Out of jealousy of the power of military generals, both the Song and Ming dynasties advocated heavy literature and suppressing martial arts, and the commanders of large armies were often civilian subjects. However, this did not prevent the emergence of a group of excellent military commanders with civilian origins, such as Tan Lun, who was equally famous as Qi Jiguang.
Statue of Tan Lun
Tan Lun's personality was calm and calm, and he liked the art of war, so after he passed the entrance examination, he was assigned to the Military Department (similar to the current General Staff) as Langzhong, and then was sent to Taizhou to be the prefect. At this time, the staff general of Taizhou was the famous Qi Jiguang, and the two of them also became close comrades-in-arms for life.
Qi Jiguang
Qi Jiguang and Tan Lun each trained a unit, and Qi Jiguang's nature was the "Qi Family Army" that shook the world, and although Tan Lun's "Tan Family Army" was not as famous as the Qi Family Army, its combat effectiveness should not be underestimated: Tan Lun established an army that was moderate from top to bottom, and military discipline was quite strict, and soon became the pillar of defense in Zhejiang.
Tam Lun floating statue
Soon after the training was completed, Wokou came to test the effectiveness of the training, and Tan Lun took his newly trained unit to be tested. The results of the test are very gratifying: Tan Jiajun has won three battles and three victories! Another group of Wokou raided six prefectures and counties near Taizhou and then besieged Taizhou, not only being easily blocked by the Tan family army, but also being chased and killed by Tan Lun all the way to Xianju until all were destroyed. When the overall anti-Wu situation in eastern Zhejiang was not ideal, only Tan Lun and Qi Jiguang fought several beautiful battles in succession to stabilize the situation, and even expelled the Wukou all the way out of the border of eastern Zhejiang. Such a capable Tan Lun was naturally also an official and prosperous, and rose all the way to the inspector of Fujian.
Tan Lun, who came to Fujian, faced no less problems than In Zhejiang: all commanders were killed in battle, many cities and pools fell, and the main outlet to the sea was held by the enemy, and it was really difficult to eliminate the Wukou. But Tan Lun was not fighting alone, he also brought his own Tan family army, as well as Qi Jiguang, Yu Dayu and their army. With these two capable generals as his right and left arm, and Tan Lun himself personally sitting in the Middle Army, it was only a matter of time before the Fujian Wokou was wiped out. It is worth mentioning that in order to suppress the bandits, the imperial court even rejected Tan Lun's request to return home to guard filial piety, and it was not until the Wukou near Fujian was completely purged that he was allowed to return home to continue to serve the funeral.
Yu Dayu
Tan Lun also has a record: after more than thirty years of fighting, he likes to be a pioneer in every battle, and he personally cut off as many as 21,500 enemy heads. When the bloody battle was in full swing and the beheading was in full swing, even the entire wrist was soaked in blood and bright red, until the wrist was dislocated before being forced to withdraw from the battlefield.
After the expiration of the shou system, Tan Lun was reappointed as an inspector, and successively passed through Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Liangguang, and his tenure was not long, mainly because the imperial court was well aware of Tan Lun's ability, mainly allowing him to play the role of a "fire brigade leader". After the new monarch took the throne and Longqing was crowned, Tan Lun and Qi Jiguang were ordered to go north to organize border army training and continue their careers as comrades-in-arms, of course, Qi Jiguang gave Tan Lun a subordinate.
Ming Muzong Zhu Zaiyuan
Tan Lun was appointed governor of Jiliao and Baoding, and after he took office, after systematically inspecting the deployment of local military forces, Tan Lun wrote to the imperial court. He believed that the defensive line on the border of more than 2,000 miles was less than 100,000 old and weak and disabled soldiers, and it was difficult to defend. However, there are four difficulties in training new recruits: the annual fee and silver need more than half a million; the official's trust in himself and Qi Jiguang is not enough; the border army is arrogant and fearful of disobeying discipline; and there may be a gap between the new and old soldiers. If these four major problems are not solved, it will be difficult for the border troops to have strong combat effectiveness. To solve these problems, it is necessary to fully trust himself and Qi Jiguang, and mobilize nearby volunteers to join the army, and to transfer the Qi family army north for three years. If all this is implemented, and the border army cannot resist the enemy outside the gates of the country, Tan Lun will have to ask for the death penalty and be willing to surrender to the law!
Wei Zhen southeast of the Qi family army
Xu Jie of the current state approved Tan Lun's request, and in accordance with Tan Lun's request, he asked those patrols and border patrols to shut up and no longer interfere in the training of border troops. There were inspectors and inspectors of Yushi who pointed fingers at Tan Lun, and when the report reached the imperial court, Emperor Ming muzong decisively supported Tan Lun and issued an edict that the officials were not allowed to say more, so that Tan Lun could let go.
According to the specific conditions of local terrain and transportation, Tan Lun, who was unchecked, divided Jimen into three battalions and twelve roads, and the battalions and roads were each other's horns and drew reinforcements to each other. Together with Qi Jiguang, he also built the Great Wall from Juyongguan to Shanhaiguan. After Completing this series of work, Tan Lun returned to his hometown, and the entire northern region did not have major wars in the nearly twenty years that he and Qi Jiguang had guarded.
Great Wall
Who says literati can't govern the army? Who says students can't fight? From Tan Lun's body, it can be explained that as long as the literati themselves do not lose their martial spirit, why do the Han people gradually become passively beaten? In the final analysis, it is only a few of our own poor and rotten Confucians who have lost the bloodiness and spirit of our nation.