The Three Great Marches of the Ming Dynasty refer to the three large-scale conquests during the Wanli Dynasty. They were the Battle of Ningxia, which quelled the Mongol rebellion; the Battle of Korea, which countered the invasion of korea by the Japanese Toyotomi Hideyoshi regime; and the Battle of Bozhou, which quelled the rebellion of Yang Yinglong, the head of the Miao Territory.
The time spans from 1592 to 1600, a full eighteen years. The three battles safeguarded the last dignity of the Ming Empire, showed the strength of the Ming Empire, and stabilized the situation within and around the Empire. Now let's take a look at the last glory of the Empire.
1. The Battle of Ningxia
Ningxia Town is a nine-sided town, Andbai was originally a Ming Dynasty general, the official resided in Ningxia deputy general, and his son Cheng'en inherited his position later in retirement. At this time, the Ming Dynasty's border generals were highly powerful, coupled with the prevalence of private soldiers, the army became the private armed forces of the generals, so that these people were unscrupulous. Later, Dang Xin became the inspector of Ningxia, and everywhere he was embarrassed to worship his father and son, although there was distrust of these foreigners here, he also treated the officers and soldiers very harshly. Coupled with the extremely low treatment of soldiers at that time, there were many things that withheld silver, and finally led to a rebellion in the 20th year of the Wanli Calendar (1592 AD). Dang Xin was killed, and Zhang Weizhong, the commander-in-chief of Ningxia, was forced to commit suicide. Dai Bai then contacted the Mongols in the north, and for a time the government and the opposition were shaken.
Li Rusong
The imperial court made Li Rusong the commander-in-chief of Ningxia and sent Ma Guichi to help. Magui defeated the Mongols in a row, leaving Dobai helpless. Under the command of the governor Ye Mengxiong, the rebels were heavily besieged in the city of Ningxia, and the Ming army diverted the Yellow River to flood the city, and the city was destroyed a few months later. In the end, Dobai committed suicide, the rest were captured, and the rebellion, which lasted only a few months, was finally put down.
Although the war ended quickly, the problems reflected were indeed very big, and Ningxia, as an important town on the nine sides, actually caused a rebellion of such a scale. Moreover, there was no large army around the area that could quell the rebellion, and if it were not for Li Rusong's army, Ningxia might have been occupied by the Mongols, and the entire northwest might have faced great trouble at that time.
2. The Battle of Korea
In 1592, under the careful planning of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Japan invaded Korea across the sea with Governor Konishi as the commander. At first, the Ming army, blinded by North Korea's erroneous intelligence, was too light on the enemy, and Zu Chengxun was defeated. Later Wanli, with Li Rusong as his commander, defeated the Japanese at the Battle of Pyongyang, and then defeated the Japanese several times in a row, with both sides suffering damage at the Battle of Bihokukan. In the end, the two sides, who had been fighting for a long time, made peace.
First picture of the Battle of Korea
In 1597, Toyotomi Hideyoshi attacked Korea for the second time, the Ming Dynasty once again sent troops across the Yalu River to aid Korea, the Japanese army was largely staffed, the Ming army was armed with cavalry and heavy artillery plus the famous Korean general Li Shunchen's water army, the two sides fought unusually hard, it was difficult to distinguish between victory and defeat for a time, and the Battle of Mingliang severely damaged the Japanese army. Until Toyotomi Hideyoshi died suddenly, leaving his life to retreat, the Sino-Korean coalition army severely damaged the Japanese army at the Battle of Naruyaung. In the end, the Battle of Korea ended in the victory of the Ming Army.
3. Sowing the Chaos of the State
In 1596, Yang Yinglong, the toastmaster of Bozhou, whose relations with Daming had deteriorated, rebelled. He had already clashed with the Ming army many times before, and the Wanli Emperor took Li Hualong as his commander and the governor of Sichuan, Huguang, and Guizhou, and encircled and suppressed Yang Yinglong.
Li Hualong occupied the main routes of Huguang and Guizhou, cutting off Yang Yinglong's contact with the Miao people. At the same time, the Ming Dynasty's four-way army was like a broken bamboo, especially Liu Lingbu was the most courageous and good at war. Soon, the Ming army broke through Loushan Pass, and Yang Yinglong retreated to Hailongtun. In the end, Hailongtun was attacked by Li Hualong using the strategy of diverting the tiger away from the mountain, and Yang Yinglong set himself on fire, and the chaos in Bozhou, which lasted for more than 100 days, was quelled.
Now many people think that the three major signs do not need to be played! The Battle of Ningxia cost two million taels of silver; the Battle of Korea cost seven million taels; and the suppression of the rebellion in Bozhou cost more than three million taels of silver. And the reasons are very good: First, the Ningxia rebellion was completely improper in the use of personnel; second, the Korean campaign was of no benefit to Daming, and had no impact at all except to maintain the status of the Korean suzerainty; third, the Bozhou Rebellion was basically promoted by the main war faction in order to change the land and return to the stream.
In fact, these views are all hindsight, and the three major signs at that time were completely out of the ordinary.
Whether or not the personnel are improperly employed, the rebellion in Ningxia has already ignited a war and must be quelled in a short period of time. If the rebels and the Mongols were linked together, Gansu's connection with the inland would be severed, and Shaanxi and other hinterlands would face the Mongol threat.
In the Korean War, if Toyotomi Hideyoshi were allowed to go north, the already complicated situation in Liao would be more complicated, and the Ming Dynasty would have to pay more energy to deal with it.
Although there is a strong impetus from the main war faction, the original intention is to change the land and return to the stream, which is beneficial to stabilizing the situation in the southwest. Moreover, Bozhou is located at the junction of Guizhou and Sichuan, and its position is important, if it does not rebel, it will seriously shake the Ming Dynasty's rule over the southwest.
In general, the three major conquests delayed the decline of the Ming Dynasty and also achieved the peak of military power in the late empire. However, because the Three Great Signs relaxed their control over the Liaodi, Nurhaci became bigger and eventually became a major problem.