In the 12th year of Zhizheng (AD 1352), the city of Bozhou

  The defender of the city, Guo Zixing, was deeply pondering a countermeasure in his marshal's mansion. The city of Haozhou had been besieged by the Yuan army for a long time and could not hold out for much longer.

  At this moment, the soldiers under his command came to report that they had captured a spy and asked for the commander's flag to execute him. If it were in the past, Guo Zixing would not have intervened and let the soldiers take the commander's flag to kill him directly. But today, he opened his mouth and asked: "How do you know that person is a spy?" The soldier replied: "This man said he came to join the army, but now the Yuan army has surrounded us, where can anyone come to join the army? He must be a Yuan army spy."

  Kuo Tzu-hsing almost burst out laughing. Desert to the enemy? The Mongol army was about to break into the city, and yet there were still people coming to desert - this excuse was really not very clever. He couldn't help but feel curious, and wanted to go take a look at this spy.

  Then he rode his horse to the city gate and saw a man with a strange appearance. In today's words, this person's face was "di bao tian" (a Chinese idiom meaning someone with a prominent forehead and chin), with a protruding chin, and even more strangely, his forehead also protruded forward, roughly resembling the shape of a crescent-shaped shovel, convex on both ends and concave in the middle (refer to Comrade Zhu Yuanzhang's portrait).

  This person is none other than our Zhu Di.

  Guo Zixing walked up to Zhu Chongba and had his bonds loosened, asking him: "Are you a spy? What brings you here?"

  Zhu Chongba calmly replied: "I am not a spy, I have come to surrender."

  Guo Zixing burst out laughing: "What time is it now, and someone still comes to join the army? You don't need to make excuses, wait a moment and I'll have you taken out and beheaded!" Zhu Chongba only responded with a single word: "Oh."

  Guo Zixing looked into Zhu Chongba's eyes, hoping to see panic, which was one of his usual pleasures.

  But in this person's eyes, he saw only calmness.

  Guo Zixing no longer dared to underestimate this man, it was clear that he was not someone who could be intimidated. So he seriously asked Zhu Qizhen for his name and background, and when Zhu Qizhen said he was introduced by Commander-in-Chief Tang, Guo Zixing finally understood that this person had indeed come to join the army.

  Zhu Chongba made a deep impression on him, so he did not assign Zhu Chongba to Tang He's troops, but instead placed him by his side as his personal bodyguard.

  In the army, Zhu Di quickly demonstrated his talent, standing out from other peasant soldiers. He was not only brave in battle but also had a good strategy, handled matters calmly and thought deeply (note this characteristic), and was very loyal. When there was danger, he was the first to go forward, all of which gave him great prestige. With the help of his fellow villager Tang He, two months after becoming a soldier, he was promoted to Jiulang, which was his first official position.

  As the commander of Guo Zixing's personal guards, Zhu Chongba was very competent. Unlike other soldiers, he never coveted wealth and every time he obtained spoils of war, he would present them to Guo Zixing. If he received rewards, he would distribute them among his soldiers. Due to his natural talent, he had taught himself some characters and could analyze problems accurately. As a result, Guo Zixing gradually regarded him as his own strategist. Zhu Chongba's position in the army also became increasingly important.

  At this time, Zhu Chongba changed his name to Zhu Yuanzhang. The character "Zhuang" is a sharp jade instrument. In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang was the same as Zhu Yuanchuang, and Zhu Chongba compared himself to the instrument that destroyed the Yuan Dynasty, which was forged by the ruler of the Yuan Dynasty itself. For the next twenty years, they would all fear this name.

  Soup and

  In the army, Tang He was a peculiar person. When Zhu Yuanzhang first joined the army, Tang He was already a commander of a thousand men, but he showed great respect to Zhu Yuanzhang. In the military camp, people could see a strange phenomenon: Tang He, who held a much higher rank, always walked behind the soldier Zhu Yuanzhang, and seemed completely indifferent to the gaze of others. Even more strangely, Zhu Yuanzhang appeared to think this was perfectly normal and never declined.

  We can't help but admire Tang He's foresight, he knew that Zhu Yuanzhang was not a mediocre person, in today's words, he was very practical. It is believed that this advantage also allowed him to survive the turbulent times later on.

  In the army, Zhu Yuanzhang married his wife. Compared with many concubines later on, this wife can be considered one of the key factors in Zhu Yuanzhang's success. This girl was the adopted daughter of Guo Zixing, her father's surname was Ma, and he was a friend of Guo Zixing. After his death, he entrusted the girl to Guo Zixing. The girl's name is unknown, but people in the army called her "Ma Niang". Thus, Zhu Yuanzhang became the son-in-law of the marshal, while Guo Zixing gained an assistant.

  We can imagine Zhu Yuanzhang's joyful mood, he finally had a home of his own, no longer the unmanaged and unasked Zhu Chongba, when he was hungry, someone cooked for him to eat, when he was cold, someone sent clothes to him, the feeling of having a home was great. This feeling accompanied him for many years.

  At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang had already been promoted to the position of General Manager in the army, which was roughly equivalent to the director of the rebel army's office. He did a good job and was principled towards those who liked to take advantage of public funds and make false reimbursements. Because he was strict with himself, nobody had anything to say about it. If things went on like this, he might become an excellent financial manager. However, heaven didn't let him go through life comfortably, and soon he would face even greater troubles.

