At the same time as the founding of the Ming Dynasty, it began a vast journey of northern unification. As the commander-in-chief, Xu Da fought very well and easily no matter which battle. However, when the Ming army was aimed at the remaining Yuan Dynasty warlords in the northwest, Xu Da encountered a dangerous situation for the first time.
Zhu Yuanzhang's timing of the Northern Expedition was very good, and when he sharpened his sword, several warlords of the Yuan Dynasty, Such as Wang Baobao, Li Siqi, Zhang Sidao, and others, were on fire, and for the sake of private interests, they did not care about the overall situation at all, and looked like they did not know whether they were dead or alive. It wasn't until Emperor Yuan Shun was expelled from the capital that things began to change.
First, Wang Baobao's rout
History always says that Emperor Yuan Shun was a dimwitted emperor who only knew how to be a carpenter. But in fact, he was a clever emperor, and his appointment of the prime minister was proof of this, and another proof was that he ran away when the Ming army attacked Dadu. Don't look down on his escape, he has no soldiers on his hands, where can he hold out. However, because of his active escape, he took the entire central team of the Yuan Dynasty away from Dadu, allowing the Yuan Dynasty to continue to survive in the desert. This act brought countless difficulties to the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty had to go north again and again to eliminate this possible threat.
When Emperor Yuanshun fled to the desert, he ordered the warlord Wang Baobao, who was nominally subordinate to him, to organize soldiers and horses to attack from the Taihang Mountains and retake the capital of the Yuan Dynasty. Originally, these warlords did not obey the orders of Emperor Yuanshun, but when Emperor Yuanshun moved out of the prince who was deeply respected, these warlords obediently began to obey, after all, the so-called rebellion was also based on dissatisfaction with Emperor Yuanshun, and he had no reason to oppose the prince who had supported him.
However, Emperor Yuan Shun did not expect that his behavior would bring changes to the entire battlefield. Or maybe he thought of it, but he just wanted to use the hand of the Ming Army to suppress Wang Baobao. Wang Baobao's front foot out of the Taihang Mountains marched toward Dadu, and the Ming army was under the leadership of Xu Da, and the rear foot crossed the Yellow River into Shangdang and directly attacked Taiyuan City.
Faced with the danger of losing the rear, Wang Baobao had to choose to return to Taiyuan City to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army waiting for work. As a result, Wang Baobao was attacked by the Ming army at night at the door of his own home, and the Ming army that had the upper hand won a great victory in this battle, and Wang Baobao, the largest warlord in the north, only led 18 horses to flee west to Gansu, trying to unite the Mongol troops far away in the desert, forming a continuous pressure on the Ming Dynasty.
2. The Battle of Guanzhong
After the Ming army took Henan and expelled Wang Baobao from Shanxi, the soldiers aimed at Li Siqi and Zhang Sidao in the northwest. Li Siqi was in Longyou, Zhang Sidao was in Weibei, and the two formed a pincer shape against Guanzhong, one west and one north, and it seemed that the Guanzhong Yuan Army had the strength of a battle. But this is only an ideal possibility, the two have long been resentful, strategic alliance is impossible, which also gives the Ming Dynasty the possibility of breaking through.
Zhu Yuanzhang, while communicating with the two Yuan generals, ordered the army to advance quickly to force the two men to try to force them to surrender. But for Li Siqi and Zhang Sidao, the strength that can be seen is the strength that makes people awe-inspiring. As a result, time became the key to the Ming army's occupation of Guanzhong, and Chang Yuchun, who was the best at raiding cavalry operations, became the vanguard of this campaign.
When Li Siqi was still struggling with fengxiang's position, Chang Yuchun had already quickly rushed to Fengxiang. When he saw Chang Yuchun arrive at Fengxiang City, Li Siqi, who had elite soldiers in his hands, was frightened and immediately fled west. However, at this time, news came from the north of the desert that the Yuan army intended to go south to retake Dadu, and Chang Yuchun, a cavalry general, was urgently transferred to the north to organize the defense of the Yuan army.
