In the last year of the Yuan Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and many people revolted to rebel against the Yuan Dynasty. For example, Chen Youyu, Zhu Yuanzhang, and others were staunch anti-Yuan elements and fought bloody battles with the Yuan Dynasty to the end, but some people surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty halfway and swore allegiance to the Yuan Dynasty to the death, such as Chen Youding.
In the last years of the Yuan Dynasty, there was also a leader of the rebel army named Chen Youyu, although the two were one word apart, but the two were not brothers, but were mortal enemies, and Chen Youyu was planted in chen Youding's hands many times.
At the time of the great chaos in the world, Chen Youding formed a peasant army, and he felt that it was not wise to rebel against the Yuan Dynasty, so he surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty and helped the Yuan army eliminate the mountain thieves. Chen Youding fought bravely, so he was soon appreciated by the imperial court and entrusted with heavy responsibilities.
In the nineteenth year of Zheng (1359), Chen Youyi sent Deng Keming to attack Tingzhou, and the Yuan Dynasty sent Chen Youding to defend against Deng Keming. Chen Youding was brave and strategic, brave in battle, resisted Deng Keming's attack, and defeated him in one fell swoop.
Subsequently, Chen Youyu led his troops to attack Shanguan, and Chen Youding led reinforcements to repel Chen Youyu's attack. In the twentieth year of Zhengzheng (1360), Chen Youyi established himself as emperor, with the national name "Han", and sent Deng Keming to attack Tingzhou again.
The Yuan Dynasty reappointed Chen Youding as a defender and held on to Tingzhou. Chen Youding charged forward, broke through Deng Keming's camp, and let Deng Keming flee in a hurry, returning with a big defeat. Chen Youyu attacked Tingzhou twice, but was blocked by Chen Youding, and his heart was very angry.
Because of his merits in quelling the chaos, Chen Youding was promoted to the position of Governor of State affairs and became famous. Chen Youding then marched south to fight in the north, conquering Fujian Province, with many generals and a wide range of troops, and the threat was temporary. At this time, Chen Youding held a large army, but he was still loyal to the Yuan Dynasty and did not have the slightest intention of rebellion.
Needless to say, Chen Youding is really a rare loyalist! When Chen Youding fought the world, Zhu Yuanzhang was not idle, the two were fighting, the territory was naturally bordered, and a big war was naturally inevitable.
In the 27th year of Zhizheng (1367 AD), Zhu Yuanzhang sent Tang He to attack Fuzhou and surrounded the Fuzhou regiment. At this time, some people wanted to surrender to Zhu Yuanzhang, but Chen Youding said that we were both under the favor of the Yuan Dynasty and should be martyred with death, so how could we surrender?
After Chen Youding said this, the crowd held on to the city and never surrendered. Zhu Yuanzhang attacked Fuzhou for several months and finally broke through Fuzhou. Everyone surrendered, but Chen Youding did not surrender, and he committed suicide by drinking medicine. I don't know whether Chen Youding drank fake medicine or the amount of medicine was less, he did not die, he was saved.
After Chen Youring was captured, he was sent to see Zhu Yuanzhang, who asked him to surrender, but Chen Youding said that if he wanted to kill, he would kill, needless to say, I would not surrender.
Zhu Yuanzhang saw that Chen Youding was very skeletal, so he said to him: "Do you want to ride a copper horse?" "The copper horse is a kind of torture invented by Zhu Yuanzhang, similar to the punishment of cannon branding, and the copper horse is put into the charcoal to deal with the captives.
Chen Youding was also an iron-boned man who shouted, "Ride and ride." After Chen You fixed the copper horse, he was burned to death and ended his life. Chen Youding was a man who would rather die than surrender, and if there were more people like him at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty would not have perished.
References: "History of the Yuan", "History of the Ming Dynasty", "Northern Sketch of the Ming Dynasty", "Guoyu", etc