In the first month of 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne in Nanjing, and a new dynasty began. Zhu Yuanzhang went from entrepreneurship to emperor, after 15 years, in these 15 years, the "big guys" who once fought with Zhu Yuanzhang fell one by one. The Ming Chronicle of the End of volume III:
Taizu rose to Haoliang, and at the same time, there were Zhang Shicheng according to Wu, Xu Zhen according to Pu, Ming Yuzhen according to Shu, Fang Guozhen according to Jiangdong, but all of them sat on the big door, not the zhiye of the world, and the only Chen Youyi was in the posture of Xiao Dove...
Among them, 5 people are mentioned, namely Zhang Shicheng, Xu Shouhui (Xu Zhenyi), Ming Yuzhen, Fang Guozhen and Chen Youyu.
Fang Guozhen was the earliest to revolt, but he had no great ambitions; Zhang Shicheng was a good man, but not a good leader; Ming Yuzhen was partial to Bashu and had limited strength; only Chen Youyi was slightly talented, but unfortunately bad luck. However, people are most likely to forget one person, and this person is Xu Shouhui.
In the last year of the Yuan Dynasty, Xu Shouhui led the Southern Red Turban Army to rise up and stir up the storm for 10 years, with as many as one million soldiers and horses under his command. However, Xu Shouhui trained two founding emperors, but he was eventually hammered to death by his subordinates, who made great contributions to the resistance to the Yuan, but the "History of Ming" did not even leave a column for Xu Shouhui. Such a figure is a pity.
In this article, the author will share with you the most "peculiar" rebel army leaders at the end of the Yuan Dynasty in the future, hoping to take you to understand a person and an era through the comparison of historical materials.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" >, bathing changes fate</h1>
According to the Biography of Ming Shi Chen Youyu:
Shou Hui, a native of Luotian, also known as Shinichi, is a cloth seller.
Xu Shouhui, also known as Xu Zhenyi, was originally a native of Luotian, Puzhou, and initially made a living by selling cloth. In the last years of the Yuan Dynasty, the occupations of the rebel leaders can be described as diverse, Zhu Yuanzhang was a monk, Chen Youyu was a fisherman, Zhang Shicheng was a salt dealer, and the protagonist of this article, Xu Shouhui, was a cloth dealer.
The Red Turban Army uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty was huge, but the real Red Turban Army actually had two different factions.
In the eleventh year of the Yuan Shun Emperor's reign (1351), the Yuan Dynasty recruited tens of thousands of minfu to repair the river, and Han Shantong, a native of Yingzhou (Fuyang, Anhui), took the opportunity to launch the Yellow River Minfu Uprising, which was called the Red Turban Army because the rebels wore red scarves on their heads.
About 3 months after the Han Shantong Uprising, Xu Shouhui launched another peasant uprising in the paradise village of Dabie Mountain, the New Yuan History Yun:
His people wrapped their heads in red scarves, and they were the same as Ru and Ying Demon Thieves.
That is to say, when Xu Shouhui launched the uprising, everyone was also wrapped in a red scarf, so it was later called the Red Turban Army.
Because Han Shantong's rebel activities were mainly in the Yellow River Basin, Xu Shouhui's rebel army was mainly in the Yangtze River Basin, so historiography refers to the former as the "Northern Red Turban Army" and the latter as the "Southern Red Turban Army". Although both are called the Red Turban Army, the two have no subordination relationship with each other.
The Northern Red Turban Army was first suppressed by the Yuan Army, and Han Shantong was arrested and killed soon after the uprising, and the Northern Red Turban Army was led by Liu Futong and Han Lin'er, the son of Han Shantong. There were many branches, and Guo Zixing, the marshal of the Red Turban Army in Haozhou, was also nominally under the leadership of Han Lin'er, and Zhu Yuanzhang later joined Guo Zixing's rebel army, so in a strict sense, Zhu Yuanzhang has always been subordinate to the Northern Red Turban Army.
Because some readers are not familiar with this history, they have the above details, and the following is a specific talk about Xu Shouhui, the leader of the Southern Red Turban Army.
