Chapter 29 1. Attack Jiqing and eliminate Guo Tianxu

In June of the 15th year of Yuan Zhizheng (1355), Zhu Yuanzhang crossed the river smoothly and pulled out Taiping.In the Taiping area, Zhu Yuanzhang appeased the people and strictly enforced military discipline, which won praise from the locals.When the Yuan army saw that Zhu Yuanzhang had developed from the north of the Yangtze River to the south of the Yangtze River and captured Taiping in one fell swoop, the Yuan army was very worried. They immediately sent troops to surround Taiping in two ways. Live Zhu Yuanzhang's way out.Zhu Yuanzhang first personally led the strong men to resist defending desperately, and before sending troops, he promised the soldiers great rewards to boost their morale.Taiping successfully defended and surrendered thousands of Yuan troops.

And Guo Tianxu, who was trapped in Chuzhou City, felt even more jealous when he saw Zhu Yuanzhang seize Taiping in one fell swoop.Since Guo Zixing's death, Zhu Yuanzhang stopped accommodating Guo Tianxu in everything and focused on developing himself.At this time, Guo Tianxu had expected that Zhu Yuanzhang might attack Jiqing, and Jiqing was also his goal, so how could he hand over to Zhu Yuanzhang?So Guo Tianxu secretly acted and planned to attack Jiqing. Zhu Yuanzhang knew that with his current strength and ability to attack Jiqing, he could not force it, so he had to recuperate in the Taiping area and win over people's hearts.At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang's wife, Ma Xiuying, was still in Hezhou. When crossing the river, Zhu Yuanzhang left some soldiers, women and children in Hezhou to avoid the burden of marching. Moreover, Hezhou was a rear base and needed people to guard and manage it. Their family members are left behind to be looked after, so that the soldiers can fight with peace of mind.

Seeing August, Zhu Yuanzhang heard reports that Guo Tianxu had gathered troops and horses and was preparing to attack Jiqing.Hearing this news, he was very happy.At the beginning, Feng Guosheng suggested that Zhu Yuanzhang either attack Chuzhou or kill Guo Tianxu to get rid of the control of the Guo family, but Zhu Yuanzhang did not agree.In fact, he had a better plan in mind, which was to use Guo Tianxu to force him to death, but he had to wait for the right time. Now the best opportunity has finally come, Zhu Yuanzhang sent someone to send a letter to Ma Xiuying, describing his plan in detail.Zhu Yuanzhang knew that it was impossible to cross the river to attack Jiqing with Guo Tianxu's strength, but Zhu Yuanzhang wanted Guo Tianxu to believe that it was possible, and let him attack Jiqing blindly and ignorantly, that is, let him kill himself.At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang asked Feng Guosheng, who stayed in Hezhou, to take Chuzhou in one fell swoop when Guo Tianxu sent troops to attack Jiqing.

After receiving Zhu Yuanzhang's personal letter, Ma Xiuying rushed to Chuzhou to meet Guo Tianxu in person.Guo Tianxu saw that Ma Xiuying came to him with a big belly and red eyes, and thought it was her sister who was quarreling with her brother-in-law at home, so she came to complain.He hurriedly supported Ma Xiuying, who had difficulty walking, and wanted to let her into the house. Before Ma Xiuying entered the room, she wanted to speak and shed tears first, crying, "You have to help your brother-in-law..." Hearing this, Guo Tianxu was shocked and said: "What's going on, let's talk slowly."

Ma Xiuying said: "This stubborn Chongba, regardless of my pregnancy, wants to cross the river and attack Jiqing. He said that the city of Jiqing is now empty and there are no soldiers guarding it. Marshal Guo needs to develop his strength now. The brother-in-law must do his best to help. He also said that you have already discussed a few days ago to cross the river to attack Jiqing." He began to cry again. When Guo Tianxu heard this, he felt a little angry. He felt that Zhu Yuanzhang was secretly planning to celebrate the festival, but he said that he had discussed it with himself.In fact, there was only discussion about crossing the river. At that time, Guo Tianxu thought that there were no boats and insufficient supplies, so he did not dispatch. He did not want Zhu Yuanzhang to cross the river smoothly.These days, Guo Tianxu has ordered a thousand ships to be built, and he wants to attack Jiqing himself.

Seeing that Guo Tianxu was speechless, Ma Xiuying hurriedly said: "Brother, this is not what your brother-in-law meant, but I am begging for brotherhood in private. I want you to keep Chuzhou and Hezhou safe, and help your brother-in-law solve his worries in the future, so that he can An Xin attacked Jiqing. He said that there were very few defenders in Jiqing, but I was worried that crossing the river would be dangerous..." Hearing Ma Xiuying say that Jiqing's guards are weak, Guo Tianxu is even more determined to send troops. "I see." Guo Tianxu sighed in his heart, he always believed in Ma Xiuying's words.In any case, Guo Tianxu and Ma Xiuying were also partners who played together when they were children. Later, Ma Xiuying followed Guo Zixing and became Guo Zixing's adopted daughter, and she and Guo Tianxu were also siblings.Moreover, when Ma Xiuying was not married to Zhu Yuanzhang, Guo Tianxu had a good impression of Ma Xiuying, but Guo Zixing did not agree to this nondescript marriage.Until now, Guo Tianxu even thinks that the woman he fell in love with at first had feelings for him, but his father made it difficult for them to be together.

