Study On Portuguese Mercenaries Of Ming Army

From the 15 th century to the 16 th century,Portuguese Empire did their large-scale expansion overseas.During Zhengde years of Ming dynasty,Portuguese arrived in China.Due to cultural differences,the early relationship between Ming dynasty and Portugal continued to be repeated between confrontation and cooperation.Ming dynasty and Portugal had fought several times at sea but they were also united to destroy pirates on the southeast coast.In the middle of Jiajing years,Portuguese occupied Macau.after decades of negotiations with the Ming dynasty and private transactions with local officials in Guangdong,the Portuguese gradually consolidated their position in Macau and made this city become an important one in Portuguese Empire.At the end of Ming dynasty,Manchu people rose in the east of Liaodong and destroyed Ming's army.All the territories of Ming Dynasty in the outside of Shanhaiguan were lost.In order to reverse the defeat,Catholic scholars in the Ming court proposed to recruit the Portuguese soldiers in Macau to carry their western cannons to help Ming dynasty to fight with Manchu.At the same time,in order to develop trade with China and spread Catholicism and hope to rely on the Ming dynasty to against the Dutch,Macau also actively cooperated with Ming dynasty's actions.From the Apocalypse to the Chongzhen years,Portuguese soldiers of different sizes went north to aid the Ming for several times and were responsible for training Ming army.After the disaster in Dengzhou,Portuguese soldiers suffered big losses,and Kong Youde also surrendered to Manchu,with the Ming Army's elite firearms camp,which had been directly trained by the Portuguese soldiers.After the change in Jiashen,the emperors of Ming dynasty also asked Macau for military assistance.Hundreds of Portuguese soldiers also entered the mainland to participate in the War which against Qing dynasty,but they failed,and the Portuguese soldiers could not stop the Manchurian army.As the possibility of regaining lost land of Ming dynasty became less and less,in order to avoid provoking Qing dynasty,Macau stopped military assistance to Ming dynasty.The purchase of Western artillery and Portuguese soldiers by the Ming court had a profound impact on the history of the Ming and Qing wars and the Chinese history of the following hundreds of years.