The Battle of Poyang Lake

The largest water battle in ancient times

The process of the Battle of Poyang Lake:

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the South Various anti-Yuan armed forces continued to gain victories. Twenty years after Zhizheng (1360), Chen Youliang, who established himself as Emperor of the Han Dynasty with Wuchang as the center of governance and "all the land of Jiangxi and Huguang", was formed in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, with Yingtian (today's Nanjing) as the The three major forces, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Duke of Wu, who ruled the center, and Zhang Shicheng, who took Pingjiang (today's Suzhou) as the ruling center, controlled the land of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and claimed to be the King of Wu, began to annex each other by force because their jurisdictions were adjacent.

"Chen Youliang had a strong military and arrogant ambition, while Zhang Shicheng had enough food and wealth but no long-term plans. In order to avoid fighting on two fronts, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to first concentrate his forces on the westward expedition against Chen Youliang, because he controlled the three strategic areas of Anqing, Jiujiang, and Wuchang An important town with vast territory and great ambition and power is the biggest obstacle to pacifying Jiangnan," Wang Hongliang said.

Just as Zhu Yuanzhang was planning to destroy Chen, in the 20th year of Zhengzheng (1360), Chen Youliang led a navy of 100,000 to attack Yingtianfu. He was defeated by Zhu Yuanzhang and returned to Jiangzhou (now Jiujiang) to defend his old place. Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of the victory and continued to advance westward. In just one year, he captured Qizhou, Huangzhou, Xingguo, Leping, Fuzhou and other places. In the 22nd year of Zhizheng, he captured Longxing (now Nanchang) and changed it to Hongdu Prefecture. , Yuanzhou, Ruizhou, Linjiang, and Ji'an were assigned to it one after another, and their strength was greatly enhanced.

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

In April of the 23rd year of Zhizheng (1363), Chen Youliang was very angry because his territory was occupied by Zhu Yuanzhang. He took advantage of the main force of Zhu's army Taking the opportunity to aid Anfeng from the north, he besieged Hongdu with 600,000 land and water troops. The chief governor who defended the city at that time was Zhu Wenzheng, Zhu Yuanzhang's nephew. He led his troops in a bloody battle and defended Hongdu for 85 days without surrendering.

In early July of the same year, Zhu Yuanzhang personally led 200,000 navy troops back to rescue Hongdu, and arrived at Hukou on the 16th. He first sent troops to guard the mouth of Jingjiang River and Nanhukou to cut off Chen Youliang's return; he also sent troops to guard Wuyang. He crossed the river to prevent Chen Jun from escaping; he personally led the navy into Poyang Lake, forming a "close the door and beat the dog" trend.

When Chen Youliang heard that Zhu Yuanzhang's army was coming to help, he withdrew from the siege of Hongdu and went east to Poyang Lake to fight. A life-and-death battle of unprecedented scale and fierceness began.

Chen Jun arranged a chain of giant ships in a formation

On July 20, the two armies met on the surface of Kanglangshan Lake in Poyang Lake. Chen Jun's giant ships formed a joint formation and spread out for dozens of miles. According to historical records, "the giant boats formed a formation, the troughs were more than ten feet high and stretched for dozens of miles. The clan flags and shields looked like mountains." Moreover, "riding on the upper stream, they were very sharp" and their momentum was impressive. Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of the weakness of the head-to-stern connection of his giant ships, which was unfavorable for advance and retreat. He divided his own ships into 20 teams. Each team was equipped with large and small firearms and crossbows. When approaching the enemy ship, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered each team to fire firearms first and bows and crossbows secondly. When on the ship, use short weapons to fight.

The next day, the two sides started a fierce battle. The ships of Chen Youliang's army are red, and the ships of Zhu Yuanzhang's army are white. As soon as the war started, Zhu Jun's general Xu Da took the lead and led a fleet to charge bravely, defeating Chen Jun's vanguard, killing 1,500 enemy soldiers and capturing a giant ship; Yu Tonghai also took advantage of the wind and fired artillery, burning more than 20 Chen Jun's ships. Many Chen Jun were killed and drowned, but Zhu Jun also suffered many casualties. Zhu Yuanzhang's ship ran aground and was surrounded, narrowly escaping the unexpected.

At this time, the battle fell into a stalemate. From early morning to dusk, there was still no winner.

Zhu Jun skillfully used fire to attack and burn the entire ship

On July 22, the two sides redeployed their forces and launched a larger-scale decisive battle. Zhu Yuanzhang personally led the navy to fight, but the Chen warship was huge and the Zhu warship was too small to attack from above, and suffered setbacks one after another. At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang promptly adopted the suggestion of his general Guo Xing and decided to use fire to defeat the enemy.

