This article is from the official account: Earth Knowledge Bureau (ID: diqiuzhishiju) , Author: kelp, drawing from the title: TV drama “Ming Fenghua”
At the end of the nineteenth year of Ming Shenzong Wanli(1591), the Ming court intercepted the Japanese Guan Bai Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who would invade North Korea in the following year and then ” False Daovaming” intelligence.
Liu Jiwen, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, proposed to mobilize the Portuguese in Macau to serve for the celestial dynasty, so that he would go straight to the Japanese pirates’ lair, capture Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and end the troubles forever.
The Portuguese fought against the Ming army on the southeast coast. Fujian and Guangdong officials knew that their ships were strong, powerful and cunning. But let the “Australia” go to fight with the Japanese pirates, and Daming would sit back and enjoy the success. This was too big a brain hole, no one from the court took it seriously, and finally it was nothing.
But at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the world was in chaos, the north was full of flames, and the “Folang Jihei Fan” who lived in the corner of the South China Sea was still unable to stay out of the matter.
1. The pain of Saerhu
Twenty years after the end of the Wanli Korean War, the Later Jin mobilized troops to conquer the Ming, and the battle of Saerhu was an elite field battle that wiped out the entire world with the power of the world.
I thought it was a northeast chief in Changbai Mountain
Unexpectedly, the border defense of Daming Jiliao is already so riddled with flaws▼
Although the Liaodong Ming Army is generally equipped with firearms. However, the Jin army was on the battlefield, and every time the heavy armored infantry assault was covered by the pallet. The Oldest Three in the Ming Arms Vault-BuddhaLangji guns, bird guns, and three-eyed guns are limited by range, rate of fire, and firepower density, and are not as lethal as the bows and arrows of the Eight Banners soldiers. The archer can shoot five to six arrows in one shot. The gunner was shot at odds and ends by the strong bow behind the cart before the second reload.
The Franco machine gun car recorded in the “Car Blast” ▼
This weapon is not unique to Daming, and Japan also has construction technology
Similarly, Houjin can also be copied by the abducted Han
(Picture: wikipedia)▼
Even if the Ming Army had firearms, once the firepower was insufficient, the Eight Banners iron cavalry watching from the periphery immediately launched an assault, and the electric light and flint room had already reached the front. What’s more, the Ming army is often out of battle, with many logistical loopholes, and the effective ratio of firearms is quite worrying. This gap and embarrassment has become the biggest motivation for the Ming army to upgrade its equipment and improve its tactics.
Besides, regardless of whether the Ming Army prepares or notUpgrade
Jurchen people have already targeted Shenyang Liaoyang and are waiting to move westward
(base map: NASA)▼
Xu Guangqi, who was in love with Western technology in the imperial court, was training troops in the capital at this time and knew the ills of the Ming army. He pointedly pointed out that with the current equipment and combat power of the Ming army, the defense of the city with firearms can still support it; but the formation of an attack and a confused battle with the Jin army is tantamount to suicide.
Scientists pay attention to seeking truth from facts
Weapons and war are very objective things
No way, no way, if you can’t hit it, you can’t hit it
(Picture: wikipedia@Kircher, Athanasius, 1602-1680)▼
The prescription he prescribed is also simple and straightforward-the introduction of the red barbarian cannons with longer range and greater power, attached to the western bastion-like enemy platform, the castles are horns to each other, and the “building of slaves” comes to commit crimes. The cannon fires.” The Eight Banners soldiers can fight again, horizontallyCan’t fly to the city.
Just let the cannon fire on the fucking mother
(Picture: wikipedia)▼
The Hongyi Cannon is a general term for the heavy front-loaded smoothbore guns imported from Europe at that time. In the middle of Wanli, residents in the southeast coast saw the terrifying power of this giant artillery “cracking the stone city and shaking ten miles” on the Dutch warships. In the Ming Dynasty, the Netherlands was called “Red Barbarians” or “Red Barbarians”, so the same type of system The Western artillery cannons are collectively referred to as “Hongyi Cannons”.
The following year after the Battle of Saerhu, Li Zhizao, who was also a believer in Western learning, was commissioned by Xu Guangqi to send his disciples Zhang Tao and Sun Xueshi to Macau in private to buy artillery.
In order to show good wishes to the Ming Dynasty, under the operation of the church in Macau, Portuguese merchants raised funds to purchase 4 cannons, which was regarded as a sponsorship to the Ming Emperor. Zhang Tao also hired 4 Portuguese gunners, 6 attendants and translators. Xu was generously paid to prepare a cannon for liberation to return to Beijing.
If they go to Beijing smoothly and are formally appointed by Xu Guangqi as instructors in the artillery camp, these Portuguese soldiers will become the first European mercenaries in 200 years of the Ming Dynasty.
