Chang Yuchun, born in Huaiyuan, Anfeng Road (now Huaiyuan, Anhui Province), was born in the first year of Yuan to Shun (1330) and died in the second year of Hongwu, Ming Dynasty (1369). He was a contemporary of Xu Da who assisted Zhu Yuanzhang in pacifying the southeast and conquering the Yuan Dynasty. He is tall and strong, likes martial arts, is good at riding and shooting, has excellent arm strength, and has developed a good martial arts. However, due to political corruption at the end of Yuan Dynasty, he was useless. At the age of 23, Chang Yuchun took part in the peasant uprising at the end of Yuan Dynasty. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang crossed the river and went south. He joined Zhu Yuanzhang. In the wars of quarrying (now northwest of dangtu county, Anhui Province) and capturing Qing Ji (now Nanjing, Jiangsu Province), he took the lead and bravely climbed to the top, showing his fearless spirit. Zhu Yuanzhang pacified the southeast, destroyed the Yuan Dynasty in the north and started his career in Qin Jin. He was appointed deputy commander-in-chief of the unified army.

Chang Yuchun's military activities are roughly the same as those of Xu Da. During the war in the early Ming Dynasty, there was a promising spring. They are the main commanders and deputy commanders, both of whom are brilliant and brave, and they are Zhu Yuanzhang's military right-hand men. Chang Yuchun was especially famous for his bravery in following Zhu Yuanzhang's south expedition to the north. He often boasts of "taking hundreds of thousands of people all over the world", so the army also calls him "often hundreds of thousands".

Dare to fight.

Chang Yuchun first defected to Zhu Yuanzhang, and was taken in by Zhu Yuanzhang because he won the honor of the three armed forces in the battle.

In April of the 15th year of Yuan Dynasty (1355), Zhu Yuanzhang marched into Hezhou (now Hexian County, Anhui Province). At this time, Chang Yuchun took part in the local Liu Ju arise. He saw that Liu Ju was fatuous and had no long-term vision, and felt that he could not follow him for a long time. One day, Chang Yuchun was trapped in the field, just as Zhu Yuanzhang led his troops through the field. So he hurried forward to meet him and asked Zhu Yuanzhang to take him in. In order to show sincerity, he is willing to be a pioneer of the whole army after joining the army. Zhu Yuanzhang saw Chang Yuchun's extraordinary appearance, but he didn't know his background, so he gave Chang Yuchun a tactful answer. Zhu Yuanzhang promised Chang Yuchun to cross the river with the army until he captured Taiping (now Dangtu, Anhui).

At the beginning of June, Zhu Yuanzhang led the generals to cross the river to Taiping. Chang Yuchun went with the army. The army arrived at Niuzhuji (now northwest of Dangtu) and was blocked by the enemy. This place stands out in the middle of the river, facing the mountains and water, and is an important place to cross the river into the south. Yuan soldiers were stationed on the Rocky Mountain and were guarded by the array. Zhu Jun's ships are three feet away, that is to say, they are stranded and can't go. If this goes on, not only will the fleet float on the water, but its morale will be frustrated, and it will also attract the Yuan army to quarry reinforcements behind the Rocky Mountain, which will bring difficulties to the whole crossing battle. Seeing this, Chang Yuchun stepped forward without hesitation. He took the lead, sped down the rocky coast in a canoe, and then struggled to fight the Yuan soldiers. Yuan Bing in Los Angeles saw Chang Yuchun break into the battle single-handedly, so he grabbed his brother and tried to fight. Chang Yuchun took advantage of Yuan Bing's instant pick-up, then jumped on the Rocky Mountain and shouted hard. Zhu Yuanzhang's overseers took the opportunity to cover up and kill, breaking the position of the Yuan Army in one fell swoop. Subsequently, the quarrying pass behind Niuzhuji was pulled out to seize peace. Chang Yuchun's brave raid played an important role in the success or failure of crossing the river, winning the joy of Zhu Yuanzhang and the praise of the generals. After the war, Zhu Yuanzhang named Chang Yuchun as the pioneer of the general logistics department and made him the general logistics department.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang's army was peaceful, it was surrounded by the Yuan army. Yuan generals Haig and Arugray returned to the quarry by boat and closed the estuary. At that time, Zhu Jun's trench, military spouse and entourage all stayed in Jiangbei and Hezhou. If Zhu Yuanzhang wants to gain a foothold in the south of the Yangtze River, he must communicate with the rear area strategically to ensure the supply of materials. Therefore, as soon as they heard that the rear road was cut off, they quickly returned to the rescue and fought fiercely with the enemy on the water for the purpose of competing for the sea. At first, Chang Yuchun undertook the task of containing Zhang Yinbing. Seeing that the main attack force could not recklessly fight, he rushed to the enemy line in a canoe while completing the containment, first rushing the Yuan navy division in the middle of the river into two sections, and then attacking from left to right. The Yuan army ship was hit by this, and the formation was in chaos, and the soldiers on board rushed for their lives. Chang Yuchun's action not only opened the riverbank passage for Zhu Yuanzhang, but also captured the warships of the Yuan Army. After the war, Chang Yuchun led a team to defend Liyang (that is, Hezhou), attacked Qing Ji, and made great contributions. Zhu Yuanzhang likes this energetic young commander-in-chief more and more.

