Recommended by martial arts, the second candidate reported by the Ministry of War was Ma Fang. This man was one year older than Liu Xian and was 61 this year. He was originally from Yuzhou, Shanxi, and his family was a farmer on the border of Xuanhua. Ma Fang was abused by her stepmother when she was young.
He couldn't bear the humiliation and fled his hometown around the fifth year of Jiajing. He was captured by the Tatar cavalry who invaded the south and set horses for Anda Khan.
Ma Fang began to "bend wood into a bow" since he was a child, perfecting his riding and shooting skills, and hit every shot. Once when he was hunting with Altan Khan, he encountered a tiger charging towards Altan. When everyone panicked and fled, Ma Fang was very calm and bent.
He used his bow and arrow to kill the tiger. Altan admired Ma Fang very much and gave him a "good bow and arrow and a good horse" and ordered him to "serve his left and right".
Although Ma Fang was favored by Altan, his heart was in the Ming Dynasty. In the 16th year of Jiajing, Ma Fang took the opportunity to follow Altan to the outskirts of Datong, a border town near the Ming Dynasty, to hunt, stole a horse at night, escaped, and defected overnight.
He arrived at the Datong Military Camp. After that, he began his cheating life:
Because he had lived in Mongolia for many years and was familiar with the combat characteristics of the Mongolian cavalry, he was able to severely inflict heavy damage on the enemy in every battle. He started as a captain, gradually accumulated merit, and became the commander-in-chief.
In the twenty-eighth year of Jiajing, he proposed a plan and led his elite cavalry to copy the Mongolian cavalry's retreat, forcing the Mongolian army to retreat northward, and achieved the first great achievement in his life. Later, in the "Gengxu Rebellion" in the twenty-ninth year of Jiajing, he took the lead and made many mistakes.
Surprising results. From August to October, there were three consecutive battles, which made Altan lose his temper. At that time, Shizong praised him: "No one is braver than Ma Fang."
After Ma Fang was promoted to the guerrilla general of Xuanfu due to his meritorious service, he was honest and fair, and reestablished the "Military Battle Company Sitting Law", which stipulated that in the face of battle, if the enemy is afraid of the front, the rear team will be killed.
Charge into the enemy formation and draw the life of your subordinates to their death.
From then on, from the thirty-fourth year of Jiajing to the fourth year of Longqing, Ma Fang went from guerrilla to general, and finally became the commander-in-chief of the Xuanfu, constantly confronting the Tartars with Altan as the main force.
In the 40th year of Jiajing, Ma Fang withstood huge pressure and fought his way out of his Xuanfu defense area. He won seven battles and seven victories in Datong, Shanxi, and won a great victory. From Xuanfu to Datong, and from Datong to Huai'an, the distance Ma Fang's army traveled was
The battle lasted a thousand miles. When the news came, the entire Ming Dynasty was shocked, the government and the public were in ecstasy, and Sejong promoted him to the chief military officer of the Xuanfu.
When he was the commander-in-chief of Xuanfu, Ma Fang defeated Qi Jiguang, Li Chengliang and others in the Battle of Wanquanbao, and finally grew into the "Crown of Ming Dynasty Generals".
In this battle, Ma Fang took advantage of his reputation as "Ma Taishi" in the eyes of the Mongols. He used 10,000 elites to face Altan's 100,000 cavalry. When the walls of Malianbao collapsed and they were already in despair, they first stopped fighting.
He set up an empty city strategy to scare Altan, and withstood Altan's many temptations.
When Altan wanted to retreat the next day, Ma Fang led his troops to "break it" and drove Altan's main force into Datong, where the Ming army had been ambushing for a long time. The elite troops of Yansui and Sui towns took the opportunity to dispatch and achieved a rare victory in nine sides.
A great victory - although it did not result in a battle of annihilation, there were still many heads and captures.
In the following four years of Longqing, Ma Fang finally turned from defense to offense and went out of the country. He led the elite cavalry to capture the main force of Altan outside Xianning Haizi, and achieved another "big breakthrough" in the first battle. He used this feat.
