Tumu crisis

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Tumu crisis
date September 1, 1449
place Xianfu
output Mongol victory
Parties to the conflict

Mongols

Ming Dynasty

Commander

Esen Taiji

Wang Zhen

Troop strength
20,000 500,000
losses

unknown

200,000+

The Tumu Crisis or Tumu Incident ( Chinese  土木之變  /  土木之变 , Pinyin Tumu Zhibian ), also called "Incident Tumubao" ( 土木堡之變 , Tŭmùbǎo Zhibian ) or "Tumuschlacht" ( 土木之役 , Tumu Zhiyi ) was a border conflict between the Mongols and the Chinese Ming dynasty , which led to the capture of Emperor Zhengtong on September 1, 1449 . This defeat was largely due to the poor Ming troop formation and has been cited as one of the dynasty's greatest military defeats.

prehistory

In July 1449, the Oirat Mongol leader Esen Taiji ( 也先 台 吉 , yěxiān táijí ) launched a large-scale invasion of China in three parallel advances. He himself led a force that advanced to Datong in northern Shanxi in August . The exact size of Esen's army is unknown; it is believed to be 20,000 soldiers.

When the news of the advance of the Mongols at the court of the Ming Emperor became known, the most powerful official, the eunuch Wang Zhen , encouraged the 22-year-old Emperor Zhengtong to lead his army against the Mongols. The Chinese armed forces were then hastily assembled. The command consisted of 20 experienced generals and a large group of high-ranking civil servants who were subordinate to Commander-in-Chief Wang Zhen.

On August 3, 1449, Esen's army destroyed a poorly equipped Chinese force at Yanghe , just inside the Great Wall of China . On the same day, the emperor appointed his half-brother Zhu Qiyu as his deputy and left Beijing the next day for the Juyongguan Pass Fortress . The aim of the mission was a short, sharp march west across the Xuanfu garrison to Datong, from there an advance into the steppe, and finally return to Beijing via a southern route via Yuzhou (now Yu County ).

The Ming March

From the beginning, the Ming's advance was hampered by heavy rains. Arrived at Juyongguan, the plainclothes officials and generals wanted to stop and send the emperor back to Beijing, but Wang Zhen passed them over. On August 16, the army reached the corpse-strewn battlefield of Yanghe. When it finally reached Datong on August 18, reports from garrison commander Wang Zhen led them to consider it too dangerous to continue the advance into the steppes. The campaign was thus declared victorious, and the troops started their way back to Beijing on August 20th.

However, instead of taking the southern route as planned, which would also lead through the lands of Wang Zhen, the latter feared that the soldiers would devastate his property and decided on the northern route, which was much more unsafe. On August 27, the army crossed Xianfu , and on August 30, the rearguard not far east of Xianfu was attacked and wiped out by the Mongols. Shortly afterwards, a strong rearguard, newly formed with mounted forces, under the command of General Zhu Yong ( 朱勇 ), was smashed at Yao'erling .

On August 31, the Chinese army camped at the Tumu guard post at the Tumubao fortress. Wang Zhen rejected his ministers' proposal to move the emperor to the safety of the fortified town of Huailai, which was less than 45 km away. Esen sent a vanguard to cut off the Ming's access to the river south of the Chinese camp. On the morning of September 1st, the Chinese army was completely surrounded. Wang Zhen refused to negotiate and ordered the confused troops to move towards the river. A battle broke out between the army, which was barely in order, and the Mongol vanguard - Esen was not there. The Chinese completely lost their order and were almost completely slain along with the generals and civil servants, while the Mongols captured a large number of weapons and armor. According to some reports, Wang Zhen was allegedly killed by his own officers. The emperor was captured and taken to Esen's headquarters near Xianfu on September 3rd.

aftermath

The entire expedition had proven unnecessary, poorly planned, and poorly managed. The fight was won by a Mongol vanguard of perhaps 5,000 horsemen. However, Esen, the Mongol leader, was also not prepared for such a victory and the capture of the Ming emperor.

At first Esen tried to extort a ransom for the emperor's release and planned to raid the defenseless Ming capital Beijing. However, because of the determined resistance of the commanding Ming officer Yu Qian , his plan did not work. Esen's claim was rejected, stating that the empire was more important than the emperor, and Zhengtong's half-brother Zhu Qiyu was confirmed as emperor.

The Ming never paid a ransom for the emperor's return, Esen released him after four years, so that Zhengtong could return to Beijing and take the throne again after Zhu Qiyu's death in 1457. Esen himself came under increasing criticism for failing to take advantage of the victory over the Ming and was murdered six years after the battle in 1455.

Although the Mongols later occupied the Ordos Desert, they never again seriously threatened the Ming state.

literature