The mystery of Zhu Yuanzhang's succession, the historical examination of the succession to the throne and political arrangements
After the death of the crown prince Zhu Biao, Zhu Yuanzhang made a great contribution to the heroes, and a very important reason was to ensure that his grandson Zhu Yunwen could sit on the throne smoothly. However, the final result was that none of the ministers resisted, and it was Zhu Di, the king of Yan, who deposed his nephew. Why did Zhu Yuanzhang work so hard but did not take any action against these vassal kings?
Zhu Yuanzhang did not expect that the princes and kings would rebel, and Zhu Di was forced to resist.
In order to make Zhu Yunwen sit on the throne, Zhu Yuanzhang's main targets were those who were difficult to control but had a good reputation; As for the sons, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't expect them to rebel, so the cautious mentality was obviously not very strong.
Zhu Yuanzhang originally divided the princes as kings, in order to protect the security of the Ming Dynasty's frontiers and grant them the right to command the army. When Zhu Yuanzhang was alive, there were a few feudal officials who had many misdeeds on weekdays, but on the whole they were quite peaceful and self-serving, would Zhu Yuanzhang not suspect them?
At first, Zhu Yuanzhang's sons did not intend to resist. The main reason why Zhu Di, the king of Yan, finally rebelled, was that Zhu Yunwen forced him to a dead end.
Zhu Yuanzhang died on May 31. In May of the 31st year of Hongwu (June 1398), Zhu Yuanzhang's grandson, 21-year-old Zhu Yunwen, succeeded to the throne on May 16 of the same year. Less than two months after Zhu Yunwen succeeded to the throne, Zhu Di's compatriot Zhu Hu, the king of Zhou, was deposed as a commoner for rebellion and exiled to Menghua, Yunnan. In December of the same year, Zhu Yunwen ordered the reorganization of the Beiping regime, appointed Zhang Bing, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, as the prefect of Beiping, Xie Gui and Zhang Xin as the commanders of Beiping, and ordered the governor Song Zhongtun to Kaiping, and transferred the troops originally under Zhu Di's jurisdiction to Kaiping.
In the first month of the first year of Jianwen (1399), Zhu Di, the king of Yan, sent the chief Shi Ge Cheng into the palace to perform, Zhu Yunwen seized the opportunity to buy Ge Cheng in the palace of the king of Yan, Ge Cheng returned to Beiping, the matter was revealed, Zhu Di noticed the dishonesty in the palace according to this, so he personally entered the palace to test, found that the situation was not good, and the premonition was not good, after returning to the palace of the king of Yan, he closed the door confidently.
In April of the first year of Jianwen (1400), Zhu Zhao, the king of Qi, was also deposed as a commoner and imprisoned in the capital for the crime of treason. Soon, the acting king Zhu Jue was also deposed as a commoner and placed under house arrest in Datong; Xiangwang Zhu Bai was also accused of rebellion, and the palace soldiers surrounded the mansion of Xiangwang Zhu Bai, and Zhu Bai was humiliated and burned to death with the palace concubines.
In June of the same year, Emperor Jianwen deprived Wang Min of her status as a concubine and moved her to Zhangzhou. In the same month, Ni Liang wrote that Zhu Di, the king of Yan, rebelled against Yu Liang, Zhou Duo and others, and the imperial court ordered Yu Liang, Zhou Duo and others to be escorted to the capital to be executed, and issued an edict to condemn Zhu Di. What happened to the brothers, coupled with the surrounding situation, made Zhu Di frightened at that moment, and he was scared, but he still didn't want to get up, he just wanted to live, and he didn't hesitate to act like a madman, but Changshi Gecheng gave him guidance and instructions.
In July of the first year of Jianwen (1400), Zhu Di sent people to the capital to do business, but the adjutant was arrested, interrogated Qitai and others, and extorted confessions by words and deeds. On the fourth day of the seventh month, after receiving the secret order, Zhang Yu and Xie Gui led troops to surround the Yanwang Mansion.
But Zhang Xin, who was ordered to arrest Zhu Di, had already told him the news. At this time, Zhu Di had only two choices, one was to wait for death, and the other was to rise up and resist. So, Zhu Di deceived Zhang Yu, Xie Gui, Ge Cheng and Lu Zhen, and after executing all four of them, he launched a rebellion.
As mentioned earlier, it was not difficult for Zhu Yunwen to eradicate the clan, but his methods were insidious (first some people condemned the rebellion, and then suddenly sent troops to arrest people) and cruel (all were stripped of their civilian status and placed on the border and in deserted places). Despite this, Zhu Di did not decide to rebel at first. Under the pressure gradually exerted by the imperial court, Zhu Di first closed himself off from the country, and then pretended to be crazy and stupid in order to protect himself, but the imperial court still did not let him go, when Zhu Di was forced to the point of no way out, he refused to remove himself like other princes, so there was only one way to rebel.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang did not leave a backhand, considering her position, Zhu Di had no chance of winning at all.
As we have already said, Zhu Di's rebellion was initially suppressed by force, and Zhu Yuanzhang certainly could not take any action. Although Zhu Yuanzhang did not take any action, if everything went according to his original plan, even if Zhu Di rebelled, there was basically no possibility of success, but all this was destroyed by Zhu Yunwen.
