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Eyes on the ‘Central Plains’: The Manchus’ Military Strategies and Tactics during the Early 17th Century

Minsu Park 1

1이화여자대학교

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ABSTRACT

Since the founding of the empire, Nurhaci and his followers suffered from continuous shortage of food, and repeatedly attacked the Ming frontier to secure supplies and other essential materials. Later, in his discussion with the high-ranking Manchu officials, we can see that Hong Taiji considered these frontier raids as the most effective way of raising the morale of the Manchus. In theory, Hong Taiji knew that attacking Beijing via the Shanhai Pass was the most effective way of conquering the Ming, but he also realized that this strategy was unrealistic and risky. Collaborators from the Ming also proposed detailed and systematic plans to achieve this seemingly impossible plan of overtaking Beijing. However, Hong Taiji clearly rejected this optimistic idea of the Ming defectors and Manchu officials, and maintained a more cautious approach of staying to the raiding expeditions against the Ming. The scale and frequency of the raids increased over time, but Hong Taiji still avoided any contact with Shanhai Pass itself and focused the attacks to the frontier area around Beijing. Despite his continuous success in the raids to the Ming territory, as long has he did not secure Shanhai Pass the raids were only raids; they did not evolve into conquest war in a real meaning.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

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