When it comes to the Ming Dynasty, what people remember is probably what Jinyiwei, Dongchang, eunuchs and which one after another the strange emperor realm, due to the slander of the later Manchu Qing, the reputation of Daming is indeed not bad among the people, and some people even say that this is an unknown monarch and unknown general and unknown three no-dynasty. But is that really the case?
Today, we will take stock of the glory that Daming has achieved in foreign wars, here, we put aside the Jurchens and Mongolians on land, because today these peoples have been integrated into the Chinese nation, they are no longer foreign enemies, and excluding the feat of Zheng Chenggong recovering Taiwan after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, we will talk about how Daming beat those great powers and colonists on the sea frontier.
First, the Battle of Tuen Mun (Daming vs Portugal)
In the early 16th century, the West kicked off the Age of Discovery, and Portugal and Spain rose rapidly to become the hegemonic "maritime hegemons", the twin stars of Europe. Portuguese colonists, who tasted the dividends of the Great Voyage, crossed the sea and came to China in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. At this time, the Ming Dynasty was ruled by Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao, and after the arrogant Portuguese came to the eastern world, they regarded this place as a civilized wilderness for those who were allowed to take what they wanted, and wanted to plunder by force, so they constantly had friction with the Ming army. In the early years of Jiajing, the war finally broke out. The Ming-Portuguese War broke out in 1521 and lasted until the victory of the Ming army in 1523. The strength of the troops participating in the battle on both sides was about 10,000 Ming troops, the Portuguese were about 7800 people, and the main general of the Ming army was Wang Wei. Although the Ming Dynasty won, it also saw the sharpness of firearms, and since then vigorously developed firearms, and the later red-clothed cannons also began to develop from this time, and the cannons of the Ming Dynasty played a role in coastal defense until the late Qing Dynasty.
After the Battle of Tuen Mun, the Ming Dynasty ordered the navy to destroy the Portuguese flag ship when it saw it, and the Battle of Madder Bay took place in Xinhui County, defeating the Portuguese again. In the following 20 years, the Portuguese who crisscrossed the world no longer dared to easily invade the coast of China, and there is no record of Francis intruding on the coast of Guangdong in these two decades.
Second, the Wanli Korean War (Daming Aid Korea vs. Little Japan)
During the Wanli years of the Ming Dynasty, Japan once again vainly tried to invade the mainland and sent troops to invade Korea. At the beginning of the Japanese army out of the Korean Peninsula, it can be called overwhelming, reaching the capital of Korea in just one month, expelling the Korean king, and after successive defeats, the Korean side had to ask the suzerainty for help, that is, like the Ming Dynasty. The Wanli Emperor waved his hand, and the Ming army sent troops to Korea, which can be understood as another version of "resisting US aggression and aiding Korea", just replacing the United States with Japan. The Battle of Wanli Korea lasted for seven years, and finally ended with the victory of China and Korea, the defeat of Japan, the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the rise of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the reshuffle of the Japanese family.
This battle maintained the East Asian order at that time, stabilized the position of Daming, had a far-reaching impact on the political and military pattern of East Asia, once again broke the claws of Little Japan in vainly trying to reach out to the mainland, and laid the foundation for the next three hundred years of East Asia dominated by China.
Third, the Battle of Luo Bay (Daming vs. Holland)
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Netherlands was already invincible in Europe, known as the "sea coachman", and the Dutch tried to monopolize the trade privileges with the Ming Dynasty. Before that, they had occupied almost undefended Taiwan, they naively thought that concentrating all the elite navies to oppress the Chinese coast would force the Chinese government to compromise, the Dutch used a total of 59 ships, including the pirate ships they appeased, and eleven warships, the unreasonable demands of the Dutch were naturally rejected by the Ming Dynasty, so they began to invade the Chinese coast, the Ming rose up to counterattack, and the Battle of Luowan broke out. It was also one of the largest naval battles in ancient China. In this naval battle, Daming invested more than 150 warships with tens of thousands of troops, and the Dutch side sent the latest battleships to fight fiercely in Luo Bay, on the southeast coast of Kinmen, Fujian. After bloody battles, the Ming Dynasty finally defeated the invincible Dutch, setting a precedent for Eastern countries to defeat Western colonial powers in naval battles. From then on, the Dutch maintained stable trade with the Ming until the fall of the Ming Dynasty. It was not until after the death of the Ming Dynasty that Zheng successfully recovered Taiwan and completely drove the Dutch out of Chinese territory.
Fourth, the Ming-British War
In Europe, Britain rose later than Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands. In the middle of the 17th century, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, shortly after the Battle of Luo Bay, the British attempted to enter the Chinese market with the help of the Portuguese, who had long monopolized trade with China. At the same time, the Portuguese had declined, and they wanted to use the newly rising Britain to contain the Dutch. In 1636, Captain Weddell, the commander, led 6 ships to China, hoping to open trade with China by force, and finally clashed with the Ming army, causing war. Dozens of warships of the Dutch returned home, and it was naturally difficult for several ships of the British army to get any good in the hands of the Ming army, and in the end, the British army was defeated, and in Guangzhou promised the Ming government to pay compensation of 2800 taels of silver, seeking the understanding of the Ming Dynasty.
Written at the end:
Today, due to the slander of the Manchu Qing Dynasty for two or three hundred years, the impression left on us can be said to be indismissible, and even in modern times, some people say that it is a three-nil dynasty. However, the real Daming is a rare bloody dynasty in history, and it is really tough enough to the outside world, whether the enemy is a nomadic people from the grassland, or a fishing and hunting people from the black water of the White Mountains, or even from overseas power colonists, even in the last years of Chongzhen, the Ming army still does what it says. Compared with the Manchu army that let a few soldiers chase and run, it is not a star and a half.