After years of hard work, Zhu Yuanzhang finally rose to become the leader of the southern heroes at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, occupying the richest Jiangnan region in the country, and the Northern Expedition was imperative.
Zhu Yuanzhang's Northern Expedition set a precedent for unifying China from the south to the north, which had no precedent before the Ming Dynasty.
Previously, most of the Northern Expeditions in previous dynasties ended in failure, but what is the secret of Zhu Yuanzhang's success?
With abundant financial resources, you can act with more confidence. Zhu Yuanzhang's self-confidence may be inseparable from the superior economic conditions of his base area.
Since the beginning of the uprising, he has adopted Zhu Sheng's strategy of "building high walls, accumulating grain, and slowly becoming king", and has continued to accumulate strength in the south.
Although the development of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River was later than that of the north, with the changes of history, as the northerners moved south, the economic center of gravity gradually shifted southward, and it gradually became the richest region in the country.
During the Yuan Dynasty, in order to obtain grain from the south of the Yangtze River, he was forced to sign agreements with local powers such as Zhang Shicheng and Fang Guozhen.
These leaders who were smugglers gained a lot of benefits from their dealings with the Yuan Dynasty, but they lacked the determination to expel the Tartars and overthrow the Yuan Dynasty, and only coveted temporary profits.
This method of trading caused the Yuan Dynasty to fall into the predicament of famine for a time.
The map above is a map of the distribution of power at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. In this magnificent era, Zhu Yuanzhang's team was the first to realize the possibility of gaining a foothold in Jiangnan and unifying the world.
In the sixteenth year of Zhizheng (1356), after Zhu Yuanzhang captured Jiqing (Yingtian), in order to avoid the intensification of hostile relations with the Yuan Dynasty as much as possible, he chose to concentrate on sweeping away the southern heroes first.
At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang sent envoys to negotiate peace with Yuan Dynasty generals such as Wang Baobao (Kuokuo Timur) in the north, and on the other hand, he successively defeated Chen Youliang, Zhang Shicheng, and Fang Guozhen, occupied large territories such as Huguang, Jiangxi, western Zhejiang, Huaidong, and eastern Zhejiang, and gradually encroached on the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty's forces in the south of the Yangtze River.
Zhu Yuanzhang, a former poor child, finally took possession of the fertile land in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River after destroying Chen Youliang in the west and Zhang Shicheng in the east, and established the Ming regime with Yingtian (now Nanjing) as the center.
At this point, an important grain supply line of the Yuan Dynasty in the south was completely cut off.
Nanjing Ming Xiaoling, when Xu Da's army went all the way south, Zhu Yuanzhang confidently told him: "If you conquer Huai'an, you can control Jianghuai and Qilu." After capturing Huaidong, Zhu Yuanzhang was even more ambitious: "Great things can be accomplished, and the world is not difficult to decide." ”
He already had a full grasp of the seizure of the Central Plains. Zhu Yuanzhang also paid close attention to the situation in the north, and he sent spies to reconnoiter the situation of the Yuan Dynasty through Fang Guozhen's eastern Zhejiang.
At that time, the Yuan army was already in chaos because of factions, and local generals such as Wang Baobao, who was entrenched in Shanxi, and Li Siqi, who occupied Guanzhong, went their own way and attacked each other.
The Yuan Dynasty's area of control had shrunk considerably, leaving only the area around Dadu on the North China Plain, as well as the frontier areas of Liaodong, Yunnan, and the Mongolian Plateau, which had long since lost the spirit of sweeping across Europe and Asia.
Wang Baobao, in Jin Yong's "Heaven and Dragon Slayer", is Zhao Min's elder brother, and his sense of existence is almost zero. But in history, when the Yuan Dynasty was about to collapse, he took on the role of "fire captain" alone.
His life is a testament to the importance of being a regional leader during the difficult and complex struggle for the preservation of the country in the last 20 years of the Yuan dynasty. As early as when Zhu Yuanzhang was fighting for hegemony in Jiangnan, Wang Baobao was stationed in Henan.
At that time, he could completely let Zhu Yuanzhang suffer from the enemy and stop him from sweeping away the process of the southern heroes. However, the Yuan Dynasty adopted a strategy of wooing and even recruiting Zhu Yuanzhang, sending Zhang Chang, the head of the household department, to negotiate peace with him, missing the best opportunity to eliminate him.
During the confrontation between the north and the south, the Yuan general Polo Timur launched a civil strife in the rear and invaded Dadu, and Wang Baobao had to return to the division to rescue.
Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of the internal chaos of the Yuan army to send envoys to dissociate the relationship between Wang Baobao and other local generals, and put forward a suggestion to them to "continue my old friendship and protect Xinjiangyu", persuading them not to compete with themselves for the benefits of Jianghuai, but to guard the important land of Youyan.
When Zhu Yuanzhang gradually unified Jiangnan, Wang Baobao once again fell into the civil strife of the Yuan Dynasty, fighting with Li Siqi and other Yuan Dynasty generals in the Central Plains and North China, and even when the Ming army went north, he had no time to rescue Dadu.
