A war that burned down the Ming Dynasty.

A war that burned down the Ming Dynasty.

In June (1386), Fu Youde and Mu Ying, the Ming generals who were leading the army in Yunnan, received a personal letter from Zhu Yuanzhang. In the letter, Ming Taizu first affirmed everyone's achievements and expressed condolences to all the soldiers, but then he was deeply worried about this protracted war and deeply saddened by the hard work and sacrifice of the officers and men of the Ming army. Ming Taizu wrote: "The capital of Guizhou learned that Panjiang Road has not yet been opened, saying that it is not going to increase rations at present. I didn't expect it to be so difficult." (A Record of Ming Taizu) So, what kind of war can make war-torn Ming Taizu deeply worried? What difficulties faced by the soldiers of the Ming army would make Ming Taizu so worried about the hardships of the army? All this has to start with the Ming army's expedition to Yunnan five years ago.

Sword refers to Yunnan

After driving the royal family of the Yuan Dynasty from the capital city (now Gyeonggi) to the desert, Ming Taizu began to consider attacking and destroying the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty in other areas in order to unify the whole country as soon as possible. After successively capturing Liaodong and Sichuan and forcing Korea to submit, Yunnan became Daming's next target. At that time, the forces entrenched in Yunnan were mainly Wang Liang Group and Tujue Duanshi. The Liang family in Damon managed Yunnan for generations in the Yuan Dynasty, with Kunming (now Kunming, Yunnan) as the ruling center, serving the Zhengshuo of the Yuan Dynasty, and taking orders from the forces of the North Yuan who retreated from Mobei. On the other hand, the local Tusi section controlled Dali (now Dali, Yunnan). Although he nominally surrendered to the North Yuan, he was actually in a semi-independent state, which sometimes conflicted with the Liang Wang regime. At first, Ming Taizu hoped to solve the Yunnan issue through peaceful means, and sent special envoys to negotiate many times, but they were all killed. This humiliating act forced Ming Taizu to finally occupy Yunnan by force.

In the 14th year of Hongwu (138 1), on the first day of September, Ming Taizu appointed Fu Youde, Hou of Yingchuan, as the general of conquering the south, Hou Lanyu of Yongchang as the left vice president, Hou Muying of Xiping as the right vice president, and led an army of 300,000 to conquer Yunnan. According to Ming Taizu's pre-war plan for the army, Fu Youde commanded the army in two ways: the North Road was led by Guo Ying, Hu Haiyang and Chen Huan with 50,000 troops, and moved from Yongning (now Xuyong, Sichuan) to Wusha (now Weining, Guizhou), which was the junction of Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces and was a military center at that time; The East Road runs from Chenzhou (now Yuanling, Hunan) and Yuanzhou (now Zhijiang, Hunan) to Guizhou, attacking Puding (now Anshun, Guizhou) and Puan (now Panxian, Guizhou). Among the two armies, the Northern Route Army started with suspicion to attract the attention of the Yuan Army, thus reducing the pressure of the main March of the Eastern Route Army.

Qujing jianbing

As expected by Ming Taizu, when the Northern Route Army entered the middle of Guizhou, the defenders of Yunnan really paid full attention to the defense in the north, which created excellent soldiers for the Eastern Route Army, the main force of the Ming Army. As a generation of famous soldiers, Fu Youde knows the way that soldiers are expensive and fast. Without the slightest hesitation, they quickly marched into Puding and Puan, and the local Luo Gui, Miao Man and other Fanbu were shocked, offering cattle, sheep, grain and rice to the Ming army in succession, expressing their obedience. Subsequently, running all the way, a Ming army, walked seven days in just four days. 1February 16, arrived at Baishi in the northeast of Qujing (now Qujing, Yunnan) by fog. Until then, Liang Wang, the last king of the Yuan Dynasty guarding Yunnan, got the news that the Ming army was approaching, so he asked Pingzhang Darima to lead the main force of the Yuan army to rescue Qujing with 65,438+10,000 yuan, intending to fight the Ming army here.

