At the end of Yuan Dynasty, all kinds of anti-Yuan armed forces in the south kept winning. In the twenty years of Zheng Zheng (1360), three major forces were formed in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, namely, Chen Youliang, with Wuchang as the ruling center, "the land of all Jiangxi Huguang" and self-reliance as the Han emperor; Zhu Yuanzhang, Duke of Wu, took Yingtian (now Nanjing) as the ruling center; And Zhang Shicheng, with Pingjiang (now Suzhou) as the ruling center, controlled the land of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, claiming to be the king of Wu.

"Chen Youliang soldier strong ambition proud, Zhang Shicheng rich and far-reaching. In order to avoid fighting on two fronts, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to concentrate his forces on the western expedition to Chen Youliang, because he controlled three strategic towns, Anqing, Jiujiang and Wuchang, with a vast area and great ambition and strength, which was the biggest obstacle to pacifying the south of the Yangtze River. " Wang Hongliang said.

Just when Zhu Yuanzhang was going to destroy Chen, twenty years later (1360), Chen Youliang led a water army of 65,438+million to attack Yingtianfu, and was defeated by Zhu Yuanzhang, who returned to Jiangzhou (now Jiujiang) and took refuge in his hometown. Zhu Yuanzhang pursued the victory and continued to advance westward. In just one year, he captured qi zhou, Huangzhou, Xingguo, Leping and Fuzhou. In the twenty-second year of Zheng Zhi, Longxing (now Nanchang) was changed to Hongdufu. Yuanzhou, Ruizhou, Linjiang and Ji 'an were subordinate successively, and his strength was greatly enhanced.

Hongdu was in a hurry, and the two armies met in Poyang Lake.

In April of the 23rd year of Zheng Zheng (1363), Chen Youliang was very angry because his territory was occupied by Zhu Yuanzhang. He used Zhu Jun's main force to aid Anfeng in the north and besieged Hongdu with 600,000 amphibious troops. At that time, Zhu Wenzheng, the nephew of Zhu Yuanzhang, was a guarding city satrap, leading all the soldiers to fight bloody battles. He didn't surrender to Hongdu for 85 days.

At the beginning of July of the same year, Zhu Yuanzhang personally led a water army of 200,000 to save Hongdu and arrived at Hukou on the 16th. He first sent troops to guard the Jingjiang Estuary and Nanhukou to cut off Chen Youliang's retreat. He also sent troops to guard the Wuyang intersection to prevent Chen from escaping; I personally led the navy into Poyang Lake, forming a trend of "closing the door and beating dogs".

Chen Youliang heard that Zhu Yuanzhang's army came to help, that is, he withdrew from the siege of Hongdu and went east to face Poyang Lake. An unprecedented fierce battle for life and death began.

Chen Jun laid out a huge ship chain.

On July 20th, the two armies met on Lake Kang Langshan in Poyang Lake. Chen's huge ships were connected and deployed for dozens of miles. According to historical records, "the giant boats are connected in an array, the trough is more than ten feet high, the cotton is dozens of miles, and the national flag is like a mountain", "riding on the upper stream is very sharp", and the momentum is amazing. Zhu Yuanzhang divided his ships into 20 teams, each equipped with large and small firearms and crossbows, and ordered each team to fire firearms first, then use crossbows, and then use short weapons when approaching enemy ships.

The next day, the two sides launched a fierce battle. Chen Youliang's ship is red, and Zhu Yuanzhang's ship is white. As soon as the war started, General Xu Da took the lead, led the fleet to charge bravely, defeated Chen Qianfeng, died 1500 people, and seized a huge ship; Yu Tonghai also set fire to the wind, burning more than 20 ships of Chen Jun. Many people were killed and drowned by Chen, but there were also many casualties in Zhu Jun. Zhu Yuanzhang's ship was stranded and besieged, and it was in danger.

At this point, the battle fell into a stalemate. From early morning to dusk, there is still no tie.

Zhu Jun skillfully attacked and burned the ship with fire.

On July 22, the two sides redeployed their troops and launched a decisive battle on a larger scale. Zhu Yuanzhang personally led the navy to the war, but Chen's ship was huge and Zhu's warship was too small to attack, which was frustrated one after another. At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang adopted Guo Xing's suggestion in time and decided to break the enemy with fire.