1.The township kings can restrain each other, but the clan gave Zhu Di space. Zhu Yuanzhang is indeed the son of heaven, but the kings have established a relationship of mutual restraint, taking Zhu Di, the king of Yan, as an example, there is the king of Liao in the northeast, the king of Ning in the north, the king of Gu, the king of Dai, the king of Jin, and the king of Qi, the king of Lu, the king of Zhou, and the king of the great host all the way south. In this case, once Zhu Di launched a rebellion, he would immediately find himself surrounded by enemies on all sides. However, after Emperor Jianwen abolished the feudal domain, the king of Xu, the king of Qi, and the king of Dai were gradually eliminated, the king of Gu was imprisoned, and the king of Liao was recalled to Nanjing after the Zhu Di War; In addition, Zhu Youzhen, the king of Jin, and Zhu Tan, the king of Lu, were deposed by King Ning on the eve of Zhu Yuanzhang's downfall, and they were unable to protect themselves. In this case, Zhu Di lost his position as a ruler and had more room for maneuver, which was also an important reason why he was able to quickly control the Hebei region after coming to power.
2.Zhu Yunwen's generals are not too few, but he uses people inappropriately. Although Zhu Yuanzhang died a large number of heroes during his reign, the imperial court at that time did not lack capable four-year Jingdan, Ping'an, Xu Huizu, Qu Neng and others, and their political achievements were very remarkable, but they were not reused, they were afraid of difficulties, and they did not dare to be boldly appointed, and some did not dare to reuse Zhu Di. So who did Zhu Yunwen enable? He made Geng Bingwen, Li Jinglong and Mei Yin serve as marshals, among which Geng Bingwen in addition to having some combat experience (dismissed due to a small defeat), Li Jinglong was only responsible for the training of an army and had no experience in leading troops, and Mei Yin was a supernumerary cavalry alongside the horse team, although he also assisted the government under Zhu Yuanzhang's will, but only participated in the review of the army of the Fengyang Left-behind Division. As a result, the palace lost a million troops in vain, and Zhu Di became more and more brave the more he fought.
3.Zhu Yuanzhang was an enemy of the world at first, but due to poor reform, he lost the support of the world. Although Zhu Yuanzhang is a good emperor, he is extremely hostile to heroes. Therefore, he longs for a man like Zhu Yunwen who is both civil and military"Renjun", but after Zhu Yunwen came to power, he carried out a series of reforms, but lost the support of ministers. After Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne, he began to reuse Fang Xiaoru, Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng to implement reforms. Although these three men were well educated, they had no experience in governance. Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai sympathized with Confucianism"Self-cultivation, family, governance, and peace in the world"so their goal was to standardize the civil system and strengthen the authority of the emperor; Fang Xiaoru, on the other hand, is relatively narrow-minded and always insists on recovery"Weekly Rites"The goal! Fang Xiaoru is even more short-sighted and always insists on recovery"Weekly Rites"as the goal. Therefore, under the leadership of these three reformist generals, the name of the yamen was changed today, the name of the place was changed tomorrow, the officials of the yamen were reformed today, and the officials of the yamen were promoted to the officials of other yamen tomorrow, and the result was not only the change of the temple, but also the chaos of the imperial court, and the extremely unrestful officials and the people, which was also one of the important reasons why the loss of power in the four years of Zhenyuan could not be fully realized.
4, the strength of the palace army is actually stronger, but Zhu Di went south without resistance. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, if the guard system had not completely collapsed, the combat effectiveness of the Ming army would still be ***, and Zhu Yunwen, the lord of the world, should have an absolute advantage in terms of troops. However, in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, many of the generals who guarded the towns were promoted after the war with the vassal king, and these generals had a very close relationship with the vassal king, which is also the reason why Zhu Yunwen emphasized literature over military force, and Zhu Di's"Qingjun side"It also made the generals always vigilant against the pacification work in various places, and many generals moved when they heard the wind and surrendered one after another after Zhu Di's success in going south, which is also the reason why Zhu Yunwen emphasized literature and light military force. Zhu Di's success in crossing the river in the south was because of the surrender of the soldiers guarding the river. It is worth noting that during the Hongwu period, the defenders of Nanjing numbered about 400,000 people, with a total strength of about 48 people. As a result, Li Jinglong was attacked on both sides, and the imperial court had insufficient troops, so he had to withdraw troops from the Beijing camp, and the Beijing camp was empty. The ministers immediately left the conscription to replenish the Beijing camp, and Zhu Di did not wait for the ministers to return, quickly crossed the Yangtze River, and killed the city of Nanjing in one go. Zhu Di's"The Battle of Jingjing", it is Zhu Yuanzhang's"The Battle of Jingjing"。
In short, Zhu Yuanzhang did not expect that the vassal king would rebel in his lifetime, so he did not leave any countermeasures. Despite this, the success rate of Zhu Di's rebellion was almost zero, but Zhu Yunwen finally defeated Zhu Di with his own hands through a series of unusual actions, making Zhu Di the only feudal king in history who successfully rebelled.