Zhu Wenzheng, Zhu Yuanzhang's nephew, emerged in the Battle of Hongdu, family affection and merit coexisted, and there was no doubt that he was rich and noble after the founding of the Ming Dynasty. However, he was imprisoned for life for betraying Zhu Yuanzhang.
In Zhu Wenzheng's view, it is Zhu Yuanzhang's responsibility, but in the eyes of the outside world, it is his own fault. If he wasn't duplicitous and pretending to be polite, Zhu Yuanzhang wouldn't take it seriously, and if he didn't take it seriously, he wouldn't hold a grudge or betray.
Zhu Yuanzhang does not have an elder brother, in fact, he has three elder brothers, namely the eldest brother Zhu Chong.
Fourth, the second brother Zhu Chong.
Sixth, the third brother Zhu Chongqi, but the third brother almost cut off contact with the old Zhu family because of the inverted door.
Zhu Yuanzhang has no son, because after he made his career, everyone who was related to him defected to him, but he and his son were nowhere to be found. In 1344, an unprecedented disaster occurred in the Huai River Basin, drought, locust plague, and plague followed, and Zhu Yuanzhang lived in the Huai River Basin.
In the dark period at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the relief food of the imperial court went through layers of **, and there was not much difference between distribution and distribution. At that time, the common people regarded officials as well-dressed beasts, and some were even inferior to animals.
Officials set up clever names to ask the people for money, such as "chasing festival money", "birthday money", "spending money", and so on, just to extract money from the people.
Zhu Yuanzhang's family was poor, as a tenant working for the landlord, suddenly suffered a catastrophe, and only Zhu Yuanzhang and his second brother were left in the family, but the land problem became a funeral problem. When they approached the landlord, Liu De, for help, they were rejected on the grounds that they had already been paid.
In the end, the landlord Liu Jizu gave them a piece of land at the foot of the mountain so that they could bury their families. Although he suffered a huge setback, Zhu Yuanzhang did not give up because of this, but faced life strongly, embarked on his own entrepreneurial path, and became an outstanding leader.
After dealing with his family's funeral, Zhu Yuanzhang and his second brother began to think about their future lives. Although they may not be able to survive locally, if they choose to flee, the second brother may not be able to take Zhu Yuanzhang with them.
At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang was only seventeen years old, and he may not be able to successfully escape from the predicament, and he also needs to take care of his son. However, without the company of his second brother, he could not feel at ease.
Fortunately, his neighbor Aunt Wang reminded him that his father had made a wish to Huangjue Temple and gave Zhu Yuanzhang to Monk Gaobin as an apprentice, as long as he brought some gifts to repay his wishes, he could live in Huangjue Temple.
Aunt Wang not only reminded Zhu Yuanzhang, but also gave him a gift. In this way, Zhu Yuanzhang went to Huangjue Temple smoothly and began his life as a little monk, doing some chores or chanting scriptures every day.
The second brother took his son away from home, leaving Zhu Wenzheng behind. Zhu Yuanzhang didn't expect that this separation with his second brother would become a farewell. The second brother later died in the flight, and Zhu Wenzheng survived, and they defected to Zhu Yuanzhang when Zhu Yuanzhang was twenty-six years old ten years later, along with his brother-in-law Li Zhen and nephew Li Wenzhong.
Zhu Yuanzhang is no longer the Zhu Yuanzhang of the past, he has become a tyrant who commands tens of thousands of troops. Zhu Yuanzhang cherished Zhu Wenzheng, the only nephew, and although he was assigned the position of general, he never let him go to the battlefield, but protected him.
It is for this reason that he has developed many bad habits, such as liking to go to fireworks places.
Zhu Wen is the main general of Hongdu, although his image is a little unbearable, he lingers in the land of fireworks every day, drunk and dreaming of death, but in the face of the enemy's attack, he performs extremely well.
On April 23, the 23rd year of Zheng, Chen Youliang led an army of 600,000 to attack Hongdu, and the defenders of Hongdu were only 20,000. In the face of such a desperate situation, Zhu Wenzheng was able to rely on this insignificant army to hold on to the city for eighty-five days, and he was stunned to let Chen Youliang return in vain.
He skillfully distributed 20,000 soldiers, with an average of only 2,000 soldiers per gate, and personally led 2,000 soldiers to support each gate. In battle, the city wall was repaired when it was broken, the generals were replaced when they died, and the situation was critical.
His military level is astonishing.
Zhu Wenzheng was under the fierce attack of Chen Youliang's 600,000-strong army in Hongdu, but Zhu Yuanzhang had no idea about it. Because Zhu Wenzheng did not send him a message asking for help.
