Datong City in the Ming Dynasty was probably one of the strongest, easiest to defend and difficult to attack cities in China!

This city was originally built and expanded on the basis of the Datong Tucheng left over from the Liao, Jin and Yuan dynasties by General Xu Da in the fifth year of Hongwu.

The castle expanded and built by Xu Da was the core fortress of the later phoenix-shaped Datong Castle. It was about three miles long from east to west, about three and a half miles long from north to south, and had a circumference of thirteen miles. The city wall was built tall and majestic, strong and precipitous, with various

The city defense facilities are complete, forming a self-contained defense system. The city walls are all based on regular and well-organized stone strips, slabs, stone columns, stone pillars, etc. The walls are made of "sanhe soil" rammed section by section and layer by layer, and the outer perimeter is built with green bricks.

The blue bricks used to build the city are all specially made, large and heavy, several times heavier than ordinary city bricks. The city wall of Datong is also built high and wide, more than four feet high, and up to five feet five feet wide at its widest point. The four walls are

There are more than 580 crenellations, 62 gate towers, watchtowers, and turrets, and 96 huts. It is a spectacular and impregnable place.

Such a large-scale Datong City was only the primary state of Datong City in the Ming Dynasty. After the Tumubao Incident, Datong City underwent several rounds of expansion. Outside the north, east, and south gates of Datong City, one was built each.

Guancheng is actually three small castles that are as strong as the main city. They are surrounded on three sides of Datong City, forming horns with each other. When viewed from a high altitude, they look like a phoenix spreading its left wing, hence the name Phoenix City.

explain.

After building the three passes, the emperors and ministers of the Ming Dynasty were still not at ease. They thought that "the town stood alone with no auxiliary guards" and built Jule and Gaoshan forts in the east and west of the city respectively, making them become

The two wings of Datong City.

So Datong had "one city, three passes, two wings", a total of 6 extremely strong fortresses.

If we want to give this Datong City a fair evaluation, it is that it is too strong. For the Mongols outside the border wall of Datong or the Hou Jin army that is about to appear near Datong Town, there is no third choice except starvation or persuasion to surrender.

Methods can be used to capture it.

Perhaps it is precisely because of the solidity of Datong City that the military and civilian officials in Datong Town relied too much on city defense and neglected training and combat readiness. Especially, the military strength of the Mongolian Tumote Ten Thousand Households outside the border wall of Datong gradually declined, and they completely gave up on joining the invaders.

After that, Datong, the former leader of the Nine Borders, became increasingly depleted. In the view of Zhu Youjian, the young emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the military and civilian officials of Datong Town who followed the founding heroes of the Ming Dynasty to sweep the northern border and revive the Han Dynasty

The descendants of heroes have now lost the courage to fight for the Ming Dynasty. This is not a good thing for the Ming Dynasty and the Datong military and civilian officials themselves.

That's why Zhu Youjian asked the Liao Town warrior Man Gui to lead 15,000 Liao troops to station in Datong, in order to use the foreign Liao troops as the backbone to comprehensively reorganize Datong's defense.

We don't expect Mangui to be able to raise 130,000 to 40,000 combat-ready soldiers, but 40,000 to 50,000 elite soldiers still need to be trained.

Otherwise, Datong will become a weak spot in the three-sided defense system of Xuan, Da, and Ji, and may be broken through by invading Donglu bandits in the future.

However, contrary to Mangui's expectation, the Datong Town he was in charge of was broken through by the troops led by the "Roader Khan" who was inserted into the Han tribe before they encountered the Jurchens from the East who were marching westward!

If this incident had happened in western Liaoning, Lindan Batur, the rogue Khan who inserted himself into the Han tribe, would probably have been beaten to a pulp by the elite soldiers of Liao Town.

But here is the Liao army in Mangui, Datong, which has only 15,000 to rely on, and the most effective servants among them are only more than 1,000.

These 15,000 Liao troops cannot be placed all in Datong City, because if they are concentrated in Datong City, the Thousand Miles of Border Wall in Datong Town will have no defense. Recently, there was a chaos outside the border wall of Datong, which was broken up by Hutu Dun Khan

The Uuliangha Mongolian tribes are running around everywhere. If the Datong border wall is unprepared, they will definitely rush in and grab a handful.

Therefore, Mangui had to divide more than 10,000 people and station them in Zhenlu Guard, Yanghe Guard, Datong Right Guard, Yulin Guard, Weiyuan Guard, Pinglu Guard, Yunchuan Guard, Settlement Guard and Gaoshan Guard.

These scattered Liao soldiers were enough to deal with the small groups of Mongolian tribes, but they could not stop the army of Hutu Dun Khan.

