Chapter 5 Chapter 4 starts here

In the twelfth year of Zhengzheng (1352 A.D.), Haozhou City. Guo Zixing, the defender of the city, is in his Marshal's Mansion, thinking hard about countermeasures. Haozhou City has been besieged by the Yuan army for a long time, and it won't last long if it goes on like this. At this moment, the sergeant under his command came to report that he had caught a spy and asked Ling Qi to kill him. If it was the past, Guo Zixing would not have bothered to ask the soldiers to kill him directly with the Ling Qi. But today , He asked: "How do you know that person is a spy?" The sergeant replied: "This person said he came to join the army. Now that the Yuan army is besieging him, if there are still people who come to join the army, he must be a Yuan army spy."

Guo Zixing almost laughed out loud, join the army?The Yuan army was about to enter the city, and there were people who came to join the army. This excuse was really not clever, and he couldn't help being curious, wanting to see this spy. So he rode to the gate of the city, and saw a man with a strange appearance. In today's words, this man's appearance was overhanging, with a protruding chin. What's even more strange, his forehead also protruded forward. The shape is roughly similar to a unique weapon crescent shovel, with convex up and down and concave in the middle (see the portrait of Comrade Zhu Yuanzhang).

This person is of course our Zhu Chongba. Guo Zixing walked up to Zhu Chongba, asked him to untie him, and asked him, "Are you a spy? What are you here for?" Zhu Chongba replied calmly: "I'm not a spy, I'm here to join the army." Guo Zixing laughed loudly: "When is it, there are still people coming to join the army, you don't have to quibble, I will pull you out and kill you later!" Zhu Chongba just responded: "Oh." Guo Zixing looked into Zhu Chongba's eyes, hoping to see panic, which was one of his usual pleasures. But in this man's eyes, all he saw was calmness.

Guo Zixing didn't dare to underestimate this person, it was obvious that he was someone who couldn't be intimidated.So he seriously asked Zhu Chongba's name and origin. When Zhu Chongba said that it was Qianhu Changtanghe who introduced him, Guo Zixing realized that this person really came to join the army. Zhu Chongba impressed him too deeply, so he didn't incorporate Zhu Chongba into Tanghe's troops, but put him beside him as his own soldier (guard). In the army, Zhu Chongba quickly showed his talent. Compared with other peasant soldiers, he is a very outstanding person. He is not only brave in battle, but also very strategic, calm in dealing with things, and far-sighted (note this characteristic) ), and he is very loyal, and he is the first to go when there is danger, all of which give him a lofty prestige.With the help of his fellow countryman Tang He, he was promoted to be the nine-man leader after two months as a soldier, which was his first official position.

As Guo Zixing's personal commander, Zhu Chongba is very competent. Unlike other soldiers, he never covets money. Every time he gets spoils, he dedicates them to Guo Zixing. Talented, self-taught some characters, and accurate analysis of problems, Guo Zixing gradually regarded him as his brain trust, and Zhu Chongba's position in the army gradually became more important. At this time, Zhu Chongba changed his name to Zhu Yuanzhang. The so-called Zhang is a sharp jade. This Zhu Yuanzhang is actually Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Chongba compared himself to a sharp weapon to destroy the Yuan Dynasty. , and this sharp weapon was cast by the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty themselves.For the next twenty years they will all fear the name.

In the army, Tang He is a strange person. When Zhu Yuanzhang first joined the army, he was already a thousand households, but he respected Zhu Yuanzhang very much. In the barracks, people can see a strange phenomenon. Tang He, who has a much higher official position He always walks behind the soldier Zhu Yuanzhang, and doesn't care about other people's eyes. What's even more strange is that Zhu Yuanzhang seems to think that this is a matter of course, and he didn't shirk it. We have to admire Tang He's foresight. He knew that Zhu Yuanzhang was far from a thing in the pool. In today's words, he is very practical.It is believed that it was this advantage that enabled him to survive the subsequent bloodbath.

In the army, Zhu Yuanzhang married a wife. Compared with the many concubines later, this wife can be regarded as one of the key factors for Zhu Yuanzhang's success.This girl is Guo Zixing's adoptive daughter. Her father's surname is Ma, a friend of Guo Zixing's. He died later and entrusted this girl to Guo Zixing. The girl's name is unknown, but everyone in the army calls her Miss Ma.In this way, Zhu Yuanzhang became the son-in-law of the marshal, and Guo Zixing had an extra helper. We can imagine Zhu Yuanzhang's happy mood. He finally has a home of his own. Giving him clothes makes him feel at home.This feeling has been with him for many years.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang had been promoted to the general manager of the army. This position was roughly equivalent to the office director of the uprising army. As for self-discipline, everyone has nothing to say, if he continues like this, he may become an excellent financial manager.But the heavens did not allow him to live comfortably. In the near future, he will face even greater troubles. The main problem is Guo Zixing’s status. He is not a peasant, but a landlord (I can’t figure out how he would revolt). At that time, besides Guo Zixing, there were four other commanders in Haozhou, headed by Sun Deya. They are farmers, and there is a deep conflict between them and Guo Zixing.