At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang was also busy attacking Zhang Shicheng's Luzhou. It wasn't until Chen Youliang's attack on Hongdu lasted for more than a month that Zhu Wenzheng sent a letter to Zhu Yuanzhang asking for help, and at this time Zhu Yuanzhang understood the critical situation in Hongdu.
Chen Youliang led an army of 600,000 and did his best, obviously to have a decisive battle with Zhu Yuanzhang, which Zhu Yuanzhang knew very well. Therefore, he gathered all the soldiers and horses he could mobilize, a total of 200,000, and rushed directly to Hongdu to fight a decisive battle with Chen Youliang.
Chen Youliang learned that Zhu Yuanzhang was approaching him, so he took the initiative to abandon Hongdu and went to Poyang Lake to fight a decisive battle with Zhu Yuanzhang. In the end, the result was as everyone expected, Chen Youliang died in battle, and Zhu Yuanzhang won the victory.
If Zhu Wenzheng's defense time in Hongdu is not eighty-five days, then Zhu Yuanzhang, who is attacking Luzhou, will not have enough time to prepare, so he can only deal with it in a hurry, and the morale of Chen Youliang's army will also decline because of this, and it is difficult to say who will win and who will lose.
Zhu Wenzheng's persistence played a decisive role in the "Battle of Poyang Lake". In the end, Zhu Yuanzhang relied on this battle to successfully annex Chen Youliang's territory and became the largest force in the rebel army, which was invincible.
And his next target is Zhang Shicheng. Unlike Chen Youliang, Zhang Shicheng is a rich man type of person who just wants to live his life well and doesn't want others to disturb his peace.
Zhang Shicheng sat on the rich land of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but in the face of Chen Youliang's repeated invitations, he either refused or was perfunctory, so Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang both thought he was short-sighted.
In the Battle of Poyang Lake, Zhu Yuanzhang's rear was empty, and almost all the soldiers were sent to a decisive battle with Chen Youliang, but Zhang Shicheng turned a blind eye to this, not realizing that his life had entered the countdown.
Zhang Shicheng was not just a landlord occupying dozens or hundreds of acres of land, but a warlord who occupied one side. After Zhu Yuanzhang eliminated Chen Youliang, he naturally would not let him go easily.
But before eliminating him, Zhu Yuanzhang needs to deal with the traitor Zhu Wenzheng first. Zhu Yuanzhang was well aware of the importance of the Battle of Hongdu to the later Battle of Poyang Lake, so after the victory of the Battle of Poyang Lake, his first reward was Zhu Wenzheng, who guarded Hongdu.
Zhu Yuanzhang did not put the official position in front of Zhu Wenzheng, but let him choose a position by himself. This kind of treatment that others can only imagine in dreams. Zhu Wenzheng did not choose, but said that the official position was useless to him, and he could be appointed casually.
In fact, Zhu Wenzheng just wanted to be polite with Zhu Yuanzhang, but he didn't expect Zhu Yuanzhang to take it seriously and reward all the official positions in the rich areas to others, while he himself stayed in Jiangxi.
Zhu Yuanzhang's nephew Zhu Wenzheng, although he seems to be calm on the surface, but in fact he is aggrieved in his heart, this kind of grievance makes him unable to control himself, he began to expropriate and extort tyranny, rob people's daughters, sell official positions, and even bully the market.
His actions caused an uproar in Hongdu, and people's evaluation of him changed from a hero to a scourge. Although Zhu Yuanzhang knew all this, because he was Zhu Wenzheng's elder, he did not take action, only gave a verbal warning.
However, Zhu Wenzheng's venting did not stop, but he felt that the desire to vent was getting stronger and stronger. He believes that only by removing the source Zhu Yuanzhang can he completely vent.
Therefore, he colluded with Zhang Shicheng and prepared to suddenly turn back when Zhu Yuanzhang was unprepared. However, his plan was discovered by Zhu Yuanzhang's eyeliner in Jiangxi, and it failed before it could be implemented.
Zhu Wenzheng was imprisoned by Zhu Yuanzhang and was originally sentenced to death, but under the persuasion of Queen Ma, he was changed to imprisonment. The tragedy of Zhu Wenzheng is that his impulsiveness and selfishness caused him to lose his mind and eventually go to destruction.
His story tells us that we must have a bottom line in life, and we can't lose our minds in order to vent, otherwise we will only reap the consequences.
Conclusion: Zhu Yuanzhang's action of imprisoning Zhu Wenzheng is understandable, after all, no one will tolerate people who may pose a threat to themselves to stay around, especially Zhu Yuanzhang, who is in a high position and feels in danger at all times.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang was wary of Zhu Wenzheng, he did not become wary of Zhu Wenzheng's son, but instead made him the vassal king of Guilin. This shows that Zhu Yuanzhang's act of imprisoning Zhu Wenzheng was out of helplessness.