Datong City in the Ming Dynasty was probably the strongest, easiest to defend and difficult to attack city in China... bar none!
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 will be the core fortress of the phoenix-shaped Datong Castle in the future. It is about three miles long from east to west, about three and a half miles long from north to south, and has a circumference of thirteen miles. The city wall is built tall and majestic, strong and steep, and has all kinds of city defense facilities, forming a defense system of its own. The city walls are all based on regular and well-organized stone strips, slabs, stone squares, stone pillars, etc. The walls are made of "Sanhe soil" rammed section by section and layer by layer, and are built with green bricks on the outside. The green bricks used to build the city are all specially made. Big and heavy, several times heavier than ordinary city bricks. The city wall of Datong was also built high and wide, more than four feet high and five feet wide at its widest point. There are more than 580 crenellations on the four walls, 62 gate towers, watchtowers, turrets, and 96 huts. It is spectacular and impregnable.
Datong City of this scale was only the primary state of Datong City in the Ming Dynasty. After the Tumu Fort Incident, Datong City underwent several rounds of expansion. Outside the north, east, and south gates of Datong City, a Guancheng was built each. In fact, they were three small castles that were as strong as the main city. They were surrounded on three sides of Datong City, forming horns with each other. Viewed from a high altitude, it looks like a phoenix spreading its left wing, hence the name Phoenix City.
After the construction of the Three Passes, the emperors and ministers of the Ming Dynasty were still not at ease, so they 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, and two wings", a total of 6 extremely strong fortresses.
If you 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 post-Jin army that will appear near Datong Town, there is no other option but to starve or persuade them to surrender. , there is no third way to capture it.
Perhaps it was 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 after the Mongol Tumote Ten Thousand Houses outside the border wall of Datong gradually declined and completely gave up on joining the invaders, 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 in Datong Town...these descendants of the heroes who followed the founding heroes of the Ming Dynasty to sweep the north and Dingbian and revive the Han Dynasty have now lost their place. The courage of the Ming Dynasty in fighting. This was not a good thing for the Ming Dynasty or the Datong military and civilian officials themselves.
That's why Zhu Youjian asked Man Gui, the fierce general of Liao Town, 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 1,300,000 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 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 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 this is Datong... There are only 15,000 Liao troops in Manchuria and Guangxi, and the most effective servants among them are only more than 1,000.
These 15,000 Liao troops cannot all be placed in Datong City, because if they are concentrated in Datong City, the thousands-mile border wall of Datong Town will not be protected. Recently, there has been a chaos outside the Datong Border Wall. The tribes of the Uliangha Mongols who were dispersed by Hutu Dunhan are running around. 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 stationed them in Zhenlu Guard, Yanghe Guard, Datong Right Guard, Yulin Guard, Weiyuan Guard, Pinglu Guard, Yunchuan Guard, Settlement Guard and Gaoshan Guard. Relying on these scattered Liao soldiers was enough to deal with the small group 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, soldiers and military households in Datong Town be so easy to rectify? They are a group that has been together for more than 200 years. They have long been intertwined and have become an integrated entity. These groups may be centered around the local generals in Datong Town, such as the Ma family generals and the Ma family generals, or they may be the first group of dozens of military guards who have been inherited for more than 200 years to stay together for warmth; plus a group that is supposed to The Prince Dai's Mansion, which was guarding one side, had long since divided up the land of the guards, which was the basis of military force in Datong Military Town!
Without land, the military household system cannot be maintained. The lives of the soldiers in Datong Town are miserable and they are unwilling to join the army again. During the Jiajing period, because the town soldiers were unwilling to garrison the fortress far away, a large-scale Jiashen mutiny actually occurred, and the city of Datong was almost occupied.
The military recruitment system 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 period, the total amount of military pay (including military rations) in Datong Town was one million and several hundred thousand taels. Although it is impossible to pay them all, the actual military pay (military rations) sent to Datong Town every year is always around one million. Based on an average of thirty taels per soldier, Datong Town should have about thirty thousand soldiers. Coupled with the 15,000 Liao soldiers brought by Mangui (these Liao soldiers are temporarily paid from the additional Liao salaries and do not account for the local salaries in Datong), there should be 45,000 capable soldiers. Bar?
But in reality?
Not counting the Liao soldiers brought by Mangui, there are not even 5,000 local capable soldiers in Datong. Moreover, these combatants who can fight are basically the servants of lieutenants, generals, guerrillas and other generals. As for the serious camp soldiers... they only appear during military review.
After Man Gui took office, he counted the troops several times. Each time, there was a large crowd of cheering people. 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. Everyone has gone to work for their own lives... to reorganize? train? Not to mention doors, there are no windows! Even Man Gui has no way to get it. Because Man Gui is just a general military officer, and there is also a governor here in Datong! The governor is a civilian official, so he is more powerful than the general soldier! Above the governor there is Governor Xuanda! There is a group of courtiers above who share the military pay of Datong Town, and no one wants to take action.
And Man Gui himself is a veteran of the martial arts world. He comes from a military family in Xuanfu. He still doesn't know the rules?
If he dared to do something serious, there would have to be a military riot and he would be sent to Jinyiwei 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 on hand.
With these more than 10,000 soldiers, it is enough to deal with the 30,000 to 20,000 nomadic soldiers who invade the Han tribe. However, contrary to Mangui's expectation, Hutu Dunhan actually came out in force and broke through the Datong border wall in one fell swoop. He also set up a camp on Baishan Mountain 30 miles north of Datong City, and divided his troops into four groups to plunder... .
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 before, he was preparing to patrol the city when his general Fang Shekun flew into his hall with a look of embarrassment on his face. Confidence.
Mangui 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, "He... what does he do?"
Fang Shekun stamped his feet: "Long live my Lord! I am 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 Shekun 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... By the way, they also I brought back a father-in-law who claimed to be the Royal Horse Supervisor and the Eunuch Ji Yong!"
"Ji Yong?" Man Gui knew Ji Yong. They fought together in Jinzhou. "Where is his old man?"
"Our home is here!" Ji Yong's voice has come from outside, "Manzong Town, get ready to pick up the driver...Long live your Majesty's personal expedition, we are almost at Datong Nanguan!"