In the 16th year of Zheng Zheng (1356), Chang Yuchun captured Zhenjiang (now Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province) with Marshal Xu Da, and successfully pulled Changzhou (now Changzhou, Jiangsu Province). During this period, he killed the enemy and was captured, which was even more remarkable. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang named him as the grand marshal of the whole army for his military exploits and moved to the central wing grand marshal.

After Chang Yuchun was promoted to the rank of general, he never lost the spirit of fighting bravely. He often walked in front of the soldiers to block the enemy's front and break through the city. After several struggles, he was brave and fearless under extremely difficult circumstances, showing extraordinary perseverance and strong character.

In July of the 23rd year of Zheng Zheng (1363), Chang Yuchun went to Pinghan with Xu Da and joined Hanwang Chen Youliang in Kang Langshan, Poyang Lake. At that time, Chen Jun's ship was high, and according to the upstream, it had an advantage. When the two armies meet in a narrow way, it is important to see the courage of the generals. Courage leads to progress, fear leads to chaos. In view of Chen's weakness of being big and inconvenient to move, Chang Yuchun took the lead in diving into the enemy lines by canoe. Under his leadership, people will fight bravely, each with one as a hundred. For a time, "the sound of heaven and earth, arrows and rain gather, guns and thunder rise, waves rise, Fei Huo shines on the sky, and within a hundred miles, the water is red." In the rain of flying rockets, Chang Yuchun ordered his men to spread their wings and attack the enemy, and launched a bloody battle with the enemy on the surface. In the lake, "there are 20,000 to 30,000 people who burn and drown, and the bodies are like ants, endless." In this way, they fought for three days in a row, and Chang Yuchun and other troops set fire to the enemy ships and defeated them one after another.

However, the days of fierce fighting have exhausted both sides, and Chang Yuchun and his men have reached the edge of exhaustion. In this situation, perseverance, patience, hard work and hard work are of decisive significance to winning the battle. On this day, the war reached the mouth of the lake, and the generals saw that Chen Jun was still very strong and they were very tired. They want to drive the boat to the east and let the enemy leave. At this critical moment, which is related to whether we can destroy the enemy, Chang Yuchun resolutely stood up and showed no weakness. He obeyed Zhu Yuanzhang's orders and went upstream, cutting off Chen Jun's way home. You will be very moved to see this scene. So, instead of rushing upstream, work together and fight to the death. As a result, Chen Youliang was killed and more than 50,000 people were captured.

With fearless courage, Chang Yuchun faced the enemy calmly, calmly and carefully looking for opportunities to break the enemy.

