Let's first find out how many capitals the Yuan Dynasty had:
The first is Dadu, which is clear to everyone, and the location of Dadu is now Beijing. The second is Shangdu, which was the first capital of the Yuan Dynasty, and later after arriving in Dadu, it became the capital of The Companion. The location is 20 miles east of the current Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Then there is Zhongdu, which was built by order of Kublai Khan's great-grandson Yuan Wuzong Haishan. The location is in Baichengzi, Mantouying Township, Zhangbei County, Hebei Province.
Therefore, from the geographical point of view, Yuanshang is the northernmost capital city. Therefore, when Emperor Yuan Shun ran away from Dadu, he first chose Shangdu as his base.
At that time, the eunuch Zhao Boyan did not spend time learning that Emperor Yuanshun was going to run, and cried and shouted: Boss, how can I run? Shouldn't the Son of Heaven guard the gates of the kingdom?
Emperor YuanShun shook his head helplessly: "I'm sorry, I don't want to be Emperor Huizong of Song and Emperor Qinzong of Song."
So as soon as he smoked kung fu, Emperor Yuan Shun ran to Shangdu with more than 100 people such as the crown prince and the empress dowager. The reason why he did not continue north was because Emperor Yuan Shun was still thinking of restoring his own inheritance.
In 1368, the Yuan Shun Emperor fled north, and the Yuan Dynasty fell from then on. Emperor Yuanshun's new regime in the north was known in history as northern Yuan. So why was Emperor Yuan Shun able to launch three consecutive comeback wars in more than a year?
First, briefly introduce the three comebacks led by Emperor Yuan Shun.
The first comeback, the Battle of Taiyuan.
This was about four months after Emperor Yuanshun ran away, and in November of that year, Timur (that is, Wang Baobao, who is very familiar to everyone), led his troops out of Yanmen Pass, planning to come straight from Zhangjiakou in Hebei Province to Dadu.
As soon as Wang Baobao's front foot left, Xu Da judged the situation and thought that Taiyuan was empty. Moreover, at that time, Peiping (former Yuan Dadu) had a large army to guard, and it was bound to be unharmed, so Xu Da planned to go straight to Taiyuan and cut off Wang Baobao's way back. Even if Wang Baobao returned to Taiyuan halfway, Xu Da could also besiege the city to help.
Therefore, Xu Da's army crossed Gushan and went straight to Taiyuan. After Wang Baobao walked to Shijiazhuang, he found that the old nest in Taiyuan had been stolen by someone, and he came back to the rescue without saying a word.
When Xu Da had planned to join forces with Chang Yuchun to sneak up on Wang Baobao, he did not expect that Wang Baobao's open-nosed horses had secretly sent people to surrender. Good guys, a golden opportunity, Xu Da immediately selected a strong general at night, secretly attacked Wang Baobao's camp, Wang Baobao was defeated and fled, and only 18 people were taken with him when he ran.
The next morning, the open-nosed horse surrendered, and Xu Da successfully conquered Taiyuan. Wang Baobao's wave was miserable, and the 40,000 troops in his hands were captured by Xu Da, and more than 40,000 warhorses were gone.
The second comeback, the Battle of Xi'an.
After Xu Da conquered Shaanxi, he crossed the Yellow River and went straight to the remnants of the Yuan army in Guanxi. At this time, Wang Baobao was stationed in Xi'an Prefecture, which is now Haiyuan County, Ningxia. Other yuan forces were also stationed in Qingcheng County, Gansu, and they planned to gather forces in the northwest region and launch a second southern expedition.
As a result, after Xu Da learned of their whereabouts, he immediately sent the right hand man Xue Xian, with 5,000 elite soldiers, to quickly attack Wang Baobao in Xi'an Prefecture.
Wang Baobao did not react at all, it seemed that his intelligence agency was too unreliable, so that he was once again beaten by Xu Da and fled in a hurry. This time, Xu Da captured more than 7,000 people, as well as more than 200 vehicles.
The third comeback, the Battle of Qingyang.
