Zhu Yuanzhang's life
Born in Bree
Zhu Yuanzhang's childhood name was Ba, also known as Xingzong, and later renamed Yuan Zhang. Yu Yue, a Qing Dynasty man, wrote in his Essays on Tingchun: "In the Yuan Dynasty, people who didn't have jobs in Shu Ren were not allowed to be named, but only by their line and their parents' years and teeth. This was not levied on the yuan dynasty history, and this was the case when the Ming Dynasty (Zhu Yuanzhang) called Ran Zheng his younger brother. " He also took Shaoxing rural areas as an example: "If the husband is 24 years old, the woman is 22 years old, her life is 46, and the child is named' 46'; The husband is twenty-three years old and the woman is twenty-two, that is, forty-five. Having a child is called' fifty-nine' ",and the multiplication of fifty-nine is forty-five. According to Yu Yue, the great-grandfather of Chang Yuchun, a general of the Ming Dynasty, was called Chang Sisan, his grandfather was called Chang Chongwu and his father was called Chang Liu Liu. General Tang He's great-grandfather was named Tang Wuyi, his grandfather was named Tang, his father was named Tang, and so on. These are all evidences.
Like most feudal emperors, the birth of Zhu Yuanzhang is an artificial legend. According to Ming history, Zhu Yuanzhang's mother had a dream when she was just pregnant. In the dream, a fairy gave her an elixir, put it in her hand and she ate it. His mother woke up from her dream, but she was still full of fragrance. When Zhu Yuanzhang was born, the room was red and it was night. When the neighbors saw it, they thought it was a fire and rushed to the rescue. The result was a false alarm.
Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, lived in Xuyi, Sizhou (now Xuyi, Jiangsu). In the first year of Yuan Dynasty (1328), Zhu Yuanzhang was born in a poor peasant family in Fengyang, Anhui. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the County Records of Dili Xuyi recorded that when he was born, there were many auspicious signs, such as "the difference of Erlang's moving to the temple and the wonder of floating water".
Due to malnutrition, Zhu Yuanzhang was frail and scrawny when he was a child. Zhu Yuanzhang's parents are superstitious and believe that only Guanyin Bodhisattva can save his life and bless his safe life. So, they sent the young Zhu Yuanzhang to the nearby Huang Jue Temple and asked him to worship the old monk Gao Bin in the temple. Of course, it is also said that Zhu Yuanzhang went to the temple because he could not live any longer.
When Zhu Yuanzhang 10 was old, his father Zhu Shizhen moved again to avoid heavy taxes. Later, he cultivated land for landlord Liu De in a remote village in Taiping Township, and Zhu Yuanzhang herded cattle for Liu Deyi's family.
In the process of herding cattle, Zhu Yuanzhang met Xu Da, Tanghe, Zhou Dexing and others, and became good friends. Later, Xu Da, Tanghe, Zhou Dexing and others made contributions and became the founding fathers of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Yuanzhang was clever and naughty since he was a child, and he studied for a few days, and he was the most thoughtful. The game he often plays is playing the emperor. He wore rags, tore palm leaves into pieces, glued them to his mouth as a beard, put spokes on his head as a flat crown, then sat on the mound and pretended to be the emperor. He asked each partner to pick up a piece of wood, hold it in his hands, kneel three times and knock nine times and shout long live.
When herding cattle, he is not only often scolded by his master, but also often has not enough to eat. He was just hungry to drive cattle, so Zhu Yuanzhang slaughtered cattle. One day, when herding cattle, Zhu Yuanzhang, Xu Da, Tanghe and Zhou Dexing all felt hungry, so Zhu Yuanzhang had an idea and killed a calf, and everyone roasted it. Before long, there was only a cowhide, a pile of bones and a cow's tail. How can I tell the landlord when I go back after eating? Everyone was worried and blamed each other. Zhu Yuanzhang then stood up and thought of a way. He told everyone to bury the bones and cowhide, cover up the blood, and then put the cow's tail in a crack in the rock on the mountain, saying that the calf had got into the cave and could not be pulled out. The friends all agreed. Of course, this naive idea can't hide from the landlord Liu De. As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang was beaten out of his wits and rushed home, adding a debt to his father to compensate the calf. But Zhu Yuanzhang won the trust of his friends because of his boldness.
