Since the Ming Dynasty hongzhi, the armed forces began to go downhill, although the Ming Wuzong Zhu Houzhao short-lived, but because of Zhu Houzhao's short life, this reform has not been very obvious improvement, Jiajing became emperor in the early stages have been busy proving that my father is my father's problem of the century, there is no energy to care about the decaying Daming military, to the middle of Jiajing, the combat effectiveness of the Ming army has fallen to the bottom, the north has answered to break through the Great Wall robbery, the south has repeated harassment, it is in this situation that if you do not reform, you will burp, Daming carried out self-innovation, gradually began in the Jiajing years, to the Wanli years to complete a round of military reform, the main feature is to join the recruitment system in daming's Weisuo army system, Ma Fang is the first famous general to rise in this reform, he cut down a lifetime of people with his might without being hacked to death, and finally led the Ming army to rebuild Daming's military morale little by little, his light was overshadowed by his descendants Qi Jiguang, Yu Dayou, Li Chengliang, etc., but such a brilliant person should be forever remembered.
It needs special explanation that Ma Fang's Taishi is not his official position, it is his nickname, it is the nickname given to him by the Mongols, because the Mongols who can fight the most will be named Taishi, which is a bit like today's big nb.
The Gentleman of Tianxing is unremitting in self-improvement
Ma Fang, born in 1518 in Zhengde, Shanxi Weizhou, that is, now Zhangjiakou, is a peasant family belonging to the nine-sided Xuanhua Town, this baby has a hard life since childhood, there is no mother at a young age, it is said that the child without a mother is like a root grass, and the stepmother who enters the door is very unwelcome to this stepson, and often abuse occurs.
In 1528, Jiajing was in the eighth year. In this year, the Central Jiajing Emperor of Daming was still arguing with the civilian official clique represented by Yang Yiqing whether Jiajing should call his father or his brother, this year Shandong Denglai Qi family gave birth to a doll named Qi Jiguang, this year ten-year-old Ma Fang after a quarrel with his stepmother, ran away from home, ready to create a world outside, did not expect to encounter Mongolian bandits who rushed into the Great Wall to rob, Ma Fang was tied up by this gang of Mongolian bandits and brought back to the grassland, was sent to the "Little Prince" of the Mongolian Khan at that time. The grandson of Li Da (for the sake of convenience, the whole text of this article refers to him as Li Da, because his name is the most well known) became a slave to the sheep. Since then, Ma Fang has had her first job, slave + sheep herding baby.
If it is a game, such a start is hellishly difficult, but Tianxing Jian Gentleman to self-improvement, the young Ma Fang did not give up on himself, at the same time as herding sheep, he and the grassland herders, learned to make their own bows and arrows, and humbly asked them for the know-how of horse archery, and there was a fierce force, in the absence of the guidance of the famous master, he practiced a martial art, the bow and horse were skilled, especially he shot arrows very accurately, became a sharpshooter, and later even the master lied to take Ma Fang when hunting.
Once, when I was going out hunting, a white-fronted tiger with a hanging eye suddenly reappeared in the grass, and with a large mouth of blood, I pounced on li da, and the guards of li da were shocked, and they were frightened and scattered to escape, seeing that the mongolian generation of male lords was about to die in the tiger's mouth, Ma Fang stepped forward and stood in front of li da, Zhang bowed and arrowed in one go, the arrow poured in from the tiger's mouth, and the fierce tiger was killed when he boarded. He looked at this man who had just saved himself, and the lean boy who was less than twenty years old liked it very much, and immediately rewarded him with a BMW, a well-equipped outfit, and promoted this slave to his personal bodyguard. Ma Fang not only found a job with super good treatment in one day, but also the boss also assigned a car, and for a time the cattle were not good, Ma Fang spent less than ten years to complete the first leap of life class, from slave to samurai. If this script is followed, Ma Fang will follow Li Da around to fight, and if he makes a battle achievement, he may be promoted to a general with his own territory, women and wealth, if so, Ma Fang will not be enough to be recorded in history.
With Jiajing taking the throne, in order to prove his legitimacy, Jiajing spent all his energy on proving the age-old problem of "my father is my father", and there was a serious lack of military concern for the border passes, at this time the border passes of the Ming Dynasty were very lax, and the combat effectiveness was seriously degraded.
