Zhu Yuanzhang decided to take a dirty and critical step
In 1355, Zhu Yuanzhang's anti-Yuan rebellion in Fengyang, Anhui Province entered a critical moment. At this time, Chen Youliang had already occupied the entire territory of Hubei, and traced up the river to capture Chongqing, and at the same time went down the river to Nanchang, which made everyone in the world surprised by his strength.
And Zhang Shicheng also conquered Yangzhou, Suzhou and Changzhou in just two years, making him rich in the world. In contrast, Zhu Yuanzhang was just a small team of landless peasants, down-and-out craftsmen, and wandering proletarians, and even only the third-in-command.
Unable to make ends meet, they decided to cross the river to Nanjing in search of a chance to survive. However, crossing the river was a very dangerous move at that time, because the water army of the ten-year army and the hundred-year navy were arms with accumulated technology, and Zhu Yuanzhang's team did not have a water army, and their ally Chaohu Shuikou was only a "water boxer".
If they succeeded in smuggling across the river, the Yuan army would definitely blockade the river. Moreover, the landlords' armed forces in the Jiangnan area were as dense as the regimental training of the Zeng Guo Domain, and once they lost supplies, the troops crossing the river would become unpaid fires.
In the face of such a dilemma, how will Zhu Yuanzhang break the situation? In this chapter, he will take the most crucial and dirtiest step of his life.
20 years ago, Peng Yingyu preached in Chaohu and accepted Miss Jinhua (the original form of Jinhua's mother-in-law in "Heaven and Dragon Slayer"), Zhao Pusheng, Li Pusheng and other apprentices. Most of these apprentices were fishermen and had strong water warfare capabilities, but land warfare collapsed.
At this time, they were being attacked by Han Lin'er's ruthless Zuo Junbi. Zuo Junbi previously destroyed the Xuanrang King in the Yuan Dynasty's "Three Kings Zhenjianghuai" system, and occupied the Lujiang River, with very strong combat effectiveness.
And Zhu Yuanzhang and his team couldn't get along in Jiangbei, so the two parties negotiated and decided to cross the river together to develop in Jiangnan. On a rainy night, the Chaohu Water Bandits broke through the blockade of the Yuan Water Army in more than 1,000 boats, slipped into the Yangtze River, and joined Zhu Yuanzhang's team.
Since then, the three major factions of Guo Tianxu and Zhu Yuanzhang Group have been formally formed: 1. The direct faction left behind after Guo Zixing's death, including Guo's second son Guo Tianxu and brother-in-law Zhang Tianyou, they have the strongest combat power of the team returning from the northern expedition.
Second, Chaohu Shuikou, the leaders are Li Pusheng and Zhao Pusheng, and their subordinates are Liao Yongan, Liao Yongzhong brothers, Yu Tingyu, Yu Tonghai, Yu Tongyuan, Yu Tongyuan father and son, etc. 3. Zhu Yuanzhang's faction, including more than 20 Fengyang villagers such as Xu Da, as well as the unwilling literati Li Shanchang, Feng Guoyong, Feng Guosheng, etc., as well as Chang Yuchun and Zhao Desheng, who later defected.
There are two major tasks in front of Zhu Yuanzhang: 1. Compete for the leadership of the faction; 2. Lead everyone to make a fortune in Jiangnan. He was faced with two choices for crossing the river: 1. Nanjing; 2. Quarry rock.
Nanjing is the location of the Yuan Dynasty's Jiangnan Zhudao Imperial Historical Platform, which has jurisdiction over ten provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Huguang, and has gathered a lot of wealth. The mountain artillerymen in Jiangbei felt that the people in Jiangnan were all sissies, so most of them wanted to cross the river directly to Nanjing.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang collected some scholars, and they provided the favorite place where the Northern Dynasty crossed the river in history: Quarry Rock.
Located in the quarry rock in the urban area of Ma'anshan, Anhui Province, it is the place where the poet immortal Li Bai once drunk to catch the moon and fly to the immortals by whales. Li Bai's "Wangtianmen Mountain" was written here: "The gate of heaven interrupted the opening of the Chu River, and the clear water flowed eastward to this time.
The green hills on both sides of the strait are opposite each other, and the lonely sail comes by the sun. "The river here is narrow, easy to raid, and it is the throat of Jiangnan. In all dynasties, there are many people who cross the river from here, such as the Sui Dynasty and Han captured the tiger to destroy the Chen Dynasty, the Northern Song Dynasty Cao Bin destroyed the Southern Tang Dynasty, the Western Jin Dynasty King Hun destroyed Wu, and Yu Yunwen also had a great victory in Quarry Rock.
On June 1, 1355, Guo Tianxu and Zhu Yuanzhang led more than 1,000 small boats and rafts from Chaohu Lake to successfully cross the river, but due to heavy rain, the next day was postponed by another day.
On 2 June, they set out again and successfully captured Quarry Rock. However, after that, the Yuan army reacted quickly and used the giant ship to block the quarry river gate, cutting off the return route of the Red Turban Army and causing them to fall into death.
