Ming Dynasty Army

The army of the Ming dynasty, founded in China in 1368, was built by the Hongwu Emperor on the weisuo system modeled on the earlier Tang dynasty's fubing structure, creating a hereditary standing military that at its height exceeded a million troops under direct imperial command, a centralization reinforced when Hongwu abolished the Chancellery position in 1380. Ming forces under Hongwu's son the Yongle Emperor conquered Manchuria in 1387 and annexed Yunnan in the southwest in 1381, launched five major offensives north of the Great Wall against Mongol and Oirat forces between 1402 and 1424, and briefly occupied Vietnam from 1406 to 1427 before withdrawing in the face of sustained guerrilla resistance; the same reign also built the treasure fleet, with Admiral Zheng He's ships reportedly measuring up to 134 meters, for a series of major naval expeditions across the Indian Ocean. Ming military fortunes suffered a severe blow at the 1449 Tumu Crisis, when an Oirat Mongol invasion defeated a Ming army and captured the emperor himself, after which strategic priorities shifted from offensive campaigning toward the fortification and maintenance of the Great Wall from the late fifteenth century onward. Ming military strength deteriorated badly by the 1630s and 1640s as unpaid soldiers deserted en masse and peasant rebellions spread unchecked, a collapse that culminated in the fall of Beijing in 1644 and the end of Ming rule.