Introduction: The two Han Dynasties destroyed the Xiongnu after repeated conquests, the Northern Xiongnu moved west, and the Southern Xiongnu settled the Hetao Plain; the Tang Dynasty cleanly and neatly killed the huge Turks, and the pro-Tang Hui hui occupied the grassland; Long Live Hongwu Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di father and son repeatedly invaded Mongolia more than a dozen times, but Mongolia was never conquered. The Ming Dynasty did not conquer Mongolia for more than 200 years, but cheapened the Manchu Qing. The reasons for this are diverse: the Ming Dynasty had no better ways and means, and in the middle and late period, due to the conservative defense area of the Ming Dynasty, it did not have the motivation to go north to Mongolia. Simply gave up the north of the Great Wall, leaving only the territory of the two capitals and thirteen provinces to live their own small lives. And Mongolia's luck is also good, there is no new national force in the desert steppe to compete with the Mongols for living space (starting from the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Ruoran, Turkic, Uighur, Khitan and Jurchen, etc., gradually replaced).
Usually the historical laws of the Central Plains Dynasties and Steppe Regimes do not apply to the Ming and Mongols
Let's see that the way to conquer the nomadic regime through the Central Plains Dynasty is usually as follows: the dynasty has just established a weak power, and it is usually wronged for the northern nomadic regime. For example, the Han Dynasty's peace with the Xiongnu and the Tang Dynasty's Alliance with the Turkic Khans all belonged to this situation. After the Central Plains Dynasty was completed, it began to take action against the steppe nomadic regime. Under repeated conquests, those who insisted on resisting were beaten away and forced to move westward; while the nomadic forces that submitted to the Central Plains Dynasty were absorbed. For example, after the Southern Xiongnu submitted to the Han Dynasty, they were placed in the rich Hetao to survive and reproduce. The Northern Xiongnu and Turks, who did not submit, could only be forced to move westward, on the one hand, because they became weaker and feared the blows of the Central Plains Dynasty; on the other hand, there were other rising nomadic forces that were eyeing them. Therefore, Xianbei replaced the Xiongnu, and the Hui completed the filling of the vacuum of steppe power after the Turks moved west.
The Ming Dynasty obviously did not have this condition: at the peak of Taizu and Chengzu Bingfeng, it could only defeat the Mongols and could not completely conquer or destroy them; even if the Mongols were weakened, there was no new nation rising to expel the Mongols from occupying the steppes. The reason is simple, the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan conquered almost all of the steppe peoples of the ancestral land and integrated into Mongolia. For example, the Krebu, Tatar, Yu'er begbu, etc. were all conquered and integrated into Mongolia, so since Mongolia, no other steppe peoples have risen and the Mongols have competed for the steppe. After emperors such as Emperor Akihito and Emperor Xuanzong, Daming completely abandoned the territory beyond the Great Wall under the influence of civilian officials. After the change of Tumu fort, the nine sides completely became a border, and the two capitals and thirteen provinces became the territory that Daming held. The offensive and defensive posture of Mongolia and Daming reversed, how to expect Daming to conquer Mongolia again in this situation? Basically impossible.
The innate inadequacy of the Ming Dynasty led to the inability of the Mongols to conquer
The difference between tactics and will to fight:
At the peak of the army of Zhu Yuanzhang and Ming Chengzu Zhu Di Daming, they also adopted the same long-distance attack strategy as the Han and Tang Dynasties to attack and kill the Mongol Great Khan. For example, Blue Jade ran a long distance to catch fishing in the sea, and captured more than 3,000 people in the Northern Yuan Harem, the Prince, and the Nobles alive. Emperor Beiyuan fled alone and was killed shortly after, and Beiyuan went to the emperor's name. However, there was a clear lack of determination to completely annihilate the leader of the opponent with large-scale cavalry and continuous combat. Emperor Taiji, the founder of the Qing Dynasty, pursued Lin Dan Khan for 41 days and nights during his second crusade against Lin Dan Khan. Finally, Lin Dan Khan was frightened like a frightened bird, and eventually fled to Qinghai to die of illness. The Ming Dynasty obviously lacked this method of warfare, and could not give the enemy a devastating blow and could only stop at a glance. In this respect, it is not possible to conquer completely.
The shift in defense policy led to a largely laissez-faire attitude toward Mongolia in the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty
The defense policy of the early and late Ming Dynasties was completely different, with the former having the greatest military might and a strong national territory; while the latter repeated the Song Dynasty's routine of using culture and martial arts, and national defense turned into shrinking and conservative. Strictly speaking, from the beginning of Emperor Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji, he had already begun to shrink: he began to stop going to the Western Ocean; he gave up the territory of Jiaotong, withdrew his troops from Jiaotong, and so on. For civilian officials, they aspire to conservative policies and want to live smaller at home. Basically, the grasslands that they thought were not climatic were left unattended, so they let the Wallachians get rid of the joy and the father and son became bigger. Soon, the Ming emperors paid a terrible price for their short-sightedness, and the defeat of the Daming elite in Tumu Fort was swept away.
Talent gap, since then Daming and Mongolia offensive and defensive reversal. The subsequent capture and release of Emperor Mingying's Zhu Qizhen launched a change to seize the door, and the killing of Yu Qian and others directly led to the second talent gap of Daming. From then on, the Ming Dynasty lost the opportunity to completely conquer Mongolia.
Since the other tribes were assimilated by the Mongols, in principle the Mongols had endless strategic depth in the east, west and north. This is also one of the reasons why the Ming Dynasty was unable to completely conquer Mongolia
The reason why the Qing Dynasty was able to conquer Mongolia, in addition to the super combat strength of the Jurchen Eight Banners, was because the strategic depth of the Mongols' northward flight was suppressed by Tsarist Russia. Therefore, the Mongols could only flash around in the limited space of the Mongolian steppe between the Ming Dynasty and Tsarist Russia, so they were relatively easy to conquer. During the Ming Dynasty, Tsarist Russia had not yet invaded Siberia, so in principle, even if the Mongols could not defeat the Ming Dynasty, they could escape to the Arctic Circle (of course, because of the weather, it was unlikely).
Another key factor is that the steppe is cold and cannot be cultivated, so Daming lacks motivation for the government Mongolian steppe
In the Ming Dynasty of feudal society, the lack of scientific understanding and science and technology made it impossible to know that the northern grasslands contained this rich natural resource. Even if you know it, it cannot be mined for technical reasons, and Confucianism advocates that the northern grasslands of the agricultural civilization are not suitable for farming, so there is no motivation for conquest. The Northern Expedition lost countless materials at one time, and there was no benefit to speak of except to crush the other side. Therefore, Daming lacked the motivation to conquer the Mongolian steppe, and even if it was fought down, it would have to consume a lot of manpower and material resources to garrison. In the Ming Dynasty, which lacked industrial production, such a large-scale high-latitude defense was simply impossible. Therefore, the Ming emperor preferred to hide within the warm Great Wall, and the power to conquer The Mongols was insufficient.
I am the emperor of history, welcome your attention; if there is a flaw, the axe is right.