In the third year of Zhizheng (1343), there was a drought in Haozhou. The following spring there was another severe plague of locusts and pestilence. In less than half a month, Zhu Yuanzhang's father, eldest brother and mother died one after another. Only Zhu Yuanzhang and his second brother were left, and the family had no money to buy a coffin, not even a piece of land to bury their relatives,[24-25] and their neighbor Liu Jizu gave them a cemetery. The two brothers found a few pieces of torn clothes to wrap the body and buried their parents on the land of the Liu family. [26] In order to survive, Zhu Yuanzhang and his second brother, sister-in-law, and nephew were forced to separate and escape. [27]

Travel

Zhu Yuanzhang was desperate, so he went to the monk Gaobin of Huangjue Temple and shad his rank as a monk. [5] He swept the floor, put on incense, beat bells and drums, cooked rice and washed clothes every day in the temple, and was reprimanded by the old monk. Soon, there was a famine in the local area, and the temple could not get alms, so the abbot had to send the monks to travel around the world. [28] In this way, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was only 17 years old, had no choice but to leave the monastery and wander. [29]

Zhu Yuanzhang begged as he walked, he went south from Haozhou to Hefei, and then

The situation of the peasant war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty

The situation of the peasant war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty

Turn west into Henan, to Gushi, Xinyang, and then to the north to Ruzhou, Chenzhou and other places, east through Luyi, Bozhou, in the eighth year of Zhizheng (1348) back to Huangjue Temple. [30] During these three years of wandering, he traveled all over the famous capital of Huaixi, got in touch with the customs and customs of various places, saw the world, broadened his horizons, and accumulated experience in social life, which had a profound impact on Zhu Yuanzhang's life. The three years of wandering abroad were also the period when the peasant uprising was surging at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. The saying that "the birth of King Ming will purify all sentient beings" is widely circulated in society, and the White Lotus Sect in the north is also carrying out the same propaganda. Zhu Yuanzhang was also exposed to such propaganda when he was wandering. [31-32]

The intensification of national and class contradictions, coupled with the frequent natural disasters, has caused desperate poor peasants to take risks. In May of the eleventh year of Zhengzheng (1351), Han Shantong and Liu Futong rose up in Yingzhou, and the soldiers wrapped their heads in red scarves, known as the "Red Turban Army", and promoted Han Shantong as the king of Ming. [32] Then, Xu Shouhui started in Qizhou, and Li Er, Peng Da, and Zhao all started in Xuzhou. Within a few months, there was a response from all over the country. On the 11th day of the first month of the second year, Guo Zixing, a local tyrant in Dingyuan, joined Sun Deya and others to raise troops, and tens of thousands of people responded to it. [33-34] Guo Zixing gathered a crowd to burn incense and became the leader of the local White Lotus Society. On February 27, after the rebel army captured Haozhou, Guo Zixing proclaimed himself marshal. Subsequently, Guo Zixing adhered to Haozhou and ordered Zhangming. [35-36]

Zhu Yuanzhang received a letter from his childhood friend Tang He, inviting him to join Guo Zixing's rebel army. At this time, his brother secretly told him that someone knew about the letter and wanted to go to the informant. So, Zhu Yuanzhang went to defect to Guo Zixing's Red Turban Army. This year, Zhu Yuanzhang was twenty-five years old. [6]

Rebel generals

After Zhu Yuanzhang enlisted in the army, he was brave in battle, witty and flexible, and coarse in writing and ink, and soon won Guo Zixing's appreciation, so he transferred Zhu Yuanzhang to the Marshal's Mansion as an errand and appointed him as the ninth commander of the personal soldiers. [37-38] Zhu Yuanzhang was shrewd and capable, handled things properly, and took the lead in the war, and soon Zhu Yuanzhang's good reputation in the army spread. Guo Zixing also regards him as a confidant, and he always discusses important matters with Zhu Yuanzhang. [39-40] At that time, Guo Zixing had an adopted daughter, who was the daughter of his best friend Ma Gong. After Ma Gong's death, his youngest daughter was adopted by Guo Zixing. Guo Zixing saw that Zhu Yuanzhang was a talent, so he married his adopted daughter Ma Shi to Zhu Yuanzhang,[41] and renamed him Zhu Gongzi in the army, and Zhu Yuanzhang gave him another official name, Yuan Zhang, the word Guorui. [42]

while

Xu Da, who met Zhu Yuanzhang in the early days

Xu Da, who met Zhu Yuanzhang in the early days[43]

