Prosperous people produce civilian subjects, and chaotic worlds produce military generals. When the country is stable, studying and studying to become an official is the main way for most people to ascend, so at this time it is easy for civilian officials to emerge; and when there is chaos in the day and smoke is everywhere, the pen has no gun to make, and at this time those who can fight and can fight will stand out and become the pillar of the country. For example, when the Ming Dynasty was founded, six dukes were appointed, and even Li Shanchang, the first meritorious official and civilian leader of the founding of the country, was rewarded according to military merit. Interestingly, there is a young man among these six dukes, who has almost no merit, but he can rank third among the six founding dukes.
Li Shanchang, the first hero of the founding of the Ming Dynasty
The young man's name was Chang Mao, and he was not knighted because of how much merit he had, but purely because his father's merits were too great and he died young, so he enjoyed the treatment of a duke. His father was Chang Yuchun, the first fierce general in the early Ming Dynasty and posthumously awarded the title of King of Kaiping.
Spring is often encountered
Chang Yu Chun Zi Bo Ren (and the Eastern Jin Dynasty famous minister, wang guide "I do not kill Bo Ren, and Bo Ren died because of me" Zhou Yan), is also a Huaixi native, and Zhu Yuanzhang is a fellow countryman. Chang Yuchun has excellent physical fitness, great strength, long arms, and skillful bow horses. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and Chang Yuchun also had a hot brain to become a bandit, but soon he felt that there was no future for being a bandit, so he went to Hexian county and defected to Zhu Yuanzhang. Legend has it that when Chang Yuchun did not arrive at Zhu Yuanzhang's camp, he first slept on the outskirts of he county, and in his dream he heard an immortal say to him: "Wake up quickly, your lord has come!" The awakened Chang Yu Chun Na tou worshipped, just at this time Zhu Yuanzhang arrived, so he took him in as a homeless man who went to the army to beg for food.
Soon, Zhu Yuanzhang launched a campaign to capture Quarry Rock (ma'anshan). Chang Yuchun asked to be a pioneer, and Zhu Yuanzhang, who also ate him as a mixed meal, smiled: "You came to our army to beg for food because you were hungry, so don't do such a dangerous thing." Chang Yuchun insisted, but Zhu Yuanzhang still disagreed: "It is not too late for you to serve me again after you cross the Yangtze River." "After the battle began, the Yuan army laid heavy troops on the river beach, and the ships could not drive forward more than ten meters away from the riverbank. The anxious Zhu Yuanzhang saw that Chang Yuchun was still eager to try, so he asked him to start his performance.
I saw Chang Yuchun take out a spear and throw it the shore. The Yuan army on the shore immediately caught it, and often jumped in the spring and grabbed the tail of the spear to borrow the power to go ashore. After landing ashore, Chang Yuchun shouted "jumping (that is, the meaning of shuang)", and the other soldiers also rushed up and successfully captured the quarry. After this battle, Zhu Yuanzhang was also fully aware of Chang Yuchun's ability and quickly promoted him to the main general.
Chang Yuchun did not live up to Zhu Yuanzhang's trust, and in the battles of defending Zhu Yuanzhang's rear and county, capturing quarry rocks, and besieging Jiqing (Nanjing), Chang Yuchun was the main striker and the first hero. Together with his lifelong close partner Xu Da, he swept away southern Anhui, southern Jiangsu, and eastern Zhejiang for Zhu Yuanzhang, only to be defeated when he attacked Hangzhou as a commander, and then continued to serve as Xu Da's deputy, and had great achievements in the process of staying in Jiangzhou and capturing Anqing, and was one of the three most important military generals in Zhu Yuanzhang's initial period (the other two were Xu Da and Shao Rong).
Xu Da
After laying the Jiangdong area for Zhu Yuanzhang as a base area, Chang Yuchun made an important contribution in the war to defeat Chen Youyu: in the battle of Poyang Lake, Chen Youyu's generals took a clipper boat to sneak up on Zhu Yuanzhang's flagship, which ran aground, and Chang Yuchun shot an arrow before he helped Zhu Yuanzhang escape from danger. After defeating Chen Youyi's main force, his defeated army was still strong and was trying to flee along the river. At this time, the other generals all thought that the poor Kou Mochai, only Chang Yuchun insisted on attacking, and fought fiercely with him for several days, killing Chen Youyu and greatly shortening the time of the war for hegemony between Zhu and Chen.
Chang Yuchun's bravery was greatly appreciated by Zhu Yuanzhang, but at the same time, the killing qi on his body was also Zhu Yuanzhang's headache. Once the city cannot be attacked for a long time, after the city is destroyed, it will often be slaughtered in the spring, which is really a big taboo for Zhu Yuanzhang, who has the world in mind. In the siege of Ganzhou, Zhu Yuanzhang specially gave Chang Yuchun an order: "Don't kill too many people after taking the city, if you have territory and no people, what is the use?" After Chang Yuchun listened to the leader's words and did not kill anyone, Zhu Yuanzhang was particularly happy and praised him fiercely. It can be seen how many cities were slaughtered and how many people were killed before Chang Yuchun?