Qujing, located in the northeast of Yunnan, has been the gateway of Yunnan since ancient times and its strategic position is extremely important. Yunnan is mountainous, but after Qujing, you can directly enter the hinterland of Yunnan and reach Kunming along the winding ancient road. Therefore, the gains and losses of Qujing are of great significance to the warring parties. Dalima dare not neglect. When he arrived at Baishi, he saw the Ming army on the other side of the river, so he sent soldiers to guard the river bank. Fu Youde adopted Mu Ying's plan, supervised the soldiers to feint head-on, and sent Indiana Jones to cross the river from the lower reaches, bypassing the Yuan army array, and sounded the golden drums in the valley. The Yuan army was surprised to think that the rear was attacked. Mu Ying took advantage of the situation and led an army to cross the Jiang Baishi. After crossing the river, he strode forward, defeated the large array of the Yuan Army in one fell swoop, captured more than 20,000 people below Darima, and defeated the Yuan Army, thus successfully occupying Qujing.

The Ming army's occupation of Qujing not only seized the throat of Yunnan, but also opened the way to Kunming. Therefore, Fu Youde divided the East Route Army into two parts, one led by Aquamarine and Mu Ying, and headed for Kunming; One was commanded by Fu Youde himself and coordinated the North Road Army. 1Feb. 22nd, Liang Wang learned of the fall of Qujing and fled to Jinning Prefecture (now Jincheng, Yunnan). On the other hand, Guo Ying's Northern Route Army also arrived in Wusha, confronting the local chiefs' troops across the Chishui River. At that time, it rained heavily and the river surged. Guo Ying inspired his men. The mobs never imagined that we dared to cross the river at this time, so they commanded the officers and men to cut down trees and build rafts to prepare for crossing the river. Just then, Fu Youde's army arrived. So on a dark night, two Ming armies used the cover of darkness to cross the Chishui River and launch a surprise attack. The local chief's army was unstoppable and defeated. Fu Youde and Guo Ying attacked each other and soon pacified the northern Yunnan. Liang Wang saw that the tide had receded, so he hanged himself. Soon, Yuan Youcheng was released from prison, and Aquamarine and Mu Ying immediately marched into Kunming.

Dali solved it

After winning Kunming, Fu Youde led the army to join forces with Aquamarine and others. Immediately, the Ming army was divided into two ways again, such as two sharp swords stabbing south Yunnan and west Yunnan, and forging ahead in Dali. Along the way, the Ming army was on a roll, and the local Ministry did not dare to fight and surrendered. The Ming army was so powerful that it soon arrived at the gates of Dali.

Dali has Cangshan Mountain as a natural barrier, and Duan led 50,000 troops to guard the upper and lower levels. Mu Ying personally led the army to attack the city, but it could not be captured for a long time and suffered heavy losses. Seeing that the storm failed, Mu Ying quickly changed his tactics and sent elite soldiers to separate up and down, so that Duan could not care for each other, which was at odds with the Ming army's siege troops. In addition, select officers and men who are good at climbing, find a mountain road from the mountain behind the pass, go around the back of Duan Jiajun, and then erect the flag of the Ming army to disturb the enemy's morale. At dawn the next day, the Ming army on the mountain suddenly fired. Unknown so, a soldier of Duan Jiajun who woke up with a start, looked up in the dark and found that the mountain was covered with the flags of the Ming army, and suddenly it was a mess. Seeing that the plan worked, Mu Ying took the lead in killing Chengtou, and then all the troops were wiped out and killed in the sky. The Ming army on the mountain also galloped down, flanked by two sides, and soon captured the upper and lower levels, entered Dali City, but captured Duan and Suiping in Yunnan.