In the seventeenth year of Jiajing in 1537, Li Da took a large army to the edge of Datong Town to hunt, the name of the hunt is actually to peek at whether the defense of Datong is tight, if there is an opportunity to take advantage, take the opportunity to fish in the Great Wall, Datong's general soldier at that time was called Zhou Shangwen, also a fierce man who could fight, the defense was not leaking, a look at the inorganic opportunity, Li Da began to organize hunting to open a party. Ma Fang has always remembered that he is a Ming Dynasty person, and he misses his old father who he has not seen for ten years, and when everyone was drunk and sleeping in the tent in the middle of the night, he stole a BMW and rushed to Datong, to his hometown, and to the motherland.
In the middle of the night, Zhou Shangwen was woken up by the guards, saying that there was a Tartar claiming to be a Ming Dynasty man outside the camp gate, saying that he was going to return to the motherland. Throughout the Ming Dynasty, there have been Mongolian warriors who ran from the Mongolian steppe to the Ming Dynasty to work as mercenaries, and the Ming Dynasty has always been encouraging, but for the first time, I heard that there were Ming Dynasty people coming from Mongolia, so Zhou Shangwen met Ma Fang in spite of the three in the middle of the night, as soon as he saw Ma Fang, Zhou Shangwen liked it, this young man looked good, the tiger-backed bear waist was five big and three thick, the key was to grow a very thick and honest face, a look is a sincere person, the army needs this kind of honest cannon fodder the most. Ma Fang told his own experience, Zhou Shangwen no matter what he thought in his heart, as the lord he immediately discovered Ma Fang's benchmarking effect, so Zhou Shangwen immediately set Ma Fang as a model of patriotism, publicized a wave of propaganda throughout the army, Ma Fang brought back from Mongolia BMW equipment belonged to Ma Fang, and recruited Ma Fang to his subordinates, as a captain, this official position is equivalent to the current squad leader, a team of 12 people set up a captain. Ma Fang, who was just 20 years old, realized her life by jumping ship
The second turn, from a big head soldier to a low-level non-commissioned officer.
Cut off people's heads for silver
In the next ten years, Ma Fang's life was very exciting, summed up as carrying a large knife to cut off the heads of Mongolians for silver. Because Ma Fang himself is strong in martial arts, at the same time he has lived in Mongolia for nearly ten years, all martial arts are learned from the Mongols, but also to Yu Da as a good year of bodyguards, very familiar with the Mongols, so the efficiency of going out to cut people is very high, that is a cut a quasi. But Ma Fang's next operation made people jaw-dropping, when the Ming Dynasty stipulated that soldiers could exchange mongolian heads for some silver with the imperial court (different periods were slightly different), or low-level non-commissioned officers could be promoted to a higher level, but Ma Fang replaced all the decapitated heads with silver, he told others that it was because his father was too poor, he changed silver to support his father, the routine operation at that time was that promotion was bound to get rich, and Ma Fang only stared at the silver in front of him and did not see the long-term benefits. Ma Fang soon won the title of a "filial piety and fierce man" in the Datong Army, but I have another understanding, Ma Fang, a peasant boy, has no foundation in the army, if he changes all his military merits into official positions, that promotion is too fast, it may not be a good thing for him whose foundation is unstable, and the Military Attaché of Daming at that time was also a turnip and a pit, many hereditary disciples often did not have officials, how could it be ma Fang's turn to do it?
Changing one's life against the heavens begins with not taking a life
In 1549, in the twenty-ninth year of Jiajing, Li Chengliang, a fallen military nobleman in Liaodong Province, gave birth to his eldest son named Li Rusong, and it was also this year that The Jesuit priests arrived in Kagoshima, Japan, on a Chinese ship from Goa, India, and began to introduce Catholicism to Japan.
Also in this year, Ma Fang, who had been a low-ranking officer for ten years, ushered in another turning point in his career, after years of preparations, Ma Fang led an army of 100,000 people to start attacking Datong, Ma Fang suggested to the governor Zhou Shangwen to send elite troops to copy the back road of Li Da, resulting in the withdrawal of Li Da's troops, after this incident, Zhou Shangwen praised Ma Fang and said: "Boy, before you looked down, you have the potential to be a general! In the same year, Zhou Shangwen, who was in his 70s, died of illness in office, and Ma Fang ushered in a new boss, Qiu Luan, one of Jiajingnian's famous villains. This Qiu Luan was also a ruthless man, and he was also a side general who fought with one shot after another, but because he participated in the party struggle between Yan Song and Xia Yan and helped Yan Yan move to Xia Yan, once a side general participated in the party struggle in the court, he would immediately become impure and began to no longer look at the problem from the perspective of a soldier.
