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Chapter 42 222 Monk as Marshal

When Liu Futong's Red Scarf Army moved to the north, Guo Zixing's Red Scarf Army in Haozhou was growing. Guo Zixing was originally a rich man in Dingyuan (now Dingyuan, Anhui). Because of his humble background, he was often squeezed and blackmailed by local officials. He was so angry that he joined the White Lotus Society.He took out his family's money, put wine and slaughtered cattle, made friends with heroes in the world, and only waited for a chance to kill those corrupt officials and vent his anger. In 1352 A.D., the second year of Liu Futong's uprising, Guo Zixing saw that the time was ripe, and together with four friends, he led thousands of young people, took advantage of the dark night, and entered Haozhou City, killed the state officials, and took advantage of the darkness. The state city was occupied and an uprising was declared.

Guo Zixing and his four friends all called themselves marshals. The Yuan Dynasty sent General Cheri Buhua to lead troops to besiege Haozhou.Cheli Buhua was afraid of the Red Scarf Army and dared not attack the city. He set up a camp far away, but sent soldiers to capture some people outside the city, and took them as prisoners to ask for rewards from his superiors.The common people outside the city were persecuted and could not survive, so they fled to the city to join Guo Zixing.Guo Zixing's team grew stronger and stronger. One night, the Red Scarf Army of Haozhou was patrolling the city gate.Suddenly a young monk came from outside the city and said that he would join the Red Scarf Army.The soldiers of the Red Scarf Army guarding the gate suspected that he was a spy sent by the Yuan army to spy on the military situation. While tying him up, they sent someone to report Guo Zixing.

Hearing this, Guo Zixing thought that maybe the man who had defected to him was really a good man, so he rode a horse to the gate of the city to have a look. He saw the bound monk, although he was dressed in ragged clothes, he was tall and tall, with thick eyebrows and big eyes.When Guo Zixing saw it, he liked it very much, and immediately ordered the soldiers to untie them and take the monk back to the Marshal's Mansion. The young monk who defected to Guo Zixing was named Zhu Yuanzhang.His father was a poor farmer in Zhongli, Haozhou (now east of Fengyang, Anhui).When Zhu Yuanzhang was seventeen years old, there was a severe drought and locust plague in Huaibei, and then the plague spread.Zhu Yuanzhang's father, mother and eldest brother were infected with the disease one after another and died.Zhu Yuanzhang and his second brother were left without even the money to buy a coffin. Fortunately, the neighbors sympathized with them and helped them bury their parents.

Zhu Yuanzhang lost his parents and his life was not settled.The neighbor gave him an idea, asking him to go to the nearby Huangjue Temple to become a young monk and make a living.In this way, Zhu Yuanzhang became a monk.The little monks in the monastery are actually servants who are ordered around. Zhu Yuanzhang served his master and brothers every day, got up early in the dark, swept the floor, offered incense, rang the bell, and cooked. His life was very hard. However, it was not easy to make a living at Huangjue Temple on that day.It turned out that Huangjue Temple lived by collecting rented rice. This year, the disaster was severe and Huangjue Temple could not receive rented rice.Zhu Yuanzhang had only stayed in the temple for fifty days, and he was about to run out of food.Master and brothers left the monastery one by one to seek alms outside. Zhu Yuanzhang was also sent out, and took Xiao Muyu and Botou to wander around Huaixi to beg for food.After three years, the disaster in Haozhou eased a little, and he returned to Huangjue Temple.

Another year later, the uprising of the Red Turban Army broke out. Zhu Yuanzhang kept hearing the news from outside in the temple. For a while, Liu Futong occupied Yingzhou, and for a while, Zhima Li occupied Xuzhou.At the end of the year, I heard that Haozhou was also occupied by the Red Scarf Army. Zhu Yuanzhang had long heard the legend that Maitreya Buddha was going to save the world; now he heard that the Red Scarf Army was raising troops everywhere, and the Yuan soldiers were retreating steadily. He thought in his heart that the day when the poor came to the fore, he left Huangjue Temple and went to Haozhou to join Guo Zixing .

