The garrison of the county seat of the Ming Dynasty

【Archer & Catcher】

In the first year of Hongwu, it was decided that "each prefecture and county shall take the autumn grain as the amount, and above 100,000 stones, there shall be 15 guards, 10 forbidden sons, and 30 archers; On top of 50,000 stones, there were only thirteen, eight forbidden sons, and thirty archers; Under 50,000 stones, there were only 10 waiters, 7 forbidden sons, and 30 archers. ”

According to the local autumn harvest grain production set the corresponding troops, stationed in the county government to guard, the archers, in addition to the county also has a patrol department, each division also has dozens to hundreds of archers.

The inspection department has one inspector and one deputy inspector, all of whom are from the nine products, supervising and leading the archers, "specializing in interrogating spies, deserting the army, fleeing prisoners, prohibiting illegal salt, and patrolling and arresting thieves."

Not every county has an inspection department, and some counties do not; Moreover, their number and density vary greatly from one to several counties.

After Hongzhi, the inspection department did more layoffs, and the end of the Ming Dynasty was less than half of the beginning.

In addition to guarding the yamen, the county archers also have an important duty to patrol criminals. The primary duty of the archers of the Inspection Division is to set up checkpoints on the main roads, interrogate the past, and check the quotations.

Secondly, if there are thieves in the locality, the inspection department also has the obligation to hunt down and exterminate them.

After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, there was a fast hand in the yamen to arrest criminals.

Kuaishou, also known as fast arrest, should be arrested, and captured, served in the county government, and was responsible for arresting criminals.

Jiajing's "Xiajin County Chronicles" Volume 3:

Twenty Kuaishou - Catcher; One hundred and fifty-five people of the people - the guard; Twenty-five archers - Commander.

【Minzhuang】

Minzhuang, also known as the machine soldier, is a local militia established by the government after the middle of the Ming Dynasty.

The difference between an archer and a mecha is that the former is responsible for hunting down thieves, while the latter is responsible for defending the city and exterminating the rebels.

"Archers, the ancestral system is used to ridicule, if the war is not their exclusive duty; The machine soldiers, because of the disadvantages of the guards, and the counties are also guards. ”

The militia of the Ming Dynasty can be traced back to the first establishment of the militia Wanhu Mansion in Hongwu, and the people of the simple and brave people formed a team to practice in time, and they were used to fight when they had something to do, and they returned to the people when they were calm.

But it really became a permanent local militia, starting from the orthodox side.

After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the combat effectiveness of the regular army was greatly reduced, and the border situation was urgent, so the militia had to be recruited.

In the seventh year of Hongzhi, there was a major change, abolishing recruitment, establishing the law of people's strengthening, and organizing them according to the lijia, so that the people's strength became a kind of service.

Let each state and county select a person who must be over 20 years old and under 50 years old, and those who are seven or eight hundred miles away, two for each mile; those who are 500 miles, three for each mile; those who are 300 miles, four for each mile; Those who are more than 100 miles shall have five for each mile.

Spring, summer and autumn are exercised twice a month, and three times in winter are exercised, and the police are mobilized, and the official gives food, and the rest is according to the first year of Tianshun.

In the 22nd year of Jiajing, the number of people in the county was increased, and the quota was no longer based on the number of miles under the jurisdiction of the state and county, but according to the size of the state and county, the number of people in the large county was 6 or 700, and the small one was 500.

Minzhuang is under the control of a member of the chief officer or chieftain, and is mainly responsible for the defense of the city in peacetime, and once there are bandits or foreign troubles in the territory, the governor, the second officer, and the chief are obliged to personally lead the militia to fight.

【Fire Armor】

"History of the Ming Dynasty" volume 281 Li Ji's biography:

Ji Xuande served as the prefect of Henan for five years, "There are many thieves in Henan, and Ji is set up with fire armor." If a house is stolen, one will be paid, and the offender will sign his door as 'the thief's house'. ”

The six counties of Tingzhou Prefecture in Fujian Province have also set up fire armor in Tianshun.

In addition, Jiangxi, Guangdong and other provinces have appeared after the orthodoxy.

The duty of fire armor is "to protect the place, patrol thieves, and there is no room for other differences".

The general A, the small A, and the fireman, "are the number of local fire thieves", and their duties are to patrol more and report to the police in a timely manner in case of fire and bandits, and at the same time have the responsibility of catching thieves and thieves.