Although Xu Shouhui revolted as a cloth dealer, he was originally an honest businessman. In the last years of the Yuan Dynasty, he "traveled back and forth between Pu and Huang", and in order to make a living, he often traveled between Puzhou and Huangzhou. The reason why he became the leader of the rebel army is due to another person, this person is Peng Yingyu (the picture below is Peng Yingyu's stills in "The Book of the Dragon Slaughter in the Heavens").
Peng Yingyu was a monk, or rather, a restless monk. Peng Yingyu is good at using spring water to treat people, and has cured hundreds of people, so he has many believers in "near and far gods". In fact, Peng Yingyu already had a bad heart, and he wanted to use medical skills to deify himself, and then lead the people to oppose the Yuan. However, Peng Yingyu knows that the gun shoots the head bird, and he is not willing to personally lead the uprising, but likes to launch a top cylinder, and he is good at manipulating it behind his back. The first person to be pushed out by Peng Yingyu, named Zhou Ziwang, was Peng Yingyu's eldest apprentice. The Biography of Xu Shouhui in the New Yuan Shi records:
In the tenth year of zheng, his disciple Zhou Ziwang used magic to confuse the people, and more than fifty people from them were called kings, and the official king was killed. Yingyu fled, hiding in the Huaixi people's home, day and night to closely compose different maps.
In the tenth year of the Yuan Shun Emperor's reign, the year before the Red Turban Rebellion, Peng Yingyu asked his great disciple Zhou Ziwang to launch a rebellion of more than 50 followers, and Zhou Ziwang called himself "king". Unexpectedly, not long after the rebellion, Zhou Ziwang was killed by the government. As the operator behind the scenes, Peng Yingyu luckily escaped and hid in a peasant's home in Huaixi, thinking about how to seek a "great cause" every day.
It was at this time that he met Xu Shouhui. The Biography of Ming Shi Chen Youyu records:
The Yuanzhou monk Peng Yingyu used the demon arts and Macheng Zou Pusheng to gather the crowd for chaos, using the red scarf as a trumpet, and the appearance of Qi Shouhui was mainly pushed.
This means that Peng Yingyu and the second apprentice Zou Pusheng (who came from a blacksmith background) wanted to gather a crowd to rebel, and Peng Yingyu had planned to let the second apprentice Zou Pusheng take the lead, Zou Pusheng was a wise man and did not want to follow in Zhou Ziwang's footsteps, so he suggested finding another person. At this time, they saw that Xu Shouhui looked strange, so they pushed Xu Shouhui as the mainstay. This statement is more subtle, and the "New Yuan History" is even more legendary:
ShouHui bathed in the pool, and the disciples of Yingyu saw that it had a red light, which was different.
It turned out that in the summer of the eleventh year of Zhizheng, the cloth dealer Xu Shouhui was too tired to do business, and went to the pond to take a bath, just as Peng Yingyu and Zou Pusheng passed by the pond, they looked at it from a distance and saw Xu Shouhui's back glowing with a bright and dangling red light, so they felt that Xu Shouhui was the "son of heaven", so they forcibly dragged Xu Shouhui ashore and respected him as the lord of the rebel army.
In fact, according to the analysis of later generations, it may be that when Xu Shouhui was taking a bath, the sunlight was reflected through the water flow on his back, coupled with the refraction of red objects (such as lotus flowers) in the pond, which just saw the "red light" from Peng Yingyu's perspective. Therefore, under the flicker of Peng Yingyu, Xu Shouhui became the leader of the rebel army in a confused way. Later, Xu Shouhui became emperor and began a decade-long anti-Yuan journey.
Xu Shouhui at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, his fate was so peculiar. Throughout Chinese history, Xu Shouhui was the one who changed his fate because of bathing and finally became emperor.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" > second, the most domineering country name</h1>
In 1351, shortly after the uprising, Xu Shouhui led troops to capture Huangzhou, and in Huangzhou, Xu Shouhui was officially proclaimed emperor, with the national name "Tianquan" and the era name Zhiping. Here we must talk about Xu Shouhui's national name, as we all know, the national name of the Yuan Dynasty is actually not "Yuan", but "Dayuan". Xu Shouhui's national name "Heavenly End" is a few strokes on the head of the two words "Dayuan", which means "overshadowing the Great Yuan". This national name, compared with the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, can be called the most domineering national name.
