In Chinese history, when mentioning the Battle of Defending the City, most people will remember the Battle of Xunyang, Liu Xiu broke Wang Mang's 100,000 troops with 8,000 people; the Battle of Wei Xiaokuan Yubi, which broke Gao Huan; the Battle of Zhang Patrol Suiyang in the Tang Dynasty, resisted the Rebellion of An Shi with thousands of rebels, and finally killed Chengren. In the peasant revolt at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, a general changed the entire historical process of the last year of the Yuan Dynasty - the Battle of Hongdu in a short life with a battle to defend the city.
In the 23rd year of Zhizheng (1363 AD), Chen Youyu besieged Hongdu with 600,000 troops of the "army of the fallen country". At this time, the Hongdu Zhu Yuanzhang garrison was only 20,000. There was a huge disparity in troop strength, and Zhu Yuanzhang had no time to take care of it at the beginning of the war. As Zhu Yuanzhang's nephew and even more so as the commander-in-chief of the Hongdu garrison, Zhu Wenzheng, with his outstanding command talent, faced with Chen Youyi's army that was dozens of times larger than his own, and actually insisted on holding hongdu for 85 days and finally won this almost decisive defensive battle for Zhu Yuanzhang, and laid the foundation for the victory in the Battle of Poyang Lake.
However, shortly after this battle, Zhu Wenzheng was imprisoned by Zhu Yuanzhang and whipped by Zhu Yuanzhang. And what caused this Zhu Yuanzhang's minister of humerus and nephew to fall to this point?
Zhu Yuanzhang's family was poor, and his father Zhu Wusi had 4 sons. And the natural and man-made disasters in the last years of the Yuan Dynasty also overwhelmed this already overstretched peasant family. In the fourth year of Zhizheng (1344 AD), for the Zhu family, a disaster completely destroyed this already poor family. His parents and eldest brothers have passed away one after another, and there are only two males in the whole big family, Zhu Wenzheng and Zhu Yuanzhang. It is difficult for us to imagine the inner thoughts of Zhu Wenzheng and Zhu Yuanzhang at this time, but in the years after the separation of the uncle and nephew, Zhu Yuanzhang, who had nothing to eat in the temple, finally took the most important decision in his life - to join the rebel army, and after several years of conquest, Zhu Yuanzhang followed Guo Zi to raise an army, and achieved little success.
It was also at this time that Zhu Wenzheng found his uncle Zhu Yuanzhang, and after following Zhu Yuanzhang for a while, he followed Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer Taiping and occupy Jiankang (present-day Nanjing), and it can be said that Zhu Wenzheng made great contributions to Zhu Yuanzhang's attack. And Zhu Yuanzhang, his uncle, did not hesitate to pity him, and gave him the title of Metropolitan Governor, the highest military commander in the army.
Meritorious service, stubbornly defending Hongdu, and what is the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang killed the killer?
It is recorded that it will not be Zhu Wenzheng who "will plunder his wife and daughter"? Wanton behavior led Zhu Yuanzhang to whip his nephew to death, but for the fledgling Zhu Yuanzhang clique, just as Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, connived at the eating of people, although cruel, it was harmless, let alone the time of employing people. So why?
For this reason, most of the "Ming Shilu" is somewhat evasive, and it is even more vague. However, in Zhu Yuanzhang's self-written "Records of Emperor Taizu", there is a sentence, "Things are aware, teaching is not listening, not much, plotting to run to the enemy country." But it explained to us why Zhu Yuanzhang would kill his own nephew.
After Chen Youyu was killed, Zhu Yuanzhang had no match for him. Subsequently, Zhu Yuanzhang established himself as the King of Wu and formed his own bureaucracy. As for Zhu Wenzheng, who had committed various atrocities, Zhu Yuanzhang only punished him slightly, although he was deposed, but even more under the intervention of Empress Ma, he was pardoned for his guilt.
However, after Zhu Wenzheng was forgiven, he intended to defect to Zhang Shicheng. This is obviously unacceptable to Zhu Yuanzhang, who intends to dominate the world. Even if you are your own nephew, you will not tolerate it.
After being imprisoned and imprisoned, Zhu Wenzheng returned even more undead and wanted to escape, but was eventually whipped to death by Zhu Yuanzhang. He was only 29 years old at the time of his death. Although later history proved that Zhu Yuanzhang was by no means a benevolent prince, he also showed unique love and pity for the bloodline of the eldest brother, and even in the third year of Hongwu (1370 AD), Zhu Wenzheng's 8-year-old son Zhu Shouqian was crowned the King of Jingjiang. But absolute rights also never allow others to touch and challenge.
References: Ming Shilu, Emperor Taizu Qinlu