In 1550, when Jiajing was thirty years old. When Qiu Luan came to Datong again with full force, Qiu Luan did not pull out his knife and fight with Li Da to death, but took out a heavy amount of money to ask Li Da to take a detour, and He Da saw that Qiu Luan, an iron-blooded man who had been fighting for many years, had begun to buy roads with money, which was even more firmLy, Daming's force had rotted to the root, so he rushed all the way to the city of Beijing after breaking the border at the mouth of the Beigu Valley, and sure enough, Daming except for the border troops along the Great Wall, could fight a battle, and the Ming army that was slightly farther away from the Great Wall was a rookie, and Li Dang actually rushed all the way to Beijing City. This time he was more successful than Ye Xian, and he also encountered the resolute resistance of the remnants of Daming led by Yu Qian under the city of Beijing first, but this time when he came, the gates of Beijing City were closed and no one dared to go out of the city to fight in the field, and he let go of his courage to plunder everywhere, burning and looting everywhere around the capital, robbing a bowl full of pots, known in history as the change of Gengji.
The change of Gengshu made Daming and Mongolia see the weakness of the Ming Dynasty at the same time, so from 1550, the Mongols opened a golden age of 20 years of plundering from the south, Daming also really realized from this year that military reform has reached the point where it will be destroyed without change, opened a number of military talents, and finally cultivated a large number of famous generals in the middle and late stages such as Yu Dayou, Qi Jiguang, Li Chengliang, etc., and gave Daming a life extension for nearly a hundred years, and it was also from this year that Ma Fang, a low-level soldier, began to rise and went to the ranks of senior officers of Daming.
In order to cover up his incompetence, Qiu Luan actually killed Liang and took advantage of the exploits, and the soldiers braided their hair to rob the people, "the suffering of the people is worse than the prisoners", and the Ming army completely threw its face to the grandmother's house.
In September, Ma Fang was ordered to serve the king, and in Huairou County, he encountered the main force of The Answer, who was only a thousand households at the time, with less than a thousand people and an army of less than one hundred thousand people, Ma Fang did not either pretend to be dead in the shell of the turtle where the other Ming armies were at that time, or bid farewell to the Mongols far away, as a soldier's sense of honor made him stand out, and he led more than a thousand of his men to launch a death charge against the main force of more than one hundred thousand people with the determination to die. Everyone in Ma Fangbu held the determination to die, that is, like The Man who showed Daming and hot blood, everyone was full of blood and was like a crazy tiger, and it was useless to kill on the spot, even a general of the Ministry of Li Answer was also beheaded. They were anxious to return to the grassland to digest the results of this robbery, seeing Ma Fang's group of crazy people, they had no intention of fighting with Ma Fang, they were worried that if the Ming army behind them was encouraged by Ma Fang, they all pounced on them, they had no way to retain the fruits of this victory, they quickly disengaged from Ma Fang and quickly withdrew to the grassland. Ma Fang's strength was limited, and although he won the victory, he did not have a great impact on the war as a whole. However, because of this battle achievement, Ma Fang was only promoted to a small official of yang and wei banner.
Encouraged by the change in Gengji, the Mongol tribes rushed into the Great Wall and began to rob, and two months later, a small tribe ran to Weiyuan Fort to engage in side business to rob. Ma Fang was ordered to go to chi aid, this gang of Mongolian bandits is also a veteran, very good at fighting ambushes, sent more than twenty old and weak cavalry to challenge, the main force are ambushed up waiting for Ma Fang to put on the set, For the Mongols know very well Ma Fang just looked at a distance, found that this is a trap, and prepared to judge the location of the ambush, so Ma Fang divided his men into three teams, took turns to rush towards the ambush to kill, not long after the gang of Mongolian bandits collapsed, retreated for dozens of miles before stopping, a battle down, Ma Fang's whole army cut off more than ninety heads that could help them get promoted and get rich.
