After launching the Battle of Jingnan, Zhu Di defeated his nephew, Emperor Jianwen, in the fourth year of Jianwen (1402), and declared himself the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
From the time Zhu Di became emperor to his death in the twenty-second year of Yongle (1424), he was emperor for a total of 22 years, and it is strange that he sat on many harem beauties, and for such a long time, he did not have another son and a daughter.
When Zhu Di became emperor, he was only 42 years old, and it is said that when he was still in the middle age, he should not be able to have children because he was already too old.
Moreover, before Zhu Di became emperor, he already had four sons and five daughters, and the Ming Shi Zhuan Of kings recorded: "Chengzu had four sons." Emperor Renzong, Gao Xu the King of Han, and Empress Gao Xuan of Zhao were born. Gao's mother is unknown. Moreover, this Zhu Gaomu was born in the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu and died less than the ninth month.
Zhu Di's five daughters, the first four of whom were also born to Empress Xu, the youngest Princess Changning, whose mother is unknown, but she was born in the nineteenth year of Hongwu.
In this way, Zhu Di had the ability to be born, otherwise, he would not have been able to give birth to three sons and four daughters with Empress Xu.
Moreover, these generations of the Zhu clan also have strong reproductive genes, such as Zhu Di's old father Zhu Yuanzhang gave birth to 26 sons and 16 daughters before and after; Zhu Di's obese eldest son, Emperor Akihito, Zhu Gaozi, also had 10 sons and 7 daughters.
Zhu Di was emperor for so many years, and there were more than twenty concubines with names and surnames recorded in the official history, but these concubines did not give birth to a son and a daughter for Zhu Di.
Zhu Di had already had three sons with Empress Xu when he was the King of Yan, so there was only one reason that could be explained, that is, Zhu Di's feelings for his wife Empress Xu were particularly deep!
Who is Empress Xu? She was the eldest daughter of Xu Da, the first hero of the founding of the Ming Dynasty. Xu's talent since childhood, love to read, all he has learned is unforgettable, and his method of marching and arranging positions is also quite good, and he was called "female students" at that time.
The Xu family produced a talented woman, and Zhu Yuanzhang specially summoned Xu Da and said, "Shuo and Qing, cloth and cloth are also handed over." Ancient kings and vassals are compatible with each other, and the rate is marriage. Qing has a lingnu, and she is matched with a son. (Biography of Empress Xu of Ming Shi Houfei)
In the ninth year of Hongwu (1376), the 15-year-old Xu Shi married the 17-year-old Yan king Zhu Di, and after the marriage, a small couple was extremely affectionate.
Later, when Zhu Di launched the "Battle of Jingnan" and Zhu Di personally led a large army to march south, Emperor Jianwen sent Li Jinglong to lead the imperial court's army of more than 100,000 people to attack Beiping City, Zhu Di's stronghold, and at this critical moment, Xu Shi fully displayed the demeanor of the tiger woman.
Faced with a strong enemy under the city, Xu Calmly told her son Zhu Gaozi in the palace how to respond, she came to the city wall to personally supervise the battle, commanded the defenders to repel the attacks of the imperial army, and finally insisted until Zhu Di returned to the rescue.
In this Beiping defensive battle, the wisdom and boldness displayed by Xu Shi were extremely rare among the empresses of previous dynasties, and Zhu Di was able to succeed as emperor without Xu's support and strategy.
After Zhu Di became emperor, Xu Shi was immediately crowned empress, and Empress Xu often gave advice to Zhu Di, allowing him to make more peace with the people and make more use of the sages left by Taizu, such as Xie Jin of the Yongle Dynasty and the "Three Yangs" of the late Period, all of whom were elite talents in the later period of Taizu.
Unfortunately, Empress Xu only served as empress for five years, and died in July of the fifth year of Yongle (1407), at the age of 46.
At the death of Empress Xu, Zhu Di was very sad, and he gave Empress Xu the title of "Ren Xiao" and decided that he would never stand again.
Zhu Di and Empress Xu, like the Sui Emperor Yang Jian and Empress Dugu, had sworn to "swear to be a son of no alien birth", that is, the children of the two must be the same father and mother.
Although Empress Xu left early, Zhu Di continued to be emperor for 17 years, and there was still no shortage of concubines, but he could always adhere to the "secret covenant" (maybe, maybe not) between the husband and wife, and only this point, Zhu Di was also an admirable emperor!
This article is referenced from: "History of the Ming Dynasty", "The Complete Biography of the Chinese Concubines"