Wandering children
During the Yuan Dynasty, the people were divided into four classes, and the southerners under the rule of Han people and Mongolian ancients were untouchables. Killing a Mongolian is fined 820 silver, and killing a Han Chinese is fined the price of a donkey. People in China can't even have a last name, they can only use the date of birth as their first name, they can't own weapons, and only several families can share a kitchen knife. Excessive taxes and levies, coupled with constant famine, the vast number of Han people are struggling on the verge of death.
1343, there was a drought in Haozhou. Unexpectedly, there was a serious locust plague the next spring, and the crops were eaten clean by locusts. It never rains but it pours, and then the plague happened. At that time, every household died, and a village died a dozen or even dozens of people a day.
Soon, Zhu Yuanzhang's family was also infected with the plague. In less than half a month, his 64-year-old father, eldest brother and mother Chen passed away one after another. Zhu Yuanzhang and his second brother watched their relatives die one by one, and they had no money to buy coffins at home, and there was not even a place to bury their relatives. Alas, Zhu Shizhen has worked hard all his life. He has no place to live and no place to die. Zhu Yuanzhang and his second brother cried bitterly and alarmed their neighbor Liu Jizu, so their stepfather gave them a cemetery. The two brothers finally found some rags to wrap the body and buried their parents on the land of the Liu family. Thirty-five years later, Zhu Yuanzhang recalled this incident, and it was still difficult to restrain his grief. He wrote in "Tombstone": "There is no coffin in the funeral, and the body is ugly, and the ground is three feet. What food is there!" In less than half a month, the harmonious and warm home of the past no longer exists, and the love of parents is gone forever. The pain of bereavement deeply affected Zhu Yuanzhang's mental state, making him seem to have fallen into a bottomless abyss. At this time, in order to survive, Zhu Yuanzhang and his second brother, sister-in-law and nephew were forced to split up and flee. Zhu Yuanzhang was really desperate. He thought of the Huang Jue Temple where he made a wish to give his life as a child, so he went to the monk Gao Bin, where he was shaved and became a boy. He sweeps the floor, burns incense, rings bells and drums, cooks and washes clothes in the temple every day. He is busy all day and is sometimes scolded by the old monk. As time went on, Zhu Yuanzhang suppressed his anger. One day, when he was sweeping the floor, he tripped over Galand's seat and hit Galand's broom.
On another occasion, the old monk saw that the candle in the hall was bitten by a mouse and reprimanded Zhu Yuanzhang in public. Zhu Yuanzhang thought, Galand can't even control what is in front of him. How can he manage the palace? To make matters worse, I was scolded, and the more I thought about it, the more angry I became. So, Zhu Yuanzhang found a pen and wrote the words "send three thousand miles" behind Guanlan God. All these show that Zhu Yuanzhang is unwilling to be oppressed.
However, soon after Zhu Yuanzhang became a boy, the monks in the temple did not have enough food and there were no charities in the temple. Therefore, the master Gao Bin had to break the porridge and let the monks go to alms. In this way, Zhu Yuanzhang was just a 50-day-old boy. He couldn't recite scriptures or do Buddhism, so he had no choice but to dress up as a monk and leave the temple to wander. At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang was 17 years old.
Zhu Yuanzhang begged as he walked. He was told that he would go anywhere as long as the years were good. He went south from Haozhou to Hefei, then turned west into Henan, arrived in Gushi and Xinyang, went north to Ruzhou and Chen Zhou, and returned to Huang Jue Temple at 1347. During the three years of wandering, he traveled all over the famous cities in the west of Huai River, got in touch with the local customs, saw the world, broadened his horizons and accumulated social life experience. Hard vagrancy made Zhu Yuanzhang resolute and brave, but it also made him cruel and suspicious. This period of life had a profound impact on Zhu Yuanzhang's life.
Zhu Yuanzhang's three years abroad was also a period of surging peasant uprisings at the end of Yuan Dynasty. There is a saying in the society that "when Wang Ming was born, all beings were blessed", and Anbaili religion in the north is also carrying out the same propaganda. Zhu Yuanzhang was also exposed to such propaganda when he was wandering. He witnessed the deterioration of people's lives and realized that chaos would come soon. So after Zhu Yuanzhang returned to the ancestral temple, he worked hard, made friends and prepared to do something.