After cleaning up the battlefield, Ma Fang's opponents began to mobilize, Brothers, this group of goods will definitely make a comeback, and will definitely go to the Wild Horse River, let's go and him again. "This group of brothers under his command has already beaten out their hearts with Ma Fang, they immediately thundered with joy, despite fatigue and rushed to the Mustang River, just after taking a stand, they saw that the group of Mongolian bandits who had been defeated by themselves before really came to the Mustang River, then what is there to say, Ma Fang and his men silently drew their knives, stepped on the warhorse and rushed towards the Mongol bandits, this group of Mongolian bandits' hearts are also extremely broken, they can get rich when they run to the Ming Dynasty, grab grain, grab money, and strong women everywhere, why only we always meet Ma Fang, the killing god, Being pressed to the ground by Ma Fang was another rub.
During the intermission, Ma Fang said to his brothers, "Brothers, this group of goods has been frightened, and when we will work harder and beat them to collapse, the head must be indispensable, and when the time comes to get promoted and get rich and marry Bai Fumei, it will not be a dream." The brothers let out an excited wolf howl. As soon as Ma Fang looked up, he saw the smoke and dust in the distance, and immediately shouted: "No, the enemy's reinforcements are coming, brothers, withdraw." ”
Sure enough, the main force of this gang of Mongolian bandits came, Ma Fang personally led a few warriors to find a dangerous hill, the main force withdrew to a safe place, this group of Mongols attacked the hill where Ma Fang was defending several times, weighed it up, and it was not impossible to take Ma Fang, but the price was too high, they were a group of herdsmen who came to Daming to engage in side business, robbery was the main business, killing was a side business, and it was completely a surprise to die with ma Fang, so they greeted and withdrew, and it was only right to grab more things to spend the winter.
Ma Fang watched the Mongols retreat, and he immediately guessed their thoughts, so he immediately let the main force return, and they followed the Mongol bandits far away, just like the wolves followed the sheep herds driven by the shepherds, waiting for the shepherds to let down their guard. When they walked to the Mud River, this group of Mongolian bandits let Ma Fang seize the opportunity and rushed into the Mongolian military camp to slash a large blade, and the nerves of this group of Mongolian bandits finally collapsed, "How did this robbery go out and rob did not read the yellow calendar, and encountered this group of neuropathies." So the squire scattered and fled. Ma Fang and his brothers harvested a wave of heads.
In the context of daming being tortured by the Mongols, the achievements of Ma Fang's team are nothing more than brilliant, benchmarks, typical examples, must be commended, and their glorious deeds must be fully publicized, taking him as an example to call on the courageous generals who were beaten by Daming to learn from Ma Fang's fearless heroic spirit and crack down on Mongolian arrogance. The effect is minimal. However, Through this great victory, Ma Fang completed the headwind reversal of his life, and his rank was promoted to commander, his official position was promoted to the guerrilla general of Xuanfu Town, and he rose from a big head soldier to a general, becoming a member of the ruling class of Daming.
When the Mongol bandits attacked along the nine sides of Daming, the Ming army's defense line was beaten like a sieve, leaking wind everywhere, the north of Daming was full of Mongolian bandits who robbed everywhere, Ma Fang led his men to attack everywhere, in the eyes of others, the Mongols were vicious bandits, but in the eyes of Ma Fang's team, it was all able to breathe military merit and silver. By the end of that year, Daming awarded Ma Fang's rank to Zhengyipin Zuo Dudu, and Ma Fang was the first person to achieve Zuo Dudu with the rank of general since the founding of Daming, which felt like a general regimental commander.
Military reform to create an elite Majia army
Ma Fang, while doing the Xuanfu guerrilla, once again implemented the long-abandoned company sitting method in his own troops, and when fighting, he did not dare to charge according to military orders, so the rear team cut off the front team, the generals feared the enemy, and the soldiers beheaded the generals. Every time ma Fang fought, he personally led the death squad to the forefront, which won the support of his brothers. Ma Fang's team will win every battle, morale is not high, every day like Li Yunlong's independent regiment, see the enemy screaming, scared Mongols when robbing all around Ma Fang.
1. The sons and daughters of the soldiers defend the township. In 1552, in the thirty-first year of Jiajing, Ma Fang gave an opinion to the military department, proposing not to use reinforcements from all over the country to assist in the defense of Shanxi, first of all, because the road is too far away and economically not cost-effective, and this group of people defending is not their hometown, when they are not able to work, the combat effectiveness is heinous, they should be recruited locally in Shanxi, they are all disciples, they have a blood vendetta with the Mongol bandits, for the purpose of defending their hometown relatives, they face the Mongols who come to rob the eyeballs are red, as soon as they come up, they will play for their lives, and their combat effectiveness is explosive. This correct opinion was quickly adopted, allowing him to recruit troops from Shanxi, and Ma Fang led the troops to pay great attention to training.
