A Study Of The Defense Of The Gansu Military District Of The Ming Dynasty

After Feng Sheng overran Gansu in the fifth year of Hongwu, the Ming dynasty started establishing a defensive system in the Hexi region, Gansu military district. From then on Gansu military district carried the heavy responsibility of protecting the north border defense of the Ming dynasty with a few other military districts. The thesis not only discussed the general circumstances that Gansu military district was established, all these attacks that it suffered, engineering defense system and outer circle defense system, but also summarized the good experience of the defense system of Gansu military district and the precept that the defense system was defeated at the end of the thesis: Gansu military district completed in totally the defense mission of defending against Mongolia in the northern side and preventing Tibetan nationalities in the southern side, but it was the influence of the conservative ideas of the Zhu Yuanzhang on the future generation decision makers and the generals on the defense line of the Ming dynasty that made Gansu military district be placed in the position of suffering attack in most of time.Firstly, the thesis made the discussion on the general circumstances of Gansu military district of the Ming dynasty. Gansu military district was one of the earliest military districts in the Ming dynasty. Because of the special geography position, Gansu military district occupied the important position of the defense line during the Ming dynasty.Secondly, the thesis did not hesitate over the space to enumerate in detail these attacks that Gansu suffered during more than 200 years and illustrated the backgrounds of suffering attack each time. Meanwhile, the counter-measures of Gansu military district were also evaluated simply in the thesis. The passive defense was an important reason that Gansu military district was usually defeated.Finally, the thesis made the treatise on the defense system of Gansu military district. The defense system rose certain function in impeding the enemy and at the same time limited the positive defense of Gansu military district or the possibility that Gansu military district attacked the enemy in the outside line.