In August of the 26th year of Zheng Zheng (1366), Chang Yuchun and Xu Da led the troops to Pingwu. They adopted the overall plan of acting first and then taking fundamental measures. First, they surrounded Huzhou (now Xing Wu, Zhejiang). However, just as Xu and Chang Er had just beaten off the Huzhou defenders' three-way attack, when they arrived at the gate, Zhang Shicheng, the prince of Wu, sent reinforcements, Zhu Xian and five princes with sixty thousand troops, and after Chang Yuchun divided his troops, they stationed troops in the old pavilion in the east. In the face of sudden changes, Chang Yuchun calmly responded. While assisting Xu Da to step up its siege of Huzhou, it quickly pushed south and attacked Gusaoqiao (southeast of Laoting) after reinforcement to the east (northeast of Laoting); Then divide our forces to break the reinforcements of Wuzhen and Zaolin in the southeast of the old museum and trap the old museum in an isolated place. Chang Yuchun's action completely reversed the war in Huzhou. Laoting and Huzhou were on the defensive and soon surrendered.

On another occasion, Chang Yuchun studied in Ganzhou (now Ganzhou, Jiangxi) with Xu Da. On this day, they arrived in Ji 'an City (now Ji 'an City, Jiangxi Province). At that time, the Han general Rao, who was guarding Ji 'an City, was "bold" and "called Rao bold". But he failed several times, fearing that Chang Yuchun would fight. At this time, he was afraid of fighting in the city. Faced with this situation, Chang Yuchun, with his own calm and courage, sent someone to tell Rao directly: "I will take Jiangxi today, but I can go out of the city without saying a word." Rao Chen Ding didn't know the actual situation in Chang Jun, but he didn't dare to show up. He has just sent his youngest son out of town to visit him. Rao's son came to Chang Yuchun's camp, and Chang Yuchun was sitting and drinking calmly. Seeing him come in, he casually said, "If you belong to your father, you can make your own plans." . That is to say, go back and tell your father, see what he wants to do and come up with an idea as soon as possible. Rao Chen Ding, known as "Rao Dadan", knew from his son's report that Chang Yuchun was a shoo-in. He expected that he could not compete with Chang Yuchun, so he abandoned the city and fled overnight. In this way, Chang Yuchun, with the spirit of overwhelming the enemy, showed his calmness, repelled the enemy by force, and entered Ji 'an City without fighting.

Zhu Yuanzhang was very much in favor of Chang Yuchun's fearless spirit. In the twenty-seventh year of Zheng Zheng (1367), Chang Yuchun was the lieutenant and went north with Xu Da to destroy Yuan. Before he left, Zhu Yuanzhang called people together to comment on their advantages and disadvantages. When talking about Chang Yuchun, he particularly pointed out: "When millions of people go forward bravely and are invincible, there is nothing like the vice president meeting in spring", and gave full affirmation and praise.

adamant

Although Chang Yuchun is brave and full of strength, he is not opinionated and attaches great importance to accepting criticism. At first, he had three obvious shortcomings in the battle: first, he was careless and underestimated the enemy; Second, it is good to argue with subordinates; Thirdly, there is the problem of torturing and killing prisoners. Zhu Yuanzhang severely criticized him in public for this. He doesn't care, he is not stubborn, he thanks, he obeys, and he seriously corrects. In the 24th year of Zheng Zheng (1364), when Chang Yuchun led his troops to attack Ganzhou, Zhu Yuanzhang specially warned him: "Take the preservation of the living as the heart" (2) and "Don't kill more cities" (3). Therefore, he remembered to strictly restrain the troops. Xiong Tianrui, the Han general guarding the city, has a strong defense. According to the city, Chang Yuchun dug trenches and erected fences, and the city was besieged for six months. Every time the enemy attacks from the city, Chang Yuchun always turns back. In this way, until Xiong Tianrui did his best to raise the city and make Nan 'an, Xiongzhou and Shaozhou all fall, Chang Yuchun always strictly followed Zhu Yuanzhang's warning and didn't kill anyone. Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy to hear that Chang Yuchun did not kill innocent people. He sent a special letter to express his sympathy. The book says: "Those who teach benevolence are invincible, while those who don't are generals." . The general won't kill the enemy today, and the success of the book makes the general very gratified. Although Cao Bin went to Jiangnan, why did he add (even Cao Bin went to Jiangnan)? " ①