However, this inspired their determination and courage, and they successfully captured the city in Dangtu County, Ma'anshan City, which made the Jiangnan people see hope and strength.
Original text: The Hunan army was originally an armed landlord, connected by the ties of fellow villagers, clans, colleagues, teachers and students, and even if Zhu Yuanzhang's troops crossed the river a year ago, in the face of countless landlord armed forces loyal to the Yuan Dynasty, they would be like water without a source, quickly drying up.
Peng Yingyu, who broke into Zhejiang, is a precedent. But the battle of Gaoyou completely lost the authority of the Great Yuan, and everyone knew that the Great Yuan was finished, and the landlord class quickly turned around to find a new master.
After capturing Dangtu County, Zhu Yuanzhang was ready to plunder, and at this time, the intellectuals among the landlords stood up and began to cooperate with Zhu Yuanzhang and even the Ming Dynasty for more than 200 years.
When Tu County Confucianism Li Xi and Tao An led the local celebrities, they went out of the city to line up to meet Guo Tianxu and Zhu Yuanzhang's team. Li Xi came from a local clan, and his ancestors served as the mayor of Raozhou (governing seven counties near present-day Poyang Lake) in the Southern Song Dynasty, and served as the dean of the academy at this time.
Tao An is not ordinary, he was born and also served as the dean of the college. In ancient times, people with meritorious names rarely fell into the grass, for example, Li Zicheng only had a person Niu Jinxing join the gang three years before he entered Beijing, and then Li regarded him as a treasure and made Niu the founding prime minister.
These landlord-class intellectuals did not form a village to defend themselves, and second, they did not flee to other places, but even went out of the city to meet Zhu Yuanzhang. Li Xi and Tao'an also served as college deans, and most of the students were the children of landlords, and they had a network of landlords behind them.
Dayuan was completely abandoned by the landlords. When the time comes, heaven and earth are working together, Zhu Yuanzhang is so smooth, believe it! The wealthy households in the city donated a batch of gold and silver treasures, and the grain and grass were also well prepared, and the two sides formally established cooperation.
Guo Tianxu and Zhu Yuanzhang also reciprocated and appointed Li Xi as the prefect and responsible for local administration. Later, many Confucian scholars were recruited, including Wang Guangyang, who was later named a loyal and diligent uncle.
For these Confucian scholars, Zhu Yuanzhang's flickering kung fu was fully utilized. He found the appetite of the poor and sour literati, praising this as a living Kong Ming today, and praising that one as Sai Zhangliang tomorrow. The Confucian scholars flew up happily, and sighed that Lao Tzu had read the Four Books and Five Classics for a generation, and now he finally met someone who knew the goods.
For example, for Tao An, Zhu Yuanzhang wrote a couplet, calling him "the unparalleled scholar of the national dynasty strategy, the first Hanyuan article"; For Wang Guangyang, Zhu Yuanzhang "compares his son to the house and Kong Ming"; There are also Li Shanchang, who is compared to "Xiao He", and Liu Bowen, the "living Zhang Liang" who will defect soon, etc., Zhu Yuanzhang's flickering kung fu is really extraordinary, and the scribes are happy.
Fourth, the dirtiest step to defend the city of Nanjing is the Yuan Dynasty Jiangnan Xingtai Imperial Shi Dafu and the party member Fushou. This is a capable minister, after Nanjing's main force ran out of ink in Gaoyou, he quickly got a group of militiamen, and also collected money from wealthy households in the south of the Yangtze River, opened a reward, and excited the people.
When Tu fell, Fushou reacted quickly and quickly mobilized tens of thousands of civilian troops to besiege him. The team leaders were Kang Maocai and Chen Yuxian. Kang is Chen Youliang's fellow villager in Hubei and is familiar with each other.
This point is very crucial, laying the groundwork for Zhu Yuanzhang's victory over Chen Youliang in the future. Chen Yuxian's hometown was not found, and it was probably also transferred from other troops. The Yuan army was menacing, taking advantage of Guo Tianxu and Zhu Yuanzhang's unstable foothold, besieged the city, and the situation was critical.
Zhu Yuanzhang led the dead soldiers to refuse to defend and barely hold on. The second Japanese army came again, Xu Da led the cavalry to attack from behind, attacked from both sides, broke the Yuan army, and captured Chen Yuxian. The next thing is very weird and interesting, Mao Zhishen lists the facts, and invites readers to judge for themselves.
Zhu Yuanzhang had a deep talk with Chen Yu. Chen Wei is an outsider, neither from the imperial examination, nor a Mongolian, there is no need to work hard for the Yuan Dynasty that is about to overthrow, it is better to break Nanjing with Zhu Yuanzhang, which is in line with his interests to maximize.
Chen quickly agreed to join. On the second day, Zhu Yuanzhang prepared a white horse and black bull to sacrifice to the sky, and Chen Yuxian was the first.