If you want to stop Hutu Dun Khan's army, you must reorganize Datong's local military strength.

But how can the local generals, battalions and military households in Datong Town be so easy to organize? They are all groups that have been together for more than two hundred years. They have long been intertwined and have become an integrated entity. These groups may be centered around the local generals in Datong Town.

, for example, the generals of the Ma family, the generals of the Ma family are twisted into one; or the dozens of military guards who have been inherited for more than 200 years hug together to keep warm; plus a Dai Wangfu who is supposed to guard one side, Datong has long been

The military base and guard land in the military town have been divided up!

Without land, the military household system could not be maintained. The soldiers in Datong Town lived a miserable life and were unwilling to join the army. During the Jiajing period, because the town soldiers were unwilling to garrison the fortress far away, a large-scale Jiashen Mutiny actually occurred.

They almost captured Datong City.

The recruitment system that was implemented after the disintegration of the military household system had little effect due to the limited financial resources of the Ming Dynasty and the intricate interest groups in the Jiubian Army Town.

During the Tianqi years, the total amount of military pay (including military rations) in Datong Town was one million and several hundred thousand taels. Although it was impossible to pay all of them, the actual military pay (military rations) sent to Datong Town every year was around one million. On average, three

Calculating one soldier for ten taels, the number of soldiers in Datong Town should be about 30,000. In addition, the 15,000 Liao soldiers brought by Mangui (these Liao soldiers are temporarily paid from the additional Liao soldiers, so it is not

Taking up Datong’s local salary), there should be 45,000 soldiers capable of fighting, right?

But what about actually?

Not counting the Liao soldiers brought by Mangui, there are not even 5,000 local capable soldiers in Datong. Moreover, these capable soldiers are basically the private soldiers of deputy generals, generals, guerrillas and other generals. And

Serious battalion troops will only appear during military review.

After Man Gui took office, he counted the troops several times. Each time, there was a large group of people shouting and cheering. The number of soldiers in Datong was over 100,000 (the number of soldiers in Datong was 130,000). However, after counting, everyone went back to their own way.

At home, everyone went to work to reorganize and train? Not to mention doors, there were no windows! Even Man Gui had no way to start. Because Man Gui was just a chief military officer, and there was a governor here in Datong! The governor is

The civil servants are more powerful than the general soldiers! Above the governor, there is Governor Xuanda! Above that, there is a group of courtiers who share the military pay of Datong Town. No one wants to be serious about it.

And Man Gui himself is a veteran of the martial arts world. He came from a military family in Xuanfu, so he still doesn’t know the rules?

If he really dared to do something, there would have to be a military riot and he would be sent to Jinyiwei's prison, which might cost him his life.

Therefore, after he took office, he did not dare to make drastic reforms. He could only reorganize the Zhenbiao Battalion directly under the general army, and recruited 500 Yiding from the Mongols who were dispersed by Hutu Dun Khan outside the border wall, and incorporated them into the army. With his own servants and the 5,000 Liao soldiers stationed in Datong, Mangui finally had more than 10,000 soldiers at hand.

With these more than 10,000 soldiers, it was enough to deal with the 30,000 to 20,000 nomadic soldiers who invaded the Han tribe. But to Mangui's expectation, Hutu Dun Khan actually came out in full force and broke through the border wall of Datong in one fell swoop. He was still in the north of Datong City. A large camp was set up at Baishan Mountain, 30 miles away, and their troops were divided into four groups to loot.

However, Mangui, who only had more than 10,000 soldiers at hand, half of whom were infantry, did not dare to leave the city at all.

He could only sigh in silence in the city of Datong. On June 6th, just as he was preparing to patrol the city, his general Fang Shekun flew into his hall with a look of disbelief on his face.

Man Gui looked at this local general in Datong Town and was a little confused. What happened? Did Hutu Dunhan retreat his troops or come to attack Datong?

"Commander," Fang Shenkun's voice sounded a little strange, "Wan, long live the Lord is here."

"Long live Lord?" Man Gui didn't understand, "What does he do?"

Fang Shekun stamped his feet: "Long live my Lord! You are the emperor! Don't you know?"

Mangui opened his mouth and looked at Fang Shenkun blankly, "General Fang Shenkun, are you kidding me?"

"No kidding!" Fang Zhenkun shook his head, "Ye Bushou, who was patrolling in the south of the city, encountered a large army led by Long Live Lord. There were more than 10,000 iron cavalry, one person and two horses. They also brought back a father-in-law who claimed to be the emperor. The horse supervisor supervises the eunuch Ji Yong!"

"Ji Yong?" Man Gui knew Ji Yong and they fought together in Jinzhou. "Where is his old man?"
Chapter completed!