Beijing City Fortifications - Defence

Defence

The defence system of Beijing during the Ming and Qing dynasties included city walls, moats, gate towers, barbicans, watchtowers, corner guard towers, enemy sight towers, and military encampments both outside and inside the city. The mountains immediately north of the city and the interior Great Wall sections on those mountain ranges also acted as a defensive perimeter.

During the Ming dynasty, troops under permanent encampment in and around Beijing were called Jingjun or Jingying ("capital troops"). During the Yongle era (1402–1424), they were organised into three groups, called Wujunying, Sanqianying, and Shenjiying. The three ying were further divided into 72 wei, organised into five groups named Zhongjun (centre), Zuoyejun (left middle), Youyejun (right middle), Zuoshaojun (left guard), and Youshaojun (right guard); these were collectively known as the Wujunying ("five troops"). The majority of the Jingjun were headquartered outside of west Deshengguan. Some camped in the rural districts of the capital area, at Nanyuan, Tonzhou, Lugouqiao, Changping, and the Juyongguan interior Great Wall. During the Tumu Crisis in 1449, the entire Jingjun was destroyed, a loss of some 500,000 men. Yu Qian then changed the organisational structure of the force, bringing approximately 100,000 well-trained troops from several different camps into one supergroup: the 10-battalion supergroup. This was raised to 12 battalions during the reign of Emperor Xian of the Ming dynasty. These were commanded from within the Inner city at Dongguanting and Xiguanting. Drilling and training fields outside of the city walls could also be used as temporary encampments. The original Wujunying, Sanqianying, and Shenjiying were converted to guard units in charge of protecting the Imperial city and the Forbidden city. Later the Imperial guards were joined by the Jinyiwei and the Tengxiangwei, whose commanders included "Mianyiwei Dahan General", "Hongkui General", "Mingjia General", "Bazong Director", and several others. A guard post in the Imperial city called "Hongpu" was formed. The city gates were closed at night; no one was allowed in or out unless special permission was given (one exception was the carts that continually brought spring water from Mount Yuquan). The city streets had guards on constant patrol at night. Loud and disruptive behaviour was forbidden. Some streets had barricades erected at night to keep traffic away. The city walls normally had no soldiers on station, day or night. Most lived under the walls in encampments, with a few doing night shifts at gate towers, watchtowers, and enemy sight towers. Only when there was danger of enemy attack were soldiers stationed atop the city walls. During the Ming dynasty, Beijing was often under siege by Mongol and Manchu forces. The city of Beijing was totally closed many times, with commoners forbidden entrance into the city.

