In the 31st year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1398 AD), Zhu Yuanzhang, who reigned for 31 years, died of illness, and the throne of the Ming Dynasty was succeeded by the 21-year-old imperial grandson Zhu Yunwen, who was Emperor Jianwen. As soon as Zhu Yunwen succeeded to the throne, he followed the advice of Qi Tai, Huang Zicheng and others to cut the domain, which led to the king of Xiang**, the king of Qi, the king of Dai, and the king of Min were deposed, and Zhu Di, the king of Yan who was far away in Beiping, also felt threatened.
The result of the Battle of Jingyan is already well known, Zhu Di invaded Nanjing after four years of war and became emperor, but Zhu Yunwen, the Jianwen Emperor, did not know what to do. However, looking back, in this war, Zhu Yunwen still had a group of generals available, but he failed to win the war. In this article, let's take a look at the generals under Zhu Yunwen.
In the war of the Battle of Jingyan, Li Jinglong should be the most famous. Li Jinglong's identity is still relatively noble, he is the son of Zhu Yuanzhang's nephew Cao Guogong Li Wenzhong, and he is the same generation as Zhu Yunwen. He is also a Zhao Kuo-style person, although he was born in a family of generals, but he lacks practical combat experience.
In the nineteenth year of Hongwu (1386), Li Jinglong inherited the title of Duke of Cao State, and later went to various places to train troops, and then took charge of the Governor's Mansion of the Left Army, and added the crown prince. After Zhu Di raised his army, Li Jinglong was appointed by Emperor Jianwen as the commander of the Southern Army and led the Northern Expedition, but Li Jinglong's record was really a bit embarrassing. He led an army of 500,000 to besiege Beijing, but failed to capture Beijing, but was defeated by Zhu Di at Zhengcunba.
In the following year, Emperor Jianwen of Li Jinglong granted him the right to conquer the army, rewarded Huang Yue with bows and arrows, and commanded 600,000 troops to fight against Zhu Di again, but this time Li Jinglong was defeated by Zhu Di again. Li Jinglong's performance is really a heaven and an earth compared to his father Li Wenzhong.
In the fourth year of Jianwen, after Zhu Di attacked the city of Nanjing, Li Jinglong and Zhu Lu, the king of the valley, opened the city gate and welcomed the Yan division into the city, and Nanjing fell. After Zhu Di ascended the throne, he named Li Jinglong as the Fengtian Auxiliary Yun Tui Cheng Xuanli Wuchen, and specially entered the Guanglu Doctor and Zuozhu Kingdom, added the crown prince and the prince, and increased the age of Lu Qianshi. He was ordered to rebuild the "Ming Taizu Record" and served as a supervisor. In the second year of Yongle (1404), Li Jinglong, one after another, was stripped of his title, confiscated his family property, placed under house arrest, and died in solitary confinement.
Geng Bingwen is one of the few veterans left by Zhu Yuanzhang to Zhu Yunwen. In the star-studded era of the early Ming Dynasty, Geng Bingwen didn't seem to be too dazzling, after all, Xu Da, Chang Yuchun, Lan Yu and other generals with outstanding military achievements, and Geng Bingwen was a defensive general, so his reputation was not as good as Xu Da, Chang Yuchun and others. However, he was still named the Marquis of Changxing by virtue of his military exploits.
After Emperor Geng Bingwen Jianwen succeeded to the throne, Zhu Di was induced to launch the Battle of Jingyan due to the reduction of the feudal domain, and Geng Bingwen was appointed by Zhu Yunwen as the general of the conquest and led the Northern Expedition. However, he was defeated in the Battle of Zhending, and Emperor Jianwen followed the advice of Qi Tai, Huang Zicheng and others to send Li Jinglong to replace Geng Bingwen to lead the Northern Expedition. After this battle, Geng Bingwen no longer had a chance to perform on the battlefield.
In the second year of Yongle (1404), Zheng Ci, the secretary of the Criminal Department, and Chen Ying** Geng Bingwen, said that Geng Bingwen's clothes and utensils were decorated with dragons and phoenixes, and he made jade belts with red leather. Geng Bingwen was very frightened after hearing this, and committed suicide in fear of sin.
Guo Ying was the founding general of the Ming Dynasty and one of the few veterans left by Zhu Yuanzhang to Zhu Yunwen. Guo Ying followed Zhu Yuanzhang to fight in the south and north at the age of 18, and also made a lot of achievements along the way. In the seventeenth year of Hongwu (1384), he was named the Marquis of Wuding for his merits. In the early Ming Dynasty, Guo Ying survived against the background of Zhu Yuanzhang's massacre.
After Emperor Guo Yingjian Wen succeeded to the throne, Guo Ying attacked Zhu Di, the king of Yan, from Geng Bingwen and Li Jinglong, but returned in vain. After the Battle of Jingyan, Zhu Di ascended the throne as emperor, and Guo Ying was dismissed and went home. In the first year of Yongle (1403), Guo Ying died at home at the age of sixty-seven.
Xu Huizu is the eldest son of Xu Da, the founding general of the Ming Dynasty, who inherited the title of Duke of Wei in the twenty-first year of Hongwu (1388), and then went to Shanxi and Beiping to train soldiers, and later returned to the dynasty to take charge of the military capital of the palace.