When a northeasterly wind blew on the lake, General Zhu Jun led a "death squad" with seven fishing boats filled with gunpowder and firewood to approach the enemy ship and set fire to the wind. Suddenly, the lake was filled with flames and Chen Jun was in chaos. Zhu Yuanzhang seized the favorable opportunity and immediately mobilized the main force of the navy to attack across the board. Thousands of warships were seen sailing towards the enemy. Zhu Jun's officers and men shook the sky and the earth with their shouts of killing, and fired their firearms. Chen Jun's ship was turned into a sea of ??fire. Hundreds of giant ships were burned, and more than half of them were killed or injured. Chen Youliang's two brothers and general Chen Pulue were both burned to death.

Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of the situation and attacked with his army, killing more than 2,000 enemies. The next day, there was another confrontation between the two sides, and Chen Youliang launched a fierce attack targeting Zhu Yuanzhang's flagship. After Chen Jun discovered the command ship on which Zhu Yuanzhang was riding, he concentrated on shelling it. Zhu Yuanzhang urgently moved to his ship, and the original ship was smashed to pieces.

In order to save the situation, on July 24, Yu Tonghai and others led 6 ships to break into Chen Jun's fleet, and cooperated with Zhu Jun's main fleet inside and outside, and won by surprise. Under Zhu Jun's attack from the front and back, Chen Jun was defeated and "abandoned flags, drums, and weapons, and swam to cover the lake." Chen Youliang had no choice but to pack up the remaining troops and retreat, not daring to fight again.

Ingenious use of mind-attack tactics to divide Chen's army

That night, Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of the victory and entered Zuoli (now northwest of Duchang, Jiangxi) and controlled the upper reaches of the river. Chen Youliang also retreated to Zhuji (now Jiangxi) Xingzi South). The two armies were in a stalemate for three days, and Chen's army was defeated repeatedly. The situation became increasingly unfavorable. Seeing that the situation was over, the two generals surrendered to Zhu Yuanzhang, which further weakened Chen's army.

It turned out that Zhu Yuanzhang was afraid that Chen Youliang would burn the boat and escape, so he wrote a letter to urge him to fight to the death: "The Duke took a boat with a big tail that could not be dropped, and lost his troops and covered his armor. He held a stalemate with me and raped me on a fair day. It was just a fight to the death. Why should I fight to the death? Afterwards, whoever listens to my command will be nothing but my husband?" In this case, and the general betrayed the enemy, Chen Youliang was angry and annoyed, and ordered all the prisoners captured to be killed to vent his anger. However, Zhu Yuanzhang did the opposite and returned all the prisoners, treated the injured with good medicine, and paid homage to Chen Youliang's brothers, nephews and soldiers who had died in battle. He ordered that "from now on, all enemy prisoners captured will not be killed." Give preferential treatment to the officers and soldiers who come to surrender.

These strategies of Zhu Yuanzhang were very popular, causing Chen Jun to fall apart internally and gradually disintegrate. Immediately afterwards, Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of the victory to control the strategically important Hukou. He set up wooden fences on the north and south banks of the Yangtze River and placed large boats and fire rafts in the middle of the river, waiting to annihilate the enemy.

Chen Jun ran out of food and supplies and was defeated across the board

After more than a month of confrontation, Chen Jun was trapped in the lake and ran out of food. So he made a desperate move and risked his life to break out. On August 26, Chen's army broke through from Nanhuzui and attempted to enter the Yangtze River and retreat to Wuchang. When they arrived at the mouth of the lake, Zhu's army attacked fiercely from all sides with boat divisions and fire rafts. Chen's army was unable to advance. They returned to the Jingjiang River and were blocked by an ambush, completely unable to find a way out.

During the fierce battle, Chen Youliang was "pierced through the eyes and skull to death" by a flying arrow. The commander was killed, the entire army was routed, and more than 50,000 people surrendered. At this point, the Battle of Poyang Lake ended with Zhu Sheng and Chen defeated.

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

The victory in the Battle of Poyang Lake was a decisive factor in Zhu Yuanzhang's establishment of the Ming Dynasty, laying the foundation for him to pacify Jiangnan and unify the country. After he eliminated Chen Youliang, he once said to the generals: "With the death of this thief, the world will not be settled." Gu Zuyu, a famous historian in the late Ming Dynasty, also commented: "The cause of chaos in the sea began with the Battle of Poyang."

This water battle lasted for 37 days. Its length, scale, and fierceness of the battle were unprecedented in history. It created a classic battle in which the small defeated the large, the small defeated the large, and the weak defeated the strong. It occupies an extremely important position in the history of Chinese water warfare.