It can be said that the chaotic situation of the Yuan army in the north gave Zhu Yuanzhang the opportunity to divide and disintegrate. In the twenty-seventh year of Zhizheng (1367), at a military meeting on the eve of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang discussed the Northern Expedition strategy with Xu Da, Chang Yuchun and other generals.
All the generals believed that the Yuan Dynasty would fall, and advocated going straight to the capital and fighting with the Yuan Dynasty. However, Zhu Yuanzhang disagreed, and with his geographical expertise, he proposed his own set of Northern Expedition plans.
He advocated taking Shandong first and removing the barriers of the Yuan Dynasty; then rotated to Henan and cut off the wings of the Yuan army; Then occupy Tongguan and hold the gate of the Yuan army.
Once you control these areas, you can grasp the situation in the world, and then march into the Yuan capital, at that time, the Yuan army is helpless and can be overcome without a fight.
Once the Yuan capital is captured, and then go to Yunzhong, Jiuyuan, and Guanlong, you can sweep down. Wang Baobao's career is a testament to the importance of being a regional leader in complex and difficult historical times.
His Northern Expedition showed his unique insight into the geographical and political situation.
Zhu Yuanzhang chose the Northern Expedition in winter, broke the solidity of the Yuan Dynasty, and implemented the strategy of first Shandong and then Henan, so as to eliminate the barrier to the south of the Yuan capital. Subsequently, the Ming army arrived at Tongguan in the west, stifled the eastward exit of the Yuan army in Guanzhong, and successfully weakened the strength of the Yuan army.
After capturing Dadu, the Ming army marched south to Fujian and Guangdong, pacified the south, and accelerated the process of unification. At this time, the Yuan army went south, mostly in the autumn season of high horses and fattening, but Zhu Yuanzhang went the opposite way and chose to go on the northern expedition in winter, demonstrating his ambition to change his life against the sky.
With the capture of Shandong, the counties along the way took refuge, and the Ming army smoothly advanced to Luxi, further breaking the power of the Yuan army. This series of actions, like toppling dominoes, triggered a chain reaction and paved the way for the Ming army to dominate the world.
The ancient city of Taierzhuang is located in the center of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, along which the Northern Expedition of the Ming Army began from Shandong. After the loss of Shandong, there was no natural barrier to the southeast of the Yuan capital that could stop the Ming army from advancing north.
In the first year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang continued to eradicate the other wing in the south of Dadu in accordance with the strategy previously formulated. He appointed Deng Yu as the general of the expedition and marched north from Hubei to form a flank attack on Henan with Xu Da's army in Shandong.
When the Ming army swept through Shandong and Henan, the Yuan Dynasty issued edicts many times, ordering the "four generals of Guanzhong" Li Siqi, Zhang Liangbi, Toliebo, and Kong Xing to lead troops to Qin Wang, but these local generals all had their own ghosts and did not listen to orders.
After Deng Yu led the army to occupy Henan, the Ming army could take advantage of the situation to march into Guanzhong, which was also the strategy of Huan Wen and Liu Yu during the Northern Expedition of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. However, Zhu Yuanzhang decisively stopped his westward expansion.
The Guanzhong area is surrounded by mountains and rivers, easy to defend and difficult to attack, since ancient times it is a place where soldiers must fight, the Qin, Han and Sui and Tang dynasties are based on Guanzhong to unify the world. Sima Qian even wrote in the "Historical Records": "Those who do things must be in the southeast, and those who reap merit must be in the northwest." ”
However, since the Tang Dynasty, China's political and economic center has shifted to the east and south, and the Guanzhong region has gradually declined. The theory that whoever wins the middle will win the world has long been out of date.
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang did not believe in superstition and dogmatism, and gave up attacking Guanzhong, but first concentrated his troops on the Northern Expedition, and at the same time sent troops to occupy Tongguan, firmly blocking the gate of the Yuan army in Guanzhong to go east, and pinning down the northwest to prevent future troubles.
Tongguan is like the main gate of Guanzhong, the terrain is dangerous, and it controls the main road between Guanzhong and the Central Plains. Exit the Tong Pass to enter the Sanchuan River Valley, threatening the rear of the Ming army. Losing Tongguan, the Yuan army in Guanzhong was naturally beyond the reach of the whip, and could only retreat in Shaanxi until the fall of the Yuan Dynasty.
The mountains blocked the attackers' path, making Shanxi between Guanzhong and Hebei a strategic location. At this time, Wang Baobao of Shanxi had a heavy army, but he was suspicious of the Yuan Dynasty.
The Yuan dynasty repeatedly tried to weaken Wang Baobao's military power and colluded with his generals to prepare to wipe out his army. Wang Baobao fought back decisively, occupied Taiyuan, and executed the local Yuan Dynasty**.
However, the Yuan Dynasty did not give up because of this, but instead started a civil war, which led to the Yuan Dynasty being broken on both flanks and falling into a situation of isolation. The Ming army quickly captured Shandong, Henan, and Shanxi, making the Yuan generals fight on their own, and the situation of the Yuan Dynasty became more and more difficult.