In the city of Haozhou at that time, there were five marshals in the Red Turban Army. Guo Zixing's faction, Sun Deya's faction and the other three marshals' faction, there are many contradictions between the two factions. In September of this year, the commander of the Xuzhou Red Turban Army, Sesame Li, was killed by the Yuan army, and his generals Peng Da and Zhao Junyong led their troops to Haozhou, Peng Da and Guo Zixing became friends, while Sun Deya and others won over Zhao Junyong. At the instigation of Sun Deya, Zhao Junyong kidnapped Guo Zixing and took Guo Zixing to Sun's house and beat him up, preparing to kill him. After Zhu Yuanzhang heard the news, with the support of Peng Da, he led his troops to rescue Guo Zixing. Since then, the grudge between the two factions has deepened. [44-45]

Zhu Yuanzhang saw that the generals of Haozhou City were vying for power and profit, and he was determined to rely on his own strength to create a new situation. In the middle of June of the thirteenth year of Zhizheng (1353), Zhu Yuanzhang returned to his hometown to recruit soldiers, and his teenage partners Xu Da, Zhou Dexing, Guo Ying, etc., and acquaintances in the same village heard that Zhu Yuanzhang was the leader of the Red Turban Army, and they came to serve. So he soon recruited more than 700 soldiers and returned to Haozhou, Guo Zixing was very happy, so he promoted Zhu Yuanzhang to be pacified. [45-46]

In the winter of this year, Peng Da's son Peng Zaozhu proclaimed himself King of Luhuai, Zhao Junyong proclaimed himself King of Yongyi, and Guo Zixing and others were still marshals. Zhu Yuanzhang saw that these people had not left Haozhou City for half a year, so he selected 24 people including his henchmen Xu Da and Tang He from the recruits he recruited to leave Haozhou and settle far away in the south. [47] On the way to the south of Luoding, Zhu Yuanzhang first appeased 3,000 militiamen from Zhangjiabao Donkey Village, and then recruited 800 people from the Qin commander. Commanding this team, Zhu Yuanzhang marched eastward, and attacked the Yuan army camp in Hengjian Mountain in Dingyuan by night, and Marshal Miao Tycoon surrendered. Zhu Yuanzhang selected 20,000 strong Han people from the surrendered army to join his own team and went south to Chuzhou. [48]

On the way south to Chuzhou, Dingyuan celebrity Li Shanchang asked to see. Li Shanchang and Zhu Yuanzhang hit it off at first sight, and Li Shanchang used Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, as an example to persuade Zhu Yuanzhang: As long as he follows Liu Bang's good knowledge and does not kill people indiscriminately, he will soon be able to calm the world. Zhu Yuanzhang thought it was very reasonable, so he left Li Shanchang as the shogunate secretary, and instructed Li Shanchang to coordinate the relationship between the generals and create a great cause together. [48-49]

Zhu Yuanzhang soon captured Chuzhou, and his nephew Zhu Wenzheng and brother-in-law Li Zhen brought their nephew Bao'er (later named Li Wenzhong) to take refuge. From them, Zhu Yuanzhang learned that the second brother, third brother, and sister had all died. At that time, there was also Mu Ying, an orphan in Dingyuan, so Zhu Yuanzhang adopted these three children as adopted sons and changed his surname to Zhu. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang adopted more than 20 sons. [50] When Zhu Yuanzhang attacked Chuzhou, Guo Zixing was squeezed out by Zhao Junyong, Sun Deya and others, so not long after Zhu Yuanzhang captured Chuzhou City, Guo Zixing also came to Chuzhou. Zhu Yuanzhang immediately handed over the military power, the team of 30,000 people, the discipline was strict, the army was neat, and Guo Zixing was very happy to see it.

Filial piety and high queen Ma

Empress Ma of Filial Piety[51]

In the fifteenth year of Zhizheng (1355), Zhu Yuanzhang conquered Hexian in one fell swoop. Guo Zixing immediately appointed Zhu Yuanzhang as the chief military officer to guard Hezhou.