Now when talking about several major expeditions to Mongolia during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, most people will always reflect the figure of 500,000 people in their minds, as if Zhu Di's five expeditions to Mongolia were facing the Mongol army with absolute superiority, and the Valar Tatars on the opposite side were only 100,000 people. But is it really that simple? Of course not.
Zhu Di launched five conquests against the Mongols in the eighth year of Yongle, the twelfth year of Yongle, the twentieth year of Yongle, the twenty-first year of Yongle, and the twenty-second year of Yongle. Four of these expeditions were against the Tatars, one against the Wallachians, and the first three of the five Northern Expeditions were larger, and the last two were basically fruitless. So how many people did Zhu Di send troops in the first three times? Is it really possible to form an overwhelming advantage over the Wallachians and Tatars?
Let's take the first expedition as an example, in July of the seventh year of Yongle, the 100,000 cavalry of Qiu Fu, the Duke of Qi, was defeated in the Mongolian steppe, and all the main generals were killed, while Zhu Di's official northern expedition was in February of the eighth year of Yongle, it can be said that Zhu Di had 6 to 7 months of preparation time, here to say sorry, because the "Ming Shilu" did not find a record of Zhu Di's mobilization of the army, of course, it is more likely that I did not find it. So we can infer from here that most of these six or seven months should be used to mobilize grain and grass, the army went deep into the desert north, the grain and grass must be the most important, so Zhu Di must spend a lot of time on this, and the specific mobilization of the army should still be the three battalions of the Beijing Division and some of the nearby troops and border troops, according to the "Ming Shi Bing Zhi I" record, hongwu four years of the Ming Dynasty Beijing army should be about 200,000 people, to the Yongle year, the original forty-eight guards increased to seventy-two, The number of troops will definitely increase, but it will certainly not be more than 300,000 people, and the number of Zhu Di troops will certainly be less than half of this number, that is, the Ming army from the Beijing Division should be more than 100,000 people.
So how many Mongol troops are the Ming army about to face? Yongle's eight-year expedition faced the Tatars, the leader Ofehan Yauri, zhiyuan Arutai, tatar opponent Vajra had a force of about 30,000 people, the Tatars must have only a lot more, and the biggest disadvantage of the farming peoples in the face of the nomads in the past was mobility, nomadic cavalry, the speed of advance is also fast, the speed of escape is also fast, so if Zhu Di wants to find the main force of the Mongols, it is not an easy task, and the search of the troops is certainly inevitable, so it shows that the army nominally sent out by the army is as high as 500,000 people. In fact, there will not be more than 100,000 people who can actually enter the battle, but this will not hinder Zhu Di's hammer Arutai and Ben Yauri.
The History of the Ming Dynasty records this battle: the emperor pursued and the River of Difficulties, and Ben Ya lost his hand in refusing to fight. The Emperor's soldiers fought hard and cried out in defeat. Benjamin abandoned the heavy breeding animals and rode away with seven. The one who mediated the river, Yuan Taizu Shixingde also. Banshi went to jingyu town, met Arutai, and the emperor sent an edict to surrender. Arutai wants to come, but the multitude cannot, and fights. The emperor rode a big shout of impact, and ya fell like a bet, and Arutai fell off his horse, so he was defeated, and chased after more than a hundred miles. In winter, Arutai envoys came to Gongma, Dinah. In this battle, the Tatar losses were extremely heavy, the Tatar Khan, the nominal Northern Yuan Emperor Ben Ya Lost Li actually fled with seven people, Arutai also collapsed hundreds of miles, in general, this time the Ming army won a huge victory, and Ben Ya Lost Li fled to Vala after the defeat, and was killed by Mahamu.
This is the Ming-Mongolian War of the eighth year of Yongle, in the twelve years of yongle conquest, the Ming army defeated Mahamu, the number of first ranks captured reached thousands, and the number of decapitations will most of the time be lower than the actual number of annihilated enemies, the strength of the Wala also said earlier, the fresh force is 30,000 people, the first rank of the slaughtered here has reached thousands, it can be seen that the loss of troops in this battle may have reached half of the total number of troops. Two years later, in the fourteenth year of Yongle, Mahmu was killed in the battle against the Arutai, and the Former Tartar Division of Wala Mahmu was defeated and killed this time, and from here we can also glimpse the huge losses caused by Zhu Di's expedition to Wala.
On the whole, Zhu Di's expedition still achieved the expected purpose of attacking the Mongol forces such as tatar wallachia, and Zhu Di's superb military level in the war was worthy of the first general of Yongle! These expeditions dealt a heavy blow to the remnants of the Yuan, and also laid a military foundation for the subsequent rule of Ren Xuanzhi. However, history proves that the role of pure military means in dealing with the nomadic peoples of the Central Plains Dynasty is actually very limited, and although Zhu Di's five northern expeditions played an effect against the Mongol remnants, in the following decades, the Mongol forces recovered and became strong again, and even captured Zhu Di's great-grandson Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen in 1449.