Chapter 12: Poyang Lake! A Fight to the Death! Author: Bright Moon ??txt???? Traditional Chinese

  July 21st, the Poyang Lake Campaign officially began.

  Both sides arrayed their troops on the lake, and it was only then that Zhu Yuanzhang's soldiers discovered a serious problem.

  Their warships were too small, and in front of Chen Youding's giant ships, they looked like toys. The largest of Chen Youding's warships was 15 zhang long, 2 zhang wide, and 3 zhang high. Everyone can calculate for themselves how big this ship is. The ship had three layers, and on the deck, there were even soldiers riding horses back and forth on patrol. From the front of the ship, you couldn't see the rear (the bow and stern were out of sight), and the soldiers standing on their own warships could only look up at the enemy ships (they couldn't attack).

  Zhu Yuanzhang's warships were mainly composed of the ships captured from Chen Youliang in the Battle of Longwan in the 20th year of Zhizheng, with some fishing boats mixed in. Although Zhu Yuanzhang's soldiers had long heard that Chen Youliang's warships were formidable, it was only when they observed them at close range that they realized how frightening this fleet was.

  How is this fight going?

  This scene should have left a deep impression on Zhu Yuanzhang, and afterwards the shipbuilding of the Ming Dynasty always aimed at giant ships. When Zheng He went to the Western Ocean, the largest "Treasure Ship" was as long as 127 meters, seemingly showing off to Chen Youliang decades ago.

  But in this case, retreating is also impossible, and we can only fight.

  First strike! Xu Da's fierce blow!

  Zhu Yuanzhang said in a sigh that he had a way to defeat the enemy, thinking that although the enemy's ships were large, they were not agile, and by utilizing the flexibility of his own ships, he could break through the enemy (disadvantageous advance and retreat, can be broken).

  That's what they say, but who is going to fight?

  At this time, Xu Da stood out.

  "I'll go first!"

  Xu Da was not just a brave warrior, he carefully analyzed the weaknesses of the enemy ships, ordered his ships to form small teams, equipped with firearms and crossbows, and when approaching the enemy ship, first fired firearms and crossbow arrows, then boarded the enemy ship and engaged in close combat with the enemy.

  After careful consideration, Xu Da and Chang Yuchun, Liao Yongzhong and others formulated a detailed battle plan, preparing to give Chen Youliang a heavy blow.

  The next day, Xu Da led his fleet in a surprise attack.

  He led the vanguard forward, and when approaching Chen Youliang's army, he unexpectedly led his troops to launch a surprise attack on Chen Youliang's vanguard.

  Chen Youliang's army was thrown into great disorder, and he had not expected Zhu Yuanzhang's army to launch a surprise attack. He hastily dispatched his fleet to counterattack, but at this moment, Xu Da's fleet suddenly divided into eleven squadrons, attacking the giant ships from different angles (similar to wolf pack tactics). The giant ships were cumbersome and unable to fend off Xu Da's attacks, while Xu Da's army took advantage of the situation to board one of the giant ships, killing over a thousand enemy soldiers and capturing the vessel. Chen Youliang's vanguard was defeated.

  Chen Youliang's army discovered the characteristics of Xu Da's attack and launched a concentrated attack with dozens of giant ships. Xu Da hastily withdrew his fleet, Chen Youliang's army took advantage of the momentum to launch an attack, but they did not expect that this was a trap.

  Chen Youliang's army was pursued by Xu Da, at this time, the wind direction suddenly turned into a headwind. Yu Haidong, who had been waiting for a long time in the central fleet, immediately concentrated a large number of artillery and launched a fierce bombardment against Chen Youliang's army that had entered the firing range. Chen Youliang's vanguard fleet was almost completely destroyed, with more than 20 warships being burned down.

  Zhu Yuanzhang's army flag opens with victory.

  But Chen Youliang was after all Chen Youliang, and after the initial defeat, he promptly reorganized his fleet, took advantage of the giant ships' superiority, and launched a fierce attack on Xu Da's army with the cannons on the ships.

  In this attack, Xu Da's warship was hit and he had to abandon his flagship, transferring to other ships, temporarily losing command of the fleet. Chen Youliang's army took advantage of the situation to launch a counterattack, sinking dozens of Zhu Yuanzhang's warships in succession, with Zhu Yuanzhang's army suffering heavy losses, and countless drowning deaths.

