Those Things in the Ming Dynasty Part 4 Whitewashing the Peace _ Chapter 19 The Doomsday of the Invaders
compromise
Qi Jiguang finally became famous. Because of his outstanding performance in the Taizhou victory, he was promoted to the commander of the capital. From then on, he began to be called a national hero and a famous anti-Japanese general. But behind all this glory, there was another Qi Jiguang - a man who was good at
People who build relationships, cater to leaders, treat guests and give gifts, and form cliques.
In countless history books, Qi Jiguang is the embodiment of bravery and fearlessness. He can make good decisions and is invincible. All this is true, but he also has another side. For example, whenever he goes to a place, he must first go to the dock to treat guests and give gifts.
Eat and drink a lot, and then identify with the clan and find the ancestors. We are all brothers, but according to his salary, it is impossible to afford such high expenses. So the conclusion is: Qi Jiguang is a man who both accepts gifts and gives bribes.
people.
When he was a boy, Qi Jiguang's ears were surrounded by his father's teachings every day, which taught him that he must be upright and not engage in crooked ways. Qi Jiguang believed and persisted in these teachings. He believed that his father was not wrong.
However, from the time he took office in Shandong at the age of eighteen, he discovered that he was wrong. Although he was honest and honest, although he was upright, it was all useless. No one paid attention to him, and no one helped him. His ideals and
The belief may be noble, but it cannot be realized at all.
The thing that had the biggest impact on him was undoubtedly Yu Dayou's forced departure.
For Yu Dayou, the Battle of Cengang was a very painful lesson. Like Qi Jiguang, he also began to train the new army, and soon forged an extremely combat-effective army, which was the so-called "Yu Family Army".
His formations are also very unique, they are called the Triple Stack Formation and the Front-Seizing Dragon Formation. I won’t introduce them in detail here. All you need to know is that these two formations are awesome.
With the army and formations in place, Yu Dayou was ready to fight.
However, he did not wait for this opportunity, because just like before, he once again encountered something inexplicable, and this time the protagonist was Hu Zongxian.
In April of the thirty-eighth year of Jiajing (1559), Hu Zongxian received such a notification that a group of Japanese pirates were wandering along the coast of Zhejiang and asked for instructions on how to deal with them.
Hu Zongxian thought for a moment and issued this order:
"Leave them alone, just don't let these people reach the shore."
Two months later, he received news that Li Hu, the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, had filed a complaint against him. He was charged with allowing the enemy to flee and beggaring his neighbors.
This was really a bad time. Hu Zongxian did not expect that the Japanese pirates were here to rob. If they didn't go to the host's house, they would go to the west's house. Governor Hu didn't accept him, so they ran to Fujian and robbed a lot.
The governor of Fujian was so angry that his nose twisted and he was furious. He wanted to settle the score with Hu Zongxian, so he took the case to the emperor and demanded that Hu Zongxian be held accountable.
But after all, Hu Zongxian was in a big wave and the water was deep. After several actions, he got through safely. This is roughly what happened.
But this story seems to have nothing to do with Yu Dayou, so where did the trouble start?
If there is a connection, then this matter is not surprising. Yu Dayou's life has always been strange because of its inexplicable nature.
After the matter was settled, Hu Zongxian began to think about it. The Fujian side insisted that he had left it alone. Could it be that someone here leaked the information and became a traitor?
So he began to search for clues, first checking Li Hu, who was from Fujian, and then checking himself, who was from Fujian, was high-level, and had access to secrets, and the answer finally appeared: Yu Dayou, the general soldier of Zhejiang, and a native of Jinjiang, Fujian.
This is such a miserable life that we cannot blame the government. Comrade Yu Dayou worked conscientiously and diligently, but he turned out to be a spy just because he was from Fujian. Governor Hu acted vigorously and resolutely, and he immediately wrote a letter and put the responsibility on Yu Dayou.
The emperor was angry again, and he immediately ordered that Yu Dayou be stripped of his official position and imprisoned.
Qi Jiguang witnessed all this with his own eyes. He clearly remembered how much Hu Zongxian valued Yu Dayou and obeyed him. In the blink of an eye, he personally sent this man whom he had trusted so much to prison. From Commander of the Zhejiang Military Region
, it only takes a few days for the prisoners to go to Jinyiwei Prison.
So he finally realized that it was extremely unreliable to place his destiny and faith on one person, and his close comrade-in-arms Hu Zongxian was no exception.
However, just as he was feeling sorry for Yu Dayou, another even more surprising news came: Yu Dayou was released from prison and transferred to the northern border to serve his crimes. According to well-informed sources, it was Yan Song who received such leniency.
