Why was Xu Da valued by Zhu Yuanzhang?

Xu Da, born in the third year of Yuan Dynasty (1332) and died in the eighteenth year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (1385), was born in a peasant family who had been farming for generations. In the 11th year of Zheng Zhi, Yuan Shundi (135 1), Liu Futong, a peasant leader, launched a peasant uprising in Yingzhou (now Fuyang, Anhui) and organized the Red Scarf Army to resist the dark rule of the Yuan Dynasty. In the second year, Guo Zixing responded to the Haozhou Uprising, and the Yuan government quickly sent troops to suppress it. These loyal ministers are too corrupt to confront the Red Scarf Army. They go out all day to burn, kill and plunder, catch innocent people, pretend to be prisoners of the Red Scarf Army, and take them to the government to reward them, which makes people restless and complain. Xu Da has been oppressed and exploited by the government and landlords for generations, and he has long had resentment in his heart. Now he has witnessed the atrocities of the government and aroused more anger. He made up his mind to take part in the uprising and overthrow the Yuan Dynasty. In June of 13th year of Zheng Zheng (1353), Zhu Yuanzhang, who was the ninth husband of Qin Bing, joined the Guo Zixing team and returned to his hometown to recruit. Xu Da heard the news and immediately "courageously followed" and went to defect. His background, circumstances and aspirations are roughly the same as those of Zhu Yuanzhang. They hit it off immediately. Zhu Yuanzhang decided to keep him around and be his assistant. From then on, he became a soldier of the Red Scarf Army.

Soon, Zhu Yuanzhang led 24 Qinbing south, accompanied by Xu Da. They collected several landlords' armed forces in Dingyuan, and relying on these forces, they quickly occupied Chuzhou (now Chuzhou, Anhui Province) and Hezhou (now Hexian County, Anhui Province) and other places. In these battles, Xu Da not only fought bravely, but also made progress with Wang Ba from time to time, which provided Zhu Yuanzhang with many good strategies and began to show his outstanding military talents. Zhu Yuanzhang liked Guo Zixing very much, saying that he had superior intelligence and superior materials, and suggested that he be promoted as an official, so Guo Zixing appointed him as the city guard. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang was just a small leader under Guo Zixing. "All the generals are waiting for barbarians and are unwilling to do the next thing." Xu Da and Tang He were "very restrained", which helped him gradually establish his prestige and leadership. Later, Guo Zixing clashed with another uprising leader, Sun Deya, in Hezhou. Guo Zixing arrested Sun Deya in the city, and Sun Deya's Ministry also arrested Zhu Yuanzhang outside the city. Guo Zixing offered to exchange Sun Deya for Zhu Yuanzhang, but both sides refused to let him go first, fearing that the other side would not keep its promise. In order to repay him, Xu Da stepped forward and risked being killed as a hostage in Sun Deya's army in exchange for Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang returned to the city, Guo Zixing let Sun Deya go back, and Sun Deya returned to the camp, only to let Xu Da return to the city. Zhu Yuanzhang was so grateful that he trusted and valued Xu Da more.

Xu Da failed to live up to Zhu Yuanzhang's trust. In March of the 15th year of Zheng Zheng (1355), Zhu Yuanzhang took over the leadership of the Rebel Army from Guo Zixing who died of illness and decided to cross the river to seize Qing Ji (now Nanjing, Jiangsu). Xu Da and Chang Yuchun led the vanguard troops, set sail in the wind and braved the enemy's sharp arrows, forcing them to climb Niuzhuji, enabling the follow-up troops to successfully cross the Yangtze River and capture quarrying and Taiping (now Dangtu, Anhui). The army of the Yuan Dynasty was unwilling to lose peace and tried to regain it. Yuan Jiang Haig and Aru Grey crossed the Quarry River with giant boats and blocked the ancient tree mouth. Chen Nianxian, the armed leader of the landlord, and his department Kang Maocai marched into Taiping City by land and water.

Zhu Yuanzhang was guarding the city, while Xu Da and Deng Yu took Indiana Jones around the enemy lines and ambushed them at Xiangyang Bridge. Chen Cong led the crowd to attack first, and Zhongfu was captured. Seeing that Chen Juan was the first captured in The Hague, Man Zi, he was afraid to continue fighting. He withdrew from quarrying and retreated to yuxikou, and Taiping finally turned the corner. Then, Xu Da led thousands of elite troops alone, captured Lishui and Liyang to the east, outflanked Qing Ji from the south, and cut off Qing Ji from the south. Then, together with all the land and water army, Qing Ji was captured in March of the following year.

Zhu Yuanzhang changed Qing Ji Road to Yingtianfu, and set out to build and develop the Jiangnan base area centered on Yingtian.

