Those Things in the Ming Dynasty Part 1 The Great Emperor Hongwu _ Chapter 21 The Destruction of Blue Jade
Faint
Fainting is a term used in Go. It means that a skilled chess player makes a mistake that should not be made. It is very appropriate to apply this word to Lan Yu. After leaving the battlefield, this wise and powerful general seemed to be just as arbitrary as he was.
The word arbitrarily formed an indissoluble bond.
On the way back, Lan Yu did something quite disgraceful. He bullied the Yuan Lord's wife, and this woman also had a very strong temperament and committed suicide (private Yuan Lord's concubine, the concubine committed suicide in shame)
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Lan Yu's behavior violated Zhu Yuanzhang's national policy and was very unpopular. Zhu Yuanzhang was very angry, but considering Lan Yu's great contribution, he did not pursue him further. However, Lan Yu thought this was a sign of tacit approval, and even more
Become arrogant.
After that, he performed more and more of this kind of performance. When he returned to Xifeng Pass, because it was already dark, the officials guarding the pass had taken a rest. When they heard someone calling the pass, they immediately ran to open the door, but Lan Yu did it.
did something no one could have imagined.
He ordered his soldiers to attack the checkpoint, broke the city wall and forced his way in, and was quite proud of it.
This is too much. The officials guarding the gate are also human beings. They have already rushed to open the door, but you are not willing to wait for a while. Are you rushing to put out the fire?
These two things made Zhu Yuanzhang very angry. He was originally going to make Lan Yu the Duke of Liang. In order to warn Lan Yu, he changed the character Liang to Liang. This shows Zhu Yuanzhang's change in attitude towards Lan Yu.
Lan Yu seemed to be on guard, but he was destined to open a dyeing workshop if he had any color. Not only did he continue to indulge in his own behavior, he actually extended his hand to military power. He was in the army without Zhu Yuanzhang's permission.
Appoint your own trusted officials and deploy your own forces.
Naturally, all this did not escape the eyes of Jin Yiwei, so Zhu Yuanzhang began to think about how to deal with this second Hu Weiyong.
It seems incomprehensible that Lan Yu is an excellent general, but he did so many illegal things after becoming successful. But in fact, as long as we contact the Naha surrender incident we mentioned earlier, Lan Yu can be reasonably explained
behavior.
From the arrogance when entertaining Naha to the arrogance of Xifengguan, we can draw a conclusion for Lan Yu, that is: this is a rough man.
The so-called rough person does not mean that he is uneducated or behaves rudely, but that he behaves without consideration and is unreasonable in his dealings with others. He is the kind of person who does what he thinks and then thinks about it after doing it. In fact, his character has always been like this.
Even if you don't make a mistake on this matter, you will sooner or later make a mistake on that matter.
Character determines fate, and the key problem is that Lan Yu's fate is not completely in his own hands. To a large extent, his life and death only depend on Zhu Yuanzhang's tolerance and patience, and Zhu Yuanzhang is not a patient person.
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Lan Yu soon made new mistakes. Zhu Yuanzhang took Lan Yu's merits into account and made an exception to give him the official title of Crown Prince and Tutor. As we have said before, this is a first-grade official position that ordinary officials can only obtain in dreams.
It can be said that he is already an extremely respected minister.
As if Lan Yu had taken the wrong medicine, she actually shouted in front of many people: "Can't I give my merits to a grand master (I can't bear the grand master)?"
This is not asking for progress, it is because I feel that I have lived too long.
Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't bear it anymore. If he could still bear it, he would no longer be Zhu Yuanzhang.
He showed his butcher knife again.
It should be noted that in history, there is another explanation for the reason why Lan Yu was killed. According to "Ming Tongjian", Lan Yu's murder had a great relationship with Yan King Zhu Di.
Zhu Di is the fourth son of Zhu Yuanzhang. His methods and methods are very close to Zhu Yuanzhang, so many people say that he is most like Zhu Yuanzhang.
