When it comes to the famous anti-Wu heroes in history, I think many people will think of Qi Jiguang for the first time.
And he, in addition to his outstanding military achievements, also has many commendable places in calligraphy and literature. However, even a hero like Qi Jiguang could not help but be influenced by the corrupt dynasty and participate in the "bribery" incident.
When Qi Jiguang was young, although his family was poor, he had great ambitions, often slept and forgot to eat, and was proficient in Confucian classics and ancient and modern history. Since his hometown was plagued by wokou when he was young, Qi Jiguang always hoped to kill thieves to repay the country. Later, he inherited his ancestral position as the commander of Dengzhou Wei, and after several turns, he was transferred to Jizhen.
Before Qi Jiguang was transferred to Jizhen, the plague in the Fujian area was basically subsided, but the northern border was often invaded by Tatars, posing a great threat to the capital Beijing. Under the successive recommendation of Li Shuhe of Shaanxi Province and Wu Shilai of the Engineering Department, Qi Jiguang, who was serving as the commander-in-chief of Fujian at that time, was summoned to Beijing, and with him was his immediate superior, Tan Lun, the inspector of Fujian.
Tan Lun was also a famous general in the war, and every time he fought, he was a pioneer in charging the battlefield, and he was quite talented in the military. For Qi Jiguang's talent, Tan Lun has always been very appreciative, although the two are ostensibly superiors and subordinates, but privately they are a pair of close friends who take care of each other. In Qi Jiguang's action to pacify Wu Kou, Tan Lun has always given him great support.
The following year, Tan Lun was transferred by the imperial court to Jiliao as the governor of Baoding, and at the same time, he was also in charge of grain. After Tan Lun took office, he immediately recommended to the imperial court: it was recommended that Qi Jiguang be transferred to the north to take charge of military training. Out of appreciation for Tan and Qi, the imperial court quickly approved the request. Soon, Qi Jiguang officially assumed the post of Baoding military training affairs in Jichang, and in the areas of Changping, Jizhou, and Baoding, all military generals below the rank of general were subject to his control.
Because Qi Jiguang lived in the north since childhood, and later, he served in Jimen for five years, so he was no stranger to the area around Jizhen. As for the imperial court, entrusting him with such a heavy responsibility of defending the northern gate of the capital is enough to see the importance that the imperial court attaches to him. More importantly, Tan Lun, who was good friends with him, was still his boss this time, and he did not have to worry about someone holding him back in his actions.
Therefore, Qi Jiguang was quite satisfied with this position at the beginning. As soon as Qi Jiguang took office, he began to act on his own ambitious plan, first requesting the imperial court to allocate 100,000 soldiers for training, and then supplementing many aspects of the selection of soldiers, the collection of grain and grass, and the manufacture of weapons. However, as soon as his request reached the imperial court, it was strongly opposed by many ministers in the court.
Not to mention that at that time, the Ming Dynasty's national strength was empty and financially tight, and it was unable to bear the military food of 100,000 soldiers, and more importantly, Qi Jiguang had just taken office and handed over 100,000 soldiers to his hands, which was tantamount to raising tigers. If Qi Jiguang had any disobedience, then the threat it posed was no less than that of the Tatar army in the north. Some people in the DPRK even accused him of asking too much and being too extravagant.
After all, 100,000 soldiers were impossible, and in the end, the imperial court only allocated 30,000 soldiers to him for training. Soon after this incident, Qi Jiguang's position changed again, originally his position in the army was second only to Tan Lun, but a year later, the imperial court suddenly transferred Guo Hu, the commander-in-chief of Jizhen, and Qi Jiguang replaced him. In this way, Qi Jiguang's status was on a par with that of the general soldiers of Changping and Baoding, and the other party no longer had to be subject to his control.
For a long time, Qi Jiguang showed indignation, feeling that his biggest opponent was not from outside the frontier, but from within the imperial court. The thief could not cause much trouble to himself, but now, he had been restrained by the court ministers, how could he not be angry?
Originally, Qi Jiguang, who wanted to serve the country with a passion for blood, finally understood after being repeatedly suppressed by the ministers of the DPRK and China and repeatedly encountered a wall: If he wanted to do something, he must get the support of the imperial court. As a result, Qi Jiguang began to focus on his relationship with the important ministers of the DPRK, the most important of which were Gao Gong, Jie Jie, and Zhang Juzheng. To this end, Qi Jiguang even did not hesitate to use some dirty means.
In Zhang Juzheng's memoirs, there is such a record:
"Qi Jiguang once sent his brother to send him a generous gift, but he only symbolically accepted a little, and the rest let the other party return." In addition to this passage recorded in the memoirs, it is not difficult for us to guess Qi Jiguang's other actions in his daily life. What's more, he was able to make friends with Gao Gong, Jie Jie and Zhang Juzheng at the same time, which was naturally the result of blood.
As a result, when historians later established a biography of Qi Jiguang, they would say: "Yu Dayu and Qi Jiguang are both famous generals, but Qi Jiguang's conduct is not as good as the former." "This is clearly an allusion to his bribery.
In addition, Wang Shizhen, a literary historian of the Ming Dynasty, once wrote a biography of Zhang Juzheng, saying: "Qi Jiguang often spent money to buy a daughter to give to Zhang Juzheng, so that later, the other party indulged excessively and diseases frequently. However, this statement is only a family statement, lacking effective evidence to support it, and wang Shizhen and Zhang Juzheng have a gap in private, and do not rule out the possibility of maliciously smearing each other.
