On the afternoon of March 16, 1644, in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng finally arrived at the city of Beijing. For the past 15 years, for Li Zicheng, the city of Beijing has only appeared on his map, and he can only look at the map and sigh. Now in front of him, the bustling city is no longer far away. However, before him, the city of Beijing, which had been besieged so many times, had never been attacked, and if the fortified city was difficult to break, what if the qin king's divisions from all over the country came and then merged inside and outside, and then there was no way to retreat? Moreover, even if Chongzhen did not have the Master of Qin Wang at this time, would he really have no soldiers to adjust? Turning to the many Ming history archives, we will be surprised to find that from the historical materials, we found that the number of registered troops in Beijing exceeded 400,000. What's going on here? Now let's briefly compare the actual strength of the two armies.
The first is the Great Shun Army. Some historical materials record the strength of the Dashun army as millions, such a record is basically a fantasy, Li Zicheng's main force is mainly by the backbone of the old Ming army in the northwest trained by the local peasants, these peasants were forced to rebel under the harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes at the end of the Ming Dynasty, so these people can be described as hating the Ming Dynasty officials and troops to the bone, the real army of hatred produces war will, the main force of the five battalions composed of these people is about 60,000; the secondary main force is composed of various miscellaneous armies: such as Luo Rucai of infighting, He Yilongbu, There were also Ming officers and soldiers who surrendered from all over the world. It was about 150,000, but this part of the population was not really surrendered (so most of the people who fought against the Qing in the future did not fight). The second main force is simply a displaced person or a family member of the army who cannot even be called an army. If the main force is for the sake of changing the dynasty and the rich, then most of the sub-main forces are only for food and clothing, and the second main force is simply a group of servants.
Then there was the Ming Army. The Ming Dynasty from the beginning of the Ming Dynasty has a Beijing camp, the Beijing camp as the name suggests is directly subordinate to the city of Beijing army, in the early years of the Ming Dynasty when the capital was still in Nanjing, it was 48 guards, each guard 5600 people, the number of 268,000 people. After Yongle moved its capital to Beijing, because Beijing was close to the frontier, the Beijing camp was increased from 48 to 72 guards, and the number of people increased to more than 400,000. At the same time, the Yongle Emperor also personally established the establishment of three major battalions: five battalions, three thousand battalions, and the Divine Machine Battalion. No matter how many times beijing city was besieged, in the face of the shooting of gunpowder weapons on the fortified city, each time the army that tried to attack Beijing suffered huge casualties, so the divine machine battalion alone was enough to weigh people. Secondly, there is the Shangzhi Army.
The Shangzhi Army was the imperial and imperial bodyguard unit, which evolved from the Gongwei Division set up by Zhu Yuanzhang in the rebellion. The Arch Guard Division was subordinate to the Metropolitan Governor's Office. In the second year of Hongwu (1369), it was designated as the pro-military capital, commanding the 5 guards of the middle, left, right, front and rear, and set up the Yiluan Division under it. Later, it was changed to Jinyi Wei and set up a Jinyi Guard Commanding Envoy, and the number of commanding non-commissioned officers was the same as that of zhu Wei, and then it was adjusted to increase to 12 guards of the Shangzhi Army, all of which were called the Shangzhi Wei Pro-Army Commanding Envoy Division, and set up a pro-army command envoy. The names of the 12 guards are: Jinyi Wei, Banner Guard, Kingo Forward Guard, Kingo Guard, Yulin Left Guard, Yulin Right Guard, Fu Jun Guard, Fu Army Left Guard, Fu Army Right Guard, Fu Army Front Guard, Fu Army Rear Guard, Tiger Ben Left Guard, etc. Each of them has its own responsibilities. These were the main forces of the Ming army in Beijing. In fact, in addition to the main force, there are also imperial city guards, imperial city patrols, east and west factories and other police agencies similar to today's police, which belong to paramilitary forces. However, the specific number of people, the author really did not check.