  Both sides returned to a stalemate.

  However, Zhu Yuanzhang's army had only just begun their nightmare, as Chen Youliang's army was about to launch an unexpected attack.

  This attack was also unexpected by Chen Youliang, but for Zhu Yuanzhang, it was almost fatal.

  The First Fierce General Zhang Dingbian's Charge

  At the end of Yuan Dynasty, it was an era when famous generals emerged in large numbers. Under various lords, there were many brave and powerful generals. Among them, Zhu Yuanzhang's generals were the strongest. Each had their own strengths: Xu Da was good at strategy, Li Wenzhong was good at rapid attacks, Chang Yuchun was good at sudden strikes, Feng Sheng was good at flanking, and Zhu Wen was good at defense. But when it came to bravery, no one could surpass Zhang Dingbian!

  Zhang Dingbian, born in 1318, originally from Mianyang, Hubei Province. Like Chen Youliang, he also came from a fishing family. This man was not only brave and good at fighting, but also knew astronomy and geography, and even understood divination. He was Chen Youliang's childhood companion and sworn brother, having taken an oath of loyalty with Chen Youliang and Zhang Bixian in Hubei Province. Chen Youliang was a suspicious person, but he trusted Zhang Dingbian extremely.

  After the war situation became stalemate, Zhang Dingbian decided to carry out his action, which was not known to Chen Youliang beforehand, and believed that if he knew it, he would absolutely disagree with its implementation.

  Zhang Dingbian led his flagship and two deputy ships out of Chen Youliang's naval formation, both Chen and Zhu thought he was coming out to patrol and didn't pay attention, who would have thought that something unexpected happened.

  Zhang Dingbian led his three warships non-stop, charging straight at Zhu Yuanzhang's flagship!

  Among the million-strong army, take Yuan Zhuang's head!

  Zhang Dingbian charged forward fearlessly, leading his solitary army into the vanguard of Zhu Yuanzhang's naval forces. At this moment, both sides were stunned by him. Chen Youliang's army did not know why such a situation had occurred, and Zhu Yuanzhang's army was even more unprepared. The front lines retreated in defeat, but Zhang Dingbian ignored them and charged straight at Zhu Yuanzhang.

  He charged all the way into the central army, and it was only then that Zhu Yuanzhang's naval forces reacted, realizing that his target was their commander-in-chief, Zhu Yuanzhang!

  The commanders who were stunned quickly came to their senses and immediately ordered their warships to go and block, Zhang Dingbian rushed to the central army, already surrounded by more than 30 warships, with no way out in front and pursuers behind. In the eyes of these commanders, Zhang Dingbian's performance had come to an end.

  But what's even more astonishing is yet to come.

  Zhang Dingbian is simply a man of extraordinary bravery, surrounded by heavy siege, fighting alone, but the more he fights, the braver he becomes, sharp and unstoppable!

  Although he was isolated and deeply infiltrated, he was extremely brave, to boost the morale of his troops, he personally held a sword and stood at the bow of the ship, showing that he would never retreat. The soldiers were inspired by his bravery, and they all fought with all their might. The fleet broke out of the encirclement and defeated Zhu Yuanzhang's generals one after another, beheading the great generals Han Cheng, Chen Zhaoxian, Song Gui and others. They cut a bloody path, and Zhu Yuanzhang's navy was split in two by him, and they rushed straight towards Zhu Yuanzhang.

  At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang in the rear army saw Zhang Dingbian's warship rushing over and panicked. He hastily ordered the ships to evade, but unexpectedly, due to the sudden turn of the rudder, the ship ran aground!

  Zhu Yuanzhang was already at a loss, with no warships coming to his rescue, and he was about to be captured.

  In martial arts, whenever a similar situation occurs, it is always the beauty who suffers and the master of the martial arts comes to rescue her. In reality, history tells us that in times of crisis, there will also be masters of the martial arts who emerge, and Zhu Yuanzhang at this time is an example.

  Although it's not a heroic rescue (the image is far from it), it also has a legendary color.

  Changyuchun, the shooting champion

  At this time, the warship of Chang Chun was not far from Zhu Yuanzhang. When everyone was rushing around in anxiety, he held a bow and came to the side of the lookout soldier, calmly saying: "Don't panic, tell me, which one is Zhang Dingbian?"

