introduction
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, natural disasters continued above the Central Plains, because China at this time was in the Xiaoice River period, the weather became colder, the wind and sand became more and more serious, and the drought of successive years caused the peasant harvest to decrease year by year, coupled with excessively heavy taxes and continuous oppression between classes, the people at the lowest level of society could not bear all kinds of exploitation, and they raised the banner of revolt to resist the rule of the Ming court; with the Shaanxi region as the center, it gradually spread to the Central Plains, and there were countless peasant uprisings and soldier mutinies in various places.
Although the number of ming troops was far more than that of the rebel army, the rebel army was sometimes scattered and sometimes unified, which was a typical rogue crime, which made the Ming army that surrounded and suppressed the rebellion everywhere tired of running for its life, and in the process of constantly confronting the Ming army, the burden of the Ming court was even heavier, and it also became the last straw that overwhelmed the camel of the Ming Dynasty.
In March 1644, the rebels under the leadership of Li Zicheng attacked the Beijing Division, The Ming Chongzhen Emperor saw the Empire State Building destroyed by his own hands, hanged himself on the coal mountain, and the Ming court collapsed, and less than a month later, the Qing army entered the pass under the leadership of Wu Sangui and defeated Li Zicheng's rebel army at Shanhaiguan; before Li Zicheng's uprising, the Ming Dynasty had been fighting with the Later Jin for many years, although it could not defeat the Later Jin army, but it also relied on geographical advantages to let the Later Jin Iron Horse not be able to penetrate deep into the Guannei, although the two armies lost more than they won, although the two armies lost more than they won. However, the Later Jin army is also recorded to be defeated by the Ming army.
In March of the first year of the Apocalypse, Hou Jin dispatched a large army to besiege Shenyang, and within a few days he attacked the city of Shenyang, only a few thousand Ming troops came to reinforcement, and the Houjin army in Shenyang city had a total of more than 50,000 people, and the two sides fought outside Shenyang City, but the result was unexpected, the most elite of the Houjin army, the Zhengbai Banner and the Zhenghuang Banner, attacked in turn, not only did not achieve victory, but let themselves lose thousands of people and horses, and returned home in a big defeat, only to rely on the advantages of the city to defeat the Ming army, and these Ming armies were trained by qin Liangyu, a famous female general at the end of the Ming Dynasty They each had a spear in their hands, wore a machete around their waist, formed a spear array when facing the enemy, and used a machete to slash and kill the Fallen Jin soldiers, which could be described as extremely sharp, and the Ming Dynasty at that time had more than one million soldiers, if they could have the combat effectiveness of this unit, then even if there were a few more Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners, it was estimated that the whole army would be destroyed, but why could a million Ming troops not defeat more than 80,000 people in the Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners area? There are mainly the following reasons.
Physical fitness
First of all, the selection of spearmen must be strong and strong, because the impact of the cavalry charge is very huge, which requires that when forming the spear array, the soldiers who serve as the spearmen have a very prominent physical quality, so that in the first wave of the cavalry charge, the speed of the cavalry charge can be slowed down and drag the enemy army, so that the mobility of the cavalry cannot be exerted, so that it is possible to completely annihilate the enemy army.
However, the problem of the Ming army eating empty pay in the late Ming Dynasty has been very serious, during the apocalypse years, the Ming Dynasty actually adopted the dual system of guardhouse + recruitment, the system of guardhouses in the late Ming Dynasty was corrupt, the official statistics had a million soldiers, but many of them were registered and not guarded, and the actual available army could have 300,000 already overcounted, plus many of the old, weak, sick and disabled in the army, and there was no way to talk about being strong and strong; just like Wu Sangui once said to the Chongzhen Emperor, although there were 70,000 soldiers on the surface of Shanhaiguan, in fact, there were less than 30,000 people. Among them, there were only a few thousand elites, and the imperial court had to pay 70,000 soldiers, which was enough to explain the problem. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the soldiers of the Weishou could only get 5-6 buckets of brown rice a month, and they had to support their families, which belonged to the situation of eating the last meal without eating, and they also had to endure the oppression and exploitation of the officers, etc., and even more so, the soldiers of the Weishou were sent out to participate in various labors to earn money for them, so that the Ming army did not collapse at the touch of a touch after encountering the Jin army.
Poor execution
The spear array has high requirements for the execution of soldiers, and strict team training is carried out every day so that soldiers can carry out rhythmic teamwork according to the drums during the battle, in addition, according to different drums, soldiers are also required to quickly change the combat formation and shift direction, and can be combined into various tactical formations to deal with the enemy at will.
Secondly, when the cavalry charge, the momentum is unstoppable, the soldiers in the front of the formation often need great perseverance to suppress the fear in their hearts, if the execution is slightly poor, the psychological quality is not strong enough, can not form a strict formation against the enemy, it will lead the whole body, so that the power of the entire tactical phalanx is greatly weakened; and the Ming army is mostly old, weak, sick and disabled, and it is impossible to expect these people to perform a rigorous combat method.
Military restraint
During the Ming Dynasty, the restrictions on military generals by civilian officials were unimaginable, and the status of military generals was far lower than that of civilian officials, in order to prevent military power from falling, the generals would not have the slightest military power, and would only hand over military power to the generals when they encountered war, but they would also send a supervisory army to monitor the command of the generals and prevent the generals from supporting the troops and respecting themselves.
The result of this is that the soldiers do not know the generals, will not know the soldiers, at the same time, but also to prevent the civilian officers of the supervision army from leaving the impression of supporting the soldiers and respecting themselves, if these supervision troops return to the dynasty to give you a stroke, then congratulations, you will not have the next time to lead the qualifications, therefore, the generals who lead the troops are subject to people everywhere, although this system curbs the problem of military power, but at the same time it also curbs the generals' on-the-spot response and creativity, greatly weakening their own military strength. Such a situation is natural for the army of Jin after the war to lose more and win less.
epilogue
Although the large-scale spearmen have a great deterrent effect on the cavalry, according to the above reasons, it can also be seen that the Ming Dynasty simply has no ability to organize such an organized army, if it can really organize such an army, presumably even if there are a few more such Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners, it will also lose its armor and armor in front of such an army, right?
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