At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Han Shantong and Liu Futong set off a vigorous peasant uprising on the construction site of the Yellow River embankment, and Guo Zixing also joined the White Lotus Sect soon after Han Shantong and Liu Futong revolted, and began to recruit soldiers in the countryside for training.
In 1352 AD, Guo Zixing and his comrade-in-arms Sun Deya and others joined forces to send troops to capture Haozhou, which was Guo Zixing's own first base, and Zhu Yuanzhang defected to the Red Turban Army shortly after Guo Zixing captured Haozhou.
At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang was destitute, and the Huangjue Temple, a monk, was sacked by the officers and soldiers of the Yuan Dynasty, and he could only be forced to wander, and finally chose to defect to the Red Turban Army.
But when he went to Haozhou, he was almost killed as a spy, because the Yuan Dynasty army was besieging Haozhou, and the soldiers defending the city when the Red Turban Army uprising showed signs of failure did not believe that anyone would come to the Red Turban Army, so they thought that Zhu Yuanzhang was a spy.
Fortunately, Guo Zixing happened to pass by, he saw that Zhu Yuanzhang did not look like a spy, and thought that he must be a good man if he dared to defect to the Red Turban Army now, and he admired Zhu Yuanzhang's courage very much, so he left him behind.
Not long after Zhu Yuanzhang defected to the Red Turban Army, Guo Zixing found that the little monk he saved was very capable, so he promoted Zhu Yuanzhang to his side, and even married his adopted daughter Ma Shi Xu to Zhu Yuanzhang, and Zhu Yuanzhang became Guo Zixing's son-in-law.
Guo Zixing has a total of three sons, a daughter and a daughter, Guo Zixing married his daughter-in-law Ma to Zhu Yuanzhang, also in order to further win over Zhu Yuanzhang and let Zhu Yuanzhang serve himself.
It was precisely by virtue of this relationship that Zhu Yuanzhang soon became Guo Zixing's confidant, and in just a few years, Zhu Yuanzhang became a senior commander within Guo Zixing's army, and his status in the army was even higher than Guo Zixing's own son.
However, although Guo Zixing has some ability, he is far from the point of being eloquent, and after capturing Haozhou, he began to be reluctant to forge ahead, and even fought with his brothers who jointly captured Haozhou, fighting for power and profit.
Later, Zhao Junyong, the leader of the Red Turban Army defeated in Xuzhou, and Peng Da rebelled and captured Haozhou controlled by Guo Zixing, and Guo Zixing basically lost power, except for the soldiers and horses in his headquarters.
It was also during this period that Zhu Yuanzhang took his 24 most loyal brothers south to Chuzhou and began to establish his own forces.
Guo Zixing, on the other hand, had a bad fate, and since then he has not had a very good life, and finally he can only leave Haozhou in a hurry and defect to Zhu Yuanzhang, who is already a little powerful.
At this time, the forces under Zhu Yuanzhang's control were even larger than Guo Zixing's, but after thinking about it again, Zhu Yuanzhang still handed over all the control of Chuzhou and his soldiers to Guo Zixing.
It's a pity that Guo Zixing is still an unblessed person after all, and he died of illness not long after.
After Guo Zixing's death, his eldest son died in battle as early as the beginning of the uprising, so the second son Guo Tianxu was appointed as the marshal of the capital by the Longfeng Imperial Court, and Zhang Tianyou and Zhu Yuanzhang were the deputy marshals of the left and right respectively.
It seems that the division of labor is clear, but it didn't take long for the contradiction between Guo Tianxu and Zhu Yuanzhang to quickly intensify, because Zhu Yuanzhang's influence in the army was too great, and even directly affected Guo Tianxu's control over the army, so Guo Tianxu has been sparing no effort to attack Zhu Yuanzhang.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang's wife Ma is mediating between it, the relationship between Zhu Yuanzhang and the Guo family can no longer go back to the past.
At that time, Guo Tianxu didn't have many hole cards in his hands, and he didn't have many soldiers, and his career had just improved a little and he began to exclude dissidents, how could there be a future?
Sure enough, in 1356 AD, Guo Tianxu led his army to attack Jiangnan, but was killed by the traitor Chen Wei in the course of the battle.
After Guo Tianxu's death, no one in the Guo family army can compare with Zhu Yuanzhang's influence, after all, Zhu Yuanzhang is a veteran of the army, and he is capable, and he is the son-in-law of the Guo family, and he is very supported within the army.
Although Guo Zixing's third son Guo Tianjue has always wanted to compete with Zhu Yuanzhang for control of the army, he obviously does not have the influence of Zhu Yuanzhang, and it has become inevitable for Zhu Yuanzhang to become the marshal of the army.
A few years later, Guo Tianjue was against Zhu Yuanzhang because of his old age, and even wanted to start a rebellion, and was finally killed by Zhu Yuanzhang.
However, Guo Tianjue is also to blame, if he hadn't seen the situation clearly and been against Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Yuanzhang might not have been able to catch him. Moreover, even if he was relieved of the command of the army, whether he would be killed or not was completely different matters, and his rash rebellion gave Zhu Yuanzhang an excuse.
In this way, Guo Zixing's three sons are all dead, but he also has a biological daughter and a righteous daughter.
Guo Zixing's biological daughter also married Zhu Yuanzhang, and was named Concubine Hui after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and Concubine Hui gave birth to three sons and two daughters for Zhu Yuanzhang in her life, so the bloodline of the Guo family can be regarded as a continuation, not a complete end.
And Guo Zixing's righteous daughter Ma is the queen of Zhu Yuanzhang later, Queen Ma and Zhu Yuanzhang have a very deep relationship, and Queen Ma is also a very famous virtuous queen in Chinese history.
After Zhu Yuanzhang made his career, there were several conflicts with Guo Zixing himself and even Guo Zixing's sons, and each time Ma silently mediated behind his back. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the existence of Empress Ma was also an important bridge for Zhu Yuanzhang to maintain the relationship between the nobles of Huaixi.
Zhu Yuanzhang's temper is not particularly good, sometimes he will be annoyed because he has been offended in the court, and after returning to the harem, Queen Ma dissuaded him, and Queen Ma is Zhu Yuanzhang's virtuous helper.
In the 15th year of Hongwu, Queen Ma died, Zhu Yuanzhang was very sad, and he chose not to set up a queen to commemorate Queen Ma, which is very rare in history.
In general, among the great unified dynasties of the past dynasties, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was definitely the most humble, and even Liu Bang was the chief of the Surabaya Pavilion in Pei County back then, but Zhu Yuanzhang started from scratch step by step, and finally won the whole world.
In the process of Zhu Yuanzhang's career, Guo Zixing once provided a lot of help to Zhu Yuanzhang, and it was precisely because of his appreciation that Zhu Yuanzhang had the first pot of gold to start his own business, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he was the first noble person Zhu Yuanzhang met in the process of starting a business.
Therefore, for the benefactor Guo Zixing and his descendants, no matter what Zhu Yuanzhang thinks in his heart, he is actually not bad to them.
In particular, the two daughters have been given their rightful status, and their mothers are all over the world.
As for the son who was killed, if he hadn't taken the lead in provoking the dispute, Zhu Yuanzhang would not have been able to attack him.