The Chen Sheng Wu Guang Uprising in the first year of Qin II, the people's rebellion led by Huang Chao in 878, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement in 1851, and the peasant revolt seemed to be an inevitable occurrence in all dynasties and generations. It is just that some people are not known about history after being suppressed, and some people have been very successful in rewriting the historical pattern.
Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the rule of the Yuan Dynasty and founded the Ming Dynasty, transforming from a beggar that everyone avoided to a heavenly son above ten thousand people. Zhu Yuanzhang is undoubtedly the most legendary of the vast peasant rebel army, and he is often used as a prototype in film and television dramas to interpret his legendary life.
However, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the leader of the uprising against the rule of the Yuan Dynasty was not only Zhu Yuanzhang, but he was defeated in the game with Zhu Yuanzhang and slowly forgotten by history. This man was Zhang Shicheng.
1. Eighteen flattened uprisings
In the first year of the reign of Emperor Yuan Yingzong, a poor peasant family in Baijuchang, Taizhou, gave birth to a baby boy, and his parents named him Zhang Shicheng. This is an ordinary day, an ordinary family. But no one expected that the birth of this male doll would be painted in the future history.
Zhang Shicheng's birth brought hope to the family, although the days were difficult, but it was not too difficult to live. Until the birth of the three younger brothers one after another, the family could not open the pot completely. The burden of supporting the family also fell on the eldest son Zhang Shicheng, and the ten-year-old Zhang Shicheng began to run for his life, relying on the hard work of "transporting salt on the official salt boat" to earn a meager income to supplement the family.
Among the local salt people, all those who asked about Zhang Shicheng did not praise two sentences. Zhang Shicheng was diligent and enthusiastic, although he did not earn much money, but whenever he encountered difficulties among the villagers, he always used righteousness and money to help him, and over time he established a high prestige among the salt people.
However, there is still a family that needs to be supported, not to mention the current work is tired, the wages are also pitiful, and the meager income is difficult to support daily expenses, which makes Zhang Shicheng very embarrassed. Desperate to take the risk, Zhang Shicheng paid attention to the sale of smuggled salt, so he and several fellow villagers quietly carried out smuggled salt trafficking.
It's just that this incident not only did not let Zhang Shicheng taste the sweetness, but also attracted the attention of Qiu Yi. As a local salt policeman, Qiu Yi is mainly responsible for monitoring and arresting smuggled salt dealers. However, Qiu Yi was a complete bully, not only withholding salt migrant workers' wages, but also blatantly accepting benefits, and if there was any disobedience, he would beat and scold at every turn.
Plain forbearance also made Qiu Yi's arrogance and fireworks even more prevalent, and when he could not bear it, Zhang Shicheng united seventeen people, including his brother, and took advantage of the night to raid Qiu Yi's home and beat him to death. Later, they rushed into the homes of the local rich, opened the granaries, and distributed the money and grain to the local people. Thus the clarion call of the uprising was officially sounded.
2. Establish a political power and establish itself as king
After this incident, Zhang Shicheng's reputation among the Yan people and even the people was even better than before, so the Yan people recommended him as the leader, and the people took advantage of the situation to take Taizhou smoothly, and then captured Xinghua.
The 10,000-strong army was already small, and the Yuan Dynasty also began to notice this group of rebels, so it recruited Zhang Shicheng with the position of "ten thousand households", but Zhang Shicheng, whose ambitions were growing, did not look at this small position at all. Later, he killed Li Qi, the prefect of Gaoyou Province, occupied Gaoyou, and established himself as king.
The ruler of the Yuan Dynasty was completely angry this time, so he sent Cheng Xiang to lead a million troops to besiege Zhang Shicheng. Zhang Shicheng saw Gao You, who was surrounded by water, and this time he was completely panicked and wanted to surrender, but he was not ready to give Zhang Shicheng the opportunity to surrender.
After capturing Gaoyou, he ordered to kill all the soldiers and civilians in the city in order to establish the prestige of the Yuan Dynasty. Ten thousand to million, who loses and who wins is clear at a glance, but I did not expect that there was an earth-shattering reversal.
At the same time as he was born and died for the Yuan Dynasty, he was stabbed in the back. For many years, I have provoked the displeasure of many people. Therefore, some people took the opportunity to apply eye drops in front of Emperor Yuanshun, and Emperor Yuanshun did not suspect it after hearing it, and ordered that he be relieved of his post and immediately escorted to Tubo. Poor generation of "sages", a glass of poisonous wine died on the way to Tubo.
After leaving his post, the Yuan Army saw that the lord was not there, and immediately made a mess of loose sand. Zhang Shicheng saw that the Yuan army was leaderless, so he took the opportunity to send troops, and thus defeated the Yuan Dynasty army with 10,000 soldiers.
