In the early years of Wanli, although the national power has turned from prosperity to decline, more than 200 years of national accumulation and profound heritage have contributed a large number of outstanding talents to the empire. Thousands of virtuous ministers and famous generals jointly support this Zhongxing atmosphere.

Regardless of Zhang Juzheng, a person who has come out once in a few hundred years, and not counting Shen Shixing, Yu Youding and other outstanding bureaucrats who are enough to keep the success, just looking at the martial arts, the Ming Dynasty can now be regarded as a star with abundant martial virtues. Yu Long, Qi Hudong, Li Xima, Liu Dao, Deng Gun, Du Maniac...... Each name represents a legend and a great martial denomination that has terrified the surrounding barbarians.

Among these generals, in terms of military merits, Li Chengliang, the overlord of Liaodong, was the first, and he was known as the unsurpassed military merit in 200 years. Yu Dayou has the best personal ethics and the best personal martial arts. The rest are either good at commanding troops, or good at killing, all of which are the world's temporary choices, but in Fan Jin's heart, the number one general in this era is still Qi Jiguang.

In the folklore of later generations, people mostly praised Qi Jiguang's prestige, and did not pay much attention to other generals of the same era. But in the eyes of the people, the most famous among the martial artists is Li Chengliang, who is the first in military merit, the first in the number of families, and the first in terms of wealth. After all, his opponent was the Northern Tumen Khan, and Qi Jiguang's main exploits came from the Wako.

In terms of facts, in the minds of the military and civilians of the Wanli Dynasty, no matter how powerful the Japanese are, they cannot and cannot be compared with the Northern Prisoners. After all, the northern captives could besiege Jingshi and threaten the emperor, and the Japanese could only poison Jiangnan and kill the people, and the two were not the same. In addition to the number of beheadings, Li Chengliang is also far above Qi Jiguang, because in the current public opinion, Li Chengliang's prestige status among the soldiers is far above Qi Jiguang. But in Fan Jin's heart, the evaluation of the two of them was about to be reversed.

In his opinion, Qi Jiguang is not only the current champion of military generals in the country, but also the first person who deserves to be established as a model of martial arts. If all the military ministers are like him, the emperor and the ministers can rest assured, in comparison, Li Chengliang is just a martial arts warlord, if he doesn't always honor Zhang Juzheng's ability, they want to find a reason to clean him up.

Qi Jiguang's merits do not lie in how many Japanese robbers he has killed or how many heads he has gotten, but in his training concept and attitude towards being a man and doing things. At present, the strength of the nine-sided generals is basically determined by the quantity and quality of the family, and Li Chengliang has nine thousand, so he is the most capable of fighting. After Wanli aided the dynasty, the Li family withered, and the nine sons of the Li family were completely unaccomplished.

Not only him, but the entire military system of the Nine Sides is like this, under the premise that the original guard system collapsed and the provincial and town battalion system was not applicable to the Nine Sides, the Nine Sides formed a combat model with the military general Jiajiading as the backbone and the court officers and soldiers as the servants. The family is well equipped, the food is sufficient, and the loyalty is enough, and when the war is fought, as the main force is desperate, as long as the scene can be suppressed, the servant troops can follow up the battle, and the reverse will be over.

For an empire with a highly centralized and unified model, this military system is actually not beneficial to the imperial power. It's just that current events are like this, and they can't be reversed by manpower, so they can only pinch their noses and admit that they not only adopt an attitude of approval for the private armed forces of the family, but even give the family a title and an official position, recognizing the legal status of this kind of military behavior as a model.

These families belong to the private ownership of the generals, and the loyalty belongs to the generals rather than the court, and the generals will follow the generals to leave or disband, and the court has no way to control them.

Qi Jiguang sits in Jizhen, backed by the big tree of Zhang Juzheng, holds the power of military training, and pays hundreds of thousands of dollars in food and salary every year, and is widely respected in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. If you want to support your family, even if you can't compare to Li Chengliang, you can easily raise two or three thousand people without pressure, and the court will not be surprised.

But Qi Jiguang is the only general on the nine sides who can still win the battle without supporting his family, starting from the recruitment of Yiwu soldiers to the current training in Jizhen, Qi Jiguang has trained no less than 100,000 soldiers. The trained people are the officials of the imperial court, and they are paid in the local area, controlled by the imperial court, and none of them are the private soldiers of the Qi family. The so-called Qi Jiajun is a folk custom of calling the army by the surname of the general, and the same as the Yuejia army, it does not mean that those troops are really private forces.

Don't look at Qi Jiguang's eyes sitting in Jimen with 100,000 armor, but as long as the imperial court has a holy decree, he can confiscate all his military power and take him at will. In history, after Zhang Juzheng's death, Qi Jiguang was liquidated, that is, he was transferred from Beijing to Guangzhou by an order, and only one month was given, Qi Jiguang had to die of exhaustion alone, and there was no sign of supporting the army and respecting the imperial court.

