Chapter 24 Section 7 Killing people with a knife and establishing authority

Crossing the river to conquer Caishi and Taiping, Zhu Yuanzhang took the first step towards the imperial career.However, Taiping was surrounded by the Yuan army, so it was necessary to go through some twists and turns to consolidate this newly captured city.Soon after Zhu Yuanzhang entered Taiping City, he was surrounded by tens of thousands of troops led by Marshal Chen Ye of the Yuan "Yijun" (the civilian armed forces who took the initiative to suppress the uprising). To break the siege, Zhu Yuanzhang has rich experience and commanded well.He and Tang He personally led elite soldiers out of the city to fight, and sent Xu Da and others to lead a large army from another city gate, go around to the enemy's rear, and attack from behind when the enemy's attention was fully attracted by Zhu Tang.Chen Yexian was defeated and captured.

Although Chen Yexian was not a regular army of the Yuan Dynasty, he had a long-standing reputation.Zhu Yuanzhang had heard about Chen Yexian's bravery and ability to fight a long time ago. This time he saw the burly and heroic general of the defeated army, and wanted him to be his right-hand man, so he tried his best to persuade him to surrender, and slaughtered the white horse and black cow as a sacrifice to heaven and earth, and He became a brother.Chen Yexian's 20,000 subordinates belonged to Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang's prestige was further improved, and his military strength was further expanded.In the eyes of others, the situation is very good, but Zhu Yuanzhang is keenly aware that he is facing a profound crisis.

On the surface, Zhu Jiajun developed rapidly, expanding several times like steamed buns.However, too fast development has also planted hidden dangers, that is, no real integration and unity has been formed internally.There are three power centers in this army: one is Zhu Yuanzhang, the other is Guo Tianxu and Zhang Tianyou, and the third is Chen Yexian. Although Guo Tianxu and Zhang Tianyou obeyed Zhu Yuanzhang's words on the surface, they were always unwilling to see Guo's army become Zhu's army in their hearts.Moreover, the status of the two people is higher than him in name, so they are always a centrifugal force in the army.Especially for those former members of Guo Zixing's direct lineage, the appeal of these two people is actually greater than that of Zhu Yuanzhang.When the enemy is at hand, this kind of centrifugal force is not obvious, but once the danger is gone, they are bound to compete with Zhu Yuanzhang for power and profit.

The more direct hidden danger is Chen Yexian.Zhu Yuanzhang placed great hopes on Chen Yexian, thinking that this person could become his right-hand man, but soon he was disappointed.He found that Chen Yexian was swearing on the surface, but in fact he looked down on the peasant army at all, thinking that they could not achieve great things, and secretly kept in close contact with the Yuan army.Then, how to deal with the 20,000 people in Chen Ye's first department became a difficult problem. After joining the rebel army, Zhu Yuanzhang experienced countless internal struggles among the rebel army.He deeply realized that the true unity of the team can only be achieved by establishing a strong centralized leadership.To establish a unified leadership, it is necessary to eliminate multi-core.

After a long time of repeated thinking, a bold plan was formed in Zhu Yuanzhang's mind: use a knife to kill people, and get rid of Guo and Zhang without anyone knowing it. After capturing Taiping, Zhu Yuanzhang's next plan was to capture Jiqing.This city is the biggest goal of his battle across the river, and also the core of the future base in his blueprint for the world.Whether he can capture this city is related to the success or failure of his world plan.It stands to reason that in this war, Zhu Yuanzhang should send the most elite troops, take command in person, organize carefully, and demand victory.But Zhu Yuanzhang did not play cards according to common sense, and sent out a strange combination: one led by Guo Tianxu and Zhang Tianyou, and the other led by Chen Yexian.One from the east and the other from the south, the two sides attacked Jiqing.

It is strange, firstly, these two armies are not his direct descendants; secondly, Zhu Yuanzhang, through the spies placed beside Chen Yexian, has already grasped the news that Chen Yexian colluded with the Yuan army in Jiqing City and planned to cooperate internally and externally to defeat Zhu Jun, but "Gu Xu Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang still ordered him to lead troops to attack Jiqing together with Guo and Zhang's two armies; third, Zhu Yuanzhang did not tell Guo and Zhang such important information. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang's intentions are also clear.In September of the first year of Dragon and Phoenix (1355 A.D.), the two armies set off. Guo and Zhang actively used their lives and led the troops from the east to break through the fortress that the Yuan generals had set up outside the city. attack.Chen Ye first also arrived at the south gate, and hosted a banquet for Marshals Guo and Zhang that evening.Guo and Zhang were unprepared and happily agreed to the appointment, but they were caught and killed by Chen Yexian.Chen Ye first attacked with the Yuan army inside and outside, and the Red Turban Army was caught off guard and retreated to Liyang.From then on, Guo Zixing's old troops were all under the command of Zhu Yuanzhang, and he became the veritable Marshal of the army, and the Guo Jiajun was completely renamed Zhu Jiajun.

Zhu Yuanzhang's strategy of killing people with a knife was really clever. At the cost of losing tens of thousands of troops and a complete failure of the siege campaign, he came to cleanse two opponents who were not imminent.This seemingly unreasonable arrangement completely concealed his plot.In his opinion, it is undoubtedly worthwhile to exchange such a huge price for his absolute leadership over the army. After Guo and Zhang died, Zhu Yuanzhang had only one hidden danger left: Guo Zixing's youngest son, Guo Tianjue. Zhu Yuanzhang dealt with this person in two steps.After the death of Guo and Zhang, he made the young Guo Tianjue his second-in-command in a gesture of sympathy for the old master, "Jiangnan and other places in the middle of the book to save you Cheng".But Tianjue was too young, he was just a memorial tablet, and didn't care about anything, just to keep him under his nose and control his freedom of movement.By the eighteenth year of Zhizheng (AD 1358), Zhu Yuanzhang's authority had been completely consolidated. After people had forgotten Guo Zixing, he found a small excuse to use Guo Tianjue's "resentment" and "conspiracy for rebellion" Arrested and killed.

Through costly purges, Zhu Yuanzhang's unified and centralized leadership was finally established.Zhu Yuanzhang led the army that he integrated into one furnace, captured Jiqing in one fell swoop in February of the following year, and renamed it Yingtian.