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War cart regiment of Zeng Xian (曾銑): Military formations visualised
🕑 Added 2023-08-24 08:16:29 +0000 UTCWhile I already created a legend for the formations in my article to help with the understanding the diagrams, it is still mentally exhausting to try to make sense of all those messily written Chinese characters and left-facing formations, not to mention there are quite a few minor mistakes and omission of details in the diagrams.
As such, I figured I'd recreate all eight formations into a colour-coded format for better clarity and easier understanding, so here they are!
EXTRA: A brief overview of Zeng Xian's military achievements
While an accomplished military commander, Zeng Xian was actually not a military man but a civil official, and began his career as the magistrate of the town of Changle in Fujian. Zeng Xian's hidden talent in military matters first came to light during his time as a censor and regional inspector of Liaodong, as he swiftly put down a mutiny in Liaoyang in 1535 by not only executing the ringleaders that instigate the mutiny, but also justly reverse the tyrannical policy that sparked it in the first place. For his contribution, Zeng Xian was promoted to become the director of the Grand Court of Revision in 1540, and later taken up the post of grand coordinator of Shandong in 1541. Realising that Shangdong was susceptible to Mongol raids, he spent the next three years fortifying Shandong, extending the walls of Linqing and bolstering its defence, before being transferred away to Shanxi, then to various passes along the Great Wall in the province to bolster their defences. Zeng Xian's fortification improvements were so successful that Altan Khan did not make another attempt at Shandong for an entire year even after he left. In recognisation of his outstanding achievements, Zeng Xian was promoted further, finally becoming the vice minister of war and the Supreme Commander of the Shaanxi Three Borders Defense Areas in 1546. It was during this time that he came face-to-face with the dreaded Mongol warlord Altan Khan.
In August 1546, Altan Khan launched a massive raid numbering thirty thousand against Yan'an and Qinyang, causing wanton destruction and chaos. Being only recently promoted, Zeng Xian only had limited manpower and resources at his disposal, yet he still personally led an army of several thousands to Saimen (塞門, inside present-day Ansai District) to interdict the Mongols. Knowing full well he couldn't defeat the much larger Mongol army in a head-on clash, Zeng Xian secretly ordered his subordinate Li Zhen (李珍) to launch a counter-raid against the relatively defenceless Mongol camps at Maliangshan (馬梁山). This classic stratagem of "Besiege Wei to rescue Zhao" was remarkably successful, as Li Zhen slaughtered hundreds and forced Altan Khan to call off the raid. Immediately capitalising on Altan Khan's hasty retreat, Zeng Xian daringly led his army to race ahead of the retreating Mongols and ambushed them at Xinanbianying (新安邊營), inflicting heavy casualties on Altan Khan's force.
Despite the setback, Altan Khan was not severely weakened and quickly resumed his raiding activities. He raided Ningxia in the following month, then attacked Qingpingbao (清平堡) fort on October 27, 1546, killing brigade commander Gao Ji (高極). In response to Altan Khan's encroachment, Zeng Xian began to construct a series of forts at the border while simultaneously launching numerous preemptive raids to prevent the Mongols from disrupting the construction process, and successfully forced the nomads back north.
Aggrieved by Chinese pushback, the Mongols launched a surprise attack during the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, when most Ming border commanders were busy preparing celebratory feast and alertness was at its lowest. To their surprise, Zeng Xian was waiting for them with a readied Ming army and easily defeated them. It was later discovered that Zeng Xian was able to detect the surprise raid by observing unnaturally agitated crows near the border, so he immediately whipped up the unwilling border commanders to launched a counter-raid. Unfortunately, this was also Zeng Xian last notable military achievement, as he was unjustly executed soon after.
On top of his military exploits, Zeng Xian was also a accomplished military innovator. He was one of the early pioneers of the adoption and mass production of explosive shells known as Du Huo Fei Pao (毒火飛砲) for use in bombards, as well as the inventor of Man Pao (慢砲, lit. 'Slow bomb'), a richly decorated delay-action bomb used as booby trap to bait Mongol pillagers, in the same vein as Ji Zei Shen Ji Tuo Liu Pao (擊賊神機柘榴砲). Zeng Xian also designed a type of tripwire-activated fougasse landmine known as Di Lei (地雷, lit. 'Ground thunder'), of which the name eventually became synonymous to landmine in modern Chinese lexicon.
