Late Yuan Dynasty: I Vied with Zhu Yuanzhang for the Empire!

I have a problem with reading books. I like to consider rationality within my own cognitive scope. Whether it is a time-traveling historical genre or a fantasy cultivation, at least don't be ignorant in a large area. Then what I say is that I think the book I wrote talks about the brain, which is more reasonable. So I will check the information. Some of the information is directly grafted into the novel. I don't know if it is very blunt. But after all, with limited energy and knowledge, it is impossible to write a very professional technical explanatory text. Also, this is my first time writing a novel, so please forgive me for my poor writing style.

As an enemy of Zhu Yuanzhang, we cannot fail. Failure means that we will all be demoted to low status. It would be too miserable for hundreds of years.

The one-eyed dragon who competes in the world is Li Zicheng. I'm showing off today. You can't wear something like a one-eyed dragon, and you're a short-lived ghost. Is this causing trouble for readers?

Is it so funny? A one-eyed dragon conquers the world

In the troubled times at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, it was Xiao Ming Wang, Chen Youliang, Zhang Shicheng and others who mainly resisted the Yuan Dynasty, while the rebel army led by Zhu Chongba grew slowly behind. Bei Yuan fought with them like snipe and clam, and most of them were destroyed. Then he brought people to fishermen to make a profit, and finally liquidated Chen Youliang and others who had lost both sides with Bei Yuan and were anti-Yuan heroes. In the first year of Zhishun in the Yuan Dynasty, the measured territory was 13.72 Million square kilometers, starting from Dongyinghai in the east, Nanhai in the south, Tianshan in the west, and Hanhai in the north. In the Hongwu period, the land area was more than 4.5 Million square kilometers. Land was the basis of survival. Compare it. How big is the difference between the two?

Finally there is a novel about Zhu Yuanzhang competing for the world

When Zhu Yuanzhang first founded the country, the "people" of the Ming Dynasty also included farmers and grassroots military officers. However, as time went on, the dividends from the victory in the war and economic recovery at the beginning of the founding of the country were exhausted. However, the upper limit of the productivity level was placed here. If no more wealth could be created to be divided, what should we do? Is it possible that the ruling class should be collectively regarded as saints, and no one should eat more and take more? The only way is to eat up the two-legged beast and then start eating at the bottom of the ruling class. The gentry discriminated against poor families, the Song Dynasty annexed and annexed land to small landowners, and the Qing Dynasty kicked the New Han Army out of the Eight Banners. This is the reason. When a situation occurs like the new army in the late Qing Dynasty that turned into a stronghold of rebels, and during the Republic of China, even the sons of the gentry turned red in large numbers, the regime is not far from being over. So if we want to have a long-lasting political power, we still have to focus on industry. If we cannot create a surplus beyond agriculture, and without the distribution of new social wealth brought about by increased productivity, we will have no future if we just try to create "new farmland" and "new military households" in the agricultural economy.