135 1 year, Han He led an uprising in Yingzhou (now Fuyang, Anhui) and elected Han as the Ming king. In August of the same year, Peng Yingyu and Xu Shouhui revolted in Qishui (now Xishui, Hubei). These insurgents wrapped their heads in red scarves, so they were called the Red Scarf Army. 1352, Guo Zixing and Sun Deya revolted in Haozhou.
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard the news of the uprising, he couldn't help thinking that if he had been in the temple, he might be taken away by Yuan's cronies at any time, and his life would be in jeopardy. At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang received a letter from his childhood partner Tang He, in which Tang He invited Zhu Yuanzhang to join the uprising army in Guo Zixing. Just then, Zhu Yuanzhang's younger brother secretly told him that someone knew the letter and was going to tell on it. So Zhu Yuanzhang put down his job and went to the Red Scarf Army in Guo Zixing. This year, Zhu Yuanzhang was 25 years old.
Military and general
After joining the army, Zhu Yuanzhang was quickly appreciated by Guo Zixing for his bravery, resourcefulness and mastery of pen and ink. So Guo Zixing transferred Zhu Yuanzhang to Shuaifu as a policeman and appointed him as the nine captains of Qin Bing. Zhu Yuanzhang was clever and capable, and took the lead in the war. All the spoils he got were given to Marshal Guo Zixing, and he was rewarded. He said that the credit belongs to everyone, so he gave the reward to everyone. Soon, Zhu Yuanzhang's good reputation spread in the army. Guo Zixing also regarded him as a confidant and often discussed important matters with Zhu Yuanzhang. At that time, Guo Zixing had an adopted daughter, the daughter of his close friend Ma Gong. After Ma Gong died, his youngest daughter was adopted by Guo Zixing. At this time, Guo Zixing saw that Zhu Yuanzhang was a talented person, which was of great help to his career. So he married Ma Shi, a 2 1 year-old adopted daughter, to Zhu Yuanzhang and changed her name to Zhu Gongzi in the army. With identity, you can no longer use the previous nickname to emphasize eight, so you have another official name, Bird, with the word Guo Rui.
At that time, in Haozhou, there were five marshals in the Red Scarf Army. There are many contradictions between Guo Zixing School, Sun Deya and three other marshal schools. In September this year, Sesame Li, commander-in-chief of Xuzhou Red Scarf Army, was killed by Yuan Army. Peng Da and Zhao Junyong led the troops to Haozhou. Peng Da became friends with Guo Zixing, while Sun Deya and others showed kindness to Zhao Junyong. Egged on by Sun Deya, Zhao Junyong kidnapped Guo Zixing and beat Guo Zixing to the bamboo slips, preparing to assassinate Guo Zixing. With the support of Peng Da, Zhu Yuanzhang led his army to save Guo Zixing. Since then, the two factions have become even more deadly.
Zhu Yuanzhang saw that the generals in Haozhou were fighting for power and profit, and there were many contradictions. He is determined to create a new situation on his own. In the 15th year of Zheng Zhi (AD 1355), Zhu Yuanzhang returned to his hometown to recruit soldiers. His boyhood friends Xu Da, Zhou Dexing and Guo Ying, as well as acquaintances in the same village and neighboring villages, heard that Zhu Yuanzhang had become the leader of the Red Scarf Army, and they all came to defect. So Zhu Yuanzhang quickly recruited more than 700 people and returned to Haozhou. Guo Zixing was very happy, so he promoted Zhu Yuanzhang to be the comforter of the town.
This winter, Peng Gan, his son, called himself King Lu Huai and King Yong Yi, and he was still a marshal.
Zhu Yuanzhang saw that these people had not been in Haozhou for half a year, so he chose 24 confidants, including Xu Da and Tanghe, from his own recruits to leave Haozhou and stay in the south. On the way to Dingyuan in the south, Zhu Yuanzhang first recruited 3000 militiamen from Donkey Village in Zhangjiabao, and then recruited 800 people with clear noses and eyes. Command this team, Zhu Yuanzhang eastward, night break Dingyuan Hengduan mountain yuan army camp, marshal Miao tycoon surrendered. Zhu Yuanzhang selected 20,000 able-bodied Han people from the army to join his own team and went south to Chuzhou (now Chuzhou City, Anhui Province).
