At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Timur Empire, which dominated Central Asia, defeated the Ottoman Empire in one fell swoop under the leadership of Timur, a descendant of Genghis Khan. The Ottoman Empire has always suppressed the Eastern Roman Empire. The combat effe

Introduction: At the end of the 14th century, there were four major empires distributed from west to east on the Eurasian continent, namely Eastern Roman Empire , Ottoman Empire, Timur Empire and Ming Dynasty . At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Timur Empire, which dominated Central Asia, defeated the Ottoman Empire in one fell swoop under the leadership of Genghis Khan's descendants - Timur . The Ottoman Empire has always suppressed the Eastern Roman Empire. The combat effectiveness of the Timur Empire has thus achieved "protecting two and fighting for one" among the four empires.

In 1404 AD, Timur personally led an army of nearly 500,000 to the east, intending to compete with the Ming Dynasty and recover the "homeland" of the Mongols. But just when he was about to go to the front line to command the battle to attack Gansu, he unfortunately died of illness, and his dream of the east was shattered. If he really led his army to the land of the Ming Dynasty, would the then Yongle Emperor Zhu Di be able to beat him?

"Lame Lion" in Central Asia - Timur

1. Economic comparison between the Timur Empire and the Ming Dynasty

1. Population and land of the two countries

No matter what period, the population is the main body of economic activities. The more population the country's agriculture and animal husbandry can get more labor, thereby promoting economic development. Similarly, the better the economy, the more people it can support. For example, in the Jiangnan region, due to the influence of Yongjia southward , Jingkang rebellion , the population in the north migrated to the south of the Yangtze River, which allowed the land in Jiangnan to be better developed and also allowed Jiangnan to gradually replace the economic status of Guanzhong and other regions.

The administrative management system of the Timur Empire is quite special. It not only follows the part of the Chagatai Khanate system, but also absorbs the part of the Arab system. It looks a bit like a hodgepodge. The management of the local area is looser than that of the Ming Dynasty. The population of 928.5 million in the eighth year of Yongle should be relatively small. However, the population of the Ming Dynasty in the eighth year of Yongle reached 951.7 million . Even if there are differences in the population counted by the Timur Empire, it will not be too large to offset the gap between the two countries.

Timur Empire Territory

Land is an important production resource. The more high-quality land, the more cattle, sheep and horses you can raise and the more food you can grow, and the better the related economic development. For example, the Qin general Sima Cuo destroyed Bashu, achieving the strategic goals of "wide land" and "rich country" . Genghis Khan also attacked Hongjila, Tatar and other troops, and occupied the Hulunbuir Grassland with abundant water and grass, allowing its economic strength to be rapidly improved.

Timur has been establishing the Timur Empire in the Hezhong area, and by the time of its eastern expedition, it had become a great empire covering East India, Persian Plateau, Mesopotamia and other places, and its effective ruling territory reached 94.8 million 10 square kilometers. Although the Ming Dynasty achieved great unification, it did not form effective management in the Northeast, Mongolia, Tibet and Western Regions. In addition, Doyan Sanwei took advantage of the "Jingnan Rebellion" to break away from the control of the Ming Dynasty. The territory of the Ming Dynasty at the beginning of Zhu Di's ascension should be around 10 square kilometers. Considering the quality of the land, the Ming Dynasty was superior to the Timur Empire in terms of overall land.

The territory of the Ming Dynasty in the early days of Yongle

2, the taxes of the two countries and GDP

Stable taxes are the basic guarantee for the development of the dynasty. Whether it is infrastructure construction or war, it requires financial support. The taxes in the Timur Empire mainly relied on the head tax , land tax and industrial and commercial tax. The Timur Empire stipulated that each poor person would pay 1 dinar per year, and each rich person would pay 10 dinar per year. The land tax was levied in kind, and was levied at about 1/3 of the land output. The pressure on the people was still relatively high. It is worth mentioning that the Timur Empire attached great importance to the development of industry and commerce, and vigorously set up post stations along the Silk Road to encourage foreign trade.

The Ming Dynasty pursued the national policy of "focusing on agriculture and suppressing commerce" , especially during the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang and . This was especially true. His taxes mainly depend on the agricultural tax increased by fixed quota, which was about 930 million shi of grain per year. According to 0.25 taels of silver per stone grain in the early Ming Dynasty, it was equivalent to 97.5 million shi of silver. Zhu Yuanzhang emphasized light labor and labor. He once preached to his ministers, "The way to protect the country is to hide riches from the people, and the people are rich will be close to each other."

Timur Empire's prosperous commercial

GDP can better reflect the scale of economic development. Simply put, how much labor achievements people have achieved in total is GDP. The long-term expeditions of the Timur Empire caused serious damage to Central Asia and other regions, affecting the development of the regional economy. Fortunately, he attached great importance to the recovery of the economy after the war, sent troops to farmers, vigorously built water conservancy facilities, and strengthened urban construction. By 1405, the year of his death, the GDP of the Timur Empire accounted for 8% of the world's GDP that year.

Before the founding of the Ming Dynasty, wars occurred frequently and the social economy was severely damaged. Fortunately, after expelling Tatar , Zhu Yuanzhang rested with the people, attached importance to agricultural production, and realized " Hongwu Governance " . By the time Zhu Di took office, he had a relatively solid foundation. Although Zhu Di fought with Zhu Yunwen and for four years, causing Shandong, Hebei and other places to suffer a certain degree of damage again, it did not affect the whole country, especially the wealthy Jiangnan region. According to relevant data, the GDP in the early Ming Dynasty accounted for more than 920% of the world GDP in the same period.

