Chapter 13 The Next Target, Zhang Shicheng!

  After solving the Chen Youliang problem, Zhu landlord launched an attack on Zhang landlord who was richer than him.

  Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Shicheng can be said to be irreconcilable enemies, especially what makes Zhu Yuanzhang unable to understand is that he didn't provoke the other party at all, so why did they treat him as their greatest enemy?

  Chen Youliang is already finished, it's time to take down Zhang Shicheng this private salt smuggler.

  Zhang Shicheng was not an easy person to bully, and coincidentally, his nickname was also Jiǔ Sì (Nine Four), which differed from Chen Youliang's name in rumors. His nickname had clear records in official history books. He relied on his several brothers: Zhang Shiyi, Zhang Shide, and Zhang Shixin for fighting and governing the region. Except for Zhang Shixin, the other two were very capable but had already died in battle. Now, Wu was led by the dandy Zhang Shixin and had gone downhill.

  It seems there's no divine help this time either.

  In the first month of Zhongyuan 24 (1364), Zhu Yuanzhang ascended to the throne as King of Wu, finally completing his transformation from a peasant to a king (he had not been enfeoffed as a king before). The fact proved that after taking the road of hardship, more results would be achieved. In history, in order to distinguish this regime from Zhang Shicheng's Wu region, it was called Western Wu, and Zhang Shicheng was called Eastern Wu.

  However, some historical records show that Zhu Yuanzhang was self-proclaimed as the King of Wu. After careful study, it can be found that the two characters "self-proclaimed" are worth pondering. Because Han Lin'er was still the nominal emperor at that time, becoming the King of Wu required his approval, and after approval, it would be legitimate. If Zhu Yuanzhang was self-proclaimed, it would obviously be a rebellious act without Han Lin'er's edict. Whether Han Lin'er was dissatisfied and refused to issue an edict appointing Zhu Yuanzhang is also a topic worth exploring.

  In the 25th year of the Zhuyuan era, Zhu Yuanzhang launched a military campaign against Eastern Wu after careful preparation.

  In August, the troops were dispatched and in less than half a year, they had conquered large areas of Jiangsu Province, including Xuzhou, Yancheng, Taizhou and even Gaoyou, which was originally Zhang Shicheng's base.

  Just as Zhu Yuanzhang was about to kick away the last obstacle on his path forward and engage in a decisive battle with the Yuan government, an unexpected piece of news left him stunned.

  "Unexpected Betrayal"

  While he was on a campaign in Jiangsu, his scouts informed him that his own nephew, the meritorious Zhu Wen Zheng, had colluded with Zhang Shicheng and was preparing to attack him.

  Before that, Zhu Yuanzhang had also been betrayed. In the 22nd year of Zhizheng (1359), General Shao Rong and Zhao Jizong conspired to assassinate him, but were exposed and executed by Zhu Yuanzhang. In the 23rd year of Zhizheng (1360), at a critical moment when he was engaged in a decisive battle with Chen Youliang, General Xie Zhenxiang defected, but Zhu Yuanzhang handled it promptly and suppressed the rebellion.

  However, Zhu Wenjing's betrayal has plunged him into real suffering. Even his most trusted nephew and powerful general are going to betray him. What is it all for?

  The reason is actually very simple, it's just for the sake of official position.

  After Zhu Yuanzhang defeated Chen Youliang, he rewarded his merits. Since Zhu Wen Zheng was his nephew and had the greatest merit, he asked Zhu Wen Zheng what he wanted and what official position he wanted to be granted. Zhu Wen Zheng showed some of the demeanor of a great general and said to Zhu Yuanzhang, "We are relatives, you should grant titles to others first, I am not very interested in these things."

  Zhu Yuanzhang was overjoyed and thought that his nephew was indeed a talented person who knew how to handle big matters and take care of the overall situation. So he gave the good position to someone else and still let Zhu Wen Zheng guard Jiangxi.

  He didn't know that Zhu Wen was just being polite to him, just like the bidding in an auction house. He was waiting for Zhu Yuanzhang to raise the price and persuade him to stay, saying something like "You can't refuse this". Unexpectedly, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't raise the price at all and directly banged his gavel.

  Deal!

  Zhu Wen Zheng's discontent finally erupted, guarding Hongze was my greatest credit, but when it came to rewarding achievements, I wasn't included. He couldn't understand this no matter how hard he thought about it, and every day he would drown his sorrows in wine, even going so far as to openly abduct and rape local women, selling official positions for personal gain. However, this still couldn't bring him mental balance. Every time he saw those underlings swaggering around in the prosperous areas of Ying Tian, while he was stuck guarding Jiangxi, he would feel discontent from the bottom of his heart towards Zhu Yuan Zhang. When this discontent reached its peak, he inevitably went to extremes.

  Who else in the world can rival Zhu Yuanzhang?

  Only Zhang Shicheng is left.

  Just as he was making intense preparations, Zhu Yuanzhang learned of this news.

  He put down his work and came to Hongdu in person.

  He wants to clean up the portal.