Li Shanchang, a celebrity in Dingyuan, is on his way to the south of Chuzhou, and asks for an audience at Yunmen. Li Shanchang and Zhu Yuanzhang hit it off at first sight, and Li Shanchang took Liu Bang, the Emperor Gaozu of Han Dynasty, as an example to persuade Zhu Yuanzhang that as long as he followed Liu Bang's example, he would repay kindness and not kill people indiscriminately, he would soon be able to pacify the world. Zhu Yuanzhang thought it was very reasonable, so he left Li Shanchang as the shogunate minister and charged Li Shanchang to coordinate the relationship between generals to achieve great things.
Zhu Yuanzhang quickly occupied Chuzhou, and his nephew Zheng Wen and his brother-in-law Li Zhen came to take refuge in his nephew Bauer (later named Wenzhong). From their mouth, Zhu Yuanzhang learned sadly that his second brother, third brother and third sister were all dead. At that time, there was an orphan Mu Ying in Dingyuan, who was very poor. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang took these three children as adopted sons and changed their surnames to Zhu. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang adopted more than 20 semes.
When Zhu Yuanzhang attacked Chuzhou, Guo Zixing was excluded by Zhao Junyong, Sun Deya and others. Therefore, not long after Zhu Yuanzhang captured Chuzhou, Guo Zixing also came to Chuzhou. Zhu Yuanzhang immediately handed over the relieving, and the team of thirty thousand people was disciplined and clean. Guo Zixing was very happy to see it.
1353, Zhu Yuanzhang appointed Hu Dahai, a native of Hongxian County (now Sixian County, Anhui Province) as the vanguard, and conquered Hezhou in one fell swoop. News came that Guo Zixing immediately appointed Zhu Yuanzhang as the company commander, guarding Yuzhou. On one occasion, Zhu Yuanzhang went out and saw a child crying. Zhu Yuanzhang asked him why he was crying and replied that he was waiting for his father. After careful inquiry, Zhu Yuanzhang learned that the child's father and mother were both in the military camp, and the father raised horses in the military camp. Mother and father dare not recognize each other, so they have to call each other brothers. Zhu Yuanzhang realized that there were problems in the military discipline. After they breached the city, they disturbed the people and robbed women. If this situation continues, the army will lose the hearts of the people. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang summoned generals, affirmed discipline, ordered married women in the army to return to the army and reunited many separated couples in the city. This matter was widely circulated and Zhu Yuanzhang won the hearts of the people.
In March of this year, he died of illness, and Guo Tianxu, his son, was appointed as the viceroy, his brother-in-law as the deputy viceroy, and Zhu Yuanzhang as the deputy viceroy. Nominally, Marshal Du is the head of the army, and the position of the right deputy marshal is higher than that of the left deputy marshal. But most of the troops in Chuzhou and Hezhou were recruited by Zhu Yuanzhang, and Zhu Yuanzhang was more courageous and talented than Guo Tianxu and Zhang Tianyou. So Zhu Yuanzhang actually became the coach of this team.
Zhu Sheng made recommendations.
Before Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor, he pursued Zhu Sheng's strategy of "building a high wall, accumulating grain and slowly proclaiming himself emperor". Building a high wall means strengthening military preparations and consolidating the rear; Wide grain accumulation refers to developing economic production, storing grain and enhancing economic strength; To be king slowly means not to be king too early, lest you make too many enemies. These three suggestions are of great strategic vision and are the guiding ideology of Zhu Yuanzhang's early development.
After Zhu Yuanzhang was stationed in Hezhou for several months, food supply became a problem. Opposite Hezhou are Taiping (now Dangtu, Anhui) and Wuhu, which are close to the south bank of the Yangtze River. They are rich in rice, but there are no boats, so they can only sigh at Wangjiang. At this time, it happened that the Chaohu water army of the two Red Scarf Army came to join the party, and Zhu Yuanzhang personally handled the merger. In July, more than a thousand warships of Chaohu Water Army broke through the blockade of Yuan Army and arrived in Hezhou. Zhu Yuanzhang's infantry troops boarded the ship of Chaohu Water Army and crossed the Yangtze River from Hezhou to the east. On the other side of the quarry, Chang Yuchun took the lead, led the army to kill, conquered the quarry and gained a lot of food. Soldiers want to take food and trophies home and enjoy them slowly. Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang decisively ordered people to cut off the ship's cable, let the ship go down the river and cut off the retreat. When the soldiers saw no way back, they rallied and conquered Taiping under the guidance of Zhu Yuanzhang. Entering Taiping, Zhu Yuanzhang reiterated military discipline and prohibited looting. Some soldiers violated the ban and were immediately executed. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang's army was supported by the local people. Zhu Yuanzhang then set up the Taiping Marshal House and Xingguo Wing, calling himself Marshal, and appointed Li Shanchang as Shuaifu. In this way, Zhu Yuanzhang began to stabilize the base areas.
