When Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Shicheng were fighting on the southern front, the civil war of Xu Shouhui's department was also in full swing, and the powerful Prime Minister Ni Wenjun wanted to kill Xu Shouhui to stand on his own, and fled to Huangzhou after the matter was revealed.

Stationed here is his cronies Chen Youliang, who did not expect the praying mantis to catch cockroaches, and Huang Que was behind, Chen Youliang took the opportunity to kill Ni Wenjun, annexed his army, and then proclaimed himself Pingzhang Political Affairs, and became a pivotal figure in Xu Shouhui's Tianwan country, and gradually became another Ni Wenjun.

Chen Youliang, a native of Chuyang, Hubei, was originally surnamed Xie, and his ancestors married into the Chen family upside down, and his descendants followed the woman's surname Chen. Chen Youliang's father was a fisherman, in order to change his fate, he saved money for Chen Youliang to study, one day, a warlock saw the ancestral tomb of Chen Youliang's family, and said: "Feng Shui is very good, be a nobleman." ”

Chen Youliang was greatly encouraged by this, and became even more angry to study, and later learned a little, and found a good job, and became a small official in the county government.

But Chen Youliang is not satisfied with being a small official for a lifetime, he wants to do a big career, Chen Youliang has the qualifications to use both a pen and a knife, when Xu Shouhui rebelled, Chen Youliang disobeyed his father's will, resolutely resigned from public office, joined the rebel army, he first became a clerk under the general Ni Wenjun, and then threw a pen from Rong, becoming the commander of the army.

Chen Youliang's ambition is amazing, he is talented, but it is still not enough to support his ambition, he has another sharp weapon, he will not compromise to achieve his goals, he is an unstoppable and difficult guy to deal with. After killing Ni Wenjun, Chen Youliang's ambition skyrocketed, he led the troops from Hanyang down the river to the east, to capture Anqing, Anqing's geographical location is very important, up to strangle Hanyang, down to lock Nanjing, for the Yangtze River fortress, the Yuan government sent Huainan Province Zuo Cheng Yuque garrison.

Yu Que, Mongolian, living in Wuwei, Gansu for generations, his father went to Luzhou as an official, he became a native of Luzhou, Yu Que was originally a literati, born in Jinshi, was a student of Wu Cheng, a famous physicist and writer in the Yuan Dynasty, and did Hanlin revision, in the troubled times at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, he abandoned literature and followed the martial arts, and guarded Anqing for the Yuan government.

When Chen Youliang attacked Anqing, Yu Que led the troops to resist desperately, the city was breached, Yu Que killed himself, his wife and a son and a daughter threw themselves into the well, more than 1,000 soldiers and civilians in the city burned themselves to death, this is the last year of the Yuan Dynasty to defend the city of the army and the people for the Yuan Dynasty martyrdom of the most heroic scene, after the city, Chen Youliang buried Yu Que, and called him the first person in the world, Zhu Yuanzhang also expressed his respect for Yu Que on the eve of the Northern Expedition.

After breaking through Anqing, Chen Youliang pointed his troops to Chizhou on the other side, not long ago Zhu Yuanzhang captured Chizhou from the hands of the Tianwan army, Chen Youliang planned to avenge an arrow, Chen Youliang led the army to conquer Chizhou, captured and killed Zhu Yuanzhang's general Zhao Zhong. In this way, Chen Youliang rode on both sides of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, directly threatening the safety of Nanjing.

Zhu Yuanzhang obviously felt the pressure of Chen Youliang, but his strategic focus was on the rich Zhejiang, his main force was fighting on the southern and eastern fronts, and there was no time to look westward, Chen Youliang took advantage of this opportunity to continue to expand the results of the war, and captured most of the prefectures and counties in Jiangxi, until a year later, Zhu Yuanzhang freed up his hands and sent Xu Da and Yu Tonghai to recover Chizhou, but this move triggered a full-scale war between him and Chen Youliang.

For Chen Youliang to guard Anqing, Chizhou is the main general Zhao Pusheng, this person is called Shuangdao Zhao, a few years ago with Liao Yongzhong, Yu Haitong and others in Chaohu together against the Yuan, the status is second only to Li Guosheng, is the second in command of the rebels. When Yu Tonghai and others joined Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhao Pusheng was supposed to join him, but he suddenly defected to Xu Shouhui with his fleet on the way, and later returned to Chen Youliang's men. When Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang competed for Chizhou, Zhao Pusheng and Yu Tonghai turned from friends to enemies, and the two fought each other.

