Those Things in the Ming Dynasty Part 1 The Great Emperor Hongwu _ Chapter 13 The next target Zhang Shicheng!
After solving Chen Youliang's problem, Landlord Zhu launched an attack on Landlord Zhang, who was richer than him.
Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Shicheng can be said to be incompatible with each other. What makes Zhu Yuanzhang puzzled especially is that he didn't provoke each other much, so why did he regard himself as his biggest enemy?
Now that Chen Youliang is finished, it's time to deal with Zhang Shicheng, the private salt dealer.
Zhang Shicheng is not easily bullied. Coincidentally, his nickname is also Jiu Si, which is different from Chen Youliang's name which is rumored. His nickname is clearly recorded in official history. He fought wars and ruled the local area. Mainly relying on his brothers: Zhang Shiyi, Zhang Shide, Zhang Shixin. Except for Zhang Shixin, the other two are very powerful, but they have all died in the battle. Now Wu, under the leadership of the playboy Zhang Shixin, has gone downhill. .
It seems that there will be no more blessings from God this time.
In the first month of the 24th year of Zhengzheng, Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne of Wu. He finally completed the transformation process from peasant to prince (he had never been king before). Facts have proved that if you continue on the arduous road, you will get more results. In history, in order to distinguish him from Zhang Shicheng's Wu, this regime was called Xiwu and Zhang Shicheng was called Soochow.
However, some historical materials record the words "Zhu Yuanzhang established himself as King of Wu". If you study carefully, you will find that the word "self-reliance" in this sentence is worthy of scrutiny. Because Han Lin'er was still the nominal emperor at this time and wanted to become The King of Wu had to get his approval, and it would be legal after approval. If Zhu Yuanzhang was self-reliant, it would obviously be a crime, and he did not get Han Lin'er's edict. Was Han Lin'er dissatisfied and unwilling to issue an edict to appoint Zhu Yuanzhang? It's hard to say. .
In the twenty-fifth year of Zhengzheng (1365), Zhu Yuanzhang sent troops to attack Soochow after careful preparations.
Troops were sent out in August, and in less than half a year, they captured large areas in Jiangsu, such as Xuzhou, Yancheng, Taizhou, etc., and even included Gaoyou, Zhang Shicheng's original base.
Seeing that Zhu Yuanzhang was about to kick off the last obstacle on his way forward and fight the Yuan Dynasty government, an unexpected news shocked him.
unexpected betrayal
When he was campaigning in Jiangsu, spies told him that his nephew Zhu Wenzheng, who had outstanding military exploits, had colluded with Zhang Shicheng and was preparing to send troops to attack him.
Zhu Yuanzhang had been betrayed before. In the 22nd year of Zhizheng (1362), generals Shao Rong and Zhao Jizu were accused of plotting to kill him, and Zhu Yuanzhang executed them. In the 23rd year of Zhizheng (1362), the key to the decisive battle with Chen Youliang was underway At that moment, General Xie Zaixing rebelled, but Zhu Yuanzhang dealt with it promptly and suppressed the rebellion.
However, Zhu Wenzheng's rebellion put him in real pain. Even his most trusted nephew and powerful general betrayed him. What was the reason?
In fact, the reason is very simple, just for official position.
After Zhu Yuanzhang defeated Chen Youliang, he rewarded him for his merits. Since Zhu Wen was his nephew and had the greatest merit, he first asked Zhu Wenzheng what he wanted and what official he wanted to be granted. Zhu Wenzheng had the demeanor of a general and said to Zhu Yuanzhang, We are relatives. You can block others first. I have no interest in this.
Zhu Yuanzhang was overjoyed after hearing this. He felt that his nephew was really talented, understood the general situation, and took into account the overall situation, so he gave the good position to others and still asked Zhu Wenzheng to guard Jiangxi.
Little did he know that Zhu Wen was being polite to him, just like bidding in an auction house. He was waiting for Zhu Yuanzhang to raise the price to persuade him to stay, saying things like "You must not refuse", but he did not expect that Zhu Yuanzhang would not raise the price.
Price, he hit the hammer directly.
make a deal!
Zhu Wenzheng's dissatisfaction finally broke out! I was the one who took the greatest credit for defending the flood, but I was not rewarded based on my merits! He couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he thought about it. He drowned his sorrows in drinking all day long, and openly went out to rob civilian girls and sell his official position to make money.
But this still did not allow him to achieve psychological balance. Whenever he saw his subordinates showing off their power in rich places like Yingtian, while he could only guard Jiangxi, he would express dissatisfaction with Zhu Yuanzhang from the bottom of his heart. When this dissatisfaction reached its peak,
He will inevitably go to extremes.
Who in the world can compete with Zhu Yuanzhang?
Only Zhang Shicheng.
Just as he was preparing intensively, Zhu Yuanzhang learned the news.
He dropped what he was doing and came to Hongdu in person.
He wants to clean up the door.
