Chapter 80 8. Qi Jiguang's Strange Weapon

Qi Jiguang, the famous anti-Japanese military general, is known to every Chinese—except for experts in military science, every Chinese knows him. What is "except for military experts"?Why should military experts be excluded? This question might as well start with the strange weapon in Qi Jiguang's hand. Qi Jiguang once wrote a letter to the emperor, introducing in detail the essentials and rules of using the weapon "Wolf Whip".Wolf Whip is a weapon that you have never heard of or seen, and this weapon has not even appeared in modern martial arts novels.That is to say, this kind of weapon has already surpassed the imagination of human beings. Even the writers of martial arts novels squatted in a small room thinking about it, and they dare not imagine this kind of weapon.

If we must make a metaphor, the wolf whisk is more similar to the broom in the hands of the cleaners. This thing is purely made of pig iron, huge and heavy.There is a huge long handle, and at the other end is a rusty iron knob, and the iron knob is also cast with barbs and iron blades.If it weren't for the strength of lifting the mountain, ordinary people would not be able to lift this thing.Even if you tried your best to lift the wolf whisk, you can only hold it flat with your teeth closed, and walk forward with your eyes closed.The Japanese pirates in front are coming, so you risk your life and hit the Japanese pirates hard with the wolf whisk, and the Japanese pirates dodge to the side, and there is a "boom", and your wolf whisk smashes a big hole in the earth's crust.It really is amazing!In the midst of the dust, you still want to raise the wolf wand and continue to fight against the Japanese pirates, but at this time your arms are already sore and limp like noodles. If you don’t rest for two hours and massage for an hour, you won’t be able to recover.But the Japanese pirates are wicked, they don’t let you regain your strength, but they take the opportunity to pounce on you, swiping their knives, twittering... You have already sacrificed your life for the country.

It is obvious that the weapon such as the Wolf Whip has zero attack power and zero defense value.Without it, you might escape from the Japanese pirates. With this thing, you will be exhausted before the firefight. When you are on the battlefield, you will not even have the strength to escape. This strange weapon is not fun, who invented it? This is a high-tech product grandly launched by researchers from the Ministry of Industry of the Ming Dynasty after long-term research.If you are unlucky with great ambitions and only thinking about serving the country, then OK, when you go to the battlefield, the commander will give you such a thing for you to hold.When you get to the battlefield and see the Japanese pirates, you are already so tired that your legs are limp and your hands are cramping. Seeing the Japanese pirates rushing towards you with sharp and sharp knives, it is inevitable for you to die for the country.

So Qi Jiguang wrote to the emperor, saying: "First of all, I would like to thank the scientific research personnel of the Ministry of Industry for their hard work and hard work. They have developed such an advanced weapon, which filled the gap in the world's most ingenious research results, and made the enemy frightened and fled. The ambition of our army was destroyed, and the prestige of the enemy was greatly destroyed. I believe that the final victory will definitely belong to us... So, I thought, let's not let every soldier have a wolf's whisk, we can't let our soldiers They are all exhausted, right? Those soldiers were just short-sighted for a while, thinking of doing meritorious service at the border and serving the country. Because of this, they used wolf sticks to exhaust these soldiers, and then let Japanese pirates cut them horizontally and vertically. This kind of treatment is not good for soldiers For us, it is too generous. So, what I mean is, let’s pick those soldiers with strong arms and let them fight with wolf whisks. The scientific research personnel of the Ministry of War will go crazy, and it will also lead to huge scientific research funds that cannot be reimbursed... In short, once a soldier lifts this iron bump on the battlefield, he will never return, and he will die. So what I mean is Let’s send two bodyguards to each soldier holding a wolf whisk. The two bodyguards have a spear for each family. If Japanese pirates dare to attack our soldiers holding a wolf whisk, each of the two bodyguards will have a spear. If you can’t kill them, you’ll be blamed... ...By the way, the enemies are very bad, they sometimes rush up to take a large knife to chop, and those villains will shoot at us, so what should we do... There is a way, and the two spear-wielding warriors are also matched One bodyguard, these two bodyguards are each holding a shield, and they are waiting on the battlefield, in the middle is a warrior holding a wolf stick, and beside him are four bodyguards, two spears, and two shields... I wonder what your Majesty thinks?"

