In late February, the northern part of the Ming Dynasty was still cold and windy, with ice and snow covering the sky. But in the southern part of the Ming Dynasty, spring had already appeared unknowingly.
The ice and snow have melted and the river water has warmed up. The willow trees have been shrouded in a smoke-like green color, and there is a vibrant scene everywhere.
The spring of the new year has arrived, bringing new hope and longing to people. For most people, spring means the hope of the year, that everything is possible, and that the future can be expected.
However, for some people, this spring may be the last spring in their lives.
By Poyang Lake, in the city of Nanchang, the streets were deserted and chaotic.
Soldiers and horses galloped through the streets, each one looking arrogant and hysterical. The beggars on the street, wrapped in tattered clothes, staggered and panicked to avoid the speeding cavalry. After all, their cold and hungry bodies were not so flexible and could not help themselves.
He tried to avoid the iron hooves of the galloping war horse. So he fell to the ground amidst the screams, was stepped into the mud of the street by the horse's hooves, and was trampled to death.
They survived the winter, but they could not escape the iron hooves of soldiers and horses.
After the soldiers and horses passed, the people on the street looked silently at the trampled corpses, their eyes full of numbness, with little grief, anger and pity. Because the people had too much time to take care of themselves, they had become accustomed to these scenes. In the past few months,
In the city, countless people starved to death and froze to death, and a few people were trampled to death by soldiers and horses. What does that mean?
Once upon a time, Nanchang was a prosperous and prosperous place. Poyang Lake connected to the Yangtze River, the Central Plains to the north, the southeast to the east, Guangdong to the south, and Bashu to the west. It was a place with highly developed commerce, trade and even transportation.
At that time, the people here boasted that their lives were not much better than those in the capital, and they lived a leisurely, prosperous and comfortable life.
At that time, they thought that the person who brought them all this comfortable and happy life was their beloved Ning Prince Zhu Chenhao. The prince loved the people, and his reputation in Nanchang was at its peak and everyone loved him. The gossips in the streets were all about Ning Prince.
People talk about it.
At that time, there were no beggars on the streets. Because the prince was kind-hearted, he set up a relief home to adopt beggars, helpless old people and orphans in Nanchang Prefecture. During the holidays, the prince would personally visit these people with gifts.
.
Prince Ning is a great man, a great philanthropist, and a good prince who loves his people like a son. This is the evaluation of Prince Ning by almost all the people in Nanchang.
However, everything changed last summer. It was a hot June. When the people of Nanchang City were cooling off under the willow shade wells, they learned that Prince Ning had raised 100,000 troops to seize the throne of the Ming Dynasty.
To be honest, when the 600,000 people in Nanchang City first heard the news, they were still confused and frightened. Although King Ning was good and loved by others, this did not mean that the people thought that they did not belong to the Ming Dynasty.
people. In fact, part of their favorable impression of Prince Ning stems from Zhu Chenhao's ability to maneuver both ways.
Prince Ning had a close relationship with the Emperor and the Queen Mother, and Prince Ning's son was even kept in the palace for several months. This fully shows that Prince Ning's character was recognized by the Emperor and the Queen Mother.
But now that Prince Ning wants to rebel, this just gives some people a feeling that the prince is ungrateful. This makes many people disappointed.
However, after all, Prince Ning's Mansion has been running Jiangxi and Nanchang for many years, and many people still have blind fanaticism and admiration for him. In terms of public opinion, Zhu Chenhao has long been sure that this is his hometown. If even the people of Nanchang Mansion
If no one supports him, he won't have the guts to launch this rebellion.
After a brief period of confusion, when the people of Nanchang Prefecture saw the endless warships gathered as far as the eye could see, tens of thousands of brightly armored troops, and the mighty troops and horses gathered at the edge of Poyang Lake, all their doubts disappeared.
The smoke disappeared.
Liu Yangzheng, the famous Jiangxi scholar who was the guest of King Ning, wrote a series of appeals for him. The appeals fabricated the fact that King Ning's lineage was the direct lineage of Emperor Jianwen. However, King Yan rebelled against the will of Emperor Taizu and seized the throne, usurping the throne of the royal family.
The position is a fact, he regained it as the royal family's orthodoxy
There is nothing wrong with the throne. In order to make all this seem more real, he even fabricated a secret edict from Emperor Jianwen who escaped from the Ming Dynasty and sent someone overseas to Prince Ning's Mansion. He wanted Prince Ning's lineage to regain the orthodoxy and order the soldiers and civilians of the world to be united.
Help him to drive out the usurpers and restore orthodoxy.
