In 1449, 200,000 elite soldiers were destroyed, and Emperor Mingyingzong Zhu Qizhen was captured, and few of the civil and military officials who accompanied the conscription were spared. The "change of Tumu Fort", the "three battalions" of the Ming army were destroyed, only more than twenty years after Zhu Di's death from illness; the Ming cavalry that once proud of the desert north no longer existed.
The 75-year-old veteran Zhang Fu, who followed Yingzong on the expedition, was also killed on the battlefield and died at the hands of small soldiers. If Zhang Fu could take command and seriously prepare for the Northern Expedition, it would not be difficult to defeat him. Zhang Fu: Four conquests of Annam, three captures of the other party's "false king", 75-year-old death on the battlefield, telling the bitterness of the Ming Dynasty.
In 1385, the general Xu Da died of illness, and Zhang Yu, the privy councillor of the Yuan Dynasty, took his 10-year-old son Zhang Fu and went south to defect to the Ming Dynasty. At the beginning of 1399, Zhu Di revolted in Beiping, under the banner of "Qing Jun's Side", and led his troops to the south. Zhang Yu followed with the Sipin "Commanding Affairs", repeatedly made military achievements, and became Zhu Di's right and left arm.
In 1401, at the Battle of Dongchang, in order to rescue Zhu Di, Zhang Yu rushed into the position of the Southern Army and was shot by a crossbow. Zhang Yu was killed in battle, Zhang Fu took over his father's post, commanded the soldiers and horses, defeated the Southern Army in the Battle of Jiahe, the Battle of Feihe, the Battle of Lingbi, and the Battle of Pukou, becoming a new general star.
In 1402, Zhu Di defeated Zhu Yunjiao, seized the throne, and changed his name to "Yongle". When he was rewarded with the generals, Zhu Di made Zhang Fu the Marquis of Xincheng, hereditary resignation, and had two chances to avoid death. In the "Battle of Jingnan", Zhang Fu was enfeoffed as a marquis; the four battles against Annam made Zhang Fu famous in history and kept pace with Xu Da.
Annam, also known as Vietnam, also known as "Jiaotong", has been subordinate to the Central Plains Dynasty since the Qin and Han Dynasties. In the last years of the Tang Dynasty, the feudal towns fought each other, and there was no time to take care of Annam, so they broke away from the Central Plains and established their own gateways. The northern song dynasty was weak in martial arts, and Annan repeatedly sent troops to Guangxi and Guangdong, which caused headaches for the imperial court.
During the Kublai Khan period, the Mongol cavalry marched south many times, but they were defeated by miasma. In 1404, Emperor Li of Annam deceived Zhu Di and killed the Ming army escorting Chen Tianping back to China, claiming to be emperor. Zhu Di was furious and sent Zhu Neng to go out on a campaign and lead 300,000 troops to the south. During the march, Zhu Neng died of illness, and Zhang Fu took his place and continued south.
Zhang Fuxiao was brave and good at war, resourceful, and the Ming army won successive battles. In the Battle of Furang River, the Lê clan sent 100,000 troops to resist the Ming army, the land and water company battalion, and the "Elephant Legion" assisted, and the momentum was like a rainbow. Zhang Fu followed the pattern of the "Battle of Chengpu", draping a "lion portrait" on a horse, followed by a fire brigade, fighting with Annam's "Elephant Army".
In the "Battle of Chengpu", the Jin army covered the warhorse with tiger skin, broke the Chu army, and the general Ziyu committed suicide in shame. In the Battle of Annam, Zhang Fu draped a "lion portrait" on the warhorse and fought with the fire reinforcement troops, which can be said to be a tactical innovation. Elephants are very brave, and they are also "flesh and blood" in front of firearms, and they cannot be stopped at all.
The Ming army fired a salvo of fire, targeting the elephant's nose and the "elephant slave" who drove the elephant. The elephants, who had never seen firearms, retreated and disrupted the Formation of the Annan Army. Zhang Fu took advantage of the momentum to attack, the cavalry was on both flanks, shooting at the enemy troops in the collapse with a dense rain of arrows, and beheading more than 50,000 people.
After successive defeats and defeats of the Li army, the Ming army pursued them separately, took all of Li and his family prisoner, and escorted them back to the Beijing Division for questioning. The Ming army took advantage of the victory to seize forty-eight prefectures, 180 counties, and 3.12 million households. After five hundred years, Annan was once again included in the territory of the Central Plains Dynasty and renamed "Jiaotong Cloth Political Division", and Zhang Fugong was indispensable.
