Chapter 35 7. In addition to the "rich" enemy, attack Soochow step by step

Chen Youliang died in battle in 1363 AD, and his territory and remnant army were quickly collected and wiped out by Zhu Yuanzhang.At this time, the Yuan army in the north was fighting internally, and Zhang Shicheng, who was rich, soon established himself as the king of Wu.Faced with this situation, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that the strategy of "slowly becoming king" needed to be changed in response to the new situation, and "Wu Guogong" could no longer correspond to the current political situation. What exactly is it called?Both Liu Bowen and Li Shanchang believed that Yingtian was the capital of Sun Quan in history, and what Sun Quan owned was the State of Wu. Although Zhang Shicheng called himself the King of Wu, the title of King Wu had rich connotations. If he wanted to unify the world and establish a country, he called it King Wu is the most suitable.Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang also called Wu Wang in the first month of the twenty-fourth year of Yuan Zhizheng (1364), set up a hundred officials, established the Zhongshu Province, and finally turned a farmer's son into a prince.The embarrassment at this time is that the two Wu kings appeared at the same time. In order to distinguish them, Zhang Shicheng became the Eastern Wu in people's minds, and Zhu Yuanzhang became the Western Wu.

One mountain cannot contain two tigers, and the two kings of Wu are connected by borders, and fighting is inevitable.And it must be the ambitious one who provokes the dispute.Zhu Yuanzhang, who became king, knew very well that in order to consolidate his hegemony, he could not imitate the enjoyment of others. He already owned Yingtian, a place where tigers and dragons dominate, so he had to defend and strengthen this stronghold.At this time, although Zhu Yuanzhang got rid of a powerful figure Chen Youliang and initially controlled the power in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, his ambition was to win the world and establish a great cause. How could he tolerate the nearby King Wu.

Back then, in order to get rid of Chen Youliang, Zhu Yuanzhang had no time to look around, so he could only win over Zhang Shicheng, and even signed a gentleman's agreement.However, now the Yuan soldiers in the north have no time to look south, and there are only two forces in the south of the Yangtze River that can contend, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Shicheng. Zhu Yuanzhang thinks this is the best time to get rid of Zhang Shicheng.Although Chen Youliang invited Zhang Shicheng to deal with Zhu Yuanzhang together back then, Zhang Shicheng did not want to get involved in the incident and only wanted to take care of himself, but now Zhu Yuanzhang can't care about so many etiquettes. He wants to take the initiative to attack, and it is imperative to start a war in the south of the Yangtze River.

Wars are always brutal. In order to ensure victory, Zhu Yuanzhang had to stabilize the base camp, win over the surrounding areas, and concentrate on dealing with the enemy.He sent envoys to communicate with Ming Yuzhen in Sichuan to stabilize the situation in Jianghan and concentrate his forces and energy to deal with Zhang Shicheng in the southeast corner. Always looking for something to deal with this wealthy opponent, Zhu Yuanzhang was looking for an excuse to send troops. In the twenty-fifth year of Yuan Zhizheng (1365), on a night in late autumn, flickering candlelight illuminated Zhu Yuanzhang's frown, and his eyes were determined in worry, and a big plan was in his heart.Zhu Yuanzhang said to the soldiers: "Recently, Zhang Shicheng's soldiers have been making trouble at the border between the two armies. What do you think?"

Chang Yuchun was an arrogant man, warlike: "Go directly to Suzhou and destroy Zhang Shicheng." Veteran Xu Da also agreed with Chang Yuchun's proposal. He knew Zhu Yuanzhang's psychology, but he just found some excuses to let them talk about the battle. The rest of the people thought that it was imminent to beat Zhang Shicheng, and they had to do so. Seeing that his subordinates understood his intentions, Zhu Yuanzhang relaxed his brows. He was speechless for a while, and said: "This battle seems inevitable. Don't act recklessly. We will make a decision after discussion."

The next day, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Liu Bowen to write a letter of surrender and send it to Zhang Shicheng to anger him first. Here, Zhu Yuanzhang, civil servant Liu Bowen, and three commanders Xu Da, Tang He, and Chang Yuchun are discussing war strategies around the tea case. Chang Yuchun recalled the letter of surrender, and couldn't help laughing: "This Zhang man must be furious, let his dream of occupying half of the south of the Yangtze River be shattered sooner, and see how we can get into his comfort zone. This old guy is still alive now. I didn't expect the dream to end soon."

