In the history of China, there have been countless famous generals, among which people like Huo Fuyi and Yue Fei are very famous in history because of their excellent military ability, but there are also some famous generals, their own strength is very strong, and their achievements are brilliant enough, but they are not so famous in later generations, and even many people have not heard of his name. In the Ming Dynasty, there was such a legendary figure, he was born into a jinshi, it can be said that he was a very good literati, but his fame was in the sand field outside Saiwai, this person and the later Wang Shouren and Wang Ji were called the Three Kings, he was the famous general Wang Yue in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.
Wang Yue had a very outstanding literary talent, and he passed the examination very early to become a jinshi, and his starting point was still very high, but because of his filial piety for his father, Wang Yue was forced to interrupt his career, and when he returned to the imperial court again, his position changed. At that time, the Ming Dynasty adopted the civilian leadership army, and after the fiasco of Tumu Fort, the military generals completely withdrew from the court, and the literati controlled the military and political power in the dynasty. Wang Yue was thus sent to Datong to take charge of military affairs, and he also officially began his military career, Wang Yue can be said to be a military wizard, he faced foreign enemies such as Tatars.
He went out to Saiwai three times, defeated the Tatars many times, experienced more than ten battles, and successfully recovered the Hetao area. In particular, he fought in the Battle of Weininghai, attacked Tatars for a long time, and severely damaged the main Tatar force, it can be said that in the military history of the Ming Dynasty, Wang Yue was definitely a top famous general, he guaranteed the stability of the northern and northwestern regions at that time, and won many victories for tatars, especially the recovery of the Hetao region, which was very critical for the Ming Dynasty.
However, such an outstanding famous general, he was a little low-key in later life, few people knew about him, and even in some modern works there is no record of him, such as "Those Things of the Ming Dynasty" he is not mentioned.
<h1>So why was Wang Yue forgotten by future generations? </h1>
Of course, this is still the role of the literati, it is reasonable to say that Wang Yue is a literati, these courtiers in the dynasty should support him, in fact, this is not the case, Wang Yue not only did not get the support Chinese of the courtiers, but also had a certain vendetta with many courtiers in the dynasty. This is still related to Wang Yue's personality, he is a very bold person, he also lives with Haojie, which can be seen from his poetry, generous and heroic, he is not that kind of traditional literati, Wang Yue has been at the border for many years, he has made many military achievements, and the emperor also likes him very much, which will inevitably make the ministers of the court jealous of him.
What's more, Wang Yue this person has a very close connection with the official eunuchs, since Wang Zhen came to power, the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty began to rise, the first eunuch Wang Yue befriended was Wang Zhi, this person in the future generations of the wind evaluation is not good, but he is very capable, became the first eunuch of the Ming Dynasty to take charge of the army.
He and Wang Yue have many times to go out to saiwai, have a very close connection, Wang Zhi's ability is indeed very good, but the civil servants and eunuchs are opposed, Wang Yue as a literati, to take the initiative to rely on the eunuchs, which makes many civilians very disgusted with him, in fact, Wang Yue and the eunuchs are not so close, he also has to do this, do not make good relations with the eunuchs, how can the emperor allow himself to lead the army alone, and these eunuchs are still easy to hinder behind their backs, so even if they do not please the eunuchs, At least it can't be to provoke them, if you change other literati, it is estimated that you will be at odds with the eunuchs.
Wang Yue was not like this, he was a pragmatic person, so his heart was still mainly based on practical matters, no matter what kind of eunuchs were, he could ensure that he would not delay the affairs of the state, Wang Yue had close ties with eunuchs like Li Guang during the Xiaozong Dynasty, and later When Li Guang fell, he was also beaten as Li Guang's henchmen.
People who are very close to the eunuchs, the wind evaluation in the middle of the dynasty is certainly not too good, and later like Wei Zhongxian these people are called the castration party, it is not good to hear it, these literati use a means to exclude dissidents, Wang Yue he has a close connection with the eunuchs, so in the middle of the dynasty he will inevitably be excluded, with the support of Wang Zhi, these people, he can also get the attention of the emperor, but Wang Zhi, Li Guang fell successively, Wang Yue was also implicated by them, the first time was deposed, the second time he was old, As a result, he was beaten as a member of Li Guang's party, which made him very angry in his heart, and eventually he was depressed, and he could not return to the imperial court to serve the country.
Later these history books and public opinion are in the hands of the literati, so many emperors in history are very afraid of the literati, like Ming Xiaozong, mediocre, but everything listens to the literati, his image in the future is very good, there can be many literati to advocate that he is the Ming Jun, Wang Yue such a person who cooperates with eunuchs, is considered to be the scum of the dynasty, he is not smeared is already very good. After all, we later learned about history, mainly through some historical documents, people like Wang Yue, who are remembered in history are relatively brief, and there is no other literati to help him publicize, he naturally has no sense of existence in the history books.
Of course, there are also factors of the times, and Wang Yue's era is the most overlooked period of the Ming Dynasty. From the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, all the way to the change of Tumu Fort, the Ming Dynasty was very strong in the middle, many people paid attention to it, and then it was the late Ming Dynasty, like Wanli, chongzhen period, there are many things, there are also many legends, many people will also pay attention to this paragraph. In the middle period, naturally not too many people will pay attention, after all, the middle of the Ming Dynasty is relatively stable, and there are not many major events inside and outside, like the Chenghua Emperor, whose popularity in history is not very high.
During this period, the Ming Dynasty had relatively few foreign wars, the enemies it faced were not so famous, and the affairs of Wang Yue and others would not receive much attention, moreover, after the fiasco of Tumu Fort, many Ming courtiers did not encourage war, they believed that going out would inevitably fail, and it was only right to maintain friendly relations with external countries like the Song Dynasty.
Therefore, many famous generals in the middle and late Ming Dynasty will actually be suppressed in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and when we look back at the history of the Ming Dynasty, we can find that in addition to the two periods of the early Ming Dynasty and the end of the Ming Dynasty, the famous generals of the Ming Dynasty at other times are not very well-known. It was not easy to appear like Qi Jiguang, who was also suppressed by the Chinese courtiers, and in the end did not end up with any good end. Qi Jiguang will be more famous, mainly because he has a lot to do with his opponent Japan, of course, his ability is stronger than Wang Yue, but his opponent gives him a greater fame bonus, and Wang Yue's enemy is less famous.
In any case, Wang Yue also used his own efforts to defend the peace of the country, in the history of ancient warfare, the Central Plains Dynasty rarely adopted the active long-distance attack method, before Wei Qinghuo went to the disease and others had used it, this style of play is also the characteristic of Wang Yue, he used the army strangely, dared to take risks, and therefore relied on his own efforts to beat the Tatars to defeat and retreat. Unfortunately, after his death, the border defense of the Ming Dynasty also had great problems, and it was difficult for another king to support the northern border defense of the country.
bibliography:
History of the Ming Dynasty
Records of emperor Ming Xianzong
【Text/Feather Comment County Lord, the picture comes from the Internet, such as infringement and deletion!】 Plagiarism must be investigated, welcome to follow, comment, like, forward, update wonderful and interesting historical knowledge every day, your recognition is my greatest motivation! The copyright belongs to the original author, if there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. 】