The Great Wall of China by Ming Dynasty

The poet, Emperor Yangi once stated during an invasion of the Great Wall of China, “Desolately the wind rises. We march thousands of miles over vast distances. Why do we cross the deserts? To build the Great Wall.” The Great Wall of China is one of the most famous structures that is associated with the country of China. The Great Wall of China is a wall that covers almost all the parts of Northern China. It was built by Ming Dynasty with the help of slaves, peasants, criminals, and other people that were punished by him. Soldiers were ordered to not only help build the wall but to convince the workers to help out, too. The wall overall was 5,500 miles long! Its purpose was to keep invaders out. For instance, there were invaders called The Mongols, which were Northern invaders, and the First Emperor Qin Shi Huang helped prevent the invaders from destroying their beloved wall. He decided to make a single giant wall, which would hopefully protect the northern borders and ordered for them to build a single strong wall so that there would be extra protection at the tower. What I mean by this is they had lookout towers, and beacon towers, which were used to send signals, like security. It is estimated that millions of people worked on it during a span of 1,000 years! Along with that, scientists believe that 1 million people died during the process of building it, and 1 million soldiers guarded the wall during the height of the Ming Dynasty. The builders were not treated well at all, when these people die, they got buried under the wall. Towns helped build along the wall, for Garrison soldiers, which was a different type of soldier. This would help so that they could get to the wall quicker if there ever is an emergency that needs to be addressed.

The wall was mostly made of stone, earth, and sometimes bricks. In some sections of the wall, it overlapped for the most security that they could get. The wall was not just one big wall, and there were two walls to combine to one strong wall, which makes the wall very well constructed. This includes; the Badaling stretch, and north of Beijing. North of Beijing was later recreated during the Ming Dynasty. The wall rose about 15-30 feet high and had a protective barrier that was 12 feet or higher. Over the years of the wall being built, roadways have been cut, which is through the wall. Many sections of it got destroyed since it is such an old wall and has been invaded multiple times by the same person! The most well-known section of the Great Wall of China is called Badaling, which is located 43 miles northwest of Beijing. The Great Wall of China was renovated in the late 1950s and attracts visitors every day. It is a monument that is special to the Chinese and is one of many buildings that is an ancient symbol to them.

There was only one invader in the Great Wall of China in its 2,700-year history! His name is Genghis Khan. As well as, the founder of the Mongol Empire in the years 1162-1226. In his life, he not only breached the wall once, but he breached it several times with the help of his Mongolian Army. He was the only one to breach the wall because: 

1. He defeated the Western Xia to the west, now called The Northwestern Chinese. This caused a threat to Jin but was helpful to The Mongols. 
2. Defeating the enemies that are up north to guarantee that the territory was safe and protected. 
3. He enlisted Jin’s army and this guarded the northwest section of Jin’s Great Wall, making the area a military base, that was used for attacking Jin. 
4. He unsettled the Jin garrison soldiers for his use. 
5. He collected information on Jin’s court from businessmen and representatives. 

This was to make sure that he could get the information about them without getting caught. On the contrary, the Jin emperor did not take the Mongols seriously at first and put most of his military forces on the southern border with Southern Song in the years 1127.