The three battalions of the forbidden army are the most elite field troops in the Ming Dynasty army, which were formed by the order of Zhu Di, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, and were the five army battalions, the three thousand battalions, and the Shenji battalion.

The internal guard of the Beijing division, the external preparation of the battle.

1. 5th Military Battalion

One of the three battalions of the forbidden army in the Ming Dynasty, it was composed of horse army and infantry army. When Taizu of the Ming Dynasty set up the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion to control the Chinese and foreign armies, the capital was placed inside and outside the large and small two fields, and 48 guards were divided. After Chengzu moved north, it increased to 72 guards. In the eighth year of Yongle (1410 AD), the cavalry army began to be divided into infantry for the middle army, with left and right folds and left and right posts, which was called the five armies. In addition to the Beijing Guard, every year, 160,000 soldiers from Zhongdu, Shandong, Henan, and Daning are assigned to each other, and they take turns to train in Beijing, which is called the squad army.

When Taizu of the Ming Dynasty set up the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion to control the Chinese and foreign armies, the capital was placed inside and outside the large and small two fields, and 48 guards were taught. After Chengzu moved north, it was increased to seventy-two guards. In the eighth year of Yongle (1410), the infantry cavalry army was divided into the middle army, with left and right folds and left and right posts, which was called the five armies. In addition to the Beijing Guard, every year, 160,000 soldiers from Zhongdu, Shandong, Henan, and Daning are assigned to each other, and they take turns to train in Beijing, which is called the squad army. The 12th Battalion, the Wai Executioner Battalion, the Young Officials' House Battalion, the Loyal Battalion, and the Xiaoyi Battalion are attached to the five military camps. The five military camps have one commander, two military ministers, two chief officers, one battalion officer, and two commanders. Each military camp shall have one battalion officer, and one horse and infantry army commander. Usually practice the camp formation. When the emperor personally conquered, he promised to be in the center, and the five armies were stationed outside as the main force of the battle.

Two and three thousand battalions

Three thousand battalions, one of the three major battalions of the forbidden army in the Ming Yongle period, was composed of 3,000 cavalry from outside the Saiwai. Jiajing was renamed Shenshu Camp.

The reason why it is called the 3,000 battalion is because when this battalion was formed, it was based on 3,000 Mongolian cavalry as the backbone, of course, with the development of the troops, the actual number should be more than 3,000 people, the 3,000 battalion is different from the five military battalions, all its subordinates are cavalry, although the number of this cavalry unit is not much, but it is the most powerful cavalry force under Zhu Di, and they mainly play the role of assault in the war.

The 3,000 battalions are divided into five divisions:

He is in charge of the dragon flag, treasure (dào), brave character flag, negative imperial treasure and military battle bureau and other things on the direct official army.

He is in charge of the left and right 20 teams of brave flags, big banners, and golden drums.

The flag of the command camp, the royal prison armor, the crown, the clothes, and the official army.

He is in charge of the brave banner, and the red helmets of the five armies are attached to the direct army and the direct official army.

Kill the tiger hand, the sedan chair and the outpost horse camp on the Zhiming A official army, the attendant camp with the East Palace official house, and the Liaodong Imperial Reserve to return the official army.

3. Shenji Battalion

The Shenji Battalion is one of the three major battalions of the forbidden army created in the early Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty in China, and it is also the earliest firearms unit established in China and the world.

In the eighth year of Yongle (1410), when he conquered Cochin (now Vietnam), Zhu Di obtained the magic machine gun and artillery skills, and specially set up the magic machine camp to practice. In the battle of Mobei, Ming Chengzu put forward the operational principle of "Shenji gun in the front, horse team in the rear", and the Shenji battalion cooperated with the infantry and cavalry to fight, and played an important role, making the application of firearms more professional, and the Shenji battalion also became a branch of the Ming army. The battalion is one of the three major battalions of the Beijing Army (the other two battalions are the five military battalions and the three thousand battalions), equipped with muskets, muskets, etc., and arquebuses were added in the later period. This independent artillery unit was in a leading position in China and even other countries in the world at that time, about a century earlier than the Spanish musketeers (founded in 1510), which was the earliest formation in Europe, and was the evidence that the early firearms unit of the Ming Dynasty was ahead of the world.

The Shenji Battalion is responsible for the important task of "guarding the Beijing division internally and preparing for external warfare", and is in charge of training firearms and accompanying escort horse officers and soldiers, and is a strategic mobile unit under the direct command of the emperor. The establishment of the Shenji Battalion is different from that of the garrison established in the early Ming Dynasty, and its highest establishment level is the battalion, with 2 commanders and ministers, 2 military attachés, and 2 chief officers; The battalion is organized into five armies: the middle army, the left ye, the right ye, the left sentinel, and the right sentinel, each with 1 internal minister and 1 military minister, except for the four divisions under the Chinese army, the rest each receive three divisions; Each division has 1 gun supervisor, 1 officer, and 2 card officers. The battalion specializes in sharpshooters and artillery. Later, he had to supervise Tan Guangma 5,000 horses, called 5,000 battalions, attached to the Shenji battalion, and set up officials such as the armies below the Shenji battalion, and the battalion was organized into four divisions, and each division set up 2 officers.