  The soldier pointed forward with his hand, and the warship's bow was one person. Often in spring, he drew his bow and set up his arrow. The soldier's hand had not yet put down, and the arrow had already left the string. One arrow hit Zhang Dingbian! (Still shooting at a moving target)

  Zhang Dingbian was shot and lost his strength to command the battle, thus withdrawing from Zhu Yuanzhang's navy, and no one stopped him.

  Zhang Dingbian can be considered a real-life Zhao Zilong. Unfortunately, Zhu Yuanzhang is not Cao Cao and did not prohibit shooting arrows.

  The battle of the second day was over; it had been a day of thrilling interest.

  That night, Chen Youliang held a combat meeting to summarize the experience of that day's battle. He believed that in order to play to his warships' strengths, he had to guarantee concentrated attacks, but the ships' speeds were different and couldn't be unified. So he creatively (in his own opinion) came up with an idea: tie the ships together with iron chains!

  This is really not what should be done. It's said that Chen Youliang and Shi Nai'an had a good relationship, so it can be said that he should also know Luo Guanzhong. In that case, it's really not right to make this mistake. For some reason, Chen Youliang actually used the same trick Cao Cao used back then. It seems that after Luo Guanzhong finished writing "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and published it, he didn't send him a copy.

  The third day.

  Zhu Yuanzhang took the lead, personally blowing the horn to gather his troops and deploy them for a decisive battle. At this time, Chen Youliang's iron chain-linked fleet played a huge role, stretching out in a continuous line as far as ten miles away, looking like a mountain range.

  Zhu Yuanzhang sent out three fleets in succession to attack, but were defeated. Chen Youliang keenly sensed that Zhu Yuanzhang's right wing was weak and ordered his army to launch a fierce attack on the right wing of Zhu Yuanzhang's army. This move was very powerful, and Zhu Yuanzhang's army could not withstand it. Seeing that the situation was unfavorable, Zhu Yuanzhang personally held a sword at the front of the ship, with the flagship as the baseline, and beheaded anyone who retreated!

  But after killing more than a dozen of the retreating thousand households, he still couldn't stop the defeat. Just as the whole army was about to collapse, unexpectedly, another fierce general similar to Zhang Dingbian emerged from his troops.

  Ding Pu Lang was the sworn brother of Zhao Pu Sheng and one of the four great golden pillars of Xu Jun's army that year. He defected to Zhu Yuan Zhang not out of his own will, but because he had no other choice. Therefore, he never fought with much enthusiasm, but this time his opponent brought out his true crazy nature.

  To him, everything else is secondary, only brotherly righteousness is the most important. Chen Youliang, this despicable villain, killed Zhao Pusong, and today he must pay with his life!

  It is said that he set up a seven-foot white cloth on his own boat, with eight big characters "No one else asks, only the ninth four", because Chen Youliang's nickname was Chen Jiuliang, which means that he only found Chen Youliang to settle accounts, and unrelated people all dodge aside.

  Chen Jiuxi and Zhu Chongba, judging from their names, are both unfortunate people!

  Ding Prong's Charge

  After Zhang Dingbian performed well on the battlefield, Ding Pu led his own warship to charge into the enemy formation. At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang was in a state of defeat, so his attack boosted the morale of the troops, allowing Zhu Yuanzhang to hold on until the final battle.

  However, his charging direction was not ideal. Unlike Zhang Dingbian, he charged wherever there were more people. He was brave, but ineffective, and ended up getting hurt himself (with over a dozen wounds). This is the difference between the bravery of a famous general and that of an ordinary man.

  How can we capture the head of the commander-in-chief among a million soldiers?

  Here's an analysis of this peculiar phenomenon in war, how a million-strong army can take the head of its commander-in-chief. If studied carefully, it will be found that this is a technical matter.

  Everyone should have played the Three Kingdoms game, to defeat the big generals like Xiahou Dun and Cao Cao in the back, you must first fight a large number of small soldiers such as Zhao Xiong and Pang De. I'm not good at it, every time I see the general, I've already died in the hands of unknown people.

  In actual warfare, it's almost impossible to kill a great general by crossing over thousands of soldiers.