The meeting between Zhu Wenzheng and Zhu Yuanzhang was very dramatic. When he saw Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Wenzheng was confused. Zhu Yuanzhang was not confused at all. He fully demonstrated his simple nature and did not say such things as the weather is very good today and you seem to have gained weight.
Such pleasantries were not fake at all. He whipped Zhu Wenzheng directly with a whip, and while beating him back, he said: Boy, what do you want to do?
Zhu Yuanzhang originally wanted to execute Zhu Wenzheng, but due to Empress Ma's dissuasion, he did not do so and instead imprisoned him. Objectively speaking, Zhu Yuanzhang treated Zhu Wenzheng well, and he sealed him in the third year of Hongwu (1370).
Zhu Wenzheng's eight-year-old son became king and granted Guilin.
In any case, the mistake lies on Zhu Wenzheng's side.
This talented general with outstanding military exploits ended his glorious life and finally died in prison. His tragedy stemmed from his character. This man with military genius did not know how to behave as a human being. He had a perverse personality.
He is narrow-minded and has bad character. Even if he is not bad in this matter, one day he will get into trouble for other things. From this point of view, his tragedy is doomed.
Character determines destiny.
This incident caused a great psychological shadow to Zhu Yuanzhang. From then on, he could not believe anyone. Even his most reliable and capable nephew betrayed him. Who else could he trust?
For Zhu Yuanzhang, the gunpowder has been buried in his heart, it just depends on when it will explode.
After settling this matter, Zhu Yuanzhang then dealt with his old enemy Zhang Shicheng.
The war in the twenty-fifth year of Zhengzheng Dynasty had driven Zhang Shicheng out of the north of the Yangtze River, and the Soochow Army retreated to the Jianghang area, which is today's Suzhou and Hangzhou. Zhang Shicheng did not seem to understand his situation, and he also wanted to occupy the so-called
The southern half of the Yangtze River became his wealthy landowner.
But Landlord Zhu told him through his actions that there can only be one biggest landlord in the world, and this person will definitely not be you, Zhang Shicheng.
In the twenty-sixth year of Zhengzheng (1366), Zhu Yuanzhang led all his elites, with Xu Da and Chang Yuchun as commanders, to attack Zhang Shicheng.
When discussing the battle plan, a dispute broke out. Chang Yuchun believed that Pingjiang (now Suzhou, Jiangsu), the hometown of Soochow, should be directly captured. Xu Da also agreed with him. They both believed that as long as Pingjiang was obtained, all Zhang Shicheng's possessions would be taken.
The territory will be surrendered without a fight.
Zhu Yuanzhang disagreed.
Zhu Yuanzhang once again showed his genius strategic vision. He believed that if he attacked Pingjiang directly, Zhang Shicheng's troops in Hangzhou would come to rescue him, and then Pingjiang would be extremely difficult to conquer. If he attacked Hangzhou and other areas first, he would be able to cut off Zhang Shicheng's wings.
Pingjiang will naturally become a winner.
Facts have proved that Zhu Yuanzhang was indeed a genius military strategist, and he was right again this time.
Before setting off, Zhu Yuanzhang repeatedly emphasized one thing, that is, after conquering the city, you should not kill casually, because after killing the people and getting the open space, what is the use?
beneficial).
These words were not meant for Xu Da, but for Chang Yuchun.
This old man has not changed his bad habits since Jiuhua Mountain. He will kill after attacking the city. Zhu Yuanzhang gave him many serious warnings before he restrained himself.
The army set off, and Zhu Yuanzhang was sitting in the camp, feeling an indescribable sense of excitement.
The world is about to be won!
This time Zhu Yuanzhang gathered another 200,000 troops and gave them to the command of Xu Da and Chang Yuchun. These two famous generals did not disappoint Zhu Yuanzhang. They agreed to divide their troops to attack Hangzhou and Huzhou, and quickly captured them.
Now only Pingjiang is left.
Pingjiang Attack
Pingjiang is known as the first fortified city. Zhang Shicheng stayed at home in the past few years, watching Chen Youliang be defeated, and watching his territory being eroded bit by bit by Zhu Yuanzhang. He only did one thing, and that was to build the city.
There are eight gates in Pingjiang City, namely Fengmen, Huqiu Gate, Loumen, Xumen, Changmen, Panmen, West Gate, and North Gate. The walls of each gate are extremely strong and are made of large stones mixed with glutinous rice.
It was made, and there were fixed crossbow positions on the city. Anyone who came close to the city wall would be shot into a hedgehog in an instant. There was also a large amount of food in the city, enough to defend it for several years.
Although Zhang Shicheng is not enterprising, he is a strong-willed person. When the Yuan Dynasty summoned a million soldiers to attack the small Gaoyou, it took three months and could not be conquered, which fully illustrates his willpower.
At this time, Zhang Shicheng understood more clearly that if Pingjiang fell, he would have nowhere to go.
He decided to fight to the death.
