preface
When it comes to Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, everyone will be amazed that he has ascended from a humble little monk to the throne of the Nine-Five-Year-Old, which can be described as a great tyrant in the chaotic world. However, fighting alone would never enable him to seize the position of the overlord of the world, and if he could defeat the two major forces of Chen Youyu and Zhang Shicheng, he would certainly be indispensable to the help of his fierce generals. Today, we will talk about the 600,000-strong army of Chen Youyi, who made great contributions to Zhu Yuanzhang's elimination of Chen Youyu's forces, but was later imprisoned by Zhu Yuanzhang.
Uncles and nephews carry each other
Zhu Yuanzhang was born in cloth clothes, and when he was a child, his family was too poor to open the pot, and he did not have a meal, so he was still a child and could only go to the landlord's family to herd cattle in exchange for food. However, those who are farmers are watching whether God gives food or not.
When Zhu Yuanzhang was fifteen years old, his hometown had not been rained for a long time, and there was a major drought, and the following spring there was a serious plague of locusts and plagues. The ensuing natural disasters and epidemics took the lives of most of Zhu Yuanzhang's relatives, and in less than half a month, his parents and eldest brother died one after another.
After surviving, Zhu Yuanzhang defected to the Huangjue Temple in order to be cornered, and became a monk as soon as his hair was shaved. And his sister-in-law took his son Zhu Wenzheng to his mother's house.
Moreover, although this Zhu Wenzheng was Zhu Yuanzhang's nephew according to his generation, he was only eight years younger than this uncle. When he was young, he experienced famine and his father died early, and Zhu Wenzheng had not experienced any good things since he was born. After this box and his uncle went their separate ways, Zhu Wenzheng and his mother and father were dependent on each other for their lives, and the mother and son were displaced, but they were hungry and miserable.
Just when the mother and son were at their most impoverished, his uncle Zhu Yuanzhang's reputation in the Red Turban Army gradually rose, so Zhu Wenzheng took his mother to defect to this famous uncle.
In fact, Zhu Wenzheng was very worried about whether his uncle was willing to take care of his mother and son, but to his surprise, Zhu Yuanzhang was overjoyed by the arrival of the two of them. Zhu Yuanzhang not only did not dislike him, on the contrary, he regarded the only bloodline left by his eldest brother, and at the same time, his last relative in this world as a parent and took care of him in every way. Under zhu Yuanzhang's cultivation, Zhu Wenzheng not only learned a martial art, but even his ability to govern the army gradually revealed.
It can be said that without Zhu Yuanzhang's pouring in, Zhu Wen would never have the chance to become famous in a war.
Defend hongdu
At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youyi stood on their feet, and the two fought to the death for the position of the last overlord in the world. In the stalemate battle, there was a battle that laid the key to the victory or defeat of the Battle of Zhu Chen, which was later known as the Defense of Hongdu.
"Three rivers and five lakes, control the barbarians and lead the Ouyue." In the Zhu-Chen contest, Longxing (present-day Nanchang, Jiangxi), located at the confluence of Tuanyang Lake and the Ganjiang River, was of great strategic importance.
On this day, Chen Youyu, who was drinking freely in the tent, received a secret report, and was suddenly shocked and panicked. It turned out to be Chen Youyu's subordinate, hu Tingrui, the chancellor of Jiangxi Province, who ceded the military town of Longxing to Zhu Yuanzhang. It should be noted that Longxing has always been a place where soldiers must fight, and losing Longxing is equivalent to letting Zhu Yuanzhang control the whole of Jiangxi.
A big pie fell from the sky, and Zhu Yuanzhang, who took Long Xing into his pocket without a single soldier, was very happy and changed Long Xing's name - Hongdu.
Although Hongdu surrendered, Chen Youyu never gave up retaking Hongdu, and he was waiting for an opportunity. This time, the military town of Anfeng was in a hurry, and in a hurry, Zhu Yuanzhang rushed to support with the main army, leaving only his nephew Zhu Wenzheng and 20,000 soldiers to defend the city.
In the face of such a good opportunity, how could Chen Youyu remain indifferent? Therefore, he made a big bet - desperately leading 600,000 troops to attack Hongdu, which was bound to retake this military town.