After receiving the money, he spoke in front of the emperor.
Qi Jiguang was puzzled. In the officialdom, Yu Dayou's income was the minimum living standard. He knew very well that if he had a few pennies at home, it would be good if he could support his wife and children. How could he have the money to pay bribes? But if there was no money,
How could Mr. Yan speak for him?
So he began to suspect that there was some secret relationship between Yu Dayou and Yan Song.
Soon after, he finally got the news from an insider in the imperial court. Yu Dayou did not send money to Yan Song, and he was definitely not Yan Song's confidant. He was able to receive leniency because he had a good friend - Lu Bing.
No one knows how Yu Dayou got involved with Lu Bing, but what is certain is that Lu Bing not only interceded for him, but also gave money to Yan Song himself as the cost of doing things. Mr. Lu's
Yan Song naturally wanted to give him face, so Yu Dayou was honorably released from prison.
This answer shocked Qi Jiguang. He did not expect that Yu Dayou, who was usually taciturn and honest, would have such a strong backing. He had been dating him for many years and had a very good relationship, but he had never heard him say a word.
Qi Jiguang felt horrified. He finally realized that he was so fragile. He understood that although he had a great ideal of sacrificing his life to protect the country, if he had no backer, it would not matter. Yu Dayou's today would be his tomorrow, even with Hu, who usually had a very good relationship.
The Governor may also turn against him at any time, leaving him unable to live without food.
At that time, he will be alone and helpless, and there will not be another Lu Bing to save him.
So Qi Jiguang understood that in the face of the cruel reality, if he wanted to live up to his father's expectations, he could not follow his father's way of doing things, so he decided to change everything.
After that, Qi Jiguang started running around. There was a leader from the Ministry of War. He treated guests. When he went to the Ministry of War, it was he who treated the guests. It was even more common for him to win over his brothers at the wine table. Everyone thought that Qi Jiguang was a friend and generous enough. As time went by, he became a member of the Ministry of War.
He has taken root and his superiors also attach great importance to him.
But this was not his goal. Qi Jiguang knew that if he wanted to remain invincible, he must find his Lu Bing and find a real backer.
In the list of Qi Jiguang's patrons, the names of the two people were crossed out first. The first one was Yan Song, because he knew very well that Hu Zongxian was a member of the Strict Party. If he wanted to bypass Hu Zongxian and make friends with Yan Song, he would definitely die without a burial place.
More importantly, Yan Lao Tan has a huge appetite. If you want to treat him to a meal, you must first count how much money you have in your pocket.
The second one is Xu Jie. This person cannot be considered. Although Qi Jiguang has a good impression of him, after all, he is at a disadvantage in the court. If he takes refuge with this person, he will be the enemy of Yan Song, and he may die worse than Master Xu.
morning.
After the two eldest brothers were eliminated, Qi Jiguang began to continue searching, and various signs showed that the then president of Central University (Guozijian Jijiu) was a very powerful person and would definitely have a bright future in the future, so he wrote this down on his list.
People - high arch.
His vision was indeed accurate, but soon after, he discovered that this was an impossible dream, because although Gao Gong did not have a high official position, he was a very arrogant and arrogant person, and this person also had one of the biggest characteristics
——Don’t accept bribes.
In other words, this person cannot be penetrated by a needle or poured out by water. He wants neither money nor women. Of course, Comrade Gao Gong is definitely not a man without desires. He just puts all his desires on one thing - power.
, his ultimate goal was to seize the supreme rule of the empire, which Qi Jiguang could never satisfy.
But there is no end to the road. Just when Qi Jiguang felt that his future was bleak, he accidentally discovered another person. This person was Gao Gong's deputy, who was the Secretary of the Imperial College at the time, and was roughly equivalent to the vice president of the Central University. He was a far-sighted person.
, very promising for development, so Qi Jiguang added another name to his list, which was also the last name - Zhang Juzheng.
This was the beginning of the golden pairing. As for how Qi Jiguang became friends with Zhang Juzheng, it is really unknown, but what is certain is that Qi Jiguang was very good at getting things done, and in some respects, Zhang Juzheng was not right either.
In this way, Qi Jiguang stabilized his position. Facts have proved that he was far-sighted, so that after Hu Zongxian died, he still stood firm for decades, all thanks to his diplomatic work.
Socializing requires money, and with Qi Jiguang's level of remuneration, even borrowing loan sharks is not enough, so you can guess with your eyes closed that he has financial resources other than salary.
This is the other side of Qi Jiguang. It seems very unseemly, shameful, and should be condemned. But you should know that when he was guarding the southeast, "the people were happy and the Japanese pirates were frightened," and the lives of millions of people were saved because of him.
