Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang fought against Poyang Lake

On the west bank of Poyang Lake, more than 20 miles south of Xingzi County, there is a village called Yanglan, and the other side of the lake is the boundary of Zuoli in Duchang County. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang launched a fierce battle in the lake area in this area, and both sides invested 800,000 troops.

The old people in this area, whenever after tea and dinner, always like to talk about this story. They said: Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang have been fighting Poyang Lake for 18 years, and countless people have died, and there are so many fish in the lake that they can hit several with a stick......

In fact, the decisive battle between Zhu and Chen at Poyang Lake only lasted more than a month before and after, and the outcome was decided. It began on August 29 in the 23rd year of the Yuan Dynasty (1363 AD) and ended in early October. Although this battle lasted less than 18 years, the length of this water battle, the scale of the battle, the number of troops and ships invested, and the intensity of the battle were unprecedented in the history of ancient Chinese water warfare, and were valued by military strategists of later generations.

In the last years of the Yuan Dynasty, the society was corrupt, and peasant uprisings were surging, and after defeating the main force of the Yuan army, the rebel army divided itself in southern China, and each dominated one side, and launched a fierce struggle for power. The team led by Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born as a monk in Youfang, and the team of Chen Youliang, the son of a fisherman, were two of the most important rebel armies. Chen Youliang controlled the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, while Zhu Yuanzhang's forces were in southern Jiangsu, southern Anhui, and central and southern Jiangxi. Zhu Yuanzhang wants to dominate China, and Chen Youliang is the main obstacle to his success. The war between them was a strategic decisive battle for southern China.

After a series of skirmished outpost battles, in the spring of 1363, Chen Youliang led an army of 600,000 from Jiujiang to launch a siege on Nanchang, which was controlled by Zhu Yuanzhang. When Zhu Yuanzhang heard the news, he was forced to lead 200,000 sailors to return from Nanjing to rescue. At the end of August, the two sides engaged in a bitter, life-and-death battle on Poyang Lake.

The whole battle was divided into three phases: the first stage was 5 days, and the battlefield was near Kangshan in South Poyang Lake, with both sides winning and losing; The second phase lasts for 31 days and is the phase of confrontation between the two armies; In the end, there was a decisive battle at Hukou, in which Chen Youliang's troops were defeated and died, and the whole army was annihilated.

Chen's soldiers are numerous, and the warships are like clouds, and their giant warships are several feet high, divided into three layers, fast, and covered with iron sheets, but they are not very maneuverable. Zhu has few soldiers and small warships, but the small ships have the advantage of maneuverability and flexibility, and the morale of the Zhu army is high.

On 29 August, the two armies came into contact in the waters of Kangshan (in present-day Yugan County), and the first battle began. Chen Youliang's huge ships are connected, the buildings and ships are more than ten zhang high, and the fleet is in formation, spreading for dozens of miles, and the momentum is compelling. Zhu Yuanzhang, in view of the situation between the enemy and us, took advantage of the weakness of Chen's army, which was "connected from end to end of the huge ships, which was not conducive to advance and retreat", and decided to attack with fire.

The next day, Zhu Yuanzhang's general Xu Da led his ships to attack the Chen army and defeated the Chen army's advance. Immediately afterwards, the Zhu army took advantage of the wind and fired artillery, and the Chen army suffered many casualties, but the Zhu army suffered many casualties. It was at this time that Xu Daza's ship was hit by the opponent's artillery, and Chen's army took advantage of the situation to counterattack, and Chen Meng rushed Zhang Dingbian towards Zhu Yuanzhang's ship. Zhu turned around and fled, the battleship ran aground on the beach in a panic, seeing that Zhu Yuanzhang was about to become a prisoner, at this critical juncture, Zhu General Chang Yuchun shot an arrow at Zhang Dingbian, and Zhu Jun then risked death to save him, and Zhu Yuanzhang got away with it. By this time it was already dark, and both sides had withdrawn their troops.

On the third day, Zhu personally led the fleet to attack, because the Chen army's battleships were tall and the Zhu army's ships were small, the Zhu army was defeated, and the right flank began to retreat, although Zhu Yuanzhang even killed more than ten captains, he could not stop the defeat. At three o'clock in the afternoon, the northeast wind rose, and Zhu Jun took advantage of the wind to set fire, and Chen's warships were connected to each other and were unable to move and fell into a fire array. For a while, the smoke on Poyang Lake was blazing, and the fire burned the sky and water, and Zhu's army turned defeat into attack, attacking on all fronts, and Chen's army suffered heavy losses. On the fourth day, the two sides fought again. 24 hours without a win. On the fifth day, Chen's army smashed Zhu Yuanzhang's ship, Zhu fled to move the ship, and Chen's morale was boosted, but by the afternoon, Chen's army could not support it and began to retreat, retreating to Zhuxi on the west bank of Poyang Lake (only a few miles away from Yanglan); Zhu's army marched to Zuoli on the east bank of the lake to cut off Chen's army's retreat.

The two armies held each other in Zhuxi Zuoli, because the Chen army had besieged Nanchang for more than two months, the division was too long, the soldiers were tired, the army's heart was shaken, Zhu Yuanzhang continued to lure him to surrender, and the two generals Chen surrendered to the enemy. Chen Youliang was annoyed and ashamed, he lacked political acumen, and relied on killing prisoners to get angry. Zhu Yuanzhang returned the prisoners of war, treated the wounds of the prisoners of war, and paid tribute to Chen's fallen soldiers, so as to buy people's hearts. In this way, the morale of Chen's army was even lowered, and 31 days later, on October 3, Chen's army ran out of food and grass, and led his army to break through the siege, but they rushed left and right, and were repulsed by Zhu's army, which had been prepared in advance. Chen couldn't, so he led his troops to flee in the direction of Hukou, and Zhu Jun attacked with fire boats and rafts, and after more than ten hours of bloody fighting, Chen Jun still could not escape. Soon Chen Youliang was killed by an arrow. The huge fleet was then destroyed, and Zhu Yuanzhang achieved a complete victory. The Battle of Poyang Lake laid the foundation for his unification of China.

Later, folklore said that the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang won in the first and decisive stage of the water war was to blame Chen Youliang for not choosing a good battlefield, and he should not have chosen near Kangshan, resulting in his defeat and death. "The pig (Zhu) sees the chaff (Kang), and is beaming." It is no wonder that in the battle of Kangshan, Zhu Yuanzhang turned danger into disaster several times, and the soldiers became more and more courageous, all because of this Kang (chaff) mountain.

More than 600 years have passed, and the battle of Poyang Lake has become history, but on the small earthen hill called Yanglan, there is a stone platform several meters high made of granite, which is said to be the Dianjiangtai where Zhu Yuanzhang commanded the army to besiege Chen Youliang. Outside the town of Wucheng (belonging to Yongxiu County) dozens of miles away from Zhuxi, there is also an ancient pavilion near the water, and the legend is that when Zhu Chen fought the war, Chen Youliang's wife boarded the "Wangfu Pavilion" to watch the battle. In fact, this pavilion is famous for the lake pavilion, which was built in the Jin Dynasty. After the Zhu Chen War, the folk artists turned the legend and said that the "Wanghu Pavilion" became the "Wangfu Pavilion".