  Let's take the example of Guan Yu, a great general of the Three Kingdoms. The process of his killing of Yan Liang (which is a historical fact) is worth studying. Firstly, Yan Liang was standing at the front of the army and did not know that Guan Yu was coming to kill him. Secondly, Guan Yu relied on fast transportation (his horse), "let out a loud shout and charged down", before Yan Liang even knew what was happening, he had already lost his head.

  This method of killing has several characteristics, which can be simply expressed as finding an opportunity, taking advantage of your unpreparedness, and giving you a knife, with some meaning of stabbing in the dark.

  To sum up, it's a long way to go to achieve this goal.

  First of all, it must have suddenness. You can't shout to the opposing army: I'm coming to kill your general, get ready. This won't do. It's necessary to strike at those who are unprepared.

  Secondly, you must aim accurately and not rush into the crowd. You should learn from badminton players who specialize in hitting the shuttlecock into the gap between people. For example, during this Golden Week holiday, you absolutely cannot rush into the crowded tourist areas, or else you'll either get beaten to death or squeezed to death.

  Finally, you need to be fast enough, have advanced transportation tools (fast horses, fast boats), and also use certain audio (such as loud shouting) to confuse the opponent, making them unable to react, then strike again, and their head will be gone.

  Mission accomplished, it can be seen that this military operation has a very high technical content.

  Zhang Dingbian was such a person, he knew the art of war well and could grasp time and opportunity, so he could give Zhu Yuanzhang a fierce blow.

  Ding Pu Lang was just a common man. He charged left and right, but not only could he not get close to Chen You Liang, he himself was surrounded by the enemy. His life was in danger, yet it was quite tragic, according to historical records of the Ming Dynasty, he suffered severe injuries, his head had already fallen off, but he still held his weapon and stood firmly, Chen You Liang's soldiers thought a god had descended from heaven (his head fell off but he still stood upright, holding his sword in a fighting stance, the enemy was shocked and thought it was a divine being). But I saw other historical records that said after being surrounded, he refused to be captured and killed himself. It's said that one cannot be so vigorous even when committing suicide, to the point of cutting off one's own head. This is also a doubtful point.

  Anyway, Ding Pu-lang was a man of his word, he didn't die with his brother, but he got what he deserved and died in the right place.

  Ding Yu's attack gave Zhu Yuanzhang's army the courage to hold on, allowing them to wait for the decisive moment in the afternoon.

  Big wind! Big wind!

  In the midst of continuous defeats, Zhu Yuanzhang realized that if this continued, his entire army would be annihilated. At this time, his general Guo Xing suggested to him: The enemy situation is severe, and it's not that the soldiers are not making an effort, but there's simply no way, the enemy's ships are too big, we can't defeat them, we can only use fire attacks!

  Zhu Yuanzhang thought so, he immediately arranged for seven ships to be loaded with gunpowder, and had the straw men dressed in armor, posing as if they were about to move. He organized a team of daredevils to operate the ships, and sent people to receive them.

  Everything is ready, but it can't be carried out.

  Because Zhu Yuanzhang encountered the same problem as Zhou Yu ——

  No wind!

  Zhu Yuanzhang was at a loss, and even the heavens couldn't help him. He looked at Guo Xing, implying that he had another plan. This time, however, Guo Xing was also at a loss. He said to Zhu Yuanzhang, "Then let's wait."

  This wind is said to have come suddenly, Zhu Yuanzhang can only organize his troops to fight to the death.

  It was like this until 3 pm in the afternoon when a miracle happened.

  The northeast wind is rising!

  Zhu Yuanzhang immediately ordered, fire ships set off!

  These seven fire ships sailed towards Chen Youliang's warships after being set alight, with the flames fanned by the wind and the wind adding to the ferocity of the fire! Chen Youliang's warships were unable to escape due to the iron chains blocking the river, and instantly fell into a sea of flames.

  Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of the situation and ordered his troops to launch a general offensive. For a time, the cries of killing shook the sky.

  At this time, Chen Youliang was resting in the middle of the army and still dreaming of annihilating Zhu Yuanzhang. Suddenly, soldiers rushed in frantically, shouting: Something big has gone wrong!

  Chen Youliang sensed something was amiss and didn't wait for the soldier to finish speaking before immediately going out of the cabin to investigate.

  The first thing he saw was the eyes of the soldiers on the warship ——

  Frightful red!

  Dazzling flames reflected in every soldier's eyes as red.

  It's too late for regrets!

