Chen Youliang, a native of Xiantao, Hubei, was born in poverty. His father, Chen Pu, was a hard-working fisherman, and although the family life was difficult, he was at least able to fill his stomach.
Compared with Zhu Yuanzhang's cattle herding career and the first half of his life as a monk and beggar, Chen Youliang showed his uniqueness when he was a teenager.
He not only reads diligently and understands the meaning of the text, but also likes to practice his fists and feet, which can be described as both civil and military. However, the limitations of class have made Chen Youliang also experience the hardships of life, and he has wandered in confusion and humility at the bottom of society.
However, these experiences did not defeat him, but only strengthened his determination to pursue freedom and justice.
The corrupt rule of society at the end of the Yuan Dynasty led to a peasant uprising with men from all backgrounds.
Zhu Yuanzhang was born in Huaixi, was a tenant, a monk, and a beggar; Fang Guozhen is a smuggler of salt in eastern Zhejiang, and Zhang Shicheng is a descendant of the "pavilion people" in the south of the Yangtze River, who has lived by ferrying for generations; Xu Shouhui is a cloth dealer in the streets and alleys of the two lakes.
Even Han Shantong, who rebelled earlier in the Red Turban Army, was a river worker who built the canal, and only Liu Futong was a merchant family.
In the end, they were all crowned kings and ministers on the stage of history, and they were prominent for a while, but their initial identities were all bitter people with the same fate.
When Zhu Yuanzhang was a monk in Huangjue Temple, his childhood friend Tang He had already joined the rebel army and became a thousand households in the army, and Tang Qianhu invited Zhu Yuanzhang to participate in the uprising.
However, after reading the letter, Zhu Yuanzhang burned it silently and lived as usual, as if nothing had happened.
It can be seen that Zhu Yuanzhang was not interested in the uprising, and he would rather spend the rest of his life in Huangjue Temple and enjoy the tranquility.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang may not believe in Buddhism, he was influenced by Buddhism and began to reflect on the meaning of life, understanding that the suffering he endured was not because he had done something wrong, but because there were profound reasons that transcended time and space.
In the era of hegemony at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang was not a person who wanted to rebel. If it weren't for the fact that someone reported him and forced him to go to Liangshan, then it would be Chen Youliang who might become the winner.
Chen Youliang seems to have been born to overthrow the Yuan Dynasty. After the rebels captured his hometown, he did not hesitate to defect to the leader of the rebel army, Ni Wenjun, who also had the grace to recreate Chen Youliang.
However, this "work of reconstruction" is full of cruelty. Two years later, Chen Youliang killed Ni Wenjun and annexed his troops.
At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang was being excluded and suppressed by Guo Zixing, locked in a dark cellar, and his only meal a day, almost starving to death, was the freshly baked pancakes hidden in his chest by his wife Ma.
In order to secretly deliver food to Zhu Yuanzhang, Ma burned his chest several times, making people sigh "If you have a wife like this, what more can you ask for a husband". It's a pity that Chen Youliang doesn't have Zhu Yuanzhang's bearing, and Ni Wenjun doesn't have Guo Zixing's cunning.
The Red Turban Army established by Xu Shouhui was powerful, but in the twentieth year of Zhizheng, Chen Youliang killed Xu Shouhui with his own hands, annexed Xu Shouhui's forces, and called the emperor the founding of the country, becoming the founding emperor of the Chen Han regime.
The history of his fortune is a history full of bloody killings. His tyrannical personality and lack of virtuous people around him made him untold of the current situation, and the only way to do this was to "build a high wall, accumulate grain, and slow down his reign."
He hurriedly ascended the throne in the quarrying Wutong Temple (Ma'anshan), but on that day, the sky was not beautiful, the storm was raging, and the ministers hastily completed the ceremony on the beach.
Outwitting the enemy) The reason why Chen Youliang became the emperor was not because he was blind and arrogant, but because he had enough strength and background.
He occupies Jiangxi, Lianghu, Liangguang and other places, with millions of soldiers and thousands of generals, these resources make him unrivaled in front of Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Shicheng.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang knew that his real opponent was Chen Youliang, not Zhang Shicheng. Liu Ji even predicted that Chen Youliang would become Zhu Yuanzhang's number one enemy.
Facing a strong opponent, Zhu Yuanzhang knew that he couldn't fight hard, so he found Kang Maocai, the former general of the Yuan Dynasty.
Kang Maocai and Chen Youliang are old acquaintances, their relationship is very close, and Kang Maocai's joining has provided great help to Zhu Yuanzhang. Kang Maocai wrote a fraudulent letter and successfully lured Chen Youliang to take the initiative.
As a result, Chen Youliang fell into Zhu Yuanzhang's ambush and was defeated and unable to fight again.
Chen Youliang failed and fled in Longwan, on the outskirts of Nanjing, where the mountains are undulating, the water is murmuring, and the white clouds are long, but there are blood stains under his feet. Chen's failure is not surprising, the Bible says that those who use the sword often die by the sword.
If you Chen Youliang made a fortune by betraying and deceiving, it is difficult to guarantee that others will not betray and deceive you. The fiasco in Longwan triggered a chain reaction of Chen Youliang's group, and his power deteriorated day by day.
Chen Youliang decided to make a desperate bet, use the strength of the whole country to build warships, gather heavy troops, and start a decisive battle with Zhu Yuanzhang at Poyang Lake. Poyang Lake is the largest freshwater lake in China, with a resounding name and beautiful scenery.
I went to visit a few years ago, and I looked at the whole Poyang Lake like a swan with its head held high. The terrain of the lake is flat, the shore of the lake is long and curved, and the surface of the lake is connected by water and sky, as far as the eye can see.
In it, I can't help but think of the famous sentence of the Tang Dynasty poet Wang Bo: "The falling glow and the lonely bird fly together, and the autumn water grows together in the sky." It's hard to imagine that one afternoon hundreds of years ago, there was one of the largest water battles of the Middle Ages.
The battle of Chibi, the iron cable connecting the ships, and the fire to break the enemy, these stories are deeply imprinted in our minds.
However, Chen Youliang did not seem to have read "Three Kingdoms", and in the battle of Poyang Lake, he made a fatal mistake: to connect all the warships with iron cables.
As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang burned his army to the ground with a fire. In this blazing battle, Chen Youliang tried to break through desperately, but was shot in the head by Zhu Yuanzhang's subordinate Guo Ying with an arrow and died on the spot.
Chen Youliang's life was full of blood and violence, killing and betrayal. From the difficult years of fishing for a living, to the uprising of rebellion, to the bloody killing of the emperor's road, his life is full of twists and turns.
However, his life ended in the Battle of Poyang Lake, and everything was over. He once rebelled against the rule of darkness and decay, showing his domineering and prestige, but in the end he failed.
Victory belongs to Zhu Yuanzhang. However, Chen's story is not the end, but the beginning. His defeat has made us cherish peace and unity even more, and it has also made us more aware that no matter how great the difficulties we face, we must not give up hope.
Because, only by persevering to the end, can we see the dawn of victory.
In the eyes of the author, Chen Youliang is undoubtedly a typical villain. He was treacherous, ruthless, cruel, and vicious. Because Chen Youliang firmly believes that only ruthlessness and injustice can survive in troubled times.
But he didn't realize that people who advocate violence and lack morality can survive in troubled times, but it is difficult for them to stand out in troubled times and achieve ultimate victory. For the real power is not violence and conquest, but peace and righteousness.
Zhu Yuanzhang knows this well, and this poor young man from Guzhuang Village was able to succeed step by step.