2. Sweat more in peacetime and less blood in wartime. He stipulated very strict military regulations in the army, and invited martial arts masters to be martial arts instructors, and also asked the generals who surrendered from Mongolia to teach soldiers to be familiar with the combat characteristics of the Mongols, etc. Ma Fang often personally demonstrated, and under Ma Fang's rectification training, the combat effectiveness soared.
3. Treat soldiers as brothers. Ming Dynasty due to perennial peace, perennial low intensity combat, do not need soldiers to play with their lives, for a long time, officers will habitually abuse their soldiers, but also often arbitrarily withhold their salaries, this habit is difficult to change, Ma Fang knows that now need soldiers to fight hard, and then do this is to find death. So he sent his own soldiers to the army to secretly visit, and punished more than twenty generals under his command who arbitrarily abused soldiers and withheld soldiers' salaries, and later he stipulated that officers under him who abused soldiers and soldiers should be punished with at least eighty sticks, and those who withheld military food should not only be beaten, but also confiscated their family property. After the change of the Ming Dynasty from Tumubao, the general up and down do not treat soldiers as people, the phenomenon of the magnates treating soldiers as free labor is very common, once a certain magnate unauthorized requisition of more than three hundred soldiers under Ma Fang as slaves, Ma Fang heard about it, personally came to the door to ask for people, the other party did not put this Qiu Ba in his eyes at all, Ma Fang pulled out the big knife that was dangling in the neck of the other party, and also loudly intimidated the other party how hungry and thirsty his own big knife was, and the magnate finally returned all the soldiers to Ma Fang. Since then, no one has dared to casually transfer people from Ma Fang's hands to himself, and he has worked for free.
4. Form special forces. Ma Fang selected dozens of soldiers in the whole army and formed them into his family ding, and every time he fought, this jia Ding unit took the lead in charging, and due to the explosive combat effectiveness, it usually achieved unexpected results and made countless battle achievements. The family ding system was due to the financial constraints of the Ming government, which could not support the construction of a regular army into an organization, and the generals could only spend a limited amount of military expenses on building a small number of elite family members. In the early stage, this system was very useful, but for a long time, it led to the combat effectiveness of the regular army of the Ming Dynasty getting worse and worse, and the generals were desperate to save their lives, and slowly, the generals of the Ming Dynasty became a small warlord, although it was a helpless move, but the harm was endless.
5. Weapon upgrades. Because the Mongolian bandits were all exquisite in riding, coming and going like the wind, plundering everywhere, Ma Fang broke the Ming Dynasty's inherent method of fighting with bunker streams, and decided to attack and ride by horseback, but due to the inferiority of Ming soldiers in horsemanship, Ma Fang put firearms into the army, and the famous three-eyed rifle of the Ming Dynasty was fully equipped to the hands of cavalry from this time.
6, the best defense is the offense. The mighty Ma Fang changed his operational thinking of building border walls to block the enemy's attack, and he put forward the operational idea of "riding with horses." Every year in the winter and spring, he divided his men into many small groups and rushed to the Mongolian steppe to prevent the fire of the Mongols' grasslands everywhere, robbing the Fallen Mongol tribes and herders to maximize the destruction of the Mongols' combat resources. When the Mongol army went south to rob, Ma Fang concentrated his superior forces, made a long-distance attack, cut off the Mongols' rear road, and once he had the opportunity to take advantage, he rushed into the Mongol army, slashed with a knife, sprayed with firearms, and smashed with three eyes, making the Mongols fearful every time they went to rob. In his own words: "The way of the enemy is to attack first, and if the enemy wants to move me first, with the length of my firearms, the shortness of the bow and crossbow of the enemy, and the heavy damage to the enemy on the plug, the method of victory is also the method of victory." ”
Under Ma Fang's rectification, the combat effectiveness of Ma Fang's team soared wildly, and in the environment when Daming was suppressed as a whole, their record was very eye-catching, when others were cut off, he always cut off the heads of Mongolians, and when others were robbed by Mongolians, he always robbed the Mongolian horses, cattle and sheep.