According to historical records, in order to ensure long-term continuous shooting, the Shenji Battalion usually uses the "three-stage strike" tactic, which is divided into three platoons, the first platoon is first fired by soldiers in the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th and other positions of the queue, and then by the soldiers in the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th and other positions in the queue. The soldiers in the front row immediately handed the guns back to the soldiers in the middle row after each shot, and at the same time took the loaded guns from the soldiers in the middle row. On the one hand, the soldiers in the middle row are responsible for taking the guns from the soldiers in the front row and passing them back to the soldiers in the third row to load the ammunition; On the other hand, he is responsible for taking the loaded ammunition from the hands of the soldiers in the third row and passing it forward to the soldiers in the previous row. Such repeated rotation is very powerful.

This tactic was first created by Mu Ying, a famous general in the early Ming Dynasty, and is the core tactic of all the former guns, leading the West for more than 200 years and Japan for more than 200 years.

This method was originally used to deal with the elephants of the rebel army in the defensive area of Mu Ying, but it was later improved by Zhu Di and used to deal with the more mobile cavalry, first the soldiers equipped with fire guns shot at the enemy cavalry, and immediately retreated to the flank of the army after shooting, and then the cavalry of the 5th Army Battalion and the 3,000 Battalion continued to carry out a second strike on the enemy cavalry, and then the infantry of the 5th Army Battalion used the (anti) cavalry weapons to carry out a third blow on the enemy cavalry. Its lethality against cavalry is very high.

Compared with the previous dynasties, the war pattern of the Ming Dynasty has undergone very huge changes, in which the application of firearms has played a central role. If the Song Dynasty was the embryonic stage of the application of China's firearms on the battlefield, then the Ming Dynasty was an era of great development, and the emergence of this situation was closely related to Zhu Yuanzhang's development process.

Zhu Yuanzhang started near the Yangtze River, and at the beginning of his development, a person named Jiao Yu presented the firearms he developed, so Zhu Yuanzhang's team became the only rebel army in the Jiangnan rebel army that could be said to be the only firearm that became the standard equipment. The water network in the south of the Yangtze River, coupled with Liu Futong's Northern Expedition, the cavalry team that the Mongols were proud of could not exert its due power, so Zhu Yuanzhang, who had firearms, quickly tasted the sweetness. In a series of battles with Chen Youliang, firearms played an extremely important role. In the defense of Hongdu, Chen Youliang waved an army of 600,000 to besiege Hongdu, but the Zhu army of Hongdu was unable to attack Chen Youliang for a long time with the help of firearms. In the subsequent Battle of Poyang Lake, Zhu Yuanzhang's army gave full play to the power of firearms, using the most advanced firearms in China at that time, such as "artillery, firearms, rockets, thistles, large and small muskets, large and small generals' barrels, large and small iron cannons, and divine machine arrows", creating a precedent for bombarding enemy ships with "naval artillery" in water warfare.

After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, firearms became one of the standard weapons of the Ming army, usually the composition of the Ming army was "ten guns, twenty swords, thirty bows and arrows, and forty guns", and the proportion of firearms accounted for 10%. With the development of firearms, two new types of troops appeared in the Ming Dynasty, one was the Shenji Soldier (firearms soldier), and the other was the chariot soldier - the chariot abandoned during the Warring States Period was rejuvenated.

During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, the strategic mobile force - Shenji Battalion was created, which went out with the emperor together with the five military battalions and three thousand battalions. The Shenji Battalion is mainly equipped with artillery, that is, copper fire guns, and it is the earliest artillery unit in the world, making artillery an independent branch of the army to complete specific military tasks. After the establishment of the Shenji Battalion, he followed the emperor of the Ming Dynasty many times to fight with the powerful weapon in his hand - the copper fire gun. When the Shenji Battalion's bronze guns are in battle, they are in the forefront of the line, and there is a certain gap between the artillery teams, which is convenient for loading shells, and can take turns to fire salvos and destroy the enemy's positions with artillery fire. In February 1410, the Ming army was blocked by the Mongol army, and the Shenji battalion immediately attacked the enemy with artillery fire, and the enemy's defensive position was destroyed by the artillery fire of the Shenji battalion, and most of the defenders were killed in the artillery fire. The cavalry units of the Ming army launched an attack and won a great victory.

However, the winds take turns. In October 1449, the Mongol soldiers became more and more courageous, and 120,000 Mongol soldiers had already attacked the vicinity of the capital. The general guarding the capital ordered the Shenji battalion to be set up in ambush outside the Desheng Gate in Beijing. On October 13, the Mongolian soldiers approached the city, and the Ming army guard sent a cavalry detachment to introduce the Mongolian soldiers into the ambush area of the Shenji Battalion.

The Ming Army's Shenji Battalion was equipped with the earliest artillery, the Bronze Firecracker. Moreover, the Shenji Battalion has been in battle for a long time and has experience in artillery warfare and mobile warfare. After the Mongol soldiers were introduced into the ambush area of the Shenji Battalion, the general defending the city gave an order, and the large and small copper firebolts of the Shenji Battalion opened fire together, and the stone or iron spherical projectiles fired by the large and small copper firecrackers were fired at the Mongolian soldiers in one salvo to kill and injure the enemy.

The large and small bronze fire guns of the Shenji Battalion disrupted the formation of the Mongol soldiers. At this time, the Ming army inside and outside the city took advantage of the situation to attack and defeated the Mongol soldiers. In this battle to defend the capital, the bronze fire guns of the Shenji Battalion played an important combat role and made great contributions.