Seeing this, experts in military history will shoot up and say: "Wonderful, this is the mandarin duck formation created and invented by Qi Jiguang." Qi Jiguang relied on this magical formation to kill all the way from the coast When we went to the northern border, we killed Japanese pirates head-on, and Nuyou fled... But if our brains are not flooded, we can see the strangeness of this formation at a glance. Pay attention to Qi Jiguang's mandarin duck formation. This formation is occupied by a wolf fighter with zero attack power and zero defense power.There are spear fighters on each side, with high short-range attack power, zero long-range attack power, and zero defense power.With two shield warriors, the defensive power has increased, but the long-range attack power is still zero.

That is to say, Qi Jiguang's mandarin duck formation, which looks quite emotional, is actually a fool to laymen, and there is no way to use it on the battlefield. Obviously, Qi Jiguang's so-called mandarin duck formation is nothing more than a guard of honor, with superficial pictures and no fighting value at all.This kind of ostentation can still be handled by putting it on the square to let leaders at all levels experience the fun of fooling the people, but if it is brought to the battlefield, it is still difficult to escape the horizontal and vertical attacks of Japanese pirates.

The truth of history is that Qi Jiguang's mandarin duck formation was nothing but a compromise between the military general, the scientists of the Ministry of Industry, and the strategists of the Ministry of War. The Ministry of Industry, equivalent to the current Ministry of Engineering and Construction, is also responsible for the research and development of military projects. The Ministry of War, equivalent to the current Ministry of National Defense, is mainly responsible for formulating detailed tactical strategies against the enemy. The researchers of the Ministry of Industry not only developed the strange weapon of the Wolf Whip, but also developed an extra-large shield. This shield is super strong, and any kind of strong bow or crossbow will not be able to penetrate it. And enter.This shield is very good, but there is only one small shortcoming. Once soldiers put on this kind of armor, they will "snap" and lie on the ground, unable to get up after saying anything-the shield is too heavy. After going up, I couldn't move.

The Ministry of Industry has so many high-tech and cutting-edge inventions, and the Ministry of War is not far behind, so it grandly launched the horse-based war concept of the Ming Dynasty, which completely disabled the border defense of the Ming Dynasty. What is the "horse-oriented" war philosophy? That is, the Ministry of War officially issued a document ordering commanders and fighters at all levels to protect national property and use their own blood and lives to protect the country's war horses. According to the requirements of the Ministry of War, it is still allowed to ride war horses in the army, but if they go to the battlefield, no one is allowed to ride on horseback.If the enemy comes, the first thing the frontier soldiers should do is to protect the horses in the middle. The soldiers hold up the heavy wolf whisks and walk towards the enemy on foot with bare feet... It is conceivable that whether it is the Japanese pirates along the coast , or ethnic minority fighters in the northern frontier, all riding fast horses and roaring with big knives.Here is a group of Ming troops who hold high the wolf sticks that have no attack power and fight on foot.In this battle, you don't need to fight to know the result.

There are also soldiers who disobey the leader. The leader asks him to protect the country's war horse with his own blood and life, but he insists on riding a horse to face the enemy.How should one deal with such a person? Kill—just one word, you are absolutely welcome. Obviously, under the correct leadership of the Ministry of War and the support of the Ministry of Industry's high-tech weapons, Ming's soldiers are doomed to be unlucky.Think about it for them, on the good battlefield, facing the enemy's iron cavalry, they are not allowed to ride horses here, and even serious weapons cannot be used. Tired to death, there will be no suspense in this kind of battle.