Xu Shouhui's men are full of talents, in addition to the big man Peng Yingyu behind the scenes, there are also Zou Pusheng (Taishi), Ni Wenjun (marshal), Zhao Pusheng (marshal of the water army), Ding Pulang, Chen Puxiang, Meng Haima and others. Next, there will be two big people who will defect to Xu Shouhui, one is Chen Youyu and the other is Ming Yuzhen.
After the Red Turban Army uprising, the Yuan Dynasty quickly sent troops to suppress it, Han Shantong and other Northern Red Turban Army bore the brunt of it, and although Xu Shouhui was also encircled and suppressed in the south, the initial pressure was less, so the Southern Red Turban Army developed rapidly in the first few years. History:
First of all, after a long time, Shouhui soldiers came out, and the prefectures and counties all looked forward to the wind.
Xu Shouhui was from a low-level people's background, very well aware of the people's suffering, he conquered a state and county, did not kill or plunder, but also distributed the grain of the government to the poor people, so it won the hearts of the people, and the people joined Xu Shouhui's team.
In the twelfth year of Zhengzheng, Xu Shouhui sent troops to capture the two important towns of Xiangyang and Jingmen, shocking the Yuan court, and then Xu Shouhui's general Ding Pulang captured Hanyang and Anlu. At the end of the year, Xu Shouhui sent Zhao Pusheng to capture Wuchang, and for a time, Xu Shouhui was huge, and the army was like a plough to sweep the caves, and the "New Yuan History" recorded:
Attacking Jiangxi along the river, Li Yi, the governor of Jiangzhou, and timur, the chief bookkeeper, refused to fight, and were defeated... Pu Sheng then fell to Nankang. It is the month when Meng Haima falls to Gui, Xia, and Fangzhu Prefectures. Shouhui will trap Yue Prefecture, and the prefectures of Zhongzhong, Wan, and Chu will all descend...
After Xu Shouhui took Huguang, he attacked Jiangxi down the river, took Jiujiang, and then nankang, Guizhou, Xiazhou, and Fangzhou. Xu Shouhui also sent troops to attack Yuezhou, Wanzhou, and Kuizhou. Xu Shouhui became the most powerful rebel army at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.
And this year, Zhu Yuanzhang was still a monk at the Huangjue Temple, so it is reasonable to say that Zhu Yuanzhang respected Xu Shouhui as a "big brother", after all, When Xu Shouhui resisted the Yuan and beat the Yuan Dynasty to a rarity, Zhu Yuanzhang had not yet enlisted in the army.
Xu Shouhui's territory, at its peak, included all of Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi, parts of Henan and Sichuan, and later southern Anhui, western Zhejiang, and even Hangzhou.
In the thirteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty, Emperor Yuan Shun mobilized several provinces and began to concentrate the main force of the Yuan army to encircle and suppress Xu Shouhui. Xu Shouhui faced tremendous pressure in this year, and Peng Yingyu was also killed in battle in this year. History:
In June, the province left fire you Chifu Ruizhou, Peng Yingyu cut and slashed.
In June of that year, the Yuan Dynasty general Youchi conquered Ruizhou, but Peng Yingyu did not escape, was captured by the Yuan army, and was killed on the spot. After Peng Yingyu's death, Xu Shouhui got rid of the control and became more ambitious.
It was also in April of this year that an adult monk came out of Haozhou, and when he saw the chaos in the world, he defected to Guo Zixing, the marshal of the Red Turban Army in Haozhou, and Guo Zixing saw that he was brave and courageous, so he gave him his righteous daughter Ma Shixu, and from here, he opened his own imperial business, this person, named Zhu Yuanzhang.
However, although Zhu Yuanzhang joined the rebel army, he spent the first two years in Huaixi and did not meet Xu Shouhui.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" > three, mantis flycatcher yellow finches behind</h1>
Xu Shouhui did not meet Zhu Yuanzhang, but in this year, Xu Shouhui met another tyrant in the future. This person's name is Ming Yuzhen.
