall in the Liaodong Peninsula and the Shandong Peninsula, and the Wukou invaded the Liaodong Peninsula in the seventeenth year of Yongle (1419), and as a result, they were beaten into pig heads by the Ming army and more than a thousand people died. After that, Wokou repeatedly invaded the Liaodong Peninsula and the Shandong Peninsula in an attempt to attack the Jing division. Can you imagine how much of a threat Beijing would face without the full cooperation between Shandong and Liaoning?