Recently, I read some historical articles written by Koreans, calling their country's national hero Lee Shun-chen the number one in Asia. It's understandable that Koreans like to brag about themselves, but it's a bit too much to do with Asia as a whole. Because whether it is from Li Shunchen's personal ability or military achievements, it may be the first in South Korea, but in the face of China, which has a history of 5,000 years of civilization, it seems to be a bit of a class axe. To put it mildly, it is good to rely on Li Shunchen's personal ability and combat achievements to rank in the top 200 of China's historical famous generals. Below, based on Li Shunchen's historical data, combined with the ability and battle achievements of Famous Chinese Generals of the same period, we will discuss the weight of Li Shunchen, the first asian general.
First, I took a look at Li Shunchen's personal basic information and battle achievements.
Lee Sun-chen, courtesy name Ruhon, was born on April 28, 1545 in Seoul, the capital of Korea (present-day Seoul, South Korea). Because his ancestors failed to participate in the political struggle of the Scholar-Doctor Clique, his father Li Zhen was never allowed to participate in the imperial examination and could not obtain any meritorious name. It was in this extremely difficult situation that the young Li Shunchen abandoned the literary martial arts, and in 1576 he was awarded the title of Wujuren and assigned to Jeongyee County, Jeolla Province, as the county superintendent (equivalent to the current head of the county public security bureau).
Lee Shun-chan's origins stem from the invasion of Korea by the Japanese feudal lord Toyotomi Hideyoshi. At a time of national crisis, Lee Soon-chen was appointed as the envoy of the Jeolla Left Division (equivalent to the current commander of the naval detachment), responsible for supervising the construction of turtle ships and actively preparing for war against the Japanese invasion.
In 1592, 140,000 Japanese troops swept through Korea with thunderous momentum, almost taking the Korean king prisoner. It wasn't until Emperor Myōjin sent a large army to korea to provide support that he was able to stabilize his position slightly. As a general of the Korean Marine Division, Li Shunchen led a small number of troops with less than 10,000 people, defeated the Japanese army dozens of times larger than himself on many occasions, and favorablely supported the operations of the ming and Korean combined armies, and made great achievements. Lee Sun-chen himself is indeed worthy of the title of The First General of Korea relative to the mediocre Korean military generals.
However, from the beginning of the 1592 Nongchen Rebellion to his death in November 1598, Lee Soon-chen never commanded more than 30,000 troops to fight, and the substantive impact on the war situation was not as great as that written by Korean historical writers. Moreover, Li Shunchen was not victorious in every battle, and was unfortunately shot and killed in the Battle of Busan in October 1592, the Battle of Nagatopo in November 1592, and the Battle of Suncheon castle in October 1598. Considering the weak combat effectiveness of the Korean army at that time, Li Shunchen's several defeats could not be attributed to his incompetence in command, and Li Shunchen was very outstanding in the combination of the Korean military commander-in-chief generals of his rank. However, because of such merits, Korean authors dare to call Lee Shun-chan the first general in Asia, which is too deceptive.
So, who were the outstanding generals of the Ming Dynasty who were in the same period as Li Shunchen, whose military ability was comparable to Li Shunchen's? The editor gave an example of three people:
01. Hu Zongxian
During the Jiajing period, Hu Zongxian commanded the Ming dynasty army to fight against the Wukou in his capacity as the governor of Zhejiang, and was the commander-in-chief and actual commander of the Ming Dynasty's War of Resistance Against the Wu. "Daming cannot be without the southeast for a day, and the southeast cannot be without Hu Zongxian for a day" is the best embodiment of Hu Zongxian's merits. The reason why Hu Zongxian has been overshadowed by history is that he was born under Yan Song, and there were famous generals such as Tan Lun, Qi Jiguang, and Yu Dayu under his command, which downplayed his contribution to the victory of the Ming Dynasty's Anti-Japanese War. In terms of Hu Zongxian's talent and military achievements, not only Li Shunchen could not compare, but no military general in Korea could match it.
02, Qi Jiguang
Qi Jiguang's battle achievements do not need to be repeated by a small editor, in the local war of cold weapons, no military general in the whole of Asia can surpass his achievements. The reason why Qi Jiguang's ranking in the list of famous generals in Chinese history is that, like Li Shunchen, he has never commanded a large army to fight, and his achievements are difficult to convince the public. You have fought hundreds of small battles in your life, annihilating 100,000 enemy people, and whose exploits are more convincing than a military commander who annihilated hundreds of thousands of enemies in a single battle or war or defeated a country? I believe that readers are aware of it. However, comparing Qi Jiguang with Li Shunchen, whether in terms of personal ability and battle achievements, Qi Jiguang suppressed Li Shunchen.
03, Hemp expensive
The Ming Dynasty military general Ma Gui and the famous Korean general Li Shunchen had the experience of working together to resist the Wu, so it was most suitable to compare with Li Shunchen.
Ma Gui's military achievements in the Ming Dynasty will not be elaborated. In 1597, emperor Myeongjinjong appointed Magui as the commander-in-chief of the Beiwu Army (equivalent to the current commander of the theater) and led his troops to Korea to fight the Japanese army. During the Ming Dynasty, the chief military officer was Zheng Erpin, who generally had a command of 30,000-50,000 troops, and the grade power was not low. After Magui arrived in Korea, Wang Jing defeated Konishi Nagayuki in the defense of WangJing, which relieved the urgent needs of Korea; in 1598, he defeated Kato Kiyomasa and killed the Japanese army Sekibai Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In the end, he defeated the Japanese invaders with brilliant battle achievements and won the final victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and Aid Korea. After Ma Gui returned to China, he was immediately promoted to the position of Right Governor and became a military attaché of the Ming Dynasty. When Li Shunchen died in battle in 1598, the official position of the three admirals (equivalent to the commander of the combined fleet), whether in terms of position and the size of the battle, was far from Ma Gui, known as the first general in Asia, which was not worthy of the name.
What do you think of the above points?