Three Great Campaigns of the Wanli Emperor
The Three Great Campaigns of the Wanli Emperor is a term used in classical Chinese historiography to refer to the three major wars fought by the Ming dynasty during the reign of the Wanli Emperor from 1592 to 1600. These wars were the Ningxia rebellion, the Imjin War, and the Yang Yinglong rebellion.
The three campaigns
The term "Three Great Campaigns of the Wanli Emperor" was first used by late Ming scholars Feng Menglong and Gu Yingtai. They used this term to refer to the three significant wars fought by the Ming dynasty during the reign of the Wanli Emperor. These wars were the rebellion of the native tribes in the southwest, the rebellion of Chinese and Mongol troops of the Ming army in the northwest, and the Imjin War in the east.;Ningxia rebellion
;Imjin War
;Yang Yinglong rebellion
Other rebellions and border wars
During the reign of the Wanli Emperor, multiple domestic uprisings and revolts took place. The most significant were those organized by the White Lotus sect in Shandong in 1587 and 1616.Following the signing of a peace agreement with the Mongol leader Altan Khan in 1571 the resumption of Sino-Mongol trade, the Ming state's relations with its northern neighbors were generally peaceful, but armed clashes occasionally occurred, sometimes involving tens of thousands of men. Ming troops also conducted raids into Mongolia and Manchuria, burning settlements, killing resisting leaders, and capturing livestock. For example, in 1591, General Li Chengliang destroyed a Mongol camp during a raid, killing 280 Mongols and scattering over a thousand more.
After 1571, relations with the Mongols living north and northwest of Beijing calmed down, but the Mongols in Ordos remained restless and conducted raids into Gansu. Ming armies fought them with general success, utilizing Tibetan and Uyghur auxiliary units. Similarly, Mongols in the northeast attacked the Ming region of Liaodong, bringing up to 30,000–50,000 cavalry into battle. In 1598, General Li Rusong, the commander of the region, even fell in battle against them.
Occasional fighting also occurred on the southwestern border, where the Burmese encroached on the frontier. In 1582–1583 and again in 1584, the Ming army, led by General Liu Ting, repelled them and penetrated deep into Burma. The Burmese attacked Yunnan again in the last decade of the 16th century. In 1594, the governor of Yunnan organized a counterattack with Siam, and in 1600, combined Ming-Siamese forces burned the Burmese capital of Pegu. In 1607, the Viets also conducted a raid into the borderlands of Yunnan and Guangxi.