After driving Wang Baobao away, Xu Da planned to concentrate on encircling and suppressing Zhang Liangchen in Qingyang. This time Wang Baobao can not agree, bully people can not be so bullied, right? So Wang Baobao gathered the remnants and resolutely supported Zhang Liangchen.
The two sides confronted each other in Qingyang for more than 3 months, during which time Wang Baobao, in order to alleviate the pressure on Qingyang, sent his subordinate Han Zaer to lead his troops south and conquered Zhenyuan County, Gansu.
When Xu Da learned of this, he immediately organized a counterattack and drove Han Zar back to the desert. Wang Baobao was not dead hearted, and personally led troops to garrison Yongchang County in Gansu Province, in order to support Qingyang City.
However, Qingyang City was besieged for too long, and on August 21 of the second year of Hongwu, Xu Da conquered Qingyang City. Zhang Liangchen committed suicide by throwing himself into a well with his son.
Unwilling to be defeated, Wang Baobao besieged Zhang Wen, a ming general who guarded Lanzhou. At the same time, the reinforcements sent by the Ming Dynasty were all destroyed by Wang Bao. After the death of Emperor Yuanshun, Wang Baobao became an important vassal of Emperor Zhaozong of Yuan.
Second, what is the reason why Emperor Yuan Shun dared to make a comeback?
Wang Baobao, this person, was called "the strange man in the world" by Zhu Yuanzhang, the ming emperor. In that chaotic world where the masses rise together, without two brushes, it is really impossible to enter Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes.
Obviously, one of the main reasons why Emperor Yuanshun was still able to have the confidence to make a comeback was that he still had such a capable loyal subject as Wang Baobao.
In October 1368, not long after Emperor Yuanshun had just run away, Wang Baobao engaged the Ming army at Handian and returned with a great victory, and the Ming lord tang he fled in defeat. This made Emperor Yuanshun very happy, and he immediately crowned Wang Baobao as the King of Qi and asked him to recover Dadu.
Now you know, right? Emperor Yuanshun was not completely free of chips in his hands, and Wang Baobao's combat effectiveness was actually very strong. If it were not for the weakening of the overall momentum of the Yuan Dynasty, it might really be able to win back a round.
In addition to Wang Baobao, the people that Emperor Yuan Shun thought he could mobilize at that time were:
First, the brothers Zhang Liangbi and Zhang Liangchen stationed in the Gansu region still had tens of thousands of troops in their hands. Second, Li Siqi, who was stationed in Shaanxi, had hundreds of thousands of male soldiers in his hands and had the idea of dividing up territory. Third, Nahachu (a descendant of Muhua Li) stationed in the Liaodong region also had a lot of soldiers and horses in his hands, and he was loyal to the Yuan Dynasty.
In Emperor Yuanshun himself, there were also a large number of loyal supporters, so Emperor Yuanshun naively believed that he still had hundreds of thousands of soldiers and thousands of good generals, and could completely retake Dadu.
In particular, at that time, Wang Baobao stepped forward and fought a beautiful victory, injecting a resurgent internal force into the long-term sluggish Yuan Dynasty army. Unfortunately, Emperor Yuan Shun was happy too soon.
Summary: Internal friction is serious, undefeated is strange.
In fact, the demise of the Yuan Dynasty was also because the internal friction was too serious. When Emperor Yuan Shun was still in Dadu, there was already internal strife within the Yuan Dynasty, which directly gave Zhu Yuanzhang a good opportunity for the Northern Expedition.
When Emperor Yuan Shun arrived in Shangdu, his gang was even more unrestrained. For example, the two major factions of Wang Baobao and Li Siqi are basically unconvinced by anyone, how do you say this thing is done?
In fact, the correct approach of Emperor Yuan Shun should be to shrink the strength of troops, stabilize people's hearts, and on the basis of ensuring the stability of the Northern Yuan, he should think of making a comeback and go south. Instead of going home when the internal turmoil is unstable, thinking about going home, where will this succeed?
References: History of the Ming Dynasty, History of the Yuan Dynasty