Analysis of the rise of Zhu Yuanzhang from a geographical perspective
Boling shared: Interpret how Zhu Yuanzhang unified the north with the south and broke the law of thousand-year-old history! Are you curious, how Zhu Yuanzhang attacked the strong with the weak, unified the north with the south, and established the Zhu Ming Dynasty with the capital of Nanjing?
Historically, there have been only two examples of unifying China from south to north, one was the Zhu Ming Dynasty and the other was the Guangdong National**. However, the reunification of the Guangdong people is only a formal reunification, and it is a reunification jointly promoted by domestic and foreign forces under the general trend of the world revolution and defeating the old ideas with newism.
And Zhu Yuanzhang's reunification can be said to be a life of hardship and hardship, and the analysis and judgment of geographical factors during this period are even more amazing after a thousand years. Let us interpret how Zhu Yuanzhang unified the north with the south and broke the thousand-year-old historical law from a geographical point of view!
From the point of view of military geography, this place is an ideal forward base for southern and northern wars, rather than a base for rebel forces. As a powerful man in Yingzhou, Liu Futong raised troops in his hometown, which not only has the meaning of returning to his hometown, but also can use the local township party relationship to strengthen his own strength, which is very natural.
When Han Shantong and Liu Futong captured Yingzhou and Runingfu, they would inevitably face a military attack from the Yuan Dynasty, but they actually played a role in attracting the firepower of the Yuan army and sheltering the southern rebels in the entire peasant uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.
Therefore, Xu Shouhui in Qishui, Sesame Li in Xuzhou, Guo Zixing in Dingyuan and other places have raised troops, in less than half a year, the rebel army anti-flag all over Jianghuai.
In February 1352, Guo Zixing broke through Haozhou and took the city under his command. At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang was practicing penance in Huangjue Temple and became a monk in the temple. After this, Zhu Yuanzhang received a letter from his old friend Tang He, in which he advised him to abandon the monks and join the army, and only by joining the Red Turban Army could he go to the light, and never embark on the wrong path.
This letter made Zhu Yuanzhang fall into deep thought, although he has had a short period of cultural study in Huangjue Temple, but in this chaotic era, only by moving forward bravely can he find his own bright future.
After some struggle, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to follow Tang He's advice and joined Guo Zixing's army and became one of them. In the army, Zhu Yuanzhang was deeply trusted by Guo Zixing for his bravery and good fighting, and was regarded as his right-hand man.
At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang has also won the recognition of his colleagues because of his intelligence and intelligence, and is respectfully known as Zhu Gongzi. And Zhu Yuanzhang's fate turned around when he met Guo Zixing's daughter Ma Xiuying.
Ma Xiuying was deeply fascinated by Zhu Yuanzhang, and Zhu Yuanzhang was also moved by her beauty and kindness, so the two got married. This not only allowed Zhu Yuanzhang to be recognized by Guo Zixing, but also laid a solid foundation for his career.
After becoming Guo Zixing's confidant, Zhu Yuanzhang had more opportunities to show his talents. He not only recruited a large number of elite soldiers, including Xu Da, Tang He, Zhou Dexing, Feng Guoyong, Feng Guosheng, etc., but also received the support of Guo Zixing, was able to leave Haozhou, conquer Dingyuan County, and successfully recruited the Donkey Paizhai Righteous Army and the Hengshan Jian Yuan Army.
His army grew to the point of being a commander with more than 20,000 men. Just when Zhu Yuanzhang's career was in full swing, Feng Guoyong put forward a new proposal.
He believes that Jinling is a good place where dragons and tigers are located, and it is the real capital of emperors. If you can capture Jinling first, and then lead the army out in all directions to sweep away the crowd, it will not be difficult for the world to be pacified.
Zhu Yuanzhang thought so, so he decided to go south, first conquer Chuzhou, Hezhou and other important cities, cross the Yangtze River into Taiping Road, and the front of the army pointed directly at Jiqing. Zhu Yuanzhang knew very well that the siege could not be rushed up, and there must be proper tactics to exchange the minimum price for the greatest result.
