Wang Yangming, the master of Lu Wang's heart study, was not only proficient in Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, but also able to unite the army in conquest.
"Portrait of Prince Wencheng of the New Bo gift", painted by Ming Shen Jun, in the Shaoxing Museum
Zhu Chenhao, born in 1476, was the grandson of Zhu Quan, the seventeenth son of Zhu Yuanzhang. He was the son of his father, King Ningkang, and his mother, Feng Ji'er, was originally a prostitute.
Zhu Chenhao's ancestor Zhu Quan the Prince of Ning was held hostage by Zhu Di the Prince of Yan during the Jing Dynasty, and all the troops under his command were taken away by Zhu Di, who had promised Zhu Quan to divide the world equally, but after taking the throne, he resealed Zhu Quan to Nanchang and put it under surveillance. Zhu Chenhao was deeply upset about this.
Zhu Chenhao was a man of great talent and had different ambitions, and in the ninth year of Zhengde (1514), he treated Tang Yin and Wen Zhengming with courtesy. On June 14, 1519, in the fourteenth year of Zhengde (1519), Zhu Chenhao raised an army in Nanchang, and 60,000 troops descended from the Jiujiang River along the river to attack Anqing and spy on Nanjing, calling the emperor Shunde the year name, known in history as the Chenhao Rebellion.
At this time, Wang Yangming served as the inspector of Gannan and the right governor of Yushi, and led his troops to Fujian to suppress bandits. When the troops arrived in Fengcheng, Jiangxi, he received news that Zhu Chenhao, the king of Ning, was in Nanchang, the stronghold of Zhu Chenhao, a hundred miles away.
On the one hand, Wang Yangming actively prepared for war, allocated military food, and repaired equipment, and on the other hand, he issued a letter of reprimand, announced the guilt of King Ning, and demanded that all localities raise troops to serve the king.
In order to prevent King Ning from sending troops and delaying him from going south, Wang Yangming ordered his men to falsify false information, which said that the imperial court had anticipated that Zhu Chenhao was going to rebel, and had sent a large army to ambush the key areas of the Jingshi Road, asking all localities to obey the orders and cooperate in the ambush of the rebels. After King Ning intercepted the news, he was terrified and did not dare to send troops for half a month, Wang Yangming took this opportunity to make preparations for the defense of Nanjing, and King Ning missed the best opportunity to invade and occupy Nanjing.
Wang Morihito Images
Zhu Chenhao did not see the Jing division going south for half a month, nor did he see Wang Yangming's army going north. In July, King Ning led 60,000 troops and directly attacked Anqing.
At this time, Wang Shouren had mobilized an army of 80,000, claiming to be 300,000. He knew that it was too late to save Anqing at this time. He arranged for Wu Wending, the prefect of Ji'an Province, to lead troops to directly attack Nanchang, the old lair of king Ning. Zhu Chenhao almost fell out of his home, and Nanchang's defense was extremely weak, and it was quickly breached.
Zhu Chenhao had no choice but to lead his army back to nanchang, while Wang Yangming's troops were waiting for him on the way. On July 25, the two armies met at Poyang Lake.
The battle was fought very badly. By this time the water warfare was no longer just bows and arrows and catapults. Each side had artillery and rockets, and Zhu Chenhao carefully built several of the most technologically advanced warships of the time in order to start a trouble.
After Wu Wending killed several retreating sailors, he led the ship to rush into Zhu Chenhao's fleet and touched the position where King Ning was sitting. Wang Yangming received the information sent back by Wu Wending and fired a shot at it. Zhu Chenhao's ship caught fire and exploded when it boarded.
After Zhu Chenhao returned to the camp of the treehouse on the shore of Poyang Lake, he prepared to regroup. One night, he ordered people to tie the big ships together with iron cables, and formed a phalanx of the big ships, and king Ning took out gold and silver jewelry to reward the soldiers, asking them to fight to the death. He must have read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and even if he hadn't, he should know the history of Zhu Yuanzhang burning Chen Youyi in the same place 150 years ago. It is a lament today to repeat the mistakes of the past.
The next day, the Ning Kings gathered together and were on the ship to hold a "morning dynasty" meeting. Wang Shouren's army was killed, he used small boats to load grass, set fire to the wind, burned the deputy ship of king Ning, and the palace people below Princess Lou and the civil and military officials jumped into the water to commit suicide. King Ning's ship ran aground, unable to move, and hastily changed to a small boat to escape, and was chased and captured by Wang Yangming's subordinate Wang Mianbu, and other ministers of literature and military affairs of King Ning also became prisoners.
Wang Shouren dynasty costume statue
It took Zhu Chenhao more than ten years to prepare for the uprising, and it took forty-two days from the start of the army to the defeat.
At first, when the news of King Ning's rebellion reached Beijing, Emperor Mingwu Zhu Houzhao decided to march in person. However, before the troops could be dispatched, Zhu Chenhao was defeated and captured alive by Wang Yangming. However, the emperor's prosperity cannot be swept away. In the end, he went out under the pseudonym of "Mighty General Zhu Shou".
Emperor Mingwuzong's righteous son Jiang Bin deliberately asked Wang Yangming to release King Ning, so that Emperor Wuzong would fight a battle with King Ning and personally capture him, in order to curry favor with the emperor. Wang Yangming repeatedly stated the stakes and interests, moved by affection, and understood the reasoning, indicating that more people would die in this way. The final result of the coordination was to let Emperor Mingwuzong go to Nanjing, and then release The King of Ning to let the emperor take prisoners.
Pingning Wang's Monument to Meritorious Service
In the sixteenth year of Zhengde (1521), Emperor Wuzong of Ming died, and his cousin Zhu Houxi succeeded to the throne, because Wang Yangming was instrumental in quelling the rebellion of King Ning, Emperor Mingshizong was specially enfeoffed as Xinbo, granted the Title of Shangshu of Nanjing Bingbu, and opened the capital in Shaoxing in the second year of Jiajing (1523).
In addition to the relatives of the emperor and the state, the Ming Dynasty was not allowed to enjoy the title without military merit, and the number of civil officials was even more numerous, and Wang Yangming was the third civilian official to be knighted for military merit since the founding of the Ming Dynasty (the first two were Wang Ji of the Yongle Dynasty and Wang Yue during the Jingtai period).