From 1399 to 1402 AD, that is, from the first year of Jianwen of the Ming Dynasty to the fourth year of Jianwen, there was a huge war between Zhu Di, the king of Yan, and his nephew, Zhu Yunwen, the emperor of Jianwen. The end of the war ended with the success of Zhu Di's "Jingnan" and the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen unknown, which is also a rare example of successful rebellion by a vassal king in history. So, why was Zhu Di able to succeed in "appeasement"? If Emperor Jianwen's father, the crown prince Zhu Biao, was still there, would Zhu Di still rebel? What are his odds?
One of the most important factors for Zhu Di's success in the "Battle of Jingyan" was that Zhu Di had a military strategy mind and the ability to fight bravely.
As early as the Hongwu period during the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Northern Yuan forces had been unfinished, and sometimes went south to invade the border, becoming Zhu Yuanzhang's heart disease. From 1370 (the third year of Hongwu) to 1396 (the twenty-ninth year of Hongwu), Zhu Yuanzhang sent troops to wipe out the remnants of the Northern Yuan Dynasty eight times, the last two of which were led by Zhu Di, the king of Yan. On these two occasions, Zhu Di captured the Northern Yuan Dynasty's Taiwei Naier Buhua and the Northern Yuan general Solin Timur, and collected tens of thousands of his tribes, hundreds of thousands of horses, camels, cattle and sheep. It shows Zhu Di's extraordinary military talent and adaptability.
In the "Battle of Jingjing", Zhu Di gave full play to his military talent. If you pretend to be crazy and foolish, you have deceived the messenger; pretending to surrender to control Beiping; Raid Geng Bing's Ministry of Culture at night; sneak attack on Daning to incorporate Guanning Iron Cavalry; Zhengcunba and Baigou River defeated Li Jinglong; defeated Sheng Yong in the battles of Jiahe and Hongcheng; The battle of Lingbi defeated He Fu and Ping'an, etc., and almost every battle Zhu Di risked the arrows and stones and charged forward, which greatly stimulated the momentum of the Yan army.
In the end, when the war was in a stalemate, Zhu Di adopted the strategy of Yao Guangxiao, the "black-clothed prime minister" (that is, the Daoyan monk), to avoid the important and light, only attack but not defend, and go straight to Beijing.
"Mingjian Compendium" Volume 2: The edict has a division of the ruling officials to make them lawless, successively Benyan, with the words that the Beijing division is empty and desirable, Wang Nai said angrily: "Frequent years of using soldiers, when has it been?" If you want to make a decision in Linjiang, don't look back! Dao Yan also strongly persuaded King Yan: "Don't go down to the city, rush to the Beijing Division, this batch of hyper tactics is also." "So it was decided.Thanks to Zhu Di's military strategy and taking the lead, the Yan army all marched forward bravely and fought to the death. Although Zhu Di was defeated a few times, he was able to quickly regather his soldiers, boost morale, and eventually defeat the Ming army.
Another important factor that Zhu Di was able to defeat the Ming army was that the Ming army did not have a powerful general, and the Ming army had many soldiers but were not refined, and their morale was low.
The Ming army did not have a powerful general, which was mainly Zhu Yuanzhang's problem. There are countless founding fathers of the Ming Dynasty, there are six dukes and 28 marquis who were named princes alone, except for some of them died of illness and war, Zheng Guogong Changmao was exiled, Deqing Marquis Liao Yongzhong was given to death, Yongjiahou Zhu Liangzu was whipped to death; Zhu Yuanzhang also used the "Hu Weiyong case" and the "Lanyu case" to kill more than 50,000 courtiers who were implicated in the "Hu Weiyong case" and "Lanyu case" twice, and the Korean Duke Li Shanchang, the Liangguo Duke Lan Yu, the Ying Duke Fu Youde, the Song Duke Feng Sheng, etc., as well as a large number of marquises, etc., were all slaughtered in these several implications. It is said that Xu Da, the Duke of Wei, was also killed by Zhu Yuanzhang's attack caused by a steamed goose.
By the time of Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunwen, the only founding heroes were Geng Bingwen, Marquis of Changxing, and Guo Ying, Marquis of Wuding, and at this time the two were already old men in their sixties. The veteran Geng Bingwen is good at defending but not attacking, and Guo Ying has no experience in leading troops to fight alone, so he basically fights his deputy. Although they directly or indirectly participated in the Battle of Jingyan, in terms of strategy and attack, they were the opponents of Zhu Di, the king of Yan?
The Ming army is known as the "** army", after decades of peaceful erosion, it has long lost the courage of the year, ** is the opponent of the "border guards" who have been fighting in the war for many years? In addition, many generals of the Ming army surrendered to Zhu Di one after another, they thought: Uncle beating nephew, this is the old Zhu family's own family affairs, why should outsiders interfere? It was this mentality that caused the morale of the Yugoslav army to be low and the morale of the army to be sluggish and unstable.
