The Eight Banner Army was a major problem for the Ming Empire in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, and the situation in Liaodong deteriorated since the Battle of Salhu, Nurhaci annihilated the main force of the Ming Army.
From the end of the Wanli Calendar to the chongzhen period of the Heavenly Apocalypse, the Ming Dynasty used all its strength to suppress the Later Jin Rebellion, but no matter who the Ming Dynasty sent to Liaodong, no matter what methods were used, it was not able to curb the rise of later Jin.
So, was it really impossible for the Ming Dynasty to suppress Hou Jin? In fact, it is possible that one person has even calculated a detailed account, as long as it can be realized, it can suppress houjin and cut down Liaodong.
This person was Xiong Tingbi, the Liaodong Jingluo, and the strategy he proposed was to train "180,000 elite soldiers", spend more than 3 million taels of military expenses every year, and finally suppress Houjin.
Xiong Tingbi was another Ming Dynasty Liaodong Jingluo after the Battle of Salhu, and he had a profound understanding of the powerful field combat capabilities of the Manchurian Eight Banners Army at that time and the abandoned armaments of the Liaodong Ming Army.
In view of the weakness of the Ming Dynasty in the northeast region, Xiong Tingbi believed that the risk of rushing to attack was too great, and passive defense was stretched.
The only way to turn the situation around was to train elite soldiers, stabilize their positions, and then unite with North Korea and Mongolia to overwhelm Houjin through multiple pressures of political, economic, and military forces.
And Xiong Tingbi's account for Ming Shenzong Wanli was: Train 180,000 elite soldiers, garrison yunyang, Qinghe, Fushun, Chaihe, Sanchaer, Zhenjiang and other places, and then send elite commandos to fight against the enemy in the field, and finally trap Houjin between the White Mountains and Black Water.
Xiong Tingbi was military-minded, and the Ming Dynasty adopted encirclement and suppression of Houjin according to his strategy, and the situation in Houjin was once ugly, the economy was withering, the population fled, and the Eight Banner Army did not live easily.
However, Xiong Tingbi's strategy is difficult to fully implement.
First, the Economy of the Ming Dynasty could not support 180,000 elite soldiers, and the financial situation of the Ming Dynasty at the end of the Wanli Calendar was already very severe, with a large number of imperial estates, princely mansions, and tax-exempt gentry occupying most of the fertile land, but they were not responsible for taxation and servitude, and the vast number of poor people were burdened with heavy taxation and servitude of the Empire.
Xiong Tingbi's expenditure of 180,000 elite soldiers needed at least three or four million taels of silver a year, and the annual revenue of the entire Ming Empire at that time was no more than five or six million taels. Putting more than half of the country's income into one region is tantamount to draining the blood of the entire country.
Second, the military strength of the late Ming Dynasty was already very weak, and it seemed that the standing army of a huge amount was mostly insufficient, and it was normal for generals to eat empty salaries. Even for the soldiers in service, the conditions were very bad, the Soldiers of Liaodong were not even clothed, they did not have enough to eat, the army equipment fell into disrepair for many years, the armor was eroded, and the weapons were broken. No matter how strong the book strength of such an army is, it has no combat effectiveness.
Xiong Tingbi wanted to train elite troops, which was equivalent to taking back the empty salary from the hands of the generals, and the generals in Liaodong and Western Liaoning would not support Xiong Tingbi, in fact, Xiong Tingbi encountered this problem in the process of organizing the new army, and he punished the generals who ate empty salaries, and as a result, he offended the important officials of the DPRK and the Central Government, and later took his life.
Third, the Ming Dynasty's "traditional arts" party struggle is still the same on the Liaodong issue. Wang Huazhen, who cooperated with Xiong Tingbi, clashed with each other in their policies toward the Liao, and as a result, they restrained each other and attacked each other, which eventually led to the defeat of the Battle of Quang Ninh, which directly led to Xiong Tingbi's killing and being "passed on to the Nine Sides".
After Xiong Tingbi's death, his 180,000 elite soldiers plan was also stranded.
However, the Ming Dynasty's blood transfusion to the Liaodong region not only did not alleviate, but intensified!
Because Sun Chengzong Yuan Chonghuan, who succeeded Xiong Tingbi, and others were all members of the "fortress defense" faction, they advocated building fortress cities and pools, step by step, and consuming the Eight Banner Army, the cost of this project is no less than raising troops, and even the cost is greater.
During Yuan Chonghuan's tenure, the Ming Dynasty's expenditure in the direction of Liaodong was four million taels of silver per year, and as a result, the Ningjin Defense Line that Yuan Chonghuan spent a lot of money to build was bypassed by the Emperor Taiji and directly hit the city of Beijing, and the Ming Dynasty's "Liaodong Maginot Defense Line" became waste.
The castles built by the Ming Dynasty at great expense were breached one by one, and a large amount of money and grain accumulated in the city became the spoils of the Eight Banner Army, and the generals who surrendered to the Manchu Qing in Liaodong and Western Liaoning, many of whom had a lot of wealth, a large part of this money was earned by eating empty food and drinking the blood of soldiers, relying on the tax income of the Ming Dynasty.
And every silver or two of these taxes was the blood and sweat of the people, and in the end, the ruptured artery of Liaodong exhausted the last drop of blood of the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Empire finally collapsed under the internal troubles.