The Guanning Army, the elite of the Liao Dynasty in the late Ming Dynasty, has been the ballast stone of the situation and the fire brigade of the war for twenty years, but the back shadow it has left for future generations is confusing and intriguing. After more than a year of preparation, the series of articles "Exploring the Guanning Army" was officially launched, and I will take the four major sections of "Terrain Collection", "Military System", "Battle Case Examination" and "Character History" as the outline to comprehensively explore the Liaodong at the end of the Ming Dynasty and explore the Guanning Liaojun in depth.
This article "Exploring the Guanning Army and Military System Chapter 33 - What is the so-called "night not receiving" of the Ming Army? " is the thirty-ninth article in my "Exploring the GuanNing Army" series.
1. "No collection at night" and "No collection at night with guns"
As mentioned earlier, the main responsibility of the night is to spy on the enemy and pass on intelligence, the core skill is not combat, but infiltration claw probing, and the basic skill is "detection".
It is the duty of the pier army to investigate, but those who are stationed at night on the pier must also master the skills of investigation
In different dispatch scenarios, the vigil can be subdivided into "no collection at night", "sitting at night" and "no collection at night with guns", their common duty is to monitor and record the dynamics of the enemy situation, and to send and transmit alarm signals, which requires that the night does not receive a certain writing ability.
In the "Shaobao Yu Gong Gong Jie Bingbu Walking Back to the Population Affair", a text of the night-time non-collection of the Tang Newspaper is recorded:
"According to the original night did not receive Li Wu'er and other newspapers: At one o'clock on the fourteenth day, I probed to the southeast of Xiping Mountain, the place name "Dongshan North", saw seven places of fire, it was the place where the Thieves were camped, I stayed with Gu Saige and Li Dechun of the Qi Army, and I went to the Qijun Gu Saige and Li Dechun after me, and I (that is, "we", in the spoken language of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, called "our" "we" "every") three first returned to know."
From the following text, we can also understand the equipment and maintenance of the vigil at night:
"Fu ordered Guyuan to set up garrisons, leading the guards, and other officials, each taking care of the castle, and preparing to apply flagpoles, iron cannons, armor, bows and arrows, smoke pipes, torches, etc. to each pier with the original selection of the garrison army, the claw probing night and the patrol of the official flag personnel, the number of books, the selection of complete, or the division of various roads, or as usual, each selected a commander, measure the number of officers and soldiers to come and go, and mention some urgent matters" -- Zhao Shen: "Nine Matters of Preparing for the Edge"
The "iron cannon" mentioned in it is not only a combat weapon, but also an alarm tool, such as Ye Sheng's "Ye Wenzhuang Gong Shu Shu
"According to Liang Guicheng, a hundred households in Shouwei Yuandun: "According to the report of Zhao Xiuyi at night when the bendun was high, at the twenty-first hour of this month, I saw the thieves in the northwest outside the country, more than a hundred people and horses riding, about ten miles away from the pier, and the pier put an iron cannon."
The most commonly used "cannons" are firecrackers and firecrackers, and the night that is responsible for firing cannons is called "cannons are not collected at night".
According to Liu Xiaozu's "Four Towns, Three Guanzhi, Jingli Kao, Jizhen Jingluo, and Gun Mounting", taking the Shanhaiguan battalion as an example, "from outside the mouth of Si'eryu fort to the intersection of Qiantun WeibeiGu Road, a total of 7 cannons were set up at the head of the road, and each cannon did not receive 2 people per night, but there was military information, according to the previous system, the second artillery was released, and the pier in the abdomen listened to and responded, so that the generals could dispatch troops to resist or intercept."
Usually, if the artillery is not collected at night to find the enemy's situation, two guns are fired first; if the enemy is close, two more guns are fired. Whenever the cannons are heard at night, the cannons are fired in turn until the information spreads throughout the defense area.
The history books contain: The guns are not allowed to carry 4 watermelon paper cannons per person at night, and 1 pair of fire and sickle stones are knocked out, and they are lurking at fixed points, which correspond to the light and dark sentries that penetrate deep into the enemy's territory.
2. "No collection at night" and "No collection at night"
If necessary, the gun will also be carried out at night.