Lan Yu is Chang Yuchun's brother-in-law, and Chang Yuchun's daughter is the concubine of Prince Zhu Biao, so Lan Yu has a good relationship with the prince. After returning from the expedition to Naha, this dear friend found the prince and said to him:
"King Yan is not an ordinary person. He will rebel sooner or later. I have found people to make him angry. If you have the image of an emperor, you must be careful."
Lan Yu is considered a good friend, so he said these words to the prince, just hoping that the prince would be careful, but he forgot the idiom "there is no close relationship between strangers". You, Lan Yu, are just a foreign relative at most, how can you compare with your biological brothers!
The prince later told Yan Wang Zhu Di what Lan Yu said to him during a chat, so Zhu Di severely sued Lan Yu. Zhu Yuanzhang only took action against Lan Yu at Zhu Di's instigation.
Of course, this is just a theory. In my opinion, the main reason for Lan Yu's death should be his arrogance and lawlessness. In any case, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to attack Lan Yu.
Now that we have decided to take action, we must first charge Lan Yu with a crime. After all, the process still has to go through. You can't be dragged out and beheaded for no reason. If you want to accuse Lan Yu of petty theft, no one will believe it. At that time, he had a mistress, etc.
The issue of lifestyle seems to be an honor.
It seems that the charge of treason is better. The title is eye-catching, the theme is clear, and it is convenient and practical. We can understand it at a glance, so we use it all the time.
In February of the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu (1393), Jinyiwei commanded Jiang Yu to report Lan Yu for rebellion. The Lan Yu case, the last of the four major Hongwu cases, finally kicked off.
Countless heads are about to fall to the ground.
After the Jinyiwei report, Zhu Yuanzhang quickly arrested Lan Yu and put him in jail for trial. To be fair, Lan Yu's arrogance and lawlessness are well-founded, but there is no real evidence for rebellion. As an upstart general, he has no deep foundation and no
With sufficient preparation, Lan Yu would not dare to rebel.
If you want to impose a crime, why bother?
It is estimated that Lan Yu received a lot of black sticks in prison, because this person who had no intention of rebellion actually wrote a long confession, not only explaining his intention to rebel, but also confessing the method and location of the attempt. It seems that
He should have played the leading role in "Prison" while in prison.
Now that Lan Yu has confessed, let's kill Lan Yu and close the case. But as mentioned before, if Zhu Yuanzhang really did this, he would no longer be Zhu Yuanzhang.
Whenever there is a rebellion, there will definitely not be just one person. This is the clue, and we need to investigate it, so Zhang San, Li, Si Wang and Er Mazi all came out. Jin Yiwei is also very experienced in doing this (see the Hu Weiyong case for specific operating procedures and methods).
How many people were killed in the end? After investigation, Lan Yu's comrades totaled 15,000. Judging from this number, Lan Yu's usual interpersonal relationships are pretty good.
Lan Yu himself was exterminated, and countless people were implicated in the case. A total of one duke, thirteen marquises, two earls, and more officials at all levels were killed as a result. Those who survived the Hu Weiyong case were once lucky.
, but what they would not have imagined is that they only lived for more than ten years, and they did not escape the knife after all. These people who were killed because of the Lan Yu case did not find rest in peace after their deaths, and their names were compiled as "
"Records of Rebellious Ministers", I estimated that if the names of 15,000 people are listed, the name should be at least two characters, and the number of characters would be five. This "Records of Rebellious Ministers" is probably between 30,000 and 70,000 characters.
Between five thousand words, it can match the word count of a master's thesis.
But what's different about this paper is that every word in it is written in blood.
The Lan Jade Case has wiped out almost all the heroes and generals of the Hongwu period. It started with Hu Weiyong in the thirteenth year of Hongwu. It should have come to an end now. Those who should be killed will be killed, and those who should not be killed will also be killed. Let’s take a rest.
Bar.
Lan Yu's life was extremely dramatic. In the first half of his life, he was always shrouded in the shadow of famous generals and did not have many opportunities to perform. History did not treat him badly. In the second half of his life, he became the protagonist and established his own
Although he had great achievements, he was pulled down when he was in the limelight. Is this God's will?