Macao in 1598, due to its relatively friendly relationship with the Ming Dynasty government
The Portuguese have a durable and stable trade position in China
Naturally spare no effort to invest in government relations
(Picture from: wikipedia@Theodor de Bry )▼
However, the heavenly grace is unpredictable. In the first year of Taichang (1620) in October, a group of people arrived in Guangzhou from Macau. As there is no official formalities, the Guangzhou authorities prohibit foreign artillery from entering the city. This smug little unit was sent back to the village without even receiving its first month’s salary.
At that time, there was no artificial land in Macau
It is much smaller than it is now, and it is completely a village (trade post)
(base image: shutter@Aquatic Images)▼
However, due to personnel changes in Beijing, Xu Guangqi resigned due to illness. These cannons may be unaccepted when they are shipped to Beijing. At this time, Zhang and Sun had just escorted the cannon to Guangxin Mansion in Jiangxi Province (Shangrao). They had no evidence of advance and retreat, so they had to store the cannon in Guangxin .
Just as Zhang and Sun were delaying Guangxin for helplessness, Nurhachi’s soldiers had already approached the city of Shenyang.
II. General Hongyi
In March of the first year of the Apocalypse(1620), the Later Jin successively broke Shenyang and Liaoyang, and all east of the Liaohe River was lost. The four cannons in Guangxin were not transported to Beijing until December of that year, and one of them was immediately sent to Shanhaiguan.
The strength of Houjin is now obvious
It is definitely not an ordinary barbarian chieftain, at least it will not stop before Shanhaiguan
(base map: NASA)▼
After seeing the true appearance of the Hongyi Cannon, under the intervention of Emperor Tianqi, the process of “purchasing western guns and recruiting artillery” was accelerated. At the same time, the court finally remembered that Guangdong local officials had salvaged dozens of British red cannons from European sunken ships offshore Haikang and Yangjiang counties last year. They can be used as usual after a little modification.
So Zhang and Sun were once again ordered to go south to retrieve the cannons and recruit Portuguese artillery.
17th century English navy for East Asian civilization
Still within the scope of imitating learning
After another one or two hundred years, the gap will become bigger and bigger, and it will be crushed directly
(painter: Willem van de Velde the Younger 1633–1707)▼
Macao is responding to the threat from the Dutch at this time. If Daming’s urgent need can be resolved, it will also help persuade the Guangdong authorities to relax restrictions on Macao’s arms expansion, and this can also help Portuguese businessmen to fight for more in Macao in the future. right. This is a win-win opportunity.
Therefore, despite the shortage of troops, the Portuguese still mobilized 24 officers, artillery and entourage for the Ming Court to drive (Of course, Ming Court gave The salary is also attractive enough).
In April of the third year of the Apocalypse, 24 Portuguese soldiers and 26 cannons arrived in Beijing. The Ministry of Defense selected strong soldiers in the Beijing camp and learned artillery skills from the Portuguese soldiers. After completing their studies, they were assigned to various border positions to form artillery battalions.
Not to mention field battles, at least let the cities in the Liaoxi Corridor be generally equipped with artillery
Houjin does not have Italian artillery, it is difficult to gnaw down the artillery fortress
(Photo: PaolaV1 / Shutterstock)▼
But the Portuguese are still unlucky.
The heroes will come out one by one when they are strong
Da Ming’s Yuan Chonghuan killed one and one less
(Nurhachi and Huangtaiji)▼
III. Dengzhou Sudden Change
One year later, the Ming army once again defeated the Jin army with the Jiancheng cannon in the Battle of Ningjin. Yuan Chonghuan’s Ningjin line of defense was unbreakable, and later Jin did not dare to take the front line.
Inspired by the two great victories, Emperor Chongzhen continued his practice of purchasing artillery from Macau after he succeeded.
In the first year of Chongzhen(1628) In October, the Macao officer Gongsha Desilao led 32 people to carry 10 cannons and other fires. Several guns set off for Beijing. Also with the team was Lu Ruohan, a Portuguese missionary in his seventies. However, there are only 7 Portuguese in this team, and the others are from the Portuguese colonies in India and Africa.
The group of people trekking through the mountains and rivers for a year before they walked to Jining, Shandong, just in time for Huang Taiji to lead his army through Horqin Mongolia, breaking the Xifeng Pass and entering the pass, surrounding the capital. After hearing the inquiry, the Gongsha troops drove around the clock and almost ran into the Jin Army in Liangxiang County, southwest of the capital.
As Houjin can bypass Mongolia and go south, the Great Wall has been breached many times
The whole area except BeijingHebei region was ravaged tragically
As a result, the economy around the capital is declining, and it is more completely dependent on southern supplies
(base map: NASA)▼
Both sides did not know what was false for a while, the Portuguese soldiers retreated to Zhuozhou, and fired artillery on the city to frighten the Golden Army. Hearing the familiar “cracking” sound of the Hongyi Cannon, the Jin Army dared not love the battle and retreated north. Gongsha troops were trapped in Zhuozhou for more than a month, and did not arrive in Beijing until after the capital was released.
