Hongwu Survival Guide

Chapter 171 Hongwu 25 Years

After Zhu Biao died of illness, we have to start from Hongwu 25 years ago.

Zhu Yuanzhang has 26 sons. Although he is obviously partial to the eldest son, after all, he has many children and has been with him for the longest time. He was born before he ascended the throne, so he must be closer. However, Lao Zhu will let the eldest son be like Zhu Yunqi, who he could not know later. , Simply and rudely pull out your uncles one by one?

of course not.

However, Lao Zhu did not object to the eldest son's handling of his younger brothers who had gone too far.

Just as Lao Zhu did not cover up the crimes of his sons who did many evils, King Lu did a series of absurd things. In the 22nd year of Hongwu, he killed himself, so he bluntly gave the word "Huang" as his posthumous title.

There is also King Qin, after being poisoned to death by several old women, Zhu Yuanzhang also gave him a posthumous title of "min" which is far from commendable, saying frankly that "the one who mourns is the love of father and son; the one who pursues posthumous title is the father of the world."My feudal sons, because you are old, were first entrusted to Qin, and they are expected to be in the Suilu throne forever, so as to protect the imperial family.Why is the husband so bad in virtue that he died unexpectedly, and his posthumous posthumous name is Min'.

To be more straightforward: I just pity you, so I didn't give you a bad posthumous title.

So, apart from these princes who died before Lao Zhu, what is the attitude of the others?
Lao Zhu once gave a son a letter of exhortation. Zhu Yuan couldn't remember exactly which son it was for, but the general meaning was: I am your father now, and I can protect you for a while.When your elder brother ascends the throne, if you don't know how to restrain yourself, it may be difficult to keep your wealth.

Therefore, it can be seen that Lao Zhu is very clear about many things in his heart.

However, for the eldest son, Lao Zhu is also very relieved.

Because Zhu Biao's "doing" is so good, whenever his younger brothers are impeached and punished by their father, Zhu Biao will protect him without principle, and even hug Lao Zhu's thigh and cry and beg.

The eldest son can achieve this level, Lao Zhu feels that no matter how bad it is, the other sons will be able to live comfortably in the future, and it should be no problem.

Then the problem is coming again.

What is Zhu Biao's inner attitude towards his younger brothers?
Without evidence, it can only be inferred logically.

This starts from the tenth year of Hongwu.

In June of the tenth year of Hongwu, Bingyin ordered the officials to punish the crown prince for all political affairs, big and small, and then to hear about them.

Then contact a group of vassals who are continuously impeached.

Assuming that a brother who really protects his younger brothers to an unprincipled level happens to be a "filter" of the government, then when someone impeaches his younger brother, he can suppress the matter at will without sending it to Lao Zhu .

Zhu Biao didn't do that.

Not only that, but a large number of impeachments against various vassal kings are only recorded in later generations, such as abducting pregnant women, castrating young children, killing people in the street, slaughtering villages with horses, and so on, are simply sensational.

So, is there a possibility.

On the one hand, Zhu Biao wanted to maintain the justice of the court, and on the other hand, he also had to fulfill his elder brother's duties. So, while not stopping these impeachments that made his father feel disappointed at a glance, he pleaded with his younger brothers without principle?
Human nature is complicated.

However, it's not that complicated.

It is more likely that Zhu Biao wanted the old emperor to see these broken things of his brothers, so that after Hongwu 25 years, he successively won military power and court power, he could act confidently against his brothers.

Let's talk about Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude.

From the old emperor's letter, it can be seen that he is well aware of the eldest son's thoughts, but the horrifying evil deeds of his sons make him feel that he needs to clean up, otherwise, it will be hard to deal with it. The country may be destroyed in the hands of a group of reckless sons.

This also goes back to the posthumous titles that Lao Zhu gave to his sons without much concealment.

Lao Zhu is a sensible person.

So, in the 25th year of Hongwu, Zhu Biao began to act, starting with his second son Zhu Yu who was the most threatening to him. Moreover, in the process of touring Shaanxi, he also found a reason to take all his confidants to the northwest, so that Lan Yu He and others took over the military power that should have belonged to the vassal kings of the major border towns.

If Zhu Biao does not die, considering that the old emperor is still alive, what Zhu Biao will do in the future is probably to take back the military power of the Eight Great Sai Kings step by step, and temporarily let the brothers be a Taiping prince who has no real power and only enjoys wealth.

Unfortunately, the 25th year of Hongwu is a big joke.

Big joke.

Then, the spotlight of the Ming Dynasty returned to Zhu Yuanzhang, who had been marginalized step by step before.