Perhaps after leaving the Central Plains Dynasty for too long and Annam was unstable, after Zhang Fu returned to Beijing, the local Li family and the local tycoons who supported the Chen clan once again raised troops to confront the Ming army and were arrogant. In 1408, Zhu Di sent Mu Sheng (Mu Ying's son) to conquer Annam, and was caught in the enemy's plan to lure the enemy deeper, suffering heavy losses.
Mu Sheng was defeated, and Zhang Fu once again took command of the expedition, beat the rebels fiercely, captured the Chen Dynasty minister Jian Ding, who called himself "Emperor", and escorted him back to Beijing. From 1410 to 1415, Zhang Fu repeatedly went out to Annam to fight against the local rebels, "four conquests to cross the toes, three captures of the false king, and wei zhen southwest", which can be called the pillar of the country.
Mu Ying, Wang Tong, Li Bin, Liu Sheng, and the people of Annam were not convinced, but they did not dare to provoke Zhang Fu. Unfortunately, Zhu Di did not let the Zhang Fu family guard the toes for generations and enjoy the same treatment as the Muying family, resulting in Annan gaining and losing. Historians commented: "If Dingxingfu does not return to the Beijing Division, it is like Mu Qianning's long-term guarding the toes, so that the orthodox fourteen years are pawns, then Annan will have the first Dingxingfu and fall into the trap." ”
Zhang Tingyu, editor-in-chief of the "History of Ming", also lamented: "There is a way to control it, and it can be gradually settled." It cannot be kept, and it will inevitably change again. In the whole matter of power transfer, Gai Xi Zhang Fuzhi must not be the Mu clan of Southern Yunnan. Zhang Tingyu believes that if Zhang Fu continues to guard Jiaotong, similar to Mu Ying guarding Yunnan, after decades of operation, the people of Jiaotong recognize the Central Plains Dynasty, and history will be very different.
Unable to defend Annam, Zhang Fu participated in the Northern Expedition three times and fought against the Mongols. In 1424, Zhu Di's fifth northern expedition to the grasslands, Zhang Fu was ordered to search for the enemy army, and Arutai had long since fled. Zhang Fu suggested to Zhu Di that he lead 50,000 cavalry to drive straight in, carry grain and grass for a month, follow the tactics of Huo Tou, pursue deep into the north of the desert, and capture Arutai.
Zhang Fu's military ability, Zhu Di did not doubt, but did not adopt. At this time, Zhu Di was already dying of old age, weak in health, and was likely to die on the way to the class, if Zhang Fu was still fighting in the north of the desert, whether the throne could be smoothly handed over was a question, after all, the relationship between Zhang Fu and Zhu Gaoxu was not ordinary.
After Zhu Di's death, Zhu Gaozi succeeded to the throne, and Zhang Fu continued to be used heavily, with a higher status than Xia Yuanji. In 1426, Zhu Zhanji succeeded to the throne, and Zhang Fu had a higher status and was powerful. In 1429, Zhang Fu was relieved of his military powers, but continued to participate in the decision-making of military affairs, but no longer led the army to fight.
In 1449, after 20 years, Zhang Fu once again went out with the army and was killed on the battlefield, which was the sadness of the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the beggar system in order to monopolize power. The king was very reasonable, but he did not trust the ministers, and when he encountered things, he could only consult with the eunuchs around him, which was the source of "eunuchs interfering in politics".
At first, Zhu Yuanzhang personally did not let the eunuchs interfere in politics. Later generations of emperors, without Zhu Yuanzhang's energy, were not at ease with the ministers, and could only let eunuchs participate in government affairs, which was the sadness of the Ming Dynasty. In 1436, the ten-year-old Zhu Qizhen succeeded to the throne, and the eunuch Wang Zhen was reused, which finally led to the "change of Tumu Fort".
In 1449, he also led 100,000 cavalry south, and Wang Zhen instigated Zhu Qizhen to march in person, and within 5 days he gathered elite soldiers near the Beijing Division, a total of 200,000, and the conquest was also first. Wang Zhen hastily sent troops, and also pulled the Manchu Dynasty's civil and military officials and the emperor into battle, which was not nonsense.
Zhang Fu was a famous general, but he was also just a "miscellaneous person" who could not manage the army. 200,000 troops swung around the Great Wall, Wang Zhen repeatedly changed the route of the march, the supply of grain and grass could not keep up, and at the critical moment Wang Zhen also believed in the sincerity of "surrendering" first, and the result was a tragic failure.
Abolishing the beggar system and causing "eunuchs to interfere in the government" was the key to the defeat of the Tumu Fort and a major bitterness in the history of the Ming Dynasty. Eunuchs such as Wang Zhen, Liu Yong, Wang Zhi, Liu Jin, and Wei Zhongxian made the Ming Dynasty miserable; the government was in a miasma, and the dynasty was in decline.
Bibliography: History of the Ming Dynasty