So, he began to study the terrain of Jiqing and decided to clear its outer defense line first, so that Jiqing would become an isolated city. Only in this way can it be easier to siege or besiege a city.
This is Zhu Yuanzhang's version of the strategy of surrounding the city from the countryside. After a series of careful planning, Zhu Yuanzhang led the army to conquer Lishui, Liyang, Jurong, Wuhu and other cities, and successfully cut off the idea of the righteous army and the Yuan army to rescue Jiqing.
Finally, in March 1356, he conquered the lonely city of Jiqing in one fell swoop and renamed it Yingtian. So far, Zhu Yuanzhang, who has been in the army for 4 years, has an army of nearly 100,000 and occupies a large city of hundreds of thousands of people, laying a solid foundation for his life's work.
Yingtian is an important town in the southeast, why did the Yuan Dynasty not besiege and recover it? The reason was that the Yuan army could not arrive. In the year after Zhu Yuanzhang conquered Yingtian, Liu Futong, who was defeated by the Yuan army, reorganized his old department, on the one hand, he personally captured Bianliang, and then went north to the daimyo and Wei Hui, and went deep into the core area of the Yuan Dynasty.
On the other hand, he sent Mao Gui to attack Shandong Prefecture, sent Li Wu to march into Wuguan, troops to Chang'an, and sent Mr. Guan to march into Shanxi. Mr. Guan divided his troops into two routes, all the way from Shangdang to Yanmen, and then went out of the fortress, burned the capital of Kublai Khan, who claimed to be Emperor Jianyuan, and finally fought to Goryeo through Liaoyang.
Liu Futong's offensive was in full swing, and the momentum was huge, comparable to the momentum of Chen Sheng in the last years of the Qin Dynasty. Therefore, he became the leader of the general alliance of the rebel army at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and the rebel army from the Huai River to the Qinling Mountains, from the Great Wall to the Yangtze River, was related to him.
In this context, the prominent Liu Futong became the primary target of the Yuan Dynasty. However, it was not until 1362 that Wang Baobao inherited the soldiers and horses of Chakhan Timur and basically pacified the northern Red Turban Army, but"Jianghuai did not dare to ask again"At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang had already taken advantage of the window period of the Yuan Dynasty to sit in the southeast.
Therefore, the History of the Ming Dynasty admits that:"Futong will be sent out of four ways, breaking Shandong, Kou **, plundering the thistle, the Central Plains chaos, Taizu has to be the first to set the river table. "It can be said that Zhu Yuanzhang in the early stage of the uprising took advantage of the situation, and participated in the righteous army by borrowing Jianghuai"Initiate the banner of righteousness"The momentum of taking charge of an army alone is to borrow Guo Zixing's momentum, the southward attack on the city is to borrow Liu Futong's momentum, and the foothold on Yingtian is borrowed"The Yangtze River is dangerous, and the mountains and rivers are victorious"of potential.
However, the special geographical environment only built a historical stage for Zhu Yuanzhang, and what really stirred him up was his unique judgment. Zhenjiang and Suxichang in the east, Chuzhou and Hefei in the west, Huzhou and Hangzhou in the south are all land of fish and rice, which can provide a steady stream of food and population.
With these two conditions, Zhu Yuanzhang got Yingtian, which is equivalent to getting the opening god costume just after leaving the novice village. However, the leaders of the rebel army in the past dynasties captured many Yingtian, but only Zhu Yuanzhang was the only one who could unify China based on Yingtian.
Why is that? The reason is that Yingtian is only a necessary geographical plate for the southeast, and if China is to be unified from south to north, it is necessary to build a complete southeast geographical plate with Yingtian as the core.
Zhu Yuanzhang was a steady, wise and courageous leader, who gradually expanded his territory in four years, broke the encirclement of the enemy army, and became the best of the best.
He is not like Liu Futong to attack from all sides, not like Zhang Shicheng who is greedy for wealth and nobility, and not like Chen Youliang who likes to gamble, but through a steady and steady way, he carefully constructs his own geographical map.