In the 16th year of Zheng Zhi (A.D. 1356), in March, Zhang Shicheng launched an attack in the Yangtze River Delta to attack the Yuan Army in the south of the Yangtze River. Taking this opportunity, Zhu Yuanzhang personally commanded the amphibious army and attacked Qing Ji (now Nanjing, Jiangsu) for the third time. On the third day, the military camp outside Chen Zhaoxian was breached, and his 36,000 people defected to Zhu Yuanzhang. But Zhu Yuanzhang saw that he had doubts about surrender and his morale was uncertain. So Zhu Yuanzhang chose 500 warriors from the army to be Qinbing, guarding them at night, leaving Feng alone.
The next day, the army was very moved when they learned about it, and all doubts vanished. They are willing to follow Zhu Yuanzhang in farmland. As a result, the war went very smoothly. In less than ten days, Zhu Yuanzhang captured the celebration banquet.
After Zhu Yuanzhang entered the city, he ordered to appease the people and change the celebration to Yingtianfu. After Wang Xiaoming and Han Liner were reported, Zhu Yuanzhang was promoted to the Privy Council, and was soon promoted to the provincial chapter in Jiangnan and other places. Zhu Yuanzhang set up the Grand Marshal's Office of Star Health Instrument in Yingtian, with Liao as the commander in chief and Li Shanchang as the left and right doctors.
At this time, although Zhu Yuanzhang had an army of 100,000 troops, his momentum was much larger than in the past, but his territory was still small and he was attacked on all sides. Yuan Army is in the east and south, Zhang Shicheng is in the southeast and Xu Shouhui is in the west. Although Zhang and Xu are both anti-yuan armed forces, they are hostile to both. However, the main forces of the Red Scarf Army headed by Wang Xiaoming and Liu Futong in the north greatly contained the Yuan Army, and the strength of Zhang Shicheng and Xu Shouhui was not enough to annex Zhu Yuanzhang. In this way, Zhu Yuanzhang has no enemies that he can't cope with for the time being, and faces good development opportunities.
At present, Zhu Yuanzhang's primary task is to consolidate the base area centered on Yingtian. So soon after the occupation, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately sent Xu Da to capture Zhenjiang. Before the start of the battle, Zhu Yuanzhang, in order to strictly observe the military discipline, deliberately arrested Xu Da on charges of conniving at foot soldiers, ready to accept the punishment of military law. At this point, Li Shanchang came out to intercede, and people didn't know it was a plan, so they interceded together. So Zhu Yuanzhang took the lead and said, "For everyone's sake, Xu's death penalty will be temporarily exempted, but only after Xu captured Zhenjiang can Xu's crime be completely forgiven, without burning or robbing." . People think that they are still so strict with the Lord, so they all strictly abide by military discipline, and Zhenjiang was quickly captured. By the winter of 1357, Zhu Yuanzhang had captured Jintan, Danyang, Jiangyin, Changzhou, Changshu, Yangzhou and other places within one year, and controlled the strategic strongholds around Yingtian. By 1359, according to the current map, Zhu Yuanzhang had occupied Nanjing, Jiangsu, west of Taihu Lake, south of the junction of Jiangsu, Anhui and Zhejiang, and reached a rectangular area in eastern Zhejiang. Compared with the occupation four years ago, the situation has greatly improved.
