The
Tumu Crisis; also called the
Crisis of Tumubao or
Battle of Tumu Fortress , was a frontier conflict between the
OiratOirats are the westernmost group of the Mongols who unified several tribes origin whose ancestral home is in the Altai region of western Mongolia. Although the Oirats originated in the eastern parts of Central Asia, the most prominent group today is located in the Republic of Kalmykia, a federal...
MongolsMongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...
and the
ChineseChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
Ming DynastyThe Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
which led to the capture of the
Zhengtong EmperorZhu Qizhen was an emperor of the Ming Dynasty. He ruled as the Zhengtong Emperor from 1435 to 1449, and as the Tianshun Emperor from 1457 to 1464....
on September 1, 1449 and the loss of an army of 500,000 men to a much smaller force. This outcome was largely due to the Chinese army's remarkably bad deployment. The Ming expedition is regarded as the greatest military debacle of the dynasty.
In July 1449
Esen TayisiEsen taishi was a powerful Oirat Khagan of the Northern Yuan Dynasty in Mongolia in the 15th century. He is best known for capturing the Zhengtong Emperor of the Ming Dynasty in 1450 after the Battle of Tumu Fortress and briefly reuniting the Mongols...
(Chinese: 也先台吉) of the
OiratOirats are the westernmost group of the Mongols who unified several tribes origin whose ancestral home is in the Altai region of western Mongolia. Although the Oirats originated in the eastern parts of Central Asia, the most prominent group today is located in the Republic of Kalmykia, a federal...
MongolsMongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...
launched a large-scale three-pronged invasion of China with his puppet
khaganKhagan or qagan , alternatively spelled kagan, khaghan, qaghan, or chagan, is a title of imperial rank in the Mongolian and Turkic languages equal to the status of emperor and someone who rules a khaganate...
Toqtaq-Buqa. He personally advanced on
DatongDatong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province of North China, located a few hundred kilometres west by rail from Beijing with an elevation of...
(in northern
Shanxi' is a province in Northern China. Its one-character abbreviation is "晋" , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....
province) in August. The
eunuchA eunuch is a person born male most commonly castrated, typically early enough in his life for this change to have major hormonal consequences...
official
Wang ZhenWáng Zhèn was the first Ming Dynasty eunuch with power in the court. The Zhihua Si Temple in Beijing was built in 1443 at his order.He was killed during the Tumu Crisis , a disastrous campaign against the Oirat Mongols for which he was responsible.- External links :*...
, who dominated the Ming court, encouraged the 22-year-old Zhengtong Emperor to lead his own armies into battle against Esen. Esen's raiding army in size is unknown but a best guess puts it at some 20,000 men. The Ming army of about 500,000 men was hastily assembled; its command was made up of twenty experienced generals and a large entourage of high-ranking civil officials, with Wang Zhen acting as field marshal.
On August 3, Esen's army crushed a badly supplied Chinese army at Yanghe, just inside the
Great WallThe Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups...
. The same day the Emperor appointed his half-brother Zhu Qiyu as regent. The next day he left
BeijingBeijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
for
Juyong PassJuyongguan or Juyong Pass is located in an -long valley named "Guangou" which is inside Changping County more than from Beijing City. It is one of the three greatest passes of the Great Wall of China. The other two passes are Jiayuguan and Shanhaiguan....
. The objective was a short, sharp march west to
DatongDatong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province of North China, located a few hundred kilometres west by rail from Beijing with an elevation of...
via the Xuanfu garrison, a campaign into the
steppeIn physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...
, and then to return to Beijing by a southerly route through Yuzhou.
Initially the march was mired by heavy rain. At Juyong Pass, the civil officials and generals wished to halt and send the emperor back to Beijing, but their opinions were overruled by Wang Zhen. On August 16, the army came upon the corpse-strewn battlefield of Yanghe. When it reached Datong on August 18, reports from garrison commanders persuaded Wang Zhen that a campaign into the steppe would be too dangerous. The "expedition" was declared to have reached a victorious conclusion and on August 20 the army set out back toward China proper.
Fearing that the restless soldiers would cause damages to his estates in Yuzhou, Wang Zhen took the decision to strike northeast and return by the same exposed route as they had come. The army reached Xianfu on August 27. On August 30, the Mongols attacked the rearguard east of Xianfu and wiped it out. Soon afterwards, they also annihilated a powerful new rearguard of cavalry led by the elderly general Zhu Yong at Yaoerling. On August 31 the imperial army camped at the post station of Tumu. Wang Zhen refused his ministers' suggestion to have the emperor take refuge in the walled city of Huailai, just 45 km ahead.
Esen sent an advance force to cut off access to water from a river south of the Chinese camp. By the morning of September 1, they had surrounded the Chinese army. Wang Zhen rejected any offers to negotiate and ordered the confused army to move toward the river. A battle ensued between the chaotic Chinese army and the advance guard of Esen's army (Esen was not at the battle). The Chinese army lost all organization and was almost annihilated. The Mongols captured a huge quantity of arms and armour while killing most of the Chinese soldiers. All the high-ranking Chinese generals and court officials were killed. According to some accounts, Wang Zhen was killed by his own officers. The Emperor was captured, and on September 3 was sent to Esen's main camp near Xianfu.
The entire expedition had been unnecessary, ill-conceived, and poorly commanded. The Mongol victory was won by an advance guard of perhaps as few as 5,000 cavalry. Esen, for his part, was not prepared for the scale of his victory or for the capture of the Ming Emperor.
At first, Esen attempted to use the captured emperor to raise a ransom and planned to conquer the undefended Ming capital of Beijing. However his plan was foiled, due to steadfast leadership of the Ming commander in the capital,
Yu QianYu Qian , a native of Qiantang , was a Chinese Defence Minister during the Ming dynasty.- Biography :...
. The Ming leaders rejected Esen's offer, Yu stated the country was more important than an emperor's life.
The Ming never paid a ransom for the return of the Emperor as Esen released him after four years. Esen himself faced growing criticism for his failure to exploit his victory over the Ming and he was
assassinatedTo carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
six years after the battle in 1455.
Although the Oirats later occupied the
Ordos DesertThe Ordos Desert is a desert and steppe region lying on a plateau in the south of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China . The soil of the Ordos is a mixture of clay and sand and, as a result, is poorly suited for agriculture. It extends over an area of...
, they never again seriously threatened the Ming state.