At that time, Yingtian, except for a few scattered Yuan Army and landlord armed forces in the south, Han Liner and Liu Futong in the north, Xu Shouhui and Chen Youliang in the west and Zhang Shicheng in the east were all anti-Yuan uprising teams, which just formed three barriers to keep the Yuan Army out. According to this situation, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to concentrate on seizing the Yuan Army stronghold on the southeast line, seize the opportunity to accumulate grain for training, and develop and consolidate his base area. But at this time, Zhu Yuanzhang's land was narrow and food was scarce. Zhang Shicheng in the east was rich in land and abundant in food, while Chen Youliang in the west was rich in land and vast in territory, so he ignored him and always wanted to annex his territory. Therefore, it is the premise of the construction and development of Jiangnan base area to establish a solid east-west defense line to resist the attacks of Zhang Shicheng and Chen Youliang. Xu Da resolutely once again provoked this heavy burden.

Shortly after the occupation, Zhu Yuanzhang appointed Xu Da as general. He led several generals, led the troops to float under the river, captured Zhenjiang, the eastern military base, and then divided his troops to take Jintan, Danyang and other counties, and was promoted to Marshal Huai Xingyi to command the army. At that time, there was Changzhou in Zhang Shicheng, and Zhu Yuanzhang sent messengers to communicate with it, hoping that the two sides could "be good neighbors and protect the environment and benefit the people". Zhang Shicheng flatly rejected his request, detained his emissary and sent troops to capture Zhenjiang. If Zhenjiang falls into the hands of Zhang Shicheng, it can go downstream to Yingtian, and Yingtian will be in danger.

Xu Da immediately sent troops to fight back, defeated Zhang Shicheng's water army and marched straight into Changzhou. Zhang Shicheng quickly sent troops to help Changzhou. Xu Da saw that the enemy was menacing and unstoppable, and decided to outwit him. He first set an ambush 0/8 miles from the city/kloc-and then sent Zhao Junyong to lead the elite cavalry through the enemy lines. The enemy was in chaos and hurriedly retreated. As a result, they were ambushed and two soldiers were injured. Zhang Shicheng felt Zhu Yuanzhang's power to be reckoned with and sent someone to make peace. Zhu Yuanzhang asked him to return the messenger and pay 500 thousand stone grain every year. He refused, and Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the attack to continue. In the seventeenth year of Zheng Zheng (1357), Xu Da conquered Changzhou and was promoted to the Privy Council. Other generals have also attacked Changxing and Jiangyin. Then, Xu Da and Chang Yuchun personally directed Zhang Shicheng to fight it out under the command of Zhu Yuanzhang. He ordered the generals to lead the troops to ambush in various dangerous places at home and abroad, and then sent people to surrender, leading Chen Youliang to fight in the ambush. Xu Da led a good soldier to ambush outside the south gate. When Chen Youliang came to the ferry bay on the river, he rushed out. Ambush Chen Youliang with other roads, annihilate a large number of enemy troops, capture more than 7,000 people and seize hundreds of warships. Chen Youliang fled by boat, followed by Xu Da, who recovered Taiping and captured Anqing. Zhang Shicheng didn't dare to make a move when he saw Chen Youliang's defeat.

Three years later, Xu Da led the troops across the river with Zhu Yuanzhang, went north to Anfeng (now Shouxian County, Anhui Province), rushed to Han Liner, Liu Futong and Chen Youliang where Zhang Shicheng attacked, launched a large-scale attack on Zhu Yuanzhang, and entered Hongdu (now Nanchang, Jiangxi Province). In July, Zhu Yuanzhang personally led the troops to meet, and the two sides launched a fierce battle in Poyang Lake.

At the beginning of the battle, Chen Youliang occupied obvious advantages in terms of troops and financial resources. He has 600,000 troops and dozens of huge ships, while Zhu Yuanzhang has only 200,000 people, all using small boats. On the first day of the war, Xu Da took the lead, commanded the soldiers to fight bravely, defeated Chen Youliang's forward troops in one fell swoop, annihilated 1500 people, and seized a huge ship, which greatly boosted the military strength. Chen Youliang's army fought to the death, and Xu Da's warships caught fire. He put out the raging fire and went on fighting. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang sent a boat to rescue him. Xu Da fought bravely and finally repelled the enemy and got out of danger. After a day of fighting, Zhu Yuanzhang saw that his troops were United and morale was high. He was completely sure of defeating Chen Youliang, but worried that Zhang Shicheng would sneak up on his rear, so he ordered Xu Da to guard the sky. Xu Da returned to Yingtian, gave up his foot soldiers, stuck to the defense, and made Zhang Shicheng dare not move. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang was able to relieve his worries and deal with Chen Youliang with all his strength, winning the battle of Poyang Lake and completely annihilating Chen Youliang's 600,000 troops. After the battle of Poyang Lake, Xu Da returned to the western front, pursued the remnants of Chen Youliang and occupied a large area of Huguang.

In the 24th year of Zheng Zheng (1364), in the battle against Chen Youliang, Zhu Yuanzhang was appointed as Zuo, becoming one of the two chief officials of Zhu Yuanzhang's regime.