In history of ancient China, war between farmers and nomads has always been continuous. The Qin and Han dynasties and Xiongnu, Sui and Tang dynasties and Turks, Northern Song and Khitan, Southern Song and Jurchen—all of them staged lengthy confrontations and swings. Under Ming Dynasty, northern desert became world of Mongols, and Ming Dynasty and Mongolia confronted each other on Great Wall for over 200 years. However, it is first necessary to clarify concept: Mongolia here does not include anti-Yuan uprising, but includes wars with remnants of Yuan dynasty.

1. The war with Mongolia at beginning of Ming dynasty: destruction of remnants of Yuan dynasty

In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang's army broke through Beijing, ending Yuan Dynasty. In same year, Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor in Nanjing and established Ming Dynasty. After fall of Yuan Dynasty, Mongol forces mostly retreated into desert, but still have not abandoned title of Yuan Dynasty, which is referred to in history as "Northern Yuan". The war against Mongolia during reign of Zhu Yuanzhang was mainly about forcing it to give up title of country. In 1369, Zhu Yuanzhang dispatched Chang Yuchun and Li Wenzhong to lead 80,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry to attack Kaiping, Yuanshan's capital. The expedition went smoothly and Emperor Yuan Shun was forced to flee to Yingchang (now Chifeng, Inner Mongolia). Emperor Yuan Shun is said to have written following song to express his sadness: “Lost me in Dadu, there is no peace in winter; lose me in Shandu." Xia has no way to 逭 (huàn) heat.”

Map of Ming Northern Expedition

Since then, Zhu Yuanzhang has consistently sent large armies to conquer Northern Yuan Dynasty. In 1370, Zhu Yuanzhang sent Xu Da, Li Wenzhong, Deng Yu, Feng Sheng, and Tang He to lead an army and attack Mongolia in three ways. Among them are Li Wenzhong, eastern road entering desert from Jiuyongguan; Xu Da - middle road; Feng Sheng is western road, mainly attacking from Hexi area. This time, Xu Da defeated Wang Baobao at Sheneryukou and captured over 1,800 officials and over 80,000 soldiers of Northern Yuan Dynasty. At this time, Emperor Yuan Shun also died, and his successor and family fled to Helin, ancient capital of Mongolia.

In 1372, Zhu Yuanzhang sent Xu Da, Li Wenzhong, and Feng Sheng with 50,000 cavalry each to attack Northern Yuan Dynasty. During this expedition, Xu Da's Central Path army was besieged by Guo Guo Timur and He Zongzhe, suffered heavy losses and was forced to retreat. However, West Road and East Road were victorious, but harvest was very small. Therefore, after army returned to court, Zhu Yuanzhang "will not accept either rewards or punishments." At same time, Zhu Yuanzhang also felt that Mongolian power was difficult to calm down, so he changed his strategy from offensive to defensive and ordered army to station in south of Great Wall, build cities, and fortify border. protection.

In 1382, Ming Dynasty army wiped out power of King Liang of Yunnan, so it began to compete with Bei Yuan for northeastern region. In 1387, Feng Sheng, Lan Yu, and Fu Yude defeated Naha Chu, who guarded Liaoyang Province during Yuan Dynasty, and Liaodong area was incorporated into territory of Ming Dynasty. In order to further crush Northern Yuan forces in northeast, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Lan Yu, Tang Shengzong, and Guo Ying to go to Mongolia in September of that year. There are over 1,000 officials in Northern Yuan Dynasty. After that, Emperor of Northern Yuan was killed by his generals on way to Helin.Since then, Mongol headquarters has become an old division. The new Mongol leader no longer styled himself emperor but "Great Khan", and title of Yuan dynasty was also dropped. This marked official demise of Northern Yuan dynasty.

Secondly, Yongle Northern Expedition and decline of Mongolia.