After Zhu Yuanzhang completed the deployment of "building a high wall", he began to implement "wide grain accumulation". The early solution to military commissariat mainly depended on compulsory requisition, that is, requisition of "village commissariat". But in the long run, the army will become a purely destructive force and lose people's hearts. In order to solve the food problem, Zhu Yuanzhang, in addition to mobilizing the people for production, decided to implement the reclamation law and vigorously carry out army reclamation, appointed Marshal Kang Maocai as the water conservancy ambassador, responsible for building water conservancy projects, and appointed generals to reclaim farmland in various places. In the past few years, villages have been built all over the country, and the national treasury is full and the rations are sufficient. 1360, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that "village grain" would no longer be levied to reduce the burden on farmers. In order to accumulate grain, Zhu Yuanzhang banned alcohol, but Hu Sanshe, the son of his general Hu Dahai, broke the law with others and made profits by making wine privately. After Zhu Yuanzhang knew it, he ordered Hu Sanshe to be killed. Hu Dahai was advised to attack Shaoxing at this time, hoping that Zhu Yuanzhang could let Hu Sanshe go for Hu Dahai's sake. Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and resolutely punished, so he personally killed Hu Sanshe.
While winning the hearts and minds of the people, Zhu Yuanzhang constantly recruited talents, especially the intellectuals of the landlord class. Zhu Yuanzhang also specially built the Lixian Pavilion in Yingtian to receive them. These people played an important role in the process of Zhu Yuanzhang's unification, such as Li Shanchang and Zhu Sheng. Zhu Yuanzhang has great respect for Confucian scholars. 1358, he summoned Tang Jieshi, a Confucian scholar, and asked Gaudi, Emperor Guangwu, Emperor Taizong, Song Taizu and Yuan Shizu how to pacify the world, which also showed that Zhu Yuanzhang was determined to create a new feudal dynasty.
Cut Chen Pingzhang
Zhu Yuanzhang established a base area centered on Yingtian, with Chen Youliang in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Zhang Shicheng in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Fang Guozhen in the southeast and Chen Youding in the south. Fang Guozhen and Chen Youding's goal is to protect the territory, while Zhang Shicheng has no ambition for the first mouse in the Yuan Dynasty. Chen Youliang is the strongest, and it is the most dangerous enemy that Zhu Yuanzhang encountered when he occupied Yingtian.
Chen Youliang was a subordinate of general Ni Wenjun of Xu Shouhui. Later, he killed Ni Wenjun. In 1360, he took Xu Shouhui hostage and captured Taiping and Quarrying. So Chen Youliang thought that Heaven was at his fingertips, so he killed Xu Shouhui and proclaimed himself emperor in quarrying, which changed the country's sense of justice.
Then Chen Youliang attacked Zhang Shicheng from east to west and divided Zhu Yuanzhang's territory equally. It was a big earthquake. Zhu Yuanzhang had to convene all the people to discuss countermeasures, and there were different opinions at one time. Only Liu Ji was silent, and Zhu Yuanzhang knew that Liu Ji had a proposition, so he asked his advice. Liu Ji believes that the most dangerous enemy at present is Chen Youliang, and we must concentrate on destroying him. Although Chen Youliang is powerful, it is not difficult to defeat him, because he killed the king and left home on his own, and the people were exhausted. As long as he waits for them to go deep and then ambush him, it is not difficult to win.
Zhu Yuanzhang agreed with Liu Ji's judgment, so he designed to lure the enemy deeper and make an iron ride. Kang Maocai and Chen Youliang, the ministry of Zhu Yuanzhang, are old friends, so Kang Maocai wrote a letter, sent someone to Chen Youliang camp, invited Chen to attack Yingtian, and offered to work in Jiangdong Bridge.
On the morning of June 23rd, Chen Youliang led the main force of the fleet to the Jiangdong Bridge on the outskirts of Yingtian, only to find that the bridge was a stone bridge instead of a wooden one, and only then did he know that he had been cheated. But it's too late. Zhu Yuanzhang ambushed and attacked, and Chen Youliang was defeated. Zhu Yuanzhang collected Taiping and occupied Xinzhou and Anqing. Chen Youliang defeated Jiujiang and captured Anqing in August of the following year, so Zhu Yuanzhang led an army to Jiangzhou, Chen Youliang's lair, Chen Youliang fled to Wuchang, and Zhu Yuanzhang conquered Jiangxi and southeastern Hubei.
At this time, the Central Plains Red Scarf Army split, weakened. In February of the 23rd year, Zhang Shicheng took advantage of people's crisis and sent Lu Zhen to attack Anfeng. Liu Futong turned to Zhu Yuanzhang for help. When Zhu Yuanzhang led the army to Anfeng, Liu Futong had been killed by Lv Zhen. Zhu Yuanzhang only rescued Wang Xiaoming Han Liner and arranged for him to live in Chuzhou.