That's why there will be Japanese pirates along the coast, so brothers from ethnic minorities in northern Xinjiang also come to fight fiercely. In this world, can you find an opponent who is more ruthless than the Ming Empire?If you don't make a fuss when you meet such an opponent, it is really unreasonable. Therefore, there were many bizarre wars in the Ming Dynasty, and even a dozen Japanese pirates broke into the city and then broke out of the city, leaving tens of thousands of defenders in the city helpless. That's right, there were only a dozen Japanese pirates, and the Ming army had tens of thousands.But according to the tactical regulations, if tens of thousands of you want to fight those Japanese pirates, you must first lift an extra-large and heavy wolf whisk, and you cannot ride a horse, so you can only rely on your two feet to catch up with the enemy. If you can't catch up, it's your luck, at most it's just half-tired.But if you catch up and they come over on horseback, you will be exhausted, and you won't even have the horse to ride. The possibility of winning is basically non-existent.

This situation is bad. But it wasn't bad enough. What is really terrible is that the military system of the Ming Dynasty explicitly abolished the use of long-range weapons. Looking back at Qi Jiguang's mandarin duck formation, you will find a terrible thing - in Qi Jiguang's mandarin duck formation, there are spears, shields, and superfluous wolf bearers. The Bowman—Why didn't Qi Jiguang set the crossbowman in it?You must know that Qi Jiguang is a military expert who grew up in the army since he was a child and is well versed in the laws of war. It is impossible for him not to know that on the battlefield at that time, strong bows and crossbows played a decisive role in the war.To put it more clearly, if Qi Jiguang really dared to take his mandarin duck formation on the battlefield, the opponent only needed a few archers from the opponent to shoot at the mandarin ducks, completely smashing his formation. Qi Jiguang's lack of archers does not prove that he lacks military thinking, but only proves that he has extraordinary political thinking.Think about it for the Son of Heaven, the Son of Heaven sits on a dragon chair, and no iron objects are allowed within a thousand miles of Fangyuan, which gives the Emperor a little sense of security. What do you think? It is certain that the house will be ransacked! Who dares to threaten the emperor with a strong bow and crossbow, implying that the emperor said that his life is not safe, and there will be a "swish" anytime, anywhere, and a feather arrow will be shot from nowhere, just ending the emperor's life... ...Do you think what grief and indignation the emperor felt in his heart at this time, it is indeed a great grace of the emperor not to kill this man's whole family. So you can see that the military system of the Ming Dynasty was weird, but it was a politically correct army.To be politically correct, first of all, this army should not be able to touch long-range weapons, and in addition, it must not have the slightest combat effectiveness-the stronger your combat effectiveness and the longer the range, the more serious the threat to the emperor's personal safety. And Qi Jiguang's historical task is to achieve the political and military unity of the Ming army. And to improve the fighting quality of the troops, in the Ming Dynasty, it means reducing the degree of politicization of the troops. After completing this task, Qi Jiguang can live forever. If he doesn’t understand, there will be an extra traitor in the history books Minister's name. Qi Jiguang is not so much a military strategist, let alone a politician. So with regard to Qi Jiguang, military experts can't understand him very well, only politicians can understand him-military experts will never understand, you fight when you fight, what's the use of putting on airs in the guard of honor?Moreover, as long as you look at the ancient history of war, when it comes to the battlefield, the technical standard of "skilled bow and horse" is absolutely indispensable.However, Qi Jiguang avoided the actual situation of the war, but indulged in praising the great achievements of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry, with only one purpose, to compromise! Compromise is a trick for politicians. Politics means compromise, while the military takes an extreme path.In the history of mankind, politics is the extreme situation of military affairs, and military affairs is the extreme situation of politics. Military strategists want to lie on their extreme positions and swear to fight the enemy to the end, while politicians use this as a bargaining chip to force The opponent backed down.If politics fails, bring up the military to fight against the enemy. When the war ends and both sides are destroyed, it will be the turn of the politicians to clean up the mess...In short, the military is the politician's big killer, just like the military. Insufficient strength, politicians are very capable, and there is