When facing Xu Shouhui in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Zhu Yuanzhang made sufficient preparations and prepared for a four-year war, with a fifty percent chance of victory. In 1360, Chen Youliang led the army of the country down the river, but Zhu Yuanzhang remained calm and his military deployment was still as steady as an old dog.
He ordered Hu Dahai to attack Xinzhou, threaten Chen Youliang's Jiangxi territory, and force Chen Youliang to return to help. On the other hand, he personally led generals such as Xu Da and Chang Yuchun to face Chen Youliang in Yingtian's Longwan.
In the fierce battle, the generals all suggested that Zhu Yuanzhang attack, but he shook his head and said a sentence: "The sky is raining, fun food, take the rain to hit it." Zhu Yuanzhang's resourcefulness was verified, and it really rained heavily, Zhu Yuanzhang took the opportunity to wait for work, attacked by land and water, and defeated Chen Youliang.
Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of the victory to pursue and conquered Anqing, an important town on the Yangtze River. Zhu Yuanzhang's steadiness and resourcefulness enabled him to win a glimmer of life in the geographical environment surrounded by strong enemies, and his achievements were not accidental, but after a long period of careful preparation and calm analysis.
His story teaches us that stability and calmness are the cornerstones of success, and that no matter what difficulties we face, we need to remain calm and fully prepared in order to achieve ultimate victory.
Zhu Yuanzhang maintained friendly relations with Chakhan Timur of the Yuan Dynasty, and personally led the army to conquer Chen Youliang, continuing the style of the Longwan War. After the defeat of Chen Youliang in Jiangzhou, Zhu Yuanzhang led his army to capture Jiangzhou, Nankang, Jianchang, Raozhou, Qizhou, Huangzhou, Fuzhou and other places.
Under the strong offensive, Chen Youliang's Jiangxi Provincial Prime Minister Hu Tingrui could not support it, so he surrendered to Zhu Yuanzhang with Longxing Road and changed the name to Hongdu (Nanchang). Since then, Zhu Yuanzhang's territory has almost doubled, and the prefectures and counties in southern Jiangxi have also come and gone.
Explore a topographic map of the entire territory of Jiangxi.
Zhu Yuanzhang achieved a major victory in the Jiangbei situation map, successfully captured Hongdu, occupied the strategic fulcrum of Yingtian and Wuchang, and thus grasped the initiative in the war.
After that, he could attack Wuchang at any time through Huangzhou and Qizhou, like a sharp sword hanging over Chen Youliang's head. Although Chen Youliang still has strong military strength, he has lost to Zhu Yuanzhang in geostrategy.
As long as Zhu Yuanzhang continues to play steadily, there is almost no suspense in defeating Chen Youliang. Next is the Battle of Poyang Lake, Zhu Yuanzhang personally led troops to rescue Hongdu, the two armies fought at Poyang Lake, Zhu Yuanzhang first surrounded and then decisively, using Jiangzhou's Nanhukou ambush soldiers and horses to block Chen Youliang's retreat, and set up defenders to threaten Chen Youliang's flank in Wuyangdu, southeast of Hongdu.
On the battlefield of Poyang Lake, Zhu Yuanzhang personally commanded the troops to fight back and forth with Chen Youliang. They all know that the ownership of Poyang Lake determines the ownership of Hongdu, the ownership of Hongdu determines the ownership of the southeast half of the wall, and the ownership of the southeast half of the wall determines the direction of the world.
When the gale blew northeast, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately ordered the death squad to drive seven ships, hide gunpowder in the reeds, and set fire to Chen Youliang's ship. The wind was fierce, the fire was fierce, the smoke was filled, and the lake turned red.
Chen Youliang's soldiers were in chaos, many were burned or drowned, and Chen Youliang lost the courage to fight. Later, Chen Youliang was stopped by Zhu Yuanzhang's ambush soldiers when he tried to break through from Nanhukou, and Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of the situation to pursue Chen Youliang downstream, and Chen Youliang was shot by an arrow and died in the chaotic battle.