But what is gratifying is that he finally lived up to his reputation as a famous general and proved himself with his illustrious military exploits. His immortal achievements will be recorded in history and remembered by future generations.
From this perspective, he seems to be lucky again.
That night, I dreamed of millions of soldiers.
real motive
There was a deeper reason why Zhu Yuanzhang wielded the butcher knife in the Lan Jade case.
In fact, you can also think that killing a little Lan Yu does not need to involve so many people. Moreover, Lan Yu is not Hu Weiyong, and he does not have many accomplices. However, Zhu Yuanzhang continued to regard many innocent people as Lan Yu's comrades.
It would be interesting if the party killed him.
Behind this move, there is a real purpose hidden.
Many seemingly unrelated things are actually closely related. The truth is often hidden in the boring historical data.
The Lan Yu case occurred in February of the 26th year of Hongwu. Let’s use this as a clue to see what events occurred before and after this year. These events should have a profound impact on the handling of the Lan Yu case.
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After search and analysis, the answer is as follows:
Historical records: In April of the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu (1392), Crown Prince Zhu Biao died of illness, and his son Zhu Yunwen succeeded him as Crown Prince.
If you think about it carefully, Zhu Yuanzhang's behavior is not difficult to understand. Zhu Biao is Zhu Yuanzhang's eldest son, but he is not his legitimate son (his mother is a concubine), but Zhu Yuanzhang established him as the prince early, which shows that he has great respect for Zhu Biao.
He was very satisfied. Zhu Yuanzhang's deep affection for Zhu Biao made him choose Zhu Biao's son Zhu Yunwen to inherit the throne after Zhu Biao's death.
This choice should be said to be a good one. Judging from the subsequent situation, Zhu Yunwen is also a good heir. But the problem is that Zhu Yunwen is too young. Unlike his father, he has experienced the difficult test of the founding period and has not mastered it.
The methods of ministers.
Lan Yu, a group of founding heroes, were talented in both civil and military affairs, and were able to make good decisions. Only Zhu Yuanzhang could control them. Zhu Biao also had some prestige. As the saying goes, he could barely hold the line, but Zhu Yunwen couldn't do anything about it.
How can I hand over the empire that I have worked so hard to build to others? The good and lackeys must be cleaned up first, so that Zhu Yunwen can be guaranteed the throne.
Zhu Yuanzhang killed those capable ministers, but he also considered that someone must defend the country, and those nerds who have not experienced the test of war cannot complete this mission. Zhu Yuanzhang solved this contradiction perfectly (at least he
(I think so), he enfeoffed several of his sons to various places. These people were called vassal kings in history, and they were allowed to have armies.
We have to admire Zhu Yuanzhang. He also thought that these feudal kings might rebel, so he created a whole set of systems to check and balance the power of each feudal king. We will introduce this system in detail later. It should be said that the system he formulated
The lord's system of checks and balances is quite complete, but it is not perfect.
No matter how careful people are, they will make omissions, and Zhu Yuanzhang was no exception. There was a tiny loophole in his system. Later facts proved that although this loophole was small, it was fatal.
Another story can also explain Zhu Yuanzhang's motivation for killing the hero.
Once, Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to kill a large number of heroes again. Zhu Biao couldn't see it and persuaded him:
"Your Majesty kills too many people, which may damage the harmony."
Zhu Yuanzhang didn't say anything, and asked someone to find a stick with thorns and throw it in front of Zhu Biao, asking Zhu Biao to pick it up.
Zhu Biao is not an idiot. He will naturally not do anything when he sees a thorn.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at him coldly:
"I kill people just to pull out the thorns on this stick for you."
This incident clearly explains Zhu Yuanzhang's motives, but there is another half to this story, from which we can understand what kind of person Zhu Biao is. As a prince, Zhu Biao has never enjoyed the respect of the emperor.
Honorable, but he is also an important figure and it is necessary to make an appearance.
To Zhu Yuanzhang's surprise, his tone did not intimidate Zhu Biao. This usually soft-spoken son actually dared to refute, and his words were very unpleasant.
He said in the same cold tone:
"The emperor was a virtuous monarch like Yao and Shun, and his ministers were the subjects who supported Yao and Shun."