no mantra to recite. Therefore, Qi Jiguang's main historical task is to use military advantages to beat his opponents to tears, and then send high-ranking officials to scold the Japanese pirates and order them to hand over their war criminals and hand them over to the people for trial. Qi is alive.But the current situation is that if Qi Jiguang wants to fight the enemy, he must abide by the strict requirements of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War, hold a big iron lump high up, and move forward with his bare feet towards the enemy's iron cavalry. , Go forward, use his flesh and blood to let the pirates chop it up. However, Qi Jiguang is really not lacking in foresight. When he saw the situation, oh, the Japanese pirates came to kill them fiercely with their horses, bows and knives.You are so jealous, you don't let us ride horses, don't let us use bows and arrows, and you still want to hold up an iron lump, how can we fight this battle? What's worse, the Japanese pirates are all well-fed and strong, and the Ming army has deducted all border soldiers' salaries since Emperor Longqing.The soldiers under Qi Jiguang haven't been paid for three to five months at most-it's all thanks to the soldiers crossing the sea to fend for themselves.Some soldiers changed jobs and became thieves, and some soldiers became beggars part-time. They kowtowed to the common people with broken bowls of beggars all over the street: "Aunt and Aunt, please have pity on me. I just lost my mind for a while. However, if you insist on serving the country and joining the army, who would have thought that the salary from the imperial court would be several years in arrears, please do me a favor, please give me something to eat..." That is to say, the imperial court decisively cut off the Ming army's food, grass and salary, and made this army of hundreds of battles who once conquered the world for Zhu Yuanzhang completely reduced to beggars and thieves.And Qi Jiguang's glorious mission is to take these beggars who are so hungry that they are going crazy to the battlefield. Leaving aside the question about the aesthetics and art of war, just talking about war in a realistic manner. There are only three factors that play a decisive role in the war situation in ancient and modern China and abroad: The first one is salary and food! The second is salary and food! The third is the salary and food! ... All in all, if an army wants to win a battle, it is absolutely impossible to go hungry.When it comes to the coordination of the overall battle situation, three to five armies are required to cooperate with each other. One army must use its absolute advantage to bully the enemy with a small number and insufficient soldiers; Pull the reinforcements of the enemy so that the enemy cannot rendezvous.This method of coordinating operations can always form an advantage on the local battlefield, and only then can the enemy be defeated. Imagine an army that has not had enough food for half a year, is hungry, holds a heavy wolf whisk, and has bare feet. You let them arrive at the designated place at the designated time——Since ancient times, emperors have always been hungry soldiers. will do.Furthermore, the enemy of the Ming army is extremely mobile, but the Ministry of War here forbids soldiers to ride horses, so in any exchange of fire, 100% of the time, as soon as the soldiers hear that the enemy is coming, they turn around and leave with begging bowls.You don't let people eat food, so why do you ask other beggars to bathe in blood? Therefore, if Qi Jiguang wants to win his war, he must solve three problems: one is to eat, the other is to ride a horse, and the third is to draw a bow. Only when these three tasks are completed can the Ming army transform from a gang of beggars to a fighting army . However, as we know, these three requirements of Qi Jiguang have committed serious political mistakes. They are not politically correct, and it is useless to win the battle. So Qi Jiguang pondered: "What should I do? If I don't fight this battle, I will lose, and if I fight, I will lose. What can I do to avoid the tragedy of losing home?" "Why don't I just write a book!" Qi Jiguang thought. You can’t say that the superior’s decision-making is wrong. You, a small junior officer, dare to say that the superior’s leadership is wrong. But it cannot be said that the superiors are correct—won’t you hurry up and implement it if you are correct?Those of you who are asked to serve as soldiers are to execute for the leader. Although you will definitely die during the execution, what does this have to do with the leader?The leadership is still wise and powerful. Therefore, Qi Jiguang wanted to write a letter, to praise the wise decisions of the leaders at all levels, and to not implement the decisions of the leaders. To achieve this goal, what is needed is a sensitive political mind. In this way, Qi Jiguang advanced himself from a military strategist to a statesman. The historical mission of the statesman Qi Jiguang is to find a way to trick the court