In the first month of the twenty-first year of Zhengzheng (1361), due to Zhu Yuanzhang's great exploits in defeating Chen Youyu in the Battle of Longjiang-Longwan and taking the opportunity to march westward, the Longfeng regime awarded Zhu Yuanzhang the title of Duke of Wu. Zhu Yuanzhang was given the title of Duke of Wu in the official position of Pingzhang in Jiangnan Province, which was not a simple promotion. The granting of wu guogong meant that Zhu Yuanzhang could establish the sub-regime of "Wu" under the mother regime of the Longfeng regime, taking a crucial step in the process of self-reliance.
Zhu Yuanzhang did seize this opportunity. He took advantage of the opportunity to award rewards to his subordinates and made a series of adjustments to the institution. In the first month, Zhu Yuanzhang promoted Deng Yue to participate in the administration of Zhongshu Province. On the first day of February, a large-scale institutional adjustment began. Administratively, Zhu Yuanzhang changed the Privy Council to Zhongshu Province. This adjustment brought Zhu Yuanzhang's clique closer to a political power, and also further clarified the administrative subordination between the administrative offices located in the central part of The Zhongshu Province in Jiangnan and other places in Yingtian, and the occupied places.
In terms of military system, Zhu Yuanzhang changed the Privy Council to the Metropolitan Governor's Office in March, the Privy Council's colleague Zhu Wenzheng became the Metropolitan Governor and controlled the Chinese and foreign militaries, and Li Shanchang was also Sima Shi in the capacity of the Zhongshu Provincial Senator. At the same time, the Privy Council and Zhi ShaoRong were officially granted the position of Pingzhang Of Zhongshu Province, which was almost equal to that of Zhu Yuanzhang before he was granted the title of Duke of Wu, and Chang Yuchun was promoted to The Governor of The Government. From Shao Rong's promotion, it is not difficult to see that he had indeed made key contributions in the Battle of Longjiang-Longwan before, and he also received the reward he deserved. Of course, this is also Zhu Yuanzhang's consideration of balancing the factions within the group. The promotion of Chang Yuchun is the promotion of his own cronies. In April, Li Shanchang was also promoted from the Zhongshu Provincial Senator to the Governor of China, and was able to assist Zhu Yuanzhang more legitimately.
In the central authorities, Zhu Yuanzhang, in addition to adjusting the official office structure and personnel appointments, also established a series of systems for the people. Also in the first month of the twenty-first year of Zhizheng (1361), Zhu Yuanzhang began to establish the salt law, realize the monopoly of salt, set up bureaus and officials, and began to extract profits from merchants in the proportion of one per twenty points to pay the army. Subsequently, Zhu Yuanzhang established the Baoyuan Bureau in February in order to further improve the minting of currency. The Baoyuan Bureau was ordered to mint the "Great Zhongtongbao" coin, which was still in conjunction with the copper coins of the past, stipulating that four hundred was consistent, forty was one or two, and four texts were one coin, for which a total of four million and thirty thousand were minted that year. After determining the profits extracted from the salt, Zhu Yuanzhang turned his attention to the tea leaves. After the establishment of the Baoyuan Bureau, he also established the Tea Law, stipulating that after a merchant buys tea, he needs to report the amount he has bought to the government, and only after paying money can he go abroad to trade. Each citation contains 100 catties of tea and costs 200. In this way, Zhu Yuanzhang, through his monopoly on tea business, can also extract relatively stable profits from tea trading. Through this series of policies, Zhu Yuanzhang was able to obtain stable and adequate military salaries from the areas under his control, which was also different from other separatist forces. The stable logistics supply is also a key factor for Zhu Yuanzhang to win from the crowd in the end.
Finally, Zhu Yuanzhang further completed the construction of local political power. In the construction of local political power, Zhu Yuanzhang also paid special attention to the eastern line bordering Zhang Shicheng. In May of the twenty-first year of Zhengzheng (1361), Zhu Yuanzhang appointed hu dahai, a member of the Privy Council, as the governor of Zhongshu Province, and guarded Jinhua. Li Wenzhong, a member of the Privy Council of Tongyou, was ordered to build a fortified city in Yanzhou. In June, in the face of Yongxing Wing Marshal Geng Bingwen's request to "beg guangxing wing soldiers to respond to the enemy's territory, beg to stay in Guangxing wing soldiers as a response 4", Zhu Yuanzhang rejected it and ordered Geng Bingwen to "train as a sergeant and defend the town for himself", which was obviously to require the local government to have the strength to fight the enemy alone and not to rely too much on foreign aid. Facts have proved that Zhu Yuanzhang's series of measures have played a very good role in stabilizing the place. Later, during Zhu Yuanzhang's western expedition to Jiangzhou, the reason why the frequent rebellions on the eastern front did not eventually lead to a major disaster should be said to be inseparable from Zhu Yuanzhang's local construction at this stage.