What is Lao Zhu's attitude towards the death of his eldest son?

In fact, it's just a typical Chinese parent.

Before his son was alive, his position was almost taken away directly. Anyway, he lost his military power and court power, and Lao Zhu has almost become a decoration. To use a traditional vocabulary, this is a typical 'disobedience and unfilial piety'.However, as a typical Chinese-style parent, the son's disobedience is not the reason for the parents not to love their children. On the contrary, they are still showing favoritism and accommodating without principle.

This can be seen from Zhu Biao's treatment after his death.

After Zhu Biao's death, he enjoyed the treatment of "Nine Great Sacrifice" every year, which was not only the standard of an emperor, but even far surpassed the emperors of all dynasties.In contrast, after Lao Zhu's death, what he enjoyed was only the annual standard of the "Three Great Rituals".

The three-fold gap shows Zhu Yuanzhang's mentality.

In the 25th year of Hongwu, when Zhu Biao passed away, the old emperor looked back on his life. He lost his father in his youth, his wife in his middle age, and his son in his old age. ?
So, the old emperor collapsed.

When he first came to this country, the old emperor had too many thoughts that could be called naive.

I hope that my sons will defend the country, I hope that my courtiers will be together forever, and I hope that the common people live and work in peace and contentment... However, with the death of the eldest son, under another strong blow, everything that used to be is not important anymore.

Then, in the 26th year of Hongwu.

Sapphire case.

Traditionally, the Lanyu case, like the Hu Weiyong case, was the work of Zhu Yuanzhang.

of course not.

Regarding the Hu Weiyong case, it has already been said that the prince Zhu Biao was eliminating dissidents in order to take over, especially Li Shanchang, who had a great influence on the court.

Besides, Hongwu's 23-year purge targeted the Huaixi faction, but, to be precise, it was only a part of the Huaixi faction.Because, Liang Guogong Lanyu, Dingyuan Hou Wangbi, etc. who have taken refuge in Zhu Biao are also Huaixi clan.

The difference is that the Huaixi faction who is still loyal to the emperor or wants to stand in the middle impartially, or the Huaixi faction which firmly supports His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's succession.

Probably so.

From the 25th year of Hongwu to the 26th year of Hongwu, it took less than a year to lose his son. The old emperor, who has reached his twilight years, may not have recovered from his grief.
Ordinary fathers who lose their sons in their later years can only grieve for a while.

However, Lao Zhu is an emperor. When the emperor is angry, he lays down millions of corpses. When the emperor collapses, he will also bleed.

Therefore, the Sapphire case is also not a dead dog.

Just a vent of anger.

Each of you is going to set my son on fire to take over, all kinds of tossing and tossing all over the world, just toss and toss, but my son tossed and tossed is gone. If this is the case, you bastards, go with me!
This is the normal state of mind of the old emperor.

Therefore, in the Lanyu case, according to historical records, there were 5000 people implicated from Liangguo Duke Lanyu, official minister Zhan Hui, and Dingyuan Hou Wangbi!

The Sapphire case was an act of venting anger, but there is actually another layer of evidence.

Two books, one "Revealing the Traitorous Party Record" and the other "Rebellious Official Record".

In most people's subconscious mind, the "Revealing the Traitorous Party Record" for Hu Weiyong's case may have been published by Hongwu in 13 years.

Actually not.

It is the 23rd year of Hongwu.

The problem is that the old emperor originally wanted to pardon Li Shanchang and others, but he couldn't bear his son's insistence and allowed Li Shanchang to commit suicide. Completely nail the old brothers on the pillar of shame in history.

Therefore, it is conceivable that Zhu Yuanzhang's original intention was not in the "Record of Revealing the Traitorous Party", and it is still managed by the prince's party.

In the 26th year of Hongwu, the Lanyu case has only passed three short years, and Lao Zhu will definitely not forget that book.

Since you guys are going all out to nail my old brothers on the pillar of shame in history, I will also fight and get you a copy, and "Rebellious Ministers" will be released.

There is no confession by Lan Yu in this book, but among the important party members, Zhan Hui, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, is impressively listed.

If you read the content, you can clearly find that there is no perfect conspiracy plan for all kinds of trivial matters.

So it was almost a farce.

In fact, this can also show the old emperor's mentality of venting his anger again.

I don't want any evidence, just kill you, bury my son with me, and publish a book to fight against you.

the truth?

Who cares about the truth?

injustice?
Just be wrong.

don't care anymore.

There was also a book in the Hongwu Dynasty, which can’t be called a book. It only has more than 2000 characters. It was about 20 years ago in Hongwu. Originally recorded the content of the conversation between him and Lao Zhu.