And at the critical time, Mei Yin, the commander of the Ming Dynasty, was ordered to garrison Huai'an, and let Zhu Di attack Jinling and was indifferent, watching the fire from the other side; Not to mention Li Jinglong, 500,000 Ming troops were all lost by him, and in the end, he directly opened the door to offer the city, so that Zhu Di's army could enter the capital smoothly.
Zhu Biao is Zhu Yuanzhang's eldest son, it can be said that since Zhu Biao was born, Zhu Yuanzhang has attached great importance to this son. At that time, when Zhu Biao was born, it was when Zhu Yuanzhang led the army to attack Jiqing (now Nanjing), and Zhu Yuanzhang was excited and specially carved the sentence "Those who come to this mountain will not suffer and have no heirs" on a mountain.
When Zhu Biao was 5 years old, Zhu Yuanzhang invited Song Lian and other famous Confucians to be Zhu Biao's teachers, teach him scriptures, and receive Confucian education. At the age of 9, Zhu Yuanzhang established himself as the king of Wu in Yingtianfu, and Zhu Biao was the son. As soon as he had the opportunity, Zhu Yuanzhang personally taught Zhu Biao how to be a king, how to serve the people, and so on.
Zhu Di is 5 years younger than Zhu Biao, and the two are both Zhu Yuanzhang's sons, but their experiences are very different. When Zhu Biao became the crown prince at the age of 13, he lived a good life every day. And Zhu Di and other brothers are receiving strict military training, horseback riding, drills, etc., after all, the world has not yet been unified, and the war will continue to be fought.
In Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, Zhu Biao has taken advantage of both of them, and Zhu Biao seems to have become the best candidate for the best people in the Ming Dynasty.
When Zhu Biao grew up, he had a gentle and generous personality, was thoughtful, and respected his teachers and was filial. Once, because Song Lian's family was involved in Hu Weiyong's case, Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to execute Song Lian, but after Zhu Biao and Queen Ma tried to protect Song Lian, Song Lian was spared death.
Zhu Biao is also very friendly to his younger brothers, whenever his younger brothers make mistakes, Zhu Biao begs his father to spare them, so Zhu Biao's prestige among his brothers is also high. In the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu (1391 AD), Zhu Biao was ordered to inspect Shaanxi, and it happened that his younger brother Zhu Zhang, the king of Qin, was recalled to Beijing because of his mistakes.
Zhu Biao often ruled the country with benevolence and harmony as the crown prince, while Zhu Yuanzhang tended to be strict with the law, although the father and son quarreled from time to time, Zhu Biao gradually gained prestige in the court. The left prime minister Li Shanchang and the prince and the young master, the right prime minister Xu Da and the prince and the young master, the Zhongshu Pingzhang record the important military affairs often meet the spring and the prince Shaobao, and Feng Sheng, Liao Yongzhong, Yang Xian, Deng Yu, Tang He, Liu Ji and other old ministers assisted, plus the vassal kings to stabilize the border, if Zhu Biao ascends the throne as the emperor in the future, the Ming Dynasty can be said to be solid.
In other words, if Zhu Biao does not die, history will be rewritten, and the second emperor of the Ming Dynasty will become Zhu Biao, and of course there will be nothing to do with Zhu Di. If Zhu Di disagrees with Zhu Biao and rises up to rebel, Zhu Biao can still beat Zhu Di down with the remaining founding heroes, just Liangguo Gong Lanyu (is Chang Yuchun's wife and brother, Zhu Biao is married to Chang Yuchun's daughter), Yingguo Gong Fu Youde, and Song Guogong Feng Sheng are enough for Zhu Di to bear, not to mention that there are many marquis' heroes.
The problem is that Zhu Biao died of illness in the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu (1392 AD), that is, when Zhu Yuanzhang was 64 years old. The specific disease is not recorded in detail in the history books, perhaps because the "Hu Weiyong case" involved too many killings, and the quarrel between the prince Zhu Biao and Zhu Yuanzhang laid the root of the disease; Maybe it was because the two had different political views, etc., in short, the kind, gentle, and elegant Zhu Biao suddenly died in the second year after returning from Shaanxi.
In addition to Zhu Yuanzhang's grief, he fell in love with Zhu Biao's 15-year-old son Zhu Yunwen even more. Zhu Yunwen is smart and very filial, and his father Zhu Biao has a very similar temperament. In order to avoid a war between his sons for the crown, Zhu Yuanzhang made Zhu Yunwen the emperor's grandson.
Next, in order to pave the way for Zhu Yunwen in the future, Zhu Yuanzhang used the "Blue Jade Case" to kill the founding heroes of the country. If the "Hu Weiyong case" is Zhu Yuanzhang clearing the way for the crown prince Zhu Biao, then the "Lanyu case" is Zhu Yuanzhang clearing the way for Zhu Yunwen. These can also be said to be indirectly clearing the way for Yanwang Zhu Di. Zhu Yuanzhang has calculated everything, I'm afraid he won't calculate that his son will rise up against his own nephew!