When Guo Zixing talked with Zhu Yuanzhang, he found that he was eloquent and appreciated him very much. He immediately asked him to take off the monk's cassock and put on a soldier's uniform, keeping him by his side as a personal commander. After Zhu Yuanzhang joined the uprising army, he immediately showed his talent.He fought bravely and was resourceful.Guo Zixing treats him as a confidant, and always consults with him first when he goes out to fight.Among the uprising soldiers, Zhu Yuanzhang's reputation gradually increased. Guo Zixing had a good friend named Ma who died of illness the year Guo Zixing raised his army.When Magong was dying, he entrusted his orphan daughter to Guo Zixing to take care of him.Guo Zixing took the girl home and gave her to his wife, Mrs. Zhang, to raise her, treating her like his own daughter.

Guo Zixing has always wanted to choose a good son-in-law for her. This time, seeing that Zhu Yuanzhang is a talent, he discussed with Mrs. Zhang that he should marry Ma Gong's daughter to Zhu Yuanzhang, and Mrs. Zhang agreed very much.In this way, the young monk of Huangjue Temple became the son-in-law of Marshal Guo, and his status was different.In the rebel army, everyone called him "Mr. Zhu". In the Red Turban Army in Haozhou, including Guo Zixing, there are five marshals.The five people sit on an equal footing, no distinction is made between high and low, and no one can control the other.Except for Guo Zixing, the other four marshals were all a bit quack and undisciplined.Guo Zixing gradually disliked them, and they also disliked Guo Zixing.As time went on, the contradictions became more and more serious, and the four of them got together to exclude Guo Zixing.Once, Guo Zixing was almost killed by them. Fortunately, Zhu Yuanzhang got the news and rescued Guo Zixing.

Zhu Yuanzhang found that the generals of the rebel army were narrow-minded, and they couldn't do anything under them, so he went back to his hometown and recruited troops.When he was a boy, Xu Da and Tang He heard that Zhu Yuanzhang had become a general of the Red Scarf Army, and they all came to join him. In less than ten days, they recruited 700 people. Later, they attacked the Yuan army and recruited a group of Yuan soldiers. military. Zhu Yuanzhang gained a large number of new troops, rectified discipline, stepped up training, and trained his army into a team with strong combat effectiveness, which greatly boosted the momentum.

There was a literati in Dingyuan, Li Shanchang, who was very cunning, and he also came to see Zhu Yuanzhang.Zhu Yuanzhang knew that he was very knowledgeable, so he left him as a counselor in the uprising army.Once, Zhu Yuanzhang asked Li Shanchang: "There are wars everywhere in the country now, when will there be peace?" Li Shanchang said: "In the last years of the Qin Dynasty, there was also such a great chaos. Han Gaozu was born as a commoner, because he was generous, able to use talents, and did not kill people randomly. It only took five years to unify the world. Now the Yuan Dynasty is so chaotic. The world is falling apart, why don't you learn from Han Gaozu?"

From then on, Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to learn from Han Gaozu Liu Bang wholeheartedly. Zhu Yuanzhang took the team he trained and successively defeated Chuzhou and Hezhou.The year Xiaoming Wang Han Lin'er proclaimed himself emperor in Haozhou, Guo Zixing fell ill and died.King Xiao Ming made Guo Zixing's son Guo Tianxu the Marshal of the capital, and Zhu Yuanzhang became the deputy marshal. Guo Tianxu had no experience in command, and most of the soldiers in the Red Turban Army were trusted by Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang was the deputy commander in name, and all the real power was in his hands.Not long after, Guo Tianxu was killed by a traitor when he attacked Jiqing (now Nanjing, Jiangsu), and Zhu Yuanzhang became a veritable marshal.

After Zhu Yuanzhang took sole control of the military, he led a large army to smash the Yuan Dynasty navy, crossed the river to attack Jiqing, and more than 500,000 soldiers and civilians in Jiqing surrendered.Zhu Yuanzhang entered Jiqing, went out to comfort the people, and changed the name of Jiqing to Yingtianfu.Since then, Zhu Yuanzhang has used Yingtianfu as his base and developed to the south of the Yangtze River.
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