Two days ago, the author just watched the movie "Chosin Lake", first of all, to pay tribute to all the officers and men of the volunteer army that year.
In fact, in the long river of history, China has assisted neighboring Korea several times. For example, in the later period of Ming rule, the Ming Dynasty used to provide large-scale assistance to Korea to resist Japanese aggression. But on the question of the number of troops sent by the Ming Dynasty, a completely different voice appeared. Some claims suggest that the Ming Dynasty dispatched more than 40,000 troops. It is also said that the Ming Dynasty dispatched 230,000 troops. So, how many troops did the Ming Dynasty send?
First, let's talk about the administration of the Ming Dynasty and the Lee Joseon Dynasty. Prior to the Lee Joseon Dynasty, the Goryeo Dynasty ruled the Korean Peninsula. In 1368, after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, after a large-scale war, the Yuan Dynasty forces were expelled back to the northern grasslands. After the defeat of the north, the Yuan Dynasty, known as the Northern Yuan regime, continued to confront the Ming Dynasty and constantly organized forces to fight back. At that time, Goryeo still regarded Northern Yuan as its suzerainty, and its relations with the Ming Dynasty were very cold. In 1392, the Goryeo general Lee Sung-gyu launched the Goryeo version of the "ChenQiaoyi Mutiny." ”
After Li Chenggui established the new regime, he fully considered the strength of the Ming Dynasty and the Northern Yuan Dynasty and his own situation. In the end, it was decided to submit to the Ming Dynasty, to enshrine the Ming Dynasty as the suzerainty, and to ask the Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang to give the name of the country. Zhu Yuanzhang quoted the meaning of "asahi is distinct" and named it North Korea. After this, the relationship between Lee's Joseon and The Ming Dynasty became a model of clan relations. Lee Joseon learned from the Ming Dynasty in various ways, such as writing, clothing, and so on. At present, The Hanbok of Korea is very close to the Hanfu of the Central Plains Dynasty.
The Lee Joseon Dynasty adopted a series of systems such as the Ming Dynasty's imperial examination system and the eunuch system, and the literati of Lee's Joseon dynasty were able to skillfully recite a series of cultural classics such as the Zizhi Tongjian and the Analects. In a Korean drama, after male number one appeared, he was reciting Zhuge Liang's "Table of Teachers". Due to the lack of necessary opponents, Lee's Armed Forces in Korea were not very effective. At the same time, across the sea from Korea, Japan, after a long period of the Sengoku period, Toyotomi Hideyoshi basically unified most of Japan.
In 1592, Toyotomi Hideyoshi mobilized more than 100,000 troops and launched a major attack on Lee's Korea. In a few months, Lee's Korea was defeated again and again, and finally "in the middle of the decade, all three were lost and the eight sides collapsed." "On its own, North Korea has been unable to repel the Japanese offensive. Under such circumstances, Korea appealed to the suzerainty of the Ming Dynasty for help. At this time, after the Ming Dynasty underwent Zhang Juzheng's reform, the national treasury was relatively full, and the combat effectiveness of the army was improved. The Korean Peninsula was of great importance to the Central Plains Dynasty, and after much deliberation, the Ming Dynasty decided to send troops to resist Japan and aid Korea.
Li Rusong, Ma Gui, and a series of other famous Ming dynasty generals led the army to Korea and began the magnificent Anti-Japanese War of Aid to Korea. To this day, on the Stone of Chaojong in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, it is still written "Rebuild the Domain." As for the number of troops sent by the Ming Dynasty, when compiling the "History of Ming", the Qing Dynasty did not elaborate, but gave the evaluation that "in the seven years since the chaos in Korea, hundreds of thousands of teachers have been lost, millions of people have been paid, and the Chinese and Korean countries have no chance of victory until Guan Bai died."
Seriously, such an assessment is very unfair. The Qing Dynasty never imagined that by 1894, it would also "become history." "As for the number of troops sent by the Ming Dynasty, the various historical documents of Lee's Korea are very clear. As the party being helped, Lee's North Korea has no reason to tamper with the information. Whether it is the "Records of Xuanzu" compiled by Li Joseon, or the "Xiangcun Manuscript" and "Si'an Shiji" written by folk literati, it is believed that the number of troops sent by the Ming Dynasty is recorded.
According to records, during the Nongchen period, the Ming Dynasty sent more than 47,000 troops to more than 55,000 people. By the time of dingyou, it had increased to more than 143,000 people. The records of various documents in Korea are very detailed, and even the names of Ming dynasty officers at all levels, from the general soldier to the thousand general, are recorded. Judging from the various Ming armies, at first, the Ming Dynasty dispatched the elite main forces of Liaodong Town and Jizhou Town to Korea. Later, in view of the expansion of the scale of the war, troops began to be transferred from Datong Town, Shandong Province, Henan Province and other places.
Because the Qi family army had experience in fighting against the Japanese Wokou, more than 1,000 Zhejiang soldiers were specially transferred from the southeast region. In various Korean historical documents, the Si'an Shiji records the total number of troops sent by the Ming Dynasty to single digits, with a total of 231792 people. Among them, among the nine major towns in the north, Liaodong Town, Jizhou Town, Datong Town and other places basically drew elite troops to participate in the battle, and most of them were cavalry. In addition to the Zhejiang soldiers in the southeast region, the Ming Dynasty even dispatched Sichuan soldiers from the southwest region to participate in the war.
According to the record: "On the evening of the ninth day of the first month of May, Ma Tidou arrived in Liaoyang, and on the eighteenth day, he sent to the east of the Yalu River, with an army of 17,000 men. The admiral asked the jishi and the manager to invite him to recruit troops from Sichuan and Zhejiang, and to dispatch troops from Ji, Liao, Xuan, Da, Shan, and Shaanxi. It is also said that the Koreans only have a little strength in the idle landscape, please transfer more Fujian and Wusong sailors, and also supervise Liu Ling to lead 6,700 Sichuan and Han soldiers to wait for the next day to help. More than 142,700 were requisitioned before and after the unified figure. ”
It has to be said that at that time, the Korean monarchs and courtiers praised the combat effectiveness of the southeast Zhejiang soldiers, and even felt that the southeast Zhejiang soldiers received too few rewards, and asked Ma Gui to improve the treatment of the "southern soldiers". Bingbu Shangshu Xing Jie's note to the Wanli Emperor said: "The proposal to transfer the Wei Basi of Chuandong Shizhou, the Yang and Situ Divisions, the Unitary Stone Yimei, and the Tea Second Chieftain Pingsi. Huguang Yongshun and Jing Tusi soldiers 10,000. ”
However, the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army also greatly exceeded the expectations of the Ming Dynasty. In particular, the Japanese army was equipped with a large number of Portuguese muskets, and the level of these muskets was higher than that of the Ming Dynasty in terms of range and accuracy. Of course, the Ming Dynasty's artillery, cavalry, and other aspects had an overwhelming advantage. In this war, the "Jiading troops" of the Ming generals had begun to take shape, and because the losses of their own Jiading troops were too large, Li Rusong began to change from active attack to defensive peace talks in the later period of Li Rusong's command of the operation.
There are many more stories about North Korea, and the battle will be slowly discussed with you in a future article.