After 1387, Mongol headquarters broke up into divisions, and after several years of hand-to-hand fighting, three large divisions were finally formed. Among them, Tatar tribe occupies eastern part of Mongolian Highlands, Oirat tribe occupies western part of Mongolia and is called “vala” in historical materials of Ming Dynasty, Ulyankha tribe occupies upper reaches of Liaohe River. Three Mongol tribes were at war with each other, and their forces were greatly weakened. Among them, Wulianha tribe is weakest, and since it is close to ruling center of Ming Dynasty, it can only obey Ming Dynasty. The ancient enemies of Ming dynasty are tribes of Tatars and Oala, and tribes of Tatars and Oirats are also at war with each other.

Zhu Di

In 1405, a revolution took place in Tatar ministry. Alutai kills ghosts and Liches, and after Yingyuan Ben loses face and becomes Khan. In 1509, Ming Chengzu sent an envoy to visit Tatar ministry, but was killed. Ming Chengzu was furious, so he ordered Qiu Fu, Wang Cong, Huo Zhen and others to lead an expedition of 100,000 elite cavalry into Tatars. As a result, army went into depths alone, and entire army was destroyed. In second year, Ming Chengzu personally led an army of 500,000 to conquer Tatars in north and reached Onan River. The Tatar army was defeated, and Benya fled and was killed by Oala. But Alutai was forced to surrender and was canonized as King Hening. However, Arutai's surrender was only an expedient measure. After Ming army retreated from desert, Arutai continued his advance along Great Wall. After that, Ming Chengzu personally conquered Tatars three times and dealt a strong blow to Tatars. Arutai was also killed by Oala while fleeing. Since then, Tatar fell into a long-term division and fell into decline.

Map of Oara and Tatars

Oira's power was at first much weaker than that of Tatars and was divided into three parts. Therefore, in early years of Yongle, he asked "Gongma, please seal", which is why Ming Dynasty named its three chieftains Mahamu King of Shunning, Taiping King of Xianyi, and Tu Poluo King. women's music. When Tatars fell into decline, Oala gradually became stronger. In 1510, Oala attacked and killed Tartar Ben Shili, detained Ming envoys, and invaded south. Ming Chengzu then conquered Walu in 1414 as far as Tula River. After this battle, Wala also refused for a while and accepted canonization of Ming Dynasty.

Thirdly, prosperity of Oala and unification of Mongolia.

After Val Mahamu's death, his son Tuo Huang inherited throne and became powerful. In 1434, Tuo Huang attacked and killed Alutai from Tatar tribe, "taking in all his tribe." Tuohuang soon destroyed other two parts of Wall. Since then, Oirat has united Mongolian highlands. As Wala grew stronger, Ming dynasty fell into decline. In 1435, Ming Yingzong, first foolish emperor of Ming Dynasty, came to throne, who reused eunuch Wang Zhen and carried out large-scale construction projects that led to rapid corruption of Ming dynasty.

In 1439, Tuo Huang died and was succeeded by his son. Also, they were in no hurry to attack Ming dynasty, but to unite Mongolia even more. At that time, there were still many Mongol tribes in northwest and northeast, and they also decided to unite these areas first. In west, there are many Mongol forces in Hexi and Western Regions. After fall of Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty was unable to conquer these areas, so it canonized its leader as head of guard, and established Shazhou Guard, Handong Guard, Mongol Guard Hamiwei and Chijin, and etc. And forces pushed here first, and these Mongol tribes surrendered one by one. In 1445, they first brought Shazhou, Handong and Chijin Mongolia to besiege Hami. The Ming dynasty was unable to save Hami and Hami fell. In east, he was also first to attack Ulyankha tribe in 1446. The Ming Dynasty did not dare to save them, so Wuliangha returned to Mongol control. At moment, Yesian completely united Mongolian highlands.