Now only Xu Da is left. After Xu Da led his army to Fengxiang, he faced the problem of who to attack. Xu Dali dismissed the public opinion, believing that Li Siqi's troops were slightly weaker, and he occupied Lintao, the main road into the west of the Hetao River, and Zhang Sidao's city pool was strong and complete, and it was not easy to attack. Xu Da believed that it was easy before it was difficult to minimize the losses of the Ming army, so he targeted Li Siqi, who was already a bird of fright. Li Siqi was frightened by the Ming army, and was unable to resist sitting on the city, so he had to raise his hand and surrender.
The Ming army then targeted Zhang Sidao, who heard that Xu Da was marching, leaving only his younger brother Zhang Liangchen to defend Qingyang's lair, while he himself fled north. Soon Zhang Sidao was captured by his old rival Wang Baobao, and his forces were also in a state of leaderlessness, and Zhang Liangchen, who remained in Qingyang, was forced to choose to surrender to the Ming army.
When the news of Zhang Liangchen's surrender reached Nanjing, Zhu Yuanzhang pointed out to Xu Da that he must be vigilant against Zhang Liangchen: this person may repeat itself. Sure enough, before the letter could be delivered, Zhang Liangchen launched a rebellion with the strong defense of Qingyang, and the Ming army in the northwest fell into the most dangerous situation at this time. While Zhang Liangchen was holding the city, he sent emissaries to wang baobao for help, and once Wang Baobao's reinforcements were in place, the Ming army was very likely to fall into the situation of being caught in the enemy's internal pocket. Seeing this scene, Xu Da ordered the Ming army to besiege Qingyang City with all its strength, but Qingyang City was strongly defended and the system was complete, and it could not be broken in a time. The large army of the Yuan Dynasty will soon enter the battlefield, and the battlefield is about to face changes.
Third, Xu Da's embarrassment
Wang Baobao suffered a big loss last time and decided to take revenge with an arrow. Instead of concentrating on rescuing Qingyang City, he divided his forces into three routes, the west road attacking Fengxiang, the east road attacking Datong, and the middle road attacking Jingzhou to support Qingyang. The combat effectiveness of the Yuan army was not as good as that of the Ming army, but the division of troops in three ways could disperse the Strength of the Ming Army and provide opportunities for its own central main force.
The Yuan army of the western road was blocked under the city of Fengxiang, and the yuan army of the eastern road raided the Ming army that intended to go south to support Qingyang, but the Ming army, under the disadvantages of the raid on the backwater, stubbornly held the camp to repel the Yuan army's offensive. Although the two Yuan armies were unsuccessful, they timely pinned down the main force of the Ming army and gave strong support to Qingyang City and the battlefield of the Middle Road. Wang Baobao's Zhonglu Army, led by its general Hazar, conquered Wonju, and the war situation changed dramatically.
In the face of the menacing Yuan army, Xu Da divided the Ming army into multiple units to block the Yuan army dozens of miles outside Qingyang City. The entire Ming army formation was arranged along the west to the south, with Ye Shizhen guarding Peng Yuan, Wei Zheng guarding Hao Prefecture, Fu Youde, and Xue Xian guarding Ling Prefecture, trying to control the key points of blocking the Yuan army from the northwest. Xu Da also arranged a reserve led by Xu Li at Stagecoach Pass in the rear to prevent the Ming army from being unable to stop the Yuan army's offensive, resulting in the entire front being broken. However, what Xu Da did not expect was that the Yuan army did not break through the Ming army frontally, and Wang Baobao ordered Hazar to make a major detour and detour to the rear to capture Jingzhou, causing Xu Da's army to suffer from the enemy.
At the critical moment, fortunately Feng Guosheng repelled the roundabout Yuan army, Wang Baobao saw that the flank and rear encirclement was not successful, I think the Yuan army was behind the enemy and could not fight for a long time, so he had to choose to retreat north. Xu Da fought all his life, claiming to be invincible, leaving him in danger, and only Wang Baobao was the only one among the generals of the Yuan Dynasty who had this ability. In the future, Xu Da also taught Wang Baobao the greatest strength.
After eliminating reinforcement interference, the Ming army began a siege of Qingyang. It was only a matter of time before a city with no reinforcements was breached. After three months of siege, Zhang Liangchen committed suicide by throwing himself into a well, and Qingyang City surrendered. The entire northwestern territory entered the hands of the Ming army.
However, the contest between Wang Baobao and Xu Da has only just begun.