Because controlling household registration is equivalent to controlling the number of people, military forces can be drawn from the people, including the number of troops and military expenditure and military supplies. Therefore, the rulers of the early Ming Dynasty attached great importance to the household registration system.
Zhu Yuanzhang found out the basis of military capability
In November 1368 (the following is a month after the lunar calendar, for the sake of simplicity), Zhu Yuanzhang asked the government agencies in the world to focus their work on collecting the household registration of the Yuan Dynasty.
He ordered that the collected allusions to various household registration books collected by the people and the people should be handed over to the general soldiers to sort out and then handed over to the corresponding departments. In response to the old and young people of the former dynasty at that time, those who fled the wilderness, and escaped from the nationality, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered them to surrender themselves in 1370.
The reason why the household registration population in this period is more consistent with the actual population is that Zhu Yuanzhang attaches great importance to it; the decades of war in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties have minimized the original large landlord families; Zhu Yuanzhang has abandoned the economic policy of abandoning the end; and the slaughter of heroes and officials has suppressed land annexation and suppressed the behavior of private population.
At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang also carried out various institutional reforms. For example, in 1370, the implementation of household stickers required each household to fill in the family population status, property status, and the military and soldiers went to the countryside to compare.
Officials concealed the beheading of officials, and the people falsified and falsely charged the army. At the same time, the "small yellow book" system was also implemented. In 1380, the yellow book system was implemented, during which the prototype of the armor protection system was already connotated.
By the twenty-first year of Hongwu in 1387, the population of the whole country was published. At that time, there were 10.65 million households and 59.9 million people in the country.
After the population was completed, the land was reorganized again. In 1387, a catalogue of fish scales was drawn up for the fields. In 1388, Zhu Yuanzhang formulated the Huang Strategy for military membership, so that the military power reserves of the Ming Dynasty were already clear.
Troops during Zhu Yuanzhang's time
Before the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated: The command of five thousand soldiers is called the commander, and the thousand people are thousand households, the hundred people are hundred households, the fifty people are the general banner, and the ten people are the small banner.
After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Liu Bowen suggested the adoption of the Weishou system. Guard stations are set up in transportation hubs, fortresses, and military towns; Each guard has 5600 people; 1120 people in 1,000 households and 112 people in 100 households; and there are two general banners under the 100 households, each with five small banners and 10 people in each small banner.
The guardhouse was divided into the Jingying Army, which defended the Beijing Division, with 48 guards, totaling more than 277,800 people. The local health centers are divided into two categories, the nine border areas and the coastal areas, up to one million, about 170 guards; the coastal areas 54 guards, 99, 353 inspection departments, 997 beacons, the total strength of more than 400,000.
Guangxi Wolf Soldier
The above is the regular army of Zhu Yuanzhang's period, with a total of 1.25 million people in the twenty-five years of Hongwu (1392) and 1.91 million in 1393.
In addition to the above regular army, the Ming Dynasty also included township soldiers, native soldiers, Toast soldiers and other types. The competent organ of the township soldiers is the "militia ten thousand households", and the left leg soldiers take the right leg to serve the peasants, which is the people's strong system.
Large-scale military battles during the Zhu Yuanzhang period
Zhu Yuanzhang carried out the Northern Expedition after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty in 1368, and by the end of the Battle of Shaanxi and Gansu in October 1369, the Ming Dynasty was basically unified. In the traditional thinking of the ancient Han people, the north to the Great Wall, the south to Guangdong Guangxi, the west to Sichuan and Shaanxi, this is the most core agricultural area.
If you can't reach this area, you are obviously an unqualified emperor; if you can surpass this area, you can take it out. In this case, if Zhu Yuanzhang got by and did not have major problems, there would be absolutely no problem for the Ming Dynasty to survive. However, Zhu Yuanzhang was a very accomplished emperor, and he wanted to completely eliminate the Yuan Dynasty forces, so he had to continue the Northern Expedition and the Westward Advance.
First Northern Expedition: In February 1370, Zhu Yuanzhang sent Xu Da, Li Wenzhong, Feng Sheng, Deng Yu, Tang He, and others to carry out the first northern expedition against the Northern Yuan forces and eliminate the remaining Northern Yuan forces in the Central Plains. Xu Da and Li Wenzhong's two major armies won a complete victory.
In the first month of 1371, Zhu Yuanzhang sent Tang He and Fu Youde to attack Sichuan, and in August Sichuan was recaptured (Xia Shu divided the regime).
Second Northern Expedition: In February 1372, Zhu Yuanzhang sent Xu Da, Li Wenzhong, and Feng Sheng to the three major armies hoping to destroy the Northern Yuan forces and seize Outer Mongolia in one fell swoop and completely pacify Shaanxi and Gansu. It was for the Second Northern Expedition.
As a result, Xu Da and Li Wen lost tens of thousands of horses and horses in defeat, and the partial division Feng Shengbu won the victory, but the fruits of their victory were finally abandoned, and they retreated hastily without garrisons in the captured western regions, Gansu and other regions. Therefore, this battle was a strategic defeat.
After the defeat of this battle (the defeat of Lingbei), Zhu Yuanzhang began to adopt a strategic defensive position, tactical attack and peaceful persuasion to deal with the Northern Yuan.
Third Northern Expedition: In April of the thirteenth year of Hongwu (1380), Mu Ying led the Shaanxi soldiers and horses to attack the Shaanxi-Gansu-Yuan Dynasty forces and won a great victory.
Fourth Northern Expedition: In February 1381, Xu Da, Tang He, Fu Youde, and Mu Ying attacked the Northern Yuan forces of Inner Mongolia in two directions, east and west, and won a great victory.
In October, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Fu Youde, Lan Yu, Mu Ying, Hu Hai, Guo Ying, Chen Yuan, and others to lead 300,000 troops to attack the Liang King of Yunnan and retake Yunnan.
Fifth Northern Expedition: In February 1387, Feng Sheng, Fu Youde, Lan Yu, Zhao Yong, Wang Bi, Hu Hai, and Guo Ying attacked the Northern Yuan taiwei Hana, who was entrenched in the northeast. Victory.
The Sixth Northern Expedition: In 1388, the twenty-first year of Hongwu, Lan Yu originally wanted to raid the Northern Yuan Chancellor Ha La Zhang Nai'er and march into Helin near present-day Xikulun in present-day Mongolia, but it was discovered that the third emperor of the Northern Yuan Dynasty, Timur, was fishing in the Sea of Fish (Bell Lake), and as a result, the Northern Yuan forces were completely wiped out and Mongolia entered a period of division.
After these six northern expeditions, the Northern Yuan forces were completely eliminated, and although the Mongol forces had always been relatively strong in the Ming Dynasty, because of their internal strife, there was no unified leadership, although it seemed powerful, but the threat to the Ming Dynasty was not fatal. It can also be said that Zhu Yuanzhang brought a very good living environment to his descendants during his reign years.