Matthew's division fought to the death against Khan
In 1553, Jiajing made a comeback in the thirty-three years of Jiajing, and from February to October, he continuously plundered the five major military defense areas of Xuanfu, Datong, Yansui, Ningxia, and Gansu in the Ming Dynasty. During this period, dozens of officers at all levels, including the commander-in-chief, staff generals, and commanders of the Ming Army, died in battle, and the army suffered heavy losses.
In the thirty-fourth year of Jiajing (1555), the old trick of The Imperial Guard was repeated, bypassing the Xuanda Defensive Line, and leading the cavalry to once again blitz to the Huairou area on the outskirts of the Ming Dynasty capital, and for a time the Beijing Division was a large policeman, and tens of thousands of reinforcements were afraid of the Wei Dynasty' troops, and they all waited and did not dare to fight. In a critical situation, Ma Fang, who was only a small general, attacked in anger, and led two thousand elite horsemen under his command to meet Li Da and killed them in a big way, and the two sides encountered each other in the security (Hebei chasing deer), Ma Fang's army regarded death as a return, "jumping bravely, and daring to fight fiercely", and forced the Li Da army to retreat more than ten miles, and the confused Li Da thought that Ma Fang was the vanguard of the Ming Dynasty, and the main force must be in the rear, otherwise how could Ma Fang fight so fiercely, worried that the besieged Li Da quickly withdrew the whole army to the north, never expected that the Ming Dynasty million troops, Only Ma Fang, the two thousand men, dared to fight. This war horse Fang was shot with five swords, and his mount was also shot, almost killing Huang Quan, and the Jiajing Emperor heard Ma Fang's heroic deeds and praised him one after another: "Brave but not Ma Fang." "Translate, the fiercest of our Daming is Ma Fang." This war horse Fang also left a deep impression on the Mongols, and they all honored Ma Fang as "Matthew Division", because during the Northern Yuan Dynasty, the Mongols were the most capable of fighting Taishi. After this battle, Ma Fang's name of fierceness spread throughout the Great Wall and beyond.
In 1557, in the thirty-sixth year of Jiajing, Ma Fang was promoted to deputy commander-in-chief of Jizhen, stationed in Jianchang, just in time for the Mongolian Chahar department Tuman with more than 100,000 people to run to rob, Tuman can be counted as a famous stubborn bandit in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, usually active in the northeast, this time he did not know that Ma Fang changed his defense to Jizhen, Xingchong ran with 100,000 bandits to rob, the two sides opened a position, a confrontation, the Tuman army was hacked by the Ming Dynasty and took more than ten heads, and also captured six elite cavalry of the Tuman tribe. At a glance, this combat effectiveness did not match the Impression Oftle Town Army, and immediately found a man with a loud voice and shouted across the battlefield: "Which part of the brother on the other side is ah!" Ma Fang was very high-profile, took off his helmet and shouted back: "Lao Zi Ma Fang! Tu Man quickly found a person who knew Ma Fang to identify it, and the real tm was Ma Fang, so he shouted: "It turned out to be Matthew Master, it was all a misunderstanding, it was all a misunderstanding!" "Turn around and sprinkle a cigarette and run back to the grassland, back to the traditional territory of Liaodong to engage in side business."
In the same year, the Mongol bandits led by Xin Ai and Du'er rushed into Zunhua and Yutian to grab, after Ma Fang received the news, the starry night rushed to give the Mongol bandits a rub at the Jinshan Temple, the Mongols turned and ran, although the battlefield was victorious, but the people of the two counties were plagued by the ten rooms and nine airs, the imperial court was furious, from the first governor Wang Chen down, all the officials were punished, and Ma Fang's military rank was also transferred to the du du du. Due to the warning of the nine sides again, Ma Fang was urgently transferred to Xuanfu, Li Da rushed into Shanxi with the Mongols to kill people and set fires everywhere, Ma Fang ran for more than five hundred miles a day and night, arrived at the outskirts of Datong, and found the main force of Li Da, it was early in the morning, Ma Fang let the family Ding rush into the camp of the Li Da army under the cover of night and set fires everywhere, taking advantage of the chaos Ma Fang led the whole army to rush towards the Li Da camp, Ma Fang was also a generation of tyrants, but also in danger, sent his men to alternately cover the retreat and personally fight to the death, after a night of fighting, Under Ma Fang's all-out attack, he led the main force to retreat twenty miles to the north, although it was tragic at any time, but the main force was saved.
