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Tang He
Ming founding general and Zhu Yuanzhang's fellow villager who became Duke of Xin, gave up his command of his own accord and built forts along the Zhejiang coast against pirates
At dusk on a hilltop, a large tent stands open with a table holding a map marked with small stones inside, a saddled horse tethered outside, and fire stands burning; campfires dot the river plain below, and one tiny sentry stands on the slope.
Also known as Zi Dingchen
Tang He, courtesy name Dingchen, came from Zhongli in Haozhou, the same village as Zhu Yuanzhang, and joined Guo Zixing's rebel army before Zhu did. He crossed the Yangzi with Zhu, fought at Changzhou, helped subdue Fang Guozhen, and led the army into Fujian that captured Chen Youding. Made Marquis of Zhongshan in 1370, he took a river fleet into Sichuan against Ming Sheng's Xia state the following year. In 1378 he was raised to Duke of Xin, and in his later years he asked of his own accord to give up his command and go home, which the emperor granted, building him a residence at Fengyang. He was then sent to inspect the eastern Zhejiang coast, where he built fifty-nine walled towns against Japanese pirates. He died in 1395 at seventy, one of the few founding generals to die a natural death, and was named Prince of Dong'ou with the posthumous name Xiangwu.
Life and times
Dates 1326 CE–1395 CE