  The meeting between Zhu Wen Zheng and Zhu Yuan Zhang was dramatic. When he saw Zhu Yuan Zhang, Zhu Wen Zheng was stunned. But Zhu Yuan Zhang was not stunned at all, he fully showed his simple nature, without saying something like "the weather is great today" or "you seem to have gained weight", no nonsense, directly using a whip to lash Zhu Wen Zheng, while beating him, he said: "You little bastard, what do you want to do?"

  Zhu Yuanzhang originally wanted to execute Zhu Wen Zheng, but due to the persuasion of Empress Ma, he did not do so and instead had him imprisoned. Objectively speaking, Zhu Yuanzhang was still quite good to Zhu Wen Zheng, as in the third year of Hongwu (1370), he enfeoffed Zhu Wen Zheng's eight-year-old son as a prince and sent him to be stationed in Guilin.

  No matter how you say it, the mistake is on Zhu Wenjing's side.

  This brilliant and talented general ended his glorious life in captivity, dying there. His tragedy stemmed from his character; this man with military genius did not know how to be a person. He was eccentric, narrow-minded, and of poor conduct. Even if he had not been ruined by this affair, one day he would have gotten into trouble because of other things. From this perspective, his tragedy was inevitable.

  Character determines destiny!

  This incident cast a huge psychological shadow on Zhu Yuanzhang, who from then on did not dare to trust anyone. Even his most trusted and capable nephew betrayed him; who else could he trust?

  For Zhu Yuanzhang, gunpowder had already been buried in his heart, just waiting for when it would explode.

  After solving this matter, Zhu Yuanzhang then turned his attention to his old enemy, Zhang Shicheng.

  By the 25th year of the Zhongyuan era, Zhang Shicheng had been driven out of the area north of the Yangtze River by war. The Eastern Wu army was confined to the Jiang-Hang region, which is now Suzhou and Hangzhou. Zhang Shicheng seemed not to understand his situation yet, he still wanted to occupy what he called "half of Jiangnan" as his rich landlord.

  But Zhu Di told him through his actions that there can only be one largest landlord in the world, and this person will absolutely not be you Zhang Shicheng.

  In 1366, Zhu Yuanzhang led his elite troops with Xu Da and Chang Yuchun as the main commanders to attack Zhang Shicheng.

  When discussing the battle plan, a dispute arose. Chang Yuchun believed that they should directly attack Pingjiang (now Suzhou), the old nest of Eastern Wu, and Xu Da also agreed with him. They both thought that as long as they obtained Pingjiang, all of Zhang Shicheng's territories would surrender without a fight.

  Zhu Yuanzhang disagreed.

  Zhu Yuanzhang once again demonstrated his brilliant strategic vision, believing that if he directly attacked Pingjiang, Zhang Shicheng's forces in Hangzhou would definitely come to the rescue, making it extremely difficult to capture Pingjiang. By attacking Hangzhou and other areas first, he could cut off Zhang Shicheng's wings, and Pingjiang would naturally become a piece of cake.

  It turned out that Zhu Yuanzhang was indeed a military genius and he was right again this time.

  Before the expedition, Zhu Yuanzhang repeatedly emphasized one thing: after capturing a city, it is not allowed to slaughter people indiscriminately. After killing people and getting empty land, what's the use of that? (Capture the city without killing many, if you get the land but no people, what benefit is there?)

  This remark was not for Xu Da to hear, but for Chang Yuchun to hear.

  This old fellow, since the Jiuhua Mountain, has not changed his evil habits. After capturing a city, he must slaughter, and Zhu Yuanzhang had to severely warn him many times before he restrained himself slightly.

  The army set out, and Zhu Yuanzhang sat in his tent with an indescribable excitement.

  Victory is within our grasp!

  This time, Zhu Yuanzhang again assembled an army of 200,000 men and entrusted it to Xu Da and Chang Yuchun. The two famous generals did not disappoint Zhu Yuanzhang. They agreed to divide their forces and attack Hangzhou and Huzhou, and soon captured them.

  Now Pingjiang is all that's left.

  Pingjiang Attack War

  Pingjiang is known as the first stronghold, Zhang Shicheng has been hiding at home for several years, watching Chen Youliang being defeated, watching his own territory being nibbled away by Zhu Yuanzhang bit by bit, and only doing one thing, that is to repair the city.

  Pingjiang City has eight gates, namely: Tongmen Gate, Huqiu Gate, Loumen Gate, Xumen Gate, Chenmen Gate, Panmen Gate, Ximen Gate and Beimen Gate. Each gate's city wall is extremely solid, made of large stone blocks mixed with glutinous rice, and there are fixed crossbow positions on the city wall, which can shoot anyone approaching the city wall instantly. There are also a large number of grain stores inside the city, enough to last for several years of defense.

  Zhang Shicheng was not an ambitious man, but he had a strong will. When the Yuan army gathered one million soldiers to attack the small city of Gaoyou, they were unable to capture it for three months, which fully demonstrated his willpower.

  At this time, Zhang Shicheng understood even more clearly that if Pingjiang fell, he would have nowhere to go.

  He decided to go all out.

