At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, there were frequent wars in the Liaodong region. The people were displaced, the fields were barren, and the population was sparsely populated. When Shunzhi entered the Pass, in order to enable millions of Manchus to "enter the Pass through the dragon" and prevent them from looking back, the Qing soldiers also destroyed a large number of villages, towns, houses and fields.
At the same time, the Ming Dynasty continued to invest a lot of manpower, material resources, and financial resources for more than two hundred years to build intensive towns in Liaodong, "from Shanhaiguan to Kaiyuan, forming a fort within five miles and a castle within ten miles."
, the architectural system of one city within thirty miles" was destroyed in one day.
In 1644, Dorgon issued an order strictly prohibiting Han people from entering the "Longxing Land" in Manchuria to cultivate. The "ban" made the population of the Northeast even more sparse. The Manchu rulers regarded the Northeast as "the place where their ancestors made their mark and established their kings", and used the excuse to protect "
"Benefits of Participating in the Mountains and Pearl Rivers" historically implemented a policy of embargo on the Northeast for more than two hundred years.
In order to strictly enforce the "Customs Ban", starting from the Shunzhi period, the Qing government built more than a thousand kilometers of fences called "wicker sides" in Manchuria at all costs - the Great Wall of Manchuria, also known as the wicker side wall.
Wall, Liucheng, Tiaozibian. The Liuzhibian from Shanhaiguan to Kaiyuan, Xinbin to the south of Fengcheng is called "Old Bian"; the one from the northeast of Kaiyuan to the north of Jilin City is called "New Bian". Manchuria to the east of the border wall is strictly prohibited
It was cultivated across the border, and the west of the border wall was used as a pastureland for the Mongolian nobles, allies of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.
"If you look at the sea from the east and west of the river, you will see yellow sand everywhere and a desolate look...other than that, you can worry about other troubles..."
"...In terms of the area, although there are many castles in the east of Hedong, they are all wasteland...There are more castles in the west of Hexi, but the people are few and far between. The people in Duning are far away, Jinzhou, and Guangning. There is only one member of Zuo Ling, and I don't know how to cook in the place."
"Looking from the east and west of the Hehe River, you can see desolate cities and ruined castles, ruined tiles and ruined buildings. Thousands of miles of fertile wilderness, with no one to rely on, nothing to rely on. This is a very serious internal worry."
Regarding the desolation and desolation of the Liaodong region, Zhang Shangxian, the governor of Fengtian Prefecture of the Qing Dynasty, once wrote a memorial and described the above.
In his description, the entire territory of Fengtian is desolate. Only Fengtian (Shenyang), Liaoyang, and Haicheng have a slight appearance of state capitals and counties, but Liaoyang and Haicheng do not have city walls. However, Gaizhou and Fenghuang City have no city walls.
, Jinzhou and other places, but there are only a few hundred people. "Tieling, Fushun. There are only wandering people. They cannot farm and have no life and gatherings. Most of the singles have fled. Those with a small family will just die here, which is really not beneficial to the place."
.”
How desolate! Gaizhou, Fengcheng, and Jinzhou, which now have a population of one million or hundreds of thousands, only had "no more than a few hundred people" at that time. At that time, Tieling and Fushun had only exiled and migrant people who could not farm and were single.
Most of the people ran away.
It was in such a harsh and empty environment that the Ming army began to attack and plunder the Liaodong area. First of all, it was along the Yalu River. Fengcheng, Kuandian, Xiuyan, Huanren and other places were successively recovered, and they also used Ping'an North Road in North Korea as their base.
It was a place where troops could be stationed to recuperate, thereby forming a solid base that could be attacked when advancing and defended by the river when retreating. Although the Great War in the Central Plains made it difficult for the Ming army to continue to increase its troops in Liaodong, new soldiers recruited from the north were constantly brought in, and in Tieshan
, Longchuan, and Yanzhou conducted training, and there were already as many as 5,000 people.
Now that it has given up the intention of carrying out a large-scale landing near Jinzhou to annihilate the main force of the Qing Dynasty in the pass, the Ming army adopted the historical strategy of targeting the Northeast. That is to use Liaodong and Western Liaoning as two strategies.
In the direction of attack, two major strategic groups were formed to carry out a pincer attack on the Qing army in the northeast.
Now, the Liaodong strategic group took advantage of the empty Qing army to be established first. After solidifying its foundation, it took advantage of the navy and the opportunity of the Liaodong Qing army to gather along the Yalu River. Suddenly, both land and water came out. At Sanshanhaikou (now Sanshanhaikou)
Dalian area) landing. After defeating the few local Qing troops, more than 10,000 Ming troops dug trenches and built fortifications at the narrowest part of the peninsula, thus completely cutting off the Lushun area. Two thousand marines and three thousand main army troops were
Qi personally led the army and turned south to annihilate the Qing army in Lushun.
Although Lushun was the focus of the Qing army's defense, due to the limited troop strength, it was thousands of miles across the sea. Even if troops could not be stationed, lookouts and early warning posts had to be assigned. The area to be defended was too vast. Therefore, the garrison strength was only more than a thousand.
The total number of people, including family members, servants, etc., is only about three thousand.
Of course, in the traditional Chinese sense, Lushun is just an isolated city, thousands of miles behind enemy lines, but relying on the endless supplies sent from Denglai, it will be full of vitality and become a sharp knife in the belly of the Qing army in Liaodong. And with the help of
The Ming army's logistical capabilities now will never lead to the embarrassing situation of Dongjiang Town back then.
