The Datong Garrison () was one of the Nine Garrisons established by the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

to defend the northern border and

Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' long wall") is a series of fortifications in China. They were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against vario ...

. The area of responsibility was to defend the outer stretch of the Great Wall, starting from Piantou Pass on the Yellow River and extending northeast to Shahukou. It then continued further east, reaching north of Datong and ending at

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, which is located 40 km west of

Zhangjiakou Zhangjiakou (), also known as Kalgan and by several other names, is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Hebei province in Northern China, bordering Beijing to the southeast, Inner Mongolia to the north and west, and Shanxi to the southwest ...

Hebei Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...

, where it joined the wall under the Xuanfu Garrison. The wall that belonged to the Datong Garrison was constructed in the mid-16th century in response to repeated attacks by the Mongols, led by

Altan Khan Altan Khan of the Tümed (2 January 1508 – 13 January 1582; ; Chinese: 阿勒坦汗), whose given name was Anda ( Mongolian: Алтан (Аньда); Chinese: 俺答), was the leader of the Tümed Mongols de facto ruler of the Right Wing, o ...

. In total, the Datong Garrison was responsible for 330 km of the Great Wall. The garrison was under the command of Xuanda, and its headquarters were located in present-day

Datong Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province, China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 census, it had a population o ...

Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...

. To the east, the Datong Garrison shared a border with the Xuanfu Garrison, and to the west, it bordered the Yansui Garrison.

References

{{Reflist Military history of the Ming dynasty History of the Great Wall of China Military history of Shanxi

See also

References