Of course, no matter what the reason, Zhang Juzheng did have a good relationship with Qi Jiguang later. During the ten years that Zhang Juzheng served as the first assistant, Qi Jiguang was always reused, almost to the point of obedience. Every time, when someone in the DPRK wanted to embarrass Qi Jiguang, Zhang Juzheng stepped forward for him, not only sparing Qi Jiguang from countless storms, but also transferring or deposing all those officials who tried to frame him.
This kind of protection also created an extremely good environment for Qi Jiguang's future military career. For Zhang Juzheng's partiality, Qi Jiguang has always been grateful, not only the size of the gifts on weekdays, when Zhang Juzheng died of his father's illness and went home to mourn, Qi Jiguang also specially sent a team of soldiers to protect Zhang Juzheng's southbound.
Zhang Juzheng, as an important minister of the DPRK, naturally did not lack protection around him. However, for Qi Jiguang's behavior, Zhang Juzheng still left six soldiers to show his appreciation. Before Zhang Juzheng set out, he was also worried that Qi Jiguang would be retaliated against by the chancellor after he left, so he arranged for his student Liang Menglong to be the governor of Jiliao, that is, Qi Jiguang's direct superior.
Not only that, Zhang Juzheng also personally wrote to Qi Jiguang, telling the other party about Liang Menglong's relationship with him, so that he did not have to worry.
From here, it is not difficult for us to see that Qi Jiguang also has a high degree of political consciousness, and before he enters Beijing, he can have a good relationship with his direct superior Tan Lun, and after entering Beijing, he can maintain good relations with Gao Gong, Jie Jie and Zhang Juzheng at the same time. However, these three people seem to have a very good relationship, but in fact, they have always been in constant contradictions and secretly clashed in private.
Originally, the position of first assistant was held by the removed rank, but later, it was replaced by a high arch, and finally, this position fell into the hands of Zhang Juzheng. What is amazing is that in the rotation of the first assistant position, Qi Jiguang has been able to stand firm, which has a great relationship with his political wisdom. Unfortunately, Qi Jiguang's good fortune did not last forever.
After Zhang Juzheng's death, his good fortune basically came to an end. For the Ming Dynasty at that time, Zhang Juzheng's death was an important event in the decline of the Ming Dynasty, and for Qi Jiguang himself, Zhang Juzheng's death was also the beginning of the prosperity and decline of his entire life. In fact, although Zhang Juzheng had been in power in the court, the Wanli Emperor had long resented him.
When the Wanli Emperor ascended the throne, he was still young, and the affairs of the court were always handled by Zhang Juzheng on his behalf. However, when the Wanli Emperor gradually grew up, Zhang Juzheng had no intention of returning power, and moreover, he also imposed great restrictions on the emperor, so that the emperor could not even take out the reward for the maid, and naturally hated the other party to the extreme.
Moreover, in the more than ten years that Zhang Ju was in control of the government, he naturally established many enemies.
Many of his reforms, although they led the Ming Dynasty to prosperity, also offended the interests of many aristocratic groups. These people naturally did not dare to confront Zhang Juzheng when he was alive, but now that Zhang Juzheng was dead, his "remnant party" would naturally be completely liquidated. And Qi Jiguang, who has long been labeled "Zhang Juzheng", is of course the first to bear the brunt.
Soon after Zhang Juzheng's death, some people in the DPRK began to write a letter impeaching Qi Jiguang for joining the party for personal gain, corruption, and even some people reported that he intended to rebel... Fortunately, at this time, the Wanli Emperor was not yet faint to the extreme. Although he hated Zhang Juzheng extremely in his heart, he would not kill the famous general because of some wind-catching remarks.
Of course, although he did not want to kill the other party, for Qi Jiguang's identity as "Zhang Juzheng Yu Dang", the Wanli Emperor always felt that there was a knot in his heart. Moreover, at that time, Qi Jiguang already had a prestige in the army, and he was commanding tens of thousands of troops, even if there was no rebellion now, it was difficult to guarantee that there would be no disobedience in the future. Due to the above considerations, the imperial court finally transferred Qi Jiguang to the south.
The reason is also very grandiose: "Qi Jiguang has many anti-Wu merits in the south, but rarely has great merits in the north, so the south is more suitable for his development." However, the clear-eyed people can see that Qi Jiguang was transferred to the south far away from the capital this time, and the signs of falling out of favor could not be more obvious. Although Qi Jiguang was unwilling to leave Jizhen, where he had been operating for more than ten years, he was forced by the Korean and Chinese forces to leave in the end.
It can be said that Qi Jiguang originally had a passion for serving the country, but in that corrupt dynasty, there was nowhere to play. If you want to serve the country, you even have to resort to such dirty means as "bribery", which is enough to show how corrupt the politics of the Ming Dynasty was at that time. Qi Jiguang, in the first half of his life, was able to serve the country because of the appreciation of Zhang Juzheng and others, but he was depressed after Zhang Juzheng's death.
For this, in addition to lamenting his personal fate, it can only be said that he was born at the wrong time.
Resources:
["Zhang Juzheng and the Political Situation in the Middle and Late Ming Dynasty", "The Complete Works of Zhang Wenzhong", "Biography of Ming Shi Qi Jiguang"]