During the Jiajing period, the Ming army suffered great losses in the struggle against the Wokou, but it also increased the strength of the Ming army in the battle, and in the process of fighting against the Japanese Kou, the Ming army also continued to learn and progress.
Among them, the most typical representative is Qi Jiguang, who came out of nowhere, not only learning from Wokou on equipment, but also learning from Wokou in the "Mandarin Duck Array" he created, adopting a team model of division of labor and cooperation among small forces. (Saying that the Mandarin Duck Array learned from the Wokou is my personal opinion and has not been supported by relevant historical materials)
Under the leadership of Qi Jiguang, the army in southern China has been able to completely defeat the Wukou, and later Qi Jiguang's Qi family army was transferred to the northern Shubian, and its combat strength completely exceeded that of the elite regular army in the north, and it won many battles in the war against the nomads.
Qi Jiguang died around the fifteenth year of the Wanli Calendar, and under Qi Jiguang's training, the Ming army had a more significant improvement, and only five years after the Wanli twenty years after the Japanese Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Korea.
The above is when I give Qi Jiguang more face, and the following is a specific talk about the Korean War during the Wanli Period.
The year of Qi Jiguang's death coincided with toyotomi Hideyoshi's unification of Japan, and after five years of preparation, Toyotomi Hideyoshi mobilized a large army across the sea to invade Korea.
In the first stage of the Korean war against Japan, Japan defeated the Korean army, so the Dprk asked the Ming army for help, Liaodong was originally an important military region of the Ming army, after the Korean request for help, the Ming court let the Liaodong Ming army begin to march into Korea.
In the first battle with the Japanese army after the Liaodong Ming army entered the dynasty, it was defeated because of the long-distance battle and was beaten back.
After realizing the true intentions of the Japanese army to fight in Korea, the Ming Court was led by Liaodong to the central government, and began to mobilize a large army to prepare for a large-scale campaign with the Japanese army, when the Ming court even planned to mobilize 700,000 people to carry out a super attack on the Japanese army, but because of the lack of logistics, it finally adopted a ladder of troops.
At the end of 1592, Li Rusong led 43,000 men to defeat the Japanese First Army of 18,000 men in Pyongyang, severely damaging more than 10,000 Japanese troops and achieving a great victory in Pyongyang.
After the great victory in Pyongyang, in order to expand the results of the battle, the Ming army launched a pursuit, and engaged in a melee with the Japanese army at the Biheguan, about the victory or defeat has been controversial, on the whole, there were casualties, in the subsequent land battle, Korea also defeated the Japanese army, especially after Li Rusong burned the Japanese granary, so that the Japanese army was short of food, and finally gave the Japanese army a great blow.
Of course, the victory of the land war is not fundamental, in the end it is still up to the naval operation, in the Battle of Tangpu, the Battle of Goseong and the Battle of Kuriura, the Japanese marine division was greatly hit, and after the Battle of Shiyama Island, the Japanese marine division was severely damaged and completely lost its sea control.
In June 1593, Japan negotiated peace with the Ming army due to its defeat in naval battles, insufficient supply, and the outbreak of plague in the army.
In 1596, After making full preparations, Toyotomi Hideyoshi once again mobilized 140,000 troops, 22,000 sailors to invade Korea again, the Ming army sent 80,000 people into Korea, and a major war broke out between China and Japan.
The Ming army cooperated with the Korean military and civilians to finally defeat the Japanese army completely, especially in the Battle of Mingliang, defeated Japan, regained control of the sea, and locked in the defeat of the Japanese army.
When Toyotomi Hideyoshi died in 1598, Japanese morale was demoralized and preparations for retreat began.
About this war, the Ming History? The Japanese Biography records: "Hideyoshi died, the emperors sailed back, and Korea was in trouble." However, since Guan Bai invaded the Eastern Kingdom, in the seven years before and after, hundreds of thousands of teachers were lost, millions of people were paid, and China and North Korea had no chance of victory. Until Guan Bai died, the military disaster began to rest, and all the warriors retreated to the island nest, and there was a little peace in the southeast."
Although it is a bit exaggerated, on the whole, it is not easy for the Ming Dynasty to win the war.