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Chapter Fourteen: Four Years Long

As spring passed and autumn came, something surprising happened to classmate Xiao Zhu. Li's child was born safely and was a healthy boy. Although he didn't have a name, he must be the Qin King Zhu Ping in history.

However, the mother, Ma, showed no signs of pregnancy. This is really puzzling. Could it be that I remembered it wrong, or there was something wrong with Ming history?

Or has history really begun to change!

Zhu Miao's "Nanjing Taichang Temple Chronicles" records that Qin King Zhu Cang and Jin King Zhu Fan were born to Concubine Li Shu.

But this Li family doesn’t seem to be Concubine Li Shu, is she?

Xiao Zhu's little head is about to explode. The historical records of the Ming Dynasty are a bit messy.

For example, when King Zhu Di of Yan later proclaimed himself emperor, he claimed that he was born to Queen Ma and was his legitimate son.

This is based on the "Edicts of the King of Yan" which records that "Gu Yu, a bandit, is the biological son of his father, Emperor Taizu, Emperor Gao, the biological son of Empress Xiao Cigao, the biological brother of the crown prince, and the eldest son of all the kings."

In the late Ming Dynasty, He Qiaoyuan's "Fujian Book", Tan Qian's "Guoyan", "National History Yi Kao", and Li Qingzhi's "Sanyuan Notes" are all recorded, based on the "Nanjing Taichang Temple Chronicles" written by Wang Zongyuan of the Ming Dynasty. "Nanjing"

It is indeed stated in "Taichang Temple Chronicles" that Zhu Di's mother was Concubine Ji.

Xiao Zhu had given up thinking, it didn't matter, as long as he was born to Queen Ma, it was enough!

In the next seventeenth year of Zhizheng (1357), Geng Bingwen conquered Changxing, Xu Dake conquered Changzhou, and Zhu Yuanzhang personally led his army to capture Ningguo. Then Zhao Jizu conquered Jiangyin, Xu Dake conquered Changshu, Hu Dahai conquered Huizhou, Chang Yuchun conquered Chizhou, and Miao Daheng conquered Yangzhou.

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In the 19th year of Zhengzheng (1359), Zhu Yuanzhang successively captured the remaining places in eastern Zhejiang, often encountering Chun Ke Quzhou and Hu Dahai Ke Chuzhou. At this point, Zhu Yuanzhang's troops controlled the left Jiangsu and right Zhejiang, and were adjacent to Chen Youliang's troops to the west.

In May of that year, King Xiaoming promoted Zhu Yuanzhang to the third division of Yitong, and went to Jiangnan and other places to write to the left prime minister of the province. In the first month of the 21st year of Zheng (1361), Zhu Yuanzhang was granted the title of Duke of Wu.

At this time, although Zhu Yuanzhang had 100,000 troops, he still occupied very little territory and was surrounded by enemies on all sides.

To the east and south were the Yuan troops, to the southeast were Zhang Shicheng, and to the west were Xu Shouhui. Although they were both anti-Yuan armed forces, Zhang and Xu and King Xiao Ming were hostile to each other.

However, the main force of the Red Scarf Army led by Liu Futong, the king of Xiaoming in the north, greatly restrained the Yuan army. Moreover, Zhang Shicheng and Xu Shouhui were not strong enough to annex Zhu Yuanzhang.

In this way, Zhu Yuanzhang temporarily faced a good development opportunity.

In the 20th year of Zhizheng (1360), Liu Ji was invited to Yingtian (today's Nanjing) by Zhu Yuanzhang and appointed him as an adviser.

In view of the situation at that time, Liu Ji proposed to Zhu Yuanzhang to avoid fighting on two fronts and defeat the enemy one by one, which was adopted. After completing the deployment of "building a high wall", Zhu Yuanzhang began to implement "extensive accumulation of grain".

In order to solve the food problem, in addition to mobilizing the people for production, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to implement the farming method and vigorously carry out military farming. He appointed Marshal Kang Maocai as the Dushui Camp, responsible for building water conservancy, and assigned generals to cultivate and cultivate fields in various places.

In a few years, villages were established everywhere, the treasury was full, and the military rations were sufficient. In the 20th year of Zhizheng (1360), Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that "village grain" should no longer be collected to reduce the burden on farmers. In order to accumulate grain, Zhu Yuanzhang banned alcohol, but

Hu Sanshe, the son of his general Hu Dahai, and others broke the law and secretly brewed wine to make money. When Zhu Yuanzhang found out, he ordered Hu Sanshe to be killed.

Someone came forward to advise that Hu Dahai was attacking Shaoxing at this time, hoping that Zhu Yuanzhang would let Hu Sanshe go for Hu Dahai's sake. Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and insisted on strict military discipline, so he killed Hu Sanshe himself.

While winning the hearts and minds of the people, Zhu Yuanzhang also continued to recruit talents, especially intellectuals. Zhu Yuanzhang also specially built a Lixian Hall in Yingtian to receive them.

These people played an important role in Zhu Yuanzhang's unification of the country. Zhu Yuanzhang respected Confucian scholars very much. In the eighteenth year of Zhizheng (1358), he summoned Confucian scholar Tang Zhongshi and asked Emperor Gao of Han, Emperor Guangwu of Han, Emperor Taizong of Tang, Emperor Taizu of Song, Yuan

Shizu's way of pacifying the world also showed that Zhu Yuanzhang was determined to create a new dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang established a base centered on Yingtian, with Chen Youliang in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Zhang Shicheng in the lower reaches, Fang Guozhen in the southeast, and Chen Youding in the south.

Fang Guozhen and Chen Youding's goal was to protect the territory and separate the regime, while Zhang Shicheng did not have much ambition towards the two ends of the Yuan Dynasty; Chen Youliang was the strongest and was the most dangerous enemy Zhu Yuanzhang encountered after he occupied Yingtian.

Chen Youliang was originally a subordinate of Xu Shouhui's general Ni Wenjun. Later he killed Ni Wenjun, and in the 20th year of Zhizheng (1360), he took Xu Shouhui hostage, captured Taiping, and quarried stones.

So Chen Youliang thought that Yingtian could be easily obtained, so he killed Xu Shouhui, proclaimed himself emperor in Caishi, named the country Han, and changed the name of Yuan Dynasty.


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