After a brief repair, Ma Fang immediately pressed up with the whole army and approached the camp. Not to be outdone, the two sides set up positions in Rabbit Ridge, Drinking Dragon River and other places to fight and kill, both sides are the elite of the rest of the battle, for a time it is difficult to solve the problem, and finally Ma Fangjun defeated the LiDa army by virtue of its firearm superiority, and What Li Da was beaten could only be alternately retreated, Ma Fang bitten hard, and on the way back to the grassland, there were five more battles, although they all ended in the victory of the Ming army, but they have not seriously damaged the main force of Li Da. After returning to the steppe, Li Da was very reluctant and sent a small force to try to lure Ma Fang to the steppe through deception, and defeated the only general that Daming could fight in one fell swoop on the battlefield familiar to the Mongols.
How could Ma Fang instigate, immediately the whole army posted up, the two sides on the grassland set up a horse cannon to carry out the battle, at the most intense time of the battle, suddenly a small group of cavalry suddenly rushed out from the flanks, they were all possessed like a killing god, the army of Li Da was cut into two pieces, the two sides fell into a scuffle, the two sides fell into a whole day and a night, Ma Fang, who had been cutting people on the front line, slashed the blade and changed the knife three times, which showed the fierceness of the battle. At dawn, the Mongols looked at the Ming army that was still glowing green after a day and a night of fighting, ready to pounce on the Ming army, which he meowed was a man, obviously a group of wolves, the Mongol soldiers under the Khan of Uttar Khan completely collapsed, they left the bodies of their companions scattered and fled, this was the first time that Utada Khan suffered a fiasco, the first time he was injured.
From Xuanfu to Datong and from Datong to Huai'an, Ma Fang's army turned to battle for a thousand miles, seven battles and seven victories, and the fight was wounded and broken. When the good news came, Daming was shocked, and the people and the people were ecstatic. Jiajing immediately restored Ma Fang to the rank of Governor of Zuo and promoted Ma Fang to the rank of Commander-in-Chief of Xuanfu.
Since Ma Fang served as the commander-in-chief of Xuanfu, the focus of Aletan's invasion gradually shifted to Yansui, Ningxia, Gansu and other regions. Under the influence of Ma Fang, Yansui general Zhao Jiao, Datong general Jiang Yingxiong and other border generals also repeatedly took the initiative to launch counterattacks against the Mongol tribes, although there were victories and defeats, but Aletan, who was afraid of the Ming army's counterattack, did not dare to drive straight in as in the past, coupled with the frequent snow disasters of the Mongol tribes for several years, resulting in several southern invasions of Aletan with heavy losses and gradually falling into a downward trend.
In 1566, in the forty-fifth year of Jiajing, Li Da sent his son Xin Ai to break through the barrier from the west road with 100,000 people, and after the outbreak of war, the Ming Dynasty reacted quickly, and Yang Bo, the head of the army, urgently ordered the five general soldiers of Guyuan, Yansui, Xuanfu, Datong, and Jizhen to lead elite reinforcements. Ma Fang led the Xuanfu army to meet the main force of the Mongol army in the front, the reinforcements of Jizhen attacked from the flanks, and the elite troops of the three towns of Datong, Yansui and Guyuan set up an ambush in the Tiancheng, Yanghe and shanxi regions, with the intention of annihilating the main force of the Mongol army.
Ma Fang led 10,000 horses to encounter Xin Ai at Malian Fort, when the enemy was outnumbered, at that time many walls of Ma Lian Fort collapsed, and his men asked for instructions to quickly repair the city wall, and Ma Fang immediately vetoed it. One side of the flag was extinguished, the other side opened the four gates, and at night in the city, more torches were lit, shouting and screaming, pretending that there were many soldiers and horses, and confusing the Mongols in a vacuum, they really did not know Ma Fang's strength. The next day he slept until noon before getting up, washed up and climbed to the head of the city to look at Xin Ai's army, and said to his men: "Brothers, you see, the Mongols are going to escape, and the opportunity to harvest the heads has come." So the whole army attacked and defeated Xin Ai. This is not ten thousand, Xin Ai's army was forced by Ma Fang to drive into the encirclement of the Ming army, Yan, Sui, Datong's elite soldiers took the opportunity to go out, all the way to the brave pursuit, "beheading along the way and captured very heavy", Li Da Khan once again suffered a big defeat. Yang Bo, the governor of the three sides, wrote excitedly in the song: "This battle is the same as the enemy, chasing and chasing the north, and its vigor is very strong, which is rare for the nine sides." To Ma Fang, Yang Bo was even more praised, saying that he "took the wisdom and courage of Han Li Guang, the first to defeat Kou's soldiers, and deserved to be the first to do the work." ”
During the Longqing period, Ma Fang continued to rush to the grassland with his men to chase after Li Da, but Li Da was also a cruel person, and under Ma Fang's pursuit, he was still very tenacious to gather more than 100,000 people to circumvent the Ming Dynasty, and from time to time he broke through the barrier and went around burning and looting.
