"Malay/Indonesian Imjin War mercenaries " Topic

I've purchased some very nice Grumpy Malay/Java infantry for my Ming army….I realize I don't know anything about their dress and the internet hasn't been very helpful. Anyone have any knowledge on the subject?

I have some information I can send you. Please contact me at Burker1 (at) aol (dot) com.

The only Ming contingent in the first invasion that incorporated southern mercenaries was Liu Ting's southwestern infantry.(He didn't see much action during the first invasion,though he was temporary granted the authority of a provincial military commander during the second invasion)

The bulk of Liu Ting's force was known to be Han/local aborigines,while mercenary forces would most likely be Burmese/Thai rather than Malay/Javanese.

I agree Wansui, I also the Ming also like using recruits from the Zhuang ethnic minority, called Liang Bin, or liang ethnicity soldiers. It was said that they were more than a match for the wokou. Don't know if they fought in the Imjin war tho

A bit off topic, but did the Ming use other mercenary forces in Korea during the second invasion? Would they have used light archers from any of the nomadic ethnic groups?

There was three separate mobilizations by the Ming,the first was under the command of military commissioner Song Yingchang,Xing Jie was put in charge after the former's retirement.

While it wasn't unknown for the Ming to hire Mongol/Jurchens,entries in the Jing lue fu guo yao bian show that cavalry/mounted infantry of the first counter offensive came from the Ming border garrisons.

The animosity between Jurchens/Koreans would make the situation worse,historically there were minor rebellions against the incompetent Korean court.

For the second mobilization mobile corps commander Lan Fangwei led a force of 300 Yi Bing.(Mongol/Jurchen? cavalry)

For the third mobilization vice regional commander Wu Guang led a force of 5,500 Lang Bin.(aborigine braves)

Does anybody have information on the appearance of some of these troop types especially Liang Bin and would the foreign troops such as Thai/Burmese be dressed and equipped in typical ming fashion or would they look more like something out of the armies of Naresuan?

There's a post on the Liang Bing (or Lang Bing), with illustrations, on the Great Ming Military blog – link

Thanks, GurKhan. That Blog is awesome definitely adding it to my favourites.

Liu Ting was involved in the border skirmishes between the Taungoo and Ming,hence the presence of Thai/Burmese amongst Liu Ting's soldiers.

The bulk of his soldiers(13,600) would be ethnic Han or Tujia(From Sichuan and Yunnan province),their armaments would be quite similar to the Lang Bin.-Tujia

I'm not aware of Malay/Javanese contingents,"Southern" soldiers refer to soldiers from Zhejiang province.

Personally, I think gamers should paint their ethnic contingents however they want to for the Imjin war. Reason? Because in reality, mercenaries would have appeared just like the Ming or Koreans when campaigning in Korea.

When the Ming intervened, it was December and the weather was below freezing. Troops from SE Asia would have been wrapped in layers of wool, felt and silk, just like their counterparts or they would have frozen to death in their traditional sarongs, vests and going barefoot, etc. Besides, their original clothing probably didn't last the months it took to journey from the south up to Korea. Any armor they had would have been under these layers of clothing.

So rather than have your troops look like Korean guerillas, you may as well do whatever you like to add color to the field.

The presence of foreign mercenaries is severely exaggerated.

Liu Ting's Sichuanese force(5,000) arrived after Pyongyang and Byeokjegwan,they didn't see much action in the 1593 Ming offensive.

Taking 45,000 as a ballpark for the Ming force(excluding casualties) present at the 1593 stalemate,Liu Ting's force made up 11%, of the 11% the Thai/Burmese were in the minority.

Wu Weizhong/Wang Bidi/Luo Shangzhi's ex Qi Jiguang force(3,600) only made up 8% of the army.