  The main issue is Guo Zixing's composition problem, he is not a peasant but a landlord (can't understand why he would rebel), at that time in Bozhou, the commanders besides Guo Zixing were four people led by Sun Dekai, and these four people were all peasants, there was a deep contradiction between them and Guo Zixing.

  Soon, the contradictions broke out. One day, Guo Zixing was strolling in the city of Bozhou when he was suddenly kidnapped by a group of unknown people. These people seemed to have no interest in demanding ransom or anything else, and they beat Guo Zixing to death before locking him up. When Zhu Yuanzhang received the news, he was shocked and immediately rushed to Sun Derang's home to demand his release. At first, Sun Derang pretended to be ignorant, feigning surprise and offering to go out and look for Guo Zixing, while also saying some words about not sharing the same sky with the kidnappers, fully displaying the acting skills of an amateur actor.

  Zhu Yuanzhang only brought the soldiers who participated in the beating to Sun Derang's face, and told Sun, "Your corrupt accounts of embezzlement and false reimbursement are all here with me, deal with it yourself."

  Then Zhu Yuanzhang rescued Guo Zixing, who had been beaten half to death, from the cellar of Sun's house. This incident made Zhu Yuanzhang realize that following these people would not lead to a bright future.

  But Guo Zixing also became more and more disgusted with Zhu Yuanzhang, the reason is very simple, Zhu Yuanzhang was stronger than him. For a commander like Guo Zixing who had a violent temper and couldn't tolerate others, he couldn't bear to have someone who might replace his position by his side. One day, he put Zhu Yuanzhang in prison. Adding insult to injury has always been the fine tradition of some people, and Guo Zixing's son was one of them. He ordered the guards not to give Zhu Yuanzhang food, wanting to starve him to death. The kind-hearted Ma Niangzi, in order to save Zhu Yuanzhang, hid freshly baked pancakes in her bosom and gave them to him to eat when she visited him in prison. Every time, her chest would be scalded, but every time she sent food.

  With a wife like this, what more could a husband ask for?

  Guo Zixing still didn't want to kill Zhu Yuanzhang, so he let him go. After this incident, Zhu Yuanzhang finally made up his mind and broke with these short-sighted people. He applied to Guo Zixing to lead troops on a campaign, and Guo Zixing happily agreed.

  This is the beginning of Zhu Yuanzhang's dominance, once started, it will not stop.

  Let's start from here!

  Zhu Yuanzhang led the troops to attack Guo Zixing's hometown, Dingyuan. From this point, it can be seen that his father-in-law was indeed ill-intentioned. At that time, Dingyuan had a strong garrison, and it is estimated that Guo Zixing let him go just because he did not want to see Zhu Yuanzhang alive again. But Zhu Yuanzhang was Zhu Yuanzhang after all. He found a gap in the Yuan army's defense and captured Dingyuan before withdrawing before the Yuan army could reinforce. After that, he continuously attacked Huaiyuan, Anfeng, Hanshan, and Hongxian, winning four battles in a row, invincible!

  After gathering (or possibly drafting) able-bodied men, Zhu Yuanzhang arrived at Zhongli (now Fengyang in Anhui province), his hometown, where he met twenty-four people who came to join Zhu's troops.

  Zhu Yuanzhang's twenty-four recruits were of exceptionally high quality, including Zhou Dexing who had once calculated his fortune and Xu Da, the number one general in the world.

  These people also had relatives, and soon his troops (directly under him) numbered seven hundred.

  When Zhu Yuanzhang returned to Haozhou again, he had completely understood his own future, so he resigned from Guo Zixing. Guo Zixing was very happy that this annoying person could finally leave far away.

  Zhu Yuanzhang did something unexpected before he set off. He re-selected 24 people from his own 700 men and gave the rest to Guo Zixing, who was somewhat surprised but still happily accepted them.

  Zhu Yuanzhang's action can be defined as a selection of civil servants, with a ratio of thirty to one, without written examination, and the examiner was Zhu Yuanzhang himself.

  He chose them accurately. Look at the names of these people: Xu Da, Tang He, Zhou Dexing, and all twenty-four of them later became high-ranking officials in the Ming dynasty.

  In the Tang Dynasty, Huang Chao stood in front of the gate of Chang'an after failing the imperial examination. With a sigh, he wrote a famous poem: "When autumn arrives on September 8th, I await the chrysanthemum's bloom. When my flower blooms, it surpasses all other flowers."

  The fragrance of flowers wafts through Chang'an, the entire city is dressed in golden armor.

  Years later, he led an army of over 100,000 men and conquered Chang'an.

  At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang stood in front of the city gate of Bozhou, looking at the twenty-four people behind him. He knew that if he took this step, he would either fight alone and die, or create a new empire.

  He looked up at the sky, still as gloomy as ever. Making this decision at this time seemed inauspicious, and he couldn't help but think of that unfortunate divination again.

  When parents passed away, when doing hard labor in the temple, when crying painfully at night looking up at the sky, it was also this kind of sky.

  Nothing has changed, it's just me who has changed.

  When a hundred flowers bloom, I don't bloom; when I bloom, all are shocked to death. I will fight a battle with the west wind, and wear a suit of golden armor all over my body.

  Nothing can stop me, let's start from here!

  Let's go!