This book is called "Yu En Lu".

Among them, in just over 2000 words, Lao Zhu babbled like an old man, and a word that appeared quite frequently was 'good name' five times.

Generally speaking, an elder is educating the younger generation to be diligent, studious, self-denying and self-disciplined. In the future, he will leave a "good name" in the history books just like his father.In just over 2000 words, "good name" appeared five times, which shows Lao Zhu's mentality at that time, he also wanted to leave a "good name".

All this came to an abrupt end after 25 years in Hongwu.

Lao Zhu doesn't care about anything anymore.

The Blue Jade case was an outburst of anger, and a notice was issued back then, no matter if it was the Hu Party or the Blue Party, stop here.

Actually it didn't stop.

In the last few years of Lao Zhu, people were still dead, such as Fu Youde, such as Feng Sheng, Fu Youde was more distant, Feng Sheng, like a small pioneer Zhang Huan who accidentally left several strokes in the history books, are all Lao Zhu's personal bodyguard was born, and he was given to death in the end.

don't care anymore.

So what else is a 'nice name'?
So much so that at the end, in order for the grandson to take over the government cleanly, without any constraints, all the concubines in the palace were taken away at once.

It was white and clean.

If someone really wants to write a book "25 Years of Hongwu", the death of Lao Zhu is not the end.

The emperor's grandson Zhu Yunqi's accession to the throne is still a continuation of "25 years of Hongwu". This young man who was only 18 years old when he ascended the throne, inherited his grandfather's iron blood and cruelty, and his father's hypocrisy and ruthlessness. Gu Ji's family cleaned up many uncles sympathetically.

In less than a year, the seven vassals either died or were deposed or imprisoned.

When Lao Zhu was still alive, the grandfather and grandson had a question about the vassal king once.

Old Zhu said: "I pay the king with the captives, so that the border dust will not move, and you will be at ease."

Zhu Yunwen didn't answer, but asked instead: "If the captives are not calm, the kings will guard them; if the kings are not peaceful, who will guard them?"

Old Zhu was silent, and then asked, "What do you think?"

Zhu Yunqi's answer: "Appreciate them with virtue and rule them with etiquette. If you can't do it, your land will be cut;

Lao Zhu's reaction was very gratifying: "Yes."

However, in the end, the result was that Zhu Yunqi didn't have any 'virtue', no 'ritual', and directly started to 'cut' and 'waste', and, probably he didn't expect it, it took less than a year , you have to "raise troops to attack it".

who?

Zhu Di.

Many history books say that Zhu Di was a conspirator, and he prepared the rebellion in advance, forging weapons in the basement of his garden, and so on.

Complete disregard for the logical timeline.

Lao Zhu died in May of the 31st year of Hongwu, and King Yan raised his troops in July of the first year of Jianwen. The whole process was only in his early years.

What happened this year?
Zhou Wang, Dai Wang, Qi Wang, Min Wang, Xiang Wang and other brothers were abolished or died one after another, and Zhu Di himself was basically able to please. Not only the military power was taken away, the Yan Wang Guard was transferred away, but also he was severely punished by civil officials. In addition, he had to send all three of his sons to Jinling as hostages.

Zhu Di also tried pretending to be crazy.

This is actually soft.

The subtext is: nephew, stop here and let uncle live.

It can be said that King Yan's situation is not good at all compared to other brothers who have been in trouble, not to mention that there is still enough time for plotting.

Yan Wang's army was very hasty.

Moreover, there is another saying that among the many Sai kings, Yanzhen is the strongest.

Open your eyes and talk nonsense again.

Where did you put King Ning, who had [-] armored soldiers and controlled Duoyan's three guards?
So, why Yan Wang?

Because Zhu Di knew very well that the above three older brothers had all passed away. If Zhu Biao’s lineage was not counted, he was actually the number one heir in the legal sense. After purging a group of weak princes, he was the first one.

They have already sent their sons as hostages, and Emperor Jianwen has not shown any signs of easing up.

Yan Wang turned against him.

At the beginning, Zhu Di was completely in a weak position, being chased and beaten by the officers and soldiers like a bandit.

It wasn't until he won the military power of King Ning that he had the strength to fight against the official army. However, the gap between the two sides was still very large.

No one expected that after four years of dragging and tugging, it turned out...it was done!
In the fourth year of Jianwen, the Yan army attacked Jinling by surprise, and the first battle settled the country.

Emperor Yongle ascended the throne.

This event officially came to an end because of the turmoil caused by the great change in Hongwu 25 years ago.

(End of this chapter)