The Wokou Rebellion is a scene that many Guan Yu Ming Dynasty film and television dramas will shoot, and it is also a historical issue that many viewers want to explore. However, the Wokou had already been defeated in the early Ming Dynasty, so why did it make a comeback in the middle and late Ming Dynasty?
If we look at the wokou issue only in terms of the combat effectiveness of the army, we may only be able to see a small part of the historical phenomenon, indignant at the shamelessness of the Wokou and not having a face, why do we always stare at our country and hate the Ming Dynasty army, why can so many people fight a few gangs of bandits and can't win? This is also the consistent routine used by many film and television dramas in order to attract attention, but the root cause of the outbreak of war may be too late to show.
The causes of wars are often multifaceted, but the factors occupied by the rulers should be important, even decisive. In the early days of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, because of the experience of several emperors who worked hard and desperately, such as Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, the national strength was greatly improved, and the southeast coastal area relied on its geographical location and original foundation to restore and develop agriculture and handicrafts, and on this basis, the commodity economy also became increasingly prosperous. The people are also recuperating well,
Therefore, the national treasury is abundant and has the economic basis for the use of force.
At this time, Japan was in the midst of war, and the people had no way to live, so they became pirates
He made a living by robbing coastal areas of China and North Korea, but in small numbers and on a small scale. In order to control the flood in the southeast, Ming Chengzu even established diplomatic relations with Japan, hoping that Japan could govern its own country's thieves! History of The Ming Dynasty. The Biography of Japan records that it was made to govern its country. The messenger went to Ningbo, and he spared all his men and killed them. The Wokou Rebellion was effectively suppressed under the joint rule of Ming Chengzu and Japan itself.
However, in the Jiajing period, the Wokou made a comeback, and it was several times the number and scale of the previous one. In addition to another large-scale war in Japan, and the country is unable to take care of itself, Jiajing himself is the real culprit. In terms of personal behavior, after Jiajing's late superstitious Taoism, he added his own selfish desires to the whole country, increased taxes, built a large number of civil engineering, and lived a luxurious life.
In terms of political decision-making, after Jiajing enfeoffed Taoism, because he did not love the dynasty, he also favored Yan Song and others, resulting in the collapse of the country, and the rapid expansion of the Yan Song clique, resulting in too many people wanting to squeeze into this camp and began to send money.
Selling officials and lords, officials rule the darkness.
Such a situation results in:
''Civil and military generals, fighting for the goods and their doors, reversing meritorious crimes, containing military aircraft, discipline and obedience, disbanding everyone, conscripting troops for half the world, and the thieves are getting more and more fierce'".
Officials are promoted in terms of the amount of money, and the country's political system has almost collapsed.
The Yan Song clique arbitrarily placed military generals, resulting in chaos in military affairs and loose coastal defense.
It gave the Wokou an opportunity to take advantage of it. Moreover, Jiajing ordered a strict ban on shipping, and even destroyed large ships. When the Wokou came, the army had no generals, no boats, and even wanted the local fishermen to borrow fishing boats to resist the enemy, and the end was of course mostly defeat. Then, every time the Wokou invaded, the number of times they went to the shore increased, but the general who led the army was a military post that he bought, and he knew nothing about the leader, so the people suffered. The History of the Ming Dynasty contains:
The soldiers are not trained, the ships are not professional, and there is no commander on the top, so the thief sail refers to it, and all of them are broken.
However, Jiajing was not unaware of Yan Song's corruption. Jiajing was known as the "True Official Shangshu of the Jiajing Dynasty", and he calculated the account very accurately, and he did not know how much Yan Song was greedy, but he did not care. What he cared about was whether he was obedient or not, and Yan Song was only a tool of Jiajing's imperial world, plus Yan Song was still very pleasing to him, so he indulged in his corruption.
Yan Song also really put his position very correctly, bent on serving Jiajing. For the sake of Jiajing's Sacred Heart, he closed the people to the road of rebellion and went to become a Wokou.
For example, Jiajing regarded the wealth of the world as his own private wealth, because his daughter-in-law gave birth to a grandson for himself, so as soon as he was happy, he rewarded her with 100,000 silks! However, the overseas trade of the Ming Dynasty at that time was mainly based on silk porcelain, and most of the trade with foreign merchants was silk trade, and the original number and the silk that the people could produce in a year were all in quantity, which was originally just right for trade. But suddenly there are more than 100,000 horses, how to do it? The Yan Song Clique decided to destroy the rice fields that the people were growing up quickly and forcibly changed them to mulberry fields to support the supply of silk!
Originally, being harassed by pirates had already made the people miserable, and the officials had exploited the people again in order to satisfy the selfish desires of the reward, resulting in some of the people gradually beginning to do the internal response of the Wokou, and even directly defecting to the Wokou. In the Biography of Ming Shi Nihon, it is said:
''The third of the tenth of the true Wo, the seventh of the tenth of the Wo''". "Jiajing Shilu": "'Gai Jiangnan Coast Guard, Wuju thirteen, and Chinese rebels ju seventeen also. ''
There is a famous Chinese "Wokou" called Wang Zhi.
In the early Ming Dynasty, the Wukou did not have so much harm, one was because of the joint efforts of the Ming Dynasty and Japan to resist the Ming Dynasty, the Wokou were Japanese, and they were not familiar with the terrain on the shore of the Ming Dynasty; at that time, the Ming Army was not useless, after all, Zhu Di was an emperor who loved to fight too much, and the importance attached to the army was very high, even if the Wokou reluctantly went ashore, first, they were pursued by the army, and second, they were not familiar with the terrain, and it was inevitable that they would have more trouble. Looting property and retreating afterwards are not easy, these are the achievements of Ming Chengzu Zhu Di!
But what about the Jiajing Dynasty? The incompetence of the military generals caused by the betrayal of officials and lords (the famous Hu Zongxian does not count), the emptiness of coastal defense, the inability of the army to resist the Wokou, and the addition of the people on the southeast coast have made the shortcomings of the Wokou, who were not familiar with the terrain, disappear directly. Because most of the people grew up in the coastal areas and were very familiar with the terrain, the robbery sites and routes of the Wokou could be perfected! Because of what? Because Jiajing was knowing yan Song's adultery, and because he was deliberately letting it go because he used his hand, these were All Jiajing's faults!
Jiajing regarded the world as private property, and after being almost strangled to death by the palace maid, Jiajing, who felt deeply vulnerable to life, was completely immersed in xiu immortals. The laissez-faire of Yan Song watched Yan Song do evil to the world in order to please him. In order to maintain their own rule, they opposed the subjects of the world, provoked party strife, and paid indifference to the displacement of the people, resulting in political collapse, empty treasury, and covetousness by foreign countries, which led to the sudden rise of war. This is all the sins of Jiajing!