According to the Biography of Ming Shi Ming Yuzhen:
Ming Yuzhen, a native of Suizhou. He is more than eight feet long and has heavy pupils. Xu Shouhui, Yuzhen and Lizhong father and elder united more than a thousand people, Tun Qingshan. And ShouHui called himself emperor, causing people to recruit Yu Zhen to know: "If you come, you will be rich and noble, and you will not come to raise an army to slaughter them." "Yuzhen led the crowd to descend.
Ming Yuzhen was originally a peasant, and when Xu Shouhui rebelled, Ming Yuzhen led his father and elders in his family to rebel against the imperial court, and in the thirteenth year of Zhizheng, Ming Yuzhen accepted Xu Shouhui's surrender and became Xu Shouhui's confidant. Two years later, Xu Shouhui met another tyrant, this person was Chen Youyu.
"Ming Shi Chen Youyu Biography" Yun:
Chen Youyi, Qiuyang Fisherman's Son. Ben Xie clan, ancestors yu Chen... Xu Shouhui raised his troops, and his friends forgave him and followed him, and he took Ni Wenjun as his bookkeeper.
In the fifteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan army defeated Xu Shouhui's rebel army at Qiuyang, Xu Shouhui reorganized the soldiers and horses, sent the marshal Ni Wenjun to retake Qiuyang, and Chen Youyu surrendered to Ni Wenjun's command and was appointed as a scribe.
Xu Shouhui had been emperor for 5 years at this time, and he did not expect that Chen Youyu and Ming Yuzhen would establish their own dynasty in the future.
Xu Shouhui was originally a small trader, although he had calculations in his heart, he did not like to be jealous of others. In the early years, Xu Shouhui was controlled by Peng Yingyu, and later after Peng Yingyu's death, Xu Shouhui finally supported the waist pole. He trusted Ni Wenjun, so he listened more to the advice of Marshal Ni Wenjun.
Ni Wenjun is also a strange person, when he was born, his mother once dreamed of a white tiger entering the house, Ni Wenjun later Xiao Yong was good at war, and made great military achievements, known as "Ni White Tiger" or "Ni Manzi".
After the death of The Great Master Zou Pusheng, Ni Wenjun served as a chancellor, becoming more inflated and increasingly arrogant. "New Yuanshi Xu Shouhui Biography" Yun:
In the first month of the sixteenth year, Wen Jun was built in Hanyang, and The capital was moved to The Capital. Shouhui is lenient and indulgent, and the power is under the group. And Zou Pusheng died, with Wen Jun as the chancellor, and the great power was out of his hand, and Shou Hui was nothing like that.
This means that in the sixteenth year of Zhengzheng, Ni Wenjun suggested moving the capital to Hanyang, and Xu Shouhui gladly went there. During this period, Ni Wenjun was no longer under the leadership of Xu Shouhui, and he wanted to replace him.
In the seventeenth year of the Yuan Dynasty, Xu Shouhui sent Ming Yuzhen to attack Bashu, Ni Wenjun saw that Xu Shouhui did not have many people around him, planned to launch a mutiny, planned to lead troops straight to Xu Shouhui's mansion, but unexpectedly, the news leaked, Xu Shouhui heard about it, and immediately sent someone to arrest Ni Wenjun, Ni Wenjun saw that the situation was not good, so he fled to Huangzhou. Why did he flee to Huangzhou? Because Huangzhou was the territory of his subordinate Chen Youyi. Ming Shi Yun:
In September of the seventeenth year, Wen Junmou killed Shouhui, Buke, and Ben Huangzhou. Shi Youyu was under the command of Wen Jun, and he was a marshal of the leading army. He took advantage of the challenge to kill Wen Jun, and his soldiers, claiming to be xuanwei envoys, seeking the title of Pingzhang political affair.
Chen Youyu was initially only a scribe, but he spent more than a year under Ni Wenjun and was promoted to marshal by Ni Wenjun. That is to say, Chen Youyu was Ni Wenjun's concubine troop, so Ni Wenjun came to Huangzhou with confidence. Unexpectedly, Chen Youyu changed his ways, and he took this opportunity to kill Ni Wenjun and annex Ni Wenjun's soldiers and horses. Subsequently, Chen Youyu immediately took Ni Wenjun's head to xu Shouhui to show his merits, and Xu Shouhui was overjoyed and agreed to Chen Youyu to serve as the political affairs of Pingzhang. For a time, Chen Youyi was in the limelight and became the second person under Xu Shouhui.