When Zhu Yuanzhang led the main force to rescue Wang Xiaoming, Chen Youliang thought it was time to counterattack, so he led his troops to attack Hongdu (now Nanchang, Jiangxi).
Zhu Wenzheng, the nephew of Zhu Yuanzhang, led the soldiers to hold on for 85 days. In July of the 23rd year of Zheng Zheng (AD 1363), Zhu Yuanzhang led 200,000 troops to Hongdu. When Chen Youliang learned of this, he withdrew from the besieged army and confronted Zhu Yuanzhang. The two sides fought a decisive battle in Poyang Lake.
The Poyang Lake water war lasted for 36 days from August 29th to1October 3rd. Zhu Yuanzhang's army gave full play to the flexibility of the ship, attacked Chen Jun, and finally won. Chen Youliang was shot dead by random arrows.
1364 On New Year's Day, Zhu Yuanzhang called Wu Wang and built a hundred lawsuits. He still issued orders in the name of "imperial edict and Wu Wang decree". Because Zhang Shicheng established himself as the King of Wu in 1363, Zhang Shicheng was called Wu Dong and Zhu Yuanzhang was called Xiwu in history.
In March of twenty-four years, Zhu Yuanzhang went to Wuchang to inspect the city again, and David Li Chen finally surrendered from the city. After the annexation of Chen Youliang, Zhu Yuanzhang's next goal was Zhang Shicheng.
Zhang Shicheng, a native of Taizhou (now Cao Yan Town, Dafeng City, Jiangsu Province), sold smuggled salt in his early years. A salt uprising was launched at the end of Yuan Dynasty. 1354, Gaoyou became the king, and the founding name was Zhou and Jianyuantian. 1356, Pingjiang (now Suzhou) was its capital. After Zhu Yuanzhang destroyed Chen Youliang and his son, he attacked Zhang Shicheng in October of the 25th year of Zheng Zheng, captured Tongzhou, Xinghua, Yancheng, Taizhou, Gaoyou, Huai 'an, Xuzhou, Suzhou, Anfeng and other counties in one fell swoop, and drove Dongwu forces out of Jiangbei area.
In May of the 26th year, Zhu Yuanzhang published a campaign against Zhang Shicheng. Zhang Shicheng's eight major crimes were listed in a battle. Except for the fourth and eighth items related to the Western Wu Dynasty, all the others accused Zhang Shicheng of betraying the Yuan Dynasty. If you don't look at the beginning and end, it is easy to mistake it for a punitive order of the Yuan Dynasty. This shows that Zhu Yuanzhang has regarded himself as a king who obeys his destiny and is ready to inherit the orthodoxy of the dynasty.
Zhu Yuanzhang's army attacked quickly. In November 26, Hangzhou and Huzhou surrendered one after another, and Pingjiang became an isolated city. So Zhu Yuanzhang surrounded Pingjiang heavily and launched the Pingjiang Campaign.
At the same time of siege, Zhu Yuanzhang sent Liao Yongzhong to Chuzhou to meet Wang Xiaoming, and sent Han Liner to Yingtianlai, but when crossing the river in Guazhou, he quietly chiseled the bottom of the boat and Wang Xiaoming sank to the bottom of the river. Then, Zhu Yuanzhang announced that he would no longer use the year of Dragon and Phoenix, calling 1367 the first year of Wu. At the beginning of the Battle of Pingjiang, Zhu Yuanzhang built a wall around the city and a three-story wooden tower, which was higher than the city wall. He shot at the city with crossbows and ware, and set up Xiangyang guns to bombard it day and night. There was a panic in the city, and Zhang Shicheng's several breakthroughs ended in failure. Zhang Shicheng is willful, greedy for enjoyment, and indulges his subordinates very much. On the last day of the siege at Pingkiang, Zhang Shicheng's younger brother Zhang Shixin bid in Chengtou, still enjoying himself. He sat in a silver chair and drank, and the waiter handed him peaches. As a result, before the peach reached his mouth, his head was smashed with a gunshot. Zhu Yuanzhang sent people to surrender many times, but Zhang Shicheng refused. Zhang Shicheng stuck to Pingjiang, and after the food was exhausted, he ate rats and hay. When the arrows are used up, the roof tiles are used as bombs. Until the eighth day of September in the twenty-seventh year (AD 1367), Zhu Yuanzhang led an army into Pingjiang, while Zhang Shicheng launched street fighting resistance. Finally, Zhang Shicheng was captured and sent to Yingtian. Zhu Yuanzhang asked questions but he ignored them. Li Shanchang asked him, but he swore. Helpless, Zhu Yuanzhang had to order the guards to kill Zhang Shicheng with disorderly sticks. At that time, Zhang Shicheng was 47 years old, and Soochow perished.
