How did Zhu Yuanzhang become emperor?

Zhu Yuanzhang was born in a poor peasant family, so he came from the lowest social stratum in China. He is the only founding king with this background: this is a well-known fact in the history of China. He was born on June +2654381October +0 in Zhongli Village, Bozhou County (now Fengyang County, central Anhui Province, just southeast of Bengbu, an important railway junction and industrial city), and his childhood was very difficult. His parents and grandparents are delinquent teenagers, hiding debts everywhere in the Huaihe River basin, trying to find a place to be a tenant farmer and live a life of food and clothing in this land ravaged by drought and epidemic. He is the youngest of his parents' four surviving sons and two daughters. Except for the oldest child, all the other children were abandoned or married because the family could not support them. By the 1930s of 14, the Huaihe River region had become the cradle of the Red Scarf Army rebellion, and its Messiah doctrine attracted more and more people's support. People believe that in this darkest and loneliest moment, there will be a change, the light of Zoroastrianism will reappear, and Maitreya will rule the world from the western paradise, which will make people's fate change dramatically in a utopian way. The young Zhu Yuanzhang's grandfather was a fortune teller and a veteran who fought against the Han army in the last stage of the Mongolian conquest in the 1970s. He filled the boy's ears with wonderful stories of magical events and advanced adventures. These are the environments in which Zhu Yuanzhang grew up as a child. 1344, when Zhu Yuanzhang 16 years old, during the three weeks of May and June, with the outbreak of summer locust and drought, most members of his family were killed-his father, mother and married eldest brother who still lived at home. His eldest sister-in-law, youngest son and another divorced brother are the only survivors besides him. Those who survived were too poor to bury their dead relatives, let alone support Zhu Yuanzhang. 10 At the end of June, he was sent to a nearby Buddhist temple as a boy and a handyman to fulfill his father's wish when his child was ill. At the same time, he also grew up and became a tall and strong young man. His distinctive feature is that his face is covered with wrinkles and pockmarks, and his chin is prominent. This strange appearance is daunting and seems to indicate the extraordinary quality of the future. There is no doubt that he has these qualities, but he rose from a poor and uneducated peasant family, then ascended the throne of the emperor and became the founding king of a new great dynasty. This story is a bit as unreal as a novel. A few weeks later, in1344 65438+February, the monks of Huang Jue Temple (which might have been called Yujue Temple at that time) were forced to let all the street children go out to beg. As far as we know, Zhu Yuanzhang spent three years as a monk in the Huaihe River from 1345 to 1347. Maybe he is familiar with some military life and once served as a soldier-maybe in the Mongolian army. In addition, what is certain is that he knows the inside story of rebellion and suppression of rebellion. 1347 or 1348, he returned to the temple and stayed there for 20 to 24 years. At this time, it seems that he began to study reading and simply studied Buddhist scriptures. He has a good understanding and memory. By 1352, rebellion broke out everywhere in the middle reaches of Huaihe River. They took many forms, most of which were the Red Scarf Army Movement. Haozhou County, which is adjacent to Zhongli Village in the west, was captured by the Red Scarf Army on February 1352. Guo Zixing (died in 1355), the leader of the rebel army, was the son of a fortune teller and the blind daughter of a rich man. This family is said to be very good at accumulating wealth. Guo Zixing is regarded as a brave and capable soldier, but he has a bad temper and can't get along with others. He believes in the doctrine of Maitreya, so he is convinced that troubled times herald great changes. In order to cope with the great changes, he spent a lot of money and made many friends to gather like-minded people and loyal soldiers. Guo Zixing and his four partners claimed to be marshals and led the troops to attack Haozhou. Guo Zixing may only be a nominal leader, and others will immediately become challengers. The relationship between them was unstable from the beginning. Yuan authorities don't want to recover Haozhou immediately. On the contrary, they sent undisciplined troops out to harass innocent villagers and burn temples. In order to get credit, they called the captured people the Red Scarf Army. Zhu Yuanzhang's rural temple is in a war zone; 1352 In February, it was set on fire by soldiers from different sides and was looted. Zhu Yuanzhang, other monks and children all fled, but later returned to these destroyed buildings because there was no place to go. Later, when he wrote about this experience, he said that he had received news from many friends in the rebels, warning him of the danger and urging him to join the rebels. On April 15, a 2045-year-old monk came near the city gate of Haozhou and asked to join Guo Zixing's army. This is an unexpected turning point in his life. He immediately became a popular disciple, a trusted assistant, an excellent soldier and a member of the Guo Zixing family. Guo Zixing has two wives, and his brother has two sons the same age as Zhu Yuanzhang. The young wife suggested that this promising young man should be more closely linked with the fate of their Guo family, so she recruited him as their daughter-in-law. The young woman was 19 years old and was the daughter of a close friend named Ma. Shortly before his death, Ma entrusted his only son to care. She is the later Ma Huanghou. The relationship between Zhu Yuanzhang and his young wife Guo Zixing later became very important; When Zhu Yuanzhang had an argument with Guo Zixing's sons, she finally stood on his side, and he also took her daughter as his concubine. 