Mention the Wanli Three Great Marches we may not be very familiar with, he is the Wanli Emperor during the reign of the Ming Dynasty three more important military operations against the outside world, although the Wanli Three Great Marches in history is not very high, but its contribution to the Ming Dynasty is very large. After the three major conquests of wanli, the Ming Dynasty not only pacified the border areas, removed the minister Yang Xinglong, who betrayed the Ming Dynasty, but also helped the Korean people to repel the Japanese invaders at that time, that is, stabilized the external environment and calmed the domestic situation, which can be said to have a great stabilizing effect on the rule of the Ming Dynasty. Of course, things have two sides, and the three major marches of the Wanli Dynasty also brought many drawbacks to the Ming Dynasty. Today, we will mainly look at the three things referred to in the Three Great Marches of the Wanli Calendar, and analyze the impact of these three military activities on the Ming Dynasty.
The first stop was the Battle of Ningxia. This military campaign was to suppress the Rebellion of Da Bai, who on February 18 of the 20th year of the Wanli Calendar, and entangled the rebellions of his sons Cheng'en, Yi Zi Duyun, and Tu Wenxiu. It is an attempt to overthrow the rule of the Ming Dynasty and seek more land and ruling rights for itself. In response to this rebellion in Bobai, the Ming government first sent the then deputy general li Xun to attack the rebels in one fell swoop, hoping to crush the rebels at that time, but did not want its strength to be very strong and after years of planning, it could not be broken in one fell swoop. Later, in order to stabilize the border areas as soon as possible, the Ming court also transferred Li Rusong to lead the Ningxia general army and the Liaodong, Xuan, Da, Shanxi soldiers, Zhejiang soldiers, Miao soldiers, and so on to encircle and suppress.
After many brutal battles, various reinforcements, under the command of Ye Mengxiong, who had been the governor of Daixue, surrounded the city of Ningxia and flooded the city with water. As a result, the rebels lost foreign aid and ran out of ammunition in the city. Under this crisis environment, there was another fire within the rebel army, and the rebels who were attacked inside and outside were in chaos, and the Ming general Li Rusong took the opportunity to attack the big city, and then surrounded the Dabai family, bai bai killed himself, and Cheng'en and others were captured. At this point, the Rebellion of Dai Bai was completely quelled, and the western frontier areas of the Ming Dynasty were pacified. Through this war, it also deterred other external forces in the west, so that they no longer had a confused heart for the rule of the Ming Dynasty.
The second was the Battle of Bozhou, a military campaign to defeat the rebel general Yang Yinglong. Yang Xinglong's heritage is very deep, and the ancestral power of his family can be traced back to the last years of the Tang Dynasty. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Yang Xinglong's ancestor Yang Duan defeated Nanzhao, and then divided the hereditary official position of Bozhou, and the Yang family's power at that time was so great that the family did not decline after two Song and Yuan dynasties. At the time of the Ming Dynasty, it still had an important position in the Central Plains.
In the fifth year of hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, the leader of the Yang family, Yang Hao, descended to the Ming Dynasty, and was regarded as the Miao Territory Tusi, and also had a place in the imperial court of the Ming Dynasty, and after twenty-nine generations, it can be said that it has endured for a long time. In the fourteenth year of wanli, the emperor gave Yang Yinglong the title of commander to show his favor, but Yang Xinglong was not willing to accept such affirmation, and in the seventeenth year of wanli, he betrayed the Ming court, burned and plundered all kinds of evil, and even tried to overthrow the rule of the Ming Dynasty and let him sit on the throne himself.
Government officials of the Ming Dynasty sent troops to suppress it, and Yang Yinglong also rebelled and fell, repeatedly, which directly angered the Wanli Emperor. In order to suppress Yang Xinglong, he sent a large army to suppress his Yang family, and in the face of the Ming dynasty national army, the Yang family began to show weakness, and finally Yang Xinglong's proud Yang army was suppressed by government officials, and the Battle of Bozhou also ended with a great victory for the imperial army.
This third was the Battle of Korea, which was not a struggle between the Ming Dynasty and the invaders, but a struggle by the Ming Dynasty to help the Korean people against the Japanese invaders at that time. In 1588, after the basic unification of Japan, Taikaku Toyotomi Hideyoshi was faced with the situation of uneven division of land among the major princes, and in order to resolve this contradiction, he decided to send troops to obtain more land.
At that time, Korea became his primary target, and in order to maintain Korean rule and prevent conflict in its own border areas, the Ming Dynasty twice sent troops to help Korea repel Japan.
Synthesizing the above description, we can see that the three major expeditions of the Wanli Calendar all ended with victory, which not only stabilized the western frontier region but also maintained the eastern coastal defense, and solved the betrayal of the Yang family in China, which can be said to stabilize the internal and external environment at the same time, laying a solid foundation for the later development of the Ming Dynasty. But we also said that one thing has advantages and disadvantages, although the three major marches of the Wanli Dynasty stabilized the internal and external environment, but also consumed the huge financial resources of the Ming Dynasty, coupled with the Ming Dynasty Zheng He's navigation activities in the West has caused a financial crisis, the outbreak of the Three Great Expeditions of the Wanli At this time can be said to be worse, so that the Ming Dynasty's finances have further loopholes, but also become an important event that drags down the Ming Dynasty's financial system.
Reference: History of the Ming Dynasty