  At this time, it was already dusk, the sunset in the sky was like blood, and the blood on the ground flowed into a river. The blood of the soldiers who were killed dyed the lake water red, and the majestic Poyang Lake became a blood lake.

  On sunny days, the golden light ripples, boats set sail and birds fly high. When it rains, clouds and water blend together, with strong winds and towering waves. This is the usual beautiful scenery of Poyang Lake. But at this moment, Poyang Lake is filled with cries and shouts, flames illuminate the sky, and blood flows everywhere.

  Chen Youliang's dozens of warships were all burned to ashes, the flames from the ships rose high into the sky, and the miserable cries of soldiers being burned or killed could be heard from time to time. Chen Youliang knew that he was finished.

  Flames, blood and sky merged into a terrifying red hue, this is the true autumnal waters sharing the same color as the heavens!

  In this terrible redness, hundreds of thousands of people holding knives and swords, fighting to the death, they do not know each other, nor can they talk about having great hatred, but at this moment, they are sworn enemies, the god of death has firmly grasped every one of them, the soldiers' mournful cries and wails make people's hearts tremble with fear.

  This is truly a living hell!

  The fierce fire initially illuminates the cloud sea, the Red Cliff's building and boat are swept away in an instant!

  Chen Youliang was truly defeated, he gathered his troops, the original fleet now only has half left, but he absolutely cannot return to Jiangzhou.

  Once this gamble begins, whether you win or lose, you can't leave. The game will continue until one person loses everything, only then will it end.

  Chen Youliang's Final Blow! White Flagship

  Chen Youliang summoned his generals, looking at them with reddened eyes. He could no longer afford to lose. Unexpectedly, he did not blame his generals, because he understood that at this point, they had to sink or swim together.

  "Although we were defeated today, victory still belongs to us!"

  The generals looked at him in surprise, was there still a way to win that wasn't good enough?

  "Yes, we still have a way!"

  At the same time, on Zhu Yuanzhang's flagship, the generals were extremely excited, and some had already begun to prepare for the celebration of victory. Zhu Yuanzhang was no exception, he said to the generals: "Chen Youliang has been defeated, his downfall is imminent, we will surely be able to eliminate him!"

  Xu Da, however, remained unusually calm and reminded Zhu Yuanzhang that Chen Youliang still had considerable strength, and once he became desperate, they would also need to be careful in dealing with him, and must not be careless.

  Zhu Yuanzhang turned his excited face and looked at Xu Da, revealing a sly smile...

  "I know."

  The fourth day.

  Chen Youliang's confidence came from his intelligence, and under the current circumstances, it was already impossible to annihilate Zhu Yuanzhang's fleet completely, so he could only adopt the last resort - kill Zhu Yuanzhang!

  He had learned through intelligence that Zhu Yuanzhang's flagship was painted white, and as long as all the troops concentrated on attacking the white warship and killing Zhu Yuanzhang, they would be able to win!

  But when he arrived on the battlefield, he was stunned. Overnight, many of Zhu Yuanzhang's warships had been painted white and could no longer be distinguished from one another.

  Before he could regain his composure, Zhu Yuanzhang had ordered the army to launch a general attack. Under the encouragement of the previous two days' battle results, Zhu Yuanzhang's army was exceptionally brave and made extensive use of divisional tactics, taking advantage of Chen Youliang's giant ships' lack of maneuverability, sinking many of Chen Youliang's warships in succession. The battle lasted from dawn till night, and Chen Youliang's army finally collapsed and retreated completely.

  The Battle of Poyang Lake has ended its first stage, Chen Youliang was defeated and forced to retreat to the west bank of Poyang Lake's Zhuxi.

  Chen Youliang's defeat

  Chen Youliang fell into despair, not only military despair but also life despair. His behavior pattern had always told him that as long as he was ruthless and cruel, he could get everything, but the fact was right in front of him. The seemingly vulnerable Hong Du guarded for three months, and the seemingly weak Zhang Ziming was not afraid of death.

  Was I wrong?

  No, no way, it's just an accident, I won't be wrong!

  But what happened afterwards made him have to admit his own mistake.

  His generals, the Golden Guard Commanders-in-Chief of the Left and Right, led their own troops in surrendering to Zhu Yuanzhang.