The internal contradictions of the Tianwan regime made them weak and powerless in the war against Zhu Yuanzhang, although Chen Youliang was a capable and ambitious person, but his talent was constrained by the jealous Xu Shouhui, and Zhao Pusheng had a strong sense of independence and was unwilling to be subordinate, so Xu Shouhui and Zhao Pusheng came together, and the two colluded closely, one on the front line and the other in the rear, to jointly restrain Chen Youliang, so that he could not exert his strength, Chen Youliang needed to pinch his head and tail in order to stretch his muscles and bones.

Chen Youliang led the army from the east of Jiujiang, in the name of attacking Chizhou, Zhao Pusheng came to meet, Zhao Pusheng went upstream, met Chen Youliang in Yandang, he just boarded Chen Youliang's warship was arrested, Chen Youliang tied him into zongzi and threw him into the Yangtze River to feed the fish.

In order to get rid of Zhao Pusheng, Zhu Yuanzhang bribed his disciples and let him infiltrate Chen Youliang's army, falsely accusing Zhao Pusheng of rebellion. Chen Youliang was suspicious and sent an envoy to investigate, Zhao Pusheng showed a great achievement and a look of ambition after seeing the envoy, which happened to coincide with the report of the spy, and Chen Youliang became murderous. In fact, the reason why Chen Youliang got rid of Zhao Pusheng was because he occupied the pit and didn't, which hindered Chen Youliang's eastward progress.

After getting rid of Zhao Pusheng, Chen Youliang still attacked Chizhou as originally planned, but the original Zhao Pusheng's subordinates were very dissatisfied with him, and they secretly communicated with Yu Tonghai, Liao Yongzhong and others, the former Chaohu sailor generals stationed in Chizhou. After Zhu Yuanzhang got the spy report, he successively sent Xu Da and Chang Yuchun to Chizhou to strengthen the defense, and sent an order to the two of them to defend the city with 5,000 people and ambush Jiuhua Mountain with 10,000 people, giving Chen Youliang a pocket array.

Chen Youliang went straight to Chizhou, and the soldiers drummed up to the city, intending to fight quickly. Suddenly, the ambush soldiers under Jiuhua Mountain rose up and killed the back of Chen's army, and the defenders in the city also went out of the city to attack, Chen Youliang was defeated on his back, more than 10,000 people were killed, and 3,000 people were captured.

After the defeat of Chizhou, Chen Youliang returned to his headquarters in Jiangzhou to actively prepare for revenge, at which time Xu Shouhui came to Jiangzhou from Hanyang. Xu Shouhui was very uneasy about Chen Youliang in the rear, worried that his tail would not fall, and intended to control it, as early as when Chen Youliang captured Longxing, Xu Shouhui asked to move the capital from Hanyang to Longxing, but Chen Youliang refused.

After Chen Youliang killed Zhao Pusheng, Xu Shouhui was even more powerless to restrain him, Xu Shouhui took advantage of his defeat in Chizhou and the decline in prestige to rush from Hanyang to Jiangzhou uninvited, in an attempt to seize military power, which was also his reaction to Chen Youliang's murder of Zhao Pusheng.

Xu Shouhui knew that Chen Youliang had murdered Zhao Pusheng, but he was not afraid, and dared to send him to the door by himself, perhaps because he thought that he was really the king of Ming, and he could be hurt by an extraordinary man, and he was regarded as the king of Ming to support the throne of God, which can very much show his extraordinary, and Ni Wenjun, who tried to murder him not long ago, was ruined and discredited, which strengthened his confidence.

But Xu Shouhui ignored a truth, ghosts are afraid of wicked people, and King Ming is no exception, not to mention that he is just a mortal. Chen Youliang is not an ordinary villain, for the stumbling block on the road, Chen Youliang neither bypassed nor planned to move him away, but directly crushed him. He not only murdered his superior Ni Wenjun, murdered his subordinate Zhao Pusheng, and even Emperor Xu Shouhui dared to murder.

Outside the city gate of Jiangzhou, Chen Youliang killed all Xu Shouhui's entourage, and then took Jiangzhou as the capital, proclaimed himself the king of Han, placed the official office of the palace, and turned Xu Shouhui into a puppet.