Why did Chen Youyu dare to take such a big risk and put all his eggs in one basket? In fact, not only Chen Youyu, but also from the present point of view, Chen Youyi's attack on Hongdu can be said to be inevitable. First of all, let's look at the gap in strength, 600,000 vs 20,000, a full thirty times the difference, the disparity in strength is too huge, and it is clear whose hand the deer died. Looking at the conductor again, Zhu Wenzheng was spoiled by his mother, and Zhu Yuanzhang also treated him very well, so his life may be contaminated with the habits of some clumsy children, and when it reaches Chen Youyou's ears, it is a playboy image who does not do his job and spends all day drinking.
As a result, Chen Youyu was overjoyed, full of victory, and came to besiege the city with 600,000 troops. I didn't think that Zhu Wenzheng, a waste snack that had never caught his eye before the war, had made him lose completely.
In the face of 600,000 enemy troops, Zhu Wenzheng did not panic and showed his military command ability that amazed the world. The siege began in April, and Zhu Yuanzhang led his army back to the defense at the end of June, that is to say, Zhu Wenzheng and 20,000 soldiers held the isolated city for 85 days, not only that, he also repeatedly defeated Chen Youyi's army.
Outnumbered and isolated, Zhu Wen was in this desperate situation to turn the tables against the wind and write a miracle of winning more with less, and since then his reputation has been greatly shaken.
Confined to death
Logically, Zhu Wenzheng held the rear for himself, and also severely demoralized the morale of Chen Jun, laying the foundation for the irreversible decline of Chen Youyi's side, so for this nephew who was the most meritorious, Zhu Yuanzhang should be rewarded.
However, what is surprising is that after eliminating Chen Youyi's forces, Zhu Yuanzhang was a large number of courtiers, but he was only quite stingy with his nephew. I don't know if he knew Zhu Wenzheng's arrogant nature and wanted to use this to dampen his vigor, or whether as an emperor, he was well versed in the principle of gong and high lordhood, and he became jealous of Zhu Wenzheng?
It is not known what the specific reason is, but Zhu Wenzheng is very dissatisfied with this. He thought, I have made such a great merit but I can't even get a good reward, so what else do I have to do with such a desperate effort? After all, I also have the talent to govern the army and the power to lead the army, and since my uncle is unfair to me, it is better to oppose him and establish himself as king.
Zhu Wenzheng, who had a rebellious heart, colluded with another rebel force, namely Zhang Shicheng, Zhu Yuanzhang's sworn enemy, to plot a rebellion, but unfortunately, Zhu Yuanzhang soon became aware of this. In the face of betraying his nephew, Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely distressed and wanted to give him the death penalty for the crime of rebellion, but in the end he still had compassion for this only relative, so Zhu Yuanzhang was not willing to kill Zhu Wenzheng, and only imprisoned him in heaven. Later, Zhu Wenzheng could not bear such suffering and committed suicide.
Descendants are called kings
The wheels of the times rolled forward, no dynasty could prosper for a long time, after a hundred years of glory, the Ming Dynasty, which had reached its twilight years, ended its lingering life in the hands of the Chongzhen Emperor, and the iron hooves of the Manchu Qing finally flattened the Daming Mountains.
Although the Ming Dynasty is dead, the Zhu clan, who are descendants of the imperial family, have not given up their dream of emperorship. These descendants of the Zhu clan called themselves emperors in various places, such as Zhu Yousong the Prince of Fu, Zhu Yujian the King of Tang, and Zhu Hengjia, the King of Jingjiang.
200 years after Zhu Wenzheng's death, his descendant Zhu Hengjia was crowned emperor in Guilin. In order to strengthen his own power, Zhu Hengjia sent envoys to the surrounding provinces to make them submit to him, while recruiting soldiers and training troops to prepare for confrontation with the Qing Dynasty.
However, this dream of opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty had not been done for long, and even Zhu Hengjia had time to fight a decisive battle with the Qing army in the future, and he was defeated by Zhu Yujian, who was proclaimed emperor in Fujian, because of the nest fighting. Zhu Hengjia only served as emperor for more than ten days until his death, which made people sigh.
epilogue
It is undeniable that Zhu Wenzheng showed his astonishing military command ability in the defense of Hongdu and made great achievements, but later he was proud of his achievements and rebelled, which led to his own tragedy. If he had self-knowledge and put himself in the right position, how could he end up in solitude to death?