Famous Military Unit of the Ming Dynasty — Qi Jia Jun (戚家軍)

'Heng Yu Da Jie (《橫嶼大捷》)' painted by Ma Hong Dao (馬宏道) in 1988 to commemorate Qi Jia Jun's great victory at Battle of Heng Yu.

Perhaps the most famous, and the most elite military unit of Ming Dynasty, Qi Jia Jun (戚家軍, lit. 'Army of House Qi') was the army raised and trained by none other than renowned Ming commander Qi Ji Guang (戚繼光) himself. Troops of Qi Jia Jun hailed from Zhejiang province, particularly Yiwu County, and numbered about three to four thousand initially, but became much larger later on.

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Gui Jian (鬼箭)

Gui Jian, from 'Ji Xiao Xin Shu (《紀效新書》)'.

Gui Jian (鬼箭, lit. 'Ghost arrow') was a type of iron caltrop that was cooked with either human feces or poison so that it wouldcause infection when stepped on. It was a very dirty weapon and poses great danger to its user, and thus usually stored inside a container made of bamboo. Instead of planting the caltrops one by one, user of Gui Jian simply scattered the caltrops directly from the container.

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Bi Fu (臂縛)

A pair of Bi Fu, from 'Wu Bei Zhi (《武備志》)'.

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