Chapter 3 1. Birth

In the twenty-fourth year of Yuan Zhizheng (1364), the war in the world did not stop, and the heroes stood up. This is Zhu Yuanzhang's territory, which shows abundance in the tranquility. The beautiful south of the Yangtze River is full of vitality. The wheat seedlings on the hillside are straightened up, and the seedlings in the fields are fresh green. According to the year name of the Song Dynasty regime used by Zhu Yuanzhang, this year is the sixth year of Dragon and Phoenix.As early as four years ago, Zhu Yuanzhang won Jiqing (now Nanjing), the capital of Jiangnan, and he renamed it Yingtianfu as the base of his career.Then he successively occupied Zhenjiang, Changxing, Changzhou, Ningguo, Jiangyin, Changshu, Huizhou, Chizhou, Yangzhou, Wuzhou, Zhuji, Quzhou, and Chuzhou, most of which were lands of plenty and silk.Zhu Yuanzhang was promoted from Pingzhang, who was in charge of Zhongshu Province in Jiangnan and other places in the Song Dynasty, to Zuo Chancellor, who was in charge of Zhongshu Province in Jiangnan and other places in Yitong Sansi.Zhu Yuanzhang not only won successive victories on the battlefield, but also managed his own territory well.Two years ago, he set up a field envoy, who was responsible for building water conservancy, supervising and advising farming, and ordered the soldiers to open up wasteland and farm with the amount of grain produced as rewards and punishments. , Practice martial arts in leisure time, integrate agriculture and warfare, and integrate soldiers and civilians.Zhu Yuanzhang gradually strengthened his status among the heroes.

At the beginning of March this year, Jiangnan celebrities Liu Ji, Song Lian, Zhang Yi, and Ye Chen came to Yingtian together.In addition to a group of tiger generals, Zhu Yuanzhang has another arm.Yingtian Mansion, the capital of the emperors of all dynasties, was thriving. On April 17th (Guiyou), Zhu Yuanzhang was in a particularly good mood. His wife Ma Shi was about to give birth. Even Zhu Yuanzhang, who has always been deep and steady, could not hide his anxiety and joy. .Zhu Yuanzhang was thinking about how to develop to the east of Zhejiang at the side of the case. Suddenly, the servants and palace maids came to announce the good news one after another. It turned out that his wife Ma Shi gave birth to a boy.Strange to say, as soon as the child came, the room was filled with light of five colors, which illuminated the doors and windows and lasted all day long.For a while, there were strange rumors inside and outside the palace, which added a bit of mystery to the joyous atmosphere.

Zhu Yuanzhang was naturally very happy to have a son.Later he named the child Di.Zhu Di and his sons were named in December of the first year of Wu, and several of his sons were named with characters with wooden radicals.The eldest son, Biao, is six years old this year. Zhu Yuanzhang intends to let him and Song Lian, who has just arrived, study scriptures.The second son, and the third son Guo, were also born clever and lovely.Although they are young, they are all Zhu Yuanzhang's hopes.In the future, once the great cause is achieved, these phoenix sons and dragon grandchildren will be the wings of the imperial family.The more princes there are and the more wings there are, the less isolated and helpless the royal family will feel.But now is the period of starting a business after all, and it is still very difficult.There is Zhang Shicheng in the east and Chen Youliang in the west, all of them are ambitious.Although Fang Guozhen surrendered to Zhu Yuanzhang in October last year, he had a double-hearted heart and refused to accept the official title of Pingzhang of Fujian Province that Zhu Yuanzhang gave him, leaving only the talisman sent by Zhu Yuanzhang.At the same time, the Yuan Dynasty government also appointed Fang Guozhen as the governor of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and ordered him to transport 100,000 stones of grain to the capital of the capital every year.Zhu Yuanzhang sent someone to tell him to "change his mind", but Fang Guozhen ignored him, and Zhu Yuanzhang had no choice.In December last year Zhu Yuanzhang sent Chang Yuchun to lead troops to attack Hangzhou, but the battles were unsuccessful. Marshal Liu Busy, Shang Zhi and Shi Shangzhi all died in the battle, so Zhu Yuanzhang had to recall Chang Yuchun.

The death of the fourth son of the emperor was a good omen for Zhu Yuanzhang, and in May came the news of Xu Da's defeat of Chen Youliang's army in Chizhou.Chen Youliang attacked Chizhou. According to Zhu Yuanzhang's plan, Xu Da and Chang Yuchun defended the city with 5,000 people and sent 10,000 people to ambush at the foot of Mount Jiuhua. At the same time, Xu Da and others cut off Chen Jun's return route, and the guards in the city went out to attack again, beating Chen Jun to death, beheading more than 10,000 people, and capturing 3,000 people alive. . The weather changed from sunny to cloudy, and the situation was also flickering.In less than a month, in May, Chen Youliang took Xu Shouhui and led the boat division to lead troops eastward, and captured Taiping occupied by Zhu Yuanzhang.The battle was fought badly.The Taiping guard Zhu Wenxun died in battle, and the Privy Council sentenced Hua Yun, Wang Ding and the prefect Xu Yuan to be captured and martyred.Soon, Chen Youliang killed his lord Xu Shouhui, and claimed to be the emperor of the Han Dynasty, with all the land in Jiangxi and Huguang.It is said that Ming Yuzhen in the southwest was originally Xu Shouhui's subordinate. Hearing that Xu Shouhui was killed, he also made himself the king of Longshu.Chen Youliang made an appointment with Zhang Shicheng to attack Yingtian again, and Jiangdong was shaken for a while.Zhu Yuanzhang discussed with the generals about the defense of the war, but some people proposed to surrender or give up Yingtian and go to Zhongshan.

Dark clouds and spring rain oppressed Zhong Shan.In Stone City, the joy brought by Zhu Di's birth has been forgotten by everyone, only Zhu Yuanzhang and his wife Ma Shi still keep him in their hearts from time to time.Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the infant Zhu Di, thinking that one day he would fight for him on the battlefield, invincible in the world.This day will definitely come, just like the dark clouds that locked Zhongshan, it will definitely disperse, and the sun will surely fill Stone City again.