Behind the "Blue Jade Case" is to reflect the ruthlessness and cruelty of the imperial power in feudal society, and at the same time to reveal the injustice and inhumanity of feudal rule.
The power struggles and sacrifices under this system are thought-provoking.
Zhu Yunwen knew that the early death of the crown prince Zhu Biao led to the passing of the throne to his second son, and the succession of the next generation not only disappointed Zhu Yuanzhang's wish in his later years, but also made the uncles of the vassal kings threaten the imperial power.
During the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang, the princes of Dafeng were made vassal kings, and military power was granted, so that they had huge power in the local area and threatened the emperor's authority. Although these vassal kings did not dare to act recklessly when they were alive, after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, the young Zhu Yunwen succeeded to the throne, and in the face of the vassal uncles who had strong military power, he naturally could not suppress them, and the imperial power was seriously threatened.
For this reason, Zhu Yunwen began to guard against the vassal kings before he succeeded to the throne, and even forbade them to go to Nanjing to mourn for Zhu Yuanzhang. All this is because Zhu Yunwen deeply understands that it was Zhu Yunwen who brutally cut the feudal domain, which forced Zhu Di to launch the Battle of Jingjing.
Soon after Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne, he began to cut the feudal domain at the suggestion of Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng and other ministers. In order to justify the name of the feudal domain, he did not hesitate to collect the accusations of the feudal kings.
Although he originally wanted to take Zhu Di first, because Zhu Di was the eldest son of Zhu Yuanzhang when he was alive and was the most powerful vassal king, Zhu Yunwen was afraid of Zhu Di's strength and did not dare to move him first.
Instead, he first cleaned up Zhu Yuanzhang's fifth son, Zhu Hu, the king of Zhou, abolished his title of king of Zhou, and exiled him to Yunnan. Then, he began to clean up Zhu Yuanzhang's twelfth son, Zhu Bai, the king of Xiang.
Zhu Bai attaches great importance to filial piety and is very filial to Zhu Yuanzhang, after Zhu Yuanzhang died, he went to Nanjing for the funeral but was stopped by Zhu Yunwen and could not see Zhu Yuanzhang for the last time.
This made Zhu Bai very depressed after returning to the fiefdom of Jingzhou, and even had the idea of martyrdom.
When Zhu Yunwen tried to take Zhu Bai to Nanjing for trial on the charge of minting coins privately, he had the opportunity to summon him in a dignified manner, but Zhu Yunwen chose a more insidious path.
He secretly sent troops to infiltrate the city of Jingzhou, and then besieged the palace of the king of Hunan and announced Zhu Bai's guilt. Zhu Yunwen's behavior made Zhu Bai deeply insulted, and Zhu Bai had the heart of martyrdom after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, and this time the eldest nephew Zhu Yunwen bullied him even more, so the fierce Zhu Bai personally lit the Xiangwang Mansion and was buried in the fire.
After dealing with Zhu Bai, Zhu Yunwen continued to deal with Zhu Yuanzhang's other sons, such as the seventh son of Qi Wang Zhu Rong, the thirteenth son of Wang Zhu Gui, and the eighteenth son of Min Wang Zhu Rong. He finally felt that he had experience and prestige, and was ready to deal with Zhu Di.
However, despite the harsh and brutal methods used by Zhu Yunwen in the process of cutting the domain, his remarks in the History of the Ming Dynasty have left many people confused. He once said in front of the front-line soldiers: "Don't let me bear the name of killing my uncle!" ”
There has been a saying in history about Zhu Yunwen's soft-heartedness, believing that it was his unwillingness to kill his uncle Zhu Di that made him escape death on the battlefield many times. However, this is not what Zhu Yunwen really thinks.
In fact, the imperial power was so attractive to him that it was by no means as soft-hearted as people say. After Zhu Yunwen said that, his southern army never showed mercy to Zhu Di, and even his loyal subordinate Tie Xuan wanted to kill Zhu Di directly with a trick.
The Southern Army's pursuit of Zhu Di on the battlefield can be said to be doing its best, always wanting to put him to death. Zhu Di was able to escape death on the battlefield, mainly thanks to his good luck and the "divine assistance" of Li Jinglong, the commander of the Southern Army opposite.
Zhu Yunwen's words actually have a deeper meaning, he hopes that his soldiers can directly kill Zhu Di on the battlefield, instead of capturing him alive. Because if Zhu Di is captured alive, Zhu Yunwen will have to make a holy decree to kill his uncle and bear the reputation of killing his uncle.
This is the true meaning of Zhu Yunwen's words.
Although everyone thinks that Zhu Yunwen is generous and benevolent, he has never been soft on his uncles. Therefore, when Zhu Yunwen was ready to clean up Zhu Di, Zhu Di was faced with the choice of sitting back or fighting to the death.
Many people will understand this truth, after all, no one is willing to give up a glimmer of life, even if there is only one percent hope, they will fight for survival. Therefore, Zhu Yunwen's strict policy of cutting the feudal domain not only made Lan Yu, but also Zhu Li, the third king of the Jin Dynasty who was alive or had a discordant relationship with Zhu Di, likely cause Zhu Di to rebel, because everyone wanted to fight for their own chance to survive.
As the most trusted and powerful crown prince in history, Zhu Biao has supervised the country many times, and Zhu Yuanzhang also carefully selected a team of military generals for him. As a representative of the military general group cultivated by Zhu Biao, Lan Yu has an extremely close relationship with Zhu Biao, and only Zhu Biao can control him.