According to Yu Qian's "Zhongsu Collection", "The stone walls of the horses were reset outside the Guanwai, trenches were dug, and the signatures were widely placed; some soldiers and civilians did not collect at night, and took turns to set up cannons to send out sentries." ”
The cannon signal is mostly used to transmit reports at an interval of one mile, if the distance is close to 100 steps, a gong can be used, and when it is closer, it can be knocked.
For example, during the Wanli Dynasty, King Yilu of the Bingbu Shangshu Wang Yilu played in the "Governor of the Four Towns Song Discussion , Class Title Liaozhen Festival Awarded Meritorious Shu": "On the twenty-third day of this month, when I was shen, I overheard a double hair raised along the stage... According to the Jing'an empty pier sitting high or sitting on the mouth at night without receiving Hu Baiwan report, the thief rode more than a thousand horses, half of which entered from the pier and ran away on the main road. ”
Whether it is a cannon or a knock, it belongs to a single sound signal, but also with visual signals to convey specific information, for details, see previous articles
Exploring the Guanning Army : Terrain Set 5 - What to Do When the Enemy Crosses the Border (Part 1)
》。
For example, when Lu Xiang was promoted to the governor of Xuanda Shanxi, he ordered his subordinates not to accept the system of transmitting letters from Duntai at night. He set up 60 "Ma Jianding" on each road, and took turns to perform duty in two shifts, one half a month, as follows:
"Thirty people in each class, three hundred miles north of the main mouth... Twenty miles and one dial, each dial of two people, there are police flying: there are more than 10,000 enemy people with the "urgent" character flag, raising three cannons; hundreds of enemy people using the "wind" flag, raising a cannon. Once there is a police, three hundred miles of ground can be passed in one or two moments."
For more complex intelligence information, it is necessary to not receive "reports and reports" at night. For example, in the "Tan Xiangmin Song Discussion of Liaodong Urgent Shortage of Generals, Begging for Early Pushing and Celebrating death, in order to be loyal and courageous", there is a record of "walking the newspaper night and not receiving":
"The former item should have been played from the other side, but the minister asked to go to the newspaper night and did not accept the talent, saying that the thief retreated to the northeast, and the place did not succeed, I was afraid that I would offend Quang Ninh."
In the "Yuan Luo Ji is very urgent and important, and the thieves have repeatedly attacked the castle" there is a record of "passing on things at night":
"At noon on the seventeenth day of this month, according to the original Cha Ping Yu Wei rumor that Duan Sanbing did not receive the night, the sixteen Japanese cities walked back to the population... On the twentieth day of this month, the deputy commander-in-chief almost did not receive the verbal report of Wu Scissors at night, and the number of thieves was unknown, and they contacted each other for more than thirty miles."
When passing emergency military information, it can bypass the normal procedure and go directly to the commander's tent, and its pass priority is even higher than that of the highest commander in the battalion.
Qi Jiguang mentioned in "The Seventh Training Camp Formation" that:
"Yanyingmen... In addition to calling the police to enter the camp on horseback, the Lord will enter the camp only on horseback, and from below the official, all will dismount and enter."
Liu Xiaozu recorded in the "Four Towns and Three Guanzhi, System Shu Kao, Ji Town System Shu, Title, Inspector Fu Du Yushi Guo Zonggao Precautionary Defense Matters Neglect": "In Xifengkou and other places, the orders of the Beggar's Army, the generals of Dushi, Yongning, and Xuanfu Zhongxi Second Road, since April, often sent out to the sentry at night, but when they heard that there was news of the eastward journey, they did not have to go through Fuzhen, and they played from a mask, and on the one hand, they flew to Juyongguan, and the ministers (Guo Zonggao) and other preset horses were dispatched and received reports. If a mistake is not reported, the counselors will be guilty of a felony, but they are not allowed to report it for no reason and cause disturbance. ”
3. The night in battle is not collected
For example, in the Records of Emperor Ming Yingzong, in the fourth year of the orthodoxy (1439), there are records of "choosing night and not receiving brave soldiers, holding long knives and axes and cannons for hundreds, and attacking the camp at night on all sides"; in the fourteenth year of orthodoxy (1449), there are records of a certain thousand households "sending night not to take the night (zhuó) thief camp, killing seven people, thieves in chaos, and obtaining their horses and equipment".