Subsequently, Zhu Yuanzhang personally set out to Wuchang in February 1364, Chen Youliang's son Chen Li surrendered, and Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of the situation to capture Hanyang, Chuyang, Yueyang and Jingzhou, and completely controlled the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
Although the course of this war was full of difficulties, the causes and consequences of the war were very simple.
In October 1365, Xu Da and Chang Yuchun conquered Taizhou. In March 1366, Xu Da conquered Gaoyou. In April, Xu Da occupied Huai'an, and then conquered Haozhou, Xuzhou, and Suzhou.
In April, Xu Da conquered Anfeng again. In November, Chang Yuchun conquered Huzhou, Li Wenzhong captured Yuhang, and Xu Da besieged Pingjiang.
A map showing the situation in the Jianghuai region.
In just one year, Zhu Yuanzhang commanded the army to pacify Zhang Shicheng's peripheral territory, successfully captured Jianghuai and the remaining Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, and trapped Zhang Shicheng in the isolated city of Pingjiang.
This marks that Zhu Yuanzhang has completely mastered the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Jianghuai region after ten years of hard work in Yingtian, obtained a complete southeast geographical plate, and his regime is very stable internally, without any ** secession forces.
This makes Zhu Yuanzhang's achievements far surpass those of Sun Quan, Liu Yu, Chen Baxian, Zhao Gou and other emperors who started in Jiangnan. Now, Zhu Yuanzhang has put the world under his sword.
In the first month of 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed the emperor in Yingtian and founded the country, and the country was named Daming and the year was Hongwu. Although the "Ming" in the national name is predicted by the "birth of King Ming" of the Red Turban Army, in fact, Zhu Yuanzhang participated in Guo Zixing's Red Turban Army and has no direct affiliation with Liu Futong and Han Lin'er.
The real ** of the Ming Dynasty is "Zhou Yi", which mentions: "Dazai Qianyuan, the beginning of ten thousand materials, is the domination of the sky." The clouds are raining, and the products are shaped. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the six times were completed, and the six dragons were taken to the sky. ”
Kublai Khan listened to Liu Bingzhong's suggestion and named the country Dayuan to inherit the legal system and territory of the Yuan Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang inherited the Yuan Dynasty in the country name, and according to the theory of "Zhou Yi", the country name was Ming Dynasty.
This shows that Zhu Yuanzhang's ambition is very big. Two months before the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to go north to Mengyuan to restore the northern homeland that had been lost for 200 years.
Regarding the strategy of the Northern Expedition, Chang Yuchun still adheres to the old way of thinking, thinking that he can directly attack the Yuandu, but Zhu Yuanzhang has a different view. He believed that the Yuan Dynasty had been established for a hundred years, and the defense must be very strong, and a direct attack might face difficulties.
He planned to take Shandong first, so as to remove the Yuan Dynasty's barrier, then move his troops to Lianghe, destroy the Yuan Dynasty's barriers, and finally occupy Tongguan and guard it, and strangle the Yuan Dynasty's gates.
He believed that by doing so, he could grasp the terrain advantage of the world, and then attack the Yuan capital, and the Yuan Dynasty would be isolated and defeated without a fight. If successful, Yunzhong, Jiuyuan, Guanlong and other places can be easily occupied.
This is also the geographical strategy adopted by Zhu Yuanzhang in previous campaigns, which has been very successful every time. Now, he intends to use this strategy again on a larger chessboard.
Zhu Yuanzhang's plan has been determined, he ordered Xu Da to be the general of the conquest, Chang Yuchun to be the deputy general, to lead an army of 250,000, with the Huai River as the advance base, and officially expedition to the Central Plains.
Xu Da's first stop was Yizhou, Shandong, where the guard general Wang Xuan had never seen such a powerful army, and was easily conquered by Xu Da. After the capture of Yizhou, the Ming army had a geostrategic fulcrum that affected the situation in Shandong.
Subsequently, Xu Da ordered Han Zheng not to advance westward, control Caozhou and Shanzhou, and block the road for the Yuan army to rescue Shandong. He himself personally led his army to besiege Yidu, and then attacked westward, sweeping Jinan, Dongping, Dongchang, Jining and other places.
