Nowadays, there are more and more types of TV dramas, especially costume dramas, in which we can also understand some ancient things, such as "death-free gold medals", which we can often see in books or film and television dramas. Today, let's talk about a minister who was sentenced to death for making a mistake, and before he died, he took out the gold medal to avoid death, but he was still executed.
In ancient times, the death-free gold medal was called the Danshu Iron Coupon, which was given by the ancient emperor to the ministers who had made great contributions to the country, so that when the ministers made mistakes, they could be exonerated. Zhu Yuanzhang is a famous generation of kings in history, after he established the Ming Dynasty, he followed the example of previous emperors and created some death-free gold medals to award to meritorious ministers. One of them, a minister named Li Shanchang, won a gold medal for immunity from death.
Li Shanchang followed Zhu Yuanzhang for many years, although he did not make great achievements, but fortunately he was loyal to Zhu Yuanzhang, so Zhu Yuanzhang was also very touched in his heart, so he named him Zuo Chengxiang and gave him a gold medal to avoid death.
You must know that at that time, the gold medal for avoiding death was much more expensive than the gold of the house real estate, and the number was very small, and Li Shanchang alone obtained two pieces, which showed that his weight in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart was very heavy. Li Shanchang's two gold medals could not only spare him his own sins, but also the sins of his descendants. After that, Li Shanchang's status in the dprk was even higher, and a few years later he also married the daughter of Zhu Yuanzhang, directly promoted to an imperial relative and state relative, holding heavy power.
But Zhu Yuanzhang himself has a problem, that is, paranoia, which is famous in history, Zhu Yuanzhang has executed the founding ministers who followed him, that is, he was afraid that he would not be able to take the country and mountains that he had so hard to seize, and he held the idea that he would rather kill ten thousand by mistake than let go of one, even Li Shanchang was no exception.
When Li Shanchang was 77 years old, there were ministers in the court who were jealous of Li Shanchang's strength, so they took advantage of Zhu Yuanzhang's suspiciousness and plotted to overthrow Li Shanchang. At that time, some people in the DPRK and China reported that Li Shanchang and Hu Weiyong, who had been executed for plotting rebellion, had a good relationship, and that Li Shanchang and Hu Weiyong had bribed each other.
Because Zhu Yuanzhang was born in a poor family, and his family also died of famine, what he hated most was the bribery, and he executed tens of thousands of corrupt officials during his reign for decades. Zhu Yuanzhang could not stand corruption and rebellion the most, so he became suspicious of Li Shanchang. At this time, some people in the DPRK said that there would be a star change and that there would be disasters in the country, and Zhu Yuanzhang could not hold back, and directly ordered the execution of Li Shanchang and all the people in Li Shanchang's family.
In the face of the sudden disaster, Li Shanchang could not accept it for a while, and was not willing to be executed. So when he was about to be beheaded, Li Shanchang took out the death-free gold medal in his arms to save his life, after all, it was Zhu Yuanzhang himself who issued it. However, Zhu Yuanzhang had already anticipated everything, and did not hurry to sneer at Li Shanchang and said, "There are still words on the back." "Although Li Shanchang has won the gold medal for many years, he has never carefully examined the specific content of this gold medal, only to know that he is not dead.
Li Shanchang turned the gold medal over, and when he saw the words written on the back, he was also confused, this gold medal is a good gold medal to avoid death, but it cannot be exempted from the major crime of rebellion, as long as it violates Zhu Yuanzhang's bottom line, this sign is just a decoration. In the face of this result, Li Shanchang was powerless to resist and could only confess his guilt.
In the end, Li Shanchang was tragically executed, and his family was all implicated. All this stemmed from Zhu Yuanzhang's suspiciousness, which made him a king with a mixed reputation in history. However, it can be seen that although Zhu Yuanzhang has no culture, he still holds the imperial power very tightly, and in the face of the slightest threat, he will kill him. In fact, even if there is no special treaty on the gold medal of exoneration, Li Shanchang will not be able to escape death, after all, this brand was set up by Zhu Yuanzhang, and the final interpretation is still him.