Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Northern Frontier Army
readx;???? There is no actual exact description of the number of the Northern Legion of the Great Qin Empire, but it is more based on the fact that Qin Shi Huang ordered Meng Tian to lead an army of 300,000 to fight the Xiongnu in the Yinshan Battle in Hetao. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
But in such a situation, there are two very serious omissions, that is, whether these 300,000 people participated in the Battle of Hetao or the approximate number of troops garrisoned by the Great Qin Empire on the northern border?
Zhang Jiashi learned one thing, that is, the total strength of the Northern Army of the Great Qin Empire at that time was indeed around 300,000. However, Meng Tian did not use 300,000 troops in the Battle of Yinshan in Hetao.
The reason is very simple, because Meng Tian led an army of 300,000 to defeat the Xiongnu in the Battle of Yinshan in Hetao, which is not in line with reality.
The arming of the Northern Army of the Great Qin Empire was mainly based on the Great Wall of Qin.
The Great Wall of Qin is not a very short distance, Qin Shi Huang 33 years (214 BC) sent the general Meng Tian to the north to drive the Xiongnu, and west from Gansu Lintao (now Lintao Xintian Town 30 Dun Village Wang'er Tsui), east to Liaodong to build the Great Wall more than 10,000 miles, in order to prevent the Xiongnu from advancing south, known as the Great Wall of Qin. This Great Wall of Qin was built on the basis of the Great Wall of Qin, Zhao and Yan during the original Warring States Period.
That is to say, the distance of the Great Wall of Qin is so long, and the defensive forces allocated in an area are actually not much.
If Meng Tian fought with the Huns in the Hetao area with an army of 300,000, then it would be equivalent to concentrating the garrison of the entire Qin Great Wall, and such a situation was naturally impossible.
Because not to mention the defense problems of the corresponding region, and besides, this long-distance transfer of troops is simply out of place, and there are few people who are stupid enough to concentrate forces at such a long distance to start a war. After all, just waiting for the time for these troops to gather, the Huns might be able to kill a few back and forth in Shangjun or even on the periphery of the Xianyang area.
In addition, there is another interesting comparison, that is, the approximate number of northern border garrisons in the past dynasties in the Qingyu Spirit Book:
In the pre-Qin period, Qin, Zhao, Yan and even in the Jin period, after the construction of the Great Wall, the garrison troops were basically not less than 50,000, especially according to the corresponding records of the Great Wall of Zhao, the garrison of the Great Wall of Zhao was not less than 100,000.
Li Mu was a good general on the northern border of the Zhao State. Long-term garrison in Yanmen County, on behalf of the Xiongnu. He had the right to appoint officials as needed, and the taxes of the cities in the defense area were sent to Li Mu's shogunate as funds for the army. He slaughtered a few cows every day to reward the soldiers, taught the soldiers to practice archery and horseback riding, carefully guarded the beacon tower, sent more personnel to reconnoiter the enemy's situation, and treated the soldiers well. The rules were drawn up and said: "If the Xiongnu invade, they must quickly gather their men and horses and retreat into the camp to hold on, and dare to capture the enemy's beheading." "Every time the Xiongnu invaded, the beacon fire came with an alarm, and they immediately gathered their men and horses and retreated into the camp to hold on, not daring to fight. After several years like this, there was no loss of people and materials. However, the Xiongnu thought that Li Mu was cowardly, and even the officers and soldiers guarding the border of Zhao State thought that their main general was timid and cowardly. King Zhao blamed Li Mu, but Li Mu remained the same. King Zhao was furious, recalled him, and sent someone else to lead the army on his behalf.
For more than a year after that, every time the Xiongnu came to invade, they sent troops to fight. Troops were sent to fight, and they were repeatedly defeated, with many casualties, and it was impossible to plow fields and graze cattle on the border. King Zhao had no choice but to ask Li Mu to serve again. Li Mu closed the door and insisted that he was sick. King Zhao repeatedly forced Li Mu to come out and let him lead the troops. Li Mu said: "The king must use me, and I still do it as before, so I dare to obey orders." King Zhao agreed to his request.
Li Mu came to the border, and still in accordance with the original regulations. The Xiongnu found nothing for several years, but they always thought that Li Mu was timid. The officers and soldiers on the border are rewarded every day, but they are useless, and they are willing to fight. So Li Mu prepared 1,300 selected chariots, 13,000 selected horses, 50,000 warriors who dared to charge into battle, and 100,000 soldiers who were good at shooting, all of which were organized to train and fight. At the same time, a large number of livestock were grazed everywhere, and the grazing people were all over the mountains. When a small group of Xiongnu invaded, Li Mu pretended to fail and deliberately abandoned thousands of people to the Xiongnu. When he heard this, he led a large number of men and horses to invade. Li Mubu ordered many strange soldiers, opened his left and right wings to outflank and counterattack the enemy, defeated the Xiongnu, and killed more than 100,000 horses. Wiped out the scarf, defeated Donghu, surrendered Linhu, and fled. For more than ten years after that, the Xiongnu did not dare to approach the border towns of Zhao.
