@秦楚刊号
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There was a unique saying in the Ming Dynasty, called: The Son of Heaven guards the country. The meaning of this is that Beijing, where the emperor is located, is too close to the frontier, and the Son of Heaven is already on the edge of the country.
Indeed, if you ride a horse, you can reach the border from Beijing in one day.
Then there is a question here, why did the Ming Dynasty put the capital in such a dangerous situation, why didn't it expand to the north? The Ming Dynasty did not have this strength, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di made many northern expeditions and achieved great military victories, and the Northern Yuan basically had no power to fight back, so why not expand to the north to increase the strategic depth of the capital?
It has to start with the long run.
During the Zhu Yuanzhang period, there was definitely no problem of the Son of Heaven guarding the country, because the capital was in Nanjing during the Zhu Yuanzhang period, and it was Zhu Di who really caused the Son of Heaven to guard the country.
Zhu Yuanzhang occupied Beijing, although the Northern Yuan still had a certain strength, although Wang Baobao once defeated the Ming army in Shanxi, and the Northern Yuan also defeated the Ming Dynasty's three-way Northern Expedition in the fifth year of Hongwu, but on the whole, the Ming Dynasty still had an overwhelming strategic advantage.
For the areas that had already been occupied, Zhu Yuanzhang began to set up guards to strengthen defenses. The so-called guard is a military system implemented by Zhu Yuanzhang, with an army of 5,600 people, and there are 1,000 households, 100 households, general flags and small banners and other units in order, and there are about 1,120 people in 1,000 households.
At that time, on the border of thousands of miles in the north, nearly a million Ming troops were distributed in various guards.
And Zhu Yuanzhang has an overall plan for the entire northern defense line.
From the west of Dongsheng to Ningxia, Hexi Chahannaoer, east of Dongsheng to Datong, Xuanfu, Kaiping, southeast to Daning, east to Liaodong, and east to the Yalu River, and north to more than a few thousand miles, and south to the guards of the guards; It also reaches the Yellow River from the west outside the Yanmen Pass, crosses the river to Chahannaoer, and reaches the Bauhinia Pass in the east, and the Juyong Pass in the east, and the north of Gubeikou, and the east to Shanhaiweiwai.
In this passage, Zhu Yuanzhang takes "Dongsheng" as the middle point and divides it into east and west, and Dongshengwei is very critical in the entire defense line.
Dongshengwei is located in the Ordos region, which connects Shanxi Zhuwei and Ningxia Zhuwei, controls the Hetao area, and is the barrier between the important towns of Datong and Xuanfu. And Xuanda is the barrier of Beijing, and the role of Dongshengwei is self-evident.
Dongshengwei was set up at the beginning of the first month of the fourth year of Hongwu (1371), and in July of the fifth year of Hongwu, due to the defeat of the Ming army's three-way northern expedition by Wang Baobao, Dongshengwei was forced to move inward. In the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu, Lan Yu defeated the Northern Yuan Dynasty in the battle of touching the fish, and the strength of Mongolia was greatly damaged, and in the second year, that is, in February of the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu (1393), the Ming Dynasty set up the East Shengwei again, and was originally prepared to set up five guards, and then only set up the left and right two guards, that is, more than 10,000 people were sent to guard here.
In the thirty-fifth year of Hongwu (1402), that is, the year when Zhu Di broke through Nanjing, Ming Chengzu ordered the transfer of the left guard of Dongsheng to Yongping Mansion, and the transfer of the right guard of Dongsheng to Zunhua County. Why? Because Dongshengwei belonged to the jurisdiction of the king of Jin, after the battle of Jingyan, Ming Chengzu seized the world, but Zhu Jixi, the king of Jin, was dissatisfied with Ming Chengzu's usurpation, and Chengzu removed Dongshengwei to weaken its power, and Zhu Jixi was finally sent by Zhu Di to guard the tomb of his father.