In the end, he joined forces with Han Zheng in Lunan and successfully captured Shandong.
Xu Da led the Ming army south, successfully crossed the Yellow River, and connected Yongcheng, Guide, Chenzhou, Xuzhou and other important towns in Henan. Subsequently, they turned around and went north, conquered Kaifeng, passed through the Tiger Pass, and recovered Henan Province.
Immediately afterwards, they went all the way west and captured Tongguan, forming an encirclement of Li Siqi and other warlords of the Yuan Dynasty. After completing this series of military operations, Xu Da sent Deng Yu to lead the army alone, successfully pacified Nanyang Mansion, and re-established contact with the old base of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Yuanzhang led the Ming army in a massive campaign in North China, and his goal was to capture the Shaanxi and Gansu regions, and then the northern expedition to the capital. Although this idea could save time and effort, Zhu Yuanzhang thought that the risk was too great, because if the Ming army could not conquer Dadu, Li Siqi and others would have hope for the Yuan Dynasty and would not surrender easily.
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to adopt a surprise strategy and let the Ming army launch an attack thousands of miles away, so as to cut off the thoughts of Li Siqi and others. Zhu Yuanzhang's strategy shows his generosity.
He sent Xu Da and Chang Yuchun to lead the Ming army to evacuate Tongguan, cross the Yellow River from Kaifeng, capture Weihui, Zhangde, Guangping, and Zhaozhou all the way, and then quickly turn to the southeast, and in Dongchang and other Ming generals led the division, together along both sides of the canal to the north, capture Dezhou, Cangzhou, Tongzhou, and finally conquer Dadu.
After conquering Dadu, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered to leave soldiers and horses to guard Juyong Pass, Gubeikou and other passes, and then he ordered Henan guard Feng Zongyi to enter Shanxi from Huaiqing, Henan, while Xu Da and Chang Yuchun led the Ming army to enter Shanxi through Jingcheng Pass.
In the end, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the main Ming army of Henan garrison Feng Zongyi and Xu Da and Chang Yuchun to meet under the city of Taiyuan. Under the city of Taiyuan, the Ming army and Wang Baobao started a big battle, and finally the Ming army won a great victory, and Chang Yuchun chased to Datong, and Wang Baobao fled to Gansu.
After Xu Da swept Fenzhou, Huozhou, Jinning, and Jiezhou along the Fen River, he entered Shaanxi from Pujin Pass, forced Li Siqi to surrender, defeated Wang Baobao several times, and incorporated the territory east of Lanzhou into the territory of the Ming Dynasty.
In October 1367, Zhu Yuanzhang sent Hu Tingrui, Yang Jing, and Tang He to conquer respectively, of which Hu Tingrui attacked Fujian from Jiangxi, Yang Jing captured Guangxi from Hunan, and Tang He destroyed Fang Guozhen in Qingyuan.
In November, Hu Tingrui conquered Shaowu and Jianning in Fujian, and then, Tang He and Liao Yongzhong commanded the naval army to set off from Chongming Island, go straight to Fuzhou along the sea route, and conquer Yanping after landing.
Under the command of Zhu Yuanzhang, Lu Zhongheng's army set out from Ganzhou, Jiangxi, and connected Shaozhou, Deqing and other places. At the same time, Tang He's general, Liao Yongzhong, led a naval army to land in Huizhou, Guangdong, along the sea route, and joined Lu Zhongheng's troops in Guangzhou.
Eventually, Guangdong was pacified.
Now that Lu Joong-hyung is here, let's continue our work. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Lu Zhongheng to command his old troops and attack Wuzhou, Guangxi, through Zhaoqing. At the same time, Yang Jing had successfully captured Baoqing, Yongzhou, Daozhou, and Quanzhou in Hunan, and was attacking Jingjiang (Guilin).
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to let Lu Zhongheng lead his army north and capture Jingjiang with Yang Jing. After Jingjiang was conquered, the Tusi of Guangxi surrendered one after another.
