Qi Jiguang is a famous general in the history of the Ming Dynasty, in fact, in terms of merit and ability, Qi Jiguang is fully qualified to be ranked among the top ten famous generals in history, and should not even be weaker than Yue Fei and other famous generals; but many people mention Qi Jiguang, only know his anti-Wu feats, although the harm of Qi Jiguang is indeed very large, Qi Jiguang's record in resisting Wu is indeed very brilliant, in the face of the strong combat effectiveness of the Wokou, the battle loss ratio between the Qi family army and the Wukou can be as high as 1:100, which shows how powerful Qi Jiguang is.
But at that time, the Wokou were very scattered, at most at one time it was only a gathering of more than 10,000 people, a battle of tens of thousands of people, in ancient China, there was no real stage, after all, the battles of the million-level battles had occurred many times, and the battles of hundreds of thousands of levels were innumerable; even if the opponent was defeated with a very low battle loss ratio, in front of the solipsistic people, it was nothing, and the most they could say was that the small pirates of the Wokou were victorious.
But they forgot how the local garrison on the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty performed when the Wokou were rampant; in fact, the Wokou were a group of extremely fierce outlaws, especially the Japanese samurai among them, most of whom had experienced hundreds of battles, and because they had lost their roots in Japan, they were even more fearless of death; according to records, in 1555, 72 Wokou landed from Hangzhou Bay, all the way north, swept through Zhejiang, Anhui, and Jiangsu, and finally besieged Nanjing.
Nanjing, as the capital of the Ming Dynasty, naturally could not be lost, so the two sides launched a fierce battle, and finally the Ming army defending Nanjing was killed or wounded by 800 or 900 people, including two of them who were killed by the Wukou, and the Wukou finally retreated. With such a comparison, we knew that the Qi family army led by Qi Jiguang was really powerful. However, many people feel that Qi Jiguang's fight against Wukou is nothing, after all, the real genius, no matter where it is placed, is destined to be not ordinary, Qi Jiguang is such a unique genius.
Under the efforts of Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayu, the plague of wukou on the southeast coast was cleared, and few wukou dared to come to the ming dynasty coast to plunder; but the famous generals could not be idle, so some people went to Ming Muzong and suggested that Qi Jiguang, Yu Dayu, and others should train soldiers in the Jimen area, but after the discussion, it was decided to appoint only Qi Jiguang, after all, there were still people stationed on the southeast coast, otherwise what if the Wukou came back again? In short, these two famous generals of "one dragon and one tiger" will separate the north and south and continue to compose their own legendary deeds.
Here we continue to talk about the deeds of Qi Jiguang, who first served as the deputy general of the Shenji Battalion, and later was responsible for training soldiers in Jizhou, Changping, Baoding and other places, from officers to chief officers, and guarding Jizhou, Yongping, Shanhai and other places. At that time, the Tatar forces were powerful, and they often plundered from the south, which caused the Ming Dynasty a headache, otherwise it would not have hurriedly dispatched Qi Jiguang to the north to guard the border pass after the plague of the Wokou had eased slightly; after all, in the eyes of the imperial court, the tatar plague was far better than the wokou plague.
Jizhen, which Qi Jiguang guarded, is the most important town among the nine major towns, and it is also the most dangerous town; after Qi Jiguang took office to understand the situation, in addition to training troops, he also rebuilt the Jinshanling Great Wall, and the Great Wall improved by Qi Jiguang has complete facilities, firm construction, strict layout, and can be attacked and defended, which can be called the essence of the Great Wall. At that time, the little prince of Tatars colluded with dong Kuli, the leader of the Mongolian Duoyan Wei, to plot an invasion of the Ming Dynasty.
Thus, the war between Qi Jiguang and the northern nomads began; the two sides fought many battles, Qi Jiguang did not lose a single battle, and the two most famous battles occurred in 1573 and 1574 AD, respectively; in 1573 AD, Dong Kuli led 30,000 Mongolian iron horsemen to the side, Qi Jiguang resisted with a car camp, and he led 8,000 horses to raid Dong Kuli's tooth tent, completely annihilated 30,000 Yan Iron Horses, captured Dong Kuli's nephew Chang Ang, Dong Kuli only spared himself, and then Dong Kuli withheld the crime.
In 1574, Dong Chang'ang invaded the border again but could not enter through the pass, so he forced his uncle Dong Chang Kou to violate the border. Dong Chang bald led 50,000 Wuliang Ha iron to attack, and as a result, Qi Jiguang led 8,000 horsemen out of the saibao, annihilated 50,000 Mongol troops, and captured Dong Chang bald alive. After this battle, Dong Kuli and Dong Changang led three hundred clan members to Qi Jiguang Pass to plead guilty, and Dong Kuli cried in plain clothes and asked for forgiveness of Dong Chang bald; Dong Kuli not only released the plundered people, but also vowed not to rebel again.
The northern nomads saw that the Jizhen guarded by Qi Jiguang was impregnable, so they turned to invade Liaodong, and Qi Jiguang led reinforcements to assist Li Chengliang, the defender of Liaodong, to repel it; in short, during Qi Jiguang's defense of northern Xinjiang, the entire Ming Dynasty was never invaded by nomadic peoples. But people are always forgetful, and after enjoying peace for several years, those in the imperial court began to move their minds, especially after Zhang Juzheng's death, the Wanli Emperor began to liquidate Zhang Juzheng's party.
Qi Jiguang, as Zhang Juzheng's hardcore henchman, was naturally also among the liquidations, so someone went to the Wanli Emperor, saying that it was too dangerous to put Qi Jiguang in the north and should be transferred to Guangdong; later, someone directly impeached Qi Jiguang; obviously, all this was directly directly instructed by the Wanli Emperor, because the Wanli Emperor did not investigate at all, and directly dismissed Qi Jiguang, and soon after returning to his hometown, Qi Jiguang died of illness. After Qi Jiguang left, the northern nomads re-rampant, but this is all an afterthought.
Qi Jiguang made great achievements in both the campaign against the Wu and the northern nomads, and he was proficient in the development of weapons and the improvement of the formation method, and he also knew how to improve the fortifications; he was really an all-round military genius, but he was such an amazing and brilliant figure, and the final outcome was so miserable that people could not help but sigh; and what is even more incomprehensible is that such an all-round famous general has a low status in history, and even less than Yuan Chonghuan and others who later guarded Liaodong.