The above is about the number of garrisons in Li Mu's period, the number of troops mobilized by Li Mu alone exceeded 150,000, so it can be seen that the number of garrisons in the north of Yan, Zhao and Qin at that time was not less than 250,000, which was the lowest defensive force, and the actual situation was likely to be more.
Of course, if we extrapolate from the corresponding length of the Great Wall of the Three Kingdoms, the number of border garrisons during this period is likely to reach 400,000 or even more.
The number of garrisons on the Great Wall of Han is also not accurately recorded, but it is not without clues.
Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, led an army of 300,000 to Baishan Mountain to be trapped, and these 300,000 troops should be basically directly under Liu Bang's Central Army. In this description and in the same direction of the Han Dynasty's feudal system at that time, Liu Bang's Han army garrisoned a small number of troops on the Great Wall during this period, because the areas of Taiyuan, Zhao and Yan at that time could be regarded as princely feudal states.
In this case, it can be seen that Liu Bang should not have transferred the garrisons in the original Shangjun and Longxi counties, otherwise the number of troops would be more.
After Han Wangxin and Yan King Lu Juan were expelled one after another, the Han Dynasty took more of these feudal lands into the ownership of the central government.
In the spring of the sixth year of Gaozu of the Han Dynasty (201 years ago), Liu Bang believed that Han Wangxin was strong and brave, and the fief Yingchuan was close to Gongxian and Luoyang in the north, Wanxian and Yexian in the south, and Huaiyang in the east, which were all strategic places in the world, so he ordered Han Wangxin, the king of Han, to move to the north of Taiyuan to prevent resistance to the Xiongnu and build the capital Jinyang. Han Wangxin wrote: "My feudal country is close to the border, the Xiongnu have invaded many times, and Jinyang is far away from the border, please allow me to build the capital Mayi." Liu Bang agreed, and Han Wangxin moved the capital to Mayi. 、
In the autumn of that year, the Xiongnu Maodun Shan Yu surrounded Han Wangxin, and Han Wangxin sent envoys to the Xiongnu many times to sue for peace. The Han Dynasty sent people to lead troops to the rescue, but suspected that Han Wangxin had sent envoys privately many times, and had the intention of betraying the Han Dynasty, so he sent people to reproach Han Wangxin. Han Wangxin was afraid of being killed, so he agreed with the Xiongnu to jointly attack the Han Dynasty, rebelled, took out the national capital Mayi and surrendered to the Xiongnu, and led the army to attack Taiyuan.
In the seventh year of Gaozu (200 years ago), when he was the prime minister, he went to Beijing to meet Liu Bang. Because he was Han Shin's subordinate in the past, he also went to meet Han Shin. Han Xin introduced the secret room and said to Chen Xuan: "You can get this important task today because you have the trust of the emperor, but Your Majesty is suspicious by nature, if one person accuses you of rebellion, Your Majesty may not believe it, if many people accuse you of rebellion, Your Majesty will be suspicious, I am afraid that your disaster is coming." If one day you are forced to rebel, I will help you in the capital. ”
Later, as expected, because Chen Xuan had many guests and was in charge of the military alone for several years, Gao Zu really suspected that something would happen. He ordered people to track down the illegal affairs of Chen Xuan's guests, many of which implicated Chen Xuan. Chen Feng was very frightened, and secretly sent guests to Wang Huang and Manqiuchen to communicate the news.
In July of the tenth year of Gaozu (197 BC), Emperor Taishang died, and Liu Bang sent someone to summon Chen Feng to Beijing, but Chen Feng excused himself on the grounds that he was seriously ill. In September, he rebelled with Wang Huang and others, established himself as the acting king, and Liu Bang personally recruited the soldiers. During this period, Han Xin did not follow Liu Bang on the grounds of illness, and he was also suspected of responding to Chen Xuan's measures in Beijing, and was secretly told by his subordinates that he was killed in Changle Palace by Empress Lu and Xiao He, and wiped out the three clans. In the winter of the eleventh year of Gaozu (196 BC), the Han soldiers beheaded Chen Xuan's generals Hou Chang and Wang Huang Yu Qu Rebellion, and broke the general Zhang Chun in Liaocheng and beheaded more than 10,000 people. Taiwei Zhou Bo marched to pacify Taiyuan and Dai County. In the winter of the twelfth year of Gaozu, Chen Xuan himself was killed by Fan Xujun in Lingqiu.
In the eleventh year of the Han Dynasty (196 B.C.), Lu Juan rebelled with Chen Xuan, and when Liu Bang attacked Lu Juan, he swore with the minister: "Those who are not the king of the Liu family, if they do not do what they do, the world will punish them." "It's for the White Horse Alliance. With Fan Hao and Zhou Bo attacking Lu Juan, capturing Shanggu, Yuyang, Youbeiping, Liaoxi, Liaodong and other counties, Lu Juan and his family ran to the Xiongnu.