At the same time, Guo Tianxu turned his head and calculated in his heart, attacking Jiqing is indeed a good opportunity, and it is more valuable than defending the small Chuzhou.If it was Guo Tianxu who captured Jiqing, how bright his future would be; if Zhu Yuanzhang captured Jiqing, then his threat to himself would be even greater. Therefore, Guo Tianxu said emotionally: "Sister, you are going to give birth now, of course you can't let brother-in-law take the risk to fight Jiqing. Don't worry, Jiqing is left to me to attack." Ma Xiuying burst into tears at the moment, Guo Tianxu repeatedly asked Ma Xiuying to stay, but Ma Xiuying was not easy to evade, so he asked someone to inform Zhu Yuanzhang of Marshal Guo's thoughts.In fact, it was Guo Tianxu who deliberately detained Ma Xiuying. He was still not at ease with Zhu Yuanzhang and wanted her to be a hostage so that Zhu Yuanzhang would support him in attacking Jiqing.

Hearing the news, Zhu Yuanzhang secretly laughed a few times.He knew that his strategy was half successful. In the next few days, Guo Tianxu mobilized all the soldiers and horses around Haozhou and himself, and Zhang Tianyou and Zhang Tianyou prepared to personally recruit Jiqing.Most of the news and information he got were false, because Zhu Yuanzhang deliberately weakened the difficulty of attacking Jiqing. It was the first day of September, a good day for Guo Tianxu's divination. He and Zhang Tianyou led tens of thousands of people to attack Jiqing.Twenty miles outside Jiqing City, Guo Tianxu's army was stopped by the Yuan army, and a fierce battle began.Seeing the Yuan army coming like a tide, Guo Tianxu knew that he had received false information, and hated Zhu Yuanzhang to death in his heart, but he had no way out and could only fight to the death.The Yuan soldiers mobilized the defenders of Jiqing to besiege and surrounded the troops led by Guo Tianxu and Zhang Tianyou from all directions, so that Guo Tianxu and Zhang Tianyou could neither advance nor retreat.

Knowing that Guo Tianxu and the Yuan army were fighting twenty miles away from Jiqing, Zhu Yuanzhang said anxiously: "I don't know what kind of defeat Marshal Guo is now..." Li Shan said: "How does the Marshal know that Young Marshal Guo has suffered a disastrous defeat?" Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Attacking Jiqing, even if we combine forces with Young Marshal Guo, I'm afraid it won't work. This young marshal is impatient, has a small stomach, and only wants to be successful, and his military power was left by Marshal Guo. He didn't lead any troops himself." In a war, if you move out blindly, you will definitely lose."

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang had mixed feelings in his heart.He, Zhu Yuanzhang, indeed started his family through the Guo family, and even the name was taken in the name of Guo Zixing. Guo Zixing gave him the family and gave him the opportunity to lead soldiers to exercise... Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang felt a little sad, but very Soon he will rationalize.He knew that if he wanted to do great things, he had to be courageous, so he would rather let others down than let others down on me.It is impossible for him to get rid of Guo Tianxu directly, if Ma Xiuying does not allow it, he will lose the world.The conflict between him and Guo Tianxu was originally a life-and-death struggle, even if he let Guo Tianxu go, Guo Tianxu would not let him go, and a person like Guo Tianxu is not as good as a small boss of Guo Zixing, and he will be wiped out in the competition sooner or later.Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that it was not himself who killed Guo Tianxu, but Guo Tianxu himself. It was Guo Tianxu's character that determined his fate.

Just as he was feeling emotional, Xu Da came to report that Guo Tianxu's situation in Jiqing was not good. There were many Yuan soldiers and the rebels suffered heavy casualties.It turned out that Zhu Yuanzhang had sent Xu Da to observe the situation. Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately said loudly: "Tang He and Xu Da listened to the order and led 10,000 troops to rescue Guo Tianxu and the remaining rebels." What Zhu Yuanzhang did was just to deceive people and let people know that he was loyal and cared about the overall situation, but in his heart he planned to take back the troops under Guo Tianxu and Zhang Tianyou. When Tang He and Xu Da arrived near Jiqing, Guo Tianxu's troops were killed and wounded everywhere. Unfortunately, he himself was wounded by random arrows and died immediately, Zhang Tianyou was also killed in battle.As soon as the commander died, the other soldiers fled in defeat like a flood that broke through the embankment... Xu Da and Tang He only gathered the remnants of the rebels. After these struggles, Zhu Yuanzhang ruled out dissidents, not only occupied Chuzhou, but also took back the troops of Guo Tianxu and Zhang Tianyou by the way. He also held the supreme command of the Huaixi Rebel Army. At this time, his soldiers had nearly 100,000.Zhu Yuanzhang's subordinates can be described as strong and powerful, and their career is in full swing, and the celebration is just around the corner, and even bigger plans and attempts are waiting to be launched.