Wang Heming also recorded in "Climbing the Altar, Military Action, And Medicine And Arrows at Night to Shoot Thieves and Horses": "Those who choose to be obedient and courageous at night, each hiding a short bow and a bamboo pole and a small arrow, waiting for the captives to sleep, tying the horses, holding clusters of medicine to quench the arrows, coming to the front, or ten steps, or five steps, secretly stabbing and shooting, the war horse is one, there is no one who is dead, and the ancients also solved the thief's saddle horse at night."
Of course, most of the people involved in these camp operations were town patrols that did not receive at night, and as mobile units directly under the senior commander, they were often sent to reinforce and undertake various temporary tasks, such as burning, escorting, and escaping.
For example, there is no shortage of documents:
"The leader of the Meng qin sent the same night and did not accept it, and hoisted Yuwen Zhong, etc., and the various officials of the Mengzhen Patrol Gate sent Wen Zhong and forty-eight other mouths and Yuan Kai, Yang Yi, and others to manage the liberation of the army gate."
"Escape Liu Sanjie, Zhao Quan, Qiu Fu, Zhou Yuan, pass along the border to join the guards and other officials, strictly supervise the guard of the dun army, and do not arrest at night"
To sum up, it can be seen that the commander's direct subordinates did not collect at night, and they were the "special forces" of that era, who were able to detect and report war arrests and do everything, but after all, this kind of night non-collection is a minority, and the majority of the vigils do not collect at night, the city does not collect at night, and does not collect at night in the camp, and its functions are limited to patrolling, watching, and reconnaissance, and combat is not their strong point.
According to the "Lu Xiangsheng Shumu And Participate in the Defense of The Ming Detective Sentinel", in March of the tenth year of Chongzhen (1637), "Ningyuan Fort did not receive ten people at night, and encountered nine Qing troops less than forty miles away, but was 'deprived of food and clothing' by the other side."
"Ningyuan Fort did not accept ten people at night, and encountered nine Qing troops less than forty miles away, but they were "deprived of food and clothing" by the other side."
4. The withered night does not harvest
By the end of the Ming Dynasty, not only did the combat effectiveness decline sharply, but even the main business of reconnaissance and intelligence was abandoned.
According to Yu Qian's "Zhongsu Ji Bingbu for the Return of Centaurs":
"There are five hundred and twenty old piers, front and back, and the flames are facing each other. From fifty miles outside the pass, each had a succession of artillerymen; fifty miles away to a hundred miles away, there were long sentries that did not receive at night. ”
In addition, according to the "Fourth Matter of mr. Yang Wenweak's Collection of Chen Xi reading the situation of Datong":
"As in the system of the thistle gate, when the sentry enters the enemy's camp, the special master dials the long probe; if he does not sit outside the mouth at night, the lord dials the short probe..."
Judging from the combination of these two paragraphs, it can be seen that when the combat strength is still there at night in the early Ming Dynasty, the division of duties of the sentry outside the border wall is as follows: within 50 miles of the side (the clear measuring ruler, 1 mile and 580 meters, the same below), the artillery is not collected at night (there are also distant sentries that do not collect at night); 50 miles away and 100 miles away, the long sentry night is not collected to be responsible for detection and defense; 100 miles away until the enemy's territory, there are sharp posts (different from the night does not collect, but sometimes the night does not collect) responsible for latent infiltration.
However, the "Collection of Mr. Yang Wenweak" continues to write: "If there is a trace, it will lead the soldiers and horses, cut the level and capture the life, and if so, it is called the whistle." Now in the system of Datong, the exit is sent to Ding, thirty or forty miles away from the wall, and then turned back, thinking that the sentry, such as stopping. ”
Obviously, in Yang Sichang's view, only those who combine the skills of reconnaissance, battle guard, and capture are qualified to be called "sentinels", and in the late Ming Dynasty, it is normal to turn around and turn back within thirty or forty miles of the border - that is to say, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, most nights do not even meet the standards of qualified "far sentries".