This time scaring off the Golden Army has also become the capital for the Portuguese soldiers to show off. Lu Ruohan even intends to complete a larger plan: recruit hundreds of Portuguese soldiers to form an army, as a pioneer to go out and recover the Liaotu.
This plan is a bit crazy. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the government’s accumulated malpractices were like mountains, which could not be solved by hundreds of people and dozens of guns. But since the Portuguese are determined to repay, and the cost is still acceptable, Emperor Chongzhen is also happy to see the result.
Same as the previous two times, the recruitment process went smoothly. In September of the third year of Chongzhen, a large corps of more than 400 people had already embarked from Macau.
However, the tarsus-like maggots within the Ming Court caused this unprecedented scale of overseas recruitment plans to die midway.
When Lu Ruohan led the team to Nanchang, the court changed its plan and decreed to stop calling Portuguese soldiers to Beijing. The team was dissolved on the spot, and the wages that had already been paid…no more.
From Xu Guangqi’s first purchase of artillery to recruit soldiers, the voice against Portuguese soldiers’ entry into Beijing has never ceased. In addition to clichés such as “it is unpredictable”, it is also mixed with the interests of Guangdong local officials. Macao affairs are handled by Guangdong with full powers, and the Portuguese establish direct contact with Beijing, and the Guangdong authorities may lose this monopoly position, and naturally there will be fewer opportunities to invade the fish. Therefore, the Guangdong-born Beijing official attacked Xu Guangqi as hard work.
Emperor Chongzhen was stubborn and suspicious,Under the entanglement of discussions, halfway abandonment has become the norm.
After Lu Ruohan returned to Beijing, he and Gongsha troops stationed in Dengzhou (Penglai). During the period, Gongsha joined the navy of the Ming army to participate in the sea battle on Phi Island and returned with a great victory.
Although the Ming Ting introduced the Portuguese soldiers as technical talents, the daily work of the Portuguese soldiers was mainly to practice artillery and train gunners. They almost never participated in the battle. The only time they fought hard, the opponent was trained by themselves. Ming army out.
In September of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Kong Youde, a Liao general under the command of Denglai governor Sun Yuanhua, launched a rebellion in Wuqiao, and returned to attack Dengzhou after raging northwestern Shandong. The Liao soldiers inside and outside the city of Dengzhou turned back one after another. Gongsha led his troops to fight back. 12 people were killed and 15 were seriously injured. At the critical moment of life and death, Father Lu led the remaining Portuguese soldiers to jump off the city wall and escape, so that the army would not be wiped out.
It took the Ming army 18 months to barely defeat the Kong Youde rebels. Kong Youde had nowhere to go. After crossing the sea and surrendering, Jin took away more than 20 red cannons and a team of Portuguese-trained artillery, allowing Houjin to accidentally overtake corners on firearms. However, the Ming army lost only a little advantage over Houjin, and the “Liao incident” was so destructive.
Six months later, Xu Guangqi died of illness. The overseas recruitment of troops has since died of politics.
References:
1. (Ming Dynasty) Xu Guangqi. Collection of Xu Guangqi, Part I. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1963.12.
2. (Qing Dynasty) Six Wonders. Northlight in Ming Dynasty. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2006.07.
3. Sun Wenliang, Li Zhiting. A brief history of the Ming and Qing wars. Beijing: China Renmin University Press, 2012.10.
4. Zhang Xiaoqing. The Import and Influence of Western Artillery in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Qing History Research Collection No. 4. Chengdu: Sichuan People’s Publishing House, 1986.06.< /p>
5. Dong Shaoxin, Huang Yinong. A new examination of the recruitment of Portuguese soldiers during the Chongzhen period[J]. Historical Research, 2009, (No. 5).
6. Huang Yinong. European shipwreck and the Western artillery that spread to China in the late Ming Dynasty[J]. Collection of the Institute of History and Language, Academia Sinica, 2004, (No. 3).< /span>
7. Huang Yinong. The defeat of the Battle of Sa’er Hu in the late Ming Dynasty and the introduction of Western artillery[J]. Collection of History and Language Research Institute, Academia Sinica, 2008, (No. 3 Period).
8. Ouyang Chen, Fang Zhiyuan. A study on the acquisition of Portuguese soldiers from the Western Artillery in the late Ming Dynasty[J].文史,2006,(4th issue).< /p>
9.Liu Hongliang. An overview of the power of the Hongyi Cannon in the Ming and Qing Dynasties[J]. Journal of Henan University of Science and Technology (Social Science Edition), 2003, (1st Issue).< /span>
This article is from the official account: Earth knowledge Bureau (ID: diqiuzhishiju) , author: kelp