Seeing that the huge cloud of war was about to cover the sky over Yingtian, many people sitting in Yingtian panicked. Many people suggested that Mr. Zhu should take back Taiping first, and then contain the Han army attacking Yingtian from the side and behind. But Boss Zhu said: No! Taiping is our newly built fortress. It has a deep moat. If the enemy only attacks from land, they will not be able to break it! But they have the advantage of giant ships, so they can attack our city. Break through. Now that they have occupied the upper reaches, they are taking advantage of the situation to invade Kou Yingtian. Their fleet is ten times larger than mine, and it is really difficult to cope with the enemy in such a hurry. There is no chance of success in attacking Taiping by land, and even less by water.
Master Confucius once taught us: If the name is not correct, the words will not be smooth; if the words are not smooth, then things will not be accomplished. Everything must be done in a correct and correct manner, which is a good start for success; otherwise, you will not be able to gain the understanding and support of others, and on the contrary, some people will come out to oppose you.
But this Chen Youliang thought that he could do anything with a gun in his hand. He must know that a man as talented as Cao Cao had to work hard all his life before he dared to hope to be King Wen of Zhou; Moreover, Cao Cao's His son Cao Pi, the King of Zhou Wu, was also obtained through the formal abdication ceremony. In the end, the old master got a good death - but his surname Chen simply killed the old master directly. This was different from Xiang Yu, who was superstitious and violent. The killing of Emperor Yi was exactly the same.
It is said that Chen Youliang, a native of Mianyang (Xiantao City, Hubei Province), like Ni Wenjun, was originally from a fisherman's family. He was not one of the four traditional agricultural, industrial and commercial merchants, and his family was naturally the lowest. . Not only that, Chen Youliang's ancestor's original surname was Xie, but he was later recruited into the Chen family (like Zhu Chongqi), so his descendants had to change their surname to Chen. In today's rural areas, there are still fierce disputes between husband and wife, especially the son-in-law and his father-in-law, about what the surname of the descendants of the son-in-law should be. Everyone still attaches great importance to the issue of the surname (ownership) of the child, as if it is a person or a family. face. For example, there is a family I know. Because the two sides refused to give in, the two children ended up with the same surname.
Son-in-law has always been looked down upon in ancient times. I think back in the Qin Dynasty, son-in-law was still discriminated against in terms of policy and had to bear many more social obligations. Therefore, in terms of suffering and hatred, the Chen Youliang family is indeed comparable to the Zhu Chongba family of the Golden Family.
Perhaps it is precisely because of his humble background that Chen Youliang's desire to change his destiny may be stronger than anyone else's, because people without dignity long for dignity more. Fortunately, Chen Youliang actually got the opportunity to study when he was a child, which enabled him to understand the meaning of the text and gained the ability to use knowledge to change his destiny. Sure enough, he later did not become a fisherman like his father, but became a petty official in the county. Petty officials are generally smart and capable due to their wide social contacts. For example, Xiao He, one of the three heroes of Hanxing, originally He is also a minor official in the county.
However, to Chen Youliang, a small official who does not join the official stream is nothing at all. His ambition in life is much loftier than this: he is determined to be the person who is marked as the Lingxiao Palace. The Monkey King is the Monkey King, otherwise he would have to be a high-ranking official in the government army to glorify the village - revolution or reaction, it is just a gamble in life! Here, there is no doctrine and no belief, only Think carefully about betting.
There once was an old man who was good at Feng Shui. After he saw the ancestral graves of the old Chen family, he said: Your family's methods are very valuable! You Liang was secretly happy about it. I feel more confident.
After Xu Shouhui and others rose up in rebellion, Chen Youliang, who was already in his early thirties at the time, also believed that he had an opportunity to make a complete comeback, so he went to join the revolutionary team.
Comrade Youliang was originally a small bookkeeper under Ni Wenjun, specializing in handling paperwork, money and food and other chores. However, considering his talents, it is obviously an understatement to let him do these unpromising things. Soon, Comrade Youliang got several opportunities to take the initiative. With his own merit, he was finally promoted to a leading marshal under Prime Minister Ni (equivalent to the level of division commander or brigade commander).
Generally speaking, generals who lead troops can be divided into two types: those with brains and those without brains, that is to say, whether they have ambitions and political aspirations. Obviously Comrade Youliang is the same as Comrade Zhu Wen, the terminator of the Tang Dynasty. They are both political madmen with brains and ambitions. Moreover, even if Comrade Youliang has studied for a few more years, he will not be willing to live under these mud-legged and reckless people.