into giving soldiers points under the premise of fully affirming a series of policies such as the imperial court not paying soldiers' salaries, not allowing soldiers to ride horses, not allowing soldiers to use bows and arrows, and forcing soldiers to hold wolf whisks high. Paying money, letting soldiers ride horses and use bows when they are in battle, and throwing heartless wolf whisks... As long as these historical tasks are completed, the Ming army will never lose when it comes to the battlefield. You must know that in the Ming Dynasty, the ratio of the Ming army to the combatants of the Japanese pirates was tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands to one.In fact, Ming Dynasty had no reason to make trouble with Japanese pirates. With millions of troops here, who would dare to make trouble with Japanese pirates if they were tired of living?However, out of the consideration of stabilizing the country, the Ming Dynasty deliberately abolished the fighting power of its own army. Millions of Ming soldiers became beggars, with nothing to eat and nothing to wear. Especially the terrible heavy wolf whisk, it is obvious that the Ming court wanted to use the power of the Japanese pirates to eradicate its own military forces.At this time, Qi Jiguang came, because he kept singing to the leaders at all levels and praising the great achievements of the leaders, so that the leaders "compromised" with Qi Jiguang as soon as they got confused.The result of the compromise was that Qi’s army’s salaries were paid as usual, and the soldiers no longer had to carry begging bowls around begging for food, and just went to the playground to practice when they were full.Moreover, Qi's army can use bows at ordinary times, and they can also ride horses when they are on the battlefield. The most important thing is that the soldiers of Qi's army don't need to hold up wolf whisks - even if they don't hold up wolf whisks, the leader is not stupid. Look at your Qi's army. He will definitely get angry.However, Qi Jiguang's skills were superior, and he created a mandarin duck formation, forcibly deceiving leaders at all levels, and reduced the number of wolf sticks by four-fifths.His mandarin duck formation was actually just to fool leaders at all levels. The real purpose was to reduce the number of wolves in the army and increase the number of spears and shields. Qi Jiguang was very successful, so he deserved the Japanese pirates' bad luck. Regarding war, there is a truthful cognition among the people: kill 10,000 enemies, and lose 8,000 yourself.It means that once a slash occurs on the battlefield, the loss of soldiers on both sides is basically the same. If you want to cut off a soldier on the other side, you will definitely lose a life on your own side.Even if you have tens of thousands of people beating someone, as long as you are desperate for the master, you still have to declare a martyr quota. This kind of war situation describes the combat strength of the Qi family army after they are full.Due to the large number of Qi's army, when they heard the Japanese pirates coming, everyone screamed and rushed forward to hack.And the Japanese pirates are nothing more than a small group of bandits in the final analysis. Three of them will be cut off today, and two will be chopped off tomorrow, and the soldiers will not be effectively replenished. If they fight with Qi's army, they will definitely suffer a big loss. Because of the name of the Qi family army, it spread like wildfire. Despite this, Qi Jiajun still has times when he doesn't understand.Once, Qi Jiguang was ordered to cooperate with friendly troops to rob and kill Japanese pirates, but failed to arrive at the designated place at the appointed time.Don't think that court officials are easy to fool. Qi Jiguang praises the superiors on the surface, but in fact he is obedient and obedient.While using flowery mandarin ducks to fool leaders at all levels, while secretly using war horses and conventional weapons on the battlefield, these things, like a mirror in the hearts of the court officials, have long seen clearly.Now everyone finally seized the opportunity and prepared to settle accounts with Qi Jiguang. At the moment of crisis, the unscrupulous Japanese pirates suddenly came out and burned and killed everywhere. The imperial court immediately ordered Qi Jiguang to kill the Japanese pirates, planning to cut off Qi Jiguang's head after the gang of pirates were settled. But Qi Jiguang has now advanced to become a politician. Although his political skills cannot be compared with extra-large politicians, the current situation is very clear.So, the battle after that suddenly became sticky.If you open the history of the Ming Dynasty, you will see that the heroic Qi family army will always arrive at the designated place at the designated time, which makes leaders at all levels very pleased.But there is one thing, the Japanese pirates are fighting more and more, and the fighting is getting more and more lively, but they can't be completely wiped out.Qi Jiguang