Third, it has won the hearts and minds of the people and achieved remarkable results
A year later, Zhang Shicheng attacked Pingjiang, changed Pingjiang to Longping Province, and moved here from Gaoyou. He used The Chengtian Temple as an office space, set up a strict administrative structure, and began to divide the official positions among his subordinates. Because Zhang Shicheng was born a poor peasant and was well aware of the hardships of the people's lives, he ordered the abolition of complicated taxes, which made him more loved by the people.
Zhang Shicheng also sent military generals to work with the people to reclaim wasteland for grain cultivation, directly abolished the taxes previously owed by the peasants to the Yuan Dynasty, and returned 40% of the grain collected that year to the peasants.
Faced with the poor and the elderly, Zhang Shicheng ordered that the grain and clothing of the landlords and rich merchants be distributed to them. In addition, Zhang Shicheng also personally led the people to build water conservancy, develop agricultural mulberry, replace the currency, the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions began to prosper, and people who left home also rushed back to their homes.
In terms of culture and education, Zhang Shicheng set up bachelors and opened a Hongwen Hall, and the enrollees could provide daily diet and allowances. As soon as this policy came out, it attracted a lot of talented people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and these people also became Zhang Shicheng's future advisers.
Whether from the political, economic or cultural aspects, Zhang Shicheng has made great reforms, the people are no longer displaced, and the living standards have gradually improved. The people's aspirations are also reasonable, and in this way, Zhang Shicheng has won the hearts of the people and established a very high prestige.
Fourth, the reason for Zhang Shicheng's failure
After defeating the million yuan army and winning the hearts of the people, but still losing to Zhu Yuanzhang, what was the reason for this? There are nothing more than these three points:
After Zhang Shicheng captured Taizhou, he was surrendered by Li Qi, then rebelled and fled, and then defected to the Yuan government again. Although Zhang Shicheng's defection to the Yuan Dynasty was only driven by interests and not sincerely, his tribute to the Yuan Dynasty was witnessed by everyone.
Coupled with the fact that he killed Liu Futong, the leader of the Red Turban Army, it can be said that he has two sides and three knives, which is difficult to convince other forces, after all, no one dares to say whether he will stab himself in the future. Therefore, in this regard, Zhang Shicheng is far inferior to Zhu Yuanzhang.
In terms of employment, Zhang Shicheng's men were mixed, and in the later period, they were even more unclear, and they trusted his brother Zhang Shixin and son-in-law Pan Yuanshao, and entrusted them with heavy responsibilities. These two people were greedy for money and lustful, and they formed gangs and factions, which ruined Zhang Shicheng's good feelings in the hearts of the people.
The soldiers under them are also undisciplined and disciplined, and they must ask for benefits before each war before they are willing to lead the troops to attack. In the military, it is even more fun-seeking, and does not focus on military affairs at all. Even if zhang Shicheng lost the battle, he did not ask any questions, and soon after he asked him to lead the troops.
On the other hand, Zhu Yuanzhang knew how to make good use of people, rewarded and punished good and evil, had open discipline and was open-minded, and his morale was even more highly motivated. The two are also in stark contrast.
Another point is that Zhang Shicheng only cares about the present and has no concept of the overall situation. Perhaps this is what Zhang Shicheng wants, compared to Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhang Shicheng's ambition is actually too small. At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhang Shicheng, and Chen Youyi were entangled in the three forces, Chen Youyuqiang, Zhang Shichengfu, and Zhu Yuanzhang were much weaker than the two.
Zhu Yuanzhang once asked his subordinates Zhang Shicheng and Chen Youyu who they should attack first, and the generals surprisingly unanimously chose to attack Zhang Shicheng, on the grounds that Chen Youcheng was too strong, and if he was not careful, he would lose everything.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang insisted on attacking Chen Youyu first, and in the face of the doubts of his subordinates, the reason he gave was: Zhang Shicheng had a narrow vision, and he might not be involved in attacking Chen Youyu, and most of them would think of taking advantage of the opportunity to pick up the leak after the two sides were seriously injured. On the other hand, if Zhang Shicheng was attacked, Chen Youyu would definitely participate in it, and then he would be attacked in the abdomen and back, and the damage would be more serious.
Everything was indeed as Zhu Yuanzhang thought, Zhang Shicheng did not take any action, so after cleaning up Chen Youyi, Zhu Yuanzhang gathered fire on Zhang Shicheng again, and Zhang Shicheng was defeated and captured, and he was unable to return to heaven.
V. Summary:
It can be said that Zhang Shicheng's life is full of magical colors, from the poor people to the hegemonic side as the king, deeply loved by the local people.
Although he got a series of results in the early stage, he did nothing militarily, nepotism, did not know the overall situation but only wanted to enjoy his success, and he was doomed to only become a stepping stone under the superior.