Soon, the conflict broke out. One day Guo Zixing was shopping in Haozhou City, and was suddenly kidnapped by a group of unknown people. These people seemed to have no interest in asking for rewards, so they beat Guo Zixing to death, and then put him in confinement.When Zhu Yuanzhang got the news, he was shocked, and immediately rushed to Sun Deya's house to ask for someone. Sun Deya pretended to be stupid at first, with a surprised expression on his face, and wanted to go out to find Guo Zixing, and said some words such as disobedience to the kidnapper, which fully showed the character of an amateur actor. acting.

Zhu Yuanzhang only brought the soldiers involved in the beating to Sun Deya, and told Sun that all your bad debts of embezzlement of public funds and random reimbursement are with me, and I can handle it by myself. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang rescued Guo Zixing, who had been beaten half to death, from the cellar of Sun's family. This incident made Zhu Yuanzhang realize that following these people would have no future. And Guo Zixing hated Zhu Yuanzhang more and more. The reason was very simple. Zhu Yuanzhang was stronger than him. For Guo Zixing, an irritable and intolerant commander, he could not tolerate a person who might replace him by his side.Finally one day, he locked up Zhu Yuanzhang. It is always a good tradition for some people to throw stones into the well, and Guo Zixing's son is one of them.He ordered the guards not to bring food to Zhu Yuanzhang, and wanted to starve Zhu Yuanzhang to death. In order to save Zhu Yuanzhang, the kind-hearted girl Ma put the freshly ironed pancakes in her bosom and gave them to him when she visited Zhu Yuanzhang in prison. The chest will burn, but it will be delivered every time.

If there is a wife like this, what more can a husband ask for. After all, Guo Zixing still didn't want to kill Zhu Yuanzhang, so he released him. After experiencing this incident, Zhu Yuanzhang finally made up his mind to break with these short-sighted people.He applied to Guo Zixing to lead troops to the expedition, and Guo Zixing happily agreed. This is the beginning of Zhu Yuanzhang's hegemony. Once it starts, it will not stop. Start here! Zhu Yuanzhang was ordered to lead troops to attack Guo Zixing's hometown, Dingyuan. From this point, it can be seen that his father-in-law had really bad intentions. Dingyuan was guarded by heavy soldiers at that time. It is estimated that Guo Zixing let him go because he didn't want to see Zhu Yuanzhang alive again, but Zhu Yuanzhang was Zhu Yuanzhang, he found a gap in the Yuan army, conquered Dingyuan, and then withdrew before the Yuan army returned to aid. After that, he successively attacked Huaiyuan, Anfeng, Hanshan, and Hongxian, winning four battles and four victories. After recruiting (or possibly robbing) the young men, Zhu Yuanzhang came to Zhongli (today's east of Fengyang, Anhui), which was his hometown, where he met twenty-four people who came to Zhu Yuanzhang's team looking for work. The 24 people recruited by Manager Zhu Yuanzhang were of high quality, including Zhou Dexing, who had told his fortune, and Xu Da, who was called the number one general in the world. These people also had relatives, and they were passed on to ten, ten to a hundred, uncles, uncles, nephews, and nephews all came, and soon, his army (directly subordinate) had 700 people. When Zhu Yuanzhang returned to Haozhou again, he had fully understood his future, so he resigned to Guo Zixing. Guo Zixing was very happy that this annoying person could finally go far. Before Zhu Yuanzhang set off, he did another unexpected thing. He reselected 24 people from his 700 people, and then gave the rest to Guo Zixing. Guo Zixing was somewhat surprised, but he still accepted it happily. up. Zhu Yuanzhang's action seems to be defined as a job of selecting civil servants, the ratio is 30 to 1, there is no written test, and the examiner is Zhu Yuanzhang and his vision. He was indeed very accurate in his selection. Look at the names of these people: Xu Da, Tang He, and Zhou Dexing. These twenty-four people later became senior cadres of the Ming Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, Huang Chao stood in front of the gate of Chang'an City after he failed the exam. In addition to being melancholy, he was full of heroism. He wrote a poem, which is very famous-"Ode to Chrysanthemum": A few years later, he led an army of more than 100,000 troops into Chang'an. At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang was standing in front of the city gate of Haozhou, looking at the twenty-four people behind him. He knew that if he took this step, he would fight alone, or be defeated and die, or create a hegemony. He looked up at the sky, it was still so dark, it seemed unlucky to make this choice at this time, and he remembered that helpless divination again. When my parents passed away, when I was doing coolies in the temple, when I looked up at the sky and cried bitterly at night, it was the same sky. Nothing has changed, only me has changed. When Baihua sends out, I don't send out, if I send out, I will be scared to death. If you want to fight against the west wind, you should wear golden armor all over your body. Nothing can stop me, just start here! Set off!