Chen Wei first offered a plan, the terrain of the Nanjing city wall is dangerous, and a strong naval army is needed to conquer it in history. Zhu Yuanzhang refuted Chen's statement, believing that our army had successfully crossed the river, and it was enough to give up the boat and march forward, and Jiangnan could not resist the victory of our army.
However, Guo Tianxu and Zhu Yuanzhang adopted Chen's strategy, and Guo Tianxu led his troops to conquer Liyang in the south of Nanjing and Jurong and Lishui in the southeast, and surrounded Nanjing from three sides.
The offensive line of the rebel army had been determined, and Nanjing was surrounded on three sides. Chen won everyone's trust first, was released back to the barracks, and re-commanded the army. However, Chen's situation began to turn bad.
According to the record of "Ming Shilu", Chen had three signs of defection, all of which were recognized by Zhu Yuanzhang. The first time was after Guo Tianxu's failed attack on Nanjing, Chen Yu blamed himself first and began to make small moves, and someone reported the matter to Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang said that he knew Chen's dishonesty, but if he killed him, he might lose the hearts of the heroes. Zhu Yuanzhang then found Chen Yuxian and directly told him that everyone had different opinions and opinions, and they could choose to follow Yuan Jun or follow him, but they did not force him.
The second time was after Chen Wei returned to the camp first, he persuaded the righteous army to slow down the attack on Nanjing, and Zhu Yuanzhang knew that this was his fraud, so he replied to him by letter. The third time was that Chen Wei first secretly agreed with the generals of the Yuan army, and then lied that he was captured alive, and asked Zhu Yuanzhang to come to the military camp to accept the prisoners in person.
Zhu Yuanzhang said that Chen had a lot of fraud and could not be trusted, but he did not expose Chen. In September, the Red Turban Army attacked Nanjing again, Zhu Yuanzhang still sat in Dangtu County, while Chen Wei attacked the south gate of Nanjing first, and Guo Tianxu and Zhang Tianyou rushed from Jurong and Liyang to attack the east gate of Nanjing.
Guo Tianxu and Zhang Tianyou didn't know about Chen Yuxian's suspicions. After that, Chen Yu first invited Marshal Guo to drink and killed him, and then captured Marshal Zhang and handed him over to Fu Shou, who also killed him.
Chen Wei first united his army to attack, resulting in the rout of the army. More than 20,000 people were killed and drowned in the Red Turbans. This means that half of Guo Tianxu and Zhu Yuanzhang's group were killed. Around this time, Li Pusheng of Chaohu Group was also killed by Zhu Yuanzhang, there may be a crime, who cares?
Of course, "History of the Ming Dynasty" said that Li Pusheng wanted to make the first move, but was killed by Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhao Pusheng, the second-in-command of Chaohu Group, fled in fright and defected to Xu Shouhui and Chen Youliang Group.
So far, only Zhu Yuanzhang is the leader of the three major factions of Guo Tianxu and Zhu Yuanzhang Group mentioned above. Guo Tianxu and Li Pusheng's subordinates can only continue to follow Zhu Yuanzhang, otherwise what else can they do?
Retreat to Jiangbei and wait to starve to death? Although the people of the Ming Dynasty covered up this black history of Zhu Yuanzhang in every possible way, contemporary scholars have roughly restored the truth to us from the vast number of books.
What if Zhu Yuanzhang didn't just borrow a knife to kill people? What if all this was agreed in advance between Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Yu? If the two originally agreed that Chen Yu would help Zhu Yuanzhang kill Guo Tianxu and others first, and enter Nanjing after gaining the trust of the Yuan army, what if they should cooperate with the outside?
But it's a pity that Chen Yu was accidentally killed by other militias soon after, and there is no way to confirm Mao Zhishen's guess. But this cat is not a random guess. In March of the following year, Zhu Yuanzhang attacked Nanjing again, and Chen Zhaoxian, the son of Chen Yuxian, who was stationed outside the city, led his troops to surrender without firing a single shot.
Zhu Yuanzhang treated Chen Zhaoxian favorably, making him a confidant and general, and still commanding his people. Zhu Yuanzhang even selected 500 people from Chen Yuxian's remaining troops to serve as personal guards. This is extremely unusual, you must know that Zhu Yuanzhang is very suspicious and has never trusted any partner in his life.
Zhu Yuanzhang lost half of the group's soldiers and horses in exchange for absolute leadership of the army. This is also in line with Zhu Yuanzhang's strategy of wantonly ministers in the future and sacrificing operational efficiency in exchange for stability.
Zhu Yuanzhang became Guo Zixing's godson-in-law, was it lucky or unlucky? This question has sparked controversy among historians. Some historians believe that Zhu Yuanzhang thus received the support and help of Guo Zixing and became the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
Other historians believe that Zhu Yuanzhang was embroiled in Guo Zixing's family feuds, which affected his political career. In any case, this event became one of the important events in the history of the Ming Dynasty.