Due to the economic decline and the intensification of social contradictions, a large number of uprisings occurred at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Of course, including the armed forces of Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang’s army was not the strongest of all the rebels. But Zhu Yuanzhang gradually eliminated his competitors and established the Ming Dynasty by his intelligence eventually.
Among his many competitors, four people were deserving to be deeply understood.
1、Chen Youliang（1320~1363）
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Chen Youliang’s armed forces are the strongest among Zhu Yuanzhang’s competitors. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang’s first competitor to be defeat was Chen Youliang. Chen Youliang’s strength is closely related to his experience.
The painful childhood experience has created the tenacious perseverance of Chen Youliang. Chen Youliang behaved unusual fierce and brave in the battle, which is a lot of connection with his experience.
Chen Youliang’s childhood was not happy, and he often went out to fish with his father to support the family. The hard experience made Chen Youliang study hard and became a member of the Yuan Dynasty government. In 1351, Chen Youliang chose to join the rebels in an attempt to overthrow the rule of the Yuan Dynasty.
After joined the rebels, the commander of the army was named Ni Wenjun. In 1357, Chen Youliang discovered that his commander wanted to eliminate the leader of another insurgency. At this time, Chen Youliang stopped the plan and eliminated his commander.
Then Chen Youliang took over the rebels after this change of power. In 1360, Chen Youliang wiped out another commander of the rebel army. His name was Xu Shouhui. In this way, the strength of Chen Youliang’s military is continuously increasing.
It was not until 1363 that the most massive water war in Chinese history broke out in Poyang Lake. In this battle, Chen Youliang was shot dead by arrows. Finally, Zhu Yuanzhang’s strongest competitor was eliminated.
2、Zhang Shicheng（1354~1367）
Zhang Shicheng made a living by transporting salt before he joined the rebels. When he was young, he was often bullied by the rich. In 1353, Zhang Shicheng and his two brothers began to rebel against the Yuan Dynasty.
In 1356, Zhang Shicheng’s army captured Suzhou and established the dynasty with Suzhou as its capital. After the founding of the regime, Zhang Shicheng forgot the past hard life, to survive their country, Zhang Shicheng had surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty to attack Zhu Yuanzhang.
But wait until Zhu Yuanzhang eliminated Chen Youliang’s armed forces, then concentrated on the power that began to attack Zhang Shicheng’s armed forces. In 1367, Zhang Shicheng was captured by Zhu Yuanzhang and died of suicide.
3、Fang Guozhen（1319~1374）
According to Chinese historical records, Fang Guozhen was not only handsome but also a strongman when he was young. He sells salt for a living.
In 1348, due to being framed, Fang Guozhen destroyed his enemies in a fit of anger and began to gather troops to fight against the rule of the Yuan Dynasty. When Fang Guozhen fought against the control of the Yuan Dynasty, he surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty many times, but none of them sincerely.
Meanwhile, he adopted a similar strategy against Zhu Yuanzhang. On the one hand, Fang Guozhen consistently showed the Yuan Dynasty sycophancy; on the other hand, he showed weakness to Zhu Yuanzhang. In short, he did not want to offend any party.
In 1367, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the army to attack the Fang Guozhen. Finally, he chose to surrender.
After Fang Guozhen surrendered, Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy, not only did not destroy him, and also pay a monthly salary to him, but had not been granted official rank. In 1374, Fang Guozhen died.
4、Toqto’a（1314~1356）
Toqto’a was a patriotic minister. He spent his life thinking about how to consolidate the Yuan Dynasty. He once commanded the army, suppressed the uprising of the people, and fought with Zhang Shicheng.
He commanded an army that was the leading force in suppressing the people’s uprising in the Yuan Dynasty, and his presence seriously threatened Zhu Yuanzhang.
Unfortunately, Toqto’a did not die on the battlefield, but in the hands of his people. The Yuan emperor punished him for framing his political opponents. In 1356, he was poisoned by his political opponents. Thus, Zhu Yuanzhang lost a potent opponent. The pace of the destruction of the Yuan Dynasty was getting closer and closer.