1352 and 1353, the yuan army sent by the imperial court attempted to destroy the central and eastern Huaihe River occupied by the rebels. At the end of 1352, they drove Sesame Plum away from his base in Xuzhou, northern Jiangsu. At the beginning of 1353, two of his generals took refuge in Haozhou, which made the already tense resources of this small town even more tense. They call themselves "kings" and are arrogant above Guo Zixing and his marshals. Factional struggle has developed. Guo Zixing supported one of them and the other detained him. Zhu Yuanzhang, who came back from the expedition, found this situation. He took Guo Zixing's young wife and her children to another leader's camp and finally found a way to save Guo Zixing's life. 1352 From the end of winter to June 1353, Haozhou was surrounded by Yuan troops sent by Xuzhou. The sacrifices of Yuan Army field commander (Zhong Shu Zuo Cheng) and water conservancy expert Jia Lu (who led the river regulation project in 135 1 year) saved Haozhou, thus saving this base area. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang left the army and returned to his village. In his hometown, he recruited more than 700 troops, led by 24 of his former friends and childhood partners, including Xu Da, his future chief of staff (Prime Minister Nakashuyou joined the army to handle state affairs). In the next 20 years, this military leadership group formed the core of his personal entourage. In the next few months, he continued to participate in a wide range of offensive and field command activities, learned how to do it, and formed his own tactical awareness. /kloc-in the autumn of 0/353, Guo Zixing appointed him separately to get rid of the increasingly urgent factional struggle in Haozhou. This is the starting point of independent activities; His official title is Zhen Fu. In the subsequent fighting, he initially withdrew from Dingyuan County in the south. He even went further south, took in a large number of defeated soldiers and deserters along the way, and won several important victories. By the end of the year, he occupied Chuzhou (near the border between Anhui and Jiangsu) and counties near the north bank of the Yangtze River. 1354 stayed in Chuzhou for a whole year until the first half of 1355. This became his base camp, where he established an army loyal to himself, which is said to have reached 30,000 people, and began to assemble local management teams. Li Shanchang (1314-1390) was his first counselor. He is an elite figure in the countryside and a scholar. He defected to Zhu Yuanzhang in 1354 and began to influence this studious young student with history lessons. Li Shanchang was appointed as the secretary of the shogunate by him. 1355 A few months ago, he successfully defended Heyang (or Hezhou, on the north bank of the Yangtze River, now Hexian County), which was besieged by the Yuan Army, and began to pay attention to the rich south bank of the Yangtze River. The most important thing is that he took a fancy to the big city of Nanjing, which was then called Qing Ji and controlled the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. /kloc-at the beginning of 0/355, Guo Zixing died in Heyang. Guo Zixing's sons consider themselves the heirs and heirs of their father; The Emperor of the Red Scarf Army in the Song Dynasty conferred senior positions on his eldest son and an old officer, Guo's brother-in-law, and appointed Zhu Yuanzhang as their deputy. However, Zhu Yuanzhang was surrounded by 24 partners and other important military leaders who came to submit to him in the uprising army. It is Zhu Yuanzhang's personal prestige that unites them around him, not the banner of the Red Scarf Army. Among these new adherents is Chang Yuchun, the most courageous general in Zhu Yuanzhang's army in his later years, and the only one trusted by Xu Da. In addition, Liao Yong 'an and Yu Tonghai, the ship division leaders along the inland waterway in Anhui, also voluntarily defected to Zhu Yuanzhang. They gave Zhu Yuanzhang the means to cross the river by fleet and barge, so that he could fight the water army on the vast front. The long-awaited crossing of the river began. Then attack Nanjing in mid-August. The first battle was unsuccessful, but Zhu Yuanzhang's army stayed in Nanjing and wiped out some surrounding towns. At the end of 65438 AD, the second attack on Nanking killed Guo Zixing's eldest son and Zhang Tianyou, thus getting rid of Zhu Yuanzhang's two immediate bosses. At this time, the whole command is in his hands. 1356, 10 in April, after many battles, Zhu Yuanzhang finally won Nanjing, which was immediately designated as the new capital and renamed Yingtian immediately. In the same week, Zhang Shicheng also crossed the Yangtze River and made Suzhou its capital. Earlier that year, Ni Wenjun made Xu Shouhui emperor of the Red Scarf Army in the south wing, and his title was finished. The new capital was located in Hanyang on the bank of the Yangtze River. One month after the fall of Nanking, Han Liner appointed Zhu Yuanzhang as jiangnan province Pingzhang, and Guo Zixing's only son became his deputy. Guo Zixing's son was convicted of treason and executed. Zhu Yuanzhang has now become the leader of the northern Red Scarf Army based on the Yangtze River and the guardian of the puppet emperor in the entire northern rebel army. He stood out from the crowd and became a leader.