This is true of the generals, and the same is true of the soldiers. In the border army where arrogant soldiers and fierce generals often beat up Shangguan and launched a mutiny, Zhejiang soldiers can also be regarded as a clear stream. In the original history, during the Wanli Aid Campaign, the Zhejiang soldiers clashed with Li Rusong due to the issue of five hundred taels of silver, which led to the slaughter of their own people in Jimen. Afterwards, the way to express dissatisfaction was not to rebel and mutiny, but to file a complaint with the imperial court to defend himself, and after losing the lawsuit, he silently admitted the result, and did not make trouble and rebel, until the last drop of blood was shed in the bloody battle of the Hunhe River. Compared with the Dengzhou battalion that mutinied and defected to the enemy, it is a little stronger in terms of loyalty.

Of course, this kind of army is not innate, in fact, before the Yiwu soldiers were trained by Qi Jiguang, but the large-scale weapon fighting could last for half a month, and the local government did not dare to intervene. Qi Jiguang's ability to train such a group of fierce and barbaric villagers into excellent soldiers who will not rebel shows Qi Jiguang's own talent.

This kind of talent is already rare, and what is even more rare is that Qi Jiguang did not think of using this talent to seek wealth for himself, let alone have a disobedient heart, the purpose of his training and fighting is neither to be famous and rich, nor to leave a name in history. is simply to ensure the stability of the Ming Dynasty and the surname Zhu forever, which is like-minded with Zhang Juzheng and Fan Jin.

From the Jiajing period, the Ming Dynasty's civil ministers and military generals were keen to publish military books, and military books have always been a popular subject in the book market, as long as they are not sent to Tusi, it doesn't matter. The purpose of everyone compiling the book of war is either to be greedy for fame or profit, only Qi Jiguang wrote the art of war in order to leave a complete teaching material for future generations of military generals and avoid his peers from going down the wrong path.

His "New Book of Ji Xiao" was compiled from the time of the southeast to suppress the Japanese, and was reprinted, revised, and supplemented many times at his own expense, and his experience of fighting against Tumen Khan in Jizhen was compiled into the textbook, pointing out the direction for future generations. This kind of work is not good for him personally, but consumes a lot of his assets, but Qi Jiguang still insists on doing it, what he wants is to give the leading generals of the empire a real guide to ensure that everyone does not go the wrong way. Therefore, in his art of war, there are no metaphysical spells such as yin and yang arrays (the Ming Dynasty's art of war emphasizes metaphysics, you can see Mao Yuanyi's book of war for details), and only the most practical and plain training, drills, military regulations, and tactics are recorded. It is a tool book to teach people to become qualified generals, not a dragon slaying technique that guides people how to be invincible and invincible all over the world.

From the current point of view, Ji Xiao's new book is not very famous, but in another time and space line, the tenacity of Ji Xiao's new book has completely exploded all the works of the same era. Until the end of the Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan compiled and trained the Hunan army, and the textbooks used were still the new books of Ji Xiao, and they could win battles.

Before Wang Huaiqing, the general of Beiyang, every time he promoted his subordinates, he would call the person concerned to be beaten for no reason, and observe the other party's reaction, as long as there is no resentment and dissatisfaction, he can be promoted, which is still the experience of Ji Xiaoxinshu. If a military book can be circulated for so long and still work, you can know the purpose of a military book.

In terms of tactics, Qi Jiguang's tactics are also different from ordinary nine-sided generals. In Fan Jin's view, Qi Jiguang's tactics are the least beneficial to himself, but the greatest benefit to the country.

Since the famous general Ma Fang in the Jiajing period, the border army of the Ming Dynasty has been accustomed to using the tactics of smashing nests and chasing horses, in other words, changing homes with opponents.

Every time the northern captives attack, they will inevitably gather the elite of the tribe to attack, and the remaining strength of the lair is not strong. In response to this situation, the Ming Dynasty border army generals responded by leaving infantry to guard the city, and they took their cronies and cavalry straight to the grassland to attack the Mongol tribes.

The Mongols burned, killed, plundered and poisoned the people in the areas controlled by the Ming Dynasty, so they went to the grassland to do the same, killed the old and weak women and children left behind, cut off their heads to repay their merits, and set fire to the pastures, plundered and drove the horses, so that the Mongols lost their pastures. Li Chengliang's 200-year military exploits are the first, and this is how they were brushed out. After all, the military merits of the Ming Dynasty only recognized the head and did not recognize others, no matter how it came, as long as the head was cut a lot, it was a credit.

The gold and silver of the cattle plundered from the tribe were the reward of the nest-destroying troops, the women were the reward, and the heads cut off were the merits of war. This kind of behavior gradually became a source of wealth for the border generals and subordinates, and everyone was eager to go to war every year, regardless of the overall victory or defeat of the war, they had a good income, and by the way, they could also be rewarded by the imperial court. Even the Ming Dynasty repeatedly ordered and reaffirmed that the generals were forbidden to provoke without permission, which was to prevent the generals from taking the initiative to create friction for their personal interests, and finally let the court take the blame.

