Can the Ming Dynasty defeat the attack of Spain, a powerful Western power, during the Wanli Period of the Ming Dynasty?

In April 1586, the leaders of the Spanish Empire's colonial empire in Manila, church dignitaries, senior military officers and other celebrities convened the Manila Congress to discuss how to conquer China. On the premise that they fully supported the use of force to conquer China, the participants drafted a memorandum containing a specific plan to conquer China with eleven clauses and ninety-seven articles. It was led by the governor and bishop of the Philippines and signed by 51 dignitaries. Reported to the King of Spain. The memorandum declares at the beginning that China's vast territory, the abundance of China's grains and fruits, and the prosperity of China's market, therefore, "by the will of God, this is a sufficient reason for us to enter this country."

Are you kidding? Today’s readers will probably laugh, Spain? That country now unknown in Europe? Want to conquer the Ming Dynasty?

But Spain in the 16th century and Spain today are two different concepts.

He is the first empire in human history on which the sun never sets.

What does The Empire on which the Sun Never Sets mean? It comes from a statement by King Carlos I of Spain (also known as Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire): "On my territory, the sun never sets."

At 9 o'clock in the morning, the Governor of Manila, Spain When breakfast started, King Carlos I was sleeping peacefully in his palace in Madrid (zero o'clock), and the Governor of Mexico had just watched the sun set at 6 pm!

The Spanish Empire at that time had colonies on all seven continents and controlled the world hegemony at that time. At its peak, its territory covered more than 20 million square kilometers and it governed a population of 35 million! Far more than the Ming Dynasty's opponents Mongolia, Japan and the Jianzhou Jurchens who had not yet risen at the same time!

The ruler of the Spanish Empire at that time was Philip II. In addition to ruling Spain, the Netherlands, Sicily and Naples, Franche-Comté, Milan and all Spanish American and African colonies, he also ruled In 1580, Portugal was forcibly annexed. From then on, Macau, Portugal's base in China, also became his territory! .

According to today’s inquiry into Spanish historical archives, he was very serious about conquering China. Not only did he fully accept the recommendations of the Manila Memorandum, but he also established a special committee in Madrid in 1588 to further discuss policy, strategy, and tactics. , action guidelines, logistics mobilization and public opinion propaganda, etc. Reviewed and formulated a detailed plan to attack China. This plan, which was finally approved by Philip II personally, contains eleven chapters and seventy-nine sections, including thousands of attached diagrams.

Judging from his plan, he wanted to conquer the Ming Dynasty, make the Chinese people believe in Catholicism, let Spanish immigrants marry upper-class Chinese families, and then use Chinese resources and manpower to consolidate Spanish territories in North and South America. Thus building a world empire!

It is planned to dispatch 12,000 Spanish troops in the first batch, recruit another 6,000 Japanese mercenaries, and a large number of Portuguese, American, and Filipino servant troops!

Use the Imperial Navy fleet to control Japan, Taiwan, Lequios and the islands on the opposite mainland (landing springboard).

Based on the northern end of Luzon in the Philippines and the strategic base of Ganyangang, the navy and army were divided into two places to attack and land at Jingzhou and Macau. The former is the main attack force.

Interestingly, there is even a sentence in the report: "The Chinese are the most civilized human beings after Europeans, and they are also potential excellent subjects of the empire, so they should be distinguished from the Indian savages.

With such a detailed battle plan, even down to statistics on the use of military expenditures and supplies, the Spanish Empire's invasion of the Ming Dynasty was imminent.

But at this time, the Spanish Empire fell into conflict with the new life. British war.

That's right, in 1588, the Spanish Armada's 130 warships carrying about 30,000 troops attempted to invade Britain, but they were blocked at sea by the British fleet under the command of the British pirate Lord. The Spanish Armada was hit by a storm and lost more than half of it. Although this failure It did not break Spain's muscles and bones, but Spain's hands and feet were indeed dragged down by these rising European powers and had no time to move eastward. So the "Mingxi War" we expected did not really happen in history.

After talking about the Spanish, what we are interested in is, if the Spanish expeditionary force was really dispatched, could the Ming Dynasty resist the Spanish attack at the same time?

First of all, don’t think that 20,000 Spanish Army troops are really small.

Later in the three major campaigns of the Ming Dynasty, leaving aside the Japanese invasion of Korea, the actual size of the rebel army in the Battle of Bozhou was only tens of thousands when it first started. After coercing a large number of civilians, the number of troops was increased to hundreds of thousands. The Ming Dynasty also raised hundreds of thousands of troops and marched in eight directions to suppress it. The Spanish Grand Phalanx was invincible in the West at that time, so how could it be more powerful than the southern chieftain rebellion, right?

1588 was the sixteenth year of Wanli, and the three major campaigns of Wanli had not yet begun. At the beginning of this year, Qi Jiguang, who had annihilated the Japanese pirates, had just died. The Qi family army he founded was transferred to the northern border town to deal with the Mongols, and Could the Ming Dynasty's southern garrison survive without Qi Jiguang?

The Ming Dynasty of this era disbanded the powerful fleet that once sailed to East Africa. The largest warship was only less than 1/5 of the Spanish warship. These warships are used as coastal security forces or anti-smuggling teams, scattered in various guard posts and water villages along the coast. It can be seen from the battle against the Dutch decades later that if the European fleet only dispatched a few ships or a dozen Because of the small size of the ship, the Ming Navy could rely on its numerical superiority and the tactics of "fire ships to use the terrain and small boats to siege" to win. And if faced with hundreds of Spanish fleets, the effect would be questionable. The Ming Navy could not stop the Spanish invaders on the sea like the British Navy, and a land battle after landing was inevitable.

The Spanish army was much stronger than the navy. At that time, no one could guarantee that they could resist the Spanish phalanx.

The picture above shows the Spanish Grand Formation: The powerful power of firearms and the left-hand stabbing tactics of pikemen sent the traditional cold weapon era army into the garbage heap of history.

The Ming Dynasty had a nominal standing army of 2 million. If these armies are really implemented, there is no need to be afraid even if all European countries come at once. Unfortunately, the military household system established by Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, decayed within a few decades. The local guards stationed soldiers scattered and became a security system similar to the militia. They only had the ability to catch individual thieves. In 1555, a group of less than 70 Japanese pirates invaded Jiangnan and killed 4,000 Ming soldiers in a few months. There were nominally hundreds of thousands of soldiers stationed in these stations.

The three major battalions of the Ming Dynasty Central Army's field troops had already had their backbones knocked off during the Tumubao Incident.

The only ones in the Ming Dynasty that really still had combat effectiveness were the border defense corps stationed in the twelve military towns on the nine sides of the north. As well as a smaller number of Zhejiang soldiers, Miao soldiers, etc. from the mainland.

As for these troops, it usually takes more than half a year to transfer them from the north to the south. If you adjust it too little, you won't be able to win. If you adjust it too much, it will be a carrot and a pit, and you have to find a way to move the defense. Judging from the response to the three major conquests during the Wanli period, the Ming Dynasty generally mobilized tens of thousands of troops in the south. In this case, it did not have much numerical advantage over the Spanish Army.

So I think that in the early stage of the landing, within one to two years, the Ming Dynasty will not be able to stop the Spanish army. The Spanish army will probably control the territory of one or two provinces, and most of Guangdong will be lost, and Fujian will be lost. I am also afraid that I will not be spared. If the Ming Dynasty was given time to mobilize the northern troops to go south, the war would still have to be fought.

Let’s conclude this first. What do you think, readers?