The degree of decline in combat effectiveness that did not take in the evening and the night was summarized by Shiren Ni Yue in "On the Neglect of Matters Concerning the Preparation of the Northwest Frontier":
"The use of the near (sentinel) is vain, the thief is coming and does not know, the thief is out and the party is aware, or even if he is captured by false words or meditators, and he does not know the truth of the people's feelings, then why should he be anxious?!"
5. "Hard work" does not receive at night
In view of the fact that "fraudulent charges" are not collected at night and intelligence is "not audited," the military has formulated measures such as the "Voucher Law," the "BondIng Law," and the "Joint Name Knot."
【Bonding Law】 Each sentry army is selected, and 20 or 30 people are not charged at night, and each sentry army is five, and two are not collected at night, so that they can secure each other and report the situation.
【Joint Name Knot】 A system of mutual protection between officers and soldiers, in which the chief who does not collect at night is responsible for the authenticity of the information transmitted by his subordinates, and he is guilty of sitting together.
In the history books, there are records of the case of "joint names and knots, and mutual protection between officers and soldiers":
"Shi Yongchang does not end the night, the patrol police have no skills to cause false detection reports, and the mistakes of Cui Duan and Li Shan'er should be punished by military law"
While bearing the suspicions of his own family, he also bears the risk of being hunted by the enemy at night. The Yu Su Min Gong Gong Shu Yu Lin Tight Guan Er (Yu Zi Jun, Chenghua Dynasty Bingbu Shangshu) records such a battle example:
"Yulin City has not received at night and has hammered the small banner Chen Zaili. On May 13, 1999, Wei Kecheng and nine others, who did not receive Wei Kecheng and others on the night of the same shift, went to the Pier of Nuanquan Mountain to probe, and were shot by thieves with twenty-seven arrows... Six of them, including Wei Kecheng, were also seriously injured and died immediately. ”
Such examples of warfare are also recorded in the Ming Dynasty Liaodong Archives Compilation dingliao right guard presented for thieves to capture the distant sentry night service at Kuandian Fort to the inspector of Shandong Supervision Yushi:
"On the fifteenth day, two people were arrested and not taken at night: Dong Chaofu and Liu Zhongli; on the sixteenth day, six people were arrested and shot to death at dun night: two were arrested and killed at night, one Yang Zhen was not collected at night, and one Xu Han from the Jia army was arrested; two people were shot and killed at night, and not one Jiang Xiang was collected at night; Yang Ying, the head of the Guangning army, yang Ying, was recruited by Guangning, and one Jin Duo from the Jia army was recruited by Liu Chengwu, the head of Guangning."
When the enemy is encountered, he is always at a numerical disadvantage, and he is not superior in terrain, mounts, and ordnance, and once his whereabouts are exposed, there is no possibility of retreat.
According to Liu Daxia's "Covering Chen Bian Affairs", "The piers do not receive at night, and they know that the high-clawed and empty servants, etc., when they come out on duty, they will cry in opposition to their families; fortunately, if there is nothing to do, they will be sacrificed by the city wine and paper money." ”
This passage vividly describes the fear of not receiving at night and its families for attendance on duty, and it is conceivable that no one would want to work at night without receiving this kind of "dancing on the tip of the knife" errand whenever there was any other choice.
In the "Yu Su Min Gong Gong Discussion Yulin TightLy Related two matters", it is recorded that Yu Zijun and the border officials did not accept orders for the night:
"And according to the night, do not accept people, etc., all those who go out to probe the situation of thieves, and fly to report military information, etc., suddenly encounter thieves, die of death, near the supervision, the chief soldier, the counselors and other officials will play, than the promotion of the dead, even human feelings, and it is feasible for a long time." But the injured should not be carried, but people are particularly worried, and the heart of daring to die is undecided. ”
This passage is saying that the non-collection of the night who died in the line of duty has been clearly defined, but the pension for those injured in the line of duty is still blank.
In the next issue, we will talk about the rewards and punishments that are not collected at night.
Friends who think the article is good, may wish to click a free follow, your support is my greatest motivation!