In the military campaign, Chang Yuchun also paid great attention to the overall situation and obeyed unified orders. When dealing with major strategic decisions, Zhu Yuanzhang flatly denied Chang Yuchun's proposition twice: once, when determining the general plan to go to Zhang Shicheng, Chang Yuchun advocated adopting the strategy of "owls chasing nests" and "drawing mice" to attack Pingjiang; Zhu Yuanzhang advocated cutting off the wings first and then smashing the enemy's nest. (2) Thirdly, when determining the general plan of the Northern Expedition, Chang Yuchun advocated "taking the capital of Yuan" and "winning with one pole", and then pushed it to pacify all localities; Zhu Yuanzhang advocated "taking Shandong first, except its shielding;" Swirl Henan and break its wings; Pull Tongguan and keep it, according to its threshold. ..... and then the invasion of Du Yuan "(3). After his request was rejected, Chang Yuchun earnestly carried out the unified order. During the two expeditions, he abandoned his ideas and acted in strict accordance with the steps stipulated by Zhu Yuanzhang. In addition, Chang Yuchun is two years older than managed, but he has been a lieutenant all his life. "From the battle, listen to the constraints, but be careful" (4), turn to the offensive and defensive, and listen to Xu Da's constraints. Therefore, when people mentioned the names of famous soldiers, they often called them together. The close cooperation between Xu and Chang is one of the important conditions for Zhu Yuanzhang to pacify the world.

During the campaign, Chang Yuchun also paid special attention to overcoming his competitive weakness and learning from the strengths of soldiers. In the 26th year of Zheng Zheng (1366), when attacking Huzhou, Xue Xian of the headquarters fought flexibly, led his boat division to attack directly, burned several enemy ships, and drove the prince of Wu, Zhu Xian, and Zhang Shicheng's cronies to abandon the war and surrender. At that time, Chang Yuchun was originally the deputy commander-in-chief of the whole army and the commander-in-chief of the blocking war. But afterwards, he sincerely said to Xue Xian, "Today's battle is all the power of the generals. I might as well." . Chang Yuchun's modesty won the praise of the soldiers.

Brave and resourceful.

Chang Yuchun is not only courageous and fearless, but also resourceful, decisive and outstanding. "History of Ming Dynasty" records: Chang Yuchun "did not learn the history of books, but used soldiers to melt the ancient times". In other words, he is rich in ancient military thoughts. During Chang Yuchun's more than ten years in the battlefield, there were many examples of clever use of troops, such as ambushes and surprise attacks, which showed his command ability of good judgment and careful planning.

In September of the 19th year of Zheng Zheng (1859), Chang Yuchun led his troops to attack Quzhou (Quxian County, Zhejiang Province). The secretariat of Quzhou in Song Dynasty has always been famous for its wiliness. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang advised the generals to "work together and take it from time to time" and not neglect it. (3) Enemy at the Gates and Chang Yuchun, in view of the solid Yugoslav capital and the complex terrain, "the tree gate goes around its six gates, making a cart, a fairy bridge, a long wooden ladder and a lazy African claw (all ready), and carrying them to the gate, so that they can go to the city with the height of the gate. At the gate of Daximen, attacking it with tunnels shows that it is cautious, careful and flexible in its use of troops. However, the cunning Song doesn't spend money, but he will be bound if he refuses. He ordered the soldiers guarding the city to "pour oil with a bunch of reeds, burn buses in Shandong, open a 1,000-kilogram scale hook, cut wooden ladders with long axes, and build caves to clamp the city defense." The two sides attack and defend each other, change tactics and fight each other. Later, Chang Yuchun seized the gap in the south gate of enemy troops on the defensive, bashed the warlords head-on, and attracted the main force of enemy troops on the defensive. On the one hand, the enemy unexpectedly broke into the south gate urn and destroyed the gun that threatened the siege troops the most. In this way, Chang Yuchun's stratagem finally prevailed, forcing Song to surrender regardless of poverty.

