Late Ming Gunner Guard of the Liaodong Garrison: 晚明·辽东军铳手

Reenactor: 自由骑士

Music: Through the City Gates

Armorer: Cold Light Armor (寒光甲胄工作室)

A late Ming dynasty guardsman of the Liaodong Garrison in northeastern China (part of today's Liaoning Province) in in brigandine armor 暗甲. He is equipped with armguards called Bi fu 臂縛 lit. "Arm Binding"- frequently worn by Ming cavalrymen made up of segmented armored bands that coincidentally resembles Roman manica armguards. He is armed with a long Changdao 长刀 lit "Long Saber" and a matchlock arquebus. After the 1600s- Ming began to field arquebuses and changdao- though neglected for a time, saw a resurgence in the later period.

These guard garrisons were deployed as part of an extensive Ming effort to militarize the northern frontier. The Liaodong Garrison in particular was an extension from the existing central lap of the Ming Great Wall and constituted a highly militarized frontier along the thin neck of the Liaodong Peninsula. It was a highly dangerous region filled with coarse soldiers and (at bad times) dotted with lawless bandits who made the frosty mountains their lairs. And to pepper the misery of these long- crossed enemies, there were constant raids by the Jurchen tribesmen (later Manchus) along the border. It was a crucible of all manners of hardy, opposing men.

EXTENSIVE MING ENTRENCHMENT OF THE NORTH

Much more on Ming Great Wall in article. The Nine Garrisons 镇 of the Great Wall (Yellow)- and later additional Garrisons along the Ming Great Wall (white): The Tumu Crisis spurred on the aggressive building of the Ming Great Walls. After the Ming defeat, the court began to build a series of localized walls at the Ordos loop: the greatest stretch of steppe- transition land between the Mongol and Ming domains. Over the next half a century, the stretches of what we associate as the Ming Great Walls emerged on the Ming's northern back, soon to be followed by expansions in the west in Gansu, and also all around Beijing. Until ultimately, by the late Ming period nearly all of the gaps along the wall were obsessively blocked by the walls, including in some of the most unimaginable slopes and peaks.

Ming brigandine armor 暗甲. He is equipped with armguards called Bi fu 臂縛 lit. "Arm Binding"- frequently worn by Ming cavalrymen made up of segmented armored bands that coincidentally resembles Roman manica armguards.

He is armed with a long Changdao 长刀 lit "Long Saber" and a matchlock arquebus. After the 1600s- Ming began to field arquebuses and changdao- though neglected for a time, saw a resurgence in the later period. Two handed blades have existed in Chinese warfare since the Qin and Han dynasties, and were frequently deployed in Chinese conflicts as late as the Republican era. What's more Westerners themselves are likely already familiar with them.

A NESTING DOLL OF FORTS-  THE NINE GARRISONS

A "Zhen 镇" or "Township" city is a regional HQ that is in charge of a major section of the Great Wall. A great city in itself with multiple guarded gates. Each Garrison would be positioned at the far back of a vast series of guard towers, checkpoints, and forts and is tasked with commanding all of them at the top of the hierarchy. Whenever there would be a breach along the wall, the series of defenses in front of them would report back precisely where the break happened, and the commander at the Township would then send out reliefs to pin down the invaders.

Along the northern spine of the Ming Great Wall were a series of over 1,100 military garrisons of various sizes. In conjunction, these posts are supplemented by several thousand of, beacon towers, and relay stations. At large, the Ming Great Wall defense system was sectioned by nine strategic garrisons,  called The Nine Garrisons, Jiubian (九边, jiubian), or Jiuzhen (九镇, jiuzhen)  installed during the reign of the Hongzhi Emperor between 1487 and 1505. 

The main gate of a Ming fort or Bao 堡. The entrance- usually facing south (forcing the northern armies that breached the walls to march around its manned walls) are built with massive multi-layered arrow guard towers. There, hundreds of defenders could shoot out from the arrow slots and the battlements. Barracks, armories, and military offices including the manor of the presiding commander's family are located behind the walls in the inner ward. 

These 9 Garrisons acted as regional headquarters along key sections of the Great Wall and was responsible for drilling and stationing Ming armies in the north and sending out reliefs and reinforcements to sections of the wall that reported a breach.

Ming guard tower overlooking its main gate. Multi- layered construction allows many tiers of archers to shoot down simultaneously from arrow slots and the battlements. They were imposing structures, and were comparable to modern multi storied apartment buildings. Frequently, these already imposing entrances would be further protected by an added barbican or moats and draw bridges.

A FRONTIER DEFENDED IN DEPTH

The Walls were alive: The Great Wall as a defense matrix. Each of the massive Ming garrison HQ was designed to be able to autonomously resist a large scale invasion by an enemy army. Each of the garrisons have five subdivided levels in descending order: Zhen 镇, Lu 路, Wei 卫, Suo 所, and Bao 堡. In English this translates to (Township > Road Towns > Guard Garrisons > Guard Department > Fort in descending order. They could be thought of as a clever defense-in-depth where the commanders at the far rear has the leisure to pin the bogged- down enemy with a sledgehammer of Ming reinforcements. 

MULTI- TIERED ADMINISTRATION

An example of a well preserved Ming dynasty Guard Garrison or Wei 卫 city (Tier 3 in the hierarchy,) which is larger than a Bao 堡 fort seen above. It's length and width are around 880 meters 米 and 3.6 kilometers in circumference, and covers an area of ​​0.78 square kilometers. The entire guard garrison is surrounded by a large moat which is allowed to flow inside the walls and create additional defensive "islands." Guard garrisons are tasked with overseeing and taking charge of smaller Suo 所 Guard Departments and and Bao 堡 Forts which are subordinated under their command.