  Chen Youliang was enraged upon hearing the news, his anger overwhelming all reason. He ordered that any soldiers or generals who captured Zhu Yuanzhang were to be executed on the spot!

  But Zhu Yuanzhang, upon learning of this order, issued a contrary one: all prisoners captured from Chen Youliang's army were to be treated well and then released.

  The issuance of these two orders completely destroyed Chen Youliang's military morale. The soldiers were extremely dissatisfied with Chen Youliang and fled in droves.

  Chen Youliang waited for a long time on the west bank, and had a great battle with Zhu Yuanzhang that lasted more than thirty days. However, he did not get any opportunity, but instead his soldiers were decreasing continuously, and his generals were no longer loyal to him.

  On August 26th, he finally made a decision: to escape!

  He took a last look at the vast expanse of the lake, and his dream of unifying the world and his ambition were shattered. The mighty fleet and 600,000 troops that had come with him now only had defeated remnants left. For the heroic Chen Youliang, this was not actually anything. There were no more soldiers to recruit, and ships could be rebuilt, what he couldn't understand was why he had failed?

  I am not lacking in cunning and strategy, I have no qualms about killing anyone who stands in my way, and I am not afraid of public opinion. This is something that ordinary people cannot do. I am more ruthless and cunning than anyone else, so why did I fail? I already possess the strongest army and war machine, why would my subordinates betray me?

  Chen Youliang will never find the answer, because the answer lies in his behavior pattern, from the moment he killed his own brothers and leaders, his generals have fully understood his principles, that is, who has power, who is more ruthless, who can control everything!

  Benevolence, morality and integrity do not exist. When these behaviors are taken as the creed of life by his generals, his army becomes a collection of millions of ruthless Chen Youliangs. Such a collection is similar to the Tianxian Sect in Jin Yong's novels. Once Chen Youliang falls out of luck, everyone will not continue to be loyal to him, but instead step on him and kick him when he is down.

  Of course, Chen Youliang was not completely worthless after his defeat. At least his head was still worth a lot of money.

  Chen Youliang was sinister and cruel, his generals were even more sinister and cruel. Chen Youliang believed in ruling everything with violence, his generals believed in it even more.

  When his basis for survival - violence was overturned by others, he had no other trump cards left, and all that awaited him was extinction.

  Tempered by wind and frost, Zhang Xueliang once told Japan's young people with his life experience: Don't believe in violence. History has proven that violence cannot solve problems.

  I believe this is the root cause of Chen Youliang's failure.

  Chen Youliang led his troops in the hope of retreating, and he chose to break through at Lake Mouth. However, Chen Youliang was no longer his former self, and he fought desperately, suffering heavy losses before barely opening up a passage at Lake Mouth.

  At this time he finally let out a breath of relief, but Zhu Yuanzhang would not let him off.

  Zhu Yuanzhang had been beaten by Chen Youliang for many years, and he had long since hated him deeply, determined to put him to death, leading an army of over a million men in pursuit.

  Chen Youliang heard the news and personally came out to stand at the bow of the ship to direct the battle, and it was at this time that a cold arrow shot over, piercing his skull.

  Everything is over!

  No, things shouldn't be like this, did I do something wrong?

  After Chen Youliang's death, Zhang Dingbian fulfilled his responsibility and retrieved Chen Liang and Chen Youliang's corpse, bringing them back to Wuchang.

  Thus ended the thirty-six-day Battle of Lake Poyang with Zhu Yuanzhang's complete victory and Chen Youliang's complete defeat.

  This war laid the foundation for Zhu Yuanzhang's conquest of the world. The Battle of Poyang Lake was also recorded as one of the most famous battles in Chinese history.

  For Zhu Yuanzhang's victory, the ordinary people living nearby also had their own set of explanations. Since the decisive battle took place in Kangshan, the common folk believed that Chen Youliang's failure was due to poor location selection, "Pig (Zhu) sees bran (Kang), joyful and proud", so Chen Youliang failed. If Chen Youliang were aware of this after death, he would probably be furious.

  Zhu Yuanzhang did not let off Chen Li, the descendant of Chen Youliang, even though he was in no position to pose any threat to Zhu Yuanzhang. Cutting grass is important, and it's also necessary to pull out the roots at the same time.

