Chapter 31 Hongwu’s death (1)

Compared with many emperors in history, Zhu Yuanzhang is a contradictory union.

His cruelty reached an outrageous level. Only Geng Bingwen and Guo Ying died behind him. Xu Da, Feng Sheng, Fu Youde, Lan Yu, Li Wenzhong and other prominent names were all sent to the Yellow Spring Road one by one by one by him. Some were assassinated by him, and some were beheaded by him.

In history, no emperor has planned and premeditatedly killed all the heroes who fought with him in the world. This cruelty and viciousness have never been seen in ancient times.

The aphorism of the birds being hidden all over the bow, and the rabbits being cooked dead and the dog being cooked was also brought to the extreme by Zhu Yuanzhang. Unfortunately, the direct consequence of this cruelty was to bury the rule of his grandson. When the Jingnan period came, Zhu Yunwen had no other good generals to be with him, and his uncle took over the country.

Or this result is a retribution for Zhu Yuanzhang's cruel means.

Zhu Yuanzhang also gave the most cruel killings to those corrupt officials. He promulgated the most severe anti-corruption law in history: those who embezzled more than 60 taels of silver will be executed immediately! This may also be the most severe punishment for corrupt officials in Chinese history, and even used torture to peel the skin and torture to corrupt officials.

However, in the political system designed by Zhu Yuanzhang, the salaries of officials were pitifully low. He brought the morals promoted by Confucianism to the extreme and demanded that his officials restrain themselves and restore etiquette.

What a ridiculous fantasy this seems to be to people today. It is impossible for people to be without greed. How can officials not be greedy and bribes in the face of absolute power? In the Ming Dynasty, corrupt officials emerged one after another, and although they did not reach the height of the Qing Dynasty, it was shocking.

During his thirty years of his reign, nearly 100,000 officials were killed in the three major cases of Hu Weiyong, the empty seal case and the Lan Yu case.

Zhu Yuanzhang washed his empire with baptism of iron and blood, hoping that these unprecedented terrifying means could eliminate all acts of daring to peek at the Zhu Dynasty or breaking down the corners of the court.

It is such an emperor who killed his own people the most in history, but he was a man who loved the people as much as his son and started from a poor peasant family since childhood.

Understand the hardships of farmers' farming in all seasons and never be ruthless to the greedy and cruel officials of the people. This is because of this fate that is born with the same roots as the peasants and the people.

Zhu Yuanzhang cherishes people's strength from the root and sets taxes lower than any previous dynasty. When the country's agricultural tax reached nearly 30 million stones (two), Zhu Yuanzhang felt very satisfied and set this as a permanent example and let the future generations implement it.

In addition, he also creatively invented a national defense system like a military garrison that raises millions of soldiers without spending a grain of water in the world. In his ideal, the half-agricultural and half-army garrison system could solve the problem of raising soldiers once and for all.

This is Zhu Yuanzhang, an emperor full of political ambitions, in his mind, he always thinks about one thing, which is how to establish a perfect system to allow his Zhu Ming Dynasty to unify the world for generations.

But he can only be a farmer full of political ambitions, and he will only see the interests of the land at a glance, but he will not even think that the population will grow. The soldiers in the guard station will grow, and conversely, people's greed will also grow.

On the other hand, the land of the Zhu family's princes will not pay taxes, the wealthy families will try every means to hide taxes, and the country will have to fight wars. There will be disasters. In the end, 30 million shi (two) of land tax rent will be mercilessly on the farmers who have kept him fighting for it.

In the end, the pitiful wealth created by this empire could no longer support the country to move forward, and knew it was crushed by both internal and external pressures. But Zhu Yuanzhang could not see all this, because people would always die.

When the little eunuch in the palace hurried to Zhu Zhi's mansion, Zhu Zhi was awakened from a hangover. After returning from visiting the palace the day before, Zhu Zhi locked himself in the Chongxiao Pavilion in the backyard.

There are many debates about what he did in later generations. One theory is that Zhu Zhi was very depressed because he was not allowed to serve in the palace and drank until dawn after returning home. Another theory is that Zhu Zhi was a person who was unfilial. After returning home, he went to the palace to have fun with the new local singer in the palace. The last two statements of filial piety and contradictory are inconclusive.

Zhu Zhi was shocked and finally it was time to go. He ordered someone to notify his wife and children.

While tidying up his clothes, he thought that it was neither early nor late in the leap month of August. Although he came to this history as a person who changed time and space, his wings flapping were too light and did not change some special historical events. He just changed himself and lived in the capital without living in Liaodong.

The future is uncertain. Xiao Chenzi over there reported that his wife and the prince were ready. Zhu Zhi sighed softly.