After Emperor Jianwen ascended the throne, Xu Huizu was crowned as the crown prince. After the outbreak of the Battle of Jingyan, Xu Huizu, as the chief general of the Southern Army, covered Li Jinglong's retreat in the Battle of Baigou River, and the whole division returnedand defeated the Yan army in Qimei Mountain. Later, it was transferred to Nanjing, and the Huaibei Southern Army was defeated because of its loneliness. When the Yan army crossed the river, Xu Huizu still led troops to resist.
In the fourth year of Xu Huizu's construction, after Zhu Di invaded Nanjing, Zhu Yunwen disappeared, and Zhu Di succeeded to the throne in Nanjing City, cutting Xu Huizu and imprisoning him at home. After all, Zhu Di married Xu Huizu's sister, and with this relationship, Zhu Di couldn't deal with Xu Huizu well, so he could only put him under house arrest at home. In the fifth year of Yongle (1407), Xu Huizu died of illness.
It is worth mentioning that Xu Huizu's younger brother Xu Zengshou was killed because of Tongyan in the Battle of Jingyan, but Zhu Di did not forget him, and posthumously crowned Xu Zengshou as the Duke of Dingguo after succeeding to the throne, so that the Xu family is a two-country prince. The first line of Dingguo Gong followed Zhu Di to Beijing, while the first line of Wei Guogong stayed in Nanjing.
Tie Xuan is a descendant of the Hui people of the Yuan Dynasty, he has a resolute temperament, smart and agile, and his talent is deeply valued by Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Yuanzhang gave him the word "Keystone". After Emperor Jianwen ascended the throne, Tie Xuan was promoted to Shandong to participate in politics. After the outbreak of the Battle of Jingyan, Zhu Di led the army south to inevitably pass through Jinan, Tie Xuan assisted Sheng Yong to defend Jinan, Tie Xuan refused to surrender to the rebel Yan King Zhu Di, and gathered the defeated soldiers to stick to Jinan and repel Yan King Zhu Di, and Zhu Di had to bypass Jinan City and continue to go south.
After Tie Xuan Zhu Di seized the throne, he returned to the north to attack Jinan again, and wantonly the people in Hebei. Arriving in Jinan, Tie Xuan refused to surrender, but was finally outnumbered and the city was breached. Zhu Di set up an ambush to capture Tie Xuan, who was finally captured in Huainan and escorted to Beijing, and the angry Zhu Di ordered him to be executed. Although Zhu Di hated Tie Xuan, he always praised his loyalty and praised him to his ministers.
Sheng Yong was one of the main generals of the Zhongnan Army against the Yan Army in the Battle of Jingyan. In the first year of Jianwen (1399), Sheng Yong followed Geng Bingwen to attack Zhu Di, the king of Yan, as a general. After Li Jinglong replaced Geng Bingwen, he was subordinate to Li Jinglong. Sheng Yong led the army to fight against Zhu Di, the king of Yan, for four years, defeated Zhu Di many times in the early stage, and killed several generals under Zhu Di's account, and then gradually lost the enemy.
After Sheng Yong and Zhu Di attacked the Beijing Division, Sheng Yong surrendered, and Zhu Di continued to appoint Sheng Yong. After Sheng Yong resigned, he was ** many times, accused of having different intentions, Sheng Yong was helpless, and chose to commit suicide in the first year of Yongle (1403).
Ping'an is the adopted son of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, the son of Jiningwei's commander Pingding, who fought with Zhu Di in his early years, and after his father's death, he was succeeded as Jiningwei's commander. After Zhu Di launched the Battle of Jingjing, Ping'an followed Geng Bingwen north to quell the rebellion as a general. From the second year of Jianwen (1400) to the third year of Jianwen (1401), Zhu Di was repeatedly defeated in the Battle of Jingyan and several of his generals were killed.
In the fourth year of Ping'an Jianwen, Ping'an was defeated and captured in the battle with the Yan army, and the generals of the Yan army asked for Ping'an to be executed, but Zhu Di thought that the warriors raised by Ming Taizu were only Ping'an, and he also cherished Ping'an's talent and bravery, so he selected elite soldiers to escort him to Beiping, and ordered the prince Zhu Gaochi and Guo Zi and others to treat him well.
After Zhu Di ascended the throne, he appointed Ping'an as the commander of the capital of Beiping, and soon became the governor of the Houfu Prefecture. In the seventh year of Yongle (1409), he was forced to commit suicide.
Mei Yin is the son-in-law of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, and married Zhu Yuanzhang's eldest daughter, Princess Ningguo, among Zhu Yuanzhang's 16 horses, Mei Yin is the most loved by Zhu Yuanzhang, and he has secretly ordered him to assist Zhu Yunwen.
Mei Yin was simple and upright by nature, cautious in handling things, good at riding and archery, rich in strategy, and he was also proficient in scripture and history, and was called "Confucianism" by the people of the time.
Mei Yinjing was difficult to fight, Mei Yin was ordered to guard Huai'an to defend the Yan army, and once cut the ears and noses of the Yan envoys, so he had a bad relationship with Zhu Di, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty. In October of the third year of Yongle (1405), when he passed through the bamboo bridge on the way to the court, he fell into the bridge and drowned for Tan Shen, the former military governor and Zhao Xi, the commander of Jinyiwei. Afterwards, Zhao Xi said that Mei Yin committed suicide by throwing herself into the water.
Summary:
From this point of view, there are still some generals under Zhu Yunwen who are more capable of fighting, but Zhu Yunwen did not use them well, especially Li Jinglong, as the commander of the army, his command ability is really worrying, and hundreds of thousands of troops are ruined in his hands. From this point of view, Zhu Yunwen's failure is inevitable.