This year, Zhu Yuanzhang had just captured Nanjing and was rapidly expanding his power to southern Anhui and western Zhejiang. However, although there were many fierce generals under Zhu Yuanzhang, there was a city that Zhu Yuanzhang had never dared to attack, and this city was Anqing.
In the last year of the Yuan Dynasty, Anqing was located in the upper reaches of Nanjing, strangling the throat of the Yangtze River, and the Yuan Dynasty sent heavy troops to guard it, zhu Yuanzhang was not fully sure and was unwilling to take the initiative to attack Anqing. However, what Zhu Yuanzhang did not dare to do did not mean that Chen Youyu did not dare.
In the eighteenth year of Zheng, Chen Youyu led Zhao Pusheng and others to attack Anqing, although the defense of the Yuan army was very tight, but Chen Youyu forgot his life and death, attacked the enemy army by land and water, and finally took Anqing with difficulty, and then Chen Youyu attacked the ten cities of "Longxing (Nanchang), Ruizhou, Shaowu, Ji'an, Fuzhou, Jianchang, Gan, Ting, Xin, and Qu". Ming Shi Yun:
When it was, the only friendly soldier south of the river was the strongest.
It took Chen Youyu only 3 years to become the strongest rebel leader in the last years of the Yuan Dynasty. At this time, Xu Shouhui, in the face of the ambitious Chen Youyu, had long lost his original glory.
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The rise of Chen Youyi means that Xu Shouhui began to decline. Although Chen Youyi was ostensibly subordinate to Xu Shouhui, Chen Youyu had a method of taming people, and the generals only Chen Youyu forgave the horse, and Xu Shouhui became a puppet. The History of the Ming Dynasty records:
The first friend forgives the broken dragon Xing, Shou Hui wants to migrate to the capital, and the friend cannot forgive.
After Chen Youyu conquered Nanchang, Xu Shouhui believed that Nanchang had excellent geographical advantages and should move the capital there. But Xu Shouhui's decision could not be implemented due to Chen Youyi's veto.
Through this incident, it can be seen that although Chen Youyu is ostensibly Xu Shouhui's courtier, in fact, his right to speak has exceeded Xu Shouhui. Xu Shouhui has been manipulated by Chen Youyi.
Sure enough, next, Chen Youyu began to learn from Ni Wenjun and replaced him with Xu Shouhui. However, Chen Youyu was smarter than Ni Wenjun. Ming Shi Yun:
Shouhui Yanfa Hanyang, CijiangZhou. Jiangzhou, Yu Yu Zhishou also ambushed Guo Wai, welcomed Shou Hui in, that is, closed the city gate and killed his troops. That is, Jiangzhou was the capital, feng Shouhui lived in it, and called himself the King of Han, and placed the official subordinates of the royal palace.
Chen Youyi first asked Xu Shouhui to come to Jiangzhou (Jiujiang), because Jiangzhou was Chen Youyi's territory. Then, Chen Youhui ambushed the soldiers and horses outside the city, welcomed Xu Shouhui into the city, and immediately closed the city gate, and Xu Shouhui's cronies outside the city were killed by Chen Youhui one by one. Chen Youyi then made Jiangzhou his capital and proclaimed himself the King of Han. Of course, at this time, Xu Shouhui was still the "emperor", but all the decrees were written by Chen Youyi.
During this period, Chen Youyu's army clashed with Zhu Yuanzhang in Chizhou and other places in southern Anhui Province for grabbing territory, chen Youyu won fewer victories and more defeats, and in desperation, Chen Youyu decided to lead a large army to take revenge on Zhu Yuanzhang. In the twentieth year of Zhengzheng, Chen Youyu took the puppet Xu Shouhui down the river and captured Taiping in one fell swoop. Taiping is the gateway to the upper reaches of Nanjing, and once the Taiping is broken, Nanjing is in danger. "Ming Shi Chen Youyu Biography" Yun:
(Chen Youyu) then threatened Shouhui to go east and attack Taiping. Taiping City is unstoppable, but it is the southwest of the thin city that leads to a giant boat. The soldier climbed the tail of the boat and climbed it, and sui kezhi.