When the Liao King carriage walked into the Meridian Gate, Zhu Zhi immediately felt that the atmosphere in the palace was extremely tense.

He used to be responsible for the defense of the palace. Even when Lan Yu rebelled, there would not be so many people in the palace. Now, when he saw that the guards inside and outside the palace suddenly doubled.

As he stepped into the gate of the West Palace, the palace maids and eunuchs nervously went in and out in a solemn manner.

There were a group of emperor ministers standing in the yard outside the inner hall. Zhu Zhi glanced over and saw Yang Jing, Lian Zining, Ru Wei, Fang Xiaoru, Huang Zicheng and others standing respectfully according to their ranks.

As Zhu Zhi walked by, his eyes were intertwined with Huang Zicheng, and then he floated away. The light flashed in his small eyes. Yes, the identity of the Emperor Master is about to be realized.

When Zhu Zhi thought of the prominent position that Lord Huang was about to reach, he sighed in his heart. He was full of ambition and talent, and was unrealistic, and was the best evaluation of him. It can be foreseeable that when Zhu Yuanzhang passed away and Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne, his life would only be even more sad.

Walking forward, several underage princes who had not yet been granted vassals, including King Han Zhu Song, King Shen Zhu Mo, King An Zhu Ying, etc., were kneeling there. Most of them were children around ten years old. They had never seen such a scene. Everyone sobbed and shed tears, especially Zhu Mo cried the most.

At this time, Zhu Zhi was already the oldest prince in Beijing, and knelt at the head of the kings according to the eunuch's arrangement. As soon as he knelt down, two imperial doctors hurried into the hall.

Zhu Song next to him was tired of kneeling or really thinking of his father, so he started crying.

For Zhu Zhi, Zhu Yuanzhang's death was both an opportunity and a hurdle. Lao Zhu promised to inspect it for a year, and now it was almost time to go. If he let Zhu Zhi leave in the will, the dragon would return to the sea. But on the other hand, if Lao Zhu forgot about this, would he let his nephew and his poor advisers take the opportunity to leave him in the capital? Thinking of this, Zhu Zhiche and his younger brothers were upset and cried, turning sideways and shouting to them in a low voice: "The Father is still here."

What are you howling?! Don't affect your father's rest." The little princes were so scared that they stopped their voices when the brother drank. Several eunuchs guarding outside were so scared that they shivered by the drink, and they all looked at Zhu Zhi with strange eyes.

At the same time, an eunuch walked out and proclaimed: "The emperor has an order to meet the King of Liao." Zhu Zhi said with a voice to accept the order, and quickly got up and followed him in. When he entered the house, he saw several concubines of Lao Zhu kneeling in the outer room.

Among them was his mother, Concubine Han. When he walked into the inner room, he saw several imperial physicians and eunuchs serving him. The crown prince Zhu Yunwen sat next to a chair in front of the bed, looking worried.

Zhu Yuanzhang had already sat up, and seemed a little energetic, but his face was as white as rice paper. Zhu Zhi quickly knelt down and saluted. Seeing that Zhu Zhi was coming, Zhu Yuanzhang waved to him to get up.

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Here you come. My 15-Law."

Zhu Zhijiang wiped his hand and wiped it into his eyes, and tears fell down. He knelt on the ground and jumped forward two steps, choking on the edge of the bed: "Father..."

Zhu Yuanzhang touched Zhu Zhi's head with his hand and said, "I am leaving, I have something to say to you. I have suffered this year, so I won't complain about me in my heart."

Zhu Zhi choked and said, "Father, I can be with you this year and let my son fulfill his filial piety. If you can listen to your father's teachings, it is too late for me to be happy, so how can I feel resentment?"

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled slightly and said, "My righteous king, I know that you are dedicated to the people, but many people cannot understand what etiquette and laws are used to suppress you every day.

I understand in my heart that many of your actions are correct, but this country and the court rely on ethics and patriarchal laws to control the land. I cannot support you openly. I have to keep you to protect you and prevent you from being the target of public criticism. Can you understand my painstaking efforts?"

Zhu Zhi nodded quickly and said, "Father, how can you not know about your love for your son minister..."

Zhu Yuanzhang said: "I am almost out of reach. You have to walk your own way in the future. Shiwulang, although you are sometimes a little bit petty, you are pure by nature in the final analysis. You are focused on it. This makes me very pleased.

But sometimes you can’t just look at the front of your work, but ignore the consequences. You have to remember the truth that the saint says is too much or too little. You should not take too much changes in some things and some changes, so you have to take your time. Otherwise, you will do bad things with kindness."

