Recommended by martial arts, the second candidate reported by the Ministry of War was Ma Fang. This man is one year older than Liu Xian and is 61 this year. He is originally from Yuzhou, Shanxi, and his family is a farmer on the border of Xuanhua. Ma Fang was abused by his stepmother when he was a child. He could not bear the humiliation. He fled his hometown around the fifth year of Jiajing and was captured by the Tatar cavalry invading the south. He was herding horses for Ananda Khan.
Ma Fang began to "make a bow out of bent wood" since he was a child. He refined his riding and shooting skills and hit every shot. Once while hunting with Altan Khan, he encountered a tiger charging towards Altan. When everyone fled in panic, Ma Fang was very calm and bent his bow and arrow to kill the tiger. Altan admired Ma Fang so much that he gave him a "good bow and arrow and a good horse" and ordered him to "serve his right and left".
Although Ma Fang was favored by Altan, his heart was in the Ming Dynasty. In the 16th year of Jiajing, Ma Fang took the opportunity of following Altan to hunt outside Datong, a border town near the Ming Dynasty. He stole a horse and escaped at night, and defected overnight. Arrive at Datong Military Camp. After that, he began his cheating life:
Because he has lived in Mongolia for many years and is familiar with the combat characteristics of the Mongolian cavalry, he can severely damage the enemy in every battle. He started as the captain, gradually accumulated merits, and became the general manager.
In the twenty-eighth year of Jiajing's reign, he proposed a plan and led his elite cavalry to copy the Mongolian cavalry's retreat, forcing the Mongolian army to retreat northward, and achieved the first great achievement in his life. Later, in the "Gengxu Revolution" in the twenty-ninth year of Jiajing's reign, he took the lead and repeatedly Surprising results. From August to October, there were three consecutive battles, which made Altan lose his temper. Sejong praised him at the time: "No one is braver than Ma Fang."
After Ma Fang was promoted to Xuanfu guerrilla general due to his meritorious service, he was honest and fair, and re-established the "Military Battle Company Sitting Law", which stipulated that in the face of battle, if the enemy is afraid of the enemy, the front team should be killed. Charge into the enemy formation and draw life from your subordinates.
From then on, from the thirty-fourth year of Jiajing to the fourth year of Longqing, Ma Fang went from guerrilla to general, and finally became the commander-in-chief of the Xuanfu. He always faced off against the Tartars with Altan as the main force.
In the 40th year of Jiajing, Ma Fang withstood huge pressure and broke out of his Xuanfu defense zone. He won seven battles and seven victories in Datong, Shanxi, and won a great victory. From Xuanfu to Datong, and from Datong to Huai'an, Ma Fang's army's attack distance was as long as a thousand miles in this battle. When the good news came, the Ming Dynasty was shocked, and the government and the public were ecstatic. Shizong promoted him to the chief military officer of the Xuanfu.
When he was the commander-in-chief of Xuanfu, Ma Fang defeated Qi Jiguang, Li Chengliang and others in the Battle of Wanquanbao, and finally grew into "the crown of Ming generals".
In this battle, Ma Fang took advantage of his reputation as "Ma Taishi" in the eyes of the Mongols. He used 10,000 elites to face Altan's 100,000 cavalry. When the walls of Malianbao collapsed and they were already in despair, they first stopped fighting. He set up an empty city strategy to scare Altan and withstood Altan's many temptations.
When Altan wanted to retreat the next day, Ma Fang led his troops to "break it" and drove Altan's main force into Datong, where the Ming army had been ambushing for a long time. The elite troops of Yansui and Sui towns took the opportunity to dispatch and achieved a rare victory in the nine sides. A great victory - although it did not result in a battle of annihilation, there were still many heads and captures.
In the following four years of Longqing, Ma Fang finally turned from defense to offense and went out of the country - leading the elite cavalry to capture Altan's main force outside Xianning Haizi, another "big breakthrough" in the battle. ——With this skill, he finally rose from a peasant family to the rank of governor of the left for the second time, and then to the earl.