Xu Da responded with a cool voice: "In my opinion, we should rush into Suzhou as soon as possible and take Suzhou. The other armies that Zhang Shicheng belongs to will also be destroyed without attack, and they will definitely submit to our army." At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang picked up the teacup, took a sip, and turned his eyes to Liu Bowen who had been speechless. Tang He was the first to speak: "It is the best policy to attack Suzhou first, but if Zhang Shicheng's army comes to support, we will definitely suffer damage." Zhu Yuanzhang was not without calculations in his heart. He knew that the area occupied by Zhang Shicheng was long and narrow from north to south, separated by the Yangtze River, and it was inconvenient to support troops from the north and the south.But it is not easy to call directly to Suzhou.

After several discussions, Zhu Yuanzhang insisted on his own opinion. He believed that Suzhou should not be attacked rashly, but its wings should be attacked first, and Zhang Shicheng's forces should be cut from the periphery to cut off Zhang Shicheng's forces. Favorable conditions. Although Xu Da and Chang Yuchun had objections to this decision, Zhu Yuanzhang's victorious momentum for this plan was written between his eyebrows, and the two were speechless. Soon, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Xu Da and Chang Yuchun to lead a part of the boat division to cross the Yangtze River and attack Huaidong.Xu Da and Chang Yuchun first defeated a part of Zhang Shicheng's army and arrived at Hai'an. After defeating Hai'an, they entered Taizhou Xincheng, defeated Zhang Shicheng's reinforcements, and captured his marshal Wang Cheng.At this time, in order to disperse Zhu Yuanzhang's forces, Zhang Shicheng moored 400 boats at a place called Fancai Port on the north bank of the Yangtze River.Zhu Yuanzhang's command was determined, and he was not confused. He still put the main force in the Hai'an and Taizhou areas, which made Zhang Shicheng's strategy fail and had no chance to take advantage of it.

A few months later, Zhu Yuanzhang sent his generals to capture Gaoyou, the place where Zhang Shicheng made his fortune. In the twenty-sixth year of Yuan Zhizheng (1366), Xu Da and Chang Yuchun joined forces in Huai'an to Kexinghua.In May, Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown Haozhou was captured. In order to show that he is different from the past, Zhu Yuanzhang went to Haozhou in person, visited the mausoleum, and feasted on the elders, which is really different from the past. Bigger victories lie ahead.Zhu Yuanzhang adopted the strategy of concentrating his forces and removing Zhang Shicheng's wings first, and divided his forces into two sections, separated from the north and the south, unable to respond, and laid a solid foundation for future attacks.

The situation is very good, and Zhu Yuanzhang does not deny that he will soon acquire a larger land. But civil servant Li Shanchang was not optimistic. He thought: "Zhang Shicheng seems to have been defeated repeatedly, but in fact his military strength has not declined. Moreover, he was wealthy for a while, he was kind and generous, and many people around him supported him. I am afraid that it will be difficult to capture his lair for a while." The military general Xu Da was a fighter after all, so he said: "Heaven will kill him, and most of his subordinates are people who enjoy luxury and luxury, and they have been defeated in recent days, and there are not many people who are useful. Fighting again after victory, Zhang Shicheng has no power to fight back, and there is nowhere to escape."