In fact, many Ming army generals are quite surprised by the manpower and material resources currently mobilized by the imperial court. At that time, Emperor Wanli was frantically searching for mineral taxes, commercial taxes, and porcelain mines. With these funds, he ensured the combat effectiveness of the frontier army, but he would also
A large number of craftsmen were forced to lose their families. Therefore, although Emperor Wanli won the illustrious military achievements of the "Three Major Conquests", he also left a bad reputation in history as "Wanli's harsh rule".
For people like Zhu Yongxing, who was able to implement policies that benefited farmers while also supplying various armies with food, wages and materials, it was indeed a bit unbelievable for people who did not have a deep understanding of the financial operations of the Ming Dynasty. The use of military force has been a famous saying since ancient times.
But obviously, while Zhu Yongxing was exploring all means to accumulate money and food, external plunder was also a key factor.
Without the Annan occupation area and the increasingly expanding Mekong and Ha Tien provinces, the food supply would not be able to meet the current demand.
"In the past three hundred years of our country, the remains of millions of our comrades are still outside the pass, but they still make the Tartars bigger and poison the north and south of the country. It is really heartbreaking." Yu Qi was riding on his horse, with the cold wind of late autumn blowing on his face.
He couldn't help but sigh with emotion, "Now that we have set foot on the land of Liaodong again, we are truly wise."
Long live the wise! This should be the most frequently used word for officials in feudal society. Well, no matter whether it is a big or small matter, as long as they can have something to do with the emperor, it seems that they don't hand over the hand and say "Long live the wise".
Not loyal enough.
Of course, Yu Qi's emotion was not without reason, and it was not just for flattery, but the imperial court, or the emperor Zhu Yongxing, who was equivalent to the imperial court in people's minds at the time, had indeed provided the army with commendable supplies of supplies.
Not to mention food and grass, in late autumn, the first batch of cotton-padded clothes had already arrived at the front line. For the soldiers of the Ming army fighting in the cold Liaodong region, this was not only a matter of gratitude, but it also enhanced their confidence in victory.
Although Gao Dejie, who also held the rank of general, only brought out more than 400 cavalry, they were not all part of the Seven Divisions, so Yu Qi was very polite when he spoke. At the same time, Yu Qi was very fond of these well-equipped cavalry.
I was so envious that I even had the urge to switch to the cavalry.
Gao Dejie has the same feeling as Yu Qi. There are no constraints from civilian officials, no need to worry about food and wages, no need to worry about weapons and equipment, and no need to worry about military supplies. Even military discipline is taken over by the Military Justice Department. Military generals only need to train their troops well and fight well. In this way
You will feel relaxed and can concentrate better.
"What General Yu said is absolutely true." Gao Dejie pointed to the armor of his men and said: "This is armor purchased from Xiyi. It costs a lot of money. Our army currently only has 400 armors. But the staff headquarters has
The report informed that in the future, 300 pieces of equipment will be paid every month. With such speed and financial resources, who else but Long Live can have this ability?"
Before the fourteenth century, iron armor in Western Europe, like other regions, was mainly chain armor, supplemented by scale armor and zhao armor. Plate armor in the true sense appeared in the early fifteenth century, with the technology and technology of forging large curved metals.
The great development of metallurgical technology laid the foundation for the integral armor of later generations.
Especially after 1400 AD, there was a major breakthrough in materials science, which was the invention of the blast furnace: the increase in combustion temperature made the emergence of cast iron possible (before that, block iron was used), and steel production was large.
On the other hand, the emergence of hydraulic forging machines, the development of metallurgical technology under the scientific guidance of the Renaissance, etc., laid the foundation for a leap in armor technology in this era, making the fifteenth century a time of great development in plate armor forming.
era.
Moreover, people soon discovered that the protective power of plate armor and the flexibility it brought to soldiers at the same weight were unmatched by other iron armors, and it also provided more convenient conditions for hot and cold processing. Whether it was chain armor or scale armor,
Because its components (small iron rings, armor pieces, etc.) are too small, the processing is extremely cumbersome, which is not only labor-intensive, but also difficult to process and strengthen.
By the 16th century, plate armor entered its heyday, effectively resisting the attacks of hot and cold weapons at that time. No matter early matchlocks, swords, spears, axes, or ancient crossbows, they could not effectively fight against plate armor. And plate armor was different from the British longbow.
Confrontation is considered a typical example of "shield" surpassing "spear".
But for now, as new matchlocks and flintlock muskets known as muskets are being spread into the hands of soldiers, plate armor has begun to decline in Europe. Because in the face of light and powerful muskets, well-made plate armor can indeed effectively resist
Delayed bullets penetrate the front, but the huge impact force often causes the guard plate to collapse and break. The unimpeded shock wave can also cause serious damage to the human body, which makes plate armor increasingly ineffective in actual combat.
It is precisely because of this that Zhu Yongxing was able to import plate armor from Britain and France at a relatively low price, and use the blast furnaces and forging presses in his own arsenal to process and manufacture imitations. Relatively speaking, the cost of manufacturing plate armor is lower than that of making scale armor.
Armor and mail are lower and the craftsmanship is simpler.
Of course, absorption and introduction are not all. Since the horses ridden by the Ming and Qing armies were all Mongolian horses weighing 200 to 300 kilograms rather than the big Arabian horses of 600 to 700 kilograms, the armor protection of the horses was inconvenient.
They can only wear a few pieces of light armor. At the same time, after repeated trials, in order to reduce weight and improve mobility, the Ming army cavalry was not equipped with full body armor, but only equipped with helmets with masks, breastplates, and arm guards.
Even so, the protective power of Ming army cavalry is generally higher than that of Qing soldiers. Even the cavalry who are not equipped with half plate armor for the time being are wearing good armor captured in battles in various places. For bows and arrows that require heavy protection, such armor is still
It can play a big role.
…………(To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novel will be better and updated faster!