With this operation, the rebellion became a righteous act on the moral high ground. It was an act of Emperor Jianwen's lineage to regain the throne.
This move made the people who were still hesitant because they didn't know the truth think that it was reasonable and reasonable for King Ning to raise an army and there was nothing wrong with it.
Amid the surge in popularity, King Ning's army marched down the river and headed for Nanjing. It was once the capital of the Ming Dynasty. Until now, people all over the south still think that Nanjing is the real capital of the Ming Dynasty. King Yan moved the capital to Beijing after he seized the throne.
It was a sign of guilty conscience because he did not dare to face the elders in Nanjing and the ancestors buried in Nanjing.
Zhu Chenhao and his counselors and generals also understood this, so their first goal was to seize Nanjing, establish the capital and proclaim themselves emperor, with the Yangtze River as the boundary, and compete with the northern court. After that, after occupying the sacred land in the south of the Yangtze River,
, the troops, horses, money and food are all guaranteed, and we will slowly plan to conquer the entire Ming Dynasty through the Northern Expedition.
This is an extremely wise and pragmatic decision. If it can be implemented smoothly, it will quickly change the situation. Once various places in the south see that Nanjing has been captured, they will immediately surrender. It will be like wildfire starting a prairie fire, and everything will soon be on fire.
.The influence of the Zhengde Dynasty will be reduced to ashes in this wildfire.
Originally, everything was going well in the war. In Nanchang City, good news came in a few days, and news of a great victory came in a few days.
Jiujiang was captured, Anqing was captured, Luzhou was captured, and Chaohu was captured. The huge naval force had arrived at Dangtu, which was only one step away from Pukou on the outskirts of Nanjing.
All this happened in less than two months. The people in Nanchang were almost crazy. They believed that taking Nanjing was just around the corner.
In fact, after Tu was captured, the attack on Nanjing City officially began after a break for supplies in September. Everyone was waiting for the news that Nanjing had been captured and waiting to celebrate the victory. However, Nanjing City was obviously not
It was so easy to capture. Although the navy mobilized by the imperial court suffered heavy losses, they firmly defended the narrow river channel around Jiangxinzhou. The artillery of several armored warships caused great losses to the attacking fleet.
On land, the imperial troops began to blockade the attacked cities along the river, harassing the supplies and food routes for the attack, causing greater trouble.
But even so, the initiative in the war was still in the hands of King Ning Zhu Chenhao. Their warships once broke through the mouth of the Qinhuai River, followed the Qinhuai River for more than ten miles, and entered outside the Nanjing Shuiguan Gate.
Although it was blasted back by the artillery on the shore and at the city head, it was obvious that the fall of Nanjing City was only a matter of time. The main force of the opponent's two armored warships was burned by King Ning's generals using a fire ship strategy, and it also affected the entire city.
After capturing more than a dozen enemy ships, the opponent's forces on the water were no longer able to stop them.
Victory is already in sight. It just takes time.
But something unexpected happened at this time. In early October, Nanchang Mansion was suddenly attacked by a group of imperial troops. There were not many soldiers and horses left in Nanchang Mansion at this time. In order to conquer Nanjing with all his strength, Zhu Chenhao only left a few soldiers and horses behind.
Five thousand soldiers and horses were assisted by the internal officer Wan Rui to assist Zhu Chenhao's teenage son Zhu Gongqiao, king of Yichun, to defend the city.
The one who attacked the city was none other than Wang Shouren, the former governor of southern Gansu who had been re-activated by the imperial court. After Wang Shouren was re-activated to suppress the rebellion, he quickly judged the situation and believed that defending Nanjing would be passive, so he had to dig deep and attack Zhu Chenhao's lair to cut off the rest.
Road, forcing Zhu Chenhao to return for reinforcements.
Wang Shouren believed that Nanchang Mansion was the foundation of Zhu Chenhao, where all the supplies of food, grass, and troops came from, and it was also his lair. Zhu Chenhao would definitely come back to rescue him. Moreover, in order to prevent Zhu Chenhao from decisively attacking Nanjing, he would not be able to encircle Wei and rescue Zhao.
Ji, Wang Shouren
He also deliberately sent people to sneak into the city of Nanchang to spread rumors, saying that Zhu Chenhao's left and right prime ministers Li Shishi and Liu Yangzheng would definitely dissuade the army from returning for reinforcements and leave Nanchang alone, putting the prince in danger. It was said that an army of 50,000 troops outside the city was imminent.
Broken city and so on.
This move really worked. Nanchang Mansion was Zhu Chenhao's home base for many years, and it was a gathering place for grain and grass supplies to support the war. What's more, his eldest son, King Zhu Gongqiao of Yichun, was still in Nanchang, so how could Zhu Chenhao not save him.