After the south was all pacified, Chang Yuchun, once again serving as Xu Da's deputy, went north to cut down the Yuan and raided the Mongols' hometowns. Before leaving for the expedition, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was afraid of encountering old problems in the spring and committing the mistakes again, once again warned Chang Yuchun: "No one is as good as you when you are firm and stubborn and attack the city strategically." Don't worry that you can't fight, worry that you can easily fight. Casually starting like a big head soldier is not what you expect. Chang Yuchun humbly accepted the emperor's criticism and education, but he did not change. In the battlefield of Henan, Chang Yuchun faced the 50,000 yuan army on the north bank of the Luo River, and Chang Yuchun, as the deputy commander of the army, dared to fight alone: he shot the front of the Yuan army with one arrow, and one person fought with more than twenty Mongol cavalry and did not fall behind. Once the leader takes the lead, where is the reason why the soldiers under his command do not need to die? The Ming army immediately covered the past together, and tens of thousands of yuan troops were chased and fled for more than fifty miles, and the Henan battlefield soon achieved a comprehensive victory.
After Chang Yuchun and Xu Da captured the capital of Yuan, they continued to attack Taiyuan to the west. Chang Yuchun, who was born in cavalry, did not wait for the arrival of the infantry unit, and after Xu Da's approval, he led the cavalry unit to attack the Yuan army base camp at night, directly putting on the shoes of the Yuan army guards and escaping with eighteen relatives.
Chang Yuchun, who had won all the way, fought from Taiyuan to the west to Fengxiang, and from Fengxiang back to Beiping, and then to the east to Jinzhou, leaving his heroic figure in the entire northern kingdom. After Emperor YuanShun fled to Kaiping, Chang Yuchun also followed, frightening Emperor Shun into fleeing north for hundreds of miles, capturing countless Mongolian princesses and cheri horses, and Chang Yuchun also reached the peak of his life.
But changing the life of chun also ends here. He died suddenly and violently at the age of forty when banshi returned to the dynasty. When the news reached Nanjing, Zhu Yuanzhang was distressed by it, and personally greeted the coffin after it arrived in Nanjing. Chang Yuchun's funeral was carried out according to the specifications of the Northern Song Dynasty's famous minister Zhao Pu, who himself was posthumously honored as the King of Kaiping County, in commemoration of the greatest Kaiping victory in his life. Chang Yuchun's eldest son, Chang Mao, was also ranked among the six dukes of the founding of the country because of his father's merits, second only to Li Shanchang, the first minister of letters, and Xu Da, the first military general.
Chang Mao
Some people will ask, at the beginning, Chang Yuchun was said to be the first fierce general, why did he just say that Xu Da was the first martial general? Because a fierce general is not necessarily the best warrior. Chang Yuchun was indeed brave and unusual, and he often took the lead in fighting, and the soldiers under his opponents were also very good. But his habits of banditry have never changed, and although he is a good fighter, his political acumen is a little bit of a schoolboy in relation to his military prowess. As the commander of the army, it is not a good thing to like slaughtering the city, especially in the critical period of fighting for the world, it is easy to lose the hearts of the people (Zhu Yuanzhang, who can kill people without blinking, feel excessive, which shows how cruel it is to kill people in the spring). After the leaders repeatedly mentioned themselves, they always liked to bubble and make mistakes of rushing forward, and although they won the battle, they were easily punished. As a commander, repeatedly leading the charge can play a morale-boosting role, but it also greatly improves the possibility of injury. In fact, although the history books do not specify the cause of death in the spring, considering that he died violently shortly after the war, and his personal bad habits in life style, it is likely that he died of acute infection of the wound after being injured.
Chang Yuchun was so belligerent and martial, he naturally neglected to discipline his son. Chang Mao was very arrogant and naïve, he was awarded the duke, and married the daughter of another duke, Feng Sheng, and his tail was a little cocked. In the course of the Northern Expedition with his father-in-law, Chang Mao did not have any famous military achievements, but instead drove away the Mongol Taishi who had already planned to surrender. Zhu Yuanzhang remembered the merits of Chang Yuchun, but only changed Chang Mao's title to Longzhou, Guangxi. Chang Mao died of illness shortly after, not even having a son, and was succeeded to the title by his younger brother. This younger brother was extremely kind, and fought alongside his elder brother Xu Huizu, Xu Da's son, in the Battle of Jingnan, and was finally killed in battle.
Xu Huizu
Although "retribution" is a lie, Xu Da usually practices more good deeds and educates his children very strictly, and the Xu family can be regarded as rich and long in the end. Chang Yuchun killed too many people and set fires, and finally he died violently, and his son could not die well, which cannot be said to be the evil result of his creation of too much karma.