Li Yuan was a famous general under the command of Zhu Di in the early Ming Dynasty. He was born in Huaiyuan. He inherited his father's position in the army and became the commander of Weizhou Wei . In the early stages of the Jingnan Campaign of , Li Yuan stood on the side of the court, but the Weizhou Wei where he was located was too close to the area around Beiping . But when Zhu Di led the army to fight, he felt that he was unable to defend himself and could only open the city gate obediently and surrender.
At that time, the Dezhou area was still in the hands of the Southern Army. If Zhu Di wanted to move south smoothly, this place must be taken down. The court also focused on the defense of Dezhou and stationed its main force here, so for Zhu Di, a strong attack was not a good choice.
At that time, the logistics supply in Dezhou mainly came from Xu, Pei and other places. After Li Yuan discovered this, he immediately brought 6,000 light soldiers, wearing the armor of the imperial army, and inserted a thin willow on his back. He quietly walked behind Dezhou and destroyed the beams and roads. Tens of thousands of grain boats were burned, and even the river water was roasted and hot. The countless fish and turtles inside were dead, and their bodies covered the entire river surface. The court sent 30,000 cavalry to pursue him, but was attacked by soldiers who had been ambushed in advance by Li Yuan, so he had to be defeated and fled!
Another time, in the first month of the fourth year of Jianwen , the Yan army was stationed in Lixian . Li Yuan was sent to Gaocheng to investigate, but he met more than 10,000 infantry and cavalry led by Dezhou general Ge Jin. The troops in Li Yuan's hands were obviously not as powerful as the other party. After a simple battle, Li Yuan pretended to retreat, but quietly divided a small army, sneaked behind the enemy, and secretly released their cavalry horses. As a result, when the battle the next day, the court army was defeated directly. In this battle, Li Yuan beheaded 4,000 horses and won 1,000 horses. This was the first great victory at the beginning of the year. Zhu Di was very happy and specially gave a letter to commend him. In the subsequent battle, Li Yuan still performed well and gradually became the assistant general of the governor. He was eventually named Marquis of Anping with an annual salary of 1,000 stones.
After the Jingnan Campaign, Li Yuan and Wu'an Hou Zheng Heng were arranged to defend the important town in the north Xuanfu . In the seventh year of Yongle , Khan Benyashili, who was on the other side of Tatar , killed the envoy Guo Ji for no reason. Zhu Di could not swallow his anger, so he appointed Qiufu as the general officer and asked him to teach the other party a lesson. Li Yuan, as the deputy general, also went with him.
However, in this battle, Qiu Fu, known as the first hero of Jingnan , made a low-level and fatal mistake, that is, blindly listen to the words of enemy prisoners and advance rashly. Although Li Yuan, as the deputy general, tried his best to dissuade him and asked him to wait for the arrival of the main force before pursuing the enemy.
However, Qiu Fu, who was eager to make contributions, couldn't listen to these honest words at all and still insisted on his own. As a result, he encountered an ambush from the enemy in the Luqu River area. Li Yuan led 500 cavalry to kill the enemy, trying to break out, but unfortunately, in the fierce battle, the horse under his crotch fell down, and he became a prisoner. He yelled at the enemy until he died for death, at the age of forty-six. Qiu Fu and the other deputy generals also ended up with a rough end!
