"Those who have Japanese swords, so that the light is dazzling, sharp and compelling, cutting jade like mud, blowing mangoes and breaking hair, long if the hair is broken, there is no shortage of folds", "Single knife trap, five soldiers are invincible." Its knife is also long and measured, short to cross, crouching for steps, retreating for cutting. Arm on the wrist, pick to hide the skim. The crabs run, the thousands of people are easy, and the stunts in the real island are also", "its people run rampant, and they are like the wind".
These passages are the descriptions of the ancient Japanese samurai and the method of the sword that was good used by the ancient Japanese samurai in the history book "Guangdong New Language". It can be seen that the unique Japanese sword technique is indeed a unique existence in the ancient martial arts world. However, it is regrettable that such a sharp Japanese sword was reduced to a sharp weapon in the hands of the Wokou during the Ming Dynasty, and such a superb Japanese sword technique was also reduced to an accomplice in the War of Aggression of the Wokou.
In the early days of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang sent emissaries to appease the small Asian countries around China, urging its king to send people to submit to the worship and establish good-neighborly and friendly relations with them. However, Japan relied on the sea barrier and once defeated the powerful Yuan Dynasty, so it ignored the Ming Dynasty's solicitations, and even intensified it, and in the second year of Hongwu (1369), it brazenly beheaded 5 Ming emissaries. Although Zhu Yuanzhang put the overall situation first and did not provoke a war because of this, the factors of discord between the Ming Dynasty and Japan have since been planted.
During the Jiajing period, due to the Ming Dynasty's implementation of a strict policy of banning the state of the sea, which produced serious side effects, pirates swarmed along the southeast coast, and a large number of Japanese ronin and warriors colluded with pirates in order to plunder wealth, and open fires invaded the southeast coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty, wantonly burned and plundered, and even attacked prefectures and counties.
The Jiajing Emperor repeatedly dispatched troops and organized heavy troops to surround and suppress the Wukou, but because the regular army of the Ming Dynasty had been in peace for a long time, the armament was in ruins, the military discipline was scattered, and the combat effectiveness was low, he actually suffered defeats in front of the fierce Wukou and suffered heavy casualties. The Jiajing Emperor had no choice but to order the governors of various localities to recruit local special troops, such as the Guangxi Wolf Soldiers, the Henan Mao Hulu Soldiers, and the Shaolin Martial Monks, and so on, and thus went to the battlefield.
Among them, the Shaolin warrior monks can be said to be the most dazzling team in various local armed forces. In many historical materials in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, they have left records of their heroic resistance to the Wu, "During the Ming Dynasty, the Wu Kou rebelled, and the general Hu Zongxian began to use Shaolin monks and soldiers." "When the Wokou first arrived, there were no soldiers to resist. Cao Jiang Du Yushi Cai Gong ordered the Shaolin monk Tianyuan to lead the monks to perish", "The monks and soldiers are outposts, and there are more than a hundred thieves in Yan. Fight to pursue, thieves are afraid and escape", "Shaolin monk Moon Sky received the Governor WanBiao, Yu Wu Kou".
For the sake of the Ming Dynasty, many Shaolin warrior monks were killed and wounded and paid a heavy sacrifice. Unfortunately, the Shaolin warrior monks who fought for the country did not receive the kindness of the Ming emperor, and their attitude towards them was chilling. Don't say anything about praise and kindness, even their most basic legitimate rights and interests cannot be guaranteed.
Shaolin monks stepped forward when the country was in trouble, throwing their heads and spilling their blood. However, after returning to the temple, he also had to cultivate the fields, grow and eat himself, engage in heavy manual labor, and "cultivate the barren mountains according to the temple." If the hillside is dry, the seedlings will dry up, the waterlogging will rush, the harvest will be less, and the cultivation will be burned to survive." What is even more excessive is that, like the common people, they "pay grain as one" and bear heavy land and population taxes. As a result, many monks were unbearable, fleeing in large numbers, and it was almost impossible to maintain. Not only that, the gentry around the temple colluded with officials and wantonly encroached on the temple's land.
In the first year of the Wanli Calendar, the ninth year of the Wanli Calendar, and the twenty-third year of the Wanli Calendar, the Shaolin monks wrote to the imperial court many times, and Chen said bitterly: "So far, the monks of this monastery have been quasi-brave, conscripted, and have repeatedly died", and the result is not only that they have not received "jia en and excellent compassion", but have "caused the grain shortage to be tired, and the situation is really sad", resulting in a large number of monks fleeing, so they implore the government to "shen meng to get rid of the open-mindedness". However, judging from the actual situation, their appeal has not attracted the attention of the relevant parties, and they have to write again and again. The Ming Emperor did not reciprocate the great deeds of the Shaolin warrior monks, which was chilling.
References: "History of Ming", "Jiangnan Jingluo", "Xing JianZhai Essay", "Wu Changzhi", "Dengfeng County Thesis"