When the northeast wind blew on the lake, General Zhu Jun led the "death squads" to drive seven fishing boats full of gunpowder and firewood close to the enemy ships and set fire to the wind. At that time, the lake was ablaze and Chen was in a mess. Zhu Yuanzhang seized the favorable fighter plane and immediately mobilized the main force of the water army to attack on all fronts. I saw thousands of warships heading for the enemy together. Zhu Jun soldiers shout ShaSheng shook the earth, firearms in full swing. Chen Junlian's ship was caught in a sea of fire, and hundreds of giant ships were burned, killing more than half of them. Chen Youliang's two brothers and General Chen Luopu were burned to death.

Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of the situation and killed more than 2000 people. The next day, the two sides clashed again, and Chen Youliang aimed at Zhu Yuanzhang's flagship and stormed.

After Chen Jun discovered Zhu Yuanzhang's command ship, he concentrated on shelling. Zhu Yuanzhang was urgently transferred to another ship, and the original ship was smashed. In order to save the crisis, on July 24, Yu Tonghai and others led six warships into Chen's fleet and made a surprise attack on his main fleet. Under the attack of Chen, Chen was defeated, "abandon the flag and drum and swim in the lake." Chen Youliang had to pick up the pieces, losing, afraid to fight again.

Clever use of offensive tactics to divide Chen Jun.

That night, Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of the situation to attack Zuo Li (now northwest of Duchang, Jiangxi Province) and took control of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Chen Youliang also surrendered to Loki (now south of Xing Zi, Jiangxi). After three days of stalemate between the two armies, Chen Jun suffered repeated battles and defeats, and the situation became increasingly unfavorable. His two generals saw a genial smile and surrendered to Zhu Yuanzhang, further weakening Chen Jun's strength.

It turned out that Zhu Yuanzhang was afraid that Chen Youliang would burn the ship and escape, so he wrote to persuade him to fight to the death: "If you take a ship whose tail is too big to fail, you will lose your armor and fight with me. With the violence of Fair Day, you will fight to the death. Why don't you keep up? If you listen to my commander, you are just a husband? " In this way, coupled with the general's resistance, Chen Youliang was angry and annoyed, and ordered all the prisoners to be killed to vent their anger.

Zhu Yuanzhang, on the other hand, sent all the prisoners back, treated the injured with good medicine, and paid homage to Chen Youliang's dead brother, nephew and soldiers, and ordered that "all the captured enemy prisoners should not be killed in the future" and gave preferential treatment to the officers and men who came to defect.

Zhu Yuanzhang's strategies won the hearts of the people and prompted the internal disintegration of Chen Jun. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of the victory to control the strategic hukou, set up fences on the north and south sides of the Yangtze River, and set up large ships and fire rafts in the middle reaches to annihilate the enemy.

Chen Junliang was completely defeated.

After 1 months of confrontation, Chen Jun was trapped in the lake and ran out of food. So I put all my eggs in one basket and risked my life to break through. On August 26th, Chen Jun broke through the South Lake Mouth in an attempt to enter the Yangtze River and return to Wuchang. When he arrived at the mouth of the lake, Zhu Jun stormed from all directions with a captain and a fire raft. Chen couldn't move forward, so he returned to Jingjiang and was blocked by an ambush. He can't completely open the door.

In the fierce battle, Chen Youliang was killed by an arrow that "penetrated the eyes and skull". The commander-in-chief was killed, the whole army was defeated, and more than 50 thousand people all surrendered. At this point, the battle of Poyang Lake ended in Zhu's defeat.

In February of the following year, Zhu Yuanzhang led the troops to besiege Wuchang and occupied the vast area in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River under the jurisdiction of Chen Youliang.

The victory of the battle of Poyang Lake was the decisive factor for Zhu Yuanzhang to establish the Ming Dynasty, which laid the foundation for him to pacify Jiangnan and unify the whole country. After destroying Chen Youliang, he said to the generals, "If this thief dies, the world will be uncertain." Gu Zuyu, a famous historian at the end of the Ming Dynasty, also commented: "The mixed operation at sea began in the First World War of Poyang."

The water war lasted for 37 days before and after the war, and its length, scale and intensity were unprecedented in history. It has created a classic battle of defeating many with few, fighting big with small, and defeating strong with weak, which occupies an extremely important position in the history of China's water war.