The news that Fu Jian and other princely forces were defeated in Liangzhou was indeed surprising, but at the same time, there were several other things that generated just as much heat.
After Han Sui, one more princes finally went to destruction. As for the various princes who had been in chaos since Dong Zhuo's rebellion, one less prince was lost again.
However, the continuous decrease of the number of princes does not mean that the world's chaos is about to end, but it means that the climax of the world's chaos is coming step by step.
In Yangzhou, a fire soared into the sky, lighting up the entire sky red. The appearance of this fire also represented the end of a prince.
"Come, put out the fire, put out the fire quickly!" Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the soaring fire in disbelief, and shouted to the surrounding soldiers in a horrified voice.
Zhu Yuanzhang never expected that Hong Xiuquan would be so ruthless and dare to drag people from Shouchun to be buried with him.
"How dare he? How dare Hong Xiuquan?" Zhu Yuanzhang roared with a distorted face.
Shouchun is the administrative seat of Jiujiang. It originally had the largest population in Jiujiang. After so many years of supply by the system, it now has a population of more than 200,000. Now Hong Xiuquan’s fire represents 200,000 innocent souls.
ah!
Two hundred thousand innocent civilians were about to die here, and even Zhu Yuanzhang felt an indescribable feeling at this moment.
In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang had the strength to deal with Hong Xiuquan from a long time ago. However, Zhu Yuanzhang deliberately kept Hong Xiuquan behind, which played a role in raising the bandits' self-respect.
When Zhu Yuanzhang started his career, he relied heavily on the power of the Jiangdong family. As Zhu Yuanzhang's power grew, the power of the various Jiangdong families also continued to grow within Zhu Yuanzhang's influence.
In fact, this situation not only happened to Zhu Yuanzhang, but also to a greater or lesser extent all the princes in the world who relied on the power of aristocratic families to develop and grow.
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang kept Hong Xiuquan in order to use Hong Xiuquan's hand to consume the power of the Jiangdong family. Moreover, only by letting these Jiangdong families continue to feel the threat of Hong Xiuquan, would they be willing to take the initiative to bleed, and Zhu Yuanzhang could continue to draw on the power of these families and grow stronger
itself.
However, the big and small aristocratic families in Jiangdong are not all fools. It is impossible to not discover any clues all the time, let alone be willing to donate blood to Zhu Yuanzhang. Therefore, in recent years, Hong Xiuquan's role has been diminished.
In addition, since Dong Zhuo conquered Dong, all the princes have been working hard to expand their territory. Under this situation, Zhu Yuanzhang is also thinking of further expanding his territory, eliminating Hong Xiuquan, and truly taking over Yangzhou.
Taking advantage of the two major events, Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor and Jin King Li Xiang attacked Yongliang, all the princes in the world were basically involved. War broke out in various states one after another, and no one had the energy to interfere with Zhu Yuanzhang's actions.
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately divided his troops into two groups. One group was led by his nephew Zhu Wenzheng, who led Yangkan, Deng Tianwang, Feng Qianlang and other generals to attack Lujiang. The other group was led by himself and led by Wang Yanzhang, Wang Yantong and Feng Sheng.
The generals will launch a massive attack on Jiujiang where Hong Xiuquan is located.
As for Hong Xiuquan, at the beginning of the uprising, he could barely be said to have worked hard to govern, and he still had some ambitions and ambitions in his heart.
However, as he later gained power, especially after Yang Jian's imperial edict, Hong Xiuquan's hidden desires completely exploded.
In order to build the Tianwang Palace, Hong Xiuquan requisitioned tens of thousands of civilians every day, and tens of thousands of nearby houses were demolished. When Hong Xiuquan went on tour, the pomp and momentum were so grand that Qin Shihuang would be ashamed to see it during his eastern tour.
Every once in a while, Hong Xiuquan would select beauties from all over the country to enrich his harem, and manage the Heavenly Palace according to his own ideas. He did not choose eunuchs, but young and beautiful women. The Heavenly Palace was full of female officials.
and maids, all young and beautiful women, just like a Garden of Eden.
It can be said that in terms of the number of harems, not to mention the Qin and Han Dynasties, and even the subsequent dynasties, no one may be able to compare with Hong Xiuquan.
It was precisely because Hong Xiuquan once fell into luxury and corruption, and the people in the places where his power was located were in dire straits. Zhu Yuanzhang quickly gained control of the people's hearts every time he went to a place, and there was almost no need to send out personnel to win over the people's hearts.
And the long-term corrupt life corroded not only the high-level officials represented by Hong Xiuquan, but also the ordinary soldiers at the bottom. Under this situation, Hong Xiuquan's army's combat effectiveness declined seriously, and it was almost impossible to fight back in the face of Zhu Yuanzhang's attack.
With such power, Zhu Yuanzhang can be said to be unstoppable along the way.
Along the way to Zhu Wenzheng, Zhu Wenzheng used the strategy of false defeat to lure the enemy to attack. After the enemy entered the ambush circle, he rushed out from all sides and defeated the enemy in one fell swoop.
During the battle, Yang Kan killed Lin Fengxiang, Hong Xiuquan's general, and Feng Qianlang captured alive Hong Daquan and Hong Renzheng, who were implanted as Hong Xiuquan's relatives. King Deng Tian killed Hong Xiuquan's army Lieutenant General Yang Xiuqing in the midst of thousands of troops, and captured Hong Xiuquan's army Lieutenant General Chen alive.
Yucheng.
Yang Xiuqing's defeat also destroyed Hong Xiuquan's main force in Lujiang County. Afterwards, Shi Dakai had no troops to use. Although he tried his best to resist, he was unable to defeat the general trend and had to retreat steadily.
Under the advice of Jingxiang, the counselor accompanying the army, Zhu Wenzheng besieged Shu County, which was guarded by Shi Dakai, instead of attacking it, and implemented a strategy to attack its heart.
Zhu Wenzheng spread the notices about Hong Xiuquan's evil deeds throughout Shu County, and sent spies to spread the word about Hong Xiuquan's death and the situation of people living and working in peace and contentment under Zhu Yuanzhang's rule, which changed the minds of people in Shu County.
Since the siege of the city for more than ten days, there have been no fewer than ten incidents of people attacking the city gates. Shi Dakai was unwilling to bloody suppress these rioting people, so he had no choice but to open the city gates, and he led the last group of cronies.
Stay in the city lord's palace and prepare to fight to the end.
Zhu Yuanzhang had been at war with Hong Xiuquan for many years, and he had long admired Hong Xiuquan's number one general. Therefore, even before the war, Zhu Yuanzhang had ordered Zhu Wenzheng to capture Shi Dakai alive if he could.
Therefore, Zhu Wenzhengcai did not kill Shi Dakai, but ordered Feng Qianlang and Deng Tianwang to take down Shi Dakai together.
Although Shi Dakai wanted to die, neither Feng Qianlang nor Deng Tianwang was his opponent. Now, with these two men attacking together, Shi Dakai had no power to resist, even if he wanted to kill himself with a sword at the last moment.
There's no way it can be done.
Yang Xiuqing and Shi Dakai, who were in charge of Lujiang County, were both killed and captured. Lujiang County was no longer able to resist. The other counties that Zhu Wenzheng had not conquered also came out of the city to ask for surrender, waiting for Zhu Wenzheng to send troops to take over.