In the early days of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, although the Mongolian Yuan forces were defeated and retreated to the desert region, they still posed a great threat to the Central Plains. As an important passage for Mongolian and Yuan forces to enter the Central Plains, the Hexi region has a very important strategic position.
At the same time, the Hexi region was also the main channel of communication between the Central Plains and the Western Regions, so as long as the Ming Dynasty could occupy the Hexi region, it was equivalent to having the initiative to control the entire northern region.
To this end, Zhu Yuanzhang sent the general Feng Shenglai to lead an army to form the Western Route Army to be responsible for attacking the Hexi region.
At that time, the situation in the Ming Dynasty was more complicated, and the northern part was still surrounded by the Northern Yuan forces that could not be underestimated; in Shaanxi and Gansu, there were 180,000 troops of Tamerlane, that is, Wang Baobao; and in the Liaodong area, there were 200,000 troops commanded by the right lieutenant Naha; and the Yunnan area was controlled by the Yuan Dynasty patriarch Zarawalmi.
It can be seen that the world of the Ming Dynasty was not stable at this time. In order to attack the Northern Yuan and complete the unification of the whole country, the Ming Dynasty sent a large army to mongolia in the second year of Hongwu. After the general Chang Yuchun successfully conquered Peiping, Emperor Yuanshun was forced to flee north, and in the same year the general Xu Da defeated Timur in the area of Shen Eryu north of Dingxi County, and he himself fled from Ningxia to Helin.
In the fifth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang once again ordered a large-scale Northern Expedition against the Northern Yuan, ordering Xu Da, the Duke of Wei, to set out from Yanmen to attack Helin in one fell swoop, with the aim of destroying the Yuan Dynasty's headquarters in one fell swoop; Li Wenzhong, the Duke of Cao, as the left deputy general, set out from Juyongguan to take Yingchang, then attack the Tula River, and then attack Helin from the northwest; and Feng Shengwei, the Duke of Song, set out from Jinlan to take Gansu directly.
The total number of three-way armies was as high as 150,000, and the Ming Dynasty's intention was obvious, that is, to swallow the Northern Yuan in one breath with this battle.
However, the outcome of the battle disappointed Zhu Yuanzhang greatly, Xu Da's route army was defeated by the Yuan army in Lingbei, and Li Wenzhong's route army was eventually defeated, and only the Western Route Army led by the General Feng Sheng of Zhengxi won victories one after another, all the way from Lanzhou to the area of present-day Guazhou and Dunhuang in Gansu.
Feng Sheng's victory enabled the Ming Dynasty to control hexi, a very strategic region, and drove the Northern Yuan to the more remote western regions, but due to the defeat of Xu Da and Li Wenzhong, Feng Sheng did not dare to advance west again, and this abruptly stopped, so that the western border of the Ming Dynasty could only reach Guazhou, Hami and other places.
Also from this campaign, the Ming Dynasty took defensive measures against the Northern Yuan, carrying out military tuntian in the northern border and the Hexi region to establish a defensive system.
Assuming that Xu Da and Li Wenzhong had not lost at that time, Meng Yuan's forces would have suffered a fatal blow, and Feng Sheng could have continued to advance westward, possibly bringing the entire western region together with the Hexi region into the territory of the Ming Dynasty.