By August, all the internal arrangements were almost in progress. And because chen youyi had attacked the key place of Anqing with Zhang Dingbian in July, an angry Zhu Yuanzhang killed Marshal Yu who had fled back. In the end, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to prove himself with a greater military victory, so he launched a pro-conquest of Jiangzhou in order to further attack Chen Youyi.
At the beginning of August, Zhu Yuanzhang sent envoys to Bieliang to negotiate with the Yuan general Chakhan Timur and stabilize the north. Then, on the sixth day of August, Deng Yu led an army to conquer Fuliang, and Chen Youyi abandoned the city and fled. The court ordered Yu Guang to attack Lepingzhou again, defeating Xiao Ming, the commander-in-chief of Chen Youyu, and capturing more than 60 people, including Peng Shou. Subsequently, Zhu Yuanzhang, after receiving the internal intelligence of Chen Youyu brought by Li Mingdao, personally led the boat division out of Longwan on August 12 to attack Chen Youyu, and Xu Da, Chang Yuchun and other important generals followed the expedition.
According to the records in Yu Ben's Chronicle, Zhu Yuanzhang went out on this expedition to "more than fifty gangs of sea ships, the large one can accommodate a thousand people, the small one can accommodate 800 people, the five boats are only a gang, but the boat on board can accommodate 1,300 people." Among this grand boat division, there were more than fifty wind fighting boats, and there were also flat shallow boats carrying horses, grain rewards, and weapons at the end. In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang also selected a light clipper and ordered the clever officers and soldiers to take advantage of it as a forward. "The ship is more than a hundred miles long, painted with powder as a trumpet, and painted with a black cloud plate flag nailed to the stern", where the sergeant stands, the name is written, called "Xindi", and must not leave without permission, otherwise all will be beheaded. For a time, "the flag covered the sky, the armor obscured the sun, and the sound of the golden drum shook near and far." Among them, the big boat that Zhu Yuanzhang took was particularly special. On this ship, a large blue flag hangs on the middle mast with the word "Fengtian" on it; a yellow trumpet is hung at the end of the flag, and the words "Fengtian Conquest, Nashun Anmin" are written on it; and the red "beauty" character is made on the big blue flag and hung on the second mast. Zhu Yuanzhang, who had so powerfully solicited Chen You's forgiveness and arranged his own ship in this way, obviously regarded himself as the orthodoxy of the world, wanted to pacify the forces of the cut and realize the unification of the sea.
Here we must also mention one person, that is, Fu Youde.
Zhu Yuanzhang personally led the Zhou division to conquer Anqing twice with absolute superiority, and then advanced to Xiaogushan In Pengze County, and Fu Youde, a general who originally belonged to the Shu lord Ming Yuzhen, surrendered to Zhu Yuanzhang. Fu Youde followed Li Xixi of Shandong to raise an army at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and entered the Sichuan region instead. After Li Xixi's defeat, Fu Youde switched to Ming Yuzhen's men, but Ming Yuzhen could not be appointed. So Fu Youde went to Wuchang to defect to Chen Youyu, but Chen Youde was even more excessive, not only could not appoint Fu Youde, but also detained him. Fu Youde, who was indignant, seized the opportunity to throw himself into Zhu Yuanzhang's account when Zhu Yuanzhang marched west to Xiaogushan. Zhu Yuanzhang knew Fu Youde's ability and was very happy with his surrender, so he "used it as a general". Later, Fu Youde made great contributions in the Northern Expedition and the Pacification of Sichuan, which proved Zhu Yuanzhang's vision. In addition, Fu Youde's surrender also had another important role, that is, to further provide Zhu Yuanzhang with intelligence on Chen Youyi at this time, so that Zhu Yuanzhang could make decisions to drive straight in.
This article is excerpted from "The Front and Side of Zhu Yuanzhang: The Hongwu Emperor and the History of the Early Ming Dynasty in the Eyes of the Guards"
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