In the end, the Ming army captured Dadu with lightning speed, and the Yuan Dynasty ended its 97-year rule in the Central Plains, and Zhu Yuanzhang renamed Dadu Beiping.
It took less than a year for the Ming army to fully recover the sixteen states of Yanyun, which had been ruled by non-Han forces for more than 400 years.
Xu Da led the army to capture Dadu, and immediately waved his army north, pointing directly at the northwest region where the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty were located. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Xu Da and Chang Yuchun to lead the army into Shanxi to defeat the famous general Wang Baobao of the Yuan Dynasty.
When Emperor Yuan Shun was defeated and fled, he appointed the questionable Wang Baobao to take charge of recovering Beiping, Wang Baobao was very serious about this matter, deeply felt the remorse of failing to save the Yuan Dynasty, and decided to let go of his hatred for the Yuan Dynasty.
At the same time as the Ming Dynasty army set out, Wang Baobao led a large army from Yanmen Pass to Beiping. Seeing this, Xu Da immediately adopted the strategy of "encircling Wei to save Zhao" and launched an attack on Wang Baobao's base camp Taiyuan, and Wang Baobao was forced to withdraw with his troops.
After Chang Yuchun learned the news, he rebelled against Wang Bao's Ministry and used the open-nosed horse as an internal response, planning to carry out a surprise attack at night. Wang Baobao arrived when Taiyuan City was about to fall, but the camp had been broken by Chang Yuchun.
The whole army fell into disarray, and Wang Baobao fled to Gansu in a hurry with only eighteen cavalry.
Wang Baobao was once the main battle faction in Lanzhou, an important town in the northwest. However, in the second year of Hongwu (1369), after the Ming army pacified Shanxi in the second year of Hongwu (1369), the troops were divided into two routes.
One route was led by Chang Yuchun to strengthen the defense of Beiping and take advantage of the situation to attack the Northern Yuan, and the other route was led by Xu Da to capture the west of Tongguan. With the Tongguan previously occupied, the four generals in Guanzhong have become the turtles in the urn, and Shaanxi and Longyou were soon pocketed by the Ming army.
The four generals in Guanzhong are strong on the outside and strong in the middle, and they are experts in the civil war. However, Wang Baobao, who had fled to Lanzhou, an important town in the northwest, was still unwilling to give up lightly and resisted again, but this time the defeat was even worse.
After the defeat, Wang Baobao and his wife crossed the Yellow River with difficulty holding a large piece of wood, trekking all the way through mountains and rivers, and then fled to Helin where the Northern Yuan court was located, and never set foot in the Central Plains again.
By the third year of Hongwu (1370), the Ming army sent out the Northern Expedition for nearly two years, and the northern provinces were basically pacified.
After the southern expedition and the northern war, after the troops of the first line of Shaanxi, Gansu and Ning were wiped out, the Yuan Dynasty still had more than 200,000 troops from Naha in Liaodong, 100,000 troops of King Liang in Yunnan, and even Xining in Qinghai, Chijin, Hami, Turpan and other places outside Jiayu Pass, and some of the troops of the kings were deployed, and the land of Sichuan and Shu also had the Great Xia regime established by Ming Yuzhen, and the border crisis of the Ming Dynasty should not be underestimated.
Despite this, if we take out the map at this time and take a look at the general trend of the world, we still have to admire the Northern Expedition strategy of the Ming army.
With the great determination of the world, these local forces have been cut into small pieces, and can only be slaughtered by the Ming army, in fact, they cannot pose a threat, and the goal of dominating the world is close at hand.
In the fourth year of Hongwu (1371), the army of the Ming Dynasty, under the leadership of Tang He and Fu Youde, entered Sichuan from Qutang, Qin, Long and other places by land and water. Xia lord Mingsheng (son of Ming Yuzhen) was difficult to resist, and led the crowd to surrender, and Sichuan was quickly pacified.
In the fourteenth year of Hongwu (1381), the Ming army marched into Yunnan, and Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Fu Youde to be the general of the expedition to the south, and Lan Yu and Mu Ying were the deputy to lead 300,000 foot cavalry. King Liang of the Yuan Dynasty defeated Zaravarmi and committed suicide, and the 100,000 yuan army was dispersed.
In the following years, Yunnan was pacified by the Ming army. In the twentieth year of Hongwu (1387), the Ming army went to Liaodong, with Feng Sheng as the general of the conquest, and Fu Youde and Lan Yu as the deputy generals.
Nahachu, the prime minister of Liaodong, is an old acquaintance of Zhu Yuanzhang.
Thirty years ago, Zhu Yuanzhang captured Nahachu when he conquered peace, but considering that he was a descendant of Mu Huali, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang did not want to completely break with the Yuan Dynasty before the unification of Jiangnan, so he let him back.
When the 200,000 Ming army went east, the Yuan army led by Naha was trapped in Liaodong, isolated and helpless, and had no choice but to surrender to the Ming army when they were cornered, and the Liao River valley was all pacified.
In February, the dynamic incentive plan of the Ming Empire was imminent. Looking back on the Northern Expedition strategy of the 27th year of Zheng, it was impeccable and impeccable, as if it had been arranged by fate.