Wang Ji, a famous general of the Ming Dynasty, was born a literati, but he was knighted by military merit, and his life was legendary

If I really analyze it from the perspective of military science and other aspects, I cannot analyze it. In my opinion, what I generally prefer is the "civilian and military knowers", that is, the famous generals from the civilian official background, and the so-called "military talent" will be more obvious in them than in the generations of military generals.

In the process of reading history, I personally have more memories of Wei Rui of Southern Liang, Pei Xingjian of the Tang Dynasty, Zhao Fang of the Southern Song Dynasty, the "Three Kings" of the Ming Dynasty (Wang Ji, Wang Yue, Wang Shouren) and so on. In addition, you can also get a glimpse of the famous generals listed in the Northern Song Dynasty Zhang Pre's "Biography of the Seventeen Histories of the Hundred Generals" and the Ming Dynasty Zodiac Zhou's "Biography of the Guangming Generals" (although I don't think all of them are necessarily qualified). From the deployment of troops and the ingenuity, it is known that although some of them are students or people who have never been engaged in battle, they are indeed "born" suitable for generals. Below, I will briefly introduce Wang Ji (Wang Yue, who has already mentioned the "Three Kings" mentioned above, has both literary and martial skills, and can schem and poetry; Wang Shouren is too famous. I will not repeat them here)

The Ming people liked to refer to many of the famous ministers of this dynasty as "Zhi Bing", such as Emperor Xianzong, Han Yong of the Xiaozong Dynasty, Ma Wensheng, Xiang Zhong, Yu Zijun, Qin Hong, Xu Jin and other ministers. But in fact, the moisture is greatly existent, and the disciples such as Xiang Zhong and Xu Jin are even more people who are touted by the scholars (xiang Zhong may not be easy to criticize just for the use of soldiers, but the historical fact that he forced countless displaced people to die is probably not as helpless and justified as he said in his self-defense), and Xu Jin is even more indebted in handling the Hami issue (although after Wang Yue's death, it was mainly The Soldier Shangshu Ma Wensheng who presided over this matter, but Xu Jin's crime as a frontline commander was also unforgivable).

Wang Ji was a jinshi in the fourth year (1406) of Ming Chengzu Yongle, and for more than thirty years until the second year of Emperor Ming's reign (1437), Wang Ji successively served as a deputy envoy to bingshizhong, Shanxi, Yin of Suncheon, right attendant of bingbu, and shangshu of bingbu, and once took charge of the affairs of the metropolitan chayuan. Before the age of sixty, Wang Ji, as a civilian official, had the political achievements of "persevering and persevering", "playing more than 200,000 lessons in the salt pond", "The Great Rule of Qidian", and so on, and could be said to be a cadre official.

Although Wang Ji's conquest career was only between the ages of sixty and seventy-three, his military achievements were enough to put a heavy mark on the history of the early Ming Dynasty, summarizing the battles he mainly commanded, one in the northwest, one in the southwest, and one in the south.

Break the Tartars

In 1436, the Tatars Atai and Duo'er only bo repeatedly invaded the border, the imperial court conquest was fruitless, and the bingbu Shangshu Wang Ji was imprisoned and convicted, and was released shortly after. The following year, the sixty-year-old Wang Ji personally arrived at the front line, with the power to "act from the camera", he rushed into the army, assembled the generals, killed the defeated general Anjing, placed the soldiers, eliminated the old and weak, and responded to the upcoming battle with a vigorous style. In 1438, Wang Ji and the governors Jiang Gui, Zhao An and others attacked separately, successively breaking through the Tatar departments and fighting for more than a thousand miles, forcing Duo'er to only "go far away". This was the first war in which the old decadent Wang Ji had personally commanded and dispatched the battle front before, and victory was achieved.

Three Marches of the Foothills River

It was also the most famous and mixed war in Wang Ji's life, which began in 1439 and ended in 1448, after four large-scale conquests, of which Wang Ji participated in the last three expeditions (1441, 1442, 1448). Because this battle is too famous, it will not be described in detail here, but to emphasize that the final result is still unable to completely eliminate the rebellious Si Shi Tusi. Regarding the course of this battle, the most complete literature can refer to the section of "The Battle of Luchuan" in Gu Yingtai's "Ming History Chronicle at the End of the Book".

The Ming Dynasty paid a huge price for this battle, and the history books have a record of "the teacher spending money and stirring up the world with a corner" ("Ming Shi Wang Ji Biography"). At that time, most of the scholars and historians of later generations accused this of being a war of empty consumption of people's wealth and little significance supported by Wang Ji, who was eager for success and quick profits, and the official revision of the Ming Shilu commented that Wang Ji was "the battle of Ranluchuan, (Wang) Ji was the head of merit, and the southwest was dismissed, risking abuse of officials, and Gai Yi was the leader of the crime" (Records of Emperor Ming Yingzong, vol. 315), and the attitude here was quite quite that after the Battle of Pingningxia, Emperor Shenzong reprimanded Wei Xuezeng, the former governor of the three sides, for "the head of the meritorious and the real crime" (Records of the Ming Dynasty Sect). Volume 254) meaning. In Wang Ji's case, the actual accusation may be heavier. Wang Shizhen also said that "with the third battle of Luchuan, the charcoal was destroyed for a few days" ("Yizhou Continuation", vol. 87), and the meaning of the accusation was fully revealed.