After Taiping was taken by Chen Youyu, the situation of Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youyu changed greatly, the soldiers on Zhu Yuanzhang's side were horrified, some suggested surrendering, some suggested abandoning Nanjing and fleeing to Zhongshan, Zhu Yuanzhang asked Liu Bowen's opinion, liu Bowen only gave Zhu Yuanzhang 5 words: Ambush the soldiers invited to take it!
And Chen Youyu is a bit invincible, Shi Zai:
(Chen Youyu) Zhiyijiao. Stationed in the quarry, the dispatch of the yang bai shi shouhui, the strong soldier with iron lao to crush his head. (From the History of the Ming Dynasty)
Chen Youyu believed that he had conquered Taiping, and the next stop would be to take Nanjing and capture Zhu Yuanzhang. He did not want to be the king of Han anymore, he wanted to be the emperor. Therefore, he asked his subordinates to invite Xu Shouhui to come, pretending to report things to Xu Shouhui, and when Xu Shouhui came, Chen Youyi ordered his men to smash Xu Shouhui's head with iron laos. The "Iron Lao" is a type of weapon, similar to an iron rod. It can be seen that when Xu Shouhui finally died, it was estimated that his head was open and miserable.
After Chen Youyi killed Xu Shouhui, he immediately declared himself emperor, established the "Great Han", and changed his era name to Dayi. This was the last "Han Dynasty" in Chinese history, because there were so many "Han Dynasties" in Chinese history that history called Chen Youyi's regime "Chen Han" in order to distinguish them. However, Chen Youyu's luck was very bad, he ushered in a storm when he ascended the throne, and the enthronement ceremony was not held smoothly. Ming Shi Yun:
After Shou Hui died, he used the quarry Wutong Temple as the hall, that is, the emperor's throne, the name of the country Han, the change of Yuan Dayi, and the Taishi Zou Pusheng were still deceased officials. There will be a heavy wind and rain, and the group of ministers Ban Sha'an will be congratulated, and it will not be a gift.
After Chen Youyu ascended the throne, he suffered a big loss in the first battle, because he was defeated by Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang asked Chen Youyi's old friend Kang Maocai to surrender, and wrote a letter to lure Chen Youyu to longwan, where the river is narrow. Chen Youyu was convinced, and as a result, he was ambushed by Zhu Yuanzhang at Longwan, and Chen Youyu was defeated and fled. History is called the "Battle of Longwan", the Battle of Longwan is of great significance to Zhu Yuanzhang, but for Chen Youyu, it is a bad start for the empress.
After Chen Youyi fled to Wuchang, he comprehensively reorganized the army and successfully took over Xu Shouhui's "baton", but not all of Xu Shouhui's old troops were willing to obey Chen Youyi, such as Ming Yuzhen who was far away in Bashu.
As mentioned above, Xu Shouhui sent the general Ming Yuzhen to attack Bashu in the early days, and after Ming Yuzhen later attacked Bashu, he defended it. After Chen Youyi killed Xu Shouhui, Ming Yuzhen was reluctant to submit to Chen Youhui and sent troops to avenge Xu Shouhui. The History of the Ming Dynasty records:
Yu Zhen discussed it, and closed the pass and did not communicate with you. Twenty-one years later, Liu Zhen persuaded Yuzhen to stand on her own, but Yuzhen did not allow it. Dai Shou and Zhang Wenbing persuaded him, and Yuzhen consulted the people and pushed them together. On March 22, he was proclaimed emperor, the capital of Chongqing, the state of Great Xia, and the great unification of Jianyuan.
Ming Yuzhen was not Chen Youyu's opponent, and eventually severed all ties with Chen Youyu, and two years later, Ming Yuzhen was proclaimed emperor and established Bactria , known in history as "MingXia". However, unlike Chen Youyu, although Ming Yuzhen was proclaimed emperor, he still sacrificed Xu Shouhui every year.