, when he resigned, "he had been in charge of the general seal for more than thirty years, and his family had no land, but only collected thousands of volumes of books." All his income, whether legitimate or not, was used for communication, and he himself was innocent
of.
In the face of reality, Yang Jisheng, who never compromised, was great because he persisted in his ideals after enduring hardships: sacrificing his life for righteousness and serving the country. But Qi Jiguang, who compromised, was also great because of an equally lofty ideal.
In the 30th year of Jiajing (1551), Qi Jiguang was stationed at Jimen. He was twenty-four years old that year. As a young man, he was restless. In addition to reading on duty, he also liked to wander around. The incident happened while he was wandering around.
when.
One day, he went on a long journey and passed by a temple. He saw smoke filling the temple, so he dismounted and went in to watch the fun. He found that someone was talking about immortality.
During the Jiajing period, the method of immortality was very popular. Because the emperor liked it, the common people were naturally not to be left behind and followed suit. However, they did not have the alchemy technology and raw materials like Comrade Jiajing, and they wanted to follow the trend, so they could only gather a group of people to blow it.
Bragging is really boring.
However, it was at this boring party that Qi Jiguang found his ideal.
Since it was impossible to practice and there was no need to pay taxes for bragging, everyone began to actively talk about their views on immortality, such as burning incense and worshiping Buddha, running in the morning, eating less and sleeping more, etc. Some enthusiasts took the opportunity to chat around and persuade people to make alchemy and practice Taoism. Qi Jiguang also became one of them
Facing this smoky chaos, Qi Jiguang's patience finally reached its limit. He stood up and said loudly:
"I also have some insights into the way to immortality, and I would like to share them with you."
Then the scene fell silent, and a loud voice resounded throughout the temple:
"Work hard and die without regrets. This is the art of immortality!"
Then he walked out of the temple gate and rode away in front of everyone's surprised eyes. Everything originated from this, and all his actions after that were to realize this great ideal.
Clicquot
While running his official career, Qi Jiguang never relaxed his attack on the Japanese pirates for a moment, wiping out enemy troops many times. The so-called "you can't live with Qi" is actually the unanimous aspiration of the Japanese pirates. It is precisely because he is too fierce, except for
Except for a few stupid young men, the veteran Japanese pirates did not dare to go to Zhejiang, and even passed his defense area, they had to go far away.
But the Japanese pirates also had to eat. Qi Jiguang cut off their livelihood, so they had to find another place to rob, and this new construction site was Fujian.
So starting from the 40th year of Jiajing (1561), the Japanese pirates invaded Fujian aggressively. Their expansion and combat effectiveness were so amazing that the local Ming army was no match. So in just one year, all the Japanese invaders, from Fuqing in the north to Zhangzhou in the south, fell into enemy hands.
.
The governor of Fujian couldn't bear it anymore and had no choice but to write to the court again. But this time he did not complain, but asked Hu Zongxian for support and help him.
Jiajing attached great importance to this. He directly ordered Hu Zongxian to quickly send Qi Jiguang to rescue. The prelude to another battle began. Everyone saw its beginning, but no one expected its ending. Hu Zongxian and Qi Jiguang
No exception.
In Fujian, Qi Jiguang met Wang Daokun, the deputy envoy of the Fujian Supervisory Army, who came to greet him. Facing this local official who was sweating profusely and anxious, Qi Jiguang calmly asked his first question:
"Where is the enemy?"
And the answer he got was: "Everywhere!"
After reading the situation map, Qi Jiguang immediately realized that he was in big trouble this time.
Due to the lack of capable generals in the area, the Japanese invasion in Fujian was very serious. Dozens of people dared to rob, but the Ming army was helpless and the situation was almost completely out of control.
This mess is really hard to clean up. There are not only many enemies, but they are also scattered. If you chase them around with your men, you will die from exhaustion if you can't kill them.
Although the situation was extremely complicated, Qi Jiguang believed that the solution to the problem must lie in this chaos. After a long period of thinking, he finally found the key.
The fundamental reason why Japanese pirates dare to be so arrogant is that they have no sense of fear. Past experience tells them that they can rob as much as they want and kill as much as they want. No one can stop them. Therefore, if they want to change the status quo, they must find the most powerful among them.
A force wiped it out completely, and used the hanging corpse to tell everyone that this was not a paradise for plunder, but a grave of death.
The target chosen by Qi Jiguang was called Hengyu.
Hengyu is a small island located northeast of Ningde, Fujian Province. There are more than a thousand Japanese pirates living on the island. The number is not large, but the reason why Qi Jiguang chose this place is because it has the most difficult and tenacious enemies to defeat.