The Cambridge History of the Ming Dynasty of China, written by Western scholars, has a different account of this battle, which can be viewed:

As some sources suggest, these long and costly battles may have impressed the native peoples of northern Burma. But the region has not been settled for long. ...... But these costly battles fought by Wang Ji did achieve a goal. They consolidated the control of the Chinese in the period after the Ming Dynasty, and indeed they have been consolidated to this day.

Attack Miao Chaos

In 1449, when large-scale uprisings broke out among the Miao people in Huguang and Guizhou, blocking traffic everywhere, Wang Ji, who had just been exonerated under the protection of the eunuch Wang Zhen (because of repeated attacks at the Battle of Luchuan), had just returned to Wuchang and was immediately ordered to fight the Miao rebellion. However, according to the "Biography of Ming Shi Wang Ji", during the two-year conquest, Wang Ji, the general of Pingman and the commander-in-chief of the army, who was the commander-in-chief, was only "a military commander and could not advance", and it was Shilang Hou And others who really tried their best to suppress the rebellion.

In addition to leading the army on many occasions, Wang Ji also proposed the implementation of the "Rotation Method" when he was touring the border with the capital Yushi Chen Yi in the ninth year of orthodoxy (1444), that is, reducing the provincial military expenditure and improving morale; in 1450, the seventy-three-year-old Wang Ji was appointed by emperor Ming dynasty as the governor of Nanjing, rectifying the laziness of the Nanjing army and being diligent in training troops.

Wang Ji was a genius general born into a civilian subject, and before he entered the army, he had a record of "a long body, a great deed, a horse and a shooter, a strong and courageous, and a xiaochang rongluo" (according to the "Biography of Ming Shi Wang Ji"). He was a twenty-nine-year-old jinshi in the sixth year of Emperor Mingcheng's reign; he was the forty-eight-year-old Yin of Shuntianfu when Emperor Akihito died; he was a fifty-eight-year-old Bingbu Shangshu when Emperor Mingxuanzong died; he was a seventy-two-year-old general of Pingman when Emperor Mingyingzong was captured and Emperor Daizong ascended the throne; after Emperor Yingzong's "Restoration of nangong", he was an eighty-year-old Bingbu Shangshu and Fengtian Yiwei Tuicheng Xuanli Shouwen. It was not until the fourth year (1460) of Emperor Mingying's Tianshun that the elderly Wang Ji swallowed his last breath and died at the age of eighty-three, with the nickname "Zhongyi".

In the Ming Dynasty, the military generals of the Wen Dynasty were extremely long-lived, and the first to promote the Nanjing Bingbu Shangshu Wei Ji (ninety-seven years old) who had been in the Nine Dynasties; followed by the official Shangshu Wang Shu (ninety-three years old) who was "two capitals and twelve parts, with only one Wang Shu"; and the third was said to have found the Jianwen Emperor and the highly respected Libu Shangshu Hu Ji (eighty-nine years old). By analogy, Wang Ji is also impressively listed. (This passage is recorded in Xu Xian's Miscellaneous Records of Xu Xiangyang's West Garden in the middle of the Ming Dynasty: "Famous courtiers of the state dynasty, those who have long enjoyed their old life, Wei Wenjing Gongji ninety-eight, Wang Duanyi Gongshu ninety-three, Hu Zhong'an Gongfu eighty-nine, Ma Duansu Gongwen sheng, Han Zhongding Gongwen, Wu Wenke Gongne, Zhang Wenyi Gongmao, all eighty-six.") Wang Wenduan Gongzhi, Wang Zhongsu Gong'ao, Wang Zhongyi Gongji, Lin Wen'an Gonghan, Liu Zhongxuan Gongxia, Xie Wenzheng Gongqian, all eighty-four. "It is only that wang Ji's age record is different from the "History of Ming" and so on, and it is recorded as eighty-four. After that, in the late Ming Dynasty, there were eighty-five-year-old Xuanda governor Wang Xiangqian and others, who were no longer counted.

And Wang Ji is not only able to fight good battles, resourceful, but also in good health, when he was in his seventies, he still indulged in sex, ate wine and meat, and did not look old. Although his life has been criticized and ridiculed in the Battle of Luchuan, the Hu Guangmiao Rebellion, the Change of the Gate, and other events, it has to be admitted that this civilian-born military general Jing Yuanbo is a miracle in itself, he is the first civilian minister to receive a knighthood after the founding heroes of the early Ming Dynasty (Jingyuan Bo has been passed down from generation to generation to the Ming Dynasty, a total of eight generations and nine generations), Wang Shizhen was surprised in the "Imperial Ming Strange Story", "Wang Jingyuanji, Wang Weiningyue, all of whom are in charge of the official Shangshu and Zuo Du Yushi, and one hangs the seal of the Pingman General, and the other hangs the seal of the Pinghu and the deputy general of Jingyu. Cover not only the Governor but also... It's amazing...". This unruly and arrogant and utilitarian courtier throughout his life realized his ideals in life, and eventually "honored Yanran, meritorious copper pillar" (Ming Shi Chronicle, vol. 30 Gu Yingtai Zan), became the second Chen Tang (a famous general of the Western Han Dynasty). In my opinion, he was one of the most militarily gifted civilian generals.

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