In addition, let's look at Beijing's city defenses: the impregnable city is Beijing's barrier. The Ming Dynasty city of Beijing consisted of the Forbidden City, the Imperial City, the Inner City and the Outer City. The Forbidden City is located in the center of the city. On the outside, it is surrounded by a larger city wall, called the Imperial City, and there is an inner city outside, and then to the south is the outer city.
The Forbidden City, or Miyagi Castle, is the Forbidden City in today's Beijing, located in the southernmost area of the central part of the inner city, with a circumference of six miles and sixteen steps, surrounded by high walls, the height of the city is 3 feet 5 feet, the thickness is 2 feet and 2 feet, rectangular, and there is a moat outside the city. There are tall gate towers on all four sides of the castle, and the imperial city is Miyagi Castle. Miyagi has eight gates: the first gate in the south is the Chengtian Gate, the second gate is the Duanyang Gate, the triple gate is the Noon Gate, the Noon Gate is the right gate and the left gate, the south is the east gate, the west is the Xihua Gate, and the north is the Xuanwu Gate. The imperial city is outside the palace, made of stone bricks, painted scarlet, with a circumference of 18 miles, the height of the city is eight feet, the top width is five feet, and the imperial city has six gates. They are: Daming Gate, Dong'an Gate, West Gate, Bei'an Gate, Chang'an Left Gate and Chang'an Right Gate.
The outside of the imperial city is both an inner city: the inner city was rebuilt from the original Yuan capital city, with a circumference of 45 miles, initially rebuilt in the first year of Ming Hongwu, the southeast and west sides of the city wall are 3 zhang high, the top width is 2 zhang, the north side is 4 zhang high, and the width is 5 zhang. Each gate has a moon city. The city wall is 3 meters 5 feet 5 inches high, its thickness is 6 feet 2 feet, and there are 9 gates: the south direction is zhengyang gate (front gate), the left Chongwen gate, the right Xuanwu gate, the east direction is dongzhimen, the southeast is Chaoyang gate, the northeast is Andingmen, the due west is Xizhimen, the northwest is Deshengmen, and the southwest is Fuchengmen. And there are 6 gates connected to the Imperial City. The outer city is on the south side of the inner city, with a circumference of more than 70 miles, the width of the city wall is 2 zhang, the width of the top is 1 zhang 4 feet, and the height is 1 zhang 8 feet. There are 7 gates in the outer city: Yongding Gate to the south, Zuo'an Gate to the southwest, Right Anmen to the southeast, Guangqu Gate to the east, Dongbianmen to the northeast, Guangningmen to the west, and Xibianmen to the northwest.
Beijing City not only has a tall city wall, city gate, but also urn city, corner tower, enemy platform, moat and other facilities, the city wall is made of stone bricks, with the role of fire prevention and resistance to bows and arrows, artillery or other siege weapons. This makes it impossible for enemies to climb the walls without equipping ladders or moving siege towers. Defenders on the walls can shoot arrows downward or use various gunpowder weapons to counter the besiegers, while the besiegers are completely exposed to the open space. In addition, compared to the defender's strong walls for protection and condescending advantages, it is very difficult for the besieger to attack upwards. In the first year of the Apocalypse, the city defense was rebuilt again. By 1644, there were 176 enemy platforms in the entire city of Beijing, 12,602 firing holes in the city wall, and 20,772 battlements on the outside of the city wall. There is also a moat outside the city, which is 30 meters wide.
These city defenses protected the city well and were not breached until 1644. If future generations only look at the military strength in Beijing, they may feel that Chongzhen should still have the capital of the First World War. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, this is only a sight to behold the registered army. In other words, as for how many troops there were, it should not matter to Chongzhen at that time. Because Chongzhen also understands that he expects people who eat empty salaries to fight for the Ming Dynasty, then the Ming Dynasty will not become the situation it is today. What is even more fatal is that at this time, the city of Beijing is still plagued, so even if there are still people who are willing to fight for the Ming Dynasty, I am afraid that they have the heart to serve the country but are powerless to kill the enemy.
This article is the original manuscript of the Cold Weapons Research Institute. The original outline of the editor-in-chief, the author blowing snow, any media or public account without written authorization shall not be reprinted, and the offender will be investigated for legal responsibility.