In fact, the Japanese pirates on the island are indeed unusual. Most of them come from the Kyushu region of Japan, which is the poorest area in Japan. The local residents are ferocious, barbaric and stubborn. The Japanese Sixth Division that later caused the Nanjing Massacre was from Kyushu.
A beastly group of humans.
They have been here for three years, burning, killing and looting, leaving hundreds of miles around this place deserted and Ningde County in ruins. The governor of Fujian once mobilized more than a dozen armies to besiege them, but to no avail, because not only did they have extremely powerful fighting
Strong, but also has a powerful natural helper.
In fact, the distance between Hengyu Island and the mainland is very close, only a few miles at most. To put it bluntly, you can swim there with a lifebuoy. But the strange thing is that in the past, the Ming army's large-scale invasions were always visible to the naked eye.
, the legs can’t get through.
The reason why there is such a strange thing is that Hengyu Island is so strange. The tide here recedes in the morning and the tide rises in the afternoon. When the tide rises, the sea water is so turbulent that it will submerge the original land and widen the distance between the island and the mainland by nearly dozens of meters.
At low tide, the large amount of sediment brought by the sea water will make the road very muddy and impossible to walk on.
So now you should know the reason. The tide ebbs every day during the day and rises in the afternoon and evening. This means that night attacks are very difficult. Crossing attacks in broad daylight is really an excellent opportunity to be used as a moving target to practice shooting, which is even more troublesome.
What's more, even if you rush forward at the risk of being shot like a hedgehog, you are likely to get stuck in the mud under your feet or fall to pieces before you successfully reach the island.
Well, even if you are a god, you land on the island in the clouds, meet the enemy and start fighting, but
One thing you must remember is that you must seize the time to finish the battle, and it is best to ensure that you win. Because in the afternoon, the tide will rise again, and this thing waits for no one. It rises at two o'clock, and you will rise at three o'clock.
It’s not over yet, I’m sorry, brother, you can only spend the night on the island. If you are unlucky, not many people come to the island, or you don’t win, you have to be mentally prepared to be killed in the dark at night, because
The other party may not be willing to spend this night peacefully with you.
So for three whole years, hundreds of thousands of troops and dozens of generals were helpless, so Qi Jiguang came, and he always had a way.
After carefully studying the characteristics of this place and thinking over and over again, Qi Jiguang finally determined his strategy, but before fighting, he had to do one more thing.
Qi Jiguang held a meeting with all his generals and soldiers. At the meeting, he told everyone the truth in a heavy voice:
There is a group of very fierce Japanese pirates entrenched on Hengyu Island. They may be more difficult to deal with than any enemy encountered before, and the tides here are complicated. The tide starts to ebb at six in the morning and the tide starts to rise at two in the afternoon. In other words, starting from the landing
By the end of the battle, you only have four hours (eight hours).
The scene fell into a deathly silence, and everyone understood what this meant.
So Qi Jiguang said the last words bluntly:
"Once you land on the island, there will be no retreat. If you cannot defeat the enemy, you will die when the tide rises again. If you do not have this determination, you will not cross the sea. I will never blame you."
After a short silence, Qi Jiguang heard a thunderous reply:
"We have come thousands of miles away, how can we retreat? We will not stop until we kill the Japanese slaves!"
Take back the territory that originally belonged to you and avenge your murdered compatriots, no need to hesitate or say anything.
In the early morning of the ninth day of August in the 41st year of Jiajing reign (1562), the Qi army launched an attack on Hengyu.
At this moment, the tide has just receded and the sky is still early, so the Japanese pirates are less alert, so it is the best time to set off.
But after just a few steps, the first problem loomed in front of him. Because the tide had just gone out, the road was very muddy, making it impossible to walk in many places. But Qi Jiguang had already thought of a countermeasure. He asked each soldier to bring a special
Item - straw. Every step forward, the soldiers spread straw to pave the way, and the troops began to march in an orderly manner.
At this time, the Japanese pirates on the island had discovered the Qi family army, but they did not take any action. They just sneered and watched the scene in front of them. Because they knew very well that if they wanted to land on the island, relying on straw was far from enough.
Sure enough, a more serious problem emerged. The soldiers finally discovered that the closer to the island, the worse the mud became, but this was not the key to the problem. The real fatal factor was physical strength.
According to statistics by historians, when soldiers in the Ming Dynasty fought, they carried at least fifteen kilograms of armor, plus weapons and equipment, while the Qi army carried a variety of weapons only a lot more.