After holding the power, Chen Youliang's enthusiasm for work was greatly improved, he immediately launched a new round of attacks on Zhu Yuanzhang, less than a month after the Battle of Chizhou, Chen Youliang began a revenge operation, this time he changed his tactics, the fleet bypassed the fortified defense of Chizhou, and directly attacked the downstream Taiping, Taiping is the gateway to the west of Nanjing, the geographical location is very important, Zhu Yuanzhang built a strong fortification here, so that the Taiping City is impregnable, and sent his adopted son Zhu Wenxun and the fierce general Huayun to defend it.

This time in order to attack Zhu Yuanzhang, Chen Youliang built a huge warship, the stern and the height of the city wall are almost the same, Chen Youliang ordered the sergeant to drive the boat upside down, so that the stern is close to the city wall, the soldiers from the stern of the city wall, in one fell swoop to conquer the Taiping City, the guard Zhu Wenxun, the court sentenced Hua Yun, Wang Ding, the prefect Xu Ying and others were killed.

Chen Youliang was the most aware of the potential of the inland navy among his contemporaries, and he understood that whether it was a siege or a field battle, the most convenient way to use the waterways crisscrossing the Yangtze River basin to carry out transportation, so he attached great importance to the construction of the navy, and his navy was strong and difficult to deal with.

Chen Youliang was very proud after his victory, he thought that this method of warfare could be applied to the entire Yangtze River waters, and it would not be a problem to defeat Zhu Yuanzhang, so he continued to sail downstream, preparing to capture Nanjing in one fell swoop.

Although this is just an illusion, Chen Youliang has been confident that he has no scruples, when the army marched to the quarry, Chen Youliang's disobedience spontaneously appeared, he first asked his subordinates to pretend to report to Xu Shouhui about the work, and then ordered the strong man to take the opportunity to slam Xu Shouhui's head with an iron rod from behind, killing him.

Xu Shouhui's bones were not cold, Chen Youliang couldn't wait to be in the quarrying Wutong Temple, that is, the emperor's throne, the country name Han, changed the Yuan Dayi, with Zou Pusheng as the master, Zhang Bixian as the prime minister, and Zhang Dingbian as the captain. Chen Youliang's move was so unjust, and the place where he was proclaimed emperor was so simple that God didn't give face, and when the ministers lined up on the sand on the riverbank to congratulate them, the wind and rain were so great that all kinds of ceremonies could not be held.

On the second day of proclamation as emperor, Chen Youliang sent an envoy to Pingjiang to contact Zhang Shicheng to attack Nanjing. However, his army was already panicked, and he killed the Ming king, and a large number of officers and soldiers in the army who believed in the White Lotus Sect were very dissatisfied with this, and the combat effectiveness of the army was inevitably affected.

Zhu Yuanzhang was very shocked by the loss of Taiping, from the Taiping downstream, half a day to reach Nanjing, Chen Youliang's fist can be picked up on Zhu Yuanzhang's head at any time, once the old opponent Zhang Shicheng and Chen Youliang on the Eastern Front collude, east and west, Nanjing will be very dangerous.

Zhu Yuanzhang was very uneasy, he convened his subordinates to discuss countermeasures, some generals advocated taking land and water to recover the peace first, Zhu Yuanzhang said: "No, Chen Youliang is upstream, the sailor is stronger than us, and it is difficult to recover it for a while." ”

Some asked Zhu Yuanzhang to personally recruit by land, but Zhu Yuanzhang said: "No, if he uses a partial division to contain our army, and attacks Nanjing with the main force, it can be reached by water in half a day, and it will be difficult for our army to quickly return to reinforcements, and besides, a long-distance attack is a taboo in the art of war, and it is not a good way." ”

Some pessimists suggested abandoning the city of Nanjing, which was near the river, and moving to Zhongshan to avoid being attacked by Chen Youliang's big ship. In the end, Zhu Yuanzhang listened to the advice of the strategist Liu Ji and decided to let Kang Maocai surrender by deception, induce Chen Youliang to come east, set up an ambush to attack him, and at the same time sent the general Hu Dahai to attack Xinzhou by land to contain Chen Youliang's rear.

Li Shanchang expressed deep doubts about this: "Wouldn't Maocai's appointment to surrender speed up the process of friendship and understanding going east?"

Zhu Yuanzhang said: "This is exactly what I intended, Chen Youliang is arrogant and rash, Zhang Shicheng is indecisive, and the two thieves attack at the same time, how can we support it? Li Shanchang suddenly realized after hearing this.