On Hainan's Coast Defense In The Early Ming Dynasty

The coast defence is one of the significant national security problem that the Ming government wants to slove.During the Ming dynasty,the south-eastern coastal area of China always faced the threaten form the sea.Those threaten include the Japanese pirates,the pirates form the southeast Asia and the pirates in local south-eastern coastal area of China.Under those sustained stimulus form the sea,the coast defence construction of Ming dynasty was constantly established and improved.About the Ming dynasty coast defence problem,lots of papers and very important achivements have been published.For the Hainan coast defence of Ming dynasty,however,there are no particular paper or systematic book.This paper try to probe into the internal and external pressure of Hainan,during the Hongwu to Xuande period,and the construction situation of the Hainan coast defence.About the objective environment of the Hainan during the Ming dynasty.This paper try to analse the nature geography state of Hainan island.And according to this,summarize the climate,natural products and the internal and external taffic of the Hainan island during the Ming dynasty.Based of those content,describe the population and resource distribution,the significant point of Hainan island and the distribution situation of different nations.Especially according the monsoon and ocean current,combine with the historical data of traffic,summarized the ways of maritime traffic surrounding the Hainan island.The location and the significance of Hainan to the traffic lines of external communication of Ming dynasty,including the important influence of western diplomatic and tributary trade.About the construction of administration and military matters,this paper discussed the administration and the defence of Song and Yuan dynasty.According to those data,analyse the situation of administration and military matters in Hainan during the early years of Ming dynasty,and the relevance to the Song and Yuan dynasty.Combining with the internal and external combats of Hainan area during the period,analyse the situation about the defence of the cities,and the real the real effects of the Hainan garrison.And then according to relevant materials,summarize the command system,the real fighting ability,the division of army and the effects of this division and the situation of the warship.Those data can be served as the objective basis about the fighting ability of the Hainan garrison.About the real distance fighting ablility of Hainan garrison,this paper probed the real combats that the Hainan garrison,during the Hongwu to Xuande period,especially for the naval battles.From those combats,we can observe the different combat abilities of this period,and the interaction effect between the coast defense and the land defense.Hainan garrison also take part in the combats in Guangdong and Guangxi during the Hongwu period and the campaign of Annam during the Yongle period.Hainan garrison played an important role during thos battles.Those was less discussed at past.About the logistics,this paper analysed the soldier's pay and provisions,including the storage,Kaizhong and army reclamation.The problem of warship and military training are also be discussed.From those metrails,we can observe the structure of the Hainan garrison logistics and the difficulties that the Hainan garrison was facing.Through the discussion abrove,this paper try to make the real situation of Hainan garrison during the early years of Ming dynasty clear.And also about the certain conditions and restrictions.Summerize the events of Hainan sea defence from Hongwu to Xuande and the change of it during the period.I hope this paper can make up the inadequacies in the past about the Hainan coast defence.