  To take such a city by storm, careful planning is needed. However, when Zhu Yuanzhang's troops came to ask which gate to attack first, Zhu Yuanzhang shouted at them: "With hundreds of thousands of soldiers, do you still need to divide and conquer? Just fight to the death!"

  It seems that Li Yunlong is not the only one who has used this move for hundreds of years.

  Zhu Yuanzhang made military deployments, mobilizing his famous generals and assigning them tasks as follows:

  Xu Da attacked Tongmen, Chang Yu attacked Huqiu, Guo Xing attacked Loumen, Hua Yunlong attacked Ximen, Tang He attacked Yanmen, Wang Bi attacked Panmen, Zhang Wen attacked Ximen, and Kang Mao attacked Beimen.

  Are you dizzy? Is there more?

  He was dissatisfied with these people and arranged for Geng Bingwen to attack the northeast of the city, Qiu Cheng to attack the southwest, and He Wenhui to attack the northwest.

  He set up eleven troops outside Pingjiang City, attacking from different angles and positions. To say nothing of humans, even gods would not be able to withstand it. In fact, there was no need to fight; with so many people squeezing into the city, they could have squeezed Zhang Shicheng to death.

  Zhu Yuanzhang still felt that it was not enough, so he built a long siege outside the city and surrounded Pingjiang City. Not only people, but even rabbits could not escape.

  To solve the problem of Pingjiang City being too high and soldiers finding it inconvenient to attack, he built a new-style real estate - a wooden tower outside the city. The tower is divided into three layers, from which one can overlook all situations inside the city, and each layer is equipped with bows, fire guns and Xiangyang cannons (new-style firearms). Truly achieving "point and shoot".

  With these few sets of troops deployed, Zhang Shicheng should have surrendered if he knew what was good for him.

  But this private salt smuggler insisted on being stubborn and had to resist to the end.

  In January of the 27th year of the Zhiyuan era, the attack began.

  Zhu Yuanzhang's infantry, archers and artillery worked together to attack the city day and night without stopping. The infantry attacked from below the city wall, while the artillery fired arrows, guns and cannons non-stop from the top of the wooden tower.

  Zhang Shicheng's soldiers, while withstanding the attack of the soldiers under the city tower, also had to pay attention to air defense. The wooden towers were guarded day and night, and the soldiers on these towers could not come down once they encountered the night shift. Eating, drinking, urinating, and defecating all took place on the tower. Spitting, relieving oneself, and other such behaviors naturally fell onto the bodies of the Eastern Wu soldiers on the city tower.

  It's really bitter, this is the real shame!

  It was in such a harsh environment that Zhang Shicheng and his soldiers persisted with astonishing willpower for eight months, until Pingjiang was finally captured in September of the 27th year of Zhizheng (1367 AD).

  Zhang Shicheng's ending

  Zhang Shicheng was a man with some backbone, and when the city fell, he continued to fight in the alleys. Even though Zhu Yuanzhang repeatedly announced that if Zhang Shicheng surrendered, not only would he not be killed, but he would also be treated well along with his relatives. However, Zhang Shicheng had made up his mind to die, and after killing all of his own relatives, he prepared to hang himself, but was rescued by his generals. He was later captured and taken to Ying Tian.

  On the boat taking him to Yingtian, he refused to speak or eat, showing his determination not to yield.

  Zhu Yuanzhang sent his trusted minister Li Shan-chang to interrogate Zhang Shicheng, but no matter how harshly Li scolded him, he couldn't get any response from Zhang.

  From start to finish, Zhang Shicheng looked at Li Shan-chang with contemptuous eyes.

  Li Shan-chang was stared at by him until he felt hairy, and seeing that he didn't speak, he got so angry that he jumped up like thunder.

  Zhang Shicheng finished watching Li Shan-chang's performance and spoke out his only testimony in this trial.

  "You're just a dog, let your master come out!"

  There's no other way, Zhu Yuanzhang takes the stage.

  He looked at this old opponent who had been fighting for ten years, what a man!

  To thoroughly defeat him, to thoroughly conquer him!

  He then used his rare gentle tone to persuade Zhang Shicheng to surrender, hoping to move him, and the reply he got was just one sentence:

  "You're no better than me, I only failed because heaven favors you but not me."

  Zhu Yuanzhang was finally enraged and killed Zhang Shicheng, burning his corpse to ashes, which is what is meant by "burning the bones and scattering the ashes".

  Zhang Shicheng was a man with strong willpower, who rose from humble beginnings to become a powerful warlord. However, his shortcomings were just as prominent as his strengths. As one of the heroes in a chaotic world, he had a mentality of being content with small gains, but failed to understand that in such an environment, only one could emerge victorious in the end.

  If I fail to become the Son of Heaven, then I will never again be a man!

  But he is still worthy of our admiration, with a strong will, resisting the brutal rule of Yuan, although he had surrendered before, but after all, it was just an expedient measure. He showed no fear in the face of death and held on to his beliefs until the very last moment.

  Those who are not afraid of death are worthy of our respect!

  Zhu Yuanzhang finally cleared away the two major obstacles in his path forward and was about to face his last opponent.

  To him, this opponent is the real enemy and arch-nemesis.