A guard or wei 卫 unit consisted of 5,600 men, each guard was divided into battalions of 1,120 men (qiānhù), each battalion contained 10 companies of 112 men (bǎihù), each company contained two platoons of 56 men (zǒngqí), and each platoon contained five squads of 11 or 12 men (xiǎoqí). Due to the need for rapid response and interception along the steppe lands, Ming deployed the majority of their cavalry in the north. 

In this arrangement, a safety net was built in. Some of the guard stations and check posts might fall near the breach, but no matter what, help is inevitably always on the way coming to them. Once the next line of defense reported their predicaments the relief army will be dispatched to reinforce them. And more these frontline of troops engage with the invaders, by necessity, MORE of the invaders must stay to deal with them and make sure these troops do not flank the invading army. Most of all, it nullified the 2 most critical advantages of a steppe army: speed and unpredictable approach. While maximizing the 2 critical advantages of the defender: strong entrenchments and weight of numbers. 

Whereby even if a powerful host from the steppe were able to breach through the Ming Great Wall itself, they would keep hitting into ever escalating series of tougher and bigger Ming guard posts as they plunge deeper and gets more and more pieces of itself bogged down as they kept running into stronger and stronger Ming lines. Meanwhile, on the defender's side, the largest Ming Garrison army, stationed at the HQ of Zhen 镇 or "Township" were able to accurately pinpoint the direction of the invader's breach and after letting the lines of entrenched garrisons tire them out, crash the full might of the regional Ming reinforcements upon them.

The 架火战车, or rocket wagons (lit. "Fire Chariots") were one of the most dangerous and surprisingly versatile Ming weapons. Essentially 6 detachable pods of rockets laid over a wheel barrow frame. Each incorporates four pods of "Long Snake Soul Breaking Arrows" (长蛇破敌箭) of thirty poison tipped rockets per pod, and two pods of "Rush of Hundred Tigers Arrows" (百虎齐奔箭) of a hundred rockets per pod, for a total of 320 rockets that all have a centralized fuse which enabled them to be fired in one barrage. Aside from these armaments, each cart also consisted of three detachable muzzle-loading swivel guns pre- loaded for the crew to use when the enemy came close, as well as two spears and a foldable thick cotton screen for crews to defend against incoming arrows.

At any time any formation ordered to attack this formation would be faced with the prospect of having a steel storm of thousands of incoming rockets and poisoned arrows launched against them. And this is long before they even come within the range of any of the gunner squads.

Extended diagram showing the rocket wagons being linked up together to provide a mobile defensive barrier. They could be both deployed defensively as a protective rally point as well as offensively in the front of the gunners to act as a forward deterrent for any incoming attack. 

Shanhai Pass, the illustration above corresponds to the end of the 16th century, when the Ming built expensive fortifications in this area. Shanhai Pass (shanhaiguan), also known as the "First Step under Heaven" served as the inner gate of northeastern China. Liaodong Garrison would serve as an outlying military province outside the Great Wall.

EASTERN & LIAODONG ENTRENCHED

The entrenchment of Liaodong happened after the main central spine of the walls were constructed. Predictibly when faced with such entrenchment in depth the Mongols tried to outflank the center by circling around to attack from the west (in Gansu) and the east (in Liaoning etc.) The eastern gap was seen as exceptionally dangerous as it left the capital of Beijing open to rapid moving steppe raiders. By the 1540s and the establishment of the 9 Garrisons, Ming began to aggressively close off most of the key gaps until later in the century, fully closing almost all of northern China along an obsessive compulsively closed set of walls. From 1544 to 1549, an aggressively ambitious costruction project began along the north easter gap of these walls. The project was led by Weng Wanda (翁万达; 1498–1552), Supreme Commander responsible for the Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi areas. 

Breech-loading swivel guns were brought to China after Ming defeated the Portuguese in the 16th century. At the Battle of Xicaowan in 1522, after defeating the Portuguese in battle, the Chinese captured Portuguese breech-loading swivel guns and then reverse engineered them, calling them "Folangji" or "Fo-lang-chi" (佛郎机炮 – Frankish) guns. Ming breech- loading cannon from 1546 could be seen here. The Ming greatly prioritized rapid firing cannons and these guns had mug-shaped chambers that allowed a mug of pre-loaded projectiles to fire then immediately be taken out and replaced with another loaded chamber. The mugs of these cannons are called Zipao 子炮 "Son Cannon" (sub cannon) and the barrel is called Mupao 母炮 "Mother Cannon." By the 1620s Ming cannons were some of the most valued assets against besiegers on the Liaodong front.

Troops were re-deployed along the outer line, new walls and beacon towers were constructed, and fortifications were restored and extended along both lines. Firearms and artillery were first mounted on the walls and towers around this time, for both defense and signaling purposes. Weng Wanda goes as far as to claim that only with firearms could one hope to succeed against the fast moving Mongols, and purchased special guns for both the Great Wall defenses and offensive troops who fought in the steppes.

The next phase of the Great Wall. A cursory glance at the Ming Great Wall will notice that the wall has essentially 3 segments. The central line between arid Gansu along the steppe borderlands that touched the foot of the tall mountains at Shanxi represented the 1st and central lap of the wall. After the completion of this section, the Ming then constructed the western and eastern lap of the walls to link up the whole of northern Chinese frontiers into 1 cohesive defense to prevent Mongol flanking attacks. With the construction of these new sections, 4 additional Garrisons were added. At its height, the eastern portion of the Great Wall totaled about 850 kilometers (530 miles) of wall, with some sections being doubled-up with two lines of wall, some tripled or even quadrupled.

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