be covered with cuts and bruises

However, the Ming army never imagined that the battle of Yunnan was only the first step of the Long March. At first, the local chief was photographed by Ming soldiers and chose to surrender without fighting. However, because of their long-term separation, they have long been accustomed to being local emperors and are unwilling to obey the government's jurisdiction, so they are all ready to move. However, because the Ming army advanced too fast, and focused on dealing with the Duan family, it did not leave enough troops to guard all parts of the country, nor did it effectively manage the surrendered Fanbu, which objectively gave these local governors the opportunity to create a crisis. At the beginning of the following year (the fifteenth year of Hongwu), the Fanbu of Wumeng and Uzza rose up to make an insurrection. Soon, the rebellion spread throughout northern Yunnan and southwestern Guizhou. Fu Youde, aquamarine, Mu Ying and others had to leave Kunming and Dali with their troops and go to counter-insurgency. Until July of that year, the Ming army finally put down the rebellion, but the local toast in Kunming took advantage of the main force of the Ming army to leave and suddenly attacked and mobilized 200,000 people to besiege Kunming. The Ming army had no choice but to retreat from northern Yunnan to solve the siege of Kunming. When the front foot of the Ming army left northern Yunnan, the Fanbu there raised the anti-flag again, which made the Ming army exhausted and embarrassed. In this way, the counter-insurgency war lasted for more than four years until the 19th year of Hongwu (1386). At this time, it has been five years since the Ming army entered Yunnan, and the war is still deadlocked. This is a letter from Ming Taizu at the beginning of this article.

In the face of difficulties, Ming Taizu instructed Fu Youde, Mu Ying and others not only to guard the city, but also to dare to do the work of the local governor. For those unruly people, don't rush to break through their camp. We can control the traffic lines connecting them with the surrounding areas, lock the locations, and set up health stations in important locations, and send troops to guard them to ensure the smooth passage of grain. There is plenty of food and grass, and if the enemy sends troops to conquer in anger, it will surely succeed.

A good plan has come out.

In order to solve the Yunnan problem completely, in October of the twentieth year of Hongwu (1387), Ming Taizu was transferred to Changxing Hou Gengbing, and 56,000 soldiers and horses entered Yunnan from Shanxi and Shaanxi. 1 1 month, the officers and men of Hou Chenhuan in Puding and Hou Yesheng in Jingning were ordered to enter Yunnan, and under the unified command of Mu Ying, the land was reclaimed on a large scale in Yunnan, and the post roads were repaired at the same time, so as to facilitate the exchange of official documents, books and newspapers and the deployment of food and materials. In addition to military camps, salt merchants have also sprung up all over Yunnan and are widely used in commercial camps. Merchants who cultivated land handed over 1 stone to the government, and they all gave 200 Jin of tranquil salt to arouse their enthusiasm for farming land. Mu Ying also organized more than two million landless peasants from Jiangxi and Hubei provinces to enter Yunnan to reclaim wasteland, and the government provided funds, seeds and farm tools to carry out private farming.

The extensive development of reclamation ensured the supply of grain and grass for the Ming army and greatly reduced the logistical dependence on the local Fanbu. As ministries no longer need to contribute cattle, sheep, grain and rice to the Ming army, their goodwill towards the Ming government has gradually increased. Moreover, after a large number of Han people and their families entered Yunnan, they lived with the local people, which on the one hand brought the advanced agricultural production technology of the Han people and promoted the local economic development; On the other hand, the production and life style of Han nationality's male farming and female weaving has been gradually accepted by local ethnic groups, which has greatly promoted ethnic integration, enabled the government's civil affairs system to smoothly penetrate all parts of Yunnan and strengthened local control. Because of this, Yunnan has not only achieved unprecedented development, but also the situation has become increasingly stable.

To Ming Taizu's surprise, this policy was not only adopted by the later rulers of the Ming Dynasty, but also never abolished in the Qing Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, due to the unprecedented population growth in China, the rulers followed suit and continued to carry out the policy of large-scale immigration to the frontier, and Yunnan was no exception. Especially after the pacification of San Francisco, the Qing court organized a large number of refugees to enter various parts of Yunnan for reclamation, which promoted the improvement of local economy, culture and production methods and promoted exchanges and contacts between the mainland and the frontier. It is particularly noteworthy that in the Qing Dynasty, the proportion of civilian villages gradually increased, while the proportion of military villages gradually decreased. Thanks to this, the military management system implemented in the Ming Dynasty to stabilize the local area was gradually abolished in Yunnan, and a large number of military institutions such as Dusiwei Institute were replaced by administrative divisions such as prefectures and counties in the Ming Dynasty, which not only created favorable conditions for later reforms, but also made Yunnan and other frontiers closely integrated with the mainland and never separated.