During the Qing dynasty, Beijing's defence forces mainly relied on the Xiaoqiying, who were scattered in encampments within the Inner city, then mainly inhabited by Manchus. They were organised into Eight Banners: the Xianghuang banner at Andingmen, the Zhenghuang banner at Deshengmen, the Zhengbai banner at Dongzhimen, the Xiangbai banner at Chaoyangmen, the Zhenghong banner at Xizhimen, the Xianghong banner at Fuchengmen, the Zhenglan banner at Chongwenmen, and the Xianglan banner at Xuanwumen. Each banner had an office hall, several troop barracks, a patrol station, and a warehouse. In addition to the Xiaoqiying, troops permanently encamped in and around Beijing included the Qianfengying, Hujunying, Bujun Xunbuying, Jianruiying, Huoqiying (in charge of artillery), Shenjiying (first begun in 1862), and the Huqiangying (in charge of guns). From the Yongzheng era (1722–1735) onwards, the Eight Banner guard troops in charge of protecting the imperial leisure parks were camped in the area around the Old Summer Palace and Fragrant Hills. The same system of Eight Banners was in place for the nine gates of the Inner city. The troops consisted of an equal distribution of Manchu, Mongol, and Han soldiers. The soldiers of the Chengmenling, in charge of protecting the city gates, came from these banners: Andingmen: the Zhenglan banner; Deshengmen: the Xianglan banner; Dongzhimen: the Xiangbai banner; Xizhimen: the Xianghong banner; Chaoyangmen: the Zhengbai banner; Fuchengmen: the Zhenghong banner; Chongwenmen: the Xianghuang banner; Xuanwumen: the Zhenghuang banner; and Zhengyangmen rotated between the eight banners. The Outer city's seven gates were manned by Han troops from the following banners: Dongbianmen: the Xianghuang banner; Xibianmen: the Zhenghuang banner; Guangqumen: the Zhengbai banner; Guang'anmen: the Zhenghong banner; Zuo'anmen: the Xianglan and Xiangbai banners; You'anmen: the Xianghong banner; and Yongdingmen: the Zhenglan banner. In 1728 permanent barracks were built for the eight banners in the Inner city, excepting Zhengyangmen. Each gate had barracks of 460 rooms for a ying, 90 rooms for a ban, and 15 rooms for a geng, for a total of 3,680 rooms. Outside the city walls were an additional 16,000 rooms, with each banner having 2,000 rooms. Manchu troops were allocated 1,500 rooms and Han troops 500 rooms. There were also 135 storage rooms atop the Inner city walls, 106 of which were for military equipment such as direction flags, cannons, gunpowder, and guns. In 1835, 241 houses of three rooms each were added to the nine gates of the Inner city, as the original straw and earthen barracks were deteriorating. Twenty-eight store rooms were added, as well as 3,616 Outer city barracks. During the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), the Xiaoqiying soldiers usually lived outside the city gates rather than on the city walls. This proved to be easier for defending the city during a siege. Only when the emperor was leaving the city for Yuanmingyuan or the Temple of Heaven did the soldiers station themselves atop the walls. An exception was Xuanwumen; as the only gate that stayed open at night, the top of the wall was continually manned. Cannons were fired at noon atop Xuanwumen to mark the time. Xuanwumen literally means "Announcing Noon Gate".

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the principal defensive weapons were firelocks, cannons, and bows and arrows. In 1629, Houjin troops attacked Beijing, and in 1644, Li Zicheng's troops laid siege to Beijing. Troops atop the city walls used cannons extensively during both sieges. During the Second Opium War (1856–1860), invading troops stationed outside the city walls gave up, because Beijing was too extensively protected. They then went on to burn down Yuanmingyuan and attack Haidian to the northwest. Between 13 August and 15 August 1900, when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, the fortifications withstood bombardment by cannon attacks for two full days before being overrun. The Qing forces took full advantage of their higher elevation and the protection of the thick walls to shoot down Alliance troops. Russian and Japanese forces attempted several times to use nitrocellulose to blow a gap in the wall at Dongzhimen and Chaoyangmen, but failed, because every time a soldier tried to light the fuse, he would be shot down. The barbicans, enemy sight towers, and corner guard towers proved to be quite effective at deterring enemy attacks. For example, on the night of 13 August, Russian troops succeeded in invading Dongbianmen's watchtower, but suffered heavy casualties in the barbican. It wasn't until the late morning of 14 August that they conquered the gate tower at Dongbianmen, a mere 50 metres away. Even after the Outer city and Inner city fell to Alliance forces, the Imperial city's defenses still held. On the morning of 15 August, American forces used several guns to try to destroy the Tiananmen gates, but they held. Japanese troops used ladders to scale the wall and open the gates, thus allowing Alliance troops into the Imperial city. In an incident on 25 July 1937, a battalion of Japanese troops camped at Fengtai District, declaring that they intended "to protect Japanese immigrants" and "to protect Dongjiaomin Street's Embassy district", tried to advance into Beijing. When they began entering Guang'anmen, around twenty Chinese soldiers fired on them from atop the gate tower, forcing them to abandon their plan. Thus even in the modern era of the 1930s and 1940s, the dilapidated fortifications were still useful defensively.