From a peasant boy, he finally rose to the rank of governor of the left for the second time, and then he became an earl.
Tatar Mongolia, which was about to collapse after being beaten by Ma Fang, finally had a great split because Altan forcibly married his grandson and Hannaji's fiancée Unachu.
In the fourth and fifth years of Longqing's reign, Altan held talks with Wang Chonggu. After some debate, Altan finally gave in, handed over Zhao Quan, Li Zixin, Wang Tingfu and other traitors, and accepted the imperial edict and was canonized as "King of Shunyi". His brother
The nephew's subordinates were all granted the title of Governor, Tongzhi, Qianhu and other official positions. They opened "mutual markets" in Yansui, Hongshandun, Qingshuiying, Ningxia and other places to restore trade between the Han and Mongolian border residents.
Until the fourth year of Wanli, the Nine Borders, which basically maintained peace for six or seven years, were fought by Ma Fang and other soldiers with their lives and blood. However, in the sixth year of Longqing, after Emperor Wanli succeeded to the throne, he was expelled because of Gao Gong.
, her thigh collapsed, and Ma Fang was ordered to "go home and stay idle."
After Zhu Yijun established the martial arts school, how could he not use such a fierce general? Therefore, he was once again appointed as the official secretary of the former military governor's office, and at this time he was appointed as the professor of the combat department of martial arts.
Martial Arts’ evaluation of Ma Fang: “Although he is naive on the outside, he is actually as fine as a hair. He also has a strategic mind and is a talented general.”
Comment from the Ministry of War: "If you fight against hundreds of people, big and small, and receive dozens of wounds on your body, you can defeat a large number of people with a small number, which is a great victory. You can capture dozens of ministers and kill them without any hope, and your reputation is astonishing in the border areas, and you are the first general to win."
...
The third recommendation report Zhu Yijun saw recommended Yu Dayou. Yu Dayou was now seventy-four years old and a true veteran.
This recommendation report was written for Zhu Yijun's sake, because during the reform of the Salt Administration, Zhu Yijun appointed Yu Dayou, who had already been punished at home, and later appointed him as the secretary of the Hou General's Mansion, responsible for preparing and organizing the canal defense affairs.
- This was Zhu Yijun's first step in laying the foundation for the establishment of the Imperial Navy.
The old general served in the army all his life, but he never received fair treatment. After Zhu Yijun appointed him, Yu Dayou went to the court three times to express his gratitude. Zhu Yijun gave long comments each time and explained in detail his strategic ideas for building a navy.
Because he had such interaction with the emperor, Yin Zhengmao was such a smart person, and including him in the recommendation was just to flatter the emperor. How could Zhu Yijun let Yu Dayou go on an expedition? It was too late to send doctors and medicines to maintain him.
The fourth recommended candidate is Zhang Chen, the current commander-in-chief of Jizhen. At the beginning of the year, Zhang Chen used musketeers to defeat Dong Tuzi in a battle with Li Chengliang, and the result shocked the world. He himself was promoted to the left governor of the Central Military Governor's Palace due to his meritorious service.
The imperial court designated one of his sons as the commander of the Imperial Guard.
Because when going to Burma this time, the main force will be the new Beijing army that has been trained. As for the actual combat command of the musketeers, Zhang Chen has achieved the greatest results now, so the martial arts and the Ministry of War also recommended him.
The subsequent recommendations were not as famous as these few, but they were all commanders and deputy commanders who had outstanding performance among martial arts instructors and students and had great military exploits, including Deng Zilong, Dong Yiyuan, Guo Hu, Huang Yingjia and so on.
The comments made by these people on martial arts and military affairs were not as exaggerated as those of the previous ones, and they were suspected of making up the numbers - probably to give the emperor the impression that our dynasty had "strong generals like a cloud".