Unification of Ming dynasty
After Zhu Yuanzhang destroyed Zhang Shicheng in Wu Dong, he generally occupied today's Hubei, Hunan, eastern Henan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which are the richest and most densely populated areas in China. Therefore, the time is ripe for a large-scale war.
At that time, the situation in the south was that Fang Guozhen occupied eastern Zhejiang, Chen Youding controlled Sichuan according to Fujian and Ming Yu Zhen, and Guangdong and Guangxi were still under the rule of the Yuan Dynasty. At the end of the Battle of Pingjiang, Zhu Yuanzhang sent a politician to attack Zu, then ordered Tanghe to attack from Ningbo, and defected in December of the 27th year (AD 1367). At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Ji discussed the northern expedition plan in detail. At this time, Chang Yuchun proposed: Take the capital directly, wipe out the exhausted soldiers of the Yuan Dynasty with its elite soldiers, and after occupying the capital, divide the troops and attack, and you will be finished. To this end, Zhu Yuanzhang disagreed. He thought that most of them were the capital cities operated by the Yuan Dynasty for hundreds of years, with strong fortifications. It is too dangerous to attack alone. Take Shandong first, then Henan, attack Tongguan, gain three military points in the east, west and south, and then capture most of it, which will surely succeed. You will agree with this.
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang took Xu Da as the general to command the whole army; Chang Yuchun was the deputy general, and the other two generals, Sheng Feng, You Cheng, Xue Xian and Fu Youde, each led an army and went all out to the Northern Expedition.
Zhu Yuanzhang repeatedly affirmed the military discipline and warned the soldiers who went to war that the Northern Expedition was not to attack the city, but to overthrow the tyranny of the Mongolian Yuan and relieve the people's suffering. Subsequently, the "Northern Officials and People's Anti-Talk" drafted by Song Lian was published, which put forward the slogan of "expelling Land Rover, restoring China, establishing laws and relieving the people", which has a strong appeal to the majority of Han people in the Central Plains; A movement also said that if Mongolians and Semu people want to be subjects of the new dynasty, they should be treated the same as the people of the Central Plains.
The Northern Expeditionary Army won successively and quickly captured the counties in Shandong. In the 28th year of Zheng Zhi (AD 1368), he occupied Kaifeng, pacified Henan and conquered Tongguan. In August, after conquering the capital of the Yuan Dynasty (now Beijing), Yuan Shundi saw that the isolated city was difficult to keep, hurriedly abandoned the city, fled to Mobei with his empresses and princes, and drove Meng Yuan, who had ruled the Central Plains for 99 years, out of the Central Plains. As Song Zhicheng's Prime Minister Wen Tianxiang said, Hu Yuncai is a hundred years old.
In the case of continuous victory in the Southern Expedition and Northern Expedition, in the 28th year of Zheng Zheng (AD 1368), in the first month, 40-year-old Zhu Yuanzhang worshipped the Emperor of Heaven and ascended the throne in the southern suburb of Yingtian. The founding name was Daming, and Yingtian was renamed Hongwu. After 99 years of hard work, the Han people finally regained power and returned to their masters.
After sixteen years of crusade, Zhu Yuanzhang finally realized his dream of "expelling Land Rover and restoring China", and became the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty from a shepherd boy and a young monk playing flute and carrying cattle.
137 1 year, Ming troops entered Sichuan, Xia rulers rose and fell, and Sichuan was pacified. 138 1 year, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Fu Youde, Mu Ying and Aquamarine to attack Yunnan and Dali the following year, thus completing the unification of the south. 1387, Sheng Feng, Fu Youde and Aquamarine were ordered to attack Naha, the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty in Liaodong. Naha had no choice but to surrender, and Liaodong was pacified. So far, except Mobei grassland and Xinjiang, the whole country has basically recovered.