In other words, although Xu Shouhui was killed, he cultivated Chen Youyi and Ming Yuzhen, the two founding emperors. The mantle of the Southern Red Turban Army was passed down by these two men.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" >5, the Si people are now gone, the Yangtze River is empty</h1>
From the uprising in the eleventh year of Zhizheng (1351) to the killing of Zhizheng in the twentieth year (1360), Xu Shouhui was active in the history of the end of the Yuan Dynasty for 10 years, during which he had as many as one million troops, setting off a huge anti-Yuan boom in the Yangtze River Valley. However, after the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, posterity knew Chen Youyu, knew Zhang Shicheng, and knew Zhu Yuanzhang, but few people knew Xu Shouhui. In the "History of Ming", Xu Shouhui is not even given a "column biography".
The author believes that Xu Shouhui's role in the last years of the Yuan Dynasty was enormous, and his historical status and his contributions were extremely incompatible. Regarding Xu Shouhui, the author has three comments:
First, Xu Shouhui was once a pioneer official who resisted the Yuan. Xu Shouhui's brilliant life began with Peng Yingyu, and finally Chen Youyi, who had been manipulated by Peng Yingyu, Ni Wenjun, and Chen Youyu, but this was not enough to deny Xu Shouhui's role. In the last years of the Yuan Dynasty, Xu Shouhui dominated the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and was the most powerful anti-Yuan force. It is precisely because of Xu Shouhui's existence that he shared the pressure of Han Lin'er, Zhang Shicheng and others, so the role played by Xu Shouhui in resisting the tyranny of the Yuan Dynasty is immeasurable.
Second, Xu Shouhui was a benevolent monarch. Because the "History of Ming" did not list Xu Shouhui separately, according to the "New Yuan History", "Shouhui gathered the remnants, and the hungry people attached more to it", it can be seen that Xu Shouhui was very sympathetic to the poor people and was also very popular with the people. In addition, because Chen Youyu almost killed all of Xu Shouhui's henchmen in Jiangzhou, at that time Ming Yuzhen was far away in Shudi, it can be seen through Ming Yuzhen's attitude towards Xu Shouhui that although Xu Shouhui started as a "puppet", he was quite loved. However, although Xu Shouhui is kind, at the same time, he also has a weak part. For example, his deep belief in Ni Wenjun and Chen Youyu is enough to show that he is less suspicious and wary of others, which is also the reason why Xu Shouhui died of death.
Third, Xu Shouhui played a huge role in promoting the establishment of the Ming Dynasty. Although Xu Shouhui and Zhu Yuanzhang opposed the Yuan together, he and Zhu Yuanzhang had never met, let alone attacked each other for territory. The reason why the rulers of the Ming Dynasty did not want to mention Xu Shouhui was that on the one hand, Zhu Yuanzhang thought that Xu Shouhui was a puppet and not worth mentioning, and on the other hand, because Xu Shouhui was once chen youyi and Ming Yuzhen's superior, Zhu Yuanzhang could not describe his exploits too much.
However, from a historical point of view, Xu Shouhui established the Tianquan Dynasty in that year, and the momentum was huge, and emperor Yuan Shun, after defeating Han Shantong, focused his main energy on attacking Xu Shouhui's side. It was precisely because Xu Shouhui pinned down the main force of the Yuan army in the Central Plains that Zhu Yuanzhang had the opportunity to gain a rapid foothold in Nanjing. If there is no "big brother" Xu Shouhui, Zhu Yuanzhang will not be able to "build a high wall, slowly become a king, and accumulate grain" no matter how useless. Therefore, the author believes that Zhu Yuanzhang can be called emperor thanks to Xu Shouhui."
"Zhuangzi Inner Chapter" Yun: There is a way under the heavens, and the saints become enlightened; there is no way under the world, and the saints live.
If he had not been born in the last year of the Yuan Dynasty, Xu Shouhui might have been just a small cloth dealer between Puzhou and Huangzhou all his life. But because "there is no way under the world", Xu Shouhui came into being. He was not a saint or a hero, but he was a man on the road to resistance to tyranny. History should leave Xu Shouhui's name and deeds, so that more posterity can understand his brilliant history of resisting the Yuan.
Text Reference "Ming history", "The end of the Ming Dynasty", "Original history", "New History"