There is no plug-in, how can you fight with Zhu Yuanzhang? Too much nonsense

From the outbreak of war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty to the time Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor, it was only a short period of sixteen years. Zhu Yuanzhang's Red Army was originally a newcomer. After crossing the river, it occupied the metropolis of Jiankang. It was protected by the Longfeng regime in the north of the Yangtze River. It seized the abundant manpower and material resources in eastern Zhejiang between the Tianwan Red Army and Zhang Shicheng's forces, and became an important warlord in the south. In the war against Chen Youliang, despite the embarrassment of approaching the city and the danger of a bloody battle at Poyang Lake, he achieved a complete victory. The war against Zhang Shicheng was carried out steadily, completely taking over the western Zhejiang region, which is the center of the country's population and economy. In this process, the Red Army, which was born in the grasslands of Huaixi, decided life and death purely by its own force. It never suffered serious setbacks, and it never had any comprehensive compromise or cooperation with other separatist forces or the bureaucratic scholar-bureaucrat class. After Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor, the warlords in the north coincided with a melee. The Ming army made a northern expedition to the Central Plains, raided most of the capital, and was defeated by Timur. It took just over two years to achieve the unification of the Han Dynasty. This process of quick victory cannot be compared to the three generations of Liu Bang, Li Shimin, and Nurhachi who also "conquered the world with martial arts." The Ming Dynasty relied purely on force to build its country. It had nothing to rely on and few setbacks to win quickly. The construction of its political power was rushed and did not go through a long-term forging and improvement process. In fact, the monarchs and ministers of the early Ming Dynasty lacked the experience accumulation and knowledge level to build a government and manage the country. The Red Army in the south of the Yangtze River established provinces according to the dragon and phoenix political system, and even later became king and founded the country, all of which indirectly and directly imitated the local and central systems of the Yuan Dynasty. Although the Eastern Zhejiang scribes group cultivated their literary and military skills, made plans and even participated in battles, Liu Ji, who had the most "world exposure" among them, only had experience of serving at the provincial level in the Yuan Dynasty. The well-established institutions at all levels of the provincial government of the Red Army were actually produced by Zhang Chang, a central official of the Yuan Dynasty who was detained by the Red Army. The rapid victory of the unification war and the rapid expansion of its territory forced the Ming Dynasty to accept a large number of Yuan Dynasty officials and scholars, and to inherit various systems in the north that were different from the Yuan Dynasty and the south. Under this situation, the system of the Yuan Dynasty naturally became the source of the system of the Ming Dynasty. The monarchs and ministers of the early Ming Dynasty may not be willing to admit this, or they may not realize how deeply this seemingly brand-new dynasty was actually based on the previous dynasty. The Ming Dynasty used the expulsion of foreign rule and the restoration of China as an important source of its own legitimacy. The "Legal Body of Han and Tang Dynasties" should have drawn a clear line with the Mongolian and Yuan systems. However, the dynastic orthodoxy of the early Ming Dynasty coexisted with the Huayi distinction. Zhu Yuanzhang and other founding emperors and ministers from the lower class of society always had simple feelings towards the Yuan Dynasty, and held a reciprocal attitude toward the Bei Yuan Dynasty. They even respected Fu Shou and Yu Que who sacrificed their lives for the Yuan Dynasty, appreciated the Ming Dynasty's most powerful enemy, Timur, and returned the captured Prince of the Bei Yuan Dynasty. In the melee between warlords in the south, Zhu Yuanzhang did not form a deep hatred against the Yuan army. On the contrary, he deeply hated Chen Youliang, a powerful enemy who once threatened his own survival. He was also resentful of the people of Jiangnan who did not forget Zhang Shicheng's benevolent rule. He claimed that the world came from the heroes rather than fighting for the Yuan Dynasty. What's more important is that the Longfeng regime called for countering the Yuan and restoring the Song Dynasty, while the Ming Dynasty needed to cover up the fact that they were born in Longfeng. Naturally, they took the inheritance of orthodoxy as their own responsibility and downplayed the slogan of restoring China. All this made the emperors and ministers of the early Ming Dynasty really hate the name of the Yuan Dynasty, and did not deliberately reject the institutional system left by the Yuan Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang did not hold any official position in the Yuan Dynasty, did not enjoy any salary and fame, and had no "historical burden". He started from the bottom of society and created the first unified Han dynasty in history that overthrew foreign rule and rebuilt it. This was an unparalleled achievement in the eyes of people at the time and in his own mind. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang's high prestige and power surpassed that of ordinary founding monarchs. In political life, he was not satisfied with just exercising the power of life and death over everyone, but wanted to create legislation and set an example for future generations. Throughout the Hongwu period, Zhu Yuanzhang showed an extremely strong interest in system construction. In addition to trying his best to reshape the old system or conduct repeated innovation experiments in essence, he was more concerned about controlling everyone and incorporating all aspects of personal life into the country's service system, which not only improved the efficiency of the country in extracting people's power, but also strengthened the operational order of the country and society. In the Bingshen year (1356), before Zhu Yuanzhang took the post of Pingzhang of Jiangnan Province, he served as governor and general manager from a personal soldier, while Marshal Zuo, Marshal Yi, and colleagues in the Privy Council were all just ordinary generals in the Red Army. After the Bingshen year (1356), he was promoted to the prime minister of the province from Pingzhang, and was granted the title of Duke of Wu. Until the Guimao year (1363), he became the right prime