When it comes to Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, many people's first impression is brutality. During his reign, he killed heroes, and many founding heroes were ruthlessly killed by him. Even the blue jade, which had made great achievements in battle, was skinned and grass by Zhu Yuanzhang and hung at his daughter's door. As for Hu Weiyong's case, more than 30,000 people were implicated. There are 34 heroes in the founding of the country, and only 4 people have died in the end. Among these 4 people, there is a general who has a strong desire to survive, and in order to survive, he even compares himself to a dog. Who is this person? He was Geng Bingwen, the founding general of the Ming Dynasty.
Geng Bingwen and Zhu Yuanzhang had a lot of friendship, and both father and son were born and died for Zhu Yuanzhang. Geng Bingwen's father, Geng Junyong, once fought with Zhu Yuanzhang across the Yangtze River and rose to the rank of commander of the Guan Army by virtue of his military merits. Later, when Geng Jun was killed in battle during the attack on Zhang Shicheng's troops, Geng Bingwenzi inherited his father's business, inherited his father's official position, and led his father's old department. Because his father was killed by Zhang Shicheng's subordinates, Geng Bingwen had to defeat Zhang Shicheng in public and private. Therefore, in the seventeenth year of Zhizheng, Geng Bingwen conquered Changxing, defeated Zhang Shicheng's general Zhao Dahu, and captured more than 300 warships. In the eighteenth year of Zhizheng, Geng Bingwen defeated Zhang Shicheng's younger brother Zhang Shixin and captured the enemy commander Song Xingzu. After pacifying Wudi, Geng Bingwen was promoted to the post of Governor of the Metropolitan Government.
Later, Geng Bingwen followed Zhu Yuanzhang in his southern expedition to the north and chased the Central Plains, making great contributions to Zhu Yuanzhang's establishment of the Ming Dynasty. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, when Zhu Yuanzhang was arranging the order of meritorious men, Geng Bingwen was ranked with the general Xu Da because of his merits in guarding Changxing. In the later period, the founding heroes of the Ming Dynasty killed and died, leaving only Geng Bingwen and Guo Ying, and Geng Bingwen was even more heavily valued by the imperial court. Also a founding hero, why can Geng Bingwen gain Zhu Yuanzhang's trust?
Mainly Geng Bingwen put his posture very low. As we all know, many founding heroes will be proud of their former achievements after the founding of the country, and the emperors will usually be dissatisfied with this. Geng Bingwen understood the emperor's taboo and had always been a low-key person. For example, in the twenty-seventh year of Hongwu, Geng Bingwen invited Liu Sanwu, a scholar of Hanlin, to write a "Posthumous Three Generations of Shinto Inscriptions" for himself. This kind of inscription is usually a marquis to praise the ancestors and their own merits, but Geng Bingwen repeatedly stressed to Liu Sanwu that when writing, he must be humble and his merits should be all attributed to the top.
So in this manuscript, Geng Bingwen humbly said: "The dog's merits, its dare to name itself?" He compared himself to a hound raised by Zhu Yuanzhang, pointing out where to fight. There is a merit of size, it is completely the master's leadership, and he does not dare to take credit. Obviously, Zhu Yuanzhang ate Geng Bingwen's set very much, and he became one of the few heroes who did not survive. After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, Geng Bingwen was also appointed to assist Zhu Yunjiao. But after Zhu Di ascended the throne, Geng Bingwen was killed for impeachment.