Mongols from the north and northwest of China raided the capital at Beijing for more than two decades, demanding trade privileges. The conflict ceased when a peace treaty was agreed between Altan, the Mongol leader or khan, and the Longqing emperor.

After the eviction of the Mongolian government from Chinese soil at the end of the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), these so-called northern barbarians remained a constant threat to the Chinese. Along the border between Mongolia and China, the Ming government established military garrisons as a defense mechanism, the most important of which were the garrisons at Datong and Xuanfu in the northern part of Shanxi Province. However, the soldiers stationed there were not well prepared for warfare, and the commanders were not loyal to the point that they would sacrifice their lives for the Ming court. Beijing, Mongol raids on
Mongol Empire;China and
Jiajing
Longqing
Altan
Darayisun
Qiu Luan
Wang Chonggu
Batu Mongke
Altan
Jiajing
Darayisun
Qiu Luan
Wang Chonggu
Longqing

Toward the end of the fifteenth century, the most powerful and influential leader among the various Mongolian tribes was Batu Mongke, who created the Mongolian confederation and ruled for thirty-two years. One of his grandsons, Altan, who after his father’s death inherited the land north of Shanxi, was an ambitious and power-hungry man who launched military campaigns against other Mongolian tribes, such as the Oyrats in the West. To gather supplies for his army, Altan led his troops to raid northern China, taking cotton, grains, and metal. From 1530 to the 1540’, Mongolia was devastated by repeated smallpox epidemics. The decade after this was filled with periods of severe drought and famine in southern Mongolia. To gather the resources for his military campaigns and to provide relief to his people after the natural disasters, Altan had no choice but to look southward to China.

The Ming Ming Dynasty (1368-1644);invasion by Mongols ruler Shizong, the Jiajing emperor, was not an efficient leader. During the early part of his reign, he was more concerned with securing an heir, for whom he appealed to the Daoist Shao Yuanzhi for prayers. After he had had several sons, the emperor turned his attention to acquiring the elixir of immortality, leaving the welfare of the country to his subjects. Jiajing was also prejudiced against the Mongols, who, to him, were barbarians and could not be trusted.

Between the years 1541 and 1545, rain was scanty in northern China. As a result, famine broke out in both Mongolia and the northern Chinese provinces. Altan, in an effort to relieve his people, requested trading privileges with China but was ignored. In 1547, Altan even suggested an alliance with the Ming court to fight against the eastern Mongols under Darayisun’s rule. The Jiaging emperor ordered divinations of the results of future campaigns against the Mongols; when these divinations proved to be in favor of the Ming, he ignored Altan, who then turned to Darayisun against the Chinese.

In July, 1550, the Mongols approached the Chinese garrison at Datong, where they received a bribe from the commandant Qiu Luan to go east. Qiu, fully aware of his men’s inability to ward off their enemies, persuaded the Mongols to go somewhere else. On September 26, the Mongols arrived at Gubei Pass, 40 miles (about 64 kilometers) northeast of Beijing. They then moved on to Tongzhou, northern terminal of the Grand Canal, where they camped for the night of September 30. On October 1, the Mongols besieged the city of Beijing and looted the suburbs.

Most of the resident troops in the Beijing capital were assigned construction projects and were not fit to fight. When reinforcements arrived, they were met with no provisions and starved. The Ming minister of war could do nothing except to wait for the Mongols to withdraw. They did so several days later, happily with the looted goods intact. In 1551, Altan requested trading privileges again, especially the establishment of horse fairs. The Chinese agreed to two horse fairs annually and hence the raiding stopped for six months. Yet when the Mongols suggested trading cattle and sheep for beans and grains, the Chinese not only denied this request but also stopped the horse fairs altogether. Thereupon the Mongols resumed their constant raiding. Between 1550 and 1566, the Mongols raided China every year.

The Jiajing emperor took advice from his subjects not only to consolidate the Great Wall but also to build an eastern wall to protect the southern suburbs in Beijing. At the same time, for his own safety he established a palace army, or nei wu fu, which comprised eunuchs Eunuchs, Chinese . None of these measures proved to be of any effect to curb the Mongols’ raids.

In 1556, a major earthquake took place in Shaanxi and Shanxi Provinces, where revenues were not collected for years after. Earthquake, Chinese (1556) In the capital, the main audience palaces were burned down in 1557 and needed to be rebuilt. Burdened by the incessant encounters with the Mongols, the Ming national treasury was severely depleted over the years. Often, there was not enough money to sustain the border garrisons. In 1557, a garrison near Datong was abandoned for almost a year. During the twenty-one-year campaign with the Mongols (1550-1571), the Ming army won only once, in 1560.

In 1571, an opportunity for peace opened for the Chinese. Altan’s grandson defected to Wang Chonggu, the governor-general at Datong. Instead of treating him as a hostage, Wang respected him as a royal guest. For the release of his grandson, Wang proposed a negotiation with Altan in which the latter would commit to a solemn oath not to attack China again. Later a settlement was reached between Altan and the Longqing emperor, who unlike his father, the Jiajing emperor, had long ago wished to put an end to the hostility between the two nations. The peace treaty consisted of five main provisions: