Tumubao (), originally named Tongmocheng (統漠城), is a fortress located in Tumu Town,

Huailai County Huailai () is a county in northwestern Hebei province, China, under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Zhangjiakou. Huailai County is a center for grape wine production, with the China Great Wall Wine Company, Ltd. headquartered ...

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 province 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 ...

, China. It is situated on the inner side of the Great Wall, between

Juyongguan Juyong Pass () is a mountain pass located in the Changping District of Beijing Municipality, over from central Beijing. The Great Wall of China passes through, and the Cloud Platform was built here in the year 1342. Mountain pass Geography ...

and

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 ...

, and is a part of the

Great Wall The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand Li (unit), ''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 agains ...

defense system. The Tumu Fortress is located 10 kilometers east of Huailai County. It is shaped like a ship and has a length of approximately 500 meters from north to south and 1000 meters from east to west. The walls of the fortress are about 6 to 7 meters high. Currently, only the south and west walls of the fortress remain. Originally, the walls were made of earth and bricks, but now only the earth walls remain. During 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 ...

, Yulinbao (榆林堡), Tumubao, and Jimingbao (雞鳴堡) were the three major fortresses located in northern Beijing. In 1449,

Emperor Yingzong of Ming , succession = Emperor of the Ming dynasty , reign-type = First reign , reign = 31 January 1435 – 22 September 1449 , coronation = 7 February 1435 , cor-type = Enthronement , regent = , reg-type = Regents , ...

led a campaign against the

Oirats Oirats (; ) or Oirds ( ; ), formerly known as Eluts and Eleuths ( or ; zh, 厄魯特, ''Èlǔtè'') are the westernmost group of Mongols, whose ancestral home is in the Altai Mountains, Altai region of Siberia, Xinjiang and western Mongolia. ...

and was ultimately defeated and captured by their army at Tumubao, an event known in historiography as the

Tumu Crisis The Crisis of the Tumu Fortress, also known as the Tumu Crisis, or the Jisi Incident, was a border conflict between the Oirat Mongols and the Ming dynasty. In July 1449, Esen Taishi, leader of the Oirat Mongols, launched a large-scale, three-pro ...

. In 1457, after Emperor Yingzong was restored to the throne following the Duomen Coup, a Xianzhong Temple (顯忠祠) was built within the fortress to honor and commemorate the sacrifice of 20–30 Ming military officers during the Tumu Crisis.

References

{{coord missing, China Great Wall of China Castles in China Huailai County

See also

References