Zhu Zhi sighed in his heart that everyone thought Zhu Yuanzhang was a very conservative emperor. It was not until this time that he saw the world deep in the old man. He also understood Zhu Zhi's approach of serving the people and strengthening his national strength. However, as the emperor, he stood at a height that overlooked the country, and many things could not be carried out in a hurry.

Zhu Zhi quickly replied: "Yes, Father, I have written down your lesson."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded slowly and said to Zhu Yunwen who was sitting behind him: "Good grandson, come here."

Zhu Yunwen quickly knelt on the ground and took a few steps forward, "Your fifteenth uncle is your father's best brother during his lifetime. I also know that he had entrusted you to your fifteenth uncle before his death. Now I am leaving, and this thousands of miles of land is about to fall on your shoulders.

There is no need to tell me about the rest. The key point is to treat your uncles.

I still remember you asked me back then, "Who can control the kings who are uneasy?" I asked you how to deal with it. You said that you should be kind and use etiquette to control it. If you cannot, you should cut off the land, and if you cannot, you should destroy the person, and if you cannot, you should attack it, and if you cannot, you should raise troops to attack it."

I can only say that you can do it your way, do you still remember it?"

Zhu Yunwen was in tears and nodded quickly. Zhu Yuanzhang continued, "I know that the biggest hidden danger in your heart is your fourth uncle. I also had the idea of ​​Yi Chu at the beginning, but according to etiquette, you should sit in this position, so I gave up this idea.

I admit that it is precisely because of my thoughts that your fourth uncle has some insignificant thoughts.

But today I want to ask you for love for the fourth brother. Although your fourth uncle had this idea, now that you have become the Grand Principal, he has become honest.

You should think about the friendship between everyone and the same clan, and don’t slander the idea of ​​the King of Yan, unless he really acts violently. Your fourth uncle is a talented person. He has been guarding the frontier for our father and father over the years, so that the barbarians dare not cross the desert.

Now that the Hulu has not yet calmed down, the grandson must not destroy the Great Wall.

I know that if you treat him well, he will treat you better, so you need to use softness to overcome hardness to your fourth uncle. Do you remember these words?" Zhu Yunwen nodded again.

Zhu Yuanzhang said again: "Your fifteenth uncle, when my funeral is over, let him go back and be a vassal. If your fourth uncle still has some ideas, your fifteenth uncle is loyal to serving the country.

Your father told me that I will give you another word now, that you must trust your fifteenth uncle, and that you must not be confused by the slander of outsiders. Your uncle and nephew can only be together to protect my country and the country of Ming Dynasty. Do you know Yunwen?" Zhu Yunwen choked and responded one by one.

Zhu Yuanzhang turned around and said to Zhu Zhi: "Fifteenth, your nephew lost his mother when he was a child, and when he was a teenager, he lost his father again. Now this heavy burden is about to be pressed on his shoulders. It's really pitiful.

So you must help him more. Even if you don’t do it for the country, you should think more about the benefits of your elder brother to you. Among so many sons, only you have the most vision and are the most loyal person. You still have to protect Yunwen’s country.”

Zhu Zhi sobbed and said, "Father, don't worry. My son vowed to devote himself to the whole country of the prince and brother, and would never do anything rebellious. If you violate this oath, the heaven and earth will kill him together.

"When Zhu Zhi swore, Zhu Yunwen kept staring at Zhu Zhi.

After hearing Zhu Zhidi's words, Zhu Yuanzhang finally nodded with confidence, reached out and pulled Zhu Zhi's hand to Zhu Yunwen's hand, and the uncle and nephew's hands were tightly held together.

Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang finally breathed a sigh of relief, closed his eyes and waved his hand, not knowing who to go out.

In the leap month of the thirty-one year of Hongwu, in Yiyou, the emperor collapsed in the West Palace at the age of 71. Zhu Yuanzhang's nickname was Zhu Chongba, and Chongba Chongba, but it collapsed in the leap month of August. Is this a historical coincidence?

The will of the will says: "I have been the decree of heaven for thirty years. I have been worried about danger and accumulated my heart, and I have been diligent every day, and I will be beneficial to the people. But from the cold, I have never known the ancients, and I like good and evil, which is not as far away as possible. Now I have obtained the natural principles of all things, so why do I feel sad?

The crown prince Yunwen is polite and filial and friendly, and the world is restored to his heart, so he should ascend to the throne. The civil and military officials at home and abroad are united in assisting the government to safeguard our people. Don’t use gold and jade when offering sacrifices to the funeral and ceremonial things. The mountains and rivers of Xiaoling should not be changed for the reason.
Chapter completed!