There is one person in the first class and five firemen every day, and they are sent along the door wheel. The rich hire people, and the poor work for themselves. There are gongs and drums, there are bells, there are lanterns and torches, people hold a device, and people are worth a watch. People are forbidden to walk at three o'clock on the first watch, and people are allowed to walk at three o'clock on the fifth watch. There are more pavings to shelter from rain and snow, and to detain prisoners.

【Armor Protection】

After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the armor protection system was gradually implemented, and there was a tendency to replace the fire armor security function.

In some places, fire armor is used in the city, and armor is protected in the countryside. In the city of Wanping County, Beizhili has a general armor and a fireman, and the countryside implements a armor protection system.

During the Zhengde period, Wang Shouren patrolled Nanjiang, in order to suppress the peasant uprising, he created ten brand laws, which were implemented in Fuzhou County, marking the formal formation of the armor protection system in the Ming Dynasty.

The Ten Households Law takes ten households as a unit, and reports the situation of each household to the officials, so that the government can grasp the local situation in detail, and if there is a problem, the ten families sit together to facilitate the maintenance of law and order.

At the same time, the ten cards also have the functions of education and litigation. Later, Wang Shouren added the chief of the Baojia on the basis of the ten brands, so that the Baojia Law was implemented in many places in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. The typical one is to take ten families as one and set up a chief: ten a guarantee and a chief of security; Some also take the ten guarantees as a group and set up a regiment leader.

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To sum up, [Archers and Catchers] + [Minzhuang] + [Fire Armor] + [Armor] can be seen that there is a huge disparity in the strength of each large and small county, and if there are sufficient events, give the county commander and others to dispatch, and hundreds or thousands of defenders can be organized.

In the fourth year of Chongzhen (1631), when the rebel army arrived in Gaoping County, Lu Guoguang, the magistrate of the county, organized and trained the militia, led his family and relatives to resist the rebel army, and designed various artillery and stone mechanisms on the city wall to inspect day and night.

In the fifth year of Chongzhen (1632), the rebel army led by Zijin Liang, Lao Wandering, and Ba King Kong attacked Qinshui Douzhuang, at that time, because Zhang Daojun of Jinyi Wei was impeached at home, as a gentleman of Hongxiang, when the rebels attacked Hongxiang, he took the lead in leading his family and family to resist foreign invasion, and actively cooperated with Song Tongyin, the governor of Shanxi, to suppress the rebel army.

It can be seen from this that if the local government can still get the help of large families such as squires and students in the city, the number of city defense can reach 35,000 people, but these are only a minority after all.

For a county town, according to the local population, it is enough to be able to organize more than a thousand guards, and to be a parent official.

As for the capital of each state capital, most of the defenders came from the guards, when the guards were first built, there were about 5,600 people and one guard, and the guards set up commanders, and there were thousands of households, hundreds of households, general flags, and small flags.

In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, the soldiers of the guard station have been lost to everyone, and the number has also decreased sharply, and it is embarrassing to be of great use when fighting, and it is mostly relied on the family of the general in the city to lead the recruitment of troops to fight, as for the number of defenders, under normal circumstances, it should be around two or three thousand, and after recruitment, militia joining, and large households joining in wartime, there should be an appropriate increase.

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In the ninth year of Chongzhen (1636), in mid-October.

The composition of Yang Kai's troops

The original Yang Kaibu, temporarily under the leadership of Cao Mang, as the commander, divided into two battalions on the left and right, Cai Qian, Wang Biao temporarily served as generals, Yan Feng, Wei Shisan, Li Qinghui, Hu Shahu, Zhang Guier served as thousands of households, a total of more than 5,000 people.

Liang Guangbu, outside the crowd, reorganized the army, more than 6,000 people, Liang Guang as the commander, Han Bin as a staff officer, also known as a general, Peng Dagui, Zhou Wenkui as the left and right generals.

Deng Fang's department, probably composed of a team similar to Liang Guangbu's, re-fabricated, with more than 5,000 people left, Deng Fang as the commander, and two old brothers who were familiar with him as generals, Yan Hou as a general.

Su Fu'an's department, self-appointed commander, Zhao Hu served as the general of the overseer, and the two generals on the left and right were both from the old management team, with more than 5,000 soldiers and horses.

According to statistics, there are eight battalions of soldiers and horses on four routes, with more than 20,000 people, plus miscellaneous craftsman battalions, wounded battalions, and pro-soldier battalions, which can probably go to 23,400 people.