Ming Chengzu removed Dongshengwei, and his purpose was not to give up, but to wait for the complete defeat of the Mongols before setting it up, because the defense was essentially defensive, not offensive. Some ministers also persuaded Zhu Di to set up Dongshengwei again, but Zhu Di did not agree, thinking that the establishment of the guard was to wait until the Ming army eliminated the remnants of the Lingbei Province before doing it, but Ming Chengzu later died suddenly on the way back from the Northern Expedition, so Dongshengwei was not replaced.
Then why didn't Renzong and Xuanzong re-establish Dongshengwei after the death of Ming Chengzu? Ming Chengzu's five northern expeditions were basically to rub Warat and Tatar on the ground, Warat surrendered, Tatar Arutai was far away, and Emperor Renxuan had no problem at all if he wanted to restore Dongshengwei.
However, the expenditure on the war during the Ming Chengzu period was too great, and the country could not afford it, so during the Renxuan period, the entire Ming Dynasty was in a period of contraction and defense, withdrawing troops from Annam, gradually abandoning the West, etc., so the idea of restoring Dongshengwei conflicted with the national policy of the Ming Dynasty at this time, so Dongshengwei was not established again.
Dong Shengwei was withdrawn, and its impact was not small. The internal relocation of Dongshengwei led to Datong being directly on the front line of the enemy. In the battle of Tumubao, the Ming army withdrew to Beijing There were two routes, one was to take the Xuanfu and Datong lines, and the other was to take the Bauhinia Pass, and finally the Ming army chose the Xuanfu and Datong of the northern line to return to Beijing, and the first army suddenly attacked, and Ming Yingzong was captured. If Dongshengwei was still in the hands of the Ming Dynasty, such a situation would not have happened. Because the side attack of the first will inevitably be discovered by Dong Shengwei.
Ming Chen Quanzhi said in the "Pengzhuang Journal":
At the beginning of the country, the east was victorious over the guards, but there were many hasty creations, and Shiwu was wasted. As a result, the captives were coerced, and the edict was relocated to defend the interior, and Dongsheng was abandoned. Yu play! This is the reality that I will no longer be in the four counties. There are two mistakes in the cover of the common theory, Hong Xi Xuande often does not think about its changes, Jingtai Tianshun is close to the time and does not seek its far, from the head is adjacent to the dog and sheep, and the north of the whole Jin Dynasty is single.
The ruins of the Dongshengwei City Wall
Just after Yongle moved to Dongshengwei, another important guard, Kaipingwei, was also withdrawn.
The location of Kaipingwei is also extremely important, it is 430 miles to Daning in the east, 400 miles to Gubeikou in the southeast, 400 miles to Xuanfu Town in the southwest, 470 miles to the desert in the north, and 630 miles to Jingshi in the self-defense.
Kaiping's administrative office is in the capital of Yuanshang, roughly in the vicinity of the blue banner and Duolun County of the Xilin Gol League in Inner Mongolia, although the palace has been destroyed in the war, but its city wall still exists, and it is still a strong city to be repaired. Kaipingwei is an important stronghold of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Chengzu five northern expeditions, Kaipingwei is an important military stronghold and a transit station for the transportation of food and materials.
In the first year of Yongle (1403), Zhu Di moved to Baoding Mansion in order to thank Wuliang Ha Sanwei for their support and the pressure of logistics support of Daning Dusi. After the relocation of Xinghe Thousand Households, 400 miles southwest of Kaipingwei, Kaipingwei has been lonely.
Not only that, the conditions in Kaiping were extremely difficult, and all the food and salary were transported from the interior to the relief, and the cost was huge, so there were constantly generals who requested to evacuate from the interior. In the end, the imperial court thought of a compromise solution, that is, to move the families of the soldiers inward, and then divide the soldiers into two parts, each with thousands of people, bring their own food, and take turns to defend Kaiping.
Due to the difficult conditions, they were often harassed by the Mongol army, and even the soldiers guarding here were reluctant to stay here. In the fourth year of Xuande, there was a corruption case, and Zhao Zhongke, who was transferred to Kaiping Guard, commanded Zhao Zhongke to collect military wealth, and then bribed him to return to the original guard, and after the matter was discovered, Zhao Zhong was punished according to law. But Zhao Zhong's behavior was only a microcosm, and some officers and non-commissioned officers paid bribes for the purpose of leaving the Ping area, not wanting to continue to defend here.