In September of the 17th year of Zhengzheng, Comrade Youliang's opportunity finally came. Maybe he was the most trusted person by Prime Minister Ni before, and had received many favors from the Prime Minister. Maybe the Prime Minister was nothing special about him, and was even more jealous and mean - but this is no longer important. No matter what, friends Comrade Liang's consistent ambition will only make him look at everything with one behavioral standard and make him make one choice, which is to strive to maximize personal interests!
In the end, through some On balance, he chose to betray Prime Minister Ni. Although this was very risky, the benefits were extremely attractive. Some books also say that he had to take this step because he had an affair with the prime minister's concubine and to prevent his wife from being exposed. In fact, this is a huge insult to Comrade Youliang's intelligence!
After Comrade Youliang successfully attacked and killed the rebellious Prime Minister Ni, he naturally took over the Prime Minister's gun barrel. At this time, Comrade Youliang's waist straightened up. He called himself Xuanwei The envoy was called Pingzhang Zhengshi. At this time, he had actually basically mastered the military and political power of Tianwan's regime. Gradually, Emperor Xu was completely ignored by him.
I think based on Prime Minister Ni’s failure, Comrade Youliang’s methods should be smarter and he should not be too explicit. However, after all, Chen Pingzhang's reading is limited, his vision and knowledge are limited, and he is very conceited. Therefore, to put it bluntly, he is just a deceitful political hooligan. In the end, he brutally executed his master and then replaced him. This was an unfair and unpopular move. First of all, it created a strong disharmonious atmosphere within himself.
Before even competing with the enemy, he missed a move. As everyone knows, for those subordinates who are resentful and dissatisfied, coercion and inducement alone are obviously not enough. The key to being a leader is the charm of personality! I think after Tian Heng was defeated by the Han army, what was left of him was Five hundred of his subordinates would rather die than surrender, but wanted to be buried in the grave for their master. What is this based on? It is the charisma of leader Tian Heng.
In addition, when Xiang Yu killed Emperor Yi, it also provided Liu Bang with an excuse to attack him; coupled with Liu Bang's propaganda, Xiang Yu was even more demonized.
Chen Pingzhang's missteps are obvious. For example, after Emperor Xu's death, Ming Yuzhen, who ruled Sichuan, refused to accept his surname Chen. Ming Yuzhen established herself as the king of Longshu, and became Gongsun Shu, Liu Bei-like character. On the contrary, Ming Yuzhen also worshiped Lao Xu as the Emperor Xianwu in response to Tianqi Yun, and his temple name was Shizong.
Just imagine, if he can get the full support of Sichuan, then Chen Pingzhang will have more confidence and strength to dominate Jiangnan and the world. Unfortunately, he is too impatient.
Since Comrade Youliang became the popular Chen Pingzhang, he began to send troops to fight in order to expand his territory. He could also take the opportunity to expand and cultivate the power of his cronies.
In the first month of the eighteenth year, Chen Pingzhang began to send troops to attack Anqing, an important town in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. At that time, Yu Que, the general of the Yuan Dynasty, relied on Xiaogu Mountain in the southwest of Anqing as a shield and ordered the navy to station here to resist Chen's attack. However, the Chen tribe had a large number of people and strong generals. They quickly broke through Xiaogushan and surrounded Anqing. After a fierce attack day and night, the city of Anqing was broken and Yu Que was killed.
Since then, the Chen tribe has begun to border and confront the Zhu tribe downstream, and this is why Chang Yuchun made his first active provocation. Because the threat from Chen's tribe to Zhu's tribe downstream was too great. Even if they didn't have any hostility, Comrade Zhu would feel a heavy sense of oppression.
Zhao Kuangyin even said that he could not allow others to sleep soundly on the side of the bed, let alone a wolf sleeping next to him.
In April of this year, Chen's troops captured Longxing Road (today's Nanchang area). Then Chen Pingzhang sent his troops Wang Fengguo and others to attack Ruizhou, Kangtai and others to attack Shaowu, and he himself led the troops to attack Ji'an. , and sent him to conquer Fuzhou. In August, they entered Jianchang Road; in September, they conquered Ganzhou; in November, they entered Potingzhou, extending their sphere of influence to Fujian. In February of the following year, Wang Fengguo defeated Xinzhou again. In March, Chen Pingzhang sent troops to conquer Xiangyang, the gateway to the northwest.
The intellectual Su Shi often said that it is easy to be poor and lowly, but difficult to be rich and noble. There is also an old saying that doing good is like ascending, and doing evil is like falling. The struggle of this life is like climbing a mountain, and greed and arrogance are like a landslide, which can instantly lead people to a place of eternal destruction. Or some people may be like Gou Jian, the king of Yue, and Qin Shihuang: they are easy to make appointments with others, and they can easily eat others when they succeed. You are a wolf in Zhongshan, and you will run rampant when you get your way. Chen Pingzhang relied on his high achievements, and he used Emperor Xu to control everyone. He also became arrogant, so some comrades began to dislike him and started to have second thoughts.