This sentence is quite harsh, and its general meaning is: What kind of emperor there is, there will be what kind of ministers. If you are not wise yourself, how can you blame the ministers?
Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned. This honest and honest son actually dared to ridicule him! He was furious, took out his weapon - the chair, and threw it at the prince. Zhu Biao was agile and dodged.
But Zhu Yuanzhang's treason still frightened him so much that he fell seriously ill when he returned home.
Zhu Biao is indeed a benevolent monarch, and he dares to stick to his principles. He is soft on the outside and strong on the inside. Zhu Yuanzhang has a good way of judging people throughout his life, and the successor he chose should be quite good.
And his knowledge seems to be very outstanding. It is said that "the emperor is a virtuous monarch like Yao and Shun, and ministers are the subjects who support Yao and Shun." This is very insightful. If the later Chongzhen understood this, he would probably be able to survive for a few more years.
Therefore, no matter from which angle you look at it, Zhu Biao is an ideal successor. He has followed Zhu Yuanzhang since he was a child, treats others with humility, has a good relationship with ministers, has witnessed turmoil and bloodshed but remains calm, and has rich experience in handling political affairs.
Zhu Yuanzhang also attached great importance to Zhu Biao. In the tenth year of Hongwu (1377), he had handed over many political affairs to Zhu Biao and told Zhu Biao the four-character formula for handling national affairs: "Benevolence, Ming, Diligence, and Determination".
His hopes were pinned on Zhu Biao. It can be said that there were only two people Zhu Yuanzhang trusted the most at that time, one was Queen Ma and the other was the prince.
However, God seemed to want to punish Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Biao died earlier than Zhu Yuanzhang. This bad news completely devastated Zhu Yuanzhang. He ignored the dissuasion of ministers and passed the throne to the young Zhu Yunwen. This can also be seen that he cherished his son.
The depth of emotion.
Zhu Biao is a worthy heir.
However, in some historical materials, there are completely different records of this dear man.
History can be tampered with
One of the most important historical materials recording Zhu Yuanzhang's deeds, "Records of Ming Taizu", records it this way. First, it is the same old story, saying that when Zhu Di was first born, there was light everywhere and the room was filled with five colors (for specific descriptions, please refer to Zhu Yuanzhang's birth record). And then
It is said that Zhu Yuanzhang liked Zhu Di very much and disliked the prince and grandson. It was even said that Zhu Yuanzhang repeatedly wanted to change his will and pass the throne to Zhu Di before his death, but was prevented by the prince's edict.
These plots are all familiar to us and there is nothing new, but after all, these are records in historical materials, so we still analyze them.
The so-called "Records of the Ming Dynasty" are the historical records of Ming Dynasty historians. It is an indisputable fact that since Yongle seized the throne, there have been many tamperings with the history of the previous dynasty. In order to prove that he was not seizing the throne, Zhu Di paid great attention to the issue of determining the successor.
, the appearance of these records should not be unexpected.
What is even more convincing is that later historians and orthodox historical materials did not adopt these statements. These experienced historians carefully distinguished and screened the historical materials, and their attitude towards these records is very revealing.
Based on the above situation, we should be able to infer that Zhu Biao and Zhu Yunwen are well-deserved successors. It is undeniable that Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di have very similar personalities and methods of doing things, but this does not mean that Zhu Yuanzhang wants to pass the throne to Zhu Di.
evidence.
In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang later realized the problem of being too strict in governing the country. He taught the prince to "govern the country with benevolence" and revised many of his early policies. Zhu Yuanzhang was a mature politician. He understood the principle of governing the country with relaxation and chose to be benevolent.
It is reasonable for Zhu Biao to be the heir.
Zhu Biao was an unfortunate man. He lived in the shadow of Zhu Yuanzhang all his life. He had no autonomy or self-determination, and his lifeline was not long. His son Zhu Yunwen was even more unfortunate. The father and son could be regarded as brothers in need.
Although hundreds of years have passed and Huangsha has already buried those old memories, we should still find out the truth from those old papers and give justice to Zhu Biao and his son.