Chapter 6: The Beginning of Hegemony Author: When the Bright Moon Rises txt Traditional Chinese

  Hebei is too small.

  Zhu Yuanzhang keenly felt this point, that there could be no great development in this small county town, and his eyes turned to Jiankang (Nanjing).

  Superstition was a common problem for people in feudal times. To conquer the world, one must occupy the land of royal energy, and Nanjing is just such a place. The Purple Mountain stretches across the north and south, resembling a giant dragon lurking beneath, while the Stone Mountain overlooks the river with steep cliffs, like a tiger crouching. This is the origin of Nanjing's "Dragon and Tiger" reputation. Moreover, in front of Nanjing lies the Yangtze River. Emperors, just like us, would also consider the feng shui when buying a house. Nanjing has its back to the mountain and faces the water, with exceptionally good feng shui. Before the Ming dynasty, six dynasties had already established their capitals here. By the Yuan dynasty, this place was called Jiqing Road. Not only is the terrain dangerous, but it's also very rich.

  The surrounding area is not only an important grain-producing area, but also serves as a commercial center. Most importantly, it has the advantage of having a canal, which was extremely important in the era when traveling from Beijing to Nanjing took several months by land.

  Feng Guosheng (also known as Feng Sheng) was not only brave in battle, but also had great foresight. He suggested to Zhu Yuanzhang that they should immediately cross the Yangtze River and occupy Jiqing. This suggestion deeply moved Zhu Yuanzhang, who made up his mind to occupy Jiqing!

  But the ship, Zhu Yuanzhang's troops were either cavalry or infantry, only lacking a navy, he was anxious to no end, and one person's arrival brought him a solution.

  His name is Yu Tonghai, Ming history says he was the head of the water army, but in fact this person was a pirate who robbed along the river, often doing similar things to "arriving at the river and asking if you want to eat board knife noodles or wontons".

  But to Zhu Yuanzhang, he was an important figure, killing a few people and robbing some money didn't matter, as long as he was useful.

  He then gathered thousands of warships to attack Caishi first, then break Taiping, and finally reached the final destination, Ji Qing.

  These so-called thousands of warships were actually just small fishing boats, and Zhu Yuanzhang's major military weakness - the navy - also became a main factor in constraining his later military operations.

  The Mid-Autumn Festival is just around the corner!

  At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang was the left deputy commander of the righteous army, while Guo Zixing was the commander-in-chief, and Zhang Tianyou, the husband of Guo Zixing's wife, was the right deputy commander. This position was sealed by Liu Futong, and Zhu Yuanzhang's status was the lowest. However, it is clear that these two people did not have the capital to contend with Zhu Yuanzhang at all. The actual commander of the army was Zhu Yuanzhang. At this time, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty were already very worried, and there were rebellious armies everywhere, without the energy to care about the small Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang seized this opportunity and launched a general attack on Jiqing.

  Because the ships were too poor and underestimated the city defense of Jiqing, Zhu Yuanzhang attacked Jiqing twice in August and September of the 15th year of Zhizheng (1355 AD), but was defeated by the Yuan army. However, failure was not necessarily a bad thing for Zhu Yuanzhang, as both Guo Tianxu and Zhang Tianyou died in these two battles, and Zhu Yuanzhang naturally became the commander-in-chief.

  In the second year (AD 1356), Zhu Yuanzhang personally led his troops in a three-pronged attack on Jiqing, and after ten days, he captured Jiqing and renamed it Ying Tian.

  Poor Zhu Yuanzhang finally got rid of Fengyang, got rid of Chuzhou, and came to the rich Nanjing, but his true career has just begun, keep working hard!

  Difficult Neighbors

  Zhu Yuanzhang occupied Ying Tian, which was a good thing for him, but from the perspective of historical trends, his situation was not optimistic. Since ancient times, occupying the north has had the advantage of heaven and earth, China's terrain is from north to south, and starting from the south to attack the north and finally win, there are few precedents.

  However, Zhu Yuanzhang occupied Ying Tian at this time and took a big advantage.

  Let's introduce Zhu Yuanzhang's neighbors. To his east in Zhenjiang were the Yuan army, to his southeast in Pingjiang (Suzhou) was Zhang Shicheng, to his northeast were the rebel forces of Zhang Mingjian, to his south was the Yuan general Bayan Temur (a name with distinctive characteristics), and to his west was Xu Shouhui.

  On the surface, Zhu Yuanzhang's neighbors were all stronger than him, with big houses and businesses. Zhu Yuanzhang was surrounded by them, just like a migrant worker from afar, living under someone else's roof. Although these neighbors didn't particularly like Zhu Yuanzhang, they also didn't take him seriously because he was too weak. They were busy dealing with their own affairs and had no time to bother with him.

  More importantly, Zhu Yuanzhang's northern neighbor was Liu Futong, who was the commander of a brother unit. He helped Zhu Yuanzhang to resist the attack of the Mongol army. The ruler of the Yuan Dynasty attached great importance to Zhu Yuanzhang, but couldn't defeat him. As a result, there appeared such a situation that those who could fight didn't want to fight, and those who wanted to fight couldn't fight.

  Zhu Yuanzhang made full use of this characteristic, for him, the Yuan Dynasty was his arch-nemesis, but it wasn't time yet, he first had to deal with his two neighbors. For him, these two neighbors were the truly formidable opponents.

  Next we will introduce his two neighbors, whose names are Zhang Shicheng and Chen Youliang.