Master Pingzhang naturally saw this, and he became even more wary and suspicious of his subordinates, especially Emperor Xu’s old buddies. At this time, he killed Zhao Pusheng, but considering Lao Zhao's personality and emotional tendencies, it might not be unreasonable for Lord Pingzhang to kill him.
At that time, Chen Pingzhang himself was resting and working in Longxing. Just like Cao Cao when he started a new business in Yecheng (Fenggong Jianguo), he completely ignored the emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty and his ministers in Xudu, and Nor is it easy to be constrained by others. At this moment, Emperor Xu suddenly asked to move the capital to Longxing. I don't know what his plan was. But of course Chen Pingzhang is unwilling: If you come, it will be inconvenient for me to do things here.
But this old Xu was stubborn. Maybe he didn't want Chen Pingzhang to be left alone, so he came to his door himself. Maybe he is also a person who is unwilling to be lonely. He doesn't want to be supported all day long, and he also wants to find something to do. After all, he is not born to be a rich and idle person.
In December of the 19th year of Zhengzheng, Emperor Xu led his troops to Longxing, despite Chen Pingzhang's repeated objections. When they arrived in Jiangzhou (today's Jiujiang), Chen Pingzhang pretended to greet them and ambush outside the west gate of the city. When Emperor Xu and his party entered, they ambush behind closed doors and killed all the subordinates led by Xu. From then on, Lao Xu became the bare commander and a complete puppet in his control.
I have to say that this Chen Pingzhang was a bit too direct and overbearing, which turned out to be a gangster method. It was not as subtle and tactful as Comrade Zhu's later, and it was so subtle that it came naturally.
Then, Chen Pingzhang proclaimed himself the King of Han, established the royal palace outside the west gate of Jiangzhou City, set up officials and subordinates, and vested all power in himself. The next thing he has to do is to clean up the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and prepare for victory across the country. This is also the inevitable result of Comrade Chen's ambitions expanding step by step.
In terms of the territory controlled by Comrade Chen at that time, there were three or four provinces today, which roughly included most of Hubei, Hunan, and Jiangxi, as well as a small part of Anhui and Fujian. ; Comrade Zhu's territory only covers one province, which roughly includes most of Zhejiang and a small part of Jiangsu and Anhui. Therefore, it is not difficult to see that Chen’s manpower, material resources, financial resources and other resources at that time were three to four times that of Zhu’s, and its corresponding war potential was difficult for Zhu to compete with. At that time, south of the (Yangtze) River Only friends and soldiers are the strongest.
Moreover, Lao Chen had the greatest ambition. He was eager to expand downstream, so Comrade Zhu had to quickly free up his hands to deal with him.
However, although the Chen Department is very powerful, it also has a fatal weakness, that is, as Comrade Zhu said, Lao Chen does not understand the principles of maintaining power and waiting for the time. He does not know how to strengthen No matter how hard you look for opportunities to advance, you still don't know how to use your troops to be as quiet as a virgin and as active as a rabbit. Otherwise, once he loses on the front line, instability will inevitably occur in the rear; and the army will attack wantonly without good rest and recuperation, and will easily become exhausted, and therefore its combat effectiveness cannot be guaranteed.
There is a question of emphasizing quality and weight here. Emphasizing quality means first emphasizing the need to strengthen the construction and consolidation of base areas (building walls high and accumulating grain widely), while the result of weight is bound to be trapped in Blind expansion.
Obviously, the contest between Zhu Bu and Chen Bu clearly reflects the contest between quality and quantity.
One is in a commanding position, taking advantage of the right time (the initiative) and the right location, while the other is in a critical situation of attacking against the current and being trapped on both fronts②, but has taken advantage of all the people and people. One is aggressive, and the other is determined to do his job. It can be said that the two sides are evenly matched and matched, and what is about to be staged will definitely be a thrilling battle to the death...
②Although it can be said to be a two-front battle, the situation is But it was far less serious. Zhang Shicheng on the eastern front was too inactive. In contrast, a big military reason why the Taiping Army died so quickly at the hands of the Qing Army was that the two fronts were severely trapped, and the loyal king Li Xiucheng did not pay attention to strengthening the defense of the upper reaches.
The issue of how to receive and place surrendered soldiers (captured soldiers) is always an important issue faced in war. If you do this job well, you can multiply your strength; if you do it poorly, it will inevitably add resistance to future battles.