fought back and forth with the Japanese pirates in the coastal areas like this, and finally fought until the court forgot that he did not arrive at the designated place at the designated time. Then he launched a large-scale army battle and killed all the Japanese pirates at once. They were all wiped out, and then he went to the northern frontier to fight with the ethnic minority brothers. As we have said before, as long as things are done in accordance with military laws, and the Ming army has an absolute advantage in soldiers when it comes to the battlefield, there is no reason not to win this kind of war. If you win, you win, but Qi Jiguang's mentality is already very old. Generally speaking, soldiers have a hot temper and are not easily henpecked, but successful politicians all have a problem of being henpecked. why? Because, a politician is an animal that pays attention to finding a compromise point in the conflict between the two sides.Compromise is against human nature, full of humiliation and helplessness.Especially the compromise between the subordinates and the leader, which means great psychological pain and surrender.Take Qi Jiguang as an example, all the policies issued by the imperial court are all bastards at home, but in order to seek the support of the imperial court for food and soldiers, he has to show his conscience, bite the bullet and indulge in singing the wise decisions of leaders at all levels.This kind of humiliation and carelessness cannot be seen by others. Others can only see the Qi family's army strewn across the battlefield, killing the enemy's heads rolling, but only Qi Jiguang and his relatives know that every enemy's head on the battlefield is In exchange for his blood and tears. This kind of blood and tears, this kind of humiliation, can only be seen in the eyes of Qi Jiguang's wife. Therefore, Qi Jiguang's wife looked down on her husband's timidity and carelessness. Women are born politicians, but they have never been able to understand the political art of men.This is because, in the midst of political compromise, the humiliation and patience shown by men are too similar to women-for Qi Jiguang's wife, it is enough to have her in the family. Like a bitch, which of course amazed her to the extreme. In the eyes of his wife, her husband, Qi Jiguang, is just a bitch! So his wife's behavior in front of Qi Jiguang was a bit fierce.That is to say, Qi Jiguang, the famous general in history, has a problem of internal fear. When he sees his wife, he trembles with fear. During the daytime, Qi Jiguang was majestic in front of the soldiers, killing as he said, and hitting as he said.But after the war, when he returned home, only to hear his wife roar, Qi Jiguang lay down on the ground in fright, not daring to breathe.After such a long time, Qi Jiguang was so wronged that he cried to his subordinates, and as a result, the most famous incident in history happened. However, all the ministries heard that Qi Jiguang would be beaten violently by his wife after returning home every day. The soldiers of the three armies were furious and roared in unison: "Hit, hit, hit her, that rotten bitch, how dare you humiliate our general? This is really shameful!" ... General, this is a knife, take it in your hand, go and chop that bitch..." Looking at the steel knives handed over by his subordinates, Qi Jiguang said fearfully, "I... I... I'm afraid when I see her... I don't dare to use a knife..." well!Look at his worthless energy! The soldiers of the three armies stared and stomped their feet in anger. Suddenly, they had an idea, and everyone thought of a good idea: "General, you are afraid of your wife, but we are not afraid of her. Why don't we do this? You gather us all and call her over." , if we yell at her, it will definitely frighten her, and she won't dare to bully you anymore..." Qi Jiguang's eyes lit up: "Good way, this way is good!" So Qi Jiguang sent an order to go down, and the three armies assembled with beating drums.I heard the tiger roar of the soldiers of the three armies. This roar once frightened the Japanese pirates, and this roar once frightened the northern Xinjiang tribes.Now, Qi Jiguang wanted to use this earth-shattering roar of the tiger to shock his wife. Hearing the roar, Qi Jiguang's wife came out and glared at Qi Jiguang: "Qi Jiguang, you messed up these bastards, beating drums and roaring, what do you want to do? Are you itchy?" Seeing Qi Jiguang staring at the tiger, he yelled at his wife, and with a plop, he had already knelt down at her feet, and said in a trembling voice: "Madam... madam... for a military parade..." Seeing Qi Jiguang's cowardice, Qi Qi was stunned and couldn't help shouting: "Oh, Qi Jiguang, you worthless bastard..." However, what the Chinese need is a henpecked hero like Qi Jiguang. They will show the greatest tolerance and tolerance in front of women, but they will be as brave as a lion and tiger in front of the enemy.If it weren't for the iron-blooded warriors like gentlemen, the military revival of the Ming Dynasty could not be completed.