In the 12th year of Yuan Dynasty (1352), Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of Ming Dynasty, conquered (now Nanjing) in the 16th year (1356), and later became the king of Wu, making officials. After the initial establishment of Jiangnan regime, Chen Youliang, who occupied Huguang Jiangxi, Zhang Shicheng, who occupied Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and Fang Guozhen, who occupied eastern Zhejiang, were eliminated successively. Zhu Yuanzhang made a careful plan for the strategic deployment and marching route to the north. He first consulted the generals. Pingzhang Chang Yuchun put forward the idea of going straight into Yuan Dynasty (now Beijing). Zhu Yuanzhang did not agree with this scheme of underestimating the enemy and advancing rashly. According to the * * * of the Yuan Dynasty in the Central Plains and Northwest China at that time, as well as the relationship between the ministries and the political inclination and military strength within the ministries, he thought that Yuan Dingdu would be indestructible for a hundred years. If it is suspended, it will not be broken, and it will not survive under the strong city. Four reinforcements will inevitably lead to passivity. To this end, he put forward the strategy of the Northern Expedition: "Take Shandong first and remove its shield;" Swirl Henan and break its wings; Pull Tongguan to keep it, according to its household threshold, the world situation, into my control, and then into Du Yuan, he will be helpless without fighting. If you conquer its capital and drum to the west, then the clouds, Jiuyuan and Guanlong can be swept down.
process
Capture Henan and Shandong
See: Ming attack on Shandong, Ming attack on Henan.
According to this strategic concept, Zhu Yuanzhang divided the whole strategic action into three stages to implement. In the first stage, attack Shandong first, then attack Henan and occupy Tongguan; In the second stage, Hebei and the capital of the Yuan Dynasty were captured and the Yuan Dynasty was destroyed. In the third stage, the main force attacked Shanxi from the south and decided to complete the reunification of the north. The Northern Expedition was basically carried out according to this strategy.
In the 27th year of Yuan Dynasty (1367), on October 21st, the Prime Minister Xu Da, General Ren Lu, and the Deputy General Pingzhang, Chang Yuchun, led 250,000 troops to Henan from the Huaihe River to explore the Central Plains. In order to reduce the resistance of the Northern Expedition and win the support of the people, Zhu Yuanzhang specially warned the soldiers not to kill and plunder wherever the division went before sending troops. [8] and sent a campaign to the northern people, put forward the slogan of "expelling Land Rover and restoring China", which had a certain appeal to the people of all walks of life in the Han nationality, so the Northern Expedition was relatively smooth. In order to protect the Northern Expedition, the troops left behind in Jianghuai were on alert to prevent the Yuan Army from attacking.
From October, the 27th year of Zheng Zheng, the main force of the Ming army went north from Jianghuai to February of the first year of Hongwu, and it only took more than four months to capture Shandong. The conquest of Shandong made Yuan Ting lose his left arm and strategically created a more favorable military situation for the Northern Expedition. In March, Xu Darcy invaded and attacked Henan in two ways. All the way from Jining to the Yellow River, attacking the capital of song dynasty (now Kaifeng); All the way is Yongcheng, Henan Province, returning to Germany and attacking Xuzhou (now Xuchang). At the same time, Deng Yu, the general of the Southern Expedition, was ordered to lead Xiangyang, Anlu and Jingling to attack Nanyang in the north to cooperate with the main force of the Northern Expedition. The Ming army is invincible. In a very short time, Luoyang, the capital of the Song Dynasty, and Song (now Song County), Shaanxi (now Shan County), Chen (now Huaiyang), Ru (now Linru) and other states were conquered successively, and Tongguan was taken without fighting, basically completing the strategic task of the first stage of the Northern Expedition.
Capture Hebei
See: The Battle of Ming Attacking Hebei and Dadu
The shield of the metropolis in the Yuan Dynasty has been removed, foreign aid has been cut off, and it has fallen into the arc encirclement of the Ming army. In May, Zhu Yuanzhang personally arrived in the capital of song dynasty to listen to the military report of the front-line generals and discuss the strategic steps in the next stage.
At the beginning of June in the first year of Hongwu (1368), Xu Da ordered all the troops in southern Henan to assemble in Yin He (now southwest of Wuzhi), and all the grain ships set sail from Jining to ensure logistics supply. On July 29, he ordered Zhang Xingzu, Pingzhang Han Zheng, Sun Xingzu, Du Tong and Gao Xian, Yidu, Xuzhou, Jining and other divisions to gather in Dongchang, waiting to meet the armies in northern Henan.
According to the isolated military situation of the Yuan Dynasty at that time, Xu Da proposed that Linqing (now Shandong) should attack Dadu, and Zhu Yuanzhang agreed. So it was decided that the right deputy general Sheng Feng would guard the capital of song dynasty, Zuo Cheng and Jiangxi Governor He would guard Henan (now Luoyang), the town general Guo Xing and others would guard Tongguan, and Xu Da led the army to the capital of song dynasty.
Occupy a metropolis
On the first day of leap July, the main force of the Ming army crossed the Yellow River from Zhongli (now southwest of Fengqiu) along Yu He (now Weihe River) and went north via Linqing, Luchang (now Jingxian County, Hebei Province) and Tongzhou (now Tongxian County, Beijing).
On the second day of leap July, the Ming army set out from the capital of song dynasty (now Kaifeng, Henan province) and was in full swing, including Ke Weihui (now Jixian county, Henan province), Zhang De (now Anyang, Henan province), Cizhou (now Cixian county, Hebei province), Handan and Guangping (now all belong to Hebei province). From July 1 1 to Linqing (now Shandong), the divisions assembled in Dongchang were ordered to come to the meeting and allowed Fu Youde, who participated in politics, to open up land. The viceroy and deputy viceroy opened a river in Gushi, and on July 15, they went hand in hand. Division to Texas, Chang Yuchun, Zhang Xingzu, Gao Xian, Mao Xiang, Cheng Hua and other divisions into the north.
In the first year of Hongwu (1368), he went to Luchang (now Cangzhou, Hebei Province) and Qingzhou (now Qingxian County, Hebei Province and Jinghai, Tianjin) on July 20th, arrived in zhi gu (now Tianjin) on 23rd, and was defeated by Yuan Army in Hexi Affairs (now northeast of Wuqing, Tianjin) on 25th. All the way, like bamboo, unstoppable, almost under Dadoucheng.
Seeing that the tide was over, Yuan Shundi left Jiande Gate on the 28th night with his prince and queen, and fled from Juyongguan to Kaiping (now northwest of Duolun, Inner Mongolia). On August 2nd, Xu Da led an army to occupy most of the city, reaching Qihuamen, and ordered soldiers to fill trenches and enter the city. Xu Da personally boarded the Qihua Gate House, killed Timur Buhua, the imperial clan of the Yuan Dynasty, and Zhang, the right prime minister, captured six princes, sealed the treasures of the treasury and the gates of the Forbidden City, and ordered soldiers to guard them. The soldiers were ordered not to invade and plunder, and the residents performed their duties. At the same time, he sent generals to inspect the passes in Gubei and ordered Hua Yunlong, the commander-in-chief, to build a new wall.
After the capture of the metropolis, Shandong, Henan, Hebei and other places in the north fell into the hands of the Ming army, especially the landlords of the Yuan Dynasty fled to the north, which made the whole battlefield of the Northern Expedition undergo fundamental changes. The armed forces of the Yuan landlords trapped in Qin Jin are completely leaderless. Zhu Yuanzhang lost no time in ordering Xu Da's army to move to the next strategic stage after receiving the news that the metropolis had been captured.