Zhu Di, who created the "Yongle Prosperity",

2. Military comparison between the Timur Empire and the Ming Dynasty

1. The military scale of the two countries

Timur Empire was built on military basis and attached great importance to military construction. Its military scale once reached more than 1.3 million . The soldiers of the Timur Empire mainly came from feudal lords from all over the country. It is difficult to achieve unified homogeneity in a dynasty like the Timur Empire, and the best way is to implement the military fiefdom system like the Frankish Kingdom. Each feudal lord has military power in his own fiefdom . Once Timur has demand, the feudal lords in various places have the obligation to provide soldiers to him. The advantage of this system is that Timur can efficiently integrate high-quality troops of large scale, but once Timur's prestige drops, there will be problems with stability. Due to concerns about stability, Timur's enfeoffment in the capital Samarkand area was mainly his own family members and trusted generals. As for the newly conquered land, it was enfeoffed to people with slightly estranged relations, and it would disrupt the distribution of nobles in various places, such as moving the nobles of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate to the residential areas of the Muslim people.

Temur army

ward system and the soldiers of HTML were classified as military . They were both farmers and soldiers, and passed down from generation to generation. Once there was a need to mobilize troops, the court did not need to re-enlist, but could directly draw from each ward system. The advantage of the

guard system is that it can reduce the burden on the court to raise soldiers and improve the efficiency of mobilizing the army. However, no matter how good the system changes over time, it will be out of place. For example, the first generation of guard soldiers is very excellent. Who can guarantee that their descendants will continue to be excellent? Even the soldiers are hereditary, and over time, their combat effectiveness will inevitably decline. Fortunately, the ward system in the Yongle period was quite strong. From this point of view, the Timur Empire and the Ming Dynasty were comparable in terms of efficiency and scale of recruiting troops, but the Ming Dynasty was more stable.

of the nine-sided important towns in the Ming Dynasty, there were three in the northwest

2, the military quality of the two countries

Timur was able to start from scratch, which was inseparable from his personal military literacy and the combat effectiveness of his army.He fought for more than 40 years in his life, and regarded the battlefield as his home, constantly learning and growing in war. Although he had failed in his early years, in his later years, he almost became a "god of war". When he faced the terrifying Indian elephant formation in Delhi , he first stabilized the formation with trenches and other means, and used the copy of the "Fire Bull Formation" - "Fire Camel Formation" to attack the elephant formation, and then sent cavalry to encircle the Indian army from the flanks. This battle won so beautifully!

The army under Timur's command has outstanding achievements and rich combat experience. The army includes not only the Mongolian cavalry and Turkic cavalry with skillful bows and horses, but also the brave Arab infantry and Khwarezm infantry. Timur attached great importance to the role of weapons and equipment, solicited a large number of skilled craftsmen to serve his army, and developed many new armors. However, the iron ore resources he mastered were relatively lacking at that time, and many weapons and equipment needed to rely on neighboring countries, such as Georgian 's chain mail , etc.

fire camel breaks the battle elephant

Although Zhu Di is the "second generation", he has been a long-standing battle since he became a vassal Beiping . He is very good at counter-defense and attacking for long distances, which is more similar to Timur. For example, in the 23rd year of Hongwu, Zhu Di, who was thirty years old, was ordered to march north for the first time. He suddenly encountered heavy snow on the road. The soldiers advised him to wait until the snow stopped before leaving. He thought that the war was about accidental, so he advanced in the snow and caught the enemy off guard. After Zhu Di ascended the throne, he still did not change his original intention and liked to lead the imperial army in person.

In order to facilitate command, he spent a lot of effort on the reform of the imperial guards, such as the three camps he formed. The three major camps specializing in firearms, the Shenji Battalion, , was formed after Timur's death. The San Thousand Battalion, , , , was built after Zhu Di's personal expedition to Mongolia later. The Five Military Barracks was relatively early and was built in 1399. The 5th Army Barracks are mainly a mixed army composed of elite cavalry and infantry, with troops of more than 100,000. The Ming army attached great importance to the application of fire. Before the emergence of the Shenji Camp, the Ming army had already equipped a large number of firefightings, swarms of bees (rockets that can be fired multiple times at once).

Ming Army Equipment

Conclusion

To sum up, even if Timur really leads the army to fight with the Ming Army, he will lose more than he wins. Although the Ming Dynasty was not established for a long time at that time, it had certain advantages over the Timur Empire, both in terms of economy and military.

Timur is good at fighting, like Zhu Di, Timur's army is invincible, and Zhu Di's army is not weak; Timur is fighting for a long distance, and Zhu Di is fighting for a local war; Timur is an "old man" who is nearly 70 years old, and Zhu Di is at the golden age of 45. There are many more unstable factors in the Timur Empire than in the Ming Dynasty.

A general of the Timur Empire who was later ordered to go on a mission to the Ming Dynasty once said that "Timur died on the Eastern Expedition, which allowed him to preserve his reputation forever."

References:

"History of Ming Dynasty"

"Timur Empire"

"Da Cihai·World History Volume"