minister of the Zhongshu Province. Although he was a very popular minister, he was still a minister of the Longfeng regime. In the Jiachen year (1364), Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself King of Wu, and then killed King Xiao Ming. In the first year of Wu (1367), he changed his reign name. At the end of the year, he changed "Wu Wang's decree" to "Wu Wang's imperial edict", and finally eliminated the connection with the Longfeng regime. The Jiawu Year (1354) was a key moment for Zhu Yuanzhang's early success. Zhu Yuanzhang recalled: "I advocated farmers to join the army, and their career was kuang. They gathered in crowds within a month, with red flags covering the fields and filling the hills. They led the clear streams and guarded Chuyang." Later he recalled: "Lead the twenty-four sharp men to travel south to Ding. Suddenly there were three thousand soldiers returning from the army. In June, they captured Hengjian Mountain and captured more than 20,000 soldiers. They marched into Chuyang and defended the city. Zhu Yuanzhang took a considerable portion of the 3,000 and 20,000 soldiers and marched south to Chuzhou alone. A core group including Xu Da and other new members was formed. Soon, superior generals came to Chuzhou one after another. Zhu Yuanzhang was suspected and weakened, but his personal team was not broken up, and he accepted Deng Yu, Chang Yuchun and others as leaders of a certain unit of the Red Army. In the summer of the Yiwei year (1355), the Haozhou Red Army accepted the appointment of the Longfeng regime. Zhu Yuanzhang ranked third in the army. It was after this that the Chaohu navy came to surrender. The Chaohu naval force was strong, and it was this Red Army that defected to the Red Army instead of Zhu Yuanzhang. At this time, it was impossible for the two parties to establish a personal relationship. After Zhu Yuanzhang seized the leadership of the entire army in the Bingshen year (1356), other old Haozhou generals, Chaohu naval forces and even new surrenderers, no matter how wholeheartedly they supported him, had no time to establish a personal relationship with him. Therefore, the key to "the old people crossing the river" is not "crossing the river", but the "old people", that is, the "following the dragon" relationship when Zhu Yuanzhang was not famous. The Red Army was able to cross the river because of the intervention of the Chaohu Navy in the spring of Year Yiwei. Compared with small forces such as Chang Yuchun and Feng Sheng, the Chaohu navy had many generals and generals, who had occupied high positions for a long time and played key roles many times in the founding of the country. However, none of the generals in Chaohu became a duke. Among the last fourteen, only four were Zhao Yong, Liao Yongzhong, Yu Tongyuan and Hua Gao. The Wei Shou Book mentions the way to join the Red Army before the founding of the Ming Dynasty. There are terms such as "join the army", "submit" and "submit and join the army". "Submit and join the army" is still considered "submit". Many soldiers joined the army after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty and are considered "joined the army". Some who joined before crossing the river are still considered "submitted". The key lies not in whether he joined the army sooner or later, but in his identity before joining the Red Army. Whether he was a civilian, an anti-Yuan self-reliant person, or a soldier belonging to another camp. The origins of honorable nobles are also strictly divided into "joining the army" and "submitting". After Chang Yuchun defected to Zhu Yuanzhang, he was quite suspicious and neglected at first. However, he came from a group of thieves and almost came alone to establish a personal affiliation with Zhu Yuanzhang. Ding Dexing and Wu Fu, who led a large number of troops to surrender as rebel generals, were subject to "chaqidili" scrutiny. Even if they wholeheartedly recognized Zhu Yuanzhang's authority, their personal relationships were not as good as those of attendants and confidants. Therefore,the difference between "joining the army" and "submitting" is still affected by the personal relationship with Zhu Yuanzhang. The sooner or later the master-slave relationship is established with Zhu Yuanzhang is the main indicator that determines the ranking of nobles. The "military" among the "old people crossing the river" formed the first circle of people who had the closest relationship with Zhu Yuanzhang. They may be collectively referred to as the "Haozhou military conscripts", including Chang Yuchun, who joined the army due to his personal connections and outstanding military exploits. Among the "old people crossing the river", those who "submit" are generally not from Haosi, and their personal affiliation with Zhu Yuanzhang is not obvious. They were suppressed when they were awarded rewards in the third year of Hongwu (1370), forming a second circle, which can be called "subjects to Jiangbei". The generals who surrendered after crossing the river could occupy a place among the nobles of the early Ming Dynasty, either by virtue of their military exploits or by leading a large group of troops to surrender. They were classified as "submitters" and had a weak personal relationship with Zhu Yuanzhang. They constituted the third circle, which can be called "submitters after crossing the river". Within the Xungui Group during the Hongwu period, there existed a Haozhou Congjun Group based on their close relationship with Zhu Yuanzhang. When the guard station was founded in the Jiachen year, there were three major forces in the army: the Haozhou Red Army, the Chaohu Navy, and those who surrendered after crossing the river. By the time he was granted the title of Duke in the third year of Hongwu (1370), the conquerors and surrenderers from Haozhou each accounted for half of the country. In the 13th year of Hongwu, the guard posts belonging to Zhu Yuanzhang's former direct line were still stationed in Beijing and had to be strengthened, while even the guard posts belonging to the generals from Jiangbei were basically transferred out or deleted. Correspondingly, the previous massacres of nobles during the Hongwu period seemed to be indiscriminate and "equal", but in fact they first focused on the Chaohu navy, those who crossed the river and later surrendered, and then focused on the older generation of nobles. By the end of the Hongwu period, the remaining nobles were basically composed of the Haozhou army group.

A major feature of the rule of the Yuan Dynasty was that "everyone followed his own customs", and the specific practice was the "appointment system". Disputes between people belonging to different ethnic groups were negotiated and adjudicated by representatives of both parties.