In 1392, Crown Prince Zhu Biao died. This is just a thunderbolt for Zhu Yuanzhang, who is a father, and it is tantamount to a thunderbolt on a sunny day. While supporting Zhu Yunjiao as the heir, the political team he single-handedly built for Zhu Biao could only be pushed to reconstruction. So in 1393, the Sapphire case broke out. In this case, the generals Lan Yu, Fu Youde, Feng Sheng and others were all implicated, so the number of people killed was as high as 15,000.
Under the command of killing many generals, in fact, Zhu Yuanzhang also left a veteran general for his grandson Zhu Yunjiao as a dependent on his grandson.
Another major event occurred this year, which made Zhu Yuanzhang wary of his fourth son Zhu Di, the King of Yan, who was sealed in Beijing.
In that year, Lee Sung-gyu, the ruler of Lee's Joseon Dynasty, sent his son Li Fangyuan to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty, bringing with him many horses. When passing through Beijing, the seat of the Yan king Zhu Di, zhu di the king of Yan liked it very much, and Li Fangyuan naturally did not dare to offend the powerful prince of the suzerainty, so he had to give the best part of the horses to Zhu Di.
And this "Soma incident" is also known to Zhu Yuanzhang. In the eyes of Zhu Yuanzhang, who was suspicious by nature, this was more than just a small matter. As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang began to be wary of this son. In the thirty-first year of Hongwu (1398), when Zhu Yuanzhang was ill, he issued an edict ordering the Nine Kings of Saibian to honor the King of Liao, rather than Zhu Di, the King of Yan (both the King of Qin and the King of Jin, who were already dead) at this time, and all orders were to listen to the Liao King's moderation. When he was dying, he made Zhu Yunjiao "must not worry" about the King of Yan.
But just after his death, the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao ascended the throne. At the beginning of his term of office, Zhu Yunjiao appointed his mentors Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng to begin to cut the domain. At the beginning of the cutting of the domain, Zhu Di successfully paralyzed Emperor Jianwen in the way of "showing weakness". In the end, his son who was a proton in Nanjing was released to the mountains, and Zhu Di, who had no worries, also began to plan major events.
In July 1399, Zhu Di raised an army and captured the city of Beijing with Zhang Yu and Zhu Neng. At this time, Emperor Jianwen was in a hurry, and remembered the general left for him by his grandfather Zhu Yuanzhang, Geng Bingwen.
Geng Bingwen is Zhu Yuanzhang's little fellow. His father, Geng Junyong, followed Zhu Yuanzhang to raise an army and became the commander-in-chief of the Guan Army. He also inherited his father's position after his father's death, and under Zhu Yuanzhang, he repeatedly defeated Zhang Shicheng, and also made great achievements in following Chang Yuchun and Xu Da's Northern Expedition.
And in his military career, there is a very good feature. He himself was more adept at defending the city, and whether it was in the face of Zhang Shicheng or Zhu Di's attacks, he could be impregnable, so that the enemy army could not advance.
When Zhu Di had just raised an army, Geng Bingwen was appointed as a general by Zhu Yunjiao. Although it is an act of reuse, there is an old saying that "people do their best and make the best use of things", so that they can do good and do more with less. However, emperor Jianwen at that time, under the superiority of his troops, allowed Geng Bingwen to divide his troops, and in the Battle of the Tuotuo River, Zhu Di seized the opportunity to decisively occupy the Ming Dynasty strongholds around the city of Beijing, and Juyongguan and Yongping were all reduced to his hands, while Geng Bingwen had to flee to Zhending City.
In ZhendingCheng, in the face of the victorious Zhu Di army, although Geng Bingwen was only a general of the defeated army, he fully exerted his advantages, so that Zhu Di's Yan army could not enter the size of the land, and had to return to Beijing.
Of course, this was not a glorious battle for the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao. However, if he insisted on sticking to Geng Bingwen, Xu Tu slowly advanced, and with Zheng Shuo, the world's return to his heart could also force Zhu Di, who was weak at this time, to death, but the trust of the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunxiu in his teacher was obviously higher than that of the general left by his grandfather Zhu Yuanzhang. Therefore, at the suggestion of Huang Zicheng, Geng Bingwen was removed from his post, and Incompetent people such as Li Jinglong were enabled, which also hit Zhu Di's lower ring.
Subsequently, Emperor Jianwen made a series of moves, and while fighting Against Zhu Di, he also slashed the power of Zhu Quan, the king of Ning, who held great power. This eventually boosted Zhu Di's alliance with king Ning, while generals such as Ping'an could use it but did not use it early, and eventually led to Zhu Di's army gradually gaining the upper hand.
In 1402, Zhu Di attacked the city of Nanjing and proclaimed himself emperor in Nanjing. The whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen were unknown, and everything that Zhu Yuanzhang had painstakingly prepared for him was also in vain. Geng Bingwen, on the other hand, was also framed by Chen Ying and others in the second year of Yongle, at the suggestion of Zhu Di, and was forced to commit suicide.
Reference: History of the Ming Dynasty