Author: Painstaking Fang Congzhe

In the second year of Wu Jianwen and the thirty-second year of Jianwu of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Deng She of the Ming Dynasty killed his mastermind - Hong Jixun, the right prime minister, and Emperor Zhu Yunwen of Wu thought that the time had come, so he went north again to the Central Plains.

This time, Zhu Yunwen learned the lessons of his grandfather Zhu Yuanzhang's Northern Expedition, and the south had been recuperating for many years, so it seemed that there was hope for the unification of the whole country. However, most of the generals in the south have been killed, and only a few have survived, which is the biggest difficulty in the south.

Yun Wei took the governor Geng Bingwen as the main commander, commanded the army of 100,000 as the East Route Army, and Li Jinglong, Sheng Yong and other deputies. Zhu Di, the king of Chu, and the commander of the envoy Ping'an led 60,000 people to the Western Route Army and went out of Xiangyang to the north to attack Henan. In addition, the general of Zhenxi and the governor Gu Cheng went out of Hanzhong, and the Han king Zhu Quan and others went out of Shangqiu, etc., each leading 20,000 or 30,000 people, all of whom were partial teachers.

Before leaving, the officials Shangshu Qi Jianyi and others believed that the northern army was strong, and its combat effectiveness exceeded that of the south, and although there were also purges, there were still more famous generals than the south; However, Qi Tai, the secretary of the military department, believed that the resources of the south surpassed that of the north, and the north was at war with the Northern Yuan for many years, and the combat strength was exhausted and fought on two fronts, so it must not be the opponent of the south.

In the second year of Jianwen, the Northern Yuan Dynasty and Goryeo sent envoys to Nanjing through Japan to attack the Ming Dynasty with Wu Yue. Yun Wei was overjoyed and ordered the towns to attack.

The East Route Army went out of Xuzhou, with an army of 100,000, known as 300,000, and even Jining and other cities, and the soldiers came to Dongchang City in August. The deputy capital of the camp in Jinan was dispatched by the Ming Dynasty, and Fang Mihan (Mihan) was handsome and ten thousand people were stubbornly defended. Wu besieged President Li Jinglong with 60,000 men. Jinglong wanted to enter the city and plunder the property, not to destroy the city, and not to attack the city with firearms. Someone advised Jinglong to attack quickly, saying: "Deng Thief is coming, what can I do?" Jing Long said: "I have my own north riding to disturb it." ”

First of all, Yang Wanhu was defeated by Sheng Yong before the deployment of the camp in Jinan in the Ming Dynasty and had to stick to Jinan. In September, Deng She went out of the capital, went to Xinghe to defeat the Northern Yuan army that entered the Kou, and then sent President Zhao Guo 120,000 people out of Daning to pursue, and 30,000 horsemen came to aid Shandong. In October, Deng She, Yang Wanhu and others came to the aid of Dongchang with 50,000 horsemen. Li Jinglong heard that Sheng Yong, Ning Zhong and others were defeated in the battle with the enemy, so they abandoned all their firearms and ran south, but were pursued and killed by the Ming army, and almost all the troops were wiped out. Ning Zhong and others, the commanders of the capital, were killed, and Li Jian, the deputy general of the left side of the expedition to the north and the lieutenant of the horses, was captured.

The Western Route Army marched into Henan, conquered the city, and made rapid progress. The left deputy general of Zhengxi continued to march into the Guanzhong safely, and Lianke Luoyang and other places pressed on Tongguan. And Zhu Quan, Song Sheng and other troops in the middle also captured Changshe and entered the tiger prison, and the situation was very good for a while. But at this time, the Eastern Route Army had been defeated, and the Ming army commander drove into Jianghuai. Emperor Jianwen was terrified and urgently ordered the Western Route Army to come to the rescue, but the Western Route Army had to give up its gains to return to the army, and this large-scale northern expedition ended in failure.

Deng She was overjoyed when he saw that Wu Jun was all vulnerable. So he decided to take advantage of the situation to go south. The east road sent 80,000 troops from Shandong, and cooperated with the sailors to attack Huaihai in the south. In the middle of the road, the generals of Shanxi and Henan attacked Huainan.

The southern camp of the Ming River deployed Guo Conglong, and the deputy capital deployed Xue Lu and other handsome cavalry to pursue Zhu Quan with 50,000 cavalry. The veteran Song Shengshuai's 8,000 troops lined up to block the attack, but after a bitter battle, he was attacked by fire and failed in chaos. Song Sheng died in battle. Zhu Quan led a small number of people to flee into the fortress of Shouyang, and soon Shouyang was also captured by artillery. Zhu Quan put on makeup and absconded back to his fiefdom Jiujiang. The Huainan gateway is opened.

Deng She knew that Geng Bingwen was good at defense, so he bypassed Pengcheng and rushed south, directly approaching Wu Duying Tianfu. Emperor Jianwen was helpless and said: "So that Lan Dashe is still here, why not today." But Deng She considered that there were still tens of thousands of elite pro-troops in the south, and it was not easy to eliminate. What's more, the power of the Northern Yuan Dynasty has not been completely wiped out, so the solution of the two families marrying and the Southern Dynasty New Year's Coin is proposed. Emperor Jianwen refused to agree at the instigation of Fang Xiaoru, Huang Zicheng and others. Enraged, Dunshe sent cavalry to raid the area and plunder the population in order to destroy the economy of the south.

When Emperor Jianwen saw that Deng She's army had dispersed, he was hopeful.

In February of the third year of Jianwen, he worshiped Xu Huizu, the Duke of Wei, as the general of the Chinese army, and led 10,000 troops to attack Deng She together with more than 10,000 people including Sheng Yong, who was defeated and returned to Nantong Prefecture. Hope for a decapitation operation. As a result, it was defeated again, and the first army of Ming Weiwu commanded Guo Yi and others to defeat it. Dunshe took the opportunity to march to Guabu and burned and plundered. Xu Huizu and others led the defeated troops into Yangzhou to hold on.

In March, Deng She besieged Yangzhou, and Tie Xuan, Huizu, Sheng Yong and others resolutely defended it. Deng She had not conquered for a long time, and sighed: "The south is not yet peaceful. "But it is to lead away.

On the way, Xuzhou City was broken, and Geng Bingwen and others surrendered.

After this Northern Expedition, the vitality of the South was greatly damaged. The army that had been in operation for many years and the wealth that had been accumulated for many years were all depleted. The important gateways to Huaishang, Shouyang and Xuzhou, were also acquired by the north.

What is even more terrifying is that this battle exposed the naivety and incompetence of Emperor Jianwen and his regime, and caused serious losses in his strength. This made the personal ambition of Zhu Di, the king of Chu who was in Wuchang and controlled the upstream, begin to swell sharply.