Attacking such a city requires careful planning, but when Zhu Yuanzhang's men came to ask which gate should be attacked, Zhu Yuanzhang shouted to them: With hundreds of thousands of troops, which gate should be attacked?
Beat me to death!
It seems that Li Yunlong hundreds of years later was not the only user of this trick.
Zhu Yuanzhang made military deployments. He fully mobilized his famous generals and assigned tasks, as follows:
Xu Da attacked Fengmen, Chang Yuchun attacked Huqiu Gate, Guo Xing attacked Loumen, Hua Yunlong attacked Xumen, Tang He attacked Changmen, Wang Bi attacked Panmen, Zhang Wen attacked the west gate, and Kang Maocai attacked the north gate.
Dazzled, and so on.
He felt that these people were not enough, so he arranged for Geng Bingwen to attack the northeast of the city, Qiu Cheng to attack the southwest, and He Wenhui to attack the northwest. After counting, he deployed eleven armies outside Pingjiang City to attack from different angles and directions, let alone
Even humans and gods can't stand it. In fact, there is no need to fight, so many people can squeeze Zhang Shicheng to death as long as they squeeze into the city.
Zhu Yuanzhang still felt that he had not done enough, so he built a long siege outside the city and surrounded Pingjiang City. Not only humans, but also rabbits could not escape.
In order to solve the problem that Pingjiang City was too high and it was inconvenient for soldiers to attack from above, he started construction of a new type of real estate outside the city - a wooden tower. It has three floors. Standing on the tower, you can overlook all the situations in the city, and each floor is equipped with bows.
Crossbows, muskets and Xiangyang cannons (new artillery) can really hit wherever you point them.
Ordinarily, with all these outfits on display, Zhang Shicheng would have surrendered if he knew the current situation.
But this private salt dealer insisted on accepting death and must resist to the end.
In the first month of the twenty-seventh year of Zhengzheng (1367), the attack began.
Zhu Yuanzhang's infantry, archers, and artillery worked together to attack the city day and night. The infantry attacked from the bottom of the city, and the artillery fired arrows, shot, and cannon from the wooden towers.
Zhang Shicheng's soldiers had to pay attention to air defense while withstanding the attacks of soldiers below the tower. Moreover, they sent people to guard the wooden tower day and night. Once the soldiers on these wooden towers were on the night shift, they could not come down from the tower. They would eat, drink, and defecate in the tower.
Go up, spit, urinate, etc., and greet the Soochow soldiers on the tower as a matter of course.
This is what is called crotch humiliation.
It was in such a difficult environment that Zhang Shicheng and his soldiers persisted for eight months with amazing perseverance. It was not until September of the 27th year of Zhizheng that Pingjiang was captured.
Zhang Shicheng's ending
Zhang Shicheng has a lot of backbone. He persisted in street fighting in the city when the city was broken. Even though Zhu Yuanzhang repeatedly preached that as long as Zhang Shicheng surrendered, not only would he not be killed, but he and his relatives would be treated kindly, but Zhang Shicheng was determined.
With a desperate belief, he killed all his relatives and prepared to hang himself. He was rescued by his subordinates and was later captured and taken to Yingtian.
On the boat being taken to Yingtian, he remained silent and refused to eat, showing his determination not to surrender.
Zhu Yuanzhang sent his important minister Li Shanchang to interrogate Zhang Shicheng. Li Shanchang sternly scolded Zhang Shicheng, but received no response from the other party.
From beginning to end, Zhang Shicheng looked at Li Shanchang with contempt.
Li Shanchang was furious when he saw him, and when he saw that he didn't speak, he became furious.
After watching Li Shanchang's performance, Zhang Shicheng gave his only confession in this interrogation.
"You are just a dog, let your master come out!"
There was no other way, so Zhu Yuanzhang appeared.
He looked at this old opponent who had been fighting for ten years. It was not enough to defeat him, he had to conquer him completely!
So he used a rare kind tone to persuade Zhang Shicheng to surrender, hoping that he could move him, but the reply he received was only one sentence:
"You are not better than me. The reason why I failed is that God takes care of you and not me." (The sun shines on you but not on me.)
Zhu Yuanzhang was finally angered. He killed Zhang Shicheng and burned Zhang Shicheng's body to ashes. This is called filing the bones and raising the ashes.
Zhang Shicheng is a man with a strong will. He started from scratch and eventually achieved a dominant position. But his shortcomings are as prominent as his advantages. As one of the heroes in troubled times, he has the mentality of being content with a small amount of money, but he does not understand.
In such an environment, it can only be a knockout competition, and there can only be one winner.
But he is worthy of admiration. He was strong-willed and resisted Yuan's tyrannical rule. Although he surrendered, it was only a temporary solution after all. He was not afraid in the face of death and persisted in his beliefs until the last moment.
People who are not afraid of death are worthy of respect.
Zhu Yuanzhang finally cleared the two major obstacles on the way forward and was about to face his last opponent.
To him, this opponent is the real enemy and enemy.