Tatar Mongolia, which was about to collapse after being beaten by Ma Fang, finally split due to Altan forcibly marrying his grandson and Hannaji's fiancée Unachu.
In the fourth and fifth years of Longqing's reign, Altan held talks with Wang Chonggu. After some debate, Altan finally gave in, handed over traitors such as Zhao Quan, Li Zixin, and Wang Tingfu, and accepted the imperial edict and was canonized as "King of Shunyi." His brother The nephew's subordinates were all granted official positions such as governor, tongzhi, and qianhu. They opened "mutual markets" in Yansui, Hongshandun, Qingshuiying, Ningxia and other places to restore trade between the Han and Mongolian border residents.
Until the fourth year of Wanli, Jiubian, which basically maintained peace for six or seven years, was fought by Ma Fang and other soldiers with their lives and blood. However, in the sixth year of Longqing, after Emperor Wanli succeeded to the throne, he was expelled due to Gao Gong, his thigh collapsed, and Ma Fang was ordered to "go home and live idle."
After Zhu Yijun established martial arts, how could he not use such a powerful general? Therefore, he was once again appointed as the official secretary of the former military governor's office, and at this time he was appointed as a professor of the Department of Martial Arts and Warfare.
Martial Arts’ evaluation of Ma Fang: “Although he may be naive on the outside, he is as fine as a hair in heart. He also has a strategic mind and is a talented general.”
Comment from the Ministry of War: "He fought with hundreds of people, big and small, suffered dozens of wounds on his body, and struck a large number with a small number, which was a great victory. He captured dozens of ministers and killed them without any hope. His reputation was astonishing in the border areas, and he was the first general among generals."
...
The third recommendation report Zhu Yijun saw recommended Yu Dayou. Yu Dayou is now seventy-four years old and a true veteran.
This recommendation report was written for Zhu Yijun's sake, because during the reform of the Salt Administration, Zhu Yijun appointed Yu Dayou, who had already been convicted at home, and later appointed him as the official secretary of the Hou General's Mansion, responsible for preparing and organizing the canal guard affairs. - This was Zhu Yijun's first step in laying the foundation for the establishment of the Imperial Navy.
The old general spent his whole life in the military, but he never received fair treatment. After Zhu Yijun enabled him, Yu Dayou went to Shuxu three times to express his gratitude. Zhu Yijun responded at length each time, explaining in detail his strategic ideas for building a navy.
Because of his interaction with the emperor, Yin Zhengmao was a very smart person, so including him in the recommendation was just to flatter the emperor. How could Zhu Yijun let Yu Dayou go on an expedition? It was too late to send doctors and medicine to take care of him.
The fourth recommended candidate is Zhang Chen, the current commander-in-chief of Jizhen. At the beginning of the year, Zhang Chen used musketeers to defeat Dong Tuzi in a battle with Li Chengliang, and the result shocked the world. He himself was promoted to the left governor of the Central Military Governor's Mansion due to his meritorious service, and the imperial court appointed one of his sons as the commander of the Jinyi Guards.
Because when going to Myanmar this time, the main force will be the new Beijing army that has been trained. In the actual combat of commanding the musketeers, Zhang Chen now has the greatest results, so the Ministry of Martial Arts and the Ministry of War also recommended him.
The subsequent recommendations were not as famous as these few, but they were all commanders and deputy commanders who had outstanding performance among martial arts teachers and students and had great military exploits, including Deng Zilong, Dong Yiyuan, Guo Hu, Huang Yingjia, etc. The comments of several people on martial arts and war were not as exaggerated as those of the previous ones, and they were suspected of making up the numbers - probably to give the emperor the impression that our dynasty has "a cloud of fierce generals".