This is a very scary number. Even the U.S. Special Forces SEALs carry only about ten kilograms during daily drills. After crossing the mud, the Qi Jiajun also had to wade through the sea water. It was a veritable armed swim.
Things seemed to be as the Japanese pirates expected. The Ming army began to lose strength and staggered around. If this continued, even if they could climb to the shore, they would not be able to fight at all.
Qi Jiguang, who was at the rear, saw all this. He knew very well that if the battle continued, he would lose, so he asked someone to bring out the things he had prepared in advance.
The soldiers in front were in terrible pain and were struggling to hold on with only their tenacious will. At this moment, they heard a loud drum beat.
The soldiers turned around and saw such a scene.
Qi Jiguang stood there alone, beating the drum vigorously. At this point, there was no other way, and this was the only help he could provide.
So at this dawn, which is about to break, the lonely and clear drum sound echoes between heaven and earth, echoing in everyone's heart.
After a moment of silence, accompanied by the sound of drums, the Ming army supported their tired bodies and continued to advance towards the small island ahead, relying on their tenacious will and belief in victory.
Because that is their land.
The Japanese pirates were panicked. They saw a miracle happen with their own eyes. The exhausted army suddenly rose up again, conquered the swamp and sea water, and walked towards them step by step.
Shrouded in great fear, the Japanese pirates immediately began to form a team and concentrated all their forces to form an array on the seaside, preparing to play a "battle them halfway across". After waiting for the Ming army to land, they would launch an attack to drive them into the sea while their footing was not stable.
However, they once again underestimated the strength of their opponents and made wrong judgments.
The Ming army that landed did not launch a direct attack as the Japanese pirates expected, but stood firm until the remaining companions arrived and formed that special formation before they began to move forward. At this time, the Japanese pirates were like a dream.
They woke up, but it was too late. From the moment the Yuanyang Formation was formed, their failure was doomed.
Therefore, although they came from Kyushu, which produced the most ferocious beasts, and although they resisted stubbornly and charged with swords when their attack was thwarted, it was all in vain. They failed in the face of the Ming army, which was more brave than them and the powerful Yuanyang Formation.
It's their only ending.
Soon the battle turned into a game. The Japanese pirates were defeated across the board, while the Ming army turned into the Sancai Formation and the Five Elements Formation, chasing the fleeing Japanese pirates everywhere and putting them to death. More than a thousand Japanese pirates on the island were either killed or killed.
Suicide, drowning or capture, no one will survive.
The Battle of Hengyu ended here. Within three hours, the Ming army completely wiped out the Japanese pirates on the island and rescued more than 800 captive women and children. The Ming army suffered a total of 13 casualties.
In this battle of wills, Qi Jiguang and his army became the deservedly strong ones.
The battle was won. The Ming army, which had exhausted its last bit of strength, could no longer hold on. They fell to the ground one after another, unable to move. Silence enveloped Hengyu after the war.
Qi Jiguang looked at the scene in front of him in silence. He knew that this was the tranquility of victory and a silent song of victory. So a high-pitched chant sounded:
If all people are united, Mount Tai can be shaken.
Only loyalty and righteousness come to the bullfight!
The Lord will kiss me better than a parent,
If you violate military law, you will not be free.
Orders and rewards and punishments are clear,
If you go through fire or water, you dare not stay.
Report to the emperor that he is coming to rescue the head of Guizhou.
Kill all the Japanese slaves and find a prince!
This is the "Song of Victory" that has been recited through the ages and has been passed down throughout history, with lingering reverberations.
destruction
The real significance of the Battle of Hengyu was to kill the chickens to show the monkeys. After this battle, the Japanese pirates from all over Fujian were frightened by the news and no longer dared to be arrogant. Qi Jiguang took advantage of the victory and pursued the Japanese pirates in Qidian, Niutian, and Lindun, and wiped out five enemies in succession.
There were more than a thousand people, and the situation was great.
But trouble came at this time. Although Hu Zongxian was in charge of the southeast, Fujian was not his territory. Qi Jiguang was only temporarily loaned, and he had to report back when the time came. With such good foreign aid, the Fujian governor was naturally reluctant to let him go, and
This is the best time to fight against Japanese pirates. If we withdraw to Zhejiang, all our previous efforts will be wasted.
So Qi Jiguang decided to write to Hu Zongxian, requesting an extension of the lease period. He vowed to Wang Daokun, the Fujian supervisor, that Hu Zongxian was a reasonable person who took the overall situation into consideration. If there were no accidents, there would be no problems.
But an accident happened, because Hu Zongxian never saw his letter. In November of the 41st year of Jiajing (1562), Hu Zongxian was removed from his official position and arrested in Beijing.