In April of the following year, Chang Yuchun went to Pinghan with Xu Darcy, pulled out Anqing (now Anqing, Anhui Province), the water village where Zhao Pusheng, the general of the Han Dynasty, was located, and moved to Chizhou City (now Guichi, Anhui Province). Hanwang Chen Youliang heard the news, led the troops to help, claiming to learn from Anqing, a massive counterattack. Chang Yuchun made a careful analysis of Chen Youliang's invasion attempt. He concluded that when Chen left Anqing, he would definitely attack Chizhou eastward. So an enemy-wiping formation was cleverly arranged outside Chizhou. He ambushed all the elite troops in Jiuhuashan, southeast of Chizhou, preparing for a surprise attack. Defend the city against the enemy with thin and tired soldiers. The next day, Chen Youliang really led a large group of people to attack. Seeing that the guarding city troops were weak, they rushed to the gate angrily. In an instant, the garrison soldiers in the city raised flags and beat drums; The ambush suddenly jumped out of the mountain and went down the river, cutting off Chen's back road from behind. Soldiers guarding the city also fought against the trend. Chen Youliang was quickly caught between his stomach and back and got stuck. Thanks to Chang Yuchun's correct judgment and careful deployment, all armies cooperated in the battle and smashed Chen Youliang's attack in one fell swoop, beheading more than 10,000 enemy troops and taking 3,000 prisoners.

In the 28th year of Zheng Zheng (1368), Chang Yuchun and Xu Da led a 250,000-strong army to the northern expedition to the Central Plains, taking the Yuan Dynasty (now Beijing). Then, they took advantage of the opportunity of Wang Baobao, the commander-in-chief of Taiyuan in the Yuan Dynasty, to save the capital of Yuan, and marched into Taiyuan (now Taiyuan, Shanxi). Rushed out of thousands of miles, soldiers near Taiyuan, Wang Baobao, the two armies met by chance. Wang Baobao didn't dare to fight, so he camped in the west of Taiyuan. Seeing that his troops had come from afar, Chang Yuchun "rode in the same way, but the soldiers didn't arrive, so he killed more in a sudden battle" (1), so he put forward the strategy of breaking the enemy camp by night to Xu Da. Upon hearing this, Xu Da called Miao. According to Chang Yuchun's plan, another general was an inside man, who captured Taiyuan in one fell swoop, captured 40,000 enemies and captured more than 40,000 horses. Subsequently, Chang Yuchun and Xu Da went to Guanlong, where the remnants of Zhang Silu and Li Siqi Yuan Army were wiped out.

In the second year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (1369), Chang Yuchun and Li Wenzhong were ordered to leave the fortress and continue to suppress the remnants of Yuan Dynasty. They pulled several cities along the way and conquered Kaiping in one fell swoop (now the north bank of northeast lightning in Zhenglan Banner, Inner Mongolia). However, just as he was winning, Chang Yuchun died of a sudden illness in the army. Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang personally mourned for him and named him King Kaiping and posthumous title "loyal to the martial arts". Give a burial to Zhongshan (now the eastern suburb of Nanjing). To annotate ...

(1) Biography of Chang Yuchun in Ming Dynasty. (1) at the beginning of the pack, volume four, Chen Han is good. (1) for the quotation, see Ming History, Volume III, Mao Pinghan. (1) Chronicle of the Ming Dynasty, Volume 8, Northern Expedition to the Central Plains. (2) Chronicle of the Ming Dynasty, Volume III, Mao Pinghan. (3) Biography of Chang Yuchun in Ming Dynasty. (1) Chronicle of the Ming Dynasty, Volume III, Mao Pinghan. Cao Bin, a famous soldier in the early Song Dynasty, was born in Lingshou (Hebei Lingshou). In the seventh year of Kaibao (974), he led the army to fight against Nantang. The following year, Ke Jinling, Queen of Southern Tang Dynasty, surrendered to Li Yu. Accept Tang as a hero. (2) Chronicle of the Ming Dynasty, Volume 4, Mao Pingwu. (3) "Ming History" Volume 8, Northern Expedition to the Central Plains. (4) Biography of Chang Yuchun in Ming Dynasty. (1) Chronicle of the Ming Dynasty, Volume 4, Mao Pingwu. (2) Biography of Chang Yuchun in Ming Dynasty. (3) "Chronicle of the Ming Dynasty" Volume II, pacify the southeast. (4) Chronicle of the Ming Dynasty, Volume II, pacified the southeast. (1) Biography of Chang Yuchun in Ming Dynasty.