In order to fight this battle well, Zhu Yijun then summoned the Minister of War, the Minister of War, the British Duke and others to discuss several candidates and finally decided: Liu Xian will be the commander-in-chief and Deng Zilong will be the deputy commander - commanding 10,000 troops. The new troops from the Beijing camp entered Myanmar and completely captured the Mangrui Ti.
In order for this campaign to fully achieve the political purpose of intimidating Zhu Xuanwei, Zhu Yijun summoned Liu Xian in Wuying Hall before the Spring Festival in the fifth year of Wanli.
What Zhu Yijun wanted to discuss with Liu Xian was mainly about military discipline. Liu Xian's growth experience shows that he has many disciplinary factors in his bones - joining the army by impersonating his nationality, bribing for promotion, killing prisoners for merit, plundering and so on, all of which he is familiar with.
But on the other hand, to completely shock Southwest Yi, it is obviously not possible to use a coach who is forward-looking and backward-looking. The barbarians who could not lift up the butcher's knife to cut and kill, and who were fearful of power and unethical, did not listen to the imperial court's instructions.
Therefore, when Zhu Yijun was talking to Liu Xian, he first severely pointed out the disciplinary problems of Liu Xian's troops, and at the same time asked him to learn from Jing Haibo at home and Ning Yuanbo abroad, and follow the examples of these two military earls.
Liu Xian, a great man of his generation, certainly understood what the emperor meant. When he was a professor of martial arts, the discipline of the New Army could be said to have given him a profound education, and he himself was convinced by Qi Jiguang's military training methods.
Therefore, he replied to the emperor: "The troops I commanded before did not have the provision of food and supplies like the new army, so I had no choice but to use plunder to inspire the warriors. Today's new army is uniform and well-provisioned. Of course I would like soldiers with discipline!" "
"As for my problems, every time I go to the martial arts school, the emperor will explain and advise me with sincerity. I am not a grass and tree, how can I be indifferent. Please rest assured, your Majesty, I will not drink alcohol or be arrogant or extravagant along the way. I only want to achieve full merit." ! If I can’t lead above and below, no matter how much credit I give, it won’t matter—I am willing to issue a military order!”
Zhu Yijun was very pleased to see that Liu Xian understood, and he was promoted and rewarded as usual. Then he instructed: "I have repeatedly said in martial arts that military affairs are the continuation of politics. The starting point and end point of all military struggles must be to achieve the political goals of the court."
"The Commander-in-Chief is on his way to Burma. He must bear in mind the key points of the imperial court's expedition to Burma: first, he must attack the main force of Mang Rui Ti. He does not need to care about the gains and losses of Toungoo City. The first purpose must be to destroy its war potential;"
"Both of them must destroy all the treasure wells and mines in Toungoo and destroy the gem trade in Toungoo; when the army withdraws, they must also destroy all the river and water conservancy facilities in Toungoo."
"Three, well, if we can do it cleanly, I won't need too many natives in Taungoo in the future - you can take care of this. It can't affect the morale of the army, and it can't leave any records."
When Liu Xian heard this, even though he was sixty years old, he couldn't hide the evil smile on his lips. Seeing his appearance, Zhu Yijun felt his heart beating loudly, and then said: "You can't let the New Army do this kind of thing, don't create a bunch of lunatics! As for how to do it, you can think about it. This is not a priority, the conditions are not mature. You don't have to do it - if you put away that evil smile, I will also send out military judges, well-dressed and undercover detectives. If you do something like killing a good person and taking credit for it, you won't get a good harvest when you come back!"
After taking a sip of tea and suppressing the creepy feeling in his body, Zhu Yijun asked again: "There is one more thing. I want the other Xuanwei Departments to bow their heads. From now on, I feel weak in the legs when I hear the word "Imperial Court". What exactly is it?" It’s up to the governor to decide for himself.”
"My minimum requirement is that all those who take off the red card from the imperial court will be given fifty lashes each and have them kneel down to put the card back up."
"If there are still those who don't listen to the teachings, their clan can be destroyed."
Bookstore
