|
Shenjiying
The Shenjiying (), which directly translates to "Divine Machine Battalion", was one of Ming dynasty's three elite military divisions stationed around Beijing collectively called the "Three Big Battalions" ( zh, t=三大營, p=Sān Dà Yíng, labels=no), and was famous for its utilization of firearm weaponries. Its name has also been variously rendered as Firearms Division, Artillery Camp, Shen-chi Camp and Firearm Brigade.Chan Hok-lam, "Li Ying", in Fang Chao-ying and Luther Carrington Goodrich (eds), ''Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644'' (Columbia University Press, 1976), p. 890. Established during the reign of the Yongle Emperor (1360–1424), the Divine Machine Battalion was specifically created to specialize in firearm warfare. Later on the division provided half of Qi Jiguang's army with firearms and one cannon to every twelve soldiers. The other two elite brethren divisions around the capital were the Five Barracks Battalion ( zh, t=五軍營, p=Wǔjūn Yíng, labe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peking Field Force
The Peking Field Force was a modern-armed military unit that defended the Chinese imperial capital Beijing in the last decades of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). The Force was founded in 1862, two years after the humiliating capture of Beijing and the sack of the Qing emperor's Summer Palace in 1860 by foreign powers at the end of the Second Opium War. After that war, high Qing officials like Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, and Wenxiang (the latter a Manchu) tried to acquire advanced western weapons and to copy western military organization. Founded by Wenxiang and manned by mostly Manchu Bannermen, the soldiers most loyal to the dynasty, the Force was armed with Russian rifles and French cannon and drilled by British officers. The " First Historical Archives of China" () in Beijing hold a collection of primary documents on the Peking Field Force. Name The Chinese name of the battalions is Shenji ying, in which ''shenji'' means "divine mechanism" and ''ying'' either "military camp", "b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ming Musketeers
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, the majority ethnic group in China. Although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng (who established the short-lived Shun dynasty), numerous rump regimes ruled by remnants of the Ming imperial family—collectively called the Southern Ming—survived until 1662. The Ming dynasty's founder, the Hongwu Emperor (r. 1368–1398), attempted to create a society of self-sufficient rural communities ordered in a rigid, immobile system that would guarantee and support a permanent class of soldiers for his dynasty: the empire's standing army exceeded one million troops and the navy's dockyards in Nanjing were the largest in the world. He also took great care breaking the power of the court eunuchs and unr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
