Ming Great Wall Reconstruction Begins

1464

Following the humiliation of the Tumu Crisis, Ming emperors began a serious program of reconstruction and extension of northern border walls, gradually transforming scattered sections of rammed earth into the continuous stone and brick fortification that later generations would call the Great Wall. The project consumed millions of conscript laborers over the next century and a half. China was methodically walling itself against the nomadic steppe with masonry instead of diplomacy.