One of the important reasons for me to pay tribute is that the head of my small tribe complained to me that he was unable to bear the nest and drive horses in the Ming Dynasty, and it was difficult to resist plunder, and he sued for peace. This tactic was indeed a great blow to the Mongols, but for the common people in their own defenses, this tactic was a catastrophe.

After all, although the total number of border troops is large, the defensive front is too long, and there are only a few thousand people at one point, which is absolutely weak compared with the Mongol army. At this time, the infantry could not hold the city for long, and it was all up to the cavalry to save their lives. The cavalry went to the Mongol tribes to exploit their exploits and sabotage, and the result was that everyone died together, and each other's defense points could not be defended.

If the northern captives break the city, they must burn, kill and loot, and the common people will suffer. This kind of heaven and earth longevity type of fighting is to sacrifice the lives and property of the infantry and the common people in the defense area, in exchange for the personal fame and achievements of the general, as well as the wealth of the cavalry under his subordinates. However, the people could not control the army, because of the huge benefits of this tactic, the border generals were happy to do it, and the people could only struggle in hell.

Qi Jiguang's tactics are different in the entire nine sides. The actual number of cavalry under his command was limited, and the engagement was mainly fought by infantry and chariots. There are only two things he did in Jizhen, one was to train the troops, and the other was to repair the wall.

From the very beginning, Qi Jiguang did not think of going deep into the desert to plow the court and sweep the caves, but based on his own errands, he was the chief soldier of Jizhen to ensure the safety of the people in his jurisdiction. If the northern captives come to attack, they will hold on to the danger, and if they want to fight in the field, they will respond to the enemy with infantry and fighting vehicles.

The border army of the Ming Dynasty was equipped with a large number of firearms, but this did not mean that the Ming army could gain a range advantage, in fact, the Ming army that wanted to win the battle by relying on the range of firearms ended in a rout. Qi Jiguang's tactics are a model of dullness and clumsiness in the eyes of some traversers, but in Fan Jin's eyes, they are the kind of tactics that the imperial court needs most.

Don't compete with each other, only compete with the enemy. Within the distance that the Mongols' bows and arrows could shoot the Ming army, the Ming army was allowed to open fire, exchanging lives for each other, relying on the population advantage of the Ming Dynasty to kill the enemy. This kind of tactics is easy to say, but there are not many people who can really do it, looking at the nine sides that can implement this tactic, only the Qi family army can be one, and even to the death of Hunhe, they can adhere to this tactic until the whole army is annihilated. In Fan Jin's opinion, this kind of army already has a bit of the taste of lobster soldiers, unless there is a huge difference in strength, this style of play will not suffer against anyone.

Those who are good at fighting have no great feats. Qi Jiguang's style of play is simple and unpretentious, he did not win more with less, he did not turn the tide, he just won the battle that should be won and lost the battle that should be lost. It is destined that he will not make great contributions in a place like Jiubian, and he will not be taken seriously in the imperial court.

After all, a crying child has milk to eat, and Qi Jiguang, a general who made Tumen Khan honest and not invade Jizhen for more than ten years, became a useless person in the eyes of the emperor. If he hadn't been nervous and upright, he would have been removed from his position a long time ago, and it would be impossible for him to get a large amount of military funds every year to repair the wall and train the troops. In return for the favor, Qi Jiguang arranged for a shotgunner to protect Zhang Juzheng's safety, and sent a daughter to a sea dog kidney, which is the proper meaning of the question.

Qi Jiguang not only knows how to fight, but also knows how to be a man, and handed Zhang Juzheng a handbook to Qi Mou, who is a lackey under the house, and called Zhang Juzheng the elder of the top court, and he has no arrogance. Influenced by his uncle, Qi Jin is also a general who knows how to measure himself, although he does not call himself a lackey or a subordinate Muen, but he is also extremely cautious in his attitude, and even his voice is extremely low for fear that his throat will be too thick and collide with nobles.

His face was a little embarrassed, and he repeatedly explained to Fan Jin that he had chased the car all the way after receiving the order from the military department, and the armor and weapons were not ready, and he hoped that Master Fan would not be surprised. As a hereditary military minister of the general's disciple, his armor and weapons have always been carried with him, so how can he not be prepared. Fan Jin has been rolling in the officialdom for so long, and he naturally understands the dumb riddle in his heart, what he has not prepared is not armor and weapons, but gold and silver filial piety.

He smiled to comfort Qi Jin, and pulled him to sit down and talk. The two chatted a few words, and Fan Jin suddenly asked: "Three years ago, the official was awarded the second class, and he was called by Lao Taishan's love. Lao Taishan was to let Qi Yuanrong try it out in Jizhen at that time, and today he saw the little general Jin Mian, and he was about to ask for advice, I don't know if this method is implemented, and what is the effect? ”