Longqing collegiality
In 1570, Wang Chonggu, the governor of the three sides of longqing for four years, was a Shanxi native, and he deeply felt that the war that lasted for more than 20 years had ruined the lives of the people in the north of Daming and the people were exhausted, so he put forward a proposal to negotiate with the li answer, which was approved by the high arch of the cabinet at that time and Zhang Juzheng, and under Wang Chonggu's many efforts, the collegial discussion was finally reached.
Wang Chonggu also took Ma Fang with him when he was discussing the merits and rewards, and praised Ma Fang in the recital, "Peace is successful, and Fang Shi has merit", because Ma Fang was staring at the side with a machete, and he replied that this veteran bandit was willing to sit down and negotiate.
After the success of the "Longqing Peace Conference", Ma Fang, as the commander-in-chief of Datong, was ordered to lead elite troops to escort Wang Chonggu to Hongshi Fort north of Datong to meet the leaders of the Mongol tribes.
summary:
Ma Fang's life is a life of cutting people, he used his toughness to complete the reversal from a slave to the top general of Daming in a generation, crisis crisis, whenever danger comes, for those who are prepared, it may be an opportunity to change their lives against the sky. It should be said that Li Da is Ma Fang's nobleman, it is Li Da who made Ma Fang from a slave to a samurai, and Ma Fang also completed the transformation from a low-level officer to a top military nobleman by cutting Li Da, as if Li Da was born for Ma Fang.
Ma Fang was not only a man of high martial arts, but also very courageous, very familiar with the Mongols and the Mongol situation, and was able to lead the way, often going to the Mongolian steppe several times a year, either going personally or sending his men down, and after the past, he killed people and set fire to his head. The family has raised a lot of family members, each of which is a fierce man who beats ten, often thirty or forty people, who dares to go deep into the grassland for three or four hundred miles, and can also retreat with his whole body. Because Ma Fang hunted down and killed Li Da all year round, he chased after this old cannon who was willing to sit down and do business honestly instead of drawing a knife and robbing.
Ma Fang fought from the lowest level of soldiers with one knife and one shot, and for more than ten years, he fought more than a hundred battles of all sizes, with dozens of knife wounds on his body, often hitting fewer blows and making many meritorious achievements. He captured dozens of tribal leaders, killed countless Mongol generals, and was the biggest of the Ming Dynasty generals at that time.
Ma Fang is not the kind of arrogant Qiu Ba, the appearance of rough and proud inside is very strategic, everywhere he goes, he must carefully collect local souvenirs and give them to his superiors. This is also the middle and late Ming Dynasty, when the military salaries were generally deducted by the central government, Ma Fang's army was always the best in weapons and equipment, and there was never a shortage of soldiers' salaries, which was an important reason for the strong combat effectiveness of Ma Fang's army. Even yan Shifan, the most arrogant second-generation yan shifan during the Jiajing period, commented on him: "Ma Fang is a person who is thick and reckless in appearance, but his heart is as meticulous as his hair, and he is a person who cannot be offended." ”
remark:
1. During the Longqing period (1567-1572), Qi Jiguang trained troops in the four towns of Jizhou, Changping, Baoding, and Liaodong, with the title of governor and prime minister, and used his infantry battalion as an example, that is, according to the sequence of departments, divisions, bureaus, banners, and teams. With 12 people as a team, each team has a team leader of 1 person; 3 teams are a banner, each flag has a total of 1 person, and the whole flag officers and men are 37 people; 3 flags are 1 bureau, each bureau has 1 hundred people, and the officers and men are 112 people in total; 4 bureaus are one division, each division has a total of 1 person, a total of 449 officers and men; 2 divisions are one department, each department has 1 thousand people, and the officers and troops have a total of 899 officers and men. The three units are a battalion, with 1 general officer, 1 Chinese army, 1 firearms handle, plus 2697 officers and men below the department, for a total of 2700 people in the whole battalion.
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