After ending the Southern Expedition and the Northern Expedition, Zhu Yuanzhang successfully merged the two armies of the north and the south, and pointed the spearhead at the southwest. In 1371, he ordered Tang He, who was born in the Southern Expedition, to attack Chongqing, and Fu Youde, who was born in the Northern Expedition, to attack Chengdu, and the troops were divided into two ways to take Sichuan.
In 1381, after dealing with Hu Weiyong's case, he sent Fu Youde, Guo Ying, Mu Ying, Lan Yu and other generals to capture Guizhou and Yunnan, successfully captured Duan Shi, the governor of Dali, and completely eradicated the Duan family that had been entrenched in Yunnan for hundreds of years.
At this point, the Ming Dynasty officially realized the reunification of China. Looking back on the process of the Ming Dynasty's unification of China, it is not difficult to find that the Ming soldiers have experienced a series of bloody battles, but the key factor in winning the victory is that Zhu Yuanzhang's strategic planning is good.
His strategic planning was based on Yingtian, and he adopted a grand geographical strategy of encroaching on the southeast and outflanking the world. In that era, Zhu Yuanzhang was undoubtedly the world's number one military strategist and strategist, and he could even complete the work that could only be completed by the three masters of the early Han Dynasty.
If such a person does not have the world, then who can win the world? As a senior master of geography and strategy, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the local prefectures and counties and military guards to make atlases of local mountains, rivers, cities and passes, and send them to Yingtian, and then let Wenchen compile them into the "Huanyu Tongzhi" and hide it in Taifu.
After years of research and speculation, he has developed a perfect knowledge of China's geography. In the south, he appointed his adopted son Mu Ying to guard Yunnan, using a method similar to the Yunnan Production and Construction Corps to check and balance each other with Yunnan Tusi, and from then on, Yunnan gradually became a province that could not be separated from China.
In the north, he set up guards in Hetao, Kaiping (Yuan Shangdu), Liaodong and other places, pushed the border line to hundreds of miles north of the Great Wall, and divided Ning, Liao, Han, Shen and other Sai kings, with the Saiwang guards and border guards to form the northern defense force of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Yuanzhang knows very well that due to the constraints of mountains, rivers and seas, the scope of the projection of the most important forces in China is very limited. Therefore, he clearly distinguished between 15 "countries that do not be conquered" and countries that must be conquered, so that future generations can get along with these small countries amicably, but Liaodong and Mongolia are feuds, and they must choose generals to train their troops and be vigilant at all times.
Zhu Yuanzhang understood that only by striking at the Mongolian steppes could he protect the tranquility of China. Although Zhu Yuanzhang had a bad reputation for killing heroes, judging from the difference between his treatment of "countries that are not to be conquered" and countries that must be conquered, his understanding of international relations and East Asian geography is very thorough.
** once commented on him: "Since ancient times, there has been no one on the right side of Li Shimin, followed by Zhu Yuanzhang." He has a strong romantic temperament, and it is understandable to like Li Shimin, who is also romantic.
But Li Shimin's aristocratic background and the attributes that come with his birth make him a shining star in the sky, which can only be looked up to but not touched. And Zhu Yuanzhang, as an ordinary soldier of the Red Turban Army, fought steadily step by step, worked hard for decades, and fought thousands of miles with his bare hands.
Although he has the courage to surpass ordinary people and the means to control his ministers, all his achievements can be traced. Compared with Li Shimin, who is as gorgeous as a meteor, I think it is more meaningful for us to study Zhu Yuanzhang.
In June 1398, Zhu Yuanzhang died in Yingtian. After 31 years of governance, the Ming Dynasty has appeared in the situation of "governing the Tang and Song dynasties", as long as it follows Zhu Yuanzhang's established line, the future of the Ming Dynasty will be limitless.
But history has no ifs, after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, the Ming Dynasty he created with his own hands collapsed, and the later Ming Dynasty was the Ming Dynasty that had been reinvented. All of this is due to Zhu Yuanzhang's "good grandson" Zhu Yunwen and "unscrupulous" Zhu Di.