Sun Yan was a well-known general in the early Ming Dynasty. He was a fellow villager in . He was born in Fengyang, Anhui. So he followed Lao Zhu to fight south and north very early, and crossed the Yangtze River with him. Taking Yingtian as the base, he worked hard step by step to build the foundation of the Ming Dynasty. Sun Yan, who had accumulated a lot of military achievements, was eventually appointed as the guards of thousands of households in Yanshan.
Shortly after Sun Yan resigned normally because of his old age, King Yan Zhu Di launched a war to rebel against the court under the banner of Jingnan. Most of the cities around Peking and its surrounding areas fell, such as Juyongguan , Huailai, Yongning and other places. The guardian of Tongzhou area, Fang Sheng , also very consciously surrendered.
. Zhu Di thought of Sun Yan, who had just resigned and retired, so he specially found him and asked him to go to Fang Sheng to stay in Tongzhou together. During the period, the imperial army launched fierce attacks on the Tongzhou area many times, and many buildings were destroyed. But even so, Sun Yan and Fang Sheng both insisted on their stubbornness and refused to surrender, successfully defending Tongzhou. Not only that, Sun Yan also led an army out of the city gate and rushed to the court to prepare for retreat. He chased and chased Zhangjiawan directly, and successfully seized more than 300 grain ships.
"The Yan army started, and the commander of Tongzhou Fang Sheng surrendered to the city. Wang Yiyan stayed at the general and sent a commander to defend with Sheng. The southern army arrived, and the attack was very urgent, and the towers were destroyed. Yan and Sheng defended from each other. He returned to the gate and fought hard, chased to Zhangjiawan, and received 300 boats." "History of Ming Dynasty·Biography 34"
The entire Jingnan Campaign has been for four years. Sun Yan's mission was only stationed in Tongzhou, but it was with this conscientious defence that he was promoted to the commander-in-chief after the war and was awarded the title of Yingcheng Bo, with an annual salary of 1,000 stones.
Yongle eleven years ago, Zhu Di appointed him to guard Kaiping, and soon transferred him to Tongzhou to guard the town. Not long after he arrived in Tongzhou, Sun Yan had something to do. Because of some personal grudges, he privately killed a thousand households under his command. After the court found out, he immediately deprived him of his title and transferred him to a remote area like Jiaozhen as a punishment. But soon after, the court gave his grace and transferred him back from the Jiaoqian, restoring his title as Ying Chengbo.
Sun Yan finally died of illness in the 16th year of Yongle. His son Sun Heng successfully inherited his title and became the second generation of Yingchengbo. In this way, Ying Chengbo's title was passed down from generation to generation in Sun Yan's family, and successfully passed on for as many as ten generations. He came to the end of the Ming Dynasty, and was buried in the pile of history with the Ming Dynasty. But for Sun Yanlai, with his achievements in defending the city in the Jingnan Battle, he was able to gain the glory and wealth of his family for ten generations, which was enough!