  In the second month of the 24th year of the Zhuyuan era (1364), Zhu Yuanzhang personally rushed to the location where Chen Li was, Chen Youliang's last stronghold Wuchang, to direct the battle. The commander-in-chief Zhang Dingbian was indeed an old hand at seizing opportunities, and seeing that the situation was not good, he took Chen Li and surrendered.

  Zhu Yuanzhang finally defeated his most troublesome enemy on this Chinese land, Chen Youliang.

  "The world is at peace!"

  It is worth mentioning Zhang Dingbian, who kept his loyalty to Chen Youliang until the end and partially fulfilled the promise he made when they became sworn brothers. He refused Zhu Yuanzhang's appointment and did what Zhu Yuanzhang used to do before, becoming a monk.

  It is ironic that he seemed to be competing with Zhu Yuanzhang, and lived until the 15th year of Yongle (1417) before dying at the age of 100. After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, he lived for another 20 years. This can also be seen as taking revenge on Chen Youliang. Everyone can learn from Zhang Dingbian's story, when you encounter someone you hate and want to cut them down with a knife, encourage yourself not to get angry, cultivate your body and nature, and live longer than him.

  Let's take a look back at Chen Youliang's life and give him a fair evaluation:

  There is no doubt that Chen Youliang was a villain in the traditional sense, but in that chaotic world, his behavioral norms were also the common choice at that time. If he wanted to survive, this seemed to be an inevitable choice. His mistake lay in developing such norms to the extreme, becoming obsessed with violence and ignoring basic faith, causing him to lose people's hearts.

  But he was a real hero, who did all the bad things and dared to do them (even Zhu Yuanzhang later could not do it), with extremely strong military and political talents, resisting the rule of the Yuan Dynasty, from start to finish, never compromising with the Yuan Dynasty, insisting until the end.

  From this perspective, he is also a good fellow.

  Unfortunately, in this chaotic world, he was just a heroic outlaw, while the real hero was Zhu Yuanzhang.

  Some friends may have noticed that Zhu Yuanzhang is no longer the poor farmer and beggar he once was, but has become a landlord. How did he become a landlord? This involves a historical rule of feudal society, which we need to explore.

  In the previous article, I mentioned that this article hopes to explain the events and institutional rules of the Ming Dynasty in a relaxed way, so we also need to explore some deeper problems, so that we can have a rational and regular understanding of the Ming Dynasty. There are still many discussions after this.

  Of course, I still use my narrative approach. I believe that even the most profound and abstract analysis of rules and systems can be expressed in plain language, allowing everyone to share it together.

  In feudal society, after the success of peasant uprisings, those peasant leaders who aimed to redistribute land equally all became big landlords. For thousands of years, history has been nothing but the Liu landlords driving out the Xiang landlords, the Li landlords replacing the Yang landlords, with no exceptions. This seems like a curse.

  To explain this issue, one could write a thesis titled "On the Changes in Land Production Relations and the Re-Division of Land Contracts after Peasant Uprisings". However, whether or not people would be interested in reading such an article is a question mark, so we will use another approach to explain.

  How the Landlord is Made

  For example, a peasant leader Zhang San, after the uprising gathered 30,000 people and occupied a piece of land. There is one thing that must be done, which is to eat. Because the peasant uprising army is also an army, it's human, humans need to eat, how to support 30,000 people? At this time, Zhang San's most direct solution should be to go and rob the landlord's grain, but the problem is that the landlord's house is not a bank ATM, you can't just take as much as you want. If you rob the landlord clean, what will you eat then?

  The landlord's family doesn't have enough food either!

  At this time, Zhang San had only land in his hands, and all the grain was eaten up. He had to gather farmers, divide the land among them, and then collect rent from them. As a result, Farmer Leader Zhang San became Landlord Zhang San.

  In feudal China, there were no other options; one was either a peasant or a landlord. Merchants could have been another option, but at that time they did not form an independent political force. They could not put forward their own political demands, nor could you ask a group of starving peasants to fight for the rights of merchants. Peasants in feudal society also could not demand the implementation of capitalism.

  This tells us that behind every claim, there is a certain force or interest group hidden. For example, real estate developers will definitely say that house prices will continue to rise, and telecommunications companies will definitely say that their charges are very cheap. While farmers' claims can only be about farming or collecting rent.

  A famous historian once said that the peasants' uprisings for two thousand years were just for a piece of land!

  Either peasants or landlords! No other choice!