Although Li Shishi, Liu Yangzheng, Minister of War Wang Lun and others tried their best to dissuade Zhu Chenhao from attacking Nanjing, the failure of the attack for many days has made Zhu Chenhao restless. Now that his home base has been attacked, his son is in danger.
, he can't just sit back and watch.
In addition, the weather is getting colder and the soldiers and horses are tired. If Nanchang is lost, the army will not even be able to replenish its winter clothes. If there is no more supply of food and grass supplies, if Nanjing cannot be attacked, wouldn't it be possible to lose both ends?
Under this situation, Zhu Chenhao ordered his troops to return to Nanchang to first deal with the area, and then recruit troops and rest before attacking Nanjing.
In the lamentations of Li Shishi, Liu Yangzheng and others beating their chests, Zhu Chenhao voluntarily gave up the attack on Nanjing, leaving only part of the navy to garrison the important fortresses on the Yangtze River such as Anqing and Jiujiang, and led his army back to Nanchang Prefecture.
In early November, when Zhu Chenhao rushed back to Nanchang Mansion, he discovered that he had been tricked by Wang Shouren. How could there be an army of 50,000 attacking the city? The attackers were only thousands of Wang Shouren's newly recruited and Zuojinzhou County guards.
Just soldiers and horses.
Because of the critical situation, Wang Shouren had no time to mobilize his troops, so he rushed directly to Jiangxi with only a few hundred people. Along the way, he recruited soldiers and assembled some of the guards' troops, but the number was simply not enough to capture Nanchang. But this was a bluff.
However, he successfully deceived Zhu Chenhao back.
When Zhu Chenhao found out the truth, he cursed endlessly. He hated Wang Shouren to death. It was this man who, when he was the governor of southern Jiangxi, wiped out many of the bandit soldiers and horses he had raised, causing him heavy losses but nothing could be done.
It was this man who had reported to the court many times, saying that he had the intention of rebelling, raising mountain bandits, bribed the court generals and so on. If Wang Shouren had not caused so many things, he would actually have wanted to wait a little longer before starting another incident.
This person asked him to withdraw his troops and come back, and once again acted against him.
But now, the weather has become extremely cold, and it has snowed in Jiangxi. It is not suitable for soldiers and horses to go out again, and they at least need to rest. So Zhu Chenhao ordered to temporarily stop sending troops.
But the soldiers and horses of the imperial court were not idle.
Under the leadership of the new commander Zhang Yin, the imperial navy captured Anqing on November 9th and Jiujiang on November 22nd. At the same time, the land army advanced towards Jiangxi from all directions.
In the middle of the twelfth lunar month, Huangjiadu, the outlet of Poyang Lake to the Yangtze River, was occupied, and land troops also arrived around Nanchang Prefecture. A life-and-death battle was about to begin.
The two sides fought three battles in Poyang Lake. After the last battle on the 19th of the first lunar month, the imperial navy led by three armored warships defeated Zhu Chenhao's huge navy. Fifty thousand sailors were killed and flooded.
More than 30,000 people died.
The imperial troops on land also captured the outlying prefectures and counties of Nanchang Prefecture and pushed the battle line outside the city wall of Nanchang Prefecture.
In Nanchang City, everything became difficult. The people of Nanchang City finally knew the seriousness of this matter. And their beloved King Ning also unveiled his tenderness and became cruel and vicious.
The young and strong people were warned, and food and supplies were warned. In order to prepare supplies for the defense of the city, houses were demolished, and stones and wood were transported to the top of the city to prepare for the defense of the city.
Homeless people struggled in the cold wind on the streets. Hundreds of people froze to death every day around the New Year. However, due to the failure of a series of battles outside the city, a large number of wounded soldiers flooded the city, and there were only so many wounded soldiers who could not receive treatment.
Left to die in the square.
Nanchang Mansion has changed from a wealthy, leisurely and comfortable place to a hell on earth.
And their Prince Ning actually announced his accession to the throne as emperor not long ago. Everyone knows that this may be the last time he has had enough of the emperor's addiction.
In fact, the soldiers and horses of Nanchang Prefecture have already collapsed like building blocks, and the soldiers and horses in the city have long lost their fighting spirit. More and more imperial soldiers and horses are besieging the city outside the city, and the number has reached 200,000 to 300,000. In fact, the leader of the army, Wang Shou,
Ren and Zhang Yin only need to give an order to end all this.
But for some reason, they didn't order the attack for a long time. This made everyone in the city feel even more tortured.