Lan Yu's personality is very unruly, as his exploits get bigger and bigger, he gradually becomes arrogant, even Zhu Yuanzhang can't completely control him, and the only person who can control Lan Yu is Zhu Biao.
Lan Yu is the brother-in-law of Chang Yuchun, the founding general of the Ming Dynasty, Chang Yuchun's wife is his sister, in the early years, he has been working under Chang Yuchun's tent, Chang Yuchun fought bravely, and was valued by Zhu Yuanzhang, so Chang Yuchun often praised Lan Yu in front of Zhu Yuanzhang, and Zhu Yuanzhang also began to value Lan Yu.
After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Lan Yu participated in the encirclement and suppression of the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty many times, and his achievements were remarkable.
After the Battle of Yuerhai, Lan Yu was named the Duke of Liangguo and became famous. As his prestige grew, so did his arrogance. However, there is only one person who can suppress him, and that is the crown prince Zhu Biao.
Zhu Biao is different from Zhu Yuanzhang's sternness and cruelty, he is naturally generous and benevolent, easy-going, won the hearts of the people, and enjoyed high prestige in the court. The reason why Lan Yu respects Zhu Biao so much is because Zhu Biao's wife, the crown princess, is Lan Yu's niece, and in terms of seniority, Zhu Biao is Lan Yu's nephew and son-in-law.
Therefore, after Chang Yuchun's death, Lan Yu was convinced of Zhu Biao and was willing to do his best to assist him in succeeding to the throne. Zhu Yuanzhang also looked at Zhu Biao's face and vigorously cultivated Lan Yu.
Zhu Di was named the King of Yan very early, and his fief was in Beiping, and Lan Yu often passed through Beiping when he was crusading against the remnants of the Northern Yuan Dynasty, so he had a lot of dealings with Zhu Di. Once, after Lan Yu returned from the Northern Expedition, he mentioned to Zhu Biao that he should beware of his younger brother Zhu Di.
He thinks that Zhu Di has courage and courage, and his style is quite similar to Zhu Yuanzhang, with a strong domineering spirit, unlike other vassal kings, Zhu Di's existence will definitely threaten Zhu Biao in the future, so he reminded Zhu Biao many times to get rid of Zhu Di as soon as possible, so as not to become a future trouble.
Zhu Biao is a benevolent person, he thinks that Zhu Di has great respect for him, and he is also very generous to Zhu Di. Although Lan Yu reminded him that Zhu Di might be bad for him, he still chose to trust Zhu Di.
However, due to Lan Yu's hostility towards Zhu Di, he began to secretly target Zhu Di in an attempt to replace Zhu Biao as the heir to the throne. However, these efforts were in vain.
After Zhu Biao's death, Zhu Yuanzhang finally chose Zhu Yunwen as the heir to the throne. Since Zhu Yunwen is the son of Zhu Biao, he is also the grandson of Lan Yu. Despite this, Zhu Yuanzhang was still worried that Lan Yu would not assist Zhu Yunwen in peace, so he decided to get rid of Lan Yu first to protect Zhu Yunwen's safety.
Zhu Yunwen is not related to Lan Yu by blood, because Chang died of illness and Lu became the crown princess, thus making Zhu Yunwen the imperial grandson. Lan Yu's untamed personality made Zhu Yuanzhang deeply uneasy, and he was worried that he would pose a threat after Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne.
Therefore, not long after Zhu Biao's death, Zhu Yuanzhang killed Lan Yu and some founding heroes by creating the "Lan Yu Case".
If Lan Yu is here, Zhu Yunwen's throne is likely to be lost. In the Battle of Jingyan, Lan Yu's general Qu Neng once led his army to break through the Changyi Gate in Beiping, and as long as the follow-up troops responded, they could attack Beiping.
However, Li Jinglong, the commander of the Southern Army, did not support Qu Neng because he was afraid that Qu Neng would take the first credit, resulting in the Southern Army not attacking Beiping. If it is replaced by blue jade, the southern army is likely to break through Beiping, and Zhu Di's battle of Jingjing will end in failure.
Even if Zhu Di continued to launch the Battle of Jingjing, if Lan Yu was present, it would be difficult for Zhu Yunwen to keep the throne. Because of Lan Yu's arrogant personality, if he saw Zhu Yunwen's failure to cut the domain, he would probably return to Nanjing after pacifying Zhu Di, and then force Zhu Yunwen to abdicate and support Zhu Yunxi, who was related to him, to succeed him.
Therefore, even if Lan Yu does not die, Zhu Yunwen's throne is likely to be lost, but he has changed from being usurped by his uncle Zhu Di to being usurped by his younger brother Zhu Yunxi. This was Zhu Yuanzhang's concern at the beginning, he was worried that the relationship between Lan Yu and Zhu Yunxi would threaten Zhu Yunxi's throne, and he was even more worried that Lan Yu would control Zhu Yunxi to control the government after succeeding to the throne.
Therefore, he concocted the "Lan Yu Case" and killed Lan Yu early to eliminate the threat to Zhu Yunwen's throne. In the final analysis, all of this is related to Zhu Biao's untimely death, which made Lan Yu have to accompany Zhu Biao's funeral.
Lan Yu's life and death did not prevent Zhu Di from launching the Battle of Jingjing, because it did not matter whether his military ability could suppress Zhu Di. Zhu Di will never sit still, as long as there is any possibility, he will fight hard.
Even if Lan Yu does not die, he will never obediently obey Zhu Yunwen's command, his character is destined to be a time bomb, which may be ** at any time, his existence will not be much less threatening to Zhu Yunwen than Zhu Di, so Zhu Yuanzhang will kill him.