The Rivalry Between The Ming Dynasty And The Mongolia On The Hetao Area

At the meeting of the farming area and the animal husbandry area lies the HeTao area, where the dynasties on the central plain marching towards the north fight against the northern nomadic nations who march towards the south for who will be in power. The repeated fight happens between the farming nation and the nomadic nation on the HeTao area, which is an important communicating and melting area between the nations. Especially in the Ming Dynasty, the Ming army fought fiercely for the HeTao area against the Mongolia. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, TaiZu’s and TaiZong’s fighting with violence made Mongolian tribes never march towards the HeTao area to invade the Ming frontier. However, as the strength of the northern border defense was weakened, the Mongolia needed self-development and Genghis Khan’s legend spread, the Mongolian tribes entered the HeTao area.The Mongolian tribes had entered the HeTao area since the period of Xuande. Then, the Mongolia leader Bolai and Moliqai commanded the tribes to enter the HeTao. The following was Aluochu, Begersen and Manduyulun who unfolded the continuous fighting. There was some relation between the activities that Yisman and Dayan qayan entering the HeTao area and Altan qayan leading the tribes invaded and disturbed the Ming frontier and the sacrifice to Genghis Khan’s eight white office on the Hetao area. New leader who was mounted the throne would hold a ceremony in eight white office in order to beg for the approval and blessing from the soul of the ancestors. The Hetao became the stage where the Mongolian tribes competed to mount.The Mongolian tribes invaded and disturbed the Ming’s northern frontier frequently, which made the Ming’s northern frontier in danger gradually. In this process, someone in the interior of the Ming Dynasty brought up several suggestions constantly, hoping the Ming Dynasty could reverse the situation of the northern frontier and drove the Mongolian tribes out of the Hetao area to recover the Ming’s control on the Hetao area. The representative case during Jiajing was that they discussed to recover the control on the Hetao. However, with the strength of the Ming Dynasty and the Mongolia compared and reversed, the problem the Ming faced was not how to recover the control on the Hetao area but how to protect itself.