The imperial court also discussed the internal relocation of Kaiping many times, and finally basically completed the internal relocation work in the seventh year of Xuande, which is also in line with the frontier thinking of shrinking the defense in the Renxuan period.
The contraction of Kaipingwei made Xuanfu directly the first line of border defense, greatly reducing the strategic depth, and the Mongolian influence on the northern frontier defense of the Ming Dynasty was extremely far-reaching. After the withdrawal of the Ming army, this place was defended by Mongolia, such as the famous Altan Khan in the Longqing Peace Conference, which was actually in the capital, that is, the former site of Ming Kaipingwei.
The revocation of the Daning Division has an even greater impact.
The establishment of the Daning Dusi was established after the surrender of Naha, in order to be able to better manage the region, and the king of Houning was located here. It connects Liaozuo in the east, Xuanfu in the west, and Beijing in the south, which is a giant town. It has jurisdiction over 90 cities, with 80,000 armor, and its strength is strong.
During the Battle of Jingjing, Zhu Di went north to Daning, captured King Ning's soldiers and horses, and took them to participate in the battle with Emperor Jianwen, and Daning's defense was also empty. In the first year of Yongle (1403), after Zhu Di ascended the throne, he changed the title of King Ning to Nanchang, and moved to Baoding.
Regarding Zhu Di's move to the Daning Division, because of the huge impact on future generations, there have been many questions. One theory of the internal relocation is that Zhu Di moved in order to thank the Wuliang Ha Sanwei for his help in the Battle of Jingyan, because many of the soldiers under King Ning were from the Wuliang Ha Sanwei, so the internal relocation was to express his gratitude. However, although this statement has been found in many history books, it has been constantly questioned. Because gratitude is not necessary to use such an important place, and Ming Chengzu has always been wary of the three guards of Wuliangha, and the third Northern Expedition also hit Wuliangha with a large army, and it is impossible to send such an important place to Wuliangha.
And many people insist on logistical support to explain the internal relocation of the Daning Dusi, but it is okay for King Ning to be stationed here for a long time with tens of thousands of armor, so how can he talk about things with logistics. The reason for this is that Ming Chengzu insisted on eliminating the remnants of the Northern Yuan Dynasty before setting up a large-scale capital division and health office, but Ming Chengzu died too quickly, and this plan could not be carried out.
In view of the excessive consumption of foreign wars during the Yongle period, which caused the emptiness of the country, Renxuanben generally adopted a posture of contraction and defense, so he would not reset the Daning Division.
In general, since the northeast direction of Beijing has been given to surrender to the Ming Dynasty Wuliang Ha Sanwei, these Mongols are Mongolia's Liao kings after surrendering to the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang settled on the border.
When the Ming Dynasty was strong, it would be attached to the Ming Dynasty, and when the Ming Dynasty was weak, it would become a hidden danger of the Ming Dynasty, and even become the leader of the invasion of the Ming Dynasty.
The Wuliang Ha Sanwei can be said to be the eternal pain of Chinese history, which is hundreds of years later, and has nothing to do with the topic of this article, so I will not talk about it here.
The internal relocation of Daning Dusi, Kaipingwei and Dongshengwei eventually led to the opening of the gateway of Beijing City in the northwest and north, and this situation eventually caused huge defensive pressure on Beijing City.
The Son of Heaven guards the country, which essentially expresses that the city of Beijing is close to the border and faces huge security risks.
But the core reason is that Taizu and Chengzu mainly chose to attack, while Renxuan chose to shrink. In the history of the Ming Dynasty, there is a saying of "the rule of Renxuan", the core of which is to rest the army and raise the people, stop the big projects, and basically lay the Ming Dynasty's territory in the north, but also lost Dongsheng, Kaiping, Daning and other places, and the external barrier of Beijing was lost.