It can be seen that because Liu Bang implemented the sub-feudal system, the defense of the Great Wall of the Han Dynasty at that time was mainly responsible for Lu Xuan, Chen Feng and Han Wangxin. Although Chen Feng is just the minister of state, the previous acting king Liu Zhong fled back to Chang'an because of the Xiongnu's attack on Daiguo and was punished by Liu Bang, so Chen Feng in this period is actually like a acting king, and actually controls the fief of Daiguo.
And in terms of the fact that the three of them have the ability to rebel against Liu Bang, the military strength under their command must not be weak.
Therefore, even if one person has 100,000 troops, even in the early Han Dynasty, the garrison of the Han Dynasty on the border of the Great Wall was not less than 400,000, and possibly even more.
Moreover, compared with the Qin Empire, the Han Empire during this period lost Henan and a considerable part of the border areas, and this garrison is actually more likely to be a redundant army.
However, this may also be related to the fact that when the Han Empire was first established, the combat effectiveness of the army was dragged down by the decline of national strength and had to be increased.
After that, the Ming Dynasty, the last of the Great Wall areas as a defense against the northern frontier, is used to illustrate:
The Ming Dynasty set up military defense lines along the Great Wall to ensure the security of the Central Plains. From the easternmost Liaodong Town to the westernmost Gansu Town, there are nine important military towns, known as the "Nine Sides" in history. The nine important military towns are Liaodong Town, Jizhou Town, Xuanfu Town, Datong Town, Shanxi Town, Yansui Town, Ningxia Town, Guyuan Town, and Gansu Town.
There is still no more accurate statement about the overall number of the nine-sided garrison in the Ming Dynasty, but according to the statistics of Jiajingjian Jinshi Huo Ji: "The original number of 135,778 officers and soldiers in this town is 83,815 officers and soldiers, except for those who fled during the festival." The original number of horses was 51,654, and in addition to the loss of the festival year, there were 23,177 horses. ”
It can be seen that the corresponding number of military strength of the Ming Dynasty in the nine-sided important towns should be far more than a more general description, that is, it has reached two-thirds of the military strength of the Ming Dynasty, and it is very likely that it has reached three-quarters.
However, if we talk about the evolution of the nine sides of the Ming Dynasty, in the late Ming Dynasty, the town of Liaodong on the nine sides became the focus of border defense in the Ming Dynasty.
Because of the re-rise of the Jurchens, the Ming Dynasty was forced to continuously repair and improve the defense system of the Great Wall of Liaodong Town, and Liaodong Town became the town with the most financial, material and military resources in the late Ming Dynasty. After the Later Jin changed the name of the country to "Qing", they launched several large-scale campaigns against the Ming Dynasty and occupied most of the land in Liaodong. After the Battle of Songjin, the Ming Dynasty's forces in Liaodong were basically wiped out, and they were unable to fight with the Qing army again, and retreated to Shanhaiguan.
In order to cope with the continuous invasion of the Jurchens in the decades of the rise of the Jurchens, the strength of the Ming Dynasty's nine sides and national strength were also continuously depleted on the land of Liaodong.
Especially in terms of the corresponding troop movements in the Battle of Salhu and the Battle of Songshan, Liaodong Town gradually became the focus of the Ming Dynasty's nine sides.
During the Battle of Sarhu, the Ming army mobilized as follows: about 30,000 cavalry were dispatched in the three towns of Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi; about 25,000 troops were dispatched in Yansui Town, Ningxia Town, Gansu Town, and Guyuan Town; about 20,000 troops were dispatched in Sichuan, Guangdong, Shandong, Shaanxi, Beizhili, and Nanzhili; and 4,000 infantry troops were dispatched in Zhejiang. and eighty-one thousand.
In the Battle of Songshan, Hong Chengchou led an army of 130,000 troops from Ningyuan and adopted the strategy of "establishing a salary road, taking it step by step, advancing while fighting, and relieving the siege of Jinzhou". However, Hong Chengchou's army was slow to move, and it took six months from the time he was appointed to the time he was dispatched, and it was about 100 miles from Ningyuan to Songshan, during which time there was a delay of another four months. After Hong Chengchou's troops arrived in Songshan, he set up a large camp in order to forge ahead.
It can be seen that the national strength of the Ming Dynasty was indeed in a serious decline because of the vicious circle of internal and external troubles.
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And having said all that, no matter what dynasty is concerned, their northern garrison is never a single army, but a collective name for hundreds of thousands of large army divisions on the vast border.
The Northern Frontier Army under Meng Tian is naturally no exception.
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Su Jiao knew that although Zhang Jiashi had built a new Northern Frontier Army of the Great Qin Empire, more than that, this army was the crystallization of his hard work for several years, and he naturally didn't want to see that his soldiers would lose too much because of this battle.
Zhang Jiashi does have corresponding orders, and he is not the kind of person who can't tell the importance of things, and at such a time, for Su Jiao, it is not yet the time for him to play with these Huns.
Moreover, in terms of the configuration of his troops, Su Jiao was still a little worried that the Huns would really come to a dead end when they were forced too urgently by him.
This kind of situation is not what Su Jiao wants to see. So in Su Jiao's heart, such a situation must be cautious.