The situation in Northwest

Firstly, in order to gain wealth of Ming Dynasty, they sent missions to Ming Dynasty to "pay tribute", and amount of their tribute ranked first among all countries. After 1439, Yexian sent over 2,000 missions to Beijing every year. For sake of face, Ming Dynasty will inevitably give high rewards to tributary countries. In Datong alone, 300,000 taels are given annually. First of all, mission still lied about number of people and increased number of rewards. If rewards given out by Ming Dynasty were smaller, they would first send troops to attack borders of Ming Dynasty, which made Ming Dynasty tired of orders and had no choice . In 1449, Ming Dynasty eunuch Wang Zhen suddenly reduced number of returnees to Mongolia and immediately led a three-pronged army to attack. So, Ming Yingzong and Wang Zhen led an elite army of 500,000 men to Datong, as a result of which they were besieged by Yexian's army in Tumubao, entire army was destroyed, and even Ming Yingzong was captured.

Ming Yingzong

After that, he also led a large army to continuously attack Beijing, capital of Ming Dynasty. Most of officials of Ming Dynasty were in favor of moving capital. Thanks to Yu Qian who insisted on defending Beijing and made Zhu Qiyu new emperor, he finally won battle to defend Beijing. He also saw that Beijing could not be hacked, so he decided to bring Ming Yingzong back to cause civil strife within Ming dynasty. Of course, shortly after Ming Yingzong returned, there was a change in capture of door, and he became emperor again. Yu Qian was also killed, and Ming dynasty entered eunuch monopoly era. Since then, Ming Dynasty has officially declined.

Yu Qian

Fourth, prosperity and peace of Monan Mongolia

When Vala was at his peak, he too began to be arrogant and arrogant, becoming more and more arrogant and devastated in wine and sex. In 1455, he was first to be killed, Oala quickly disintegrated, and Tatar tribe began to revolt again. In 1465, Tatars occupied Hetao Plain, since then territory of Hetao has become an important base for Mongol invasion of Ming Dynasty. In 1487, famous Mongol Dayan Khan came to power personally, under his leadership the Oala tribe was completely defeated. In 1506, Dayan Khan Yu Khan conquered Ismain, Huosai and Ibula, united Monan Mongolia and was named "Lord of Zhongxing".

Dayan Khan

After death of Dayan Khan, Mongolia was divided into more than 40 tribes. However, most powerful was his grandson Altan Khan, who united tribes of Monan-Mongolia (Inner Mongolia). His power extended from Xuanhua in east to Datong in north, Hetao in west, and Gobi desert in north. and Great Wall to south. During this period, emperor of Ming Dynasty was Jiajing, and he was indeed a weak emperor. At that time, Yan Song and others were in power, and government was more corrupt than government of Ming Yingzong. At that time, military expenditure of Ming Dynasty to resist Mongolia was 6 million taels, but this was of little effect. Altan Khan continued to attack Shanxi and elsewhere, and Zong Zengmi, a shrewd man who advocated restoration of Hetao in Ming Dynasty, was killed by Jiajing. In 1550, Alta Khan attacked Datong, and Yang Shifang, son of Yan Song, even bribed Alta Khan with money to allow him to attack other places. So, Alda Khan turned to attack Beijing, and Ming soldiers collapsed at first touch. Altan Khan went to city of Beijing, and 100,000-strong army in Beijing "feared to fight." Emperor Jiajing eventually bribed Altan Khan with big money to prevent Altan Khan from attacking palace. In the end, Altan Khan robbed and left for Beijing. This event was called "Gengxu Change".

Gengxu Change

Since then, Altan Khan continued to attack Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei, etc. in Ming dynasty, making Ming dynasty unhappy. When Ming Muzong succeeded to throne, policy of Ming dynasty changed and defense of border was strengthened. At this time, Altan Khan could not gain much advantage in Ming war, so he decided to negotiate with Ming dynasty. As a result of final negotiations, Ming dynasty opened border trade with Mongolia, and Ming dynasty canonized Altan Khan as "King of Shunya". "city awards" in title. Since then, Mongolia and Ming Dynasty as a whole have lived in a peaceful environment.

This shows that Ming Dynasty actually used money to maintain stability in north. Of course, compared to military spending of several million taels in past, these "city rewards" are considered a good deal because Ming Dynasty saved 600,000 taels in military spending this year. At end of Ming Dynasty, after Lin Dan Han came to power, all "market rewards" of Ming Dynasty were given to Lin Dan Han, which is more than 1 million taels.