In order to fight this battle well, Zhu Yijun then summoned the Minister of War, the Minister of War, the British Duke and others to discuss several candidates and finally decided: Liu Xian will be the commander-in-chief and Deng Zilong will be the deputy commander - commanding 10,000 troops.
The new troops from the Beijing camp entered Myanmar and completely captured Manggrui Ti.
In order for this campaign to fully achieve the political purpose of intimidating Zhu Xuanwei, Zhu Yijun summoned Liu Xian in Wuying Hall before the Spring Festival in the fifth year of Wanli.
What Zhu Yijun wanted to discuss with Liu Xian was mainly about military discipline. Liu Xian's growth experience showed that he had many disciplinary violations in his bones - joining the army under false pretenses, bribing for promotion, killing prisoners for merit, committing military plunder, etc., all of which he
Well done.
But on the other hand, in order to completely frighten the southwestern barbarians, it is obviously not possible to use a commander who is foresight and hesitation. The barbarians who cannot lift a butcher's knife to kill, and who are fearful and unethical, do not listen to the imperial court's instructions.
Therefore, when Zhu Yijun was talking to Liu Xian, he first sternly pointed out the disciplinary problems of Liu Xian's troops, and at the same time asked him to learn from Jing Haibo at home and Ning Yuanbo abroad, and follow the examples of these two military earls.
Liu Xian was an outstanding figure of his generation, so he certainly understood what the emperor meant. When he was a professor of martial arts, the discipline of the New Army could be said to have given him a profound education, and he himself was convinced of Qi Jiguang's military training methods.
Therefore, the emperor replied: "The troops I commanded before did not have the food and supplies that the new army did, so I had no choice but to use plunder to motivate the warriors. Today's new army is uniform and well-supplied. Of course I would like to have disciplined troops!"
"
"As for my problems, every time I go to the martial arts school, your Majesty will give you painstaking explanations and advice. How can I be indifferent because I am not a tree? Please rest assured, Your Majesty, I will not drink alcohol or be arrogant or extravagant along the way. I only want to achieve full merit."
! If I can’t lead the way, no matter how much credit I give, it won’t matter—I am willing to issue a military order!”
Zhu Yijun was very pleased to see that Liu Xian understood. He promoted him to an official position and gave him a reward as usual. Then he told him: "I have repeatedly said in martial arts that military affairs are the continuation of politics. The starting point and end point of all military struggles must be
To achieve the political goals of the imperial court.”
"The Commander-in-Chief is on his way to Burma, and he must bear in mind the key points of the imperial court's expedition to Burma: First, he must attack the main force of the Mangrui Ti. He does not need to care about the gains and losses of Toungoo City. The first purpose must be to destroy its war potential;"
"Both of them will destroy all the treasure wells and mines in Toungoo and destroy the gem trade in Toungoo; when the army withdraws, they will also destroy all the river and water conservancy facilities in Toungoo."
"Three, well, if we can do it cleanly, I won't need too many natives in Taungoo in the future - it's up to you to handle this. It can't affect the morale of the army, and it can't leave any records."
When Liu Xian heard this, even though he was sixty years old, he couldn't hide the evil smile on his lips. Seeing his appearance, Zhu Yijun felt his heart pounding, and said: "This kind of thing cannot be done to the new army."
Go and do it, don't create a bunch of lunatics! As for how to do it, you can think about it. It's not a priority. If the conditions are not mature, you don't have to do it - you put away that evil smile, and I will also send military judges, Jin Yiming
, secret agent, if you do something like killing a good person and taking credit for it, you will not be able to reap the rewards when you come back!"
After taking a sip of tea and suppressing the creepy feeling in his body, Zhu Yijun gave another instruction: "There is one more thing. I want the rest of the Xuanwei Department to bow their heads. From now on, I feel weak even when I hear the word "Imperial Court". What exactly is it?"
You should make your own decision as governor."
"My minimum requirement is that all the ambassadors who take off the red card from the imperial court will be whipped fifty times and have them kneel down to put the card back up."
"If there are still those who don't listen to the teachings, their clan can be destroyed."