The People's Liberation Army can be said to be the best team at this job. Many captured and surrendered soldiers of the Kuomintang became the new force of the People's Liberation Army after a short period of reorganization; on the other hand, the Kuomintang army could not do this at all. at this point. It is precisely because of this that the People's Liberation Army, which was originally poorly equipped (millets plus rifles) and had only about 1.3 million soldiers, actually defeated the well-equipped (airplanes plus tanks) and soldiers in more than three years. The Kuomintang army initially numbered more than 4.3 million. This has to be said to be a miracle in the history of war.
Looking for trouble. Of course, killing and surrendering is ominous mainly for internal disputes within a country, such as wars between countries. Although killing and surrendering is shameful and sinful, such as Bai Qi's massacre of Zhao Jun during the Warring States Period and the Soviet-German War The German army killed a large number of Soviet surrendered troops, which was an extremely expedient measure.
There are no eternal enemies, only eternal calculations of interests; as long as you solve the ideological problem of surrendering troops, they will follow you wholeheartedly.
It is said that in May of the 20th year of Zhizheng, Chen Youliang's troops launched a large-scale attack on Chizhou downstream of Anqing, but were defeated by Xu Da and others.
Originally, since he killed Zhao Pusheng, Chen Youliang had wanted to take a peek at Chizhou. Comrade Zhu was well aware of Chen Bu's intentions, so he quickly transferred Comrade Chang Yuchun to Chizhou to strengthen the guard work there. Otherwise, once the Yangtze River defense line is lost, Yingtian will be completely exposed to the enemy's gunfire.
Before the enemy came to attack, Mr. Zhu, who was well-planned, sent people to Chizhou and informed comrades Xu, Chang and others: Chen Youliang's troops can reach the city of Chizhou in a day or night, you guys. Five thousand people should be used to defend the city, and another ten thousand people should be sent to ambush at the foot of Jiuhua Mountain. When the enemy's troops approach the city, you can raise flags and drums on the city, build a great momentum, and then ambush troops to attack and cut off the enemy's rear, then the enemy's troops will be defeated!
Xu, Chang will do this. When the enemy really came to kill them, they were very sharp and they went straight to the city of Chizhou. Flags were hoisted and drums were hoisted on the city, and then Zhu's troops set up in ambush. They came out from the mountains and followed the river down, blocking the enemy's return path. At this time, troops were sent out from the city to attack the panicked enemies. As a result, the Chen tribe was severely defeated. More than 10,000 people were beheaded and more than 3,000 people were captured alive.
Regarding the three thousand prisoners of war, the straight-tempered Chang Yuchun suggested to Comrade Xu: These people are our fierce enemies. If we don't kill them, we may cause trouble in the future. If our lord knew about this, he would definitely not kill these people. This statement clearly implies a hint of blaming Mr. Zhu for his wifely kindness. In fact, Lao Chang failed to appreciate Mr. Zhu's good intentions.
Comrade Xu did not dare to make the decision without authorization, so he had to quickly ask for instructions from his superiors. After Boss Zhu got the letter, he quickly sent someone to spread the message: We must tell the generals immediately: Our war with the Chen tribe has just begun. We must not kill to defeat the enemy! All the three thousand enemy elites who were captured alive can be released. , for future use.
However, because Comrade Chang was too impatient, he wanted to kill him first and then show off.
By the time the messenger came to deliver the message, the surrender soldiers had been killed and only three hundred of them were left. When Boss Zhu learned about this, he was very unhappy: Chang Yuchun, aren't you trying to ruin my job, Lao Zhu!
But it won't happen next time, Boss Zhu spared Chang Yuchun this time. . Moreover, he also considered that the pressure ahead was too great, so it was no wonder that Comrade Chang would take such extreme actions.
Regarding the defeat of Chizhou, Chen Youliang responded quickly. He sent an envoy to say: This battle was not my intention, but the border patrol accidentally fought. That means that this conflict was not my intention, Chen Youliang, and I, Old Chen Ke, had no intention of annexing the lower reaches.
Lao Chen is very cunning. He clearly wants to paralyze the opponent, so as to catch him by surprise and avenge him. Before the war, he, surnamed Chen, had to deliberately stay silent for a period of time to create a harmonious atmosphere.
In the fifth month of the month, Chen Youliang, who was unwilling to fail, indeed led his fleet to bypass Chizhou and attack Taiping directly. The Taiping Guards at that time were Hua Yun, the Privy Council judge, and Zhu Wenxun, the adopted son of Mr. Zhu. Due to the small number of troops (three thousand men), Zhu Wenxun died quickly in the battle.