Zhu Yuanzhang made a decisive decision and immediately decided to send troops, and no one in the army who disagreed with the war was allowed.He knew very well that if it was delayed, morale would drop, and if he did not attack Zhang Shicheng's lair for a long time, it was inevitable that some dissatisfied people in the army would rebel. In August, Zhu Yuanzhang appointed Xu Da as the general and Chang Yuchun as the deputy general. He led 200,000 elite troops to concentrate the main force to eliminate Zhang Shicheng.At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang had expected that Zhang Shicheng would guard Suzhou with heavy troops, and he needed to transfer his troops to leave the mountain.Without hesitation, he ordered the second general who was about to attack Suzhou not to rush to take Suzhou, but to attack Huzhou first, so that Zhang Shicheng's army had to disperse from Suzhou to Huzhou. undoubtedly. Xu Da and Chang Yuchun also had to admire Zhu Yuanzhang's schemes and strategies. At this time, Li Shanchang couldn't help saying to Liu Bowen: "He has the power of a monarch, and the future can be seen." Liu Bowen laughed but was speechless. He knew that Zhu Yuanzhang had bigger plans. The battle lasted for several months, and Suzhou became an isolated city, besieged by Zhu Yuanzhang's army on the south, west and north sides. Until the first year of Wu (1367), the besieged city was still not captured in March, and the sergeants were already restless.Chang Yuchun had always been addicted to killing, so he suggested: "Siege the city immediately and enter the city without defending to the death." Xu Da was noncommittal, he had always listened to Zhu Yuanzhang the most, and now that he was outside, he did not dare to act rashly. Zhu Yuanzhang took this calmly.When he sent troops to besiege Suzhou, he also did another important thing—send his general Liao Yongzhong to "meet" Xiaoming King Han Lin'er, and ordered Liao Yongzhong to end his life on the way.Zhu Yuanzhang knew so well in his heart that he would have no doubts about "welcoming" King Xiaoming during the war, so he took this opportunity to end him so as not to cause any trouble in the future.Besides, Zhu Yuanzhang saw Zhang Shicheng huddled in the city and couldn't move. He already had a victory in his heart, but he didn't want to attack the city and hurt the people in the city. At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang kept asking civil servants to write persuasive letters and send them into the city, urging Zhang Shicheng to surrender as soon as possible. However, Zhang Shicheng refused to reply to the letter or surrender, and stayed in the city.In this regard, Zhu Yuanzhang has a lot of patience: just wait until you run out of food. By July, there was no food and grass in Zhang Shicheng's city, so he had to lead the army to break through the encirclement himself.Zhang Shicheng's soldiers opened the city gates to prepare for battle, and they welcomed Chang Yuchun, a brave general.Chang Yuchun waved his troops forward, he had already grown impatient and killed Zhang Shicheng's elite soldiers.Zhang Shicheng was so frightened that he fell from his horse and was rescued by soldiers and fled back to the city in a hurry. The unbearable Zhang Shicheng hated Zhu Yuanzhang to the core. After resting for ten days, he gritted his teeth and led his troops to attack again.This time it was terrible, Zhang Shicheng and his army had nowhere to go, and they were ready to fight to the death as if they were going to die.Seeing that Zhang Shicheng had hope of victory, someone in the city shouted: "The sergeant has worked so hard, you can rest and fight again!"When Zhang Shicheng and his soldiers were surprised and didn't know what to do, Chang Yuchun had turned around and fought again, defeating Zhang Shicheng. It turned out that Zhu Yuanzhang had already planted his own people in the city.He knew that Zhang Shicheng's character was not easy to persuade him to surrender, and he was afraid that if he resisted to the death, it would hurt his soldiers. He acted first, and sent Liu Bowen to find clever soldiers to play by ear, so as to disturb Zhang Shicheng's morale. Soon, Xu Da launched a fierce offensive, and the city of Suzhou fell. Zhang Shicheng, who had been brilliant for a while, was just a hero at the end of his life. It was just at sunset, and he and his wife Liu Shi, with their two young sons in their arms, were ready to die.He couldn't forget the misery of the past few days, and he couldn't forgive himself for not resisting this inconspicuous Zhu Yuanzhang with Chen Youliang.He just wants to be his own little emperor, live a stable life with his family, and watch over the people around him to live and work in peace and contentment. He is tired of war.However, he didn't realize Zhu Yuanzhang's ambition, and he didn't take Zhu Yuanzhang's initial "persuasion to surrender" to heart.The afterglow of the setting sun reflected him and his family, as well as the ruined city tower, and all kinds of feelings surged in his heart. At this moment of reminiscing about the past, he was found by Xu Da's soldiers, who used to be his general, but now they meet each other and are speechless. Xu Da escorted Zhang Shicheng back to Zhu Yuanzhang for disposal. Zhu Yuanzhang welcomed Zhang Shicheng with disheveled hair, feeling in his heart, this is also a hero of the past.At the same time, Zhang Shicheng's miserable appearance aroused Zhu Yuanzhang's determination to calm the world for me.He understands that one cannot be without aspirations, and only with enough tenacity to completely wipe out the enemy can Zhu Yuanzhang truly settle down. That night, Zhang Shicheng hanged himself with a sheet while he was asleep. A person with a temperament like Zhang Shicheng is difficult to make great plans in troubled times. In Zhu Yuanzhang's words, he is a "stingy" generation without "vigor".Having wiped out Zhang Shicheng, the richest neighbor, Zhu Yuanzhang did not let go of his worries. He still has a stronger opponent, that is, the Yuan Dynasty.He Zhu Yuanzhang is not Zhang Shicheng, he sees farther and has a greater sense of urgency. His great cause has already begun, and the next plan is unfolding in Zhu Yuanzhang's mind: wipe out the remaining rebel forces, and then concentrate on dealing with the Yuan Dynasty.